The Master of the Strange Realm

"Since you encountered that strange monster in the first space-specific area, we have not found any traces of those cultists."

Jenkins knew that the difference machine must have changed its method of action because it was rejected twice in a row. It would be a bad thing if the cultists did not show up, because no one knew what these people did in the time they could not see.

It was not long after the "parting" with the cultists, because the next day, Saturday, Jenkins encountered them again.

Saturday was still a very ordinary day for the whole world and Jenkins. Disasters continued to happen, the world became worse and worse, and the weather was a little bad.

When I got up in the morning, I heard the sound of rain outside. By the time I finished breakfast, the sound of rain was so loud that it sounded like stones hitting the ground. It is now early July. According to Nolan's season, it is also in the middle and late summer. Although it can still be regarded as midsummer, this rain will probably bring a little chill.

In such a heavy rain, the ladies at home did not plan to go out, but Jenkins had to go out. There was a meeting that he had to attend on the schedule given by Bishop Palod today.

This morning was uneventful. Because of the rain, Jenkins always felt that even the room was very damp. Of course, this may also be because the meeting place was the church of the [Ocean and Exploration Church] near the pier.

On that rainy night last fall, Jenkins woke up in this church and encountered the big octopus in succession. He broke into the attic where the students of the Art Academy lived, shot the other party, encountered the cultists and sacrificed the divinity.

Now thinking of this incident a year ago, Jenkins felt as if a long time had passed. He calculated carefully that it would be a year in more than ten days since he came to this world. He planned to celebrate on that day, not only to visit Mr. Barnard's grave, but also to celebrate himself and celebrate this new life.

In the morning, he had a meeting in the Ocean Church, and in the afternoon, he was called by Miss Befanna to help in the Evergreen Forest, responsible for the final containment confirmation of a very dangerous weird A-03-2-3229 [Footprints of the Dead].

During this period, there was no accidental loss of containment, but there was news from the city to Evergreen Forest that someone suspected to be from the Gear Craftsmen was found at the base of the [Sun and Justice Church] in the city.

The clues were not discovered today. The Knights of the Justice Church recently learned about a series of strange disappearances. Most of the missing people were well-educated men between 20 and 40 years old. When they were last seen, they all appeared in the same neighborhood.

After investigating that neighborhood, the Sun and Justice Church's gifters locked on one of the inconspicuous apartment buildings. After that, they found that several people who often appeared in that apartment were a little strange, and soon determined that the missing people had entered the apartment building, and those suspicious people were most likely cultists of the Gear Craftsmen.

So Jenkins went into the city with the scribes, and the Mechanicus Church's gifters went into the city with the scribes. Considering that the Son of God was in this line, the Mechanicus Church did not send a demigod, and directly let Jenkins take charge.

As for the other teams sent into the city, they were led by the demigods of the church and entered the area where the suspects were from different directions.

The people of the Church of the Sun and Justice were afraid of alerting the enemy, so they did not make any moves before the reinforcements arrived. They only found three men suspected of being cultists and entered the apartment facing the street, and then there was no movement.

That was not a residential area, but just an ordinary street. The door on the first floor of the apartment was squeezed between the two houses next door, and the apartment itself was three floors plus the attic, so it looked extremely thin and inconspicuous, submerged in the city's buildings.

The rain was still falling, and Jenkins stood at the corner at the end of the street with an umbrella and looked there. The windows facing the street were all closed with curtains. Although the light was dim due to the rain, the lights were not turned on indoors.

What he saw with his eyes was all kinds of strange and mixed auras all over the surface and interior of the apartment. The intensity of the auras was not enough to reach the level of numbered items, but it looked like a large-scale ceremony was being launched.

There were three gifters in the building, which was consistent with the intelligence. I'm just not sure if there are ordinary people inside, and whether those ordinary people are related to this matter.

PS: Two updates in the evening, please give me everything at the end of the month.

Chapter 1874 Chapter 1845 Mechanical Mystery Lock

Soon, instructions came from the temporary command center that coordinated the entire operation, asking Jenkins and his 14 people to wait on the corner of the street temporarily to prevent suspicious people from entering the area, and to prevent any fish from escaping once a fight really broke out.

The team responsible for the frontal contact was composed of the Church of Nature, the Church of the Earth, the Church of the Sun, and the Church of the Night.

