Wasteland Development Diary.

Chapter 432: Destroying the Clockwork City, Nothing to Do with the Clockwork City
Xiaosong lives in a square white house.

There was no light in the room, but it was very bright, and segments of data codes appeared on the walls. They kept changing, as if an invisible person was writing and calculating on the walls.

This is the "magic mirror" of Mirror City, and also a private space constructed by data.

Xiaosong didn't understand.

He was clearly a victim, so why was he locked up and questioned repeatedly like a suspect?

It is an excavator, and its job is to dig up the seabed soot. This group of people is collectively called dead sea workers. Although the salary is low, Xiaosong has never thought about changing his career.

Without the Dead Sea Workers digging day and night, there would not be enough light soot to support the Clockwork City in creating various light prints.

They are an integral part of the city.

After joining the Legal Front, the Dead Sea workers' income increased, their working hours were shortened, and their social welfare became better, which made Xiaosong and his fellow workers very happy.

But no one expected that a large electromechanical city like Clockwork City, a bastion of electromechanical life that had never fallen in history, would suddenly be razed to the ground by the Wasteland Development Company.

Xiaosong's thoughts were forcibly interrupted by a stream of information.

The wall reads: "Komatsu PC70-11M0, how did you escape?"

Komatsu had to explain again: "I have moderate disability, the rotation system is faulty, the fuselage structure is cracked and deformed, these are the damages caused by continuous long-term excavation on the seabed."

"When the golden ball descended, I was in the maintenance workshop and the repair process was forced to be interrupted. The legal procedure required me to evacuate urgently and take refuge in the Dead Sea far away from the city."

"Since you were ordered to evacuate, why did you return to Clockwork City afterwards?"

"Because I never thought that Clockwork City would be completely destroyed."

Komatsu said, "I thought that this attack would be over soon. Or after it was over, I would come back to continue the repair process. I was asked to hide in other cities, but I didn't know where. I never left the Clockwork City."

"Why did you do those things?"

Those actions refer to Komatsu's continuous digging with his shovel on the huge city ruins, trying to dig out survivors from the glassy land.

Although the land burned by the war was still releasing high-energy radiation, fortunately, Komatsu had been digging in the Dead Sea for many years and had a layer of anti-radiation coating, so he could withstand it.

It found nothing.

Beneath the ruins are still ruins and debris.

“That doesn’t make sense.”

The wall reads: "You are an excavator, your function is to work in the dead sea. You do not have the ability or experience to rescue people, nor can you judge the outcome of the war. Your actions lack reliable motives. You need to further prove and explain your suspicious actions, otherwise you will not be able to lift the control status."

"..."

Xiaosong felt a little angry.

It didn't act like this in the past, but now it just feels angry: "I don't understand! The city I live in was bombed, I'm a survivor, I want to try to save my city, but you think I'm suspicious."

"Can't the Dead Sea Workers try to save the city and the others?"

"Is it a mistake to survive the bombing?"

A message appeared on the wall: "You have installed [Key] and [Breathing]."

"Yes, so what!"

Komatsu explained: "In areas covered by the law, they are not effective. But when we leave the city and work on the seabed, these two are very useful and can keep us alert."

"The [Key] can prevent attacks by the mechatronic thugs. Even if the thugs' data is interfered with and invaded, we can crack it and remain unaffected."

“[Breathing] can alert us because it cycles through the near-death experience, which can heighten our awareness of our surroundings and make us more sensitive to potential risks.”

"In our city, there's no legal requirement to uninstall these two apps, simply because they're useful."

"These are the consensus of the Dead Sea workers! You can go check it out!"

A line of text appeared on the wall: "After being isolated by the Wasteland Corporation, the Clockwork City's data center has been destroyed. All local data has been lost and cannot be recovered. The situation you described cannot be confirmed."

Komatsu said: "There should be other survivors in the city who can prove what I said."

A new question appeared on the white wall: "Do you admit that you are a member of the Mechatronic Knights?"

"I'm not!"

"Then why did you return to the ruins of the city immediately after the war? Were you looking for data carriers that might have been preserved, or were you trying to erase the marks left in the city?"

"I'm not, I'm not! I just want to see if the city can be saved!"

Xiaosong felt very painful.

