Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 857: Garbage Transfer Channel
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Hive City, second level "Lower City", Waste Treatment Plant No. 6.
According to the information provided by Neto, this waste treatment plant has a total of four garbage transfer channels, two of which were blown up in the "Age of Disaster" and are impassable. One of them is specifically used to transport high-risk garbage and waste and is very dangerous. Only the last channel is barely "passable".
"This should be it." Ke Lan said as he looked at the rusty entrance of the passage in front of him that was ten meters in diameter. After connecting with Ze Luo's spirit, he also gained the ability to understand the characters used by the residents of the hive city. The inscription on the ground clearly stated that this was the exit of the "Channel No. 1" mentioned by Neto.
This is a one-way passage, with the exit in the lower city and the entrance in the upper city. In the past, the garbage generated by daily life in the upper city would be transported here, simply packaged and put directly into the passage, and then the garbage treatment plant built in the lower city would conduct more detailed screening, pick out the valuable things, and sort them out by category. As for the real garbage and waste, they would be incinerated or landfilled.
Of course, in a hive city where even the corpses of the residents are put to good use, there are very few things that can be called "real garbage and waste". This can be seen from the super-small incinerator in the garbage disposal plant, which is so clean that there is not much residue inside.
At least in Ze Luo's "visual perception", Ke Lan had never seen this incinerator being used.
Even if there were things that had no real value and were thrown into the "bottom nest", the lower-class residents would fight over them - even if it was a stone, those starving people would not be able to resist licking it a few times, trying to find some food residue stuck in the cracks... Although the probability of such a thing happening was lower than winning the lottery, every time the garbage from the lower city was packed up and thrown into the bottom nest, it would trigger a scramble and even result in a few deaths.
But no one thinks there is anything wrong with this kind of thing... Even if several people died in the last looting, the same scene will happen again next time garbage is thrown into the bottom nest.
Everyone is struggling desperately to survive.
Joining the ground exploration team is a struggle, and fighting for garbage is also a struggle, but compared with the former, the mortality rate of the latter is negligible.
Thinking of this, Ke Lan suddenly became very interested in the ground exploration teams that returned to the hive alive - it is not an exaggeration to say that those who can survive with such an exaggerated probability are "the chosen ones".
According to this survival rate, the surface of Alpha at that time was even more dangerous than the S-class ruins.
"If the garbage is transported from the 'upper city' to the 'lower city', it shouldn't be as easy as just throwing it into the pipe, right?" Thirty-three said, looking deep into the dark passage. "Either there must be a lifting platform, or an anti-gravity device or a launcher to push the garbage up... As for the 'one-way valve' mentioned by the manager, it's probably used to prevent the scattered garbage from falling down."
"It should be." Ke Lan nodded, took out a breathing mask, put it on his face, and walked in first.
This garbage channel has been idle for hundreds of thousands of years. Even if there is any garbage left in it, it has long been completely degraded. The toxic and harmful garbage goes through another channel. The probability of toxic substances and odors existing in this "Channel No. 1" is very small... But having said that, I have to mention the "sense of vision" that Ze Luo shared with Ke Lan.
Although it is called "déjà vu", the senses involved are not limited to vision... hearing, smell and touch will all be affected. Ke Lan can hear the sounds from hundreds of thousands of years ago. When the shadowy figures on the street hit and pass through his body, he will feel a very subtle strangeness, as if a cold "ghost" passed through his body... and at the exit of this garbage transfer channel, Ke Lan had already smelled the disgusting stench before he got close.
He could see a lot of garbage wrapped in polymer film and shaped like huge balls being pushed out from the entrance of the passage, but he couldn't see from the "sense of vision" where the force pushing the garbage came from. Ke Lan could only guess that it should be some kind of mechanical device... After all, in this hive city, there were many places in which anti-gravity devices could be used, but Ke Lan had not seen any of them. From this, it could be determined that the civilization that built the hive city did not master the relevant technology.
"Why are you wearing a gas mask?" Thirty-three followed behind Ke Lan, looking at the environment in the passage, and asked curiously, "There is no smell in here... Besides, with your physique, you should not be afraid of poisonous gases, right?"
"You can't smell it, but Ze Luo can, and so can I." Ke Lan said a little depressed. Ze Luo "smelled" the garbage odor through "déjà vu", which was equivalent to the "odor signal" being formed directly in the brain. Unless Ke Lan could directly block the related modules in the olfactory center, he would not be able to block the smell even if he wore a hundred layers of gas masks.
Although the population of "Upper Town" is only one twentieth of that of "Lower Town", the resources consumed are hundreds of times more than those of Lower Town, and the living conditions are also very different - through some garbage bags with torn films, Ke Lan even saw a cowboy bone that had not been completely eaten, and a cupcake with only a spoonful of cream on the top scooped out.
Not only food, but also all kinds of clothing and daily necessities... Even from the perspective of a resident with a normal living standard on the Ark, many of these things cannot be called garbage at all.
Another garbage bag was pushed up from the bottom of the passage. The surface of this garbage bag was not damaged, but Ke Lan could still see through the almost transparent wrapping film and see what was inside - a royal blue haute couture dress inlaid with broken diamonds. There was no visible damage on the surface, only a little dirt on the hem that looked like a wine stain... This kind of clothes can be considered a luxury on the Ark, not to mention this nest city that is used as a "shelter".
It seems that the level of luxury in Upper Town is far beyond what Ke Lan had originally imagined.
While people in the Lower Town are cannibalizing each other and people are starving to death every day, and the residents of the Lower Town are working in factories from dawn to dusk to squeeze their lives for the pitiful food and housing rights, the people in the Upper Town are still holding cocktail parties, eating expensive steaks and red wine, and listening to "elegant" retro vinyl records...
