Crossing Tiger's Maw, passing through the Lightless Forest, driving straight to Whining Aix's Mire, finally arriving at the remote and desolate Court of Savantae ruins.
The real-world map was much larger than in the game—even coming at full speed with no obstacles, Noah still drove a full two hours.
According to the in-game plot, beneath the Court of Savantae ruins lies a destroyed Black Shores data beacon.
Every data beacon is an important sample for Black Shores to collect Lament data and a means to predict the Lament in advance.
Thus in the plot, Aalto and Encore's task, besides contacting Rover, was to come to Jinzhou to recover this beacon.
Now, knowing Black Shores sent a distress signal two months ago, and Rover has not appeared in Jinzhou.
Noah didn't know if Aalto and Encore would still come to the Court of Savantae ruins to recover the beacon like in the plot.
Or it might not necessarily be Aalto and Encore—perhaps some other unknown Black Shores personnel would come to recover it.
Or even, perhaps no one would come to the Court of Savantae ruins to recover the beacon, meaning Black Shores had completely lost capability.
Noah could only wait here like waiting for a rabbit by the stump, betting that someone from Black Shores would come—whoever, as long as someone.
It was already midnight; daily quests refreshed.
[Daily Quest: Mad Foreshadowing]
[Quest Description: Beneath the Court of Savantae ruins, the mysterious construct fed countless frequencies is already starving. Go, end the error. Corresponding location has been marked on the map in real time.]
[Completion Reward: Astrite *800, Shell Credits *10000.]
Getting out of the car, Noah indifferently walked toward the Court of Savantae ruins. There, the gates were wide open, as if no defenses were set.
However, when Noah approached, the security devices set by the Court of Savantae suddenly activated, and three Inquisitor Tacet Discords appeared out of thin air.
Noah had anticipated this; Ages of Harvest flashed lightning-fast in his hand.
Blade raised and fallen—instant kill.
Noah had no interest in lingering on the defeated Tacet Discords, indifferently stepping forward. Unknowingly triggering some mechanism, the alloy gates of the Court of Savantae ruins suddenly closed tightly.
The solid, heavy gates looked almost impossible to move by human strength.
In the game's plot, players only needed to do a simple puzzle to open the Court of Savantae gates.
But real-world puzzles weren't that simple. To open the Court of Savantae gates required using perception to understand the structures of various mechanisms and find the rules within.
Rules—are meant to be broken!
"Sacred light!!"
Boom!
Under the dragon roar, the heavy steel gates were shattered by the extremely destructive beam of light, steel fragments scattering everywhere.
Entering the Court of Savantae ruins, countless raindrops hovered in the air; a ray of moonlight shone in, reflecting myriad stars, appearing extremely dreamy.
This was precisely the second stage of Retroact Rain.
The first stage of Retroact Rain is normal rainfall, the second stage is rainwater suspended in mid-air, the third stage is rainwater flowing backward from the ground to the sky.
Of course, the rain here is composed of high-density Remnant energy, not ordinary water.
By the third stage, those touched by Retroact Rain will see everything that happened in past rains, even unable to distinguish reality from illusion.
And the war Threnodian Ovathrax can turn illusions in Retroact Rain into reality, allowing illusions to cause real destruction.
"According to the plot, I need to first activate the power system, then activate the elevator, take the elevator underground to fight the Overlord class Mech Abomination."
Noah glanced at the elevator's position, inwardly estimating he could probably smash this elevator straight down.
But smashing down is easy—climbing back up would probably get him covered in dust.
Fine, fine—do the puzzle properly.
Compared to the gate puzzle, the puzzles inside the Court of Savantae ruins were much easier—just fiddling with a few batteries.
Familiarly swapping batteries repeatedly, in just a few minutes, Noah smoothly reached the final room.
As the device on the wall activated, a 3D projection from the past appeared in the room—an elderly Court of Savantae researcher.
"...It's getting closer. Looks like I've reached my final moment. A bit unwilling."
Noah: "Skip!"
The elderly researcher knelt toward the icon on the wall, muttering to himself:
"Person from the future coming from the past... please once again... save us..."
"Please continue forward... until crossing that... door that can truly change the world..."
The elderly researcher's words ended, and another figure was projected.
It was a stunning figure like a goddess.
Black hair like inky satin falling to her waist, blending into snow-white skirts like diffused ink. Her brows and eyes gentle, jade-like straight nose, lips pale almost transparent—even without smiling, seeming to hold lingering tenderness.
She slowly raised her eyes—those pupils red, clear and calm, like amber soaked in late autumn frost forest.
"Really looks a lot like Yangyang."
Noah rubbed his chin, couldn't help thinking about buying a similar outfit for Yangyang to see how it looked on her.
"Too bad the photo panel function isn't unlocked, or I could take a picture to show Yangyang."
The goddess-like projection dissipated, and Noah no longer lingered, turning and leaping down from the floor, steadily landing on the elevator platform.
Taking some time to familiarize with the mechanisms, the elevator smoothly plummeted underground. A huge iron monster appeared in Noah's view.
It was precisely the Mech Abomination.
Sensing living frequencies approaching, the Mech Abomination's single eye lit up with bloodthirsty red glow.
"Hun...gry..."
Like thousands of voices ringing inside it simultaneously, unanimously repeating the same word.
It broke the six bundled cables on its body, crashing to the ground. Dazzling electric light flared around it, a pair of ferocious mechanical arms propping the ground, allowing that massive body to stand.
"Why hasn't the health bar appeared yet—"
Noah suddenly slapped his forehead.
In the game, every time Mech Abomination appeared, it had a quite long wind-up rising animation, and before the health bar appeared, it couldn't be damaged.
As a professional surrogate player, Noah had developed a conditioned reflex waiting for Mech Abomination's health bar.
He no longer hesitated—Ages of Harvest flew out at will.
Normal, E, Normal, Normal.
While Mech Abomination hadn't recovered, Noah seized time to stack full four layers of Jinhsi's Conviction effect (each layer increases Resonance Skill damage by 20%).
A pair of dragon horns grew from Noah's head, powerful resonance energy venting outward from his body. Ages of Harvest transformed into the Sentinel's phantom circling around him.
This time, the Sentinel's phantom was unprecedentedly solid.
"Sacred light!!"
As Noah formed the seal and commanded, dragon roar echoed through the Court of Savantae ruins. A terrifying energy beam far surpassing any before spewed from the Sentinel phantom's mouth.
Dazzling light illuminated the midnight Court of Savantae ruins bright as day.
The energy beam precisely hit Mech Abomination. Noah only heard countless painful screams erupting from within, like millions of souls screaming simultaneously.
Boom!
Mech Abomination completely exploded, its mechanical body disintegrating, scattering in every corner of the underground level.
Chaotic mixed frequencies turned into quiet, majestic golden Echo, as if countless souls within were simultaneously liberated.
"Truly the weakest Overlord class I've seen."
Noah lightly shook his head, flinging out the black gourd, absorbing this—his second Overlord class Echo since transmigrating.
[Echo: Mech Abomination (Lingering Tunes).]
[Quality: 5-star Overlord class.]
[Main Stats: Healing Effect Bonus 26.4%, ATK 150.]
[Substats: ATK 10.1%, CRIT Rate 6.3%, CRIT DMG 18.2%, DEF 50, Resonance Liberation DMG Bonus 7.9%.]
Main stat rolled wrong, but Noah didn't care right now.
Daily quest completed. Next—only waiting.