Mystery: Good Witch

Chapter 50 Sealed Artifact "2-049"

A team of Nighthawks wearing windbreakers or coats—the only ones who appear here can only be Nighthawks—appeared from the passageway, all of them raised their left or right arms, doing bending and stretching exercises in a common rhythm, as if they were holding an invisible dumbbell, exercising against the clock.

While making this weird movement, the Nighthawks didn't stop their footsteps. Instead, they flexed and stretched their arms in the same rhythm, unavoidably unifying their pace, and walked towards Angel.

This strange behavior contained a certain rhythm, which reminded her of an oriental mechanical dance group she had seen before traveling. They also wore strange clothes, moved mechanically, and swaggered through the streets.

It wasn't until the group approached that Angel realized that the leader of the group was the Captain of the Nighthawks who was still in the upstairs office just now, Dunn Smith. Behind him was the indifferent "Midnight Poet" Leonard Mitchell, and the hesitant "Seer" Klein Moretti.

The three of them surrounded two unknown Nighthawks, and one of them was a man with a straight face who was carrying a black iron box with an unbent arm. The crimson moon representing the Goddess of the Night was engraved on the box.

The other Nighthawk walking beside him was a woman, about 30 years old, with a good face, wearing a masculine shirt and trousers like Angel, but the weird bending of her arms ruined this neutral beauty.

While Angel was observing the crowd, the female Nighthawk paused with her stretched arms, her footsteps slowed down, and then she stopped all movements like a robot that had been switched on. Her expression was dull, her eyes were out of focus, and she fell behind from the mechanical dance troupe, falling to the end.

Leonard, who was walking past her, changed his expression slightly, stopped, and stretched out his hand sideways to gently push the woman's shoulder.

The latter seemed to be awakened from a dream, his movements became smooth again, and he quickened his pace to keep up with the team.

The others seemed to have gotten used to all this, and showed no signs of surprise or panic.

This is how the same thing?

Seeing the team gradually approaching him, Angel felt his scalp tingling, his heart beating faster, and he had an urge to stay away from this group of people.

"I'm going to find you, it seems that I can save some trouble."

The mechanical dance group stopped at a distance of about 5 meters from Angel, and Dunn Smith, who led the way, still kept flexing and extending his right arm repeatedly.

"Another member who was originally scheduled to participate in the operation left Tingen in a hurry. You should prepare and join the team to participate in the next..."

Before he finished speaking, Dunn appeared in a situation similar to that of the female night watchman just now. His bent right forearm stopped in mid-air like a jam, and the words he didn't utter from his mouth also stopped.

Klein, who was standing behind him, was stunned for a moment, and was about to reach out to pat the captain's shoulder, but the strange Nighthawk with an indifferent face had already taken a step ahead and gently pushed Dunn on the back.

This gentle push re-oiled Dunn's rusty machine, making his movements smoother, and the last word came out of his mouth: "...action."

Angel now understands it. This team seems to be affected by some mysterious force. From time to time, they will appear in a negative state of being stiff and unable to speak. They keep swinging their arms in order to let the teammates around them find themselves in this strange state at the first time.

And as long as another person touches this unlucky bastard lightly, he can quickly return to normal.

As for the source of the mysterious power...

Angel's eyes quickly swept over the two strange Nighthawks, and finally stopped on the iron box in the hands of the male Nighthawks.The latter felt her gaze, and his brown eyes looked back like blades. Only then did Angel notice a scar on his face.

None of the three Tingen Night Valuers I knew had similar abilities, and the woman was empty-handed. It seemed that what affected them was probably the item carried by the last person...

After thinking about this, she moved her steps, quietly moved away from the iron box, and then asked cautiously, "What's going on with you?"

"Time is running out, let's talk as we go." Dunn pointed to the box carried by the man with the scar. "Borgia is carrying a special magical item, the sealed item '2-049'. It will affect the people around it. It will give priority to targets within five meters of it, so that the target will appear just now. Lolotta and I..." His fingers moved to the female Nighthawk who had also experienced body stiffness before. was lifted."

"Fortunately, 2-049's range of influence is only five meters, and it can only affect one person at a time, and the three closest to it are easy to be selected as targets. Now you follow us to do this kind of arm flexion and stretching, and you can't stop until the end of the mission. Once you are affected by 2-049, we will wake you up in time. Similarly, if anyone of us is recruited, we need your help."

Angel nodded to express her understanding. She imitated the movements of several people, raised her left arm, and flexed and stretched her arms at the same frequency as everyone else. She joined the mechanical dance group and became the No.6 member.

