Pei Ran said, “Ai Xia and Engineer Jiang are still volunteering in the mining zone, right? Just as well, I can go take a look at them too. W, is there currently any chance to make a quick trip to the mining zone?”
Black Well couldn’t be entered or exited casually; a pass was required.
“I’ve already searched,” W said. “A well-known doctor in the mining zone applied for a special medicine this morning. A volunteer is needed to go to the supplies department to pick it up and deliver it. A one-day temporary pass can be issued.”
That was perfect. Pei Ran immediately said, “I’ll go.”
W said, “Pei Ran, although there are fewer fused entities in the mining zone now, Black Well itself is short on manpower and can’t send enough people over to maintain public order. Only volunteers can barely be of some use. Also, making any sound means death. It’s very unsafe—be careful.”
Pei Ran: “Understood.”
W moved quickly. “I’ll fill out the form and register for you. Your identity’s already been verified. Just go to the supplies department in the central tower to collect the medicine.”
Pei Ran finished her noodles, grabbed the spider, and left.
From behind, Ren asked, “Master, where are you going? Digging through trash cans again?”
Pei Ran: “No, this time I’m going to dig through mine shafts.”
Ren: “……”
As soon as she left the dorm, the spider immediately turned on its camera. Finally, it wasn’t blind anymore, and it crawled along her arm into her pocket.
W said, “Black Well has now opened a free bus route. You can take the bus to the central tower.”
The bus stop wasn’t far from the dorm, but the wait was a bit long. It took about half an hour before it slowly trundled over.
It wasn’t working hours, so there weren’t many people on the bus—only civilians.
Most people were wearing identical clothing, either navy blue or dark gray, resembling work uniforms. They were probably the standard supplies issued upon entering Black Well. Only a few were still wearing their own clothes, which bore signs of dirt and patchwork.
The bus was completely silent. Everyone stared straight ahead without making a sound—probably a habit from outside Black Well. After all, most people had only been inside for a few days and still weren’t used to the idea that speaking out loud could be dangerous.
Pei Ran recalled the time just after her transmigration, before the Silence had erupted, when she had taken that Route F306 bus. The scene on that bus was actually pretty similar.
Only a commercial jingle was missing.
In Pei Ran’s ears, it was as if a jingle started playing:
“This is a beautiful homeland—”
“Carrying your dreams and mine—”
“A place where my heart is at peace, happiness everlasting, basking together in golden sunlight—”
The white light from Black Well’s domed ceiling reflected off the passengers’ weary faces.
Silent and expressionless, the people seemed to have handed their fates over to this old, worn-out bus, not really caring where it would take them.
After all, it was all the same, no matter where they went.
The bus stopped at every station. Eventually, it wobbled its way to the central plaza. Pei Ran went to the fifth floor’s supplies department to collect a package of medicine to be delivered, along with a map of the mining zone. She put them in her backpack and got back on the bus, riding it through the underground city all the way to the southernmost end before getting off.
She walked along the street, heading forward until she reached the tunnel at the southern entrance.
A soldier in front of the isolation gate raised his hand to stop her. “Black Well isn’t freely accessible. Do you have a pass? I need to scan your iris…”
The soldier looked at her again and suddenly recognized her. Holding up the iris scanner, he said, “You’re that… that Pei Ran?”
Pei Ran, a little awkward, leaned closer. “Go ahead and scan.”
She passed through smoothly, removed her wristband, and sealed her mouth tightly with tape. After passing another checkpoint, she finally arrived outside Black Well.
That large white stone at the southern entrance was still there, as if from another lifetime.
The current refugee settlement was closer to the entrance than when she last came to Black Well—back when they were evading the reconnaissance bots—but it was still a two- or three-kilometer walk.
Along the way, there was nothing but an ashen sky and red earth. She didn’t encounter a single reconnaissance bot—it was so safe it felt unsettling.
With no one else around, the mechanical spider sprawled openly on her shoulder, glancing around everywhere.
Pei Ran couldn’t help but flick it with her finger.
“I’m the one walking while you ride—pretty comfy for you, huh.”
Her fingertip tapped the spider’s little metal head, and its eyes lit up with a flash.
“Turn them off,” W advised gently. “You’re wasting energy.”
As if he didn’t have the authority to shut it off himself.
Pei Ran flicked the spider again, and the light in its eyes immediately went out.
W said, “Right now you’re carrying me. One day, when I make a big mechanical spider, it’ll carry you around.”
Pei Ran imagined a giant silver mechanical spider carrying her everywhere. “You said it. I’ll be waiting for the day you carry me.”
The mechanical spider suddenly stood up. “We’re almost there.”
Ahead, a large cluster of abandoned mining buildings appeared. There were still people moving around nearby.
As she got closer, she could see that it was the entrance to a mine shaft.
Outside the entrance were a few people whose clothes were filthy and tattered—they looked like they were just out for some air. Two armed soldiers stood at the entrance. When they saw Pei Ran approaching, dressed in the light gray FBSMD uniform, they nodded in greeting and didn’t stop her.
Pei Ran walked past them and entered the mine shaft.
The supplies department had given her a photo of a doctor. All she had to do was find that person in the mining zone and hand over the medicine.
The mine shaft wasn’t dark; lights were on the whole way.
W said, “In the future, power will be supplied from Black Well, but for now they’re using mobile energy units.”
The further in she went, the more people there were—far more than Pei Ran had imagined.
