NOVEL NEXT Chapter 9: Chapter 9: The Personality Game
Aiden walks into the Munich-style mechanical workshop, and the smell immediately gets into his nose. The smell of machine oil mixed with rust and a strange smell of burnt rubber is like when he secretly sneaked into his father's old garage when he was a child, with all kinds of smells mixed together, making him frown. In the workshop, the sound of gears meshing rings intermittently. That rhythm, hey, is exactly the same as when the U6 line is running, one beat after another, like drumbeats pounding, making Aiden's heart feel flustered.
Aiden unconsciously rubs his hands, and the old wound on his tiger's mouth starts to ache faintly again. He looks down and, to his surprise, some stardust actually seeps out from the wound, shining brightly and slowly falling onto the table. Aiden stares at it. Those stardust slowly gather together and form a zodiac projection with sakura-gear overlay, exuding a mysterious feeling. Aiden looks at this projection with his eyes fixed, and his thoughts also drift away. "This tinnitus is like the foghorn alarm in the Port of Hamburg, buzzing non-stop. It's really annoying." He mutters in a low voice. His head is in a mess, and this tinnitus sound is just like the station warning sound of the Berlin Metro, making his temples ache.
"Wait... The Paella (cultural note: Spanish rice dish) I bought last time? Why am I thinking about this now? It's really ." Aiden suddenly comes back to his senses and shakes his head vigorously, trying to get rid of this irrelevant thought. He takes a deep breath, thinking that he has to figure out the situation in front of him as soon as possible.
Just then, Aiden feels that something is wrong with his body. His right eye suddenly emits a purple light, like a flashlight, shining on the metal surface. Where the purple light reaches, ancient runes appear one after another, automatically generating a defense array. Aiden looks at these runes and mutters in his heart. Although their flashing frequency is synchronized with like Notre-Dame's rose window light patterns (cultural note: 13th-century Gothic architecture), after being calibrated to an error of 0.5Hz, they always feel more mysterious than before. He can't help but think of the way his grandmother weaved the Baltic Sea fishing net, one movement after another, just like the engraving of these runes, exuding an orderly feeling.
Before Aiden can figure it out, his body suddenly doesn't listen to him. It turns out that the iris personality starts to seize control. This iris personality is like a naughty troublemaker. As soon as it takes over, it grabs the mustard beside it and takes a big bite. Aiden only feels that his mouth and nose are instantly filled with a strong pungent taste, and tears uncontrollably well up in his eyes. These tears gradually form a protective film in front of his eyes. At the same time, a floating pop-up window of Experiment Log #471 pops up. There are so many dense words on it that Aiden doesn't have time to look at them carefully. "This iris personality always does things that are beyond comprehension!" Aiden roars in his heart, but his body is completely out of his control.
Aiden looks around. The defense runes are flashing on the metal surface, reflecting the layout of the defensive works in the Andorran Valley. His gaze sweeps over the runes, and he suddenly finds that the projection of Ash Erin's robotic arm shows a black mist count, with a countdown of 23 days displayed on it, and there is also the real-time data stream of the Copenhagen Metro in this countdown projection, making people feel confused. "What on earth does this mean?" Aiden is full of doubts in his heart, but he doesn't have time to think about it now.
Aiden desperately tries to regain control of his body. His consciousness rushes around in his body, like swimming in a pitch-black sea where he can't see his hand in front of his face. There is water all around, and he can't find a place to rely on. Some memory fragments flash through his mind. The lava cracks present the geological patterns of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and he immediately associates them with the textures of Sicilian macaron baking. These seemingly unrelated pictures are mixed together in his mind, making him even more confused.
Suddenly, that annoying tinnitus sound rings again, and this time it directly triggers his memory of visiting the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. He seems to see those colorful paintings again and hear the soft whispers of people in the museum. But these beautiful memories are instantly washed away by the current predicament in the blink of an eye.
Aiden knows that he can't go on like this. He endures the tears and the irritation brought by the mustard, picks up the wrench in his hand, and strikes it three times with all his strength. These three knocking sounds echo in the workshop, like three dull bell sounds. Hey, it's really amazing. The personality switch is actually interrupted, but his body is still a bit sluggish, like an old PC recovering from crash, reacting half a beat slower.
At the moment when the personality switch is interrupted, the memory of the iris flashes through Aiden's mind. He sees the scene of the salvage site of the sunken ship in Stockholm. There seems to be some secret hidden in those scenes, but before he can see it clearly, the memory disappears with a "whoosh".
At the same time, the defense array suddenly gets out of control. For some unknown reason, it accidentally triggers the historical alarm system resonance (cultural note: 1944 uprising) of the Warsaw Uprising Memorial Hall. That sharp alarm sound rings non-stop in the workshop, almost deafening Aiden. "What should I do now?" Aiden is as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. Looking at the chaotic scene around, he has no idea what to do.
Aiden finally regains control of his body with great effort. He pants heavily and leans against the nearby mechanical table. He feels like he has just finished a Berlin Marathon, with all his strength drained, and his legs are so weak that he can hardly stand. When he wipes the sweat off his face, his necklace accidentally catches on the scratch of the cooling module, and a sharp pain shoots through, but he doesn't care about it now.
He looks at the tear protective film on the table and finds that the coordinates of the star map trap in the Dwarven Kingdom are on it, marked with the planetary core coordinates (57°N, 24°E) (actual Riga: 56°58'N 24°08'E), and there is also a Dwarvish verification code beside it. This is an important clue, and Aiden secretly writes it down in his heart. He knows that this clue may be of great use for the next action.
"Oslo, the defense array in Copenhagen, what on earth is going on here?" Aiden looks at the surrounding defense facilities and mutters. These modified traces make the doubts in his heart even deeper.
"Wait... The Paella I bought last time? Why am I thinking about it again? Really." Aiden shakes his head helplessly. At this time, he remembers the scene of the glasses being smashed at the Munich Oktoberfest again. People were cheering, and the sound of the glasses clashing seems to still be ringing in his ears. But this beautiful memory seems so out of place in the current chaotic situation.
In the days that follow, whenever Aiden smells the smell of mustard, he will reflexively check the color of his pupils, for fear that the iris personality will suddenly appear again. He knows clearly that this personality game is far from over, and there are countless challenges waiting for him in the future.
In this world full of mystery and danger, Aiden is like a lonely traveler, groping for the way forward in the dark. He doesn't know what else he will encounter, nor is he sure if he can overcome those unknown difficulties. But he understands that he can't give up because he still has an important mission on his shoulders.
Aiden takes a deep breath, clenches the wrench in his hand again, and looks ahead with a firm gaze. He knows that only by facing everything bravely can he find the truth and get rid of this endless predicament. Those secrets hidden deep in his memory, those mysterious runes and coordinates, will all become the guidance on his way forward. Although it is full of unknowns and challenges, Aiden believes that he will definitely be able to solve these mysteries and find his own answers. After all, in this strange and wonderful world, only by moving forward bravely can there be hope for the arrival of light.