Mobile Shelter

Chapter 145 Heading to Phoenix City

Chapter 146 Heading to Phoenix City

Although the other party didn't say it explicitly, Qin Hanxiao could guess from their anxious tone that something very serious must have happened, and that it was definitely related to the Awakened Ones.

Whether it's the bizarre and varied superpowers awakened by awakened individuals today, or the era before when there were no superpowers.

With just a little skill, eavesdropping on phone communications is a very simple thing.

Most importantly, the person on the other end of the phone was an important researcher at the research institute, whose confidentiality level was extremely high, so his phone communications were subject to irregular monitoring and censorship.

Although using code names to abbreviate some action plans may attract the attention of investigators, in general, as long as it does not lead to in-depth investigation by higher-ups, investigators will only make routine records and will not conduct detailed inquiries.

After all, neither the researcher in the research institute nor Qin Hanxiao, who frequently contacted him, had simple backgrounds. Generally, without solid evidence, the investigators would not want to cause trouble for themselves.

Qin Hanxiao and his organization already had many unwritten codes, so there was no need to know the other plans for the time being.

Plan C means retreating far away from the current city.

The C1 plan means that the timeframe is relatively flexible; you only need to leave your current city within ten days.

Plan C2, on the other hand, involves a covert withdrawal, followed by a return to the current city three months later.

[At this point, I hope readers will remember our domain name 12199.99]

The C3 plan that the other side just proposed is to have all members who have received the notification immediately drop everything they are doing and evacuate the current city.

That's why Qin Hanxiao stood there dumbfounded after hearing the other party's answer.

After a long while, Qin Hanxiao finally reacted and then asked Dong Qi in a very serious tone, "Can you tell me now why you came to see me so late?"

And they insisted that I contact the research institute. You probably heard what happened in the call just now. I can't tell you the specifics of the C3 project.

But I won't hide it from you now. Although the specific details of the different plans are not the same, Plan C series represents a retreat away from the current city.

Upon hearing Qin Hanxiao's words, Dong Qi, combining the thought that still lingered in his mind, instantly connected the dots.

Before Dong Qi could even speak, a gust of cold wind suddenly blew into the car from outside the window.

It should be noted that this was during the transition from spring to summer, so Dong Qi did not close the windows when he came to cool off.

Under normal circumstances, the wind just now was only a light breeze. Not to mention that it's the transition from spring to summer and the outdoor temperature is about to rise, even in autumn, this level of wind should not make Dong Qi feel cold.

But at this moment, Dong Qi suddenly felt cold, which gave him a bad feeling.

Since Dong Qi, whose body had already undergone multiple enhancements, could feel the cold, Qin Hanxiao, who was next to him and whose physical qualities had also been improved by frequently eating the flesh and blood of giant mutated marine creatures, felt it even more intensely.

"Damn it, why is it so cold? Summer is almost here, why is the temperature suddenly dropping? This awful weather, what is it?!"

Seeing Qin Hanxiao suddenly start stuttering, Dong Qi realized that the other party had reacted instantly.

Qin Hanxiao then stopped talking to Dong Qi and, without waiting for Dong Qi's reply, immediately opened the passenger door and said to Dong Qi, "The weather has suddenly become a bit strange. You should have heard the call just now. If there's nothing else, leave Kyoto as soon as possible."

After saying this, Qin Hanxiao, who had already gotten out of the car, didn't wait for Dong Qi's reply, directly closed the passenger door, and then quickly ran towards the warehouse.

Watching Qin Hanxiao's departing figure, although it seemed that nothing important was discussed in detail during their conversation, Dong Qi could tell from Qin Hanxiao's last few words that his purpose for this trip had been achieved.

Therefore, Dong Qi could not stay here any longer and drove away from the area.

After leaving the warehouse area, Dong Qi did not choose to return to Shao Kai's villa, but instead parked at a random spot.

He then took out the industrial park map he had obtained from Qin Hanxiao and immediately began searching for the locations of heavy industrial enterprises near the coast around Kyoto.

Although he kept reminding himself to stay away from the ocean, the thought was not very strong at the moment, so Dong Qi prepared to make a big bet before leaving.

After all, if Dong Qi would have been careful and sneaky in scavenging metal resources before, this time of year is just like the period when the gray snow had just descended. Taking advantage of the chaos and lack of supervision, it's time for Dong Qi to make a fortune in silence again.

To be honest, Kyoto is not actually located by the sea, but as the capital city, it has very convenient transportation to the coastal areas.

Although Tianjin is relatively close to Kyoto and is also a port city, its trade and maritime transport are quite developed, making it a key area under the control of the imperial court.

Therefore, Dong Qi immediately abandoned his plan to go to Tianjin and instead turned his attention to Phoenix City, which is also a coastal city.

