Overturned Tower

"—This is Chongguang Island. Everything here is calculated by the three sages... the fate has been 'wedge'."

"...Then why can you always guess their behavior?"

Delphinium felt a strange sense of discord: "It's like...you were at the same height as them from the very beginning."

"Because they are too human."

The corners of Russell's mouth raised slightly, and he replied softly if he pointed.

Therefore, when he reunited with the God of Beauty...he had already completed the "duplication" of the God of Beauty.

Because of this, the three sages should have understood Russell's twilight nature.

The so-called "chatting with smart people is easy".Two people who can penetrate each other's essence, after a moment of contact, no longer need words to communicate.

So Russell sneered: "Isn't our chat over here now? If there is no accident, they are almost 'finished'."

It took less than two seconds for Russell to speak.

The Dr. Zanbai with the red pentagram on his chest opened the door of the chapel just right.

"I'm really sorry, there were some things that weren't ready... now everything is ready."

The old man said in a kind and kind voice: "Please come in with me, both of you."

Chapter 11 Cyber ​​Nuns and Electronic Gods

Accompanied by a soft creaking sound, the old wooden door of some years was pushed open by the red glowing Dr. Zanbai.

Delphinium followed behind Russell and the old man, and walked in cautiously.

She seldom came to the Cyber ​​Church...or, in fact, Delphinium had only been to the church once before that.

That time was because a former colleague of her from the Special Operations Department died in the line of duty, and that colleague had no relatives...

Delphinium had just become Minister of Special Operations at the time.In the end, only Delphinium, who was less than 20 years old at the time, was able to attend the funeral.

—Only one person.

She personally watched the priest preside over the funeral ceremony, talk to the dead and bid farewell.

Then I watched with my own eyes the body of the colleague who was torn apart by the devil and stitched together again, was doused with oil and burned to ashes.Let her hold the urn for burial...

There was only one person during the entire funeral.

No mourning for relatives.There is no mourning music played.

Only the bad guy quietly appeared outside the church, silently lighting a cigarette for himself in the drizzle—the bad guy was only in his early twenties back then, and he was just a young man who had been rebellious for a long time.

The delphinium did not cry either.

Because she is actually not familiar with this colleague.

And this sense of alienation made her feel embarrassed... She only felt as if she was wrapped in a kind of smoke like mist, light black and sad puff, which made her speechless and unable to use her strength.

That incident deeply shocked Delphinium, and had a great impact on her subsequent management methods.In a sense, it even affected her personality—because her blueshift and redshift were indeed upgraded by a level because of this experience.

At the same time, Delphinium has cast a considerable psychological shadow on the Cyber ​​Church since then.

Every time she saw church buildings on the street, she would think of that day—remember the weight of the urn that was not too heavy in her arms, remember the shape of the urn that was still a little bit tight on the chest, and the corners of the urn. Fine wooden spines that are completely ground down.There was also the thin drizzle that day, and the unspeakable sadness.

This time she entered another cyber church on an empty island again, and she smelled the same smell in the church hall again.

Delphinium frowned, sniffed, and sniffed the air carefully.

She was able to confirm that it should be a slightly sour smell, reminiscent of lemon peel or light white vinegar...not the kind of perfume that pleases people, but a refreshing slightly sour.If you distinguish carefully, there is also a smell that cannot be detected by ordinary people's sense of smell, which is close to the smell of new furniture that has just been renovated and the formaldehyde has not been completely dispelled; After the rain, the smell of pine trees with pine needles on the ground.

It was exactly the same as what she smelled in Happy Island back then!

It wasn't until this moment that Delphinium realized...it wasn't a spice used in funeral ceremonies or cremation places, but a special kind of incense used uniformly in the church.

And the melodious and soft singing voice also came from the church.

It was the same as the hymn they heard at the airport—except that when they first disembarked from the airship, the hymn they heard seemed to be a chorus of thousands of layers, superimposed in a very clever way, producing a very The resonance of the sacred.However, the chants she heard now only had the voices of three people... After the mix became weaker, the contours of the human voices became extraordinarily clear.

Following the sound, Delphinium saw the three nuns.

Wearing black, loose nun clothes, they knelt at the front of the hall, clasped their fingers in front of their chests, and sang hymns with their backs to the crowd.

Unlike the streets outside, there are no statues or markers inside this church.Only the giant network center like a honeycomb is on the top.

It has thousands of mung bean-sized indicator lights, which are flashing golden-green light at different frequencies.Less than one-tenth of the lights were off and not flashing; two lights were constantly glowing a dangerous red light.

