The sea of flesh, which was on the verge of thoroughly scrubbing the entire control room clean, suddenly let out an agonizing, muffled screech when it was only inches away from B-117.
The surging black-red wave disintegrated without warning the moment it touched an invisible line.
In Ren Yi's perception, the waves that reached a certain boundary suffered instantaneous annihilation.
It was as if a beautiful oil painting had been crudely wiped away by a rag in a single, violent stroke.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The various surrounding vents continued to spew out S-099's seemingly infinite limbs.
Like ink being forcibly injected into a large water tank, it filled the control room at a suffocating speed.
The depth of the liquid rose, and the waves of meat grew taller.
However, amidst this ocean of flesh that could suffocate any life form, an absolutely clean "bubble" abruptly appeared.
It was a spherical safe zone with a radius of about ten meters, centered on the Lord of the Sky Lake.
Within the range of this safe zone, not a single drop of blood could be found.
All S-099 matter that attempted to invade this radius underwent a high-frequency, silent mutual annihilation.
"My child... you're still so naughty."
Amidst the terrifying noise of the surrounding flesh grinding against itself, the City Lord slowly lowered his arms.
His smile grew clearer, and his brazen arrogance found its most perfect physical validation at this moment.
Muffled, hollow screeches continuously overlapped within the control room.
S-099 was in pain.
It instinctively wanted to retreat.
But it had poured in too deep and too hard earlier.
Countless limbs squeezed out from ventilation ducts and pipe networks were collapsing and stacking toward the center of the control room due to gravity and the constant pushing of those behind them.
This irreversible momentum meant that the bloated tentacles and the sea of flesh could only be passively and continuously fed into that absolutely clean "bubble."
Annihilation continued in a cold, high-frequency, and silent manner.
"It seems you aren't as obedient as I imagined, my child."
At this moment, the Lord of the Sky Lake did not just stand his ground to defend; instead, he let out a cold laugh and took a step forward.
His leather shoes clicked sharply against the dry, bloodless floor.
As he took that step, the annihilation zone centered on him shifted forward as well.
Squelch—!
A large section of the black meat wave that happened to be at the edge suddenly vanished.
It felt as if an invisible, absolutely sharp blade was carving a vacuum channel through the violent sea of flesh as the City Lord moved.
B-117 had fallen to the ground.
The position of her legs was only a palm's distance away from the edge of the annihilation zone.
Cold sweat seeped from her forehead.
However, as the City Lord walked forward at an unhurried pace, the absolutely safe "bubble" expanded bit by bit, constantly pushing back the front line that suppressed S-099.
The meat wave that had nearly swallowed B-117 let out a shrill sizzling sound under the City Lord's approaching footsteps, curling back frantically.
The City Lord walked up to B-117 and leaned over slightly.
His movements were as elegant as if he were inviting a socialite to dance in a ballroom, pulling the terrified B-117 up with the grace of a gentleman.
"Stand up. A warrior of the Sky Eye Organization should not be in such a sorry state," the City Lord's voice was gentle, yet it carried an authority that brooked no defiance.
He turned his head and gestured to B-117 and her two remaining subordinates.
"Pick those things up. These treasures of the world cannot be allowed to be consumed by this rude little fellow."
B-117 bit her lip and began to gather the Anomaly containment cases scattered on the ground—those that hadn't yet been swallowed by S-099—one by one into her arms.
Throughout the entire process, Dr. Cyril stood motionless in the shadows closest to the elevator entrance.
Her gaze was fixed on the City Lord's straight but eerie back.
"You... you've injected cellular fragments naturally shed from S-003 into your own body?" the doctor suddenly spoke.
Her voice wasn't loud, yet it sounded exceptionally piercing amidst the squelching sounds of the surrounding flesh.
She stared intently at the City Lord, her chest heaving violently, before finally forcing out a sentence.
"You are a complete and utter lunatic."
Hearing the doctor's assessment, the City Lord slowly turned around.
He appeared to be deeply regretful.
He held out his hands and let out a sigh.
"A lunatic? No, this is called devotion, Doctor."
The City Lord shook his head helplessly, his tone full of sentimentality.
"I just feel it's a pity... from now on, I'll never be able to give my child a real embrace again."
Dr. Cyril's expression became somewhat indescribable.
It seemed that in this competition between madmen, a winner had already been decided.
"Alright." The City Lord tucked away his sentimental look, his eyes turning cold in an instant.
"That's enough reminiscing. It's time for us to leave."
At this very moment, every part of this massive land ship had completely spiraled out of control.
The power control room on the bottom floor had been utterly destroyed. Countless power lines burst with blinding electrical sparks during the short circuit before going completely dark.
