Chapter 71: The Sluggish Phenomenon

Chapter Seventy-One
The Sluggish Phenomenon

Bend the arm. Stretch it out.

Klein repeated the process over and over, watching as Dunn half-turned and pushed open the door of the duty room.

The Captain’s caution, high vigilance, and that absurdly comic “protective movement” left Klein’s thoughts abnormally tense. It felt exactly like when he had been a child walking alone at night past a grave mound.

A Grade 2 Sealed Artifact: dangerous; use with caution and restraint… Even official members of the Nighthawks cannot know the details… I wonder just how dangerous it is…

Amid that tension, Klein could not stop himself from thinking too much.

Just then, his mind suddenly went numb, as though his processor had abruptly lost power.

In Klein’s vision, everything became slow. Even his own arm-bending and arm-stretching movement moved at that same speed.

He saw Captain Dunn stop. In slow motion, frame by frame, Dunn drew near him, then slowly extended a hand and pushed him on the shoulder.

All at once, Klein’s thoughts and vision returned to normal at the same time, as though what had just happened had been nothing but an illusion.

“What happened?” he asked in a low voice, still blank and somewhat frightened.

Dunn shook his head at him and said in a deep voice, “Observe carefully.”

The moment he finished speaking, Dunn turned and entered the duty room. Klein followed him inside and saw four people within, some sitting and some standing.

One of them was the Midnight Poet, Leonard. Klein had never seen the other three before. Yet all four shared one thing in common: they were performing the “arm-bending and arm-stretching exercise” without the slightest relaxation.

“Klein Moretti. He has a strange sense toward the Antigonus family notebook,” Dunn introduced him roughly.

Then he pointed toward the three strangers.

“These ladies and gentlemen are colleagues from the Backlund Diocese. They escorted Sealed Artifact 2-049 here. This is Madam Lorotta, a Sequence 8 Gravedigger, and also an excellent marksman.”

The black-haired lady, around thirty years old, nodded kindly to Klein.

She was rather good-looking, wore no hat, and was dressed in clothing almost resembling men’s attire: black coat, white shirt, tight black trousers, and matching leather boots. The corner of her mouth seemed faintly lifted.

Only after Klein had greeted her did Dunn point to the gentleman sitting behind the desk.

“El Hassan. An old fellow like me.”

Before he even finished speaking, Klein watched, wide-eyed, as the “arm-bending and arm-stretching exercise” of Mr. El Hassan, who wore a gray double-breasted windbreaker, suddenly became stiff and sluggish, like gears lacking lubrication, or joints filled with rust.

What is going on…

As Klein stood there stunned, he saw Lorotta push El Hassan once. The gentleman’s movements then returned to normal.

Was I just like that?

Klein was startled at first, then abruptly understood.

This is the manifestation of Sealed Artifact 2-049’s leaked danger!

If no one wakes you in time, what happens?

Do you become a living corpse?

Carrying question after question, Klein greeted El Hassan, a man with considerable middle-aged charm.

“Borgia.”

Dunn pointed toward the final Nighthawk.

He was a cold man with a scar on one cheek. His brownish-yellow eyes were sharp as an eagle’s, constantly examining every person present.

“Let us set off, everyone. The sooner we finish, the sooner 2-049 can be sealed again.”

El Hassan, a handsome middle-aged gentleman with wrinkles already at the corners of his eyes, rose as he spoke.

Mm, then where is 2-049?

Klein curiously looked around, but found no trace of any Sealed Artifact. Of course, anything blocked by the table could not be seen without spirit vision.

“All right.”

Dunn turned his head to Leonard Mitchell.

“You will drive. It is best not to involve Cesar in this sort of matter.”

Cesar was the civilian staff member of the Tingen Nighthawk team responsible for procurement and purchasing materials. He was also a part-time carriage driver—the same man who had driven Klein to Welch’s residence to meet the Spirit Medium Daly.

“No problem.”

Leonard put away his frivolity and nodded solemnly.

At that moment, Klein saw El Hassan bend down and lift an iron-black box from the area hidden by the desk.

On the box were engraved brilliant stars and a crimson full moon. Around it, an intangible sense of sealing spread outward.

So the Sealed Artifact is inside? I wonder what 2-049 looks like…

Klein examined the box curiously.

Thump!

Thump! Thump!

Violent knocking suddenly came from within the iron-black box, causing its surface to bulge again and again.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

It was as if something terrifying inside the box had awakened and was hammering at the door. Each strike landed in the heart of every person in the duty room.

Alive?

Klein’s mind had just moved when he saw Captain Dunn’s arm-bending movement turn sluggish, his joints stiff as though they had been filled with glue.

Borgia, the Nighthawk from Backlund, pushed Dunn’s shoulder and restored his movements to normal.

