The corridor of the underground archives fell into silence.
This place is located underground at the highest-level city-state university in Qingfeng Port. Similar to the city-states under the management of the Deep Sea or the Death Church, this place is equivalent to the central cathedral of the entire city - the "sealed artifacts" that can be contained in such a place are of course very special.
Ordinary, at least it must be one of the top 100 "abnormalities" like Alice or a pollution carrier with similar dangers.
Anomalies of this level share one characteristic with pollution carriers: characteristics of living creatures.
They may have incredible thinking abilities, the means to communicate with people, and the tendency to move and escape. Regardless of the strength of this "living animal characteristic", they can at least achieve the instinct of seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages - just like
Just like Alice would instinctively remain honest even though she didn't know Duncan at all.
In short, he has some brains, although not much, but he is afraid of death.
Duncan likes this kind of thinking, which can save a lot of trouble in many cases.
Lucretia glanced here with a hint of awe, while Nina and Shirley first opened their eyes in surprise, and then raised their faces triumphantly - they didn't know what they were so proud of.
of.
Ted Leal was stunned for a moment, and then looked at Duncan with a somewhat complicated look - he was not as fearful as ordinary people, but he was not vigilant or hostile either. He seemed to be thinking about something. After a few seconds,
Then suddenly he said: "When you stay in Qingfeng Port, you can come here more often."
"Oh?" Duncan was a little surprised. "Other city-states wished that I would stay away when they first came into contact with me. Places like the Central Cathedral were heavily guarded immediately. Why did you take the initiative to invite me when I came here?
Already?"
Ted raised his hand and pointed to the quiet corridor: "With you here, I can take a break."
Duncan: "...?"
However, the "Keeper of the Truth" in front of him did not pay attention to the subtle reactions of others after his words. He just said this and continued walking deeper into the corridor.
The others stepped up to follow, but this time Duncan deliberately lagged a few steps behind. He came to Lucretia and asked in a low voice: "I can't remember anything about this 'Secret Keeper'. He is always like this."
?I mean...this kind of resentment that seems to have been working overtime for a lifetime."
Lucretia also lowered her voice: "Your Excellency Ted is leading the graduating class recently."
Duncan was stunned when he heard this: "...the leader of the city-state's defenders is still responsible for doing this? I remember that Vanna didn't have similar extra work when she was the judge."
"God-given power is closely related to the words and deeds of believers. Studying and disseminating knowledge is a necessary process for believers in Lachem to 'perform sacraments'. Therefore, the entire priest system of the Academy of Truth is structured in the form of an 'academy'. The superior priests
You must serve as a mentor to teach students. The higher the level, the heavier and more difficult the teaching task becomes—so, the truth keeper has to lead the graduating class, and it is the most difficult class to lead."
Duncan: "..."
Listening to the wonderful new knowledge Lucretia told him, he couldn't help but feel some strange feelings in his heart, and he couldn't help but raise his head and take a few more glances at the secret keeper not far away.
Ted Leal, who was walking in front, instantly noticed this gaze. He looked back, and a trace of doubt filled the mind of the secret keeper——
Why is this "Captain Duncan" who has lost his memory due to the influence of subspace and who was just like a stranger to him just now, suddenly looking at him with inexplicable understanding, nostalgia and sympathy?
After a brief doubt, Ted Leal shook his head and stopped in front of a door near the end of the corridor.
"This is it, Containment Room No. 24." He raised his hand and pointed at the door in front of him.
This door was painted with many sacred runes. The whole door seemed to be made of black steel, and the surface was inlaid with dots of silver-white metal particles. Shirley looked at the door curiously for a few times, and then she felt as if her eyes were about to be caught by the deep
The black color and the bits of silvery white were drawn in, and a feeling of being separated from the body emerged spontaneously, which scared her so much that she quickly retracted her gaze.
Nina raised her head and looked at the corridor where she came from, and then looked around Sample Containment Room No. 24, frowning slightly with curiosity: "Can't even see a guard here? Such an important and dangerous place, no
Did you arrange for someone to guard it?"
"There are people guarding the necessary nodes, but the fewer people around each containment room, the better." Ted Leal glanced at the curious girl and explained casually, "Because some 'abnormalities' have
The ability of psychological parasitism and mind jumping, as well as too many guards near the containment room, will make it possible for those things to break through containment."
