Sword of Dawn

Page 455

Gawain spread his hands dumbfounded: "...I just suddenly felt...the living habits of your Dragon Clan are really 'free'."

At the same time, there was another exclamation in his heart that he didn't say: Why does this setting with a [-]-square-meter bed in the center of the bedroom sound so familiar...

Melita didn't know what Gao Wen was thinking, she was just aroused by this topic, and after a moment of silence, she continued: "Of course, there is a third situation."

Gao Wen was stunned for a moment, but didn't realize it for a while: "The third situation?"

They passed through the inner residence and came to the balcony facing the outside of the mountain. The wide floor-to-ceiling viewing windows have been adjusted to the transparent mode. From this height and angle, they can clearly see the large urban buildings below the mountain, and The bright lights of the giant factory complex in the distance.

Melita stood on the edge of the balcony, looking in the direction of the city: "Some dragons only have a residence where they can rest in human form, and they live in human form most of the time."

Gawain frowned immediately, but before he had time to ask questions, Veronica, who walked nearby at some point, spoke for him: "Then what about their 'body'? As far as I know, although you You can live in human form, but you always need to release your body to eat or repair..."

"There is a special 'restaurant' for eating. If something goes wrong with the implant in the body, you can go to the maintenance center or a private repair shop. In addition, the dragon race does not need to maintain the dragon form for a particularly long time. It can also save space and save your physical strength if you put it away.”

The more Gao Wen listened, the more weird he felt, and finally couldn't help asking: "What kind of dragon would choose this way of life?"

"Poor dragons," Melita said, "or ordinary citizens who, as judged by Omega, don't have enough ability to play a role in the upper Tarrond, so they can only live in the plains and the lower city."

Gawain was finally stunned: "You also have poor people in Tarrond...poor dragons?"

"Why not?" Melita sighed, "We haven't been able to build an average and infinitely rich society, so there must be an upper class and a lower class. It's just that poverty is relative, and it depends on the overall situation of society. Look - see the most densely lit area of ​​the city? They live there, living a life of 'incomprehensible poverty' from a human point of view. The Senate will allocate houses to those citizens for free, and even provide For all the necessities of life, Omega will provide them with access to almost all recreational products, and their monthly synergists are also distributed for free, and there are even some hallucinogens that are not allowed to be sold in the upper area.

"They have everything, and Talrond society will provide them with everything, and as a condition or price for all this, the lower class citizens can only accept this support. They have no other choice. They engage in limited and essentially meaningless Work, not being able to meddle in the affairs of upper Tarrond, and many other...restrictions that are not easy to understand in human society."

Gao Wen frowned, but Amber's voice suddenly came from the side: "It sounds like...you don't need to work, you have a house to live in, you don't have to worry about food and clothing, and you have plenty of entertainment. Why do I feel pretty good?"

Melita turned her head and looked at the half-elf lady who was showing a tangled and thoughtful expression. A smile suddenly appeared on her face: "So, this is the 'poverty' that humans in the Loren continent cannot understand."

"I can understand," Gao Wen said suddenly, "it's no longer difficult to survive at your level of development. Tarrond society can easily support a huge 'non-productive population', and the consumed The cost is only a small part compared to the total expenditure of your society. On the contrary, if you want to let these members of the society enter the work position and get the same job and promotion opportunities as other tribesmen, it will incur a huge cost, because these 'low ability' Group members would disrupt your current efficient production structures.

"So, instead of bearing this kind of waste, it's better to support them directly—anyway, it's not expensive for you."

Amber listened to Gao Wen's interpretation with wide eyes, as if she couldn't understand the scene he was describing at all for a while, Veronica looked at Gao Wen thoughtfully, as if she had thought about this kind of thing before, Mei Rita, on the other hand, showed a look of astonishment and surprise. She looked Gao Wen up and down several times, and then frowned with an incredulous expression: "You...you thought of this so quickly?"

"It's just an occasional inspiration," Gao Wen smiled. "You know, I'm good at social deduction."

