[{"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-241":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},2283719,4467,"Chapter 241: The Way of Balance","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-241",241,"\u003Cp>“You call this ‘not a big deal’?” Kraft was utterly stunned; the surrealness of the situation rivaled inhaling a lungful of spore powder.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“A heresy, a new heresy with clear symbolic emblems, scurrying like cockroaches beneath our very feet in the sewers, wielding strange methods—is that not a big deal?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Green glanced at the door, confirming no one was approaching. This was an isolated stone chamber.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without pretense, he said, deeply dissatisfied yet helpless: “To many, yes; but to those who decide whether I receive support, perhaps not.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Those with surnames and land inheritance believe only in surnames and land; everyone knows this, but no one states it outright. And for those with older surnames and more land, the standard can be stretched even further.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The Inquisitor General is happy to sweep cockroaches out of the house—but if they hide beneath vases or sacred arks, that’s another matter.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Even if these cockroaches set fire to the university lab and attacked Inquisition monks in the suburbs—abandon the case just because of a symbol on a tattered suit of armor?” The situation was beginning to reveal its shape; it was time to escalate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Burn another one, then—after all, it won’t reach beneath the cushions of the Mother Church’s throne; there’s no sign of heresy spreading.” From the perspective of a senior practitioner, Green understood the logic perfectly: “Of course, the attacks are vile—we’ll find a way to retaliate.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The problem now is this armor—it raises concerns, and casualties will deepen those concerns. Whether those concerns come from those around you or from bishops and the Inquisitor General, it’s never good.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Casualties?” Kraft hadn’t seen anyone handling bodies since arriving.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“God be praised. We had two teams out in the rain. The first team returned in time; I found the second. Bad news: when we found them, they weren’t full.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What attacked them?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Right here.” The priest kicked the coffin. The armor clanged like a rusted pipe; something inside rattled. “It’s hard to believe, but something alive has taken up residence inside the armor—using it like a hermit crab uses a shell…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The memory felt more like a nightmare so vivid it bordered on reality: fighting soft-bodied creatures with ancient metal shells, amid corridors crawling with heretical symbols.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As it burned, the thing emitted a familiar sound—indistinguishable from hallucination or truth—matching the voices of the confirmed dead, as if fragments of them still lingered within.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This reminded Green of the demons described in the Holy Texts, who enslaved and tormented their victims’ souls, denying them peace even after death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the return path, the sparser distribution of symbols intensified the sense of unreality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Does it sound like the ramblings of a man driven mad—or do you think it’s fabricated to evade responsibility?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And then you burned it?” The professor’s acceptance was beyond imagination—he raised no questions at all, accepting outright the claim of being attacked by “armor hermit crabs.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Judging by the fresher blackened traces inside, the thing’s fate lay somewhere between charred squid and boiled crab left on the stove too long.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes.” Though he knew the other might understand more, this attitude was too ordinary. Green felt the professor was unmoved—even revealing a hidden curiosity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Do you know what this is?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No—but I can find out now. Fortunately, I happened to bring tools.” Kraft pulled out several instruments, laid them out in a row, peeled off the nearly detached faceplate, and inserted a slender pair of tweezers diagonally into the interior.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This level of professionalism was so rare it startled even the priest: “You knew you’d need them?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Not at all. Just a free gift from an academic conference—they were quite enthusiastic, insisted on stuffing a few into my hands before I left.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Rarely is kindness without cause.” Even without examining craftsmanship, the materials and polished surfaces revealed great value.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Of course I know. Using—or claiming to use—them is itself a form of repayment… Move the light closer.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft stirred inside the helmet, plucked out a roughly shaped fragment from the fused black char. For some reason, the scene felt eerily familiar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Due to the semi-enclosed space, combustion was incomplete; moisture steamed the contents while preserving the more heat-resistant parts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With tweezers, he peeled back the charred surface layer, revealing a pale yellow-white surface: a gravel-like object with a small horn, its uneven surface clearly shaped for grinding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft confirmed its identity: “A tooth. Specifically, the second molar.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He inserted the long-nosed tweezers into roughly the same spot, fumbled for a moment, then extracted several more fragments of similar size and shape. After cleaning, he arranged them in an arc.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A few pieces were missing from the arc, but the overall shape was already clear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If I’m not mistaken, this thing made chewing noises when it ate?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“...”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Green reluctantly acknowledged the claim.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It resembled an embryo—an unevenly developed one, with only the necessary parts fully matured.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He also pulled out scattered bone fragments, far less intact than the teeth; their broken edges showed a porous, decomposed structure, as if undergoing accelerated osteolytic reactions akin to osteosarcoma.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I don’t think this is ‘digestion’ in the conventional sense.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What difference does it make?” This thing had consumed several people; analyzing how it digested them only made Green feel worse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It makes all the difference. This isn’t like a person or animal eating lunch, where food is slowly broken down into basic nutrients inside the stomach and gradually absorbed. No, Green—this is entirely different.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How to put it? They were used directly—like taking a brick from the church’s backyard and moving it to build a partition. It’s internal reallocation within a single entity. This thing is fundamentally composed of ‘people,’ even using teeth identical to yours and mine.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ignoring the priest’s indescribable expression, the professor abandoned the inefficient task of piecing fragments together and began dismantling the armor himself: “I think I know what this is. Help me take it apart—you never intended to submit it intact, did you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Why?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If I’m right, I should find evidence.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After prying loose the rusted clasps, the two lifted the entire breastplate together, opening the gelatinous, solidified space like cracking open a crab’s shell. A nauseating stench of charred protein wafted out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The incineration technique clearly fell short of Morrison’s standards—it was far from thorough.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Physiological and psychological revulsion made Kraft cover his nose and step back. Only when the odor had mostly dissipated did he approach again, using tools to pry apart a sludge-like mass. The expected target lay protected at the center, nearly undamaged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft pinched it, extracted it from the half-formed vertebrae surrounding it, then scraped off its charred outer crust after heating.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A gray-white prismatic rod, one finger’s length, emitting an extremely faint, obscure glow that stirred unpleasant memories in Green. It was the same light that had burst from the deep well—now shrunk countless times, held between iron teeth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You recognize this.” Even the slowest mind could see the deliberate intent behind these actions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes—but I’ve never known how it forms.”\u003C\u002Fp>",1170,"2026-06-20T02:15:56.940Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","6e80e23d3a8f5aa2f9dc5484e04074c8f27279ab2558e875eda1f52760c29223","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-242","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-240",406,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fnotes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-cover.jpg"]