Chapter 2376 Number <TOC> Chapter 2378 Parting of the Sea
Translator: SumTLMan
Angel, serving as one of the special judges for the Novastar Competition, was quite familiar with Reynolds’ level of combat.
Although the gossip magazines that discuss Reynolds’ matches often focus on “luck,” this is merely a bias of public opinion. Readers are drawn to sensational stories, and straightforward combat narratives are naturally less intriguing than John’s Comeback.
However, with a bit of careful thought, it becomes clear that if Reynolds relied solely on luck, he would not be able to consistently stand on the stage of the Novastar Competition.
Reynolds himself possesses a considerable combat ability.
Even in terms of hand-to-hand combat, he is not much weaker than Nausica. Although his final ranking was not very high, there were some unavoidable objective factors involved.
Reynolds dared not, and could not, use Soul Armor in the competition, and much of Reynolds’ combat system revolves around Soul Armor, without it, his strength is halved.
With the use of Soul Armor, Angel believed that he could make it into the top ten of the Novastar Competition.
To draw a comparison, if Reynolds fought at full strength, he could be in the top ten, while those in the top 30 in the laboratory are stronger than him… This means that the top 30 individuals, in the current era, excluding formal wizards, have already reached the pinnacle of the wave stirred by the extraordinary.
Although they are only wizard apprentices, the organization behind the cultivation of so many powerful top apprentices should not be underestimated.
“Has the strength of Number 30 already reached the peak of apprentices?” Nisi pondered for a moment and asked Reynolds, “Are there any among them who have reached the level of a formal wizard?”
“Yes,” Reynolds affirmed. “Number 03, Number 02, and Number 01, although I have never seen their strength firsthand, the attitudes of other Numbered individuals towards them, as well as various other signs, indicate that they have reached the level of formal wizards.”
Nisi frowned slightly: “There are three formal wizards, which indicates a considerable depth of strength. However, if they are formal wizards, they shouldn’t be so unknown… Do they have official nicknames or names?”
Reynolds shook his head: “Perhaps they do, but I am not aware. Internally, we refer to each other by Numbers.”
“What do they look like?”
Reynolds shook his head again: “They always wear hoods, and I have never had close contact with them while awake… I only know that apart from Number 03, who is female, the other two are male.”
He had been in close contact with them on the experimental table when he was used as a live experiment, but by the time he was laid on the experimental table, he essentially lost the ability to think normally and could not remember their appearances.
Nisi said, “Three formal wizards with unknown faces. Could they be local wizards from the Southern Region? Or are they from other places… Or perhaps, Numbers 01, 02, and 03 are just their private identities, and they have other identities in public?”
Unable to deduce their identities, Nisi could only temporarily let it go and signaled Reynolds to continue.
“Besides these three, there’s another area that might require attention,” Reynolds hesitated for over ten seconds before speaking up. “This is something I heard from Number 11.”
Reynolds briefly introduced Number 11.
He was one of the few gentle types in the laboratory, or at least, he appeared to be gentle on the surface, showing a relatively friendly attitude towards their kind, the test subjects.
Number 11 had a well-known hobby; he had absolutely no resistance to manna algae powder.
Thus, they, the tool-like beings starting with the letter ‘x’, often bribed Number 11 with manna algae powder to learn about the recent mission trends and which missions were more challenging so they could avoid them early on.
After inhaling the manna algae powder, Number 11 would become like a drunk person, hardly able to keep his mouth shut, often revealing many secrets.
Once, Reynolds learned a secret about the laboratory from an ‘high’ Number 11.
——Above Number 01, there was a Number 00.
“This was directly from Number 11’s mouth, but he seemed to regret speaking as soon as he had finished, immediately shutting up. No matter how we asked, he wouldn’t speak again.”
Reynolds: “This is the first time I’ve heard of a Number 00. I had never seen it before.”
“Number 00 sounds like a secretive existence,” Nisi murmured softly.
“Whether Number 00 really exists, I’m not sure. However, if there really is a Number 00, they must not be in the laboratory.”
