Sword of Dawn

Page 685

And Gao Wen still clearly remembers such a sentence mentioned in the log of the anchor point generator:

If the Anchor Point Generator loses focus or enters some secondary state, the Star Map Custodian's data will be mis-duplicated and overflowed.

An important factor causing the anchor point generator to lose focus is the data contact between the Sentinel system and the "star map keeper".

The sentinel system operates in the deep sea, and originally it would not communicate with the firmament station in the material world, but there is one thing that may have connected the two—the reverse tide pollution many years ago.

It first tried to infect the sky, and then tried to pollute the sentinel after the shadow hall was blocked. During this process, the data isolation between the sentinel and the star map keeper may have been "broken down" by the pollution!

That is to say, the phenomenon of "error copying and overflow of custodian data" mentioned in the log of the anchor point generator should have occurred, and this... could it be the "source" of amber?

A soul wandering in the shadow world, a "false copy" split from the original data of the star map keeper, without memory and power, was inexplicably captured by the magisters of the Gondor era, and stuffed into the artificial man In his body... this process is probably established.

Back then, the Gondor Empire created dozens of artificial humans in the Shadow Fortress (considering the process of the entire project and the possibility of other facilities, this number should be even more), but in the end only the individual Amber survived. Use luck to explain, but it is more likely that... the soul in "Artificial Human No. 36" is very special, and she was not an ordinary shadow dweller from the very beginning!

Gao Wen breathed out lightly, feeling that he had grasped the real ins and outs of the matter, and he had thought of these just now, but he didn't say it in front of Amber.

For Shadow Assault Goose, she has encountered enough irritating truths these days, it is best to let her take a break - step-by-step big news can effectively exercise the nerves, but the big news that hits all at once is too much. It's easy for people to "crack" it.

And in fact, there is no need for Gao Wen to help her analyze it deliberately. Looking back, Amber should gradually think of these things by herself. Although she usually looks carefree and unreliable, in fact, she is very witty, and Gao Wen still understands this.

Thoughts flashed through his mind, and the pen in Gao Wen's hand fell steadily, outlining the last curve in the complex pattern.

All the lines were finally connected into a whole, completely presenting the pattern on the surface of the anchor point generator—but no anomaly occurred.

Gawain frowned as he looked at the mysterious pattern that he had completed. He always felt that this thing should not be so plain. He stared at the pattern for a long time, as if he wanted to see some supernatural traces in it, but neither The distorted light and shadow did not hear the sound ringing in his ears, his intuitive judgment seemed to be wrong-but on the other hand, he was relieved that there was no vision.

He's just a little bit sorry.

After being dazed at the desk for a few seconds, Gao Wen stood up. He hesitated for a moment, then went to close the door of the study. After returning to the desk, he stared at the paper with countless mysterious lines on it. After looking around to see if there was no one there, he bent down and poked the pattern on it: "...Is there anyone? Ms. Ye?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard Hu Po's voice suddenly coming from the side: "What are you doing, old zongzi?"

Gawain looked up and saw Amber squatting on the windowsill with one leg sticking out.

The goose looked this way full of shock.

"I didn't find Tire just now, so I wanted to ask you if you know where she is...how about you keep busy?"

Chapter 1468 The Great Migration

The air in the study was a little frozen. Gao Wen and Amber faced each other through the window, and the atmosphere was awkward for a while.

After a few seconds of stalemate like this, Amber finally stepped in with her other leg, and then sat on the window sill, looking at Gao Wen seriously: "You won't kill me, will you? "

To be honest, Gao Wen felt that this was the most reliable suggestion the other party had ever given him...

But he still kept a straight face and glared at Amber, and while putting away the piece of paper, he gritted his molars: "I am conducting the test out of caution and rigor—and, where am I?" I know where Tyre is, it’s so cold outside, it’s probably hibernating somewhere, go look for it in the pond in the garden or by the Baishui River.”

"Okay!" A happy smile appeared on Amber's face, and then the whole person turned upside down towards the outside of the window, and a swimming light and shadow opened in the air, and in the next second, she jumped directly from the window sill Into the shadow fissure.

