Does the mechanical girl dream of the Messiah?

"..."

--No way?

"How could they... appear in a place like this? There must be something wrong."

——Yes, there must be something wrong.

——How could there be such a coincidence? The morning dew will evaporate, the flowers will wither, and after midsummer will come autumn and winter. The opposite is a coincidence, or it may be a miracle as the saints say.

But that kind of thing is impossible to happen.

Those who expect miracles will only be swallowed up by miracles. Thousands of ballads deny the struggle against fate, and thousands of poems praise fate's proof of itself. What's more, their existence is not only a miracle, but also a useless miracle. It is just adding three dead people to such a place. They do not need to be buried with the dead, and they do not need to add three portions of ashes to their graves inexplicably. It is just a mockery of this body, this body made of steel, and it will not make anyone happy.

“This is video footage.”

As if waking himself from a dream, the "Infiltrator" remained expressionless but handed over a few photos.

Are there any films left after rapid development? I thought the "scouts" should use pure data for storage and communication.

"No matter how you look at it, this is... all..."

I wanted to deny them after just a quick glance, calling them a misidentification of a hostile entity or some kind of hallucination, such as mistaking a trick of light and shadow or an arrangement of miscellaneous objects for a human figure. But when I actually held those pictures in my hands, I found that I might be a little too naive.

Black-haired girl.

A black-haired mechanical puppet.

Pink-haired girl.

A silver greatsword.

Purple and black swords.

An incomprehensible construct.

“…It’s all them!”

"It certainly seems to be the case, Mr. Opera."

But for some reason, the "Infiltrator" in front of him looked somewhat happy.

……

"Where are we now?"

"Who knows? Who can give an answer? I'm afraid only the wind that passes through the hall, the east wind, the whispers in the wind can tell us everything. It passes through the bright morning light, through the brown sea water, and before blowing open the shutters, the temperature has blessed the city named after poetry and is coming towards you—"

"Um, Ash, please don't recite such scary poems at a time like this, okay?"

"can you?"

The mechanical girl named Ashlee simply tilted her head in confusion.

"Ms. Luna, while I can tell you that you just crossed several intersections and turned several corners, I doubt that this information is of any significance to the current situation."

"Ah, I think so too."

Lunicia touched the tip of her nose as if she was a little embarrassed.

This time it was Ella Hepper's turn to express confusion.

Of course, the question of "where is this" is really of no practical value at the moment. The broken map obtained from the entrance at the beginning may not have any meaning now. The places that I just ran across when I ran wildly just now are not Nasalan style structures no matter how you look at them - it even makes people wonder whether this is the same space as the original part, or whether it is two half planes sewn together. It was only later that I found that the problem was not that complicated, it was just two sections of the hull that were embedded together.

The only problem was that the two halves now appeared not to be from the same airship at all.

"Then the one just now..."

"I guess I've gotten rid of it."

"Ashe, this statement doesn't make me feel at ease..."

"can you?"

"Yes, I'd better trouble Miss Ashlee to add more knowledge to ordinary people, otherwise the number of times people are troubled will only increase greatly."

"Like, it bothers Ella or something?"

"..."

What was that just now?

I don’t know, and there is no definite conclusion.

The only thing that was certain was that "that thing" was extremely dangerous, and there was no way to fight it at the moment. That was all. It seemed to be similar in nature to the transformed corpses encountered on the bridge of the Duke of Candiano, and even more "deep", but the danger seemed to be magically lower than that. This strange contradiction puzzled Lunicia. Of course, she hoped that she would never encounter that kind of dangerous thing again, but it seemed that this was undoubtedly just a delusion. After all, this seemed to be the nest of that kind of existence, or even the birthplace. It was just a fantasy to completely avoid "that thing".

"So, do you want to take a break?"

"If Lady Luna wishes."

"There's nothing wrong with that."

It is a mechanical creation that does not need food, drink or sleep, so it is rare to actively suggest repairs.