Then several people started to move forward again, walking towards the exit of the basement two by two.

It has been more than half a month since I joined the Nighthawks. Angel has also learned a lot of mystic knowledge from Old Neil in his spare time, and has a certain understanding of "sealed items" that have certain negative effects and must be kept and controlled by the church.

Most of them are produced by combining the Beyonder characteristics of the dead Extraordinary with certain items, and there are also certain parts of the body tissue of the mutated Extraordinary. Once the church judges that the item is too dangerous or has too strong negative effects, it will be "sealed" and given a corresponding code name.

"2-049" is the code name of this sealed item in the Church of Evernight. The first number represents the danger level of the sealed item, from 0 to 3, the lower the more dangerous, "2" indicates that the danger level is not high, even in Tingen City's Chanis Gate, there are likely to be several of them.

But the small danger does not mean there is no danger. Judging from the performance of several people who have been recruited one after another just now, "2-049" must be carried by a team of multiple people. Once the carrier is alone, this sealed item will show its danger.

Angel didn't know what the negative effect of this body stiffness would be if it wasn't rescued by others, but even a few seconds of lag would become a fatal problem in battle.

Thinking of this, she also understood why Dunn Smith needed to join the team to act together.

The negative effect of this sealed item is so obvious, but they want to take action together, obviously to take advantage of a certain characteristic of the sealed item, it may be a fight, or it may be to find someone to find something, but there is a high probability of a fight or some other danger during the process.

Once someone falls into the stagnant state affected by "2-049", there must be teammates around him to wake him up immediately, otherwise this person will become a fixed target standing still.

According to Dunn's introduction, this Sealed Artifact will first affect the three people closest to it, so a team of three must be responsible for protecting this Sealed Artifact during the battle, otherwise teammates farther away will become the target.

Under such circumstances, the more people who can fight are left, the better. Dunn will come to Angel to fill in the vacancy after someone who was originally scheduled to participate in the operation leaves for some reason.

"Leonard, go up and tell Rosanne and the others to avoid the third floor for a while, and stay away from the reception room for now, and then drive the carriage to the door. You will drive the carriage later, and let César go home and rest first." Dunn ordered when he was about to reach the spiral staircase.

Leonard Mitchell nodded, took three steps and made two steps to overtake the team, climbed the stairs and disappeared from everyone's sight, even in such anxiety, he did not forget to swing his arms funny.

Laughing or laughing, I will do the same later... Angel forcibly suppressed the smile on her face. She looked back and saw that everyone was doing the same thing, with serious faces, but they looked ridiculous. Thinking of how many people would be walking on the street like this in a while, receiving the baptism of the eyes of passers-by, she suddenly felt dizzy.

A few people followed the stairs back to the second floor of the Blackthorn Security Company, and walked into the reception room in one file. Rosanne, who was waiting in the reception room, had disappeared, and she should have gone to the third floor to take refuge. In the lobby, only the coffee cups on the table were still steaming.

"Let's go directly downstairs and take the carriage to Riel Bieber's house first, where we should be able to get further clues."

Dunn gave the next order, and the group of people nodded silently, keeping their arms flexed and stretched repeatedly, bypassing the sofa in the reception room, and walked towards the door.

At the moment when the queue changed, Borgia, who was holding "2-049" in front of Angel, suddenly slowed down. Although he continued to move forward and bend his elbow, it quickly stagnated like a slow-motion video.

This unlucky bastard...

Angel was about to stretch out his hand to push him, but found that his movements were out of order. He couldn't straighten his bent right hand, let alone touch Borgia in front of him. His legs were as if they were filled with lead, and his thoughts became dull. The footsteps around him and the noise of the street outside the window became more and more muffled.

Is it...

She watched Klein appear in her sight, moving frame by frame like a stop-motion animation, moving closer, reaching out and pushing her shoulder.

The movements of Klein and Borgia in front of them became smooth again, and the frequency of the voice next to their ears also returned to normal, and the arm he was trying to straighten raised forward.

It turned out that it was not Borgia who was affected just now, but himself!

Only then did Angel's quickened thoughts come back to him.

This is the terrifying effect of "2-049"!
Just now, watching the female night watchman Luo Luota and the captain Dunn get hit one after another, the slowed down movement like a broken robot just made her feel a little funny, but when this scene happened to her, the feeling that her movements and thoughts instantly became dull was simply too scary.

Angel couldn't imagine how long that state would last if no one woke him up, and would it go one step further, completely stagnate all actions and thoughts, and eventually become a sculpture?
Thinking of this, she felt that the clothes behind her were soaked in cold sweat.

(End of this chapter)