Argentum shifted into combat mode, his demeanor cooling like a drawn blade, his pale pink eyes cautious as they swept through the darkness. His mask, in fact, was also a piece of equipment, equipped with night vision capabilities. Activating the night vision mode, his gaze darted around in search of any suspicious figures.

"There, at three o'clock, about sixty meters away, inside the abandoned residential building," Argentum deduced the sniper's location based on the trajectory of the bullets.

He didn't pursue the shooter because Cyrus wasn't an awakened being—one bullet could end her life, and they didn't know if there were other assassins nearby. He had to protect her.

Cyrus had an alloy skull, but the rest of her was flesh and blood, prone to bleeding when injured.

"Use your supernatural ability to prevent my blood from reaching the ground," Cyrus ordered Argentum, a command necessitated by the situation.

Cyrus's biological data matched that stored in the Enforcement Department's records. Obtaining something with her biological data could be used to match her identity.

Argentum spread his fingers, and the fragments of the mask and the bloodstains on it dissolved into the water under his control. The blood from Cyrus's fingers and chin was suspended in mid-air, none of it reaching the ground.

"They won't get your blood with me here," Argentum assured her in a low voice.

"Go after them," Cyrus said, her vision no longer doubling. "We'll do this together, but stay on the defensive."

The abandoned residential building was dilapidated, lacking even windows—the bullets had come from there. In the impoverished and chaotic Portside District, many streetlights were broken. Without proper illumination, no one could see what lurked in the darkness without technological aid.

Argentum's body turned into transparent water, while Cyrus began to run.

The world's sprinting champions could complete a 100-meter dash in under ten seconds, averaging ten meters per second, and Cyrus's speed was comparable.

She had never run this fast before! The wind trailed behind her as she sped forward.

Cyrus's feet hit the ground, and she leaped, using the window sill of the first floor to propel herself upward, grabbing onto the second floor with her arm. She pulled herself up with the ease of a gymnast on the bars.

She heard footsteps, someone running down the stairs in a panic.

The sounds echoed through the empty building, drawing closer.

The person was near Cyrus, and she saw a shadow flash by the staircase corner.

Cyrus quickly leaped from the window sill, tearing off a rusty iron bar from the decayed security grill. With a few steps, she hurled it like a javelin.

Clang—the iron bar struck true!

"Aaah..." The shadow fell to the ground, screaming. A shoulder was pierced, and a rifle fell from the person's grasp.

A whirlpool of water appeared out of nowhere, ensnaring the wounded assailant.

Argentum landed beside Cyrus, and a stream of water dragged the enemy's body before her.

The man, disheveled with tangled facial hair, lay on the ground, bleeding from the through-and-through wound on his shoulder, the blood mixing into the water controlled by Argentum.

He looked unkempt, his beard in knots, and he writhed in agony, his half-grown hair obscuring his face.

He was a stranger to Cyrus. She confirmed it.

She activated the camera on her bracelet, and Argentum used the water to part the man's hair, allowing Cyrus to take a picture.

The man had used a rifle with limited range, which explained why he didn't snipe from hundreds of meters away but from a closer distance. The Portside District was poor, with mostly low buildings and plenty of obstructions, making it difficult to find a suitable sniping spot. He wasn't on the second floor; he must have been at least on the fourth or higher. After firing, he must have realized he hadn't hit his target and started to flee downstairs, but he wasn't as fast as Cyrus, who caught him in the act.

"Do you know how to interrogate?" Cyrus asked Argentum.

Argentum stepped forward, his tone dark. "Leave it to me."

He pulled out the iron bar from the man's shoulder, and under his control, blood didn't spurt out, preventing the man from bleeding to death.

"Who are you? Who sent you?" Argentum demanded.

The man gasped in pain, his face contorted, but he didn't answer. Argentum spread his fingers, and a ball of water enveloped the man's head. Bubbles escaped from his mouth as he choked on the water, his body convulsing violently.

After a minute, the man's struggles weakened. Argentum dispersed the water and asked again, "Who sent you?"

The man coughed up the water in his lungs, terror in his voice. "I don't know, please, I really don't know!"

Argentum kicked the man's jaw without mercy, sending two teeth flying from his mouth.

Argentum asked once more, "Who sent you?"

"I truly don't know!" the man pleaded frantically.