Of course, she might just be considering Lunicia's condition - after all, as a striker, she encountered the greatest danger and trauma among the three. Not to mention that Ashethelin was unscathed, Ella had some scratches and bruises while running, but overall it was not a big deal, but Lunicia lost an entire arm.

Although this arm was cut off by his own people, and thanks to the regenerative ability given by Ashetherin, it has now basically grown back, but the slight weakness caused by blood loss and the loss of physical strength all need to be recovered through rest.

In addition, it is also necessary to summarize the previous situation.

Interlude Log (Part 3)

[Unintelligible] Year, Month Mao, 39 [This part is crossed out] 29th Diary:

[Scribbled traces, this logbook does not contain any daily reports on the ship’s condition]

Something is wrong.

Something must be wrong.

Can't tell.

Should we stop?

stop.

Strange influence.

Government departments. [This part was crossed out]

[Unidentifiable] activity.

Neither something that exists nor something that does not exist, it is the negation of existence and the negation of non-existence.

[The above text is written in very small font on the edge of the paper and is difficult to read]

……

The agency reported that "the research is going well". It was obvious that they did not intend to report to me. The only purpose of sending this report to my desk was to tell me that they were doing things and to keep me out of my business. I wrote back to them and said that I hoped they could give a clearer answer before [illegible], and I needed to question them, but this part of the request was obviously ignored.

[Traces of repeated scratching]

This ship has never felt so strange to me as it does now.

The inspection report on the meteorological observation instrument stated that there were no problems with the instrument.

So is it our eyes that are the problem? I threw this question to the other crew members who claimed to have seen the damn [Unidentifiable], and no one answered. The expressions on their faces were enough to tell their thoughts. This has nothing to do with me. The only thing I have to do is to ensure that this trial is completed successfully. Some minor troubles will not cause the ship to fail to return successfully, unless everyone agrees that it is "definitely not a minor trouble", and that group of [Unidentifiable] obviously does not have this kind of people. What does it mean to question the super dragon crystal technician? These people know clearly that a few apprentices cannot refute the conclusion that "everything is normal".

So what do those top-grade dragon crystal technicians themselves think?

The expressions on their faces betrayed them - they themselves did not believe this conclusion - what else could we believe?

[Unidentifiable]

The reports these days are getting more bizarre.

At first, it was just an optical illusion and hallucination, which was not uncommon. This ship was a new thing, both in design and manufacture, and things like mistaking the ship's internal structure could be attributed to lack of experience. Once you get used to the new hull structure and the new magic environment, such problems will decrease and eventually disappear.

It’s just that the recent [illegible] cannot be ignored.

There are reports of hearing [indecipherable] in the cold storage - this statement is close to nonsense, and can only be understood as mistaking the sound of the device for something else. There are also reports of seeing [indecipherable] in various places in the airship, which is nonsense. The windows in the living area are not sealed. Those crew members who claim to see [indecipherable] outside the windows [indecipherable] should receive psychiatric analysis from the medical department and remove them from front-line positions if necessary.

It is impossible for [indiscernible] to appear without a subject. The darkness itself is not dangerous at all. The weather conditions outside are normal. It is imperative that all crew members have a stable understanding of these things. The inexplicable atmosphere of panic must be curbed.

……

wrong.

Something is wrong.

Nothing is right.

I should go meet them.

It's not too late.

Where is the witch?

Where is this.

[The above text is written in very small font on the edge of the paper and is difficult to read]

Recorder: [Unidentifiable]

Chapter 17 The girls take a break here

So, let’s sort out the current situation first.

Using a huge blade to cut open the rotten corpse, it seemed that this was not enough to dispel the paladin's anxiety, so he cut off the head, burned it with holy fire, sprinkled it with blessed water, and then chanted to purify the dead. Only then did he reluctantly let down his guard - until he was sure that they had finally stopped moving completely. It seemed that at least these zombies were normal, more normal than those he had encountered before.

"Is it normal?"

It was quite surprising to hear this question coming from Ashlee's mouth - generally speaking, she was the one who was the furthest away from the word "normal" among the three people. Unexpectedly, she would be the first to express her objection to this statement.

"Normal, probably."

