"I'm not used to having no warning of the explosion," Ness mumbled.
Kanter said, "Speaking of the roar, I remember that the last time there was a roar, it was mixed with the cries of animals."
"I noticed that too. I think they're exploring a sea monster's nest. I wonder if we're right. Are they really Schiz's descendants? Hey, Mascot, didn't you say there were workers? Where are they? Maybe we can get an answer if we ask one of them. "
"There are always workers around. I don't know why. Maybe they went to the lower level? " Reynolds' voice came from the Spirit Bond. He didn't mind the nickname "Mascot" at all. Since he couldn't resist it, he had to accept it.
"Let's go to the lower level then. But you said there's a display room for Soul Gear on the first level too? Since we're already here, let's go check it out. "Angor could tell from Ness' excited tone that he didn't just want to" check it out ".
After listening to the conversation for a while, Angor blocked it again. It was mostly Ness' monologue and self-talk. He would rather study runes than waste time listening to Ness' ramblings.
When the airwaves disappeared, he began to study runes again.
Meanwhile, Reynolds followed Ness' insistence and went to the display room on the first level.
They passed by the lab center, the storage room, and the material storage room along the way. Ness went into each room to check. His goal wasn't just to "look". It would be better if he could take everything away. But in the end, he only "looked". This was because there was nothing on the first floor that caught his eye.
According to Reynolds, there were only two valuable items on the first level: the workers and the display room.
The workers were the core of the lab. Even the workers on the first level would be involved in a lot of research related to the lab's core. They were undoubtedly valuable.
There were display rooms on every level, and the value increased with each level. However, it didn't mean that the display rooms on the first level were worthless.
Reynolds' Soul Gear, for example, was originally a display room on the first level. The value of a Soul Gear didn't lie in itself. It depended on the user.
Reynolds led the way while Ness observed the surroundings as they walked.
Previously, he had heard from Reynolds that there was no danger in the laboratory. There were traps, but as long as one was careful, they could avoid them. This gave Nessie the illusion that the laboratory was not that dangerous.
But when he really walked into the laboratory, Ness realized that Reynolds' words were purely his personal misunderstanding.
Reynolds had been living in the laboratory all year round and was already used to everything here. Many of the mechanisms were also identified by authority. Reynolds had basically never triggered any of the mechanisms here, so his knowledge was limited.
Now that they were following Reynolds in the laboratory, they didn't seem to have triggered any traps, but that was only because Reynolds was leading the way. If he had barged in without a guide, Ness believed that he wouldn't be in a good spot either.
As an experienced adept, Ness had already seen several dangerous traps along the way.
The danger was one thing, but the most important thing was that the interior of the laboratory was not as spacious as imagined. Although it extended in all directions and had many spacious rooms, such as the laboratory center and the storage room, most of the places were narrow and cramped corridors.
Along the way, they spent eighty percent of their time in the narrow passageway.
These passageways were all mechanically constructed, filled with magic patterns and embedded with energy pipes.
Nessie's knowledge of magic patterns wasn't that great, but he could still see that if they were to trigger the magic patterns in these passageways, they would be met with a backlash from the magic array.
Thus, walking in the narrow passageway, they couldn't attack the surrounding walls. This made their safe passage area even narrower.
Moreover, in such a narrow and complicated passageway, if they were to accidentally take the wrong path, they would end up in a dead end and encounter mechanisms that could destroy everything.
If this wasn't dangerous, then Ness didn't know what was.
It could only be said that their luck was not bad. With the traitorous Reynolds, they were able to pass through the laboratory safely without any obstructions.
After walking for about ten minutes in the passageway filled with green and red lights, mechanical valves and energy pipes, they finally arrived at the showroom.
The door of the showroom was tightly shut. Two huge steel doors blocked the way in. The showroom's nameplate was right above the door, and it was lit with a normal white light.
It was worth mentioning that the nameplate wasn't just engraved with the common language, there were also tadpole-like characters from Cazider World.
