6kv Chapter 56 Purified Water
Chapter 56 Purified Water
Chapter 56 Purified Water (Part 2)
"I can't live like this anymore! I can't take it anymore!"
A heart-wrenching wail shattered the morning tranquility of Sector B-12.
Lorraine, who was repairing a chainsaw sword, nearly smashed the wrench in her hand onto her foot when she heard the cry.
He looked up at the source of the sound.
Olivia was lying on the edge of the magic farm, crying like a 200-pound child.
In front of her, several newly sprouted cabbage seedlings drooped like frostbitten eggplants, their leaves turning yellow and the edges even curling and withering.
"What's wrong?"
Lorraine put down the wrench, casually wiped the oil stains off his work clothes, and walked over.
Anna stood helplessly to the side, holding a small iron bowl no bigger than the palm of her hand, half-filled with murky water.
Upon seeing Lorraine approach, the little maid nearly burst into tears: "Young Master—Miss Olivia says her precious seedling is dying of thirst."
"Dying of thirst?"
Lorraine raised an eyebrow and glanced at the enclosed environment surrounded by metal walls.
This is inside a mobile city, where the air is so dry it's as if all the moisture has been sucked out.
There is no natural rainfall and no groundwater seepage.
Even the humidity in the air is controlled at a low level by the weather control system to prevent precision instruments from rusting.
For machines, this is paradise.
But for plants, especially the magical plants that Olivia nurtured, this place was nothing short of hell.
"My lord!"
Olivia grabbed Lorraine's leg, ignoring the oil stains on it, and tearfully complained, "This place is so dry! It's like a desert!"
"I've used up all the water I brought! Back in the snowfield, Anna always melted snow to water us, so I just wanted her to get me some water, but—"
She pointed to a charred seedling beside her, overcome with grief, "Anna is the witch of fire! Here, she only evaporates the water! Waaah—my barley—my cabbage—my potatoes—they died before they even grew up—"
As a qualified capitalist—oh no, lord.
Lorraine knew very well that in this post-apocalyptic world, food was the hard currency.
Even if you command a large army, if you have no food in your stomach, you will only starve to death.
"Stop howling."
Lorraine pulled her leg out of Olivia's arms, patted her trouser leg in disgust. Who could remember how dashing Olivia was when they first met? After following him for so long, look what she's become.
No, it's not like I've become like this just because I follow myself?
Lorraine suddenly had a strange idea.
Could Olivia have been corrupted by herself?
Back to topic.
Lorraine pointed to the huge area of transparent pipes on the left side of the square.
"Don't I remember there being a water purification and recycling plant marked on the map of this B-12 area?"
That's the standard configuration for mobile cities.
Within this enclosed steel behemoth, the water resource recycling rate reached as high as 99% during the Golden Age.
Moreover, these factories often possess methods for extracting water resources from the earth's surface.
As long as that factory is operational, let alone planting a few cabbages, Olivia could easily grow a tropical rainforest nearby.
Upon hearing this, Olivia cried even harder.
"I tried it! It didn't work at all!"
She got up from the ground, pointed at the huge factory, and said with a look of despair, "I went there on my very first day after I moved in! When I opened the valve, all that came out was black, stinking mud! It stained my dress!"
"The machines inside are still running, but they're not producing any water! It's like—it's like—"
After racking her brains for a while, Olivia finally came up with what she thought was a fitting analogy: "Like an old man who's been constipated for a thousand years!"
Lorraine:
This metaphor is quite apt.
He sighed and looked up at the water purification plant that was still emitting a low rumble but producing nothing.
Most of the facilities in mobile cities use the magic pattern technology.
After thousands of years of erosion, even with automatic maintenance systems, the physical structure may still be usable, but those intricately engraved magic circuits have probably long since worn away.
This is like a computer where the hardware is still there, but the system has crashed.
"Alright, stop crying."
Lorraine turned and walked toward the water purification plant.
"I'll go take a look. If we can't even get water, this mobile city shouldn't be called the Tower of Babel anymore; it should be renamed the Mummy Manufacturing Plant."
"Can it really be fixed?"
Olivia sobbed, but her eyes revealed a longing for "water," a vibrant green that resembled that of a hungry wolf.
"If it's man-made, it can be repaired."
Lorraine waved her hand, signaling Anna to follow.
