The Master of the Strange Realm

Jenkins said in his heart, whether the girl's story was what she really experienced or what she thought she had experienced, it had nothing to do with Jenkins for the time being.

The information the girl said seemed to be highly consistent with the information provided by the guy who liked fish, but the details verified Jenkins's guess. He didn't know the appearance and ability of the indescribable thing, but the side description was enough.

"Who told you about this ship?"

"I don't remember, probably died on the way to find this ship."

The girl said.

Jenkins nodded and stopped talking about this topic:

"Then how can I get more information?"

"If you want to break through the limitation of only asking three people, then you must find-"

"Can this also be broken?"

Jenkins really didn't expect this. With his rich experience in the strange world, he thought this was a fixed rule of the strange world, the kind that could never be changed.

"This world...is different now. The unspeakable things have violated the rules and broken some fixed rules, so you can also break some fixed rules."

Although he still spoke timidly, this sentence...Jenkins looked at the girl's lowered head and raised his eyebrows in surprise:

"If that's the case, how can I break the rule of three people?"

"It's simple. You need a certificate. What you do is limited to the ship, so..."

"Shut up!"

The metal head that had not spoken for a long time and was placed on the deck chair suddenly spoke. Jenkins turned around with an unhappy expression on his face. He rarely had such an expression:

"What does it have to do with you if we talk? Besides, is it really the right thing to scold a child casually?"

The chocolate on the shoulder also responded with a "meow~".

"Savior, please abide by the rules here."

"Rules?"

Jenkins thought of himself being forced to face worms in the lava, being caught by the metal skeleton in the cemetery, fighting with the old butler in the castle, playing cards with the guy who printed cards randomly in the wax museum, and being stopped by the blacksmith's hammer even though he had reached the end of the town. Only the witch was a fun person, and the guy who was in charge of the furnace obviously took the differential engine as a scapegoat, so it was not too much of a violation of the rules:

"You also understand the rules? You'd better shut up, otherwise I don't care about any rules. Do you know how many troublesome guys I dealt with while climbing here?"

As he said that, he took out the metal that had been processed in the furnace not long ago from his backpack and waved it. I don't know which of Jenkins' words worked, and the metal head closed his mouth and eyes and stopped talking.

"Go on."

He touched the cat on his shoulder who was cheering for him, and Chocolate also squinted his eyes and rubbed Jenkins' hand with his little head. Then he turned to the girl and she continued the previous topic:

"Your venue is this ship, so if you want to cross the rules, you must obtain the consent of this ship. Among all of us here, there is one person who is actually the boatswain of this ship."

Jenkins narrowed his eyes. He really couldn't think of such an operation. But thinking of his guess about this strange place, it seems that this kind of thing is not surprising.

"Find the boatswain, he must have a way to help you break through the limitation of only asking three people."

"Which one is the boatswain?"

Jenkins asked again, but the girl shook her head, then lowered her head and stopped talking.

"It seems that she doesn't know either."

Jenkins turned and walked to the position next to the metal head in the middle of the deck. The head opened its eyes and looked at him, wondering what he was going to do next.

Jenkins summoned all his ability points. At this point in the adventure journey, he didn't have much ability left. Now is not the time to cherish his ability.

With his mind focused, as his evil thoughts spread, he strengthened the effect of the ability that was also affected by the evil thoughts:

"Aura of fear!"

This ability, which does not distinguish between enemies and friends, and is likely to cause great trouble if not carefully controlled when used, was also affected after Jenkins's physical body was transformed. The World Tree itself is not a mortal object. Although it is not terrifying, the shock and distortion of the spirit by the World Tree are real.

The Aura of Fear superimposed on the essence of the World Tree, forming a substantial black aura that bloomed under Jenkins' feet and quickly covered the entire ship.

It not only affected the refugees on the deck of the ship, but also affected those areas of the ship that Jenkins could not set foot on, and then affected the area under the water.

The scope of this strange world is not just as small as the deck. After all, the boundary of the strange world is defined by darkness, but Jenkins saw thick fog in all directions. Therefore, the effect of such a large-scale ability will naturally affect the water surface and underwater around the river, and even the city blocks on both sides of the river.

But what was very strange was that while the refugees on the ship were trembling and even groaning because of the fear that seemed to be engraved in their souls, there was no movement under the ship, underwater, or in the fog, and not even a wave was raised.

This once again confirmed Jenkins's guess about this strange place, which was in line with his evaluation of the difference engine as "extremely innovative". The other party could indeed always come up with some new tricks.

Of course, the ability of [Fear Aura] is not a disadvantage here. The differential machine itself does not have the emotion of fear, so this move has no effect on the differential machine, so it is most appropriate to use it at this time.

The ability continues to affect the surroundings, and the dark aura even suppresses the power of the deck itself, and even dispels the thin fog around the ship.

What Jenkins did was to walk around on the deck and observe the expressions of everyone here. Even though the deck is not big, most people lower their heads or cover their heads, so they can only judge by the twitching of their bodies or subtle movements.

