Ren Yi withdrew his thoughts, refocusing his perception on the room where B-050 and B-406 were still locked in a stalemate.
Of these two, one was being silenced because he knew the Doctor had developed a peculiar interest in Evans.
The other was a man who followed orders blindly, having done plenty of dirty work for the Doctor, but he simply knew far too much.
Regardless of their past relationship, they were likely both destined to have their throats slit; it was only a matter of time.
However, B-406 had one significant advantage: he had used the Withered Claw so many times that his life was already nearing its end.
Perhaps one of the reasons the Doctor favored him was that he wouldn't require an "active" silencing.
But which of them deserved to die and which did not was of no concern to Ren Yi.
The deduction he had just made left him feeling uneasy.
The Lord of the City was undoubtedly unaware of the Doctor's series of actions; otherwise, she wouldn't have needed to send B-406 in such a hurry to silence the witness.
His intuition told him that something unexpected was bound to happen on this land ship.
...He had to find a way to escape immediately.
Ren Yi slowly rose within the sealed chamber, then began to manipulate various parts of his body, adjusting his form bit by bit.
Most eyes in the control room were drawn to the Lord of the City. No one noticed the slight movement of a B-rank Anomaly in one corner of the dense array of screens.
In the medical room, the stalemate between Guard B-050 and the delivery boy, B-406, was finally broken.
B-050 had been death-gripping the hand B-406 used to hold the gun, thus neglecting the other hand holding the metal case, which had already swung out from the other side of the metal cabinet.
B-050 felt a sharp gust of wind against his face. In the next instant, the metal case slammed heavily into his head.
"Aargh..." B-050 let out a low roar.
However, as a guard who spent years on the front lines, his physical conditioning was nothing to scoff at.
Even after being struck dizzy by the case and reeling backward, he managed to grab hold of the very weapon that had hit him.
Thud!
At that moment, B-406 kicked both the metal cabinet and B-050 away. His other hand, the one holding the gun, was finally liberated from its constraints.
He immediately thrust the pistol forward, aiming it directly at B-050.
This time, the distance between them was far too short; the muzzle was practically pressed against B-050's forehead.
He had no room left to dodge. He was about to be shot in the head.
In a flash of panic, B-050 instinctively grabbed the nearest object, holding it in front of his head like a desperate shield.
Bang!
Another muffled explosion rang out. B-050 was sent flying back by the massive impact.
Yet, he was somehow unharmed. He rolled as he hit the ground and scrambled to his feet.
The case containing the Withered Claw now lay quietly beside him.
It turned out that in his desperation, B-050 had snatched the Anomaly containment case from B-406's hand.
As one of the tools of the trade for the Sky Eye Organization, the high-strength material of the containment case had successfully helped him block that lethal strike.
However, the case had been deformed by the powerful, close-range blast. The safety latch had snapped, leaving half of the withered claw exposed to both men.
B-406's expression shifted. He intended to fire again, but suddenly his vision went dark, a deafening roar filled his ears, and he felt the world spinning around him.
Bang... Clatter!
He barely managed to get the shot off, but it missed the target by a mile, hitting the poor, collapsed steel-framed bed once again.
B-050 had no time to mock B-406's aim.
He lunged forward and scooped up the Withered Claw from the floor. He held the claw out, pointing it directly at B-406, who was currently clutching his head.
His eyes were locked onto the gun in B-406's hand.
Having served under the Doctor alongside B-406 for a long time, he had seen the man use this withered claw several times.
He had a general understanding of its effects.
It could help the user retrieve any desired object from a distance, but in exchange, it would take an organ from the user's body.
At best, it might be an eyeball, an ear, or a nose; at worst, a limb, flesh, or even the heart, carotid artery, or brain...
The mortality rate was roughly over fifty percent.
Although he didn't know what was wrong with B-406, the distance between them wasn't enough for him to knock the man down before he recovered from that strange daze.
The cover in the room had already been blasted to pieces.
Therefore, faced with a hundred percent chance of death from the next gunshot, the fifty percent mortality rate of the Withered Claw was a risk worth taking.
He only needed to seize that gun to turn the tables or capture this "old friend" who was acting outside of organizational protocol.
The shockwaves from several close-range gunshots made B-050 feel as if the world were spinning. Despite the blurry red haze in his vision, his powerful willpower allowed him to keep his target firmly locked.
As he wished, the Withered Claw snatched a gun from the distance. B-050 immediately reached out, attempting to take it.
However... did this gun look like this just now?
Why did it look a bit white?
The moment his hand touched the "gun," it suddenly dissipated into smoke like a fading dream.
Having obtained information on the Withered Claw and having personally experienced its effects not long ago, Ren Yi now fully understood this Anomaly.
The mechanism of the Withered Claw relied on the user's subjective visual judgment to select a "single entity" as the target for retrieval.
Moreover, miraculously, it didn't require the user to view the target directly.
The Withered Claw could still successfully identify and grab a target through a high-resolution, real-time camera.
In that case, an engineered illusion created before one's eyes would naturally work as well.
Thus, the target B-050's eyes had locked onto was not the firearm in B-406's hand.
Instead, it was Ren Yi, who had "molded" himself into the rough shape of a gun amidst the blurred, bloody light.
With a bit of environmental distortion and refinement, B-050, caught in a life-and-death race against time, was naturally unable to tell the difference.
At this moment, Ren Yi dissipated from the Withered Claw's grasp and slowly ascended.
Phew... the feeling of freedom is truly wonderful.
Rate on N.U.