"For most 'anomalies' and contaminants, the correct sealing method is far more important than the number of security guards," Lucretia explained on the side, "A correctly placed stone or metal powder sprinkled on the ground
It can keep certain anomalies quiet for several years, but an extra 'person' may cause invisible and immaterial forces to break through containment. Therefore, the core areas of many sealing facilities have the least number of people, and many sealing measures are based on invisibility.
It takes effect automatically according to human circumstances.”
"Those guards arranged outside the core area are not so much to deal with the monsters inside, but actually more to deal with external intrusions and prevent someone from coming in and destroying the containment conditions," Ted Leal nodded and reached out to press the button.
On the door of the sample storage room, there was a soft "click" sound coming from nowhere, and the door opened. "But... the sample sent in this time is really the most special one I have ever seen."
One, I'm not even sure whether to put it in the sample containment room or somewhere else."
The door opened, and a brightly lit but not very spacious room appeared in front of everyone. The floor and walls of this room were painted with complex and precise sacred symbols, as well as oil lamps with special grease and gas lamps on the walls.
There are surprisingly many, and apart from that, there are no extra furnishings or furniture in the room. There is only a square platform in the center, and the weird... "sample" is placed on the platform.
A priest wearing academic robes, a strange dark mask on his face, and his hands tightly locked with locks was standing next to the platform. He seemed to be the guard of this holding room - when Ted Leal led a group
When people walked into the room, the "guard" with strange locks on his hands looked up, then his eyes fell on Ted and nodded slightly.
"Does the sample show signs of activation?" Ted asked.
The watcher shook his head silently.
"Are there any signs of the shackles being opened?" Ted asked again.
The guard raised his hands, showed the shackles on his hands to the secret keeper, and shook his head.
"Okay, thank you for your hard work. Let's go and rest first." Ted looked relieved and nodded slightly. "I will take over here - remember, put the 'shackles' back on the hands of the 'stone statue' yourself, don't
Try to trade places with the statue without reacting to its 'cry for help'."
The watcher nodded without saying a word, turned and walked out of the room.
"The shackles are part of the Anomaly-087 'Stone Statue'," Ted Leal explained to Duncan and others after the watchers left. "Through a special 'agreement' ceremony, we can borrow it from the 'Stone Statue'
After removing the shackles for a certain period of time, the person wearing the shackles cannot speak, and can be imprisoned during the wearing period, restraining a selected entity in front of him. We usually use it to assist in controlling dangerous items that have just been discovered and whose nature is not yet clear."
"For example... a 'reality intruder' who suddenly appeared in the market and whose origin is mysterious."
Lucretia murmured softly, looking up at the strange "matter" that seemed quiet and glowing with iron-gray metallic luster on the platform in the center of the room.
The thing looked like a ball of cooled and solidified steel, but the outline of the surface still retained a strange softness and smoothness, as if it had once writhed and undulated like some kind of mollusk, and then quickly solidified.
It has become like this, and on its smooth "skin", you can occasionally see some angular protrusions. Those protruding structures give people the feeling...
It was as if something was about to break free from the inside of this mass of "matter".
"These bumps appeared after the sample was sent to the containment chamber," Ted Leal explained on the sidelines. "A few minutes after being sent to the containment chamber, it suddenly showed strong activity again.
, the surface structure has changed a lot. We once thought it would try to break free from the seal here, and even considered sending it to a higher-level containment area, but after those few minutes, its activity dropped off a cliff again.
, it has been reduced to what it is now - almost a piece of hard metal."
"Almost?" Duncan keenly noticed the key point in the other party's wording.
"Yes, almost, because it is actually still 'alive'," Ted Leal nodded. "In the core area of this mass of matter, there is always a weak active 'signal', even if the entire mass of matter has
When it solidifies like this, the core is also moving, you can even hear it——"
As he spoke, the secret keeper opened his magical big book again, opened one of the pages and tapped it lightly with his fingers.
A stethoscope-like device emerged from the air above the page.
Ted Leal casually put the book back under his arm, picked up the "stethoscope" and hung it around his neck, then carefully pressed the other end of the stethoscope on the surface of the "solidified metal".
The next second, a rhythmic sound echoed throughout the room——
Plop, plop, plop...
"It has a heartbeat," Ted Leal raised his head. "Inside this mass of metal, there is a heart that is still alive."