Old-time musicians

"Does Vincent know these languages?"

Norma Gon pondered He Meng's scattered and vague memories: "It depends on how you define 'know'. As you said before, as the exploration of the abnormal zone deepens, any language and thinking held by the explorers will gradually transform into ancient Chaniz language. They will inexplicably understand the semantics of a very small number of 'basic blocks', but they are scattered, upside down, and unsystematic. Moreover, the 'basic blocks' with fewer strokes need to form complex 'composite blocks', and the 'blocks' need to be combined in twos and threes to form words and sentences."

This does not include that it will continue to distort itself, such as the proliferation and deformation of strokes, and the partial reversal of the order.

He Meng nodded slightly, and after thinking for a while, he raised the silver cane that can still be visualized in the sky steps.

"I currently have very little memory of the Abnormal Zone and the ancient Chaniz language. I only have some vague feelings, and I still remember the simple semantics of 'squares'. Let me think about it, I'm afraid I can count them on one hand."

As he said, a square gap was cut by his cane on a mirror in the air.

"This square means our mouth."

"It's vivid and simple." Gang commented.

He Meng drew a short horizontal line in the middle of the square: "What do you think this is?"

"A horizontal line in the mouth? Is it the tongue? Teeth?"

"No, one of its semantics is 'sun', and there are several other semantics. I can't remember them clearly, but they seem to have nothing to do with 'mouth'"

"I really didn't find any pattern." Gang looked at the "mouth" and "sun" characters drawn in the sky.

He Meng drew another character "门": "It means 'door', the door in reality or the door in Huita, and then, that's it, I only remember these three 'basic blocks'"

"It's quite vivid."

Then He Meng wrote the character "日" in the middle of "门".

"Then, as long as it starts to be combined into a 'composite block', I can't understand it at all."

"The sun in the door?" Gang stared at the character "间", "It feels a bit mystical"

He Meng shook his head: "I have forgotten all its meanings, I only vaguely remember that it is very abstract, and it seems to have nothing to do with the 'sun in the door', and this is just a very simple 'composite block'"

As he said, he added a few more strokes on it, turning it into a crooked character "Jian".

"For example, I remember that it seems to be able to continue to combine and become this 'composite block', and the meaning has undergone completely irregular changes."

"Even if the meaning of these 'composite blocks' is exhausted, it is an impossible thing to do, and this has not yet started the arrangement of 'blocks and blocks'! At the current stage of discussion, it is not even comparable to the 'words' in our language. Most of our words need to be arranged in two 'blocks' to be reflected, let alone further become sentences that carry complex information."

"This is indeed confusing." Norma Gon stared at the characters on the steps, "It is confusing from a structural point of view. Our human language is obviously composed of letters and words. So, even if Vincent can understand the semantics of a small number of 'basic blocks' in the abnormal zone, it is still a far cry from the degree of 'effective understanding'."

Let's assume that the abnormal zone is a channel for "learning" the semantics of ancient Chaniz language

It is even the only original channel. The earliest sporadic research and text transcription of this language by ancient scholars were brought out from the abnormal zone.

But it is obvious that the "learning" efficiency is completely disproportionate to the degree of danger.

Apart from other things, it is extremely necessary for a knowledgeable person to learn ancient languages ​​rationally, but after entering such a place, the whole person's mind and cognition are in a trance, and there are very few meaningful revelations that can be obtained.

"This is an exaggerated description." He Meng said, "We have no reason to think that anyone can fully understand the ancient Chaniz language, but Vincent's subsequent strange behavior cannot be explained by other explanations."

"For example?"

"You know the principles for recruiting team members when we set up the Abnormal Zone Investigation Team."

"Mainly those who are sentenced to life imprisonment or are about to be shot." Gang nodded.

It is true that retreating before the limit of sleepiness reaches the limit, the probability of returning unscathed is higher, but what can be done with only a few dozen hours of tasting?

In He Meng's memory, the outermost part of the abnormal zone actually looks not much different from the normal area. Only the deeper you go, the more beautiful and terrifying it will be.

The Abnormal Zone has spread for at least thousands of years, and many ancient relics are dormant in the depths. If you want to bring out the dusty secret history, ritual vessels, extraordinary materials or other mystical documents, or even learn the secrets of higher status, you need to explore it for at least one month. Sleep is inevitable. The Special Patrol Office has also explored some auxiliary methods to retain the will to resist and reduce cognitive damage.

But no matter what, this kind of high-intensity and in-depth exploration has a very high probability of being left in it forever.

