Chapter 1340
Two Doubts
Chapter 1340 Two Doubts
The two spent quite some time investigating the entire ancient world.
There were more than a dozen damaged machines. Although this number was not a large percentage of the total number of points, and there were enough substitutes available, it still infuriated Antonio.
"Who?!" Apollo roared furiously from mid-air, "Which coward did this?!"
The thought of his hard work being so easily destroyed, and the already delayed return being further postponed due to these uncertainties, made Antonio want to kill someone.
Lin Fan was calmer than him.
After leaving the secret realm, submit all the damaged locations and extracted real-time data to the Noah.
"Understood." Cen Fangyuan looked at the ancient map that was now marked in real time on the large screen and asked, "Are there enough backup machines? Is there any other assistance we can provide?"
"How many backup machines are left..." Lin Fan replied.
Antonio, still seething with rage even after removing his mecha, leaned close to Lin Fan's ear and shouted, "If this keeps getting destroyed, it'll never be enough!"
Lin Fan rudely pushed his face away, kicked him aside, and pressed his ear, angrily saying, "Don't you have your own communicator? Why are you yelling in my ear?"
Antonio rubbed his calf, his displeasure vanishing instantly upon meeting Lin Fan's gaze. He forced a smile and said, "I forgot, hehe, sorry, sorry!"
Lin Fan's communicator was shaped like an earring, worn on the second piercing of his left ear, and looked like an ordinary piece of jewelry.
Antonio has no pierced ears, so his communicator is shaped like a necklace. He listens through invisible earpieces inserted into his ear canals. The microphone, camera, and other functions are all integrated into the pendant.
Antonio once boasted that he wanted to get his ears pierced, just like Lin Fan. But Cui Yan ruthlessly rejected him.
He made a fuss for a while, feeling that the people from Country H were deliberately making things difficult for him. It wasn't until later, when he learned that Lin Fan's earring was only more convenient and discreet for making calls, but was ultimately too small and its functions were limited, with features like recording and projection not as powerful as his pendant, that he finally gave up.
Although the content heard in the earphones is synchronized, Antonio needs to touch the pendant to switch between calls or other functions, unlike Lin Fan's earrings, which are as convenient as Bluetooth earphones.
Sometimes, when Antonio was too lazy to do anything, he would lean close to Lin Fan's left ear and speak, and his voice could still be heard on the Noah. It's just that today he was in a bad mood and spoke too loudly, which annoyed everyone.
In the control room, Jin Sichen made a few sarcastic remarks about Antonio without any restraint. Before the two almost got into an argument, Cen Fangyuan intervened.
"Alright, let's get down to business." Cen Fangyuan asked Lin Fan, "Lin Jian, I just checked with the technology department, and the remaining materials can only manufacture a maximum of two machines. Any more, and we'll have to collect materials again, and you know the unit quantity."
Lin Fan nodded: "Understood. The next priority is to find the culprit and prevent the machine from being damaged further."
Material collection takes time, manufacturing takes time, and purification takes even more time. Laying the foundation is already the easiest part.
What they lack most right now is time.
"Are there any suspects?" Cen Fangyuan asked.
While Lin Fan was still pondering, Antonio said, "Binze! That old guy couldn't find him anywhere, right? Senior Brother said he wasn't up there, so he must be down there!"
Cen Fangyuan also suspected Binze. The reason was simple: on Perlun Star, he knew of only one person who met the criteria.
If it's really him causing trouble, things could get complicated.
"I don't think so," Lin Fan objected. "Binze has seen high technology on Moonflower Star. He shouldn't be unaware of the radiation removal machine that Qiu Yi could so easily create." After all, he had spent hundreds of years on Moonflower Star, and the underground world of the Hermits was not lacking in technological means. Even if Binze himself didn't do scientific research, Lin Fan believed he still possessed this level of knowledge.
