Beyond the infrastructure.
The rapid-setting cement production line had not been shut down.
This special production line, which had been airlifted all the way from Jianghe City.
After producing enough raw materials to construct the undersea passage, it continued to operate at maximum efficiency, ceaselessly churning out more.
Its output, aside from being used to reinforce the areas around the seven exit stations.
The remainder was temporarily stored on-site as emergency supplies.
Accumulating steadily until now.
"Since the Zhenhai City shelter has survived the initial wave of disasters."
"Without being completely submerged in the sea of magma."
"Then these reserves of rapid-setting cement should start to be put to use."
Su Wu turned his gaze to a concrete wall on the holographic map, softened by the licking of magma.
The area of the Zhenhai City shelter was simply too vast.
With the limited output of the rapid-setting cement production line.
Attempting to elevate the defensive strength of the entire shelter to a level close to that of the Jianghe City farmhouse.
Was undoubtedly an impossible task.
Therefore, the best initial plan.
Was to use these reserves of rapid-setting cement as temporary emergency materials.
Wherever damage occurred, they would be deployed there for special reinforcement.
To minimize their consumption.
After all, Su Wu's ultimate goal.
Was not to preserve this shelter.
But merely to delay its destruction slightly.
To buy enough time to evacuate the population and supplies.
As Su Wu made targeted adjustments.
The Zhenhai City shelter.
Amid increasingly frequent underground tremors, temporarily maintained a relatively stable state.
Some of the damaged edges, where seawater and magma had poured in.
Reinforced by a large number of Spider Robots, using rapid-setting cement without regard to cost.
In a short time, these areas became some of the most fortified parts of the entire shelter.
So much so that in the next half hour.
The entire shelter miraculously experienced no new unexpected incidents.
Allowing Su Wu to smoothly send over 1.7 million people onto trains entering the undersea passage.
However, this piecemeal, localized patching.
Ultimately was not the right way.
After half an hour, the effects began to visibly and rapidly diminish.
More web-like cracks spread across various locations in the Zhenhai City shelter.
Often.
Just as the Spider Robots arrived at the damaged site and began repair work.
In the next moment, an even larger crack would extend from a seemingly safe area behind them.
Suddenly engulfing the entire repair team of robots.
Dragging them into the abyss of the cracked seabed outside.
Faced with this situation where the more they patched, the more cracks appeared, and losses began to mount.
Su Wu vaguely felt that he had lost control of the Zhenhai City shelter.
But for now, he still wasn't ready to change this mode.
At most, he slightly increased the protection of the temporary storage warehouses near the stations in secret.
These temporary storage warehouses for supplies.
Were, under the current geological activity.
Calculated by Artificial Intelligence to be the structurally most robust areas of the entire shelter.
Even if the shelter were to be completely destroyed soon.
They, along with the safe zone in the core area, would most likely be the last places to be affected.
The first hour after entering the dangerous period.
Underground Level 4 of Zhenhai City Shelter, East Zone Material Distribution Area.
Zhao Rui, carrying a toolbox and wearing roller skates, swiftly glided forward along the main passageway.
The last batch of valuable supplies in this area had been relocated over 40 minutes ago.
Within a radius of several kilometers, not a single living soul could be seen, and even robots were scarce.
The silence and desolation were almost terrifying.
"Move faster, even faster."
Zhao Rui kept urging himself in his mind.
The extreme quietness of the surroundings.
Made him feel as if he could clearly hear the wind whistling past his ears and his own heavy, nervous breathing.
Slowing down slightly.
He reached out and pressed against the wall blocking his path for support.
Zhao Rui turned a corner.
Entering a vast plaza that connected several floors above and below.
There was still no sign of anyone here.
But on the huge display screen hanging on one side of the plaza, red warnings and evacuation route maps were unexpectedly being broadcast.
Along with occasional rotating images of damage from some corner of the shelter.
Glancing over, he took a few more looks at the screen's content.
Zhao Rui didn't stop.
