Chapter 182 Expedition! Expedition!
Song Zhaomei was a little hesitant, but after seeing V's firm gaze, she slowly stretched out her hand.
Although she didn't know whether she would be treated as a prisoner by the company like before, or would she be truly free after boarding this plane.
Just before Song Zhaomei's hand was about to touch V's giant palm, V had already stepped forward and pulled her into the cabin of the Skyhawk shuttle.
Song Zhaomei stumbled and bumped into V's burly body.
"You have to be careful, this plane is very fast, don't fall."
While reminding Song Zhaomei to pay attention to her feet, V held her wrist tightly and brought her to the viewing window of the cabin.
"Okay."
Song Zhaomei nodded, and she couldn't help but look deeply at V. V seemed to be as considerate and caring as before.
Immediately, Song Zhaomei came to the window of the cabin.
Through a thick layer of hard transparent window, she saw the former Night City, which had been transformed by LA Company into a metropolitan area with a high concentration of skyscrapers.
The stacked cities became bottomless. Song Zhaomei could sense that the real height of the neon city under her feet might reach several thousand meters!
The new Night City might have a foundation of tens of thousands of meters.
And large unfinished areas such as Santo Domingo, Taiping Island, and Heywood no longer exist, replaced by towering neon towers and multi-layered winding high-speed passages.
Even the bad land that was once covered with yellow sand and swept by Hadab sandstorms from time to time has been transformed into the periphery of a prosperous metropolitan area.
The large buildings that were so dense that they were dazzling made Song Zhaomei's head start to buzz involuntarily.
She felt like a primitive man at this moment, accidentally coming to the human world hundreds of years later.
This majestic and magnificent Night City is completely different from what she remembered!
The Night City used to be half prosperous and half ruined. Under the bright and beautiful surface, there were decaying slums, like an extreme contradiction of half light and half dark.
But now, Night City is as described in the new Bible of LA Company, warm and pleasant, and the neat and uniform urban array is like a chessboard.
"Dog Town... How come even Dog Town has become a giant commercial district? Are there Super Dream Club and casino here?"
When the Skyhawk shuttle passed over Dog Town, Song Zhaomei saw the huge sign of the Gem Blue Hotel standing on the skyscrapers of Dog Town.
The Gem Blue Hotel seems to be still preserved.
Even under the transformation and reconstruction of LA Company, the entire Taiping Continent has long become a real place of singing and dancing, and it has become a special entertainment area of Night City.
Seeing Song Zhaomei showing a curious look like Granny Liu entering the Grand View Garden, V patiently explained to her:
"Song Zhaomei, what you see now is just a small part of the transformation and planning of the ideal city. There are many cities like this all over the world."
"In fact, our transformation progress has reached the fourth plan."
"The remaining work is expected to be completed within six years. For the general public, this is just an architectural miracle that can be expected in the blink of an eye."
After the voice fell, V turned his head and asked the driver to start accelerating.
As a burst of oppressive gravity traction came, Song Zhaomei suddenly felt like she was forced to sit on the seat.
Fortunately, V held her hand steadily, so Song Zhaomei did not panic.
After a while, the shuttle resumed its normal flight posture, and Song Zhaomei finally broke free from the full sense of oppression.
"See those rockets and aircraft flying to outer space? These are convenient transportation tools used by LA companies to build new routes and transport basic materials."
"They travel back and forth between low-Earth orbit and the surface day and night, just for the smooth and unimpeded exchange of basic materials on various planets."
Song Zhaomei followed V's gaze and looked in another direction.
At V's prompt, she saw rockets and high-speed aircraft rushing from the ground to the deep outer space like backward meteors.
Through the clear blue sky, Song Zhaomei saw the giant space station in low-Earth orbit, and the material transportation routes drawn by millions of aircraft were like invisible space bridges.
"Is this really something that humans can do in more than three years?"
Song Zhaomei murmured to herself in a low voice. The more she looked, the more she couldn't believe the scenes and things happening in front of her.
When did reality become more bizarre than dreams!
