Blade and Poetry

She went back to her room for a while, and handed me a carefully sealed page.Originally, she intended to give it to me, but I thought that I might not be able to properly place her collection in the future, so I just asked to have a look at it on the spot.She nodded in agreement, and went to make new tea for me.At this moment I unfolded the paper, and began to read carefully from the first line; there was not much content on it, but the handwriting was a little messy, and I read very slowly.

"Chen Yang - February 840, 2

Tomorrow is the moment when our group can test the results.There are so many keys to the answer, but only one real 'password string'.I think our pick is the one with the highest success rate.

(The handwriting on the back was scratched out with a single line)

What do the kids who are willingly sent by their parents think about this?I've never considered this question before.Children with magic sticks are a better entry point for experiments than ordinary children-as long as the correct password string is determined in this step, the next step is to change the experimental subjects and try to implement the establishment from scratch.That's a great goal. The 'planting plan' will change the fate of many ordinary people, so individual sacrifices...

……

Yes.The reason why I am still writing these few lines smoothly is because I am not the one who sacrificed. "

The last line has been traced many times, and crossed out in an even more chaotic manner.The "I" at the end is the heaviest; I can't help but feel my heart ache when I think of the substitute that "I" refers to.

I found myself standing up holding the paper.The form in which the words were written and the power accumulated in them made me unable to look away.I swept those handwriting from beginning to end, over and over again.

I finally understand what kind of misunderstanding I walked into in the past.The title of the book I first saw misled me enormously.The reason why Professor Lane stated that "integration" is a hypothesis is precisely because the focus of the plan that many parties have paid attention to is not here-maybe it has never been "integration", not "parallel", but "planting".It is not an experiment to benefit the regretful wishes of magicians or swordsmen, but a prelude that can benefit the largest proportion of ordinary people and bring them talents.

Chen Yang's experiment was obviously successful at a disastrous cost, and the existence of Karajan is a proof - they chose the only "password string" among the many "keys" they developed, and completed another magic branch planting.

"Golden age! It will bring another golden age. A new look, earth-shaking..." If the "it" in Toscaia's letter refers to this significant code string, his rhetoric is undoubtedly extremely convincing.It is indeed worth pursuing.Due to limited talent, ordinary people are far inferior to their peers with magical powers in employment opportunities; if it can slightly increase the success rate of ordinary people's transformation, countless fields will be driven by it: national strength, people's strength, the whole, individual... …

"It's just," I thought, "I was also planted with magic branches by Karajan himself-could it be said that he actually understood the content of the password string? What happened to him after the successful experiment, and he was sent to Golomb at the age of 12 Dunan..."

I stood there in a daze for a long time.When I came back to my senses, I happened to meet the old man's peaceful eyes.

"Don't tell me anything," she said, taking my paper. "I'm already out of it all."

My eyes still stay on the paper for a long time.The old man's right hand was carefully stroking it, and the thin rings on the middle finger and ring finger rubbed against its surface.The two silver rings fell under my eyes, and I immediately felt a certain familiarity—I recalled that they were very similar in style to my "soul mask".A detail of the Vanguard test flashed through my mind, which gave me a flash of inspiration.

"Ma'am," I said, "may I ask, has the stone I brought turned into a silver ring?"

"That's right." She was slightly surprised, "But..."

"I have a similar ring," I explained, "I've turned it from a silver stone into a ring myself."

"A young man of your age shouldn't have a ring." She said with some confusion, "What is the engraving on the outside of your ring?"

"No lettering," I said. "Appears to be blank."

"It's a bit unusual," she stared at her right hand, and suddenly looked at me instead, "It's usually the name after the change."

"But it has the lettering on the inside," I said, "that it's 'Masque of the Soul,' and I got it by chance."

After hearing this, she stood up like me, stepped forward and held my hand, showing full excitement.

"I really didn't expect it to be today." She whispered, "I thought I was going to live up to his promise—you are standing in front of me!"

