"Speaking of which, you haven't reached the critical moment of fusion now, have you?"
Jenkins asked again, but the gear man didn't answer, but opened the secret compartment in his chest and put the sixth jewel in it.
"Since you don't speak, why don't you let me guess where your core will be hiding in the Paradox. Since the scale of the Paradise is the entire Nolan, then the most likely location is..."
"Before you end the mission of the strange land, you can't act in the strange land at will."
Gearman reminded.
"Are you afraid?"
"of course not."
This is the truth. After all, it is still unknown whether a machine with only a broken soul will be afraid.
"Then, you are worried that I will find you and fight you before you complete the final fusion."
"Yes."
"It's really honest, this is one of your few advantages. Well then, since that's the case, let's start the final adventure, it's not too early."
He squinted to see the afterglow of the setting sun sprinkled on Fifth Queen's Road outside the window. Once the setting sun appeared, the twilight phase would soon be over. Compared with the time when I was walking on the street with the woman just now, the sky is already dark now.
"But don't rush to leave, we can talk again."
He added that of course the gear man would not refuse:
"What do you want to talk about?"
"Why did you put the transfer station of this strange world in the old man's antique shop? Is there any purpose?"
Jenkins touched the cat while walking around a lot. Seeing that he couldn't fight for a while, Chocolate was sluggish again.
"No, it's not that I chose this place. The location is already here, and I haven't changed it."
The Gearman replied that it was also true.
"But why is it here? Is it a coincidence that the initial location of a special strange situation I experienced was also near Papa's antique shop?"
The gear man didn't answer immediately, as if he was calculating:
"Probably this is the so-called fate. The city of Nolan on the west coast is a vortex of fate at the end of the eighteenth century, and in this city, there will always be some special places. It's like a complete opera, no matter how many places there are, There will always be one location that is the most important.”
The Gearman gave his explanation, and Jenkins thought about it:
"It's like this, the special location, the vortex of fate, the center of the stage... It's really interesting."
He looked down at Nolan's map on the counter, and there was only one last location left. That is the Nolan Clock Tower in front of the Civic Square, because the Nolan corresponding to the Paradise was Nolan a year ago, so this clock tower still exists. In real time, it has been replaced by the nine-story metal black tower of the Difference Engine.
In other words, the place where the final adventure took place is actually the place where the real world is located, which is also the result of Jenkins' deliberate choice.
The brass statue next to the red dot of the clock tower is a small man with a keychain. Jenkins knew him, the watchman of the clock tower.
In the blood therapy town not long ago, the clock tower of the town needed a bell ringer, but the Nolan clock tower is a complete mechanical clock, which rings the bell on time on the hour and does not require human participation. It’s just that the mechanics need to be overhauled every three to five times, and watchmen are hired to watch over the clock tower to clean the clock tower, prevent troublemakers from running in, and cooperate with the city hall during the festival opening period.
Of course, the caretaker of the Nolan Clock Tower is very irresponsible. For example, the night Mr. Hood arranged the party at the Nolan Clock Tower, the reason why the caretaker did not show up was not "solved" by Mr. Hood , but he went to the pub to drink by himself.
Similarly, on the night when the clock tower was destroyed by the first floor of the metal tower of the difference engine, the watchman was also not in the tower, so he was lucky to survive. Jenkins later recognized the man after seeing his photo in a newspaper.
At the point in the late summer of 1866, when he was not prosecuted for malfeasance, newspapers said that after the bell tower was destroyed, the watchman was assigned a new job, seemingly representing the town hall, with the grave keeper of the Church of the Dead They went to guard the city public cemetery together.
And at the end of the summer of 1865 in Tricklands, he was still working as a very unpromising job as Watchman of the Clock Tower.
"Speaking of which, I'm very curious. You chose the location of the Nolan Bell Tower as the place to raise the nine-story metal tower because the core of your body is directly below the Nolan Clock Tower. Then the last civilization that seals you , Is there any special meaning in choosing to seal you here? For example, Nolan's position is conducive to the continuation of the sealing ceremony."
Jenkins asked again.
"There is no special meaning, it just happens to be here. At the same time, the fate vortex at the end of the 18th century also happened to appear here, which made me feel that the beast of disaster must belong to me."
