Section 2404 No. 23

"So, in the eyes of Wizard Nice, my soul is actually very fragile?" The authority eye slowly turned his head and stared at Nice.

Because he couldn't see Angel's expression through the authority eye, Nice couldn't tell whether Angel was speaking with emotion or really asking.

Nice thought for a while and said: "Your soul has a very special property, and it can even be immune to a large part of soul attacks. But can this special ability really be controlled by yourself?"

Angel was silent, and the answer was obvious.

Nice briefly mentioned the special nature of Angel's soul, and then said no more. After all, this involved some secrets of Angel and even the Magic Island.

"Your soul has great potential, and it may become one of your foundations when you fight against the enemy in the future, but before that, what you need to do is to study it and cherish it to avoid being broken by people who are proficient in souls when it is vulnerable." Nice: "And soul armament may be able to escort your soul for a period of time."

Angel still didn't say anything, but his heart was slightly biased.

"So, when you go to the third floor showroom later, don't just study the magic array, pick one first." Kant suggested.

Angell pondered and said, "Soul Armor... needs more in-depth research."

Although Angell did not agree directly, his reply actually expressed his attitude. He had shown indifference to Soul Armor before, but now that he wants to study it in depth, it means that he has also thought about it.

Nice: "Of course, we must first study whether there are any disadvantages, otherwise I will not transplant it easily. This is related to the soul."

Because it can be seen that Angell's demands for Soul Armor are changing. So, in the following journey, Nice and Kant popularized some types of transplantable organs that will not enter the internal circulation and are relatively simple to replace to Angell.

Introducing all the way, they followed the direction of the magic pattern and came to a double-opening door.

"Is the sub-control node directly clear this time? Don't we need to go to the corridor of death?" Nice said while looking at the door.

Angel shook his head: "The magic pattern points to here, but it should not be the end of the sub-control node."

Angel meant that the sub-control node may be somewhere else, but it is not through the normal corridor, but through this room as a transfer to other places.

Nice nodded in understanding. He did not push the door directly, but turned to look at Reynolds: "Do you know what is inside?"

Reynolds seemed to recall something, his expression was a little ugly, and after a long time he spoke: "Inside is... Medical Center."

"Is there a mechanism?"

Reynolds: "No, just pull the door outward to go in."

"No mechanism, it's still a medical center, why do you look so ugly?" Nice was a little confused, he shook his head and sighed, and opened the door directly.

After the door was opened, a large amount of white frost mist filled out, just like the feeling given by the showroom.

The cold breath penetrated into the nasal cavity and slightly tingled the head.

After a long while, the frost mist gradually dissipated. Everyone looked inside and was stunned.

There were many people inside.

But they are not living people, but dead people in nearly a hundred transparent glass columns, soaked in pure cold liquid.

These dead people are suspended in the cold liquid, and all of them remain in the state before death. Some died in human form, but more of them have some parts of their bodies mutated and turned into terrifying monsters. For example, some are covered with green mucus, some are covered with tentacles, some have swollen abdomens and blood vessels... and so on. Just the abnormal appearance alone will probably scare ordinary people sick.

And these dead people soaked in glass columns have a common feature. They all have X tattoos on the left side of their faces, and the numbers on the right are random, some are hundreds, some are tens, and some are... single digits.

Reynolds is standing next to a corpse with single digits on the right side of her face.

Her number is X7. She maintains a human form as a whole and looks quite mature and beautiful, at least in line with Nice's taste in selecting women. But her waist and below were cut off and disappeared.

"...She is '襥'. When she and I were on a mission to clean up defectors, she died together with the defectors, but I... survived. She was also brainwashed by the laboratory, but she seemed to wake up before she died. She told me that she envied me for having a name, and many people agreed with the meaning of this name. She had a wish and wanted to have a name that could be recognized, even if it could only be owned for a second."

"So, at the moment before she died, I named her '襥'. The meaning of this name is a flower spike that will wither before it blooms."

Reynolds lowered his head, as if he was confiding, or as if he was whispering: "It is precisely because of this incident that I am very keen on naming my companions. Like the 'ya', 'bing', 'rin' and the '歌' I mentioned earlier, I named them according to their characteristics..."

Reynolds paused when he said this. He might want to say: But they don't seem to agree.

There are very few experimental subjects like ‘Lu’ who have awakened. Perhaps others will also awaken before they die, but what’s the use?

