第三十章 一定是很受欢迎的人吧
Silver Pivot Town.
银白枢纽镇。
Boboli brought over a plate of plump green grapes and placed them in front of Morrie, who was propping up his head with a sigh.
波波利拿着盘青色圆润的葡萄过来，放在撑着脑袋唉声叹气的莫里跟前。
This medium-built English teacher had not left his home for over half a month. And according to the agreement with Yang Zicang, Morrie’s house arrest would last until three years later—the day when he himself “answers the phone.”
这个身材中等偏上的英格兰教师，已经大半个月没有出过一次门了。而根据和杨子藏的约定，莫里的禁足时间要一直持续到三年以后，他自己“接电话”的那一天。
“What did you and Yang Zicang talk about last time? Why can’t you tell me?” Boboli sat down on the chair beside him, grabbed a fruit, and tossed it into his mouth.
“上次你跟杨子藏聊了些什么，为什么就不能说呢？”波波利坐在他旁边的椅子上拿起水果丢入嘴中道。
Morrie turned his head, thought for a moment, and looked at Boboli.
莫里转头想了下，看向波波利。
“He didn’t actually say I couldn’t tell you, actually…”
“他倒是没说不能对你说，反而…”
“He? Who’s that?”
“他？谁啊。”
Morrie hesitated for a second, recalling Hong Haocheng’s words, “Why don’t you bring Boboli along too.”
莫里迟疑了一秒，想到了洪灏承那句“把波波利也叫上”。
That’s right…
也是啊…
Considering how rare Master Boboli’s power-up ability is, it’s been overlooked so far. If someone still can’t see his value now, that would be utterly foolish.
像波波利这种超级稀有的代练能力，以前不知有什么用也就罢了。现在还看不出他的价值，也就太蠢了。
“What are you thinking about? You look so troubled as if you’ve suffered some great injustice.”
“在想什么呢，苦大仇深的样子。”
“Uh, nothing.” Morrie put his hands down and thought:
“呃，没什么。”莫里放下手，想到：
Simply revealing a bit of information about Hong Haocheng’s existence, like when chatting with Yang Zicang, probably doesn’t count as changing things now. After all, it’s still early days, and the time skip won’t happen until three years from now—I just have to hold out until then.
只是像跟杨子藏聊天那样，稍微透露点洪灏承的存在信息，应该不算在现在改变。反正离开之类的事情还早，只要挺过三年以后就OK了。
“Last time, Zicang and I talked about why I fell into a coma. The reason I was unconscious for so long has to do with someone.”
“上次我跟子藏两人，聊的是关于我昏迷原因的事情。之所以会昏迷那么久，是关于一个人。”
“Oh,” Boboli looked surprised. “I was wondering how you ended up like that after taking a phone call. Fess up quickly. Who’s this about? Was it Lady Maiya, who supplies the nightmare calls?”
“呀，”波波利露出惊讶的表情，“我就说你怎么接了通电话就那样了。怎么回事，快说说。关于的是谁？提供恶魇电话的麦蚜女士吗？”
“No. It’s about someone named Hong Haocheng. He called me from the future.”
“不。是一个名为洪灏承的人，他在未来给我反向拨通了电话。”
“Huh? Who’s that guy? I’ve never heard of him before.”
“咦？那家伙是谁啊，我都没听说过。”
“He’s a teammate of ours in the future.”
“是我们未来的队友。”
“No way! Anyone who can join our ranks must be super popular!”
“哇！能加入我们的，一定是很受欢迎的人吧！”
……
……
Zhang Miao nervously faced the dilapidated Demonic Nightmare aircraft, clasped his hands together, and bowed with a thumping heart.
张苗紧张的对着残破恶魇飞机，心扑扑响地合掌拜了拜。
“Big shot, don’t eat me, okay? With me around, you can avoid a lot of detours.”
“大佬，可别吃我啊，有我在你能少走很多弯路。”
After saying that, the man looked at a hole that was wriggling as it repaired itself, and quickly stepped forward to rush inside.
说完后，男人看向一处正在蠕动复原的破洞，赶紧迈步冲了进去。
A sinister aura permeated the aircraft as some “living” objects wandering around slowly retracted after touching him. Intense pain tormented Hong Haocheng’s body as he pressed his hand against the door and slowly pushed it open.
