A narrow, elongated lane, its yellow walls mottled with letters and stains.
As Fang Ran ran alone through the dark alleys of Rome, his thoughts, loosened by the earlier interruption, drifted. Then a lit-up thought flashed through his mind like a point of light.
The instant he abruptly stopped, Fang Ran realized a problem!
He raised his head toward the sliver of night sky overhead and asked himself a question:
Why had I limited the search to those kinds of underground forces?
The thought left him stunned. Only then did he slowly recall that it had been a judgment made out of habitual thinking after they told Le Guien about the Evil Cult.
They had instinctively assumed that, just like in Paris, the Covenant had handed the Dark Energy Crystal over to some local criminal organization.
But there was no reason it had to be that way!
The narrow "field of vision" his tense, exhausted running had created suddenly broadened as he stopped. His heated breathing gradually calmed, and as Fang Ran properly thought things through, questions surfaced one after another in his mind.
The Covenant's plan was to carry out rituals centered around Dark Energy Crystals at the seven nodes in reality, ultimately activating the "experiment."
Come to think of it, they could not possibly need those people's help.
Then why had the Dark Energy Crystal appeared in the Evil Cult in the first place?
The multiple questions from that dream in The Dream resurfaced as he headed for the Mentor Base. This time, however, Fang Ran vaguely felt that he had gathered all the clues.
When he learned the new information from Le Guien, that feeling that the answer was about to break through—but remained impossible to sort out—returned, making Fang Ran close his eyes.
*Calm down, Fang