Chapter 55: Recycling Stratum (Part 1/2)
“Well let’s still continue. Today I’ll act as your driver free of charge. Treat me to a meal later, or maybe do some fortune telling for me.”
“...... Psychics can do fortune telling?”
“Divining where the enemy was. Clarifying the location of a goddess. These actions changed fate. How is it not fortune telling?”
Crag Bursts lips burst into a large laugh, then he looked beneath the car window at the serious appearance of Ink. He couldn’t help extending his hand to rub Ink’s neck: “Hey. Can you feel yourself being petted?”
Luo Nan obviously wouldn’t tell him that Ink was only playing along. He just replied simply:
“Don’t ask…… Huh?”
The car ahead was covered by his mental senses, but then there was an abnormal disturbance. A chink had clearly opened in the window of the blue van in front, and it seemed like there was something ejected out. It was extremely tiny and its speed was very fast. It seemed to “strike” the car behind it nearly instantly.”
Then his senses stuttered for a moment.
The Tiger Burst Jeep and the blue van were separated by two cars. Luo Nan’s senses had stuttered twice. When his senses returned, the object was already at the engine of the Tiger Burst Jeep.
Luo Nan always had the issue of resolution with his mental senses and the current situation was no exception. He could only vaguely feel that this thing was an extremely tiny beetle shaped object. It seemed to have pierced through the two cars in front to pounce onto the Tiger Burst Jeep.
Then he lost his senses completely.
And at this time, the four windows of the jeep rose up to form a completely sealed space. Gone was the whistling of the air outside, and the rumble of the heavy metal music was much more ear-piercing.
Crag Burst was a bit stunned, then he ordered: “Open windows!”
The order was issued, but the car’s AI had no response whatsoever. And this was not the least of it. The car’s speed started to drop and the turning signal was activated.
Luo Nan’s warning came in at just this time: “Careful. There’s something……”
“Holy sh*t! The car’s possessed!”
Crag Burst practically cursed out at the same time as Luo Nan was speaking, but soon he calmed down. Within a few seconds, he tried manual control, voice control, and other methods. It was all useless.
He was unable to open the car windows, change the speed of the car, or even change the music.
The car’s AI was completely in control of the Tiger Burst Jeep’s access privileges. It turned then entered into a downward track, winding around a skyscraper, spiraling as it went down.
“Is it a virus?” Crag Burst estimated.
“No. It’s a sort of robot bug.” Luo Nan spoke out the results of his observations.
“No matter how things are, there’s someone remotely operating the car.” Crag Burst came to a most reasonable explanation. Then he came to a conclusion:
“We’ve been discovered.”
No one would be able to tell, besides Crag Burst and Luo Nan, that this aggressive and domineering military-altered Tiger Burst Jeep’s AI had already gone rogue. This Jeep had been driving extremely steadily from beginning to end. It moved along with the flow of traffic, but it moved further and further away from the tailed target.
Crag Burst and Ink were pretty much imprisoned inside this sealed space. They didn’t know where the car was taking them.
Crag Burst kept on trying to seize back control of the vehicle. His gaze swept outside to the constantly changing surroundings. His eyes flickered with light, especially with the light of excitement. His lips stuck straight back into a smile and he turned his head around to talk to Ink:
“They must have discovered us. But the only target is this car. You can still go on.”
Then he rammed the window with his body, causing the bullet-proof glass to instantly explode with fine web-like cracks.
The AI system was unable to stop the collective force. Crag Burst didn’t even blink an eye when acting in this manner towards his own car. He extended his hand and tore downwards through the crumbling window, throwing himself towards the backseat.
The other hand abruptly grabbed onto Ink. He didn’t care how this bird struggled, he tossed Ink straight out the window: “Go then! Put a little effort into it!”
Ink was forcefully flung several tens of meters away and just so happened to pass through the downwards tracks. Ink promptly spread its wings to avoid smashing into the glass walls of the skyscraper.
Luo Nan bellowed through the HexaEar: “What the hell man!?”
“I want to know what the hell is up with them!”
Crag Burst laughed a bold and great laugh. His boredom from before was completely swept away, “Go keep an eye on them now. Stay in contact with me. I want to see where they want to take me!”
He extended his hand out through the shattered window and waved. Then he sang with a hoarse and berserk growling howl: “Smash the chest open! Embrace the soft flesh and blood! Rah Rah……”
Ink spiraled within the neon mist of the sky. Luo Nan’s soul body floated motionless at the axis of Ink’s spiraling flight.
The blue van that contained Yan Yongbo had broken away from the range of his senses two seconds earlier. To be honest, if he really wanted to chase after them, the flying speed of his soul body would easily overtake them.
But then what did it matter if he did catch up to them? Luo Nan’s heart was on high alert due to the anti-reconnaissance equipment of the van. If he forcefully chased after them, not only would this rashness be disastrous, but his identity and abilities may be revealed. This would truly be life threatening.
Luo Nan’s thoughts spun rapidly, and he had come to a decision in the blink of an eye.
Clearly, his attention should be focused more on Crag Burst’s situation. Crag Burst had taken the initiative to help out. His car was out of control now and he was trapped in dire straits. Luo Nan’s heart wouldn’t be at peace if he didn’t go help Crag Burst out.
And there was also that Robot Bug. Luo Nan cared about it quite a bit.
Luo Nan’s soul suddenly went down, bringing along Ink to chase behind the Tiger Burst Jeep.
The Tiger Burst Jeep maintained a steady speed. Its direction was straightforward from start to finish. It had switched from two rails to continue going downwards. The fierce and domineering body of the car continued to proceed and criss-cross along with several other low-altitude cars. It rapidly entered downwards into some dusky stratum area.
Luo Nan could sense the dividing line between the light and darkness as the noise of the metropolis was suddenly separated by a layer. All the while the heavy metal music blasted from the car to combine with everything and render a heated and dense atmosphere.
The car’s lights cut across the outer walls of the surrounding buildings. The damaged walls were covered with messy graffiti. Some of the colors of the graffiti were black and red. And so this sight converged into Luo Nan's eyes.
“The Recycling Stratum……”
Life’s nature was to move towards the light, and so people would always yearn for the clear skies. They yearned for places bathed by sunlight. And in the city, they headed towards the city’s core where life was bustling. Skyscrapers were concentrated there and low-altitude traffic was accessible from all directions. The city’s residents would live their lives up high, and some of them wouldn’t truly touch the ground for several years.
The low-altitude public transit thirty meters above ground was already the lowest limit that the great majority of people would go to.
The term High-Altitude Race came from this.
The problem was that Xia City was a giant metropolis containing two hundred million people as a population. The city didn’t have the luxury to waste space. It was unavoidable for some people of the two hundred million population to be forced to survive in the dark and damp space of the lower strata.
This was undoubtedly the slums of the modern city. This was the Recycling Stratum that specialized in handling the city’s trash. And, to a certain extent, this was also a lawless place where organized crime gathered.
The Tiger Burst Jeep thundered as it rushed down from the upper strata, instantly catching the eyes of numerous “professionals” within this dark space.
A piercing whistle rang forth.
High-powered modified cars ignited their engines one after another within the endless alleys between the buildings. All sorts of people could be seen on these speeding vehicles waving their sinister looking spiked clubs, chains, and, of course, firearms. They faced towards the jeep, which was still advancing in midair on the light rail, with screams, curses, and shouts.
At the same time, they looked forward to what was to come:
After all, the numerous rails of light on the Recycling Stratum were all broken!