Apocalypse Lord-Chapter 52 - 50: Cradle of Ideals

[Time left for quest exploration: 94 minutes]

Once again, it’s the joyous time of scouring the Ideal City.

Lin Lan, cautious and vigilant, was slowly exploring while hiding in the shadows behind the skyscraper.

Bai followed elegantly behind the teenager, carrying a heavy parcel as her little leather shoes made soft tapping sounds on the ground.

The neon lights were dazzling; the Inner City area of Ideal City was spectacularly magnificent as always.

Lin Lan took a few steps forward, clutching the edge of a building and sneakily poked his head out to observe the distant cityscape.

He reached out to tightly grasp the Philosopher’s Stone hanging from his chest, and golden threads swiftly connected to the corner of Lin Lan’s eye, revealing the true light and shadow deep in his pupils.

The illusory starlight instantly transformed into a writhing multicolored fungal carpet.

Frenzied, discomforting twisted colors clung to the surface of the upper buildings, piling layer upon layer, molding the originally square outline of the skyscrapers into something full yet grotesque.

Staring at those distorted buildings, deep in Lin Lan’s heart arose two words.

— Insect Nest.

Every skyscraper in the upper area of the Space Ladder had become nests housing star-life organisms.

Just then, the Mechanical Servant girl suddenly raised her head, her white pupils flashing with data stream:

"Master, a police patrol aircraft is rapidly approaching us!"

Lin Lan quickly retreated back into the shadow behind the building, and in the next instant, two blinding searchlights beamed straight down from mid-air!

The low whine unique to the thrusters was mixed with the buzzing sound of insect wings, creating an eerily bizarre noise that pierced into Lin Lan’s ears.

A large mechanical airship spiraled down from the sky.

Hovering aloft, its streamlined silhouette resembled an aerial Fortress, its entire body reflecting a cold metallic sheen.

But from Lin Lan’s perspective, the side of the airship even had several pairs of giant moth-like wings!

The multicolored wings vibrated rapidly, bending and twisting the originally steady flight path of the mechanical airship; upon closer inspection, one could see dense furred limbs on the bottom side of the aircraft.

The searchlight beams coldly swept across the street, and the unmanned aircraft started to patrol elsewhere.

Lin Lan let out a sigh of relief.

Can’t afford to mess with them.

The more reckless he was in the Outer City, the more cautious he became in the Inner City.

Ever since he had slashed that little worm to bits, these star-life organisms seemed to be provoked and began dispatching guards to patrol every corner of the lower area.

During this period, he and Bai have been maneuvering like thieves, always engaging in a game of wits with these creatures, sneaking things from right under their noses...

Just a small bug, was it really necessary!

Lin Lan sighed and looked at the system panel.

[Cannot use Character Atlas Card in this quest area]

The beautiful vision of sweeping through Ideal City with the Giant Squad had also failed.

Fortunately, the star-life organisms have not entirely poured down from the upper area.

From Lin Lan’s observation, the closer they got to the lower area, the more sluggish they became under the influence of the Outer City’s Red Moon, eventually falling into slumber.

The patrol aircraft moved away, passing through flickering holographic news graphics in the air.

’According to the latest star-gazing intelligent machinery survey, there are infinite resources outside of the starry sky waiting for the intelligent machinery to exploit!’

A man with a blurred face raised a glass and made a jubilant declaration: ’Under the favor of the Celestial Principle, our civilization is about to step into a new era!’

Seizing the opportunity, Lin Lan led Bai into the interior of another building, with a preliminary goal already set for exploring the Inner City.

— Which is to find the factory producing exterior parts for domestic Mechanical Servants.

After all, he had already acquired many core components of bionic Mechanical Servants, and now he just needed to find the limb components to assemble a new Machinette with Bai’s aid.

Perhaps even proceed with further Machinette modification!

Lin Lan pondered as he walked into the hall area of the building, raising his head to find the neon words instantly illuminating his eyes.

’Welcome to the Super Dream Rendering Data Center!’

"This isn’t a factory workshop either..." Lin Lan shook his head.

Space Ladder’s lower area is indeed vast, filled with countless diverse entertainment buildings and facilities.

According to Bai’s introduction, the lower area was initially designed to serve company employees and the vast audience of tourists who came to visit.

The main bases for manufacturing most intelligent machinery settled in the middle area, whereas the upper area was the core technological zone of the company’s space exploration, never disclosed to civilians and ordinary employees.

The holographic projection emitted lighthearted female voice.

’Dear customer sir, are you still worried that life has no fun? Are you still experiencing meaningless and boring reality?’

’Here, the latest model Super Dream Rendering Device will solve all troubles and impositions in your life!’

’The neural nano-swarm will customize exclusive dreams for you, soothing journeys, intimate romance, intense thrills, all kinds of life-style tape at your disposal! ’

’Celestial Principle will forever bless us!’

The projection flickered, showcasing a graceful woman in an off-shoulder evening dress exuding her most charming smile.

Ideal City is the cradle of humanity.

All production has been replaced by intelligent machinery, under the leadership of Celestial Principle Company, human civilization only needs to enjoy.

Lin Lan withdrew his gaze and continued exploring deeper into the building with Bai.

The Super Dream hall was cold and vast, its interior area partitioned into separate small rooms, each fitted with a Super Dream sleep capsule connected to the floor.

He picked up a tape scattered beside the Super Dream Rendering Device.

[Identifying item acquired for you!]

[Item: Super Dream Tape · My passionate night with Company Executive Martina!]

[Quality: Grey]

[Function: Weaving Super Dream using neural technology]

[Description: Imagine the dream, create the dream, enjoy the dream]

[Remark 2: The company employee who created this Super Dream tape was dismissed by Ms. Martina the following day]

The dude sure knew to dream big, all the way up to the bosses...

Lin Lan twitched his mouth and casually placed the tape into Bai’s arms, and adeptly extracted a shimmering energy battery from the back of the sleep capsule.

The parcel behind the Mechanical Servant girl was already filled to the brim.

Today’s yield could be described as a normal standard.

Quite a lot of basic resources were scavenged, and a large pile of entertainment items without practical use was picked up.

The only pity was that no suitable tools for human use were found today.

After all, surrounded by intelligent machinery, people have never needed to actively do anything, anyone actively going to screw in bolts is no doubt a rarity among rarities.

Because ’God of Celestial Principle’ continuously shelters the Ideal civilization.

People entrusted their bodies to intelligent machinery, their souls to virtual data, and ultimately the future of civilization entirely to Celestial Principle Company.

The nurtured souls forever lost deep within the cradle.

Until either the unsatisfied civilization turns its greedy gaze towards the starry sky, or the starry sky actively directs its greedy gaze at civilization.

Lin Lan left the Super Dream zone without looking back.

Returning to the neon night, he cast his gaze at the next silent building.

Suddenly, Lin Lan’s gaze hardened.

He seemed to have found the workshop factory for assembling Mechanical Servants!