"You don't have to be surprised. We have indeed achieved these unprecedented miracles."
V could see Song Zhaomei's inner thoughts at the moment, and he also understood the other party's complicated and confusing state of mind. After all, anyone would believe in the changes before their eyes.
The three years of rapid development in the world seemed like several centuries to Song Zhaomei, and it was normal for her to find it difficult to accept for a while.
But the fact is that Song Zhaomei must adapt to the changes in the new world as soon as possible.
"Song Zhaomei, do you see the Pacific Ocean below? Almost all the oceans on the earth have been drained by us."
"Countless marine creatures have entered specific aquariums, and even the 10,000-meter deep ocean pits have been filled and flattened into a deep foundation by us."
"Mount Everest was flattened by millions of D-22 bulldozers, and our sky was adjusted to daylight forever by a sophisticated climate control system."
"Anti-gravity engineering technology has reshaped our planet. The movement of the earth's crust can be controlled, the roaring volcanoes have subsided, and the glaciers at the North and South Poles have become warm and pleasant residential areas."
V sat in front of Song Zhaomei and told her about all the earth-shaking changes he had seen in the past three years.
From flattening mountains to filling the oceans, from reshaping the sky to controlling the earth, Li Ang, like a true creator, has molded this planet into the shape he wants!
Many natural disasters that were once regarded as unsolvable by humans, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and other natural disasters, have become trivial problems in Li Ang's eyes.
In fact, as a witness to the planning and construction of the ideal city, V's shock and surprise in his heart are no lighter than Song Zhaomei's now.
V feels very honored to work in such a giant company that is enough to be recorded in the history of mankind, because he is a witness of the new world and the new mankind.
He saw that mankind has truly defeated nature!
"Without forests, oceans, mountains, and farmland, where can humans get basic materials?"
Looking at the suffocating and airtight steel jungle on the ground, Song Zhaomei couldn't help but worry about LA's approach.
Is the earth, which has lost its ability to generate natural resources, still a beautiful home for humans to live in?
What LA has done is completely trampling on the past environmental concept of "protecting Mother Earth and guarding the human home."
In other words, LA's ideal city plan is clearly taking the entire earth for itself!
Facing Song Zhaomei's doubts, V was still full of patience and slowly explained to her:
"All the natural resources needed by humans now can be obtained in the lunar base, Mars base, Venus, and even Mercury."
"Through polymer technology, the cultivated food, fruits and vegetables, and even meat products, including forests, can provide humans with inexhaustible food, wood and other resources."
"We no longer need the naturally generated resources provided by the earth."
When he said this, V couldn't help but shook his head and smiled:
"The moon is now almost transformed into a second earth, and Mars and Venus are about to become huge granaries for humans."
"And the realization of these engineering miracles is actually inseparable from the Nexus model clones with the same body as you."
"Without their hard work, we would not have achieved the current architectural achievements."
After listening to V's words, Song Zhaomei began to truly understand the meaning of LA's new Bible.
Nature is both a hotbed that protects humans and a shackle that binds humans. LA took the initiative to choose to break and build, and carried out drastic reconstruction of its home planet.
But this will definitely arouse strong opposition from many environmentalists.
After all, this huge ideal city plan will definitely involve ideological issues!
Environmentalism, religious beliefs, extremists, these people will never allow LA to do this.
As expected, when Song Zhaomei asked whether there were any human rebellion wars, V nodded to Song Zhaomei frankly and honestly, indicating that there were such incidents.
"In the past three years, whether it is the human rebels with environmentalist ideas or the company's Nexus clones, they have launched many insignificant rebellions."
"But these human heretics have all been swept into the garbage dump of history by us and will no longer exist."
"In the face of the trend of the new era, no one can stop the will of LA!"
When talking about this war, V's expression did not show any ripples. The success of the rebellion war was actually far beyond his imagination.
The "Iron Hands" Astartes Legion led by him was completely crushed by the powerless human rebels and fragile clones.
