Darkness, the deepest darkness.
It's not the dark side that comes from negative emotions, but a simple physical phenomenon where even light can't reach it - physics in a fictional world. Here, it seems that even the light of Mooncell can't reach it.
Shinji and Elquet are currently in such a place because of the first random teleportation in the new century.
"This is terrible, what the hell is this place?"
Barely suppressing the fatigue in his soul, Shinji released his mental power and radiated it to the surroundings.
However, no matter how his mental power extended outward, he did not receive any information feedback from anyone other than Elquet, whether it was life reactions or environmental parameters. Since he had mastered mental scanning, this was the first time he had encountered such a strange situation.
"Arquette, have you found anything?"
"... "
"Arquette? Arquette?"
"Ah, Shinji, what's wrong?"
"It's not what happened to me, it's what happened to you."
Every time she was teleported to a strange place, she was the most excited, but now she didn't say a word, which made Shinji a little concerned.
"I... feel like this place is weird, it seems big, but also small..."
"Big? Small?"
After hearing what Elquet said, Shinji also realized that no feedback was also a kind of feedback. This feeling of emptiness and nowhere to rely on could explain many problems.
That's right, it's not just the environmental parameters, even the concepts of time and space have become blurred, like melted chocolate. If it weren't for the confusion that shook his soul, Shinji would have almost thought he had traveled through time again.
Try to enable permissions -
There is nothing unusual, we are still inside the Mooncell.
Coordinate positioning—
Success. But this time I ran a little far, it seems to be to another level. The Mooncell is divided into seven levels. Since it is a random teleportation, it is normal to be teleported to a new level.
But to teleport back, the consumption of mental energy is not a small amount. To be on the safe side, it is better to wait until the mental energy is fully recovered before starting the exploration, just in case.
"Arquette, let's first... uh..."
Plans are not as good as changes. Just as Shinji made a preliminary plan, Elquet had already started to act. He rushed straight in a certain direction.
"Hey, hey, why are you running?" Shinji hurriedly followed.
"There seems to be something over there?" Elquet said as he ran, faster and faster.
"Something, why didn't I notice it? Wait... Eh? There's actually something there."
In Shinji's subjective cognition, he did not run very far and definitely did not run out of the range of the mental scan, but something other than darkness actually appeared in his visual field.
It is a wall, the color of which is between bright yellow and emerald green, emitting a faint fluorescence.
I touched it tentatively with my hand and found the surface to be extremely smooth, with a soft feeling similar to silk, yet very hard. Even with the strength of a B grade muscle pressing down on it, not even a trace was left.
"What on earth is this made of? The latest nanomaterial?"
As he spoke, Elquet began to move forward again, following the direction of the wall.
"My Lord, what did you find?"
"I don't know." Arquette shook his head, "but I know it's just ahead."
"Ah, I'm really scared of you, Gaia. Really, just say what you want to do. It's so uncomfortable to be so secretive."
With a helpless sigh, Shinji could only continue to follow. Even though he complained, he couldn't really leave Elquet alone. In this strange world, she was her only companion.
Not far away, the scenery changed again. The wall made of unknown material suddenly disappeared without a trace, and in its place was a closed stone room.
Yes, closed, there is no turning back.
The mental scan was carried out again, constructing an environmental model in the sea of consciousness.
Nothing unusual happened this time. It was an ordinary stone chamber, seemingly formed naturally from a cave. It had both original landforms and traces of artificial excavation.
The rock walls are very rough, and stalagmites can be seen in the corners of the ceiling.
The ground further away seemed to be covered with some kind of metal, which was golden and dizzying.
"It can't be all gold."
Shinji just said it casually, but he didn't expect Elquet to actually nod.
"This is gold."
"Clam?"
Shinji didn't know much about gold. The Matou family didn't work in the precious metals industry, and the family didn't wear gold jewelry, so he didn't recognize it at first. But even so, he knew that one gram of gold was worth dozens of dollars, and this much gold was enough to buy the entire Fuyuki City and still have some left over.
Open your eyes wide and take a closer look.
First there was gold sand, then gold coins, then gold nuggets, gold bricks, and all kinds of gold coins, piled up to the end of the field of vision.
I stepped on it carefully and there was a rustling sound, which was the sound of gold sand and gold coins falling.
The light in the cave is reflected by the gold, but no one knows where the light source is.
"Is this what you're looking for?"
Shinji turned around and asked Elquet, who started nodding again, and the latter responded blankly.
"Ah, yeah."
"But this gold is useless to us. It's not on Earth. How can Gaia..."
"It's not gold. It's further inside."
Shinji narrowed his eyes and looked towards the place where the golden light was the most intense.
"The ground is paved with gold, and the cave is filled with treasures. Could there be a dragon living here?"
It is natural to think this way. Many legends related to dragons describe dragons as liking to collect treasures. The evil dragon Fafner defeated by Siegfried is the most typical example.
However, this time Shinji guessed wrong.
The owner of the gold is not a dragon, but a being much more terrifying than a dragon.
In the center of the Golden Sea, there is a huge temple.
A brown giant was sleeping on the roof of the temple.
My vision was frozen and my thoughts couldn't function normally.
The incomparable impact erodes one's will.
Humans are extremely superficial creatures. They can tolerate the existence of all kinds of life, but when they see a life that is also human-shaped but "superhuman", they will develop an unreasonable hostility.
Shinji admitted that this statement was correct. When he saw this humanoid life form that was ten times larger than a human, he did feel hostility from instinct.
However, this hostility was not enough to shake his resolve.
Size does not represent strength. The poisonous dragon Barthium, the nine-headed serpent Hydra, and the original giant "Adam", each of them was bigger than the brown giant in front of him, but they died in the end. The Titans in mythology are just a group of losers.
What really wavered Shinji was the identity of the brown giant. He recognized it the first time he saw it.
One of the three vanguards of the "Predator Planet" left in the solar system, the real body of the white giant "Sefalu" that almost destroyed the earth's civilization 14,000 years ago - the giant god Altira, the strongest in the Type-Moon Universe.