Chapter 166: Chapter 170: Loosen
After a long while, Fenna finally withdrew her gaze from the car window.
Her main purpose for coming here today was to investigate the small chapel, but after entering the sixth district, she had sensed that the atmosphere of the entire area was abnormal, making her feel as if every inch of this district perhaps needed to be investigated.
After some contemplation, she reached out her hand and picked up a thick stack of documents that were placed on the nearby seat.
These were records from the city hall, obtained through the authority of the Judge and the relevant provisions in the “Special Executive Regulations for Abnormal Events.” On her way here, she had already read through part of this data.
The documents from the city hall were not top secret, nor did they involve any high-profile Transcendent events or unresolved, major cases. On the contrary, what Fenna had brought were the most basic things—
Gas meter records, electricity billing situations, shop taxes, water supply, heating, waste management, law enforcement patrolling…
As the pages turned, Fenna’s gaze swiftly scanned through the documents.
If her years as a Judge had taught her any “case handling experience,” one lesson was absolutely crucial—
The traces of Transcendent phenomena often hid within the most ordinary everyday occurrences.
Surrounded by the Endless Sea, abnormal and supernatural phenomena pervaded the human world. Under the looming threat of these forces, the “daily life” in the City-State was the world’s greatest treasure. Ordinary people of Plunder might have taken peaceful days for granted, but those warriors who fought against abnormalities and abnormalities year-round knew well—
A ray of morning sunlight, a meal hot on the table, street vendors calling out, and a goodnight before sleep; all these were continuous miracles.
These were breathtaking views constructed by mortals in this unstable world over ten thousand years.
Any Transcendent phenomena intruding would leave its mark on this miraculous sight.
“Have you noticed anything amiss?” asked the voice of the Guardian driving the car from the front row. The young church warrior had noticed Fenna’s slightly furrowed brow, “Are there missing municipal records?”
“On the contrary, all the municipal records are complete,” Fenna gently shook her head. “The water, gas, electricity, heating, and pollution records are all there, and they are maintained at a very balanced value, exceptionally logical.”
“Then your expression…”
“There are no law enforcement cases,” Fenna slightly lifted her eyelids. “Law enforcement cases are absent, and so are the birth records and the death records of residents.”
The Guardian driving the car widened his eyes slightly. In the rearview mirror, Fenna could see the young man’s incredulous expression.
“A clear anomaly, right?” Fenna whispered. “A district, all these years, no change in population, not a single law enforcement incident, not even fights or brawls. Even the safest places in the Upper City District can’t achieve this level, but all the records of water, electricity, and gas are intact. It gives the feeling as if…”
She paused, her gaze shifting towards the window: “As if all the residents here are docile phantoms… They quietly exist in this enclosed area, neither increasing nor decreasing, without internal conflicts or external communications, just quietly undergoing normal ‘resource consumption’, regularly sending a ‘all is normal here’ signal to the city hall. And yet, despite such blatantly abnormal situation, it has been overlooked for many years.”
The inside of the car fell silent, only the dull sound of the steam core operating could be heard. After an indeterminate amount of time, Fenna suddenly felt a jolt from the car body.
“We have arrived at that small chapel.”
Fenna raised her head and saw through the car window the community chapel that had somehow disappeared from the “sight” of the large cathedral.
From the outside, it seemed as though it had been abandoned for over a decade.
This was the place where the terrifying Ghost Ship captain had directed her.
Fenna’s mind involuntarily flashed back to those burning ghostly flames and the somber, imposing figure forever fixed in her central vision. The next second, she sharply inhaled, quietly chanting the holy name of the Storm Goddess Gomona, picked up her weapon, and opened the car door.
A cold, bleak wind blew from the end of the street, lifting the dried leaves beside the road. The black-clad Guardians followed alongside the Judge, cautiously closing in on the abandoned chapel.
Stepping on the fallen leaves, a faint crunching sound was heard, sounding almost like fire consuming rotten wood, crackling.
Suddenly, a flapping of wings came from above her head, and Fenna, amid the swirling leaves, looked up to see a white dove flapping its wings and landing on the spire of the church.