Just as he finished saying "I don't know," his head was once again encased in water. This time Argentum let him struggle longer. When he was almost motionless, Argentum released the water to let him breathe.

"Still going to say you don't know?" Argentum pressed his foot onto the man's wounded shoulder, grinding it to keep him alert through the pain.

"I'm a low-level hitman; I was just in the bar drinking, wanting to score some drugs, so I followed a dealer into the restroom, and after that, I don't remember anything, please believe me!" The man's face was pale with fear. "I..."

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Suddenly, he fell silent.

His eyes bulged and then burst, and two thin dark red tentacles emerged from his eye sockets. A creature resembling a spider but with slender mouthparts and a pair of tentacles burst through his skull, stretching its limbs contentedly.

Half of his brain, protected by his skull, had been eaten by this unknown creature! Yet he was still alive, his limbs twitching uncontrollably, and dark blood slowly oozed from his nose and mouth.

Even Argentum recoiled a step at the grisly and bizarre scene.

Cyrus lifted her bracelet and snapped a photo of the grotesque creature. It proved to be a timely action because the next moment, the convulsing man and the disgusting creature dissolved into a puddle of blood.

The man's skin first oozed blood droplets, then shriveled, clinging to the bones like a mummy, until the bones and skin too melted away, leaving only his clothes soaked in the bloodied water.

The process was swift and silent.

"A type of exotic species I've never seen before," Argentum said gravely.

There were many kinds of exotic species; the parasitic hydran was one type, and the blood-red spider creature they just encountered was another.

Argentum had seen his fair share, but this was his first encounter with this kind of exotic species.

Cyrus's nose picked up an acrid smell of blood, which made her stomach churn. She fought the nausea, grasping the iron bar to lift the blood-soaked clothes, eventually finding a gleaming communicator still in communication mode.

Cyrus and Argentum exchanged a look, both arriving at the same question—

Who was on the other end of the communicator?

Cyrus crouched down and spoke into the communicator: "Your man is dead."

A second later, the light on the communicator went out as the person on the other end cut the connection.

Throughout the entire process, from when Cyrus captured the assassin to when Argentum interrogated him, the communicator had been on.

That meant the person on the other end had heard everything Cyrus and Argentum had said and done.

Cyrus shivered. If she and Argentum had let their guard down and discussed sensitive information after catching the hitman, the person on the other end would have known from the conversation, and her identity would have been exposed.

For the first time, Cyrus experienced the feeling of being outmaneuvered.

The enemy's plan was meticulous, controlling the hitman to shoot at her from the start and never revealing themselves. The unexpected presence of the communicator had left Cyrus shaken.

Fortunately, she and Argentum hadn't spoken idly after capturing the hitman, revealing no information, and Cyrus's voice changer had stayed on her throat the entire time, ensuring the other end never heard her actual voice.

Argentum activated his mask's scanner, scanning the area. After reviewing the environmental data feedback, he confirmed, "No additional listening devices here."

"Clean the communicator and keep it; it's evidence," Cyrus instructed. "The hitman didn't say which bar he went to meet the dealer, but I need to find out his details and the bars he frequents... That dealer might be the key."

"Why would someone attack us? We chose the safest route," Argentum couldn't comprehend.

"That's not it," Cyrus bit her lip. "It's not 'us' who was attacked; it's 'me.'"

Argentum looked at her in shock.

"The hitman had a clear target; he aimed at my head with the first shot, not at you," Cyrus explained. "I was his prey; you were not."

Argentum suggested, "Maybe it was a coincidence..."

"There are no coincidences in this kind of situation, and even if there were, we can't afford to treat it as one," Cyrus said, snapping more photos of the blood on the ground and adjusting the light and contrast to find details not visible in the dark.

"Plus, didn't you notice? After the hitman realized the first shot didn't kill me, he immediately fired several more shots, all blocked by you," she analyzed bit by bit. "Put yourself in their shoes; if I had multiple targets to kill, I wouldn't look back after the first shot but would quickly aim at the next prey. Being startled by the first shot, other targets would be alerted, and to ensure overall accuracy, it's wise not to check the first shot but to move on to the next targets quickly. If the first one gets away, hitting the second is still a gain."

"But he didn't aim at me with the second shot; each one was aimed at you, only you," Argentum realized something was off. "You were the primary target!"

