Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 341 - 53 Clockwork City_1

Chapter 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 something else I’m intrigued about." Overwhelmed 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, some deities survived. Those ageless beings coexisted with the goblins. But, they weren’t elite among the deities, and they all perished during the Divine Punishment at the end of the Second Epoch, and the Golden Race ceased to exist."

"Hmm, so it means 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 mean, 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 some regards. How will you qualify as a skilled church guard if you don’t know about these things? So, as a punishment 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-meter-tall, over ten-ton weight giant metal puppet," explained Pannis. "Its hardness is extremely high, with defense almost matching an upper-rank Aggression Shield. Its attack power is also considerable, and it comes equipped with medium-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?" exclaimed Lina, "We have to camp somewhere, 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 metal 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 meals, 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 somewhere 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 time, 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 kilometers. 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 time, 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-meter-deep vertical shaft and tossed aside a well cover made of goblin metal, they were met 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 meters thick layers of sediment. A region, spanning approximately one square kilometer, remained surprisingly undisturbed for some unknown reason, revealing a cavity as high as five meters 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 meters high, their tops were consumed by the sediment 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 meters 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 some shops with indecipherable names.

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 numerous, were arranged rather randomly. These bodies seemed 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 time for its residents to prepare. Everyone entered death at virtually the same time. 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."

"Remember 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 Punishment."

"What exactly is Divine Punishment?" 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 Punishment is either, considering that I’ve never experienced any of these." Pannis shook his head, "But judging by what we’re seeing, Divine Punishment 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 moment of their death, just like these goblins."

"That’s frightening." Lina, seemingly triggered by thoughts of more terrifying prospects, murmured," Under the Divine Punishment, 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 testament to their resilience.

"Hey, enough with the sentimentality," Pannis, who had been crouching beside several bodies, gesturing towards his findings, said," Come look, I found something."

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, some of their belongings made of special materials remained: various metal 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 something 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. Remember the identification marker mentioned in that notification sound while we were underground? I suspect this is it."(To be continued. If you enjoy the story, I welcome you to come to qidian.com and cast your recommendation and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile readers please visit m.qidian.com.)