Zeig held up the detector and advanced together with Leonard.
Under the detector's scan, Leonard suddenly shouted: "Wait, Brother Zeig! Look—there are so many golden-blue energy traces all around us!"
Leonard stood in front of a faint strand of golden-blue light, silently observing it. The more he looked, the more shocked he became!
"Hiss, what an intense encryption method! This isn't even on the same level as the previous pattern. Even with the detector's enhancement, we can only see blurry traces!"
Zeig stood silently to the side. He originally wanted to say something, but he hesitated and held back.
"Brother Zeig, try taking another shot! Let's crank up the power and see if we can figure out what this thing really is." Leonard yelled.
"I think…"
"Holy crap, oh my god—there's more on the side too! Wait, in front and behind as well—it's like they're spawning eggs or something?!"
Leonard was utterly shocked and quickly looked around.
With the detector's aid, more and more faint golden-blue glows became visible.
The more he looked, the more pressure Leonard felt:
"This has to be some kind of coordinate marker! From the traces, it seems like it's constantly dissipating energy every moment—which means it can't exist for long! It's a short-term—no, an even briefer temporary coordinate!"
"Wait… this power feels so familiar."
"Brother Zeig, I think I've seen similar energy traces like this in one of the space station's bathroom stalls before!"
"But the one in the bathroom was way more stable. When I reported it to Lady Herta, I even wanted to clean it up, but it got rejected in the end!"
Zeig: "…"
"Markings like this—if they get activated, they could even generate a portal! Letting something like this exist in our space station is an enormous threat."
Zeig: "Uh, that one… I placed that mark."
"And also! Let me tell you, I… wait, what?"
Leonard blankly turned his head, looking at Zeig in disbelief:
"Brother Zeig, you said… these marks were placed by you? Marks with encryption so high that even my detector can only catch the faintest glimpse of traces?"
Zeig silently nodded:
"Yeah, I placed them. What's up?"
"???"
He placed them?
Didn't Brother Zeig say he didn't understand any of this? How could he produce marks of this level?!
"You… you're joking, right?"
"Nope."
With a whoosh, Zeig instantly flashed to one of the temporary coordinates right beside Leonard.
He said calmly:
"See? These are all mine—used for short-distance displacement, basically flash steps."
"?"
"???"
Leonard's eyes widened, and he involuntarily took half a step back, pointing at Zeig in disbelief:
"Brother Zeig… you still dare to say you don't understand this? Your encryption level is even more brutal than Silver Wolf's electronic graffiti!"
The traces Silver Wolf left could at least show a visible pattern on the detector's first scan, and be fully deciphered on the second.
But Zeig's so-called coordinate marks could only reveal a few strands of golden-blue glow?
If Leonard hadn't put in serious effort studying this stuff, he probably wouldn't have even recognized them as coordinate marks.
"Why did you place so many of them anyway? Wait… you weren't just dropping these the whole time you were walking, were you?!"
"What's wrong with that."
"What's wrong?! Wait—give me the detector, I'll check myself!"
Leonard hurriedly snatched the detector from Zeig's hand and scanned back along the path they had come from.
Strands upon strands of golden-blue glow appeared along the route they had taken. Around Zeig, the blue light was the densest.
In other words, while walking, Zeig had basically been placing marks nonstop!
"These… are all for short-distance displacement?" Leonard lowered the detector, stunned as he tried to figure out Zeig's intention in placing so many coordinates.
These coordinates would dissipate after Zeig moved five meters away. Within five meters of Zeig, they were practically everywhere.
Dense and packed.
"Brother Zeig, just how cautious are you?" Leonard asked in shock.
"It's nothing special. What if someone tries to ambush me? This way, I've basically got a five-meter flash with zero wind-up or cooldown. Perfect for chasing down low-HP enemies or escaping. You know how valuable a flash is, right?"
Seeing Leonard still standing there dazed, Zeig impatiently urged:
"Hey, stop staring at me already—go deal with Silver Wolf! Why do you keep fixating on me?!"
"Oh, oh oh—you're right, I almost forgot who the enemy was."
Leonard handed the detector back to Zeig, embarrassed:
"Alright, since these are the ones Brother Zeig left behind, no problem then—we can just ignore them! Next up, let's show that hacker what we're really made of!"
After that little interlude, Leonard disregarded all the temporary marks from Cosmic Juggernaut and focused solely on searching for Silver Wolf's electronic graffiti.
Suddenly, he pointed ahead in delight:
"Brother Zeig, look! That guy left a question mark on the ground—like she's toying with us! Heh heh."
"…"
Seeing Zeig not respond, Leonard turned back to look.
There stood a fully armed special forces soldier, waist loaded with ammo and grenades, a large field pack on his back.
He looked absolutely terrifying.
From inside the heavy camouflage helmet came Zeig's voice:
"You ready yet? I'm about to snap a shot of it with the detector."
"Huh? Brother Zeig, is this really necessary? That earlier thing was just an accident!"
"Come on, cut it out…"
Zeig held an AK in one hand, using the barrel to push Leonard back slightly, while the other hand gripped the camera-like detector. He immediately took a shot at the question mark graffiti on the ground.
After a wave of distortion.
The question mark graffiti suddenly vanished, and immediately Silver Wolf's phantom appeared.
Leonard let out a sigh of relief:
"See? Nothing happened at all! Let's hurry and follow it—see what this phantom is up to."
The two chased after Silver Wolf's phantom and ended up running all the way back to the reception hall.
Leonard couldn't help analyzing:
"Looks like it's heading toward the base section! Haha, I really am a genius!"
Right after he spoke, the phantom disappeared.
"Uh…"
Beside him, Zeig—fully geared up, AK in hand—kept scanning left, right, front, and back, having completely lost all trust in Leonard.
Leonard: "…"
"Ahem, uh, there must be other clues around here for sure."
Next.
Another stretch of chasing Silver Wolf's traces.
…
"Ahem, she only flipped through the Curio collection catalog here!"
…
"Brother Zeig, put the gun down already—don't you trust me? Look, she was in the surveillance room."
…
"Hey, damn—she even played a round of Fixed-Point Gun! Brother Zeig, your gun's poking me."
…
"Brother Zeig, let's relax a bit. From my analysis, she's probably trying to claim the Punklorde Spirit Cassette curio for herself!"
…
"Ha, I found her trace again—super obvious! There's even an external access excuse here. Wait a sec, I'll plug in! You still trust me, right? Trust me! Come on, the clue—!"
Silence for a moment.
Then the entire main control room filled with roaring sounds once more.
"Roar——!!"
…
When a few staff members passed by the main control room.
All they heard was a rapid da-da-da-da-da of gunfire inside.
…
"Brother Zeig, I…"
Zeig—fully armored, raising an anti-explosion shield, crouching low and advancing cautiously—said: "Keep going."
"…"
…