Chapter 43
Late at night, in the dimly lit luxury suite, Shirou Emiya's pupils reflected the electronic fluorescence of the computer screen, and his inexperienced fingers worked jerkily on the keyboard.
Shirou Emiya is not the kind of person who knows how to use a computer. No matter which world he comes from, he doesn't have much experience in operating one. Therefore, after attacking Himeko, most of the information he found in the notebook used by Himeko was relatively vague, without much practical value.
Compared with the data he saw that night, the data stored on the memory card Himeko gave him was much more detailed, but at the same time, much more complicated. Unlike the home systems used by civilian computers, the computer systems and supporting hardware and software used by members of the Fire Moth are all highly customized, and the connected network is also a dedicated satellite channel.
Before looking up the information on this memory card, Shirou Emiya spent about an entire afternoon just learning how to use and operate the internal system of Flaming Moth.
In the beginning, Elysia, who was full of excitement, stood behind Shirou Emiya and watched enthusiastically, but it didn't take long for her to accumulate tiredness and sleepiness from the day. After the initial sense of novelty and anticipation faded, the computer interface composed of cold text and icons immediately became extremely boring. So as soon as night fell, Elysia got back into bed and fell into a deep sleep.
The night grew darker, and the time on the wall clock passed two o'clock in the middle of the night. The city lights outside the floor-to-ceiling windows were bright, and the sound of vehicles' horns still cut through the silent night sky from time to time. Shirou Emiya couldn't help but rub his tired temples. As a Servant, His body can't get tired due to physical exertion, but long-term thinking still made his spirit feel a little tired.
He stood up, walked to the minibar in the center of the living room, and opened the small refrigerator below. After glancing inside, Shirou Emiya took out a can of iced canned coffee, opened the tab of the can, and took a sip. The bitter taste filled his mouth instantly. Feeling the mellow and cold bitterness, Shirou Emiya, who had never tasted coffee, almost spit it out. He braced himself and swallowed the liquid flowing in his mouth.
"Why would anyone willingly drink this kind of thing?" he thought. At least Shirou Emiya's drowsiness disappeared after taking a sip of this swill-like thing.
Shirou Emiya sighed and walked to the door of the master bedroom of the suite, opened it quietly, glanced at Elysia who was sleeping on the big bed, closed the door silently, and returned to the room to the desk in the hall.
After several hours of careful study, the concept of the so-called "Honkai" formed a general outline in his mind. Although the current Shirou Emiya still didn't understand the proper nouns created by Fire Moth due to the restricted access rights, he learned quite a bit of information about "Honkai Energy," "Undead," and "Honkai Beast"
First of all, the Honkai is a natural phenomenon with unknown causes, and its specific manifestations are elusive. Sometimes they are earthquakes, typhoons, comet impacts, or even mysterious and magical phenomena like the materialization of giant white monsters.
However, different from ordinary natural phenomena, when these horrible natural disasters break out, an extremely harmful energy called "Honkai energy" is produced. This energy corrodes all creatures it touches and causes various horrific consequences based on the resistance of the creatures themselves. Ordinary people without Honkai resistance will be wiped out upon contact, while those with some resistance but not crossing the "critical point" will turn into undead with only the instinct of slaughter left.
Low-level undead will become like zombies in movies and bite humans. High-level dead soldiers, on the other hand, retain not only the fighting skills they learned when they were humans but also awaken supernatural powers.
Only human beings whose resistance has crossed the "critical point" can borrow the power brought by the Honkai to a certain extent while fully retaining their human minds. According to the statistical data collected from the samples collected by the Fire Moth, when the Honkai breaks out, less than three percent of human beings would become zombies. But the proportion of human beings who can use the power of Honkai energy to fight is probably less than one in ten thousand.
The phenomenon of "Honkai" has run through the entire history of mankind since the birth of civilization. Since the discovery of the existence of "Honkai" as a natural phenomenon, a small group of people who have experienced it and survived have been trying to construct a false world without Honkai for the common people. Over the past thousands of years, this small group of people has guarded the secret of "Honkai" together and gained control over the world.
They continue to cultivate the abilities of their descendants and send them to battle against the Honkai—Shirou Emiya frowned instinctively when he saw this piece of information. Undoubtedly, the Fire Moth not only spreads the lie that "there is no honkai in this world" to the general public but also to those marked as "the reserve who may join the Fire Moth in the future," filling the information with deceit and lies.
Shirou Emiya slumped his entire upper body on the back of the seat, gently kneading the space between his brows. He has read all the materials he can see, and it will take some time to digest these shocking facts.
Speaking of which, this suite was originally prepared for the members of Fire Moth. It seems that there is a screen directly linked to the satellite surveillance and city surveillance systems, right? When he first walked into the suite, he had no idea what the huge screen hanging on the wall was used for. Now after reading these materials, Shirou Emiya finally understood its purpose.
Although from the outside, the suite he was in was just a luxurious guest room, from a functional point of view, it could be regarded as a strategic location of the entire city. Not only is it located in the most luxurious and central commercial circle, but even the height of the building is undoubtedly second to none among all the buildings.
In addition, the screen can monitor all the details of the entire city in real time. As long as an abnormal situation is discovered, the fighters of the moths sitting in this suite can accurately arrive at the location of the incident with the fastest speed and carry out effective strikes against enemies such as the Houkai Beast and the undead.
Suddenly, the scene outside the windows darkened, and the colorful LEDs all over the surface of the high-rise buildings are extinguished one by one.
At the same time, the night sky, which was still clear not long ago, was covered with a thick layer of dark clouds, and the moon exuding clear silver light was covered. As a few thunderbolts flashed across the sky, the low rumbling sound was mixed with the blowing wind. The window rattled uncomfortably.
Shirou Emiya frowned slightly, turned off the computer, and suddenly turned his gaze toward the wall-mounted screen as if he had sensed something. There was no picture on the dark screen, but the indicator lights below the screen inexplicably began to flicker at an extreme speed.
His breathing became rapid. Although it was unfounded, Shirou Emiya still had an extremely bad premonition when he saw the blood-red beams of the indicator lights flashing non-stop. He strode to the hanger in front of the wall screen and turned on the switch under the screen.
After a moment of flickering, the screen turned on, and all the monitoring windows turned into a white screen, and even the one with the satellite monitoring was disconnected.
After seeing all this, Shirou Emiya didn't hesitate anymore. He let his body enter the spirit state in an instant and then jumped out of the luxurious suite.