Android No. 36.
The room fell silent, Amber quietly looked at the line of letters drawn on the diary, and she didn't say a word for a full two minutes.
But just when Gao Wen couldn't help but want to say something, Amber's fingers moved again, she pursed her lips, and slowly turned to the next page of the diary—
Surrey Randolph's story continues:
"...my mechanical watch broke and I had to give up on 'time' after recording the date twice by pulse and intuition, now I don't know what day it is but I guess I've been in Stayed in this ancient fortress for at least half a month.
"During this period, only 'Amber' was with me.
"The little one was sleeping peacefully in her 'bed' with no movement, I've been trying to talk to her for the last few days and of course she hasn't responded but I do it every day - talking can last Will and sanity, and a sleeping little girl is at least a better listener than a stone in the corner.
"...During such a long period of time, those shadow dwellers have appeared twice. To be honest, the appearance of those 'ghosts' will bring me a little surprise—they are indeed weird and scary, but at least they are Some kind of 'living thing'. Sometimes I even have some crazy ideas, trying to communicate with those 'ghosts', but it's too dangerous...
"I finally put my crazy idea into practice once, but the shadow dwellers ignored me at all. They just wandered around in this room for a while, and then gradually disappeared.
"In the end, only Amber was with me.
"...my health is deteriorating, of course. All the sustenance I can find here is moss and water, and the fact that I survive on them to this day is a miracle—the The fact that moss can sustain life is a gift in itself, isn't it
"I was terrified and had a low-grade fever, maybe because the floor was too cold, maybe because I was too weak, and this insignificant illness made me almost immediately plan all my funerals—but planning What's the use? Today I cursed the king for the first time, and the honor is far from me.
"... How long has the time passed outside? I have long since given up recording the date, and estimating the time has become impossible for me. I can only judge by instinct. Maybe I have been here for several years. Bian Duo has probably listed me as a missing person, or as a 'suspected defector' according to the rules of the Royal Shadow Guard.
"I've been keeping my journals down for a while now, and trying to keep my letters and fonts as small as possible, because I'm running out of ink, and although I've watered them down a few times, it's still not enough. I'm going to try tomorrow with Those mosses were burned to ashes, and then mixed with water to see if some ink could be made. If not... If I want to write something in the future, I am afraid I can only use my own blood.
"I've made some cheesy inks, the colors are a little weird, and the smell is, but they're obviously good for writing!
"... something absolutely worth documenting happened today! Definitely worth documenting!!
"Amber moved a little bit - literally, I'm sure she moved her little hand, she was sucking her fingers!!
"She is alive! She is indeed alive!"
After that, Surrey Randolph wrote many scattered accounts in excited emotions, including some of his experience of maintaining survival in the Shadow Fortress. Amber seemed to become impatient, and she flipped through the paper. The speed increased, and it didn't stop until a diary page where the handwriting was shaking slightly and the writer seemed to be particularly excited.
"... I don't know what I did, and it may not have anything to do with me, but suddenly there was some noise from the ancient device in the room, and there was a strange sound of water and humming coming from that big pillar, and I almost jumped I came to the place where Amber slept, by gods - what did I see
"The crystal container was opened, and Amber was crawling out of it, using both hands and feet, and almost fell to the ground.
"To all the gods and ancients I've ever known, I can't put into words how I felt at that moment - I smacked my mouth several times, banged my head on the wall next to me, and yelled, with all my might I used a method to rule out the possibility of hallucinations, and finally confirmed that all this is true, and Amber just sat on the ground and stared at me blankly!
"Damn it, I didn't scare her, did I
"I found myself feeding this little guy moss - what could be more frustrating, stressful and scary? Poor child...how is she going to survive in this bloody place
"There are still some yellowish thin liquids left in the egg-shaped container, at least they are not poisonous. I tried to use them to feed the amber, which quickly ate some, but the liquid was too little, I still Something has to be done with her eating problems.
"She doesn't drink blood.
"With the last bit of liquid remaining in the container, I had no choice.
"I fed her moss—I made pots out of iron containers I collected, built a fire with combustible garbage I found in warehouses, and I boiled the moss so badly that they turned into some sort of rotten Soup... I even felt like I was feeding poison to this little guy when I made Amber drink them.
"She ate the stuff and seemed fine for a while, but not sure what will happen after that... I'm going to have to stay awake for a long time to prevent her from choking on the vomiting...
"... Thank goodness! She's all right!"
The handwriting on this page was shaking violently. The writer’s nervousness and excitement seemed to be preserved through the strokes for decades. At this moment, the paper was overflowing. Amber stared at the gray-black handwriting, and suddenly spoke Said: "No wonder I'm not tall... right, old Zongzi?"
This is the funniest self-mockery that Gao Wen has ever heard.
He stretched out his hand and stroked Amber's hair. When the big hand covered the top of her head, the half-elf's body shook slightly, and then she took a deep breath and continued to roll backwards.
