Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 991: Equipment that can break through the shield
Inside the Ark, West 5th District, "Liverpool" Electrical Street.
Although this street is called "Electrical Street", people familiar with it know that it is actually an "underground black market" with a very deep background. Many small, old and messy shops have a lot of "goods" that are prohibited from being bought and sold in the deep warehouses. Some of these things come from military equipment, and some are from the remains of Alpha civilization.
Generally speaking, the Ark's underground black markets are built in areas with lower numbers. District 5 West is already a very prosperous "quasi-rich area", and the level of public security is much better than those areas with two-digit numbers... and as the opposite of the Ark's order, a "gray area" like the black market should not appear in such a place.
But "Liverpool Electrical Street" just breaks this common sense - between rows of towering buildings, this "run-down street" existing in the cracks of the bustling business district seems to be out of tune with everything around it, just like those "urban villages" on Earth in the old era that were not demolished in time for various reasons.
"Why are we here?" Soap muttered quietly, "If you want weapons, you should go to Atlanta in the West Tenth District. There are more sources and a richer variety of them."
The "Atlanta" mentioned by Soap is also an underground black market, located in a tower-shaped building in the West Tenth District. "Atlanta Flea Market" is its official name, but privately, mercenaries and relic hunters prefer to call it "Armed-Nation".
The above-ground part of "Atlanta" is a well-regulated second-hand trading market, while the third underground floor instantly turns into an arms market filled with the smell of gun oil and gunpowder, where all kinds of legal and illegal, civilian military-standard, or heavy weapons with power standards exceeding the limits of the Ark can be found. For people in these special professions, this is equivalent to the "Heilan Home" of equipment - even many new models of firearms that have not yet been officially released or equipped to the troops will flow here through some inexplicable channels and sneakily "launched".
On the other hand, weapons transactions rarely occur in Liverpool Electric Street. After all, it is in the West Fifth District, and weapons transactions are too sensitive and easily resisted by local residents. People who can live in the West Fifth District have some background and strength, and there are many people who are not easy to offend. Therefore, most of the goods traded in Liverpool Electric Street, even if they are illegal items, are not dangerous.
But here we are referring to danger in a "narrow sense".
The clown found a small shop without even a sign, and he casually pushed aside the garbage piled at the door and walked straight into the back.
Soap turned his head and looked at the high-rise buildings not far away. The pale roots had already entangled these expensive buildings. The roots, which were originally not much thicker than a hair, had now grown thicker than Soap's thighs. The thickest main roots were more than one meter in diameter and ran across the interior of the building like a giant, tangled python.
"Fortunately, at least there are no such weird things on this street." Soap muttered and followed the clown in.
Noir and Ulrich stayed outside to guard, while Joker and Soap walked through the storefront and all the way to the door of the warehouse on the back street.
"What exactly are you looking for?" Soap couldn't help but ask again.
"A communications device," the Joker replied.
"Communication device? Aren't communications devices unusable here?"
"A communication device produced by the Alpha civilization. It can break through the signal shielding field of the Ark." The Joker explained, "This set of 'relics' was once auctioned at a high price of 16 million credit points, but it disappeared unexpectedly after the auction... The accidental disappearance was actually just a cover-up. The seller and the auction house performed a play to ensure the safety of the items."
"So how did this thing end up here?" Soap looked back at the dilapidated store. "Sixteen million... if you add up all the things in this store, including the store and the land, I'm afraid it won't even be a fraction of this number."
"Those piles of things you think are garbage actually contain a lot of treasures. Any one of them is enough for an ordinary person to live a life of luxury." The clown said nonchalantly.
"Is it true?" Soap looked at the piles of garbage in the clown's mouth with some envy, swallowed his saliva, and forced himself to suppress the desire to go back and search for them - in fact, he knew very well in his heart that under the premise of the collapse of civilized society, no matter how valuable something is, if it is useless to oneself, it is just a piece of garbage.
There is a saying in the investment field, "Antiques are valuable in prosperous times, gold is valuable in troubled times." Art collectibles such as antiques have greater room for appreciation only in times of peace and prosperity, but in times of war, hard currencies such as gold are the most valuable things... As for now, it can no longer be described as a time of chaos, it is more accurate to say it is the "end of the world."
Gold is not only currency, but also a precious industrial material. However, without the means to process it, the gold of the apocalypse is not as useful as food, weapons and medicines: it cannot be eaten, nor can it be used to treat injuries and diseases, and it is not even suitable for making weapons - gold is too flexible, and the blades made from it cannot even penetrate nylon fabrics with a slightly higher denier number.
"Found it." The Joker rummaged around in the warehouse for a while, then pushed out a device covered with oilcloth from a corner.
Soap walked forward, lifted the oilcloth, and a machine similar to a precision lathe appeared in front of him.
"What is this? Is it used to process tools?" Soap was confused. "Are you planning to make a communication device yourself?"
"No, this is the communication device I was talking about." The Joker said, "Its power is enough to penetrate the Ark's shielding field and send messages to people outside."
"Are you planning to tell the people in Mukach Fortress about the situation here?" Soap said suddenly.
