[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies":3,"chapter-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-123":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Notes on Kraft Anomalous Studies",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2283601,4467,"Chapter 123: Erosion and Forgetting","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-123",123,"\u003Cp>Several thick, rigid objects shifted beneath the bandages, their fractured edges rough, jamming and grinding against each other, clearly resisting as the strips were pulled away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft felt this didn’t resemble the fragile facial bones of those men—especially the nasal bridge, composed of cartilage and a cluster of thin, small bones, which should have shattered like Lego dropped from a height, leaving no shape at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This texture was more like a non-metallic, moderately thick stab-resistant faceplate, smashed into fragments by Kup. He nodded in satisfaction; whether the technique was refined mattered less—he’d nailed speed, precision, and force.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The bandage strips were tangled in multiple layers, their surface caked with thick layers of grime and dust, clearly unchanged for a long time; the timely additional blows had only worsened the appearance. Despite such a severe open wound, little blood had flowed—the fluid had merely dampened parts of the cloth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This forced Kraft to abandon unwrapping from the front; he reached behind the pillow, hoping to find a knot securing the bandages there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Following the skull’s crown backward past the occipital protuberance, he found a locked knot—no slack, as if the wrapping had never intended to be undone. He moved his hand downward, puzzled, trying to lift the neck, to rotate this stiff segment for easier access to cut the knot directly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beneath the occipital bone, near the atlantoaxial joint, he found no movable vertebrae or soft tissue—only a strange, rigid plate fixed in place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What is this?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not just from the occiput to the first two cervical vertebrae, but the entire back of the neck was armored with interconnected plates, stacked like tiles—small in volume but with poor mobility, forcing the neck to remain rigidly flexed forward and curved backward even in collapse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This anti-human design violently contradicted the spine’s natural curvature; restricted backward extension forced the masked man into an uncomfortable hunched posture, like someone who’d stared at a phone too long and couldn’t straighten his neck.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Honestly, I’ve been reading with Wild Fruit Reader lately—switching sources, changing voices, lots of options. Available on Android and iOS.】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, when Kraft attempted to rotate the cervical vertebrae left and right, these rigid plates showed remarkable conformity, rotating in sync with the joints before locking the motion in place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’d also wrapped the plates beneath the cloth, further restricting movement—likely making lateral head turns impossible, forcing him to turn his whole body to see behind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Good. If that was the case, he didn’t need to worry about cutting too deeply into the skin. Kraft rolled him over, drew his sword, and sliced open the nape—the bandages shattered into fragments. After clearing the debris, the rigid plates were fully exposed to the light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One glance confirmed they weren’t armor made of any special material—they were… something hard to define.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At first glance, they resembled bone-like structures, bearing familiar yet hybridized arches and protrusions, swollen and rupturing through skin and ligaments, expanding beyond natural constraints.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Like the transverse processes of the vertebrae had grown at an unimaginable scale—two symmetrical, short bony projections on either side of the vertebral arch had elongated, bent backward, and encircled the neck, forming bow-like, flattened, rib-like structures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Worse still, the junctions between upper and lower cervical vertebrae had undergone calcification unlike anything Kraft had ever seen or heard of—not mere calcium deposits or patches, but entire sections transformed into inorganic matter, as if struck by the petrifying gaze of a monster, solidifying into rigid, flat columns.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This extreme calcification, inexplicable by biochemistry, made him suspect the original tissue had simply been replaced by stone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The gaps between vertebrae and intervertebral discs had blurred beyond recognition; calcification spread like an infectious disease, accumulating inorganic matter that fused adjacent vertebrae into single units, with membrane-like and webbed bony growths forming where the transverse arches neared each other.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft scoured his mind for a suitable technical term but found none—no one had ever witnessed this form, let alone named it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The elongated transverse processes fused, segmenting into large, block-like structures. The bone mineralized, bleached of color, shifting toward a lifeless pale yellow and gray-white—remove the shape, and you couldn’t tell if someone had dragged up a buried rock stratum from underground.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sharpened, proliferating edges darkened like pigment deposits, the shadowy black blending seamlessly into the surrounding darkness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This “human”—Kraft wasn’t even sure he could still call it human—had undergone some agonizing transformation, forcibly and irreversibly turning over twenty vertebrae and four natural spinal curves into segmented, armored plates.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the shattered face wasn’t a faceplate at all—it was a hard, bone-and-rock shell that had replaced the skin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tiny amounts of foul, dark-red, decaying fluid oozed from the broken shells, matching the color of the stains on Kraft’s blade after cutting through those human faces and jointed limbs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he still had nerves, this transformation must have been excruciating—mineralized bone invading intervertebral foramina, compressing the spinal canal, pinching nerve roots.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Imagine a supercharged version of herniated lumbar discs plus osteophyte growth—numbness, pain, relentless sensory abnormalities day and night, like rodents gnawing at limbs and torso, accompanied by progressively worsening mobility loss.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>According to Kup, he was never a bedridden, dying patient—another system had taken over his body, replacing the original nervous system like a metamorphosis.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One could imagine the terror he endured—endless torment, death refusing to mercifully arrive, his body birthing an incomprehensible creature.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whether he embraced heresy and was “introduced” to those things by Old Gory, or suffered misfortune during a deep incursion and sought nonexistent spiritual salvation in heresy, all was lost—Kup ended his prolonged suffering.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Forget it. Even if he’d preferred to cling to this mutated life, he could no longer rise to protest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Discovering this entity between human and deep-being had reminded Kraft: they could do more than strip minds and silently devour—they could also reverse-transform.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Did he have any special qualities beyond his appearance?” The awkward, in-between body structure wouldn’t suit movement well—so something else must have allowed Kup to be wounded by several heretic attackers. “Speak freely—William isn’t an outsider.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yes, soon they’d be men who’d seen ghosts together, shared equity—exchanging supernatural insights wasn’t a big deal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He vanished from in front of us and appeared behind me—that’s why I was wounded in the back.” Kup felt he should clarify—he hadn’t been fleeing with his back turned. “It was as simple as stepping into an invisible hole and emerging from the other side.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Strange…” Perhaps this transformation granted him some unique ability—like Kraft’s spiritual senses, differing in form, with immense cost but more direct effects.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That made sense, so his “strange” didn’t refer to that. Kraft stepped away from the armored body, rubbed his chin—the cotton bandages itched slightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a brief pause, he suddenly turned, spread his arms, and spun once in the light, exposing his entire body to everyone’s view.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Check me— I think I’ve forgotten something.”\u003C\u002Fp>",1144,"2026-06-20T02:15:55.761Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","daef7940405367f2fd5e3f27c86bad29b9b3061553e6b672944437c33192d551","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-124","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-122",406,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fnotes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-cover.jpg"]