Chapter 221

Rather, Nishizaki Yuki's statement is precisely one of the key points that Kusei Maki has always found suspicious: the appearance of these Mutated Entity seems to coincide perfectly with the arrival of the troops.

No useful clues were obtained from the interrogation of the prisoners of the Apostle Organization. Kusei Maki was confident in her methods. Those Apostle were just little girls, especially the Apostle girl named Hatsukawa Fuka. Unlike the others, she was relatively obedient and cooperative, Kusei Maki obtained a lot of information from her.

But there was absolutely no clue about the Mutated Entity; none of the Apostle had ever seen these things.

This is highly suspicious, as if those Mutated Entity were viruses brought in by the Kusei Maki Unit—but the truth is that those seeds and vines reside on human bodies that resemble Dregs, and those people are mostly mercenaries and former ICS researchers.

"Something was missed..."

Kusei Maki frowned and murmured.

131. Distortion

Late at night, the withdrawing convoy arrived in the Xijing City.

Fushihara Ayaka sent a special team to greet them and arranged for Efnir, Anilas, and others to be temporarily observed in a special ward at headquarters. Nishizaki Yuki immediately conducted a full-body data feedback test on them.

In the examination room, Efnir sat up from the analyzer. Nishizaki Yuki stared suspiciously at the screen. "That's strange... your data is different from everyone else's."

Efnir buttoned up her shirt and came to Nishizaki Yuki's side. "Good or bad?"

"It doesn't look bad."

"The data shows almost no change, and the performance is very stable—but you were exposed to radiation from the 'Shard,' which is why it seems strange. Everyone else showed obvious signs, and it's completely consistent with the speculations and records in the research conclusions, but you don't seem to have any of those symptoms..."

Nishizaki Yuki wasn't sure either. She looked at Efnir from head to toe, finally fixing her gaze on Efnir's right eye. "Anilas and the others' data performance is very inconsistent, but you're different. This gives me more room for bold hypotheses."

If there's anything about Efnir that sets her apart from Anilas and the others, it's Efnir right eye. After being wounded by the Angel, Efnir's right eye suffered severe Dregsification, and complete blindness for a period of time was the best outcome. The doctors at the time almost completely removed Efnir's necrotic right eye.

But the final result was something Nishizaki Yuki never expected: Efnir's right eye actually recovered from Dregsification —something that Nishizaki Yuki thought was absolutely impossible. Even for an agent, once Dregsification, it was absolutely impossible to recover, at least not with current human methods. This was a conclusion unanimously accepted by the academic community.

This is why many agents are forced to make the most painful decisions after being injured—for example, Trilice, the vice-captain of the Suzuda City Funeral Bird Squad. She suffered severe injuries that resulted in extensive necrosis in her chest cavity, and she had to have part of her organs removed. She survived thanks to the agent's strong vitality and her unwavering willpower, but her strength was greatly reduced as a result.

In short, Efnir's situation at the time greatly surprised Nishizaki Yuki, and it became Efnir's biggest secret.

"I also sensed something very unusual during this battle," Efnir said, putting on her coat and recalling the strange sensations she and Yukina experienced while being chased. "I don't know why, but I had a near-death experience while being chased, but I recovered immediately."

"Hmm?" Nishizaki Yuki stopped what she was doing, looked up, and said, "What's going on? You didn't seem to have mentioned this to me before."

"Because we couldn't find a good opportunity."

Efnir recounted to Nishizaki Yuki the events surrounding her being hunted down.

At that time, in a hazy dream—or rather, a hallucination— Efnir saw a bloodied version of herself.

Upon waking, she immediately discovered that all her fatal wounds had miraculously healed, and she regained some strength in a short time. This gave her the opportunity to fight back, and she even ended up chasing after the fleeing Apostle with Canary and the others.

Perhaps others didn't feel it clearly—from Canary's and the others' perspective, no one knew how serious the injuries Efnir had suffered at that time. Only Efnir herself knew that she had truly stood under the scythe of death and was just a hair's breadth away from dying. Even Efnir couldn't help but feel that it was strange that she could recover from such injuries in such a short time.

"I am very clear about my situation at the time. You see, this place was hit by a bullet. It was written in the records at the time, but now you can't see anything."

Efnir raised her hand and loosened her belt a little, letting her short skirt hang loosely below her waist. Facing Nishizaki Yuki, Efnir lifted the hem of her skirt to reveal a patch of snow-white skin at her waist.

Nishizaki Yuki crouched down, her brows furrowed as she stared at Efnir's waist. There was indeed a very faint Trace there, almost imperceptible without close inspection, but with Nishizaki Yuki's experience, she could immediately tell that it was the wound.

The bullet hole has disappeared—only about two days have passed since Efnir received treatment and had the bullet removed. Even an agent could not possibly possess such a powerful self-healing ability.

Nishizaki Yuki was about to raise her hand to touch it, Efnir suddenly took a step back and lowered her clothes to cover her waist.

"..."

"What's wrong?"