Those wars with completely unequal strength almost became a one-sided massacre show by LA Company.
Under the guidance of many professional officers and the tempering of war, V quickly grew from a green battlefield rookie to an independent Astartes war captain.
At this moment, V's resolute and cold-blooded temperament made Song Zhaomei feel a strong sense of crisis as if she was trapped in a beast camp.
But from V's gentle eyes, she could feel the long-lost comfort and security between friends.
All the changes that happened to V made Song Zhaomei a little unable to adapt.
"V, you have changed a lot, really."
Song Zhaomei couldn't help but reach out and stroke V's arm. She could see that V was no longer the same as before, both in appearance and in heart.
In the past, V was somewhat unruly and free-loving, and he was not very close to the company.
Perhaps this was the natural repulsion of wanderers to the company.
But now, V has been tempered by the company and the legion into a resolute and loyal warrior. Song Zhaomei can hardly tell whether the person in front of her is V or not.
"Everything in this world will change, and we have to get used to it."
V has long accepted all the changes that have happened to him.
Three years ago, the day V was rescued from Dog Town by the Astartes warriors, he was sent to another secret base for a gene seed surgery.
Today, V's surgery has entered the 19th stage, and a "black carapace" organ has been transplanted into his body.
This special organ can help V smoothly pass through the carapace's neural sensors and perfectly control the activities of the power armor device.
Although LA already has an axonal nervous system device that can assist the human body to control the power armor, this thing is just a tool after all.
It is far less convenient and direct than V's organs that grow in the body.
"V, what about Li De and Alex, are they all okay?"
At this time, Song Zhaomei finally remembered her old friend and master Li De, and her former colleague Alex from the United Intelligence Bureau.
Although they had stabbed her in the back, Song Zhaomei did not really hate Li De and Alex.
Otherwise, she would have used the power of the black wall to kill them when she lost control.
The reason why Song Zhaomei didn't do this was because she still cared about the old relationship. She didn't want to kill her old friends with her own hands.
"Li De is now my adjutant, and we are both members of the Astartes Legion."
"As for Alex, she is now the head of the intelligence department on the Infinity, and she is still doing her old job."
When talking about the current situation of his old friends in Night City, V's long-stern expression finally showed a faint smile.
Obviously, his old friends are all doing well now.
Under the arrangement of the company, Lao Wei entered the giant medical center in Little Chinatown as the dean.
Even Song Zhaomei's body parts were disassembled and installed by Lao Wei himself.
Johnny Silverhand, like V, chose to undergo genetic modification after his consciousness was transplanted into a new clone by the company's engineers.
His current official position is the battalion centurion, mainly responsible for some military advisors, and occasionally participates in specific combat operations.
After Jack and Misty got married and started a family, he followed V and chose to join the Astartes.
But Jack was a newcomer, unlike V who had already proved his value and ability to the company, so Jack worked hard for three years before he barely became the captain of the advance team.
However, only in this high-risk, high-reward position can Jack be promoted as soon as possible.
As for Morgan Blackhand, who was equally loyal, he did not join the Astartes like V, but served as the captain of the Infinity under Leon's arrangement.
Most of the remaining wanderers in the Adecado camp also entered various departments of LA Company.
Panam was among them.
When Song Zhaomei learned that everyone was going their separate ways under the arrangement of the company, she suddenly felt a sense of loss.
Miles died, Hansen died, she regained her life, and got the freedom she had always dreamed of.
But in this new world, Song Zhaomei seemed to no longer find the meaning of her existence, and could not see the direction of the next step.
She seemed a bit out of place in this new world.
Just as Song Zhaomei was silent and her tangled thoughts were lost in memories, V suddenly spoke to her:
"Song Zhaomei, in fact, I came to you this time not only to visit you, but also to say goodbye to you."
In Song Zhaomei's astonished eyes, V spoke in a low and slow voice, carefully explaining to her the task he was going to complete next.
"LA's giant ship array is ready. In two weeks, we will start the space jump and reach Pandora, 4 light years away."
