Huh? (cont.)

"Although I don't know your origins or your abilities, I have indeed seen you walking in the deep sea... and I have also checked you during this time; you are not carrying any technological equipment... you are resisting the water pressure of the deep sea entirely with your own physical body!"

Heratia's voice was very soft, and she spoke close to Maria's ear, so that only the two of them could hear each other.

"I believe you meant no harm. Your concealment was simply due to certain things that were inconvenient to explain, which I understand... But at the same time, I hope you can also believe in my good intentions."

"I'm curious about you... just genuine curiosity, not the kind of curiosity that Malitus had to dissect you."

"I'm willing to trust your judgment, but I can't use that as a basis to stop our operation... You must have sensed some kind of danger here. I don't know just how dangerous something is that you're telling us not to get close, but I do know that if something unexpected happens, our operation will suffer significant losses."

"At that time, the plan to return to Aegir will also be delayed..."

Heratia revealed her keen insight at this moment.

She was aware of Maria's special nature from the very beginning.

She simply didn't say it for various reasons.

At this moment, Maria actually took the initiative to say that this place was dangerous. Considering that Maria's origins were already very mysterious, Heratia was willing to believe her this once.

"Perhaps, for your own purposes, and for mine, you could help us this little bit?"

"Consider it... a free ticket for this ship?"

After Heratia finished speaking, she stepped back and smiled at Maria.

Over this period of time, she has gradually come to understand Maria's personality.

Maria wasn't a particularly difficult person to approach, but similarly, she wasn't someone you could easily boss around.

She has a very strong sense of autonomy and will never obediently follow someone's instructions.

What truly swayed her was her somewhat tender emotions and the potential benefits.

And that's exactly what Heratia is doing right now.

After a few pauses, Maria nodded slightly.

"Sure... but I won't do much, and if necessary, I will take action, even becoming your true enemy."

As Maria spoke, her words served as a warning to Heratia.

She really does take action!

"I believe you can do it."

Heratia smiled, her face still bearing that enigmatic expression.

The Aegir were indeed very efficient.

In less than ten minutes, several deep-sea operation suits were deployed.

Maria herself didn't actually need the protective suit, but Heratia insisted that Maria wear it.

This bulky, oversized spacesuit is not only a tool to resist water pressure and provide the necessary conditions for survival, but also a comprehensive suit that integrates exploration, life support, and combat systems.

Of course, these things actually have roughly zero impact on Maria's overall improvement.

But since the other party had made such a request, Maria simply remained silent and silently chose to accept it.

After the group finished dressing, they were quickly connected to life support tubes and slowly lowered towards the ground...

After about twenty minutes of diving and adjusting their position, the group quickly arrived at the very center of the entire deep-sea ruins.

And here, a strange, simplified, topless pyramid-like structure sits.

The cold, white iron gate leaned there quietly, seemingly unopened for a long time.

It was covered with a lot of mud and dust.

Malitus, standing nearby, was completely absorbed in admiring the rationally beautiful patterns on the surface, a sickly look appearing on his face.

The blue-haired woman beside her curled her lip in boredom, then pulled out her equipment and carefully prepared to open it.

Although it is Precursor Civilization, fortunately, the current Aegir civilization is a direct descendant of the Precursor Civilization... the underlying code of many things is not much different.

Cracking this gate shouldn't take much time.

Unfortunately, the blue-haired woman didn't do much, but Malitus decisively stopped her.

"What are you doing?!"

Through the communication equipment, Malitus's slightly angry voice came through, albeit somewhat distorted.

This, in turn, puzzled the woman.

"I'm opening the door."

"Open the door now?!"

"Then... when else would it be?"

The woman was somewhat confused.

But Malitus merely snorted coldly.

"You bunch of techies can't even use your brains... We're not even sure if the main structure of this building is sealed yet. With the technology of Precursor Civilization, creating a sealed environment wouldn't have been difficult. What if you rashly open it and let seawater flood in, destroying the precious data inside?"

"So what do you suggest we do?"

Women aren't unreasonable people.

After listening to Malitus's explanation for a while, she had to admit that his considerations were indeed more thorough.

