It was not just a simple smile but a horrid sinister one.
The entire Sharp Blade team was stunned.
What was going on?
Was the person in front of them, not the real Zero?
Carl deserved to be the team leader of the squad.
He immediately discovered the crux of the problem in no time.
He asked, "Who are you? You're not Zero? Or were you not brainwashed at all?"
Elrond looked at Carl in surprise.
He had not expected this guy to be smarter than Henry York.
He immediately guessed the key to this situation.
Henry York, that old fool, assumed that his experimental subject had gone berserk because of the mutation process.
Little did he know that it was because the brainwashing process did not succeed at all.
Elrond chuckled and said, "As expected from the captain of an elite team, you managed to guess it correctly on your first try."
It was Carl's turn to be surprised.
He had merely made a random guess and got it right.
However, fear lingered in his mind only for a second.
Following that, Carl's face filled with excitement.
He looked at Elrond with a voracious look in his eyes and said, "I did not expect you to hide this so well. Zero, you managed to deceive everyone here to believe that you were just a failed experiment. No one expected your brainwashing process to fail, leaving your consciousness intact. To think that you've been lying in hiding in the base for the past six months. If I were to catch you, wouldn't that be a meritorious service?"
Carl's subordinates had not grasped the seriousness of the matter at all.
To them, what was the big deal about Zero not being brainwashed?
Their team was led by team leader Carl, a seventh-grade warrior.
Moreover, there were a total of eight people in their team. All of them were equipped with excellent weapons.
Whereas for Elrond, he was just a lone wolf.
What was he going to use to fight against them?
Was he intending to have a verbal fight?
Therefore, when Carl's subordinates heard the word 'meritorious service', some members who often fawned on Carl quickly chimed one after another, "Congratulations to Captain for achieving a great merit!"
"Congratulations to Captain for taking down the base's traitor, Test Subject Zero."
Carl was delighted with his subordinate's compliments.
He looked at Elrond as his eyes burned with fervor and asked, "Zero, are you prepared to die?"
Elrond sneered when he heard this.
Before Carl's elite team could launch their attacks, Elrond had already summoned the full-body exoskeleton from the system.
It only took a second, and the exoskeleton armor was fitted on Elrond's body.
He raised his right hand lightly and said, "Stun bomb!"
In the next second, there was a loud bang!
Everyone except Elrond turned pale.
Their ears were ringing.
In order not to create too much commotion, Elrond decided not to use firepower to suppress them.
He chose to use melee attacks instead.
He ran speedily towards the Sharp Blade team.
The exoskeleton armor on his hands switched to melee mode.
Two sharp blades appeared on the armor.
Elrond dashed into the squad.
Like a wolf in a flock of sheep, he reaped the profits from brandishing the exoskeleton.
He harvested the lives of the Sharp Blade members as though he was chopping vegetables.
As a seventh-grade warrior, Carl was very sensitive to the dangers in the outside world.
Although his vision and hearing were impacted by the stun bomb, Carl's warrior instincts were not affected.
He sacrificed an arm to lengthen his life.
Following that, he quickly transmitted the news of Zero's betrayal to the others through the walkie talkie.
Elrond could not do anything to stop him as he transmitted the news.
Since he was already exposed, there was no need to continue hiding anymore.
The two sharp blades were withdrawn.
In their place was the cold thermal weapon system.
Elrond aimed at Carl.
Bang! Bang!
Two gunshots rang soundly.
A seventh-grade warrior died in Elrond's hands.
The expression on his face before his death was surprisingly the same as Harry York.
It was full of unwillingness.
He seemed to be saying, "I am a seventh-grade warrior. How can a gunshot kill me?
"I have already activated my protective aura!
"How was it possible?"
Of course, he could only bring his question to Hell and seek the answers there.
He would never find out.
Why was Elrond's weapon so special?
The system had given him three extremely perverse abilities.
His mechanical skills included a '+10 points' for all levels of machinery.
Elrond, a Level 25 low-level mechanic, had raised his weapon to the level of an intermediate mechanic with this ability.
There were a total of six levels in the manufacturing of machinery.
They were scrap metal, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and diamond.
Low-level mechanics could only create bronze-level machinery or weapons.
However, Elrond could use his identity as an intermediate mechanic to build silver-level weapons.
The second skill allowed him to add one to three random special attributes to the weapon.
Regretfully, the full-body exoskeleton armor that he created only gained two special attributes.
They were speed and paralysis.
Speed was simple.
When he ran using the exoskeleton armor, the special speed attribute would increase his running speed.
As for paralysis, every single attack he made had a paralyzing effect.
The effect of this attribute was not obvious on the weaklings.
Because they died instantly under Elrond's attack.
Some might not even feel the paralyzing effect, and they were already dead.
But if Elrond's opponent was strong, it was a different story.
If the opponent was accidentally hit by Elrond's attack, the paralyzing effect would instantly affect their entire body.
Their bodies would not be able to move.
Even though the effect only lasted a second or two, it was enough to change the outcome of the battle.
Even if Elrond didn't attack, he could still use this advantage to escape.
The last attribute was even more terrifying.
When creating machinery and equipment, critical hit power would increase by 99%.
This meant that he could hit a 100% critical hit at any level.
Although his current level's critical hit damage wasn't very high, it was still much higher than same-leveled critical hits by others.
Carl's protective aura did not work because Elrond's critical hit broke through his defense and struck his heart directly.
He left the world feeling unreconciled.
These three abilities were heaven-defying.
No one knew who gave Elrond the confidence.
At this moment, he actually believed that he might be able to fight head-on with Helen Harry.
His belief was not without any basis.
By relying on the speed attribute, it made his body more flexible.
He could easily dodge Helen Harry's attacks.
The paralysis attribute could restrain her movements, thus giving Elrond more opportunities to attack.
99% chance of critical hit would greatly increase the damage of his attacks.
If one's attack couldn't even break through the opponent's defense, how was one going to fight?
Moreover, the firepower of his full-body exoskeleton armor was extremely powerful.
Therefore, Elrond was rather confident of himself.
But if he wanted to improve, it was a must to have the three conditions.
The conditions were doing it at the right time with favorable geographical and social conditions.
Otherwise, the probability of obtaining victory would drop drastically.
If all he wanted was to block off one or two of them, it would be much easier.
Even if he couldn't win, he could still retreat unscathed.
...
After Elrond annihilated the entire Sharp Blade patrol team, he quickly concealed himself and ran towards the elevator.
Carl had transmitted the news successfully.
The instant the news had spread, it shocked the entire base.
When those people in the base heard the news, no one believed that it was true.
Wasn't Zero a failed experimental subject?
Why did he suddenly betray the organization?
Based on Carl's message, Zero single-handedly annihilated their entire patrol team.
It had completely reversed their understanding of Zero.
After all, they had labeled Zero as trash in the past six months.
That label was deeply rooted in their hearts.
Moreover, Zero's usual performance was also extremely poor.
Other than having a strong learning ability, his combat ability was trashy.
He would always be at the bottom of every single assessment.
How could he possibly annihilate a well-equipped elite patrol team?
The other two elite squads' team leaders were also seventh-grade warriors.
They were well aware of the strength of seventh-grade warriors.
With the seventh-grade warrior Carl around, how could Elrond annihilate his entire squad so easily?