Two days later, Verla and Alice returned to Beliar City.
When they returned to the City Lord's Mansion, they found that something was wrong. Their guards were all silent, looking at them as if they wanted to say something but stopped. When the demon sisters saw the demon wearing a single-lens spectacled eye on the main seat, they finally understood why the guards were so jealous.
"The Lord of Beliar." Rachel said with a gentle smile: "I think we can have a good talk."
***
The inner city of the dwarf ruins was built according to the pattern of the Kabbalah Tree of Life, with a total of 22 streets symbolizing paths and ten squares symbolizing circles. The Gate of Wisdom is located in the square in the upper left corner of the inner city. In the Kabbalah Tree of Life, the essence represented by the circle is wisdom. Du Ze wandered around the dwarf ruins for two days. At midnight on the first day, the fanzines were restored in Du Ze's hands - the restoration was too late! Du Ze choked on a mouthful of old blood. The ratio of the Gate of Wisdom to the outside world is 60:1, which means that 1/5 of the fanzines stayed in Xiu's hands for nearly 40 days - 40 days is enough for the protagonist to recite the contents of those 8 pages by heart!
The flowers of the motherland were destroyed by pornographic books...
Du Ze forced himself not to imagine the scene when he came out of retreat, and continued to admire those alien-style buildings. Small houses of various styles were built beside the streets, just like the houses of dwarves in fairy tales. Du Ze bent down and went into a few houses, and without exception, he saw traces of the dwarves' former lives. Those traces were very clear, and he could even infer what they were doing: some of them were taking a bath, some were eating, and some were assembling mechanical parts. However, for some unknown reason, all the dwarves seemed to disappear in an instant during the activity.
Du Ze felt a chill when he saw the empty house, and he returned to the street. Although there were machines moving on the street, it was so empty that there was no human touch at all.
The dwarves...why did they disappear?
Du Ze is not the author, so he doesn't know how Yi Ye Zhi Qiu is set up. Exploring the reason for the disappearance of the dwarfs seems to be a huge side story of "Mixed Blood", but until Du Ze traveled through time, readers still didn't know the result from the author.
Du Ze couldn't help but look at Old John who had been with him for the past few days. This mechanical puppet that looked very old did not appear in the novel. Thinking of the time difference between the novel and the present, Du Ze suddenly had a guess.
"How long have you been here?"
Hearing Du Ze's question, Old John stopped playing with the little phoenix. He seemed to be lost in memories, and his voice was full of nostalgia.
"It's almost 40,000 years." Old John pressed the star on his chest: "I am a second-generation mechanical puppet. My master gave me the best power device, so I can live until now. But it's almost reached its limit. In another year, my 'heart' will stop." It looked at Du Ze. "It's great to see you before I die."
It seemed a little strange to hear a machine say "alive" and "dead", but Old John's tone reduced the sense of disharmony. The mechanical puppet in front of him had wandered in this empty city for tens of thousands of years and even understood emotions.
Old John's words confirmed Du Ze's conjecture. In terms of time, the protagonist in the novel entered the dwarf ruins four years later, and Old John had already stopped working by then. At the same time, Yi Ye Zhi Qiu had written that the fourth era of the dwarfs was about 30,000 years away from the seventh era of the human race, which means that Old John definitely witnessed the disappearance of the dwarfs. However, seeing Old John like this, Du Ze suddenly felt a little bit at a loss for words. That question seemed too cruel to the mechanical puppet in front of him who understood emotions.
"You seem a little hesitant." Old John said, "Don't hesitate. If you need anything, just tell me. I'm happy to serve you."
"Why did the dwarfs disappear?"
The blue light in old John's eyes suddenly went out the moment he heard Du Ze's words, as if he had received a great shock. After a long while, the blue light of the machine ignited again.
"You're curious, kid." Old John's voice was like a sigh: "As curious as they are... but sometimes being too curious is not a good thing."
Before Du Ze could understand what Old John said, he saw the huge mechanical puppet walking forward.
"Come on, what you want to know is right in front of you."
