Heavenly Mechanism Cat Demon Caroline

Deep Blue Metropolis, harbor parking lot.

"Should be the last one, right?"

Caroline walked over to the corpse of one of the Crab Exotic Beasts. The special cat tail behind her, resembling a data cable, suddenly extended and hovered directly above the Crab Exotic Beast's body.

Click—

Accompanied by a crisp whirring of precision machinery, a small device resembling a miniature scanner extended from the tip of Caroline's cat tail. It emitted a pale blue light and began precisely scanning the Crab Exotic Beast's corpse before her.

During the process, not only did Caroline's hair turn completely silver-white, but an inexplicable silver radiance flowed through its tips.

It was as though those strands of silver hair were not hair at all, but intricate electronic circuits.

She used her unique "mechanical organs" to swiftly gather information from the battlefield.

That was Caroline's greatest advantage as a Mechanical type.

Star Core: Heavenly Mechanism Cat Demon

Type: Mechanical type

Effect 1: Data Propagation: Can serve as both a signal receiver and transmitter, linking up to five Star Energy units and, with their permission, sharing data with one another.

Effect 2: Mechanical Conversion: Can transform certain parts of the body into "semi-permanent" mechanical organs. Current converted mechanical organs: "Electronic Cat Eye," "Signal Cat Ear," "Multi-functional Electronic Cat Tail."

As a Mechanical type Star Envoy, Caroline knew full well that head-on combat had never been her forte.

Pre-battle data collection and post-battle data organization—those were where she could make the most of her abilities.

Therefore, even though she actually possessed considerable combat strength, Caroline rarely chose to fight personally unless she had no other choice.

After all, with Tiandao, that dazzling "blazing sun," around, she, the "shadow," only needed to stand quietly behind him.

Because Tiandao would solve everything for her.

Thus, although Caroline was anxious about Tiandao and the others' whereabouts, she still acted according to her tactical role.

Rather than rushing recklessly into the fog to search for Tiandao in a dangerous and utterly disorganized manner, she instinctively felt it would be better to trust him, gather every useful piece of information she could, and figure out what had happened as quickly as possible.

Under the combined effects of Caroline's "Electronic Cat Eye" and "Multi-functional Electronic Cat Tail," the general condition of the two Crab Exotic Beasts before her was quickly analyzed.

The Star Cores have already shrunk extensively, and the major organs are barely maintaining even their most basic functions.

Strange. By all rights, Exotic Beasts in this condition should have died completely three days ago. They shouldn't be appearing before me—unless...

At that thought, Caroline immediately put on specially made Star Energy-proof gloves and took a compact Data Throwing Knife from her pocket, using it as a scalpel.

Her blade precisely slipped into a gap in the Crab Exotic Beast's shell, carefully cutting away the "Purple Coral" embedded in the top of its head.

The moment that clump of "coral" left the Crab Exotic Beast, its host, it visibly withered at a rapid pace.

As she gazed at the coral specimen in her hand, waterfall-like streams of data reflected in Caroline's green Electronic Cat Eye.

Neural parasitic strain detected

Maximum active duration: 72 hours

Estimated controller's Star Source traits: Ocean type / Toxin type / Special Trait type

Caroline tossed aside the coral mass, a rough conclusion forming in her mind.

The enemy should be an Ocean type Star Envoy. Their Star Source likely possesses traits such as "parasitism," "toxins," and "coralization."

Besides that, there should be two enemies, or even more.

Because this sudden fog doesn't seem like a derivative ability an Ocean type Star Envoy could possess, unless they completed Secondary Awakening and gained both poison and fog as Star Source traits.

But if they truly possessed that kind of strength, then a Rank 3 Star Envoy openly standing before us would have no need to deal with us through an "ambush."

Combined with Instructor Yun Meng's disappearance, the enemy's numbers and strength should, conservatively speaking, be one Rank 2 Star Envoy plus several Rank 1 Star Envoys.

With that conclusion, Caroline's mood instantly grew heavy.

She had not expected that they would encounter such formidable enemies the moment they got off the ship.

The situation was far more troublesome than she had imagined.

"Sister Caroline."

Just as Caroline was considering her next move, she suddenly heard a voice from behind her.

Acting on instinct, Caroline whirled around while the Electronic Cat Tail behind her shot out like lightning.

Fortunately, she reacted in time. The moment she clearly saw who it was, she immediately halted her attack.

In an instant, the data-cable-like tip of the cat tail stopped 0.5 centimeters from Chen Kong's neck. Its sharp blade, fully closed at the end, continuously crackled with electricity, displaying the Electronic Cat Tail's terrifying lethality.

Meanwhile, Chen Kong, who had nearly had his throat slit by Caroline, collapsed onto the ground in a miserable state, his face pale.

He clearly had yet to recover from that harrowing brush with death.

Yet Caroline had no mood to apologize to Chen Kong, who was sprawled on the ground with cold sweat pouring down his forehead.

"Chen Kong, why are you alone? Where's Tiandao?"

Chen Kong wiped the sweat from his forehead, rose to his feet, and answered, "Sister Caroline, I-I don't know where Brother Tiandao is either. You're the first person I've run into."

Obvious disappointment flashed through Caroline's eyes at his words.

Fortunately, reason quickly brought her back to her senses, and she asked Chen Kong how he had ended up here.

Just as Caroline had guessed, the moment Chen Kong arrived at the parking lot, he had been engulfed by the mysterious fog and completely lost contact with everyone around him.

When Chen Kong realized that everyone had vanished, his first thought was to find them as quickly as possible.

Especially Tiandao and Yun Meng.

After all, although he had now mastered his "First Star Core: Mark of the Void" and successfully obtained the "Star Source: The Visionary," his head-on combat strength had not improved much.

The effect of the "Mark of the Void" was to reduce his presence and nullify other people's Star Energy.

The effect of "The Visionary" was to temporarily copy other people's Star Sources.

If Chen Kong could use both the "Mark of the Void" and "The Visionary" at the same time, then his strength would actually be fairly decent. He could be considered a perfect, ever-changing assassin.

But unfortunately, just as the "Second Star Core: Black Star" implanted into his body through Star Core Surgery was suppressed by the "First Star Core: Mark of the Void" and could not be used at all, the Star Source: The Visionary that he had obtained after the final assessment faced the same problem.

Whenever Chen Kong chose to use the "Mark of the Void," his "The Visionary" became completely unusable.

Other Starborn were known as "Dual Stars," able to use the power of both their "Star Cores" and "Star Sources" at the same time.

Yet Chen Kong alone could only choose one of the two. It was utterly absurd.

Still, relying on the "low presence" and "Star Energy Nullification" granted by the "Mark of the Void," Chen Kong not only successfully avoided the Crab Exotic Beasts' pursuit,

but also temporarily dispersed the bizarre fog around him.

This allowed him to escape the fog's influence and luckily encounter Caroline.

However, as Chen Kong now dismissed his "Mark of the Void," the Crab Exotic Beasts that had lost track of him quickly sensed his presence once more and immediately came rushing over.

Therefore, just as Chen Kong was halfway through speaking, Caroline suddenly turned toward a certain direction within the fog and raised a hand to interrupt him.

"Chen Kong, move aside first."

"Oh, o-okay."