After confirming it's safe, Luo Ping went to call Shu and Chai Xin. He was extremely excited, thinking Shu and Chai Xin must also be very interested in what's inside, so he went to call them.

He also called Tang Er and Liu Hua, but those two refused to come in, so he had to give up.

Inside the dust-sealed Institute 923, there's just too much to explore. Everything here is perfectly preserved, without any damage.

Back then, for some unknown reason, people left this place, and before leaving, they took their time to seal it up, so everything inside remains intact.

——Lu Xi'an initially thought there might still be people inside, trapped until they died, leaving only skeletons. But now it seems that clearly, there were none.

He and the others followed the mechanical dog deeper down the corridor. Everything they saw was clean and orderly, as if the place was just prepared for use but had never been activated.

"I wonder if there's a switch in here to control the door outside? It would be great if there was..."

As Luo Ping walked beside Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei, he couldn't help but say. But after speaking, he shook his head and sighed, "But it's probably impossible, that door has been buried in the ground for so long, it's probably been broken for ages, even if there's a switch it wouldn't work."

Lu Xi'an said, "After we check out the energy research and Gou's place, I'll ask Gou later."

He couldn't wait to unravel Gou's secrets, everything else had to take a back seat.

"Alright, I'll bother you with that then. Thanks a lot!"

Luo Ping grinned, although he didn't hold much hope, he still thanked him.

Indeed, even without hope, one should still try in this world; if you never try just because you're hopeless, you might as well lie down here and wait to die, instead of going out time and again looking for people.

"Clatter, clatter, clatter..."

Gou's metallic hooves struck the ground, each step echoing. Lu Xi'an thought while Gou walked in such a place, it would be better if wheels replaced hooves; outside, however, wheels aren't as practical as hooves.

But in any case, toy motorcycle wheels are always inappropriate, their quality too poor, too easy to wear out.

The mechanical dog led the group to the end of the corridor, where it extended into a circular region. Around the edge were metal railings, and leaning over them, looking down into the circle revealed a circular open space.

The circular open space made Lu Xi'an feel like he had reached the top of an exterior area, although it wasn't as deep as outside, from this view, the surrounding walls were only about three stories high.

On top of that circular open space were two unexpected items—

One was a car, a sizeable vehicle, entirely black, sharply angular, with a low chassis, a full circle larger than Yao Wei's SUV.

The car was divided front to back, with the front as the cab and the rear as a massive compartment, tightly connected to each other, looking very much like a...

RV?!

Or rather... an armored RV?!

The other item was very small, similarly entirely black, with four rotors on top and extended gun barrels.

——This should be a drone, the type with a firepower.

The group exchanged glances, surprised to find such things here.

If these two items could be used, this place would practically be an enormous surprise for them!

"Did you also come out from here?"

Lu Xi'an asked the mechanical dog.

Gou's eyes lit up, indicating yes.

In that case, could a dog emerging from here be so amazing? Would this car and combat drone also be filled with unimaginable wonders like Gou?

Lu Xi'an felt his heartbeat quicken and urgently asked the mechanical dog, "Where can we go down?"

"Clatter, clatter."

The mechanical dog walked to the side.

Outside this corridor circling the circular field, was an enormous research laboratory built around the circular field.

Probably because the cost of curved glass windows was too expensive, or perhaps too difficult to make and hard to ensure strength, only a segment of wall had one glass window.

At the left and right edges of the wall in the corridor, next to the glass windows, were tightly closed metal doors.

Gou led Lu Xi'an and the others to the metal door on the left, and stopped.

The door was tightly shut, looking very solid and not easy to open. Lu Xi'an and the others did not rashly use force to damage the door, but patiently waited to see what Gou would do.

"Beep—"

"Highest clearance, verified."

After Gou's eyes scanned it, the metal door emitted a metallic, unemotional sound and then opened with a "clunk."

After opening, the lights inside followed suit and turned on.

Lu Xi'an and the others followed Gou inside, seeing a row of equipment against the glass window, resembling one workstation after another, with a lengthy table in the middle, nothing placed on top.

Silver-white safekeeping cabinets were aligned against the inner wall, all tightly closed.

Gou used its eyes to scan the workstation close to the door, Yao Wei understood, lifted Gou, and placed it on the workstation.

The workstation did not have a display screen, only rows of buttons, and a built-in keyboard.

Gou seemed very familiar with the place, directly pressed the button on the far edge, and Lu Xi'an and the others then saw the glass window suddenly light up.