The destruction of the Precursor Civilization was far too mysterious to them. The only thing they knew was that the Precursor Civilization had a far more advanced civilization system than their own.

Therefore, the man's claim that the building might still be sealed after tens of thousands of years is indeed somewhat credible.

But...

Looking at this site, this is probably the only truly valuable part of the ruins.

If they don't open this door, what other research and treatments can they find?

"Go find..."

Although Malitus was somewhat obsessed with his research, he was clearly not the kind of completely mindless madman... His madness was only manifested in his love for the study of Precursor Civilization history.

"When we first arrived, we saw quite a few internal structures that had been damaged due to movement and changes, right? Perhaps we can find a way to the interior from those places."

Malitus offered his proposal, but it was quickly rejected by Heratia.

"I've said it before, we can't go too deep."

"But..."

"No buts."

Heratia certainly possessed a leadership quality... not that she had any special personal charisma, but rather that she genuinely kept her word and treated everyone equally.

Even the scientific executive officer, Malitus, who was second only to her in rank in the entire team, was not spared her reprimands.

This made Malitus's expression stiffen for a moment.

Although he was very unwilling, he lowered his head and chose to accept it.

This action left Maria feeling helpless.

She realized that if they were only gathering reliable information from the surrounding area, they might really waste a lot of time here.

After a moment of silence, Maria didn't say much. She quietly went to the door and gently placed her hand there.

A delicate spiritual sense slowly extended, and after a brief confirmation that there was no problem inside, Maria slowly turned her head.

Let's make a promise...

"Um?"

Upon hearing Maria's words, everyone turned their heads in surprise.

But Maria just looked at them.

"There are multiple layers here... Take what you need on the first layer for ten minutes, then leave, okay?"

"Um?"

Everyone was visibly taken aback by Maria's words, somewhat not understanding what Maria meant.

Malitus, standing to the side, frowned again after thinking for a while and asked a question.

How did you know about the multi-layered structure inside?

While Precursor Civilization did frequently construct such structures to store important equipment, this was not their entirety.

Some sources also mention that in certain locations, only the main gate was truly fortified.

There is currently no research to demonstrate the specific characteristics of each.

How was Maria determined?

I didn't ask you that question.

Maria's answer was as calm and infuriating as ever.

She really didn't need to explain these things directly.

Malitus also turned his head to look at Heratia beside him, seemingly asking for her opinion.

"You can make the decision about this yourselves."

Heratia's answer was very formulaic; her role on this trip was merely to supervise these people, and the details were beyond her purview.

"..."

Malitus remained silent.

He kept his head down, but he wasn't thinking about Maria's words; instead, he was wondering why Maria had said such things.

Beside her, the blue-haired woman nodded slightly.

"I have no objection..."

She didn't have many thoughts on this.

As a technology administrator, she rarely cared about what these Precursor Civilization actually left behind.

Most of the time, she simply transformed technologies analyzed and confirmed by scientific officials into directly usable technologies.

So she wasn't particularly concerned about how much she could take with her this time.

But Malitus was clearly caught in a dilemma.

After a moment of silence, he turned his head and looked at Maria.

Although he was reluctant to believe that Maria, Land-Dweller, had discovered the path to the interior of the building before all of them, Maria's words had to be taken seriously.

His interest in remnants of Precursor Civilization was undoubtedly fervent.

Although he knew that even if they didn't take anything this time, they could still come back here to collect documents later.

But every day that happens, he feels uncomfortable.

But Heratia wouldn't allow them to take the long way around to get inside the building.

It seems... the only option is to agree with Maria?

Malitus was clearly conflicted.

"How... did you determine the internal situation?"

Malitus still wanted an explanation.

But Maria's words remained calm as always.

"This is not a question I am asking you, sir. Agree or disagree, that is the choice you should make."

Maria's voice was calm, but her words were increasingly pressing.

For the first time, all eyes were on Malitus, which put him under immense pressure.

After a long silence, he gritted his teeth.

He was more curious about what was inside than the useless things on the outside.

So he nodded.

"Can..."