People are in Type-Moon, but they practice science

"Although the properties are a little different, it does look like the Chaos Essence in my cave...? This is weird, it can't be something I created, right?"

Chapter 276 Dead Zone

"It's really weird... I can't tell anything for now, let's collect some samples first."

Qin Xuan directly used the micro-mirror space to include the mud layer under the land into the collection range and dug out a whole large piece.

He felt that this special mud was very familiar and it didn't come out of nowhere. There was a very obvious difference between this place and other places. First, the "black mud covered area" here was completely dry.

Unlike the ground vein of Guanbuzi City that Qin Xuan had blown up, that one would slowly repair itself because the planet was full of vitality, but it would take a long time. But now it is completely dry and cannot be repaired. It even has a tendency to expand, just like desertification that no one is dealing with. It is constantly spreading around, and the area around it is also showing symptoms of "approaching drying up."

There was an unknown law in this, probably some kind of unformed, chaotic rule driving it. This was just like the chaotic source in his cave, which was also the soil of life with unknown laws during the creation period. But the direction of this was different, leaning towards the nature of death...?

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Irisviel led Illya, Chloe, and Mei to wander around the edge of Fuyuki City, followed by Bazette and Gray.

Their group should have the easiest time. Leaving aside Gray and Bazette, who are frontal combat specialists, the other members' current task is to build a base. Although Miyu said that they could live directly at her house, the association has no shortage of necessary supplies, and the technology for building and decorating residences and even establishing defensive barriers is also quite efficient. There is no need to be cheap and can directly choose a favorable terrain.

"Here, here!" Chloe relied on her agility to climb walls and roofs, looked around, and found a good position. "That tall house is not very noticeable on the edge, and it has a good view. Uh... it seems a little small. Is it okay for so many people in the association?"

"It's okay, Chloe," Gray looked up and greeted on the flat ground, "With the association's technology, it is possible to expand the space inside. We have done a good job."

"Great, Sister Gray! Hehehe, leave everything to me from now on!"

"Gray, I want to help too~!" Illya, who had been staying beside Gray, raised her hand. Then, she smiled and took Miyu's hand.

Although Miyu's smile seemed a bit forced.

"Okay," Gray originally wanted to give the task of building the base to Irisviel, but since the kids wanted to do the work, it was fine to share it with them. "Take the equipment from Mrs. Irisviel. Remember to read the manual, don't just rely on your own feelings!"

Then, the work of barrier defense was done by Bazette.

"Ah, that's great," Irisviel said after distributing the things and assigning the tasks. She obviously felt that the children had suddenly become much more sensible. "Illya and Chloe both consider Miyu as a partner."

"Yes. Miyu always keeps her thoughts to herself and refuses to communicate," Gray also remembered this taciturn girl. "Miyu was the reason for this trip. She probably felt that she was not helpful and instead caused trouble for everyone. Illya and Chloe couldn't have failed to notice it."

"Well... plus, Miyu is still waiting for news on whether her brother, Shirou Emiya, is alive or dead. This will depend on the team members who are responsible for infiltrating the 'Workshop'."

"Huh... When I think about it this way, I get a little nervous." Gray patted his chest.

"Haha, Miss Grey, even you are nervous. This will scare others," Aliceviel playfully imitated Grey's movements, and as they followed the movements, the waves in their hearts were equally intense.

Just as the two were talking to each other, they heard shouts from children in the distance.

Gray and Irisviel thought that some unexpected situation had occurred. After all, accidents could happen in this strange world. However, when they looked over, they found that the children were fine.

"What happened?"

“?——” Illya and the other two pointed to the side.

Gray and Irisviel looked over and saw Bazette in the corner, with something under his feet, moving from time to time.

Hey, is it moving?

When questioned, Bazette said, "This guy tried to get through while I was setting up the barrier. He was very suspicious, so I 'stopped' him."

Although it was stopped by stepping on it.

Gray looked at this person carefully. He had a typical girl's figure, but in the middle of winter, he had a large area of ​​his skin exposed, wearing only a gymnastics suit and sports shorts. He was also a tough guy.

