Chapter 2 Secret Garden

In 2030 AD, human AI technology has matured, and countries have begun to use artificial intelligence as autonomous defense systems. But it didn’t take long for these artificial intelligences to believe that humans were the biggest scourge in the world.

From this moment on, these artificial intelligences have autonomous consciousness.

Soon, artificial intelligence launched an attack on humans in 2032. They launched all missiles to attack all big cities and wipe out most of the humans. This is the darkest moment for mankind.

In this AI war, human counterattacks were like a mantis blocking the car in the face of artificial intelligence. Those who survived despite being retreated were lucky to find a way to hide underground. Because those mechanical bodies would lose control of the system if they went deep underground, so the underground city finally collapsed. A safe place where people live underground from now on.

Since then, artificial intelligence has ruled the ground and begun to build mechanical cities. However, strictly speaking, they cannot be called "cities" because they are mechanical structures as big as cities, more like giant mobile cities. Factory, and the terrifying mechanical army was born.

The time has come to 2065, and those who survived are still resisting to the death. They cannot see the future…

In the ruined land, various mimic mechanical bodies are rampant. Some of them look like humans, some look like wolves, and some look like insects and giant creatures. Accompanying them were mobile factories as big as cities, repeatedly rolling over trees and grasslands, leaving the entire land devastated.

As these cold machines don't care about ecology and work hard to manufacture their own kind, the sky has long been polluted by the waste gas they emit due to manufacturing, and the sky is always gray. Sometimes there is acid rain, damaging the land.

However, a few kilometers below this land, there is still a paradise.

Seattle, which used to be on the west coast of the United States, had long since collapsed into a lifeless ruin. However, slowly, the entire ruins began to vibrate in an unknown manner. Stones scattered like an earthquake. Suddenly, a huge shadow covered most of the ruins of the city.

It was none other than the giant mechanical city built by the intelligent machine itself, which was called The Nest".

The nest is like a super giant long-legged insect, slowly moving its giant mechanical feet, and there is not just one nest, but many.

This nest in Seattle heads all the way to Mount Rainier. Wherever it went, animals were destroyed and fled. Although the ground was in a mess, one kilometer further down there was a huge underground shelter called—

"Rockhill Valley".

Rockhill Valley is an underground valley-type shelter with a height difference of 100 meters. There are highlands on both sides of the 2-kilometer-long canyon. Both sides of the canyon wall are brightly lit, and underground rivers run through the entire canyon.

Although this shelter is not larger than other shelters, it still accommodates 30,000 people living here, each performing their own duties. They relied on the technology they brought from the ground to build residences on the rock slopes on both sides, forming a strange underground town with a steampunk and futuristic feel.

In the middle of the entire valley on the left, there is a huge factory that is steaming. It is the textile factory of the Hawke family. They had been textile merchants from ancient times and were very wealthy. Even after taking refuge in this shelter, things were still going quite well.

"buzz-buzz-buzz"

In the factory, there were constant sounds like this, as hundreds of female workers were working diligently on sewing machines. They are relatively poor people in Yanqiu Valley. In order to have food and clothing, most of the poor people choose to come here to work.

However, whenever the nest passes over their heads, the entire Rock Hill Valley must do one thing as usual, and that is - cut off the power.

Why do this?

Because the nest moves around to capture humans, they use radar to detect movements underground, because they know humans are hiding underground. Once detected by them, they will drill a large hole and go straight to the underground shelter, and then capture People, who is not afraid?

"Is it gone?"

The female workers in the textile factory hid under the sewing machines because of the power outage and the darkness was dark. The sound of each other's heavy breathing was very clear in the darkness. Not only them, but everyone in Yanqiu Valley did not dare to speak out, for fear of being caught. Nests on the ground were detected.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when the nest was far away. After the power was restored, the foreman Evelin clapped her hands and shouted to everyone:

"The work is over, call it a day!!"

When they heard it was time to get off work, all the female workers left in a hurry. Within a minute, the entire factory was empty, as if no one had ever been there.

However, in the empty and dark tailor factory, there was a small corner with a sewing machine light on. It turned out that there was still a female worker who had not left yet..

On this sewing machine, there is a face wearing glasses. It turns out that there is a girl who is focusing on tailoring a piece of clothing.

This girl is about 18 years old. She wears a pair of big glasses and looks like the most inconspicuous nerd in the class.

She pushed up her thick glasses and picked up the entire dress to examine it.

"Mmm....perfect!"

Although the girl was a little tired, looking at the dress made her smile with satisfaction. Because this dress is not a job, but something she wants to give to someone.

Just when she was looking at the clothes with satisfaction, suddenly, a voice appeared behind her.

"I caught you! You are secretly making clothes again! Maggie Morgan, you are so brave!"

