Chapter 2403 The Song <TOC> Chapter 2405 Mirror Corridor
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Translator: SumTLMan
“So, in the eyes of Wizard Nisi, my soul is actually quite fragile?” Angel slowly turned his head, staring at Nisi.
Because he couldn’t see Angel’s expression through the Authority Eye, Nisi couldn’t immediately tell if Angel was being sarcastic or genuinely asking.
After thinking for a moment, Nisi said, “Your soul possesses a very special nature, even immune to a large part of soul attacks. But, can you really control this special ability yourself?”
Angel remained silent, the answer self-evident.
Nisi briefly touched upon the special nature of Angel’s soul And then said no more, as this after all involved some secrets of Angel, and even of Phantom Island.
“Your soul has great potential, and might become one of your foundations in combat in the future, but before that, what you need to do is to study it, nurture it, to avoid it being breached by those proficient in soul attacks when it is vulnerable,” Nisi said. “And Soul Armor, might, for a time, provide protection for your soul.”
Angel still did not make a sound, but his mind was already slightly inclined.
“So, when we go to the third level exhibition room later, don’t just bury yourself in studying the magic formation, pick one first,” Canter suggested.
Angel pondered, “Soul Armor… requires further in-depth research.”
Although Angel did not agree directly, his reply had already expressed his attitude. He had previously been indifferent to Soul Armor, but now that he wanted to study it deeply, it indicated he had developed an interest.
Nisi said, “Of course, it’s necessary to first study whether there are any disadvantages, otherwise, I wouldn’t transplant it lightly. This is related to the soul.”
Seeing the change in Angel’s interest in Soul Armor, Nisi and Canter then began to introduce Angel to some transplantable organ types that were relatively simple and would not enter an internal cycle on their way.
Thus, as they introduced these concepts, they followed the direction of the rune conduits and arrived at a tightly closed door.
“Is the sub-control node laid out in the open this time, no need to go through the winding corridors anymore?” Nisi asked, looking at the door.
Angel shook his head, “The runes point here, but inside is probably not the final destination of the sub-control node.”
What Angel meant was that the sub-control node might be elsewhere, not through the normal corridors, but through this room as a transfer to other places.
Nisi nodded in understanding, he didn’t just push the door and enter, but turned his head to look at Reynolds, “Do you know what place is inside?”
Reynolds seemed to recall something, his expression a bit ugly, and after a long time, he finally said, “Inside is… a medical center.”
“Are there any traps?”
Reynolds replied, “No, just pull the door outward to enter.”
“No traps, yet a medical center, why the ugly face?” Nisi was somewhat puzzled, he shook his head with a sigh, and directly pulled open the door.
Upon the door’s opening, just as the exhibition room suggested, a copious amount of white frost mist spilled out.
The cold air penetrated the nostrils, chilling the brain with a slight sting.
After a considerable moment, as the frosty air gradually dispersed, everyone looked inside and was momentarily stunned.
There were many people inside.
However, they were not alive but were dead bodies soaked in pure cold liquid, suspended within nearly a hundred transparent glass columns.
These corpses floated in the cold liquid, each preserving the exact moment of their demise. Some died in their human form, but many others underwent mutations in certain parts of their bodies, transforming into terrifying monsters. For instance, some were covered in green slime, others were all tentacles, and some had their abdomens swollen with bulging veins… Just the sight of these abnormal forms was enough to make the average person sick with fear.
These preserved dead, all shared a common feature: on the left side of their faces was an ‘x’ tattoo, while the right side bore a number that varied greatly, some were in the hundreds, others in the tens, and still others… in the single digits.
At this moment, Reynolds stood beside a corpse marked with a single-digit number on its right face.
Her number was x7, and she maintained a human form, appearing quite mature and beautiful, at least fitting Nisi’s taste in women. However, her body was severed from the waist down, disappearing without a trace.
“…She was ‘Yan’,” Reynolds began, his voice a mix of narration and a soft whisper. “We were on a mission to clean up deserters when she and a deserter perished together, and I… survived. She had been ** by the laboratory too, but it seems she had a realization before her death. She envied me for having a name that many recognized and agreed with its meaning. She had a wish to also have a name that could be acknowledged, even if only for a second.”
“So, in the moment before her death, I named her ‘Yan.’ The meaning of this name is a flower that wilts before it blooms.”
Reynolds bowed his head, as if confessing or whispering to himself: “It’s precisely because of this incident that I’m keen on naming my companions. Like ‘Tooth’, ‘Scythe’, ‘Rin’, and ‘Song’ that I mentioned earlier, all were named based on their characteristics by me…”
Reynolds paused noticeably here, perhaps wanting to say: However, it seems they don’t recognize it.