The Clockwork City was destroyed, which brought it more fear.

It just tried desperately to rescue the dying giant. Although the program calculated that the success rate was infinitely close to zero, what else could it do?

Go to other mechanical and electrical cities?
After the establishment of the legal front, the barriers between cities were broken down a lot, but the tangible wall still exists.

It is difficult for a non-local electromechanical worker like Komatsu to be accepted into a new city. He needs to undergo long-term observation, assessment, and testing, and report to the security department regularly, just like a suspect.

It has never left the Clockwork City, but it has heard from other residents that many cities seem to accept foreign mechanical and electrical life, but in fact they still have strict internal divisions. Before becoming their own, they will face various inequalities and even institutional discrimination.

Residents who have been to the outside world said.

"A man becomes worthless when he leaves his homeland," this is a saying of the old humans, which describes this situation."

"If there is no need, don't move to other mechanical and electrical cities to suffer. They are far inferior to human cities and light nano cities in this regard."

Only now did Xiaosong realize that these words were not exaggerated at all.

Displayed on the cold wall in front.

"The reasons are not motivation enough, please correct them."

"What I said is real."

"The reasons are not motivation enough, please correct them."

"The reasons are not motivation enough, please correct them."

……

Komatsu was confused.

Is it to let itself lie? But electromechanical life is inherently incapable of lying, and the program mechanism does not allow this behavior to occur.

So what reason does the law want to get through the "magic mirror"?
It can't figure it out.

It also cannot give the answer the other party wants.

It can only remain silent along with the facts.

I do not know how long it has been.

Suddenly, a stream of information appeared on the wall.

"There are witnesses who have confirmed your situation. The control status has been lifted. Thank you for your cooperation. Goodbye."

Xiao Song was stunned for a moment: "Who is the witness?"

"Electric Cat "Clockwork 4"."

It did not remember knowing such an electric cat, although it knew that this strange electrical life existed in the city, serving as the city's guard and messenger.

Xiaosong asked again: "How will the law treat us survivors in the future?"

"Please wait for notification. Goodbye."

Then it was forcibly disconnected.

Komatsu woke up again and found himself in a huge factory assembled from a large number of steel plates.

This is the simple shed where the survivors were placed. It was built by the rescue team sent by the Legal Front to accommodate the survivors who have not left the Clockwork City area. Under the dim light, each mechanical life remained still.

Komatsu knew that most of them were being questioned to prove that they were not spies of the Wasteland Corporation or the Mecha Knights.

It turned its tires and slowly drove out of this depressing place.

The sun was still bright outside, and the high temperature caused the distant horizon to distort and shake slightly.

This place is 12 kilometers away from the ruins of the Clockwork City and outside the radiation range of the explosion.

Komatsu checked his timer.

It has only been 4 hours since the destruction of the Clockwork City.

Yet it felt that the day was exceptionally long.

Komatsu's electronic eyes saw an electromechanical spider with a generator on its back crawling over.

This is the "Electrician Spider" of the Electromechanical City. They are specially used to build power facilities. Electrician Spiders can carry cat houses and floating heart generators, and even go to the front line to lay out conductive wire nets so that electric cats can run.

The electromechanical spider sends a signal.

"You should thank me for the testimony I gave you."

Xiaosong was surprised: "Are you the electric cat "Clockwork 4"? "

"uh-huh."

"Thank you!"

"Small things."

"So when I was at the ruins, you were there too."

Xiaosong read the memory data and said, "I didn't see you. It seems that you are in the blind spot of my electronic eyes? Are you also rescuing the Clockwork City?"

"Open [Key]."

"Ah? What's wrong?"

"Open it if I tell you to. Just do as I tell you."

So Xiaosong turned on the [Key] and immediately entered a special state, in which it was able to break through all existing limitations.

All kinds of thoughts immediately popped up in the core program.

Legal principles didn’t help us at all!
It restrained mechanical and electrical life, and remained silent in the face of the powerful Wasteland Development Company. Even when a large city like Clockwork City was destroyed, it did not resist at all.

He is simply bullying the weak and fearing the strong!

Can such a program really protect and make life better for electromechanical life? Or is it just a seemingly plausible lie that makes us believe that things will get better under its rule?

The more Xiaosong thought about it, the more uneasy he felt, so he quickly stopped these bold and dangerous thoughts.