"... the thought of this little guy having to eat these moss with me fills me with guilt, but compared to the worst of the worst, surviving is luck and I think I should stop complaining, at least Now I'm finally not alone...
"Amber can't speak, she can only make a weird hoarse voice, which sounds like the deepest whispers of those shadow dwellers, but she obviously wants to communicate with me. I spend most of the time with her now Speaking, although she can't make the same sound, I always feel that she can at least understand some.
"Amber learned to make ink for me! It's just pouring moss burnt ash into water and stirring, but I have to watch because she will eat it...
Amber's fingertips moved slowly among the yellowed and fragile pages, flipping through the pages one by one, slowly turning the words that recorded her childhood to the end, and the diary finally came to the end.
At the end of the diary, Surrey Randolph finally discovers something unusual about his "adopted" little one.
"...I saw Amber talking to those shadow dwellers!
"No, strictly speaking, it shouldn't be a conversation, because Amber doesn't have the full ability to express, but at least they are communicating—Amber is gesturing to those 'ghosts' who suddenly appeared, and those 'ghosts' are actually doing Out of response!
"I attacked those shadow dwellers almost subconsciously, and after realizing their closeness to Amber, I couldn't be more stunned...
"... Amber has some kind of shadow talent that I can't understand, and I can finally confirm it.
"She has chatted with those shadow dwellers more than once, and even pulled me in last time—she seemed to be trying to introduce me to those terrifying 'ghosts', I was so nervous that I didn't know how to react, and those 'ghosts' also There was no response as usual, which made Amber angry for a while.
"I also saw her moving in the room with my own eyes, a shadow power wrapped around her, making her run from one end of the room to the other very quickly, and even a shadow superhuman like me could hardly catch up her speed.
"She even went into a completely sealed room, through some sort of high-level shadow jump...
"I think I probably guessed why the ancient Gondorians put this little girl in a container... Such outstanding shadow power, maybe this is the 'achievement' of those ancient Gondorians
"I'm really curious about the secrets behind Amber and what those Gondorians are doing here...
"Curiosity reminded me of the things in the outside world. I took Amber and talked a lot, describing to her the flowers, plants and trees in the outside world, and describing the bright colors. She was very confused and probably couldn't imagine those scenes at all, but she He seemed very curious again, and seemed to be very concerned about what I described.
"I felt guilty, I shouldn't have said that to her... She wanted to go out, she wanted to see the outside world, although she couldn't say it, but I could feel her emotions and thoughts, but I There is no way, I can't get out by myself!
"Amber has been very irritable these days, she started creating some dark vortexes and fissures in the room, I told her it was very dangerous, but she wouldn't listen - I don't know what she wants to do, but it's really It's really too dangerous!
"... This may be the last diary entry I leave in Shadowkeep.
"After being trapped for so long, after being abandoned by the gods for so long, after even myself giving up hope... I never thought that this day would actually come—
"Amber opened a rift leading to the outside world!
"Although it is still growing slowly, and it is not enough for one person to pass for now, it is indeed right in front of my eyes—the bright sunshine and bright colors are just opposite the crack!
"Farewell, this cursed place!!"
The diary ended here, and the next few pages were all blank paper.
The room fell into dead silence. After the sound of turning the pages of the book disappeared, the silence here was like a faded oil painting.
After several minutes of unbearable silence, Pittman was the first to break the silence: "... when I first saw Surrey Randolph, he was lying weak in the wilderness, his clothes were torn, his hair and beard They are very long, as if you have lived in the wild for several years, and you were sitting beside him blankly, with a rag on your body, neither crying nor making noise, so quiet and frightening.
"At that time, I was avoiding the pursuit of some people. I was a guy who could not even save my own life. After meeting you on the way to escape, my first reaction was to leave quickly and let you fend for yourself in the wilderness...
"But just when I was about to leave, you suddenly moved and grabbed my robe—you know what? You looked like a human four or five years old at that time, but your strength was incredible. You grabbed me , It seems that you want me to save the dying person next to you. You didn't even know how to speak at that time, you could only make some very hoarse noises, which didn't sound like human beings could make at all.
"I was very nervous and scared. I tried my best to throw you away, but you got up again and gave me something in a panic."
Amber finally raised her head slightly and looked at Pittman: "What?"
"It's a bunch of gray-black 'moss'," Pittman grinned, and the wrinkles on his face piled up vertically and horizontally, as if this thing was really funny, "It took me a while to understand what you mean , you want to use moss as a reward, let me save the person next to you.
"I will always remember your expression at that time, you were holding a handful of moss, as if you were handing me a handful of gold—
"I was amused by you, and then... I relented, and I will never be able to get rid of you two in this life."
There was a trace of bewilderment in Amber's eyes: "I... don't remember at all."
"Of course you don't remember, your memory didn't stabilize until six years later, and before that, it took you four and a half years to learn to speak your first word," Pittman shook his head and sighed, "because you Your soul is synthetic - you are an artificial human!"