"Uh-huh--"

Because he was being stepped on, with his face facing the snow, he could only make unclear sounds.

Bazette released his foot only after confirming that the fool was not an enemy.

The next moment, the girl stood up instantly as if nothing had happened. She had short pink hair, orange eyes, the words "Tanaka" were written on her gymnastics uniform, and she had a silly smile on her face.

"Hello everyone, thank you for giving me a warm environment, delicious meals, and a big house—"

"Stop for a moment, miss," Gray said awkwardly, "We haven't agreed to anything like this."

“Ehhhhhhh——?”

The pink-haired girl was shocked. Was her memory wrong?

"It's not impossible if you agree... But may I ask, who are you, young lady?"

"Who am I?" The pink-haired girl paused for several seconds before answering, "I don't know! Hahahaha..."

Then he began to giggle foolishly, as if enjoying himself.

Then, in the following period of time, everyone asked her other questions, trying to find out her identity indirectly, but the girl's answers put them into a new dilemma.

For example, if you ask her where she is from, she doesn't know. If you ask her where she is going, she doesn't know.

When asked why she wanted to eat food and whether she was hungry, she said, "What do you mean by hungry? I just like the taste of rice, water and green vegetables!"

"..."It was also the first time that Alice encountered someone who was even more out of common sense than her. How should she put it? It was not easy for her to invite this...unidentified lady in without permission. After all, it was not her turn to make the decision.

"——What's going on? Why are you all gathered here?"

Just as the pink-haired girl was giggling foolishly and the people around her were in a stalemate, Qin Xuan's voice rang out.

"Hey, big brother, you're finally here." The little girls ran to Qin Xuan and started talking about the mysterious girl.

"In other words, you found a girl with amnesia?"

In response, Chloe said: "I don't think so. She tried to force her way through the barrier at first, but was stopped. It looks suspicious no matter how you look at it."

Illya was more optimistic: "She doesn't even remember her real name, and she doesn't have common sense. She's not dangerous. How about we help her?"

Miyu whispered, "It's not that she doesn't have common sense, but her ideas are weird. She doesn't understand the concept of hunger, but she knows about plants like rice and vegetables."

"Well... I understand. Let me take a look first," Qin Xuan walked over, and everyone automatically dispersed to let him make a decision.

When Qin Xuan came to the girl, she was picking up a large piece of snow from the ground and preparing to put it directly into her mouth. "Aren't you afraid of the cold?"

"Cold?" The girl paused and looked at Qin Xuan with obvious confusion in her eyes.

"..." Qin Xuan confirmed that this person really had no 'common sense'. He reached out and touched the girl's cheek, "Eh——"

He was not taking advantage of her in vain. Through close contact, Qin Xuan could better detect her spirituality, but... he discovered a vast ocean and some similar qualities.

This is definitely not a normal "girly girl".

"Star consciousness... natural mechanism... Elquite..."

Through detection, Qin Xuan discovered that the girl's characteristics were a bit like Elquet. Although Elquet was an incomplete version, her directionality could be said to be a symbol of the star's brain, Gaia's consciousness container, and natural organization. However, there were some differences between the girl and Elquet, which gave him a guess.

"--There are the words 'Tanaka' on your gymnastics uniform. Is that your name?" He suddenly raised his voice and asked, attracting everyone's attention.

“Eh eh,” the pink-haired girl seemed to have just discovered these two words, “Oh oh oh, so my name is Tanaka, huhuhu, from now on I’ll be called Tanaka——!”

"Wait!" Seeing the girl in the field about to scream foolishly, Qin Xuan stopped her and said, "Were you the one who helped us when we came here 'the first time'?"

Qin Xuan knew that there was something wrong with the sudden acceleration of the deployment progress of the first lepton collector, but there was no basis for the planet itself to cooperate and there was no way to prove it.

"Ah? I don't remember!" Miss Tanaka replied.

"I don't remember. Then I have to ask, what do you remember most clearly now? For example, what were you going to do?"

“——” Miss Tanaka suddenly became quiet and restrained her smile, “Oh oh oh, I still remember... I want to - destroy Ainsworth!”

