What catches your eye is an absolute, layered black.

Darkness poured in one after another, like the surface of the sea during a storm, and the slightest mistake could lead to a death in the sea, swallowing up all other sights, sounds, and breaths.

He didn't know where he stood, and it was possible that all his senses were buried in the darkness. He tried to stretch out his conceptual "hands", followed by "walking", but no conceptual "feeling" responded to him, and nothing new was discovered. Even so, he was unusually calm, closing his eyes, reaching out, sniffing, opening his mouth, listening, and trying one by one.

No response.

After all, no human had ever experienced anything like this, so no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't think of a similar countermeasure, and just as he was thinking about whether there was any other solution, something was coming at him at high speed, and this new thing attracted all the attention he could focus on - it was a blue crystal. The pure pale blue, the surface of which has a geometric shape that looks like it has been cut, does not reflect any other substance, and not even the waves themselves are reflected on it.

He instinctively reached out to it, and the crystal was embedded deep in his palm, and a blinding white light burst out from the junction of the two, replacing the black of the tide, and in an instant, it swallowed up everything, including the arawave and the crystal.

"Mr. Izumi, Mr. Izumi! Araba has woken up! ”

When the shrill female voice was a little farther away from him, Araba quickly sat up, turned his head to look in that direction, only to realize that his senses had all recovered, and it was just an insignificant dream just now. Tiredness floods into the brain as the dream fades. The instrument on the side kept making a screeching sound, several strings of completely incomprehensible characters were displayed on the screen, and the thread at the lower end of the instrument was buckled and pressed against him with a suction cup, and if he wanted to move, he would shake with the thread, and the long hair that reached the calf was entangled; He seemed to have goggles on his head, dyeing his vision blue. The woman soon brought back a man who was somewhat familiar to him; They were all dressed in white coats and looked like researchers, the only difference was the color of the badge hanging around their necks, the woman's badge was gold, and the man's badge was red.

The man known as Mr. Izumi bent down in fear. His facial features are very soft, but the eyebrows are wrinkled like a knot, he seems to be a little old, and his sideburns have gray hair, which is very in line with the image of an elder in the eyes of normal people. He pressed the button of the instrument a few times, but his gaze did not take off Arabo: "Are you still unwell?" I'm sorry, but it was my dereliction of duty to have such an accident. ”

Araba turned his puzzled gaze to Mr. Izumi and then to the woman, and there seemed to be something trivial in the unfamiliar face, violently attacking his nerves like a sharp needle, stimulating the hippocampus, stirring the short-term memory area and the long-term memory area, making it difficult for him to even move for a while. Araba held his head with both hands, and in a cold sweat, he panicked and fell from his forehead to the sheets, opening his mouth to take a deep breath as if oxygen was rejected by his body, and irregular images flashed back to his mind repeatedly.

Snow-white walls of the Institute.

Violent shock waves.

Crystals that spin and flutter around.

Countless people screamed and wept.

Even the limbs that could not be separated without blood.

looming, a call to yourself.

One by one, they overlapped, all of them were hoarded in the brain, and the feeling that was more uncomfortable than vomiting lingered in the heart. The voices of the two men were choked with the eardrums, and it was not until a few minutes later that they gradually replaced the voices. Arama exhaled violently, and his released hand quickly grabbed the sheet again, feeling his body tremble. Mr. Quan took a few steps forward and half-supported his shoulder, and he realized that the red badge read "Quan Jun". "Araba? Can you hear me? Hurry up and answer me! Quan Jun said this as he carefully laid him down and pulled the quilt back to his chest.

“…… Audible. Araga-Izumi nodded his head slightly, a rare glimmer of life on his face pale with fear, and placed his right hand on Jun's left hand, "I'm sorry for worrying you, father." ”

It wasn't until this time that Izumi Arabo, who barely remembered everything, dared to say this, and finally understood where the inexplicable familiarity just now came from. However, although his tone was as relaxed as possible, Jun's frown could not be smoothed. The woman on the side (if Arami's memory is correct, she should be the deputy conductor of the Canaan base in Japan, Yoshitaka Yoshi; And his father is the commander-in-chief here) stepped forward and patted Quan Jun on the shoulder: "And this matter is not your responsibility, we didn't expect that the combat base would have Tongjingzi mixed into the test subject......

"But it's still a dereliction of duty, and because of this, I've been demoted to the general administrator of the fifth floor. The current commander-in-chief is you, and the deputy conductor is Shibasaki. Quan Jun's expression darkened, and he rubbed the palm of Quan Arabo's hand and sighed, "Anyway, I can't be in charge of your battle guidance now, Arabo." …… I'll be here all the time, and when this device stops working, you and Miss Gigao will go downstairs together. ”

Izumi struggled to digest the information that was going on in his head, and patted Jun's head with his free hand as he nodded.

How many years is it now?

This seems to be irrelevant, for it is now common to consider the year of the establishment of the first human refuge, Canaan, as the first year of the new calendar, and to deduce from this the seventeenth year of the new calendar. And the reason that changed people's perception of the era came from the event that took place two years before the new calendar, the metamorphous cataclysm. Specifically, it is the sudden birth of countless crystalline substances "isomorphs" that will erode others and expand rapidly, and they continue to expand, gradually devouring human territory, assimilating human beings, and forcing them and the whole world to a point where there is no return.

