The world of runes was like a trap full of temptations. The more one looked at it, the easier it would be to fall into it. Especially for someone like Kanter, who only knew a little about runes.
If he kept studying them, he would lose himself in the colorful lights. He would think he knew everything, but in reality, he would gain nothing. He might even lose his mind.
With Kanter's experience, he naturally understood that this was a consequence of having insufficient aptitude and foundation. Hence, he quickly retracted his gaze and stopped looking at the mageweath projection.
"What do we do next?" Kanter asked.
"Nothing for now. Let me take a closer look at the runes," Angor quickly replied.
Kanter nodded. He let the Eye of Authority float in the air and gave it some mana so that it could look around freely.
Kanter did not dare to look at the rune projection for fear of losing his mind. Instead, he looked around and saw a transparent box that looked like a coffin.
Inside the box was a tall mechanical puppet. Kanter immediately recognized the puppet from the runes on its face.
"Hunter No.4 … I didn't know the first level of the Hunter No.1 was inside a magic array node …"
Not long ago, when they encountered Hunter No.18 and Hunter No.19 on the first level, Reynolds told them about the Hunter No.19's position in the lab.
According to Reynolds and some other low-level personnel, Hunter No.1 was known as the "Merciless Enforcers". Anyone who violated the lab's rules would be eliminated by them. Whenever Hunter No.1 went out, he or she would definitely cause death, which was why they were called "Merciless".
However, Reynolds also mentioned that "Enforcers" was just their title. The high-level personnel in the lab called Hunter No.1 "Scavengers".
As for why, Reynolds did not know.
Another thing was related to the Hunter No.1, which was that there were 20 Hunter No.1 in total. The higher the Hunter No.1 was, the stronger they were. However, there were only 6 to 20 active hunting sequences in the laboratory. The top 5 hunting sequences had never appeared since the establishment of the laboratory.
Reynolds even guessed that the Hunter No.5 might not exist, or that the Hunter No.5 was not in the southern wizarding region at all.
He did not expect that the top five hunters were actually hidden in the sub-control nodes of the Magic Array. The mechanisms on their bodies were connected to the trigger points of the magic array. They were the guardians of all the sub-control nodes. Once someone intruded, they would definitely be attacked mercilessly.
Unfortunately, they ran into Angor, who was an expert in runes. Not only did they avoid the trigger point, but they were also criticized by the outsider.
Hunting Sequence No. 4 was a creation of mechanical alchemy. There were also some mageweaths on its body, but compared to the ones on the wall, the ones on its body were much friendlier.
Even Kanter could understand a thing or two.
While Angor studied the control nodes on the wall, Kanter began to study the hunting sequence.
About 15 minutes later, Kanter came back to his senses. Judging from the runes on the mechanical puppet's shell, Kanter could roughly tell that it was a wizard-level puppet.
Previously, they had thought that there were only three official wizards in the laboratory, but now it seemed that this was not the case. Killing Sequence 4 was already at the wizard level.
It was estimated that the higher-ranked ones had sorcerer-level combat power.
In other words, there were at least 7 adept-level combatants in the laboratory. It seemed that this laboratory had a lot of resources. As expected of a place from the origin world.
As for the other parts of the Mechanical Marionette, such as its abilities, Kanter couldn't figure it out.
A wizard-level mechanical puppet was already very valuable. It was too bad that it was connected to the magic array. Otherwise, Kanter would really want to take it away.
Kanter had finished studying the puppet and looked back at Angor.
He noticed that Angor, who represented the Eye of Authority, was still immersed in the runes. Angor would approach the runes from time to time. Normally speaking, the runes would repel all intruders, but the Eye of Authority did not react at all. This meant that Angor had completely grasped the timing of the energy flow inside the runes. He could move within the runes without triggering them.
To Kanter, this was inconceivable.
Kanter did not even have the ability to observe the runes for a long time. Yet Angor was able to do this with the Eye of Authority.
Kanter could only say that the younger generation would surpass the older generation.
A master alchemist recognized by the R&D department was not someone to be trifled with.
"I don't think No.03 has realized who just entered her lab …" Kanter silently prayed for No.03. No.03 didn't know that Angor was here. If she did, she wouldn't have stayed inside the Wave Mechanic's head so calmly.
Finally, Angor heard something from Kanter's side.
"It's just as I thought!" Angor spoke through their Spirit Bond.
Before Kanter could ask, Ness, who had been waiting outside, spoke first. "What's going on inside? What's going on?"
"I can't control the sub-control nodes on the second floor right now. But I found something important."
"What is it?"
"Something that leads to the main control node!"
Angor wanted to use the Eye of Authority to check the sub-control nodes on the second floor because he wanted to verify an idea he had.
He wanted to see if he could find the main control node.
There could be multiple sub-control nodes in a magic array, but there had to be a main control node that could control the overall situation. Normally, the sub-control nodes and the main control nodes would interact with each other in some way.
However, Angor could only see the sub-control nodes on the first floor. He could not tell which runes led to the main control node. He needed more evidence to support his theory.
And he could use the other sub-control nodes to support his theory.
Now, Angor got what he wanted from the sub-control nodes on the second floor. He did see the runes that were connected to the main control nodes on the first floor.
He was sure that the runes were all connected to the main control node.
"I'm sure it's possible to find the main control node from the sub-control nodes."
"Now that you've seen the sub-control nodes on the second floor, can you find the main control node?"
"It's not easy to find the main control node with only two sets of data. It'll take a lot of work. But if I can see the sub-control nodes on the third floor, I'll be more confident. "
Angor's meaning was clear. If they wanted to find the main control node, they had to use the Eye of Authority to check the sub-control nodes on the third floor.
