210 Replication
Selma Payne’s POV:
To confirm a certain conjecture, I had to know a few questions. “What was their state when they appeared? Are they panting as if they’d just walked a few thousand meters, or are they just standing there and chatting?”
“They’re panting. Everyone’s exhausted.” Dorothy immediately said, “We can all see that their footsteps are heavy, and their limbs are weak. They have been through a long journey.”
“Did any of them turn back to check where they came from? Or do they show an expression of surprise, excitement, or disbelief?”
“Oh… it’s hard to say. I didn’t pay attention to that. Emmett said that he did see some excitement on the faces of a few younger humans. What’s wrong with that?” Emmett was a member of Dorothy’s team.
The long journey, the journey, and the excited young people.
All of this evidence pointed to one possibility.
“Could it be that what we’re seeing is fake?” I muttered to myself.
“What?”
“I mean, could the canyon you and Emmett see be fake?”
“Fake?” Dorothy was confused. “But it’s right here. The snow is increasing, and small animals leave footprints on it. How can it be fake?”
The more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed. “I’m not saying that the canyon itself is fake. What I mean is, is there a layer of camouflage blocking your vision? It’s like building a platform on top of a real canyon. The road is real, the snow is real, and the existence is also real, but when put together, they are fake!”
Dorothy was shocked by my assumption. But they didn’t see any other entrance to the canyon. These humans also appeared out of nowhere.
“It’s right that you didn’t see them!” This proved that my guess was correct. “Is there a possibility that the canyon has been artificially replicated in space? Just like what we saw in the illusion at the second base, the canyon is covered by an identical space, so what we see is all fake. The real canyon is hidden under the illusion. That’s why these humans have appeared out of nowhere. They are walking in the canyon but are covered up, so we can’t see them!”
Eve, who had been listening and observing, agreed. “It’s a ridiculous conjecture, but it’s also very reasonable. We have to find a way to verify it.”
It was easy to prove this conjecture. Since only the hidden real canyon could connect to the other space, the fake passage, which was used as a smokescreen, would not connect to the same space. We just needed to see if someone had successfully reached the corner of the mountain after walking through the canyon or if something else had happened!
But this path was the only way to the human camp. No one knew if people would come, so we couldn’t easily expose ourselves.
“That’s easy.” Dorothy released the Soul Sparrow. “Birds are always more concealed than humans, right?”
We couldn’t see the sunny side of the mountain, so we could only wait anxiously for the result.
Fifteen minutes later.
Dorothy said happily, “Success!” You guessed correctly!”
I almost couldn’t help but jump up. Fortunately, I still remembered that I was on a mission and held back.
To prevent any mistakes, she didn’t let the Soul Sparrow fly. Instead, it walked along the snow. Dorothy described the details of the experiment. “It started from the canyon’s entrance and walked the entire path. However, the moment it was out of the canyon, it was back at its entrance! This means that this space is fake!”
Dorothy and I were thrilled. Eve also praised me with a smile, “That’s great, young ladies. You’re all natural warriors.”
It was time for the shift change. I took over the shift from the team member who was keeping an eye on the afternoon shift and finally could soothe my frozen body.
The base of the reconnaissance team was located on a small hill in the blind spot of the human camp.
Since we couldn’t start a fire, we could only eat the food we had brought this morning. Fortunately, the werewolf grandmaster’s insulation spell was reliable enough, which allowed us to eat warm food.
Everyone was waiting for me to explain my conjecture, and they finished their lunch in a few bites.
“The path we’re taking up the mountain is a new one specially excavated. The route is hidden so that we won’t be discovered as much as possible. However, there is a ready-made passage to the outside world in the ruins of the witch clan, which includes the canyon, and this road is the only way to the witch clan before we start mining.
“But this road has been artificially superimposed with a false space. Combined with the history of witches, I think it’s likely that the witches don’t want to be disturbed by outsiders, so they set up a camouflage.
“In that case, is it possible for them to apply this illusion to other places? For example, hiding a house that doesn’t welcome visitors?
“I’m guessing that Mullwica used a spatial spell to hide her residence, which is why our search for the past few days has been fruitless. It’s something that’s not in this space, so of course, I can’t find it!”
This was a wild guess, but looking at the current situation, it was the only explanation I could think of.
If demons could construct an illusion of folded space, why couldn’t Mullwica create an illusion of reality?
I believed that the Captain Frank situation might also be related to the overlapping space, but because this was a secret, I couldn’t air my thoughts publicly.