"...This is already beyond the scope of social deduction," Melita said in a strange tone. "If it has not developed to a certain extent, it should be against common sense in the eyes of human beings."

"Since I was resurrected, I haven't done a few things that conform to common sense," Gawain said casually, and did not let the topic continue, "Anyway... It seems that I have learned the unknown things of Tarrond again. One detail."

Melita fell silent for a while, and after a few seconds she breathed out: "How is your rest? Are you interested in going out with me now?"

"Should we 'visit' from now on?" Gao Wen raised his eyebrows, "Or just take a walk with you?"

"There is no difference between walking and visiting. There are too many things for you to see here," Melita said. "The current time corresponds to the city of Cecil, which should have just reached dusk. In fact, it is a good time to go out for a stroll."

"I think it's okay." Gawain said immediately, and looked at Amber and Veronica.

"I have no objection either!" Amber immediately jumped up, "I'm tired!"

Veronica also nodded gently, expressing that she had no objection.

Melita smiled: "Very well, then I will send a letter to Noretta, and we will go to see Tarrond after dusk."

Gao Wen nodded, and then asked curiously, "Where do you plan to take us to visit?"

"You have spent half a day in the upper area of ​​Tarrond today, and you must have seen enough facilities such as the council headquarters and the upper temple," Melita said unhurriedly, "Then I will take you to Let's take a look at the middle and lower levels of Tarrond. We'll go to the factory district and the large corporate complex, and then to the lower city of the plains—maybe we can go to the dark city if Noretta agrees. The speaker asked me to take you Visit every place in Tarrond, but we think it is impossible to visit the entire continent in a few days, so let's go to a few representative places... Let you see the complete and real dragon kingdom."

Afterwards, the three of Gao Wen and Melita came to a platform outside the dragon's nest. This wide platform built on the mountainside can be used for giant dragons to take off and land. doorway".

Not long after they waited on the edge of the platform, the sharp-eyed Huber suddenly saw a slender and elegant white dragon flying from the southwest sky, and landed smoothly in the center of the platform.

"Hi! Noretta!!" Melita happily greeted her friend after she stopped, "You came very quickly..."

Just when she was halfway through her words, the giant white dragon that had just stopped seemed to stagger suddenly, and its huge dragon claws moved two steps on the platform. The next second, Gao Wen and the others were stunned, even a little terrified. Stepping on Melita's head while watching...

Strictly speaking, the whole lady agent was trampled down.

If this is a human being, the legend below will definitely be dead or maimed.

But in the next second, Gao Wen heard Melita's scream coming from under the dragon's claws, she still sounded energetic: "Noretta! You did it on purpose this time!!"

"I didn't stand firm," the white dragon lowered its head and said in a rumbling voice, "You know, I'm not very suitable for your landing platform."

"It's all an excuse!" Melita scrambled out from under the dragon's feet while continuing to scream, the elegance and poise she had maintained in front of Gao Wen for a long time was finally gone, "I remember, Now you step on me one more time!"

The two friends seemed to be interacting very enthusiastically, but Gao Wen, Amber, and Veronica watched from a distance, stunned.

It took a long time before Gao Wen couldn't help scratching his hair.

This trip to Tarrond was really worthwhile-he saw the unknown side of the dragon again.

How many "unknown side" is this already?

Chapter 0956 Factory

The blue and white dragon flew over the city, and the protective barrier gave off a faint glow under the night, becoming one of the countless streamers in the neon-flickering metropolis of Tarrond. Gawain was standing in Merry Between the shoulder blades of the tower, looking at the huge steel structure not far away, used to support some kind of hanging garden, I couldn't help asking: "Where are we going?"

Melita's deep voice came from the front: "We start from the starting point of a giant dragon's life - the centralized hatching center."

"Hatching..." Gao Wen was startled for a moment, feeling that he heard a term he had never thought of, "Hatching center?"

"You can also call it an incubator factory, or a dragon egg hatchery, these are more popular names," Melita said casually, and at the same time began to lower the height, "see the facility in front of it that looks like a big pillar So? That's the hatchery of Argondor. Stand still, we're about to land."

