Just as the old man said, the Church of the Sages uncharacteristically insisted on letting the "World Tree Sapling" Jenkins Williams take on the important task in this operation. Even if other churches worry that once Jenkins has a problem in Biggs Hospital, the subsequent negotiations with the believers of lies will go wrong.
But no matter how others persuaded him, even though he knew it was suspicious, the church still insisted that Jenkins participate in the action, and asked the old Jack who also participated in the meeting to list the necessity of Jenkins entering the hospital.
In the end, everyone could only reluctantly agree, but Jenkins felt that, apart from a few people who knew what happened, even the members of the Church of the Sages themselves were wondering about the church's attitude today.
He has only one chance. If he fails to obtain the possible divinity this time, even if he escapes from the hospital before the end of the time loop, the church will not find a good excuse to let him enter again next time, so Jenkins must act very carefully. .
The purpose of other churches is to exile A-07-2-3926 [Biggs Hospital] in advance to prevent it from affecting the city. According to the information and the files of the action of Dad and Old Jack many years ago, a plan was made after the meeting to allow access to The actors in the hospital, before the 10th minute of the time loop, boarded the roof of the main building of the hospital to prevent the person from jumping, and then drew an important ritual array on the roof.
The meaning of this ritual is "still water", which can be used to purify the impurities in the sedimentary water source. It is a very basic ritual used by the low-level bestowers of the Church of Nature to practice, but it is unexpectedly useful for this weird thing.
At the same time meet the three points of "stopping the man on the roof from falling", "drawing and using the ritual [Still Water]" and "after the time loop reaches 10 minutes", you can exile [Biggs Hospital], after the hospital appears this time All who fall into it are set free.
It was the apparent plan, the one that Dad pointed out that Jenkins didn't have to follow. The church asked Dad to tell Jenkins the action plan in private, which is to arrive at the entrance of the basement before 10 minutes, enter the basement to look for suspicious items in 10 minutes and 31 seconds, no matter whether you find anything, you must leave the hospital before 11 minutes and 53 seconds, otherwise Also stuck in a time loop.
The trick that the Twelve Church decided to use to help this operation after discussion can only work on one person, so Jenkins is the only one who did it. That is A-06-1-0064 [Dead Silence Doll], which looks a bit like a handmade straw doll used in traditional voodoo.
Although in human form, this item has no intelligence. It is also an item that can interfere with time. Those who wear the [Death Doll] on their chest will have the ability to "steal" any life time by touching it. The stolen person will jump directly to the moment when the lost time ends, so the appearance is now similar to the memory lost for a period of time.
The wearer will accommodate the stolen extra time, and gradually acquire 3 to 5 time-related abilities during the accumulation, and finally transform into a terrifying alien creature called "Dead Silence".
The creature steals time simply by looking at it, and has the ability to travel through time. But "Dead Silence" will not cause large-scale disasters, because the church records that there is a humanoid creature active in the gap of time that likes to capture "Dead Silence". Although the church did not specify what those humanoid creatures were, Jenkins guessed that they were the [Time Paradoxists] under the Master [Closed Circle].
When [Dead Silent Doll] enters [Biggs Hospital], the time stealing ability of [Dead Silent Doll] will be limited, and the time loop of [Biggs Hospital] will also be temporarily stagnant due to the influence of [Dead Silent Doll] , making the time loop longer this time. The church's experiments in the past era have verified the above results, but this does not mean that it is 100% safe to do so. After all, it is using tricks to fight tricks, and using the soles of shoes to strike matches to find gas leaks in digesters , is behavior of a similar nature.
Before the operation began, different people repeatedly emphasized to Jenkins the danger of the operation and the situations he needed to pay attention to. Miss Audrey, who had nothing to do with this matter, also came here specially. Of course, she also had doubts about the strange behavior of the Church of the Sages, but after confirming that this was also Jenkins' own wish, she quietly slipped it to him in the conversation tent. thing:
"Items like B-11-5-2305 [Boat Ticket to Go Home] or A-11-5-2071 [Mr. Mischief's Toy Ticket] will not work for time regression events. These items are very resistant to time. Low. If you hold this, even if you are unfortunately caught in the torrent of time, at least it will keep you from getting lost."
It was a card, and it was unsurprisingly [Vientiane Impermanence Card]. Jenkins glanced quietly, it was [Vientiane Impermanence·World].