"Ms. Luna, there's no need to be so uncertain about this kind of thing..."

makes sense.

Compared to the shadows that seemed to be ineffective no matter how they were attacked, and the ship structure that was difficult to destroy even by a divine-level blade, these corpses were naturally much more normal. If we ignored their strange postures and treated them as ordinary undead, there would be no problem at all.

After prying open the locked room from the outside and letting in the stinking and stale air behind the door, you can see these crawling and wriggling corpses. Some have become incomplete white bones, while others are like skin-covered rotten corpses. If there is any difference from ordinary corpses, you have to look at their swollen abdomens - translucent skin, with unhealthy blood-red organs, broken and rotten flesh and limbs. What exactly have they experienced? After smearing words and patterns on the walls that no one can recognize with excrement and blood, or before, if they devoured the flesh and blood of others because of hunger, then this amount is too much more than necessary. Until the lock of the door was pried open, the sounds of slapping, roaring, wailing, chewing and whimpering could still be heard in the room. No one knew what happened, and no one could give a definite answer.

These are not within the scope of concern of Lunicia and her group.

All they need to do is to clean up the area around the temporary resting point to ensure that they will not encounter any unexpected situations during the rest time and be unable to respond. Camping is a very important compulsory course for every adventurer. If you don't learn how to choose and arrange camping points in various environments, then even professionals with strong combat power may not be able to withstand the pressure brought by the countryside and ruins outside the city.

Fragile and uncertain terrain, unknown flora and fauna, structures with difficult-to-identify functions, monsters that may haunt this place, the invasion of darkness, industrial or spiritual pollution, evil spirits from eons ago - reducing the possibility of encountering these dangers, and making sure you have enough time to respond to emergencies, and on this basis ensure adequate rest, this is a subject that every adventurer must face when he is outside.

Like now, clearing the area around the ideal camping spot to ensure that there will be no sneak attacks at too close a distance is also a common method. I believe that there will be no adventurers in this world who are willing to accompany monsters and sleep across the wall.

How effective is this?

"I do not know."

"Yeah, I don't know."

"Since Luna and Ashe both said so, then they don't know."

The three people present - unfortunately, not even one of them is an orthodox adventurer.

It would be too rude to expel the church's employees and the kingdom's knights from the ranks of adventurers. After all, even if they can obtain treasures, relics and knowledge from adventures, they choose to enter those uninhabited dungeons based on their own wishes, the wishes of their superiors or official missions. However, compared with unofficial adventurers, their actions are often larger in scale and less arbitrary. An adventure team that can prepare a logistics team of dozens or even hundreds of people, or even recruit nearby residents through official documents, should consider different issues from individual adventurers. The situation of Lunisia and her group is similar - this is not to say that they can now provide a large logistics team to help them set up tents - but that they rarely have the experience of serious deep dungeon adventures.

Of course, Lunixia didn't talk about it. Everything in the outside world was very unfamiliar to her.

The degree of Ashetherin's memory loss is far greater than what Lunicia and Ella expected. In fact, it can be said that she basically remembers nothing. Whether this is due to the self-cleaning in the mind setting or some unknown damage, it is impossible for the group to judge.

The only one who could possibly be considered experienced was Ella Hepper.

but……

"I'm so sorry, Lady Luna..."

like this.

Although she had ample theoretical knowledge - more than Lunicia - and practical experience in exploring ice fields, wilderness, forests, mountains, and war-torn areas, this pink-haired girl did not have many opportunities to set foot in ruins. She had no need for adventure, nor did she need to earn money with commissions from local guilds. All she had to do along the way was to search, move forward, and continue searching until she was sure that the direction she was heading was correct. Then she took a step and waited for a happy tomorrow to come.

Therefore, this team of adventurers, which was put together by various coincidences, are essentially novices.

A novice with rich theoretical experience is still a novice, and this has not changed from ancient times to the present.

The previous adventure experiences were almost negligible. After all, they were either activities in modern cities or camping in the wild with no danger and no benefits. How could they be compared with the adventure of going deep into the dungeon?

“Is this enough?…?”