Chapter 117: Unfurling the Star River (Part 1/2)
Translator: Strivon
Such an old world. How could it be interpreted anew?
Luo Nan was faced with this challenge the instant he unleashed his all-encompassing sensing. He had to concentrate his full attention to analyze various basic elements of information. He had to arrange these elements in order once again. An ancient buddhist master had once spoken of three realms of zen. In the first realm, one sees a mountain as a mountain and one sees water as water; one sees things with eyes of innocence. However, there was a moment in time where Luo Nan had reached the second realm. Here, one sees a mountain as not a mountain and one sees water as not water. What was seen on the surface was superficial, fake like an illusion. Everything possessed unwritten rules hidden behind a mask of falseness. Luo Nan had gained a new understanding of the world where a mountain was not purely a mountain and water was not purely water.
Living people and living emotions were all broken down and analyzed. Take for instance Cat Eyes. Luo Nan knew she was in fear the instant he made contact with her. In this living example, Luo Nan broke down the fear into her breathing, her heart rate, her pupils, her flesh, and even her hormone secretion. All kinds of micro-level details of change were similarly broken down and analyzed. Then Luo Nan reconstructed the fear from the beginning... He wanted to find more concise, more innate special compositions sufficient to describe all sorts of people in all sorts of states.
If it was anyone else faced this large quantity of details and materials, they would probably be knocked stupid on the spot. Their minds would not be able to recover their original functionality. In this case, they would be no different than becoming mentally disabled.
Luo Nan was knocked stupid in the beginning. The range of his mental senses had a radius extending approximately eighty meters. It covered the entirety of Area A and Luo Nan had nearly collapsed. It was like an internet virus. Great quantities of detailed information came flooding into the various sensors of his body over a short period of time. The information congested his neural network. This intense stimulation over a short period of time caused a serious inhibition to his nerve activity. Luo Nan was aware that his functions were atrophying substantially. His IQ would soon drop quite a bit.
Fortunately, Luo Nan had the Shield of Truth’s blessing, which revealed its effects. His nervous system and even his entire fleshly body had been substantially increased in terms of resilience and regeneration ability. This allowed him to push through the initial assault of garbage information.
Afterward, Luo Nan made a crucial decision. For now, he would give up on everything that existed purely on the material plane. He would only pay attention to the mutual interference between the mental plane and the material plane... In other words, the realm of life.
Luo Nan made this decision right around the time Red Fox reproached that He Yueyin was ‘wiping his butt’ for him. At the time, Luo Nan just wanted to accomplish He Yueyin's mission in the most outstanding way. He wanted to shut Red Fox's dirty mouth in a single breath. According to the needs of the mission, the most crucial thing was to find the concealed Oblatum Knights of the Order of Justice.
Luo Nan's decision was one that was made driven by the circumstances. However, it was because of this reason that Luo Nan was unexpectedly able to break through a bottleneck with his train of thought.
The number of constellations was endlessly increasing. Let alone Cat Eyes and Zhang Yingying, everybody in his surroundings, including He Yueyin, Bai Xinyan, Xue Weilun, and Xue Lei, were under the clairvoyance of Luo Nan's mental senses. They were all transforming into constellations.
Zhang Yingying and Cat Eyes' constellations were practically abstract symbols. Compared to those two, the images of the others looked more like rough sketches that were made through quick tracing. Their lines were irregular. The star dots obstructed each other. They seemed there but not there. They had a bit of an indeterminate flavor to them.
Luo Nan called these Life Sketches. This was his new interpretation of this old world.
The world of reality was something he could still overlook for now. Luo Nan let himself experience and comb through the marvels of these Life Sketches. However, Luo Nan was defenseless. Someone grabbed him by the collar and said, "Kid, you're acting like a hooligan. What the hell are you up to!?"
Only Zhang Yingying could be so direct. She had finally broken free of Bai Xinyan's control and had charged up to retaliate. In the blink of an eye, she asked Cat Eyes, "Kitty, are you alright?"
Cat Eyes did not speak; her eyes remained downcast. The shadow of her flat-brimmed cap blocked half her face. Her expression was not a happy one no matter how one looked.
