Also on July 13, after two days of preparation, the consultants and others in Europe were finally about to officially launch the treasure excavation operation.
The leader in exploring the ruins is undoubtedly Dark Water, with the consultant and gunsmith as assistants. In the past two days, Anshui told the consultant in detail the general exploration plan, the information he knew and the error estimate of the actual situation, as well as possible emergencies in the ruins, etc. The latter was naturally a The words are imprinted in my mind.
The gunsmith mainly remembers information such as the weapon composition of the ruins and the operating principles of the defense system. This is his specialty, but he is not the kind of person who can memorize long speeches. Useful memories often emerge when he is immersed in the situation. Whether it's building things or shooting, the gunsmith basically "goes with his feelings". Of course, his intuition is indeed very accurate.
In addition, on the side of Steel Commandment, they are always on guard against the three people with the reverse cross, so they have not been idle these days. On the night of July 10th, Dasher had already submitted a document to Lodovico, recording the details of John DeSoto. After all, Lodovico also holds the important position of Inspector General of the Holy Land. From the perspective of an ability user, he is only a paper-level person. His ability to climb to this position certainly does not rely on force. On weekdays he seems kind-hearted, like Santa Claus, but in fact he is suspicious and tolerant by nature. It's not that we will accept everything your consultant says. Even if it's just a name, Lodovico will have to send someone to investigate thoroughly in secret to feel more at ease.
Information obtained from various sources shows that John DeSoto is indeed a well-known archaeologist and explorer. This man has left footprints in poor mountains and rivers around the world. He and his team have also excavated some interesting discoveries. valuable cultural heritage. In the past few years, Mr. John has published several books in his own name, and their sales have been good.
Judging from the photos, it was undoubtedly John himself. His theory about the Olmec civilization on the morning of the 11th seemed to be relatively reliable. This Mr. Explorer can be regarded as having a "professor" title after all. Of course, it is an honorary professor, the kind that goes to a university and gives a lecture and is awarded immediately, but it is better than nothing.
Besides, there is nothing special about academicism. If you go to a university and find a professor who is serious about Olmec civilization to lead a team to explore and find a ruins, it will definitely lead to death and no life. Countless real-life experiences and film and television works tell us that if you are going to do archeology, exploration, bucket fighting, etc... you'd better find a god-like guide, such as the kind who squats on the roadside and dips his fingers into puddles on the ground. There is an unknown substance that looks like urine in his mouth, he puts it in his mouth, takes a sip, and then tells you that you can see a group of zebras fifteen kilometers after turning left; another example is that he is 1.9 meters tall, weighs 100 kilograms, and has muscles as hard as Stone is alert and courageous, brave and resourceful, a strong man who can kill the Predator with a boy scout trap; at the worst, you have to find an academic who combines theory and practice, wears a cowboy hat, and is very good with a whip. The kind of sneaking.
All in all, John should be the most suitable leader. Even if Steel Commandment had to fight the Anti-Cross, it would at least have to keep this explorer handy.
The only doubt is that the last trace of John DeSoto was that he and his team disappeared into a rainforest in South America in November last year. After that, they seemed to have disappeared from the world. , even their family and friends thought these people were missing or dead. But why does this John suddenly reappear in the world today as a member of the Anti-Cross? What has he experienced? How does it relate to the reverse cross? Iron Commandment doesn't know about these issues, and it's not important. They just need to confirm his identity.
Since the people of Steel Commandment have never had direct contact experience with dark water, they have no idea that such creatures exist in the world. No one doubted the authenticity of the John DeSoto in front of them, and it was even less possible to connect him with the ancient race that built the ruins. This also caused them to suffer a big loss when they later explored the ruins...
On the morning of the 13th, the three people with the reverse cross walked out of the hotel. Each of them was carrying a mountaineering travel bag. It looked bulging and stuffed with things. Looking at this posture, even though it was full of things, The snacks are enough for a person to eat for a week.
However, the equipment in the bag is not a secret. Even the bag, including the bag, was bought by Steel Commandment who sent people to run errands. The consultant just discussed with Anshui and the gunsmith and made a list of items.
After a few days, their treatment remained the same, no matter whether they acted alone or stayed together, each of them was followed by two knights. Just let us know in advance where you want to go and a special car will come to pick you up. You can also walk, but even if you run, the two knights responsible for surveillance will follow you. In fact, it wouldn't be too difficult for the consultants to get rid of their tails, but they don't think it is necessary to do so, because Wan'er's disappearance is likely to lead to a chain reaction of city-wide martial law and manhunts. After all, it is a war period. This is a city occupied by an illegal government. It is the headquarters and foundation of Steel Discipline. You can say it is a liberated area or an occupied area. In short, everyone's nerves are tense. Mobilize a hundred ability users to come out and arrest people.
