In a management room in the Core Area, Luo stood at the control platform Old Qiao had once used to monitor the entire base. Several mechanical limbs extended from behind her, connecting to the terminal devices beside her, while countless ever-changing holographic projections floated around her. Some displayed dazzling streams of data and charts, while others showed the current situation inside and outside the base.
"Old Qiao left behind a 'pickup point' for trading with the Hermetic Society, as well as two secret lines for contacting their intermediaries." She raised her head and looked at Yu Sheng, who stood nearby with his arms folded. Faint data streams glimmered in her golden, star-shaped eyes. "But I have reason to doubt the accuracy of this information. Based on what I know about him, even if he were truly driven into a desperate corner and only seeking a quick death, he would still do everything possible to set a trap for me. Those two secret lines are very likely 'warning channels' he had arranged with the Hermetic Society in advance. If we activate them recklessly, the people on the other end will probably realize that something has happened to Old Qiao."
The nearby terminals hummed. Luo had already connected herself to the fortress's database. At that moment, she was browsing the local sea of logs and records while organizing her thoughts.
"As for the 'pickup point,' the coordinates should be genuine. I found matching preset jump coordinates in the Navigation System of a cargo shuttle docked at the base. But if we fly there directly now, we'll likely alert them... Once I've sorted out the control system here, I plan to launch a stealth deep-space probe over there first and figure out what's going on."
"Could that 'pickup point' be close to the