Chapter 8: The Mysterious Crystal

    &34;what should we do next&34; yi kui asked yi ci

    &34;we need to go to a room on the sixth floor before that, let&39;s head to the room of the technical department&39;s manager on the fifth floor&34;

    the situation inside the building was terrible various facilities were severely damaged they walked up the stairs cautiously, the steps beneath their feet shaking unsteadily, and in some places even collapsing yi ci paid attention to his surroundings while carefully climbing up suddenly, a mouse ran past him, catching his attention

    they reached the fifth floor and found an office with a puter on the ground yi ci picked up the puter, opened it for inspection, and found that the hardware and hard drive were in decent condition, and they should be able to study the puter virus released by jia zhu they quickly collected the hard drives and found a few spare ones in the room jia zhu must have hidden some important files here

    they gathered the hardware and hard drives and continued upward some walls in the corridor had collapsed, revealing the outside situation

    they arrived at a metal door, and yi ci placed a small explosive device near the ground on one side as a contingency measure to open the door they took a few steps back, detonated the explosive, and the door opened with a sound

    this design was intended to open the door smoothly even without electricity

    yi ci and yi kui stood by the door, reaching their hands into the gap, slowly pushing it open

    under their joint efforts, the door gradually opened, revealing the scene inside the room in the center of the room were two glass counters, one of which held a purple diamond-shaped cube that emitted a faint glow; the other contained top-secret documents

    both of them were deeply attracted to the purple-glowing crystal, although zhao ting had described it in detail earlier, seeing it with their own eyes still made them feel magical

    they quickly lifted the glass cover, carefully wrapped the mysterious crystal in a black cloth, and also gathered related documents after that, they began to leave the scene

    &34;let&39;s go back through the secret room, it will be safer&34; yi kui proposed

    &34;okay, then why didn&39;t we take the secret room on our way here&34; yi ci curiously asked

    &34;because we don&39;t know if there are robots outside the secret room if there are, it would be troublesome we chose to go outside, not only because the risk is smaller, but also because we can observe the remaining number of robots in the city&34; yi kui explained

    &34;so that&39;s why&34; yi ci nodded thoughtfully

    they left the headquarters cautiously, heading towards the nearest secret passage during their journey, yi ci couldn&39;t help but ask, &34;it&39;s strange, although many people were attacked by robots, why aren&39;t there any bodies on the street&34;

    yi ci furrowed his brow and continued, &34; corpses can&39;t decay so quickly, and there should be bones as well&34;

    &34;could it be that they were eaten by dogs or vultures although this possibility exists, there are so many people, and not a single bone should be left this matter is quite mysterious let&39;s return safely first and then investigate slowly&34; yi kui analyzed

    soon, they found the entrance to the secret room, quickly went inside, and closed the door the mission was successfully pleted

    this mission was unusually easy, with only one robot appearing at the door, and the others only appearing twice the streets were empty, and there were no human corpses this city has a population of millions, and even if they were wiped out, there shouldn&39;t be no corpses left this matter was too mysterious

    the entire city was deserted, with only the ubiquitous bright red bloodstains on the streets being conspicuous most places were unusually quiet, with only a few exceptions where the sound of robots could be heard the emptiness of this city was chilling, imagining a city with a population of over a million being deserted in just ten days, with no living beings, no corpses, and even no signs of life the scenario was terrifying

    shortly after they left, a human hiding in a corner of the city finally couldn&39;t hold on anymore and lost their breath forever from then on, there were no more living beings in yuyang city suddenly, a gray circular platform appeared under the person&39;s feet, and under the force of gravity, the person fell into the circle and disappeared, followed by the circle disappearing as well

    yi ci and yi kui returned to the research institute with abundant gains, finally handing over the crucial information and the mysterious purple crystal to zhao ting

    zhao ting took the documents held by yi ci and yi kui, carefully checked them, and then nodded with satisfaction, &34;yes, these are the things we need with them, we can develop stronger robots to counter the special robots that threaten our base&34;

    hearing this, a huge burden was finally lifted from yi ci and yi kui&39;s hearts they knew the importance of this information, which concerned the future of china&39;s robot research and the security of the country

    then, zhao ting shifted his gaze towards the purple crystal, &34;this purple crystal is yours, yi kui i hope you can install it on yi ci&39;s robotic arm to see if it can yield unexpected effects&34;

    yi kui took the crystal with a sense of loss, and asked in astonishment, &34;is it really safe to entrust such an important thing to us&34;

    zhao ting smiled at them and said, &34;of course, i believe in your abilities you&39;re an ai researcher, and yi ci is a mechanical engineer i&39;m sure you can make good use of its value this crystal was of no use to me, and after my inspection, i found its energy fluctuations to be extremely strong i believe that if used properly, it will definitely provide us with a strong boost&34;

    hearing zhao ting&39;s words, yi ci and yi kui were both nervous and excited they knew that the crystal might contain infinite power, but it could also hide unknown dangers

    so they began to modify yi ci&39;s robotic arm to acmodate the crystal without affecting its normal operation although they knew nothing about the crystal&39;s power, since zhao ting said its energy fluctuations were strong, it should be usable as energy, so they might as well give it a try

    however, in a remote and desolate desert, a man stood alone in the silent night in his hand was a grey diamond-shaped crystal, and this mysterious power was closely connected to him his eyes shone with a fanatical light, as if he had grasped the secret of the world by his side was a fresh red magic array, as bright as blood, filled with a strange atmosphere

    this man was the person who dealt with jia zhu and obtained the confidential information of &39;xing yu ke gong&39; in front of the magic array, another diamond-shaped crystal hung quietly in the air, emitting a red glow the dazzling light illuminated everything around it, and also revealed the man&39;s ambitions

    in the desert array, there were mountains of corpses accumulated, collected from all over the world he seemed to be preparing for a grand ceremony, a ceremony designed to satisfy his greed the corpses slowly merged into the array and sank slowly, with gray circles constantly appearing above the array to replenish it

    &34;finally, enough!&34; he laughed manically, his eyes filled with madness, &34;it won&39;t be long before that existence descends at that time, no one will be able to stop me, no one!&34; he laughed loudly, and his laughter echoed in the desert, sounding particularly empty and desolate