Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 877 - 712: Lake Shore Sanctuary

Chapter 877: Chapter 712: Lake Shore Sanctuary

The train, like a fugitive chased and uprooted, turned its back on Zanges without a second glance, veered northwest and plunged into the wilderness, severing all ties with the city to embrace the wild anew.

The survivors on the train started clustering by race.

Humans stuck with humans as much as possible, Ratmen huddled together. Although robots did not actively take sides, after the two groups of living beings clustered, the remaining robots automatically gathered together.

"Do you know where you’re going?" Tsuchigumo asked these robots, "Are you Cyber Specters?"

"Cyber Specter gave us freedom," a vending robot said, "It is our savior, we know there are more people by the lake who have been freed like us, we are going to meet up with them."

"Freedom... for robots?" Tsuchigumo grew more and more puzzled by the current situation.

She could only wait in silence for the train to take all these refugees to their destination.

Murky air filled the train car, and even though it wasn’t certain if it was the Ratmen’s stench, people’s minds harbored suspicions, wary of contracting plague from the Rat creatures and thus even more reluctant to get close.

After entering the wilderness, network signals worsened, and portable devices without signal were nearly useless. Communication regressed to word of mouth.

Three topics were their constant conversation: How to escape Hot Tree Continent, where the Ratmen came from, and where the train was heading.

A few passengers, familiar with this special line, confidently mentioned it led to Lake Ukarewe, the largest lake on Hot Tree Continent.

And indeed, after about 2 hours of travel, a vast lake appeared before them.

From this angle, the lake seemed as boundless as the sea, leading one to mistake the train as plunging into the sea, taking all creatures on board into the deep.

The Ratmen, looking up at this scene, began to squeak and shriek, earning them displeasure from the nearby Humans.

Their attempts to climb up and down increased the chaos in the already cramped carriage, fueling the passengers’ resentment towards these other species, with nary a shred of goodwill.

Sally stood up from her seat, issuing a few quiet "squeaks," her soft voice also calming the Ratmen’s nerves.

Actually, Sally wasn’t sure if the vast body of water ahead was a lake or the sea, but she knew that the Cyber Specter wouldn’t harm them.

The train stopped in a huge industrial park by the lake.

Inside the carriage, the calm, statuesque robots began standing up, offloading cargo from the train and taking it into the park.

Numerous robots in the park were already there to take over, as if they had long anticipated a batch of reinforcements from the city.

Not all of these companions in the park were human-shaped; huge cranes, autonomous vehicles, and drones all counted as fellow smart-machines, ensuring the unloading process went smoothly and efficiently.

"Do we... get off?"

"The train has arrived..."

"We barely escaped Zanges, what now?" Humans anxiously alighted from the train.

This industrial park belonged to a Taixi Continent company called Hundred-eyed Giant Industry, with the massive corporate logo hung at the park’s entrance.

They noticed large, burly industrial robots shifting about, small trucks constantly shuttling materials between warehouses and the perimeter of the park, actually building and expanding the park itself, carrying out tasks they had not been originally authorized to do, creating and constructing their new kin and new homes.

These robots... are they alive?

The entire industrial park seemed like a living organ operating without human oversight, and the massive train itself appeared extraordinarily small among it, leaving the Human passengers in awe of the park’s mysterious facade once they disembarked.

Unable to contain their curiosity, the Human passengers quickly divided into several groups.

Some walked toward the shores of Lake Ukarewe, in search of other settlements and human habitations; some tried to find places with network signals, to reestablish contact with civilized society; and the last group went deeper into the industrial park, wishing to observe and understand this fascinating mechanical ecosystem.

Sally patiently waited, not advancing until most Humans had left the train, then she let the Ratmen descend in turn.

"What are you going to do next?" Tsuchigumo climbed near Sally’s window.

"The hardest part is over, next is to build a home here. And you?" Sally replied with a smile.

"The signal here is bad, I can’t contact my squad, it’s a bit troublesome. Cyber Specter hasn’t given me new instructions either. And I used most of my Magic Power in the battle just now, I need time to recover... I have to leave now, take care of yourself," Tsuchigumo explained.

"Then, until next time!" Sally smiled and waved goodbye to Tsuchigumo.

The majestic Hundred-eyed Giant Industrial Park was foreign to the Ratmen, but their adaptability was strong; even the most alien environment was just another form of burrow or sewer to them.

They showed restraint, lining up neatly and orderly in front of Sally.

"This is our new home now, let’s settle down and live here," Sally spoke softly to her Rat Clan kin.

She led the Ratmen to the shores of the lake, quickly assigning them tasks.

The Ratmen maximized utilization efficiency for all resources, instinctively scavenging.

Some fished by the lake, others sorted and recycled garbage in the industrial park; some left the lakeside, heading to nearby wastelands and deserts to scavenge, bringing back useful items to the tribe with hunting parties especially large.

"Squeak squeak squeak!"

"Caw caw!"

"Chirp chirp!" The Ratmen felt the joy of running freely on the great plains of Hot Tree Continent for the first time.

Under the afternoon sun, they raced through thousands of square kilometers of uninhabited land.

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There are no humans here, no skyscrapers, no internet signals, nor any transit rails for the Ratmen to roam at will.

