Does the mechanical girl dream of the Messiah?

“There’s also the possibility that it won’t be usable at all.”

"That's what Ashley thought."

"Although I don't want to admit it, this is a possibility."

For example, the transmission device set up as the destination has been damaged.

Although the wizard towers of Hyperborean wizards sound like something that would remain uncorrupted even if they were on the surface forever, solid yet dangerous and difficult to enter, but precisely because of this, no one can really determine the current state of those wizard towers. The excavation and research of the ruins of those wizard towers seems to be a taboo for all countries today, and no one dares to touch it.

Of course, the more likely possibility is that the teleportation devices used hundreds of years ago have become absolutely impossible to teleport to their original destinations because no one has calibrated them and they have not self-adjusted and updated as the magical environment shifts.

As for where exactly we will be teleported to and what will happen in this situation...

After so many tragedies, no one dared to challenge it anymore.

"That's totally useless, isn't it?"

In the end, Lunicia came to this conclusion. Although the facts were almost the same.

"Although Ms. Ashley's point of view leaves little room for discussion, it is not impossible to consider it as an alternative."

“Is this a provocation…?”

"Then let's use it as a backup option? If there's really no other way, we can only try it - but didn't you just say there was one possibility? Does that mean there are other possibilities?"

"That's right, Lady Luna."

Ella nodded.

Under the clear, yet not bright enough, gloomy sky, three figures that seemed too small compared to the boundless white earth, plus a coffin, were moving slowly towards the unknown front at a pace that was not fast on a macro scale.

Compared to the other continents, the North Continent was not originally very wide, and the ravages of war made the already limited land even more fragmented - although those lands may have originally been tundra and glaciers, a land of death that excluded life. But it was this not-so-wide land that still seemed so vast and so far away to people who could only measure it with their feet.

If you can't leave, should you survive here?

In this silent white land?

It is really hard to judge which choice is more difficult.

The temperature seemed to have dropped a little, making people want to do meaningless things like pulling up their cloaks and tightening their collars.

"The other possibility is... no... I don't know how to explain it."

"What a terrible way to keep you in suspense, Ella."

"What kind of standard do you use to judge whether something is bad or not...?"

"Don't worry about it. In this case, the 'second possibility' has no practical meaning. No, it's better to say that it doesn't exist."

"It seems like this..."

"……Do not."

Ella shook her head.

It was really hard to see her expression from here, but her tone made Lunicia curious... and worried. It was like she was recalling something she didn't want to recall, and her tone made her feel uneasy.

“Another way does exist.”

"Then, what is it?"

"I don't know. Sorry, Lady Luna, but...if we can find a large city, maybe..."

Even Lunicia could hear the strangeness in this.

If the first possibility was her judgment based on knowledge: she believed that such a possibility existed because of her understanding of magic, wizards, and Hyperborean civilization, not because she had actually found the teleportation array she mentioned, or actually come into contact with such a thing outside of some ambiguous instructions and documents. Yes, this was a possibility that was full of dangers and had not been proven to exist at all.

What about the second possibility?

Although she couldn't explain it clearly, or rather, for some reason she couldn't explain it clearly, and even sounded like she herself didn't know what this possibility was, so that the existence of this possibility itself should be more suspicious than the first reasonable possibility.

But her tone was very confident.

That's right.

She didn't know what that method was, but she was very sure that the possibility existed.

This is so strange.

"So... we need to find a big city? Other places are not okay?"

"Well, or at least it looks like... a settlement with that specialized function... or something like that."

It's such an ambiguous statement, but it sounds so certain...

"Anyway, no matter which option we choose," Ashlee floated, hooking her hands around Ella's neck, "we can actually accomplish it while looking for a place like this."

"Don't make a move. Well, this is what I mean. If it's a big city, you should be able to find a teleportation node... and there might be other supplies."

"Hundreds of years have passed. Is there anything useful left?"

"It's hard to say."

"In this case, it would not be appropriate to continue on the current direction."

