After passing through the narrow, winding Corridor beyond the iron gate, Bai Zhi and Mu Mu arrived atop a high platform a few minutes later.
As they walked forward, the Lights around them lit up one after another. Machinery that had been sealed away for ages began operating once more, as if welcoming their arrival.
A moment later, when all the surrounding Lights had come on, Bai Zhi discovered that the area was packed densely with Nutrient Pods, stretching beyond the limits of his sight.
The scene reminded Bai Zhi of that moment in The Matrix, where humans were raised in stacked rows like canned goods, treated as batteries.
It was not merely similar—it was exactly the same.
The high platform they stood on hung in midair, with no end visible either above or below. Vaguely, they could see humans sleeping inside those Nutrient Pods.
There were simply too many of them for Bai Zhi to make an accurate count. He could only give a conservative estimate: there were likely at least over a hundred thousand humans here.
For so many humans to have survived in a world on the verge of destruction and collapse was nothing short of a miracle.
The high platform was circular, completely unobstructed save for a white cube floating at its center. In the middle of that white cube was a slot for a card.
After observing the surroundings and thinking for a moment, Bai Zhi placed the card into the slot, then took Mu Mu's hand and stepped back two paces.
A moment later, as Light Spots of unknown origin gathered together, the projection of a humanoid appeared before them.
She was a very beautiful woman with neat, medium-short hair, dressed in the white lab coat of a Researcher.
—The moment Bai Zhi saw