The ceiling was collapsing, the floor was buckling, and the entire world seemed to be plunging toward a lightless hell.
However, within the absolute annihilation zone centered on the City Lord, an elevator indicator light actually remained lit with an eerie, shimmering green glow.
It was a special elevator.
As an Anomaly, B-119 did not need to rely on external human power.
The City Lord took several heavy, specialized cases from a subordinate and took the first step into the slowly sliding elevator doors.
"We have to go too."
The City Lord turned around and made a "please" gesture to Dr. Cyril from inside the clean elevator car.
The doctor's face turned exceptionally pale at that moment.
She was very familiar with the rules of B-119.
Starting from the second person, every time someone stepped into the elevator, there was a 50% chance of triggering the killing rule.
Life or death, a fifty-fifty split. This was a true game of Russian Roulette.
But she looked at the sea of flesh surging outside the annihilation zone.
In the end, she gritted her teeth, took several containment cases from a subordinate to use as a shield, took a deep breath, and stepped into the elevator.
The moment her foot touched the floor, the doctor closed her eyes.
A second passed, but there was no agonizing pain of spatial tearing.
She opened her eyes; her luck was good, and nothing had happened.
The smile on the City Lord's face didn't flicker in the slightest, as if everything was within his expectations.
Then, he turned his head and gestured for B-117, who was carrying the last batch of cases, to enter.
As for the two remaining subordinates?
Three people were enough to carry the cases.
"You two stay outside and handle the final cleanup and rearguard work," the City Lord said coldly.
B-117 looked at the elevator doors that radiated unknown danger, her palms slick with sweat.
But under the City Lord's gaze, she had no power to refuse.
She took a deep breath and walked in apprehensively.
Vroom—
A slight sensation of G-force came over her.
Her luck had exploded as well; she was safe.
Seeing this, the City Lord did not hesitate and directly reached out to press the close button inside the car.
He didn't give the two guards outside any chance of survival.
In the eyes of a cold politician, the mission of a Consumable was to die in the right place at the right time.
However, just as the heavy alloy elevator doors were about to fully close—
No one noticed that from a ventilation duct in the corner of the hall that hadn't been completely blocked by S-099's flesh, a blurry white shadow darted out like a bolt of lightning.
It was Ren Yi.
To avoid S-099's indiscriminate frontal wave of meat, he had taken a slight detour through the complex pipe network, which cost him a few seconds.
By now, staff member B-117 had already stepped into the car, and Ren Yi had only just reached the outer edge of the City Lord's annihilation zone.
It was too late.
The elevator doors had closed until only a palm-wide gap remained.
"Damn it!"
The white, mist-like form shook violently in the void, and a charred, withered claw suddenly thrust out from the mist without warning.
Ren Yi's heart was filled with unprecedented gravity.
The assessment system's indicators could only provide a vague general direction.
It wasn't until he rushed to the scene and saw the dozen or so identical alloy containment cases held by B-117, the doctor, and the City Lord that he was left stunned.
He couldn't possibly determine in an instant which case the Beacon had been stuffed into!
Pick one out of a dozen cases?
"It's time to see if I'm truly the Gacha King..."
However, there were still ways to increase the probability of "hitting the jackpot."
And that was turning a single pull into a ten-pull!
The sharp knuckles of the withered claw locked onto B-117, who had already stepped into the elevator.
The forced grab logic of Withered Claw B-129 was extremely subjective.
As long as the target was a "whole" in his subjective vision, it could transcend space to drag them over by force.
Although Dr. Cyril and the Lord of the Sky Lake were the truly big fish, the priority was to get back the Beacon.
And among these three people, B-117, the tool who was responsible for carrying things, had the highest number of cases on her.
In other words, she held the most "pulls"!
In the next second, a sudden change occurred.
B-117, who had already stepped into the elevator and hadn't even had time for the joy of "escaping death" to fade from her face, suddenly felt an irresistible and massive pulling force coming from her waist.
"Aah—!"
B-117's entire body appeared out of thin air in the middle of the control room, then plummeted toward the floor due to gravity.
Clatter!
As she fell, the six or seven specialized metal cases she had been clutching tightly scattered instantly, rolling frantically across the blood-stained deck.
Thud!
Almost at the same time, the B-119 elevator doors locked tight.
The City Lord and the doctor, along with the remaining cases, vanished from the land ship in an instant.
Ren Yi landed amidst the pile of metal cases by momentum.
However, the moment he shifted his awareness, he realized things had gone south.
Because the directional pointer belonging to the assessment system in his mind abruptly took a hundred-and-eighty-degree turn the moment B-117 hit the ground.
The Beacon was not on B-117.
This "ten-pull" that he had bet everything on... he'd lost the 50/50.
Rate on N.U.