Gao Wen subconsciously adjusted his standing posture, and at the same time, his gaze involuntarily fell to the front. He had already seen the huge "factory" - it was indeed like an extremely huge pillar as a whole, composed of countless auxiliary facilities like gas tanks. A cylindrical body is surrounded by a large number of pipes and support beams, and lights extend obliquely from its half-waist, outlining more than a dozen light strips in the air for guiding landing.

Gao Wen also saw that there were platforms for landing around the half-waist of the huge facility. Giant dragons were taking off and landing on many platforms. The occupied platforms were surrounded by red lights, while the vacant platforms were covered with eye-catching white The halo is marked, very conspicuous - Melita and Noretta, who is flying not far away, are approaching one of the vacant platforms.

But just when Melita was about to lower the altitude, a gust of wind suddenly came from another direction, and then a black giant dragon flew from the night sky like lightning, rushing towards the platform that Melita had just chosen In the direction, there was a roaring and anxious roar in the night sky: "I'm very sorry! The dragon egg I claimed broke its shell early!"

"Take X from you... I wish your cubs are safe!" Melita, who was robbed of her position, was about to curse, but changed her words abruptly after hearing the roar from the other party, and then she flapped her wings suddenly , while adjusting the direction and re-finding the position, he said to Gao Wen with a little embarrassment, "Sorry, I showed you a less civilized side... Please understand that it is not easy to obtain an incubation license these years, it is just a matter of anxiety." father."

Gao Wen: "..."

He seemed numb to all the surprises in Tarrond now, and he didn't even bother to complain.

And after this small twists and turns, Melita and Noretta finally found the unused landing platform, and the two giant dragons landed smoothly on two adjacent platforms, and before they landed, the lights around the platform were gone. turned red, and after they landed, the entire platform was covered by a translucent barrier—until Gawain, Amber, and Veronica jumped off the backs of Melita and Noretta respectively, and the two Miss Dragon also turned into a human form and left the platform area, and the platform's "temporary control" system switched back to the idle state—and all of this seemed to be running automatically.

This should be regarded as Tarrond's unique "traffic control system", which is a little eye-opening.

In front of a gate leading to the interior of the hatchery, Noretta in a white dress brought Amber and Veronica to Gawain and Melita, and then Amber raised her head subconsciously, with a surprised expression He looked up at the gate, which was much grander than the city gate: "Wow..."

Veronica looked at the long and deep corridor behind the gate, looking at the cold steel, flickering lights, and lifeless polymer windows and ducts. After a long time, she whispered to herself : "I never thought... that dragons are born in this kind of place... I thought that if it wasn't a lair in a hot spring, it should at least be beside their parents..."

"It was like that a long, long time ago," said Noretta in human form softly, "It really was a long, long time ago..."

"I've already obtained the permission to pass. Omega will open the gate on the route. You can just go in with me." Melita looked at Gao Wen and the others, "Just don't touch things you don't know after entering. Others There is no requirement - dragon eggs are strictly protected, and normal visiting behavior will not affect the hatching."

Gawain and the others nodded, and then led by Melita and Noretta, they stepped through the wide gate and entered the interior of the hatchery.

What Gawain saw afterwards completely matched the description of this facility—a factory, a factory for hatching dragon eggs.

They entered the factory from a connecting bridge suspended in mid-air. One end of the connecting bridge was fixed to the outer wall of the factory—it was a metal shell of unknown thickness, covered with flowing lights and busy machines running around—the other end A "standpipe" leading to the core of the factory.After entering the standpipe, Melita began to introduce the various facilities along the way to Gawain, and not long after going deeper, Gawain saw the dragon eggs that were in the state of hatching——

They are placed one by one in a large transparent "greenhouse". The greenhouse looks like a slightly distorted ellipsoidal pressure cabin. The dragon eggs are located on a soft tray in the cabin, with a diameter of about one meter and a light yellow color. The shell and black or brown spots, bright lights illuminate them from multiple directions, and mechanical probes of unknown purpose occasionally fall down to illuminate and inspect the surface of the dragon egg; and this entire "greenhouse" is placed in the On each of the circular metal platforms, the lights at the base of the platform are flickering, and they are connected to each other by pipes...

