Realizing he couldn't force his way out, Ren Yi immediately retracted all his overflowing aura.
He disguised himself as a harmless, almost listless cloud of grayish-white mist, quietly shrinking into a corner of the wall.
Simultaneously, he stealthily extended the vast majority of his sensory feelers, penetrating the metal walls to probe precisely into the adjacent room.
The neighboring room was a massive monitoring hall, styled like a high-tech rocket launch command center.
Cold white shadowless lights bathed every corner, blindingly bright. Countless precision computers operated at high speeds, their subtle, continuous humming filling the entire space.
At the front of the hall was a giant curved ring screen, currently broadcasting a real-time feed of the secret room where Ren Yi was located.
On the screen, the grayish-white mist huddled obediently beside the Beacon, looking like a terrified house pet.
Inside the monitoring room, the atmosphere was solemn to the extreme.
"Shall we initiate the neutralization procedure?"
The speaker was a female staff member seated at a front-row workstation.
Her slender finger hovered over a dark red confirmation button, her fingertip slightly tensed, ready to press the execution command at any moment.
Standing at the central command position—the highest point with the best view of the hall—was a middle-aged woman in a white lab coat.
Her hair was tied in a neat, efficient bun, and she wore a pair of thin black-rimmed glasses. Her entire presence radiated the coldness, rationality, and scholarly air characteristic of a top-tier elite researcher.
Strangely, she appeared somewhat travel-worn at the moment.
Fine yellow sand and dust clung to her hair, and beneath the hem of her white lab coat, she was wearing a pair of slightly worn camouflage pants. Even her breathing carried the slight wheeze of someone who had just finished a long, grueling journey.
The combination of refined research attire and battle-worn camouflage created a clash of elegance and ruin, a fusion of cleanliness and the toll of experience...
She looked entirely out of place in this spotless, high-end monitoring hall.
Yet, none of the staff members looked at her with anything but profound awe and obedience. There was no doubt that she was the core authority of this entire base.
Her gaze was locked onto the giant screen, her brow furrowed and her eyes sharp as knives. After two seconds of silence, she spoke in a low, heavy voice.
"No explicit signs of destructive behavior observed yet. Threat assessment is pending. Rescind the immediate neutralization order."
She looked down at the staff below, her tone commanding.
"B406, report all abnormal changes during my absence. Where did this A-variant come from?"
B406?
Ren Yi's mind stirred. The command earlier had called him B-013-A, but this 'B406' clearly wasn't referring to something like him.
It seemed the members of this organization were all assigned codes. Even Anomalies were referred to by numbers—no names, only codes.
A male staff member in a black uniform immediately stepped forward, handing over a thick manila folder with both hands.
"Doctor, here are the real-time monitoring records and the logs of abnormal fluctuations."
The Doctor took the folder, her fingers quickly flipping through the pages.
In that instant, Ren Yi used his expanded perception to forcibly 'capture' the text on the pages as she turned them.
【Anomaly File: B-013】
【Rank: B-rank】
【Physical Description】
B-013 is a spherical object with a diameter of 7.6 centimeters. Its mass is constant and unaffected by the environment.
The surface possesses a mirrored finish, with a geometric curvature error of zero. Current high-precision instruments cannot detect any flaws.
No known physical, chemical, or energy-based means can damage its surface structure or extract samples.
【Containment Behavior and Abnormal Properties】:
B-013 and its associated phenomena possess a weak phototactic instinct. In pitch-black environments, it moves toward light sources at an extremely slow speed (approx. 1m/h), though it cannot bypass solid physical obstacles.
When the surrounding visual landscape undergoes large-scale changes, the mirror surface disappears, replaced by a Gray Horizon. The sphere expands to a diameter of one meter and 'swallows' surrounding matter.
This state lasts between 3 to 5 minutes. After each 'swallowing' event, B-013 enters a dormant state. The longest recorded interval before reactivation is 379 days and 16 hours.
