The neighboring room fell into a brief silence. Only the Doctor stared thoughtfully at the screen, waiting quietly.
While the Doctor was lost in thought, the others around her hardly dared to breathe.
It seemed no more information could be gathered from this room for the time being.
However, that didn't mean he had to wait along with them and do nothing.
With a thought, Ren Yi immediately locked onto the black-uniformed staff member who had just received orders and left quickly: B406.
Ren Yi had already found it somewhat taxing to spread his perception over such a wide area.
This base was filled with small compartments and thick metal walls.
While not impossible to break through, indiscriminately penetrating obstacles to expand his perception consumed a massive amount of energy.
Furthermore, Ren Yi did not understand the power system of this world, nor did he know if there were individuals who could react to his perception.
After all, this place looked like it was packed with all sorts of strange things.
But having a medium changed everything.
Ren Yi carefully separated a thin strand of perception. Like an invisible spider silk, it silently penetrated the metal wall and attached itself to B406's sleeve.
B406 himself was completely unaware, having no idea he had become Ren Yi's mobile camera for spying on the entire base.
Ren Yi followed him as he twisted and turned through the interior of the base.
The path was filled with silver-white metal corridors, with intersecting passages and a dense network of branching paths.
One security checkpoint followed another. Every alloy gate required triple authentication: an authorized keycard, an iris scan, and a genetic match.
Occasionally, they encountered patrols of three fully armed guards.
These men were encased in armor like tin cans, each wearing heavy-duty uniform plating and wielding firearms that looked highly futuristic.
Their gazes were cold, their expressions solemn, their discipline strict, and their auras powerful.
This place was no simple research institute; it was a high-pressure, militarized fortress.
Although B406 took a long, winding path, the linear distance wasn't actually that far.
Just as Ren Yi began to feel the strain of maintaining long-distance perception, B406 led him to a massive iron gate.
As the gate opened and B406 stepped through, the surrounding architectural style underwent a dramatic shift.
It was a massive iron plaza, with a seamless iron plate sloping downward.
This area was not entirely enclosed; it was filled with steel pipes and scaffolding supporting a gargantuan iron structure that cast a massive shadow overhead.
Outside, the yellow wind and sand howled past, cut through by the iron structure, creating a piercing friction sound.
Ren Yi's perception could not fully cover this behemoth.
However, even the small corner he could "see" was already sufficiently menacing.
The metal hull was covered in black scorch marks, patches of old bloodstains, and dents from impacts, with many areas riddled with scratches and cracks.
In the room where he had been held, the weapons were hidden inside the walls, and the surfaces looked clean and tidy.
But outside this building, the cruelty and menace were laid bare.
Weapon after weapon protruded from the iron hull, all pointing in the same direction.
Where they pointed, a dense crowd of people was packed together.
Hundreds of people were squeezed into a narrow area, shoulder to shoulder, struggling even to turn around.
These people were travel-worn, dressed in rags, with sallow complexions and thin frames. Their eyes were filled with nothing but fear and despair.
Their clothing was a hodgepodge.
Some wore primitive coarse hemp clothes, so tattered they barely covered their bodies; others wore fabrics mixed with beast furs, stitched together crudely; still others were wrapped in broken armor or old protective gear.
They stood in stark contrast to B406's simple, efficient attire.
On the perimeter of the crowd, there were only about a dozen guards.
These dozen or so guards wore black battle armor that covered them completely, leaving only reflective visors visible. They held energy firearms, their muzzles pointed coldly at the crowded mass of people.
The disparity in numbers was vast.
Hundreds of people, including men, women, the elderly, and the young, against a dozen guards.
Normally, the larger group could have easily overwhelmed the smaller one by simply charging forward.
But the reality was quite the opposite.
The dozen guards were fearless, their auras cold and casual, as if they didn't care about the hundreds of people at all.
Conversely, the hundreds in the crowd were cowering, not daring to look up or resist, barely even daring to breathe.
Whenever a guard's gaze swept over them, the crowd instinctively shrank back in terrified avoidance.
Ren Yi watched this scene through his perception.
It was a blunt... gap.
It was hard to describe—a gap in wealth, a gap in civilization, or perhaps a gap in class?
In this world, it seemed, things were more blatant than he had imagined.
Though he didn't know the specifics, the reality was clear.
No matter how many people there were, they were nothing in the face of absolute strength and technological suppression.
After B406 emerged, he didn't spare the crowd a single glance. He walked straight to the guards and got right to the point.
"Doctor's orders. I'm here to retrieve a temporary Consumable that meets basic requirements."
A guard stepped forward. Upon hearing this, he gave no verbal answer, only gesturing with his hand.
B406 remained expressionless as he raised his wrist, revealing a black smartwatch. The screen lit up, and an encrypted authorization code was directly synchronized and verified.
Once the guard confirmed it was correct, he nodded and turned toward the crowd.
The conversation between the two was not hidden, and the crowd immediately fell into a commotion.
Everyone looked tense, pushing and shoving one another with panicked eyes. Clearly, they all knew what the term "Consumable" implied.
The moment the guard moved, the crowded mass retreated like a tide, pushing and shoving for fear of being targeted.
The instinct for survival was displayed to its fullest at this moment.
At the edge of the crowd, a thin, young boy stood alone in a corner, kept at a distance from everyone else.
He looked pale and frail.
Undoubtedly, a soft target was the easiest to pick and the most suitable to be a Consumable.
It was unclear who pushed him, but he stumbled and ended up at the very front of the crowd.
The guard, naturally indifferent to this, stepped forward to grab him.
The boy seemed frozen with fear, standing stiffly on the spot without moving.
Just as the guard reached out a massive iron hand to seize the boy, a gray-haired old man extended an arm to block him.
Ren Yi's perception flickered slightly for a moment.
What caused the flicker wasn't the heartwarming scene of an elder protecting a child, but rather the old man's arm.
The old man standing in front of the boy appeared gray-haired, wrinkled, and stooped—an ordinary old man of the wilderness.
But the arm he had raised to block the guard was not made of flesh and blood.
It was a precision mechanical structure throughout, with a metal skeleton exposed, conduits and wires entwined and crisscrossed, gears clearly visible, and a faint blue light flickering at the joints.
It was a mechanical arm.
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