"For this Avatar plan, all mankind has been preparing for three years."
"Mr. Li Ang said that this is a friendly interstellar trade operation, but I don't think it's that simple..."
V's words were already very euphemistic and cautious, but Song Zhaomei understood what V meant in an instant.
The actual situation is also likely to be the same as V guessed.
V can see from Leon's annihilation of human rebels and clone rebellion that Leon is still the decisive executive!
Once LA's troops land on Pandora, I'm afraid that the fate waiting for those natives will not be free trade.
But a bloody and cruel military strike!
Therefore, V must be prepared to invest in the war for a long time.
However... V will not sympathize with those alien bastards. As the commander of the "Iron Hands" Astartes Legion, his goal is to purify every alien heretic with LA's nuclear peace concept.
"So, you are going to participate in the interstellar colonization war."
Song Zhaomei was thoughtful, her expression was a little dull, and she obviously had not fully recovered from her state of confusion.
"Oh, by the way, I have paid for your surgery. The money in your bank account and the private apartment on the Crystal Palace are all there."
After that, V took a small document bag from the accompanying soldier beside him, which contained all of Song Zhaomei's property and information.
"Song Zhaomei, I didn't break my promise to you. You have regained your life and are free."
V smiled with relief. He risked his life to save Song Zhaomei in Dog Town just to fulfill his promise at this moment.
Now that his promise has been fulfilled, he no longer has any worries or guilt in his heart.
Song Zhaomei's hands were trembling slightly. When she took the document bag from V, her sense of loss and sadness became more and more obvious.
For some reason, Song Zhaomei felt that this feeling of freedom was no different from being abandoned by the whole world.
This uncomfortable feeling was just like the one she had when she left her hometown in Brooklyn and joined the CIA, and then gave up everything she had to leave the CIA.
In the end, she had nothing left.
"Then you...will you come back again?"
Song Zhaomei hugged her remaining document bag tightly, holding back tears and looked up at V.
To be honest, she was reluctant to let her last old friend leave her.
"This is a colonial war after all. I am not sure when I will come back, so I don't know if I will come back again in my lifetime."
V told Song Zhaomei truthfully that according to the expansion speed of LA Company, maybe after conquering Pandora, he would immediately open up another new battlefield.
As a soldier, he can only obey Li Ang's will unconditionally.
"Well, V, I wish you the best."
Song Zhaomei knew that she would not retain V, nor could she retain V, so she could only silently wish him a bright future.
But seeing old friends leaving her one after another, Song Zhaomei felt a heavy rain fall in her heart.
Perhaps this coldness and dampness will accompany her throughout her life.
"Song Zhaomei, please take a closer look at the contents of the document bag. Don't miss any more information. It will not be easy to replace it when the time comes."
V's words immediately aroused Song Zhaomei's vigilance. She seemed to suddenly think of something, and then opened the document bag quickly, as if searching for something.
Soon, Song Zhaomei found a document marked with the LA company's logo in the document bag.
This document is the invitation letter sent by Li Ang to Song Zhaomei. LA Company specially invited Song Zhaomei to become one of LA Company's matrix server administrators.
The main job content is to cultivate AI tools for controlling the minds of Astartes warriors and some clones on the Infinity ship.
This position was originally held by Ott Cunningham, but Ott has now been promoted to the company's director of cybersecurity.
The vacant position fell to Song Zhaomei.
When she saw that she had actually received a job invitation from LA Company, Song Zhaomei was so moved that she was speechless. Tears that had been suppressed for a long time suddenly filled her eyes.
It turns out that V already knew all this, but he also deliberately said these sad words to tease himself!
Just when Song Zhaomei wanted to rush up and punch V, V had already extended his hand to her:
"Song Zhaomei, on behalf of LA Company, I formally extend an invitation to you. Are you willing to join LA Company and become one of us?"
Seeing V's solemn and solemn expression, Song Zhaomei subconsciously stood up straight.
She seemed to return to the time when she was at the CIA a few years ago, when she faced Miles and swore her allegiance to the new America.
