Chapter 241

What is concerning is that the central structure centered on the Work Shaft and the external structure, which mainly consists of other equipment and facilities, have very few points of connection, and it is even intentionally designed to minimize any contact between them.

It's like a bridge under your feet; it's only lowered when needed, and the two sides aren't connected at all during normal times.

The outer laboratories and equipment are like a packaging box that wraps around the inner Work Shaft.

In other words, this enormous tower should actually be two structures—an inner deep well and an outer enclosing structure.

Is this a coincidence...?

Efnir gazed into the depths of the Work Shaft ahead, the churning dust making Efnir feel inexplicably uneasy.

In fact, looking down from the pipe bundle area between the alley and the Central Well area, one can see that the building is not just the size it appears on the surface—its foundation is much deeper than the first floor, and there is actually no filling between the outer and inner layers.

"Does it even have to be separated at the foundation level...?"

Efnir walked toward the Central Well.

As soon as she stepped into the Central Well, a strange feeling washed over her. Efnir frowned slightly, her weapon rising in her hand and gripping it tightly.

She was on guard for a moment, but nothing happened.

Is sound being blocked here?

Efnir suddenly realized that the sounds from the outside seemed to have vanished the instant she stepped into the Central Well. She took a step back, and the adjutant's voice reporting the mission came from the other side of the bridge, but when she took another step forward, the sound immediately stopped.

She frowned slightly.

The same phenomenon occurred when Codename H disappeared...

Efnir cautiously moved forward, and ahead lay the inner side of the Central Well —a deep, dark well appeared before her, so deep that even with Efnir's Synchronization vision, she couldn't see the bottom—and the restless dust was most active in the middle section.

She raised her hand, her palm passing through the dust, feeling a scorching breeze.

"Major General, we can't stay here too long," the adjutant's voice suddenly came from behind. Because the sound was blocked, Efnir didn't even realize that the adjutant had arrived at the Central Well area. The adjutant also looked left and right curiously, up and down for a while. "I remember the radiation here is quite serious—not 'Fragment Radiation,' but nuclear radiation, of course. This is where collision and control experiments are conducted, and it's one of the areas marked as prohibited."

This information was obtained by the adjutant from the engineering drawings.

The engineering drawings were found in the research institute's computer, so their reliability should be quite high.

"Um."

Efnir glanced down again, then left the Central Well with her adjutant.

171. Fourth Floor

Further up is the third level of the tower.

From this point onward, the internal areas are no longer clearly recorded in places like the "duty roster," and are all listed as "no entry." The approximate layout of the third and fourth floors can only be inferred by combining engineering drawings with other information.

The fourth level is an armed control zone, and these armed personnel are the same Causseque private military contractors dispatched by the same group that were previously discovered on the ground—for a research institute, reaching this level indirectly demonstrates its importance.

The "Shard" are most likely stored in the fourth layer.

"Their weapons look quite impressive; it's hard to believe this is the level of service expected from personnel dispatched by a private military contractor."

The adjutant crouched down in front of the Mutated Entity's corpse, rummaging through the mangled body for the nameplate and the contents of the communication device.

Efnir removed the gun from the corpse and examined it in her hand.

Indeed, the weapons used by these dispatchers were quite advanced, comparable to those of a regular army in a city. Of course, firearms were not uncommon in this era, but they were very expensive, so the standard-issue weapons were by no means commonplace.

"It doesn't look like something from the West District, or even from our city."

"Our city doesn't have any military contractors of that size, and I've never heard of the name 'Causseque'."

The adjutant replied.

Private military contractors – a large number of such organizations existed in certain regions of the Old Era. At the end of the Old Era, they often appeared in various regions to fill the gaps left by the severely damaged army. At the same time, they also provided private business for some important figures, wealthy businessmen, and politicians, and were active in the business by earning high commissions.

They were the most powerful armed force besides the army at the end of the Old Era, and because of this, they became one of the groups with an extremely high survival rate during that unprecedented war and disaster.

After that, the Human Federation) was established, and the Old Era of private armies, after a brief period of expansion, once again came under the Human Federation's control, becoming the private military contractors and regional armed forces they are today.