These people were divided into two parts. One team disguised as police officers conducting a population survey and knocked on the front door to enter. The other team tried to enter from the back door of the apartment, forming a two-sided attack.

The action started soon, and after knocking on the door, the night watchman also received a response. Although the ordinary people who opened the door in the house were surprised that so many police officers were needed to conduct a population survey, they still let the group in.

At the same time, Jenkins also observed that the gifters at the back door also found the iron door for throwing garbage in the alley, opened the door lock and entered the apartment.

He waited patiently, waiting for the first explosion or strange light to appear. But strangely, after the two teams entered, there was no movement.

Because the spiritual light in the house was too complex and there were too many people entering, Jenkins was not sure whether his eyes could correctly capture the church's gifters.

He waited for a while and confirmed that the apartment was really quiet and strange, then he discussed with the captain of the mechanical church beside him, and then asked the command center whether he should continue to wait.

They waited for another twenty minutes to wait for a response before receiving instructions for the next step:

All gather and evacuate the entire block. Inside the house, there is now an unfolded maze.

Jenkins has come into contact with many mazes, starting from the time when Alexia trapped the illegal organization members of the [Witch House] on the 31st day of the cycle, and he has gradually learned a lot of knowledge about this large-scale ceremony.

He knew very well that if the information of an unknown maze could not be detected, it would be almost impossible to open the maze from the outside, especially in the urban area where many methods were restricted.

If you want to know the information of an unknown maze, the best way is to enter the maze, just like the maze against the vampires in Beldiran a few months ago. But entering the maze means being trapped in the maze, and you can only find a way to escape from the inside.

This forms a dead loop. According to this logic, the only thing the church can do is to wait outside for the two teams to enter to solve the problem by themselves, but sitting and waiting for death has never been the church's way of doing things.

"It's just a maze. Although it's troublesome, Nolan has gathered so many elites now. Will we be stumped by such a problem?"

The old gravekeeper who is responsible for this matter shook his head and said, and then the result of the discussion in Evergreen Forest was that time should not be wasted and active actions should be taken.

The second group of teams entering the city from Evergreen Forest brought new instructions to the group. Since the destructive and eye-catching methods cannot be used because this is a city, then use the numerical advantage of the Orthodox Church to send 5 demigods into the maze. There will always be someone who can destroy the maze from the inside.

The simultaneous participation of five demigods in the operation was unthinkable in ordinary times, but the biggest advantage of the Nolan region now is that it still has sufficient manpower. Of course, rashly entering an unknown maze and testing it with one's life is certainly not a rational behavior. Therefore, after a brief discussion, the Church of the Traveler took out two B-11-5-2305 [Tickets Home], which are numbered items that are enough for people to directly escape from the strange world, and of course they are also useful for the maze.

Although five people have to enter the maze, two tickets are obviously enough. Jenkins is included in the five quotas, after all, he was originally nearby. Of course, the church requires him to disguise his face so that his true identity will not be discovered by the enemies in the maze.

This time he was allowed to participate in the operation, probably because he claimed that he had been promoted to level 7 and successfully became the real candidate. This way, he was allowed to experience dangerous training, which was a preparation for facing more terrible things in the future. If you just hide before the final day, it will be disadvantageous for the future.

You can't bring a cat with you when you are doing dangerous operations, even if Chocolate grabs the edge of his pocket with his front paws. Sigrid, who was urgently assigned to help at a nearby flower shop, was also there, so Jenkins entrusted his cat and umbrella to her. After discussing with the other four demigods about the countermeasures after breaking into the maze, the five of them braved the rain and came to the door of the apartment and knocked on the door.

The person who opened the door was still the ordinary person just now. He looked at the people outside the door impatiently:

"What are you going to do?"

In order to ensure safety, Jenkins kept the Eye of Truth open from the time he crossed the street to the bottom of the apartment, so he clearly saw that as the man spoke, an inexplicable aura directly enveloped the area outside the door.

Jenkins understood a little in his heart that the sign of entering the maze was not to enter and cross the threshold, but to hear the voice of the man who opened the door. In other words, the aura he had been seeing just now was most likely a combination of the auras that were confused inside the maze, and it had no reference value at all.

"Pay attention, we have entered."

Without Jenkins' reminder, the old gravekeeper spoke. This is the oldest demigod in the parish, and the demigod who has been stationed in Nolan for the longest time. He is basically the strongest person in Nolan during the peaceful days.