Most importantly, through the distribution of enterprises on the industrial map, Dong Qi discovered that Phoenix City was actually a heavy industrial city, with a number of heavy industrial enterprises far exceeding his expectations.

More importantly, although the port in Phoenix is ​​not well-known, it is a pure cargo port, and it is a high-draft terminal specifically for berthing heavy cargo ships.

Therefore, Phoenix City is definitely the best choice for Dong Qi at this moment.

Having chosen his destination, Dong Qi didn't linger and immediately drove to Phoenix.

Just as Dong Qi set off for Phoenix City, whether it was the Kyoto Research Institute headquarters, the Great Xia Dynasty's central bureau, or the Great Xia military staff center...

Even late at night, these areas were still brightly lit.

It should be noted that the thought of leaving the ocean, which suddenly appeared in Dong Qi's mind, was not unique to him.

This thought appeared almost simultaneously in the minds of all the awakened ones.

Although ordinary people are unaware of this, the status of the awakened ones in the Great Xia Dynasty at this moment is destined to have a ripple effect on the whole situation.

It's important to understand that this is different from the scenes in American movies where awakened beings or mutants are universally hated.

Those awakened individuals with special abilities will be recruited into the organization by the imperial court with extremely high treatment, as long as they are willing to disclose and report the effects of their abilities. Even if the abilities are of little use, the court will treat them with great respect.

Therefore, unlike the situation depicted in American movies where they are universally hated, the government treats the awakened ones very mildly.

This led to the vast majority of awakened individuals joining the imperial court. Even those who did not actually join the official organization reported their status as awakened individuals and briefly described the uses of their awakened abilities.

And most importantly, because of the ease of use of superpowers, many superpowers that are very useless to individuals can actually help them find suitable jobs when they enter the Great Xia government system.

As a result, the awakened ones have gradually integrated into the government system of the Great Xia Dynasty, and most importantly, because of the convenience of their supernatural abilities, their status is constantly improving.

Therefore, after the thought of escaping the sea arose simultaneously in the minds of all the awakened beings, the high-ranking officials of the Great Xia Dynasty immediately understood the seriousness of this sudden event after hearing the report from their subordinates.

Furthermore, since Awakened Ones had already spread to various positions throughout the Great Xia Dynasty, those enterprises and institutions that had been involved with Awakened Ones were also experiencing considerable unrest because of this matter.

After all, the Awakened Ones have already been known and accepted by the vast majority of ordinary people. If all the Awakened Ones in Kyoto suddenly leave Kyoto at the same time, it will inevitably cause a very serious disturbance among ordinary people.

Therefore, when the relevant units learned of this matter, they did not care that it was already late at night, but still urgently summoned their members to hold a meeting overnight to discuss it.

Just as the higher-ups had gathered their staff and were preparing to hold a meeting to discuss the matter...

Perhaps the thought that arises in the mind of an awakened person will not have much impact on ordinary people.

But the sudden drop in outdoor temperature made most ordinary people wary.

After all, not long ago, the special period of Grey Snow had passed, and ordinary people had not truly forgotten those difficult days.

The sudden and significant drop in outdoor temperature is something even the most oblivious person would know is not normal.

And after learning of the anomalies among the Awakened, all ordinary people immediately became vigilant.

As Dong Qi drove toward Phoenix City, he suddenly realized that the closer he got to Phoenix City, the lower the outside temperature became.

As Dong Qi was about to reach Phoenix City, he never expected that he would hear the hum of an internal combustion engine when passing through the area where the railway was located.

Due to electromagnetic pulses, most of the more advanced locomotives have become disabled and cannot be used normally.

Don't think that there are awakened beings who can quickly repair damaged items. All items damaged by electromagnetic pulses can be quickly repaired and put back into use.

In fact, according to statistics from Kyoto, the number of awakened individuals who can repair any type of item at will using only their own awakened abilities is not large.

However, there are other awakened individuals whose awakened abilities, while not allowing them to repair all items at will, can, to a limited extent, repair single types of items.

According to statistics from the imperial court, there are quite a few awakened individuals who can only repair a single type of item.

If all these people stayed in Kyoto, the number of awakened individuals would be more than enough. However, if these people were scattered throughout the entire Great Xia...

Apart from major cities like Kyoto, other cities can only allocate one person at most, and in some remote and underdeveloped cities, it may take two or three cities to allocate one person.

However, even in a major city like Kyoto, the number of such special talents allocated would not exceed five.

This means that unless it is a key protected device or a device that is vital to people's livelihood, it will be ranked very low in the maintenance priority list.

Therefore, even though the Iron Boss is very powerful, because of the existence of the ancestor of internal combustion engines as a foundation, the younger generation of talented disciples (high-speed rail, bullet train) can only stay in the sect to recuperate for the time being. They cannot leave the sect until there are enough doctors to treat them.

Upon hearing the hum of the internal combustion engine, Dong Qi realized that it was too far away to get there in time. In order to understand the specific situation, Dong Qi released a drone.

