Chapter 6 “Master Key Part 1”
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“Do you know about the Mawangdui Tomb cluster?”
Lighting a cigarette again, Fatty Ho began to tell the tale about the “key” to idle. At the same time, they also returned to the dean’s office for a way into the secret corridor mentioned by the thief king.
“Mawangdui Tomb?” Idle thought for a moment and asked, “Is it the tomb cluster that unearthed a near perfect female corpse?”
Fatty Ho nodded and walked around the room while talking.
“In 1972, five keys were unearthed at that place. From a certain perspective, these artifacts are beyond the concept of conventional modern technology.”
Hearing this, Idle’s interest thickened up a notch his eyes flickered with curious light.
“What do you mean by that exactly?”
“You’ll understand once I explain.”
“After the five keys were unearthed that year, the superiors were quickly notified of this find and strict protective measures were set in place with all departments taking part. But no one expected an accident to occur under so many eyes. Firstly, nobody had access to the safe where the keys were stored. On top of that, it’s also surrounded by dozens of armed men with an all-encompassing surveillance system in place to ensure the keys’ safety. It can be said that in that era, no one could possibly steal from under such an arrangement. But when the transport vehicle finally arrived at the headquarters’ research facility, only four of the five keys remained, one had gone missing….”
“No one knows where the key went or how it was lost.” When speaking up to this part, Fatty Ho seems to recall back to the chaos that ensued from that year. Shaking his head helplessly, “Our department faced the brunt of that blame and was promptly ordered by the government to thoroughly investigate the matter. We checked the internal personals repeatedly, then questioned anyone that so much as got near the artifacts during and after the transport. But in the end, there were no clues, not even a trail to go upon. It wasn’t until the late 1990s, when surveillance footage of the thief king surfaced, that we discovered the key.”
“So the thief king stole the key?” Idle asked curiously.
“Probably not, the timing didn’t match up.” Fatty Ho shakes his head to dismiss the idea, “We also wondered if that’s the case at first, but that happened before the guy’s time. With the thief king dead, we are now once again at a loss.”
Lighting up another cigarette, the fatty had to take a breather to settle that urge, “Since we’re on the subject, let me tell you something interesting young Idle. Those keys, they’re from a time predating the Mawangdui Tombs after forensic examination. In fact, the carbon footprint is so old that we can’t even tell which dynasty they were made from. This whole thing is more complex than anyone knows, at least more complex than my pay grade anyway.”
Idle nods, motioning the fatty to continue because he’s got his tail wagging now like a curious little kid.
“Of course, no matter how old an item is, it’s nothing more than a cultural relic that wouldn’t normally raise such a fuss. What did raise a fuss was the use of those keys. They have a special feature to them.”
“What feature?”
The fatty suddenly paused and made a strange face like he was making sure of something. Then lowering his voice into a whisper, “It’s to unlock.”
Yes, the most unbelievable ability of these ancient keys was to unlock locks.
Electronic, mechanical, digital, crypto.
No matter what kind of lock they were, these “keys” from ancient times could open them no matter what.
“Think of these keys as artificial intelligence. They can recognize a lock so long as you get close to whatever you’re aiming for.”
Fatty Ho had seen the other four keys before so he could confirm this fact.
“At first the key will turn into powder and invade the object. You can see the coarseness when it activates, but as it works, the coarseness of the powder will grow tinier and tinier until it disappears from the naked eye.”
“So the keys are a type of magical powder?” Idle thought about it and theorized this idea.