The Master of the Strange Realm

Whether in the eyes of Chocolate or Alexia, the pages were empty, but Jenkins looked at them very seriously:

"All the information in the core is recorded here."

He said, and then waved his hand to summon the bronze mechanical bird from the book.

Chocolate was very annoyed by pets approaching Jenkins, but he didn't hate the bird because he knew it wasn't alive:

"Look, this mechanical bird has become more sophisticated. Do you see the runes on its wings?"

Jenkins said, manipulating it to fly:

"Now I share a certain degree of vision with it. It's not a complete sharing, I can only see blurry fragments. Moreover, the ability of the [Mechanic] allows me to sense the creations of the differential machine within a certain range. You know, even if they are both creations of mechanical and gear technology, the theory of the differential machine and the principle of the Mechanic Church are very different.

After integrating the core it abandoned, I can sense the traces of those unique creations."

He closed his eyes and let his spirit spread around:

"At least there are no differential machine spies near St. George Street."

"It was just hit hard by the God of Lies in the afternoon. How could it come here to test so quickly?"

Alexia said.

In addition to the core, there was another unexpected gain today, which was the "treasure" found by Mr. Hood and the other two. That is the treasure that no one had originally taken a fancy to, but it triggered the first direct battle between the God of Lies and the Difference Engine in the afternoon.

Although there were many accidents in the afternoon, Hathaway finally brought the "treasure" back to her home on St. George Street with chocolate.

After returning home, she was troubled by Jenkins' identity issue and had no intention of checking the contents of the bronze box. Therefore, no one knew what was in the box before Jenkins checked it.

Jenkins called Hathaway and opened it with Alexia. Under the light of the gas lamp, there was a gear lying in the box.

It was very plain and pointed directly to the foundation of the mechanical structure of this era. Only items of this level would attract Jenkins' attention and allow the Difference Engine to venture out of the ground with its core.

At this time, the treasure no longer had the kind of breathtaking attraction that Hathaway and the other two had just discovered when they broke the statuette. It lay in the box in an ordinary way, and only after Jenkins touched it out did he know its function.

This is a very simple and unpretentious ability. This gear can replace any gear. No matter what kind of machine, as long as there is a missing gear, this gear can definitely replace it.

Although it sounds useless, this function shows that this gear can be regarded as the embodiment of the concept of "gear".

Perhaps for ordinary people, what Jenkins is holding at this time is just a "universal part", but for the existence of the differential engine, which is a pure mechanical structure, incorporating this gear into itself will sublimate itself from the concept, and change the concept of "gear" from an individual to a whole, and even have the opportunity for the differential engine to compete with the god believed in by the gear craftsman association for the priesthood.

Of course, it is only possible. The differential engine will not provoke a god to be hostile to itself in vain at this time, especially when this god has no expression of cooperation with believers and itself.

But no matter what, this gear is of great significance to the differential engine, even greater than the wrench that can repair it.

And for Jenkins, whether it is his soul or his body, he has an extraordinary affinity with the power of machinery. This gear, which represents "gear", is also an important help for him to move forward on the mechanical road.

Leaving this gear will only give the difference machine another chance to snatch it, so Jenkins knows that he must destroy or "use" it as soon as possible.

"But why would such a thing appear in Nolan so coincidentally at this time? Is the world itself also pushing for the end of this era? Otherwise, there is no reason why such a rare thing would appear so coincidentally in the area where both I and the difference machine appear."

"So what are you going to do with it?"

Alexia asked. Her path is mathematics, and Hathaway is a gifter born under the music system. There is no need for this gear. Not to mention Jessica, Dolores and Sigrid, the girls around Jenkins don't need this gear.

"I'm thinking about one thing..."

Jenkins pondered for a moment and repeated the possible weirdness he experienced with Jessica and Miss Magic. The two smart ladies immediately understood his idea:

"Do you want to make the pistol used by the wanted criminal Williamette?"

In a world without strangers, Jenkins Williamette became a member of the Gearsmiths Association twice, and held the same pistol both times. The bullets fired by that gun can even briefly break the space barrier after shooting.

The space barrier in the material world is extremely solid. In addition to abilities such as [Unicorn Summoning], even the gun barrel extending from the brass door in the afternoon cannot break the space barrier.

Jenkins has touched the gun twice, and [Mechanic] has made him fully aware of its internal structure. At the same time, although the other party is different from himself, the combination of life and mechanical power is something Jenkins can do.

Therefore, with this gear in hand, coupled with the knowledge derived from the difference engine just acquired today, and finally coupled with the alchemy information passed down by Kamel's family for several epochs, replicating that pistol is not entirely possible. impossible things.

"You don't want to do this?"

Alexia, who was quite familiar with Jenkins' way of thinking, spoke out what Jenkins was thinking.

"Yes, I don't want to do that. Although it is ridiculous to say this, I think there is a big difference between him and me. Since there is this difference, it is best not to let the two sides have more in common."

