Chapter 429: The Mystery
At first, putting the 3D image behind the crystal orb, Virus realized that it didn't fit perfectly inside, therefore, after doing some adjustments to it so it became slightly flattened on the sides to the point it was barely noticeable, the adjustment was perfected.
However, the moment he did so, being the quick AI he was, Virus noticed that the crystal orb now resembled the planet Earth to a frightening degree, to the point he could not find any dissimilarities between the size of the orb and the Earth itself, this astonished Virus to some point. Nonetheless, it was what he witnessed next within his mindscape, which startled him to a new degree altogether!
He could see all the small lines of the 3D image aligning together forming a nigh indistinguishable picture of the Earth with all its continents, oceans, mountains, and all of its other little details.
"This," Somewhat speechless, Virus completed his sentence outwardly, "It's a map!"
'What a detailed map, it's shocking how Leonardo made such a detailed map of Earth at that time after going through so many complicated processes!' Virus was now very impressed by the person called Leonardo da Vinci.
'In order to do this, first, he would have had to fully understand the accurate shape of the Earth which is not a perfect sphere. Then, he would need to know the most flawless 3D map of the Earth which was quite an infeasible feat at the time.'
'Yes, they already long had the complete map of the planet at the time, however, it was not this accurate.'
'Still, that is not the truly petrifying aspect of it all, the most terrifying fact is that he was able to paint in such great detail layer after layer, in a way it would perfectly align if put inside a similar sphere orb to Earth. He was a master of how crystal orbs work, so it's foolish to even think he made an error on his painting by mistake. There was no mistaking it with this man.'
'What a genius.' He concluded, feeling galvanized by that particular person of the past.
'But how could he get his hands on a perfect map at that time? Could it be there was another painting and he just copied it to a T after discovering the truth about it?' Shaking his head at this point, he continued, 'But that sounds even more impossible, how could the person before him possibly paint such a perfect painting and if so, how could Leonardo get to the bottom of it and understand the mystery of it? Hmm, or could it be the map was in another form before Leonardo and he just made it into a painting?'
Due to the lack of necessary information, Virus just could not get to a final conclusion regarding any of his vital questions such as, was Leonardo the first painter? Or did he merely imitate or transform the work of someone else before him?
How did he get his hands on the perfect map?
How did he, at that time, paint it layer after layer forming an ingenious 3D image if separated well but still be nonsense and total gibberish unless put behind a sphere orb of Earth?
In fact, the final question was the reason why Virus deemed Leonardo as a rare genius.
All of that, however, at the very end, was not of much importance to Virus.
What was frankly extremely intriguing and absorbing Virus to itself was the question of why was this map drawn? And why did the painter have to go through so much complexity, so many processes, just to paint a map?
As these queries bubbled up within his head, Virus was once again focused on the 3D sphere inside his mindscape. Unfortunately, once again, no matter how hard he contemplated the questions, he just could not arrive at an answer.
Virus understood that meant one of the two things, either that it was only an ordinary map or that he just did not have enough information and clues to get behind the secret of the map.
Of course, Virus had nigh utter faith that it was the latter since he did not believe someone would go to such lengths to draw something that probably wasn't going to be ever known.
The only way someone would go to such an extent was most likely because he was trying to hide something from everyone else while preserving it at the same time for a specific purpose.
'Not enough clues?' This suspicion of his once again drew Virus' attention to the painting of Salvator Mundi hanging on the wall as he wondered, 'maybe there's another clue on it that I missed.'
Immediately afterward, his sharp mind began to examine and study every inch of the painting until he once more reached the intentional error of Leonardo, the non-refracting, transparent crystal orb.
"!!!"
Promptly, as if a light bulb had turned on within his brain, Virus found the very possible clue he was missing.
'The three dots on the orb!'
With no delay, Virus placed the three dots on the imaginary 3D picture within his mindscape and after much deliberation, he reached a possible result.
'The three dots each represent width, length, and depth.'
Following that, Virus adjusted each of the dots according to their width, length, and depth. Subsequently, connecting them together, Virus discovered exactly where the map was pointing and pinning at.
"Oh! I found it! It's pointing at there!" Virus exclaimed out loud, feeling extremely jovial and triumphant as he had just gotten behind the possible truth of the mystery.
Woefully though, the following second, he felt as if a bucket of cold water had just been poured over his head as he realized something crucial, 'It's much too deep into the ground, there is just no way the current level of technology I have access to would be able to dive that deep.'
'Although I would be able to dive in that direction through a certain volcano using my spaceship, I would be long dead by the time I get there since both my spaceship and its shield would've melted away already by then.' Letting out a helpless sigh by the end of his thinking process, Virus could only shake his head in disappointment.
"Hmm…"