dognovel Chapter 576 Summary and Analysis
Chapter 576 Summary and Analysis
That concludes the contents of this commission.
"Hmm... using some possibly incomplete fragments to do a geometric 3D puzzle...?"
What do you think? I feel like you're the most suitable person to do this job.
"I don't have any objections. I can probably draw it in a few minutes, but I can't guarantee that I can put together a complete shape."
"Also, if I may ask another question, does such a simple request really need to be escalated to the official channels between branches?" The gloomy girl with thick glasses looked up at the conference screen, her hair covering half her face, and asked Qi Yun on the other side of the screen with curiosity.
[The matter is rather complicated; I'll have Meteor explain it to you later. I'm busy right now.]
The latter didn't say much, but shifted his gaze to the girl in the shadows and looked at Meteor, who was fiddling with the laptop.
Meteor, are you still not done on your end?
"Don't rush me... I'm not like you, not that skilled with electronic products..."
Meteor answered from behind the screen, only looking at the gloomy girl sitting in front of the screen after carefully confirming that all the photos had been copied from her phone to her laptop.
Port City Heroes Association S-Class Hero, [Palette]
Her psychic abilities grant her exceptional graphic processing skills, allowing her to directly depict the scenes people imagine. She is the perfect candidate to piece together the "eggshell fragments" depicted by Heart Moon Fox.
The video conference had ended. Qi Yun's side was just doing a brief handover of official business; the real work still needed to be handled by me. Meteor thought to herself.
"This is a really complicated matter, and it's confidential information. If you're interested, you can log in to the database with your account later to see it. I won't go into details."
"I see... Let's talk about it later then." Palette shrugged, pretending nothing had happened.
Meteor sat down at the conference table with her laptop, then pushed it towards the palette so she could see all the fragmented images on the screen.
The palette paused for a moment, then looked up at the shooting star with an incredulous gaze.
"Is this...is this what I'm supposed to assemble? It looks pretty strange, what's the story behind it?"
"Yes, the Heart Moon Fox Squad and Red Snow White Lily make up a total of five people. The important information they brought out from Garuda's dream vision is these scattered fragments in front of you."
Upon hearing this, Palette paused again, unsure of what to say.
To be honest, this task couldn't be simpler—my psychic abilities allow me to process large-scale, complex graphics and three-dimensional structures. I've received many commissions from the association before, and I've handled even the strangest things.
It's like the association accidentally retrieved fragments of a book that supposedly came from an unknown civilization in another world. They managed to piece together a whole book from the pile of paper scraps that had almost been shredded by a paper shredder, only to find out that the thing was actually a summer homework book lost by a student in another world.
And what exactly is this thing in front of us, which seems to be closely related to the astral behemoth Garuda?
"Wait a moment."
Palette spoke softly, pulling a box of colored pencils from her bag with her fingers. With her other hand, she picked up two sheets of A4 paper and quickly sketched all the fragments on them. Then she pulled out a paper cutter that was covered in paint and ink.
With her psychic powers activated, she rapidly cut and shredded the printed paper with fragmented patterns in her hands, then used transparent tape to arrange them into a palm-sized object.
"Done. The shape is slightly different, but it's pretty much the same."
The palette breathed a sigh of relief and gently placed the assembled 3D graphic on the table.
Meteor leaned closer and, together with the palette, carefully examined the semi-circular object that resembled a work of art on white paper:
The base, made of paper and transparent tape, has pencil-drawn patterns that fit together perfectly, forming a semi-oval structure with jagged, uneven edges that evoke a sense of unease.
"...It feels like an egg," the palette said.
"It's a cracked egg. The chick that hatched inside has already left, leaving only this half-shell that's been pecked open," Meteor continued.
The two exchanged a glance, even more confused.
……
Around noon, the Chengdu Heroes Association.
"Is this what I found in the dreamlike vision yesterday?"
Hyacinth and Iris sat side by side in the conference room, staring at the half-eggshell made of paper and transparent tape on the table in front of them, and said to Chi Xue and Xin Yuehu across the table.
"Yes, that's probably how it will look." Chi Xue nodded in response.
"The Hero Association commissioned the [Palette] team in Port City to replicate its original appearance and create this thing."
Meteor, sitting at the head of the meeting, said this, pointing to the center of the table.
