Tyler and Tansy finally stepped out of the room after changing clothes, each wearing one of the blue uniforms they had found inside the closet. The fabric fit surprisingly well despite clearly being made for people from another era. The material was smooth, light, and far more comfortable than anything woven in Sector 11.

Tyler adjusted the collar and glanced at Tansy.

"Do you think this will work?"

Tansy looked down at herself, tugged once at the sleeve, then shrugged.

"If not, we run."

Her answer was simple enough that Tyler did not bother asking further.

They walked carefully toward the corridor.

The moment they stepped past the doorway and entered full view of the corridor, Tyler instinctively glanced upward. At the far end, the small ceiling-mounted camera rotated slightly and fixed itself on them.

For one tense second, neither of them moved.

But nothing happened. There was no alarm or anything

No armed droids rushing toward them.

The camera simply scanned them and then turned away.

Both Tyler and Tansy quietly released the breath they had been holding.

The uniforms were working.

At least for now.

They continued walking deeper into the facility, moving more naturally now that immediate danger seemed absent. The corridor stretched far beyond what they had seen earlier, branching into multiple sections.

On the left, large glass doors revealed a laboratory.

On the right, another sign pointed toward what looked like a resting area.

A café.

Tyler’s eyes moved immediately toward the laboratory.

Tansy’s attention went elsewhere.

The moment she saw shelves visible through the glass of the café, she grabbed Tyler’s sleeve and dragged him toward it before he could protest.

"Tansy—"

"No first we check food."

The café doors slid open automatically as they approached.

Inside, the room looked untouched by time. Tables stood neatly arranged, chairs perfectly aligned, and behind a counter were shelves lined with packets, containers, and preserved food items.

Near the center stood a droid.

Unlike the armed machine from before, this one had an oval-shaped body nearly four feet tall, balanced on a stable lower platform. Several tentacle-like mechanical arms extended from its sides, one of them currently wiping a table with precise circular movements.

The machine turned when it noticed them.

Its eyes glowed faintly as it scanned both Tyler and Tansy from head to toe.

A small display flashed across its eye panel.

Technicians.

The droid immediately lowered its arms and spoke in a language neither of them understood.

"Wxhailw, auuwkel aiks oeoe."

Neither Tyler nor Tansy understood a single word, but both silently relaxed.

At least it wasn’t hostile.

Tansy had already stopped caring about the droid.

Her attention had locked onto the food shelf.

She reached out and grabbed a packet, opened it without hesitation, and poured some contents into her palm.

Salted pumpkin seeds.

She ate one.

Then another.

The moment the taste hit her tongue, her eyes widened.

"Mmmm..."

Her expression changed so dramatically that Tyler almost laughed.

She had instantly fallen in love with the snack.

Tyler himself felt hunger stirring, so he reached for a sealed cake packet nearby. He turned it over, checking for a date, but the writing was still in the same unknown language.

Still, curiosity won.

He opened it and tasted a piece.

The texture was soft.

The flavor remained fresh.

No signs of spoilage at all.

Tyler frowned slightly.

"This place... does it keep restocking itself?"

He looked around.

Nothing here felt abandoned in the usual sense.

Machines still worked.

Food remained fresh.

Even cleaning droids still operated.

Tansy meanwhile had already taken three more packets.

"We should take all this and leave."

To her, this was already beyond treasure.

It was wealth.

Tyler looked toward the laboratory again.

"Huh? You’re sure? There could be better things in there."

Tansy hesitated.

Her eyes moved between the shelves and the lab door.

Finally she sighed.

"Fine. We look first."

Tyler almost smiled.

He had expected her to refuse immediately, but she was practical enough to understand that food, while valuable, might not be the greatest thing hidden here.

Together they left the café and entered the laboratory.

The door opened with a soft mechanical hiss.

The moment they stepped inside, lights across the room activated one after another until the entire chamber glowed brightly.

The lab was enormous.

Machines filled the room—devices neither Tyler nor Tansy could identify. Some stood taller than a person, others were mounted into walls or embedded beneath transparent glass chambers. Tubes, metal arms, floating screens, and sealed containers filled every corner.

At the center stood a massive screen connected to a wide control console.

Without hesitation, Tansy walked forward and slapped the largest red button she could find.

The entire screen lit up instantly.

Tyler gave her a look.

She shrugged.

"It was obvious."

On the screen, a folder was already open.

Inside was a video file.

Tyler moved the pointer carefully across the trackpad until it hovered over the file, then clicked.

The screen flickered.

A recording began.

It was clearly security footage.

The camera angle showed the corridor between the café and the laboratory.

Several people wearing the same blue uniforms Tyler and Tansy currently wore sat casually in the café, drinking something from cups and watching the laboratory side through the glass.

On the opposite side, beyond the lab chamber, something strange was happening.

Bright arcs of electricity flashed repeatedly.

Blue-white energy surged through a section deeper inside the lab.

Then—

The footage exploded in light.

A violent blast erupted from the far chamber.

The shockwave shattered part of the corridor, throwing debris through the air.

Even the people in the café were knocked violently backward.

Tansy instinctively stepped back from the screen.

Tyler’s eyes narrowed.

He quickly moved the controls and fast-forwarded.

Maintenance droids appeared soon afterward.

Dozens of them.

They cleaned debris, removed bodies, repaired walls, and restored everything until the corridor looked untouched.

Tyler then rewound the footage.

Slower this time.

Before the explosion.

The screen now showed several technicians dragging something into the deeper chamber.

Both Tyler and Tansy leaned closer.

The thing was enormous.

Its body looked like cooled magma—dark stone layered with glowing cracks beneath the surface. But half of that body had been fused with machinery. Metal plating covered one side, while both arms had been replaced with thick gun barrels.

Even unconscious, it looked terrifying.

Tyler stared at it carefully.

Then slowly turned toward the deeper section of the laboratory.

"They dragged that thing inside for an experiment..."

Tansy immediately understood where his thoughts were heading.

"And they never carried it out when they cleaned everything."

Tyler nodded.

Which meant—

"It might still be here."

----

Author here:

I accidentally uploaded Chapter 674 first and Chapter 673 after that, so please read accordingly. Sorry for the mix-up!