飞机内阴森气息弥漫，周围游走的某些“活过来”的物品，在触碰到自己后，又缓慢缩了回去。剧烈痛苦刺激着洪灏承身体，他的手掌撑在门上，缓慢将它推开。
“Bloodline of… Marked Traces of Mind…”
“绘迹血脉…”
The mattress, originally from the wedding bed, had tipped over against the wall, but it had merely become old and worn, not destroyed.
那属于婚床的床垫已经翻到了墙边，不过，它只是变得陈旧，而没有摧毁。
“That bad woman wife…”
“坏女人老婆…”
Hong Haocheng’s hand covered his head, which was threatening to fall off at any moment.
洪灏承的手捂着随时可能掉下的脑袋。
“And an unknown, ancient bloodline that can devour souls of monsters and seal them away… What kind of messed-up world is this…”
“还有不知名的，能吞噬怪物灵魂将之收容的远古血脉…什么鬼世界啊…”
Everything here was aging, as if years or even decades had passed. A certain “vital essence” of these items was being absorbed by the aircraft, becoming part of the monster gestating inside.
这里面的一切物品都在变得陈旧，仿佛放了数年乃至数十年。它们的某种“精气”被飞机吸纳，成为了其孕育的怪物的一部分。
[Come, come eat, come… now I have more lifespan to give you.]
[来吧，来吃吧，来…现在我能有更多的寿命给你。]
Hong Haocheng placed his hand on the wall, which had grown a film of flesh.
洪灏承将手放在长出肉膜的墙上。
[I’ve shared 2000N with us.]
[我分享给了我们2000N.]
About 1,500 years remaining.
还剩一千五百年左右。
With the sharing of additional lifespan, the aircraft shook violently. The flesh film quickly spread across the entire broken cabin, like a rust-red metal of flesh repairing the damage.
随着额外寿命的分享，飞机剧烈抖动。肉膜快速密布整个残破的机舱，如同血肉的红色金属修补着破败之处。
“Cough, cough!” Zhang Miao coughed as he walked to the door.
“咳咳！”张苗咳嗽着走到门口。
He saw the charred man fall headfirst to the ground, but just as he hit the surface, countless membranes of flesh sprouted there, catching the man’s entire body and quickly wrapping him up.
他看到这烧焦的人一头栽倒在地，但在摔落地面的瞬间，那里长出无数血肉之膜，将这人的整个身体拖住并迅速包裹。
{I see, teammate means helper!}
{我知道了，队员是帮手的意思！}
The aircraft’s Demonic Nightmare, having devoured the two struggling individuals, rapidly increased its intelligence.
吃掉两名挣扎之人的飞机恶魇智慧迅速提升着。
“Can you move? You’d better leave quickly; it’s dangerous here.” Zhang Miao urged anxiously.
“你能动了吗？最好快点离开，这里很危险。”张苗急道。
{Dangerous, what does that mean.}
{危险是，什么意思。}
“It means just like this now. Many people are on their way here from nearby, and some want to kill you.”
“就是像你现在这样，这就叫危险。附近很多人在赶来的路上，有人想要杀死你。”
{Kill, us? Kill, the one who loves me, Daddy?! Bad, bad guys!}
{杀死，我们？杀死，爱我的，爸爸？！坏，坏蛋！}
The city was vast.
城市很大。
Thus, even though tens of thousands of people were scattered across it, it still felt quite empty.
因此哪怕数万人分散在城市之中，也显得很是空旷。
But at this moment, the rumbling car engines were coming from more than one direction.
但此刻嗡嗡汽车轰鸣声不止一处地传来。
“Kill the one who took down the Red Model!”
“杀掉红模型的人！”
On the long road, a person with his head out of a pickup truck window pointed at the sea of fire ahead and shouted.
长道上，从皮卡车窗伸着脑袋的一人指着前方的火海叫道：
“Hurry, that Demonic Nightmare is about to successfully hatch.”
“快，那恶魇要成功孵化出来了。”
“Oh my god, that guy hasn’t even fully matured his Demonic Nightmare, yet he can kill the one who can fire artillery—his Demonic Nightmare must have awakened an incredible ability.”
“我的老天爷，那家伙连恶魇都没有完全催熟，就能杀掉能打炮的那家伙，这人的恶魇觉醒了不得了的能力啊。”
“That Crimson bunch must be thrilled to death, but relying on just one newbie won’t change their fate.”
