244: Chapter 245 "Order Wars" [Clone City]: The Alert System Collapses and the Return to the Surface

In Clone City, the ground-based security robots—which originally formed perimeter walls with their bodies and fired lasers at the Awakening Clones and Hosts—all folded themselves into alloy cubes and scattered across the city streets.

Above Clone City, the aerial security robots that had been weaving through the city and constantly firing lasers also stopped functioning in that same instant, crashing to the ground with bursts of explosions.

This was the Hacker, with the help of the Passerby Man's "Calamity," successfully hacking into the Clone Tower's city security System that controlled the security robots once again.

The pale blue data streams at the Hacker's fingertips were like a brilliant galaxy, and as his ten fingers tapped incessantly on the Virtual Keyboard, he delved deeper into invading the Clone Tower's city management System; the total paralysis of the security robots was merely a small favor the Hacker had done for the Clones and Hosts in the city so that he could invade the System core of the Clone Tower with greater peace of mind.

With this, all of Clone City's overt defensive forces were reduced to zero.

This city prison, controlled by 100 Original Humans for decades, finally had all its defensive lines completely torn apart.

On the ground, the toys held by the Clones—distributed by the Carnival Clown—would self-replicate when encountering other Clones and Hosts who didn't have toys, automatically "jumping" into the hands of others.

Therefore, each of the 1,900 Clones who had awakened self-awareness held various kinds of toys, and except for some vigilant Hosts who had thrown away their toys, the other Hosts subconsciously kept their toys close to their bodies.

The Carnival Clown, dressed in a purple suit, stood inside a giant bubblegum that had floated into the air, looking down at the Clones and Hosts advancing toward the Clone Tower with an eerie smile, counting: "19... 22... 28... A total of 33 Hosts. Excluding me, are there still 4 Hosts hiding somewhere?"

He reached out and stroked the constantly opening and closing toy box, strange, on his waist, soothing it: "Don't be impatient~ Before the grand carnival begins, a little patience is needed. These Hosts don't really think that just by throwing away the 'toys,' they won't be affected, do they?~ Hahaha!"

As if he had heard an extremely funny joke, the Carnival Clown clutched his stomach and laughed in the bubblegum hundreds of meters in the air, continuously pounding the bubblegum with his hand.

The Clones' silver-gray work uniforms converged into streams, and their faces no longer held only stylized smiles. Driven by the emotion named "Rebellion," they stepped over the rubble of explosions, bypassed the paralyzed security robots, and marched steadily toward the Clone Tower in the very center of the city—that glass giant tower that towered into the clouds. Finally, they gathered in the wide plaza in front of the Clone Tower, looking up at this glass giant tower that had controlled their entire lives, their eyes shining with a bright light.

Just as the momentum of the Clones in the plaza in front of the Clone Tower grew ever more massive, in the mechanical maintenance area directly behind the Clone Tower, there was another shocking scene.

The smell of oil and metal was still thick; scattered mechanical parts, wreckage of quantum computers, and exposed energy pipelines covered the ground. Gear Boy was crouching beside a pile of precision mechanical pipelines, the mini bronze gear Dream Spirit, enhanced gear, slowly rotating in his palm. He was planning to completely analyze the mechanical structure of the Clone Tower's energy supply pipelines to create a mechanical weapon capable of countering the terrifying things in the Original Humans' "top secret archives."

Suddenly, a violent yet rhythmic vibration came from the ground beneath Gear Boy's feet.

"Hum—rumble—"

The vibration went from weak to strong. Mountains of abandoned mechanical creations began to shake, and metal parts mixed with oil rolled down. Gear Boy's chubby face trembled from the shaking, and a piece of oil on the tip of his nose shook off.

He suddenly raised his head, his round eyes full of surprise, and subconsciously clenched the Dream Spirit, enhanced gear, in his palm: "What's going on? Is there a problem with the foundation of Clone City? This earthquake is too regular..."

Before he could finish speaking, the ground directly in front of the mechanical maintenance area gate suddenly emitted a harsh metallic sound.

A huge square concrete slab collapsed with a boom, revealing a bottomless pitch-black passageway, with stairs winding down along the passage, disappearing into the depths.

The next second, an endless number of Clones, turning into a silver-gray flood, poured out of the passageway rapidly.

Those were the tens of thousands of Clones from the underground junkyard who had awakened from forced hibernation!

They marched with uniform steps, stylized smiles on their faces, and continuously walked out from the stairs. In just a moment, the originally empty mechanical maintenance area and its surroundings were filled to the brim, and silver-gray figures were still continuously emerging from the passageway.

Gear Boy stood dazed on a small hill made of abandoned mechanical creations, looking at the endless Clones in front of him, his chubby little hand holding the enhanced gear frozen in mid-air.

In this dense, silver-gray flood of Clones, a particularly conspicuous gray figure was suddenly captured by Gear Boy's eyes.

Passerby Man was being swept along by the tide of Clones with a look of utter hopelessness, his body covered in the viscous nutrient solution from the underground junkyard, and the pitch-black Unlucky Egg was slowly rolling in his pocket; clearly, the power of "Calamity" was still being released.

Passerby Man had originally just wanted to follow the flood of Clones and slowly return to the surface along the stairs. He hadn't expected to be swept out by the flood of Clones, and even less did he expect that as soon as he looked up, he would lock eyes with another chubby Host.

The air in the mechanical maintenance area seemed to go quiet for an instant.

Passerby Man looked at the chubby boy, Gear Boy, who was covered in machine oil and holding a small bronze gear in front of him, and his mouth couldn't help but twitch again.

Unsurprisingly, the power of "Calamity" had caused Passerby Man, having just escaped the predicament of the underground junkyard, to bump into another Host.

Gear Boy looked at the ordinary young man caught among the Clones, who had a look of helplessness and an aura of faint "death" about him, and confusion also welled up in his eyes.

This guy who had suddenly appeared was clearly also a Host, but why did he come out from underground with this group of Clones?

Two gazes met amidst the clamorous flood of Clones and the continuously vibrating ground.

One was the Person of Calamity, exhausted physically and mentally after experiencing the underground junkyard; the other was the [Mechanical Person], who understood the contents of Clone City's "top secret archives."

Two Hosts with completely different styles, under the guidance of "Calamity," met in Clone City as if by fate.