The Box

In the secret chamber of the Abrodi, Reno, Sarah, and Claire stood in their biohazard suits next to three boxes.

After carefully scanning the boxes with instruments, Claire said, "No issues on the surface, no viruses detected. Ready to open the boxes."

Reno began using the XRS-485 single-molecule cutting blade in his hand to cut open the boxes. This type of blade had the ability to cut substances at the molecular level and could slice through most hard materials, hence its nickname, the Spartan Blade, also the best cutting tool on the ship.

The sharp blade effortlessly sliced through the boxes like cutting through butter.

In the first box lay thirty million worth of anonymous bonds, while the second contained rare Yuga crystals.

These crystals were extracted from an extremely rare mineral, clear and sparkling like purple grapes. They were named after the discoverer, Edwin Yuga. In the era of space exploration, diamonds and similar substances lost their value due to their widespread presence on many planets, replaced by rare minerals like Yuga crystals. Like diamonds in the 21st century, they served as the New Federation's hard currency, highly valuable.

There were three Yuga crystals in total in the box, each extremely valuable. Reno calculated that the combined value of these three crystals would be no less than a billion.

"This hospital seems to be quite wealthy," Reno remarked with a smile.

The money in the two boxes solved the Freedom Heart's major financial issues, even if they were on the run, money still mattered.

The third box was the one Claire had seen, the one the director had stored so carefully.

Judging by McLaren's personal accompaniment at the time, its value might even surpass that of the first two boxes.

However, upon opening the box, Reno didn't find money but rather some strange items.

First was a silver-white metal block. It didn't look big but was quite heavy.

Reno had to use both hands to lift it and examined it carefully before saying, "This should be a new type of alloy, confirmed to be virus-free and free of deadly radiation. Let's test its properties."

Reno handed the metal piece to a technician at the window for testing.

Then Reno retrieved a small fragment from the box, and the instrument detected trace radiation.

This time, Sarah recognized it and exclaimed, "It's a psychic radiation fragment! Damn, they actually got their hands on this."

Psychic radiation fragments, named by the Federal Academy of Sciences, were not minerals or anything else but a substance contaminated with special radiation.

This special radiation came from a transport ship that had been attacked by the Yark race. Search and rescue teams found these radiation-contaminated fragments on the crashed transport ship. It was confirmed that this radiation came from within the Yark's body.

The Federal Academy of Sciences subsequently began research on these fragments, which came to be known as psychic radiation fragments. Because they, to some extent, represented superhuman power - the power of life.

When Reno heard it was a psychic radiation fragment, he finally understood what those biohumans were all about.

It wasn't just the bear genes that made Belboga the bear-man bulletproof; the real key was in this fragment. Obviously, Edward Hospital had made some progress in the research on the fragments, as evidenced by the biohumans like Belboga.

"Take care of it." Reno used tweezers to pick up the fragment and carefully placed it in an isolation bottle.

The third item taken from the box was a piece of blue ore.

This time, Reno recognized the origin of this item.

"Lamzal ore." Reno said, "It comes from Lamzal, the so-called Lamb Slaughterhouse, a very important military ore."

"Is it valuable?" Claire asked.

"It depends on how you understand it." Reno put the ore away. "In terms of value, it's far inferior to Yuga crystals. But this kind of ore is one of the core materials for making space mechas, an important strategic resource. Ten thousand Yuga crystals can buy you a planet, but ten thousand tons of ore can flatten ten planets."

"It's strange, why would they put such a piece of ore in the box?" Claire was puzzled.

If it was just a strategic resource, it didn't need to be placed here separately.

"This question can only be slowly answered." Reno replied.

He reached into the box and took out the last thing from the box - two data storage devices.

Looking at these two small storage devices, Reno said, "Maybe the data inside can give us answers."

...

Information Processing Room.

A young officer sat in front of a holographic display, operating at lightning speed.

Reno, accompanied by Sarah and Claire, walked in. "Hey, Kane, help us take a look at this."

Turning to Sarah, he said, "He's Ike Kane, my intelligence officer. You can call him Virus, because there's no network he can't invade. He's the best hacker on the Abrodi."

Although Sarah had interacted with some soldiers in the hospital, the fact was that over three thousand soldiers couldn't all be under her command. She only dealt with a few of them, and she actually didn't know most of the soldiers. On the other hand, many soldiers knew her.

"The best hacker in the Federation!" Ike Kane corrected without hesitation, taking the storage device and plugging it into the holographic reader.

"The storage device is encrypted," Kane said after looking at it.

"Of course!" Kane replied.

His fingers swiftly moved across the screen, a series of graphics appearing under his fingertips, constantly rearranged and combined, dazzling to watch.

"Damn, this is an advanced encryption mode, not easy to crack." Kane's fingers moved even faster, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"The best hacker in the Federation?" Sarah asked meaningfully.

"Of course." The young man retorted angrily, "I just need some time."

His fingers moved faster and faster, surprisingly, his eyes also began to emit a strange red light. Then everyone saw that some of the images began to move without Kane's manipulation, and at a rapid pace.

If the initial decoding changes could still be somewhat understood, then the later multitude of graphic changes were completely incomprehensible, and they couldn't figure out what Kane was doing. All they knew was that the changes on the screen were faster than they could imagine, even beyond the realm of human comprehension.

Until Kane's shout came, "Success!"

The complex graphics on the holographic screen began

 to unlock, revealing its mysteries.

Sarah looked at Kane, "That thing just now... was it your ability?"

"I can interface my brain with the optical brain for faster and more powerful information processing, and even force intrusion. But I used it just now not because I couldn't crack it, but because I didn't want the boss to wait too long." Ike Kane emphasized the latter, indicating that he wasn't relying on superpowers to crack it.

Reno walked over and opened the page, starting to access the information inside.

The first thing that caught his eye was various information about the Abrodi soldiers.

Although Reno had already collected all the information before, most of it was experimental. The information on the storage device was already conclusive, more systematic, and more important. Reno thought he would never have this information again, but now it appeared on this storage device, which made Reno, Sarah, and Claire very excited. This meant that many tasks didn't need to start from scratch, and much research could continue.

In addition to the information about Abrodi soldiers, the storage device also contained information about biohumans, including Batwoman, Wolfman, Bearman, and so on. All the experiments and the lives of these people were recorded. Reno's guess was correct: the reason why these biohumans were so powerful was not only because of genetic modification, but more importantly, the psychic radiation fragments.

But besides this, there was one more thing.

Zero Target!

In the latter part of the information, a multifaceted object that looked like crystal appeared on the screen.

Both Reno and Claire were very familiar with it.

That was what they had obtained in the last life-and-death trip, the Zero Target, or the Holy Artifact.

Although they had had very close contact with it, the fact was that Reno and Claire never knew what it was.

Until now.