Nishizaki Yuki glanced at Efnir, whose behavior had suddenly become strange, with a puzzled look. She read a rare hint of shyness in Efnir's Nishizaki Yuki and suddenly found it amusing. "I haven't even touched her yet. It's not like it's the first time. What are you being shy about?"

Indeed, as a doctor, Nishizaki Yuki had seen and touched most of Efnir's body. Of course, it wasn't the kind of contact with impure intentions, but rather for the purpose of treatment and diagnosis—normally, since they were both girls, this wouldn't have been a problem, but now the situation was clearly different.

Efnir gave a stiff smile, a hint of embarrassment on her face.

"I've been feeling a bit itchy lately..."

I'm a little ticklish.

The waist was the most sensitive part of Efnir's body besides her groin, and this tendency was amplified by Yukina's deliberate stimulation, so Efnir instinctively avoided it.

Nishizaki Yuki clearly couldn't understand Efnir's momentary embarrassment. She simply shook her head, sighed inwardly, "Youth is truly wonderful," and withdrew her hand.

Whether she touched her or not, she already knew the situation. Since Efnir was unwilling, she had no reason to take advantage of her.

"Did you notice anything?" Efnir quickly changed the subject.

"No." Nishizaki Yuki shook her head, took out a cigarette from her pocket, put it in her mouth, but didn't light it—she always did this when she was thinking; it was her habit.

"It is indeed very strange. I can't guess what caused this result, but I have done some research on this phenomenon before. I wonder if it can be of any use to me. I don't know if you have heard of the conjecture proposed by a genius doctor. She boldly designed a whole set of 'laws of Order Force's based on a time theory model in order to explore its essence."

"I'm not really sure..."

Efnir lives in Xijing City, far removed from academia, and having only served as an agent for two years, she knows very little about these things.

"Simply put: that person believes the essence of an agent's use of power stems from a distortion of the concept of time..."

132. Time

When it comes to time, that becomes much more abstract.

In the Old Era, time was considered to reflect the continuity and sequence of the movement and change of matter. It was a parameter used to describe the process of the movement and change of matter, a conceptual physical quantity, and a theoretical law.

It both exists and does not exist.

Even in the most prosperous centuries of Old Era civilization, people could not reach an absolute consensus on the concept of "time".

Is it truly reliable to base it on an unguided universal principle within a model? Even so, how can one correctly understand an invisible and intangible concept?

"Of course, that might be a bit vague," Nishizaki Yuki saw the puzzled look on Efnir's face. "But if you put it another way, you'll probably understand the root of her conjecture—the agents hardly age, which makes it seem as if time has stopped for them, doesn't it?"

After the First Synchronization, the agent's body stops growing. Specifically, the agent's appearance will remain in the state at the time of the Synchronization. Due to the changes in skin, bone, physical condition, and hair color caused by the Synchronization, she will look like a completely different person, but her visual age before and after the change is generally similar.

Efnir is one of the very few agents whose bodies underwent significant changes after Synchronization —most other agents who exhibited this difference were second-time service members, meaning they had previously fought as agents, retired, and then became agents again for some reason.

The final result is that during their two service periods, their bodies grew, but their other side as agents remained unchanged, meaning their physical age did not match their age in the Exile mode.

Efnir had also wondered if she had ever fought as a proxy.

But the thought that she had once been a boy dispelled that idea—it was common knowledge that agents were only female.

Whether it's her parents, Yukina, or Futaba Erii, all can corroborate that Efnir's memories are accurate, so this possibility has long been ruled out by Efnir.

Nishizaki Yuki continued, "And their ability to heal injuries so quickly, isn't that like time accelerating? In other words, could those deeply buried Ruins themselves be a product of time manipulation?"

That's true; those "Ruins" were discovered far too late.

The exploration of this world by the Old Era of humans had reached an unimaginable level. If the Ruins have indeed always existed here, it is hard to believe that the Old Era of humans did not truly develop the Ruins until the end of the Old Era.

Most scholars tend to believe that the government at the time kept the existence of the "Ruins" a secret and conducted research in secrecy, which is why its existence was unknown to the public.

However, if we take Nishizaki Yuki's theory as the basis, then the facts at that time would be completely different: in the last period of the Old Era, "Ruins" appeared out of thin air, became known to mankind, and then began to be explored. Then, the White Hole Erosion came, human civilization was on the verge of collapse, and finally, it survived to this day by relying on "Ruins Technology".

If that's the case, then some things become impossible to ponder in detail. The deeper one delves, the more chilling it becomes—the sudden appearance of those "Ruins" is precisely the eve of the White Hole Erosion.

It's certainly a good thing when someone offers a lifeline during a crisis, but the problem is that no one knows what entity sent this "gift" to humanity, or what its purpose is.

"Okay, don't overthink it. I was just saying."

Seeing that Efnir's gaze grew increasingly serious, Nishizaki Yuki could naturally guess what Efnir was thinking. She smiled and pulled Efnir's thoughts back to reality.

"This is just one link in that theory, but the truth is, this claim leans more towards a conspiracy theory and has many flaws; there's no need to believe it."

