*Click*

The power supply turned on, emitting an audible sound, along with a flickering red light. The display turned on, showing a text.

"Warning! Power overload detected! Executing self-preservation measures…Cutting current flow…"

After that, the display turned off, and so did the alarm and light. However, that wasn't the only thing that happened. The clips that were connected to the crystal and the power supply started to get very hot, to the point they got red.

"The clips! We have to unplug those or they'll melt!" Nitori said, rushing towards a shelf.

Vali reacted quickly, and took action, unplugging the clips from the crystal with caution, and holding them in his claws. Soon enough, the heat dissipated quickly, being absorbed by his scales. He repeated the same process with the ones in the power supply. Nitori finally came back with a pair of protective gloves, when she found no clips overheating anymore. Instead, it was just Vali, holding them in both hands.

"Did you take the clips…with your bare hands?" She said, puzzled. "And why are they cold again?"

Vali just showed his claws. A large portion of the scales was now red instead of black. Then, with a simple gesture, he moved the heat absorbed on it towards his wrists, and kept it there.

[I got rid of the heat. Judging by the color, the clips probably reached 900 degrees celsius or so. A pair of normal heat gloves wouldn't have solved that, unfortunately.]

"Guess that makes sense. Now…I think I have an idea of what to use to avoid overloading the radio. Wait here a bit." Nitori then approached a metal locker, and pulled out a makeshift artifact, which could only be described as a bunch of high tension resistors, cell phone batteries and portable power banks, all wired together with scrap cables, and with two alligator clips in each enter and exit cables.

"I call this…a universal energy resistor! I haven't tried it yet, but it should be able to transform the raw energy of that crystal into something more palatable for the power supply." Nitori said proudly.

[This…looks more like a science project made by an 8th grader than a proper energy converter.]

However, since there was no other option at hand, he simply shrugged it off and attached the clip of the thing into the crystal. Then, he attached the remaining clip into the power supply cable.

"This should work. I'm turning the power supply on." Nitori said, as she flipped the switch again. This time, the light was green, and so the radio was ready to be turned on.

"Yay! It works! Now, where were the instructions?" She said, reaching for the notebook. "Okay…push this…flip that…" Following the instructions, Nitori activated the buttons and switches in the indicated order, and after a while, the display turned on.

"Now…selecting a frequency range…let's try with FM." She said, moving the pointer into the FM zone.

*BZZZZZZZZZT*

Nothing but static was heard. She was confused at first, but after twisting the crank for a while, she was able to hear faint sounds.

"bzzzt….news…police arrest…the…bzzzzzzt…..bzzt…"

"It's working, but I still can't understand a thing!"

"bzzt…bzzt…bzz- now, please enjoy our all-nighter selection of music for you."

Suddenly, a soft jazz tune was heard through the speakers. It was like being in the middle of a crowded restaurant.

Nitori couldn't help but feel entranced by this newfound music, and she swung left and right to the sound of the drums. "What… what is this?" she asked herself, tapping her fingers on the table in rhythm to the song. "I've listened to some music from the outside world, but they didn't have this."

Vali wrote, [It's a genre of music called jazz. It was conceived in the last years of the 19th century, in the United States, and began to popularize itself around the 1910s. It relies a lot on improvisation and danceable rhythms for the most part. Even though it's very popular, it's also a bit niche because of its nature, and is often present in places where people go to relax, like a coffee shop.] Pausing for a moment, he added, [I've never listened to jazz that much though. I prefer traditional and folk music for the most part.]

Raising an eyebrow, Nitori replied, "Really? Well then, I guess I'll have to check out more music stations and dig through the music-related things that we scavenged over the years." Flipping through more channels, she skipped through ads and talk shows before stopping as she landed on another music station. "So what's this one?"

Soft violins started playing, accompanied by a melodic orchestra. Shortly after, a man began singing in a deep voice, leading a choir that accompanied the music and made it even more beautiful.

"Woah… It's been a long time since I've heard something like this," Nitori gasped. "The last time I heard this was back in the 1930s when I snuck past the Barrier and went to a stadium in a country called Italy to see what kind of music people in the Outside World listened to."

Eventually, both of them spent a good couple hours jumping from frequency to frequency, listening to all kinds of music. Nitori was the first one to give up to sleepiness, falling asleep at the table as she listened to a country music radio station. However, Vali stayed awake, as he still needed to make an inventory of the things inside the box, even if he was just one second away from passing out from how sleepy he was. He continued to do so until he inevitably was too sluggish to even write properly. After placing Nitori on a nearby couch, he walked towards the main table, and fell asleep on the spot.