Wu Ming felt that he was still too imitative and that he was still far behind the level of someone who had experienced many battles. That's why he was startled when the tree man suddenly spoke.
As a qualified operator of the Lucky Ancient God Agency, you must first maintain a calm attitude, words and deeds when facing any strange intelligent life form and communicate with them - even if you can't achieve peace of mind. It doesn't matter, but at least on the surface you can't act as obviously as Wu Ming is cursing and being scared and jumping back half a step.
"Hello, I know I look very...weird right now, but I and we really don't mean any harm." The dead tree tried to shake its branches, and the withered and dead bark made a crackling sound. Wu Ming felt that there was a shimmering light in the two sunken tree holes on the tree trunk that looked like eyes, and cast a line of sight to examine him, "You, are you the leader of this team?"
The situation was so weird that Wu Ming couldn't turn his head for a moment, and subconsciously accepted the tree man's words: "Uh... ah, yes, I am the leader and commander of this team, as well as the swordsman and tower master. The boss is also the admiral and squad leader, and recently I’ve been thinking about taking on a part-time job as an agent again. Would you like Elizabeth to consider forming a band with Lao Zhao and Brother Fei to become the lead singer?”
"Ah...eh? Me?" Elizabeth thought seriously for a while, and then gave her own conditions: "Brother, if you promise to have enough meat tubes..."
The tree man was a little confused by Wu Ming's strange words. The bare branches swayed for a long time before he finally managed to say: "You really... wear many hats."
Zhao Sida kicked Wu Ming hard in the knee. When the latter was holding his knee and rolling on the ground in pain, she turned her head and looked at Shuren, who had no expression on his face, but was probably completely confused in his heart. : "I'm sorry that he has always been like this. In the future, please ignore these useless and weird words. Don't try to understand our captain's brain circuit, let alone answer the conversation. This will make him more excited."
"Okay...ok."
"Ahem, let's get down to business..." Wu Ming got up from the ground again and dusted himself off. He had already called up the real-time map in the auxiliary device. After confirming that there were no hostile reactions approaching, Wu Ming patted Sieg. Fei's shoulder took advantage of the mental link and temporarily suppressed her intention to draw the sword and chop the opponent. She touched her chin and asked: "I just heard from Lao Zhao that you took the initiative to contact us and applied for exchange. Tell me, What do you want to talk to us about?”
While sneaking in the enemy's base camp, a group of wild tree men with unknown origins and dressed like the enemy's camp suddenly appeared. This made Wu Ming subconsciously increase his vigilance, but Zhao Sida did not exclude them as enemies. Instead, he communicated with Siegfried through a spiritual link, which showed that the other party still had some contact value.
"Before that, please allow me to briefly introduce myself to you. I am the captain of the Dragon Knight Brigade. I was once ordered to launch a beheading operation against the Tree of Life. I once approached the core defense line and threatened the tree of life itself..."
"But now as you can see, we failed and turned into the ghost that is rooted in this land and looks neither like a human nor a plant."
Wu Ming: "0_oWhat the hell?"
"Dragon Knight Brigade?!" Compared to Wu Ming, an outsider who didn't understand anything and pretended to be surprised, Siegfried's reaction was more real and intense. First of all, the decibel level of his voice instantly increased a lot, directly towards the source of the noise. The direction changed, and then she walked up to the dead tree man excitedly, grabbed the trunk and shook it violently. The trunk of the dead tree, which was not thick, was shaken by her dragon's strange power, and the wood inside crackled. Voice: "Are you still alive?! Weren't you given by Nidhogg..."
"Hey! Brother Fei, calm down, don't break someone else in half! Look, there's no light in the two tree holes!" Watching the dead tree shaking more and more, the trunks of the trees were shaking. Several visible cracks appeared. Wu Ming quickly stopped Siegfried, pulled her aside and asked quietly in the spiritual link: "What is the origin of this Dragon Knight Brigade you are talking about?"
Siegfried also understood that he had lost his temper just now, and after a somewhat embarrassed apology to the dead tree man, he briefly replied in the spiritual link: "I met the beheading force that Nidhogg destroyed."
Wu Ming finally understood why Siegfried suddenly lost control of his emotions.
"No...it's okay. Everything is inconvenient after turning into this ghost, but there is one good thing..." The tree man's intermittent voice came out from the tree hole, and the deep and dark tree hole once again ignited the dots. Like the glimmer of a will-o'-the-wisp, Wu Ming soon saw that the shocking cracks on his body began to heal and shrink, and finally returned to the wrinkled, withered and rough bark form before, with no trace of any breakage. traces of passing. "It's just that his vitality and resilience are much stronger than when he was still a human."
The withered tree man paused, and his eyes drifted out of the tree hole and silently stared at Siegfried.