Stepping out of the camp walls brought by the camp relocation order, one enters the long, dark alloy corridor of Sector B-12.
The lights here are sensor-activated.
Wherever Lorraine went, the lights would turn on, like some kind of silent welcoming ceremony.
"Young master, we must be careful."
Anna gripped the hem of her skirt tightly, looking around warily.
Although the aggressive robots have been mostly cleared out in the past few days, the claustrophobic and vast space still makes her instinctively uneasy, having grown up in open areas.
Just then.
An embedded GG screen on the right side of the corridor suddenly flickered.
The video was originally playing a game called "Pineapple Cola" from the Golden Age, featuring a blonde woman in a bodysuit holding a bottle and smiling.
next second.
Sizzle—
The image is distorted.
The blonde woman disappeared.
Instead, the screen is filled with a stream of white binary code.
These codes seemed to have a life of their own, rapidly combining and arranging themselves, eventually converging into a pixelated face.
It was a little girl's face.
With big eyes and pursed lips, she exuded a mixture of timid curiosity and barely concealed joy.
Big brother!
The pixelated mouth on the screen opens and closes.
Although no sound was emitted, in Lorraine's mind, the "Witch's Codex" had already been translated simultaneously.
The voice was clear and childlike, carrying a pure joy that could only be heard in a child.
[Have you finally decided to come out and play with Ohm?]
Ohm is so bored.
[Sister Messiah is still sleeping, and those tin cans are so stupid, all they do is bump into the wall.]
Lorraine stopped and looked at the machine spirit on the screen, whose expressions kept changing.
Ever since that day he led everyone to move into Sector B-12, this machine spirit who calls himself "Ohm" has been like a clingy little sister.
As soon as he leaves the camp, she immediately appears on the nearest screen to chat with him.
We talked about the past.
Let's talk about the outside world.
They even talked about whether Lorraine ate savory or sweet breakfasts.
The feeling wasn't like facing a machine spirit that controlled the entire mobile city, but rather like facing a left-behind child who had been locked up at home for hundreds of years and had never seen a living person.
"I'm not here for fun."
Lorraine smiled at the screen, her voice gentle, "We need to go check out that water treatment plant over there. We're short of water at home, we can't grow vegetables, and my housekeeper is crying."
The pixelated face on the screen instantly turned into a huge exclamation mark.
【! 】
Immediately afterwards, the code stream scrolled wildly, eventually turning into an emoji of someone frantically shaking their head.
【No way! It's not fun there!】
That big jar has been broken for a long time!
Ohm's voice rang urgently in Lorraine's mind, tinged with a hint of disdain.
Its magical runes have all rusted away, and its core magic array has run out of energy.
[That broke three hundred years ago. Ohm tried to repair it back then, but he didn't have the skill to create magic runes, so he could only watch it rust away and eventually turn into a monster that could only spew black mud.]
A pixelated vomiting emoji appeared on the screen.
Besides, that place is creepy; some dirty things used to like hiding there. Big brother, don't go; it's a waste of your time.
[How about Ohm grants his older brother access to Area C? There's a holographic game arcade there that still works!]
Looking at the machine spirit on the screen that was trying so hard to please him and divert his attention, Lorraine felt a slight stirring in her heart.
lonely.
After spending the last few days with Ohm, the strongest emotion he sensed from him was loneliness.
That kind of loneliness that spans centuries, watching everything around you slowly decay, yet feeling powerless to do anything about it.
She wanted him to play with her simply because—he was the only person in thousands of years who could "understand" what she was saying.
"I'll go to the arcade next time."
Lorraine reached out and, through the screen, lightly touched the pixelated head.
It felt like patting her head.
"Now, I need to go and heal that 'monster that spits black mud' first."
"There are no unrepairable machines in this world, only repairmen who don't want to use their brains."
The pixelated face on the screen froze.
There was a momentary pause in the code flow.
Several seconds later, an emoji with a question mark slowly appeared on the screen.
But—those are magic runes!
The magic runes have worn away, just like the glorious days this city once had, never to return.
These things are too complex to be repaired.
"Who says it can't be found?"
Lorraine smiled mysteriously and pointed to her head.
"For me, repairing the damage to the magic runes is actually the easiest thing."
After saying that, he strode towards the end of the corridor.
On the screen behind him, Ohm's pixelated face remained stuck on that question mark.