Still on his roller skates, he sped through the plaza corridor like the wind, disappearing into the slightly dim shadows in the distance.
"Turn left 120 meters ahead, destination approaching."
The voice of Artificial Intelligence sounded from his earphones.
Zhao Rui sprinted.
Crossing the final stretch, he arrived at the endpoint of this adventure.
Next to a twisted and broken communication line box, with wires sticking out in a mess.
At this moment.
The ground began to tremble slightly.
A sign that the shelter had once again encountered an earthquake above magnitude five.
But just as Zhao Rui thought it would be like any other time.
His ears suddenly caught a crisp sound resembling the twisting and breaking of steel amidst the familiar faint rumbling.
Zhao Rui's expression changed slightly.
Realizing something was wrong.
But the task that brought him here wasn't yet complete.
No matter what, he couldn't bear to give up just like that.
Suppressing the unease in his heart.
Zhao Rui took out his phone from his pocket and checked the task guide sent by the Artificial Intelligence.
"Task One: Repair the broken surveillance line."
"Task Two: Install a small temporary power supply device."
Neither task was particularly difficult.
With the prompts from Artificial Intelligence.
All the repair steps were very clear and straightforward.
It was just that the process would take quite some time.
Zhao Rui tried hard to dismiss distracting thoughts, his hands slightly trembling from fear and tension.
He opened the toolbox.
And plunged into the lengthy repair work.
Six or seven minutes later.
The repair was completed.
Stepping out of his work mode, Zhao Rui noticed that the corridor he was in had tilted by nearly twenty to thirty degrees, though he didn't know when it had happened.
Clearly, in some nearby corner he hadn't seen.
The structure there had been severely damaged.
And could collapse at any moment.
"Need to leave here immediately."
Just as this thought surfaced in Zhao Rui's mind.
He heard a slight crack.
The previously unremarkable ceiling suddenly became covered with dense cracks in an instant.
A large slab of concrete crashed down just five or six meters away from him.
He instinctively looked up at the hollow left by the fallen cement slab.
From within, he saw a faintly refracted orange-red glow.
"It's magma."
Zhao Rui's pupils contracted violently at that moment.
He didn't even bother to pack up his tools.
Overwhelmed by immense fear, he immediately turned and desperately ran towards the square he had come from.
The roller skates he hadn't taken off even during the maintenance work.
Now provided crucial assistance.
Allowing him to quickly distance himself from the area.
As he fled, more magma began to flow down from the cracks in the ceiling.
"Warning: abnormal high temperature detected."
"Initiating isolation protocol."
A metal isolation door.
Slowly closed at the junction between the square and the corridor where Zhao Rui was.
Zhao Rui watched anxiously.
His body's potential burst forth once again.
He sprinted towards the door faster than ever before.
Just barely squeezing through sideways in the last moment before the metal door fully closed.
After ensuring his safety.
Zhao Rui leaned against the wall on one side of the square.
Breathing heavily, he felt a deep sense of lingering fear.
This maintenance mission was literally a life-and-death struggle.
If he had been just one or two seconds slower.
He wouldn't have survived.
After the initial fear subsided, deep worry surfaced in Zhao Rui's heart.
Although he was currently in an uninhabited area.
It was still considered the heart of the shelter.
If even this place was no longer safe.
It could only mean that the overall situation had deteriorated beyond imagination.
Thinking of the magma he had just encountered.
Perhaps, outside the shelter now.
Most areas might already be surrounded by magma.
"Fortunately, for this mission's reward."
"I didn't choose to cash in Contribution Points, but instead used them all to improve my evacuation queue position."
Taking out his phone.
Zhao Rui checked and found that his ranking had jumped from over 37 million to around 14 million.
This meant he could board the subway train several hours earlier.
And leave Zhenhai City Shelter.
A few hours, which would normally pass in the blink of an eye during ordinary times.
In this dire situation.
Could very well be the line between life and death.
"With my ranking so much higher now."
"I should still have time to escape."
"Survive——"
Jianghe City.