Everyone listened to Reynolds’ story. Although his story was not very dramatic, nor as tragic as imagined, it was just as plain as the story of a supporting character in a vernacular novel. However, it made everyone understand something.

Why is Reynolds obsessed with eliminating the serial mark of the soul body, and is even willing to join forces with Nausicaa to break into the laboratory and steal information?

Because what he wants to find is himself.

This self is not just a name, but a "me" in a certain idealistic sense.

Only by finding "me" can he truly give up the past and embark on the road to the future to find the... freedom he longs for.

To him, this is more important than anything else, even more than the value of life.

In this world, everyone has their own story, and small people in big times also have their own pasts. This is Reynolds' past. Even if people cannot empathize with Reynolds, they at least begin to understand his beliefs.

Because of Reynolds' narration, the atmosphere was slightly silent.

It wasn't until a "click" sound was heard that everyone came back to their senses.

When Reynolds looked up, he found that Nice, Kanter and even the skeleton knight standing not far away were gone.

After taking a closer look, I discovered that Nice was moving quickly around the glass pillars, while Kanter was standing in the distance doing something unknown.

A few seconds later, Nice stood in front of a glass pillar.

Reynolds thought for a while and walked over.

"Sir, what happened?" Reynolds asked respectfully.

Ness pointed at the person floating in the glass column in front of him and asked, "Who is he?"

Reynolds looked up and found that inside was a man with most of his body charred. At first glance, it looked similar to other glass pillars around him, but if you look closely, you will find that the sequence of numbers on this man's face was similar to that of other glass pillars. are different.

Everyone else has an X on the left face and a number on the right face. But his left face is 2, and his right face is 3.

"Serial number 23! How could it be him!" Reynolds: "Why is he here? Isn't he a doctor at the experimental center? Why did he die here?"

"Dead?" Nice sneered: "This guy is not dead."

As Niss's words fell, the man in front of him opened his eyes suddenly, his cloudy brown eyes staring at Niss.

"This glass pillar cuts off the breath. I didn't notice it before, and thought it was all dead people. But this guy made some noise before, otherwise it would be really difficult for us to find him."

Nice's words made Reynolds realize that the "click" sound just now was caused by No. 23?

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, vomit," the man No. 23 said. He seemed to want to laugh wildly to express his arrogance, but under the pouring of cold liquid in the glass column, not only the "haha" laughter turned into "whoosh", but also Choked.

After a while, he finally regained his breath.

He learned the lesson this time and stopped laughing, but the gloomy expression did not disappear: "No. 1, I didn't expect you to become a traitor... You should be presented like other goods. This is where you belong."

Reynolds snorted through his nose: "You are the one in the cage now. This is your destination, not mine."

No. 23 stared at Reynolds with gloomy eyes: "It won't be long, you will come in too..."

The words of No. 23 suddenly gave Reynolds a bad feeling: "What do you mean?"

No. 23 evoked an evil smile: "What do you mean? You will know soon... Jie Jie Jie Jie Jie Jie vomit..."

Reynolds turned to look at Ness with a worried face, but Ness didn't speak, as if he was waiting for something.

A few seconds later, Kanter came over from a distance.

Kanter did not speak with the psychic belt, but said directly: "He should have activated a certain switch just now and wanted to transmit information to others."

That "click" sound is the sound of the switch pressing.

Now that he has been exposed, No. 23 did not hide anything. He covered his sore throat from coughing and suppressed the discomfort: "It doesn't matter even if you know. Soon, the law enforcement sequence and the hunting sequence will come soon." , then you will be finished, vomiting..."

"Is that so?" Nice sneered: "Unfortunately, your idea will be shattered soon. The law enforcement sequence should be your combatants. They all went to the lair. It seems you don't know it yet. This also includes Of the three official wizards in your laboratory, by the way, No. 03 did not go, but he has been imprisoned in the flame cage."

"As for the hunting sequence, what can those mechanical puppets who are not even qualified to tickle us do to us? Of course, if you have enough authority, you may also know the first five hunting sequences. Unfortunately, they are under the control of the magic energy array. In the node, it will not appear automatically if it is not triggered.”

Nice's words stunned No. 23. He didn't know if what Nice said was true, but Nice could even point out the positions of the first five numbers in the hunting sequence. Maybe it was really more likely?

