novelonline Chapter 3959 "Spark"
Chapter 3959 "Spark"
Chapter 3959 "Spark"
In the present day, the "Miracle Tower" is reduced to only five stories, and its interior has been renovated. The lower three floors house the merchandise and exhibition areas, the fourth floor is an auction area accessible only to VIPs, and the top floor is the inventors' club.
Mr. Finch intended to invite Shad to visit the "Mechanical Tower," as he was very proud of the shop he had founded years ago. However, the two had barely stepped into the entrance of the white tower, which was covered with a red carpet, and before Shad could even properly examine the interior, a young man with a second-ring level of cultivation hurried over:
“Mr. Finch, something has happened on the fourth floor. Mr. Munoz asked me to come and see you as soon as possible.”
As he spoke, he looked at Shad, seemingly wanting to say something but then stopped, but Mr. Finch shook his head:
"This is the young man I mentioned I was going to introduce to Munoz. It's alright, take us to the fourth floor. As for the specifics, this tower shouldn't be storing anything strange, right?"
"Why don't you come upstairs with me and take a look? I can't explain it clearly either."
The five-story "Miracle Tower" allows a direct view from the first floor to the top. The central sections of the upper four floors have been removed and enclosed by railings, creating a courtyard-like structure. Each floor is connected by staircases on the sides, as well as elevators.
Moreover, the elevator here is not the kind of elevator with unknown power that is commonly found in ancient ruins, but a steam-powered elevator in the true sense of the memory of outsiders.
The tower's floor tiles featured alternating indigo and white squares, while the walls were painted a brass color, giving the interior a rather avant-garde yet orderly feel. Shad was curious about what was going on; he didn't sense any particularly strong elemental fluctuations here.
So he followed Mr. Finch all the way to the fourth floor. The fourth floor had a simple structure, with rooms arranged in a circular corridor. After coming out of the elevator, the young man led the two to the door of a room with a sign that read "Equipment Repair Room". Standing outside the door, they could not hear any sound from inside, but when they entered, they were immediately stunned by what they saw.
An old man whom Shad did not recognize was casting a spell to trap a strange machine that was constantly spewing flames. The machine was shaped like a black coffin, which was now standing upright with its lid open. The flames spewing out from it even raised the temperature of the room as if it were summer.
The old man, who was casting a spell, did not attack, but only defended. Hearing footsteps, he shouted without turning his head:
"Come quick! Don't let it set the room on fire!"
The door was already closed, and Mr. Finch was very surprised:
"Isn't that the 'fully automated cremation coffin'? How did it start moving by itself? I smashed it."
"No! It started moving on its own! I have to find out why it suddenly became active! Finch, help me subdue it!"
The unfamiliar old man must be Mr. Muñoz; he looked rather plump and prosperous. Although his rank wasn't as high as Mr. Finch's, only at the fifth ring, the matter would have been resolved long ago if he had simply smashed the coffin.
"Automatic cremation coffin."
Shad pondered the name of this strange creation, then saw old Mr. Finch, equally puzzled by what had happened to the coffin, pull a nut from his pocket:
"Even if it's activated, it's still just a mechanical creation—Miracle Technique: Mechanical Stop!"
The nut transformed into a streak of brass light that pierced through the sea of fire and struck the coffin directly. Then, with a heavy, resounding boom like a great bell being struck, the flames vanished, and the coffin crashed heavily to the floor.
"Oh, please don't let it break!"
Mr. Munoz hurried over, of course, not forgetting to guard against the coffin suddenly spewing fire again.
Mr. Finch also went over with Shad. Mr. Munoz didn't care at all about the appearance of Shad, a stranger, and was carefully examining the current condition of the coffin.
The magical effect caused a faint brass-colored glow to appear on the surface of the coffin, and it was only when Xia De got closer that he saw that the coffin was actually a metal coffin, although the black paint made its metallic texture less obvious.
Besides the "fully automatic cremation," this coffin must have other "ingenious features," because when Shad saw Mr. Munoz remove the baffle at the rear of the coffin, he found that the interior contained many mechanical structures that had nothing to do with fire.
"Where is this coffin intended for? In a prison where prisoners are executed?"
Shad then asked in a low voice, and Mr. Finch shook his head:
“Acadia has developed rapidly in recent years, and we anticipate that it won’t be long before the dead and the living compete for land. The city hall has also foreseen this future, which is why it has been promoting cremation in recent years. However, people’s traditional beliefs still dictate that they want to keep their loved ones’ bodies intact.”
So Munoz invented this, which allowed for a complete burial of the body without delaying cremation.