Rural courtyard, underground control center.
The structural map of Zhenhai City Shelter that had been floating before Su Wu, outlined in beautiful and clear silver-white lines.
Was now dotted with hundreds of red markers of various sizes, resembling a giant ship riddled with holes and about to sink.
Besides the red-marked danger zones.
There were even more gray areas spreading across various corners of the structural map.
Representing damaged monitoring equipment that could no longer provide real-time updated data.
At this moment.
Even Su Wu, who held the highest authority and the most firsthand information about the entire Zhenhai City Shelter, with millions of robots stationed there.
Couldn't predict when this shelter would completely collapse.
All he could do was...
Time and time again, Su Wu directed the robots to seal off all the damaged areas.
Holding on for as long as possible.
In the midst of the overall precarious situation.
A massive earthquake finally shattered this temporary balance.
Extending its impact to the undersea tunnel.
Just 10 seconds.
More than ten kilometers away from Zhenhai City's shelter.
An undersea tunnel passing through that area.
Its outer shell experienced severe twisting and fracturing.
Subsequently, a massive amount of seawater surged into the tunnel.
Within seconds.
Terrifying seawater, accompanied by a deafening roar.
Instantly submerged a subway train that happened to be passing through.
Then it surged towards both ends.
After more than ten seconds.
In the pitch-black waters outside the undersea tunnel.
Several patrolling civilian submarines detected the anomaly.
They immediately approached.
Attempting to carry out rescue and sealing operations.
With the timely use of rapid-setting cement, they ultimately prevented the disaster from spreading further.
But the entire rescue process.
Took 4 to 5 minutes.
Ultimately resulting in enormous, irreversible losses.
Dozens of subway trains were extensively submerged in the turbulent seawater.
This triggered various malfunctions.
Causing nearly ten thousand casualties.
"The damaged trains are to be temporarily towed to Zhenhai City's shelter for repairs."
"Spider Robots will board the trains to the fracture site for further reinforcement. Also, drain the water from the tracks."
Without directly viewing the casualty scene through monitoring devices.
Su Wu merely issued targeted repair instructions based on the damage data displayed on the structural map.
And more than ten minutes later.
A second major disaster occurred.
A super-high-intensity undersea volcanic eruption broke out in the central underground area of Zhenhai City's shelter.
Tens of thousands of tons of magma.
At an extremely high flow rate.
Surged from the cracked ground fissures towards the main structure of Zhenhai City's shelter.
Then, under immense tearing force and extreme heat.
Zhenhai City's shelter, primarily constructed of ordinary concrete.
Was slowly torn apart bit by bit from the middle.
Until it was ultimately split into two.
Inside the shelter.
The population, highly concentrated near subway stations and safe zones for convenient evacuation.
Faced staggering losses in this sudden catastrophe.
In an instant.
Over 3 million completely unprotected ordinary people.
Were swept into the scorching seawater.
What awaited them was almost certain death.
"Warning, the shelter has suffered extensive damage."
"Initiating full lockdown protocol."
Facing the nearly disintegrating Zhenhai City's shelter, the Artificial Intelligence sounded the highest level alarm.
No longer concerned about the situation of any humans or robots inside the shelter.
It immediately began forcibly closing all isolation doors.
Thousands of ordinary people near the fissures of the torn shelter.
Who had been on the verge of escaping to safety, suddenly found their escape routes blocked by the isolation doors.
Left to drown in despair as the seawater surged in.
Compared to the initial death toll of over 3 million in that instant.
This operation by the Artificial Intelligence also resulted in at least 2 million deaths.
But at the same time.
It also preserved the overall stability and safety of the two halves of the torn shelter.
To prevent more people from being caught in the disaster, a preliminary comprehensive lockdown was implemented.
Subsequently, countless robots dispatched to Zhenhai City halted their original tasks.
They surged like a tide into the vicinity of the shelter's fissures.
While conducting emergency repairs and reinforcements, they also began rescuing the survivors who had managed to survive the indiscriminate lockdown.
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