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Chapter 42: Beautiful Things
🕑 Added 2024-05-23 08:56:22 +0000 UTCThe drone emitted a cold, mechanically synthesized sound. "Dear Private Mike, you have now successfully joined the investigative combat sequence. You have four hours of preparation time! Combat supplies and equipment have been distributed, please check them carefully! Gather at the sixth airstrip in four hours!"
Since Mike was promoted, even the military equipment system had been quite polite to him. He carried the supplies exchanged from the military supply depot and leisurely returned to the frontline camp.
What caught his eye was the brutal battlefield. Outside the breach of the western city wall, a huge and sacred light screen could be seen. Countless aberrants were blocked outside the light screen like a tide, their rotting bodies gathered together, reminiscent of evil spirits in hell.
It was truly terrifying.
Most of the frontline injured soldiers had been carried to the medical room, so there was no priest to treat him before. The medical system must have been overloaded, which was understandable.
On the metal wall, the Demolition Cannon mounted on the high wall was still emitting smoke.
Thick black smoke rose, accompanied by occasional terrified screams.
Someone crawled out from the smoke.
As if a giant insect was chasing behind him.
Mike was stunned, feeling that the guy looked familiar.
But when he saw the black charcoal-like face covered in dust, he hesitated to recognize him.
"Mike, save me!"
The guy seemed to see a savior and cried out in despair.
Mike was surprised, but he saw what was chasing behind him.
He couldn't be sure what species the other party was, but he saw it clad in red, moving on all fours on the ground at a fast pace, occasionally emitting weird laughter, and shouting hoarsely, "My good student, don't run away! I am your teacher! Stop quickly and let the teacher have a good look at you! You are the hope of Noah's Organization! Don't run! Come back!"
A group of mechanics chased after them like zombies, drooling from their mouths.
"Damn, there are aberrants!"
"What aberrants? That's Archbishop Lionel!"
"What? What's wrong with him?"
"Maybe he's gone crazy. There's not a single normal person in Noah's Organization."
Mike looked on in confusion, completely unaware of what was happening.
Eric treated him like a pillar and ran around him.
Archbishop Lionel was chasing after them madly from behind.
"Mike, help me kill this old man! Are we still brothers?"
"Kid, help me catch this stunned guy, and I'll reward you handsomely! "
Just one day apart, what on earth had happened?
When Mike was puzzled, a mechanic who caught up from behind explained the whole story.
The so-called Demolition Cannon was a new type of cannon manufactured by Noah's Organization. They incorporated extraordinary power into modern technology, creating the ultimate weapon called Alchemical Armament, which could cause massive damage to aberrants and reduce the frequency of close combat for soldiers.
However, the use of this weapon required the injection of life energy by evolutionists.
In other words, gunners were needed to operate it.
However, due to technical issues, the Demolition Cannon exploded.
The main reason was that the Alchemy Matrix of the Demolition Cannon was not universal, and the hidden attributes of each soldier were different, which directly caused malfunctions similar to short circuits in circuits.
With a bang, it exploded.
"It's not my business if your weapon explodes!"
"With your joining, it won't explode! Although I am also considered half an attributeless evolutionist, I still have some residual attributes, not pure attributeless like you. But you are different. Your attributes look very clean. Let the teacher test your purity!"
"I don't, I refuse!"
"You are a precious attributeless evolutionist! Being a soldier is not your way. Only by following me can you show your value! You are destined to become a great mechanic, and your efforts will be imprinted on the machines, like injecting them with a soul. They roar, they roar, they cheer! They are like your children, who will travel to every corner of the world!"
This crazy old man described the work of a mechanic with a hint of romance.
It seemed that he loved this career.
But Eric was unappreciative and ran away crying and screaming.
Mike understood.
Eric had been captured for some reason to be a gunner.
Fortunately, he was not injured or killed in the explosion, but he was terrified.
And Archbishop Lionel discovered the genius of the mechanics and then went crazy.
"You guys have fun, I'm going back to work."
Mike laughed.
After all, the frontline war was intense, and even high-energy species could die at any time. In addition, with the terrifying threat of the Genesis Nest in this evolutionary chain, no one knew what would happen.
Including him, he could only find a way to become stronger and survive.
At this time, it would be a good thing if Eric could leave the frontline.
Noah's Organization may seem a bit unreliable, but its status is quite high. As long as Eric can cling to them, he won't have to worry for the rest of his life.
After all, he is considered a genius in Noah's Organization's eyes.
At the stone house entrance, Anne looked awkwardly at the scene, at a loss for what to do.
"Don't mind them, there will always be a compromise when they get tired of running."
Seeing the woman, Mike instructed, "Tell him to take his time to consider carefully about the future. But whatever he chooses, I respect his decision."