Shad's first reaction was that this thing actually sounded quite useful.
But then he realized that the body was indeed intact when it was buried, and the cremation was indeed successful, but the area occupied was still the same as before, just like before.
Because of the large amount of metal used and the complex mechanical structure, and because the coffin's special properties make it impossible to dig it up and reuse it, the price of this device is simply unaffordable for ordinary people.
Therefore, this is still a rather useless invention.
Shad had seen activated metallic life forms before, with the demonic sword [Sword Heir Nest] in the snowy mountains being a prime example; and he had also heard of relics that could grant ordinary metallic life forms, such as the derivative of the angelic relic [Feynman's Gold Storage], "Metal No. 5" (Chapter 1650), but clearly the situation he was in now was different from anything he had encountered or heard of before.
Seeing that neither of the elderly people objected, Xia De also reached out to examine the metal coffin. Although it possessed certain elements, it did not exhibit the obvious whispering element fluctuations that often occur when influenced by relics.
"Can you feel anything?"
Xia De asked himself softly.
[There exists an extremely low concentration of "spark." This is not a spark in the ordinary sense; it is the spark of life.]
"What do you mean? I don't understand."
After Mr. Munoz disassembled the coffin, the three of them couldn't find anything wrong with its internal structure. Even after casting spells to examine it, Shad's [Heart of Stone], [Eye of Edwards], and other magical spells all failed to produce any effect.
This is just an ordinary mechanical coffin. Although it can breathe fire, transform into a small cart, and emit a loud noise from inside if the deceased awakens after feigning death, it clearly does not possess the power it had just displayed.
"That's impossible!"
Mr. Munoz blurted out instinctively, and Mr. Shad and Mr. Finch's expressions immediately turned horrified. Mr. Munoz paused for a moment, then quickly apologized:
"Sorry, sorry, I forgot about Infinity Serpent."
But the coffin did not turn into a snake, proving that this incident had nothing to do with fate.
"Did you accidentally spill that [active metal] on the coffin? High concentrations of [active metal] can activate machinery."
Even without sensing the whispering element, Mr. Finch couldn't help but ask, but Mr. Munoz shook his head:
"Of course not. [Active Metals] are currently more expensive than mithril. Do you think I'm that wasteful?"
Then he saw two men staring at his chest, or rather, his breast pocket.
The pocket seemed to contain something alive, its interior constantly rising and falling. But what emerged a moment later was not something cute like Mia, but a pocket watch with sharp metal spider legs.
After the pocket watch came out of the pocket, it snapped open, and then the tiny metal parts inside were shot at the three people present like bullets.
"stop!"
Shad said softly, "[Chloe's Time Freeze] froze those tiny parts in mid-air."
Mr. Finch quickly used "Miracle - Mechanical Stop" again to control the pocket watch that had also become active. He reached out and took it, then deftly disassembled it completely by hand, but the inside of the pocket watch was just as normal.
"Besides these two, are there any other mechanical activation methods?"
Mr. Finch asked Mr. Muñoz, who shook his head:
"Of course not, that coffin was only five minutes ago. Are you worried about contagiousness?"
The old man who brought Xia De nodded solemnly:
"You and I both know how many mechanical creations are stored inside this tower. In fact, the tower itself has come close to the category of mechanical creations after our modifications over the years. Once it is truly activated, neither you nor I want to hear anyone say things like, 'Why is the Mechanical Tower standing up?'"
The plump old man opened his mouth, blinked, and then sighed:
“I understand. Then let’s destroy them. But you have to explain to my wife why I destroyed our tokens of love. Otherwise, I really can’t explain it to myself.”
"Mr. Watson, please help me. Although I have extensive experience dealing with these unusual metallic artifacts, I'm also confused about this situation. We shouldn't use methods for cleaning relics, and disintegration techniques can't completely eliminate matter. Do you possess the power to annihilate matter?"
So Mr. Finch asked Shad, and Shad actually did:
“Then I’ll do it. Please place the pocket watch parts on the coffin and step back a little. Okay, are all the parts here? Black Moon Symbol!”
A huge black moon symbol appeared on the floor, and then the coffin and the pocket watch parts began to turn to sand. A dozen seconds later, only a handful of ashes remained on the floor, proving that the two items had indeed existed.
Amidst the ashes, all three saw specks of red light. These specks were crimson, and a single glance was enough to tell that this was "life" itself, though this "life" looked somewhat sinister.
"Tinder?"
Mr. Finch uttered the word instinctively, but before they could investigate, the crimson lights suddenly shone brightly. The three hurriedly dodged, but then the lights went out completely, meaning that life had completely vanished.