Unlike cities like Xijing City, which were built around settlements of survivors—and some of which were even established based on powerful regional private armies, with their leaders forming the core of the government and military—this city stands apart from Xijing.

Even now, some cities of this type are still doing what they used to do, exchanging resources from other cities or regions for combat employees.

However, the adjutant had no recollection of the name "Causseque," and simply put, there probably wasn't a city named "Causseque."

"Is that so? It seems they might not be from a nearby city."

Efnir raised the gun, skillfully cocked it, aimed, and then frowned slightly.

"Along the way here, these corpses all seem to have died at the same time. Isn't that strange? Their weapons haven't been used. Not only their guns, but most of their equipment is intact. Even if there are any missing parts, there are no Trace of use."

"Hmm... I also find it suspicious."

The adjutant shook his head. "Perhaps the situation didn't allow them to fire, but thinking about it this way, maybe they encountered an accident before they even had a chance to fire—it all happened in an instant."

"When faced with a serious threat, people instinctively seek self-defense, and this is especially true for these well-trained warriors—they are not fighting for their beliefs, but rather they should act aggressively and out of self-interest."

Efnir handed her weapon to a soldier beside her. "Thinking about it that way, I'm more inclined to go with the latter."

"Found it, the communicator. It seems to be intact." The adjutant picked up a communication terminal and examined it.

"Let's take it back first and see if we can find anything. Let's continue on."

Led by Efnir, the group moved forward once more.

The third and fourth floors are separated by a heavy metal door—but the metal door is kept open from the outside, similar to the one found by Efnir on the bottom floor, which appears to have been breached by someone.

"Someone else has been here before..."

Without much thought, Efnir stepped inside first.

The fourth level—or perhaps that's not entirely accurate, because what appeared before Efnir's eyes was not the empty room arranged as depicted in the engineering drawings, but rather a massive metal disc. Thanks to its structure, wider at both ends and narrower in the middle, the fourth level maximized its space. The outer area surrounding the Central Well was a three-dimensional, open space comprised of five duplex structures.

Simply put, it's like a stacked stadium. From anywhere on the fourth floor, you can clearly see the Central Well area and witness "something" suspended in the center of the Central Well —a flame that looks like a solid fire burning. Without any support, it floats in mid-air like the sun at the very center of the Central Well.

Efnir squinted slightly—the light was exceptionally dazzling, far beyond the sight of an ordinary person, but with her agent's eyesight, she clearly observed the small object at the very core—a semi-circular object of unknown material.

It looks like a broken ring, and its shape is very similar to the description.

But...

Efnir stared intently at the location of the Shard, her brows furrowing unnaturally—strangely, she couldn't sense any movement of dust on the "Shard," or rather, the Central Well area, which should have been teeming with dust, was unusually quiet, with "dust" floating slowly in the air like plankton.

"Found... the 'Shard'..."

The adjutant and other soldiers followed Efnir to the bottom area of the fourth level. They were immediately drawn to the light suspended in mid-air and exclaimed in amazement, "That must be the 'Shard'! It's exactly as described..."

"But now it seems to be in an 'activated' state..."

Efnir frowned slightly. "It shouldn't be like this—don't the instruments here always have a sufficient power supply?"

"We'll try to turn it off."

There are two engineers and researchers working internally, specifically to handle this situation.

As expected of Kusei Maki Shinomiyami Nami, the adjutant quickly planned out the tasks and then assigned them.

Everyone sprang into action—and at that moment, Efnir suddenly noticed something subtly amiss.

"Wait a minute," Efnir suddenly called to her adjutant, raising her hand and shouting, "Stand still, don't move for now."

"Ah?"

The adjutant was bewildered, while Efnir stared at him as she slowly walked towards him—then brushed past him and stopped a short distance behind him in what appeared to be an empty spot.

Efnir frowned and reached out her hand.

Nothing happened.

But Efnir clearly sensed something different—the movement of dust.

172. Angel

The adjutant remained standing, watching as Efnir raised her hand and reached for nothing in the void.

"Sir, what have you found?"

"Nothing..."

