341: Chapter 53 Clockwork City_1 341: Chapter 53 Clockwork City_1 “Beep, beep, beep.
Unknown entity detected, resemblance to goblins 47%, resemblance to Golden Race 69%, resemblance to primate-type magical beast 43%.
Identified as unknown entity.”
“Beep, Greetings unknown entity, you are about to enter the Clockwork City control zone.
Please present your identification tag within thirty seconds.
Failure to do so will result in the activation of the Legion Class War Colossus.”
“Beep, Countdown starts now.”
“That’s all it said,” Pannis translated.
“Those were the words in goblin language just now.
Lucky, I understand it.
Seems like we’ve arrived at a place called Clockwork City.
But I’ve never heard about this city before.
Maybe it’s a small city.”
“More than Clockwork City, there’s sothing else I’m intrigued about.” Overwheld by the novelty around her, Lina had soon forgotten her exhaustion and asked curiously, “What is this Golden Race?
A specific race of Goblins Era?”
“No, the Golden Race refers to the Deities of the First Epoch,” Muir explained.
“During the Goblin Era of Second Epoch, so deities survived.
Those ageless beings coexisted with the goblins.
But, they weren’t elite among the deities, and they all perished during the Divine Punishnt at the end of the Second Epoch, and the Golden Race ceased to exist.”
“Hmm, so it ans we, the humanoid creatures of this generation, resemble the Golden Race of the First Epoch.” Lina summarized as she nodded.
“We share 69% similarity.”
“We may look similar, but we’re essentially very different,” Pannis sighed.
“Even the weakest among the deities would be incredibly powerful compared to the humanoids of today.”
“I an, are you guys worrying about the wrong thing?” An irritable Ben finally couldn’t hold back and spoke up loudly, “Shouldn’t we be worried about the Legion Class War Colossus instead of the Golden Race?
Even though I have no idea what it is, it sounds dangerous.
Are you guys sure you should be this disinterested?”
“Ben, you should read more,” Teresa scornfully said, “Legion Class War Colossus is a warfare machine used by goblins.
It seems potent, and it is potent.
It’s said that it exhibits Legendary Rank combat power in so regards.
How will you qualify as a skilled church guard if you don’t know about these things?
So, as a punishnt for this, you will have to read an hour of general knowledge books every day after we return.”
“Yes…,” Ben bowed his head gloomily, “But what’s the relation between a qualified church guard and a goblin puppet?
Besides, I still don’t know what that is.”
“That’s an eight-ter-tall, over ten-ton weight giant tal puppet,” explained Pannis.
“Its hardness is extrely high, with defense almost matching an upper-rank Aggression Shield.
Its attack power is also considerable, and it cos equipped with dium-power goblin bombs.
It’s a formidable puppet.
But don’t worry; its pace is quite slow, so can’t keep up with us or catch us if we want to evade it.”
“Hey, isn’t that a problem?” exclaid Lina, “We have to camp sowhere, but we can’t stop to rest if this thing keeps chasing us.
Ah, I’m so tired, find a solution so I can rest, you useless servant, hurry up.”
“Relax, once we enter the city limits, we can escape from it,” reassured Pannis, disregarding the puppet problem, “Goblins won’t be foolish enough to allow their tal puppets to cause havoc in their own city, so there must be restrictions on the puppet.
It won’t be allowed to chase us into the city.”
“Ehm… Although I don’t want to disturb you, I need to ask a question.” Marcia, who had stayed silent up to now except for executing commands and waiting for als, unexpectedly spoke up, “Four thirty-second intervals have already passed, where’s the puppet?”
“Hmm, good point, where is the puppet?” Pannis was taken aback and shared a blank look with the others, “Why hasn’t it appeared?”
“Seems like it hasn’t.” After concentrating on the sounds in the sewer for a while, Muir shook his head and said, “I can’t hear it nearby, maybe it’s broken.”
“That’s unlikely; don’t forget about those cleaner puppets,” Pannis added.
“However, the fact that the colossal puppet hasn’t appeared might be due to it getting stuck sowhere and not being able to reach us.
But that’s convenient for us.
Now, we can easily enter the Clockwork City.”
Along a visibly upward-sloping pipe, the group quickly ventured out of the reach of the sewer system, and for the first ti, set their eyes on this ancient Goblin City.
Prior to its ruination, Clockwork City housed a permanent population of six thousand people and spanned seventeen square kiloters.
By both goblin and human standards, this city was considered relatively small.