"Hey! I say, have you guys had enough?" Papercut could not hold back his words within the encrypted channel. "Now is not the time to be flirting around, right?"
These words were directed at Zhang Yingying but halfway through, Luo Nan's pair of motley colored pupils oddly came to mind for Papercut. He shivered once more and instinctively felt that this fellow with a demonic gaze should not be ignored.
The gears of his mind spun and he got straight to the point and said, "Boss Luo, I ask of nothing else but can you say some words of explanation? Even if you have no proof, having justification is fine!"
Papercut and Bamboo Pole were just outside of Frost River Reality at this time and had managed to lock onto Red Fox's position. There was another reason behind Papercut's words. He wanted to use the dialog within the encrypted channel to get Red Fox's attention.
Papercut did not even expect Luo Nan to answer. He just wanted Red Fox to look at Luo Nan's pupils. One would be stunned no matter what... Hey! Cat Eyes! The heck are you looking at the floor for!
At this moment that was filled with great pressure, something concealed stealthy above began to buzz and suddenly came smearing across Papercut's head. He lifted his head and saw a flying drone the length of half an arm. It streaked across the rainy night sky and pierced into the reception hall of Frost River Reality.
"It's painted a deep-space gray. Is it the army's or the space force's?" Papercut looked at where the drone came from and was a bit baffled. However, he did not think about it too much because a completely new image had suddenly popped up within the encrypted channel.
It was a live stream. It was captured from up high, looking down inside Frost River Reality. It looked like there was even a bit of a sway to it. Papercut immediately thought of the military drone just now.
The surveyed scene produced by the military drone had entered the encrypted channel of the Society. What was going on?
Before he could understand things, the image was partitioned as it joined the rest of the surveillance screens of Frost River Reality itself. Here, one could see the drone captured on camera. From this perspective, an eye-catching military emblem could be seen on the body of the drone.
The drone continued to streak past several cameras as it flew nimbly and unhindered within Frost River Reality. Its built-in camera captured the most crucial area, Area A. Then the camera zoomed in and reduced its scope. It soon locked onto its true target.
The fat corpse that Luo Nan had declared to be an Oblatum Knight appeared dead center within the camera. Then the image partitioned again and another live stream recording appeared. It captured the fat corpse from a different angle.
"What's going on?"
"She's playing for keeps!"
Papercut and Bamboo Pole expressed their shock totally differently. Papercut turned his head in stupefaction only to see Bamboo Pole raise three fingers in indication.
Papercut and Bamboo Fox were now about a meter away from Red Fox. It really seemed that Red Fox was lost in a trance. He was unaware of everything.
Papercut threw away his distracting thoughts and no longer paid attention to the streaming videos in the encrypted channel. He counted to three under Bamboo Pole's direction and suddenly pounced. He reached out with his hand to grab Red Fox's left shoulder as Bamboo Pole grabbed onto Red Fox's left shoulder.
The two held him tightly to make sure Red Fox would not break free. However, they felt something odd when they made their move. A strange sensation that was empty yet real came out of nowhere.
Well whatever. Red Fox was under their control now. Red Fox was clearly a bit out of it but he did not struggle.
Papercut found things quite odd. Did Red Fox come around, or did...
With this strange feeling in mind, he brought his attention back to the encrypted channel. The gunmen of the Order of Justice had discovered this military drone, this troublesome intruder, and had raised their guns to fire on the spot. The military drone performed evasive maneuvers but the gunmen had a high degree of implicit understanding with each other. Their lines of fire crossed and the drone was blasted from the air by the electromagnetic rounds. The bird's eye view stream instantly went dark.
However, the surveillance streams within the room were still active. Papercut saw that the drone also opened fire at the same time as the gunmen with its own allocated weapon. The drone's target was not a gunman but the fat corpse sprawled on the ground.
"A verification by the military?"
Before Papercut could finish processing this thought, the fat corpse exploded apart in the next second. Globs of flesh and bone burst and splattered, piercing the walls nearby and leaving holes in the ground. Its penetration power was incomparable.
Then there was something that made one's eyes go crazy. A thin figure shot out from the splatter of misty blood and instantly appeared on the surveillance screen.