After walking along this street, another round square appeared in front of them. In the Kabbalah Tree of Life, the essence represented here is understanding. In the center of the square, there was a metal building that looked a bit like a flower bud. Old John walked over and input a few commands on the building, and then he saw the metal building gradually unfold its shell, revealing its interior.
It looked like a research room, with piles of information scattered around. The most eye-catching thing was the huge wheel in the center of the room. Its outer ring was golden, and the disk seemed to be made of crystal. There was a circle of numbers and runes engraved along the outer ring. The whole wheel looked like a giant clock, but there was no pointer on it.
"This is the Wheel of Time."
Old John looked at the circle, the blue light in his eyes made people feel his sadness. Du Ze waited for a while, but the mechanical puppet beside him seemed to be immersed in memories and couldn't extricate himself, and didn't say anything. Du Ze hesitated for a moment, then walked into the laboratory and picked up a few sheets of information on the table. They were probably some research reports, with densely drawn curves and terms that Du Ze couldn't understand. Du Ze's eyes fell on the lower right corner of the paper, where some of the researchers' experiences were recorded.
[Time is so amazing. If it weren't for ____ giving us the Wheel of Time, we would never be able to access the laws of time.]
[The curve is wrong. Time should not be decomposed in this way. I will reconstruct the decomposition function tomorrow.]
…
[We have made a breakthrough today! With the help of the Wheel of Time, we have achieved the separation of time. The first separation ratio is 2:1.]
[The time separation ratio has been raised to 37:1. The committee said they are going to build the Gate of Wisdom, and time separation can be put into use.]
[Without the Wheel of Time component, time separation cannot be achieved. Trouble! Trouble!]
[We installed the second hand of the Wheel of Time into the Gate of Wisdom and achieved a 60:1 time separation. Now let's make "realizing time separation without the assistance of the Wheel of Time parts" a new topic.]
[Option 1: Copy the parts of the Wheel of Time; Option 2: Find a replacement for the Wheel of Time; Option 3: Thoroughly analyze the laws of time. Option 1 is the simplest, but everyone prefers option 3, including me.]
…
[We succeeded! Now we can achieve time separation for individuals, and the dwarves will be immortal!]
…
[No, impossible, it's out of control! We've already deciphered it...]
The record stops abruptly at the last page, and the increasingly scribbled notes reveal the confused mind of the person who wrote it all.
"That day, the clock broke, they disintegrated... sizzled... and disappeared."
Old John's voice came from behind him, it was like playing a broken video, intermittent and chaotic. Du Ze stared at the half-written word "read", as if he saw the short figure writing it disintegrate and disappear bit by bit, the pen fell on the table, and no one could pick it up again.
Du Ze shuddered, and he put the hot potato-like information back to its original place. His eyes accidentally swept to the first page, and then paused.
[Time is so amazing. If it weren't for ____ giving us the Wheel of Time, we would never have been able to enter the realm of time.]
Du Ze stared at the blank space. Considering the context, he thought a name should be filled in there. Du Ze was about to ask Old John when he saw the little phoenix stumbling in, aiming for... the Wheel of Time.
Don’t make trouble, naughty kid!
"Come back!"
The little phoenix landed on the top of the Wheel of Time, and then called out to Du Zeming who was flying towards it: "Jiubi~"
Seeing that the Wheel of Time was fine, Du Ze was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but then he was tripped by a pile of data at his feet and fell on the Wheel of Time. The entire space paused for a moment as if the pause button was pressed. The next moment, the outer ring and runes of the Wheel of Time all lit up, emitting a dazzling light. Du Ze was caught off guard and was directly dazzled by the light and burst into tears.
When Du Ze wiped his tears and put on his glasses, a certain silly and cute person froze in his tracks as he looked at the unfamiliar scene in front of him - where is this?
It was pitch black all around, which reminded Du Ze of his last dream. At that time, he seemed to be floating in this dark space and received a call with a bad signal.
Then the call really came again.
[…Eh…The Wheel of Time…]
Just like last time, the voice was still unclear and noisy, but even with the strong interference, it was still possible to tell that the voice was very happy.
[…I found you…]
The communication was interrupted again. Du Ze didn't have time to ask any questions. He tried to call out a few times, but there was only silence in the darkness except for his voice. Last time he was dreaming, so he woke up quickly. So this time he was also... dreaming?