——At this moment, he understood that this glass window was also a display.

A semi-transparent display.

Lu Xi'an had never seen such a technological product before. It looked like a sufficiently sturdy glass window, and when the light turned on, the displayed image was so clear, yet at the same time, it allowed one's vision to pass through, viewing the outside scene.

The screen was blue, and after lighting up, a red dot appeared at its center, displaying no other content.

However, the sound system hidden somewhere in the room activated, prompting: "Permission not granted."

Then, the side of Gou suddenly opened, and a data cable extended out, inserting itself into the interface on the workbench's surface.

Lu Xi'an thought that Gou was going to use its own permissions to open the machine, but then the sound system spoke:

"Backup administrator permissions activated, starting input for new permissions. Please open your eyes and gaze at the red dot on the screen."

Lu Xi'an was slightly surprised but quickly reacted, widening his eyes to stare at the red dot on the glowing glass.

Everyone else had the same reaction, instinctively widening their eyes.

However, they were still a bit bewildered, occasionally glancing at each other, then back at the red dot.

After a while, the sound system in the room said again: "Input complete, calibrating, please continue to gaze at the red dot."

Lu Xi'an had no choice but to continue staring at the red dot.

"Calibration successful, verifying."

"First verification passed, proceeding to second verification."

"Second verification passed, welcome, new user."

"Analyzing calibration time, determining base activation plan, please wait..."

The mechanical dog retracted the data cable, and the glowing "glass" screen fell into a long silence, leaving everyone momentarily at a loss, able only to wait.

After a long time, the screen finally began to change, and the room's sound system spoke again:

"Calibration time analyzed, the current year is 2197. Due to the system being shut down for a lengthy period, there may be calibration deviations. If any deviations exist, please issue a voice command to amend."

2197...

Indeed, it's been several decades...

Lu Xi'an couldn't be sure if the time was calibrated correctly, whether there were any deviations, but he could only assume it to be correct for now.

"No adjustments needed."

He spoke.

Then the screen seemed to receive a voice recognition signal, and the room's sound system said again:

"Time confirmed, seventy-seven years since the system was shut down, opened with backup administrator permissions."

"Based on the aforementioned conditions, adopting alternative display plan three."

"Welcome, Neo-Humans."

Everyone was slightly stunned, wondering if the system had judged them to be Neo-Humans or if people from before had predicted that those opening the system now would be Neo-Humans.

Thoughts raced in Lu Xi'an's mind, speculating wildly.

He felt that the people at Institute 923 back then had anticipated the changes in the world today, deducing that the survivors decades later would all be Neo-Humans.

Back then, various conditions were preset to set different plans to showcase everything in this research facility to future people.

Upon determining that they were Neo-Humans, the room's sound system offered such a welcome.

— This term Neo-Humans probably didn't just refer to types like Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, as understood within Mengxin City; currently, all living survivors are Neo-Humans.

This system is welcoming all the survivors of today's new world.

— Anyone who can enter here.

The "glass" screen began to display various past scenes of Institute 923, including corridors, research rooms, and the living quarters outside, with plants growing in the courtyard.

In the video footage, the front door of the outside passage had not yet sunk into the ground, standing tall, barring entry like a formidable fortress.

Atop the courtyard, there seemed to be some kind of optical camouflage, and for a moment, the scene flickered; from a high vantage point outside, only forests and mountains covered in snow were visible, obscuring the sights inside.

— Initially, looking from above didn't reveal what was below. If someone or an animal accidentally stepped here and fell, it would indeed be unfortunate.

Lu Xi'an speculated that Qin Mountain might have been in a closed state back then, strictly prohibiting random entry, to allow the optical camouflage above to be fully effective.

But now, all of this cannot be confirmed, and Lu Xi'an was disinclined to dwell on such matters.

He only wanted to learn about the things concerning energy and Gou, and what remains of this secret base, what can still be done.

Along with the others, he watched the dazzling array of scenes on the screen while listening to the introductions from the sound system, having their horizons broadened:

"Institute 923 was an emergency-established research facility after the failure of the new energy project. Its primary task was to determine whether the remnants of the new energy project still had conditions and value for utilization.

"Researchers from across the country were secretly gathered here and exerted their best efforts to produce a series of results.

"Due to the war, research was forced to halt. It has now been confirmed that you are Neo-Humans matching our national genetic models. The research results are stored here and will be unveiled to you.

"Before that, according to the alternative display plan three, your knowledge reception capacity needs to be sampled and assessed. Please be prepared."

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