Even though Ke Lan knew that the civilization that built the Hive City was most likely descended from their fellow humans on Earth, he still couldn't help but feel a strong sense of disgust in his heart.
A civilization like this, a hive city like this... it's actually good to destroy it.
The things in these garbage are something that people in the Lower City and the Bottom Nest dare not even think about. They don’t even know that the Nest has the ability to produce these things... If they knew, it is estimated that when Ke Lan saw it earlier, he would not just gather in protest.
Ke Lan did not tell Sanshisan about these things ... Sanshisan's personality is very similar to Lao Gou's. Although he usually seems to be indifferent to things that have nothing to do with him, he is actually a guy who hates evil and hates evil in his heart. Telling him these things will only make him more upset.
What's more, after reaching the third level, even if Ke Lan didn't say it, Thirty-three should be able to see what the living standard of the residents in the upper city is like and how huge the gap is between them and the lower city.
Ke Lan sighed imperceptibly and continued to walk forward. The hard soles of his boots stepped on the rusty walls of the passage, making a "dong dong" sound that continued to spread along the walls of the passage.
This garbage transfer channel is not straight down, but inclined. At the exit, it is about 25 degrees to the ground. The further you go in, the steeper the slope becomes... After walking forward two hundred meters, the slope has become nearly forty-five degrees.
Ke Lan and Sanshisan did not have the clawed boots specially used for climbing slopes, nor did they have any equipment such as gecko suction cups... Fortunately, Ze Luo's spatial force could condense steps under their feet, so that they would not slide down the wall of the passage like riding a slide.
"This passage is really long... By the way, did the administrator tell you how deep the third level of the hive is?" Thirty-three asked.
"No." Ke Lan shook her head, "But she told me that this garbage transfer channel is 17 kilometers long... This distance is not short."
"Seventeen kilometers... If we calculate it all based on the initial angle of twenty-five degrees, the sine function of twenty-five degrees... well, the multiple is about 0.42... then it has to be seven kilometers deep. It seems that the upper city and the lower city are far enough apart. Are you worried that the people down there will riot and break through the barrier between the two floors?" Thirty-three joked.
The height of the "bottom nest" space is about one thousand meters, and the height of the lower city is about the same, but the thickness of the layer between the bottom nest and the lower city is only about sixty meters. If the people living in the bottom nest can get a tunneling device - it doesn't have to be a very high-end one, like the single-operated "Gold Digger Type III" model commonly used by miners on the Ark - they can drill through this layer of rock within a month and enter the lower city.
If you want to drill through the rock from the lower city to the upper city, I'm afraid only a tunnel boring machine can accomplish this task.
Not to mention, there must be a metal isolation layer between the upper and lower city areas, or other means to prevent residents of the lower city from digging tunnels to "smuggle across".
"Speaking of which, this passage is almost completely clear. I didn't see anything along the way. I really don't know how the upper city transports the garbage up here. Does it use the Force?" Thirty-three shrugged. "Seventeen kilometers of pipeline, even if you install a rocket thruster on the garbage bag, it feels like it's going to be difficult."
"I guess the answer to this question can only be found after we see the first 'one-way valve'." Just as Ke Lan finished speaking, the road ahead was blocked.
"You are really lucky to have such a mouth. It's not just Layton. I think all the members of the God Hunter Group are crows, right?" Thirty-three said while holding the tactical flashlight high above his head and looking at things not far away.
This is a metal ring that is slightly smaller than the diameter of the passage. I think it should be the "one-way valve" that Neto mentioned. But this valve is in a "wide open" state... Not to mention closing it, Ke Lan didn't even see the door panel.
"Is it just this one ring?" Sanshisan walked to the middle of the ring. "Where is the door panel? There doesn't seem to be a part on the ring to connect the door panel or a gap for the door panel to hide in."
"This door doesn't have a door panel." Ze Luo suddenly said, "This is actually an 'accelerator'. It uses technology similar to the 'long-distance star gate' made by humans. It can exert a one-way thrust on things passing through the accelerator, just like the star gate pushed the Ark out of the solar system. However, the power of these accelerators is very small, less than one billionth of that of the star gate."
"Stargate?" Thirty-three's mouth twitched twice. "In a hive city where even the lifting platform is a purely mechanical structure, there is actually such technology? And it is used in the garbage transfer channel... This..."
Ke Landao was not too surprised. Theoretically, if the people who built the Hive City were really the Earthlings on the escape engineering ship or their descendants, then they might indeed possess such technology - after all, these people were most likely involved in the construction of the Ark and the Star Gate and their maintenance.
The mini star gate in front of him had obviously stopped working. Thirty-three passed through it several times, but nothing happened. If it was still working, the moment Thirty-three stepped into the ring, he would be pushed directly to the exit of the passage.
"No wonder it's called a one-way channel, it turns out this is the design..." Ke Lan nodded secretly , looked at the scrapped mini star gate for a few times, and continued walking forward.
But he hadn't gone far before he was forced to stop again.
The information provided by Neto was biased - Channel No. 1 was also not intact. At a depth of about one kilometer, the entire channel had collapsed and was completely blocked by rubble.
"What should we do?" Thirty-three looked at Ke Lan and asked, "Should we dig it up?"
"The workload is too huge. Even with Ze Luo here, it will take forever to dig it out..." Ke Lan sighed, "We can only turn back and try our luck at the last passage."
The last channel is Channel No. 4, which is specially used to transport "hazardous waste".