“绯红那帮家伙肯定兴奋死了，但靠一个新人也难逆天改命。”
“Not necessarily. Don’t you know about that guy from rank 41 city?”
“不一定，难道你不知道那排名41城的家伙吗。”
“Which one? Oh, the Metro Team you mentioned? They just happened to encounter the emergence of the ‘Defender,’ destroyed its containment, and obtained a Century Weapon and a complete postal transfer. Pure luck, that’s all.”
“哪个？哦，你说那个地铁组啊，那是恰好遇到了‘抵御者’现世，破坏了对方的收容得到了百年器和完整邮汇。运气好而已。”
“The one who showed up in our city today isn’t so lucky.”
“今天出现在咱们城这位，可就没有那么好运了。”
Dozens of people near the explosion site had gradually approached the wreckage of the plane. Just as they were about to reach it, the plane exploded violently once again.
爆炸点附近数十人已经陆续靠近那飞机残骸，就在他们即将到达之时，飞机再次轰地大爆炸。
Countless fragments whirled and scattered across the sky.
无数碎片飞舞旋转，在天际抛洒。
“What’s going on?”
“怎么回事？”
The light dimmed.
光线一暗。
“Is it dead?”
“死了？”
“No, look!”
“没有，你们看！”
In the dim light, something kept rising!
暗淡的光线不断升起！
The dozens gathering around looked up—through the spreading smoke, a broken skeleton of the plane rose like a framework from the ground, resembling a giant bony frame!
围拢的几十人抬头望去，扩散的烟雾里一道残破机骸如骨架般拔地而起！
Like a gruesome beast of flesh and blood, it climbed high into the air with a gloomy aura and charged beyond the city’s edge—where there lay an endless expanse like a vast blue ocean.
它犹如骨肉血魔般，带着阴沉的气息往高空爬升，冲向城市边缘之外——那里，有如同海洋般的无垠碧波。
The crowd immediately followed its slow, sluggish trajectory, surging toward the other side of the city.
人群立即跟着它的沉缓轨迹往前，冲向城市另一边。
Boom!
轰！
The shadow of the wrecked plane, already flying low, plunged into the blue water over a dozen miles away and skidded further into the distance.
飞得本就不高的飞机残影坠入十几里外的蓝色的水面，往更远处滑行。
When Cheng Yunze and the rest of the Four-Phase Team arrived, not even a trace of the monstrous aircraft could be seen. However, from a small boat on the blue waves, a faint image of its readings was sent back from afar.
当四相天团的程允泽等人赶到的时候，魔物飞机已经连影子都看不到了。但有碧波上的小船只遥遥传来感应画面。
In the sensing image, a figure seemed to crawl out from the top of the distant plane, lying on its surface and looking back this way.
感应画面中，远处的飞机顶端似有道人影爬出来，趴在其背上往这边看。
“That’s the fence-sitter.”
“是那个墙头草。”
“That newcomer didn’t even kill him. Brother Chen, seems like the people inside might not necessarily have their personalities twisted by the Demonic Nightmare after all.”
“那新人竟然没杀掉他，陈哥，看来里面的人不一定被恶魇改变性情也说不定呢。”
A hint of gloom flickered in Cheng Yunze’s eyes. “Someone like that is actually harder to handle. Try to recruit him; if not, kill him.”
程允泽的目光带着丝阴沉，“这样的人，反而难办。想办法招募吧，不然就杀掉。”
……
……
Morrie was recounting what he had been doing over thousands of years in the telekinetic field.
莫里讲述着自己在念力场里几千年来做的事情。
“So envious~” Boboli clapped his hands with joy at the exciting parts.
“好羡慕~”波波利听到高兴处，啪啪拍起手来。
“Able to elevate the world’s civilization to a new level and give them a new language—truly worthy of our Morrie the Teacher.”
“能将世界文明提升一个台阶，还给他们一个新语言，不愧是咱们的莫里老师啊。”
Morrie tossed a grape into his mouth.
莫里往嘴中丢了颗葡萄。
“Just killing time out of boredom.”
“闲着无聊而已。”
“What about that Hong Haocheng guy? He showed up briefly on the day you woke up, and then never appeared again?”
“那内个洪灏承呢？他在你醒来那天露面了下，就没有再出现过？”
Morrie lowered his gaze thoughtfully.
