However, despite being officially recorded, there wasn’t much usable information available.

"They were definitely paid off," Miles Sherman said in a low voice after a look, pointing to several indicators. "The scale of the laboratory’s construction should have been specified, but these sections are blank."

Any legitimate project would have this clearly noted, but this one didn’t.

The most likely explanation is that someone was paid to keep quiet. There were no government personnel conducting regular inspections, just a few sparse, meaningless descriptions.

Clearly, both sides knew a science lab like this would have its non-compliant aspects.

It was practically a well-known, unwritten rule.

Development often leads to pollution, and the government wasn’t about to let such a cash cow go.

It was a source of political achievements and jobs; the only sacrifice was a small part of Planet C14’s environment.

The government probably didn’t even know what kinds of experiments these people were actually conducting.

"What about the official who was in charge of this back then?" Zoe Pierce asked.

Nathan Lockwood picked up the thread. "Who knows if they’re still around after this Xenobeast Tide."

His words had two meanings. One was literal: they could have died in an accident during the Xenobeast Tide.

The other was that they were deliberately silenced during the chaos of the Xenobeast Tide.

That was certainly a possibility. After all, during the early stages of the Xenobeast Tide, no one would have been paying attention to some minor official.

Everyone was too busy trying to save their own skin to care about anything else.

"Send this to Colonel Hanson’s people for confirmation," Aaron Xavier said. He walked over, snapped a photo, and immediately sent it to the Alpha Officer under Colonel Hanson with whom they’d just exchanged contact info.

"Keep looking. We might find something else," Nathan Lockwood said. "We can now narrow down the timeframe. Check other documents from that same period, too."

Everyone agreed and continued to rummage through the archives. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

This time, however, their search wasn’t as fruitful. They went through nearly a hundred volumes with no luck.

Zoe Pierce’s gaze drifted to the side, landing on a section of files labeled "Waterworks."

’Why do I feel like I’ll find something here?’ She didn’t know. The intuition was completely illogical.

It was like all the other times, a mysterious force guiding her.

Finally, Zoe Pierce put down the file she had just finished and walked over to the Waterworks section to investigate.

The complex, unfamiliar data and various tiny annotations were enough to make anyone’s brow furrow.

After searching for almost another hour, Zoe Pierce finally found what she was looking for.

"Nathan Lockwood, I found something," Zoe Pierce said, looking up. Her eyes met Nathan’s, who was standing beside her flipping through a file of his own. The serious expression on her face instantly broke into a smile.

Nathan Lockwood leaned over to look at the location of the waterworks project. It was the exact spot Zoe had just pinpointed in the file.

He took a closer look at the contents and, sure enough, saw the familiar word "laboratory" again.

This one was from much earlier—nearly eight years ago.

"Pull that file. We’ll go check it out in a bit."

They found nothing else after that. After all, it wasn’t like these laboratories were a dime a dozen, popping up one after another.

This already counted as a major breakthrough. By the time Zoe Pierce and her team went to meet with Shelton Zane, they already had a plan forming in their minds.

Shelton Zane was the Alpha Officer who worked under Colonel Hanson.

He and his men had clearly made some progress as well; their expressions were no longer as tense as they had been initially.

"Looks like you’ve uncovered quite a few leads," Shelton Zane said politely as he approached. He hadn’t been the one to deal with Zoe Pierce’s team before, but he’d heard about them.

Going head-to-head with Zoe Pierce in a battle of spiritual power was a sure way to lose badly.

And that was before even considering the other four Alphas on her team, who all came from similarly impressive backgrounds.

"That official—I’ve already assigned people to investigate him." Shelton Zane had made the arrangements as soon as Aaron Xavier sent the photo. Time was of the essence now.

As team captain, Miles Sherman was responsible for these kinds of negotiations.

"We’ve also discovered a suspected laboratory, and we’d like to investigate it personally."

’If it were just a simple search, he wouldn’t have phrased it that way.’

Shelton Zane looked at Miles Sherman. "Alone?"

Miles Sherman paused. "We’d like you to conduct your investigation after we’ve finished ours."

"It’s only a hunch, of course."

They were all sharp individuals. Shelton Zane knew Miles Sherman’s team wouldn’t bother investigating unless they were at least ninety percent certain.

This request was certainly unorthodox, but Shelton Zane and his men didn’t know the lab’s location.

They already had one laboratory to report up the chain. After a moment’s thought, Shelton Zane decided to grant them the favor. "Alright, go on. My men will wait outside. Contact us the moment you’re finished."

Of course, there was no problem with that.

Seeing Miles Sherman agree, Shelton Zane assigned two of his Alphas to follow them.

Exiting the official archives, the team boarded their mechas and sped away.

They reached their destination in less than ten minutes.

The laboratory was situated right by the ocean; the coast was less than five hundred meters to the west.

They had a fairly precise landmark, so finding the entrance wasn’t difficult.

The laboratory wasn’t exactly high-profile, but it wasn’t hidden either. The sign clearly read "Waterworks Research Institute," and the building’s exterior looked unremarkable.

From the outside, it clearly looked like it had been abandoned for a long time.

Every office they walked through inside was covered in a thick layer of dust.

It was completely devoid of any signs of recent human activity.

Zoe Pierce and her team didn’t stop the men Shelton Zane had sent from coming in.

Everything was out in the open for all to see.

As she walked, Zoe Pierce sent out her spiritual power to probe the surroundings. They started their search from the top floor.

Everything seemed normal.

The ground her power swept over revealed nothing out of the ordinary.

Zoe Pierce and Nathan Lockwood exchanged a look.

But Zoe still felt something was wrong. She trusted her intuition implicitly; it had saved her from deadly situations more than once.

’Even if this isn’t a life-or-death situation, the fact that I can faintly sense something is off proves there’s a major discovery to be made here.’

It wasn’t just them; the two Alphas sent by Shelton Zane were also investigating carefully.

They went from the top floor all the way down to the parking garage on the B1 level, finding almost nothing.

"Still nothing?" Aaron Xavier asked, his gaze sweeping across the parking garage before settling on Nathan Lockwood and Zoe Pierce.

He didn’t doubt Zoe Pierce or Nathan Lockwood in the slightest.

He was just asking casually; this sort of thing wasn’t his specialty, after all.

Zoe Pierce’s brow furrowed. Unwilling to give up, she asked, "Is there anywhere we haven’t checked?"

’We’ve checked all the obvious places, and my spiritual power only detects solid earth beneath the ground.’

Nathan Lockwood thought for a silent moment. "There is one more place. We haven’t looked there."

Zoe Pierce looked up at him. "Where?"

’We’ve been practically everywhere.’

"The elevator."

To be precise, the elevator that looked completely derelict.