The spiritual willpower of the ignorant is almost completely to die. Even for the knowledgeable, according to the statistics of the discussion group, the survival rate from low to high ranks is only 3-15%.

Only the profound ones are qualified to say that they can "barely save their lives". In fact, there are also many profound ones who have been left in it in the past hundred years.

The Special Patrol Office will not take the initiative to send carefully trained investigators to die. Even if they are voluntary, they must be approved. Some people will apply in their twilight years with the mentality of "seeking knowledge before death is doomed".

So apart from this, most of the team members are lifelong imprisoned or about to be shot.

"A narrow escape from death," Gang commented.

"That's it. How many people want to go but there is no way." He Meng smiled gloomily.

If you don't go, you will be useless. If you go, if you perform meritorious service, you will have a chance to live under the sun again.

However, the Special Patrol Office does not want anyone who violates the ban. Generally speaking, those who are at least high-ranking or have other special abilities and are deemed suitable after evaluation will not be evaluated. This kind of action will be a burden or unnecessary stabilizing factor.

There will not be too many banned persons who meet these conditions, and of course, the number of investigations will also be very few.

"That time, we had three Insighters leading the team, but how many team members were there? Are they all offenders? Or are there also a few of our fellow investigators? I can't remember clearly. What is recorded in the headquarters file is 3+12 people, but”

"I have lived for nearly a hundred years, and the Special Inspection Office is everything to me. I remember all the past here vividly, but I always feel that the operation that took place more than 20 years ago is not worthy of the number of files. , not only the names and faces of the team members don’t match up, but also the ratio of men to women and the number of heads, I think most of them don’t match up.”

He Meng spoke slowly while thinking, but his words were always filled with a large number of adverbs expressing uncertainty:

"At that time, our number of people should have been reduced. Deep in the area where there seemed to be a lighthouse-like thing, we collected data and samples while analyzing the information at hand, and carefully formulated an exploration plan. Because there were unknown unknowns ahead. It is dangerous. We follow our consistent strategy and order those who violate the ban to try to find a way out. This is what they should be aware of. "

"At this moment, Vincent, who had just finished reading the surrounding text carriers not long ago, raised fierce objections. He did not agree with the captain's selection of a female offender in this round to go into danger, and Protect her resolutely.”

"The vice-captain has a certain right to speak. The captain was very surprised, but still asked him to give a reason. Vincent gave several explanations. I don't remember what he said at the beginning, but he didn't seem to be able to convince the captain. It didn’t convince me, we all thought he was making it up.”

"Mainly because the female offender was a stranger to him. This was something that everyone, including him, knew clearly before departure. The area where she was previously detained was completely different from the imperial capital where Vincent worked. If it hadn't been for this The bank happened to be assigned to a group, and the two parties would not have any intersection at all. This kind of precondition meant that even if he deliberately made up an excuse, even if the woman took the opportunity to deliberately cooperate to avoid danger, there was no reasonable excuse or performance. Space, and in the end Vincent simply said that he suddenly fell in love with her. Although this was also very outrageous, it was better than the completely irrelevant explanations before. Of course, the final result was a quarrel. "

"Pollution comes in all kinds of forms, such as pollution in the form of 'surge of love', which I have even seen projected onto non-kind bodies, not to mention the unknown effects from the mysterious Guchaniz language." Noma Gang After hearing this, he expressed his opinions calmly.

It was obvious to her that it wouldn't be surprising if that was all it was.

"From my personal point of view, although Vincent's behavior is weird, in such an extremely special and extremely dangerous abnormal zone operation, for the sake of the overall situation and the preservation of strength, it can be temporarily compromised, colleagues. If there is any problem between us, we will settle the accounts later, and if there is any pollution, we will try our best to help solve it.”

"You are right." He Meng nodded, "Although in that environment, several of us were groggy and anxious and grumpy, but we still tried our best to endure it. The captain temporarily replaced the pathfinder. The quarrel did not break out further, but the atmosphere became more tense and began to be somewhat suspicious of him. "

"But in the next day or two of the operation, Vincent not only took good care of her along the way, but also showed more and more weird behaviors. He became very self-righteous, always deviating from the operation plan, choosing to explore on his own, and doing Make some small moves that seem serious but inexplicable."

"Imagine a scene similar to this: You are exploring an unknown ruins that have been dusty for thousands of years. Everyone is carefully interpreting the incomprehensible words and symbols and walking on thin ice. But one team member, since seeing After writing some words, he would stand in a specific position and talk in a daze, turn something like a mechanism up and down three times and five times, and then wander off for dozens of minutes to several hours before returning to the team. It feels like you are in a familiar backyard or club, how would you interpret it?”