The ground of the shaft was covered with blankets that had been distributed uniformly, with only a narrow passage left in the middle. People either sat or lay down on their respective spots. Many of them were injured, wrapped in white bandages, blood seeping through the gauze.
This was outside Black Well. Making any sound meant certain death, so the mine shaft was eerily silent.
So many wounded, many seriously injured, yet not a single moan could be heard. Those who couldn’t bear the pain and made a sound were already dead.
Inside the mine shaft, aside from these gravely wounded people bleeding in silence, there were also many utterly exhausted elderly individuals.
If all these people were brought into Black Well, perhaps they really wouldn’t offer much benefit—only increase Black Well’s burden. The hospitals there would likely be overwhelmed.
Black Well seemed to have decided to move forward lightly, casting all these burdens behind.
The mechanical spider tucked itself back into Pei Ran’s pocket, leaving only its eyes exposed, constantly scanning the people on the ground, searching for the one tagged with File No. 10—Kuchi.
Pei Ran kept walking deeper.
There were branch paths in the mine. W handled it without troubling Pei Ran, cross-referencing the map and marking each path, scanning them one by one.
Pei Ran saw volunteers wearing Black Well uniforms, and several medical personnel, all busy treating the wounded. But she didn’t see the doctor from the photo, nor did she see Ai Xia or Engineer Jiang.
She wandered through the maze-like mine shafts for a long time, but still couldn’t find Kuchi.
Pei Ran stopped and scanned her surroundings. Suddenly, she felt someone tug at the hem of her pants.
It was a young girl, her head wrapped completely in white gauze. She looked very young, lying on a blanket with a deathly pale face and sunken eyes.
Pei Ran squatted down and looked at her inquiringly: What is it?
The girl couldn’t speak. She stretched out a hand and grabbed Pei Ran’s.
Pei Ran said to W in her mind, “Not sure if she wants water, or something to eat.”
W said, “Black Well has already provided food and water to the temporary refugee settlements. It’s not as abundant and well-stocked as inside Black Well, but it’s enough to survive.”
The girl didn’t seem to be asking for anything. She activated her wristband screen.
She pulled up a photo—herself with a middle-aged couple. It looked like a family portrait of three.
She looked pleadingly at Pei Ran.
She seemed to have been separated from her family and was looking for someone.
There was no one like that at this temporary settlement in the mining zone. When she saw Pei Ran wearing a Black Well uniform, she clung to her like a drowning person grabbing at a life-saving reed—she probably wanted help to find her family inside Black Well.
W immediately performed facial recognition.
“She’s called Ayimu, a second-year student at Xipu University. Her hometown is Yercha. Both her parents are technicians at a drone company.”
He paused. “I’ve already checked the list of people who entered Black Well—her parents aren’t on it.”
Yercha City… countless people there had turned into drone-hybrids. Her parents were most likely doomed.
Now that Pei Ran was closer, she could see how serious the injury on Ayimu’s head was—it was still bleeding continuously. Without timely treatment, she probably wouldn’t live long enough to find her parents.
Yet this settlement had virtually no medical equipment.
Pei Ran silently opened her wristband and took a photo of the family picture.
Ayimu understood that she would help look for her family. She relaxed and let go of Pei Ran’s hand.
Pei Ran stood up—and suddenly felt a strange, uncomfortable sensation on her back, as if someone was staring at her intently from behind.
She turned around and saw, not far away at a corner, a group of young and middle-aged men gathered.
They were all men in their twenties or thirties. The oldest didn’t look over forty. None of them were injured. They looked healthy, even robust.
This group of able-bodied men hadn’t been allowed into Black Well.
One of them, a man in his thirties, was wearing a thick fur-lined leather jacket with a rich brown shearling collar—clearly the leader of the group.
W only needed a glance at someone to figure out their background.
He said, “Pei Ran, stay away from them. The one in the fur-collared jacket is named Hazi. I found dozens of criminal records for him in Alaku City up north. He’s been in prison three times and was just recently released. The guys around him all have serious violent offenses on their records.”
Black Well didn’t allow people with criminal records to enter. They had all been filtered out.
The problem was, in a post-apocalyptic world where order had collapsed, putting elderly and wounded civilians in the same place as people like this…
It was like locking the weakest lambs in a pen with the hungriest wolves. Just thinking about it sent a chill down the spine.
In the mining zone, aside from medical staff and a few volunteers, there were only the two guards at the entrance. The management was clearly insufficient.
The area around those men was cluttered with far more supplies than others had—thick clothes, blankets, and all kinds of miscellaneous items tossed about carelessly. It was obvious they hadn’t obtained them legitimately—very likely looted.
Hazi and his group all sized up Pei Ran from head to toe. Only when she turned her head did they look away.
The Black Well uniform on her body made them wary—they didn’t dare act rashly.
Pei Ran ignored them and continued forward. At last, she saw the doctor she had been looking for.
Not only was the doctor there—Ai Xia and Engineer Jiang were as well.
Ai Xia was no longer biting her little stick. Her mouth was sealed with tape, and both she and Engineer Jiang were wearing dark gray uniforms with white armbands. They looked unharmed and were helping the doctor treat a wounded person.
The injured person’s pant leg had been cut open, revealing a severe ulcer on the lower leg. The surrounding skin was blackened, with exposed muscle tissue visible.
The wound was in such a rotten state and clearly hadn’t been treated before—this refugee must have just arrived at the mining zone after a long trek.
The doctor moved skillfully, carefully cutting away the necrotic tissue with a scalpel. The patient must have been given anesthesia; lying flat, their expression was calm.