Ren Yi read through the top-secret file regarding 【S-007-A】 word by word, and a wave of infinite associations instantly exploded in his mind.
Good grief... it really is a flying sword!
And it wasn't the traditional kind found in ordinary cultivation novels, which required a cultivator to meditate and absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to activate.
Ren Yi keenly noticed the phrasing in the file.
"Requires no propulsion."
What did that mean?
It meant that while this sword defied the Law of Conservation of Energy, it also possessed the attributes of a perpetual motion machine!
After all, where would one find spiritual energy in this world?
As for that "high-energy unknown energy field" the Sky Eye Organization had dressed up with a bunch of high-tech terminology...
Ren Yi couldn't help but roll his eyes internally.
Isn't that just "sword qi"?
So that's how sword qi is explained scientifically? You learn something new every day.
However, sarcasm aside, the power of this thing was truly terrifying.
Three basic slashes in a single second had forcibly dismantled the main base of the City of the Sky Lake.
What piqued Ren Yi's interest even more was the blacked-out text—【■■■■】.
The main base was attacked, the core containment area failed, and major Anomalies escaped en masse...
Ren Yi looked at those dark blocks, then cast a stealthy glance at Evans, who stood beside him with his hands in his pockets and a calm expression.
Given the timing of the attack and the scale of the escape, the primary fugitive whose name was being covered up here was almost certainly...
S-099, the man right next to him: Evans.
Well, no wonder they knew each other.
At this moment, the clues had come full circle.
However... Ren Yi's gaze continued downward, landing on the third and fourth points of the file, and he couldn't help but feel a bit puzzled.
If there was anything that clashed with his imagination of an "immortal sword," it was these two points.
The mechanism for binding to a humanoid unit seemed suspicious no matter how he looked at it.
If one component died, the flying sword would go berserk and flee.
That much was fine, but why would the deceased human individual "resurrect" perfectly intact within one to three months and reappear bound to the sword?
The file even strictly used a red-letter warning: 【Note: Principle Unexplained】.
With a heavy sense of doubt and confusion, Ren Yi continued to scroll down the file on his panel.
He wanted to see exactly what kind of person that guy above him—the one putting on such a grand show—really was.
...
【Component File: S-007-B】
【Aliases】: Sword-bastard, Sword Slave, The One in the Trench Coat
【Danger Level】: C-rank (Rating drops to Ordinary Human upon loss of Component A)
【Physical Description】:
Appears as a standard adult male human. According to encounter records from different periods, his appearance, age, and race do not change.
This individual wears a black trench coat and is highly recognizable due to being bound to S-007-A.
【Containment Performance and Anomalous Properties】:
1. According to conflict reports, S-007-B is physically just an ordinary human.
He possesses no anomalous abilities and can be killed by normal weapons.
2. S-007-B is suspected to possess regenerative properties.
According to the encounter record outside the main base during the "Month of Divine Sight, 2003": while engaging S-007, the main combat force successfully bypassed the defense of S-007-A (the sword) through tactical diversion.
A frontline sniper used a 7.62mm kinetic bullet to kill the S-007-B of that time with a headshot.
Records show that after Component B died, Component A immediately went berserk and flew away from the battlefield at extreme speed, making capture impossible.
However, inexplicably, in a routine observation only a few months later, S-007-A and a completely identical "S-007-B" reappeared.
It is suspected that he possesses some kind of cloning or reconstruction rule, but core data is currently lacking.
3. Aside from the record of being killed by a firearm, according to the testimonies of the People of the Abyss, this unit is suspected to have died for other reasons.
Note: The following records cannot be guaranteed for authenticity.
They include, but are not limited to:
Freezing to death in the troposphere while flying because the altitude was too high and his trench coat was too thin;
Dying of poisoning after accidentally eating toxic mushrooms while exploring the bottom of the Deep Abyss;
Death caused by his head colliding with an abyssal rock wall at a relative speed of approximately Mach 4 due to flying too fast and failing to keep a proper lookout.
【Utility Potential Assessment】: Low
Wait... hold on.
Did the tone just shift that fast?
After reading the file in his mind, Ren Yi felt his worldview suffer a bit of a shock.
For a moment, he couldn't even focus on the two people currently in a tense standoff.
No, a question mark probably needed to be placed over how many actual "humans" were even present at the scene now.
Things seemed to be a bit different from what he had imagined.
First of all, so that's why he's called a "Sword-bastard"?
And then there's the rest.
After all that fuss, that aggressive, ethereal "Abyssal Sword Immortal" up there is entirely dependent on that literal Immortal Sword acting as a cheat to carry him along?
If you stripped away the flying sword from the guy standing up there...
He's actually just a... Pendant? A guy who could drop dead on the spot at any moment because of a cold, a fever, speeding at high altitude without looking where he's going, or eating the wrong wild mushrooms?
So, what exactly is this guy?
A Pseudo-human?
But if he were a soulless Pseudo-human, his communication with Evans seemed exceptionally fluid.
The blue-steel longsword hovering high in the air dipped a few meters, the layer of green halo on the blade rippling through the air in visible waves.
The man in the black trench coat standing on the blade tilted his head slightly, taking his time to look at the passage they had just come through.
"Tsk, you actually managed to find your way back..."
"Still, choosing to force your way through the Red Tide back to the Deep Abyss at such an unlucky time... you've certainly worked hard."
"What's the matter? Did those mad dogs from the Sky Eye Organization chase you so hard that you couldn't stay outside anymore?"
It seemed he truly lived up to the name Sword-bastard; even his way of speaking was incredibly annoying.
Faced with the man's punchable tone, Evans didn't even bother to lift his eyelids.
"Pops said that if I ever made a decision, or if I was about to die, I could come back to find him at any time."
Evans paused. "I believe the time has come."
At the mention of "Pops," a slight smirk played across the lips of the man in the black trench coat.
"Of course."
He looked at Evans with a smile, and the blue-steel longsword beneath his feet let out a crisp, almost cheerful hum.
He reined in his mocking attitude from a moment ago.
"Pops... he has indeed been waiting for you for a long time."
Rate on N.U.
