Chapter 2395: Chapter 2396: Exhibition Room

"It’s quite unsettling without the usual rumbling," Nis muttered.

Kanter: "Speaking of the rumbling, I remember last time during the rumbling, there was a distinct mix of beastly cries."

Nis: "I noticed that too. I guess the nest they’re exploring is indeed a Sea Beast nest. It’s just that we don’t know if our guess is correct. Could it really be the offspring of Sheath? Hey, Mascot, weren’t you saying there’d be personnel around? How come we don’t see anyone? If we could catch someone to ask, we might get an answer."

"There usually are personnel nearby, I’m not sure what’s going on. Maybe they’ve gone to the lower levels?" Reynaud’s voice came over the Mind Ribbon. By now, he was quite calm about the nickname "Mascot," accepting it since he couldn’t resist, anyway.

"Then let’s head to the lower levels. However, I remember you mentioning there’s a Soul Arms Exhibition Room on the first floor, right? We’re already here, so might as well take a look." Nis’s slightly excited tone revealed that he clearly wanted more than just a ’look.’

Angel listened to the Mind Ribbon conversation for a while, then blocked it out again because it was mostly just Nis’s monologue. Instead of wasting time listening to his chatter, he’d rather study Magic Patterns.

After the airwave subsided, Angel immersed himself once again in the study of Magic Patterns.

On the other side, Reynaud, at Nis’s strong insistence, headed to the first-floor Exhibition Room.

Along the way, they passed the Experiment Center, Storage Room, and Material Depot, and Nis checked out each room. His goal was not just to ’look’; if he could take anything, he certainly would. But in the end, he only ’looked,’ because nothing on the first floor caught his eye.

According to Reynaud, the first floor’s most valuable were only two things: personnel and the Exhibition Room.

The personnel were the core of the lab. Even first-floor personnel would be involved in a lot of core-related research, and their value was undoubtedly significant.

The Exhibition Room, while present on each floor with increasing value by level, did not mean the first-floor Exhibition Room held no value.

Like Reynaud’s Soul Arms, they originally came from the first-floor Exhibition Room. And the value of Soul Arms is not in themselves but in who uses them.

Reynaud led the way, while Nis kept observing the surroundings.

He had always heard Reynaud mention that the lab wasn’t fraught with danger, that there were traps but they could be avoided with caution. This gave Nis a false sense that the lab wasn’t very dangerous.

But as he walked inside the lab, Nis realized Reynaud’s words were purely from his personal understanding.

Reynaud had lived in the lab for years and was used to everything here, and many mechanisms had access recognition. Reynaud rarely triggered these traps, so his understanding was limited.

Currently walking inside with Reynaud leading, they seemingly hadn’t triggered any traps, but this was only because of Reynaud’s guidance. Without a guide, if they had barged in, Nis believed they wouldn’t be in such good shape now.

As an experienced wizard, Nis had already spotted several dangerous traps along the way.

Danger aside, the most critical issue was that the lab wasn’t as spacious as imagined. Though it had a network of large rooms like the Experiment Center and Storage Room, there were many more narrow, cramped corridors.

Eighty percent of their journey was through these narrow passageways.

The corridors were mechanically built, filled with Magic Patterns, and threaded with energy conduits.

Nis wasn’t very skilled in Runeology, but he could tell that if the Magic Patterns here were triggered, the whole Magical Energy Array would rebel against them.

So, walking in these cramped passageways, they couldn’t attack the surrounding walls. This made their safe passage area even narrower.

Moreover, in such narrow and complex corridors, taking a wrong step could lead to a dead-end and encounter mechanisms that could destroy everything.

If this isn’t considered dangerous, Nis didn’t know what was.

Thankfully, they were fortunate to have Reynaud, who was something of a defector, allowing them to navigate the lab relatively safely.

After about ten minutes of traversing corridors lit with green light, red light, mechanical valves, and energy tubes, they finally arrived at the Exhibition Room.

The doors to the Exhibition Room were tightly shut, two massive steel doors blocking their path. The room’s nameplate was prominently displayed above the doors, glowing with a normal white light.

