Deep Sea Embers - Chapter 558

[Chapter 556 It’s alive]

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” or a pollution carrier of similar danger like Alice.

Anomalies of this level share a common 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 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: “You can come here for a walk when you stay in Qingfeng Port.” “

Oh?” Duncan was a little surprised, “Other city-states were eager for me to leave when they first dealt with me. Far away, a place like the Central Cathedral is heavily guarded at the first moment. Why did you take the initiative to invite me here?” Ted raised his finger and

pointed to the quiet corridor: “You are here, I can have a holiday.”

Duncan: “…?”

However, the “Keeper of the Truth” in front of him didn’t care about the subtle reactions of others after his words. He just mentioned it 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 has always been like this.” ? I mean… this kind of resentment that seems to have been overdue for a lifetime.”

Lucretia also lowered her voice: “Your Excellency Ted is leading the graduating class recently.”

Duncan was stunned when he heard this: “…City-State The leader of the guardians is still responsible for doing this? I remember that Vanna did not have similar additional work when she was a judge.” “God-

given power is closely related to the words and deeds of believers. It is Lachem’s responsibility to study and spread knowledge. It is a necessary process for believers to ‘perform the sacraments’, so the entire priest system of the Academy of Truth is structured in the form of an ‘academy’. The superior priests must serve as mentors to teach students. The higher the level, the heavier and more difficult the teaching tasks are – therefore, the truth is kept secret You have 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 it. He raised his head and took 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 came to the mind of the secret keeper –

this man who had lost his memory due to the influence of subspace and who was just like a stranger to him just now “Captain Duncan”, why are the eyes looking here suddenly filled with inexplicable understanding, nostalgia and sympathy?

After a brief moment of 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… Just as the black and the silvery white were attracting her, a feeling of being separated from her body arose 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 Are there people to guard you?”

“There are people to guard at necessary points, but the fewer people around each containment room, the better.” Ted Leal glanced at the curious girl and explained casually, ” Because some ‘abnormalities’ are capable of psychological parasitism and mind-jumping, too many guards near the containment room will make it possible for those things to break through containment.” “

For the vast majority of ‘abnormalities’ 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 can keep certain anomalies quiet for several years, but one Extra ‘people’ may cause invisible and immaterial forces to break through containment, so the core areas of many sealing facilities have the fewest people, and many sealing measures take effect automatically when no one is around.” “Those arranged in the core

area The guards outside are not so much to deal with the monsters inside, but more to deal with external intrusions and prevent anyone from coming in and destroying the containment conditions.” Ted Leal nodded and reached out to press the door of the sample containment room. On the top, with a soft “click” sound coming from nowhere, the door opened. “But… the sample sent in this time is really the most special one I have ever seen. I’m not even sure.” Should it be placed in the sample holding 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, oil lamps with special grease and gas lamps on the walls. There were so many that it was surprising, and other than that, there were no extra furnishings or furniture in the room. There was only a square platform in the center, and the weird… “sample” was 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’ll 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 and don’t react in any way to its ‘cry for help.'”

The caretaker 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 taking off the shackles for a certain period of time, the person wearing the shackles cannot speak, and can imprison and restrain a selected entity in front of him during the wearing period. 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 with a mysterious origin.”

Lucretia muttered softly, looking up at the seemingly peaceful group of people on the platform in the center of the room. A strange “substance” with an iron-gray metallic sheen.

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 wriggled and undulated like some kind of mollusk, and then quickly solidified again. It has become like this, and on its smooth “skin”, you can occasionally see some angular protrusions. Those protruding structures give people the feeling…as if something is about to emerge from this mass of “matter

” It seemed as if it had broken free from inside.

“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. , has been reduced to this point – 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 stretched out his fingers to lightly Tap lightly.

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 –

pop, pop, pop…

“It has a heartbeat,” Ted Leal raised his head, “Inside this mass of metal, there is one that is still alive. heart.”

(End of chapter)