All three nuns wear black eye patches on their heads, just like the VR glasses Russell uses when playing games.

And it did seem to be some kind of VR device, but Delphinium didn't know what they were seeing.

Delphinium only discovered that several transparent data cables were connected to each blindfold, all the way to the ceiling above.On the side of the eye mask, there are indicator lights of the same style, which are shining with golden-green light as the hymn is chanted.

And in these transparent data lines, golden-green streamers are constantly emerging, and the frequency is the same as the indicator lights on their eye masks.

These streamers are like faint fireflies, continuously flowing out of these VR glasses, and then flowing to the network center above, gathering together.

Although delphinium had no idea what it was used for, it didn't prevent her from feeling a shock mixed with mystery and technology.

"Curious?"

Looking at the delphinium staring blankly at the nuns, Russell put his hand on the delphinium's shoulder.

"Want to try it?"

"……Eh?"

Delphinium turned around and was taken aback for a moment.

It took her a while to catch the relief that only she could realize from Russell's kind smile that seemed to have never changed.

Isn't this a joke or a joke?

"I... can I do it too?"

Delphinium was a little cautious for a while, but also felt a little expectant.

Since coming to Sogo Island, Delphinium has seen too many novel things that she has never seen before.

The past few years of experience in the Special Operations Department have made her character very stable.Delphinium is always the most reliable person in the Special Operations Department, who can be trusted by colleagues under any circumstances and will never lose the chain.There is rarely anything that can make her look like a girl of her age should be again.

"Of course, this is not limited to nuns. In fact, this is also part of the content of helping in the church. And if I insist, it is quite healing... When I used to feel tired, I would come to pray."

"Can you sing hymns too?"

"Yes. It's not difficult, because you will sing yourself when the time comes...your body will move by itself. Don't worry too much about being out of tune, because there is calibration."

Russell scratched his head in distress: "Of course, because I have sung too much, I have already learned it. It is still possible for me to sing along without plugging in the cable... But if you ask me to sing by myself, I may Out of tune or forgot words.

"Let's not mention those..."

Russell turned his head, looked at the two old men who had already sat on the chair and looked at the nuns, and beckoned Delphinium to sit over.

This is the kind of long seat that is common in churches. Facing the nuns, they can rest and pray with their eyes closed.Each seat can accommodate two people, just enough for Russell and Delphinium to sit down.

And except for the two Dr. Zanbai and the three nuns... After the family walked in, they realized that there was no one else in the church, which was actually not too small.

The old woman named "Brain Insula" said to Russell in a gentle voice, "I invite you to come here this time because we have encountered some... problems that are not easy to deal with."

"Is it Sogo Group, or Sogo Island?"

"It's Sogo Island."

The old man added gently: "The Goddess of Beauty asked me to explain to you that it was not the instruction of the three sages that we came here. It was the suggestion of director Sally Ruth."

"...Master."

Russell looked bitter, and knew that this matter would definitely be troublesome again.After all, if the matter was a little smaller, it would definitely not be Sally Ruth's turn to come to him.

But at the same time, Russell felt relieved.

Because in this way, he doesn't have to ponder carefully and decide his own position.After all, the mentor is kind to him... Since he has something to ask for, Russell will definitely not shirk it without endangering his own and delphinium's personal safety.

"What's the matter? Let's hear it."

Russell sighed.

The excuse of "business trip" that I originally asked for leave to travel and fish, but I didn't expect it to come true...

And the old lady directly said something that made Russell feel inexplicable:

"Do you believe in... 'Werewolves'?"

Chapter 12 The Werewolf

"... a werewolf?"

Russell hesitated when he heard this.

He glanced back at the delphinium, at her raised canine ears, covered in white down.

...Are you referring to this squishy werewolf?

The delphinium seemed to feel Russell's gaze, so its ears itched slightly, and the fluffy canine ears trembled without contact, and bounced on the spot.

Soon, Delphinium realized what her body had done instinctively.

So she quickly reached out to cover her ears, and pressed her fluffy dog ​​ears to her head.With slightly red cheeks, he looked back at Russell.It was finally relieved to find that Russell didn't seem to notice this scene.

And the old man code-named "Prefrontal Cortex" explained: "It's not a soul relative with a 'canine' or a 'wolf species'... but a legend that has been passed down in ancient times.

"It is said that there used to be a race on the land. They usually look like ordinary people, but when the full moon comes, they will go crazy.