Cyrus quickly composed a brief report of a few dozen words and attached the pictures, sending it back to Mechanism Dawn headquarters.

She hesitated for a moment before calling Red.

"Hello?" The background noise was loud music.

"I was attacked, and a new form of exotic species appeared. I've sent the information back to headquarters," Cyrus said. "Come here and bring me a healing agent; I'm slightly injured."

"Shit!" Red exclaimed. "Wait there; I'm on my way. Send me your location."

Cyrus sent the coordinates and immediately called Thornrose.

"What's up, deputy commander?" Thornrose's end was quiet.

"Where are you?" Cyrus asked.

"At the beauty salon on Forest Road, number 56," Thornrose replied. "What happened?"

Cyrus: "What about Python?"

"Last I heard, he was having a late-night snack next to the Ruby Bar, not sure if he's finished yet."

Without wasting words, Cyrus said, "Send me your current location."

Thornrose ended the call and seconds later sent her location, which indeed showed she was at 56 Forest Road.

Cyrus then called Python: "Send me your location."

"Okay, okay, deputy commander," Python's voice, which had been slurping noodles, paused, and he too sent his location shortly after.

The coordinates showed he was near the Ruby Bar, consistent with what Thornrose had said.

In the following minute, Cyrus called every member of the mission execution teams, asking them to send their locations.

She reviewed all the coordinates and found none of them were close to her. She opened the map and searched for bars, marking all nearby bars with red dots.

"What are you doing asking everyone for their locations?" Argentum asked, puzzled.

"Think a little, Argentum," Cyrus put away her bracelet for the moment and picked up the rifle dropped by the hitman, making her way upstairs.

After some thought, Argentum had a revelation: "You think there's a mole among us?"

"Yes," Cyrus touched the broken half of the spider mask on her face. "We just got back from the meeting, and someone tried to kill me on the way home. There's no such thing as a coincidence."

"Our comrades wouldn't betray us!" Argentum was shocked.

"Then why would someone want to kill me? Only me?" Cyrus countered.

Argentum was stumped.

He thought for a long time before venturing, "Because you're an undercover agent?"

That was Cyrus's most distinctive identity; she was the deputy commander of the port bombing mission. But others also played important roles in the mission, so it made no sense for her to be targeted. She was an undercover agent for the Enforcement Department, which made this identity stand out and attract attention.

"I suspect that among those who attended the meeting tonight, there is a mole, and this mole is connected to the Enforcement Department. The mole must have discerned my unusual status from the meeting and decided to take me down," Cyrus reasoned. "But there's a contradiction here."

"What contradiction?" Argentum struggled to keep up with her train of thought.

Cyrus explained, "One of the Enforcement Department's duties is to eliminate exotic species, so why would they employ one to parasitize the hitman?"

The disgusting spider-like exotic species had parasitized the hitman, and when he failed to complete his task, the creature immediately killed him, consumed his brain, and melted his body, leaving no trace behind. The exotic species also dissolved along with the hitman's death.

She had encountered parasitic hydras before; people parasitized by them were deformed, but the hitman tonight could still speak normally after being parasitized. Only after the creature emerged did he die.

Cyrus had reason to believe the hitman was a puppet, controlled by the parasitic exotic species. Someone had placed the exotic species inside the hitman's body, making him an unwilling participant in these actions.

Argentum said he had never seen this kind of spider-like exotic species before.

Who was controlling this exotic species? Who had placed it inside the hitman's body?

Lost in thought, Cyrus ascended to the third floor and inspected around the windowless window sills. The view from the third floor was not broad; the hitman had not fired from here. Cyrus continued to the fourth floor and examined it. When she reached the fifth floor, her instinct to avoid danger made her stop.

Cyrus thought for a moment and then said to Argentum, "I'm going to walk over there. The window sills on the fifth floor are too open, with no cover. Use a water screen to protect me."

"Alright," Argentum agreed.

She approached the window and bent down to search, finding a bullet casing.

The hitman had fired from the second window on the west side of the fifth floor. Cyrus moved closer to search, finding more casings beneath the window.

It was fortunate that the hitman had used a rifle. If he had used something as high-performance as a K80, the bullet could have penetrated her alloy skull.

Cyrus stood in front of the wide-open window, completely exposed.