DipNovel Chapter 148 Gradually Entering the Ice Age
Chapter 148 Gradually Entering the Ice Age
Chapter 149 Gradually Entering the Ice Age
Although this collection operation did not yield enough metal materials to upgrade the rank of his natal car, it did allow Dong Qi to figure out roughly how much metal material he would need to collect to meet the requirements for the next upgrade of his natal car.
Furthermore, during this metal collection process, Dong Qi's original idea of using the robotic arm as a mechanical foot by traversing some rugged roads was put to practical testing.
Although it was just driving on uneven ice, it was still an indirect test of the mechanical feet.
More importantly, once the vehicle entered the sea, even when it was only moving on the ice, Dong Qi's sense of unease continued to grow.
The thought that would normally disappear from my mind if I focused on something actually began to grow stronger in my heart after my destined car stepped onto the ice.
Even Dong Qi's will was strengthened multiple times due to the general upgrade of his natal car's grade.
Faced with the ever-growing urge to escape, he ultimately could not resist it.
The moment the car left the ice layer on the sea, the strong urge to escape that had been swirling in my mind suddenly diminished considerably.
Although it hasn't returned to the point where the thought of escaping would disappear as long as one focuses on something, it no longer has much of an impact on Dong Qi.
And as Dong Qi moved further away from the port area of Phoenix, the outdoor temperature continued to rise.
Even though the car had entered the central area of Phoenix, the outside temperature was still above minus 100 degrees Celsius, but it was still much warmer than the areas of the sea covered by ice.
Unfortunately, facing the now deserted Phoenix City, Dong Qi had originally hoped to collect some valuable items here.
But Dong Qi never expected that when the Phoenix City government organized the evacuation of the city's residents, they would pack up and take away everything that could be carried with them, leaving nothing behind.
Even those cars that had been parked in the parking lot for a long time had already been damaged by the electromagnetic pulse and were basically scrapped.
Even after wandering around Phoenix City twice, Dong Qi only managed to find one or two wrecked cars in some remote corners.
Seeing this situation, Dong Qi couldn't help but sigh that only a government with such strong organizational power as the Great Xia could not only relocate all the residents of the city, but also take away all the valuable items in the city.
Since the government had already emptied Phoenix City of everything of value, Dong Qi decided not to stay there any longer.
As Dong Qi drove away from Phoenix towards Kyoto, he watched the outdoor temperature on the monitor rise steadily.
Just as Dong Qi was thinking that the sudden drop in outdoor temperature was simply because the sea was frozen, and the low temperature from Kyoto was just blowing in from the direction of the frozen sea.
He thought to himself that as long as he moved away from the coastal areas, left Kyoto, and moved to a more inland region, he could live a normal life.
In any case, due to the emergence of mutated marine life, coastal areas have long been unsuitable for ordinary people to settle down.
At this time, the entire ocean was frozen solid, which reduced the amount of flesh and blood of mutated marine creatures that had become regular food.
However, this also resolved the threat and hidden dangers posed by those mutated marine creatures landing on land.
A considerable amount of time has passed since the electromagnetic pulse ended and the snow melted. Although the Great Xia Dynasty has not yet fully recovered, the emergence of the Awakened has led it onto a different path of development.
Furthermore, due to the diverse uses of superpowers, the potential for development along this path continues to rise.
Just as Dong Qi was considering which city he should stay in temporarily after leaving Kyoto, he casually glanced at the monitor on the control panel, originally just wanting to know the exact outside temperature.
But Dong Qi never expected that the monitor would not only display the current outdoor temperature, but also the outside temperature when Dong Qi arrived, and even provide a clear comparison using a bar graph.
In fact, Dong Qi never expected that the intelligent central control platform would be able to automatically display such a comparison chart.
In fact, since the intelligent central control platform is based on military equipment and integrated into the vehicle, even without upgrades, its basic capabilities already far surpass those of civilian equipment.
Dong Qi's understanding of the functions of the intelligent central processing unit is not very detailed; he is still in the initial exploratory stage.
The intelligent central processing unit can actually be regarded as a mini super brain, and its auxiliary role is far beyond most people's imagination.
Except for a very small number of professionals, most people use the superbrain in the same way that ordinary people use a computer, only using a very small number of its functions.
When Dong Qi first acquired the intelligent hub, he simply regarded it as an intelligent control hub that could easily control unmanned equipment and robotic arms in multiple threads.
When Dong Qi actually used it, the intelligent central hub also played the role that Dong Qi had envisioned.
As for other functions, including the ability to directly display the outside temperature, these were just discoveries that Dong Qi made by chance.
It's like the AI level of the intelligent hub is extremely low at this point; even simple question-and-answer sessions are still at the level of artificial stupidity.
However, after the intelligent hub was truly integrated into the car, even though Dong Qi didn't specifically mention it, the intelligent hub continued to collect various data in daily life.