Anne was stunned, softly responded, then lowered her voice, "Please go back and see Isabelle. She... seems a bit abnormal today."
Mike was surprised and turned to push open the door.
In the dimly lit room, there was a faint rustling sound.
By the dim light from outside, Mike could see a slender girl curled up in the corner, seemingly using charcoal in her hand to vigorously smear something on the wooden board wall.
She was so engrossed that she didn't seem to realize someone had come in.
Instead of disturbing her, Mike lit a lighter.
The light illuminated the wall, and he was stunned.
The wall was covered with drawings made of charcoal, dripping with the darkness of the Holy Mountain reaching towards the sky like the horns of a devil, and the myriad of black substances spread down like blood vessels, finally outlining a shocking totem, resembling a deformed lotus flower.
Under the Holy Mountain were terrifying demons. Her lines were very simple, but they could depict an abstract horror, and the smudged black color seemed to scream like a devil.
The traces of these demons were the vines of the lotus flower!
Isabelle was very focused and serious when drawing.
No, rather than serious, it was more ferocious.
She was chanting in her mouth as if possessed by an evil spirit.
"Sata, Abaluya... Sata, Abaluya..."
Mike's mind exploded.
He had long realized that the girl in front of him was extraordinary.
First of all, her abnormal report.
Secondly, she had too much extraordinary knowledge.
Finally, she even knew the secrets of the third-generation Sacred Sovereign.
This was not a low-level species allocated as military supplies.
Until this moment, she even shouted the slogan of the Necro Cult!
If it weren't for the gender difference, Mike would have wanted to see if she had decayed.
Of course, the Dark Matter in his hand didn't react.
It was highly probable that this girl was clean.
"Isabelle? Isabelle?"
Mike had to interrupt her.
Isabelle turned her head, her hollow eyes staring at him intently.
"Why did you draw these things?"
"I had a nightmare."
"Why did you record the things in your nightmare?"
"Because I'm scared."
"Does drawing them make you less scared?"
"Mom taught me to draw, drawing can calm me down."
"What does the slogan you shouted mean?"
"It's not a slogan."
"Then what is it?"
"Immortal Faith."
Isabelle lifted a slender white finger, pointing to the drawing on the wall.
Mike turned to look and saw the totem of the Genesis Nest.
At this moment, he finally understood what the Necro Cultists were shouting.
Immortal Faith!
Were they referring to the Genesis Nest?
He hesitated for a moment, got up and recorded the drawing on the wall in his notebook, then wiped off all the traces on the wall with a wet cloth. They couldn't be exposed to the outside world.
Unexpectedly, once Isabelle stopped drawing, she began to tremble, as if she had seen something terrifying, using both hands and feet to retreat frantically on the bed.
Mike was surprised and hurriedly grabbed her hand.
But she reacted like a frightened kitten, scratching his wrist.
Mike looked at the fresh blood flowing from his wrist, his pupils slightly contracted.
The power erupted by this girl was not like that of an ordinary person.
Isabelle shrank in the corner, her face full of horror, burying her head in her arms.
Mike looked at this scene as if he had seen himself from years ago.
He was silent for a moment, but still handed her paper and pen, saying softly, "Okay, you can draw. But can you not draw such terrifying things? Let the nightmares die. You can draw something beautiful."
Isabelle took the paper and pen, her hands still trembling, her lips moving slightly.
"There is no beauty, no beauty..."
Mike shook his head, reached out to hug her, and sighed, "How can there be no beauty? I was once a patient with an incurable disease. But what kept me going was precisely those beautiful things. Like the home of your childhood, like your parents, like the cicadas and stars in the summer, like the sunlight and snow in the winter. The ice cream sticks that cost five cents at the door of your house when you were a child, and the little friends kicking a football with you in the yard."
"Even though those things are no longer here, it's precisely because you've lost them that they seem especially beautiful, right? And someday, you can find them again."
Mike wasn't very good at comforting children, and what he said were lies that even he didn't believe.
However, Isabelle calmed down. She no longer appeared so panicked, but quietly lifted her head and drew a few sparse strokes on the paper.
The sun, the plains, the mountains.
The river, the wooden house, the garden, the fence, the flock, and the sheepdog.
And three little people holding hands.
Seeing this, Mike felt relieved.
It seemed that the little girl still had some beauty in her heart.
However, the next moment, he suddenly realized something.
These were not things that could appear inside the city.
With Isabelle's status and position, she couldn't leave Avalon City.
So where had she seen these things?
It couldn't be another nightmare, could it?
"Where is this?" Mike touched the girl's head and asked softly. Isabelle curled up silently in his arms, her voice low. "Home."
