I can see experience bars after being transported to another world.

The four of them got up one after another.

Beren carefully put away the rubbing paper and notes, and wrapped the copper sheet in another layer of cloth.

Glock was the first to leave, walking very quickly.

Lu Yuan glanced back as he reached the door.

Klaus was still standing by the table, looking out the window.

You can't tell his emotions from his back.

Lu Yuan returned to his residence.

There was no rush to do anything.

I boiled a kettle of water, drank half a cup, and sat on the edge of the bed, mentally reviewing the information from the meeting.

Various things piled up at once.

"Alas, a storm is brewing."

But there's not much we can do right now.

Klaus was making arrangements, Holger was conducting investigations, and Buren was continuing to verify the data.

My turn to do something hasn't come yet.

Lu Yuan placed the empty cup on the table and glanced out the window.

The sun was already setting in the west.

It's time to get back to my own business.

evening.

Lu Yuan sat at the experimental table on the second floor.

The light from the marching lamp shone on the table. The toolbox was pushed aside, and the bone fragment lay in front of it.

Thirty-six basic, mysterious inscription symbols.

We've already identified the fifth one.

Lu Yuan started from the sixth one.

The lines are distorted and their direction is irregular.

I stared at it for about a minute, and my eyes started to sting.

Move to the seventh one.

Lu Yuan stopped.

The line structure of this symbol is different from the other six.

Not because it is more complicated or more distorted.

It's not because of a certain section of its structure, but because it bears a resemblance to a certain pattern on the bronze pillar inscription.

They are not completely identical, but their structural logic overlaps.

It's like two different expressions derived from the same thing.

Grayish-white text flickers at the edge of the field of vision.

[Inscription Arts (Advanced - Mysterious Inscriptions): +0.3...3.1/50]

[Taboo Studies - Seeker of Knowledge: +0.2...37.6/100]

Lu Yuan stared at the symbol for a while.

If the bronze pillar inscription system itself contains elements of eerie inscriptions in that 'abyss', then are the ghouls below also somehow connected to eerie inscriptions?

If that's the case, when I come into contact with those things, am I able to gain experience from the strange inscriptions?

This idea intrigued Lu Yuan. If it were true, it would mean that the inscriptions used on the bronze pillar contained strange inscriptions that had never been discovered before.

This could potentially lead to a significant improvement for me.

Suppressing his thoughts, Lu Yuan continued to identify the eighth symbol.

After identifying the bone fragments, Lu Yuan put them aside.

He took a ghoul brain core from the toolbox.

It is about the size of a fingernail, grayish-white, and has a hard texture.

It was one of the cheap materials we exchanged last time.

Then preparations were made for the first seal carving.

The order that Dolph Hawke said was "recognize first, then write, and finally engrave".

However, he only recognized eight symbols, far from the stage of "recognizing all of them".

However, Lu Yuan was still prepared to give it a try, because he had an experience bar, and if he succeeded, his learning progress would be greatly improved.

Of course, if there really is some danger, one can see it from the gray text.

Thinking of this, Lu Yuan took out a thin copper needle. The tip of the needle had been sharpened, but it was not strong enough. However, it was barely usable for dealing with the brain core.

Hold the brain nucleus with your left hand and the needle with your right.

A symbol in the mysterious inscriptions roughly corresponds to a certain ability.

Of the eight symbols I've memorized so far, they can be broadly categorized into two types: expansion and dispersion.

"Expand" means to amplify the effect of the material, while "disperse" means to dissipate the strange aura on the material, which can be understood as a kind of purification.

In addition to the different materials and symbols, the strange runes are caused by one symbol, which basically corresponds to a different material processing method.

This also made Lu Yuan realize why so few people study the strange inscriptions.

If you don't try to improve it yourself, you'll never finish learning it in your lifetime.

However, Lu Yuan had another reason for trying: the seventh rune might be related to the bronze pillar, and the materials he had were related to ghouls.

So I don't feel bad about wasting it.

With that in mind, Lu Yuan compared the direction of the symbols in his mind and began to insert the needle.

The first stroke is made.

The force was too strong, and the engraving went slightly off-center.

The luster on the surface of the ghoul's brain core noticeably dimmed.

It's obvious that this thing is broken.

Lu Yuan put the brain core aside and took out the second one.

Let's start over.

This time the needle was inserted more gently.

When the engraving was halfway done, the symbiotic connection suddenly gave a very faint feedback.

Like an intuition.

This caused Lu Yuan to slightly deviate from his intended direction.

Following this feeling, Lu Yuan slightly adjusted the angle of his wrist. The depth of the copper needle's engraving decreased by less than half a millimeter.

The depth of the engraving is just right.

The lines in the second half are much smoother.

With each needle, the worm of knowledge would provide subtle feedback through the symbiotic connection, not directly telling him how to carve, but giving a slight reminder the moment he deviated from the correct path.

The final stroke completes the cut.

On the surface of the brain nucleus, there is a complete and bizarre inscription symbol.

The lines are rough and the turns are not smooth enough, but they are basically correct.

The surface of the brain nucleus faintly glowed with a dark red light.

It dimmed after two seconds.

Grayish-white text flickers at the edge of the field of vision.

[Inscription Arts (Advanced - Mysterious Inscriptions): +0.3...3.4/50]

[Sanity: -1...83/120]

[Basic Eerie Inscription: Ghoul Brain Core (Rough)]

[A type of junk that is useless when used individually may only have some use when three are strung together.]