And at this time, it was discovered that there was such a very small number of people among them: they would not be completely assimilated when they were eroded by the isomorphism, but at the cost of some of them being assimilated into the isomorphic appearance, they gained the ability to freely manipulate the isomorphism in their bodies. Not only are they able to create exomorphs, but they can also rely on their instincts, the most important instinct, to turn them into weapons to fight the raging Devourers. With their help, humanity was able to not only regain some of its territory, but also use the resources available to it to establish shelters and bases of operations around the world. The surviving people called it Canaan, and those who were assimilated were called "Homomorphs", and those who fought with Homomorphs were called "messengers" of humanity with the highest respect.

Yoshitaka Yoyoko bent down with concern: "...... So, you still have an impression of these, right? ”

The popular science film playing in the elevator came to an end. Izumi nodded silently and leaned a little closer to the elevator. From just now, he didn't make eye contact with Yoyoko Yoshi, but did his best to turn his attention elsewhere. The elevators and other facilities at the base should be almost the same, but they are more demanding in terms of security and material composition, and perhaps they also have the meaning of learning the lessons of the last accident. The base is only five floors, and it stands to reason that they get to the first floor of their destination very quickly, but there are too many people up and down and too mixed, and seven or eight people walk in on the fifth floor alone, and because there is a new secret guard who is busy packing up his things and rushing downstairs to make them wait for a while; By the time Izumi Arabo and Yoshiko finally got off the elevator, the popular science film had already been shown three times in a row. Izumi rubbed his arm, which was a little sore from the people coming and going, and quickly walked out of the elevator behind the commander-in-chief.

"Are you still worried about your father?"

“…… Somewhat. ”

"Originally, he didn't have to go to the fifth floor, but he insisted that the accident happened because of him, so he persuaded the old antiques above to promote me to commander-in-chief, and then promote the original fifth-floor administrator to commander-in-chief." Yoshiko shook his head, "This means that he won't be able to enter and leave the base normally for at least three months, but it's also his own choice." ”

“…… The accident. Izumi paused slightly, waiting for her to take a few steps forward before continuing to move forward, staring at the ground as much as possible to keep the two of them too close, "What the hell is going on ...... that accident?" ”

"Hmm...... If we want to say anything, we are still investigating, and the preliminary judgment given by the investigation department is because there is a homogeneous substance attached to the messenger, and then when the messenger came to the third floor to cooperate with the research, it was attached to the test subject, which caused a riot in the test subject, right? I remember you had passed the test and could have officially started your training as an emissary, but it was because of this accident that you were in a coma for two weeks. Now the people above are strongly asking us to carefully investigate and strictly isolate the involvement of irrelevant personnel at all levels, but many times we have to ...... Ah, I'm sorry to say that. ”

"It's fine." Izumi still kept his head down, but from his point of view, there were a few more strings of codes and text on the screen of the goggles, which suddenly disappeared when he raised his hand and pressed the temples a few times. The two walked down the hall to the hallway, stopping in front of one of the offices. After the iris was recognized, Yoyoko Yoshitaka took him into the office and locked the door, then pressed a few keys on the door lock. In the next second, the otherwise ordinary office faded and was replaced by a huge elevator.

Sensing that the elevator was about to sink, Izumi Huangbo hurriedly leaned against the wall and grabbed the handrail that looked like a window just now: "Ji Gao...... Miss?! ”

"Holographic projection. We're going to the training ground next, Mr. Izumi must have taught you the basics, right? ”

"Ah, yes...... Yes......! ”

"Hurry up, the elevator is running a little faster-"

The old god of Yoshiko was on the ground holding the railing with one hand, and before the words fell, a gust of wind went straight through Izumi Arabo's ears, and he looked down to find that it was his feet off the ground because of the rapid fall of the elevator, and he couldn't help but grab the handrail harder, gritting his teeth to prevent himself from screaming. I don't know how long it took — maybe not long — for his feet to touch the ground. Yoshitaka Daiko straightened her hair against the reflective wall, and finally lifted her glasses and turned around: "Are you okay?" Let's go. ”

Izumi walked out of the elevator with palpitations, not forgetting to look at the elevator door, and even resisting the urge to stretch out his middle finger. However, when he turned around, he couldn't help but be stunned by the situation in front of him. This room...... No, it's better to say that the place where it was forcibly hollowed out from the ground full of different crystals, and there were all kinds of homomorphic and non-humanoid homomorphs everywhere, and they looked dazzling in the narrow space where the same colors gathered. In the middle of the room stood a young man about his age, dressed in a thin coat and surrounded by a tight-fitting combat suit, with a glare red of amorphism on his left arm, and a great axe perhaps taller than himself in his right hand; At the moment when the co-crystals quickly approached him, he tilted his head slightly, and the giant axe deftly swung in his hand, sweeping across the entire space, cutting off the nearest co-chim. Those who were lucky enough to keep their distance from him stopped and stared at him where their eyes might have been.

The boy did not let his guard down, still holding the handle of the axe tightly in his hand, and his brow slowly lowered, as if he could get up at any time to meet the second wave of attacks. But the co-crystals stepped back at this moment, clinging to the wall and not moving. At the same time, a male voice came from above their heads, sounding lazy, accompanied by the rustling of snack bags:

"Alright, alright, Paper Ancestor - the training is over, look behind you, the newcomer who was originally at the same time as you is here!"