It’s noteworthy that the nameplate on the Exhibition Room was inscribed not just with the common language but also with Quest World script resembling tadpoles.

If it were anywhere else, Nis would choose soul infiltration as his first intrusion method against a sealed chamber, but this place was different, the lab was almost entirely etched with Magic Patterns that together defended against energy entities.

The same kind of Magic Patterns shimmered on these steel doors, indicating they were linked to the entire lab’s network, making soul infiltration almost impossible unless the whole network was disrupted.

Nis turned to Reynaud: "Any way to get in?"

Reynaud hesitated for a moment, then said, "Last time I came with Nausicaa, we could get in, but now I’m not sure if I can without a physical body, or if my permissions have been revoked. I’ll give it a try."

Reynaud moved forward, taking a deep breath, looking extremely cautious.

However, this serious atmosphere was effortlessly pierced by Nis, who silently said over the Mind Ribbon, "Mascot, don’t forget you’re in Soul Body form now. I’m sure you can’t take a breath; you’re inhaling loneliness."

Reynaud nearly lost his composure, his soul force within his Soul Body fluctuating for quite some time before he forcibly restrained himself, ignoring Nis’s teasing as he reached out with a translucent hand toward the steel doors.

When Reynaud’s Soul Body hand touched the door, the Magic Patterns on the door immediately reacted.

Energy flow started moving towards the nameplate above the door.

The nameplate with the large word "Exhibition Room" changed from white to yellow light. Meanwhile, a mechanical eye emerged from within the nameplate.

The mechanical eye vaguely resembled the Magic Energy Eye from Sky Mechanical City, minus the levitating wings but with several silver legs like those of a spider, allowing it to cling to the nameplate.

Once the mechanical eye appeared, its single eye did not look at anyone else but stared straight at Reynaud.

Reynaud felt his entire body tense, heart pounding – though he forgot that he currently had no heartbeat.

About two or three seconds later, the mechanical eye retracted back into the nameplate, and at the same time, the nameplate, flashing yellow, changed to flashing green.

A clicking sound echoed close by.

"Alright, the door’s unlocked," Reynaud exhaled a long breath.

"What was that just now?" Nis curiously looked at the spot where the nameplate was. When the mechanical eye emerged earlier, he hadn’t felt anything particular, but afterward, the eye released a very intriguing wave that enveloped Reynaud, containing a soul force that piqued Nis’s curiosity.

"The Exhibition Room’s butler, or Authority Eye."

Almost every Exhibition Room had such a mechanical eye-style butler. It governed who could enter and exit the Exhibition Room, requiring all entrants to be validated. Yellow light meant verification was in progress, green light meant verification was successful, and red light meant verification failed, triggering alert mode.

Nis: "You’ve turned into a soul, and it can still recognize you?"

Reynaud scratched his head: "I’m not actually sure, but I’ve heard a theory before that the Authority Eye recognizes soul marks, not people. It seems to be true now."

If the Authority Eye determines access by recognizing soul marks, then even if Reynaud has turned into a soul, he wouldn’t be restricted. Because the soul mark is etched onto the soul itself.

Currently, Reynaud’s soul body bears the marks of X and No. 1.

"Recognizing soul marks, whoever fiddled with this thing must have involvement from that faction in the Quest World," Nis thought to himself. However, he’s still clueless about that faction, only able to guess silently in his mind.

Without pondering further, opening the door was the most important thing.

The magic pattern on the steel door had been fully unlocked, and with a loud rumble, the door slowly opened.

Unlike the other rooms they visited before, when the door opened, a chill frost filled white mist billowed out from the door crevice.

When both doors swung wide open, the scene inside was visible to everyone.

The Exhibition Room had a larger space than the Experiment Center, as spacious as a medium-sized plaza.

Metal platforms of various sizes were everywhere inside, and every platform displayed a special transparent container.

Due to the extremely low internal temperature, the room was filled with white frost fog, making it unclear what’s inside the transparent containers at that moment.

But from the overall layout of the Exhibition Room, it reminded Nis of the Earth Cavern that Angel discovered in the Central Empire.