"I didn't sense any spatial changes. This maze is a bit strange."

Mr. Defort, the demigod of the Traveler Church, added.

"I can't feel the power of the maze, but I can be sure that the space inside the maze is not large. It should only cover this building, and there is no abnormal space inside."

Mr. Dupont of the Natural Church said.

"I smell the smell of rancid oil."

Ms. De La Salle of the Mechanical Church said.

Jenkins saw that everyone else was talking, and it seemed a bit bad if he didn't speak. But he didn't find anything new, so he looked at the "ordinary person" standing by the door frame again:

"This is... a corpse."

He said, carefully organizing his words:

"Although the nature of the mystery cannot be judged just by observing an individual, considering the environment here and the usual methods of our enemies. There is reason to believe that the biggest dangers we will face in the future will mostly come from corpses and Mechanical, or mechanized corpse.”

Chapter 1875 Chapter 1846 The Awakening of “Wisdom”

"Is this thing in front of me a mechanized corpse?"

asked Mr. Defoe.

"It's hard to say. What we see now is just a projection-like entity. The real body should still be behind the door."

The old tombkeeper said, then pushed away the person blocking the door and entered the building behind him. Others followed, and Jenkins was third in line. After entering the foyer, he twitched his nose and smelled what Ms. De La Salle said was the smell of rancid oil. But then he discovered that the two gentlemen walking in front were missing. Looking back, he saw that the two companions behind him had not walked in from the door.

Only the man guarding the door walked through the door, and then gently closed the door in front of Jenkins, blocking out the thick fog, heavy rain, and weak sunlight.

It was dry in the foyer, and the water dripping from Jenkins was damaging the soft embroidered carpet beneath his feet. But he is not a guest now, so he doesn't need to worry about these etiquette.

He turned around and took a step towards the door that had just been closed. He raised his hand and chopped the man's head into pieces like a watermelon. But as the tombkeeper said, this was just a projection of a corpse, so no corpse fell to the ground. , only a stream of hot steam spread into the air along with the smell.

Jenkins took out his cane and turned around. He stood in the foyer without turning on the gas light and looked at the long and narrow stairs leading to the second floor in front of him. Then he looked at the narrow living room on the right. His fingers slowly rubbed the orb on the top of the cane, and his expression changed. Gotta calm down.

Different from the mysterious environment, although the Mystery Lock is also an environment similar to a different space, it still conforms to most of the rules of the real world. It is just that some special rules have evolved based on the different nature of the Mystery Lock.

Therefore, most of the general rules of the material world are still valid in the Mystery, and as long as you find those rules that are different from the material world, such as the mathematical problems in Alexia's Mystery, and the strange light that clears away dirt in the clean field , those blood mosquito cursers in the blood-sucking manor, and crack them, you can probably reach the core of the mystery lock step by step and defeat the mystery lock.

So standing still is definitely not possible, and according to Jenkins' observation, the strongest point of the aura is probably in the attic. Although I don't know where my companions have gone, there is no doubt that they are heading upwards.

But first, he decided to explore the living room on the first floor, at least to understand the nature of this mysterious lock.

After a cursory inspection, the layout of the house is not strange. The placement and furnishings of the furniture make it obvious that it is an ordinary middle-class family. Considering its location close to the city center and housing prices, it’s not hard to imagine the family’s financial situation.

Jenkins walked to the cabinet in the living room, glanced at the disks on the wooden shelf in the glass cabinet, and then picked up the photo frame placed in the space under the cabinet.

The black and white photo in the frame is of a family of three. The middle-aged father and his daughter are standing on the grass together, with a picnic tablecloth and basket at their feet, and the middle-aged woman is sitting on the tablecloth. Judging from the degree of oxidation in the photo, it should have been taken within a year.

The key point was the father's appearance. He was clearly the man who opened the door for everyone.

"So, this is actually a trap, not a cultist stronghold?"

He thought to himself, and then saw that the man's face in the photo moved. To be more precise, only his mouth and eyes were moving. Maybe people in this world are used to black and white photos, but to Jenkins, black and white photos have a unique meaning. Coupled with the way his eyes wandered around the still face, he suddenly felt a little nervous, but he still clearly heard the man in the photo. the sound of:

"I'm an engineer at Nolan No. 3 Machinery Factory."

