Pyon looked at List and said, "I'm counting on you. I'll follow them there and be back quickly."
"Okay," List replied, then released his hand from the microphone and continued talking to the person on the other end of the phone.
Pyon led Germain and Shizuku out of the control center.
As they walked, a large door blocked their path.
She entered the password, and the door hissed open.
"Luckily List is here, or we might not have gotten control of this place so quickly," Pyon said, pointing at the keypad, then led the two forward.
Ahead was another door.
Pyon entered the password again, and after repeating this process several times, the three finally reached the underground lab inside the fortress.
Pyon switched on the lights, and the lab was filled with brightness.
Inside the floating containers, the corpses became visible to everyone.
"All right," she said, crossing her arms.
"Now can you tell me what you want to do?"
Germain looked at Shizuku and nodded.
Shizuku understood and conjured "Blinky," then reached inside it.
After a while, she finally found what she was looking for.
She raised her eyebrow slightly, then forcefully pulled it onto the tongue of the "Blinky," and then released her hand, letting the "Blinky" start to vomit.
"Ugh, ugh, ugh—"
"Blinky" made vomiting sounds. Soon, it spit out an object that looked like a crumpled rag, which then began to grow larger and larger.
This "rag" slowly unfolded, changing from something soft and flexible to hard and rigid, eventually turning into a huge circular stone slab.
Familiar patterns appeared clearly on the giant slab, and several sleeping pods were toppled and stacked on top of it.
It turned out that Germain and Shizuku had dismantled the teleportation point on the top floor of the BW1 wreckage—the "Seed Urn Ceremony Array"—and brought the entire piece back to the fortress.
"From now on, this will be one of our teleportation points," Germain said, pointing at the deep pit in the center of the circle.
He didn't just dismantle this array recklessly.
This circular array had traveled across seas with BW1 and was one of the few movable teleportation points.
And Shizuku's "Blinky" could swallow something larger than this entire array in one go.
After confirming these two facts, Germain took the array apart and let Shizuku's "Blinky" swallow it whole.
Pyon blinked her big eyes. "So, does that mean we can teleport directly from here to the Ancient Labyrinth Station?"
"Yes," Germain replied. "But it's only suitable for small amounts transported many times. I can't just lock myself here and focus only on teleporting."
"We still have to open a route from this continent to the Dark Continent."
"That's the long-term plan for humanity, and why we went through so much trouble to participate in colonial voyages."
"I understand, I understand…" Pyon realized the importance of this place. "But this area still needs tighter security."
She pinched her chin and thought for a moment before adding, "List and I will provide monitoring and guarding soon."
"This array isn't just valuable as our new teleport point—it's also extremely useful for researching the Kakin Empire's 'Seed Urn Ceremony.'"
As they discussed who should guard the place, Pyon's communicator suddenly beeped with a few sounds, followed by List's voice.
"It's me, List. Pyon, can you hear me? Germain and Shizuku too?"
"We can hear you. What's going on?"
List's voice was excited.
"I just got some good news."
"We spotted Knov and Palm at the outer edge of the fortress. No, actually, they came looking for us."
Germain and Pyon were both surprised.
But thinking carefully, with Knov and Palm's Nen abilities, it was only a matter of time before this master and disciple duo found the fortress.
"Inside Knov's 'Four-Dimensional Apartment,' there are many survivors. Right now, they're in the 'Inspection Zone,' being checked by Saccho, Kurapika, and Illumi."
"I'm going to find them." Germain decided immediately.
He said to Pyon, "They might have news about Chairman Netero and the others."
Germain found Knov and Palm in the noisy, crowded wounded area.
It had been more than two months since he last saw them.
Both had bandages wrapped around parts of their bodies, with some blood seeping through, but they still moved around easily.
No limbs were missing.
Cheadle was the one treating their wounds.
After finishing with them, she immediately rushed off to help the next injured person. She looked very busy.
Before leaving, Cheadle briefly explained to Knov and Palm what Germain and the others were doing here, and their agreed-upon "story," just to avoid raising suspicion later.
Germain took a few steps toward them, but he was stopped by Sanbica who was passing by.
"Put this on your hands and wash them," said Sanbica, wearing a mask, handing over a bottle of alcohol gel.
Since Sanbica started managing the wounded area, one big change was that everyone coming and going was required to apply extra alcohol gel on their hands.
She didn't care who the person was — whether it was Germain or Chairman Netero — to her, as long as they were alive, everyone had to follow the rules.
There was even a group of young people in white coats stationed at every entrance and exit, under Sanbica's orders, to make sure everyone used the alcohol gel.
"Alright," Germain didn't refuse. He understood Sanbica's method; it was good for disease prevention in the entire fortress.
He carefully rubbed the gel from his fingers all the way to his wrists. Only then did Sanbica let him pass.
"Germain."
Knov spotted Germain from afar.
He quickly grabbed a hat nearby and put it on to cover his bald head.
Then, he stood up from the temporary bed.
But his legs suddenly went weak, and he almost fell to the ground.
Luckily, Palm was quick and steady.
She caught him before he could embarrass himself in front of everyone.
Knov gave Palm a small "Thank you," and awkwardly smiled at Germain.