An Zhe looked to the right side and saw an almost identical metal plaque. The bottom was welded to the box on the table and contained a letter with the same tone.

“To Mr Kang Jinglan and to the latecomers:

I am Liao Pingan, the head of the Northern Base’s underground ventilation system engineering maintenance team. The ventilation system is overhauled every six months and the overall maintenance is performed every two years. It is currently operating in perfect condition.

As Mr Kang expected, the weakening of the geomagnetic field didn’t stop and it completely disappeared in December 2030. Fortunately, the artificial magnetic pole project was a success soon afterwards and Earth is once again protected by a magnetic field. Humans no longer suffer from diseases caused by radiation exposure. Unfortunately, the cosmic radiation has caused infectious mutations of bacteria, fungi and viruses. Humanity has ushered in an unprecedented catastrophe. I have witnessed the shrinkage of the human population, the collapse of the economic system and the gradual loss of industrial capacity. The base has invested all remaining human capacity into military production, a military base construction and the base expansion. A steady stream of guns, ammunition, nuclear weapons, aircrafts, armour and tanks are being produced. I don’t know what the intention of the base is and I don’t know if this behaviour has accelerated the depletion of human resources. I can only hope that the base has far-reaching intentions.

During this catastrophe, I was unfortunately infected with deadly bacteria. At the end of my life, I still feel endless panic about the future of the base so I chose to be buried here with Mr Kang, waiting for the next generation of engineers to report the safety.

May you have a bright future.”

Sincerely.

Salute.

September 2052.”

Next came the third urn with an epitaph.

“To Mr Kang Jinglan, Ms Liao Pingan and to the latecomers:

I am Yang Ye, head of the Northern Base’s underground ventilation system maintenance team. The ventilation system is overhauled every six months and the overall maintenance is performed every two years. It is currently operating in perfect condition.

I have to tell my two predecessors that in this era, the ventilation system no longest exists as one of the countless infrastructures of the base but has played a brilliant role in protecting humans. 2053 was the beginning of a global biological variation. The human base took the military as the main force while civilian mercenaries are an assisting force as we plunged into a grand defense war. In the absence of resources and industrial construction capacity, the solid military power and weapons left to us by the previous generation played an unimaginable role, ensuring the safety of the remaining humans. The ventilation system has been transformed into one of the fortifications of the main city to protect people from the invasion of monsters.