The instant the blonde woman, Selina, focused all her attention on the box, the man standing behind and to the side of her suddenly reached out and slammed his palm into her back.
Sparking arcs instantly tore through the blonde woman's Combat Suit and the man's glove. Only then did He Ao realize that beneath the glove and sleeve was not a flesh-and-blood hand, but a purely mechanical arm.
"Job, what are you doing?"
Selina did not go flying after taking the blow. Instead, she leaned forward, trying to shield the Metal Box before her.
But someone moved even faster—the team member who had just been carrying the box. He bent his legs and sprang forward three or four meters, snatching the already unlocked Metal Box from in front of Selina.
By then, He Ao had regained control of his limbs. He first assumed a defensive posture, then watched the unfolding drama with interest. The moment Job's palm struck Selina, he sensed that Selina's level of danger was rapidly declining.
Through Selina's ruined jacket, He Ao also clearly saw the structure of her back. First came smooth, pale skin. A small tear had been cut into it, exposing dense circuitry beneath, still crackling with electric arcs.
She really was a Cybernetic Human.
Selina had clearly felt her mobility becoming restricted. She twisted around and looked at the adjutant behind her. "What did you do to me?"
"Don't worry, Miss Serena."
After delivering that blow, Job immediately retreated three or four meters, putting a considerable safety distance between them. A calm smile hung on his face, as if he had done something utterly insignificant. "Just the latest Prosthetic Virus. It will replicate a large amount of redundant data and push your Central Processor into temporary overclocking."
Holding his gun, he shrugged. "I really don't understand why you people would turn your flesh into entirely mechanical prosthetics. Not only does it take away a lot of the fun, it's also this fragile."
The principle behind this virus was rather interesting. It sounded like certain computer viruses, increasing the CPU load until the computer froze.
He Ao watched them silently, gathering as much information as possible from their conversation.
Prosthetics? A fully mechanically modified body? Judging by Selina, had her entire body been converted into machinery? Was this this world's tech tree?
"Job," Selina said as she struggled to turn her head, "attacking a Federal Investigator is a criminal offense. Do you want to stand trial in federal court?"
He Ao, who had been distracted by his thoughts, suddenly perked up. He was a law-abiding citizen who performed acts of courage, after all.
"The Federation? The Federation has no authority over the wilderness." Job snorted and stepped back another two paces. With his eyes, he signaled the two team members closest to Selina. "It's about time. Restrain her."
The two team members visibly hesitated, but they still rushed forward. They took out two metal rings and slipped them over Selina's hands, forcing her arms behind her back. With a light press, the two iron rings snapped together under powerful electromagnetic force, restraining Selina.
Selina tried to resist during the process, but her body would not obey her commands. She could only make simple movements and could not attack. She actually still had a little combat ability earlier and had deliberately acted weak, hoping Job would take the bait and attack her. Then she could have held Job hostage and found a way to remove the virus from her body.
But Job was as cunning as a hyena, stubbornly hiding in a safe area until the virus had fully taken effect.
He Ao also thought Job was a real bastard, so he quietly adjusted the targets of his tentacles, repurposing those that had mainly been defending against Selina to prepare an attack on Job.
He had also vaguely figured it out. Selina was on one side by herself, while everyone else was on the other.
"A virus capable of bypassing my Antivirus Software isn't easy to find." Selina, completely restrained, stared coldly at Job. "Who hired you? Which corporation? I know someone put a one-million bounty on my head in the Black Market. Is one million enough for you to break the law and betray justice?"
"Justice." Job laughed. "I like justice. Righteous Miss Serena is worth one million. We won't get a deal this good again for years."
He gave the others a look, then walked over to Selina. "Miss Serena, stop asking about these things. We may just be hyenas of the wilderness, but we know that some employers cannot be betrayed."
"So I can be betrayed?" Selina said coldly. As she spoke, she tried to restart her system. "I hired you to guide me. Is this how you treat your employers?"
"Listen to yourself. How can this be called betraying you?" The other team members spread out and surrounded He Ao. Job watched Selina from the corner of his eye. "You merely died in the line of duty while trying to stop an Evil God's Descent Ritual. The Federation will surely commend your bravery.
"Of course, even if you 'die in the line of duty,' we'll still settle your fifty-thousand hiring fee with the Federation."
Then he looked at He Ao's enormous body and shouted, "Move!"
The team members took items from their backpacks one after another and placed them around He Ao.
These items included ancient paper books, brand-new Fountain Pens, students' exercise books, fragments of human skulls, and knuckles from human hand bones. All of them were offerings that could "please" the God of Knowledge.
"What are you doing?" Selina lost her composure at the sight of those items. "Are you trying to summon a subordinate of the God of Knowledge?"
So they were in the same line of work too. He Ao slowly shifted one of his tentacles.
The team members carefully arranging the offerings merely assumed he had twitched and paid him no attention.
"Of course." Job glanced at the Metal Box whose lock Selina had just opened. "Isn't it a little wasteful to use this thing just to kill an Evil God priest? It can clearly destroy an Evil God Subordinate. Do you know what drops after a subordinate of the God of Knowledge is destroyed?
Talent Sequence!
Even the cheapest Talent Sequences sell for hundreds of thousands on the market. And the God of Knowledge has a high chance of dropping Talent Sequence 272. Do you know how much 272 is worth on the Black Market right now? Ten million!"
Most importantly, that Metal Box was a federally controlled high-risk item. They could not dispose of it on the Black Market, nor could they take it away. They might as well use it directly and take a gamble.
"You're insane. What if you fail to kill the Evil God Subordinate? Do you know how many people will die if it grows?" Selina stared at Job in disbelief.
"What does it matter to us how many people die? With Miss Serena as bait, all we need to do is escape when the time comes." Job's tone was calm. "Later, we'll have to trouble Miss Serena to perform the biological authentication before the attack."
As the team members laid down suitable offerings one after another, streams of pure white radiance formed beneath He Ao's body. The radiance gradually constructed an intricate and complex Ritual Array.
So the Ritual Array really was beneath his body.
He Ao's gaze swept over the pure white radiance.
As the array lit up, hazy white light blurred everyone's vision.
Now!
Dozens of tentacles instantly became Black Shadows that blotted out the radiance.
Bang-- bang-- bang--
It was the sound of the metal wires of the confinement device snapping apart.
Before you continue