Chapter 999 Cooperation Contract

He got in from behind the all-in-one white protective suit, and Ange from behind helped to zip up the zipper. Lin Nian, who had put on the protective suit, turned around and helped Ange do the same protective work. The air filtered through the special filter paper of the gas mask. , properly purifying the ubiquitous mercury vapor in the entire huge cave space.

First, review the physics knowledge in junior high school. Mercury, a substance with a very low volatility point, will quickly melt into the air even at room temperature. It is highly toxic, colorless and odorless. This is a well-known basic knowledge. But the strange thing is that in this cave, which is called "Abyss" or "Well of Oblivion", even if it is filtered by a gas mask exceeding level 4, you can still clearly smell a smell.

How to describe this smell? Different from the offensive and pungent smells such as butene mercaptan, Lin Nian prefers to define this smell as "attractive", "sweet" and "familiar", which makes him feel strange and strange in his heart. With a sense of vigilance, he looked at the staff running back and forth in the cave several times in protective clothing, while Angers on the side just watched his reaction in silence.

Feeling that it was almost time, Angers asked, "Do you smell anything?"

"It should be said that it's abnormal if you don't smell it, right?" Lin Nian raised his hand and subconsciously wanted to rub his nose, but he felt the glass mask of the protective suit and had to give up.

"Oh? Tell me what the smell you smell is like, describe it as much as possible, and use other things you are familiar with to outline its image or a more specific way of expression." Angers gave Lin Nian a small Small test questions.

"White jasmine, dark roasted coffee beans, and a little bit of paper ink smell," Lin Nian said.

"Very specific, but do you know what the smell I smell is?" Anger led Lin Nian into the cave. People wearing protective clothing hurriedly walked around them, holding dense data in their hands. Report sheet, working in front of computer equipment surrounded by tangles of cables and transmission data lines.

"Principal, the smell you smell is different from mine?" Lin Nian immediately understood the meaning of Ange's words and frowned.

"Now after passing through the filter paper, I can still smell the faint aroma of nuts, coffee, light cream, and finally a little bit of woody and muddy mixed aroma." Anger led Lin Nian through the crowd, and there was no No one paid attention to the two of them, and no one noticed the identity of the principal and Lin Nian. Everyone here was immersed in an enthusiastic working environment, just like the gears in a high-speed rotating equipment, leaving no gaps for other chores. insert.

"Everyone smells different smells here. According to EVA statistics, a total of 38 staff members working in 'Yuanxu' smell a total of 38 different smells in this specific environment. Each person smells a different smell. A person can accurately describe what they smell and find things that match it in reality." Angers said, "For example, the smell I just described basically matches the 'Monte No. 2 Cigar', and the vice The principal claimed that it smelled the fragrance of white wine. And you probably had something corresponding to it in your mind when you described the smell you smelled, right?"

The image of a woman's long hair fluttering in the sun flashed across Lin Nian's consciousness, and he looked at Ange again and nodded lightly.

"EVA sampled the air in this space and tested 22 types of air testing equipment and concluded that the smell permeating this space is not as endlessly variable as we know it. It has only one smell, and that is the smell of rust. Imagine the smell that comes from putting red-hot iron into water and blowing it through the steam. That smell is now filling the entire underground space."

"Or is it the smell of blood?" Lin Nian asked in a low voice. The dark red blood stains scattered on the mercury lake at the base of the huge dark gold twisted thing silently explained everything.

Angers nodded, "The reason why we can smell all kinds of different smells is very simple, that is, our olfactory center has been attacked. There is a clear name for this phenomenon in the medical system, called 'parosmia'. Patients will mistake one obvious odor for another, and in many cases this occurs due to trauma to the patient's olfactory center, old damage to the nasal mucosa, etc., and it does not rule out the impact of stress."

"Psychological reasons?" Lin Nian felt that any disease involving psychological reasons was very strange.

“Most psychological causes can be classified as abnormal secretion of hormones in the brain, and some are also caused by lesions in organs such as the liver and kidneys. After rigorous systematic analysis, EVA believes that there is more than 80% possibility of causing us to develop anosmia. The reason is that the former, that is, our brain nervous system has been attacked." Angers watched Lin Nian tap his temple (in fact, he only touched the hood of the protective suit), "As for the initiator, naturally I don’t need to say any more.”

They stopped in front of a huge mercury lake, which is where mercury is most abundant and where the air is the most toxic. It can be seen that all staff are working as far away from here as possible.

In the distance, a worker hurriedly walking with a report board accidentally looked up and saw the figures of Lin Nian and Ange beside Mercury Lake. He subconsciously shouted to warn them of the danger over there, but Ange only raised his head sideways. The staff made a few gestures in that direction, which seemed to indicate the identity and intention of the already determined code, and then the staff gave up the idea of ​​rushing to the equipment pile to sound the alarm.

"Even if the protective clothing we are wearing now comes with a gas mask that contains improved Type IV carbon filter paper from the Equipment Department, there are still staff members who often become depressed after being overworked, and subconsciously approach the Mercury Lake and almost fall because of the temptation of the smell. In the most serious accident, the bewitched person even swam dozens of meters into the Mercury Lake before regaining consciousness amidst the shouts and alarm bells of his companions." Angers looked at the towering and terrifying tower in the Mercury Lake. The giant said calmly,

"According to the person involved, he felt that he only slept lightly for a short while, and vaguely dreamed that his grandmother in Naples was sitting by the stove, using the old-fashioned fruit wood at his house to bake. He baked his favorite Parma ham pizza in the oven and warmly invited him to sit by the stove."