Then she gently withdrew her hand and calmed down her tone of voice.She asked me to wait at the same spot, and after a while, she handed me an extra parchment map.I opened it and looked, and found that it seemed to be the outline of the entire continent drawn on it, covering the east, west and southernmost regions.There are another dozen or so dots distributed on the topographic map, and the place names are written in small characters near the dots, and some places are marked twice with asterisks.

I don't know why, so I looked at her.

"These rings are not ordinary rings." The old man said to me, "It used to be an identity document tailored for every senior experimenter, equivalent to the 'access card' function, and each ring has different permissions. "

"Permission?" I asked.

I suddenly remembered the time when I inexplicably opened the cabinet under the bishop's desk in the house on 29th Street.

"The authority to open the door. It can be the door of the building, or the inner door of the blocked item, everything is limited by the manufacturer." She said. "When Chen was 20 years old, he had the honor to work with the founder of the laboratory, that is, the 'wise man' at that time. The wise man sent him a message: his divination results showed a bad news. If we surpass our peers, we are likely to usher in a winter where things will go against each other. At that time, our research will fall into a trough, or even regress, and people will stop moving forward again on issues that have struggled once."

"Like the war in 796?"

"Yes. The war happened after their conversation. Chen told me that the original laboratory was close to developing a batch of convenience products, new medicines, and magic tools, and planned to invest in several major manufacturing plants, but most of them failed When it was born, it was destroyed by a sudden war; in addition to the loss of a group of talents. It was the worst time for the laboratory. The explosion in 840 also counts-I don't know the information about that plan Whether it's all stored in that building, but I'm pretty sure they're missing a key to real success."

Password string, I thought.

"That's a very powerful divination indeed," I said.

"That is the innate ability of a wise man. He told Chen that his divination is not perfect, nor is he a god—it's a pity that there will always be only one wise man on the mainland." She sighed, "He couldn't bear to see this This situation happened in the future, so he preset a rescue method in advance: he made his authority ring into a magic tool, and engraved the words "Masque of Soul" in the ring. He will use his own method , let it follow 'fate', and finally fall into the hands of another person. He asked Chen to remember this, and entrusted him to convey-if he finds out who has the ring after many years, tell that person: 'He will be A Terminator.'"

"This person is me?" I was dumbfounded, "What kind of...Terminator am I?"

"The wise man didn't reveal more." The old man said, "He left you a map, which contains the places where he stored documents, records, and sorted out the precious materials of his predecessors, as well as a certain amount of wealth; these places can only be It was opened by his ring. As a corresponding request, he hopes that you will help spread those knowledge records on his behalf, so that the scientific research field of the entire continent can obtain some progress."

I would very much like to grant this request; but the ring has long since slipped from my hand.I don't know where it is in the Magic Association now, and whether the secrets hidden in it will be discovered.I weighed it for a moment, and decided not to tell the old man about the loss of the ring—I made up my mind to get it back.

"I promise him," I said, "until the war is over."

"Thank you, Vicente." The old man smiled and looked out of the window; the glass was separated by a layer of mist, "I just don't know how long this war will last."

She told me that according to the newspapers she read, the three cities in the northwest of Columdunan had been captured, and the Pu Kingdom army was going down, and it was in a stalemate with the defense of a certain big city, and the results might appear soon. .The screening of entry and exit at the national border is still very strict-even if you can really get an exit permit, it will take about a month to go through the formalities.

"Where is the Land of Eternal Night?" I asked, "There are guards on the edge of this place, and it is said that people can also pass through it to get to Glendunan—I have a reason to go there."

"Take this approach with caution," she said. "That's what makes it so terrible."

Having said that, she told me some relevant details after I insisted on asking: If the swamps in the Land of Eternal Night become flat land, the traveler will have to walk for three days and three nights at the shortest time.At first it was a stagnant pool, a bloodsucker, then a bird's claw tree, a man-eating vine, and from here on, it was impossible to fly by air.Finally, there is the poisonous miasma forest. Only at certain times of the day can the air return to normal for a short time, allowing people to rush through it in one breath.

"That's all I know," she said, slipping a compass at the door and stroking my hair, looking tired and serene. "Good luck, Vicente."