Yet after a lapse of tens of thousands of years, the group, as they stepped foot on the city territory for the first ti, were astounded by what they saw — or rather, didn’t see.
Glowing stones were plentiful in the sewer, so there had been no need for any additional light sources.
However, as they climbed up a ten-ter-deep vertical shaft and tossed aside a well cover made of goblin tal, they were t with complete darkness.
It was not until Pannis hurriedly activated his high-powered crystal energy lamp that everyone got a glimpse of a portion of the city’s exterior.
Throughout the course of tens of thousands of years, due to geological changes, this ancient city was mostly covered by hundreds of ters thick layers of sedint.
A region, spanning approximately one square kiloter, remained surprisingly undisturbed for so unknown reason, revealing a cavity as high as five ters and providing an opportunity for people to view the city once more.
The city was not large, but it was peppered with goblin’s unique high-rise buildings.
With these structures exceeding hundreds of ters high, their tops were consud by the sedint layer, leaving only the bottom two floors available for activity.
“Phew, is this the city of the goblins?” Lina stood within this city, which theoretically should have been predominantly silver in hue, and scrutinized her surroundings under the light of the crystal energy lamp.
The area where the group stood should have been a bustling street in the city ten thousand years ago.
The street, seven to eight ters wide, was littered with a few crystal energy motorbikes.
A few scattered crystal energy street lights lined both sides of the street, while a slightly farther distance away stood so shops with indecipherable nas.
However, what left the deepest impression on them was not any of these, but the bodies strewn about in various states.
The small bodies evidently belonged to the goblins, whose corpses, while not nurous, were arranged rather randomly.
These bodies seed to have maintained their poses from when they were alive; they were either lying in the middle of the street as if they had been driving; on the sidewalks as if they had been walking; at their workplaces as if they had been working; or in their beds as if they had been resting.
Their city appeared as though it had been suddenly plunged into slumber, giving no ti for its residents to prepare.
Everyone entered death at virtually the sa ti.
No wounds.
No struggle.
No prior preparation.
Death had simply arrived in an instant.
“Why is it like this?” Teresa, upon witnessing this, asked while covering her mouth,” Even when faced with an irresistible natural disaster, people still have a few or even tens of seconds to struggle for their lives.
But these people didn’t even have that few seconds.
It was as though there was no process, as they just passed from being alive straight into the state of death.”
“Rember the reasons behind the extinction of the goblins?” Pannis slowly moved the crystal energy lamp in his hand, pushing the illuminated area further,” The goblins got wiped out due to Divine Punishnt.”
“What exactly is Divine Punishnt?” Lina asked, unable to understand, “I always thought it was a worldwide disaster.
But it doesn’t seem to be the case now.”
“I don’t know what Divine Punishnt is either, considering that I’ve never experienced any of these.” Pannis shook his head, “But judging by what we’re seeing, Divine Punishnt seems to not be a natural disaster, but an instant, soul-targeting attack.
This kind of attack leads to imperceptible and sudden death.
The victims remain clueless even at the mont of their death, just like these goblins.”
“That’s frightening.” Lina, seemingly triggered by thoughts of more terrifying prospects, murmured,” Under the Divine Punishnt, the goblin population dropped from its highest point – two point one billion – to less than one hundred thousand in an instant.
These survivors were scattered around the world such that there often only remained one or two survivors in each city.
Can you imagine what it feels like for these lucky survivors?”
Everyone subconsciously shuddered, unable to imagine the feeling of waking up one day to find that only they were alive in the whole city.
All the others, whether they were relatives, friends, or even enemies, had fallen inexplicably into death.
Even maintaining sanity without going crazy would have been a testant to their resilience.
“Hey, enough with the sentintality,” Pannis, who had been crouching beside several bodies, gesturing towards his findings, said,” Co look, I found sothing.”
Perhaps due to the dryness of the area ten thousand years ago, these corpses hadn’t decomposed, but rather had naturally dehydrated and mummified.
The clothes they had worn were still intact, but as people approached, the clothes dusted off into powder due to the breeze.
Although the clothes they wore during their life had disappeared, so of their belongings made of special materials remained: various tal items like keys, jewelry, and small tools etc.
But what Pannis was pointing at did not seem to be any of these things.
Instead, he was showing everyone a thin card made of crystal.
“What is this?” Lina curiously asked, “It seems like it’s sothing quite important.”
“I don’t know either, but every corpse here had one of these on them.” Pannis rubbed his chin, speaking slowly, “It’s clearly very important.
Rember the identification marker ntioned in that notification sound while we were underground?
I suspect this is it.”(To be continued.
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