There is some truth to this sentence. After all, even the difference machine cannot accurately predict the form and position of the end of the era thousands of years in advance, so all this is really a coincidence. It is also possible to make this machine believe that fate It can only be done by such a coincidence.
"Is there anything else you need to say? To delay the time."
Jenkins asked again, the gear man thought for a while and shook his head:
"there is none left."
"That's good, let's go... wait a minute."
He picked up the cat, who had fallen into depression again because he realized that he would not do it now, and then turned around to scan Papa's antique shop again. He was familiar with everything here. He had countless stories here, scrubbed almost every a corner:
"The next time I see Papa's antique shop, I'm afraid my mood will be quite different."
If he fails, there will be no next time. If he succeeds, he will return to the world as a god. In any case, even though neither Pop nor he had talked about it, Jenkins' career as an antique shop apprentice was over.
That's why he sighed a lot at this moment, but he just looked around and didn't pay much attention. He put on his backpack, picked up the sword and the cat, and jumped into the map.
The gear man didn't have so many emotions. Seeing that Jenkins took a step first, he immediately followed.
The map on the counter, after both of them left, gradually faded and disappeared in the...
Fini's hand reached out, grabbing the map that was trying to disappear. Ovia unfolded it and spread it on the counter again. Behind her, the mythical witch in a black robe also came to the counter.
Ovia seemed to be shrouded in a layer of light, while the witch seemed to be absorbing light. When she grows up, Fini's body is about the same height as the witch's, but the temperament of the two is completely different:
"Is this the end of the story?"
The witch's slender fingers slid across the edge of the map:
"Compared to the last wonderful battle in the last treacherous land, the final adventure is not thrilling at all. I still appreciate the scene of the savior, standing on the steel world tree, facing the enemy with a sword under the dim sky... Your eyes really not bad."
They've been watching Jenkins the whole time, but neither Jenkins nor the Difference Engine realizes it. Of course, in the final decisive battle concerning whether the civilization of the entire material world can continue, of course the two of them were not the only ones watching this scene.
"It's not just a wonderful battle that is a magnificent story. Isn't a story with twists and turns your favorite? Or are you actually the same as that aggressive cat?"
Ovia teased, but the witch didn't answer. She looked down at the map:
"So, you already know how Jenkins wants to win?"
"Don't you also know? We are here just to witness this moment."
Ovia threw the map on the counter. This map is the control center of this world. It is preserved and can be used as a new strange land in the future. But she and the witch don't care about such small things. There is a big difference between the eyes of gods and humans.
On the other side, Jenkins and the gear man have already landed over the Civic Square in Nolan City. They lost some time talking in Papa's antique shop, so when they landed on the Civic Square, it was completely dark. At this point in time, Nolan has not yet installed public street lights, so the largest light source nearby should be the light from the windows of the shops and buildings around the square.
In addition, the patrolmen who patrol at night have already started working. The Civic Square is at the core of Nolan, so it is the focus of police patrols. Generally speaking, it is very safe here.
Although it is the end of summer, the night is still a bit cool because of the rain in the afternoon. There are not too many people in the square. Although it is not popular to take a walk after dinner in this era, it is still very good to enjoy the coolness nearby at night.
The fountain in the center of the square is in the shape of a child holding a water bottle, and the sound of the water falling is very pleasant. Because the temperature on the ground is not low, the humidity brought by the light rain has completely evaporated.
This was the night when Jenkins arrived a year ago, that seemingly peaceful night, but the original owner Jenkins died. Of course, even if the Paradise can perfectly restore today's day a year ago, the route Jenkins and Mr. Barnard fled when the accident happened is far away from here, so there is no need to worry about the past interfering with the present.
The people in the square had nothing to do with Jenkins and Cogman, and the two walked through the crowd to the clock tower on the edge of the square. It had been a long time since he saw the clock tower, and Jenkins still missed it a little.
Nolan's clock tower does not ring every hour, but at dawn, noon, eight in the morning and six in the evening. Although the chime of the bell is completely inaudible on St. George's Street next to the Docklands, it is pleasant to the ear occasionally when running errands in the city centre.
It is already past seven o'clock in the evening, so the ringing of the bell has long passed. Coming to the tower with the gear man, Jenkins made a gesture of please, so the gear man pushed lightly, and the lower door of the clock tower that should have been locked was immediately pushed open.