Underground Altar was surrounded by stone platforms, and similar containers were on those platforms. The situation here was very similar to the Earth Cavern, only here, the stone platforms were replaced with metal display stands, looking more exquisite.

If it truly aligns with the Earth Cavern, then the transparent containers might contain those... organs.

While thinking about this, the white mist gradually dissipated around the nearest small platform by the door due to the external air flow.

The frost mist on the transparent container began to clear, revealing the true form inside.

It was a head.

To be precise, it was half a head soaked in yellowish liquid.

From the round nose, and the deeply dark, rough skin, visible were large ears like a fan, it seemed this half a head belonged to a "pig."

Or rather, a pig-like humanoid?

These humanoids with certain beastly traits almost don’t exist in the Southern Domain. However, in the Druna Plane, these beings are quite common, since the Outer Gods of this plane are beast-shaped.

"It’s indeed an organ for transplant." Nis approached the platform, carefully observing the pig head. He found that its rough skin from afar wasn’t just rough; the skin surface was covered with very fine black pores, each one absorbing external energy liquid.

Pig Man—let’s temporarily call it Pig Man.

The Pig Man’s ears were engraved with primitive-styled totems, vaguely pointing to some unknown existence. It looked unsettling to Nis.

"This is an Outer God follower from the Druna Plane, already having undergone multiple baptisms. If the transplant method is correct, it would yield quite a powerful enhancement." The speaker was Kanter, being a knowledgeable scholar, he immediately recognized the origin of the Pig Man.

"That’s the saying, but would anyone really choose to transplant a pig head?"

While grumbling internally, Nis reached out his hand, intending to take this container away.

No matter if the pig head is good or not, its value is definitely not low. After all, those displayed in the Exhibition Room have already been successfully integrated into Soul Arms.

However, just as Nis extended his hand, Reynaud said within the Mind Ribbon, "Sir, the Exhibition Room has its own protection protocol. Occasionally fluctuating the number of exhibits is fine, but if too many are missing, it might trigger the Exhibition Room to enter an alert state."

"You mean we can’t take too many?" Nis looked displeased.

Reynaud explained, "I’m not sure about the specifics, this is just something I heard from people in the research sequence."

Reynaud had previously entered the Exhibition Room and often saw items within it move in and out. He thought at the time that items could be taken at will. Later, someone from the research sequence told him, the Exhibition Room has a daily direct retrieval limit for convenience, but exceeding this limit triggers the alert state.

When that time comes, any items taken out of the Exhibition Room have to be authorized by the people of the top three sequences.

It’s a protection mechanism of sorts in the laboratory.

It facilitates regular researchers’ work while preventing losses with infinite expansion in cases of system flaws.

Nis looked puzzled, "There’s such a restriction?"

On the other side, Kanter signaled Nis to look at the metal platform. Previously focused on the container’s pig head, Nis had overlooked the rest. Upon closer inspection, he discovered magic pattern connections between the metal platform and the container.

It meant that moving the container could indeed trigger a backlash from the Magical Energy Array.

Nis couldn’t help voicing his dissatisfaction within the Mind Ribbon, "This is really unfriendly."

Others remained silent.

"What should we do now? Not take the pig head?"

Reynaud: "As long as you don’t exceed the limit, you can take it. Once near the limit, the Authority Eye will appear, flashing yellow light to remind you not to keep taking more... But it’s better not to let the Authority Eye alert because it might alert those still in the lab."

Though combat personnel may have left, staff still remained, and they have considerable access; if warned prematurely, they might hide some valuable items from the Exhibition Room. More severely, they could order the Authority Eye to close the Exhibition Room’s access, leading potentially to prohibitive results.

"Approximately when will the Authority Eye appear?"

"Generally, after exceeding three items, it’s likely to trigger the Authority Eye’s prompt."

Though somewhat frustrating, this was reality, and to prevent hindrances, Nis could only suppress thoughts of taking everything.

As for the pig head... Nis would leave it for now.

Better to inspect other exhibits and decide later.

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