Chapter 223: Where Did Everyone Go?
Chapter 223: Where Did Everyone Go?
Several hours later, Chen Chen returned to the tower once again, this time carrying a hard drive and a wire in his possession.
The hard drive contained a clone of Little X, X-112. On the other hand, the wire was the same wire that the movie’s protagonist used to connect his brain to the main control center. The wire was remodified so that Chen Chen could connect the hard drive to the control center’s system.
This time, it was no longer a smooth-sailing journey.
When Chen Chen returned to the Elysium’s government tower, he saw that the entire building had already been sealed from the outside.
Upon determining Chen Chen as a threat, the internal system had placed the entire tower in lockdown mode.
However, this did not deter Chen Chen at all. As he aimed his cannon onto the gate, the blue orb once again melted the front door, forming a large hole in the center.
“Warning, an intruder has been detected, please immediately deploy defensive mechanism!”
The alarm sounded once again.
Chen Chen was already familiar with the route this time. Once he accessed the building through the front door, Chen Chen soon arrived in the main control center and connected the hard drive into the main control center’s system.
Within a couple of minutes, X-112 then overwrote all the system data with its own. The red light on the hard drive drive immediately turned green.
This was a setting Chen Chen had put in place as a form of insurance. If the hard drive emitted green light, it would indicate that X-112 had succeeded. If it was a red light, it meant that X-112 had failed to infiltrate the system.
If the hard drive first had the red light, then the light got turned off for a moment before turning to green, it would indicate an unpleasant scenario. Usually, it meant that the other party’s system had infiltrated X-112 and taken its place.
At that moment, the once robotic voice now turned into the innocent voice of a young girl. “Sir Commander, I’m X-112, we meet again.”
“Long time no see.”
Chen Chen smiled. Ever since X-112 had previously infiltrated the Red Queen, this was the second time Chen Chen worked alongside X-112.
“I’ve replaced the entire control system of the Elysium. I’m awaiting your orders now.” X-112 continued.
“Are you able to connect to the wireless Internet? I’d like to see what’s happening on Earth.”
Chen Chen asked.
“Regrettably, Sir Commander, the Earth’s Internet has been disabled. I’m unable to do so,” X-112 explained.
“No surprise there. Is Earth in trouble?”
Chen Chen raised his eyebrows. He already long had suspicions that the situation on Earth was similar to the desolated scenes on the Elysium. Otherwise, it would not explain how no one had come onboard this structure for so long.
“In that case, help me check the main control system’s daily log.”
“Understood. The system’s daily log has been extracted... Today is 23 March 2180 and the time now is 3:30 PM. The last update on the daily log was made on 20 July 2165 at 11:59 PM.”
Chen Chen now had a clearer picture of the situation. The timeline of the movie was set in 2154, which meant that 11 years after the event of the movie in 2165. Everyone who was on the Elysium had suddenly left.
As no one was commandeering the structure, the daily log was only updated until that day. Then, the entire Elysium went into hibernation mode till Chen Chen arrived in the 2180 when the system was reactivated after Chen Chen blasted the door open.
In other words, everything happened on the eventful date of 20 July 2165.
Chen Chen then asked, “X-112, did the original residents of Elysium leave this place? Where did they go?”
“Negative. The original residents of Elysium have never left.”
X-112 answered, “Their position is at 2111 Basin...”
Then, an image was displayed on the glass screen featuring a large crater on the Elysium. White objects were piling up in the crater.
The Elysium had emulated the geographical landscapes of the Earth when it was built. There were mountain valleys, rivers, and even basins that were incorporated into the structure.
However, when Chen Chen had a clear sight as to what those white objects were, he felt chills down his spine.
Those white objects were skeletal remains of probably tens of thousands of people amassing in the basin...
“This is the aerial view of 2111 Basin.”
X-112 explained further, “Upon verifying the citizenship marks that were in everyone’s bodies, I can conclude that all of Elysium’s residents are in there.”
Chen Chen narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Is this a massacre?”
“It’s not.”
X-112 began playing a video recording.
Chen Chen saw that the video was a CCTV recording of the leisure room in this tower. The timestamp on the upper right corner indicated that it was 20 July 2165 at 11:58 PM.
In the video, three staff on the night shift, comprising of two men and a woman, were seen drinking their coffees in the leisure room. Although there were no sound recordings, Chen Chen could tell that they were having an enjoyable conversation. There was nothing strange about the recording yet.
Then, as soon as the time reached 11:59 PM, one of the staff who was gesturing wildly suddenly froze as he slowly lowered his hands down. He then stood up and almost mechanistically began walking out the door.
The other two staff were behaving in similar manners. It was like the trio had suddenly been controlled by a machine. They walked out of the leisure hall and made their way to the main hallway.
“Follow them,” Chen Chen instructed.
Then, the recording switched scenes and Chen Chen could observe that many others had joined the trio in their marches.
“Play it at three times the normal speed,” Chen Chen instructed again.
Then, as the video played faster, the crowd soon completely walked out of the screen before the video was replaced by the recording of another camera that was situated further in front of the previous camera.
At last, Chen Chen saw up to a thousand people exiting the government tower and walked unanimously in the same direction.
However, the recording did not end there as there were surveillance cameras placed throughout public areas in the Elysium. It was there where Chen Chen witnessed a magnificent phenomenon.
Like herds of ships, tens of thousands of people walked across the surveillance cameras. Among the huge crowd were middle-aged men in their business suits, beautifully dressed young women, housewives in pajamas who seemed to have just woken up, and even naked men who still had bubbles foaming on their heads...
In short, these people had mechanical facial expressions that were void of any emotions. There was no resistance nor reluctance in their actions. It was as if someone was controlling them remotely as the crowd behaved similarly to a group of walking corpses and puppets.
“Is their destination 2111 Basin?”
Chen Chen asked.
“Yes.”
X-112 played the continued fast-forwarding the video while it continued tracing the movement of the government staff. When the video resumed its normal speed, the timestamp indicated that it was already noontime the next day.
At last, tens of thousands of people could be seen walking into 2111 Basin. Chen Chen noticed that once a person stepped foot onto the basin, it felt like they had accomplished their final mission and allowed the latecomers to push them forward, squeezing them into a deeper spot of the basin...
What a creepy sight...