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.