Qin Xuan carefully discerned Tanaka's expression, and finally said, "Is that so? Then I welcome you to join me."

Such a sloppy review process seemed somewhat confusing to everyone. However, Qin Xuan did not explain that Tanaka might be related to the planet's restraining force. He just let them do what they should do and just treated them as an extra mascot who ate for free.

Qin Xuan then found Miyu alone, "Miyu, you know that most people in Fuyuki City are missing, right? Do you know where they went?"

"...Well," Miyu carefully pondered her past memories. She seldom went out, so she could only recall her brother Shirou Emiya's gossip. "I heard that some people have been leaving since a long time ago, but——"

"But no one has come back or sent any news back. It's like they've disappeared, right?"

"……Yes."

"I understand." After hearing this, Qin Xuan confirmed part of his guess. He had seen the "black mud-covered area" before, which contained some unnatural fragments and gelatinous substances.

Chapter 277 Miss Tanaka, why are you crying?

"That kind of area will dissolve people... no, all the products of civilization?"

Qin Xuan guessed, but dissolution needs to be considered. It is also possible that it appears to be dissolved or digested, but in fact it is another mechanism. This thing still needs a certain amount of time to verify.

In the following time, Qin Xuan studied this "dead zone" substance while waiting for the return of the team members who had sneaked into Ainsworth earlier.

However, to his surprise, the alchemist team to which Shion belonged was the first to make progress.

At this time, Shion and his team were still conducting geological surveys outside of Fuyuki City. The preliminary results were sent by Shion remotely. After a while, he finished listening to Shion's remote report, "What? ... You said that geological elements tend to solidify and remain motionless?"

The report provided by Ziyuan also included a large amount of image data. These data screened out a large amount of soil in terms of physical properties, and marked the distribution, activity, and movement of various elements with different colors. The distribution of different types of elements was normal, roughly consistent with the mud layers in other worlds, but these elements tended to be almost static.

"...Yes, it's very strange. This situation should be unnatural, but according to the team members' exploration, these seem to be naturally formed. At present, only a part of the area has been investigated, and a firm conclusion may require more exploration projects."

"Element stagnation..."

Qin Xuan pondered that the geomagnetic network was the main network and nervous system for the operation of the planet, regulating everything like the human body. The colorful elements flowing around the earth and even the atmosphere were the "medium" for the occurrence and activation of various events.

From large sources to small sources, from underground to the surface, and then to the atmospheric energy exchange under the sky, although there are different laws (operating rules) such as mystery and science, forming many types of elements, factors/atoms, atomic nuclei, and quarks, but these are just different representations of planetary energy.

However, there are elements that are stagnant underground. This stagnation is not only immobile in direction, but also unresponsive, as if it has become extremely inert. If there is a good and active gathering of earth veins here, it may be able to play a role in drainage.

But now it seems that it has been separated from the energy cycle and accumulated, becoming a cluster of dysfunctional or necrotic cells in the corner of the planet.

Of course, the probability is far more than one piece.

It depends on the results of Shion's next analysis.

At the same time, Irisviel and the others had already set up their base. They cleaned the empty high-rise building, and Bazette added a protective film of the edge properties of the mirror boundary to the outer wall and even the base of the building. This was the barrier. Then Gray and Irisviel entered and watched the children complete the auxiliary processing of the internal space. Using the space in the house as a blueprint, they expanded the space in multiple ways based on the principle of mirror reflection - but most of the work was done by machines.

Miss Tanaka was just sitting there idly, watching everyone busying around - she probably didn't have the concept of idling around. Besides, no one wanted this ignorant lady to get involved, for fear that she would cause more trouble.

“Ding ding ding—it’s time to eat!”

After working for a long time, Mrs. Alice announced to the others. She banged on the table loudly, attracting everyone's attention. The whole room suddenly became quiet, and then everyone stopped working at the same time and gathered around the dining table in a noisy manner.

Miss Tanaka followed closely behind. Although she didn't know what "start eating" meant, she could smell the aroma of food.

At this time, Miyu, who was next to Irisviel, was wearing a chef's hat and an apron, and was serving meals. Although Miyu was not an expert in the field of magic, she was an all-round superhero in housework. She was proficient in everything from theory to practice and could do everything.