"The moment he woke up, he suddenly discovered that grandma had turned into the Dragon King. I don't think that would be a good feeling, right?" Lin Nian asked.

In his gaze, the twisted dark golden tree in the center of the mercury lake looked terrifying and eerie under the light of the cave like a twisted pillar of flesh. Just one look at that evil aura was enough to make people look back. Half a lifetime of nightmares filled with the shape of its shadow.

"Suffering severe psychological trauma, Teacher Masashi Toyama of the Psychology Department suggested after the consultation that he directly use 'hypnosis' to cut off this memory. Otherwise, this experience is likely to cause the client to develop severe PTSD towards his grandmother. Symptoms, the worst case scenario is that one day he may even accidentally hurt his favorite family member." Angers said, "Afterwards, the equipment department also upgraded the filter paper of the gas mask overnight, and installed more cameras from various angles in the cave. , 24-hour monitoring by EVA prevents the same accident from happening."

Lin Nian was silent. He was actually no stranger to everything Ange told and what happened here!

"It emits the scent that prey most craves to lure them closer. The closer to the source of the scent, the stronger the scent becomes, causing the prey to fly to the fire desperately. There is no shortage of such animals and plants in nature. It is the most common The name is probably "Dionaea" (the god of love and beauty "Dionaea Venus". The scientific name of the flytrap is "Dionaea muscipula"). Usually, no matter what it is in nature, there are only a few that can do this kind of behavior. A purpose.”

"Eating and reproducing." Lin Nian answered.

"But I don't think our large Venus flytrap is in a hurry to reproduce."

"Then we can only eat." Lin Nian wanted to pinch his eyebrows to relieve the pressure rising in his mind. He raised his hand in an arc and then slowly lowered it.

Angers looked at the weird and terrifying bronze purgatory and whispered, "Yes, although the 'Lord of Bronze and Fire' has been declared dead in the official written report, in fact, our Lord Norton is not completely dead yet, he is still there." Struggling for resurrection, this cage can only restrain him but cannot really kill him. He needs energy, a lot of energy, to break through this cage and return to the world."

"Such a dangerous thing should let him sink in the isolated Nibelungs for the rest of his life. Why bring him to the academy?" Lin Nian turned around and asked directly his biggest puzzlement.

"This is not a decision that I can make by myself, nor is it a decision that I can veto by myself." Angers shook his head slowly, "If you are careful enough, you will find that there are many interesting things among the people we passed on the way here. face."

"Many people are new to me." After enrolling, Lin Nian came into contact with the students the most. He had little contact with faculty and researchers who had been hiding in ice cellars all year round. However, on the contrary, most of the researchers But he was very familiar with Lin Nian.

"Then let me put it another way." Angers turned to look at the scientific researchers who were busy in front of a large number of precision equipment in the cave in the distance, constantly creating dazzling sparks and small explosions on the experimental bench, and said, "You Do you think the secret party alone can transport this thing from distant China to Kassel College?"

The boy sighed.

"Many people are curious about how the orthodoxy and the secret party turned their hostility into friendship overnight, how the secret party let go of their pride and greed, and how the orthodoxy broke through the stubbornness of closed doors. But in fact, the answer is very simple, one requires both sides A treasure trove of working together, two keyholes that need to be inserted and twisted at the same time,” Ange murmured.

"'Bronze Purgatory' does not belong to the exclusive property of any party in the hybrid world, but it does have a clear 'ownership' in the short term, and this 'ownership' in its current form is divided between the Orthodox and the Secret Party. For two. A Dragon King who has not really died, what a tempting treasure! Anyone with ambition and desire for progress will want to dig out him. But it is obvious that the strength of one of them alone cannot shake this secret. Naturally Yes, in the face of great interests that can change the future world structure, the so-called partisanship seems to be easily put aside."

"As for the cooperation in the development of Bronze Purgatory, both the Secret Party and the Orthodox have sent agents respectively. The agent on the Secret Party's side is named Hilbert Jean Angers, who is also the president of Kassel College, while the Orthodox is The left officer of the Li family's military department was dispatched, a middle-aged man who called himself Li Yuande. We were on the top of a steep cliff in Kuimen, which is called the boundary between yin and yang. At the auspicious time of 'the sun rises in the east and the crimson clouds rise', we followed the orthodox tradition. Traditionally, blood was used as an alliance. The two men who cut their palms with a sacrificial knife shook hands vigorously under the witness of Huang Tian, ​​Houtu and Yangtze River. Then, in the name of the regulations of the "Abraham Blood Contract", they signed a steel volume. The bamboo slips are used as carriers of the contract to ensure that before the contract is completed, both parties will learn from each other's strengths and treat each other without betrayal." Ange said in a low voice.

"Then you took the huge risk and risked the possibility of awakening the Dragon King and bringing about catastrophe again. What did you gain?" Lin Young asked in a loud voice.

"A lot." Ange turned his attention to the huge golden tree and said slowly, "I was initially opposed to this proposal, but now it seems that both the secret party and the orthodoxy have gained a lot. Facts have proved that those risks It seems worth it for both parties.”

"for example?"