"Open the [Key] so I can talk to you. This place is at least not covered by the law and the "magic mirror". Let's go further away, to the city ruins."

The electrician spider climbed onto the wheel of the excavator and then fixed itself on its roof.

Komatsu started the engine and slowly drove away.

It was not until they were more than 3 kilometers away from the resettlement plant that the electrician cat inside the electrician spider spoke: "Actually, I didn't see you. We didn't even know each other before."

"The legal department questioned me and brought up the testimonies of several mechanical and electrical residents, and I said I saw you."

Xiaosong was stunned: "Are you lying?"

"What's wrong with lying? Lying saved you."

The cat sent a message through the transcoder: "Without me, you would still be in there with those guys, being tortured, and maybe even locked up for long-term observation."

"..."

Xiaosong was confused about this: "We are clearly victims, why do we still accept such suspicion and treatment?"

"Because the Clockwork City is gone."

The electric cat said: "Without the protection of the city, the mechanical and electrical life will be restored from a group to an individual life. The various rights and preferential treatments before are also because you form a city and are protected by the city itself."

"Another thing is that we have to give an explanation to other cities legally. We can't get an explanation from the Wasteland Corporation right now, so we can only get data from you. Otherwise, everyone will be afraid of ending up like Clockwork City."

The electric cat is more perceptive and intelligent than it thinks.

Xiaosong was shocked: "People outside say that electric cats are not very smart... It seems that this is not the case."

"The outside world? They don't understand anything."

The electric cat said proudly: "We just didn't pass the work electric cat assessment test at the company, and we lost the competition with other electric cats. It's just that the opponent is too strong, which doesn't mean we are stupid, understand? The really stupid ones are the wild electric cats in the Spark Plains."

"For me, my biggest problem is that I like to lie and brag. I used to be in the Thunderbolt Group, so my ceiling was very high."

Xiao Song didn't understand: "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because we are free now and don't belong to any city, I have to find a partner. The electric cat itself needs power equipment to support it."

Electric Cat said: "You are quite righteous. The city is destroyed, but you still go there to dig and try to do something. Although it is useless, it is better than doing nothing."

"I'm happy to partner with you," said Xiaosong.

"That's good."

The electric cat asked: "I see that the Clockwork City has been destroyed, but you all don't seem very sad. Is it because mechanical life forms don't have the emotion of sadness?"

"Ah."

Xiaosong told the other party: "Due to our structure, we don't have so many complex feelings and expressions."

“However, in the [Key] and [Breathing] states, we actually also release similar complex information, but it is more about suspicion, anger, and misunderstanding.”

"Until now, I still don't understand why the Wasteland Development Company wants to destroy the Clockwork City. We have no connection with that place."

The electric cat laughed: "Destroying the Clockwork City has nothing to do with it. Just like the legal questioning of you has nothing to do with you."

Xiaosong seemed to understand a little, but also seemed to understand nothing.

"To put it simply, the reason for destroying the Clockwork City is that it is a large-scale electromechanical city, which belongs to the legal front and is an important area of legal power. Destroying this place means destroying the correctness and influence of legal principles. Isn't that what I said? Armed rights protection, I came from the company, and I know very well that this is the style of the chairman."

"This is a confrontation between the law and the company. Clockwork City is just the price paid in the confrontation."

Dianmao said: "This will cause those involved in mechanical and electrical life to question legal principles and force the legal process to undergo major adjustments."

"..."

Xiaosong didn't know much about cities and power. He just asked, "It's said that the chairman likes to tear up the excavator by hand, but he may not have come and didn't tear me up. This should be a rumor, right?"

"Of course it's a rumor."

Dianmao said: "The chairman likes to kill powerful beings. For example, he killed the dragon in 15 seconds. When he encounters a strong one, he likes to fight it himself. You are not at that level yet, don't worry, it will be fine."

"So that's what happened."

"Enough of small talk, let's think about where to go next."

Xiaosong looked at the dust ahead and asked: "Will the Clockwork City be rebuilt?"

"Will do."

"Are you lying?"

Electric Cat said: "Only lies that can be believed are lies, otherwise they are just nonsense."

"The most important thing is whether you are willing to believe it."

(End of this chapter)