The three of them were also taken to the excavation site of the Colosseum in a luxury car today. Lodovico is waiting here, and where he is, you can see that fake Mexican Dasher.
After getting off the car, the consultant walked directly towards Lodovico. As he walked, he scanned the crowd with his peripheral vision. In addition to Vanessa and Suisside, he also saw several new faces. These people were undoubtedly selected by the Iron Commandment. The "exploration team members" should at least be at the level of combat knights or elite knights. It seems that the other party has foreseen the danger in the ruins from the equipment they carried this time, so they have the foresight to find some more useful cannon fodder to use Just be prepared for emergencies.
"Look at this, the team will be very bloated." The consultant did not say hello or be polite to the other party.
"I don't think the configuration of fifteen people is too much." Lodovico replied.
The consultant said: "I didn't say there were many people, I said the team was bloated."
"What's the difference?" Lodovico replied unhappily.
Vanessa walked up to the consultant. She had already tied her hair into a ponytail and was rarely chewing sweets in her mouth: "He means that there are not too many people who are in the way."
After hearing this, Lodovico snorted coldly and said to the advisor, "Do you think I will allow you three outsiders to enter the ruins where the treasures belonging to our organization are buried without the supervision of others? Don't do that. You've gone too far, Mr. Advisor."
"Belongs to you?" the consultant repeated, and he laughed: "Don't be kidding, you are the Iron Commandments, not the real Templars. Times have changed. Your Grand Master and Chief Priest should know in their hearts that now The set of things they are playing are far more advanced than those in the fourteenth century.
To take a step back, even if you are of the same lineage as the Knights Templar, the treasures were only the proceeds of plunder by the Templar Knights across Europe. Could it be that the looted things were naturally transformed into legal property after hundreds of years? "
"That's right." Vanessa said to the consultant before Lodovico could do it: "Whether it's power or money, as long as you guarantee that it won't be taken back by others and that you can enjoy it safely without sanctions, then don't say After hundreds of years, the owner has changed at the moment of grabbing it. This is not in line with the law and morality, but this is how the world has always worked, isn't it?"
"Haha... What a sensible woman." The consultant smiled and said: "Then can I think that the treasure buried underneath belongs to whoever can grab it."
"Okay, if you have the ability, just take away all the things you want to grab. No one will accuse you of taking the property belonging to the Steel Commandment." Vanessa said.
"So confident." The consultant pretended to be thinking: "Isn't your ability to blow up my brain at any time with a snap of your fingers?"
Naturally, Vanessa would not answer his question, but just replied: "Stop rambling, the number of people in the team will not be reduced anyway, you have your plan, I..." She paused for a moment: "... We have our own considerations. You are just valuable collaborators, and you are not invited by us to give orders."
The consultant looked into her eyes and quickly understood the hidden implications of the other person's words. Vanessa is indeed a person with a lot of background, but she is not the leader of the group after all. In the city of Rome, she is far from the level of being able to tell the truth. She needs to compromise with other senior leaders of the organization and make some not-so-smart decisions, such as bringing in those dozen cannon fodder... so that some people can shut up.
What consultants despise the most are the so-called "decision-makers" in the bureaucracy who like to point their fingers. In this world, there are often situations where laypeople lead experts. In order to increase their presence or show their shrewdness, layman leaders in high positions give orders that achieve half the result with twice the result, or even go in the opposite direction. The orders must be carried out by the people below. The result can only be a waste of social resources, a vain consumption of other people's time and labor, and a demonstration of one's own mentally retarded talents. But next time, those guys still won't learn their lesson and try again and again.
"Hey, I really sympathize with you." The consultant put a hand on Vanessa's shoulder.
Vanessa pushed his hand away: "Don't take advantage of it." She smiled when she said this, but her tone was very unkind.
The gunsmith happened to come over at this time. He was carrying his own travel bag on his back and holding the consultant's on his chest. Because the backpack was so big, the gunsmith didn't see what the consultant did. After hearing this, he was also stunned and thought to himself Asked: Consultant, is this guy too arrogant? It’s broad daylight, there are so many people standing around, and in full view of everyone, you can’t help but attack a hostile force while I’m opening my suitcase and grabbing a backpack. The woman "touches her hands and feet". Then if there is no one around, wouldn't you just tie them up with the thread of truth and let a hungry tiger pounce on them
"Next time, you should just shout molestation. Social pressure may force him to correct his behavior." The gunsmith handed the backpack to the consultant, turned around and left after complaining, without giving others any chance to explain.
Dark Water also walked forward carrying his own equipment and said to Lodovico: "How many people are you going to send to follow us down specifically? Also, how will your equipment be configured? Is it the same as ours?"
Finally, someone came who spoke more pragmatically and reliably. Lodovico borrowed the donkey from the slope and introduced the ten knights who were sent to accompany them to the three people on the reverse cross. The other two who were going to follow were Suisse. De and Vanessa.