This rather scrutinizing gaze lasted for a long time. Her appearance and body shape had not changed much compared to those many years ago. The dead tree man had also been transformed into a life form.
"I didn't expect you to be alive..." After a long silence, the dead tree man suddenly said.
She was still recognized. Even when she knew the identity of the other party, Siegfried was already mentally prepared to be recognized. But when the other party recognized her and pierced the window paper, Her heart still clenched involuntarily.
"You guys broke away from the main force without permission and insisted on returning to Glamorgan. Did you succeed?"
Siegfried lowered her head and did not dare to look directly into the other person's eyes, nor did she have the courage to respond to the other person's words. Over the past ten years, she had spent every day in repentance and guilt. The guilt and guilt had turned into hallucinations. Like inner demons and nightmares, people she knew and didn't know tortured her heart day and night: If she hadn't taken Tachibana with her to Glamorgan, would Tachibana not have been transformed into Nidhogg? If we had been more careful and noticed the anomalies in Glamorgan earlier, would we have been able to prevent the Tree of Life conspiracy? If the beheading force had not been divided and everyone destroyed the Tree of Life in one fell swoop, would the outcome of humanity have been different? if……
Even though the surveillance video that Glamorgan's system AI played to her before it was shut down had very strong traces of public opinion guidance, it cannot be denied that the series of crashes that followed were all caused by her. .
And this black dragon girl, during the long period of time when she was unable to effectively communicate with others to relieve her heart knot, had long brought her thoughts into a stubborn and intractable death loop, making Siegfried self-loathing and pursuing relief and closure. At the same time, it also shaped her spirit and psychological state to be both strong and fragile: facing the tree of life, mimetic creatures and demonized plants, Siegfried's spirit and will were as strong as steel, and could face dead trees. When people questioned her, she didn't even have the courage to face them.
Seeing Siegfried with his head buried in silence, the dead tree man already had a rough answer in his mind: "You also failed... The birth of the black dragon Nidhogg must have caused heavy casualties to mankind in the end. Bar?"
Every word was like a nail piercing into Siegfried's heart, and her body began to tremble uncontrollably. The strong shell that Siegfried had used to disguise herself for a long time was cracking inch by inch due to the other party's questioning, and she began to be afraid of him. Like the inner demons and nightmares that haunt her day and night, she will ask why she is still alive.
Siegfried's shaken mood was also shared with Elizabeth, Zhao Sida, and Wu Ming through spiritual links.
"Look up, Siegfried, your original choice is beyond reproach."
To Siegfried's expectation, the voice coming from the dead tree's mouth was not one of accusation or questioning.
"I know very well that when I saw the power of Nidhogg and the Tree of Life, I understood that our decapitation operation had entered the abyss of failure from the beginning. Before seeing the power of the Tree of Life, we were still ridiculous We believe that this is the most likely opportunity to end the disaster that we have encountered since the Tree of Life disaster broke out, and that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Even if the success rate is only one in ten thousand, this plan is worthy of our risk."
"This is not a word of comfort, Siegfried. There is no need for you to feel guilty about this. Even if you and the few elites who left had stayed in the Dragon Knight Brigade, you were only delaying our death and leaving me behind." This dead forest is just a few more dead trees that are bound to this land, so there is no need for you to take all the blame on yourself."
"I will tell you the reason later, but before that, I...we have something to say to you."
The dead tree man quietly looked at Siegfried who was rubbing his fingers at a loss, and said in a tone that he thought was as calm and gentle as possible.
"Look up, you made the right choice at the beginning. I, and everyone in the Dragon Knight Brigade, have never resented or blamed you for your departure. The other people who died because of the failure of this operation have also I have no right or qualification to blame you. Our failure to return to Glamorgan with you, and Glamorgan being captured by the servants of the Tree of Life, have nothing to do with each other! This is not your fault, it is all of us who are wrong. Being optimistic from the beginning underestimated the power of the tree of life..."
Words that she could not imagine even in her dreams floated into Siegfried's ears. She was shocked like a bolt from the blue and fell into a daze. She was speechless for a long time.
"Mr. Lu, if you hadn't said something humane at the end, I would have carved the word 'morning' on your forehead." I felt that Siegfried's spirit and psychology were gradually falling from the critical point. At a relatively normal level, Wu Ming sighed and patted the rough tree trunk: "It's been so many years, do you, a wooden lump, really still remember the situation at that time?"
"My surname is not Lu. Although I have become like this, my memory has not declined."
"Then I'll call you Mr. Zhou?"
"Cena! Why!"
"Okay, okay, Brother Treeman, stop talking about these useless things and hand over the information quickly. We are still rushing to cut down the trees. Hurry up."
