Chapter 105: Nicholas Egg’s New Identity

It seemed like the ball had really kept it in for a long time in this world. — Considering the kind of state he was in, pretending to be a rock ball previously, even Gawain, the fellow who’d been hanging in the sky for so many years could not help but admire it. Such willpower could not be found in the average Buddha-nature.

And after such an extended period of repressing himself and living as a fake rock, now that it could finally unbind its tongue, the ball rattled on with no end. It constantly exclaimed about the joy of conversing with humans and also lamented the dullness of people in this era and this world.

“Sigh, if it wasn’t for the facts laid out here, who would dare believe that civilization had regressed to this extent? That bunch of soldiers standing guard actually have no knowledge of even concepts like the atmosphere or geomagnetic fields…”

“That druid called Pittman, there’s definitely something wrong with his brain. He made countless trips here these two days. Each time, the topic of conversation was only one, and that was urging me to admit that I’m a dragon egg. He even asked me if dragons had to hatch from their eggs twice. Damn it, so damn annoying. I’ve really, already left my shell, alright? If I break my shell one more time, I’ll be dead!”

“And that female human wearing a red dress, she would hold all sorts of strange magic articles against my body all day long and even asked me if she could scrape some chippings off my body to study. Eek—— Scared this ball to death! Virtually as abnormal as that bunch of Master Mages back in those years…”

At this point, Gawain could not help but interrupt, “Um, that abnormal human female dressed in red that you spoke of is my family member, my granddaughter.”

“Oh—— Then you’ve got to educate her properly. Research cannot be done this way. She will develop problems mentally sooner or later this way.” The ball floated up and down, seeming to be slightly embarrassed. “Speaking of that, that bunch of Master Mages from a thousand years ago do know something. Initially, I’d even intended to communicate with them and try to figure out a way to go home, but who would’ve expected that all that bunch of fellows had in mind was to study me. Tsk tsk, if only those people then were as amiable as you are.”

Gawain looked at it with slight curiosity. “How many years has it been since you landed in this world? Or, how many years had it been since you landed in this world when those Master Mages caught you?”

“Sigh, I was caught once I arrived here,” The ball said dejectedly. “Then I was locked up in that laboratory all the time, and it seemed like I’d been locked up for a very long time — so long that I’d even learned your language.”

Gawain sized the other party up. “Those Master Mages never realized that you were actually an intelligent being?”

“Hehe, I was cautious.” The ball declared triumphantly, “When I’d just landed in this world, I’d instinctively built a protective shell for myself using metal and rock. I even switched myself into a semi-hibernation state, no signs of life at all. And because I could not understand this world’s language in the beginning, I had no idea what was happening. I kept pretending to be a piece of rock and observed in secret.”

“Those Master Mages later found me and brought me to the laboratory. I’d planned on escaping at first, but they were really too formidable. A slight movement would put them on alert, so I really didn’t dare to move. But I was pretty lucky. Some inexplicable phenomena would always occur near where I was found, so they thought I was an ancient sealed object or the like and did not slice me open at the first chance…”

At this point, the ball’s voice suddenly sounded terrified. “It was really unsettling. I remember, later on, they ended the research for the first phase, and they were really preparing to cut me open. However, an order suddenly came, requiring all facility personnel to immediately transfer, and they were not allowed to take any test samples found locally. I managed to preserve my life then — but those Master Mages especially wickedly added a seal to the laboratory before leaving. In the end, I slept for many, many years. And everything that came afterward, you’re aware.”

The ball finished sharing his experience in those years. Gawain immediately took note of his last few sentences. “You said those researches suddenly received an order that on top of asking them to evacuate swiftly, it also demanded they leave all local samples in the facility?”

“Yeah,” the ball casually replied, “back then, they never realized that I was actually alive, so they did not avoid me regardless of whatever they were discussing. That order was directly read out in the laboratory. I remember it especially clearly.”

Gawain frowned instantly, rubbing his chin as he mused.

The round ball questioned curiously, “What’s wrong? There’s a problem?”

“Such evacuation orders wouldn’t be given in normal circumstances,” Gawain explained. “Back then, the Gondor Empire recalled every pioneer team because the gains and losses were disproportionate. There were no pressing problems, but the evacuation order you heard was clearly an urgent order. Moreover, not allowed to take any locally found test samples… Why couldn’t they take the samples with them?”

The ball thought for a moment. “Could it be because the samples were polluted? Or some installation went out of control when they were studying the samples, and there was no time to salvage it?”

“The former is highly possible, the latter, not quite.” Gawain recalled the state of the remnants in the mountains.” Although it was an urgent evacuation, I observed the remnants. The facility was emptied in an orderly manner. Many big-scale installations were taken away, and they had plenty of time to transfer the samples. Say, what exactly were they researching in these mountains back in those days?”

