Android Thirty-Six.

The room fell silent, and Amber looked silently at the line of letters drawn in the diary, and for two minutes she didn't say a word.

But just when Gawain couldn't help but want to say something, Amber's fingers moved again, she pursed her lips, and slowly turned the diary to the next page—

Surrey?? Randolph's story continues:

“…… My mechanical watch broke down, and after recording the date twice with my pulse and intuition, I had to give up my quest for 'time', and now I don't know how many days it is, but I guess I've been in this ancient fortress for at least half a month.

"During this time, only 'Amber' was with me.

"The little one slept quietly in her 'bed' without any sound, and I had tried to talk to her in the last few days, and she certainly did not respond, but I did it every day - talking sustains the will and the sanity, and a sleeping little girl is at least better for listening than a stone in the corner.

“…… The shadow dwellers have appeared twice in such a long time, and to be honest, the presence of those 'ghosts' has surprised me in a bit - they are indeed weird and a little scary, but at least they are some kind of 'living creatures'. I sometimes even have crazy thoughts about trying to communicate with those 'ghosts', but it's just too dangerous......

"I finally put my crazy ideas into practice, but the shadow dwellers didn't pay any attention to me. They wandered around the room for a moment, then faded away.

"In the end, Amber was the only one with me.

“…… My health is deteriorating, it's inevitable. All I could find here was moss and water, and the fact that I had survived on them was a miracle - the moss that grew in the Shadows was a blessing in itself, wasn't it?

"I was terrified, I had a low-grade fever, maybe because the floor was too cold, maybe because I was too weak, and this humble little illness almost immediately made me plan all my future affairs - but what was the use of planning for the future? Today I cursed the king for the first time, and the honor was far away from me.

“…… How long has the time been outside? I've long since given up on recording dates, and estimating time has become impossible for me. I can only judge by instinct, maybe I've been here for several years, and most of the royal capital has already listed me as a missing person, or according to the rules of the royal shadow guards, as a 'suspected defector'.

"I've been keeping fewer journals and trying to keep the letters down and the fonts down because I'm running out of ink, and even though I've watered them several times, it's not enough. Tomorrow I'm going to try to burn that moss to ashes and mix it with water to see if I can make some ink, if not...... If I want to write anything in the future, I'm afraid I'll have to use my own blood.

"I made some shoddy inks, the colors were a little weird, the smells were the same, but it was clear that they could be used for writing!

“…… Something happened today that is definitely worth documenting! Definitely worth documenting!!

Amber moved a little - really, I'm sure she moved her little hand, she was sucking her own fingers!!

"She's alive! She's really alive! ”

After this, is it Surrey?? As Randolph wrote many scattered accounts in his excitement, including some of his experiences in the Shadowkeep, Amber seemed impatient, turning the paper faster until she stopped at a page of the diary where the handwriting was slightly shaky and the writer seemed to be particularly excited.

“…… I don't know what I've done, and it may have nothing to do with me, but the ancient device in the room suddenly made some noise, and there was a strange sound of water and buzzing coming from the big pillar, and I almost jumped to the place where Amber slept, and the gods were above—what did I see?

The crystal container opened, and Amber was crawling out of it, using her hands and feet together, and almost falling to the ground.

"To all the gods and ancients I know, I can't put into words how I felt at that moment - I pumped my mouth several times, banged my head against the wall next to me, and yelled, using all means to dispel the illusion, until finally I was sure that it was all true, and Amber just sat on the ground, staring at me blankly!

"Damn, I didn't scare her, did I?

"I found myself feeding this little creature with moss – what could be more frustrating, more nervous and frightening? This poor child...... How is she going to survive in this hellish place?

"There was still some thin yellowish liquid left in that oval container, at least it wasn't poisonous. I tried to feed them to Amber, who ate some of them quickly, but the liquid was so little that I had to find a way to fix her diet.

"She doesn't drink blood.

"There was only the last bit of liquid left in the container, and I had no choice.

"I fed her the moss - I made pots out of the iron-clad containers I collected, made a fire out of the combustible garbage I found in the warehouse, and I boiled the moss so badly that they turned into some kind of rotten soup...... I even felt like I was feeding poison to the little guy when I made Amber drink them.

"She ate the stuff and seemed okay for a while, but wasn't sure what would happen next...... I had to stay awake for a long time to prevent her from choking on vomiting......

“…… Thank God! She's fine! ”

The handwriting on this page shook violently, and the writer's nervous and excited emotions seemed to have been preserved for decades through the strokes, and at this moment it was overflowing the paper, Amber looked at the gray-black handwriting steadily, and suddenly said softly: "No wonder I don't grow tall...... Right, old zongzi? ”

This is the most unfunny self-deprecation Gawain has ever heard.