Then, turning his gaze to Marigold and Winged Sasha, who were intently staring at the paper eggshell beside him, he paused briefly and asked them:
"Sasha, and Marigold, according to the report submitted by Chi Xue and Xin Yuehu yesterday, the mental imagery of their journey to rescue Hellcat Cheshire Rabbit and Bai Lili contains the element of 'racing and playing cards.' Did you create any mental images containing this element during your emergency overtime work yesterday?"
"Oh... yes, there is. There's a concept that incorporates card battles and racing, set in a near-future city. In that world, everyone fights by playing cards, and the best card player can even save the world," Marigold explained.
Sasha also explained to Marigold that although she was a little winged bird who had just come from the countryside, young people are quick to accept new things. After yesterday's knowledge injection, Sasha had a basic understanding of the classic stories in the books and the popular culture in the game console. Although it could not change her worldview, it was enough to deal with this Garuda incident.
Upon seeing the half-eggshell with strange patterns in the middle, the two shook their heads simultaneously, denying that they had created such a thing in their mental world.
They also vehemently denied the existence of the abandoned factory and the physics-defying item race track.
"Impossible, we absolutely did not create any floating racing track." Marigold, as the main creator, vetoed the idea.
"All the 'battles' in our plan are played with cards; we didn't create any high-difficulty tracks like 'item races' at all."
"So it seems that the track we ran at the end was actually Garuda's doing." Chi Xue was slightly surprised, but quickly calmed down and muttered to herself thoughtfully.
Su Tianqing listened attentively and leisurely, even having time to remark, "Garuda really has a lot of free time."
After all, it can create action-packed mowing-down-enemies in Foxgate and spaceships that can be launched into orbit in Foxkov. If judged by this standard, turning "card racing" into "item racing" seems rather conservative.
With the confirmation from the two main creators, and combined with the investigation report from Akashi Yukiko, the Hero Association finally summarized everything that happened last night:
Garuda can currently be confirmed to have a high degree of invasiveness towards the mental world, but its true location has not yet been confirmed. Its specific location can only be guessed based on the inferences made by Cheshire Rabbit and Inari.
Even if it was just a guess, the obstruction that the dream imagery caused to Garuda's invasion was visibly effective, buying a lot of time for on-site investigation and exploration, expanding the investigation window from tens of minutes or an hour to three hours, which was of great help.
"We will continue to collect and organize today's clues and contact authoritative experts for analysis... There doesn't seem to be much point in me saying all this. You two should both know Ms. Inari, right?"
Adhering to the principle of handling matters officially, Meteor recited a line, then shook his head with a wry smile and said to Chixue and Xinyuehu.
"Inari is indeed a very important part, but I might need to find someone with a deeper understanding of Inari," Akashi replied.
"I see. Then it seems like only the red rose is left." Hyacinth, who had been unable to join the conversation, replied thoughtfully.
The atmosphere in the conference room became much more lively, with all parties sharing their views and trying to reconstruct the full picture and truth of the Garuda invasion incident.
The situation suddenly changed when Xin Yuehu coughed lightly and took over the conversation, bringing up a key point that everyone had almost ignored:
"Cough cough."
"Everyone, don't forget something important—the victims who were dragged into the dreamlike mind last night weren't just Cat and Rabbit, there was another person who wasn't in Chengdu."
"Ah... Senior Bai Lili." Iris was the first to react, raising her eyebrows and quickly replying.
Chi Xue frowned, pondered for a moment, and then spoke:
"I had already contacted Bai Lili in advance. She said she was coming to Chengdu to assist with the investigation, but because of the strange attack in Shanghai, she stayed for two more days. As a result, last night she was dragged into the dream imagery by Garuda."
"This is also the thing I'm most worried about."
The fox-woman became more serious and continued,
"As of yesterday noon regarding the incident, all the victims are residents of Chengdu. Even Ms. Marigold has only recently settled in Chengdu. I once suspected that Garuda was searching for victims by directly witnessing the events from the heavens."
"But last night, Bai Lili, who was far away in Shanghai, was also dragged into the dreamlike mental image. This completely overturned all our previous understanding. I think it is necessary to rethink the specific ways in which Garuda drags the victims into the dreamlike mental image."
"If Garuda can truly affect Shencheng unconditionally from such a great distance, then its actual destructive range... is probably much greater than we imagine."