The black sun hangs high

Chapter 449 Shadow of the Past

Even though Hugh had been to the besieged city of Seren and faced the bloody battlefield, he had never seen so many corpses at once.

He had initially thought that there might only be a few dozen or a hundred people who had retreated to this place, but after Hugh had completely left the fortifications and bypassed some cargo boxes that blocked his view, he discovered that there were probably hundreds of corpses lying in the hall.

In the bright light, in this almost still time, these silent figures maintain their respective postures, looking like broken, rough sculptures waiting for visitors.

"..."

In such circumstances, any sound would be no different from noise, so Hughes slowed his pace and walked quietly forward like an ordinary tourist who had stumbled into a cemetery.

Although an unknown amount of time has passed since the deaths of these people, the characteristics of the Dark Abyss and its well-preserved enclosed space have allowed most of the corpses to be preserved. Hugh can even determine the previous duties of these dead people by their clothing.

The clothing of the deceased can be roughly divided into three categories.

The first category of dead was the most numerous. They were all wearing standard work uniforms. Perhaps because of the material, the colors of these uniforms were still well preserved. Hughes could clearly distinguish the blue lines that adorned the gray and white main color.

Judging from their clothing, the deceased were likely researchers and workers at this base.

The second type of dead were soldiers. The clothes they wore were quite similar to the camouflage uniforms that Hugh remembered. In addition to the uniforms, they also had a lot of metal exoskeleton equipment on their bodies. As for the weapons they carried, they were not much different from the ones Hugh had seen in the fortifications.

The third type of identity is very obvious. The dark blue clothing is very recognizable, and Hugh also found a mark on the hat worn by one of the victims. Although it was very blurry, Hugh could still make out the outline of the intersecting wrench and screwdriver.

"Staff, soldiers, workers... that seems to be the basic composition."

Hugh stepped back two paces from the shriveled corpse, bowing slightly apologetically. He had moved a little too roughly and accidentally severed the dead worker's forearm.

If the facility were still operating, this would be considered a work-related injury to some extent.

He looked around, his brow furrowing slightly: "No fatal wounds, no signs of struggle... Many of the deceased were in a position of embracing or holding hands, which suggests they anticipated death. Was it a mass suicide?"

With that thought in mind, Hugh turned around and came to the body of a soldier. He squatted down and began to examine the body as quickly as possible.

Like the other dead, this fully armed soldier also died peacefully, leaning against a huge cargo container, his body relaxed, his legs outstretched, his weapons and some personal belongings beside him.

Hughes couldn't find any external injuries on the body either, but when he tried to use his senses to search the corpse carefully, he discovered that there were very obvious traces of magic inside the body.

These marks were found all over the body, from the limbs to the torso, with no omissions. The most obvious signs of "damage" were on the head, or rather, the brain.

"Judging from the marks, it was as if countless sharp knives had swept across his head in an instant... This was extremely brutal and thorough destruction, not only severing his life but also completely destroying the brain, the carrier of memory and knowledge."

Hugh tried to extend his senses to another corpse nearby and got a similar result.

So Hugh turned his gaze to the relics that the soldier had placed beside him.

Aside from the destroyed weapons, the remaining items were three metal medals, a necklace, a notebook with a dark brown cover, and a square card that was semi-transparent.

Hugh summoned his mage hand and used the gentlest force to pick up and examine each of the objects.

Two of the three medals are now difficult to identify, but the third one is the most exquisite in terms of craftsmanship and materials, and is still clearly visible. On its surface, Hughes saw a blue sphere with a grid pattern, with delicate ribbons carved from metal around its edge, and below it, a national flag.

The deceased had apparently frequently rubbed the flag with his hands, which made the flag's design very blurry, making it impossible for Hughes to make any further detailed identification.

The photographs preserved in the pendant have faded considerably, but Hughes can still make out the people in them.

This is a miniature family photo, very ordinary, just a simple picture of a father, mother and daughter.

His father was right in front of him, but as for what had become of his wife and daughter, Hugh had no answer. He casually put the pendant back into the soldier's hand, and then used his mage's hand to lift up the last two items.

The notebook with its brown cover was destined to be unreadable; its pages were severely stuck together. After Hugh carefully separated them, he discovered that the ink writing had faded to faint blue stains. The soldier must have used ordinary ink when writing these words, which was destined not to last long in this environment.

Hugh picked up the translucent card with a hint of helplessness. It looked like a thin, fragile piece of glass, and under the light, Hugh could vaguely see some textures imprinted on its interior.

"Ok?"

Upon noticing the peculiarity of the glass plate, Hugh immediately took it from the mage's hand. With the manipulation of a small amount of magic, a faint light appeared within the glass plate.

The magic injected into it flowed like water into a river, moving rapidly along the internal textures, and as the magic worked, a gentle light emanated from within.

This is not a glass plate, but a "pass".

The first thing to appear from the magical light was a photograph of a man with dark skin, a high nose bridge, slightly sunken eyes, and a smiling face.

Judging from his physical characteristics, Hughes believed that the soldier must have come from an arid desert region.

As Hugh's magic worked, more information was revealed.

"Marty Basse Hadrin".

"Number: UN-4876-5419-DF".

Access level: Medium.

At the very bottom, there is a line of red text indicating a warning status.

Access permission: Locked.

