Magical Girl's Knight Brother

Chapter 521 The Tower

The clues about the wasteland world are a tangled mess, so much so that even someone in the same situation would feel completely lost. The reason isn't hard to understand: the world simply presents an overwhelming amount of distracting information.

The gods of the era, the army of omnipotent machines, the pocket universe, and the cultural invasions and historical gaps brought by countless aliens have caused many secrets to disappear into the past, making it impossible to obtain the truth.

Tang Zijun's goal was actually very simple: he just wanted to kill the gods of the era to protect the safety of the real world.

But after actually coming here to investigate, he discovered that things were not so simple. In addition to the fact that the control of the gods of the era was deeply rooted here, it seemed that the wasteland world was hiding some other secrets.

The Ark Knights were annihilated by the Omnics, and the Gods of the Ages secured their final victory in that war. From then on, no force in the wasteland could threaten them.

So here's the question: why, so long after all this time, would someone still build a laboratory related to the Knights of the Ark and try to replicate this plan?

Tang Zijun didn't believe that the "inner city lords" of Glorious City were really rebelling against the Gods of the Epoch. After all, Glorious City was a sanctuary with the background of the Gods of the Epoch.

The gods of the era aren't stupid; they're not going to pull off such a micromanagement right under their noses.

Does this mean that the so-called laboratory and the plan to restart the Ark Knights were proposed by the Gods of the Epoch? As an artificial intelligence, the Gods of the Epoch are very good at collecting the technology of various civilizations and incorporating it into their own use, as can be seen from the stories that Suolin told before.

Whether it's Dr. Zan's serum, the information transmission system, or the antimatter energy manipulation technology, they were all basically first proposed by humans and then completed after the gods of the era eliminated those people.

This is actually quite normal. After all, for the gods of the era, these technologies and techniques are their spoils of war, so it's understandable that they would want to complete and strengthen themselves.

However, this alone does not seem to explain why the experiment in the City of Glory lasted for so long.

The Ark Knights project would take at least several decades to develop in terms of the real world's technological progress, but for the Gods of the Ages who control the wasteland and even the entire universe, replicating it would not be difficult, and there wouldn't even be any technological barriers.

Why is the City of Glory still experimenting? What exactly are they experimenting with? Are they really replicating the Knights of the Ark?

And most importantly, the doctor who initially proposed the plan was also part of the artificial god project. At that time, there was no war, let alone the gods of the era. So what was his purpose?

Why would he choose to start a scientific project that resembles "human experimentation"? Why would he simultaneously participate in a project to create a god? This is probably not a pursuit of science, but rather a gamble on both sides.

Now, the Gods of the Era have "inherited" his mantle and begun experimenting with the Ark Knights plan. Tang Zijun doesn't believe that the Gods of the Era would invest so much in a failed plan for no reason.

This is not reasonable.

So Tang Zijun decided to go and see for herself.

The massive dome completely isolates the lower city from the outside, creating a separate steel jungle within this space.

The shabby shantytowns of the Lower Town are almost nowhere to be seen here. What you see are almost entirely spiderweb-like metal passageways and pipes, as well as towering tower-like buildings.

This is a beehive sanctuary, but also a labyrinth teeming with filth and corruption.

However, for Tang Zijun at this moment, this place felt like her own backyard.

Tang Zijun's existence has been compressed to the extreme. He is no longer a physical entity with volume and thickness, but has transformed into a dark trace that exists between existence and nothingness.

Using the earth elemental shadow form of Dark Shine, Tang Zijun moved quickly along the cold metal pipe.

His "body" has lost its thickness, becoming only an outline extending on a two-dimensional plane.

Like a ghost, Tang Zijun glided through the steaming and smoky factory. Huge searchlights swept across the walls like cylinders, but Tang Zijun blended naturally into the shadows without causing a ripple in the energy alarm devices.

He flowed upwards along the rusted metal pipes, the massive pipes like the skeleton of a giant python, exposed outside the factory, connecting the varied areas of the shelter.

In Tang Zijun's eyes, this was the best way for him to move.

Soldiers patrolling the barbed wire fence, pulse guns at their ready, vigilantly scanned the crowded streets below and the buildings opposite, but they never looked up at the shadows above.

When a pipe bends in another direction, Tang Zijun seeps into the gap between the wall and the pipe like liquid, and then seeps out from the other end, spreading out again on a larger surface.

The inner city was much more heavily fortified than the lower city, with energy detection devices and alarm systems visible everywhere, in addition to patrolling soldiers.

However, such a detection device is of no use to a two-dimensional being. It should be noted that even the gaps in the pocket universe cannot stop it.

The inner city was actually larger than Tang Zijun had imagined, and finding a secret laboratory here was no easy task. Fortunately, this so-called laboratory was not only not hidden, but it was even built in the most conspicuous location—on a cold tower like a giant steel pillar, with a visible beam of energy stirring the clouds.

Now Tang Zijun knows how that rain came about.

That's an energy release device, used to atomize and discharge pollution and scientific waste. The inner city has domes that can block those harmful substances from returning, but other places aren't so lucky.

This also reveals the distortion of this society. The pollution produced by these factories is constantly eroding the lives of the people living here. But tragically, without these factories, the people here would die even faster.

The tower is a symbol of power and technology in the City of Glory, and the source of its confidence in calling itself "Glory".

This is the most heavily guarded area. The tower is covered with hidden sensors, laser networks, and surveillance cameras with no blind spots. Each floor is staffed with elite inspectors who are always on high alert for everything around them.

Instead of trying to break through head-on, Tang Zijun found an inconspicuous, rusty, huge cable that connected to the underground energy system. This cable stretched upwards close to the tower and was the most concealed and best way to access it.

Tang Zijun silently climbed up the cold metal cable and moved vertically upwards.

Throughout the journey, the scanning devices and energy monitoring ignored Tang Zijun, and even the airflow generated by the high-speed elevator roaring up and down inside the tower had no effect on Tang Zijun.

Upon reaching a certain height, Tang Zijun slipped through a crack and entered the tower without hindrance. Although she had already used her shadow powers to sense the interior, she was still astonished by what she saw. Unlike the desolate wasteland outside, the tower's interior was filled with light, and there was even a faint fragrance in the air. The smooth, white metal floors and walls were spotless, and potted plants were placed at intervals along the corridors.

To be honest, this was a bit beyond Tang Zijun's expectations, and he even wondered if he was hallucinating.

But the next moment, his attention was drawn to the faint sounds of conversation coming from the ventilation ducts.

Although he was in shadow, his superhuman hearing was still working; with just a little concentration, the faint conversation became incredibly clear. "...Another failure. This is the fourth test subject to go berserk today. If this continues, we probably won't have enough volunteers left."

"What's there to be afraid of? They're just volunteers. There are plenty in the lower city. Those who want to enter the city won't mind participating in our experiments." "But their survival rate is lower than that of the prosecutors we personally select. If we don't train them, those outsiders won't help our research; they'll just waste our resources!"

"There's nothing we can do about it. The God of Life hasn't sent us any experimental subjects from the Pocket Universe for a long time."

"It's a pity. If only the God of Time and Space could send another original Ark Knight, even if it's just his head like last time..."