Whether it's Dong Qi's conversations with others inside the car, other people's casual chatter outside the car, or other situations happening around the car, all of these will be collected as data by the intelligent hub.
Therefore, even without Dong Qi specifically feeding it data, the AI intelligence level of the intelligent hub is constantly improving.
Just like the temperature comparison that appears on the monitor right now, this data wasn't displayed after Dong Qi mentioned it. Rather, it was the AI in the intelligent hub that determined that Dong Qi needed this data, so it automatically displayed this bar chart comparison.
When Dong Qi saw the bar chart, he was surprised to find that in just a few days, the outdoor temperature at the same location had dropped by about ten degrees again.
Although the temperature drop could still be attributed to the cold wind blowing from the sea, Dong Qi felt that this temperature drop was abnormal because the thought of getting away from the sea kept recurring in his mind.
Although Dong Qi had found the source of the drop in outdoor temperature, he was unaware of the sudden appearance of the frozen sea. This was an instinctive reaction of the original will of Earth to eliminate the outsiders.
Perhaps Dong Qi was unaware that Earth was gradually entering a major ice age, and that in order to completely eliminate the alien invaders, the lowest temperature during this ice age would reach absolute zero, which could freeze molecules.
Absolute zero is actually the temperature of -273.5 degrees Celsius, which is theoretically the temperature at which all matter can be frozen.
Theoretically, no living organism can survive at this temperature.
Of course, this situation is one in which survival is impossible without any equipment. If equipment were available, even if the temperature dropped another 100 degrees Celsius, humans would find a way to create life support devices suitable for their own survival.
The reason why Earth has entered the Great Ice Age is to eliminate the mutated invaders in the ocean. Therefore, even if the temperature drops suddenly, the lowest temperature will occur in the area covered by the ocean.
While some inland areas will also experience temperature drops, this is only due to the influence of low temperatures in the ocean areas. Therefore, the further inland and away from the ocean, the higher the temperature in those areas.
This is also a reminder from the original will of Earth to the awakened ones, after all, it took a little bit of Earth's essence to awaken the superpowers of each awakened one.
Although the number is small, and once an Awakened One dies, if there are no external influences, the primordial substances within the Awakened One's body will return to the earth.
However, the primordial substance within an awakened individual will gradually grow stronger over time, which manifests outwardly as the awakened superpowers becoming increasingly powerful.
If possible, for Blue Star, the longer those awakened beings live, the stronger their abilities become after awakening, and the more essence Blue Star will reclaim after an awakened being dies.
This is precisely why, even though Earth is about to enter a major ice age, based on past experience, once the ice age truly begins, all life on Earth will become extinct.
The reason we are now "kindly" giving awakened individuals a reminder is so that they can live longer, and that more primordial substances can be recovered from their bodies after they die.
After all, for a planet that has existed for an unknown amount of time, even those awakened beings did not freeze to death due to the extremely low temperatures outside, but rather reached the end of their lifespan and died peacefully.
It won't have much of an impact on Earth; it's just a matter of waiting a little longer. After all, for Earth, which has no lifespan limit, the length of time has almost no effect on it.
It's perfectly normal that Dong Qi doesn't know the reason for the sudden drop in outside temperature.
However, for the Great Xia Dynasty, especially for those with the ability to foresee the future, the Great Xia court had already asked them to use their abilities to make predictions as soon as they discovered the abnormal temperature.
Although each Awakened One received different information, the conclusion drawn from piecing together the information from several Awakened Ones was completely unacceptable to all the officials of the Great Xia Dynasty who knew the result.
Temperatures plummeted to as low as -200 to nearly 300 degrees Celsius, and the entire planet entered a major ice age. Most importantly, it was only known that we had entered the early stages of the ice age, but we did not know when it would end.
Fortunately, the Awakened Ones know that the further away from the ocean and the deeper inland, the higher the outdoor temperature.
Although the lowest temperatures would still make it impossible for humans to survive outside, this is still the only piece of good news amidst the bad news.
Just as the mutated marine creatures appeared, the Great Xia had already begun to establish a survival base in the Northwest.
At this time, although the survivor base is not yet fully completed, sufficient materials have already been transported there.
And most importantly, although the outside temperature dropped sharply at this time, it did not drop to a level where humans could not move freely outside.
The temperature in Kyoto is only around zero degrees Celsius at most. Although it is affected by the cold wind blowing from the sea, the temperature in Kyoto is still dropping.
However, it will be some time before humans can no longer fully engage in outdoor activities. During this time, Da Xia will have enough time to relocate and resettle its domestic residents.
Because this involves everyone's lives, some behaviors that were originally used to cover up the situation, which were no longer staged due to the electromagnetic pulse, are now returning to their original purpose.
Why are those ethnic minorities so good at singing and dancing?