Awakened subjects like “Yan” were rare. Perhaps others would awaken just before death, but what use was that?
As everyone listened to Reynolds’ story, although it wasn’t as dramatic or tragic as one might imagine, more like a side character’s tale in a novel that could be briefly mentioned, it helped them understand something.
Why was Reynolds so determined to erase the soul body’s serial markings, even willing to ally with Nausica to break into the laboratory and steal data?
Because what he sought was himself.
This ‘self’ was not just a name but a kind of idealistic ‘I’.
Only by finding this ‘I’ could he truly let go of the past and step onto the path of the future, in search of the… freedom he longed for.
To him, this was more important than anything else, even more valuable than life itself.
In this world, everyone has their own story, even the seemingly insignificant individuals during grand epochs have their pasts. This is the story of Reynolds, whose experiences, though not necessarily relatable to everyone, have at least begun to be understood by those around him in terms of his beliefs.
Due to Reynolds’ narration, the atmosphere turned slightly somber.
It wasn’t until a “click” sound echoed that everyone snapped back to reality.
When Reynolds looked up, he noticed that Nisi, Canter, and even the bone armor knight had disappeared.
Upon closer inspection, he saw Nisi moving swiftly around a series of glass columns, while Canter stood in the distance, seemingly preoccupied with something.
After a few seconds, Nisi stopped in front of one of the glass columns.
Reynolds, curious, approached.
“What’s happened, lord?” Reynolds asked respectfully.
Nisi pointed at the person encased within the glass column in front of them and asked, “Who is this?”
Reynolds looked up to see a man whose upper body was severely charred. At first glance, he seemed similar to the others encased in the surrounding columns, but a closer examination revealed a difference in the numerical sequence on his face compared to the others. While the others had an ‘x’ on the left side of their face and a number on the right, this man had a ‘2’ on the left and a ‘3’ on the right.
“Number 23! How could it be him!” Reynolds exclaimed. “What’s he doing here? Isn’t he a doctor from the research center? Why would he die here?”
“Die?” Nisi scoffed. “This guy isn’t dead.”
As Nisi finished speaking, the man in front of them suddenly opened his eyes, his murky brown irises fixating on Nisi.
“This glass column isolates the aura. We didn’t notice at first and thought all were dead here. But this guy made some noise just now, or else we might have never discovered him,” Nisi explained.
Reynolds realized that the “click” sound he had heard earlier was made by Number 23.
“Ha ha ha ha, cough——” The man identified as number 23 attempted to laugh wildly to express his defiance, but the cold liquid in the glass column turned his laughter into gurgling sounds, and he choked.
After a while, he caught his breath.
He had learned his lesson and stopped laughing, but his sinister expression remained: “Number 1, I didn’t expect you to end up like this… You should, like the other subjects, quietly stay here. This is where you belong.”
Reynolds snorted: “You’re the one in a cage now. This is your fate, not mine.”
Number 23’s gaze remained fixed on Reynolds: “It won’t be long before you join me…”
His words gave Reynolds an ominous premonition: “What do you mean?”
Number 23 smirked wickedly: “You’ll find out soon enough… Heh heh heh…”
Reynolds, looking worried, turned to Nisi, who remained silent, seemingly waiting for something.
After a few seconds, Canter approached from a distance.
Canter spoke with the mental connection, opening the conversation directly: “He must have activated some switch just now, intending to send a message to others.”
That “click” sound was the noise of the switch being pressed.
Since the act was already discovered, Number 23 no longer hid his intentions. Covering his throat, which ached from coughing, he endured the discomfort and said, “Even if you know, it doesn’t matter. Soon, the Enforcer Numbers and the Hunt and Kill Numbers will arrive, and then you’ll be finished, ha ha ha…”
“Is that so?” Nisi sneered coldly. “Unfortunately, your expectation will soon be shattered. The Enforcer Numbers, those are your combat personnel, right? They have all gone to the Nest, it seems you are not aware. This includes three formal wizards from your laboratory. Oh, Number 03 didn’t go, but she has already been locked in a flame cage.”
“As for the Hunt and Kill Numbers, those mechanical puppets that aren’t even qualified to scratch our itch, what can they do to us? Of course, if you had enough authority, you might also know about the top 5 numbers of the Hunt and Kill Numbers, but unfortunately, they are in the control nodes of the magic formation, and they won’t appear unless triggered.”
Nisi’s words stunned Number 23. He didn’t know whether Nisi was telling the truth, but Nisi could point out the location of the top 5 numbers of the Hunt and Kill Numbers, so there might be a greater possibility of it being true?
