Chapter 116: The Mysterious Iron Box

With a flicker of energy, the man’s corpse disintegrated completely. Dark green energy swirled and condensed between Faren’s fingers, quickly solidifying into a green energy shard. Looking at the shard in his hand, Faren was clearly dissatisfied.

"Only a 'Superior' grade?"

(That is likely because the subject was not yet mature or stable. Such things are not uncommon.)

"Fair point."

Hearing Delin’s response, Faren quickly put his disappointment aside. Although, given the nature of such a monster, he had expected to obtain at least an 'Excellent' grade energy shard. However, considering this mutant was artificially created rather than naturally occurring, such a result was not entirely unexpected.

If Monks had known that Faren was still dissatisfied, he would surely have crawled out of hell to fight him to the death. The poor Supreme Commander of the Federation had not only surrendered the hard-earned energy shards he had collected to Faren but had also been gutted, with even his bones squeezed dry to condense into more shards. It was a miserable fate indeed—though, unfortunately, no one would shed even a single tear for him.

"Alright, everything is settled here."

Watching the dust remaining from the tentacle monster—which had now lost all signs of life—Faren nodded with satisfaction. Just as he turned to leave, Eluka’s voice suddenly reached his ears.

"Um... Commander? Do you have a moment?"

"What is it?"

"Well... we found that black box... but it looks, well, a bit strange..."

"Oh?"

Whether by luck or misfortune, the black iron box had not been destroyed during the tentacle monster's outburst. Perhaps Monks had kept his objective in mind, or perhaps it was simply good fortune. Regardless, when Eluka and the others retrieved the box from the ruins of the battlefield, it remained essentially unchanged. However, Eluka and her companions dared not approach the bizarre, cold object that emitted a chilling aura. They had attempted to use Kurona’s [Mind Sense] to determine what was inside, only to be shocked to discover that Kurona’s ability was completely useless against the box.

Under these circumstances, the three sisters naturally dared not act rashly and had to leave the matter to Faren.

"Is this it?"

After receiving Eluka’s report, Faren quickly brought Delin to their location and stared at the iron box. To be honest, Faren was just as curious about it as Eluka and the others. The fact that the Federation was willing to risk a conflict with both Caesar’s Legion and himself to obtain this box suggested that it must contain something intriguing.

However, after a careful inspection, Faren quickly reached a conclusion. While he did not yet know why the Federation wanted it, he was certain that what was inside the iron box was a person.

"A person?"

The group was stunned by the answer. Faren nodded and continued.

"That's right. This isn't actually anything strange; it’s a cryo-pod. Put simply, it’s designed to place a person into hibernation so that they can be reawakened at some point in the future... We should be thankful for the existence of the energy network, otherwise..."

At this point, Faren waved his hand. As he had suggested, such cryo-pods required a significant amount of energy to maintain. Had the ubiquitous energy network not sustained the pod’s functions, it would have long since ceased operation due to a lack of power, and the person inside would undoubtedly have perished.

"So, should we open it?"

Upon hearing Faren’s explanation, a look of eager anticipation appeared on Eluka’s face. According to Faren, this cryo-pod had been around for a very long time, which meant that whoever was locked inside was likely a person from before the Great Cataclysm!

A pre-cataclysm survivor!

Unfortunately, Faren clearly had no intention of doing so.

"I think it’s better not to. The design of this pod is rather peculiar; I suspect it might contain some sort of self-destruct mechanism. Look at the display panel—it’s designed for a password input. If we fail to enter the code in the correct sequence, it might explode... Hmph, there weren't many people who would go to such lengths before the cataclysm. This thing is becoming increasingly interesting."

As he spoke, Faren found his own interest piqued. In the pre-cataclysm world, people were generally placed in cryo-pods either as a desperate gamble against a terminal illness or for top-secret government aerospace experiments. Beyond that, cryo-pods had little utility. But this one was not only encrypted, it was potentially rigged with a self-destruct mechanism, which was truly fascinating.

Could it be that someone dangerous was kept inside? But if they were dangerous, why would they be put into a cryo-pod at all?

"So, what do we do?"

"Take this thing with us first, then find someone to crack it... Hmm, I actually have someone in mind. Alright, let's move."

After exerting great effort to transport the cryo-pod into the cargo hold of the *Harmonia*, the group quickly departed the battlefield. They had caused quite a commotion, and although Caesar’s Legion and the Federation had chosen a very secluded location, there was no telling if they had been discovered. To avoid trouble, Faren took the three sisters and Delin and left the "crime scene" immediately after gathering the spoils.

When they returned to Vegas, they found Miss Moon standing at the entrance, watching them with a cold expression.

"Your Spark sold well."

As she spoke, Miss Moon placed a large leather suitcase in front of Faren.

"As usual, the Fortune Society took a five percent commission..."

"Good work. What about the items I requested?"

"There are only twenty 'Superior' grade shards. They are all here."

"Only twenty?"

Faren frowned upon hearing this. Sensing his dissatisfaction, Miss Moon helplessly spread her hands.

"What did you expect? Energy shards are hard enough to come by as it is, and you insisted on 'Superior' grade or higher... If there were shards better than 'Superior' available, I would want them too. If the Sparks you provided hadn't been so attractive in both quantity and quality, those people might not have bothered to bring out even a single 'Superior' grade shard... By the way..."

Miss Moon glanced at the three sisters standing nearby before fixing her gaze back on Faren.

"Is the matter resolved?"

"Of course. You should trust my skills as a doctor."

Faren smiled and reached up to touch the brim of his hat.

"But speaking of which, I am planning to make another deal with the Fortune Society. I wonder if you might be interested?"

"What kind of deal?"

"The Watcher Goddess."

Faren held up three fingers and looked at Miss Moon with a smile.

"Selling for thirty million... are you interested?"