Ember Gun

  Chapter 43 People Who Changed the World

It feels like falling into a deep sea of ​​ice, the endless cold and darkness envelops the warm body, no matter how you struggle, stretch your hand upwards, you still can't touch the faint light and heavy suffocation above your head. Hold your throat, all you can do is to keep falling until you reach the bottom of the abyss.

In the end, nothing is there anymore, except for the cold, you are only left with your thoughts in the dark, and gradually, you no longer know how long all this has passed, until the only consciousness sinks in this darkness. .

  "Start will test."

  "Electrode is energized...Record the value..."

  Someone whispered in the darkness, as if it was not time to die, so he opened his eyes and returned to this crazy world.

  Galahad coughed vigorously, and a little blood was vomited out under the translucent respirator. He breathed in big mouths, the machine rumbling, sending the mist with analgesics into the respirator.

Tired eyes swept back and forth, and all you could see were the steel walls and the snakes carved on the steel dome. They were intertwined and entangled, biting each other's tails. The black scales were like the dark night until they formed. A perpetual ring.

That is the Ouroboros, which can be regarded as a religious symbol. Some people say that it symbolizes the cycle of life and death, or something like reincarnation. The mysterious alchemy describes it as the crystallization of the soul, but Galaha De is very clear that this thing only represents one meaning in his impression.

  Unlimited, sustainable operation.

That was the concept put forward by the first chief of the Academy of Mechanical Engineering. He invented a great steam engine. On this basis, he believed that there should be such a machine in the world. After starting, it will never stop working without any follow-up. He cited the symbol of ouroboros and named that machine a perpetual motion machine.

Galahad’s mechanical knowledge is very low, but then he also knows that this does not conform to the conservation of energy. This kind of thing cannot exist at all, but just like the crazy imagination of human beings, the chief believes that the machine must exist, so He built a perpetual pump on the Mechanical Academy and pursued the ideal machine until today.

   "I thought you would be in a coma for at least a week, but I didn't expect you to wake up so quickly."

  The voice sounded from the side. Nicholas walked slowly with the cup. His pale face was covered with dark circles. He walked lightly, which always made people feel that he would die suddenly in the next second.

"how are you feeling?"

Sitting aside, Galahad tried to move, only to find that he was being placed in a translucent jar, filled with light green liquid covering him, leather and steel firmly fixed him, fatal wounds Slowly healed under soaking, but on the other side there was a cable with exposed metal also soaked in water.

   "It's like a nightmare..."

   Galahad said weakly.

   seemed to have noticed his gaze, Nicholas continued.

  "Please forgive me, you have been eroded by the armor of original sin. If you lose control a second time, we scientists can't control you."

Nicholas said and looked around and smiled. It was a group of people who were in the same uniform as him, but they were like ghosts. They walked without making any noise, there was no unnecessary conversation, and some only had the sound of keystrokes and calculation formulas. The sound of pen writing.

There are young people as well as old people, and even some people are pushing huge external circulation machines to maintain their lives and then working hard. Everyone here is a giant in a certain field. It can be said that they marginalize mankind’s perception of the world. Pushed to this state.

  Machinery Academy promotes mortal technology, then the perpetual pump research and development above this is the power of chasing the gods.

  This is the center of the world's science and technology, the intelligence center of the entire Inervig, once these people die, the technology of Inervig will stagnate for at least ten years.

   "So this is your insurance?"

   Galahad raised a bit of strength and looked at the cable soaked in the liquid and said.

"Of course, above us is the Pillar of the Forge. According to the Queen’s approval, we have the highest priority power supply. As long as you get out of control, I only need to gently pull the gates off, and you can experience the feeling of being struck by the lightning by Odin. ."

   Nico pulled an ugly smile.

"But this feeling should be very short, even less than a second. Without the armor of original sin, your brain will be burnt in an instant, and then your whole body will be carbonized into a pile of ashes. Press the drain button again and you can talk to Thames. The river hugs together."

  Galahad doesn't like this joke, he said.

   "Nicholas, you weren't so full of nonsense before."

   "There is always some comfort for a terminally ill patient, right?"