As for equipment, the Iron Discipline people also brought their own set of equipment, and each of them also brought a backpack. Of course, the exact contents are kept secret.
The consultant sneered at this. He knew that these people must be armed. In the final analysis, Lodovico just didn't believe that the consultant could safely help them find the treasure. Being wary of the threat from the Anti-Cross was the first priority, and the danger from the ruins themselves seemed to be nothing.
After understanding the situation at the scene, Darkwater acted like an explorer leader, adapted and used a set of speech lines in John DeSoto's memory, and told the knights of the Iron Commandment a bunch of nonsense with no real content. The general meaning was: , under my leadership, everyone will be able to go back and forth safely, take out the treasure, and make great achievements.
Dark Water has no human emotions at all, but he can infer the role of human emotions by analyzing the memories of the devoured people, so as to imitate what an emotional creature should look like. It's nothing more than using expressions and tone to convey some underlying message.
At this moment, his morale-boosting speech really eased the tense atmosphere. After all, this is cooperation now, and someone has to come out to mediate the tense relationship between the two organizations.
Seeing that he was almost ready, Lodovico asked: "Mr. John, yesterday you said you had thought of a way to enter the ruins, but you refused to reveal it to us in advance. Now that we are about to set off, you can always explain it. We stay here The people above must also understand the situation so that they can provide timely support.”
The consultant said to himself, you old fox just want to know how to quickly send reinforcements into the ruins for emergency response if the situation changes.
An Shui replied in a normal tone: "Just go in through the entrance."
"The entrance?" Lodovico asked doubtfully: "The entrance to the pyramid under the pit should be deeper underground. Do you know the exact depth of the entrance?"
"If it were deeper underground, we would have to continue digging, and I wouldn't set out today." Anshui replied, "The entrance to the ruins is not this pit, but somewhere else."
Seeing that Lodovico seemed to have something to ask, the consultant rushed to say, "Don't show that expression. If we told you the real entry point in advance, you would definitely send someone to investigate in advance, and 80% of the time we would tell you the real entry point." Things got so messed up that even that entrance was inaccessible.”
Lodovico said: "How do you know that there is an entrance somewhere else? We have been studying here for several months, and there is no useful prompt information at all on the spire under the pit. You only know it after looking at it once. What?"
Vanessa, who was silent for a while, said thoughtfully: "I think I know the origin of that 'entrance'..."
"There are still people who understand." The consultant continued: "Yes, it is a passage discovered by Count Guiche de Beauje."
"What?" Lodovico was obviously confused.
Vanessa said: "This ruins itself belongs to an ancient civilization in BC and was not built by the remaining Templars. In the fourteenth century, the Templars only discovered the existence of the ruins based on some kind of coincidence. , and chose to use it as a location to hide the treasure. Putting aside the factors of ability users, since it is impossible to forcibly invade this building with external forces based on the technological level of today's world. Then the person who transported the treasure into the ruins hundreds of years ago must have found it. A normal path to use.”
While she was explaining to Lodovico and the others, Anshui had already put on his equipment and walked toward the southeast corner of the arena. The gunsmith quickly followed.
The consultant felt that it was a waste of time to explain to these guys, so he urged Vanessa and others who wanted to follow to set off quickly.
The group of people followed Anshui to the wall in the southeast corner of the Colosseum. The outer wall on this side was not damaged. Anshui came to the wall, caressing the stone wall, looking for something. There was everything on it. You can even find graffiti from tourists who visited here a few years ago.
Anshui bent over, searching inch by inch at a height of about one meter. Soon, a symbol came into his sight. It was a special mark, a mark that could not be washed away by hundreds of years of Rishan rainforest. , in the Middle Ages, people interpreted this technology as alchemy or magic. Until today, there is no way to verify how these things work.
"This is the mark they left at that time." An Shui said as he continued to fumble along the wall and found the second mark.
To others, those marks are just a small patch of different color somewhere on a stone wall. You could say it was a pattern, but you couldn't tell what it was drawn on, it was just a bunch of messy lines.
Lodovico followed behind, seemingly seeing some tricks, and he was thinking: Who is this John DeSoto? Why do you know so much about the mysterious symbols of the Templars? Even within Steel Discipline, only a few people at the top have knowledge in this area.
But Dark Water seemed to be able to get information from these marks. He followed the walls and pillars and found one after another. Moreover, the locations of those marks were more inconspicuous than the others, and they were lower than the previous ones.
Later, Anshui was squatting on the ground, looking for those marks. Finally, he used his hands to scoop up some loess on the ground, and found a slightly reddish mark at the base of a stone wall. The pattern of this imprint is easier to understand. It is two red crosses, one large and one small, one high and one low.
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