The dove tilted its head, seemingly curiously watching the guardians moving around.
“A white dove… a sign of calm seas, perhaps…” An odd thought suddenly crossed Fenna’s mind, then she dismissed the sudden appearance of the dove and moved forward to gently push open the slightly ajar doors of the chapel.
Warm, bright light entered her vision, and a nun with a gentle smile on her face appeared before her.
“Hello, sister, it has been a long time since anyone visited this church…”
The nun’s gentle voice echoed into the ears of the guardian warriors.
…
One after another, gas lamps were neatly arranged between the shelves, the bright light dispelling the shadows among these ancient scrolls. Slow, heavy footsteps reverberated between the shelves, interspersed with the low mumbling of the old priest:
“Row seven, column six, row seven, column six… The records from 1885, they should be here… they should be here…”
The old priest stopped in front of a bookshelf, he looked up and saw the giant bookshelf quietly towering over him, the scrolls that bore the memory of the City-State’s history neatly arranged within this giant’s bones and flesh.
His gaze fell upon a few archives, and he slowly reached out his hand.
The sound of slightly rusted friction came from his brass mechanical limb.
“At last, I found it!” The old priest’s eyes suddenly shone with brilliance, his tone filled with barely concealable excitement, “To think it was hiding here… After searching for so long with Fenna the Judge!”
His fingers touched those documents.
The slow, heavy footsteps echoed between the shelves again, mixed with the low mumbling of the old priest: “Row seven, column six, row seven, column six…”
“At last, I found it!” excitement sparkled in the old priest’s eyes, he reached out to the archives, the rusted creak of his brass mechanical limb filling the air, “To think it was hiding here, after searching for so long with the Judge!”
His fingers were about to touch those documents.
The slow, heavy footsteps echoed between the shelves.
…
Suddenly, the old priest halted.
He lifted his head, his neck as stiff as if rusted, and he quietly watched the huge bookshelves neatly lined up before him, each gas lamp burning between the shelves, and columns decorated with wave patterns silently standing among the shelves.
A sudden gentle sound of waves surged within his heart, momentarily clearing the haze in the old man’s mind.
Had the archive’s protection been activated? Who activated it? Why? Was it himself? When had he activated these protections? What was he doing here?
With a start, the old priest instinctively reached for the large-caliber revolver at his waist, but the next second, he noticed something odd about his body.
His once agile arm had become inexplicably stiff and heavy, the grating sound of parts rubbing together sounded almost like a pile of long-discarded scrap metal being crushed against each other.
He looked at his brass mechanical limb in astonishment, only to see an arm covered with rust, verdigris, and filthy liquid seeping from the metal seams staining the entire limb; his gaze continued downward to see a tattered coat and a left leg constantly oozing black oil.
It seemed as though he had been trekking through this archive for many years.
The old priest stared blankly at the marks left on his body, the sealed memories finally beginning to loosen at this moment, and he suddenly remembered many things, many things as distant as if they had happened in a past life—The visit of the Judge, investigating the records, weird records of heretical worship, the missing years…
Then the Judge had left the archive, and he had stayed, continuing the search for the missing records of the year 1885…
The gentle sounds of waves resurfaced, a little clearer than before, yet still as if muffled by a thick curtain, as if coming from another dimension.
But it was this distant, ethereal sound of waves that suddenly made the old priest’s mind even clearer than before, and as his memory loosened, his reasoning and judgment swiftly returned, and the next second, he realized what might be happening.
A massive anomaly—not simply an anomaly, not a malevolent Transcendent being, not a puppet master or a supernatural phenomenon, but a massive anomaly!
Plunder City-State was at the center of a massive anomaly!
“Damn it!”
The old priest exclaimed, turning to drag his no longer agile body towards his post.
The next second, he forcibly stopped dead in his tracks.
A strange black figure had appeared in the archive without warning.
Inside the enclosed space, this odd figure held up a bizarre black umbrella—as if to block out the pervasive sunlight.
(Recommendation time, a friendly recommendation from this fish, “The Resurgence of Tricks,” a background world view of the resurgence of mystery and occult powers. The author is also one of the readers, feel free to support them~~)