The woman floating in midair had skin as smooth as congealed fat. A head of soft black hair flowed down to her waist behind her.
On her pure white dress were traced mysterious golden patterns, and behind her, there seemed to be something like an angel's halo floating.
This made Zane think of a line of poetry, such a woman should only exist in the heavens, how could one encounter her several times in the mortal world.
She just looked a lot like Lucia from the neighbor's house next door.
Although the image was blurry, Zane could still vaguely see the woman in the white dress slowly opening her eyes.
Her crimson pupils carried no emotion, yet seemed able to pierce through space itself as they swept over the group, finally stopping on Rover.
But before they could clearly make anything out, the woman's image completely disappeared into the air.
On the opposite side, Rover also felt the woman's gaze. A faint sense of familiarity gradually spread in her heart.
Even after Zane walked to her side, she still stared blankly at the place where the woman had vanished.
Very quickly, Zane noticed something off about Rover. He stepped closer and softly asked, "Rover, about this person… do you have any impression of her?"
Feeling Zane's presence beside her, Rover finally shifted her gaze away from the empty air where the mysterious woman had disappeared. She nodded, speaking with some uncertainty, "I feel very familiar… but I can't remember…"
Just saying, is it possible that Rover is the "god" recorded in the Court of Savantae research logs?
Seeing that there was nothing much worth looting in the Court of Savantae ruins, aside from experiment records and all kinds of puzzles, and the key point being that the rewards for solving them weren't even as good as catching butterflies out in the wild, Zane suddenly lost interest and yawned.
"Alright, mission complete. Let's go home and eat."
Hearing this, Aalto's eyebrows twitched sharply. Looking again at Rover, she was actually following Zane out as if it were only natural.
And Encore too…
"No, I mean, friends, did you forget what we came to the Court of Savantae ruins for?"
Zane and Rover stopped when they heard this and turned back one after another to look at Aalto.
"What did we forget? There aren't even any treasure chests here…" Zane counted on his fingers one by one.
"Came out to travel with Rover, done; investigate the Court of Savantae ruins, done; mess with Aalto, done; set off fireworks, done…"
Aalto, 'What kind of nonsense is that! Why is messing with me one of your objectives! And who uses bombs as fireworks!'
"Oh, right!"
Seeing Zane suddenly clap his hands and his eyes light up as if he remembered something, Aalto finally let out a small sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from her forehead.
'Good, at least this guy didn't forget the main task…'
"We haven't checked in and taken photos yet."
"..."
As he spoke, Zane raised the Pangu terminal and pointed the camera at himself. Seeing this, Rover calmly walked to his side and made a peace sign at the camera.
Encore, seeing this, quickly ran over to Rover, poked her head out from behind her, and looked at the camera.
"Cheese!"
Leaving only Aalto standing there, gradually turning to stone in the wind.
Looking at Rover again, she was puffing her cheeks slightly, as if trying hard to hold back laughter. Naturally, this scene fell into Aalto's eyes.
"I say, Rover, don't tell me you actually remember what we came to the Court of Savantae ruins for."
In response, Rover blinked her sun-like golden eyes, her face full of innocence.
"I remember."
"Then why didn't you remind Zane!?"
"Because he didn't remember. Why should I remember?"
Hearing Rover's explanation, Aalto immediately felt anger rise up.
'You two acting in perfect sync, not caring about anyone else's feelings at all!?'
Seeing Aalto nearly angered to death, Rover helplessly shook her head and chuckled, 'Young people these days, such a short temper. Can't even take a joke.'
"Alright, let's stop teasing Aalto. Let's hurry and help him find the beacon data."
Rover quickly caught up to Zane, who was walking toward the door, and tapped his shoulder.
Feeling her call, Zane stopped and turned around. His clear eyes were filled with confusion.
"Data? What data?"
Rover, "…"
'Great. I thought you were on the fifth floor, but you're actually in the basement. That's very Zane of you.'
"Oh, Encore remembers now!"
Hearing Rover's reminder, Encore remembered that they had come into the Court of Savantae ruins to find the lost beacon data of the Black Shores.
"What did you remember?"
Zane scratched his head, his eyes carrying a kind of pure innocence untouched by knowledge.
After this, Rover could conclude that Encore's intelligence > Zane's intelligence.
Then, after Rover's explanation, Zane finally remembered…
No, maybe "kept in mind" would be more accurate.
Zane finally kept in mind that their purpose for entering the Court of Savantae ruins this time was to find the beacon data.
"But speaking of it, where are we supposed to find the data you mentioned? We already searched the ruins just now, and we didn't see any beacon data like you said."
It would've been fine if he hadn't brought it up, but the moment Zane said this, Aalto couldn't help but stare at him with a resentful look, like a woman abandoned after being used, wandering outside with three children.