Reynolds had lived in the laboratory for decades and had seen all the numbers, both from afar and up close, but there definitely was no Number 00. If it weren’t for accidentally hearing Number 11 mention it, he wouldn’t have thought in that direction.
“If Number 00 really exists, judging by the division of strength, they might be the strongest among all the numbered individuals,” Nisi looked towards Angel. “Regardless, we should still be cautious, lest we face unexpected setbacks because of our negligence.”
Angel nodded, committing the situation regarding Number 00 to memory, then inquired about some of the higher-numbered individuals. However, Reynolds knew very little, and those with higher numbers rarely showed themselves, making it impossible to gather information, so they had to give up.
As they conversed, time moved on to noon.
“It’s time,” Angel closed the case of his pocket watch. “Now, let’s see if the currents really do change.”
While speaking, Angel extended his mental power tendrils beyond the barrier, using the tendrils’ swaying in the gentle waves to sense the changes in the ocean currents.
However, at this moment, the mental power tendrils swayed left and right like the long brown algae at the bottom of the sea.
From a macro perspective, ocean currents have a general direction, but when focusing on a specific area, the currents can become extremely chaotic, shifting unpredictably. In Angel’s imagination, the direction of the currents is represented by individual arrows, pointing in all directions at this moment, swaying like dancing ribbons, making it impossible to determine their exact course.
Angel shared this observation, and Reynolds responded, “This is a normal phenomenon, don’t worry. The changes in the currents around the laboratory location are very distinct and unaffected by these details.”
“As long as it appears, it will definitely be perceivable.”
Seeing Reynolds’ confident assertion, Angel felt it somewhat contradicted natural laws but then thought… discussing natural laws in the Devil’s Sea, isn’t that a joke?
Moreover, this place belongs to the Devil’s Sea’s forbidden zone——the Mist Belt.
Any abnormal phenomenon could occur here. Since Reynolds was so certain, it was best to wait and see.
Everyone fell silent, each waiting for the changes in the currents in their own way.
As time ticked by without any change in the currents, the quiet atmosphere was broken… by Dangros.
Dangros didn’t speak but kept fidgeting, making rustling noises.
When Angel turned to look, it immediately stopped. When Angel looked away, it resumed, as if deliberately making noise to assert its presence.
Eventually, Toby grew impatient and called out to Dangros, who was hanging on the Blood Night Sanctuary.
“Chirp chirp——”
Facing Toby, Dangros was the epitome of a fawning dog: “Lord Toby, do you have any commands for me?”
However, Dangros and Toby naturally had a language barrier, and Dangros couldn’t understand Toby at all.
Angel had to translate for Toby: “It’s warmly greeting you. What were you fidgeting with earlier?”
Of course, Toby’s “warm” greeting was politely embellished by Angel in the translation.
Dangros hesitated before saying, “I was just…”
Before Dangros could finish stammering out his response, a buzzing sound suddenly came from afar. Angel immediately gestured for Dangros to be silent and listened intently.
The buzzing sound was not from sea beasts but from the sea itself, a humming of the ocean.
“It’s coming! It’s here!” Reynolds also floated up, excitedly shouting towards the direction of the buzzing sound.
As his voice fell, a huge shadow appeared in the distance, rapidly approaching their location.
At first, Angel thought it was the purple beast returning with the buzzing sound, but upon closer inspection, realized that the shadows were not living creatures. Or rather, they were not entirely sea creatures but a special phenomenon of flying sand and stones formed by various sand and gravel particles lifted and rolled in with the Turbulent Currents.
As the dark shadows surged forward, the flying sand accompanied by the delicate ephemera creatures rushed towards them.
“So this is the current,” Angel mused in the dark, no wonder Reynolds said that the direction of the laboratory could be determined by the current; it was indeed too conspicuous.
“Let’s go.” Angel maintained the barrier, advancing against the mad onrush of the waves.
The current ran wild at the bottom of the sea, leaving nothing but dust in its wake, and the corals were shattered all over the place, as if a hurricane had passed through.
Above the surface of the sea, it also formed wave after wave of huge waves.