Finally, he stopped in front of a middle-aged fat woman who was full of alcohol and had two tilted green wine bottles beside her. This is very close to the rear edge of the deck. The woman and three middle-aged women of about the same age are hiding under the same blanket. The four people don’t look much different.

Jenkins stopped the effect of the fear aura:

"I can’t believe that the boatswain of this ship is actually a woman."

It’s not that he discriminates against women, but it’s really hard to imagine in this era.

Everyone around was trembling, only this woman was leaning against the railing behind her and not moving, so Jenkins could find her.

Chapter 2179 Land of Steel?

Jenkins's general imagination of the profession of "Boatswain" is a rude man with a strong body and a tattoo of an anchor on his biceps. The woman in front of him, although she looks a little plump, does not look like a sailor at sea, but looks like an ordinary female worker in a textile factory:

"If I also pretend to be afraid, how can you find me?"

The woman asked.

"It is indeed difficult to tell whether it is real fear, but as long as you are still a person, I can vaguely feel the psychological activities of living things. The appearance pretends to be fear, but the feeling in the heart cannot be faked."

This is also a new passive characteristic derived from [Life Empathy], which belongs to the life-type ability, after [Four Seasons] nurtured the seedlings of the World Tree. Of course, it is also possible that after the Four Seasons nurtured the World Tree, Jenkins, whose soul essence was once again improved, gained the ability to perceive the heart like a god.

But no matter what, the extreme fear caused by the [Aura of Fear] is very different from that of a person who has no fear at all, so Jenkins was able to find this boatswain.

"So, how do you know that I won't be as afraid as they are?"

"I don't know, I just guess that since the boatswain has special authority on the ship, he may be able to resist or be immune to some conditions that ordinary refugees cannot resist or be immune to."

Jenkins said, this is not a lie.

"So what if your guess is wrong?"

The woman asked again.

"If it's wrong, then it's wrong. Then you can only sense the life form of each person. The life form of the boatswain must be different from that of ordinary refugees. Although this is time-consuming, it is at least feasible."

The fat woman's face is not very outstanding. Not only that, the freckles on her face are so dense that it is difficult for people to stare at her for a long time. Under normal circumstances, no one would think she is a boatswain. And if Jenkins had not been reminded by the girl just now, he would never choose this person to ask questions.

"I want to get some information from you, and I also want to get some...authority, the authority to break the rules."

Hearing Jenkins' words, the woman sat up straight, first looked at the back of the metal head on the chair in the distance, and then said in a nasal voice:

"Then you need to help me do something."

"No problem? Fish or flowers? Or ask me to clean the deck."

"Neither, there are some people with problems among the refugees here. If you help me get rid of at least three, I can give you authority and give you information."

"What do you mean some people have problems?"

Jenkins asked again.

"You should have known that the indescribable thing that fell from the sky has the ability to transform life into its followers. There are its followers on the ship now. They have not been completely transformed and still retain most of the characteristics of people, so this ship will not reject them."

"I just killed a person who can open his mouth..."

"No, he is not. Although he is crazy, he is still a human being."

The woman interrupted.

"So how many of these people are there? Are there any obvious characteristics?"

"The ship just told me that there are people with problems, and the number is between five and ten. I can't tell you the characteristics. If I knew, I wouldn't need you to do it."

In fact, Jenkins already knew what the "unspeakable thing" that descended on this world was. Although it was incredible, it was the difference machine, or at least part of the difference machine.

This guess was contradictory. After all, this was the eighth floor. If the difference machine appeared now, Jenkins would not have to go to the ninth floor. He guessed that maybe he had come to the ninth floor, but his memory was missing; or the difference machine had been deceiving him, and there were actually only eight strange realms in the nine-story tower.

All of the above guesses were rejected by Jenkins. This tower does have nine floors, this is indeed the eighth floor, and the difference machine did descend here.

Jenkins didn't know what means the Difference Machine used to make himself part of the background of the strange world. But he didn't feel that the core of the Difference Machine was here, so he concluded that the Difference Machine stuffed part of its huge body used for fighting into the strange world, becoming part of the disaster background of the strange world, and what Jenkins had to face on this level was that huge body.

The body of the Difference Machine was so huge that it had almost spread to every corner of the entire material world, so it was completely possible to split a part of it and stuff it here. As for the fact that the disaster beast in this strange world was the body of the Difference Machine, there were actually some contradictions. Jenkins just thought so, but still maintained a skeptical attitude. No one said that the Difference Machine made itself a background and could not hide another disaster beast.

As for the fact that it was the Difference Machine that came here, there was already quite a lot of evidence. The initial evidence came from Jenkins trying to dissect the fish that produced black lightning. Although the fish exploded, the liquid that flowed out after the sword blade pierced was undoubtedly engine oil.

Then, he learned about what happened in the disaster story in the strange world from the man who asked for fish and the girl who wanted flowers. The description of the "unspeakable thing" was almost exactly the same as the difference machine.