No. 23 stared at Nice with cold eyes. He was a doctor and researcher at the medical center. He didn't know much about the wizarding world in the Southern Territory and didn't know Nice. But from the other party's calm demeanor and disrespectful words towards No. 03, we can know that the other party's strength is not bad, maybe really comparable to No. 03.

In other words, the other party may be an official wizard.

Thinking of this, No. 23's expression became even more ugly. No matter whether what he said was true or not, but an official wizard broke into the laboratory, this was definitely not a small accident!

"It doesn't matter whether what you said is true or false, but even if they are not here, you can't escape. The noble, great, and invincible existence is still sleeping. As long as you confirm your threat, he will wake up and use the power of God to You will be sanctioned!”

No. 23 spoke normally at first, but now he obviously has a crazy taste, like a fanatic believer of the evil god.

However, his behavior came to an abrupt end when Kant said something.

Kant: "The button for you to transmit information is under your feet, right? There is a magic pattern block that is connected there. It will bypass all the glass columns and pass through the white metal door behind to the sub-control node, and then use the feedback of the magic array to let other people pay attention to this place, right?"

No. 23 said blankly: "How did you know?"

Kant smiled slightly: "Of course... I understand magic patterns. By the way, your information transmission has been cut off."

No. 23 shook his head fiercely: "This is impossible!"

Kant shrugged indifferently: "Nothing is impossible in this world. If you don't believe it, you can continue to step on the button under your feet and try."

No. 23 hesitated for a moment, and still pressed the button under his feet according to Kant's words, but it was really as Kant said... There was no reaction at all.

"Now you understand your situation. Okay, next, I'll ask you questions and you'll answer them."

No. 23 wanted to refuse, but a pattern of the sun and the moon suddenly appeared in Kant's eyes. No. 23 stared at the pattern, his eyes gradually became blurred, and he was about to be hypnotized.

But just as No. 23's mind gradually became rigid, he suddenly bit the tip of his tongue. As the blood on the tip of his tongue spread in the cold liquid, it seemed to activate some kind of switch. A tadpole-like pattern suddenly appeared between his eyebrows, emitting a burst of red light, and then No. 23 screamed and buried his head.

Everyone: "..."

Reynolds: "He seems to be dead."

Nice: "Not like, he is indeed dead. The symbol just now is the text of the Quest world... Forced to break the hypnosis, but the price is death."

Kant looked at the dead No. 23 and said nothing more. He just turned his head and looked at Reynolds deeply: "The brainwashing of your laboratory is quite deeply rooted in people's hearts."

No. 23 was obviously very loyal to the laboratory, and even forced himself to commit suicide, and was unwilling to reveal any information.

This made Kant have some doubts.

Since the brainwashing of this laboratory is so successful, can Reynolds really maintain his true self?

Of course, Kant is not doubting Reynolds. At least from the current point of view, there are not many suspicious points on Reynolds, and there is no sign of brainwashing.

Kant is thinking about another thing: Why doesn't the laboratory brainwash Reynolds?

This goes back to the previous question. The two consecutive ambushes were all aimed at Reynolds.

Reynolds, obviously, has some special status in the eyes of the laboratory's senior management.

Nice also thought of this. He didn't say it, but a thought came to his mind. When negotiating with No. 03 before, Reynolds did not show his face from beginning to end. If Reynolds showed up, maybe No. 03 would change other ways to deal with it, instead of passively hiding in the core of the machine.

However, whether Reynolds's appearance is good or bad is still unknown. But the current situation is at least under control.

While Nice was thinking about this, Kant hurried out.

"Let's find the sub-control node on the third floor quickly, otherwise we won't be able to control it!" Kant said quickly.

Nice was stunned and said, "Ah?" What does that mean?

Kant: "How can information transmission be cut off so easily? I just suppressed the rate of information transmission as Angel said. But with my magic pattern level, this suppression will soon fail. If you want to completely solve the problem of information being transmitted to each floor, you must immediately find the sub-control node and go there to control the information transmission block!"

Nice's heart suddenly skipped a beat. He naturally understood what Kant meant. Once the information here was known to others, the consequences would be very serious!

Maybe the items in the showroom would be blocked, and then his income would be gone! Of course, this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that the people in the laboratory may disconnect the outer corridor in order to catch the intruder. At that time, the third floor will become an isolated island with no entrance and exit, and they can't leave at all! Unless the magic array is destroyed, but this super-large magic array is not so easy to destroy, and it is easy to be backfired.

Now there is indeed only one way, to quickly find the sub-control node and prevent information transmission!