"Anyway, it's OK to just switch it around a bit, right, Luna?"

"Ms. Luna, what is your decision? I am only offering my suggestions. In the end, it is up to you, Ms. Luna, to make the final decision."

"Let's do this?"

As a result, the direction of the footsteps changed slightly compared to the beginning.

The compass seemed meaningless in this far north. It was not that it would only point to the south or further south, but that even the magnetic field seemed to be silent. The compass needle no longer rotated due to any factors other than shaking, and naturally could not point to any meaningful direction. Using the stars as a direction indicator was even more absurd. How many years had this world been without the light of stars, let alone in this land where everything was unknown?

However, by following the direction of the distant thing that seemed to be the sea breeze and was filled with the sound of death, I knew the location of the sea, and the coastline seemed no longer far away.

Why not inland?

After all, here, even death seems to have disappeared without a trace.

And the next place we are going to is the colorless world where all sounds disappear.

Chapter 14 Interlude - The Work of the Sealing Bureau

“Have you started filming yet?”

"Well - it's operating normally."

"Let it fly steadily. This way the picture will be blurry."

"This is going to be difficult."

"Can't do it?"

"I can't do that. That's all this little thing can do. You should look at the way we're moving now—"

"Um……"

"Haven't you seen the job of a traveling recorder before? There should be one in every team."

"I haven't paid much attention to it. When I was the leader, I was basically only responsible for fighting. The work of the other team members..."

"It sounds like the team you were in before was pretty relaxed."

To say that it is loose actually means "lack of cohesion" - but in terms of the workplace where the two are, it is difficult to say which state is normal, "loose" or "solid". Due to frequent personnel transfers, layoffs and outbound assignments, in theory, looseness is the norm, but considering the work these people have to do, the pressure from the outside world will naturally "press" these people together tightly, just like biscuits or cans.

"You could also say that as a captain, I don't have many opportunities to issue orders. Basically, everything depends on our own judgment."

"Really? That's good too."

"I thought everyone else was pretty much the same."

"Oh, no, at least in our case... before, we required each team member to have a basic understanding of the work of others."

"Tell me more specifically?"

"For example, I'm the recorder and Mare is the demolition expert. In addition to being able to operate the 'Holy Word II', I also need to be able to operate the equipment in Mare's hand. On the other hand, in addition to doing his own job well, he also needs to learn how to activate and tow the 'Holy Word II'."

"Oh……"

“This will also improve the completion rate of tasks.”

——Because even if someone dies in the middle of the process, it will not hinder his original value.

Of course, such words would not be said here. Not only was it unlucky, but it was also unnecessary. The two present knew what their workplace was like, what they would encounter, and how it worked. Or rather, they had personally experienced it many times, so naturally they would not have any special feelings about it.

In fact, for another person, the model adopted by his team - excessive atomization and individualization, is also aimed at reducing the problems that may arise when the team loses members. Of course, other problems will also follow, such as reduced task completion and increased difficulty. Everyone can only hope that others can successfully complete their tasks and not have any other accidents. Everything has two sides, and this is no exception.

"But this time it's just the two of us."

"They weren't originally in the same team. This situation is considered a temporary formation... It's rare when there aren't serious casualties, isn't it?"

"You sound very knowledgeable about this."

"At least in name, I am the captain. I was the captain before and I am the captain now. Personnel changes must be confirmed by me."

"Indeed."

"How long will it take to reach the destination?"

"Let me see...it should be here soon."

The speaker still did not appear in the camera, but the camera turned to the roadside scenery passing by at high speed - it did not look like a city, town or village. Only a few things that looked like broken brick and stone walls and could easily be confused with ordinary open-air stones would occasionally flash across the camera.

There doesn't seem to be a road ahead that can be called clean and reliable, but just raised and exposed earth mounds. The "cameraman" itself is suspended in the air and will not be affected by the ups and downs of the ground. No matter how rugged the road the two people below are driving on, the picture in the camera will only shake because of the ups and downs of the "cameraman" itself.