Gawain silently watched the direction where the other party disappeared, thought carefully about the feasibility of placing anti-personnel landmines on the window sill, and then let out a sigh—thanks to his strong self-control, otherwise the floor on the second floor would have been covered by him. I picked it up with my toes...

Then he took another look at the piece of paper he held in his hand, the mysterious and complex pattern on that piece of paper was clearly and sharply reflected in his eyes, and it still seemed that there was no sign of any abnormality.

After hesitating for two or three seconds, Gao Wen raised his hand, and the paper instantly turned into ashes in the air and drifted away in the wind. He laughed at himself and shook his head: "What was I thinking just now..."

……

Amber walked through the shadow world composed of black, white and gray, feeling quite happy.

"Emperor Gawain Cecil", who is always majestic and calm in front of outsiders, also has a funny side in private. Ordinary people will never imagine that their emperor is actually a joke-telling and spitting in daily life. All kinds of things, Mensao who will play tricks quietly, but she knows—she knows everything.

She has been by Gao Wen's side for several years, helped this "Pioneering King" deal with countless troubles, and witnessed many interesting things about this "Pioneering King". Gao Wen occasionally made a fuss about unexpected words and deeds or "little fun". In the eyes of outsiders, "Emperor Gao Wen" seemed like a heroic symbol or an imperial symbol made of steel, but in her eyes, he had always been a living, flesh-and-blood man. people.

From a certain point of view, Amber is even better than Rebecca and Hetty in the matter of "treating Gawain Cecil as an ordinary person"-after all, although those two and Gawain The relationship between them is equally close, but there is more or less a sense of blood bondage.

But even if he usually has such a cognition, the sight of Gao Wen poking a piece of paper full of strange patterns and trying to contact Ms. Ye today still shocked Amber.

She felt that it required a remarkable creativity-anyway, with her creativity, she couldn't think of doing it like this.

After crossing a crooked and faded street, Amber stopped slowly. She exhaled softly in the silent shadow world, stretched her waist with a happy smile, and walked slowly towards the bank of the Whitewater River. Get up - there's nothing to do at this time anyway.

She raised her head, and what she saw was the scenery she was accustomed to, and only her special "Master of Shadows" could regard it as a daily scenery——

She saw that the sky without stars, sun, and moon presented a hollow gray-white color, covering this silent and empty world like a giant screen. As far as she could see, there were houses and long streets arranged in the form of distorted and stacked projections. The road in front of me stretches towards the sky like a ramp that keeps rising upwards, and it shows a fragmented posture in the distance. The houses on both sides of the road are crooked, buildings are built on top of buildings, and walls are covered vertically and horizontally.

There is a shop not far away from the intersection, but the second floor of the shop is completely horizontal, and a building like a long bridge in the air extends from the outside of the right-angled wall, connecting to the Imperial College in the distance. Next to this severely distorted building projection, you can also see an unusually tall "plant" - it is said to be a plant, but it is probably just a street lamp, its dark silhouette points straight to the sky, and stands at a height of more than ten meters. There are countless shadowy branches, and above them are messy and broken lights and shadows hovering quietly.

This is the projection of Cecil City in the real world in the Shadow Realm. It is bizarre and weird.

An orderly and reasonable material world will form such an abnormal projection in the Shadow Realm, as if observing things on the other side through an uneven layer of crystal, all you can see is this abnormal scene, those who have spent The mages who tried their best to catch a glimpse of the shadowy scenery thought it was quite scary, but Amber had long been used to seeing it.

And if I have to say... Aren't those indescribable shadows floating in the sky in the Shadow Realm, and chaotic giants that violate common sense of geometry, more chaotic than this Shadow Realm?But now she visits the Shadow Garden as if she is going home, and steals tomatoes from the God of Nature's courtyard every now and then—there may never be a real "indescribable realm" in this world. "The problem is nothing more than the limited cognition of the world.

This chaotic projection in the shadow realm... maybe one day it can be explained clearly.

