After walking along the passage for a long time, the two of them could not tell how far they had gone because of the black metal walls and turquoise light paths around them.

The uneasiness in the gunsmith's heart grew stronger and stronger, and not only did he not feel the feeling of fatigue or hunger, but he could not even feel the decline in physical strength, as if he could move forward like this forever. He even suspected that his body's metabolism had completely stopped and he had become a walking corpse, but his breathing and heartbeat were still normal, which meant that he was still alive.

It wasn't until he saw the end of the passage that the gunsmith's suppressed emotions recovered.

At the end is a black metal wall, except for a handprint-shaped symbol on it.

John, who was walking in front, stopped at this time and turned back and said, "There is only one symbol, it seems that we have no choice." ”

The gunsmith replied, "Then press it." ”

Ten seconds later, after the cyan glare lit up and disappeared, the two came to a very open space, the size of a football field, and the roof was very high. The top of this space is semi-circular, the ground is flat, the cyan light trail on the floor depicts the scenery of mountains, rivers and mountains, and the light on the top is basically text, and there are two more conspicuous figures, which seem to represent the sun and the moon.

The gunsmith couldn't help but admire the spectacle of this spectacle, which was probably a microcosm of the world that the builders of the ruins had built with their imaginary world. But the gunsmith pondered it for a while and felt strange, a prehistoric mysterious civilization with such technology, could it only know that the sky is round and the place is round?

John walked to the middle of the room, stared at the center of the "earth", and beckoned to the gunsmith: "Hey, Charles, you see there's a handprint symbol here, and this is the first time that two handprints are juxtaposed. ”

The gunsmith walked up to John, looked down, and after only two seconds, he understood the meaning of the mark: "Two symmetrical palm prints, thumbs inward, and the small oval on the top is the forehead mark, which should require someone to hold their hands on the ground and kowtow to trigger it, of course, looking at this size, it is still suitable for the child size of that kind of black creature." ”

John said, "So let's try? Maybe that's the way to get out." ”

The gunsmith took a few steps back and made a "please" gesture.

John sat down on the floor, leaned forward, pressed his hands on the pair of sigils, and then lowered his head, and when his forehead touched the ground, there was no bright light as he imagined, but instead the grinding sound of the mass of metal moving.

A huge statue of a human head, more than twenty feet high, slowly rose from the ground, two meters directly in front of John, and at that moment, John seemed to bow down to the statue.

"Well, what is this? a metal replica of the stone statue of Easter Island?" said John, standing up and looking up at the statue in front of him.

The gunsmith observed the statue's face, which was generally a human face, but it looked a little different from that of a modern human. The brow bone and the bridge of the nose are very prominent and forward, but the angle from top to bottom is vertically flat, so that the nose does not appear to be raised, the eye sockets of the statue are very flat, the eyes are almost constricted to the inside of the face, but the proportion of the size of the eyeballs is relatively normal, there is no one under the nose, the chin and mouth are not special, and the ears are slightly peculiar, and they grow slightly higher and longer than today's humans.

When the statue was fully raised, the great mouth opened, and the gunsmith came closer, and found that the statue had no tongue or teeth in its mouth, perhaps the maker was too lazy to carve it?

John reached in and picked up the piece, held it up to his eyes, and looked at it, "I don't know what it is, but I have a feeling that if I can take it out, it will sell for a good price." ”

The gunsmith said, "Show me." ”

John handed the crystal to the gunsmith, who glanced at it and said, "Now, do you want to say that this crystal may be able to help us get out of this hellish place?" ”

John was stunned for a moment, "What did you say?"

The gunsmith continued, "Oh, do you have any other plans, are you going to take me around the ruins again? I think it's better to save it, and when I see this thing, I understand that your ultimate goal is ......."

John's expression suddenly changed, or rather, he suddenly became expressionless: "When did you see through me?"

The gunsmith said, "If you are absolutely sure...... It's in that passage. ”

"Am I too brave to lead the way?" the other asked.

"No," denied the gunsmith, "your imitation is perfect, every reaction, speculation, and demeanor you make is consistent with John's character, and there is no obvious sign of lying, and judging by your performance, it is impossible for me to think that you are not John himself." ”

Fake John said, "Well, why did you finally find out?"

"From the things that 'you didn't show it,' of course. The gunsmith replied: "I haven't felt hunger and fatigue for a long time......

