The next morning, in the early hours of the morning, was basically the same as the day before.
But when Middendorffi and Eli came down again, the greeters turned out to be the middle-aged couple. They were academics who studied animals and had talked to Middendorffi yesterday about the various chickens, ducks and geese in the townspeople's homes. Because of Middendorffi's good learning - in fact, it was purely because he had a lot of questions about other creatures - as well as his over-earnings, the scholarly couple found this youngster quite cute, and got close to and interacted with him as if he were a student.
The female scholar surnamed Vega was also concerned about his health, "I saw you going up the mountain yesterday with just such a thin jacket, aren't you cold?"
Middendorffi responded, "Not cold, Miss Vega."
"Oh, young people still have fire in them." Teacher Vega said, "But you should still pay attention, the temperature difference between morning and evening is big, be careful not to catch a cold."
Middendorffi nodded and turned his head next to Eli, asking in a low voice, "Should I add a shirt in the morning and evening?"
The amount of clothing he wore relied mostly on mimicking the others, and the increase or decrease in temperature difference between morning and evening didn't bother him much. He was also an adult in appearance, so others wouldn't be overly concerned about how thinly or thickly he wore his clothes, much less object. Only someone like Mr Vega, who was also a teacher and an elder, would naturally send care.
Eli knew that he didn't understand the elder-like concern within such words, and just assumed that his behaviour was suspected. So Eli whispered reassuringly, "It's fine, it's just pleasantries, don't add them if you don't want to."
Middendorffi then gave up the idea of going upstairs to add a shirt.
Before dawn, the group made their way up the mountain as they had done yesterday.
Today's trail was a bit wetter and more slippery, Mr and Mrs Vega took a moment to look at Middendorffi's condition, and then saw Eli pulling him along and the two young men whispering next to each other.Mr and Mrs Vega were just pondering this, when Eli caught their eyes and asked, "What's the matter?"
The couple returned to their senses, "Ah, nothing, just checking to see if you guys are keeping up."
"Don't worry about us, both teachers." Henry stepped forward to help socialise, "It's you guys, the road is slippery today, why don't I help you carry a bag?"
"No, no." Teacher Vega waved her hand, "We often climb mountains, some young people may not be as flexible as us, there's no need to shut us down."
Seeing this, Henry didn't advise much. Although his physical strength was definitely much better than the average young man who didn't exercise, he didn't want to go out of his way more.
Once again arriving at the lake in the dark, the actions of the crowd were similar to yesterday. The difference was that today Henry had tucked away a bunch of cardboard shells to cushion his seat. And Mr and Mrs Vega moved in next to them and set up a camera with a big lens. While they waited, Mr Vega had a chat with Middendorffi.
Vega learnt that Middendorffi had lost his parents at an early age and had gone to work in the city without attending university. Afterwards, he was in a car accident and lost his memory. He had no one to take care of him, so he recuperated on his own for a long time. This time, he came here to play, it is also a kind of distraction, more contact with some forgotten things.
Teacher Vega sighed as he listened, thinking that this young man's fate was really rough, and asked him again, "Then what do you live on now?"
Middendorffi said, "Doing favours for friends."
Teacher Vega was somewhat relieved, "Luckily you have some good friends."
Henry, listening and watching, whispered to Eli, "He seems to be a lot more talkative now, is it you or him who talks more when he's alone with you?"
Eli glanced at him and returned an ambiguous, "Pretty much."
"Oh, I thought at first that you both had so little to say that you'd spend all day talking to each other." Henry said, "It seems better for his recovery to have a closer friend. He's always been a bit distant from us, and he's hit it off with you."
After a pause, Henry leaned in close to him again and whispered, "Look, Bear's learning to lie, and those two college professors were bluffed into not suspecting a thing."
Eli didn't move a bit away from him, thinking, "It's you "collectors" he's fooled the most.
Anyway, it was in the midst of this chat that the time approached dawn once again.
Middendorffi stopped talking to Mr Vega, who went to squat her camera, while Middendorffi sat quietly next to Eli, who inclined his head and asked him, "Exchanged contact details with her?"
"Yeah." Middendorffi said, "She said to send me the bird she took earlier."
"Want to see it?"
"General." Middendorffi, still looking the same salty way, replied back, "She seemed pretty keen to friend me, so she did."
Eli, well aware of his train of thought, asked, "No one's ever approached you like that to add a friend before, have they?"
Middendorffi nodded, "Yeah."
Eli softened a little inside and whispered, "She's doing this because she wants to be friends with you. You don't have to think too much about the significance of these actions of hers, it's your freedom to reply or not."
Middendorffi also whispers, "Are all humans this casual about being friends with strangers?"
Eli couldn't actually explain the question, and had to say, "You could say it's casual, or you could say it's a throw-in."
"'Kindred spirits'?" Middendorffi said, "That's how others have described us."