Hundreds or thousands of incubators are neatly arranged on both sides of some circular corridors. Many pipelines hang from high altitudes and connect to the "integrated ports" behind the incubators. They seem to be used to supply energy and also Probably just collecting data.Gawain raised his head, trying to find the place where those pipes converge or originate, but he only saw a blur of darkness—the hatching factory has a very high dome and a dim ceiling, and those pipes finally converged into the depths of the darkness, as if High in the sky there is a dark abyss that swallows all gazes.

He retracted his gaze and looked at the incubators that were neatly arranged like a production line. A dragon egg was lying quietly in an incubator cabin closest to him, receiving the meticulous care of the machine and growing strictly according to the schedule. with.

Amber also came to the incubator. She stared at the scene in front of her and calmed down very rarely.

"The newborn dragon clan was born in this way," Veronica said softly, "How to develop, to embark on this path..."

"There are many reasons why Tarrond became what it is today, and the emergence of the hatching factory is only a trivial part of it, and... the hatching factory is just an ancient technology for us." Melita shook Shaking his head, he said unhurriedly.

Noretta on the side took up the topic: "You should have heard a saying - the more powerful a creature is, the harder it is to reproduce. This is the 'balance' imposed by the laws of nature on all living beings, and dragons, as ordinary species The most powerful individual in the world, the difficulty of reproduction is even more difficult to the limit..."

"There is indeed such a saying," Gawain nodded, "and not only bards and playwrights say so, but experts and scholars also think so—although they have no way to study dragon samples, most creatures in nature follow the This law."

"That's right, this rule is correct, at least it is correct for our Dragon Clan. The reproductive ability of the Dragon Clan is very poor, the gestation period is long and the hatching is difficult-but this is only in natural circumstances," Melita's mouth curled up. Get up, "Therefore, we have hatchery factory technology and supporting huge industries a long time ago. We use biochemical technology to collect and catalyze 'green eggs', use biomass matrix factories to mass-produce blank dragon eggs, and use genetic engineering to Editing the genetic factors of parents, or the genetic factors of single parent and single mother, using factories to batch hatch... These technologies are very effective.

"Technology can change a lot of things.

"The dragon race is difficult to reproduce, and the number is rare? This is just another misunderstanding. In fact, many, many thousand years ago, we began to actively control the number of our own race, otherwise... how could a Tarrond hold the number?" A huge clan?"

Melita spoke unhurriedly, and Gao Wen was gradually dumbfounded.

These finally surpassed his imagination.

The image in his mind of the mysterious, ancient "giant dragon race" at the top of the world of magic and fantasy has broken down many times today, and now it finally fell apart, collapsing into a cold wreckage.

However, he suspects that these wreckages are far from reaching the limit of disintegration, and they will continue to collapse and collapse until it fully sees the real "Talrond", the "Cradle of Eternity" under the protection of the gods .

Beside him, Melita continued to explain:

"Deeper beneath our feet is the sorting center and preprocessing center of the hatchery factory - the dragon eggs transported from the 'mother factory' are sorted and eliminated there, and the defective eggs will be destroyed, and only the healthy ones will be destroyed. , Dragon eggs with potential will be sent to the life stasis workshop, where they will temporarily stop developing, until a giant dragon that has obtained the hatching license comes here and claims one of them...

"The adopter of a dragon egg may be a pair of parents, or it may be a single father or mother. He, she or they have to apply and prepare in advance. In addition to a lot of forms and a long review period, the adopter must also submit A copy of your own genetic factor, this genetic factor will be injected into a blank dragon egg, used to synthesize an embryo, and become his or her or their real 'child'. And the completed embryo will be sent here...to This hatchery.