If they were in a sealed room somewhere else, Nessie's first choice would be to sneak in with his soul. But this place was different. The entire laboratory was filled with magic patterns. These magic patterns were integrated together and were used to guard against energy entities.
The two steel doors had similar magic patterns flashing on them. In other words, they were connected to all the magic patterns in the laboratory. Unless they destroyed all the magic patterns in the laboratory, it was basically impossible to sneak in with one's soul.
Nessie looked at Reynolds. "Is there a way to get in?"
Reynolds hesitated. "When I came here with Nausica last time, I was able to. But now, I don't know if I can get in without a body. I don't know if my authority has been sealed. Let me try first. "
Reynolds stepped forward and took a deep breath. He looked very cautious.
However, Nessie easily saw through the serious atmosphere. He spoke to Reynolds through their Spirit Bond, "Lucky Charm, don't forget that you're just a soul now. I'm sure you can't breathe. You're going to breathe in loneliness."
Reynolds almost couldn't hold it in. The soul energy in his soul fluctuated for a while before he forced himself to calm down. He ignored Nessie's sarcasm and reached for the steel door with his translucent hand.
The moment Reynolds' soul hand touched the door, the mageweath on the door immediately reacted.
Energy flowed toward the nameplate on the door.
The signboard with the words "Showroom" written on it also changed from white to yellow at this time. At the same time, a mechanical eye crawled out from the nameplate.
The Mechanical Eye looked similar to the Rune Eye found in Floating Mech City. Instead of a pair of wings, it had several silver tentacles that looked like spider legs. These tentacles allowed the Mechanical Eye to attach itself to a nametag.
After the mechanical eye appeared, the single eye did not look at anyone else. Instead, it stared straight at Reynolds.
Reynolds tensed up and felt his heart racing. Of course, he forgot that he did not have a heartbeat yet.
About three seconds later, the mechanical eye returned to the nameplate. At the same time, the yellow light on the nameplate turned into a green one.
When he heard a "click" sound in his ear, he was stunned.
"Alright, the door is unlocked." Reynolds let out a long sigh of relief.
"What was that?" Nessie looked at the nameplate curiously. He did not feel anything when the mechanical eye came out. However, the eye released a very interesting ripple that covered Reynolds' body. The ripple contained soul energy, which made Nessie curious.
"The showroom's butler, or the eye of authority."
Almost every showroom had such a mechanical eye butler. It had the authority to enter and exit the showroom. Everyone who entered and exited the showroom would be inspected by it. Yellow light meant it was being examined. Green light meant it passed. Red light meant it failed. Alert mode was activated.
Nessie: "You've become a spirit, how can it recognize you?"
Reynolds scratched his head: "I'm not sure either. But I've heard a rumor that the eye of authority does not recognize people, but soul imprints. Now it seems that it might be true. "
If the eye of authority recognized the soul imprint, then even if Reynolds became a spirit, he would not be restricted. Because, the soul imprint was engraved on the soul.
Even now, Reynolds' face still had two imprints, 'X' and '1'.
"Recognizing the soul imprint, then the one who created this thing is probably the Cazider World's power." Nessie thought. But he knew nothing about that power, so he could only guess.
He did not think too much about it. The most important thing was that the door was opened.
The magic patterns on the steel door had been unlocked. With a rumbling sound, the door slowly opened.
Unlike the other rooms they had been to before, when the door opened, a white mist with biting cold air rolled out from the crack of the door.
When the two doors were completely opened, the scene inside was seen by everyone.
The showroom was bigger than the lab. It was as spacious as a small square.
There were metal platforms of various sizes inside, each of which had a special transparent container on it.
Due to the extremely low temperature inside, the air was filled with white mist, making it difficult to see what was inside.
However, the overall layout of the showroom reminded Nessie of the underground cavern Angor found in the Central Empire.