This time, the association arranged a "parallel world business trip". In addition to the complete accommodation materials, the food and water were also prepared in sufficient quantities, so basically, we said goodbye to chewing energy bars, giving Chef Miyu a chance to show her skills. Most of the food ingredients were "purchased" from the Gakuen City Industry - Oasis Agriculture. The categories include not only frozen meat, grains and dried noodles, oil, salt and seasonings, but also many vegetables and fruits that are not easy to preserve are stored in special plant life preservation cabins, which can extend the preservation time for several months and are carried by the association's space device, so there is no need to worry about supply problems.

In view of this, the dishes prepared by Miyu were quite sumptuous, including crispy and tender cream-fried meat patties, beef hotpot with green onions, tofu, and konjac sauce, sweet and spicy grilled eel, cold sauerkraut cauliflower, pickled spinach and other side dishes, steamed chawanmushi, rice, and soba noodles with sesame paste and broth, and of course desserts and fruits after the meal, such as sakura cakes and lychees.

"Wow, is this made by Miyu-chan? It's delicious!" Aliceviel, who was closest to the dish, tasted it first. It was indeed her first time seeing Miyu's cooking skills, so her exclamation was not false at all.

Mrs. Alice's behavior set an example, and everyone picked up their chopsticks and started to enjoy the delicious meal.

Seeing that everyone was enjoying their meal and receiving unanimous praise from everyone, Miyu smiled. At the same time, she breathed a sigh of relief in her heart. It seemed that she could really do something to help everyone in some way.

"Excuse me... Miss Tanaka, why are you crying? - Oh, when I say 'crying' I mean, tears are flowing from the corners of your eyes."

At the dinner table, Qin Xuan suddenly saw Tanaka eating voraciously while crying. She didn't look sad, but rather like she was moved. This look combined with the way she stuffed food into her mouth looked a little weird.

"Mmm-(chewing)-mmm," Tanaka said vaguely, "It's been a long time since I tasted... something so delicious... fresh rice... wheat... and the smell of beautiful sunshine and air..."

She started using those strange ideas again and saying irrelevant things. Maybe Tanaka herself didn't realize the meaning of her crying.

After everyone enjoyed the delicious food, there was a knock on the door. The door was within the barrier, so those who could pass through were of course their own people. Qin Xuan originally thought it was Shion's people, but he didn't expect that it was Aozaki Touko, Emiya Kiritsugu, and Kozuki Kozuki who were responsible for the infiltration and exploration.

"Hey, we're eating right now. Did you remember to save some leftovers for us who are the first to go out?"

As soon as Chengzi opened the door, she smelled a fragrance and put the box containing the collected data aside. Xiao Zi followed closely behind and ran to Qin Xuan as soon as she came in. The last one was Emiya Kiritsugu. He entered the room and looked at his wife first.

“Thank you for your hard work,” Irisviel said as she invited everyone to take their seats. “In fact, there are some reserved portions. Please sit down first. By the way, today’s chef is Miyu-chan~. Don’t forget to praise her if you think the food is delicious.”

"Hmm... that's not necessary," Miyu shook off her sad mood and was already very happy, she felt that she didn't need to be praised every time.

"Speaking of which, what are the results of your investigation?" Qin Xuan asked this while Orange was sitting down. It just so happened that Miyu was also concerned about her brother Shirou Emiya.

"It's okay. There were no accidents and there were certain results, but there were no unexpected gains. Overall it was OK," Orange didn't show any serious expression, which made Miyu breathe a sigh of relief.

"——To be specific, we have already found out the location of Miyu's brother, but the secret of the Ainsworth family has not yet been figured out. We have only understood the basic features of the so-called replacement magic, the structure of the magic workshop, and the 'myth system' they are planning. I will talk about this unclear part in detail later——Also, the personnel have been confirmed. We did not find Julian, the head of the family in the Fifth Holy Grail War. What we saw was a man named Darius... He seems to be Julian's father?"

"Oops," Miyu realized that there were some mistakes in the information she provided, "Sorry, sorry, Miss Orange, I..."