It can transform living things into gear structures and become its followers, and it can transform non-living things into steel structures and become its props. The yellow light covering the world refers to the unique brass aesthetics of the difference machine. And what made Jenkins completely confirm this idea was the brief moment when he just stuck his head out of the boat.

In the process of fighting with the difference machine above the church, Jenkins shared part of the power of the difference machine "Lord of All Machines", so his ability evolved into "The Principle of All Machines". He therefore had a very keen perception of the creation of the difference machine, and while the ship shielded the outside world, it also shielded Jenkins's perception of metal.

But once the head sticks out of the ship, it will not be protected by the ship, so he clearly felt that there were traces of the creation of the difference machine almost everywhere in the area outside the ship.

Later, he even directly touched the tentacles that stretched out from underwater. Although the tentacles felt like living organisms, he found that they were pure metal structures as soon as he touched them. If he couldn't tell them apart after touching them, then he wouldn't have to try to fight the difference machine.

In short, all the clues point to the background of this strange place being "the difference machine descends on the world, turning the world into a land of steel and slaughtering flesh and blood creatures", which can be basically confirmed.

Chapter 2180 The Guessed Truth

Even if he thinks that what he guessed is the truth, the reason why Jenkins didn't directly tell his inference is that he didn't see which savior emblem this strange place corresponds to.

After the first seven levels, only the two abilities that accompanied him at the beginning, [Unknown Road Ahead] and [World Tree Seedling], have not been matched. But this strange place seems to have nothing to do with fate, and the steel-themed background is even more contrary to the life of the world tree.

This means that he must have something he hasn't figured out, and there must be traps that he hasn't discovered, so he must not rashly tell the metal head about his guess.

But since it is roughly confirmed that the "unspeakable thing" that descended is the differential machine, then the physical characteristics of the problematic guy who sneaked onto the ship must be that a part of his body has been converted into metal. In order to deceive the judgment of the ship, the conversion ratio will not be too much, so the fear is still retained and it is not discovered when Jenkins uses [Fear Aura] to identify it.

Since the differential machine can make the texture of the metal tentacles look like flesh and blood, it must be possible to make the metal body look the same as the normal body visually.

Using [The Principle of All Machines] to check all the people on the deck, those with abnormal bodies can definitely be found. But this ability is still very useful and cannot be used like this.

Fortunately, Chocolate is now by his side. Even if Jenkins can't feel the creation of the differential machine, its sensitive sense of smell can easily distinguish which people have the smell of metal.

"You can smell it, right?"

He turned his head and asked his cat, and the cat immediately nodded quickly, his eyes always looking at Jenkins.

Two small paws tightly grasped the shoulders of the coat, and the head stuck out, closing his eyes and shaking his cute little nose. Jenkins was still malicious and tapped the tip of Chocolate's nose after he closed his eyes, causing the cat to wave its claws intimidatingly, and then continued to distinguish whether anyone had a strange smell.

It must be said that the differential engine did a lot of work on those who were converted in order to hide from Jenkins. Jenkins could not feel that his creation was nearby, and Chocolate's almost omnipotent sense of smell did not find the target immediately.

Although he did not find it immediately, he found it after a minute.

He stretched out his claws and pointed to the man who was about ten people away from the left side of the female boatswain. He was dressed very cleanly, with a brown vest over a black coat and black pants with patches on his lower body. There were no shoes on his feet, and his two feet were stretched forward. When Jenkins passed by just now, he was very careful to avoid it, worried that he would accidentally step on the other person.

The man had his head down, and probably felt Jenkins' gaze, so he raised his head and looked at him. As soon as their eyes met, the man knew that he was discovered.

Without any hesitation, he stood up and jumped off the boat. But the sword in Jenkins' hand was faster than him, and it went straight through the man's chest and nailed him to the deck.

The curse of the Star Demon Sword quickly eroded the man's body, and some traces of black and silver intertwined stars appeared around the pierced chest. This was the external manifestation of the spread of the curse. The curse of the sword came from the "Star Stone", so the manifestation was also related to the starry sky.

The man wailed uncontrollably, adding his voice to the originally calm deck. The people around him consciously moved to the side to prevent them from being implicated in the fight.

"Are you the rapist?"

Jenkins asked, the black and silver markings on the man's chest had almost spread to his neck. His wailing gradually became smaller, and he turned to make a "hoho~" sound with his throat, as if his throat was stuck with yellow-green sticky phlegm and he couldn't breathe.

"You...you are looking for me so openly, aren't you worried that my companions will escape?"

The man was buying time for himself, and Jenkins answered his question as if he didn't see this:

"Don't be silly, before I contact the people on the boat, can the people on the boat move or speak on their own initiative?"

This is to prevent refugees who really want to help Jenkins from telling him the answer to the strange world directly, so no one can make a big move before it is lifted.

"Let me go, I also have the information you want to know, I know more, I won't lie."

"I'm not worried that you're lying either."

Gripping the hilt and rotating it slightly, with Jenkins' perception, he can fully feel the scene of the blade scraping flesh and blood.

"Then will you let me go?"