Amber's mind was full of thoughts, while walking through the crooked and sloping streets, her fingers brushed over the cold and rough wall of a building next to her, and saw that there was still a shop's logo hanging on the wall. The signboard, the handwriting on the signboard is so blurred that it can't be read at all.

At this stage, no one can explain clearly what the projection rules from the real world to the Shadow Realm are, and even Amber himself can’t figure this out. Without human intervention, what is the shape of things in the real world in the Shadow Realm? It is more or less random. Scholars have studied it for so many years, and the only thing that can be determined is that things with powerful magic power can form a more "accurate" projection in the shadow world, and the stronger the magic power response, the accuracy is also the higher.

Perhaps just like the research of Mirmina, the goddess of magic, magic power is the only "standard scale" and "basic framework" that can maintain stability in any realm in this universe.

But the Goddess of Magic can only explain the part related to magic. As for the real operating mechanism behind the Shadow Realm... then only Ms. Ye knows—but where is Ms. Ye at this time?

The "patterns" that I saw in Gao Wen's study today flashed through Amber's mind. She did not have the perverted memory ability of Gao Wen. In fact, the totem patterns engraved in the Voyager space station could not be recalled clearly. But the wonderful sense of "attraction" she felt when she saw those patterns at that time... She still knows that feeling very well.

It seemed to be a call from afar, and it seemed to be her own intimacy and yearning from the heart. It couldn't be explained clearly, but it did exist.

There is a voice in the dark telling her that she should respond to this call. All her instincts and instincts tell her that this call is gentle and harmless. Even deep down in her own heart... she also feels that she should answer this call. No matter what, this call At least it will let her figure out what kind of relationship she has with that "Ms. Ye" and what is the plan of that "Ms. Ye".

And now there is only one reason that prevents her from responding to this calling——

How could she know how to respond to such a nagging thing!This is not the identity verification code on the Monet. You know the number on the other side and call it directly to get in touch...

Amber twitched the corners of her mouth depressedly, and said in her heart that at this time, the difference between the Age of Sorcerers and the Age of Myths can be seen. In the Age of Sorcerers, when someone tells you to "keep in touch for something", they will usually leave you a communication number by the way. If it’s not good, leave a house number or something. Once you feel “a voice is calling me” in the age of mythology, basically the clues will end here. If you ask 1 divination masters for reference, they will only tell you.” When the opportunity of fate comes, it will be revealed”—the gang of gods didn’t even leave a zip code or address.

But this can’t be helped, Amber sighed in her heart—after all, Ms. Ye was a person from 1807 million years ago, she should really have no way to leave a magic network number when contacting herself... What the old zongzi said, this matter Children can only rely on "savvy".

But Amber felt that she was born with little savvy, and she suspected that Gao Wen actually didn't have much savvy—otherwise, he wouldn't have secretly poked a ghost letter on a piece of paper while there was no one in the study and tried to strike up a conversation with Ms. Ye...

A strange breath suddenly appeared in the perception, and Hu Po instantly restrained the random thoughts in her mind.

She looked up to the direction where the breath came from, and saw a few swaying figures appearing at the end of the street projection with distinct black, white and gray colors.

Those figures had a tall and thin shape, and their bodies were entangled with erratic cloth strips to form a human-shaped torso and limbs. Between the entangled and loose cloth strips, there was no flesh and blood, and some were just like smoke. Slowly undulating, invisible flowing thick shadows, like hollow bodies, wandering in this grotesque world of shadows.

"Shadow dwellers?" Amber looked at the "natives" who were wandering over here in surprise, "Why are there shadow dwellers here? This shouldn't be their range of activities..."

The shadow dwellers wander around in the shadow world, appearing elusive and extremely dangerous to ordinary people, but Amber has dealt with these "relatives" a lot, and she knows that these seemingly "randomly refreshed" shadow dwellers actually have a certain range of activities. And usually wandering along a fixed route, these mysterious and chaotic creatures rarely appear outside these fixed areas, unless they are provoked by external factors-for example, a certain person runs into their community every now and then Harassing great adventurer...

In the projection area of ​​the Shadow Realm near the Baishui River, these "natives" had never appeared before. Seeing these swaying figures at this moment, Amber was very surprised, and her expression suddenly became quite cautious.