"Suffering from a rare form of pollution, or a 'martyr' with idiosyncratic pursuits." Gang tried to list the possibilities, "But this change was too sudden, and his behavior did not look like he was completely crazy. I Indeed, one can’t help but think that he has suddenly understood some secret, and that it is a secret with stakes.”

"So you know why I said, it's like he 'knows those words'." He Meng said.

It is true that pollution is strange in all kinds of ways, but if it is strange to a certain extent, understanding it this way will make your own logic more acceptable.

"Bigger accusations and arguments arose, and this time we took action."

"In the 'Cocoon' phase climbing path at that time, the position of the 'Gate of Seven Lights' that I passed through had not yet shifted, and before taking action, I passed through the 'Skinned Gate' higher above it. , the captain who was promoted to the second level of Xu Xiao was Colin Davis, a strong man who was loyal to his leader and had been in the third level of Xu Xiao for many years. He was also the father of the current Inspector Owen Davis. We have always I thought Vincent was at the first level of the Deep Dawn, but you later found out that he actually hid his strength. He was also at the third level of the Deep Dawn! Moreover, the 'fractal master''s methods were very difficult to deal with, and the two of us were even defeated by him when we joined forces. Suppressed!"

"In everyone's already anxious and dazed spiritual state, the two sides struck hard this time. Not only were they attacking each other with the intention of killing, but they also used the secret technique of chengyu to inflict substantial damage to each other. , Captain Colin was seriously injured.”

"Fortunately, Vincent's essential motivation was not hatred of life and death. He finally stopped fighting until the end, but the final outcome is self-evident -"

"The investigation team was disbanded and everyone separated in the lighthouse area."

"We encountered a series of strange things during the retreat. All other team members died. Captain Colin and I escaped. However, it may be because the captain left a pollution hazard after being seriously injured and was unable to resist. The influence of gnosis on the will was unfortunately 'lost' after three years."

"From that point on, it was considered that I was the only survivor."

"The leader was very sad when he heard the news. The two inspector generals, Colin, was originally a genius who had great hope of being promoted to 'Enforcer', and Vincent was originally an 'unexpected surprise' for Xiao Xiaosan, but they both ended up like this. accident"

"And in the ten or twenty years since then, I have never seen Vincent and the woman again. In addition, it was obvious that his mental state was not normal at the time. We once thought that after they separated at that time, they should finally Couldn't get out of B-105's abnormal zone."

"But now we know belatedly that he actually came out and immediately married and had a child with the woman. It's just that the woman, like Captain Colin, may have been in the third place due to the contamination of the abnormal zone. Died of illness later in the year."

"This was a result that was gradually deduced during the investigation until four or five years ago. Who knew that just when the identity was locked to the last batch of suspicious objects, Vincent really disappeared again. So, what happened to him that year? What did he do? Did he lose his mind due to pollution, or did he really learn the Guchaniz language and know some secrets? What he did in the lighthouse area during the moments when he left the team is still a mystery. It’s an unsolved case, and we can only hope that it can be solved in the future from Carolne Van Ning.”

Norma Gunn thought carefully while listening, and then asked aloud: "So, what was your original purpose of entering the B-105 abnormal area to investigate?"

"That prophecy." He Meng said, "It was originally due to the leader's instruction that there may be an important prophecy in this area, allowing us to search for revelations."

"At noon, the sun sets and the moon rises?" Gang confirmed.

"Yes, this is the valuable result we brought back that year, but the interpretation method has been limited so far. We also suspected that if Vincent knew more, he might make relevant hints to Caron at the Turner Art Museum. "

"In this case, if we try to explore the detailed interpretation of the prophecy, I am afraid we will really revisit the abnormal area of ​​​​B-105."

"Not only that." He Meng shook his head, "I'm afraid this place has more secrets than we thought. The leader reported based on our memories, the messy items and information we brought out, and combined with his latest information in recent years. After studying the situation, he also believed that there might be a key buried in this place. He even deduced that if Vincent really learned any secret, it would be either the interpretation of the prophecy, the key, or both. have."

"Key?" Gang was a little confused. "If you put it in ordinary terms, it can be regarded as one of the high-level extraordinary resources, but for a leader who has passed through the sixth level of 'Jhin', the 'Gate of Annihilation', it will also What other climbing paths are there for the keys that are of interest?"

"If it was an ordinary key, how could Mr. Pogorelic be so concerned about it?"

He Meng smiled calmly when he heard this.

"The leader believes that this may be a key to the 'Dome Door'."