Just as Lorraine's figure was about to disappear around the corner, the image on the screen suddenly flashed, and the pixelated figure, as if chasing after her, quickly jumped to the next screen.
[The older brother is lying.]
That's a high-level magic rune; apart from the Grand Magic Rune Masters of the Golden Age, no one knows how to redraw it.
Lorraine didn't turn around; she just waved with her back to the screen.
"Just you wait and see."
"Today I'll show you what a hand-crafted miracle really is."
The gates of the water purification plant are still open.
Or rather, it simply cannot be turned off.
The heavy hydraulic door had long been stuck halfway due to a power system malfunction, like a crooked mouth spewing out the rotten smell that had accumulated over the years.
Before you even step inside, a strange smell of mold mixed with engine oil hits you.
"Cough cough————"
Anna covered her nose, clutching her wand tightly in her other hand, her face pale. "Young master, this place—it feels very uncomfortable."
"It tastes like stagnant water."
Lorraine remained calm and stepped directly over a pile of abandoned pipes by the door.
The factory has a very large interior space.
Countless transparent pipes of varying thicknesses climbed the walls and ceiling like blood vessels, eventually converging on the giant spherical reactor in the center, which was as tall as a three-story building.
That's the core water purifier.
Now, however, the clear water that should have flowed through those pipes has all turned into dried-up black stains.
Some of the pipes were even broken, with a thick layer of dark green moss growing underneath.
Indeed, as Olivia said, it was a huge junkyard.
See? Ohm didn't lie to you.
A dusty screen on the control panel next to them suddenly lit up.
Ohm's pixelated face reappeared, this time with a helpless expression as he spread his hands.
【(A)】
The core magic array is located at the bottom of the reactor. It is the heart of the entire water circulation system.
But look, that indicator light is red.
This means the core runes are over 80% damaged. Unless you can remove the entire base and replace it with a new one, it's beyond saving.
Lorraine ignored Ohm's cold water.
He walked to the bottom of the huge reactor.
There is an inspection port there.
Lorraine crouched down and reached out to wipe his hand on the metal nameplate on the edge of the access panel.
As the dust settled, a line of small, blurry text was revealed:
"P-15 Magic Energy Water Purification Hub - Manufactured in 3044 (New Gregorian Calendar)"—that's quite old.
Lorraine muttered something, then pulled a small knife from his waist and skillfully pried open the cover of the access panel.
"Anna, light up."
"yes!"
Anna immediately raised her small hand, and a soft flame lit up at her fingertips, dispelling the darkness inside the inspection port.
By the light of the fire, Lorraine was able to see the situation inside.
It was a round mithril base plate, densely covered with intricate magic runes.
These magical runes were once flowing and shimmering, guiding immense magical power to transform polluted water into a pure source of life.
But now, they are dull and lifeless.
Large areas of the engravings were filled with rust, and some key nodes of the magic crystal had long since shattered, leaving only dark pits.
Miserable.
If an alchemist from this world saw this, they would definitely shake their head and sigh, and then suggest melting it down and selling it for scrap metal.
unless----
You are a high-level magic rune master.
Moreover, it is a rune master who possesses the complete set of blueprints for this equipment.
"It's almost completely rotten."
Lorraine nodded, indicating that she agreed with Ohm's assessment.
Ohm on the screen gave a "I knew it" look.
"Right? Let's go play some games instead; the whack-a-mole machine over there is still working."
"However, there's still a chance to save it."
Lorraine interrupted her.
He recalled the "Witch's Codex" in his mind.
"Scan target."
"Comparison with database model: Golden Age - Universal Fluid Purification Array".
"Analyze the magic nodes."
Buzz—
Within Lorraine's field of vision, the abandoned substrate before her had suddenly changed.
Countless blue lines lit up on his retina, overlapping on the rusty object.
The broken lines were filled in, and the missing nodes were marked.
A flawless "blueprint" was directly superimposed on reality.
"Anna, lend me some of your magic."
Lorraine stretched out a hand and pressed it against the edge of the substrate.
"Huh? But—I'm a fire elementalist—" Anna hesitated.
"The properties are just right. High temperature is exactly what I need."
Lorraine's eyes were focused, and with her other hand she took out a steel knife that she had prepared beforehand to begin the operation.
"I'm going to burn through all these rusted tunnels!"
"You too, give it your all!"
'
"yes!
'