But she didn't dodge, but watched the figures standing calmly on the side of the road slowly approaching her.

Her long black hair floated in the air behind her like smoke, her pointed ears trembled slightly in the air, and her amber eyes with slightly golden light stared at these taciturn and weird "citizens".

The shadow dwellers are extremely dangerous and violent to the inhabitants of the material world who broke into this place, but Amber need not worry about this-these chaotic and mysterious creatures still treat her "artificial human" as a fellow human being, at least they will not attack.

Those figures finally approached. According to their experience, even if they didn't attack, they would not take the initiative to pay attention to Hu Po, who they perceived as a "weird fellow". However, to Hu Po's surprise, one of the figures suddenly stopped Coming down, the hollow face wrapped with strips of rune cloth slowly turned to this side.

A low and muffled grunt came to her ears, and Amber was slightly startled.

She could understand the mumbling of the other party, and the shadow dweller said something inexplicable: "You are about to wake up, why are you still here?"

"What do you mean? What are you waking up?" Amber stared wide-eyed, and couldn't help asking loudly, "Where should I be if I'm not here?"

The shadow dweller who took the initiative to speak out just stared at Amber silently with his hollow and scary face, until the latter started to feel hairy, then turned around and muttered in a low voice: "Ta will come to you , the dream has an end."

After saying this, the creature walked straight towards the twisted and broken road in the distance, not paying any attention to Amber's continued inquiries and calls from behind.

Amber just stared blankly at the creature walking away, she instinctively wanted to catch up and ask for clarification, but just as she was about to take a step, she abruptly stopped her steps.

She felt the breath approaching, and a strange sense of tension surfaced in her heart.

She looked towards the direction of the breath according to her feeling, and slowly opened her eyes wide in the next second, and blurted out "Damn".

One after another, figures appeared in her line of sight, in the direction where the shadow dwellers came from just now. They were just a few small groups at the end of the street at first, but they turned into a dense black shadow almost in the blink of an eye. In Hu Po's perception... a bigger aura is still approaching!

"I'm going, this..." she muttered in amazement, and then suddenly ran towards the nearby buildings, her figure leaping and moving between those skewed outer walls and towering stacked stairs, without passing After a while, she climbed to the height of the projection city, and here, she could overlook almost the entire city of Cecil.

In the south of the city, in the direction where those figures appeared, she saw countless shadow dwellers!

They wandered from all directions, and gathered into an invisible tide in this city of projections. They moved silently, and their incorporeal bodies floated across the streets of the city like ghosts—just now when Amber touched The few figures that arrived were just a few "vanguards" in this huge team. The real big team... is constantly moving towards the north!

Amber was standing on the top of a "tall building" made up of several stacked buildings. After seeing the huge team that was approaching, she immediately hid her body behind a decoration that protruded from the building, feeling a huge sense of tension. And the sense of oppression gripped her heart—although she didn't feel any hostility or threat from that team, even if she just looked at this "army" composed entirely of shadow residents, her this "Shadow Master" can hardly control his heartbeat!

"This...what is this..." Huber muttered in a low voice, as if she was using this method to relieve the tension in her heart, "The Great Migration of the Shadow Residents is impossible...they won't notice this, right? "

In the next second, 12 lines of sight fell on her hiding place at the same time.

Chapter 1469 Exceptions

The huge team that was moving silently in the projection of the city suddenly raised their eyes, and countless "gazes" fell on the place where Amber was hiding in an instant—even though the shadow dwellers had no facial features at all, even though they had no "eyes" on their faces , However, at the moment when those bandage-wrapped invisible clouds raised their heads, Amber was still [-]% sure——they were watching her.

At this moment, Amber felt the hairs all over her body stand on end, and even her heart stopped beating for half a beat.

She has only encountered such a horrifying event in her life that caused her heart and lungs to arrest once—it was a night full of war, she was trembling in an ancient tomb, watching a man who had slept for 700 years The old rice dumpling lifted the lid of his coffin...

