Since waking up, Zoe Pierce had spent most of her time focused on her own affairs. She’d learned a little about Miles Sherman and the others when they were grouped together, but after that, her attention was mostly consumed by the school forums discussing their poor relationships with Omegas. She really hadn’t paid any attention to what departments they were actually in.

"Mecha are fundamental, but spiritual power needs to be utilized as well."

Every Alpha who entered the military academy learned to pilot a mecha, but the machines were incredibly expensive. Generally, the only students who could enroll in the Mechanical System were either exceptionally talented or fabulously wealthy.

The former had their mecha sponsored by the school, while the latter could simply buy their own without anyone’s help.

"Some planets have special magnetic fields where you can’t use mecha," Erin Xavier said, pointing to the small notebook Zoe Pierce had taken out. "Nathan should have marked those for you."

This was a key topic for the exam.

Zoe Pierce nodded silently. Now that Erin Xavier had pointed it out, she was sure to remember.

It might have been stereotyping, but after spending the past few days with them, Zoe Pierce found that as soon as Erin Xavier mentioned their departments, she could immediately connect the dots. It was clear they had planned their paths long ago; their spiritual powers and majors were perfectly suited to each other.

"Among us, only Miles is in the Mechanical System."

Zoe Pierce was a little surprised. She had thought Miles was in the same department as Nathan Lockwood.

Erin Xavier pointed to himself and grinned at her. "Guess what my major is."

Seeing Zoe Pierce furrow her brow in thought, Erin Xavier was about to give her a hint, but someone else beat him to it.

"Individual Combat."

That unique, smoky voice was instantly recognizable.

Erin Xavier whipped around, his face indignant. "Chase, why’d you have to spoil it?"

Chase had just ruined his harmless little game.

Chase Shaw was sitting on a flat rock. The zipper of his training uniform, which should have been pulled up to his neck, was halfway down to his collarbone, revealing a stretch of tan skin. At Erin’s complaint, he lazily lifted his eyes. "Erin Xavier, you’re so childish."

’Guessing games...’

He ignored Erin’s reaction. Sometimes, Erin Xavier could be more talkative than a gaggle of Omegas. If you didn’t cut him off, he could pester you to death.

Chase knew when to humor him and when to tell him to knock it off.

The canned food from the supply crate wouldn’t even last through the night. All that was left were the Omega-specific rations in Zoe Pierce’s Space Button.

And under no circumstances would a group of Alphas fight a lone Omega for food. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

So, Miles Sherman and Nathan Lockwood had gone to find food, leaving the other three behind.

The new spot they’d found for the night was an abandoned campsite.

The dilapidated tents were covered in green moss, and even the materials used for the shelters were rotted and decayed.

The three of them had to clean for a while just to clear a space large enough to sit.

Heat billowed from the fire, warding off the chill that accompanied the setting sun.

While Chase was occupied with shutting Erin down, Zoe Pierce got to her feet.

She surveyed the campsite. It looked like it had been built a long time ago. Erin Xavier had mentioned that such camps were common during the joint exam; some were just old sites that were never cleaned up.

They had already passed several on their way here.

But Zoe Pierce hadn’t, so she walked curiously toward a tent that was pitched against a rock wall. Beside the tent, seven or eight waist-high crates were stacked haphazardly together.

The wood had turned black with decay, and unidentifiable insects crawled over its surface.

Just as Zoe Pierce was about to turn away, she stepped on something that dug uncomfortably into the sole of her boot.

She swept away the fallen leaves with her fingers, then pulled aside a palm-sized scrap of cloth.

Bending down, she looked at the familiar empty vial and froze.

"Chase, is this the same kind of syringe you found before?"

The abrupt way Zoe Pierce had frozen was conspicuous. Hearing her call, Chase Shaw walked over.

Compared to the one he had picked up, this syringe was more complete—it wasn’t shattered, but it was also empty of any liquid.

Finding one of these was one thing, but for them to keep turning up was highly suspicious.

When Chase Shaw nodded in confirmation, Zoe’s gaze instinctively shifted to the rock wall. She hesitated, tempted to probe it with her spiritual power.

As she stood hesitating in front of the wooden crates, Erin Xavier noticed and did a quick scan with his own spiritual power. "I’m not sensing anything," he said.

"It’s just a normal rock wall."

But something felt off to Zoe Pierce. She remembered the last time she’d had this feeling—it was right before that hovercar had almost hit her.

She pressed her lips together, her expression serious. "Let’s check again."

She sounded so certain that Chase concentrated, expanding his Perception more carefully. But it still felt normal, no different from what Erin had sensed.

’How can there be nothing?’

Neither Chase nor Erin had sensed anything strange.

Zoe Pierce’s delicate, fair features tightened, and her brow furrowed.

She was just thinking they should wait for Nathan Lockwood to get back and try again when Erin Xavier, looking thoughtful, suddenly acted. With a series of loud CRACKS, the stacked wooden crates broke apart and toppled to the side.

The rock wall they had been concealing was completely exposed.

"See? Nothing..."

Erin Xavier’s words died in his throat.

His gaze fell on an opening in the rock face, about a person’s height, that had been hidden by the crates. It was the entrance to a dark and silent cave; he could neither see nor hear anything from within.

There was no telling where the mysterious passage led.

And what’s more, Erin Xavier saw something that had no business being there.

"A blocker."

He immediately looked toward Zoe Pierce and Chase.

Despite its name, a blocker’s true function was to simulate normal wavelengths, making it so an Alpha’s spiritual power wouldn’t detect any anomalies during a probe.

The device was incredibly expensive; its core technology relied on a special kind of ore that was so rare it was virtually impossible to buy on the open market.

It made it so that when an Alpha used their spiritual power to scan, the area concealed by the blocker would register as completely normal, indistinguishable from its surroundings.

If he hadn’t found himself warming up to Zoe Pierce, he never would have destroyed the crates just because she said something felt off.

An expensive blocker in such an unremarkable place? Now it would be impossible to believe there was nothing here.

What surprised Erin Xavier even more was Zoe Pierce’s intuition.

She had somehow detected an anomaly that was invisible even to Alphas...

’That inexplicable sixth sense was strangely similar to his own intuition. How can two people who’ve only just met be so alike?’

Chase said, "This thing... we should handle it carefully."

"Blockers are powerful, but they’re also delicate," Chase explained. "One wrong move and the ore inside will shatter."

"They usually have a locator too. We can’t just take it."

After explaining this to Zoe Pierce, Chase walked over to the mouth of the cave. He observed it for a moment, then said, "We’ll wait for the others to get back."

"I want to stay here a little longer," Zoe Pierce said, pointing at the cave entrance. "See if I can find anything else."

From the syringe to the cave hidden by the blocker, Zoe Pierce had found it all. Erin and Chase had to admit that she might just discover something else.