“That, I don’t know. I wasn’t the one doing the research, I was the one being researched,” the ball said helplessly. “But there were a few occasions where I caught sight of some things when they were transferring me to other laboratories. They pushed some mutated, completely swollen corpses into the incinerator room. I suspect those corpses were from them using humans in experiments. Though they no longer looked like humans, you could tell they used to be humans at one glance.”

“Experimenting on human subjects?” Gawain faltered; he really hadn’t expected such to be the secret hidden in the Gondor research facility. “Were there any other traits of those test subjects?”

“Let me think… Ah yes, other than being slightly bigger and taller than average humans and having signs of deformity on their limbs, there was also something like crystals growing on various parts of their bodies. Like crystals separated out from biological tissues. One researcher, how did he put it…?” The ball thought hard and finally recalled the term. “Ah, he called them ‘divine evils’. But I don’t know whether the ‘divine evils’ referred to those crystals growing on those test subjects or the test subjects themselves. Your language is too inconvenient.”

“Divine evils?” Gawain’s brows were tightly knitted together. He could not help but repeat these words.

This was not a term that could be casually used.

The evils of divinity, forbidden, a violation of rules, a renouncement of divine will. Born because of divine power, but they were something that should not have come into being at all. Some believed they were the negative elements released due to agony in the moment gods lost their consciences and fell into degeneration. Others thought they were messengers that the gods sent to the mortal world to punish sinners, as mortals meddling in the gods’ authority had infuriated all the gods. Regardless of which, this term was related to the gods.

In the era of the Gondor Empire, the belief in gods was as thriving as present-day. It was impossible that those researchers would pointlessly use the term ‘divine evils’, which had such significant meaning, to refer to those research products without careful consideration.

An urgent order a thousand years ago had the research facilities in the Dark Range deserted, but this emergency order also demanded for them to leave all local samples behind. Then did the ‘human experiments’ that the ball saw share some relation with the ‘local samples’ mentioned in that order?

The latter were the former’s tools and materials? Energy source? Or technical source?

Of course, these were not Gawain’s greatest concerns. His primary concern was — were the samples that the researchers of the empire didn’t take with them a thousand years ago still left in the remnants in the Dark Range?

A thousand years had passed. Would those samples have weathered? Decayed? Disintegrated? Or had they seen no change at all and were even subtly influencing the area!

“You seem a little nervous?” Although the metal ball wasn’t a human, in its prolonged process of observing humankind, it had learned how to analyze human emotions. “Why are you worried? Those were research projects of a thousand years ago. By this time, those people should be long dead, and even the facility was abandoned. What implications could there be?”

“I’m worried about the samples that they didn’t take with them.” Gawain frowned as he asked, “Do you know where they left those samples?”

The ball swayed. “Not at all. Though I was also classified as a ‘local sample’, those Master Mages were clearly no fools. They would not confuse me with their true samples, so I never came into contact with the facility’s real center. Why? You wish to find and bring out those things?”

Gawain pursed his lips. “Find them at the least, so I’d know what they are.”

The scale of the remnants in the mountains was massive, even to the extent where it was unbelievable. Gawain had already explored it once with a team, but he suspected that the area they’d seen during that exploration was less than a fifth of the entire remnants. In other words, in the remaining four-fifths of the remnants, it was possible for anything to be hidden!

“If you wish to explore, you better be careful.” The metal ball perceived what Gawain had in mind and reminded him with good intentions. “Given the scale and risk level of that facility, it’s almost impossible to explore the entire place inside with just the manpower in your camp.”

“I know.” Gawain nodded. “I will work within my means. Let’s move on. We’ll talk about you first.”

The metal ball faltered for a moment. “About me? What’s there to talk about?”

“Don’t you know how striking you look in this world?” Gawain said with a wry smile. “There do not exist lifeforms like you on this world at all. If you run out just like that, how would you introduce yourself to people?”

“Boss Saint Nicholas Egg.”

“…”

“Alright, I was joking.” Nicholas Egg slowly sank a little, almost touching the ground. “The majority of the people in this era are fools. There are indeed very few people like you, who are smart and can be communicated with. So speak, what are your arrangements for me?”

“My explanation to the outside of your identity is that you are a magical equipment that stores an ancient soul. However, at present, only some of the soldiers know this. Most of the civilians in the camp have yet to see you. If you think there’s no problem, you may show yourself in the camp from today onwards using this identity.”

“Aha, sounds pretty cool!”

Clearly, Mr. (Mdm.) Nicholas Egg was rather pleased with Gawain’s arrangement.

Potential for attaining Buddhahood, that is said to be present in every person

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