"You don't have to choose to believe?" Efnir's eyes flickered as she looked at Nishizaki Yuki. "So, you actually believe?"

Nishizaki Yuki smiled slightly but did not answer.

She continued typing, performing basic data processing, and then said, "Of course, that's too vague. That person built a special high-dimensional model based on time. How should I put it? Almost no one can understand it—not that her theory is untenable, but that her ideas are so far removed from currently accepted academic theories that they seem like a meticulously designed but baseless book of fantasy."

Seemingly recalling something, Nishizaki Yuki stopped what she was doing.

"That person attempted to explain the energy of 'the Order Force' itself using this. But clearly, this explanation has huge flaws; many phenomena cannot be explained by it. Ultimately, this argument was just a flash in the pan and quickly disappeared—but it must be said that it is indeed a way of thinking that breaks through the usual boundaries and is worth learning from. So I was fortunate enough to visit that person, but she... well, I digress. Let's get back to this."

Nishizaki Yuki seriously, "If this theory does have some merit, then as long as the agent can fully control the 'Order Force' itself, she can do everything that you, Efnir, have experienced. Conversely, if we don't use this as a basis for explanation, then none of the theories we currently understand can adequately verify these phenomena—at least not now. So, there must be something missing that's influencing all of this, and with our current level of research, we can't observe any patterns."

"Like 'dust'?"

"Yes, it's like 'dust'," Nishizaki Yuki emphasized. "Your 'dust'... In fact, even with your description, I still can't imagine that scene, let alone understand its essence."

Nishizaki Yuki sighed softly.

"So just take these kinds of things with a grain of salt. Didn't someone once say, 'It's us who change, not time'?"

After speaking, Nishizaki Yuki smiled, while Efnir fell silent.

To be honest, Efnir felt that someone as intelligent as Nishizaki Yuki would never easily believe a theory.

Unless, it involves some kind of connection that others cannot see, or that they see but cannot acknowledge.

Data collection is complete.

Efnir and Nishizaki Yuki walked out of the sealed measurement room side by side, and the soldiers guarding the door all breathed a sigh of relief. Their orders were to keep a close eye on Efnir and not let the same thing happen to Efnir, Anilas, and Tobi. However, Nishizaki Yuki's soldiers did not allow them to wait in the measurement room, so they had no choice but to stand guard outside.

Fortunately, nothing happened, and the soldiers were finally relieved.

Strangely enough, while the other agents who were exposed to radiation all experienced negative effects, Efnir was completely unaffected, causing the soldiers to begin to doubt their mission.

133. One week

Nishizaki Yuki's office is in the first room outside the experimental area—according to her, she seems to have specifically applied to have her office set up here.

Surrounded by soldiers, Nishizaki Yuki left the experimental area and finally took out her kerosene lighter, which she had used for many years. The sparks ignited the cigarette in her mouth.

She took a deep breath, clearly feeling stifled in the non-smoking experimental area.

Efnir glanced at her, Nishizaki Yuki smiled apologetically, "Did I make you feel bad?"

"Fine."

Efnir does not smoke.

Because her father, Takuma Yanase, had warned her from a young age that smoking was harmful to her health, and that excessive drinking was equally detrimental.

Until the Western Capital University Erosion Disaster, Efnir lived and grew up as a model of a good boy. The few times she went out of line were all for the sake of Yukina. This straightforward and almost rigid personality has always accompanied Efnir, and she still occasionally shows that side of herself now.

But now, her position is different from that of the top student she once was, so what used to be a somewhat difficult personality trait has now become "steady" and "reliable" in the eyes of others.

"It was my oversight," Nishizaki Yuki thought for a moment, then reluctantly stubbed out her cigarette, holding the extinguished butt between her fingers. "I'd forgotten you were still a patient."

"I don't really care, but it's never a bad thing if you smoke less."

"If I could quit, I would have done it long ago."

After all, cigarettes are something like that; perhaps it's not so much an addiction, but rather a habit.

"Oh, by the way," Nishizaki Yuki flipped through the record sheet in her hand, "I heard you performed Apostle Synchronization again. Are you feeling any discomfort?"

"It's alright, I don't feel anything special," Efnir replied truthfully.

"Is that so... but I can still see that the data here is a bit different from the last time," Nishizaki Yuki paused, "Although I shouldn't be saying this, the fewer times you 'Apostle Form' you are, the better. The power of Apostle Form is certainly strong, but your body will be the first to suffer."

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing," Efnir said noncommittally.

Rather, Efnir actually felt that while the power of the Agent was relatively weaker than that of the Apostle Form, it was more convenient for her.

But sometimes things don't go as planned, leaving Efnir no choice but to give it her all.

This was not a choice she could make.

As they walked, Efnir and Nishizaki Yuki's conversation shifted from the Apostle to the Mutated Entity. They left the experimental area through the isolation passage, and just as they stepped out of the automatic door, they encountered Kanade Kotone, who was bringing coffee to Nishizaki Yuki's office.

"Yanagi- Yanase, good evening..."

Kanade Kotone greeted both Efnir and Nishizaki Yuki.