"Actually, we only needed to restore power to the elevator on the first floor to take it down to the basement level -1 and get the beacon data."
"Then restore the power."
"But you just blew up the power interface…"
As she spoke, Aalto looked up and sighed, her tiger-like eyes brimming with tears, unable to say anything for a moment.
Logically speaking, asking Rover for help wasn't wrong. But the mistake was the buy-one-get-one deal, Rover just had to bring along a Zane…
If heaven gave her another chance, she would definitely throw Zane out without hesitation… or get thrown out by him.
Thinking about the rumors of Zane in Jinzhou, Aalto felt like she might not actually be able to beat him.
Seeing Aalto's grief-stricken face, a spark flashed in Zane's mind…
"Stop having flashes."
But Rover interrupted Zane's "treasure-level ability."
After getting hit on the head again, Zane held his head and looked at her pitifully.
"What are you doing?"
But Rover remained unmoved, crossing her arms and saying coldly, "Don't think I don't know you want to blow open the ground to get down there. But have you thought about how we're supposed to come back up after we go down and get the data?"
"Of course we blow a path back up," Zane said as if it were obvious.
That answer was very Zane.
"Forget it. I'll go down and take a look."
After a moment of silence, Rover spoke helplessly. After all, even though Zane hadn't meant it, he had still blown up the elevator's power supply to quickly open the second-floor door. As his "guardian," she had to make up for it somehow.
"Wait."
Just as Rover was about to act, Zane's voice stopped her.
The group followed the sound and saw Zane standing in front of the elevator switch, fiddling with something.
"Give me a moment, it'll be ready soon…"
Aalto was about to ask what Zane planned to do, but the next second, as his words fell, rumbling sounds came from the elevator shaft of Court of Savantae.
The elevator actually started moving.
"What did you do?"
Now it wasn't just surprise, Aalto even felt fear.
She didn't understand how Zane had managed to start the elevator when the power system was already damaged.
Zane, however, had no intention of explaining.
After all, in a certain Apex game, the Phoenix Kit not only restores health but also acts as a shield battery.
Yes, you heard that right, a shield battery.
So, in a sense, the Phoenix Kit is basically a super-sized battery. And the kind that can even convert into life energy.
From a practical standpoint, something this conceptual was enough to support a single elevator trip.
Under Aalto's shocked gaze, Zane stepped into the elevator, and Rover pulled Encore along to follow.
"What? You're not getting on?"
Only after hearing Zane's voice did Aalto suppress the doubts and shock in her heart and quickly step into the elevator.
As the elevator descended, the four of them saw a huge mechanical puppet hanging from the ceiling of the basement.
Looking at the massive monster above, dormant due to loss of power, and the intermittent signal of the data beacon coming from its body, Aalto finally realized that Zane was unfathomable.
Even before reaching the basement, he had precisely predicted the existence of this giant mechanical puppet and cut off any possibility of it awakening by destroying the power connection.
Then he took out a mysterious item to open the path underground.
Could it be that he already knew that to obtain the beacon data, they would have to face this big thing, so he used destroying the power connection as a way to warn me to be careful of the enemy after restoring power?
When he turned to leave earlier, he hadn't really forgotten the purpose of this trip, but because the greatest difficulty had already been solved?
Thinking about it, is there really anyone in this world whose mind hasn't been touched by knowledge?
Everything was his test for me.
'It's a pity I didn't realize his deeper meaning, forcing him to use an item to activate the elevator…'
'Everything connected!'
Feeling the increasingly fervent gaze from the side, Zane knew his clever reuse of waste had been praised, and proudly placed his hands on his hips.
"Teacher Zane, please guide me more in the future."
"Wahaha, sure, sure."
Seeing these two people, clearly not on the same wavelength, somehow perfectly sync up, Rover sighed helplessly and simply ignored the two huskies, taking Encore to collect the beacon data from the mechanical puppet.
Soon, after collecting the data, the four of them took the elevator back to the surface.
Looking at the data recorded in the terminal, Aalto let out a long breath.
"Phew, in any case, this mission can be considered a complete success. We recovered the data beacon and also obtained a big secret about Court of Savantae."
A relaxed atmosphere surrounded the group, until...
"Zane! What's wrong!?"
Rover saw Zane, who had been walking in front, suddenly crouch down. His face was tightly furrowed, and cold sweat kept pouring from his forehead.
Her heart tightened immediately, and she quickly bent down to check on him.
At that moment, Aalto, who was checking the beacon, also changed expression. Her face turned pale from shock.
"Wait… something's wrong…"
Not believing it, Aalto checked the beacon again, and the shock on her face gradually turned into seriousness.
"No, this isn't right…"
Then she quickly ran toward the outside.