莫里低眉想了想。
He didn’t tell Boboli that Hong Haocheng had been writing novels inside the telekinetic field.
他并没有告诉波波利，洪灏承在念力场里写小说的事情。
Naturally, he also omitted the long period before his awakening, when the people on the continent had subjected him to various inexplicable experiments—all of which he only learned about later.
当然也隐去了关于自己苏醒前的漫长岁月中，大陆上那些人对自己做过的各种莫名其妙的实验——那都是后面他才慢慢晓得的。
These included, but were not limited to, being scorched with various substances and soaked in liquids. There were even tens of thousands of useless formulas, which were later accidentally discovered to have all sorts of bizarre uses—such as curing certain rare diseases, creating dyes and perfumes, producing stimulating scents that refreshed the mind or brought on bouts of joy, or aromas that induced unconsciousness… pesticides and seasonings, and… fertilizers.
包括不限于，各种物质的灼烧与液体的侵泡，光无用配方就有上万种，但这些配方后面意外的发现有着各种稀奇古怪的用途，比如对症某种疑难病症、制成染料与涂香、醒神臭味与振奋精神或能令人昏迷的香味…驱虫药与调味剂，以及…肥料。
All these discoveries were regarded by the Temple as “boons” bestowed by the followers of the Undying King.
这一切发现，都被圣殿当作不死之王的追随者给予的“恩赐”。
Besides that, there were sacrifices of various magical creatures, manipulations of elemental symbols, countless prayers over millennia, kisses from pure maidens and lifelong servitude, blood and flesh, and even things more hair-raising and unsettling.
除此以外，还有各种魔物的献祭与元素符号的摆弄、千百年来无数的祈祷文、纯洁女子的吻与终身的侍奉，血液与肉类、乃至更让人头皮发麻浑身不适的事情。
None of them awakened me.
它们都没有唤醒自己。
These were all contents explicitly recorded by the Temple.
这些都还是圣殿有过明确记载的内容。
In his later years, within his so-called “Dream Temple,” Morrie often overheard people in the confession room repenting for their ancestors of many generations prior.
而莫里后期在属于自己的所谓“梦之神殿”中，还老听到某些人在忏悔室，替他们不知是多少辈以前的先祖来忏悔。
Those were remnants of experiments conducted by ordinary people who, in ancient times… during the first few centuries after my body was discovered drifting across the mainland, ignorant of what it was, either happened during the centuries of contention among the kingdoms, or were secret strange experiments carried out by some zealous guards after my body entered the Temple.
那些都是在古时候…刚发现自己的前几百年流落在大陆各处时，被不明所以的普通人所做的实验。要么是后来被几个王国互相争夺的几百年间发生的事，要么就是自己身体在进入圣殿后，一些狂热的护卫们悄悄干过的奇怪实验。
At times like this, Morrie, in his small room behind the Temple, listening through brass speaking tubes to these confessions, wished he could rub his face into a different shape.
每当这个时候，莫里在神殿后方属于自己的小屋子内通过黄铜听管听着这些忏悔，都恨不得将自己的脸给揉成另一个模样。
“Hey, why did you go silent for so long just by mentioning this person?”
“喂，怎么一提这个人，你就闷声半天呀？”
Morrie rubbed his face and let out a sigh.
莫里揉了揉脸，吐了口气。
“Yes, there were a few more instances later, but just some unremarkable stuff.”
“是的，后面还是出现过几次，不过都是些没什么营养的事情。”
“What did he do? Unremarkable? Not a person of integrity?”
“他干嘛了？没营养，这个人性格不正派吗？”
“Well… integrity…” Morrie hesitated, “He managed to contact me through such a grand method, so he must be quite upright.”
“嘶…性格嘛…”莫里犹豫着说道，“能够想这么大办法联系我，应该还是挺正派的吧。”
……
……
Inside the battered cabin, as decrepit as a demon’s body.
魔物身体般的破败机舱内。
The flesh and blood enveloping Hong Haocheng continuously grew hotter, even draining the vitality from the bizarre flesh born of the nightmare plane, causing it to wither. It was as if a demon was being gestated within.
包裹洪灏承的血肉温度不断升高，乃至于将周围恶魇飞机所诞生的怪异血肉都吸纳得枯萎。仿佛一个正在被孕育的恶魔。