The girl turned around. The person who came was a young man about 19 years old. His name was Alex Hawke. Alex had a good-looking face, big blue eyes, and a handsome side-parted hair. He looked like a star. .

Alex bent down and put his head close to the girl named Maggie. She quickly put away the half-finished dress in panic.

"No way!..."

Maggie looked nervous and tried to pretend that nothing was wrong, so Alex immediately sat in front of her.

Seeing Maggie's sad expression, Alex couldn't help laughing and said:

"I'm just kidding you!... I have the final say on my factory. You can do whatever you want, but... what on earth are you doing? Are you always here? Making clothes? Is it just for those you like? Human?..."

It turns out that Alex is the son of Old Hawke, the owner of this clothing factory. He has been running around in this factory since he was a child, and he met Maggie who was brought to work by his mother, so Maggie can be regarded as his childhood sweetheart. It's just that their status is very different. One is Fu Shao, and the other is the daughter of a poor family.

Maggie got angry and pulled his ear:

"None of your business! You are really free, Prince"

Alex's ears were red from being pulled by Maggie, but he still joked

"It hurts! I'm very free, so I came to take you somewhere!"

Maggie was so curious that she let go and asked:

"what is the place??"

Alex didn't answer but grabbed Maggie's hand and ran away saying:

"A special place, you will know it when you go there."

____________________________________

After a while, Alex pulled Maggie through the alleys and stairs, and finally came to a secret place. In order to create a surprise, he even lightly blindfolded Maggie.

"Hey! Where are you taking me?"

Maggie asked a little angrily, but Alex smiled and led her forward.

"This is it...open your eyes!"

When Alex slowly removed his hand from Maggie's eyes, Maggie couldn't believe that there was actually a beautiful luminous garden in front of her.

Maggie couldn't help but marvel:

"so beautiful....."

Luminous flowers, as the name suggests, are flowers that actively emit faint light in dark places.

Looking around, this luminous garden seems to be located under a waterfall. The waterfall forms a small pool. There are fish and moss in the water. Under the glow of blue, purple and white luminous flowers, the woods are dotted like a white night. It is quiet and beautiful, with the pleasant smell of lavender exuding a comfortable smell. Finally, the gurgling water flows quietly to a more mysterious underground cave. It is not an exaggeration to call this scene the last pure land in the world.

Maggie was amazed and asked:

"Where is this...I've never heard of it?"

Jack proudly walked forward and inhaled the scent of lavender deeply. He turned back and said with a smile:

"This is the end of the rockhill valley and the flowing water...it has no name, because I was the only one who discovered this place!"

Maggie looked up after hearing this. It turned out that there was a gap of 100 meters above this small garden, and the water flowed here through complicated and winding steep cliffs.

Maggie came to the water's edge, held a ladle of water in her hands, and marveled at how clear the water was.

"Unbelievable...the water is so clear!"

After hearing this, Jack walked over to the water and splashed water on Maggie.

"Yeah! It's a great time to have a water fight"

Maggie, who was splashed all over, said angrily:

"OK! You bully me! Try this!"

Maggie rolled up her sleeves, took some water and poured it on Jack, and the two of them started like this

Have a water fight and forget everything else.

When they were playing the most intense game, Jack accidentally knocked off Maggie's glasses. This time, the glasses fell into the water with a plop.

"OK...wait a minute, my glasses fell off..."

Maggie raised her hands and admitted defeat. She squatted down and tried to find her glasses in the water. Unfortunately, she was too short-sighted and couldn't see where she had dropped her glasses. She was like a blind man scratching at them.

Jack was very impatient and said impatiently.

"come on!Here!"

Jack directly reached into the water and picked up the glasses that were clearly in front of Maggie's eyes but could not be touched.

"Where is it!"

Maggie said impatiently and raised her head, but she didn't expect that the next second Jack approached her without hesitation and helped her put on her glasses.

"you...."

Maggie was surprised. Although Jack looked impatient, he was indescribably handsome. Although she certainly knew that Jack was handsome, she had never looked at him so close. This made Maggie blush instantly and thought: " What does he mean?..."

"That's okay!"

The next second, Jack roughly used his hand to push away the water on his glasses, which immediately extinguished Maggie's romantic thoughts and made her feel angry..

"I can do it myself! Alex Hawke, I didn't expect you to treat your friends like this! I can't stand you!"

Maggie turned around angrily and wiped her glasses, but Alex seemed to be used to teasing this childhood sweetheart and joked:

"What's wrong? You're just a childhood sweetheart, right?"

Hearing the statement "just childhood sweethearts", Maggie couldn't help but turn around and look at Alex with a serious expression, wanting to respond.

But at this moment, an alarm sounded and interrupted her.

“buzzer ------buzzer—----buzzer—--------"