"Miss Bronniece has arrived at Norland?"
He asked in surprise, not long ago Miss Audrey said that Miss Broniance would come to Nolan with this card.
"No, the teacher is in the south to help deal with the fire, and it will be a few days late. This is what she mailed over in advance..."
"send by post?"
"The ownership of the Vientiane Impermanence card is related to fate. Don't worry about it being lost. It will always fall into the hands of the person who should own it. In short, although our church's research on this [world] is still very shallow, there is already evidence Proves it's immune to temporal anomalies. Be careful, Jenkins."
"I understand, please rest assured."
Jenkins put the card away, thought for a while, and took off the cat on his shoulder and put it on the table next to Miss Audrey:
"Help me take care of the chocolate, [Dead Silence Doll] can only work on one object, it cannot enter the hospital with me."
Miss Audrey looked down at the cat squatting on the table with its head drooping in frustration:
"OK."
Without further ado, after determining the action plan and repeatedly confirming to Jenkins that he knew the details of the hospital's internal problems, the operation officially began.
[Dead Silence Doll] was handed over to Jenkins in a cloth bag tied with a rope. When Jenkins pinned it to his chest, he felt his body temperature suddenly drop a lot, and his heart beat faster per minute. also affected. Fortunately, this item is not very malicious towards the user, and after the awakening process of the World Tree seedlings, Jenkins' physical body is no longer as weak as before.
Although a little uncomfortable, it is not completely unbearable. He patted the scarecrow doll and took a few deep breaths, watching a group of people in the temporary camp standing in front of him and looking at him.
"Have you memorized the map of the hospital and the action plan accurate to the second?"
asked Dad.
"remember."
"Come together to confirm the time, are you sure you have your pocket watch with you?"
Old Jack scratched his hair sadly and asked.
"I'm sure I brought it, and I brought two of them."
"Is the charm that was used as the last insurance hidden?"
Miss Bevana asked while flipping through the paper in her hand.
"Yes ma'am."
"Are you sure your cat won't follow you?"
Miss Audrey looked at Jenkins' shoulder and asked, and Jenkins took off the chocolate that climbed onto his shoulder at some point:
"Just wait for me to come back."
He said to his cat, and Chocolate looked up at him with an aggrieved expression in his amber eyes.
"Everything is already in place. And even if I unfortunately don't come out on time, I believe someone will enter the hospital to rescue me. Don't worry, I will succeed."
He didn't stay here any longer. After confirming for the last time that Chocolate hadn't followed, he lit the torch prepared by the church and approached the edge of the dense fog.
As the footsteps moved, the surrounding visibility became less and less, and even the light of the torch could not penetrate the thick fog. But when the concentration of the fog reached a critical point, it gradually became lighter until Jenkins saw the shadows of the buildings behind the fog. After walking a few more steps, he saw the forest hospital standing on the dark plain.
In addition to the lush trees in the forest, there are actually patches of farmland interspersed among them. This is the effect caused by the overlapping of spaces. One space shows the scenery of two places at the same time, and the lost part is lost in the space gap and can never come back.
Because of [Biggs Hospital]’s characteristic of constantly attracting outsiders, the Church chose a location outside the space-specific location instead of around the hospital. Rusty barbed wire surrounded the building complex. Judging from the orientation of the building, Jenkins judged that he appeared behind the hospital. He looked up to the top floor of the main building, just in time to see a figure flashing across the roof, that should be the man who fell from the building mentioned in the message.
He stared at the courtyard inside the barbed wire, and walked quickly around the perimeter of the hospital. Soon they came to the main entrance of the hospital, and there was a large signboard with the name of the hospital written in the ancient common language, hanging directly above the fence gate.
This doesn't look like a regular hospital, more like a substandard sanatorium in a remote village where mentally ill patients are allowed to fend for themselves in the traditional sense.
Jenkins did not enter immediately, but looked up at the roof of the hospital. When the body that fell from the building appeared, he immediately started timing with his pocket watch, but the body disappeared before landing, and Jenkins did not see the appearance of the so-called evil spirit.
"Disappeared in mid-air? It seems that now is just the beginning of the next cycle, but I don't know if the next cycle will be able to cause the body to fall."
He thought to himself, he didn't intend to wait any longer, but took advantage of the beginning of this cycle, he stretched out his hand and pushed open the almost useless fence door.