Wake up!
A silly boy pinched his thigh hard. He was sure it was a dream, so he pinched it especially hard, and his thigh became stronger.
Woohoo hoohoo——QAQ!
Du Ze was in so much pain that he had hallucinations. He saw a huge, colorful hourglass appear in front of him. When Du Ze finally caught his breath, he stared at the hourglass opposite him and froze it again - damn, wasn't this an hallucination?
The hourglass that suddenly appeared in front of him was about 10 meters high, and the sand inside was the size of Du Ze's fingertips. There was very little sand left on the upper layer, and it was stuck in the leak and looked like it was about to fall out. Du Ze stared at the sand stuck in the leak, and his thoughts developed in a strange direction: If he let the sand flow out, would he be able to get out?
So some stupid kid kicked the hourglass.
The hourglass shook, a grain of sand fell out, and then got stuck again, as if mocking a scum with a combat power of five.
[System: Player "Du Ze" used a series of attacks on "Hourglass".]
Every time Du Ze moved the hourglass, a grain of sand would fall out. When Du Ze was about to launch his fifth attack, the invisible anger gauge of the hourglass seemed to reach the top, bursting with dazzling light.
[System: "Hourglass" used a fatal attack on the player "Du Ze", sending the player "Du Ze" back to the resurrection point.] When Du Ze came to his senses, he had returned to the laboratory. A certain stupid and cute person looked around in a daze. The laboratory seemed to have been robbed, and all kinds of data were scattered on the ground. Old John, who was originally outside the metal building, was nowhere to be found.
A clear bird chirp came closer and closer, and Du Ze watched a crimson bird land in front of him. The bird was about one meter long, with a soft and slender neck, patterned feathers, and a long, beautiful tail that was forked like a fish. Anyone who saw it could tell its species at a glance - phoenix.
When the beautiful phoenix saw Du Ze staring at it, it stood on the ground and happily spread its wings and chirped - it looked like the little chicken who had always been stupid and never surpassed. Wait! Du Ze stared at the phoenix in horror: Could this be the protagonist's cute pet! ?
The Fire Phoenix chirped and flew up, landing on the shoulder of a man who had appeared out of nowhere. It was a strange man with brown hair who looked very approachable.
Who is this guy?
Seeing Du Ze looking at him suspiciously, the brown-haired man smiled warmly: "I'm Old John."
...what?
At this moment, a sigh came from behind Du Ze.
"You finally came out."
Du Ze looked up, and behind him was a huge wheel of time. A person sat on top of the wheel of time, looking down at him. Before Du Ze could see the other person's appearance clearly, the person leaped down from the wheel of time.
"!"
Countless white papers flew into the air, and Du Ze was thrown hard onto the pile of documents, causing his back to hurt. Du Ze lay on the pile of papers, and with some difficulty lifted up his glasses that had been knocked crooked, and looked up.
This is... repair?
Sitting astride him, Xiu looked much more mature. If the dwarf form of Xiu before looked like a 12-year-old human, now he looked like a 15- or 16-year-old human. Xiu lowered his head and looked at Du Ze, his flax-colored hair hanging down softly, half covering his bright eyes and the almost crazy emotions in them.
Under Du Ze's stunned gaze, Xiu leaned down and bit the corner of Du Ze's mouth fiercely - it could only be described as biting, without any tenderness, as if he was venting his emotions crazily through this action. Du Ze even tasted the smell of blood, and he waved his hands, completely unaware of what was going on.
When Du Ze was finally released, he knew without looking in the mirror that his mouth must be swollen. The Xiu who did all this put his head next to his ear and breathed hotly.
"I really want to make a chain and tie you to me."
What on earth happened! ?
Under Du Ze's shocked gaze, the brown-haired man's voice came from afar.
"The young master is so excited because he has been waiting for you for four years."
******
******
The first year, missing you.
The next year, waiting.
The third year, the limit.
In the fourth year, it collapsed.
——【Black Box】
The author has something to say: Protagonist: I really want to make a chain and tie you to me.
Reader: I am not a pet! (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻
Author: That’s the cute one.
Reader: (wagging tail)