You're in the same environment as me, and we've not eaten, drank, or slept since the moment I woke up. The real John was either exhausted or amazed at this tireless anomaly after all this toss, but you didn't say anything, you didn't say anything. When I first woke up, you mentioned that you would die without food and water, and then you completely ignored your physical needs, and took it for granted, which is quite strange. ”

"I see, this is indeed an oversight," said the false John, for at first I did not know what hunger and fatigue were like, until I absorbed this man named John, and I got some general information from his memory. Unfortunately, there is still a big gap between the memory in the human brain and the actual feeling. ”

"Absorb," said the gunsmith...... "Is John really dead?"

"Yes, after you passed through that river into the ruins, I absorbed him, and then brought you unconscious inside, and disguised myself as John. The other party took the initiative to explain the situation, as if John's death had nothing to do with him.

The gunsmith asked with disgust, "What are you?"

"In language you can understand, you can call me 'Dark Waters'. Darkwater replied.

As soon as the gunsmith heard the other party report his home, he understood that the impostor John who was standing in front of him was undoubtedly the black creature he had encountered before: "Is this your name or the name of your entire race?"

"There is no difference. Dark Water said: "My people have perished, and I am unique in this world. ”

The gunsmith sneered, "Except for the first time I triggered the mechanism, you pressed every handprint that brought me all the way here, and pretended to 'discover' the statue activation symbol in the middle of the room, is this the ultimate purpose?" he held up the cyan crystal in his hand.

"Yes, I need your abilities, alchemy. Darkwater is still outspoken.

The gunsmith said, "So...... Can I understand it this way, what you call 'absorption', you can acquire the knowledge of living memories and imitate their appearance, but you cannot obtain the abilities of the absorbed, at least not all of them. He looked at the dark water in front of him: "Even if you look like John now, you are still a black monster. ”

Darkwater didn't react to the monster's name, but replied, "Yes, so I didn't absorb you, but saved you, and I need your alchemy to tinker with the 'Eternal Core'." ”

According to the gunsmith's inference, the creature in front of him is probably a creature without any feelings, at least his emotional response is far less sensitive than that of modern humans, he will only do what "needs" to do, and will not question the correctness of this thing at all, because he does not even have the concept of "right and wrong", let alone the traditional moral concept in human society.

"What if I refuse to help you?" asked the gunsmith, who was not afraid to ask, for an emotionless creature would neither be angry nor lie anyway.

Darkwater is indeed like this, but his unvarnished answer feels a lot like a threat: "I will torture you without harming your life and superpowers until you agree to tinker with the Eternal Core." ”

The gunsmith said, "Dare to ask how Your Excellency came up with such a clever idea......"

Darkwater said: "I am a much more advanced species than you, naturally I know how to achieve my goals through learning, the knowledge gained from John's memory has given me enough to understand your race and the current situation of this era, deception and torture are good methods, as far as I know, these two ways are much more effective than pleading."

Therefore I advise you to accede to my request at once, without any shackles of hypocrisy that can restrain my actions, and I will surely achieve my end. ”

The gunsmith thought for a moment and replied, "Yes, but I have one condition. ”

Darkwater said: "Do you want to use the form of 'trade'? That's fine, what do you need?"

"Give me back the bone gun. The gunsmith said, he seemed very confident: "I think that with your wisdom, you will not let the weapons that can destroy the armor made by your civilization go with the waves." ”

Darkwater didn't say a word, and did something very disgusting. He put his hand into his mouth, his jaw dislocated instantly, but he still put on a facial paralyzed look, and continued to reach in, half of his arm reached into his body, his neck was visibly stretched, his abdominal cavity bulged and suffocated several times, and finally he took out a slippery, wet bone gun covered with black mucus from his esophagus.

He brought the gun to the gunsmith: "Do you still want those two scimitars?"

The gunsmith's jaw was about to be dislocated, which was shocking, and he hurriedly replied: "Knife...... You better keep it......" He was really afraid that the other party would do this kind of internal extraction in front of him again, in case the dark water changed to go down the third road, then it is estimated that the gunsmith can only preserve the chastity of the dog's eyes by digging out his own eyes.

The gunsmith took the bone gun, tore a piece of cloth from the clothes of the dark water, wiped it again and again, and the other party said very calmly in the process: "The clothes on my body are of the same composition as this black slime." ”

The gunsmith wiped the gun clean and slapped the cloth on the shoulder of Darkwater: "Really?"

The cloth gradually sank into the body of the dark water, answering the gunsmith's question.

Dark Water looked at the gunsmith and said, "I gave you back the bone gun, it's time for you to repair the Eternal Core." ”

In response, a gunshot rang out, and the bullet pierced through the center of Dark Water's eyebrows, and his skull exploded, and black slime splashed more than ten meters behind him.