027. Long Time No See, Have You Eradicated Poverty? (Part 2)
"Get out of the car," Li Aozi said as he recognized the familiar buildings from his memory.
"Hey, won't this radiation level kill us?" Barnum gripped the steering wheel tightly, refusing to let go.
"Scared of what? This level of radiation is at most equivalent to getting 10 X-rays. Just drink some green tea afterward, and you'll be fine."
Li Aozi grabbed a shovel, opened the car door, and used gravity to pull the tearful Barnum out of the car.
It had to be said, ordinary teammates were really no match for superhuman warriors.
He was already starting to miss Du Zexin; you could say that guy was perfect in every way—handsome, strong, smart, loyal, brave in battle, and even a civil servant.
Just not very lucky.
Barnum insisted on wearing a lead-lined groin guard, fearing he might lose his fertility due to radiation. Li Aozi didn't bother arguing, leading him through the forest until they reached a residential area.
It had been about 300 to 400 years since the old era. The concrete and steel buildings had naturally decayed, stripping away any human-made traces. The crumbling walls extended outwards with spiraling rebar, which had accelerated rusting due to Calamity's destruction, now covered in a layer of glistening red-black crystals that chimed softly in the wind.
The place was eerily silent, with occasional blackened silhouettes of people vaporized on the walls—like one person desperately holding their child, yet unable to escape their fate, leaving behind only a mottled shadow.
Yet, in this forbidden human zone, Barnum saw various wild animals.
"Wow, is that a deer?" He pointed excitedly at a sika deer grazing in the distant thicket. Li Aozi followed his gaze; it was a mother and her fawn, with no signs of deformity, looking almost identical to creatures from centuries ago, except for a few extra spots.
These wild animals were clearly more charming than the creatures outside. Barnum had only heard that some old-era animals still existed in the private zoos of certain aristocrats. He couldn't resist pulling out his terminal to take a picture, but the flash scared the mother and fawn, causing them to flee in panic.
"Huh?"
Although Barnum failed to take the picture, the flash had illuminated a dark corner of the forest, where Li Aozi noticed a metallic glint. He immediately led the disappointed Barnum toward it.
The ecosystem here was so wild that he had to use fire to burn away the tangled roots before discovering a stone tablet buried in the natural forest. Fortunately, the text on it, written with some special paint, hadn't degraded. Li Aozi lit a fire to read the inscription:
"Anonymous heroes came here, leaving hope and a future for you."
Barnum also recognized it: "This is old-era text, Yami Liyoko language."
"You actually know this?" Li Aozi was a bit surprised, thinking only players would have this language skill.
"Uh, not really." Barnum scratched his head in embarrassment, "I studied it briefly in college to earn some credits."
"Not bad, not bad." Li Aozi patted his shoulder, saying, "A civilization that forgets its history has no future."
Finding this stone tablet confirmed that Li Aozi was on the right track. They continued through the forest and soon found an abandoned cemetery.
Lonely tombstones stood in the ground, weathered by Calamity and years of frost and snow, eroding and collapsing. Life brought nothing, death took nothing away. The firefighters who had saved the area from the nuclear leak were buried here, seemingly guarding this wasteland even in death.
Barnum felt a solemn atmosphere enveloping him, as if the dead history had come back to life. Perhaps a moving funeral had once taken place here, with people laying white flowers in tribute to the fallen soldiers, the sound of bells echoing in the empty air.
Chirp, chirp—
The call of a yellow cuckoo rang out, but there was no sign of human life in the cemetery.
Barnum snapped back to reality, wondering if the excessive radiation had affected his cognitive nerves, causing hallucinations. When he looked again, he saw Li Aozi already at the deepest part of the cemetery, standing beside a very inconspicuous tombstone.
The tombstone, weathered by wind and rain, bore no embellishments, only a faint "1917" etched on it.
"Mr. Li Aozi—" Barnum called out.
The number on the tombstone matched the memory in his mind, confirming this was the place Marlis had mentioned.
"This is it."
Li Aozi unfolded his shovel and used gravity to move the tombstone aside, then began digging up the grave.
"Hey, hey, isn't this too much… These are the coffins of past heroes."
"No, there's a living person inside."
"Liv—" Barnum was left speechless.
There's still a living person here?
Not to mention, after all these years, and with this level of radiation, it was clearly not a place where humans could survive for long.
Besides, these tombstones were erected so long ago, at least 400 to 500 years ago. Gulanth Duchy probably didn't even exist back then—no, even the Frost-Plated Republic might not have existed!
Li Aozi dug quickly. To avoid causing widespread damage to the cemetery, he chose to use only tools. When his shovel struck something solid with a crisp sound, he immediately knew he'd found it.
He swiftly cleared away the dirt, jumped out of the pit, and used gravity to pull out an entire alloy coffin. When Barnum saw the bronze-colored coffin, something clicked in his mind, and his face suddenly changed.
"My god, were old-era resources this abundant?" He reached out in disbelief to touch the alloy plate, the smooth texture confirming his suspicion:
"This is Niobium Alloy! It's an extremely precious aerospace material, 200 times stronger than titanium alloy, but only one-third the density of iron! This much Niobium Alloy is worth at least 1.8 billion derbies!"
1.8 billion derbies, more than the Gulanth Duchy's military budget for ten years.
And that was a conservative estimate, because in reality, no country could produce Niobium Alloy anymore—they were all living off inherited stockpiles.
A spacecraft made of Niobium Alloy could easily accelerate to Mach 5 without worrying about overheating or disintegration. In battle, it would be unmatched, with no air-to-air missile in the world capable of penetrating it.
If paired with the best pilots and equipped with nuclear warheads, it could strike any city with precision—calling it divine wouldn't be an exaggeration.
This material was truly a national treasure.
If Li Aozi's so-called fiancée was Niobium Alloy, Barnum wouldn't just believe it, he wouldn't even mind that this 'beauty' was nearly 500 years old. She wasn't just aging gracefully; she was still in her prime!