   "Do you think those **** cold jokes are comforting me?"

  This group of lunatics have been underground for a long time, and their mental state is really not normal.

   "Well, let's skip this unpleasant part."

  Nikolai's eyes sank, his face like stagnant water, he picked up the report sheet on the side, walked to the edge of the container and said to Galahad.

   "Galahad, the result of your will test is very bad, you are contaminated by the original sin armor."

   "Just say the result, I am the knight commander, I know what the original sin armor is made of."

   Galahad said lightly, not caring about the so-called “terminal illness”.

   was silent for a while, and Nikolai slowly recalled the data on the report.

  "Your nerves were eroded by 47% by the original sin armor. Although you did not break through the critical value, your nerve injury was too deep. After treatment, the erosion should decrease a little, but it is only a little bit."

   "That means this erosion is irreversible, right?"

   Galahad's expression changed for the first time, but in just a moment, he changed back to that cold look.

  The original sin armor is the secret weapon of the perpetual pump. I don’t know how this group of lunatics made this thing. It has the characteristics of demons, but unlike demons, it can be controlled by humans.

   can be like a double-edged sword. Human beings use it as if fighting a monster at the same time, suffering from its erosion.

"Yes, contact with monsters will be polluted, and then the weird pollution will erode us, and the degree of erosion will gradually calm down after we get rid of the pollution source, but for some people who have been in contact for too long, such as you, the degree of erosion can only be slowly reduced, even Speaking of rising, and once you break the threshold...you will start to be demonized, and when you reach 100%, you will become a demon."

  This is something that everyone who cleans up organs will know, but at this time, it is differently cruel. People who fight against demons will eventually become demons.

   "But don't worry, I will propose to Arthur to transfer you away. You are not suitable to work in the front line, Galahad."

   seemed to think of his long-lost hometown, Nicholas continued.

  "Do you need me to organize your retirement life for you? You can go to my hometown. Although it is a little far from Inervig, the weather there is fine and it is a good place for retirement."

  Hometown?

Galahad was slightly stunned. He had known Nicholas for so long. He had never heard of Nicholas’ hometown. This guy was an overseas student. He came from a small place and entered the Royal Academy of Mechanical Engineering. In just one semester, the whole school was cut off because of inventions.

  He was not punished. At that time, a researcher of the Academy of Mechanical Engineering was there as the part-time director. He discovered Nicholas's talent and introduced him to the Academy of Mechanical Engineering.

  The lunatic stepped into the madman’s paradise, so he has risen all the way to the present. In Galahad’s view, there are only inventions and explosions in Nicholas’s life.

   "Yes, my hometown, if I hadn’t heard that Old Dunling was the most advanced place in the world, I wouldn’t want to leave my hometown."

  "Leaving hometown... it sounds so heavy, why did you come here?"

   "For science."

"science?"

   "Yeah, science, Galahad, you are just a fool. I have read your college transcripts. Your mechanics is simply unsightly."

  Genius is always like this, mocking mortals in casual conversation.

  "Whether it is the regime or any superb sword skills, they have only a small impact on the world, affecting only a few generations, but science is different.

  Everyone in the world is directly or indirectly enjoying the convenience brought by science and technology. This is not something that can be done by thought or force. Therefore, it is not politicians or warriors who really change the world. It is science that really changes the world. "

  The sluggish eyes from lack of sleep glowed. It is hard to believe that Galahad actually saw something similar to ideal in the eyes of this lunatic.

   "So Galahad, no matter what decision Arthur makes, don't resist. You will only become a demon if you continue, and you will change the world very little."

   is like persuasion.

   "...what did I do after I lost consciousness."

   didn't care about Nikolai's words. After a brief stupefaction, Galahad slightly lowered his head to look at his body soaked in pale green liquid. He was out of control, but he was still alive. Galahad still remembered the powerful feeling he felt after putting on the armor. It stands to reason that he would be eroded to death by the armor, but now he survived...someone overpowered him.

   "You almost killed the Robin and the Shrike, and then you almost killed me with smoothbore shelling and high-voltage current."

  Nikolai analyzed the battle situation at the time, and there was no expression on his sick face. It may be that the facial nerves had been destroyed by staying up all night for a long time.