"At that time, their spirit disease will deteriorate rapidly, completely lose their rationality, and attack others everywhere. And if the person attacked by them also has canine spirit relatives, they will be infected with a virus similar to rabies, and they will become the same after the onset. Werewolves."

"...When you say that, I have a little impression."

Russell thoughtfully recalled: "When I was in elementary school, I seemed to have heard similar rumors among the students."

Delphinium noticed that Russell used "students" instead of "classmates".

From here, one can realize that although Russell is always smiling and has a good relationship with everyone... But this does not mean that Russell regards everyone as his true friend.

This not only did not disappoint Delphinium, but made her feel relieved.

Although from the perspective of fellows, the more selfless and noble Russell's character is, the more she will appreciate it;

But from the perspective of lovers, lovers, and husbands and wives, she hopes that Russell can be more selfish, be more real on weekdays, and treat herself better.

Seeing that the delphinium was looking at him, Russell turned his head, waved his hand and explained casually to her: "Back then, a canine relative like you might still be bullied by those stinky little ghosts."

"Hey?"

Delphinium froze for a moment.

She didn't expect that she could have her own business while watching the excitement from the sidelines.

"Canine...? Why?"

She felt a little strange: "I remember that in the elementary school on the Happy Island, I hated snakes, pangolins or lizards, the type with scales on their bodies. The main reason is that they will be very itchy when they first grow scales, and they will keep scratching. Non-stop... on the one hand, it sounds noisy, on the other hand, it is easy to bleed. Tick tock, plus children don't like to bring toilet paper, and like to wipe it on other people or on the table If you rub it indiscriminately, it will look dirty.

"And it often stains other people's clothes, and there are some bloody scales on the ground. I remember that when I was young, a classmate who had a pangolin relative in the back seat smeared blood on my back... It took me two days to find out.

"Their small and soft scales are thrown on the ground. If they are stepped on, they will easily stick to the ground and be difficult to clean. Our school does not have a sweeping robot. At that time, the daily students had to stain their hands with blood and dust. Peel off the scales one by one. There are also some children who can’t rest their hands and can’t bear the itching of the scales, so they will tear off the scales directly...and if the scales can’t grow back, the skin will have scars.”

It is quite expensive to repair this kind of damage to the characteristics of spiritual relatives, and it is already at the same level as plastic surgery.

If parents want to save money, they will probably not perform surgery on their children. After all, with the development of puberty, it is still possible to heal on its own.

And this kind of child who has obvious scars on his body, often has blood on his face, and often emits the smell of blood will easily develop a gloomy personality.Many scholars of kinology classify it as a kind of kinship characteristic that is inherited with a high probability and comes from cold-blooded animals.However, it is not easy for scholars to realize that this is actually closely related to the education and experience of youth.

"But canine relatives are still very popular with us."

Delphinium put her hand on her chin and recalled earnestly: "It's better to say, kittens, puppies, bunnies, foxes... this kind of furry relatives are very popular. Especially when I just In the years when the ears and tail grew, many classmates begged me to touch my ears.

"But I remember that what I envied most at the time was a girl who was a relative of a horse. Because she ran so fast...it was easy to pull away a large distance from all of us. When I was in elementary school, I ran 1000 Domi will not feel tired. At that time, I really thought that this is the most powerful soul relative..."

"It's all the same. Everyone likes things that they don't have. They also like fluffy things, and they are also envious of their peers with strong athletic ability."

Russell nodded: "In my case, I really liked a friend's super big horns. That guy is so powerful. He was 1.7 meters five when he was ten years old... He was in the same high school as me. When he graduated from high school It's already [-] meters. I still remember that when I was in elementary school, I would ride on his neck and hold his hands on his horns... He would rush back and forth with my back, and I could even feel the very obvious wind The feeling of pouring on the face.

"His soul relative is a long-horned cow. When he was in high school, the soul relative developed again, and his horns were so thick that he couldn't hold them with one hand. Even the horns had grown so long that they couldn't be straight. To the extent that you walk into the classroom door, you have to turn your body sideways and bend your back to get in and out.

"I still remember that he didn't have a deskmate, and he sat alone at the end of the classroom. One person had to use two desks. It was because his corners might hurt the deskmate..."

Russell recalled: "If you say it is the hostility and fear of canine relatives, it probably only lasted for one or two years in elementary school.

"If you think about it now, the legend of werewolves was very popular at that time. So after a classmate transformed into canine ears—whether it was a wolf, a dog, or a fox, others would shout that he was going to eat people. But after a while Two years later, that claim was gone.