B-406, who had been playing the role of an errand boy, did not hesitate. He turned around and took a heavy carrying case from another staff member behind him.
The case opened. Inside was not the high-tech, precision instrument one might expect, but rather a withered, yellowed, and ancient-smelling severed arm lying quietly.
The object did not look like a human arm. It was extremely short, and its five fingers were twisted and curled in a bizarre posture.
If it hadn't been placed in such a high-spec containment base, Ren Yi would have thought it was just a back-scratcher used by old folks to reach an itch.
Indeed, B-406 picked up the claw with a movement exactly like one would use to grab a back-scratcher.
The scene was actually a bit comical: an elite staff member in a professional uniform holding a back-scratcher like a sword, pointing it at the large screen high above.
However, in the next moment, the perception web of Ren Yi, who was on alert inside the sealed pod, suddenly fluctuated.
B-050, who was about to end his own life, suddenly felt his finger—which had been pressed hard against the trigger—hit nothing but air.
The high-energy electromagnetic rifle in his hand, capable of tearing a human body to shreds in an instant, abruptly vanished from Ren Yi's perception.
A second later, a dull metallic thud echoed in the command hall next door.
The rifle, still flickering with faint blue electrical sparks, appeared without warning within the grasp of that strange claw in B-406's hand.
"Apportation?"
Ren Yi, floating in the air, drifted slightly.
Had the tone shifted a bit too quickly? One moment it was special forces versus an alien cloud, and the next it had jumped straight into supernatural snatching?
Clearly, this "back-scratcher" was a very practical Anomaly. Even Ren Yi's perception had failed to capture any sign of it being activated.
B-406 expressionlessly removed the rifle from the withered claw and tossed it to a nearby security staff member like he was throwing away trash.
However, the power of an Anomaly always came with a price.
The moment the rifle left the withered claw, the five fingers of the yellowed "back-scratcher" suddenly snapped shut without warning.
The withered nails scraped against each other, producing a sharp, piercing sound like a metal blade scratching across glass.
At the same time, on B-406's expressionless, paralyzed face, his left eye suddenly caved in.
With the enhancement of his perception, Ren Yi clearly observed this process—one that would be enough to give an ordinary person nightmares.
The once-full eyeball evaporated into thin air, as if some invisible force had reached deep into the socket and plucked it out, leaving behind only a dark, shriveled void.
Immediately following that, a bone-chilling cracking sound came from the palm of the withered claw.
After snatching the rifle from B-050, the claw had immediately "apported" one of the user's eyes.
However, there was no spray of blood as expected.
Amidst the harsh sound of grinding metal, the claw slowly opened, and a pile of shattered transistors, miniature optical lenses, and a few twisted sensor wires fell out.
It was actually a highly sophisticated and expensive mechanical prosthetic eye.
"...Well, damn," Ren Yi thought, sucking in a breath of cold air. "So this is a paid proxy buyer? You get an item, you pay an eye."
But it was clear that this Anomaly was being cheated.
The organization had found a loophole to use it safely by substituting "Consumables" with prosthetic eyes.
B-406's attitude remained indifferent; he didn't even twitch an eyebrow.
He casually pulled a brand-new mechanical eyeball from his pocket, expertly held it with his fingertip, and popped it back into the dark socket as naturally as one would insert a SIM card into a phone.
Click.
With a soft sound, the eyeball recalibrated, and a faint blue scanning light flashed across the iris.
Then, he raised the "back-scratcher" once more, locking his gaze on the center of the screen.
A powerful sense of foreboding rose in Ren Yi's heart.
Wait! Let's talk this out! Don't just grab things randomly!
Unfortunately, the worst happened.
Sure enough, in the next second, the "back-scratcher" exerted its power again.
The Base Station sphere, which had been floating quietly on the pedestal and receiving a constant stream of energy from Ren Yi, vanished completely from the room with a single grab from that withered claw.
Ren Yi looked at the empty pedestal with a sense of helplessness.
This feeling was miserable. It was like you were working hard on a game when the network admin suddenly followed the cable and pulled your plug.
He knew that in this base filled with all sorts of mysterious contained objects, the hope of keeping this Base Station—which served as his navigation coordinates—was slim.
These lab coats had far too many "Mouseketools" in their hands; they didn't fight fair at all.
But even so, when it actually happened, Ren Yi still felt a wave of frustration.
After "blowing" another eye, B-406 replaced it with a third one without even blinking—literally.
Then he raised the claw again, locking his gaze on the bewildered B-050 inside the room.
The moment B-406 was about to act, Ren Yi, who was circling in the air, suddenly moved.
He dived down sharply, appearing like a white curtain falling from the sky.
In the eyes of the experts in the surveillance hall, this scene perfectly fit the psychological profile of "a beast retaliating frantically after losing a valuable possession."
"B-013-A is enraged! It's trying to destroy the remaining experimental sample!"
However, Ren Yi's mind wasn't on revenge at all.
He was conducting an experiment, testing the functional characteristics of this "back-scratcher."
"If the controller's gaze is the 'coordinate' and the single-use cost is an 'eye,' then how exactly is the unit of 'grabbing' defined?"
Ren Yi calculated rapidly in his mind.
Is it by 'individual'? Or by the 'scope of the operator's perception'?
If this claw couldn't tell the difference between a real eye and a fake one, it meant it wasn't a perfect "miracle," but a product of rules with loopholes.
So, if he maintained tight contact with the target object at the moment of the grab...
Would this not-so-bright "back-scratcher" accidentally "steal" him along with the target out of this godforsaken sealed pod?
In the next instant, Ren Yi's gray mist had already layered itself over B-050's head and shoulders.
However, the sensation of contact only lasted for a split second.
That feeling of spatio-temporal weightlessness returned. B-050 "evaporated" right from under Ren Yi's cover.
Ren Yi's body wobbled violently because he had lost his support.
It seemed the lucky break of "hitchhiking his way out" hadn't happened.
However, this result allowed Ren Yi to figure out some of the mechanics. The trigger for the retrieval function should be based on the operator's "cognitive control."
In B-406's eyes, B-050 was a single individual, and the weapons, clothes, and equipment on him were considered appendages of that individual.
But Ren Yi, as an outlier, clearly did not belong to the "same target" in B-406's perception.
Therefore, B-050 was taken away—not even leaving behind his boots or rifle strap—but Ren Yi, who was pressed tightly against him, was heartlessly left in place.
Inside the room, it suddenly became terrifyingly quiet.
Only the rolling cloud of mist and the boy still lying unconscious on the floor remained.
Evans was quite lucky. He happened to have collapsed behind the high-strength pedestal that held the Base Station.
Most of B-050's frantic, indiscriminate fire just now had been blocked by the pedestal.
Only a few stray bullets had grazed past him, leaving behind a few inconsequential scratches.
Then, as expected, Evans vanished from the floor as well.
Through his diffused perception, Ren Yi captured Evans appearing abruptly in the command hall in a very clumsy posture, with the claw gripping his shoulder.
The nearby B-050 had already been pinned to the ground by a group of fully armed suppression teams, who were stripping him of any remaining small arms.
Meanwhile, Evans, his head covered in blood, was carried away like a sack of trash by the medical team and sent to the emergency clinic.
Ren Yi hovered quietly in the air for a while, then slowly retracted his form, turning back into a seemingly harmless ball of white mist.
The farce was over.
Though the Base Station was lost, he was no longer at risk of being "erased on the spot."
Rate on N.U.