It was never as thrilling and exciting as it is now!

However, in the next second, she noticed that the shadow dwellers were only looking at this side. This huge "migration team" didn't stop at all. They were still moving forward in silence, as if they were fulfilling some kind of mission, they kept heading north. In the process, their "eyes" never left her position.

They walked forward like this, silent, watching, countless eyes fell on Huber in the silence, gradually, Huber began to realize that this silent staring and continuing to move forward suddenly turned all eyes over than just now That moment was even more eerie and terrifying.

She swallowed subconsciously, and slowly stood up from her hiding place - those focused eyes showed that it was meaningless for her to hide her body here.She stood on the edge of the tall building, quietly overlooking the huge team that was slowly "migrating" from below, and the eyes of both sides met silently in the air—they still didn't stop, and Amber didn't look back.

Amber thought for a while, and finally resisted the urge to open a shadow rift and return to the real world. She had gradually calmed down. After the huge and terrifying feeling of strangeness and oppression subsided a little, she took a breath and raised her head. Looking at the direction of the "shadow army" under his feet, he stepped forward and jumped towards the top of another nearby building.

She wants to see where such a huge number of shadow dwellers come from, to detect information and report in time... This is her mission.

Although the scene in front of her was weird and unsettling, at least one thing remained unchanged: the shadow dwellers would not attack her, and these chaotic and suspicious "citizens" were just "suspicious" as always. As long as she confirmed this point, she would Take it easy.

Amber's figure began to move between the continuous building projections, jumping like a nimble finch among those crooked walls, curly roofs and broken floating tiles. The shadows lingered behind her like clouds, supporting Her body crossed the sky in a way that completely violated gravity, and left behind her a series of faint trajectory phantoms.

Under her feet, the "army" composed of shadow dwellers kept shifting their sights, watching the figure crossing the sky as they continued to march. This scene was silent and eerie—but Amber forcibly ignored what these sights brought to her. Under the heavy pressure, she forced herself not to care about that army, but cast her eyes further away, to the vast suburbs outside the city.

After an unknown amount of time, she crossed the border of the city. At the end of this distorted projection, there was a boundless wilderness outside the city of Cecil. On the vast land, what she saw were still countless shadow dwellers. , can't see the source, can't see the end, they seem to gather from a more distant place, and continue to carry out a mysterious "march".

Amber suspects that even if she traces the direction of the source of this army for a whole day, she will not be able to see the starting point of this army... She even suspects that all the shadow residents in the entire Shadow Realm have gathered and are heading towards a certain goal. OK.

This scene is like... a "pilgrimage".

Amber finally shook her head, turned around and tore open a shadow rift, and on the opposite side of the shadow rift was the scenery of the real world - I'm afraid there will be no results if I continue to track it down, the most urgent thing is to go back and report what I found.

She did not choose to return to Cecil Palace through the "shortcut" in the Shadow Realm, because she was worried that tearing the "passage" leading to Cecil Palace in front of that "big army" would cause unexpected troubles. After all...she In fact, I don't know much about my silent and weird "citizens".

……

The fine waves beat against the black coastal reef below, and the sea water turned into white foam in the sound of the beat, and was dyed a layer of orange-red brilliance in the gradually sinking sun. Above, facing the erosion brought by the sea wind, the entire cliff is in a mottled and peeling state.

And on the top of this seemingly unreliable cliff, there are row upon row of houses and gloomy towers. It is a completely different architectural style from the kingdoms of Loren. Its slender ridges, dark The walls and the deliberately highlighted spire structure seem to have a mysterious texture.

A young woman with black shawl hair and a faint scar under her cheek stood on the edge of this "City of Coastal Cliffs", quietly overlooking the breaking waves crashing on the coastline below the cliffs, as if she was falling into Contemplating, it took some time before she retracted her gaze and looked at the blocks in the city.

As a senior operative of the Military Intelligence Bureau, "Finchbee" has been active in this violet city named Plandel for a year and a half as a foreign businessman. Although he still can't find a way to go to the inland area, at least In this border city, she is already familiar with all the local customs and customs, and is familiar with this city on the cliff—but for some reason, recently she feels more and more that this city is bringing her a strange feeling. strangeness.