"The machine will take care of these little ones who are still in the shell. The hatching sac is as safe and warm as the nest carefully cast by the parents of giant dragons in ancient times. Most of the affairs here are in charge of the machine, and the overall controller is Omega, So we only saw a few 'staff' all the way in - the main task of those 'staff' was only to monitor the status of the machine and receive the 'new parents' who claimed the dragon eggs.

"This is a boring job without much technical content, but it is also one of the few real jobs in Tarrond. If you can get a job in the hatchery, it is equivalent to entering the ' Upper Tarrond' gone."

Gao Wen listened quietly to Melita's explanations, but at this moment, an incubator near them suddenly buzzed and lights flickered.

Many detectors patrolling nearby immediately approached, and some manipulators moving along the slide rails came to the corresponding hatching device. Just as Gawain wanted to ask what was going on, Melita was already walking towards that side while taking the initiative. Explained: "Come here! It's hatched! We're just in time for a little guy to hatch!"

When Gao Wen heard this, he immediately quickened his pace. He, Amber, and Veronica quickly came to the incubator that was making noises and flashes. The dragon eggs in the animal "greenhouse" also began to shake slightly.

Under the unblinking gaze of Gao Wen and the others, they saw a crack on the surface of the dragon egg, and then the crack expanded rapidly, and a broken eggshell fell off——the young dragon was more serious than Gao Wen imagined. Strong, the whole process of breaking out of the shell did not take long at all. In just a few seconds, the seemingly solid eggshells were completely broken, and a dusty, unremarkable "little ’ The guy staggered out of it.

It was a young dragon, and it didn't even have scales on its body, so it couldn't tell its specific species, nor could it tell its gender.From Gawain's eyes, he even felt that this cub was a bit... ugly, like a huge and hairless turkey, but in the eyes of the Dragon Clan, this cub was probably quite cute—because the Mei beside him Rita and Noretta obviously had bright eyes, looking at the newly hatched dragon cub with a happy smile.

Amber was finally surprised again, she let out a "wow", and then she was about to ask something, but suddenly there was another movement in the "hatching sac": many small mechanical hands penetrated into the cabin from above and below, with extremely Sensitive and quick methods caught the newly hatched young dragon, and the latter lost its movement just as it was about to struggle, as if it was quickly anesthetized by something.

Afterwards, Gawain saw that the mechanical hands began to move rapidly. They seemed to open a small opening at the position where the spine was connected to the back of the young dragon's head, and then implanted some kind of shimmering thing that was only the size of a human fingertip, and then Several other robotic arms moved forward and injected something into the young dragon—that may be the "stimulator" that Melita often mentioned—after the injection was over, other devices entered the cabin and collected the young dragon. Skin fragments, blood samples, and a quick scan...

All of this is dizzying fast.

Before Gao Wen could react, all of this was over. He blinked, and then he heard a mechanically synthesized voice broadcast - he couldn't understand the content of the broadcast, but soon, he heard Mei Li Beside him, Ta spoke in a low voice.

She was translating the broadcast in the factory in a low voice:

"Dragon No. 1335, healthy. Average intellectual potential, expected to adapt to implants: X, S, EN and general implants. There are no positions available for assignment. Suggestion—ordinary citizen in the lower city."

Those manipulators and probes receded.

The baby dragon in the hatch pouch wakes up.

He/she opened his eyes curiously, and seemed to be observing the world in amazement. He/she worked hard with his/her wings and immature limbs, and staggered up, and then he/she finally found a few people standing outside. figure.

The little guy cried out happily.

Chapter 0957

For a moment, Gao Wen didn't know what expression to make.

He stood quietly in front of the hatching device, looked at the young dragon in the transparent capsule, looked at this ugly, even ugly cub in his eyes, and watched this little guy who had just visited this world begin to pat its immature Wings, and began to try to observe the surrounding environment--dragons are really powerful creatures, so that their cubs can walk with their own strength just after hatching, they can open their eyes to observe the world, and even...maybe already Possesses some kind of magical power.

Gao Wen saw the rune-like stream of light emerging from the edge of the young dragon's wings.