Number 23 glared at Nisi with his cold eyes. Being a doctor and researcher at the medical center, he was not familiar with the Wizarding World of the Southern Region and did not recognize Nisi. However, from Nisi’s composed demeanor and disrespectful remarks about Number 03, it was evident that Nisi’s strength was not inferior, possibly even comparable to Number 03.
That is to say, the opponent might be a formal wizard.
With this thought, Number 23’s expression grew even uglier. Regardless of whether Nisi’s words were true, the intrusion of a formal wizard into the laboratory was definitely not a minor incident!
“Whether what you say is true or false, even if they are not here, you cannot escape. The noble, great, invincible existence is still slumbering. Once your threat is confirmed, he will awaken and punish you with divine might!”
Number 23’s speech started normally but now carried a hint of madness, like a fanatic of a dark god.
However, his act came to an abrupt end with Canter’s words.
Canter: “The button you used to send the message is under your foot, right? There, it’s connected to a disrupted rune block that bypasses all the glass columns and transmits through that white metal door to the control node. Then, by the feedback of the magic formation, it alerts others to this location, right?”
Number 23 responded in disbelief: “How did you know?”
Canter smiled slightly: “Of course… I understand runes. By the way, your message transmission has already been intercepted.”
Number 23 shook his head vigorously: “That’s impossible!”
Canter shrugged indifferently: “Nothing is impossible in this world. If you don’t believe me, try pressing the button under your foot again.”
After hesitating for a moment, Number 23 did as Canter suggested and pressed the button under his foot, but just as Canter said… there was no response.
“Now you understand your situation. Alright, next, I’ll ask and you’ll answer.”
Number 23 was reluctant and wanted to refuse, but suddenly, a pattern of the sun and moon appeared in Canter’s eyes. As Number 23 gazed at this pattern, his eyes gradually became blurry, and he was on the verge of being hypnotized.
However, just as Number 23’s thoughts began to stiffen, he suddenly bit the tip of his tongue. As the blood from his tongue tip dispersed in the cold liquid, it seemed to activate some switch. A tadpole-shaped pattern suddenly appeared on his forehead, emitting a burst of red light, followed by a scream from Number 23, who then bowed his head.
The crowd: “…”
Reynolds said, “He seems to have died.”
Nisi confirmed, “It’s not ‘seems’; he is indeed dead. That symbol just now was a script from the Qwest World… He broke the hypnosis forcibly, but the price was his life.”
Canter, looking at the deceased Number 23, had nothing more to say, only turning to give Reynolds a deep look, “The depth of your laboratory’s influence is quite profound.”
Number 23 clearly held a deep commitment to the laboratory, even preferring to commit suicide rather than reveal any information.
This made Canter somewhat puzzled.
If the laboratory’s influence was so successful, could Reynolds truly maintain his true self?
Of course, Canter was not doubting Reynolds, at least for now. Reynolds didn’t seem to have too many suspicious points on him, nor did he show signs of being influenced.
Canter was thinking about something else: Why didn’t the laboratory influence Reynolds?
This question led back to a previous issue. The consecutive ambushes were all targeted at Reynolds.
Reynolds, evidently, held a special status in the eyes of the laboratory’s higher-ups.
Nisi also thought of this but didn’t say it out loud. However, he did have a thought: during the negotiation with Number 03, Reynolds never showed his face. If Reynolds had appeared, perhaps Number 03 would have adopted a different approach instead of passively hiding in the core of the Wave Mechanism.
However, whether it was good or bad for Reynolds to show his face remained unknown. But the current situation was at least under control.
As Nisi was thinking this, Canter was hurriedly heading out.
“We need to find the third level’s sub-control node quickly, or we won’t be able to control it anymore!” Canter said urgently.
Nisi was stunned, “What?” What does that mean?
Canter explained, “It’s not that easy to intercept information transmission. Just now, following Angel’s advice, I suppressed the rate of information transmission. But with my level of rune mastery, this suppression will soon fail. To completely solve the problem of information being transmitted to various levels, we must immediately find the sub-control node and control the information transmission block there!”
Nisi felt a sudden chill in his heart, understanding Canter’s meaning. If the information here was known to others, the consequences would be very serious!
Perhaps the retrieval of items from the display room would be blocked, which would mean his gains would be lost! Of course, that wasn’t the most important thing. The most crucial issue was that the laboratory’s personnel might, in an attempt to catch the intruders, cut off the external corridors, turning the third level into an isolated island with no exit. They would be unable to leave unless they destroyed the magic formation. But such a large-scale magic formation wouldn’t be easy to destroy and could easily backlash.
Now, there was indeed only one way: to quickly find the sub-control node and stop the information transmission!