"Time is running out. In twelve hours at most, the roots of that thing will penetrate the bottom of the Ark and penetrate into the earth of Alpha. By then, everything will be too late." The Joker said, "I had already calculated that Zeus would do this, but I didn't expect that his plan would be implemented so smoothly and so quickly... The other members of the Undead Crew will be more corrupt than I expected."
"What exactly is the degree of erosion? You mentioned this term more than once..." Soap asked, "Does it refer to the degree to which a person's brain has been brainwashed by some god? Am I right in understanding it this way?"
"That's about right." The clown glanced at Soap and said a joke, which was very rare. "You don't look very smart, but you are quite insightful at this time."
“…”
Soap was speechless for a moment, staring at him for a long time before asking, "Now that we've spread the news, does that mean our mission is accomplished? We should be able to slip away and get away with it, right?"
"You can choose to leave, but I still have to go to the core area." The Joker said, "I must do everything possible to buy time for another person..."
Looking at the clown busying around the communication equipment, Soap gritted his teeth and said, "Forget it, damn it, without you, we can't leave the Ark alive... Or think more clearly, even if we can escape to the wilderness, if you fail, we still won't be able to live for a few days... Anyway, we're all going to die, so we might as well give it one last try! Even if we die, at least we can leave our names in history."
"Don't you care about your reputation after death?" asked the clown.
"Since I'm going to die anyway, I'd rather be called a hero than be a deserter who is laughed at, especially since this deserter couldn't escape anywhere alive... Damn Zeus, fucking monsters, fucking shitty gods, I really want to shove the barrel of a gun down their throats!" Soap said hatefully.
"I have to tell you first, even if you die, there is a high probability that no one will remember you. If you want to be a hero, you will only be an unknown hero ." The clown lifted a cover on the side of the communication equipment, revealing a groove for inserting energy crystals.
"You'd better stop pouring cold water on me. Tell me what you want me to do while I'm still in a tizzy... If I calm down, maybe I'll change my mind." Said Soap.
"Go and pry open the safes in the surrounding stores." said the clown.
"What?" Soap scratched his ears. He almost thought he had misheard. "You...are you going to rob the coffers of these stores?"
"The shops here don't use bearer credit card as currency. They trade either by barter or with equivalent precious metals or energy crystals as hard currency. Energy crystals are the easiest to value, so these shops usually have some high-quality energy crystals hidden in their safes. I need you to collect all these crystals. The more the better, and the higher the quality the better."
"Okay... wait a minute, this thing is activated by crystals? Then when we send information to the outside world, won't it be detected by Zeus?" The clown said with a frown.
"Yes, and because the signal strength is so strong, almost the entire Ark can detect our location... It's like lighting a torch in the dark night." The Joker said truthfully, "Also, the process of breaking through the shielding field and sending information will take ten to fifteen minutes. During this time, it cannot be interrupted... We have to stay here for fifteen minutes and block any living creature that wants to approach this device."
"...Okay, I understand." Soap took a deep breath, nodded vigorously, turned and walked out.
Ten minutes later, he returned to the warehouse carrying a large bag of energy crystals. He took out the crystals from the backpack one by one and placed them on the ground.
" Damn it ... These shops are really rich. I've never even touched energy crystals of this level before." Soap cursed as he took the crystals.
"Aren't you afraid?" the clown asked, "You might die in the battle that's about to begin."
"I'm scared, so scared that I have to say a few more words while I'm still alive. I won't have the chance to say them if I die." Soap muttered, "Do you still remember the giraffe? That guy... He must be dead now, but do you know how I met him?"
"How did you know each other?" The clown did not stop the work in his hands. As long as it did not affect the progress of the task, he did not mind listening to other people's stories.
"At that time... Oh, forget it, I won't say it anymore. I guess there's not enough time to finish it." Soap waved his hands irritably, "There are some things I'd better tell my old friend in hell after I die... I'm not a good person, I'm definitely going to hell after I die."
"Don't you believe in God?" asked the clown.
"It's just an analogy... If you tell me that everything is annihilated after death and there is nothing left, then I would find it a bit abstract... To be honest, I don't know what it is like after death. Do you think humans have souls?"
"That depends on how you define 'soul'," the Joker said. "Under certain conditions, human consciousness can be separated from the body and exist independently. If you accept this statement, then the 'soul' does exist."
"After I die, will my soul still wander around the world like a ghost?"
"No... What Zeus wants to sacrifice to that god is not only the bodies of all humans, but more importantly their souls." The clown shook his head. "Human bodies, even if there are hundreds of millions or trillions of them, are just insignificant organic matter to that god. But human souls are the nourishment that He needs most."
"Damn it, they can't even let go of souls..." Soap clenched his fists, "It seems that this time, there is really no way out. Are you planning to activate this device now? Then I will go outside and guard it for you?"
"Yeah." The clown nodded.
"Don't worry, I've already told Nouval that he will hold on until the last moment... As for Ulrich, I don't know whether he understood what I said." Soap picked up the gun and walked towards the door of the store.
"In three minutes, our position will be exposed." The clown whispered. Soap, who was gradually walking away, did not hear the second half of his words. "This is the torch lit in the dark night... The light emitted by the flame will illuminate everyone who is dormant in the darkness and refuses to surrender. And you are the ones holding the torch. You will burn out with the torch and become the first light to guide others."
He filled the energy crystal into the groove and gently pressed the start button.