The altar in the underground cavern was surrounded by stone platforms, on which there were similar containers. This place was very similar to the underground cavern. The only difference was that the stone platforms were replaced by metal ones, which made them look more delicate.
If it was really the same as the situation in the Catacombs, then what was stored in the transparent container might be those … organs.
As Nessie thought about this, the mist on the small platform closest to the door slowly disappeared due to the flow of air outside.
The frost on the transparent container also began to dissipate, revealing the true appearance of the container.
It was a head.
To be more precise, half of a head was soaked in a yellow liquid.
From the round nose, the dark, rough skin, and the large, fan-like ears, one could tell that half of its head was probably that of a 'pig'.
Or was it a pig-like humanoid?
Such beast-like humanoids were almost non-existent in the southern wizardry region. However, there were quite a lot of them in the Drauna Plane. After all, the Outer God of this plane was a beast.
"It really is an organ for transplant." Nessie approached the platform and carefully observed the pig's head. He discovered that while its skin looked rough from afar, it wasn't as simple as it looked up close. Its skin was covered in tiny black holes, each of which was absorbing the energy fluid from the outside.
Pigmen — or "pigmen" for now.
The ears of the pigmen were engraved with some primitive totems, which pointed to some unknown existence. Nessie's heart skipped a beat.
"This is a believer of an Outer God from the Drauna Plane. It's been baptized many times. With the right transplant method, it'll gain great power." The one who spoke was Kanter. As a knowledgeable scholar, he recognized the origin of the Orc at a glance.
"That's true. But who would choose to transplant a pig's head?"
Nessie complained in his heart as he reached out to take the container.
Regardless of whether the pig's head was good or not, its value was definitely not low. After all, anything that could be placed in the showroom had already been successfully integrated into Soul Equipment.
However, just as Nessie reached out, Reynolds said through the Spirit Bond, "Sir, the showroom has its own protection system. It's fine if the number of items in the showroom fluctuates occasionally. However, if there are too many missing items, the showroom may go into alert mode. "
"You mean I can't take more?" Nessie was dissatisfied.
Reynolds explained, "I don't know the exact situation either. This is what I heard from the people who researched the Sequence."
Reynolds had entered the showroom before and often saw items going in and out. At the time, he thought that the items in the showroom could be taken away at will. Later, one of the researchers told him that there was a daily limit to the items in the showroom. This was to make it easier for the researchers. Once the limit was exceeded, the showroom would go into alert mode.
When that time came, the top three researchers would have to make the decision to take the items in the showroom.
This was actually a kind of protection system in the lab.
It made it easier for the researchers to work and prevented the losses from increasing infinitely if there were any loopholes.
Nessie was puzzled. "There's such a limit?"
On the other side, Kanter motioned for Nessie to look at the metal platform. Nessie had been focused on the pig's head in the container and neglected other things. Now that he took a closer look, he realized that there was a mageweath connection between the metal platform and the container.
In other words, once the container was touched, the magic array might really counterattack.
Nessie couldn't help but complain through the Spirit Bond, "This is too unfriendly."
The others were silent.
"Then what do we do now? We can't take the pig's head anymore? "
Reynolds said, "As long as it doesn't exceed the limit, you can take it. Once the limit is reached, the Eye of Authority will flash a yellow light to remind you. At that time, don't continue to take it … However, it's best not to let the Eye of Authority remind you, because it might alert the people in the lab. "
Although the combatants might have left, the workers were still there. Their authority wasn't low either. If they were alerted in advance, some of the treasures in the showroom below might be hidden by them. Furthermore, if they directly ordered the Eye of Authority to close the access to the showroom, there might be nothing left.
"Then when will the Eye of Authority appear?"
"Generally speaking, more than three items may trigger the Eye of Authority."
Although he was helpless, this was the reality. In order to make things easier, Nessie could only suppress his desire to take all the items.
As for the pig's head … Nessie decided not to take it for now.
It was better to check the other items before making a decision.
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