The problem with those elevators was singular: they had no power.
Thinking about it, this was quite normal. Koninmis had been destroyed by the disaster for over a decade. Even if there were self-operating, robot-maintained generator units, they would now be unable to function due to the scarcity of energy.
This wasn't like Da Jiang City, which was the No. 1 Swamp Relic, lacking sufficient hydraulic resources.
"Then we can only choose to take the stairs." As an intelligent robot, Genava would not feel frustrated by this.
"No, no, no." Shang Jianyao shook his head. "There is another choice."
The face under his protective mask revealed a smile.
He then raised his hand and pointed to the elevators:
"We can also directly climb the cables."
Genava immediately assessed the feasibility:
"For me, this is not a problem at all.
"For normal humans, the risk is very high and the chance of success is very low. However, with the assistance of your military exoskeleton device, there should be no difficulty."
As soon as he finished speaking, Shang Jianyao began to deny himself:
"Let's just take the stairs. Maybe we can find more corpses."
Red light flickered in Genava's eyes a few times, but he didn't make a sound.
Shang Jianyao's gaze swept across the two open elevators. Suddenly, he jumped and "flew" into one of them.
The weight of him and the military exoskeleton device caused the car to sink noticeably and shake a few times.
"Careful!" Genava quickly reminded him.
These elevators had been abandoned for more than ten years. No one knew if the cables would snap due to such actions.
Shang Jianyao didn't respond. He lowered his head and used his feet to measure every inch of space inside the elevator.
After only a few seconds, he said disappointedly:
"No corpses."
Genava understood the meaning of his actions, knowing that he was worried that the overlap with the "New World" might cause some places in this apartment building to appear empty, but in reality, they were hiding mysteries.
This could easily cause Shang Jianyao to miss clues about his father.
After inspecting the other elevator, Shang Jianyao walked towards the stairwell with regret.
There were no lights here, and it was completely dark.
As the flashlight's beam shone in, the mottled stairs appeared in Shang Jianyao and Genava's eyes.
"Besides looking a bit dilapidated, it's quite clean." Shang Jianyao marveled.
Red light flickered in Genava's eyes as he said:
"It's possible that the electromagnetic environment in this area is too chaotic, preventing outside dust from entering.
"The specific principle is..."
Shang Jianyao tilted his head and glanced at his companion, interrupting him with a resentful tone:
"Old Ge, at times like this, you just need to say 'Yeah, yeah.'"
Genava couldn't analyze the reason, but he still chose to cooperate:
"Okay."
The two climbed the stairs, step by step, towards the top floor.
It could be seen that outside the stairwell on each floor, the lights were bright, and through the cracks in the doors, they cast a bright strip inside.
Currently cautious, Shang Jianyao didn't choose to directly traverse similar areas. If he could bypass them, he would. If he couldn't, he simply used the stair handrails to climb to the next floor.
Genava followed suit.
They didn't dare to gamble that they wouldn't be discovered if they were "seen" by the "New World" powerhouses or other creatures that might exist on each floor.
The cowardly but cautious Shang Jianyao suspected that the lights were actually the mental manifestations of those powerhouses, and that at the source of the overlap, which was already very severe, touching the lights was the same as singing loudly next to someone's ear, making it impossible to hide.
As for why there was only light and no figures on the first floor, he had no idea.
As he slowly ascended, Shang Jianyao always restrained his human consciousness, relying only on the flashlight beam, which he had deliberately set to a weak state, to illuminate the road ahead.
On the way, he and Genava discovered several more corpses.
The few on the lower floors also only had clothes, and were completely empty, obviously having been searched by the Eighth Research Institute, while the few discovered after passing the halfway point of the building had some personal items in their pockets.
Through their clothes and items, Genava clearly determined that these were all employees of "Pangu Biology," members of the previous Old Task Force team.
And with the help of skeletal characteristics and item conditions, another conclusion could also be drawn:
None of these were Shang Jianyao's father.
"They're just personal items..." Shang Jianyao, kneeling on one knee on the stairs, handed all the items he had searched from the corpse in front of him to Genava, his tone revealing undisguised disappointment.
Genava knew that he wanted to find corresponding clues from those items, but unfortunately, they were not compressed biscuits, chocolate, candy, or other items that could quickly replenish energy, but rather handguns, bullets, and other self-defense items.
"Perhaps the management of that team was very strict, not allowing members to privately record information, lest it be obtained by others after they were separated." Genava put the items he received into his backpack.