No matter how you look at it, this place is a remote place far away from "civilized society".

Civilization retreated from this place, leaving behind only the darkness known as desolation - passing by on both sides were mostly piles of weeds that covered the area below tightly, like small jungles, unattended and untrodden, and they took on a permanent withered yellow color under the watering of acidic rainwater. Although they were still alive, they gave people the feeling of being the zombies of plants.

Originally, for people living in an ever-deteriorating environment, land means materials, irreplaceable treasures, life and everything. However, with a sharp decline in population and no significant degradation of civilization, do people have the ability to occupy these lands?

What's more, not every inch of land has its own value.

This was originally the case, and it is even more so now - war, natural disasters, pollution, or even divine disasters, there is always a factor that can make a piece of land lose its value. If it is difficult to develop, remote, barren and desolate, it is nothing more than a wasteland in the eyes of decision makers. Under such considerations, it is natural that a large amount of land will be abandoned.

The picture gradually stopped.

The camera seemed to be judging something, and it turned slightly downward, allowing part of the mixed-breed horse's body to appear in the picture. Under the command of the rider, they stopped their horses very obediently.

The engine-powered two-wheeled vehicle is a new type of personal vehicle. Of course, it is not equipped with the almost miraculous "phenomenal engine", but just an ordinary "improved steam engine": the traditional steam engine burns coal, and then uses the coal to burn water to generate power. The improved steam engine is more tolerant. As long as reliable fuel is added to the combustion chamber - refined coal blocks or fuel oil - it can start running in a state that ordinary people cannot understand at all, inhaling and exhaling steam and providing power. Since it can provide power, it can naturally drive the wheels. Modern common "vehicles" are generally driven by this kind of thing.

However, for some more traditional regions, countries and forces that are more resistant to mechanical technology, no matter how cool, fast and convenient such two-wheeled means of transportation may look, they can still use various methods to prove how wise and forward-looking it is to use traditional biological mounts or magic tools.

Who really cares about what they actually do? They do have their own advantages and disadvantages, and this is not a mandatory "ban", but only an official "recommendation" - most of them are like this, and a few more extreme ones don't mind issuing special decrees to ban it. For example, in the Elf Empire of Terriati, if you light the smoke of the prayer without permission in the Holy Forest, you will be executed on the spot without being informed.

The screen continues to move downwards——

Oh, the cloth hanging on the side of the saddle is decorated with the emblems of the sun, moon and stars, indicating that this horse belongs to the glorious temple that serves Zelti, the main god of light and thunder, Levina, the goddess of night and tranquility, and Shahar, the god of stars and fate. These three things that modern people can't see at all, put them together, they are representative enough.

Readers with sharp memories may still remember that even the Glorious Temple was using the convenient and large "steam carriage" that was more like a hotel than a vehicle. Of course, there are exceptions to everything. The Highest Priest's advocacy of reducing reliance on steam technology does not mean that it will be abandoned when necessary.

"This place looks like..."

"A settlement. An abandoned one."

The voice that claimed to be the leader gave his own judgment.

"village?"

"K."

During the conversation, a hand reached into the picture and straightened the camera.

"Here, on the southern border... This should be a village protected by the Divine Court, within our borders."

"The mission document does not contain any further information on this aspect..."

"This place should be under our protection, but it has been destroyed."

The camera rose up and scanned the surroundings.

There is almost nothing left that can be called a building structure, only broken brick walls covering the yellow meadow, dry and cracked wells, roads that are about to be worn out by wind, and guardrails and road signs that are left here as a joke and no longer have any meaning. The wood is rotting, the stones are breaking, the metal is rusting, and the desolate and barbaric world is gradually wearing away any traces of the unnatural that once existed here.

"This matter..."

"Normal?"

"That's normal. This is a border area, and..."

The camera shook.

"What about the second half of the sentence?"

"That's all. There's nothing else in the records, so let's just assume this place was abandoned after being robbed by bandits."