"Locked, does that mean it's unusable?" Hugh held the special pass and looked it over a few times, but couldn't find any more useful information. So he turned and walked towards the other corpses, and soon collected more than a dozen passes of the same style.

The magic circuits of some of the passes were completely destroyed, but the rest were still functioning normally. While studying these passes, Hughes discovered that there were tiny grooves on the edges of these passes that could embed some kind of object. He deduced that these passes were probably powered by some kind of special "battery" or "energy block" at the time. In other words, these deceased people should have also come into contact with something similar to "magic crystals", and there were quite a few of them.

Unfortunately, the "access permissions" for each pass are displayed as "locked".

"Either the holders of these passes chose to lock them at the last minute, or the 'system' responsible for this function has been taken offline... I hope it's the former, I don't have the ability to fix these complicated things."

Hugh was somewhat worried, but since things had come to this point, he had no other choice but to continue exploring the area.

Unable to find answers from the dead, Hugh walked directly to the massive pedestal, the most prominent structure in the entire hall. Such an important object should have been maintained and inspected even at the very end.

As it turned out, Hughes's judgment was correct.

After carefully navigating around the staff members who had died clutching various books, documents, or items, Hugh finally arrived at the base of the massive beam of light.

The beam of light appeared even more spectacular and astonishing than when viewed from a distance.

As Hugh approached the pillar of light, he gradually sensed an extremely strong and dangerous fluctuation of magical power, the source of which was the blinding light.

Although the beam of light was encased in some special transparent material, and although the base from which it was launched clearly employed many unknown and mysterious technologies, Hugh was still able to sense the boundless power contained within it.

What is its origin? What are its functions and purposes?

Hugh felt the buzzing in his spiritual world, and a thousand thoughts flashed through his mind.

The only thing he could be certain of at the moment was that the source of this light must be related to an extremely large amount of magic power. Perhaps it was driven by some kind of extremely long-lasting special energy, or perhaps it was a special circuit or ritual that represented the highest level of civilization.

Its importance can be seen from the attitude of the Dark Abyss Palace toward this place and the walls and gates around it that are strong enough to withstand the power of the hounds.

Amid the continuous humming, Hugh arrived at the massive base, where he saw a large group of staff gathered together. Judging from their attire and the items they carried, their work at this base was clearly more central than that of the others.

Through the gaps between the corpses, Hugh could barely make out a huge control panel set up next to the base. However, more than a dozen researchers were gathered in front of the control panel, their hands intertwined. Therefore, Hugh had to separate them or move them aside. In the process, several more of the deceased's limbs were broken.

To express his apology, Hugh kept apologizing during the moving process. Since they didn't say anything, Hugh assumed they had no objections.

Finally, he arrived at the control panel.

Here, he saw two rather unusual deceased individuals.

Judging from their figures, they should be a man and a woman, who are in a kissing embrace. Several paper-sized "glass plates" are scattered on the ground beside them. The indicator lights on the control panel are still working, but judging from the markings, the control panel is completely offline and can no longer control the light column behind it or the other equipment.

Hugh carefully avoided the long-dead couple, picked up the glass plates, examined them briefly, and then carefully infused them with his magic.

After a slight tremor, light spread along the magic circuit, and then a series of words rolled past Hugh's eyes.

Like those documents, this glass plate clearly has the function of detecting the holder. After many unfamiliar characters rolled by, what remained was the language he was most familiar with. However, what Hugh saw this time carried a somewhat warning meaning.

"Powering on..."

"The circuit has been disconnected. Backup power has been detected and connected."

"User authentication is now being performed. Please note that failure to authenticate will trigger 'Measure 5'."

Hugh wasn't quite sure what this so-called "Measure No. 5" referred to. Considering the special circumstances here, he immediately freed one hand and built several solid defenses around himself before continuing to supply magic to the panel in his hand.

"Connection to the main circuit has been restored, and the user list and license agreement have been updated."

"Verification begins..."

"New visitor detected, username 'Temporary Visitor 002', confirm?"

Hughes breathed a slight sigh of relief. He raised his hand and pressed the button that was floating on the glass panel.

As he touched it, the button began to transform rapidly, turning into a rotating azure sphere in just a few seconds. The sphere then expanded outwards, forming a blue background with a regular grid pattern. Subsequently, a familiar-looking user interface appeared before his eyes.

On the left side of the "desktop" of this panel, there are various buttons, while on the right side, there is a very conspicuous "file".

The document is titled "To Those Who Come After".

Hughes moved his finger over the icon, touched it lightly, and opened it.

The video was projected onto the screen. Inside the image, Hugh saw a bustling hall with many figures flashing by. Workers were moving various heavy equipment, soldiers were busy maintaining weapons, inspecting temporary fortifications, or operating large machinery, while on the other side, next to the huge metal base, a group of researchers of different appearances and skin colors were busy at work.

In the video, the beam of light has not yet appeared.

"Ah... hello, where should I begin?"

The familiar language reached Hugh's ears. The man in charge of taking notes muttered a couple of sentences to himself, then suddenly realized, "Oh right, I forgot to activate the language interpreter... Let's start over, test, 1, 2, okay."

The man composed himself before speaking again: "Hello, newcomer. I hope you can understand what I'm saying. It's a pleasure to meet you in this way, although by the time you hear this, I'll probably be a dried-up corpse. But at least it shows that we succeeded in the end... right? Probably, haha."

(End of this chapter)