Efnir had nothing in her hands.

Although she could sense a sense of unease— Efnir could clearly feel the activity of energy within her body, as if it were about to burst out of her body, and something was connecting to the energy within her body, trying to "steal" it.

And at the other end of the connecting line is that tiny "Shard" in mid-air.

"Could this be what Anilas and the others are experiencing? We couldn't sense it from the outside, but now that we're closer, we're finally seeing some signs...?"

Efnir squinted, her fingertips brushing against the strange sensation of the dust moving, but apart from these two points, Efnir didn't notice anything else particularly special.

She withdrew her hand and glanced at her adjutant.

"In any case, let's get the 'Shard' as soon as possible; we don't have much time left."

The process of obtaining the "Shard" is very complicated.

Because the researchers sent had no experience with similar Ruins and were unfamiliar with the programming here, their first task was to decipher the computer program in the research lab before they could begin to actually retrieve the Shard.

The soldiers were responsible for guarding the entrance against any potential Mutated Entity, while simultaneously reporting the situation via wired communication lines.

Efnir wandered aimlessly alone on this vast fourth floor.

The entire fourth floor is completely windowless, or rather, the tower itself doesn't even have windows. But the fourth floor is particularly special— Efnir carefully examined most of the fourth floor and discovered that the entire fourth floor seemed to be constructed and encased in metal, and that the interior space of the fourth floor was even larger than the first three floors combined, making it arguably the core of the tower's external structure.

In fact, the passage between the third and fourth floors was also equipped with layers of checkpoints. According to Efnir's observation, ordinary people could not force their way through the third floor to the fourth floor. However, those checkpoints were open before Efnir and the others arrived.

Moreover, there was another thing that bothered Efnir: there wasn't a single person in sight on the entire fourth floor.

There were no Mutated Entity, no mutant vines, and no corpses.

Although some areas appear somewhat messy and there Trace of damage to some bottles and jars, there are no other Trace of destruction.

"That's so strange..."

At this moment, Efnir stood at the top of the duplex staircase, her back against the solid metal wall, her gaze fixed on the "Shard" suspended in the center of the Central Well.

From this angle, the entire fourth-floor space looks like a semi-circular disc, steadily supporting the Shard in the center—this reminded Efnir of a device, radar, which was not common in Xijing City, but Efnir had seen quite a few in the Fallen Zone Beyond the Boundary.

"This kind of building structure is very rare... Even for a research institute, is it necessary to design it this way?"

Efnir murmured to herself.

The entire fourth floor was eerie. After thinking for a moment, Efnir jumped directly from the top, her feet flashing with silver light, and landed lightly beside her adjutant.

At that moment, the adjutant was receiving a cube-shaped metal box from a soldier. Upon seeing Efnir, he immediately stopped what he was doing, saluted Efnir, and said, "Sir."

What is that box you're holding?

Efnir looked at her adjutant, or rather at the metal box the adjutant was carrying, and asked, "Is this the 'container' you prepared?"

"To be precise, it was prepared by the researchers here," the adjutant replied—"I mean, of course, those who were originally conducting experiments here. This is an item our investigation team retrieved from the bottom research institute. According to records, these boxes were originally special storage containers used by the researchers here to transport 'Shard,' capable of reducing the intensity of radiation leaking from the 'Shard' to a certain extent, by 10% to 30%. In fact, the outer part of the fourth floor of this tower seems to have used this technology to isolate radiation leakage."

After hearing the adjutant's explanation, Efnir turned her gaze to the box and frowned.

"No wonder... But even so, Anilas and the others have been affected by the radiation. We need a more sealed container."

"Don't worry, we have prepared enough containers to minimize the radiation spillover. Helicopters will be on standby to help you reach the target location quickly."

"This is the only way..."

Efnir nodded. "By the way, did you bring the engineering drawings with you?"

"Here."

The adjutant handed the engineering drawings to Efnir. "Sir, have you made any discoveries?"

"Hmm, there's something that feels off."

Efnir took the engineering drawings, found a nearby table, casually pushed everything aside, and then spread the drawings out on the table.

She stared at the blueprints for a long time.