At the mention of that designation, everyone in the vicinity froze.
In that moment, whether it was the high-and-mighty Doctor or the other staff members, their expressions twisted in unison.
"Something's wrong," the Doctor said, her voice icy.
"S-099's activity cycle is extremely rigid. It just reacted at the beginning of this month, and we're only halfway through... its 'alarm clock' is early."
"S-099..." the Doctor murmured to herself. "Why today of all days?"
She snapped her head around, staring intently at the mass of gray-white cloud still floating quietly in the top-right surveillance feed.
In that instant, a preposterous thought crossed her mind.
Inside the control room, the red alarm lights spun wildly, casting shifting shadows across the Doctor’s aging face.
Her gaze flickered back and forth between Ren Yi’s cloud form and the static-filled screens from the underground monitors.
The suspicion was almost instinctive.
In this tightly woven world of logic, any unplanned variable could be the catalyst for a chain reaction.
The Doctor huffed coldly, but she didn't get bogged down in hesitation. She possessed an incredibly decisive nature.
"I'm going out. Staff B-117, stay here and keep your eyes on B-013-A. Report any movement to me immediately."
With that, the Doctor turned sharply and strode out of the command hall, followed by a group of heavily armed guards.
Ren Yi secretly attached a thread of perception to the hem of the Doctor’s white lab coat.
Whatever this 'S' thing was, it was enough to throw the entire base into a panic. It definitely wasn't anything good.
As for the Doctor’s obvious suspicion, Ren Yi could only roll his eyes internally.
While the Alliance’s methods were often blunt, they were extremely meticulous. No other Anomalies had visited this world before him.
Aside from himself—the 'examinee' and the 'Base Station'—nothing else had been deployed here.
In his perception, the Doctor didn't go far. She entered an elevator made entirely of heavy metal not far from the command hall doors.
Curiously, the other staff members stayed outside, leaving the Doctor to enter alone.
To Ren Yi’s surprise, once the elevator doors closed, it began to ascend rapidly with only her inside.
Boom!
Another violent tremor struck.
This time, poor Evans was actually jolted a few centimeters off the floor before slamming back down.
Ren Yi didn't have time to worry about him.
"The source of the vibration is clearly below, yet this Doctor is heading up?"
Ren Yi was baffled for a moment. Was she planning to abandon everyone and escape on her own?
However, the information relayed by his perception soon corrected his assumption.
Inside the rapidly rising elevator, the Doctor showed no sign of panic. She issued a series of short, cold commands into a miniature terminal on her wrist.
"Initiate the guidance program. Direct S-099's activity toward the west."
"Abandon all non-essential assets from the second to the fourth floor."
"Team A-024, execute a suicide containment. Buy time for the core area to seal."
Six more times, the vibrations from underground grew more violent, as if a giant beast were gnawing at the earth's crust.
Until the seventh time.
It was a sound of a rupture, different from the ones before.
Immediately after, the entire base fell into a strange, deathly silence.
The Doctor stared at the projection on her watch, her face ashen.
The projection displayed a message from an unknown sender.
"We have lost A-024."
The Doctor whispered the sentence to herself, then stood silently in the elevator, her eyes fixed on the metal doors.
A moment later, the elevator began its descent.
It's over already?
Ren Yi thought, feeling a bit disappointed.
In the room next door, B-117 had closed all other monitors except for Ren Yi’s after the Doctor left, faithfully carrying out the order to "keep eyes on B-013-A."
Unfortunately, Ren Yi’s plan to learn more about the situation through the surveillance feeds was quickly thwarted.
As for the Doctor, he had expected her to go to the scene or perhaps deploy another Anomaly to counter this S-099.
But she didn't. She simply walked into an elevator, issued orders, and waited for it to be over.
Still, Ren Yi had gained some information.
It seemed this organization had methods to suppress or even control these S-rank Anomalies at a certain cost.
Furthermore, there was a "goodie" underground that gave this base a hard time at the start of every month.
While Ren Yi was mulling this over, the elevator returned the Doctor to the control room.
The first thing she said upon entering was, "Has there been any movement from B-013-A?"
"No, but..." B-117’s voice was hesitant. She pointed at the screen with a strange expression.
"This Consumable seems... rather bold."
Extending his perception required a certain amount of effort. Ren Yi had been so focused on following the Doctor that he had neglected his immediate surroundings.
The moment he heard B-117’s words, Ren Yi quickly retracted the perception following the Doctor.
As soon as he returned to his True Form and perceived the scene before him, he froze, momentarily speechless.
Evans, the boy who had fallen to the floor, had managed to scramble back up at some point.
He hadn't touched the silver sphere the organization had ordered him to retrieve. Instead, he was hunched over, sneaking around the display pedestal to stand closer to Ren Yi’s True Form.
Ren Yi was stunned.
Is this kid crazy?
He wasn't worried about any danger the boy might pose; his perception had scanned him thoroughly before he even entered.
The boy had nothing on him but his clothes.
Aside from his headset, the organization hadn't given him any weapons.
In other words, he had no way to threaten Ren Yi.
The boy should have been well aware of that himself.
"Is it because of the Seed I planted earlier?" Ren Yi wondered.
Was the effect really that immediate?
Attributing everything to his own abilities wasn't a good habit, so Ren Yi was reluctant to accept that possibility.
So, either the kid was naturally bold...
Or the ordinary humans of this world weren't as fearful of these "Anomalies" as he had imagined.
Rate on N.U.