At the moment of deliberate pause, the eyes in the eye sockets glanced in one direction at the same time, and the corners of the mouth also glanced to the side, making a very strange expression:

"One day, I was on my desk and found a strange metal toy that I had never seen before."

The eyes moved rapidly in their sockets. Jenkins had never seen such flexible eyes in any living person:

“I tried to dismantle it.”

In the gray background of the black and white photo, something hazy and unrecognizable appears. Like some kind of behemoth, or like a huge tentacle flying in the sky:

"Then I saw it."

His eyes stopped moving and he looked straight at Jenkins holding the photo frame:

"I saw the wisdom in the chaotic star sea, the mystery in the void outside the world, and the brilliance at the bottom of the spiritual sea... I woke up."

Jenkins regarded this as a symbol of madness. Most madmen would think that they are awakened, while ordinary people who are ignorant are blindfolded. In fact, it is difficult to distinguish what is crazy, but when a person suddenly claims that he has wisdom that others do not have, then he is most likely crazy.

"I have witnessed wisdom and gained wisdom. Now, I want to give you this opportunity to unlock wisdom."

Dang rang~

Something heavy fell from the top of the tall cupboard to the floor at Jenkins' feet. It was an indescribable metal object. Not only are the large rings and small rings nested inside each other, but there is also a mortise and tenon structure and metal wires like threads that are connected to each other.

This together formed an oval-shaped "toy" with a strange shape. Jenkins couldn't say whether it was metal garbage. But if it appeared in a trash can on the corner of the street, Jenkins would definitely not be surprised.

"Unlock it and you can move on."

The voice of the man in the photo said.

Jenkins looked at him, confirmed that he didn't want to continue to tell the information, put the photo down, and then picked up the metal product.

In this way, this maze is more similar to the mathematical maze that Alexia unfolded, rather than the bloody dinner maze of the vampire. The common point between the two is that they need to complete specific steps to move forward, otherwise they can only be trapped in it permanently.

Jenkins was not interested in this kind of "breakthrough", so he picked up the thing and looked around. After confirming that this was not a toy that could be easily unlocked, he put it back on the ground, took two steps back, and then ran forward quickly. When he was about to step on it, he jumped suddenly, squatted when he fell, kept his center of gravity downward, and then stepped on the metal object with great momentum.

As expected, it was crushed. Pick up the "wire cake" and press both sides with both hands. As the flames emerge from the palms of the hands, billowing green smoke mixed with the strange smell of burning metal spreads in the living room.

Soon, it was completely burned by the fire of grace, leaving only some black residue in the palm of Jenkins's hand.

"Have I solved it?"

Chapter 1876 Chapter 1847 The "vision" of knocking

Jenkins clapped his hands and threw the black residue on the ground. He asked the photo standing on the cabinet. The man's head in the photo seemed to be rotating on an axis and shook in a weird way:

"Of course not, do you think this is a puzzle game? Since you can't solve it, it means that you don't have the talent of an engineer at all, so come in and accompany me, I can teach you the knowledge you lack."

A pair of pale hands stretched out from the photo and grabbed the clothes on Jenkins' chest.

But then, no matter how hard the hands tried, Jenkins stood still.

"What is this? Is the purpose of this puzzle lock that the gear craftsman is recruiting new people?"

He guessed quietly, and seeing that the other party was obsessed with grabbing him instead of answering, he also stretched out his hand and grabbed the pale arm that stretched out from the photo:

"May your soul rest in peace."

He blessed very solemnly.

The flames instantly spread along the arm to the palm, and then spread to the entire photo. The ignited photo burned at an extraordinary speed, and the jumping flames made Jenkins' face flicker, but he just stood there and watched. After confirming that the photo was burned to ashes, he turned around and prepared to go to the second floor:

"It's really inexplicable."

He muttered.

There was no trouble on the stairs. When he came to the second floor, he saw not a corridor similar to his own home, but a whole large room. It was divided into two parts on the left and right with wooden boards. The inner part was the bedroom, and the outer part was the study. The books on the bookshelf in the study, judging from the names on the spines, were all related to mechanics, most of which Jenkins had never seen before.

On the four walls, only the bedroom and the study had a window each, but both had heavy coarse cloth curtains drawn. All he could hear was the sound of heavy rain outside, and very little light could get in.