Any living or non-living matter that enters the expansion range disappears completely.
Experiments attempted to deploy trackers into it, but signals were lost the moment contact was made. It is determined that they were either destroyed or their location has become untraceable.
【Containment Protocol】: Store in a sealed room with constant illumination. All four walls must be white to maintain visual stability.
Personnel are prohibited from remaining within its line of sight for more than fifteen minutes during non-dormant periods.
【Utility Assessment: Medium】
【Note: B-013 poses a low direct threat, but it is suspected to share similar properties with S-■■■ and S-■■■.】
At the very end, there was a section of hurried, scrawled handwriting that looked like it had just been added.
【Pure White Month, 13th Day: The mirror surface of B-013 receded without cause, but the expansion-swallowing mechanism was not triggered.】
【Observed B-013 ejecting an unknown lifeform. Tentative designation: B-013-A.】
Looking at this file, Ren Yi's thoughts wandered slightly.
What on earth was this written in?
So, this terrifying, high-spec containment hazard B-013, which required such rigorous security...
Was actually the Beacon, his only way out of this assessment.
He could more or less guess what was happening.
Beyond teleportation, the Beacon's function was likely to collect information and perform material sampling.
Therefore, the so-called 'swallowed' matter was most likely sent back to the Alliance.
The 'phototaxis' was actually the Beacon trying to break out of the void and locate world coordinates.
And the 'swallowing of matter' was probably the Beacon gathering information on the surrounding environment and packaging it to send back to the Alliance headquarters.
Different levels of cognition led to completely different perspectives on the same thing.
While marveling at this, Ren Yi continued to eavesdrop.
The Beacon certainly seemed powerful, but it was out of power now, and he couldn't use it!
It couldn't help him in his current dire situation.
However, he keenly caught one phrase: 【Utility Assessment: Medium】.
Combined with the fact that the Doctor had unhesitatingly called off the neutralization execution...
This suggested that this organization, which seemed to be something like a 'Containment Bureau,' did not prioritize the destruction of 'Anomalies' like him.
In their logic, as long as something could be understood, controlled, and exploited for value...
Even the most terrifying outlier could be weighed on a scale.
As long as he behaved tamely and harmlessly while displaying enough research value to entice them...
He wouldn't just survive the three-day charging period; he might even be able to turn the tables and use this organization's resources to pave the way for his assessment.
In the monitoring room next door, the staff member B406 was quickly reporting the details.
"On the 13th day of the Pure White Month, which was seven days ago, B-013 suffered a sudden 168-hour mirror recession anomaly."
"However, it did not trigger the usual expansion and swallowing. Nothing like this has appeared in the containment records of the past century."
"We immediately moved the containment box to the observation zone and initiated an A-rank alert."
"Just moments ago, B-013-A emerged from the center of the sphere."
"It has displayed a high degree of silence. It appears to possess lifeform behaviors and shows no aggressive tendencies."
As the Doctor listened to the report, her finger unconsciously tapped lightly on the table.
After a moment, her sharp eyes peered through her lenses and looked at the screen once more.
"How many Consumables do we have left here?"
B406 hesitated. "Doctor, the Consumables were already... before you left..."
"Ah, right. Look at my memory."
The Doctor gave a self-deprecating smile, the fire in her eyes finally fading a little.
"My harvest from this excursion was quite good. I've acquired quite a few new Consumables."
"Go to my guards and get one. Give them some basic training. We need to attempt contact with B-013-A."
B406 immediately nodded in agreement and turned to leave quickly.
The Doctor looked up at Ren Yi on the giant screen and suddenly spoke.
"Although B-013 is only B-rank, it is a very special containment object."
"It is suspected to share the same nature as those few 'bottomless' things."
The Doctor's voice was low, as if she were speaking to everyone present, yet also as if she were explaining it to herself.
"Perhaps this time, we can unlock the secret of one of them."
Rate on N.U.
