Chapter 557.
Chapter 557 Contact
“Until we have more information, we can’t hastily do a destructive examination of this mass-especially after confirming that there’s a living heart inside it.”
Ted Reel said as he opened his large, heavy book and retracted the “stethoscope” back into the pages, a complex expression on his face that always wore a tired look.
“Frankly speaking, this is really the strangest ‘thing’ I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ve seen a lot of unnameable things that invade the real world, but a ball of metal with a heartbeat isn’t that common, and it’s so …… quiet.”
“Quiet?” Lucrecia heard and subconsciously frowned.
“Yes, quiet, almost human,” Ted Riel nodded, “As you can see, its ‘shell’ is nearly solidified, and according to the field team, it had just entered the real world when it still had a short period of intense activity when it first entered the real world, but quickly changed toward this ‘solidified’ state, in addition to which it has shown no ‘active traits’ such as attempting to escape internment, contaminating its watchers, resisting outside prying eyes, or anything of the sort… …”
This Secret Keeper said, slowly shaking his head, “This is quite an anomaly among ‘living’ ‘foreign objects’ – attempting to break out of internment is a common feature of all ‘living fey”s greatest traits.”
Lucrecia didn’t say anything else for a while, but Nina on the side gradually showed a thoughtful expression, and not knowing what all was associated with it, she suddenly spoke, “Giving off a feeling as if it’s ‘alive and unlovable’?”
“That’s an interesting …… point of view, although I don’t think this mass of living metal would react in such a human way,” Ted Riel raised his eyelids and glanced at Nina, but apparently didn’t really take the whimsical idea to heart,. “I’m leaning more towards the idea that it is unable to adapt to our real-world existence, but it may gradually adapt over time, and in time it may even have an uptick in activity.”
“Tell me about the situation at the bazaar at that time,” Duncan suddenly broke the silence at this point, his gaze falling on Nina and Sherry, “Nina, you said when you contacted me that at that time, you and Sherry felt an inexplicable prying and were about to report the matter to the guardsmen at the side of the road, when this ‘thing’ just appeared out of nowhere?”
“Uh-huh,” Nina instantly nodded her head repeatedly and spoke up while recalling the situation, “Sherry and I felt several times that there was sight falling on us from time to time and there was also an aura that kept approaching, and I felt that it should be this thing- -Then it waited until Sherry and I were ready to go to someone to report it before it couldn’t resist pouncing out and ……”
Saying this she suddenly stopped, a very hesitant look on her face, hesitating for several seconds before she frowned while speaking with less certainty: “And there’s a very wrong detail, I don’t know if I’m wrong, when this thing just appeared, in the moment I just saw it out of the corner of my eye, I felt . …I think it was a person.”
Nina’s tone was very hesitant, while what she said instantly silenced the room, even Ted Riel, who had been acting tired and lethargic all along, immediately opened his eyes wide, only before he could open his mouth, Shirley, who was the closest to Nina, was the first to call out, “Huh? What did you say? You saw this thing start out like a person? You didn’t tell me that either?”
“There was no mention of it in the field team’s report,” Ted Riel spoke up, his expression unusually serious, “Ms. Nina, are you sure?”
“That’s why I said I don’t know if I misread it,” Nina spoke a little nervously, “The situation at the fairgrounds was chaotic, and there were people running everywhere, so maybe I misread it …… or maybe the guards at the scene Seeing missed? After all, there was only the beginning of a moment ……”
“Unlikely, there are strict ‘standards for documenting the contact process’ in the Guardians’ work guidelines. Since many ‘foreign objects’ do have the ability to rapidly alter themselves or circumvent perception, we will require those performing ‘first contact’ to report the situation with a strict description of the ‘onset of contact’ ‘ and whether each individual’s line of sight shifted during the course of the operation to confirm whether there was ever a ‘window of observation’ of the target by the entire team ……”
Ted Reel briefly explained the guidelines for the “Knowledge Guards”, and then shook his head, “According to the field team’s report, they made contact with the target the moment it entered the real world, and at least two of the Guardsmen were in visual contact with the target before it appeared, and throughout the contact, there was a shift in vision. There was also at least one person who had visualized it throughout the entire contact process, there is no possibility of creating a ‘window of opportunity’.”
As soon as his words left his mouth, Duncan, who was on the sidelines, suddenly broke the silence, “But I believe what Nina said.”
Ted Reel was stunned and seemed to react, “…… What do you mean?”
“At least in Nina’s perspective, this ‘intruder’ looked like a human being at one of the first moments,” Duncan said lightly, then glanced at Sherry, “You’ve been with Nina the whole time, you didn’t see that scene that, right?”