In the understanding of Hathaway on the side, this sentence means that Jenkins is worried that he will be contaminated by the fate of the Jenkins who will not appear. But Chocolate understood deeper. Jenkins just didn't want to have even the slightest connection with the original Jenkins. He had been trying to maintain his independence, but he was originally independent.

"So what are you going to do with it?"

Hathaway asked again.

Jenkins thought for a while, raised his right hand upward, and summoned the miner's lamp representing [Mechanical Light]. Whether you look at it up close or from a distance, this is a very exquisite piece of art.

"I think, since the core just now can be absorbed by the [Machinist]'s ability, can this one be absorbed by this miner's lamp?"

He shook the gear in his left hand.

"Try it quickly."

Alexia encouraged, even the cat looked over, but it had not considered this possibility.

"But the core you mentioned has functional overlap with your ability itself. Both record knowledge, so they have the possibility of fusion. But what is the connection between this gear and this lamp?"

Hathaway has not seen Jenkins use this ability in person, but has only heard about it through rumors. Therefore, even though the appearance of the miner's lamp is a patchwork of countless small metal parts, it still does not connect the miner's lamp with gears.

"look."

As he spoke, he controlled the light of the miner's lamp to shine on the pen holder on the desk. The pen holder was scattered into a cone-shaped pile like a pile of sand in front of the three people and the cat.

When Hathaway got closer, she realized that it was not sand but tiny gears.

"Theoretically, I could break down any object into gears like this."

Jenkins nodded, and then, under the gaze of Hathaway and Alexia, he attached the gear to the surface of the miner's lamp.

Nothing happened.

"Meow~"

Chocolate stretched its front paws forward, arched its waist and stretched.

"Sorry, I thought that was it."

As he spoke, he carefully opened the shade of the miner's lamp that he had never opened before, and then placed the gear in the bright center of the lamp.

Chapter 1951 Chapter 1922 The Twelve Righteous Gods Request Divine Techniques

Jenkins cautiously let go of his hand, and the gear was suspended in the silver-blue light.

Pull your hand out and close the lampshade. In an instant, light burst out from inside the lamp, engulfing all corners of the room. But it was only for a moment, and no harm was done to the object, the person, or the cat.

"It looks like it worked."

After the light disappeared, Jenkins, who instinctively hid the chocolate in the inner pocket of his jacket, let out a sigh of relief.

"How's it going? Has your ability changed?"

Alexia blinked and asked, seeing Chocolate sticking her head out of Jenkins' chest and looking around, she pretended not to see it.

"Wait a minute, let me take a look... Yes, the name of the ability has not changed, but... let me demonstrate it."

He stood up and took out another pen holder from the top cardboard box on the bookshelf - he usually prepared two sets of stationery, and then illuminated it with a miner's lamp as before.

This time the pen holder was still broken down into a pile of gears, but this time the gears were much larger.

"That is to say, you can now control the size of the gears that are broken down into at will?"

Alexia picked up one of them and asked, and Hathaway also picked up one:

"But it is also very small. With so many gears, it is still difficult to put it back together. Can't it be bigger? Maybe we can try it. The gears put back together may be able to return the item to its original state."

“While it’s possible to control the size of the gear, it’s not without limitations.”

Jenkins shook his head regretfully, but he soon had an idea.

He stood up and walked out of the room, and soon came back with a toothbrush bristles:

"In the past, small gears were formed according to the volume proportion of the decomposed object. No matter how small the decomposed object was, tens of thousands of gears were formed; after absorbing the previous gear, the volume of the decomposed gear became a The upper limit value, I can control the volume of the decomposed gear, and the value changes below the upper limit value and the volume of the object itself. Of course, if it is an irregular object, the upper limit will be very low, but the upper limit of regular objects is very high. To be able to make every detail a gear.”

"So you're breaking down a smaller regular object into larger gears."

Hathaway immediately understood what he meant.

Jenkins nodded and first "painted" the paint to dye the toothbrush bristles into colorful colors. Then he lifted the miner's lamp and broke it down into more than a hundred tiny gears that were almost invisible. The distribution allows them to be pieced back together.

Sure enough, when all the teeth meshed together, the gear combination turned back into the toothbrush bristles just now.

Although the new changes of [Mechanical Light] have not yet shown any use, Jenkins has already revealed a happy smile because of this scene.

The last harvest today came from the drop of divinity that has been "burned". The divinity was obtained from the ring not long ago, and the original owner was of course the master of [Closed Ring]. Therefore, the incomplete knowledge obtained after using the divinity is also mostly related to the domain of this master.

The domain of time has always been a taboo. The existing abilities and rituals related to time in the material world may add up to less than a hundred. Most of them are incomplete, and the few that are complete almost all have to pay a huge price to use.

Dad is also quite aware of the horror of time, so he emphasized this point many times when teaching Jenkins. Jenkins has not obtained any mystery and transcendence related to time from his father and the church. This is probably the first time he can personally experience the time power of this world and what kind of working form it is.

On the pretext of going to the bathroom, Jenkins held his own sink and closed his eyes to face the mirror. The mind fell to the lowest point of the heart sea, and at the bottom of the heart sea, the shining golden light spots were scattered.

