Chapter 1274 Biology
Tesla's disappearance weighed heavily on Walter's mind. He temporarily set aside other matters at the Anti-Entropy headquarters and devoted all his energy to the investigation in City B. Anti-Entropy's resources were poured into this misty city with unprecedented intensity. A more precise sensor network was deployed, and more powerful computing resources were mobilized to conduct a carpet-like, pixel-level retrospective analysis of all areas radiating outwards from the "Qiluoshang" clothing store.
Finally, after repeatedly sifting through massive amounts of data, a detail that had been almost overlooked caught Einstein's attention.
It was footage captured by a security camera at an old intersection three blocks away from the clothing store. The timestamp shows it was about an hour before the Valkyrie's disappearance. In one corner of the frame, an ant is seen struggling to carry food scraps. As it crawls, its figure abruptly disappears for a frame, and when it reappears, it has become a blurry, crushed black dot.
"!"
After zooming in on the image, reducing noise, and analyzing it frame by frame, Einstein pointed to the moment it disappeared and reappeared, saying, "Look, its disappearance and the appearance of the 'crushed' state occur between two consecutive frames, with an extremely short interval. It's as if... on its path of movement, an invisible 'point' came into contact with and destroyed it at that instant, and this 'point' itself left no trace in the monitoring."
Walter stared at the insignificant clue, his brow furrowed: "Something... invisible?"
"Or, a 'transparent person' capable of almost completely erasing its own 'existence' from both the physical perception and information recording levels." Einstein proposed a bold hypothesis. "But if it's just simple optical invisibility or energy shielding, our broad-spectrum detectors can't remain completely undetected. So, it's very likely that it's not only visually invisible, but can also interfere with or evade other forms of detection to some extent, such as thermal sensing and vibration sensing..."
Walter's gaze swept across the map, from the location where the unusual ants were discovered to the "Qiluoshang" clothing store. "These two points are some distance apart, but Tesla and the Valkyries were attacked one after the other, indicating that this 'hunter' isn't stationary, yet it seems to have some kind of 'preference' for the clothing store area..."
“Perhaps that is its ‘nest,’ or rather, its main activity area and ‘feeding’ place,” Einstein interjected. “Like some wild beasts that have their own territory, it may be accustomed to operating in that relatively familiar environment.”
To verify this hypothesis and to force this invisible enemy to reveal itself, Walter issued a simple and brutal order.
Dozens of anti-entropy robots, equipped with various detection modules, were deployed into the clothing store. They were no longer conducting covert reconnaissance, but instead formed a tight array, like a comb, simultaneously and thoroughly scanning every corner and every inch of space in the store, including the air and underground. Energy fields, gravitational waves, particle streams… various detection methods were activated simultaneously, weaving together a dense detection network.
Just as the scan reached the central area of the store, something unexpected happened!
One of the robots' optical sensors suddenly emitted a blinding red light, and its head abruptly turned towards what appeared to be empty space! But this process lasted less than a fraction of a second before the red light went out and the robot returned to normal scanning mode, as if the anomaly was merely a system malfunction.
"We've got it!" Walter and Einstein shouted almost simultaneously.
They immediately retrieved the robot's visual recordings from a fraction of a second and performed extreme enhancement and analysis.
The image was still blurry, but the outline of a humanoid creature was vaguely visible!
It was tall and thin, with skin that was an unnatural grayish-white. Its head had no ears, only a pair of long, narrow, slit-like eyes that gleamed with a cold light. Most chilling of all was its abdomen—abnormally swollen and distended, as if ten months pregnant, and the surface of that swollen abdomen was undulating irregularly, as if something was wrapped inside!
In the recording, the creature's right side was facing the camera. Just as the robot's red light flashed, it seemed to sense something; its slender eyes abruptly turned towards the camera, and its entire body seemed to turn as well—
Then, the recording stopped, and it disappeared from all the detectors again.
"What...is this?" Welt frowned. This was definitely not any known Honkai Beast or human.
“An alien life form?” Einstein guessed, then she immediately noticed something more crucial: “Its belly… the thing inside is moving!”
The two exchanged a glance, and a terrifying thought simultaneously flooded their minds—Dr. Tesla! Was she still alive, imprisoned within that writhing abdominal cavity?!
Anti-Entropy immediately launched a more thorough blockade and search of the clothing store, employing every possible means. However, they found nothing. The humanoid creature seemed to have never existed.
“It must still be inside!” Walter said with certainty. To prevent the other party from escaping, he used his power to construct a large iron box to cover the entire clothing store.
"But how did it manage to completely disappear?" Einstein pondered, his mind racing, recalling every detail of that fleeting glimpse. "When invisible, physical contact seemed ineffective, like air. It would only briefly become visible when scanned in a specific way. And its first reaction after being detected was... to turn away?"
"Turn around?" Walter asked, puzzled.
“Yes, turn around.” Einstein’s gaze sharpened as she stared intently at the creature’s posture as it appeared in the holographic projection—its right side facing the camera. “Why is it facing us on its right? Is it a coincidence, or… its weakness, or the core of its ‘invisibility’ ability, lies on the other side of its body? Like… its left side?”
She suddenly looked up at the four walls of the clothing store, which were under close surveillance.
“Walter, I have a hypothesis that needs to be verified.” Einstein’s voice was decisive. “Order all units to clear all clutter from the store, including shelves, clothing, and mannequins! Leave nothing behind!”
Although Walter was puzzled, he immediately gave the order. The robot moved quickly, and soon the entire clothing store was empty, leaving only bare walls and floors.
Next, Einstein secretly issued another instruction. Outside the shop, the anti-entropy engineers used high-precision equipment to silently drill rows of extremely fine, almost invisible holes in the four walls facing the shop's interior. These holes pierced the walls, allowing a near-panoramic view of every corner of the shop's interior to be observed directly from the outside using special equipment.