“No,” Sherry immediately shook her head, “I didn’t see it ‘look like a person’.”
“Because a different observer caused different ‘forms’ to be observed on the same target?” Ted Reel’s eyes visibly changed as he looked at Nina with a mixture of wonder and thought, “And only Ms. Nina saw it differently from those around her …… Why is that?”
He seemed to have developed a great curiosity, and his gaze soon fell on Duncan, “Is there anything special about Ms. Nina?”
The “Secret Keeper” looked quite puzzled, he did not know the details of Nina, after all, without actively activating the “spiritual vision” to observe, Nina to outsiders appear to be an ordinary seventeen-year-old girl – but there is no doubt that this “secret keeper” is not a “secret keeper”, but the “secret keeper” is not a “secret keeper”. -But there was no doubt that there was something special about this “ordinary girl”.
Just the fact that she had stayed on Duncan Abnormale’s ship.
“Ever heard of the ‘Black Sunfall’ incident in Prand? If you have, then you should know that the Lost Country took a fragment of a part of the Ancient Sun with it when it left that city,” Duncan said, lifting a finger to point at Nina, “and she is.”
He then paid no attention to Ted Riel’s expression, which brightened up for a moment, but refocused on Nina, “Remember what the ‘person’ you saw at first looked like?”
Nina immediately tried to recall, and after a while finally spoke, “It looked as if it was a person wearing strange ancient armor, just the kind that appears in history books, like a tin can of armor …… Oh, there was also a tattered scarf, or a short cape? I’m not sure of too many details because I saw it for a split second ……” She said this paused for a moment, and then added: “Because of the helmet, the armor looks thick and heavy, I don’t know what the person in the armor looks like, I don’t even know if it’s a man or a woman, but I can feel that the armor is tattered and tattered, as if it has already been through a lot of battles.”
“A warrior in ancient armor ……” muttered Lucrecia from the sidelines, thinking quickly and asking a question as well, “Then how did this ‘person’ ‘ How did it turn into a mass of living metal? Did you see this process?”
“No,” Nina shook her head, “It was like that for a split second, there didn’t seem to be a gradual process of change …… Or maybe I blinked? I’m sorry I can’t remember ……”
“That’s good enough to remember, you provided very critical and important information.” Duncan said, comforting Nina, who seemed a bit lost, and then turned around and walked over to the platform that housed the “samples”.
He looked at the solidified mass of living metal with a serious expression on his face, organizing the information he had so far.
At the first moment, the “ta” seemed to be a warrior wearing heavy ancient armor, and the armor was worn out and battle-hardened.
Nina had felt the sight of her own body several times, and had the feeling that she was being tracked, which meant that it was probably coming for her, or …… probably for the “Ancient Sun”.
The marketplace is crowded with people, but when Nina first felt the sight and sense of being tracked, no one noticed anything unusual, which means that the “TA” either has some kind of cognitive scrambling ability, or it is from the spirit world, such as the deep world of the “submerged” into the reality! ……
Duncan slowly reached out and pressed his hand on the surface of the “metal”.
A cold, hard touch came from his fingertips.
It was as if he could feel the heart buried deep within the metal, the slow beat, and the low heartbeat.
It was alive, “alive” in a way that humans could not understand.
It seemed to have had some kind of purpose, but in the last step of its action, something went wrong – it emerged from hiding and jumped at Nina and Shirley, but not in order to become such a solidified mass of metal in the last step.
Ted Ryer watched Duncan’s actions with some nervousness, and then he subconsciously turned his gaze to the Witch.
Lucrecia simply shook her head, signaling not to interfere.
A small green spark appeared at Duncan’s fingertips.
He carefully controlled this bit of flame, not to let it ignite this piece of metal in front of him, which seems to belong to the category of “transcendent”, and he controlled the flame to penetrate into the inner part of this piece of metal, and sensed the flow of life in it, and its heartbeat, as well as the possible existence of …… The thought of the heartbeat and its possible existence.
However, in response to him, there was only a great emptiness and a hazy and confusing “touch”.
There didn’t seem to be any information that could be “deciphered” within this mass of metal.
But for some reason, Duncan always felt that there was something else in the depths of that empty and hazy and chaotic touch – it was not that he could not find it, he just could not “understand” it for the time being.
“…… Who are you?” He couldn’t help but ask softly in his mind, “Where are you from?”
After an unknown amount of time, the vast emptiness was always there, yet a ripple seemed to suddenly appear in the faint message coming back from the flame.
It was as if Duncan heard a voice, or an “idea”, floating in his mind–
“We are trekking toward the end.”
(End of chapter)