Jenkins used his consciousness to interpret them, and stood there motionless for ten minutes. Taking advantage of the opportunity that Jenkins could not perceive the outside world, Chocolate took his four short legs and "walked" from the sink to the top of his head, as if stepping on invisible stairs in the air, and then lay there peacefully.

When Jenkins opened his eyes, he felt the heaviness on his head at the first time. Subconsciously, he thought that he had stood for too long and had mushrooms growing on his head, and then realized that it was too stupid to think so, so he raised his hand to pull the cat on his head down, and then carried it out of the bathroom.

The knowledge obtained this time was particularly scattered, as if the one who provided the divinity consciously prevented Jenkins from peeping too many mysteries related to time.

But it was not that there was no gain at all. He did not have a complete ability. He just obtained a complete ritual related to time - [Summoning Gods of the Twelve Gods].

The material world defines twelve months in a year, which correspond to twelve gods. Therefore, in some occasions, it is also an acceptable way to call the gods directly by months.

Months are the embodiment of time, so time is associated with the twelve gods.

This ritual does not directly call the gods to appear in the material world, but uses rituals to call for the gods' attention. The twelve churches each have their own ways to call for the gods' attention, but those divine rituals must be used by believers, while the [Twelve Gods Summoning Technique] allows people of any faith to directly call for the gods' attention if the ritual conditions are met.

The ritual is quite complicated. Excluding a few materials that Jenkins has not even heard of, the core materials are [symbols corresponding to the month] [symbols corresponding to the gods] [symbols corresponding to time] and [sacrifices to the gods].

Because it is a call from non-believers, the weight of the sacrifice is definitely not like Jenkins or other sage believers using a small piece of silver to sacrifice, which can attract the sage's attention.

The above four core materials are not fixed materials, and need to be selected according to different years and times, and are even related to the beliefs and birth time of the ritual users.

But more importantly, once this ritual succeeds, a price must be paid. Considering that the ritual accurately calls for the attention of the gods, the price is acceptable.

The price is that in the rest of his life, all the months represented by the gods called in the ritual must be recited for no less than half an hour at dawn every day. Moreover, in these months, the user of the ritual has spent 12 times the time.

It is not that the original 30 days have been turned into 360 days, but simply that the speed of life has become 12 times the original.

For example, if a pagan uses the [Twelve Gods Summoning Technique] to summon a sage, then as long as he still exists in the material world, whether he is alive or turned into a dead spirit, as long as his soul is still him, he must recite the scriptures in 30 days of October every year and endure the cost of aging one month for one year.

[Twelve Gods Summoning Technique] can only be used twelve times, once each month. But if all the gods are really called to watch and they have not died of old age, then the user of the ritual will automatically reset to zero time and move towards the real "end", an end where even the soul cannot be found.

Chapter 1952 Chapter 1923 Psychological Preparation (Added)

This ritual can be regarded as the most bizarre ritual Jenkins has ever come into contact with. He vaguely felt that although the ritual itself was related to time, it was definitely not a ritual developed by the master of time.

This is very likely a mystical ritual handed down from a more distant past, such as the first era.

In short, Jenkins remembered the ritual in his heart, but did not share it with Hathaway or Alexia. It was better for him to know this kind of thing himself. He could not guarantee what kind of story the ritual involved.

After dealing with all the gains obtained in the eastern suburbs of Nolan in the afternoon, seeing that it was getting late, Jenkins said hello to the ladies at home and planned to go to the church to explain what happened this afternoon as a believer of lies.

Alexia could not spend the night on St. George Street. She was still worried about her students, so she left home with Jenkins.

Hathaway stood at the door and waved goodbye to them, then turned to look at the remaining ladies in the house, namely Britney, Julia and Jessica.

Jenkins was the only one present when he revealed that he was a god. Hathaway also asked the reason, so she knew how ambitious the short lady was.

As for the other people in the family, Jenkins believed that they had no connection with the believers of lies and the God of Lies, and this matter could be revealed to them at the right time later.

Hathaway certainly agreed with this approach, mostly because she agreed with Jenkins' opinion, and a small part because she was secretly happy that only she and Alexia knew Jenkins' deepest secret.

After Jenkins left, Julia said goodbye to the three and went back to rest. She was the first person to get up in the family, and because she had to prepare breakfast, Jenkins always suggested that Julia rest early.

Jessica looked at Hathaway's eyes for a while, and then quickly looked away. She knew why she came here tonight, and she also remembered her mother's surprise when she told her mother that she would not go home tonight. She also knew that she had indeed played an ignominious role for the other two people standing here.

"I'll go to the neighbor next door to take a look."

She walked towards Miss Silver Flute's house in her slippers. She thought it was awkward to get along with Hathaway and Britney.

"She thought it was awkward to get along with us."

The blonde girl leaned against the door frame and watched Jessica knock on the door of the neighbor next door. Britney had a very melancholy expression on her face:

"Oh, what a silly girl, she was so easily fooled by Jenkins."