Why do most ethnic minorities live in mountainous areas?
Why do some ethnic minorities live in malarial and malaria-ridden areas?
Why do some ethnic minorities rarely farm?
Why did the Han Chinese occupy the Central Plains and most of the fertile land?
Setting aside the history of the Great Xia Dynasty, which was obscured and altered by scholars, we can examine the historical records of other neighboring countries.
This shows how fierce the Han people were back then. When other ethnic groups prevented the Han people from growing crops in peace, the Han people would bury the other ethnic groups in the soil and use them as fertilizer.
After it was confirmed that the snow had melted, the hastily constructed survivor base could not fully accommodate all the residents of Great Xia.
Clans that had gradually disappeared from public view have quietly reappeared. Just think, even in peacetime, when faced with some thorny issues, there are still life-or-death situations.
When faced with such a critical period concerning the continuation of the bloodline, even if they rarely contact each other, clan members will call upon each other if something happens.
Rather than trusting other complete strangers, most people are more likely to band together because they share the same surname.
It should be understood that throughout history, clans and the imperial court have not been enemies, but rather complementary.
Whether in ancient dynasties where clan power was at its peak or in modern times where it has faded from public view, clan power has never actually disappeared.
From a small village where people with the same surname share a single genealogy, to a large government unit controlled by certain clans.
This situation has been common since ancient times, just like that famous saying often seen on the internet.
You've studied hard for years, how can you possibly compare to three generations of my family's business?
It should be noted that in each clan, the person who can establish a separate lineage and become the origin of a branch is always a contemporary prodigy.
Why did our predecessors strive so hard? Besides elevating their own status, they also wanted to have a better ability to protect future generations.
The reason why ancient clans had such strong cohesion was that when clan members gathered together, most of them, even if they could not gain more benefits from it, would not be bullied by others under the protection of the clan.
In modern society, thanks to the sound legal system and the strong oversight of the government, most ordinary people can live a stable life even without the protection of their clan.
Therefore, the cohesion of most ordinary clans is constantly decreasing under these circumstances.
However, among those clans that had already established deep roots in the court and occupied high positions, the clan's cohesion actually increased as power struggles within the court continued. In order to protect themselves and advance their careers, clan members sought to strengthen their clan's cohesion.
Therefore, after learning that Earth was about to enter a major ice age, the practice of hiding behind the scenes, granting rights to ethnic minorities or foreign ethnic groups, and using them as targets to draw fire was directly abandoned by them.
Those ethnic minorities who were once "highly praised" and granted special status are now being trampled into the abyss again during this critical period of life and death crisis.
Just like the "three illegal immigrants" in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, they were initially brought here because of the sudden large-scale construction, while the other side was more compliant with tradition.
When constructing important buildings, it is common practice to drive live piles to ensure smooth construction.
Given the large number of construction sites at the time, the disappearance of many locals would have caused chaos.
Furthermore, clan ties are very strong there, and with frequent disappearances, the clans will definitely investigate.
Clan forces are not like the police; even if detailed evidence is not found, they can still find clues.
They will not confront or sue the government, but will instead take more direct retaliation.
Therefore, the initial purpose of bringing those undocumented immigrants and Kunlun slaves into the Guangdong and Guangxi regions was actually to establish a base for their capture.
The reason why the number of undocumented individuals gradually increased was initially due to friction between clans. By using these undocumented individuals, regardless of whether the tasks assigned to them were completed, there was not much loss to the clans.
The reason why the current situation has arisen is simply because those clans have gone too far.
After all, those illegal immigrants brought here aren't all fools. After realizing they were being used by those clans, and knowing that the living environment here is better than their hometowns, they also realized that they were not fools.
In addition, with the convenience of communication nowadays, they started calling on friends and relatives to gather manpower from their hometown tribes.
As the number of people illegally crossing the border increases, these illegal immigrants have broken free from the control of weak clan forces.
Logically speaking, when such a situation arises, powerful clans would step in to resolve the potential troubles for their smaller clans.
However, whether it is a large clan or a small clan, there will inevitably be some spoiled brats in the clan.
In ancient times, when communication was not well-developed, it was quite easy to cover up the misdeeds of those dissolute young men.
However, in this modern age of advanced communication, the behavior of those spoiled young men, once exposed, cannot be concealed at all.
In order to divert attention from the conflict, and because those who illegally work, reside, or hold illegal jobs often cause trouble, the status of these individuals is deliberately elevated, in order to transfer all the hatred from ordinary people onto them.
This practice is actually similar to that of the United States. Don't be fooled by the fact that these "three-no" personnel (those who are not registered as non-registered employees) have a high status on the surface. There are many such individuals in both the entertainment and sports industries.
Even government spokespeople have their presence.
However, upon closer observation, it becomes clear that in all official positions or departments that wield real power, the power still remains in the hands of those top-tier white-collar workers.
7