Unlike the old spacecraft, whose exit was located at the stern, the new ship placed its main hatch beneath the control room floor. Once activated, the floor slowly split apart and folded inward, transforming into a staircase leading downward. Arnaldo heightened his alertness and volunteered to take the lead. He marked the signal’s coordinates onto the navigation device on his left wrist, then placed his first step onto the planet’s surface.

  Thup.

  His left foot sank deep into the soft snow. Only then did all three of them realize that normal movement was impossible in this environment. Arnaldo pressed a button on his right forearm, and the analysis device reported a snow layer thickness exceeding 150 meters. It appeared that wave-based scanning systems were now functioning normally again within the planet’s interior. This further convinced him that an advanced civilization truly existed here.

  He crouched down, scooped up a handful of snow, and fed it into the sample analyzer. The results showed that its primary composition was solid nitrogen. Everything suddenly made sense. The reason the atmosphere was so crystal clear was that the temperature here was so low that the planet’s entire atmosphere had liquefied and crystallized into the thick snow blanket surrounding them.

  “What’s the temperature right now, Freya?” Arnaldo asked.

  “The current temperature is minus 273.15 degrees Celsius,” she replied.

  “What!? That’s absolute zero! How is that even – ”

  He hadn’t finished his sentence when Tuan suddenly shouted and pointed straight ahead.

  “Everyone! I see a snow mound about three hundred meters from here. It matches the signal’s coordinates exactly. Should we head there right now?”

  As a test subject of the Super Soldier Project, Tuan possessed senses enhanced to extreme levels. Even with darkness enveloping everything around them, he could still see clearly across hundreds of meters. Hearing this, Arnaldo paused his analysis, bent down, and twisted the dial beneath the sole of his EVA boot. Instantly, a thin alloy glide board deployed beneath his foot. Valentina and Tuan immediately understood and quickly followed suit.

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  The three of them then glided through the freezing air, leaving long grooves etched across the pristine white snow. Tuan darted ahead to clear the path. The darkness and silence made the atmosphere increasingly suffocating. Every sound was absorbed by the thick snow, leaving only the faint hiss of gliding and the steady rhythm of breathing echoing inside their helmets. The short distance began to feel endless – like at any second, something might burst out from the darkness and swallow all three of them whole.

  The unusually tall snow mound gradually came into view, located precisely at the marked signal coordinates. It was “unusual” because the surrounding terrain was entirely flattened under an even layer of snow. Only this mound rose above the surface, making it impossible for it to be a natural formation.

  Tuan pulled out a military shovel attached to the side of his biopsy kit and began digging. By instinct, he was certain something lay buried beneath, and the other two quickly joined in to help. Within just a few minutes, they struck solid rock. Arnaldo and Tuan continued clearing away the snow, revealing a strange object shaped like a truncated pyramid, pitch-black in color, with most of its volume still buried deep beneath the snow.

  A sense of déjà vu washed over Valentina. She instantly recalled the strange dream she had experienced not long ago. Because the planet was covered in white snow, she hadn’t noticed it at first – but wasn’t that black structure, roughly two meters tall, the apex of a pyramid? The surface, the structure, the color – everything matched exactly what she had seen in her dream. The only difference was that it wasn’t buried in sand, but in snow.

  Valentina fearfully lifted her gaze toward the sky, instinctively searching for the giant eye she remembered – but above her now was only a deep, endless darkness staring back into her mind. Unease surged through her, making her feel as though her entire body were laid bare beneath the hungry gaze of a dangerous predator. She stood frozen in place until Tuan snapped her out of it by stepping forward and firmly patting her shoulder.

  “What are you thinking about, Vale? Come here. Dol and I found a way inside the pyramid.”