Krafft's Anomaly Notes

Chapter 355 Advanced Puzzle
Although the people on the shore reacted quickly, a lot of debris still floated away.

They had to dismantle two baskets to make a strainer to catch the remaining debris, and pick up the small things in the water one by one and put them on the cloth spread out on the shore to drain.

With the help of a few larger fragments, but none larger than half a palm, Kupp finally found some barely recognizable features.

There was no doubt that the fragments were indeed bones.

At least Kupp couldn't think of anything that could have such a standard dense surface, loose internal structure, and joint surfaces that were partially preserved because they were relatively strong.

To an outsider, this is just some disorganized junk that is ready to be taken back and handed over, but to an older medical student who is struggling with the life and death of anatomy, it is more like a puzzle that looks particularly challenging.

As the results of the salvage increased, a number of fragments of reasonable size were spread out on the cloth. From an entry-level perspective, at least they were within the scope of cognition and were enough to guess the approximate location.

With this in mind, he sat down and tried to classify the bone fragments, trying to figure out whether this thing was the target he was looking for, or just some unlucky animal that happened to be crushed under the stone.

In terms of overall morphology, one type of bone accounts for a considerable proportion among the broken bones salvaged so far.

They were badly broken, but from the cross section we can see that they were relatively flat, with a few being slightly longer and slightly curved.

After turning over and over for a while, I finally found a shallow longitudinal groove on a certain intact side, which was basically parallel to the direction of the bone.

This inconspicuous shallow groove has been highlighted in previous discussions. It is located at the lower edge of the ribs, accommodating blood vessels and some important structures, which means that the needle can only be inserted along the upper edge during thoracotomy.

Kupp reached out and swept the separated flat bones into a pile, leaving most of the cloth empty.

If they are indeed ribs, a normal person would have neither the ability nor the need to completely restore a dozen or so ribs that are extremely similar in shape and broken into small pieces. It would be enough to just know what they are.

"So bad luck?"

What kind of luck does it take to be hit accurately by such a large falling rock, and hit the chest.

But then again, being hit by a small stone is a bad thing, as the injury will be more serious; being hit by a big stone is a good thing, as the pain will be shorter.

The chest cavity is probably the "second best" after the head, and it must have been over in a few seconds.

While they were thinking, the monks dug up more broken bones. Judging from their blocky shape, they were easier to guess than ribs, and most likely several segments of the spine.

With the ribs and spine in place, the creature's body shape can already be outlined.

Even with the error, Kupp was quite confident that it was something about the same size as a human. He could even say...

【It's people】

There is reason to suspect that it is a prejudice caused by only learning "Human Structure". After all, this bone is too light, so light that it seems to be blown away by a slightly stronger wind, which does not match the previous impression.

He picked up each piece of broken bone and weighed them, his hands, accustomed to delicate manipulations, accurately reporting their overly light weight.

From the cross-section, the compact bone on the surface is thinner, while the spongy bone inside is completely filled. A closer look reveals that the interwoven trabeculae are sparse in density and their growth arrangement is more regular.

If the interior of an ordinary bone is compared to a sponge, then the interior of these broken bones is like a dried loofah, a three-dimensional meridian network with geometric regularity, forming a loose and elastic new structure.

It is not as hard as ordinary bones, but it is definitely more flexible.

This may also explain why there are still recognizable fragments after being hit. Coop tried to summon his fellow disciples to join the puzzle, but Yvonne did not respond, just silently trying hard, and would rather turn over all the stones in the stream that were larger than a person than take over.

The mental work still fell on one person. Kupp sat down resignedly and began to compare each piece one by one.

When I was immersed in work, time always passed unconsciously. After the mud and sand settled and all the visible remains were sifted out, the skeleton on the cloth finally took shape.

Fortunately, no more bone fragments were found, which added to the difficulty of the already huge puzzle task.

The results were still incomplete, but they were enough for Kupp to confirm his guess - half a thoracic skeleton.

It included ribs mainly from the right half, a shoulder blade that was broken into more than a dozen pieces, and a humeral head. The parts that were not pressed down probably floated away with the water after the soft tissue decomposed.

It has to be admitted that even to an outsider lacking professional knowledge, this is clearly a human skeleton.

"Fell down?" was the only explanation Coop could think of.

An unfortunate victim fell into the valley when the tower collapsed and was crushed by the large pieces of stone that rolled down afterwards, resulting in its current state.

But they had a vague feeling that something was wrong, and they looked up. The steep cliff at the top of the mountain was a long horizontal distance away from where they were, separated by a small forest of trees that were short and tilted due to poor lighting, and a gravel beach on the shore.

At least these should be found right below the cliff.

With his arms as a pillow, he lay down beside the broken bone puzzle, letting the treetops and gray clouds occupy his entire field of vision, looking up at the same sky from the same angle. Perhaps this was the last frozen scene in the eyes of the dead.

He imagined the scene at that time. What caused this literally unlucky man with a skeleton to lie in the stream, and then the boulder rolled down and crushed him in a perfect way.

But no matter how he gestured, it seemed something was wrong, and he couldn't make the imagined scene coincide with the way the bones were broken in reality.

Several monks were still rummaging in the puddle, carefully scraping away the mud at the bottom with their hands, looking for possible clues.

They seemed to have found something again. After a brief discussion, there was a series of approaching sounds of flowing water, and an object flashing with reflective light among black spots came into view.

Coop reflexively raised his hands, ready to take it.

But the movement suddenly stopped. Something was triggered accidentally, like a bone was pressed into the correct joint socket by chance, fitting perfectly and smoothly.

He felt his own movements, and stretched out his arms upward as if he was holding something.

correct……

[Holding]

A scene flashed by. The vision was spinning uncontrollably in a gray, dim chaos, and the ground was nowhere to be seen. Something was waiting above, and the weightless body chose to hold on to the heaviest object nearby, and then fell into the abyss. Even the fear of death could not make his hands loosen.

He sat up suddenly from the ground, stung by the despair that he could relate to.

Certain memories were awakened, emitting an unsettling milky light. Completely different scenes, but the feelings were so similar.

The monk took the initiative to hand over the small reflective object, and surprisingly it was not something evil.

It was just a holy emblem, probably made of silver, but the ring was not made of enough material and was severely deformed under pressure. The two wings were too long and wide, dark and black.