The state after being affected by 2-049 looks a lot like robot dancing… If everyone were affected, wouldn’t they become an awkward dance troupe? Fortunately—fortunately, 2-049 seems to affect only one person at a time…

Klein used silent mockery to relieve the tension in his heart, not daring to slacken even slightly in bending and stretching his arm.

Imitating Dunn, he left his cane behind and followed the five Nighthawks through the corridor, up the stairs, and to the second floor of Blackthorn Security Company.

Because Leonard had quickened his pace and gone ahead to notify them, Rozanne and the others had temporarily hidden on the third floor. For civilian staff, similar matters were not common, but they were certainly not unfamiliar. Another Nighthawk, Kenley, temporarily went to replace Dunn at Chanis Gate.

Only after they boarded the carriage did Klein breathe out and look out the window with doubt.

“Will 2-049 not affect ordinary people on the street?”

Merely on the path from underground to the carriage nearby, Sealed Artifact 2-049 had caused six sluggish phenomena. Klein himself had suffered two, awakened respectively by Captain Dunn and Leonard Mitchell. That frequency was astonishing.

“No need to worry. 2-049 gives priority to humanoid creatures within five meters around it. The closer one is, the easier it is to be chosen. As long as we keep at least three people around it, pedestrians passing outside the carriage will not be affected.”

Lorotta, the attractive black-haired lady, explained in a lazy tone.

A strange Sealed Artifact…

Klein, still bending his arm, once again sighed inwardly.

On the way to Ray Bieber’s home, Dunn and the others did not speak. They closely watched each other’s state the entire time. Only Lorotta remained utterly unconcerned, sometimes enjoying Tingen’s not-especially-clean roads, sometimes offering a few compliments about Backlund’s sewer system.

Before long, the familiar building appeared before Klein’s eyes. The party of six “monitored” one another as they stepped up to the third floor.

Ray Bieber’s door was now marked with a Tingen Police Department sign, indicating that unrelated persons were forbidden from entering.

While performing the arm-bending and arm-stretching exercise, Dunn took out a key, opened the newly changed lock, and stepped aside, letting El Hassan, who held the iron-black box, enter first.

Thump!

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The Sealed Artifact inside the iron-black box began hammering again, this time more violently than before. It made El Hassan’s arm sway uncontrollably left and right, and Klein even suspected the box might be beaten through from inside.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Klein keenly saw Captain Dunn’s arm-bending movement grow stiff. Just as he was about to push him awake, his own mind buzzed, abruptly going numb. The scene in his eyes instantly became slow motion.

Didn’t you say… it only affects… one person… at a time…

Klein’s thoughts quickly turned sluggish.

At that moment, Lorotta and Borgia, long prepared, pushed the two of them separately.

His thinking restored and vision returning to normal, Klein looked left and right with lingering fear, nearly blurting out a question:

Didn’t you say 2-049 can only affect one person at a time?

Good thing I did not stop doing the arm-bending movement!

“Sealed Artifact 2-049 has entered a berserk state. The number of affected targets per instance has increased to two. It can be confirmed that Ray Bieber is a descendant of the Antigonus family,” El Hassan described mechanically.

Lorotta gave a soft laugh and looked at Klein.

“As long as it encounters a descendant of the Antigonus family, even if only a remaining scent exists, 2-049 becomes extremely excited. Its ability also clearly improves. I think you should be able to understand its feelings.”

I do not understand…

Curious, Klein asked, “So it is a living creature?”

Lorotta smiled without answering directly.

“You will know soon. As long as Ray Bieber has not escaped Tingen City, 2-049 will lead us to him.”

Klein could only put away his other questions and follow the Nighthawks around the room.

Amid that fierce thumping, they locked the door, descended the stairs, and returned to the carriage.

El Hassan looked outside the window a few times, confirming that no pedestrians were within five meters. Then he set the iron-black box on the carriage floor, turned the mechanical switch, and released the spiritual shackles.

The fierce knocking suddenly stopped. The entire carriage fell silent, so quiet that even the breathing of each person could not be heard.

Klein held his breath and watched the iron-black box slowly open, producing a creaking sound that scraped painfully at the ears.

Clang!

The box toppled over. A slender brownish arm stretched out from within, only as long as a child’s finger.

Two arms alternately pressed forward, and a brownish object, only the size of an ordinary human palm, appeared before Klein and the others bit by bit.

It had distinct elbow joints, finger joints, and knee joints. Its body was wrapped entirely in brownish oil-stained cloth strips. Its face was painted with red-and-yellow clown makeup.

It was a bizarre-looking puppet.

2-049 lifted its head and looked toward Klein with pure black eyes that had no pupils.

Slowly, it pulled back the stiff corners of its mouth, revealing a clown-like smile.