A mountain lay between the location of the Stargate and the nearby garrison base. Originally, ten thousand years ago, the mountain had been hollowed out, with spacious tunnels connecting the two. However, while time couldn't change the landscape, ten millennia had allowed snow and ice to block the tunnels.
Faced with the choice of reopening the tunnels or scaling the mountain, Fang Xu chose to climb. Various robots set out first, ascending the snow-covered slopes, while Fang Xu followed, his powered armor propelling him step by step toward the summit. Although the mountain was steep, it posed little challenge for the robots, nor did it for Fang Xu in his powered armor.
The armor's mechanical legs moved tirelessly, taking large strides forward despite sinking deep into the snow with each step, without the slightest hint of fatigue. When encountering a perilous cliff, Fang Xu opted for the dangerous climb over taking a detour. However, this was hardly risky for the powered armor; it punched a deep pit into the rock face with a loud rumble, then climbed using both hands and feet. Even if he occasionally fell, the auxiliary propulsion system would instantly ignite, releasing bright flames to steady his descent, allowing him to resume climbing without trouble.
Despite all this, Fang Xu still felt somewhat dissatisfied. "Isn't there any powered armor that can fly?" he complained.
"I'm terribly sorry. My database does not contain information on all powered armor stockpiled on Earth. This is currently the best-performing multifunctional transformable armor available," replied Miss Nan Yi, who was dressed in a nurse's uniform and was climbing the mountain with ease, even faster than Fang Xu despite the cold wind.
"I was just joking; no need to take it so seriously," Fang Xu said, waving his hand.
Soon, the powered armor reached the summit, and the view before them suddenly opened up. A vast expanse of white stretched endlessly into the distance, as if there were no end in sight. At the same time, a beam of sunlight fell from the sky like a spotlight on a stage, descending from above to illuminate a small area ahead. Even from afar, Fang Xu could sense that the region bathed in the spotlight was as bright as day. It was this single beam of sunlight and the slight glow that dispersed from it, creating a diffuse reflection on the snow, that prevented the land from being plunged into total darkness.
Fang Xu also saw that within the sunlit, albeit not large, area stood a ruined city of stacked layers, the number of which was unclear. The upper and lower levels of the city were connected by various pipes, with only the top layer basking in the sunlight while the lower levels remained shrouded in darkness. The entire city seemed to emit a decayed odor from top to bottom. Even from this distance, Fang Xu could almost smell it faintly.
"What is that?" Fang Xu asked, puzzled.
"According to the data from the garrison base, that location is a settlement of Rheinian maintenance workers," Miss Nan Yi answered.
"Rheinian maintenance workers?" Fang Xu exclaimed in surprise.
"There are a total of 1,300 energy reception stations on Energy Collection Star SH100079, responsible for receiving the stellar energy harvested by the Dyson sphere around the clock through wireless transmission and then transferring it to Earth."
With various robots in tow, Fang Xu soon arrived at the foot of another winding mountain range.
"Sir, we have arrived," Nan Yi reminded him.
"We have?" After careful observation, Fang Xu realized that the mountain before him wasn't a real mountain, but a massive complex of buildings frozen in ice. Over years of accumulated snow and ice, the exterior had become almost unrecognizable. This building complex was the garrison base that Fang Xu had been heading toward.
With the arrival of a human, Fang Xu, the base, which had slumbered for ten thousand years, seemed to awaken instantly. Amid the rumbling noise, the front gate of the "mountain," or rather the building complex, slowly opened. From all directions within the garrison base, a multitude of robots poured out to greet the human arrival—giant quadrupedal defense robots dozens of meters tall, humanoid construction robots several meters high, wheeled combat vehicles, and small maintenance robots only tens of centimeters tall. There was an abundance of different kinds of robots, even more than those Fang Xu had found on Earth that were still operational.
Fang Xu quietly calculated how much his robotic army could expand by incorporating these new robots. As the powered armor continued to advance, he entered the garrison base with Miss Nan Yi following closely behind.
