Chapter 293 - Investigation

“Gasp…”

This sight caused Chen Chen to inhale sharply. The scanners on his back seemed to sense that their wearer was emotionally disturbed and popped out once again, scanning the surroundings frantically. Even so, no matter what they did, they could not detect any signs of life in the apartment in front of them…

“Let’s retreat further.”

Without any hesitation, Chen Chen took the initiative to retreat again, until they were back at the portal from which they came. Only then did Chen Chen secretly heave a sigh of relief.

Following that, with his right hand, Chen Chen quickly pressed a button on his left arm. There was a beep and a jet injector shot out into the air. Chen Chen grabbed the injector while he tilted his neck. At once, a small piece of armor on his neck popped open, exposing the airtight membrane.

After that, Chen Chen directly inserted the jet injector into the membrane!

“Hiss!”

A thin stream of liquid was injected directly into Chen Chen’s vein.

About thirty seconds later, Chen Chen felt his mind clear up. The initial feeling of being spooked quickly faded, leaving only an endless flow of speculations and reflections in his mind.

“How interesting…”

Chen Chen supported his chin in one hand, wordlessly stared at the apartment a hundred meters away, then looked at the Bugatti Spaceship beside him. “X-112, did you see when the doors were opened just now?”

“I didn’t.”

X-112 replied, “I pulled up the visual signals of the three Black Knights beside you. Just now, when you left, there were 5.3 seconds when everyone looked away from the apartment. Thus, there’s a hundred percent chance that the doors in the apartment were opened within these 5.3 seconds.”

Chen Chen nodded. He had thought as much. The Black Knights needed to be constantly vigilant, so it was impossible for them to keep their eyes fixed on the apartment behind. However, the rusty doors of the apartment were opened silently, which was something ordinary people could not do.

First of all, there was no electricity in the apartment. Chen Chen was very sure of this. Even if there were electricity, the doors were specially equipped with switches, which would open automatically as long as they were powered on. Nonetheless, what happened just now would not have been possible.

This was because those rusty doors could no longer be opened with electricity. Even if they were opened, they could not be opened without a sound.

Chen Chen directly discarded the possibility that the doors were controlled by an electric switch.

However, if it was not controlled by someone, then what was it?

Chen Chen narrowed his eyes out of habit. He had to admit that this was no longer a question that could be solved by taking NZT-48. The end of civilization in this dimension was caused by some existence and it was very likely that this apartment behind him was related to all this.

“Is this situation similar to Elysium’s dimension?”

Chen Chen shook his head. At this moment, the voice of X-112 came from the PK Armor’s communication device again. “Sir Commander, the M-1 drones have examined the general circumstances within a radius of ten kilometers. We found thirteen human skeletons exposed on the street.”

“Can the animals and plants be detected?”

Chen Chen asked again, “Can you turn on the camera’s thermal imaging mode and search for animals in the ruins?”

“We can try.”

In accordance with Chen Chen’s order, the four drones switched to thermal imaging mode and started the exploration mission again.

As they were exploring, a map with a radius of about ten kilometers around Chen Chen’s location was also gradually taking shape.

This map was directly transmitted to Chen Chen’s armor. The PK Armor had a unique AR system that could directly project images on Chen Chen’s retina.

Currently, at the lower right corner of Chen Chen’s field of vision was the map that was taking shape from the drones’ relentless exploration.

When the map was formed, Chen Chen did not continue to move, but kept quiet and stayed in place while paying close attention to the small animals around him.

In Chen Chen’s opinion, since these small animals could thrive so abundantly after the extinction of humans, it should be possible to prove that the “thing” that had wiped out humans was harmless to animals and plants.

No, maybe it was not harmless, just that these little animals could keenly detect the presence of that “thing” and evade it in advance.

As Chen Chen considered this, half an hour later, the four drones finally scanned everything within ten kilometers.

Chen Chen clicked on the map at the lower right corner and the map was immediately enlarged. It was translucent and occupied Chen Chen’s entire field of vision. There were densely packed squares scattered over it. Each square represented a building.

It was like an actual bird’s-eye view of a metropolis.

When he zoomed in on the map, a large number of small red dots appeared. Still, most of these red dots were dark red or orange-red and some were orange or even bright yellow. These red dots were all over the entire map. At first glance, they seemed to be scattered at random like stars in the sky, with no pattern to speak of.

These little red dots were all wild animals hiding in the buildings or ruins. The brighter the red dot, the larger their bodies. The dark red dots might be mice and birds while the red-orange and orange ones were wild cats and dogs. The bright yellow, which was the brightest color, would be a medium or large creature such as cattle and sheep.

“X-112, based on the density of wild animals, divide the area explored into squares with sides of 100x100m, then categorize the density into four levels.”

Chen Chen thought for a while and continued. “For the first level, the number of wild animals in the square area is greater than five and the area is represented by the color blue; the second level, where the number of wild animals in the area is greater than two, is represented by yellow; the third level will have a number of wild animals in the area that is greater than one, represented by dark red; the fourth level, where the number of wild animals in the area is zero, is represented by bright red.”

“Understood.”

As X-112 executed the order, the map in front of Chen Chen became separated by a series of shallow dotted lines. The entire map which had a diameter of about 4 kilometers was divided into 1500 tightly packed squares. After that, these squares began to change color rapidly.

After the map had fully changed color, Chen Chen suddenly narrowed his eyes.

He noticed that on this map, there were many individual red areas and dark red areas, but these were indeed scattered here and there in a disorderly jumble. Only three spots displayed the most regularity — all three of them consisted of a bright red center with edges that were dark red, further edges that were yellow, and an outermost fringe of blue.

“X-112, perform calculative corrections to the map.”

Chen Chen ordered again.

After Chen Chen’s order, most of the random reds and yellows disappeared from the map in front of him. Those locations were either empty roads or open spaces without any houses. The scarcity of animals in these spots was not an abnormal phenomenon.

Only the three locations, with an area of several thousand square meters, were highlighted. One of the abnormal locations was the apartment building that Chen Chen just entered…

“As I thought.”

Looking at the map before him, Chen Chen smiled placidly, displaying a look of realization. “These three locations must be some kind of restricted zone to life forms.”

Now that he had ascertained the security of his surroundings, Chen Chen was not apprehensive anymore. He directly boarded the Bugatti Spaceship. “X-112, take me to the location where you found the human skeletons while keeping away from those three abnormal areas, as well as those small red areas that still remain after the map was corrected.”

“Very well!”

X-112 replied decisively.