Should they do it? Both Kanter and Ness did not hesitate at all. "Yes."
As long as they could find the main control node, they would be able to see all the secrets hidden in the lab.
Their safety would also be greatly guaranteed.
Angor might even be able to control the magic array.
"Alright. Let's go to the sub-control nodes on the third floor. Will the Eye of Authority block our vision when we go to the third floor? "Ness asked.
"No." Angor shook his head.
"Then let's go now."
"Sure. But before that, I need Mister Kanter to do something for me."
"What is it?" Kanter was surprised.
"Suppress the information barrier between the second and third floor …" Without doing so, Angor would not be able to talk to Kanter even if he could see the third floor with the Eye of Authority.
Kanter looked at the dazzling runes on the wall and gulped.
After a while, Kanter hesitated. "Let me try."
In the end, Kanter successfully suppressed the information barrier and walked out of the corridor. His face was pale, and his wrinkled forehead was covered in sweat.
Kanter didn't say anything, but from these details, Ness could tell that Kanter must have gone through a great deal of torture to suppress the information.
Ness was glad that he was not the one who entered the sub-control node. If a top-tier truth-finder wizard like Kanter was so pale, Ness would at least feel weak in the knees. If his legs really went soft and he couldn't walk, then it would be very embarrassing.
They walked in silence for the rest of the journey.
Angor was trying to figure out the location of the main control node with two pieces of evidence. Ness did not want to talk to Kanter. Kanter looked too pale right now.
They walked until they reached a narrow path that was even narrower than the one in the sub-control node.
The path was crooked, and there was a corner not far ahead.
Ness used his spirit feelers to check and found that they would run into a wall about ten meters away. In other words, this path was a dead end.
"Are you sure this is the right way to go to the third floor?" Ness asked Reynolds.
Reynolds nodded. "I'm sure."
Ness opened his mouth to say something, but when he thought about the situation between the first and second floors, he decided not to say anything. In any case, Reynolds was the local tyrant. They just had to follow him.
The path was not long. Soon, they reached the end of the path.
"Wait here for ten seconds," Reynolds said.
Ten seconds later, Reynolds led everyone back and stopped at the entrance of the small path, waiting for another ten seconds.
When they took another turn, they saw that the end of the path was no longer a wall. Instead, there was a long flight of stairs that led downwards.
"It's the same as the first two floors …" Ness said. "So we have to go back. Is this some kind of trap?"
Reynolds scratched his head. "I don't know. Maybe it is. Anyway, we have to walk like this to get to the next floor. It's the same for the third and fourth floors. "
Angor, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke up. "Actually, there are no stairs connecting each floor of the lab."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"The first floor to the second floor, and the second floor to the third, are all independent. There's no direct path connecting them."
"Then what's with the path we're on now?"
"I call this path 'tentacle'. It's the tentacle of the giant laboratory. Or, you can call it the external corridor. "
Kanter and Ness thought of the same thing at the same time.
Before entering the lab, they used their spirit feelers to scan the place and got a general idea of how it looked like. Back then, they found that the lab was surrounded by square "tentacles".
Now it seemed that the path they were on was actually one of the "tentacles".
They had to wait for twenty seconds before the entrance to the third floor appeared. It was because the tentacles were moving from the second floor to the entrance leading to the third floor.
"So that's how it is … Then if someone discovers that we're in the tentacles, wouldn't they just cut off the tentacles and bury us underground?" Ness said.
"Can you not jinx it?" Kanter asked.
Angor put on a serious look. "What Wizard Ness said is very likely to happen. I think the lab did this just to be safe. If something goes wrong, they can just cut off the tentacles and separate the floors from each other. "
Because of this, they were not safe.
If someone noticed their intrusion, they could easily cut off the tentacles connecting the floors. If they wanted to leave, they would have to go through the entire magic array.
Thinking of this, Ness had a bad premonition.
"Whoever built this lab must have some kind of persecutory paranoia. Why are they so strict?" Ness couldn't help but curse.
He had to find the main control node as soon as possible so that he wouldn't get caught. Once he found the node, he would gain a certain level of authority over the magic array.
With that in mind, Ness quickly stepped onto the stairs leading to the third floor.
The others quickly followed.
When they reached the third floor, Angor used his Eye of Clearance to observe the runes around them and guided them to the sub-control node.
As for the showroom, there was no need to worry about it. Personal gains could wait.
They moved quickly on the third floor and ignored all the rooms they came across along the way. They were only looking for the sub-control node.
However, there was still a little accident on the way.
They ran into someone who stopped them.
For the first time since they entered the lab, they ran into people.
And it wasn't just one person. There were three of them. And Reynolds knew all three of them.
"Fang, Ling, and … Sickle." Reynolds looked at them blankly and spoke their names in a soft voice.
However, it was clear that they didn't agree with the names. They looked at them with cold eyes and didn't react at all.
Judging from their appearances, the three of them were all men. They were wearing silver-white base uniforms. They stood tall and had a rather imposing aura.
There were also numbers on their faces. However, their number tattoos were different from those on 03 or the hunting list. Instead, they looked more like Reynolds'.
On the left was an X, and on the right was a number.
From left to right, their numbers were X5, X9, and X2.
When they saw this "X", everyone understood that what appeared in front of them was the same experimental subject as Reynolds.
Previously, Reynolds had said that there were nine experimental subjects like him who had survived. Over the years, in the process of carrying out missions, collecting intelligence, and assassinating, another four had died. Excluding Reynolds, there were only four left.
And they ran into three of them.
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