"We have a bond that can be described as more than just the word 'kindred spirits'." Eli said, "As for you and others, you may not feel much, but others can unilaterally feel 'kindred spirits' as well. If you don't want to be friends with someone, just refuse, you don't need to lean on them for anything anyway."
"There's nothing I don't want or think about." Middendorffi returned, "Other people are interested in me ... hmm?"
Eli realised something was wrong with him, "What?"
"There's a ... door?" Middendorffi looked in the direction of the still dark lake, "It's down there."
"Why didn't I ..." Eli was a little confused, but he reacted immediately. This is Middendorffi's new ability, there is probably a spatial property related "door" under the lake!
Their sudden alert movements made Henry also notice something wrong, and he immediately came over and lowered his voice: "What's wrong? There is a movement?"
"That thing was supposed to show up today." Middendorffi stood up and walked over to the lake. His black mist was surging madly towards the thing that looked like a door, and a hole. But what puzzled him was that it was as if everywhere was a door, but everywhere was not. He clearly felt strange energy pouring out, but couldn't find a clear direction.
Eli naturally followed, "Did you find it?"
"Couldn't find it." Middendorffi had a rare look of genuine puzzlement, "Strange, maybe it was only on for a moment and the residual energy confused me ... Look, the lake."
At the same time he spoke, a hint of light began to show in the sky. It seemed to be reflecting this point if the sky light, the lake surface also began some white things. It was blurry and faint when it first appeared; but soon, it became clear. As captured in the previous video, something white around one person high floated in the centre of the lake!
"It's coming it's coming!"
The crowd stirred as well, with all sorts of machinery heading towards the centre of the lake, and the sound of the boat's motor starting up. Henry was staggered to hear the exuberant voices of Musk's group of anchors, and only followed over to hear Middendorffi and Eli's opinion, "What say, what the hell is that?"
By this point, Eli actually sensed what was going on, but he left the expression to Middendorffi.
"I don't know how to describe it ..." Middendorffi said, "A moment before dawn just now, there was a sudden wave of strange and unusual energy at the bottom of the lake, and then it came together and floated to the surface of the lake ..."
Eli watched him struggle to express himself and finally spoke up to help, "Like a reverse vortex made of energy suddenly appeared at the bottom of the lake and washed all the energy that came out of nowhere from the bottom of the lake to a concentrated point on the surface."
Henry frowned, "So, this is really a vision? That white stuff, the energy itself?"
"No. That would be what the energy attracted as it gathered." Middendorffi said as he stared at the white, somewhat fluttering mass of the unknown, "The energy started to dissipate as soon as it floated to the surface of the lake, so that thing would have followed right after the energy dissipated."
Henry's head was spinning as he listened, "That's not even a set? And what is that white stuff?"
"It's a ... presence." Middendorffi looked at the boat that was approaching the thing and said slowly, "Probably, not harmless."
"What ...?!" Henry naturally saw the boat heading straight for the white thing and immediately felt bad. The one who got the boat over was one of the more aggressive anchors, and was rapidly approaching the thing with a live mobile phone. This anchor wasn't an expert in taking a cautious observational attitude, that bow of his boat was clearly meant to be in direct contact with the white thing!
"Hey! Don't come any closer!" Henry shouted, but the anchor didn't even listen to him. The boat turned on its bow as it was nearing, and went sideways, seemingly to close in sideways to get closer. And as soon as the boat crossed over, I don't know whether it was on purpose or by chance, it just blocked the view of the crowd on the side where Henry and the others were. Those who were taking photos, those who were broadcasting live, and those who were looking through binoculars could not see anything at once. Other people who are broadcasting live immediately cursed out, even if just observing and taking pictures of Mr and Mrs Vega, but also in a soft voice complained that the young man driving the boat is too reckless.
The owner of the live broadcast "near the water" was deaf to these reminders and accusations from the shore, he had already turned his back on the crowd and leaned towards the side of the boat.
Henry surmised that he was trying to get a closer shot, maybe even reaching out, and was really getting pissed off at this kind of person. He was about to give another warning when he heard the young man scream, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
The crowd on the shore was startled by him and rose in disbelief. Of course there were sceptics, Musk was right there with a blunt query, "What's all the screaming about, don't be trying to pull some kind of programme effect ..."
"Uhhhh, my hand! My hand-!" The boat was quick to interrupt this questioning as he screamed piteously and collapsed onto the boat. The crowd that had been pulling in close to watch took him in and exclaimed, "His hand is broken!"
"Cripes there's so much blood!"
"Quickly save the man! Is there another boat?!"
"That white thing seems to be picking up his boat ...!"
Amidst the panic of the crowd, Henry's mind was spinning. He knew that if Eli made a move, a rescue was not in the cards at this point. But with so many cameras pointed there, and the one being broadcast live, could he make a move or not?
Well, just as he was hesitating, the white thing that had already climbed over the edge of the boat disappeared silently.
As the sky remained dim, Middendorffi silently withdrew the black mist that was potentially below the surface of the water.
The black mist swallowed up the remaining energy in the lake, and the white thing, had silently disappeared.