Gun of Ashes

Lorenzo didn’t immediately answer his question, but instead was momentarily dazed until the Iron Coffin before him began to slowly close, once again protecting the fragile brain tissue, and a ghostly blue light arose.

”He... follow me, Watson, you tell him first.”

Lorenzo seemed anxious, moving to the edge of the platform, below was boundless darkness, where both ”it” mentioned by the Secret Keeper and the Echo of the End were located at the very bottom.

”What is it?”

The Plague Doctor still wanted to ask more questions, but suddenly a wave of corrosion engulfed him. Before he could resist, Watson invaded his vision and opened his Gap.

A scarlet silhouette froze in place, disoriented by the impact of the memories.

Lorenzo didn’t pay much attention to it. During the last of their conversation, the Secret Keeper told Lorenzo many important things, for instance, this shelter wasn’t actually very friendly to life.

According to him, a power supply device called the reactor had long ceased functioning. Although there’s no explosion risk, due to years of disrepair, this thing was leaking, and he referred to it as radiation that was rampaging within the fortress. This substance can destroy the human body and directly affect its descendants, mixed with some other corrosive chaos to become a power the Secret Keeper couldn’t fully comprehend.

However, it didn’t affect him much. They were at the edge of the pollution, and the Secret Keeper was protected by the Iron Coffin, so he was safe.

Lorenzo found the situation strange, as this power undoubtedly directly killed all life inside the shelter, which could be seen as a suicide measure. It was impossible that the fortress’s design did not account for this situation.

Regarding Lorenzo’s doubts, the Secret Keeper answered vaguely.

”Maybe it was designed this way on purpose?”

”To purposely kill everyone?”

”No, as long as someone is alive, the reactor would be maintained, and this problem wouldn’t occur. If it also broke, then there likely isn’t anyone alive, right? Of course, the most important aspect is that the ’room’ was built under the reactor; perhaps it was intended to isolate its influence?”

Recalling the Secret Keeper’s words, Lorenzo only felt a headache.

The old humans preserved a fatal ”mistake” while constructing the shelter; they seemed conflicted, hesitating between destroying this mistake completely and preserving it.

Lorenzo struggled to understand such sentiments, unsure of their rationale for making such decisions at the time.

Standing at the edge of the platform, gazing into the darkness below, after a long while, Lorenzo saw dazzling electrical currents flashing across, followed by the sound of metal scraping.

Though the Secret Keeper remained only as brain tissue, he was linked through optimization with the shelter, able to interact to a certain degree. Back then, when Lorenzo and the others entered, he opened the shelter’s main gate, and the guiding lights along the way worked similarly.

According to the Secret Keeper’s account, his voice system hadn’t completely failed decades ago; he could still communicate through broadcasting, saying that occasionally he’d sing karaoke solo in the shelter, causing the lights to blink rhythmically.

Lorenzo didn’t quite understand what karaoke was, but assuming it’s the Secret Keeper’s source of amusement, it must have been quite outrageous.

The Secret Keeper continued speaking.

A batch of visitors arrived then, the Nation-Builders. Lorenzo judged from the timeline, they must have been the Victoria family. They overcame numerous challenges to finally meet the Secret Keeper.

But there was no alternative; the reactor broke, energy exhausted, facility after facility fell into disrepair within the shelter, system after system went offline, and nowadays, the Secret Keeper didn’t even have enough power to open the main gate, leaving them to squeeze through gaps.

At that time, the Secret Keeper was much more spirited than now, but he also lost most of his ability to communicate and interact, guiding those individuals around the shelter, eventually finding an independent data repository filled with books left by Nation-Builders during exchanges in the shelter countless reboots ago.

The Victoria family obtained the technology to construct Old Dunling there and also contracted the King’s Curse.

”King’s Curse...”

In the waiting time, Lorenzo felt the transformation happening in his body; his flesh was rapidly dying yet proliferating due to Secret Blood.

If an ordinary person were exposed in such an environment, they’d likely die within a few hours, but it barely affected Lorenzo.

He recalled the King’s Curse that afflicted the Victoria family, pondering if it was indeed the source.

”Hol... Holmes!”

The Plague Doctor abruptly regained composure, panting heavily, indicating he endured substantial shock judging by the chaotic movements of his flesh and the wild flailing of his tendrils.

”This... this...”

The Plague Doctor stammered, intending to say something but was interrupted by Lorenzo.

”Let’s talk later; right now, we need to descend.”

Under Lorenzo’s gaze, an unstable elevator ascended from the depths, slender cables tying it, installed later by the Secret Keeper, his last excursion before transforming into brain tissue was to that ”room,” but other than sharing information with Lorenzo, he knew nothing about it.

”What about Froki?”

The Plague Doctor came to the edge of the platform, eyeing the rust-covered elevator, dubious it could support three individuals, and more importantly, should a mishap occur, both Lorenzo and the Plague Doctor could rescue themselves, but Froki could not.