It looked very crazy and very dangerous.
But for Angel and the others, such a scene was really nothing, even in terms of danger, it was not as much as the reverse sea wall that Angel had encountered before.
They quickly moved in the direction from which the current attacked.
In the process, they inevitably encountered some sea beasts that were washed over by the current, but these sea beasts couldn’t even withstand the current, let alone pose a threat to Angel and his companions.
The howling current lasted for a good ten minutes before it began to calm down slightly.
However, even if the sea surface became relatively calm, the undersea currents were still turbulent, continuing to point them in the right direction.
After about half an hour of turmoil, they arrived at a chaotic reef area full of dust.
“I seem to remember this terrain; we should not be far from the laboratory now,” said Nausica, who, through the faint light of the barrier, saw the general environment around them and thus made a certain judgment.
After Nausica finished speaking, she looked towards Reynolds, seeking his agreement. However, Reynolds appeared somewhat absent-minded.
“Reynolds, what’s wrong?” Nausica asked.
It took a while for Reynolds to come back to his senses: “Nothing, I… I was just thinking, we are already very close to the laboratory, but I still ** no sense of it.”
Reynolds looked into the distance, as if through the murky seawater, he saw that steel and machinery-filled undersea laboratory: “I’m starting to wonder, is my body really in the laboratory?”
Reynolds’ question inevitably made everyone think of the two ** hints previously given in the Wilderness of Dreams by Witch Maya.
“Your physical body is in a cold environment, possibly even frozen. This freezing is beneficial rather than harmful to your physical body.”
“Around your physical body, I heard the chatter of humans.”
Based on their speculation about the two ** hints, Reynolds’ body should have been rescued by someone, and it is very likely that Reynolds’ body is in a scene similar to a “healing ice coffin.”
It is precisely because of such speculation, and there are ** human settlements nearby, that they unanimously believe that Reynolds’ body must have been picked up by the laboratory. After all, the only environment in the known areas of the Mist Belt that perfectly meets the two ** hints is the laboratory.
Now, they were extremely close to the laboratory. Given the natural attraction of the physical body to the soul, Reynolds should have felt a vague sense of presence. However, the reality was that Reynolds still felt no perception, which was quite strange.
“Perhaps, there are runes in the laboratory that interfere with perception,” Nausica suggested.
Reynolds replied, “If that’s the case, then it’s not too bad.”
The real fear was that they might have guessed wrong, and Reynolds’ physical body was not in the laboratory at all.
Shaking his head, Reynolds temporarily set aside his worries. Regardless of whether his body was in the laboratory, he had to visit it to remove the soul’s imprint.
Everything would be addressed once he arrived at the laboratory.
Reynolds perked up, looked around, and said to everyone, “We are about to enter the patrol area of the guards. We need to be careful.”
“Although there are no guards nearby, some sea beasts are used for patrolling. These sea beasts are not to be underestimated.”
As he said this, Reynolds sighed softly, “If only we hadn’t been discovered by the monster left by Number 17 at that time, we could have followed the usual patterns of the grazing sea beasts, avoided their routes in advance, and sneaked into the laboratory.”
“Now that they are on alert, they will definitely change the paths of the sea beasts. It will be difficult to infiltrate without alarming them.”
Just as Reynolds finished speaking, a cold snort was heard: “Who told you it’s difficult?”
The speaker was Nisi, who glanced at Reynolds and said, “That’s because you’re not strong enough. If you really want to hide from the sea beasts, there are plenty of ways.”
Nisi was about to demonstrate a soul-based concealment ability, but before he could act, a ripple of air appeared around them. Then, their shapes, scents, and all remaining pheromones vanished.
Even the faint glow of their barriers was hidden.
“This is… an illusion.”
The caster was undoubtedly Angel.
Nisi was about to complain, but he saw that Angel was paying him no attention, looking straight ahead.
Hesitating for a moment, Nisi followed Angel’s gaze.
With the naked eye, nothing could be seen but darkness and dust.
However, through the vibrations of the water, Nisi clearly sensed a not-so-small creature swimming towards their direction…