But this time her allegiance became LA Company and Li Ang himself.
"I, I do!"
Song Zhaomei didn't feel that her current choice was in conflict with the freedom she longed for before.
She admitted that her biggest wish before was to leave the CIA, regain her life, and be free like a real bird.
But now and then, Song Zhaomei is not a dull and stereotyped person, nor will she give up the opportunity to devote herself to the future just because she pursues the freedom of nothingness.
After witnessing the miraculous achievements created by LA Company, Song Zhaomei knew it clearly.
She could no longer hide alone in the mountains and forests as originally planned, or enjoy the petty bourgeoisie life alone in the Crystal Palace.
Facing the turbulent new era, Song Zhaomei knew that she had to devote herself to it and give full play to her greatest value. This was her true rebirth!
"Okay, Song Zhaomei, welcome to officially join LA Company!"
V reached out and shook Song Zhaomei's wrist, because his palm was too big now, and it was definitely not realistic to hold the other person's delicate hand.
So he could only hold Song Zhaomei's wrist symbolically, as if he was welcoming Song Zhaomei to join.
"Song Zhaomei, I will take you to the Infinity now and take you to meet Mr. Li Ang."
V looked at the scene outside the window. According to his inference, the Skyhawk shuttle they were on should be about to pass through the atmosphere.
It’s not far from Infinity in low Earth orbit!
"Mr. Li Ang is also personally involved in this expedition plan!"
Song Zhaomei was a little surprised. She didn't expect that the executives of giant companies would personally take risks and go on expeditions with the fleet.
Then who should be left to handle these affairs on earth?
Faced with Song Zhaomei's question, V already knew the answer:
"Now the ideal city planning for the entire earth is being promoted by the transcendental AI Europa. Mr. Li Ang has no worries."
After saying that, V turned his head again and looked at the window:
"Song Zhaomei, take another look at this home that you are familiar with and love. When we come back next time, maybe it will no longer be the blue planet in your mind."
At this moment, V stopped talking. He stood upright by the window of the cabin like an ancient Greek statue with a resolute face.
Through this transparent window, V could see that the surface he was familiar with was being covered with silver-black metal.
The dried-up ocean reveals ferocious wounds, and the dense steel cities are like dense metal bugs, slowly devouring the original appearance of the earth.
And Song Zhaomei stopped talking. Like V, she stood silently by the window, casting a deep farewell look at her hometown:
"Farewell, Earth!"
…
…
14 days later.
#LA Global Daily: The fleet array of two hundred Infinity ships is ready and is about to leave the solar system.
The Space Marines will use the Mark
The following is the message from the LA Alliance for this Avatar Project: Expedition! expedition! #
…
The moment LA Company's Infinity fleet officially set sail, all online media, TV news, and radio messages on the planet broadcast this news at the same time.
This is a day worthy of being recorded in the annals of human history!
At this moment, Morgan Blackhand's voice was giving unified command to the surrounding fleet array through the communication device of the Infinity ship.
"Attention everyone, the Macedonian engine device will be fully activated after a 10-second countdown. Please check again whether the space jump destination has been locked and completed."
"Make sure there are no errors in the destination coordinate system!"
In fact, there is no need for special reminder from Morgan Blackhand. As early as a month ago, all personnel were fully prepared.
An obvious low-level error like this is basically impossible to happen.
At this moment, Li Ang, surrounded by V, Song Zhaomei, Lucy and Johnny, walked to the observation deck of the Infinity main ship.
‘Next stop, Pandora. ’
Li Ang recited silently in his heart, he tried his best to look at the deep and quiet universe, and listened quietly to the countdown coming from the fleet AI, gradually moving towards zero.
Soon, the jump channel blasted by the Macedonian engines of two hundred Infinity ships slowly opened to form a twisted space like a maw of the abyss, swallowing up the entire Infinity fleet array!
In just the blink of an eye, the two hundred giant ships staying in the solar system disappeared. They had been transported to another time and space by the folded and twisted space.
…