He reached out and pressed Amber's hair, and the half-elf's body shook slightly as the large hand covered her head, before she took a deep breath and continued to roll back.

“…… The thought of this little guy being able to eat the moss with me filled me with guilt, but it was a stroke of luck to survive the worst, and I felt like I should stop complaining, at least now that I'm not alone......

Amber couldn't speak, and she could only make a strange hoarse voice that sounded like the deepest murmurs of the shadow dwellers, but she clearly wanted to speak to me. I now talk to her most of the day, and although she can't make the same sound, I always feel that she can at least understand something.

"Amber learned to help me make ink! It's just pouring the ashes of the moss into the water and stirring it, but I have to watch from the sidelines because she's going to steal it......

Amber's fingertips slowly moved between the yellowed and fragile pages, page by page, slowly turning the words of her childhood to the end, and the diary was finally at the end of the day.

At the end of the diary, Surrey?? Randolph finally discovers something unusual about the little one he "adopted".

“…… I see Amber talking to the Shadow Dwellers!

"No, it's not technically a conversation, because Amber isn't fully expressive, but they're at least communicating—Amber is gesturing to the 'ghosts' who suddenly appear, and the 'ghosts' are responding!

"I almost subconsciously attacked the Shadow Dwellers, and was stunned when I realized their closeness to Amber......

“…… Amber has some kind of shadow talent that I can't understand, and I can finally confirm that.

"She'd spoken to the Shadow Dwellers more than once, and even pulled me in the last time - she seemed to be trying to introduce me to the horrible 'ghosts', and I was nervous not knowing how to react, and the 'ghosts' didn't respond as usual, which made Amber angry for a while.

"I also saw her move from room to room, a shadow enveloping her, sending her from one end of the room to the other, and even a shadow transcendent like me could barely keep up with her speed.

She even entered a completely sealed room and jumped through some kind of high-level shadow......

"I guess I guessed why the ancient Gondor people put this little girl in a container...... With such a remarkable shadow power, maybe this is the 'achievement' of those ancient Gondor people?

"I'm really curious about the secrets behind Amber, and what the hell are the Gondor people doing here......

"Curiosity reminded me of the outside world, and I took Amber and talked a lot, describing to her the flowers and trees of the outside world, describing the bright colors, and she was so confused that she probably couldn't imagine the sights at all, but she seemed very curious, and seemed to care very much about what I described.

"I felt guilty, I shouldn't have told her that...... She really wanted to go out, she wanted to see the outside world, although she couldn't say it, I could feel her emotions and thoughts, but I couldn't help it, I couldn't get out myself!

"Amber has been impatient these days, she started to create some swirls and fissures in the room covered in shadows, I told her it was very dangerous behavior, but she didn't listen at all - I didn't know what she wanted to do, but it was really, really dangerous!

“…… This may be the last journal entry I left in the Shadowkeep.

"After being trapped for so long, after being abandoned by the gods for so long, after even I gave up hope...... I didn't expect this day to come—

"Amber has opened a rift to the outside world!

"It's still growing slowly, not enough for a single person to pass for now, but it's right in front of my eyes—bright sunshine and bright colors, just across the crack!

"Goodbye, this cursed place!!"

This is the end of the diary, and the next few pages are all blank sheets.

There was a dead silence in the room, and after the sound of the pages was gone, it was as quiet as a faded painting.

After several minutes of unbearable silence, it was Pittman who broke the silence first: "...... I first met Surrey?? When Randolph was in the middle of nowhere, he was lying weak in the wilderness, his clothes were in tatters, his hair and beard were long, as if he had been living in the wilderness for years, and you sat beside him in a daze, with a rag draped over him, not crying or making a fuss, and so quiet and frightening.

"At that time, I was hiding from some people, I was a guy who couldn't even save my own life, and after meeting you on the way to escape, my first instinct was to leave and leave you to fend for yourself in the wilderness......

"But just as I was about to leave, you suddenly moved, and grabbed my robe—you know? You looked like you were only four or five years old as a human being, but you had incredible strength. You held me in as if you wanted me to save the dying man next to you, and you weren't even very good at talking at the time, and could only make some very hoarse noises, which were not at all like human sounds.

"I was so nervous and scared that I tried my best to shake you off, but you got up again and gave me something in a panic."

Amber finally raised her head slightly and looked at Pittman, "What's that?" ”

"It's a pile of gray-black 'moss,'" Pitman grinned, wrinkles piling up on his face as if it were really funny, "It took me a while to understand what you mean, you want to use moss as a reward for me to save the person next to you."

"I'll always remember the look on your face, when you held 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 never got rid of you two in my life. ”

Amber had a look of confusion in her eyes: "I...... 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 say your first word," Pitman shook his head and sighed, "because your soul is synthetic—you're an artificial human!" ”