"So?" Antonio asked. "It's because he knows them that he sabotaged them! Isn't that logic reasonable? It couldn't possibly be a monster. Look at these locations; it's obvious he went there with a purpose. What monster would leave its habitat and run this far? Are they looking for death?"
His pendant had already projected the map onto an empty stone wall. Antonio pointed to the damaged points and looked at Lin Fan.
“There are two suspicious points.” Lin Fan held up two fingers. “First, assuming Binze did it. He’s knowledgeable and capable, he should easily know that we’re using a matrix-style deployment. With his abilities, he could have destroyed many more, so why did he only destroy these places?”
"..." Antonio pondered, "Perhaps... they don't want us to discover them easily?"
“These points, lined up in a row, don’t look like they’re trying to avoid being discovered. Binze knows perfectly well that on Perlun Star, only we have the capability to deploy these.” Lin Fan disagreed. “He’s seen our mechs before; he knows Noah is hovering above them. Would he do something so self-deceptive?”
When Binze and Lin Fan separated, Lin Fan wasn't as vibrant as she is now. Back then, she could easily have given the order to destroy a planet if you angered her.
“...Or perhaps he lacks the strength,” Antonio racked his brains to guess. “When he came down, his golden core had just recovered, right? After all these years, and having spent so many years in seclusion in the ancient world devoid of spiritual energy, his cultivation level is worrying. If he lacks the ability, he naturally wouldn’t have been able to do this much.”
"Then why would he risk alerting them in this passive situation?" Lin Fan countered. "This machine won't clear away the ancient radiation in just a few years. Instead of drawing our attention now, why not wait until we're stronger and wipe them out in one fell swoop? Or wait until we're gone?"
"What if he can't wait for us to leave?" Jin Sichen interjected. "Your exchange with Binze was for the Chaos Pearl. What if he regrets it and doesn't want to give it up? That's why he hid it in the ancient world and simply didn't meet with you, trying to buy time. But he didn't expect us to start purifying the radiation. In this way, the natural barrier of the ancient world will be eliminated sooner or later, and the people from the upper world will eventually come to the ancient world where only he could move freely."
Lin Fan thought for a moment: "That possibility cannot be ruled out. But before we catch him red-handed, Binze can only be a suspect. We can't make a final judgment and conclude that it's him now."
"Who else could it be?" Antonio muttered.
"What's the second point of doubt, Lin Jian?" Cen Fangyuan looked at the map, following Cui Yan's words, and asked Lin Fan.
“The second point of doubt is that Binze should have no motive.” Lin Fan crossed his arms and looked at Antonio. “Peron Star is Binze’s home planet, but his true homeland is the ancient times.”
"Although I don't know what he was doing in the ancient times while exposed to radiation, he clearly had more attachment to the desolate ancient times than to the prosperous present world."
"From any perspective, removing radiation is beneficial to the ancient times. Why would Binze try to stop it?"
Yes, the greatest danger in the ancient world was radiation damage. Even if Binze had a way to deal with it, it would still require a lot of effort, and even expend his own spiritual energy to eliminate it.
Assuming that Binze truly prevented the radiation from dissipating, what was his purpose in leaving the radiation behind?
Why prevent people from the New World from entering?
Let alone the fact that hardly anyone in the New World knows about the ancient world below, isolation is just a matter of a barrier, isn't it?
Lin Yuan was able to withstand radiation for thousands of years, and Bin Ze might be able to do the same.
Or should we leave the radiation... and let the New World perish together?
The barrier around the abyss wasn't very strong. With Binze's knowledge and abilities, it would be easy for him to destroy a few places and let the radiation leak out unnoticed. There was no need to spend so much time.
At worst, they could anger Lin Fan and get the Noah to fire a shot at them.
He went through so much trouble to come back, and even with thousands of years of changes in people and things, it shouldn't have driven him to such an extreme, right?
The old man, who is thousands of years old, has long seen the changes of the world and has already ascended to leave Perlun Star. How could he have such a strong attachment to the past?
Lin Fan's words caused a brief silence to fall between the two sides.