Just as Sun Hang was about to study the structure of the sand boat, the survivor he saved suddenly began to mumble with his eyes closed.
At first, these mumblings sounded like meaningless babble from a person in a coma, but listening carefully revealed that it seemed to be a very unique language. Unfortunately, Sun Hang couldn’t understand it at all.
Before Egypt fell, the official language of the country was Arabic. Besides that, English, as an internationally common language, was widely used here, along with French, Spanish, and other languages commonly used in the Western world... But the language this guy spoke did not belong to any of these languages.
A hundred years, five generations — that’s enough time to completely erase the traces of a civilized society and thoroughly change the language systems of an entire region.
"Analyzing the target’s language... Detected that the pronunciation of this language has a 73% overlap with ancient Semitic languages, conducting comparison... Comparison complete, establishing a primary database... To enhance the accuracy of the database, more samples are needed..."
"More samples?"
"In other words, let the target say a few more sentences," the central brain replied, "The more language samples there are, the more accurate the translation will be."
"Then, what does the few phrases he just mumbled mean?" Sun Hang asked again.
"Sins descend from the heavens, the emissaries of the underworld awaken from beneath the earth, disaster devours countless lives.
The cowardly abandon the land of their ancestors, fleeing to the nation of the heretics, while the forsaken sink into the Desert Sea, turning into pale bones." The central brain answered.
"Why does it sound like it has a very heavy religious tone?" Sun Hang mumbled, "The so-called ’emissaries of the underworld’ probably refers to the Sinking Sand Giant Worm, right? The cowardly ones should be those refugees fleeing Egypt, and the forsaken must be the ancestors of these survivors."
Central Brain: "Literally speaking, your understanding is correct."
Sun Hang again poured some water from the canteen and splashed it on the young man’s face.
The other let out a groan and then struggled to open his eyes.
Upon seeing Sun Hang, he immediately let out a low exclamation and then reached for the bone spear scattered not far away.
But before he could touch the bone spear, Sun Hang stepped on his wrist.
"I saved you, yet you plan to kill me?" With the help of the central brain, Sun Hang asked in the other’s language.
Though his pronunciation was somewhat awkward, it was clear from the change in the other’s eyes that he understood.
"Outlander! You are an outlander!" the other exclaimed.
"What’s wrong with being an outlander? Isn’t there more than just your group in the world?" Sun Hang retorted.
Judging from the dream talk earlier, although these survivors lost most of the things left behind by a civilized society, they at least remember what happened, and they are clearly aware that a group of people abandoned them to flee to another country. So, the fact that there are other humans outside the Desert Sea shouldn’t be something difficult for them to accept.
"Lord Priest said that when an outlander sets foot on this land, it is the time when destruction arrives! You are a being that brings disaster! I must eliminate you!" The young man seemed to have completely forgotten his restrained state, shouting loudly at Sun Hang.
"Firstly, if your priest’s prophecy is accurate, then eliminating me now should already be too late. Secondly, if you have any conscience and brain, your target for elimination shouldn’t be a fellow who just saved your life but the impending ’disaster’ instead."
The young survivor paused for a moment, his rapid breathing slowed down slightly... After several seconds, he asked Sun Hang: "You haven’t received Lord Priest’s blessing, how come you haven’t been swallowed by the emissaries of the underworld?"
"You mean those giant worms wandering underground?"
The young survivor nodded.
"Maybe because I have this?" Sun Hang pointed to the "Nephthys" on his arm.
Upon seeing the arm ring, the young survivor’s eyes immediately widened, trembling as he spoke: "This thing... is... is it the sacred ring?!"
"It seems these survivors indeed possess the Nephthys device left from those years, but it seems that thing in their place has transformed into a ’sacred relic’ with more symbolic than practical significance." Sun Hang thought in his heart.
These survivors shouldn’t be infected; thus, they don’t need the Nephthys device nor are pursued by the Sinking Sand Giant Worm. The people who need Nephthys are probably the infected among these survivors, who must possess extraordinary status among them due to their special abilities... In this way, it makes perfect sense for the Nephthys device worn by the infected to be viewed as a sacred relic by ordinary survivors.
"Does anyone in your place wear this?" Sun Hang asked.
"Only Lord Priest is qualified to wear the sacred ring..." the young survivor murmured.
It appears the priest mentioned by him is an infected person...
Undoubtedly, infected individuals with special abilities have an innate advantage in playing mystical roles.
"What’s your name?" Sun Hang asked again.
"Nu... Nuer." Perhaps because Sun Hang was wearing the "sacred ring" that only priests were qualified to wear, the young survivor’s attitude became much more compliant.
"Besides you, how many people live on this land?"
"There are many settlements... I don’t know how many... We seldom interact with people from other settlements..." Nuer answered.
"How many people are there in your settlement? How many priests?"
"If it’s our settlement... there are more than five thousand people... only one priest, who is called ’Anubis’..."
"Are there priests in other settlements?"
"Every settlement has a priest. Settlements without priests cannot survive on this land," Nuer answered with absolute certainty.
"Where is your settlement located?" Sun Hang asked again.
This time, Nuer didn’t answer... Clearly, he still harbors some hostility towards Sun Hang, the outsider.
"Okay, let’s change the question." Sun Hang was well aware that asking for the location of the settlement before trust is established is somewhat unrealistic. Although he was curious about how a settlement of five thousand people could survive in this barren land with just sand and abnormal creatures, he had to divert the topic.
"When I found you, you were about to die. Can you tell me what happened?"
"I... I was hunting the emissaries of the underworld." Nuer thought for a moment and decided to answer Sun Hang’s question.
"Hunting... the emissaries of the underworld?" This time, it was Sun Hang’s turn to be astonished — he looked at the lean Nuer, who had no meme energies from head to toe, and then glanced at the scattered bone spears.
Hunting? Sinking Sand Giant Worm? With these bone spears?