"A warhead weighing 30 kilograms can only make you stop slightly. Even the deadly mercury vapor cannot subdue you. Thank you for your loss of control. Except for Lancelot's original sin armor, the other original sin armor needs to be re-adjusted. , I don’t want to recycle you a second time."

  Lancelot.

  The familiar name sounded again, and Galahad felt unspeakable.

   "That guy can control the armor?"

  It was a nightmare experience. Even a familiar colleague could support Galahad in the horror.

"That guy was born for armor. You knight commanders are people who have been specialized in nerves. Compared with ordinary people, you can sustain under the will of the demon for longer. You can even ignore most of the erosion. Slott is the best among you."

  Nicolas recalled the first experiment. As a test driver, Lancelot did not lose control after being completely wrapped in the armor of Original Sin. He did not even have emotional fluctuations. He was absolutely sane, like a cold machine.

  According to Nikolai's instructions, he completed all the difficult movements, cold and efficient, and absolutely obeyed the order. For this reason, Arthur conducted a separate test for him, and Lancelot passed with perfect score.

"You also know the peculiarities of the original sin armor. It took us so many years for the pump of perpetual motion to produce the first batch of finished products. Every call requires Arthur's approval, and Lancelot is directly assigned by Arthur to carry it on his own. Armor of Original Sin."

  "Okay, don't think about it so much. You need to rest. The residue of the original sin armor in your body also needs to be cleaned. Go to sleep."

Seems to be bored with the conversation. Nikolai did not give Galahad a chance to speak anymore. Pressing the switch on the side, new gas poured into Galahad's trachea through the breathing mask. It only took Galah a few seconds. De's consciousness plunged into darkness again, soaked in the container and fell asleep deeply.

  Looking at the sleeping face, Nikolai's expression gradually became serious, and he walked around the back of the container, and Galahad's body could be seen from the translucent wall.

  The back is a weird gray, most of the flesh and blood are necrotic, and it gradually decomposes under the light green liquid, and the fine sarcoma falls off, and the trauma is worse than Nikolai said.

   "The part that was assimilated with the original sin armor has been removed. According to the nerve fluctuations during the conversation, it can be confirmed that the Galahad erosion is very stable."

The assistant on the side of    came over, and he had been recording data in that dark corner since Galahad woke up.

   "It's serious..."

Nicholas knew exactly what the armor of Original Sin was made, and being assimilated by that kind of thing was rather a partial demonization, but fortunately, they rescued Galahad, otherwise the pump of perpetual motion is waiting for Galahad. The incinerator is gone.

   "Give the report to Arthur, he decides what to do with Galahad next."

Nicholas was talking about signing his name on the report. After writing the first half of it, he seemed to have forgotten something. He stopped writing and flipped through his pocket for a long time and finally found his nameplate. No wonder Shrike said that this is a group of lunatics. The lunatics were so happy that they couldn't remember their own names.

   Picked up the pen but stopped in the air, Nicholas froze in place, looking at the figure in the container like a sculpture.

After retiring from the front line, Galahad is bound to be unable to board the battlefield again, although most of the emotional intelligence is used to exchange IQ, but Nikolai knows that this is a blow to Galahad, and he is also included in it. The reason, if it weren't for his experiment, maybe Galahad would be fine.

  Like to comfort himself and to comfort Galahad, he whispered.

   "So one person can't change the world, but I am different, Galahad.

  I am a scientist, I am a person destined to change the world. "

  As the words fell, a few meters thick electric light flashed across the steel dome. The electric light illuminated the dark corners and also reflected Nikolai's face pale.

  Thousands of cables are arranged around, like a mysterious ritual, with lightning and thunder flashing from time to time, as if a **** descended from the world.

  The staff all stopped, not resting, but waiting for Nicholas. All the preparations for the experiment are ready, and now they are waiting for Nicholas to start everything.

  Lastly glanced at Galahad who was sleeping in the container. Nicholas handed the signed report to the assistant aside, and saw a line of crooked handwriting under the dense data.

  Nikola Tesla.

  (End of this chapter)