Lu Yuan looked at the prompt and remained silent for a moment.

Lu Yuan looked at the brain core.

Crude. Barely plausible.

But it was established.

The insect of knowledge provides perceptual assistance during the seal carving process. There is a synergistic effect between the bizarre inscription and the symbiotic connection.

This is a very important discovery.

This means that on this path, he has an advantage that other strange inscription masters do not have.

Lu Yuan put the copper needles and brain core into his toolbox. He stood up and moved his fingers.

After carving two brain nuclei, my right index finger and thumb are a little stiff.

I looked down out the window.

The branch's inner courtyard. The evening lights were already on.

In the corner, a figure was walking out from the direction of the branch's main building.

A grayish-white robe.

Church nuns.

She kept her head down and walked at a moderate pace along the edge of the inner courtyard toward the side gate.

Lu Yuan glanced at it again.

The nun took a few steps and then suddenly stopped.

I looked up and glanced towards the second floor.

It was as if it sensed something.

Through the window, Lu Yuan couldn't see her face clearly.

Only the outline of the gray-white robe under the light could be seen.

A second or two later, the nun bowed her head and quickly left.

That matches what Margaret said.

The nuns of the church frequently appeared at the branch.

Wandering around. Looking for something or wanting something.

Lu Yuan drew the curtains.

Early in the morning.

[Sanity: +12...95/120]

Lu Yuan pushed open the door to his residence and almost bumped into someone.

A young, clerical night watchman stood at the bottom of the steps, holding a slip of paper in his hand, his expression respectful yet slightly nervous.

"Captain Lu, Deputy Chief of Staff Klaus wants you to go to his office. He says he has a mission for you."

Lu Yuan nodded.

The morning light streamed in through the corridor windows.

Several windows on the side wing of the branch's main building were not yet fully open, and the corridor carried a lingering chill from the night.

Lu Yuan walked to the end of the corridor.

Klaus's office is at the very back on the first floor.

The door was closed.

I knocked twice.

"Enter."

Lu Yuan pushed open the door.

The office is small.

A solid wood table, two chairs, a bookshelf, and a rare sight of green plants.

Apart from a few trees, the outer city of Bronze City is only covered with vegetation along the streets of the inner city.

The curtains were half-drawn, and light cut in at an angle through the gap, falling on the table.

Klaus sat behind the table.

The moment Lu Yuan entered, he noticed a detail.

Klaus's right hand rested on the table, and flashes of blue light occasionally appeared on the back of his hand, as if something was moving under his skin.

It was fleeting.

Klaus made no attempt to hide it.

A folded map and several pages of paper were spread out on the table.

Klaus didn't offer him a seat.

Just push those pages over.

"The results of Blake's memory extraction are also related to your next task. See for yourself."

Lu Yuan took it.

The paper contained a handwritten summary; the handwriting was neat but not particularly beautiful, and it was likely a record of an interrogator.

The title reads "Summary of Gray Pact Captive Memory Extraction Report".

Lu Yuan looked down.

Organization: This operation involved three fourth-level and ten third-level personnel.

The leader was codenamed "Q," the fourth-tier enemy codenamed "8" was killed, and another fourth-tier enemy codenamed "9" is currently missing. The remaining three tiers have all been dealt with.

Objective: Locate a location beneath Bronze City.

More specifically, the prisoner himself did not know.

Contact method: Instructions are conveyed through the "person on the wall" in dreams.

The prisoner had never seen this person before; all orders were received in his dreams.

Note: The Gray Pact members have been infiltrating Bronze City for several months.

The precise location of the copper pillar and the existence of the seed are relatively new instructions.

Lu Yuan read through them one by one.

Klaus added a couple of comments from the side.

"Number 9 is missing. There may be another Tier 4 being hidden inside the city."

Klaus's tone became slightly more subdued.

"Location and seed are new instructions that were only recently issued; otherwise, they wouldn't have conflicted with us over the seed, and they could have remained hidden for even longer."

The new instructions disrupted the original stealth rhythm.

Lu Yuan put the paper back on the table.

Klaus took the few pages of paper and then turned the map on the table so that it faced Lu Yuan.

"This is the structural diagram of Bronze City as replied by headquarters."

Lu Yuan glanced at it.

The existing city structure map of the branch is very similar.

The main channels and nodes are marked on the pipeline layer, and the locations of the copper pillars are marked but not precisely.

"The headquarters files don't explicitly say what's hidden underneath, but there's a complete set of construction diagrams." Klaus tapped his finger lightly on the edge of the map.

"This map is almost identical to the information we currently have."

He paused for a moment.

"Either something happened to Bronze City that caused the information to be lost, or someone secretly burned all the complete files and blueprints."

Lu Yuan did not respond.

Both possibilities point to the same thing.

Some people don't want later generations to know the truth beneath the Bronze City.

"However, some discoveries were still made."

Klaus pointed his finger to a route marked in red ink on the map.

Starting from a node in the pipeline network, it extends towards the inner city along an unnumbered branch road.

"This path closely matches Buren's calculations."

Klaus leaned back in his chair.

"This afternoon, take Buren and Lake along this route from the pipeline level to confirm whether Buren's predicted route is correct."

"That section of the pipeline has been mostly cleared, so there shouldn't be much danger. If Q doesn't intervene, Rick and the others are enough."

Lu Yuan nodded.

No further words were needed.

He turned and went out.

Back at my residence.