As a drone launch platform suddenly appeared on the roof of the vehicle, two more drones were launched from it.

Speaking of the drone that Hu Jing shot down last time, it was fortunate that it had been completely integrated into the main vehicle and become an accessory to it.

So even though it suffered a devastating blow to an ordinary drone, after collecting its remains into his natal vehicle, Dong Qi only needed to spend some materials and then easily repair it using his own cultivation techniques.

The Treasure Forging Technique can actually be considered a low-end repair ability. However, although it has the ability to perfectly repair even the smallest remnants as long as there are enough materials, it is not the only one that can be repaired.

However, because it can only repair one's own natal element, this technique becomes somewhat useless to outsiders.

As the two drones approached, Dong Qi was able to see the situation on the other side of the railway through the screen on the car.

Although all the windows of the train carriage traveling on the railway were closed, making it impossible to directly observe the situation inside through the windows.

But don't forget those two drones, which were military-grade reconnaissance aircraft that Dong Qi brought back from the island nation.

Even if all the train windows are closed, the drone can still use thermal imaging to get a rough idea of ​​the number of people inside.

But when Dong Qi looked at the screen and saw that all thirty-odd carriages were completely filled with high-temperature zones, he was shocked.

Even before getting close, Dong Qi could guess that the situation in those carriages was similar to that of overcrowding during the Spring Festival travel rush.

As is widely known, if the carriages were built by the ancestor of internal combustion engines, even if air conditioning was installed in the passenger carriages, it would not be used in order to improve the carrying capacity of the internal combustion engine.

Therefore, the fact that the temperature inside the carriages was completely red and high at this time can be considered as a confirmation that the temperature inside the carriages was very high.

Even if the carriage is fully occupied and all seats are occupied, as long as it's not as crowded as during the Spring Festival travel rush, the drone's thermal imaging will not show this completely red reaction.

After all, compared to the relatively low precision of civilian thermal imaging, drones are equipped with high-precision military-grade equipment.

Similarly, when used in the field without external interference, observation using civilian equipment would likely only reveal a blurry appearance.

However, if observed using military equipment, even the smallest fingers can be clearly seen, just like in daylight.

The information received from inside the passenger carriages at this time was enough to clearly show, without needing further detailed observation, just how crowded those carriages must have been.

Aside from the special period of the Spring Festival travel rush, Dong Qi had never actually seen such a congested scene before.

After confirming the situation there, Dong Qi immediately took out another national transportation map that he had purchased from Qin Hanxiao.

After determining their location, they quickly checked the details of the route on the map.

After seeing that the starting station of that line was Phoenix, Dong Qi no longer needed to know about the subsequent stops.

To verify that his judgment was correct, Dong Qi searched for the location of nearby highways on the map again.

After confirming the exact location of the nearest highway, we directly controlled the drone to go there for reconnaissance.

Just as Dong Qi had predicted, there were already many vehicles on the highway, towing various unpowered passenger wagons in different ways, fleeing Phoenix City as if they were escaping a disaster.

Those unpowered wagons being towed by vehicles, whether they were originally external flatbeds used for freight or temporary flatbeds simply converted from manual carts.

The road was packed with elderly people, women, and children, while the opposite lane of the highway was temporarily converted into a pedestrian walkway for able-bodied people.

Many young adults who couldn't get on the bus had no choice but to leave Phoenix on foot along the highway.

Dong Qi also discovered the patrol teams organized by the government to maintain order through drones high in the sky.

Perhaps because vehicles were given to the elderly, women, and children, this patrol team, which constantly weaved through the crowd, did not travel by car, but instead relied on bicycles to patrol the highway.

Based on the situation on the railway just now, and the current scene on the highway...

Without much thought, Dong Qi should have realized that something must have happened in Phoenix City.

Given Dong Qi's usual personality, he should have turned around and left long ago.

But the thought that lingered in his mind, which was originally meant to keep Dong Qi away from the coastal area, instead strengthened Dong Qi's resolve.

At this point, Dong Qi's trip to Phoenix City was no longer simply to collect metal materials, but to truly understand the specific reason behind the warning that kept recurring in his mind.

After all, the vehicle has already undergone multiple upgrades. Although its protective capabilities have not yet reached their current limit, it should still be able to protect itself and escape from danger in the event of an unknown threat.

Therefore, Dong Qi deviated from his usual approach and insisted on going to Phoenix City to find out the specific reasons for the anomalies that had occurred there.

Since the highway had been occupied by the migrants, Dong Qi didn't want to go and cause trouble for himself. Using the map in his hand, Dong Qi deliberately chose a relatively remote road to continue his journey.

The reason for not choosing the main road is that the highways have already become like this, and the situation on the wide provincial or national roads should be similar.

To ensure a smooth journey, those sparsely populated, secluded paths should be relatively quiet at this time.