Chapter 112: Eighteen Gerard, kill him, now (6K major chapter)_2
“So, for the past ten years, we have never taken our surveillance of Gerard lightly.”
In the darkness, the young man’s body began to squirm again, apparently searching for sothing. An old pocket watch was thrown in front of the elder. The elder picked up the pocket watch and found that it had stopped. Both the hour hand and the minute hand were stuck at the twelve position; the clock was motionless, but the minute hand was trembling slightly as if sothing were affecting it.
“This is…”
“The Desolate Ti Clock,” the young man said, “It was originally used to detect the pollution levels in the Polluted Land, but after I brought it back from the Polluted Land ten years ago, it no longer detected pollution levels. Instead, it detects sothing… more special.”
A rustling sound ensued.
The young man stretched out his hand from the darkness, a hand equally decayed, causing the elder to twitch involuntarily, barely suppressing a reaction.
...
Then, that skeletal hand lay upon the pocket watch.
The elder then saw the hour hand, which had been at twelve, jump forward two notches.
But as the young man drew his hand back, it leapt to one and finally returned to zero (twelve).
“This is…”
“It can sense ‘Domination’… No, to be precise, it can sense Visas’s power,” the young man said. “Although I do not know the principle behind it, Visas’s power, just like the legendary Corpse Blocks, can be sensed by each other.”
The elder understood, “So you an, if Gerard also acquired ‘Domination,’ then it would be detected by this watch?”
“Yes,” the young man said indifferently, “For these ten years, I generally check him every six months when the opportunity arises, to avoid alerting the prey. Up until his last trip to Rhein, nothing had been detected. In theory, there is still so ti until the next check, but…”
The young man paused.
“His recent changes do indeed cause so unease; perhaps it’s better to perform an early check.”
“Alright,” the elder nodded solemnly and then carefully pocketed the watch, “I will go find him in the next couple of days.”
“No need,” the young man said dispassionately, “He will co to you soon enough. Don’t forget, you are also an assistant for Fourth District affairs.”
The elder understood.
Dawn was breaking, and a blush of dawn light began to glow in the distant sky.
The elder knew it was ti for him to leave.
But before he left, he thought of sothing else and looked again at the young man, “The clock hands on this watch stopped at two; does that have any special aning?”
By now, the rising sun had shone its early light into the dim room, illuminating the young man.
His black, decaying flesh was rapidly healing under the sunlight, the maggots disappearing, the holes filling up.
He was transforming back into the elegant Mr. Yong Xin, as though being reborn.
Yet this “rebirth” scene was extrely eerie to the elder.
“Quite simple,” he said with a light chuckle, “because I can only set it to two.”
…
“What are you doing?”
Gerard, having awakened in the wee hours and completed a new trade with Bai Wei, did not go back to sleep. Instead, he went to his old desk and began to tinker with a basket of parts that, at first glance, didn’t look much different from scrap tal, prompting the aforentioned question from Bai Wei.
If it had been before the trade, Gerard would not have needed to answer Bai Wei, but now things were different. After a brief silence, Gerard still replied while hamring away, “These are anti-pollution devices, once the standard equipnt required to enter the Polluted Land.”
“Oh?” Bai Wei’s interest was piqued, “You an the equipnt from your Night Star Team?”
“Yes.”
“This looks pretty old.”
“Because it’s all from ten years ago.”
“Can’t you just buy new ones?”
“No, I don’t have that privilege,” Gerard replied, “I now belong to the Skeleton Corps, and the Skeleton Corps doesn’t need such equipnt.”
“Interesting,” Bai Wei noted, “So you’re saying these were military equipnt, not available to the average person or even the average force. Then after you ca back from the Polluted Land, they didn’t reclaim these equipnts?”
“No,” Gerard said, “Most of them were already broken and outdated, and strictly speaking, they are not equipnts.”
“Not equipnt? Then what are they?”
“They are relics.”
Gerard lined up the “scrap tal” he had been toying with.
So of the scraps were pocket watches that no longer worked, so were parts of broken monocles, others were pipes, folding knives, even a long, slender screw; what they all had in common was that they were engraved with nas.
Ian, Helmo, Eric, Hun…
“This is the rule for Night Star… no, for the entire Pioneer Force, or rather, the Polluted Land,” Gerard explained to Bai Wei calmly, “When you can’t save your comrades in the Polluted Land, the survivors would replace their parts or equipnt with sothing from themselves, to show that those who return will carry on with a part of their fallen comrades, and those who stay aren’t left there alone; they go to their death with the company of others.”
“So these pieces of equipnt…”
“Are what I carried with when I ca out of the Polluted Land ten years ago.”
“I see,” Bai Wei paused, then said, “But you can’t rember anything anymore.”
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