Originium Byproduct Center.
It was located south of the Hub Base Power Station—meaning the southwest of the Hub Zone Base.
The distance wasn't short, but thanks to the long-distance zipline frames Andre had arranged in advance, they saved a lot of travel time.
"Seriously convenient… though it's a bit too thrilling," Hao Fan muttered, still rattled as he let go of the hanging ring, shaking out his stiff hands.
That high-altitude ride had left an intensely vivid impression—one he doubted he'd ever forget.
Side note: The purpose of zipline frames was fast movement between two points.
Mechanically, you selected another frame as the destination. As long as the route was unobstructed, you could slide straight to the target.
In other words: a zipline frame was a small device that could connect within a certain range and set up a cable line.
According to Andre, zipline-type equipment was first used to cross the Arctic no-man's-land. Those harsh, snow-eroded mountain terrains—during humanity's past operations to cross the Angel blockade line—ziplines had been a decisive contributor.
And what Hao Fan had just used was an improved version—
The Long-Distance Zipline Frame.
Put simply: a large-scale device that could link across an enormous range to establish cable routes.
Not only did it extend transmission distance, it could also support passing through multiple long-distance frames in a single run.
No question—long-distance frames were far more convenient for travel.
In fact, with Endfield Industrial personnel pushing them hard, zipline equipment had recently started catching the attention of tourism operators and extreme-sports enthusiasts.
However, operating ziplines required extremely high maintenance costs.
So each region could only place a very limited number of frames—they needed careful planning.
"Wow… this looks way worse than in the photos," Chen Qianyu said, standing at the entrance to the Originium Byproduct Center and staring at the damage with wide eyes. The problem here really did look serious.
Perlica noticed something subtler.
"But it's strange. The door's circuitry was destroyed while the door was closed… It's more like the enemy inside deliberately tried to stop people from getting in."
She murmured, lowering her head in thought.
Hao Fan, still not fully recovered from the zipline ride, leaned against the wall and opened the game map. Sure enough, there were red dots inside.
"Riftbreakers… Perlica, your judgment's right. Looks like we've been locked outside. We have to repair the door—fast."
As the saying went: the more the enemy wants something, the more you should interfere.
Hao Fan still didn't know what the Riftbreakers were trying to do—but stopping them was the safe bet.
And the one doing repairs, naturally, was the Administrator.
Her Originium Arts allowed her to manipulate Originium, which meant she could be extremely effective with Originium-dependent devices.
Of course, it wasn't "fix things out of thin air"—materials still had to be consumed before the equipment could function again.
"Good thing Mr. Andre had us prepare crystal casings. Saved us a lot of trouble," Perlica said, smiling as she watched the Administrator repair the door and open it from the terminal.
But the moment they walked inside and saw the chaotic wreckage, the smile vanished from her face.
"Look—Riftbreakers tore the whole place apart. They were searching for something…"
"Could they really be after the parts?" Chen Qianyu looked around blankly, questions written all over her face.
"But what use would Riftbreakers have for that stuff?"
"Yeah. Those bandits don't look like they have much education," Hao Fan chimed in with a snarky complaint. "The prototype parts Andre left here would be scrap metal to them."
Even so, he couldn't shake the feeling their actions were purposeful—not simple looting, but hunting for something specific and important.
"Strange. We still haven't seen any workers," the Administrator said.
The silence was unsettling—there wasn't a single Union member in sight. Had something happened to them?
Perlica could only try to reassure her.
"Hopefully they evacuated ahead of time… But to be safe, we should search again."
As she spoke, she gestured to the Protocol Synchronizer on her wrist.
"Administrator, use the scan function to check the surroundings. We might find something useful."
The Protocol Synchronizer came with many integrated functions—scan was one of them. During exploration, it could display information about nearby objects.
For example: data on gatherable materials, or subtle footprints—something like wide-area detection.
"This thing's insanely convenient…" Hao Fan fiddled with it in fascination. "Whoa—there's even a camera function. Who invented this? A genius?"
He still wasn't familiar with the device, so everything felt novel.
The amnesiac Administrator felt the same. After messing with it for a while, she finally managed to trigger the scan, and chaotic footprints lit up across the ground.
Their general direction pointed deeper into the Originium Byproduct Center.
"They stayed here a long time, but there's no sign of fighting," Perlica judged. "So any ambush or stakeout likely didn't succeed."
Meanwhile, Hao Fan found a crude, roughly drawn sketch on the side of the path—depicting a metal box, probably Andre's prototype parts container.
"...This keeps getting more suspicious," Hao Fan frowned and continued forward, noticing many of the messy footprints stepping into a roadside laboratory.
There had to be an important clue in there.
So before pushing deeper, they entered the lab to look for information—and Andre's prototype parts.
But they only found some paper records about studying erosion.
Nothing else could be confirmed.
"Some documents really were taken… but where are the parts?" Perlica murmured, brows knitting.
"Records were rummaged through… Were the parts already taken?"
She began considering the worst.
Then Hao Fan spotted an opened letter on a desk near the doorway—
The prototype's completion level was already quite high.
However, Yvonne insisted on customizing an auxiliary intelligence and expression-based interaction interface for it.
That person was clearly taking it way too seriously.
I asked Yvonne if they were also planning to give the prototype a name. Turns out they already have one.
TA-TA—what does that even mean…?
Hopefully it isn't just random keyboard mashing.
Anyway, the parts you wanted have arrived—come pick them up.
P.S. The interface parameters are in the attachment. Don't lose them!
Also, remember this: TA-TA's full name is the Full-Band Trans-Domain Stabilization Automaton!
…
"TA-TA… 'Tata'… weird name. This letter seems addressed to Andre," Hao Fan said after skimming it, raising an eyebrow.
He recognized the name Yvonne—he'd heard Andre mention them before.
Even so, Hao Fan didn't know anything about Yvonne, not even whether they were male or female—only that they were a true genius.
And if Andre called someone a genius, the endorsement carried weight.
After all, the "big bird" himself was the chief engineer of the Integrated Industrial System—he wouldn't throw that word around lightly.
But that wasn't the priority.
Right now, the urgent task was finding the prototype parts mentioned in the letter.
"The footprints go deeper!" Chen Qianyu said.
Unable to find more inside the lab, she stepped back out and discovered a door that had been blasted open—leaving a huge hole.
"I remember… the back should be a dead end…"
Perlica's ears twitched—she'd heard something suspicious.
"We need to move faster."
(Author's note: "Made a Douyin account dedicated to sharing Endfield images—readers are welcome to follow, OVO.")
....
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