"Yeah." Shang Jianyao stood up, picked up the "Berserker" assault rifle again, and walked up the stairs.
As he walked, he suddenly staggered.
"Careful." Genava, imitating humans, expressed concern with a reminder.
"I'm fine." Shang Jianyao first reassured Genava, and then said, "I must have been hit by an Awakened's ability."
"This is called fine?" Red light flashed violently in Genava's eyes, but he still couldn't understand.
Shang Jianyao didn't stop his footsteps:
"This ability feels relatively weak and doesn't have a very obvious impact on me.
"Moreover, although I've been hit by the ability, I haven't sensed the enemy's consciousness."
Normally speaking, an ability affecting a person means that a connection has been established with that person, making it impossible to hide human consciousness from the other party's perception unless one can preemptively interrupt the connection and hide again before the enemy discovers them, or be outside the target's range of perception.
The former can be temporarily ruled out because Shang Jianyao's footsteps are still not very stable, and it's only with the assistance of the military exoskeleton device that he appears to be fine, while the latter means that the hidden Awakened is much stronger than Shang Jianyao, but this contradicts the relatively weak effect of the ability.
"A bit strange." Genava responded with a slightly synthetic voice.
Shang Jianyao smiled:
"It doesn't matter. There are only a few floors left to the top floor. Let's not worry about anything else and hurry up, time, go up..."
As he spoke, his tongue seemed to be getting bigger and his body began to sway, making it difficult to maintain balance.
Instead of being surprised, Shang Jianyao was overjoyed and shouted:
"This is very similar to the 'drunken' ability that Da Bai, Xiao Hong, and Xiao Bai encountered!
"Is that Awakened from the Eighth Research Institute hiding nearby?
"But she should be weaker than me!"
Genava understood his meaning: there was no reason why he couldn't sense the other party's human consciousness and was passively taking a beating.
Before Genava could respond, Shang Jianyao fell to the ground with a thud.
"I'm drunk, my head is very dizzy and it hurts..." he muttered to himself.
Then, he began to switch the military exoskeleton device's behavior mode, changing "assistance" to "domination."
With the equipment taking the lead, "automatic driving."
With the input of commands, Shang Jianyao "stood" up and steadily continued to head towards the top floor along the stairs.
Although he was still in a "drunk" state, this no longer affected his actions at all.
"Cheese is power, Old Ge..." Shang Jianyao's tongue was so big that his words were a bit slurred.
Just then, a rope attached to the glass window of the stairwell swayed in the wind.
In the dark night, it resembled a dancing poisonous snake.
Shang Jianyao's eyes suddenly froze, and his whole body was in a state of wanting to twist around and run away.
But the military exoskeleton device stopped him.
The command received by this equipment had not been changed, and it judged that such a rope posed no threat!
"No!" Shang Jianyao screamed, "hijacked" by the military exoskeleton device to continue upstairs.
The closer he got to the rope, the more intense his screams became. In the end, he even shouted loudly:
"Old Ge, save me!"
Genava analyzed a certain possibility and chose to only follow and not speak.
Finally, Shang Jianyao passed the glass window of the stairwell, no longer having to see the rope swaying like a snake.
He immediately calmed down.
After a few seconds, not daring to turn around at all, he said excitedly:
"Old Ge, this should be caused by the power overflowing from the top floor.
"Otherwise, it's impossible to have both the effects of the ability and the additional cost."
As far as the Old Task Force knew, "distorted creature phobia" was a cost.
"Although part of the cost and the effects of some abilities are the same, I still believe that your conjecture has a very high probability of being true." Genava agreed with Shang Jianyao's speculation.
Shang Jianyao said gleefully:
"Then let's continue upwards, we're not far from the source of the problem!"
Saying this, his voice suddenly became low:
"The closer we get to the top floor, the stronger the influence should be. If I can't control myself later, Old Ge, you knock me out and take me up."
"Okay." Genava agreed. "But you need to adjust the command and put me on the whitelist of those who don't need to be defended against or resisted."
Otherwise, he really wouldn't be able to deal with the military exoskeleton device dominating Shang Jianyao's body in a short amount of time.
In this way, Shang Jianyao struggled to ascend, with Genava following beside him, ready to provide assistance at any time.
Just as Shang Jianyao's "drunk" state was about to enter the level of incoherence, the two finally arrived at the stairwell on the top floor, separated from their destination by only a pair of wooden doors.
It was as dark as ink here, and the flashlight's beam could only illuminate a very small area.