The Mantis Stalks the Cicada

In the instant the blonde woman, Selina, focused all her attention on the box, the man standing behind her suddenly reached out and slapped her back.

A flashing electric arc instantly pierced through the blonde woman's combat suit and the man's glove. Only then did He Ao realize that what was wrapped under the man's glove and sleeve was not a flesh-and-blood hand, but a purely mechanical arm.

"Job, what are you doing?"

Selina was hit by the palm, but she didn't fly backward. Instead, her body leaned forward, trying to protect the metal box in front of her.

But one person was faster, the teammate who had just been holding the box. He bent his legs and sprang out three or four meters, snatching the unlocked metal box from in front of Selina.

By this time, He Ao had controlled his limbs, first trying his best to defend himself, and then watching the drama with interest. The moment Job's palm struck Selina, he felt Selina's danger level rapidly decreasing.

Through Selina's destroyed jacket, He Ao also clearly saw the structure of her back. First, there was fair and delicate skin. This skin had been cut open with a small incision, revealing dense circuitry underneath that was still flashing with electric arcs.

So she really is a mechanical cyborg.

Selina clearly felt her mobility restricted. She turned her head to look at the adjutant behind her, "What did you do to me?"

"Relax, Miss Selina."

Job immediately retreated three or four meters after striking the blow, creating a relatively safe distance. A calm smile hung on his face, as if he had done something insignificant. "It's just a latest model Prosthetic Virus. It will replicate a large amount of redundant data, causing your central processor to briefly overload."

He shrugged, holding his gun. "I really don't know why you guys would modify your flesh and blood into this kind of fully mechanical prosthetic body. Not only does it lose a lot of fun, but it's also so fragile."

The principle of this virus is quite interesting. It sounds like some computer viruses that cause the computer to freeze by increasing the CPU load.

He Ao watched them quietly, trying his best to gather more information from their conversation.

However, prosthetic body? A fully mechanically modified body? Looking at Selina's appearance, it seems her whole body has been modified into a machine? Is this the technology tree of this world?

"Job," Selina turned her head with difficulty, "Attacking a Federal Investigator is a criminal offense. Do you want to go to federal court?"

He Ao, who had been momentarily distracted in thought, perked up. He's a law-abiding, righteous good person.

"Federation? The Federation can't control the Wilderness," Job sneered and took two more steps back, signaling the two teammates closest to Selina with his eyes. "Time's almost up, control her."

The two teammates clearly hesitated for a moment, but still rushed forward, took out two metal rings, put them on Selina's hands, and then put her hands behind her back. With a gentle press, the two iron rings were attracted together by a powerful electromagnetic force, restraining Selina.

During this process, Selina tried to resist, but her body simply wouldn't obey commands. She could only move simply but couldn't attack. She actually still had some attack capability just now and had been feigning weakness, hoping Job would fall for it and attack her, so she could take Job hostage and find a way to get rid of the virus on her body.

But this guy Job was as cunning as a hyena, stubbornly hiding in the safe zone until the virus was fully effective.

He Ao also felt that this guy Job was quite a scoundrel, so he quietly adjusted the target of his tentacles, preparing to use the tentacles that were originally mainly used to defend against Selina to attack Job.

He also vaguely saw that among this group of people, Selina was one faction, and the others were another faction.

"A virus that can bypass my antivirus software isn't that easy to find," Selina was completely restrained, looking at Job with a cold expression. "Who hired you? Which consortium? I know someone in the Black Market offered a million to buy my life. Is a million enough for you to violate the law and betray justice?"

"Justice," Job chuckled. "I like justice. The just Miss Selina is worth a million. You don't get such a good deal for years."

He winked at the remaining people, then walked up to Selina. "Miss Selina, don't ask about these things anymore. Although we are just hyenas in the Wilderness, we also know that some clients cannot be betrayed."

"Then I can be betrayed?" Selina said coldly. While speaking, she tried to restart the system. "I hired you to guide me. Is this how you treat your clients?"

"Look at what you're saying, how can we call it betraying you?" The other teammates scattered, surrounding He Ao. Job watched Selina out of the corner of his eye. "You just died in the line of duty to prevent the Evil God's descent ritual. The Federation will definitely commend your bravery.

Of course, even if you 'died in the line of duty,' we will still settle your fifty thousand yuan hiring fee with the Federation."

Then he looked at He Ao's massive body and shouted, "Do it!"

The team members took out items one by one from their backpacks and placed them around He Ao.

These items included ancient paper books, brand new pens, student notebooks, fragments of human skulls, and human finger bones. These were all offerings that could 'please' the God of Knowledge.

"What are you doing?" Selina lost her composure when she saw these things. "Are you trying to summon an offspring of the God of Knowledge?"

So, they're colleagues, He Ao slowly moved a tentacle.

The team members who were diligently arranging the offerings just thought he twitched and didn't pay attention.

"Of course," Job glanced at the metal box that Selina had just unlocked. "You brought this thing here. Isn't it a bit wasteful to just use it to kill an Evil God priest? It can clearly destroy an Evil God offspring. Do you know what drops after an offspring of the God of Knowledge is destroyed?

Talent Sequences!

The cheapest Talent Sequences sell for hundreds of thousands on the market, and there's a high probability that the God of Knowledge will drop Talent Sequence 272. Do you know how much 272 is worth on the black market right now? 10 million!"

The most crucial point was that the metal box was a highly controlled item by the Federation and couldn't be dealt with on the black market. They couldn't take it away, so they might as well use it directly and take a gamble.

"You're crazy! What if you don't kill the Evil God offspring? Do you know how many people will die if it grows up?" Selina looked at Job in disbelief.

"What does the number of deaths have to do with us? With Miss Selina as our bait, we can just run away when the time comes." Job's tone was calm. "Later, we'll also need to trouble Miss Selina to help us with the biological authentication before the attack."

As the team members placed suitable offerings one by one, pure white light generated beneath He Ao's body. This light gradually formed a complex and intricate magic array.

So the ritual array is really under my body.

He Ao's gaze swept over the pure white light.

As the magic array lit up, the hazy pure white light blurred all vision for a moment.

Now!

Dozens of tentacles instantly turned into shadows obscuring the light.

Bang—bang—bang—

That was the sound of the metal wires of the confinement device being directly snapped.