Chapter 980: The Reason for Memory Loss
In the days that followed, Saul and Douglas began actively cooperating with Alick in experiments.
Saul didn’t even cause trouble for Meurich anymore.
However, this seemed normal to them. After all, the people being toyed with by Meurich were just two Faceless Ones.
One of them wasn’t even dead.
Letting Saul vent his anger was enough, right?
Alick wanted to abandon physical bodies, combining souls with deactivated red worms, then externally combining with Faceless One hybrid tissue.
Although the stargate would also take some red worms with them, the number of people they could take from this world was limited. They would ultimately still leave Saul and others with large quantities of deactivated red worms.
Only after beginning to participate in experiments did Saul understand why Alick had agreed to Douglas’s conditions. This Douglas was actually very knowledgeable about Faceless Ones too.
After his modifications, new Faceless One materials could better wrap around red worms on the outside, hiding the abnormal soul aura within.
Not only that, Douglas also provided his special invisibility formations. Even Alick might overlook someone using the invisibility formations when not paying attention.It could be said that Douglas seemed skilled in research across all areas.
Saul kept a low profile. With Douglas taking the lead, he was happy to slack off behind and secretly put his energy into the more important task of directly controlling red worms.
After nearly a month, the migration plan achieved breakthrough progress again. After Saul and Douglas joined, the stargate successfully sent out an individual fused with wizard soul, red worm shell, and Faceless One protective shell for the first time.
And they only recalled the person when they were about to disappear beyond signal range.
What was slightly unfortunate was that because this was only an experimental attempt, they used a first-rank wizard’s soul.
Even with shell protection, this wizard went mad the moment he directly faced deep space.
Even after being pulled back from deep space, he didn’t recover. His entire soul directly mutated into an existence like swamp slime, contaminating even the Faceless One shell materials.
Looking at the mutated soul, Alick’s face showed no clear sign of disappointment. “Saul is skilled at treating pollution. Can you see if this kind of pollution can be resolved?”
“Treat this first-rank wizard?” Saul looked at the first-rank wizard whose name he didn’t even know. “He’s already completely mutated. I’m not confident.”
But Alick shook his head. “No, the shell.”
So they wanted to recover the Faceless One shell.
It seemed the Stargate Council was really short on Faceless Ones. If Agu hadn’t already died and what remained was a soul body, they would probably still try to get Agu’s body from him as material.
Saul didn’t refuse. He stepped forward and first manipulated a metal arm lever to separate the wizard soul that had returned from the stargate.
At this time, the test subject looked like a white ostrich egg on the outside. Two hands could hold it.
Saul carefully broke open the white shell that was about to shatter due to constant internal deformation. Immediately other wizards came up to take away the mutated but still unbroken soul body wrapped by deactivated red worms.
Saul’s movements paused, then he saw the mutated soul body being directly disposed of. Even the uncontaminated red worm shell was casually discarded.
“Things are truly precious when rare. For the current Stargate Council, first-rank wizards and red worms can’t compare to the rarity of Faceless One materials.”
Saul looked down at the shell that had been broken open with a cross-shaped crack. There were some dotted protrusions on the shell.
“Is this pollution from the starry sky?” Saul had never directly faced starlight pollution before. Now through this shell, he was seeing it for the first time.
The starlight pollution he had indirectly experienced came from Pei’er.
The other party had unconsciously been summoned by the starry sky, left the world, then somehow transformed into the appearance of fate lines after unknown experiences.
Transformed into the appearance of Death Demons.
“You’re contacting starlight pollution for the first time, so be careful.” Douglas had somehow approached and specifically reminded Saul.
“Mm.” Saul responded, then casually asked, “Have you contacted starlight pollution before?”
Douglas seemed not to hear Saul’s probing and focused intently on Saul’s movements. “Even without contact, I’ve heard about it. Starlight pollution is different from black tide pollution. Often invisible and colorless, people might not discover abnormalities in themselves until the second before going mad.”
This statement could be interpreted any way.
Saul was too lazy to continue verbal sparring and slowly transformed his right hand into a transparent gray tentacle. At the same time, a thin fate line was also hidden within Saul’s tentacle.
“Penny, observe Douglas’s facial expression changes at all times.”
[Ah! Roger!]
After preparing, Saul severed the frontmost tip of his tentacle and used tweezers to hold the tip as it contacted the dotted protrusions on the shell.
Saul had been cautious enough, but the moment he contacted the pollution on the shell, he still discovered he had thought too simply.
Unlike black tide pollution’s radiating fluctuations, starlight pollution had a wider range and very bizarre transmission methods.
The moment Saul’s severed tentacle contacted the pollution, something additional appeared in his mind.
He immediately froze in place, his eyeballs trembling slightly, as if seeing something.
Douglas watched Saul with a serious expression, apparently ready to interrupt at the first sign of abnormality.
But after Saul was stunned for about a minute, he suddenly came back to his senses, then threw away the tweezers in his hand and stepped back two paces.
He persisted for less time than Douglas had warned about, but what surprised Douglas was that after Saul broke free, he actually seemed unaffected.
Douglas couldn’t help stepping forward, raising his hand as if wanting to touch Saul’s forehead, but Saul suddenly looked at Douglas. Those brilliant eyes made the other’s movement freeze in place.
“Is there a problem?” Saul asked lightly.
Douglas lowered his hand and smiled freely. “Nothing, I just saw you standing there stunned and thought something happened to you.”
[He’s lying, Brother Saul. This time I saw clearly – he only widened his eyes after you regained consciousness!]
Actually, Douglas’s facial expressions hadn’t changed too dramatically throughout. But Nightmare Butterfly watched carefully and still captured a trace of abnormality in his composed demeanor.
Saul dealt with Douglas first. “I’m fine, but it would be right to say something happened too.”
“What did you discover?”
“Starlight pollution and black tide pollution are indeed completely different. Even without direct contact, it still affected my consciousness.”
“Good thing you broke free in time.”
“Mm…” Saul looked somewhat hesitant.
“What’s wrong? Are there still hidden dangers?”
“No… it’s just that I completely forgot what I saw when I contacted starlight pollution. But I’m certain I definitely saw something.”
“Hmm?”
[Eh? Brother Saul, you lost your memory again?]
Douglas stroked his chin. “You’re certain you saw something but can’t remember anymore?”
“Yes, I have no need to lie to you about this.”
“Indeed, as long as you don’t say anything, we can’t know these things.” Douglas looked at the shell. “I think we need to study this matter carefully with the stargate.”
Douglas went back to call people.
Saul stood in place, finally having time to respond to Penny.
Why did you just say I lost my memory again?
[Brother Saul, did you forget? You once let me see your past – wasn’t that your first memory loss?]
Distant memories struck him, and Saul finally remembered.
He had indeed forgotten how he came from his original world to this wizard world.
Could it be that what made him forget the reason for crossing over was starlight pollution?
(End of Chapter)