The city is still the same city, the buildings are still the same buildings, and the local people living in the city have not changed much, but all the information related to "outside the city", especially "inland areas" Subtle changes have taken place in the past half a month to a month, and it seems that only "outsiders" like her are aware of this change.

Finchbee took a breath, turned around and walked towards the inner block. Those gloomy and weird houses and towers were bathed in the afterglow of the sunset at dusk. The strange light and shadow phantoms seen in the cracks, for some reason, these city scenes that she is used to seeing on weekdays gave her a dreamlike sense of unreality.

There were passers-by on the street approaching me, they were familiar locals, Quefeng smiled on his face, and greeted him calmly: "Mr. Torig, good afternoon."

"Good afternoon, Miss Flora—although it's almost night now," the local called Torig responded with a smile, and the "Flora" in his mouth was just what the bees used when they moved around the city. alias, "Did you go to the coast to see the scenery again?"

"The breaker coast at dusk is very beautiful, especially when you look down from beyond the high walls of Prandell," Sparrow said casually, "I can't see such a scenery in my hometown. flow forward."

"I remember it's called Baishuihe, right?" Torig responded enthusiastically. He seemed to have a good impression of "Miss Flora" in front of him. It was a great pleasure for him to be able to talk with her on the side of the road. "To be honest, I am also yearning for the Loren Continent over the sea. I have lived in this city for more than 20 years, and I have never seen the scenery of a foreign land..."

"My hometown does not have the open sea and the cliffs on the coastline, but there are dense and boundless forests and rolling mountains outside the city - Mr. Torig, if you are really interested, you might as well try to apply to the lord What?" The corners of the bee's lips curled up, quietly leading the topic, "Now the trade between Prandell and Beigang has become the norm, and more and more Violet people have become merchants traveling between the straits. You often Help over there, it shouldn’t be a problem to ask Mr. Kelin from the chamber of commerce to help issue a certificate, right?”

"Apply to the lord?" Torig was stunned for a moment, as if his thoughts were interrupted for a while, but he realized after a second or two, with a helpless smile on his face, "I don't think I can pass the lord's review. , he has always disliked 'inner city people' like me to become businessmen, you know, the best choice for inner city people is to become a mage or an alchemist, this is the responsibility in our blood, run like me Going to help in the chamber of commerce has actually caused dissatisfaction among the elders in the family..."

Finchbee quietly stared into Torig's eyes, and suddenly asked after a while: "Speaking of which, the lord has not shown himself for a long time, I remember... almost a month?"

"Has it been this long?" Torig blinked in confusion, as if he had never thought about this question, but in the next second, the expression on his face became normal, with a faint smile, "This is also normal, The lord has always been a reclusive person, and a high-level mage like him will always focus on magic research."

"That's true," Sparrow Bee laughed, as if she was really just casually talking about some trivial matter just now, and changed the subject very naturally, "It's getting colder and colder, is everything okay with your uncle? I remember you mentioned to me before that your uncle suffers from stomach problems every winter, and I just plan to import a batch of medicinal materials from Beigang..."

"My uncle?" Torig blinked in confusion. He has been in this confusion one after another since just now, and now this confusion seems to have finally affected his external words and deeds: his speaking speed began to become very fast. Slowly, it seems that there are rusty gears spinning hard behind every sentence, "My uncle...Miss Flora...I don't quite understand your...meaning..."

"Uncle Tolle, have you forgotten?" Sparrow Bee asked in a natural tone while paying attention to the changes in Torig's expression, "Didn't he live in the city of Palansanto, which is close to the inland? You often write letters Contact——you have a very good relationship with him, I remember he made a special trip from Paransanto to see you last winter, and I also met him at that time..."

Torig looked at Finch Bee in a daze. He was listening carefully to every word that this black-haired girl with a scar on her face was still attractive, but every word was formed in his mind. The grotesque illusions were formed, and reorganized into a completely incomprehensible language in the spiraling winding, gradually accumulating and mutating in his thoughts...