But these remarkable gifts didn't mean much in Tarrond.

"Is he watching us?" Amber asked curiously, "Hey, this little guy probably regards us as parents, I heard..."

"No," Noretta shook her head, "The hatching sac is made of special materials, and the view from the inside is filtered and processed to ensure that the young dragon will not use the moving machinery or other things as their own parents."

"It's time for us to leave." Melita took half a step back, "The parents of this little guy may already be on the landing platform and will come to claim him soon. This is a very important occasion, so we don't disturb."

A group of people left this "hatching corridor" quickly, and they walked into a softly lit passage, and there were still no people or dragons in this extremely wide passage, only occasionally sliding along the wall or on the ground. The fast-moving mechanical device broke the surrounding silence.Everything is just as Melita said: this is a highly automated factory, and almost everything here has been handed over to the machines under the control of Omega, and these machines... are the "power" of the dragons in Tarrond. starting point".

After walking quietly for a few minutes, Amber finally couldn't help breaking the silence: "Those machines just now scratched the skin on the back of the young dragon's neck, and it seems that something was stuffed inside... What is that?"

"A synergistic-implant compound device that can slowly affect and reshape the nervous system of the brain, the basis for the survival of newborn dragonflies in Talrond society, is the starting point of everything, and is the first formal implantation in their dragonborn body," Melita said slowly, "the composite device will guide and strengthen the nervous system of the young dragon little by little, until the latter can withstand the pressure brought by the implant and the 'parallax signal interaction', which probably It takes a decade or so, and by the time that thing grows into a 'socket' at the base of the pup's skull, the pups can receive their first official implant in life."

Amber struggled to repeat the literal translations that sounded unfamiliar and difficult to her: "The first...official implant?"

"The resonating core, an intracranial plug-in, will accompany the dragons for a lifetime," Melita said, "Only through it can we establish a direct connection with Omega. At the same time, it also has various functions such as identification, location positioning, and personal property preservation." It can be said that only after the resonance core is implanted, can a young dragon truly become a member of Tarrond and survive in this prosperous and terrifyingly large country."

"Do all dragons have to implant that thing?" Amber opened her eyes slightly, "Do you have it too?"

"Of course, I also have..." Melita laughed immediately, pointed to her head, but then put her hand down, "Ah, well, it's not in this head, but I do have a resonance core. "

"Omega controls everything on this continent, and the resonance core is the terminal extension of Omega. It is the foundation for the dragons to survive in Tarrond," Noretta continued, "Even far away from Tarlon. In the case of Lund, Omega can also determine the location and health status of the dragons through the resonance core, and maintain the connection between the far traveler and the mainland, and you can imagine how important this thing is to us."

"Is there—I mean, what if the resonant core of a dragon family is damaged or the connection with Omega is cut off for other reasons?" Gawain couldn't help asking curiously, "Has such a situation happened?" ?Will any dragon in Tarrond break away from Omega for one reason or another?"

"...We can't even imagine what that would be like." Melita thought for a while, shaking her head with a strange expression, "As far as I know, no dragon has ever been separated from Omega. Of course, the 'damage' you mentioned It is indeed possible to happen, but Omega will immediately warn and send an emergency rescue team to repair the connection of the "accidentally escaped" and let him return to Omega's network. In the case of Tarrond , this process will not exceed twelve hours.”

Speaking of this, Melita seemed to suddenly think of something, and added a few words with a smile: "However, I have read some old thriller novels and dramas, which mentioned that the unlucky protagonist damaged his own body due to an accident. The resonant core, and because of various reasons, Omega did not find him as an "accidental breakaway", so the dragon in question became the "transparent dragon" of Tarrond society, no longer had an identity, and his property was cleared , couldn’t leave, couldn’t even open the door of the house, walked on the street, and even the cleaning machine wouldn’t give way to him... Hiss, it’s really scary, thinking about it now, it’s all my psychological shadow..."

"You read too many weird old stories when you were young," Noretta couldn't help but muttered, "That's why you're so old-fashioned now."