Abnormal crossing

Chapter 263 What Happened Quietly (Part 2)

"【Prayer】Gear set?"

A hint of surprise crept into the synthesized voice of the mechanical cat head. The half-existing, broken skull slightly lifted, glancing upwards in a certain direction:
"You've made your decision? -- You should understand the current state of the [Prayer] gear set. It has the worst structural integrity of all the perpetual day gears. Although it won't be scrapped after a single overload, based on the existing damage model, it can only withstand a maximum of three full-power operations."

“I know,” Hayel said, his attitude quite firm in the face of the cat-headed man’s concerns and reminders. “But an accident happened not long ago, and only by activating the [Prayer] Gear can we find out the truth—in fact, this accident is the real reason that prompted me to come to you.”

The mechanical cat head turned its gaze back to Hayel and asked, "What is it?"

Hayel paused for a moment: "Some time ago, an unidentified fluctuation appeared in the silent zone. Although it lasted for a very short time, the fluctuation still broke through the silence threshold we had set and directly triggered the core of the echo trigger."

"Echo trigger?"

The information Hayel provided caused the mechanical cat's remaining single eye to flicker rapidly, the red light appearing hurried and unstable, as if the words had dealt it a tremendous shock: "Impossible! I already measured the primordial marks of the four original scale owners of this generation, and clearly none of their mark widths match the trigger of the echo! You are..."

However, the mechanical cat hadn't finished speaking.

Hayel slowly turned around to face it, and the remaining darkness around his body instantly receded like a curtain, revealing his lower body:
There was nothing there, no substance, no form, only a constantly twisting and churning void.

At the edge of nothingness, countless strangely colored energies wriggled like maggots, occasionally bursting out with tiny specks of light.

This chaotic sea of ​​energy is like an eternal battlefield, where creation and annihilation occur simultaneously.

Occasionally, they would briefly coalesce into an outline resembling lower limbs or a torso, but before that form could stabilize, it would be instantly torn apart and devoured by more abnormal energy surging from the depths of nothingness.

The whole process repeats itself endlessly, like a never-ending torture.

See this situation.

The red light in the cat's eyes instantly reached its flicker limit, clearly indicating extreme shock.

“You see, facts speak louder than words,” Hayel said, as the black barrier around him slowly closed again, obscuring the unsettling sight. “The wave came quite suddenly, without any prior warning. It pierced through all the defenses we had set up for the Echo Trigger and almost caused my temporary trigger vessel to be annihilated.”

"Fortunately, I activated the backup original chain in time, which kept the physical damage to the current level—my own life is not worth losing, but if the 'plan' is affected, then everyone's efforts and sacrifices will be in vain."

"And since you are the executor of the original scale, whether out of the original Watchman Agreement or our friendship, I should inform you."

The mechanical cat head stared with its remaining single eye at the black barrier on Hayel's body, which had returned to calm but seemed to harbor endless pain. A few seconds later.

Its rusty speaker vibrated slowly, and for the first time ever, all electronic noise was filtered out from the synthesized sound, leaving only a pure tone that was almost solemn: "Thank you for telling me, Hayel."

“No need to be polite, after all, we have the same goal,” Hayel waved his hand indifferently, as if the nothingness was not his own body at all: “The Primal Scale is a very important part of the whole plan, and I don’t want it to have problems before the plan is launched—I won’t say any more preachy things, you know what I mean.”

The mechanical cat head continued to look at him seriously: "I understand, I will definitely give you an explanation for this matter."

“No need for explanations, I just hope to hear good news,” Hayel said calmly, seemingly unconcerned about explanations. “After all, if there really is another life form that can trigger the echo, then that would obviously be an excellent thing.”

"Firstly, I am currently the only suitable temporary trigger vessel in the entire Star Sea. If I were to encounter an accident one day, the Ultimate Plan would lose all its buffers—from a risk control perspective, this is too dangerous. Secondly—"

His voice paused slightly here, and the black mist flowing around him seemed to freeze as well, revealing a hint of almost imperceptible weariness: "I've lived long enough, long enough that I'm getting a little tired."

The mechanical cat looked deeply at Hayel with its single eye, wisely refraining from continuing this heavy topic.

In fact, it wasn't just Hayel.

Even the mechanical cat head itself is getting tired after all these years.
Then, the logic module in the mechanical cat's brain quickly ran through the machine, erasing and crushing the slight misanthropic mood, and continued to ask Hayel, "I roughly understand the situation, so you plan to activate the [Prayer] gear set to trace the source of that unknown fluctuation?"

“That’s right, after all, the Echo Trigger was the original main core of the [Prayer] Gear Set,” Hayel immediately nodded. “Although the two have been separated for many years and have been subjected to a lot of contamination, their connection is still there. Theoretically, the fluctuations that can trigger the core of the Echo Trigger should also resonate with the [Prayer] Gear Set.”

"Of course, this is just a theoretical idea. Perhaps the [Prayer] gear set has lost its resonance efficiency, but even with only a very small success rate, it is worth activating it once—after all, it can be activated at least three more times, right?"

The mechanical cat's logic library operated rapidly, and the rapid flashing light in its eyes gradually calmed down: "The logic is correct, but why don't you trace the source through coordinates?"

"Even within a quiet zone, shouldn't there be source coordinates present? — Don't tell me there were two fluctuations at the same time?"

“The fluctuation only happened once, but unfortunately, the coordinates are still useless,” Hayel shook his head, the black barrier contracting twice as if breathing. “The trigger point, along with the source of the fluctuation, has been shielded by another force. It’s hard to determine whether the shielding force is friend or foe—it could be that the other party is actively shielding it for safety, or it could be that some monitor doesn’t want us to find it. But there’s one feeling that’s particularly clear throughout the whole process.”

The mechanical cat head quickly asked, "How does it feel?"

Upon hearing this, Hayel looked in a certain direction, staring at it for a good half minute before finally uttering a few words:
"That fucking hurts."

(End of this chapter)