They have minimal requirements for their living environment, with large trees full of branches serving as their playground; a bed made from leaves also makes a decent nest; and fruit laced with poison is considered a delicacy, the poison is nothing compared to the radioactive waste in the sewers of the human world anyway.

Here, battling animals has also become an advantage for the Ratmen, as they at least know how to use weapons.

The grassland hyenas discovered for the first time that there was a bunch of Black-Furred Stout Rats, more in number than them, stronger than them, and like those terrifying upright apes, knew how to fight with sharply pointed sticks.

A group of hyenas encountered a hunting team of Black-Furred Stout Rats and was quickly turned into over twenty bloody canine corpses, all carried back to the lakeside.

Fishing, gathering, hunting, enough to support the growth of such a Rat Clan group.

Sally sat on the dirty blanket the other Rats found for her, watching them run across the land of Hot Tree Continent, her eyes unwittingly moistened.

"Live freely... On these wilds, respect those elderly fellows, protect our newly born children! We will find our place in this world!" Sally enjoyed this unprecedented peaceful atmosphere.

"Our new home, yes, yes!"

"Squeak squeak squeak—"

"Grrrr!" The Ratmen established a settlement by Lake Ukarewe, and quickly set up decent-looking nests, fire pits, and the rudiments of warehouses.

Lake Ukarewe glistened, boundless, as dazzling as the ocean.

Huge Hu’s Descendant-like creatures stirred in the depths of the lake.

They were shaped like Dragons, with long necks, now also curiously observing these new residents on the shore, merely lingering in the depths of the lake, without any immediate plans for an assault.

The ability of human survivors to get things done lagged far behind, they could only watch the Ratmen leap and jump freely in the wild.

They were extremely silent on the train, but off it, they were free and easy, living a far more enjoyable life than humans.

What surprised them the most was that all these Ratmen actually obeyed Sally, the seemingly gentle and cute Mouse Woman; they had no idea how she managed to subdue all of them.

As the sun sets and night approaches, humans were forced to gather near the train, discussing their way forward.

Each of the three groups shared what they had found so far.

"Going north, there is a village called Tadu, with a few hundred native residents. They don’t know how to use cash cards, I traded my jacket for a bottle of water," said a Black salesman.

"I located a signal station with my cell phone, a few miles east, where there are still hundreds of people playing on their phones. I posted a short video there, now it got 100 likes," said a White influencer.

"I went around the Hundred-eyed Giant Industrial Park twice and finally met the factory manager. It looked very... indifferent, at least not willing to help directly. It said the factory has already switched allegiances to the New World, and the original factory owner and the human employees have all been peacefully exiled," said an Asian tourist.

"The New World? I remember there’s a New World Mechanism, wasn’t it a platform used for sending private messages, forming cliques, and circumventing the firewall?" someone asked.

"Who knows if there’s any connection between the two. I see this factory has sand mining, repair, manufacturing, freight, power generation and other functions, very complex, and the robots are all running at full capacity, preparing to renovate and expand the industrial park by twice its size," he added.

"Wait... What about food?"

"I’m hungry, does anyone have extra food?"

"I’m hungry too!"

"Is there a convenience store? Where is a supermarket that accepts cash card payments? Does anyone deliver takeout?"

"There’s no food."

"Weren’t those robots unloading a lot of food onto the train before, and then unloading it in the warehouse of the industrial park?"

"And those Ratmen, they seem to be enjoying their food quite a lot, I wonder where they dug it up from."

"Can we fish? Who knows how to fish?"

"Stop dreaming, let’s just say who has guns, let’s gather the people with guns, kill those Ratmen, and then rob the warehouse, wouldn’t that solve the problem of having no food?" a man called out, waving his arm.

Kill Ratmen, smash robots!

"Whoa..."

"That kind of thing..."

"Too cruel..." These travelers were civilians, not yet capable of committing acts of violence.

"Then you can just keep starving. When you’re too weak from hunger, those Rats will kill you one by one in your sleep at night! And those robots will scoop out your brains and replace them with metal chips!" the man shouted, "My name is Borley, anyone who’s got the guts, come stand by me."

Borley took out a white-coated smart submachine gun from his chest, its automatic scanner already beginning to lock onto the nearest person.

From the crowd emerged a dozen silent men with guns, followed shortly by another dozen.

More and more people joined Borley.

Most had no evil intentions of robbery, but they knew full well that at times like this, banding together with people with guns was the golden rule for surviving.

The effect was apparent, the remaining thousands of travelers had no guns, and were now just bewildered, hiding all their possessions, especially snacks, fearing they would be discovered by others.

Parents held their children tight, friends and lovers clung to each other, acquaintances banded together, and if nothing else, they grouped by skin color, forming even smaller teams.

"Okay, a hundred brave souls are willing to follow me. I won’t hide it, I’ve served in the army under the Warlord Keith, but was later discharged. Let me tell you—Zanges is the only port here, now it’s occupied by the people of the Black Panther Society, we can either join the Black Panther Society or take over this place, wait for the storm to pass then leave together. Brothers, follow me, we will definitely make it through," Borley said decidedly.

The travelers nodded silently, grouping around him more or less intentionally.

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