As its gaze swept over her, Angel felt a twinge of fear—an instinctive dread of the unknown and mysterious. She quickly suppressed her emotions, continuing to swing her arms, as this was the best way to deal with 2-049.
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Lolotta's arm suddenly freeze mid-air. She reached out to help, but in the next moment, her own thoughts were frozen. Her outstretched hand moved forward frame by frame in her vision, like a slow-motion slideshow, seemingly never able to reach its destination.
The negative effect is stronger now... This thought flashed through her mind.
Across the carriage, Klein and Borgia were on high alert. They simultaneously reached out to dispel the stasis affecting Lolotta and Angel.
"2-049's negative effects have intensified. Let's find Ray Bieber quickly and reseal it," suggested Lolotta, who had just been rescued, with a sigh of relief.
Standing in the center of the carriage, 2-049, the "Antigonus Puppet," seeing the humans well-prepared, retracted its grin and resumed its eerie expression from when it first emerged from the iron box. It tilted its head slightly, chose a direction, and began to slowly walk towards a corner of the carriage.
"Knock knock—" Borgia tapped on the carriage and extended his hand out the small window, pointing in the direction the puppet was facing. "It's moving that way," he said.
Leonard nodded outside the window. Seconds later, the carriage started moving again, turning from the side of the street into a small alley, heading in the direction the puppet had chosen. Borgia occasionally called out directions to help Leonard adjust the carriage's course.
It seems this is 2-049's true function... Angel watched as the Antigonus Puppet continuously adjusted its direction as the carriage moved, eventually pointing straight ahead—indicating that their current direction was perfectly aligned.
Whenever it slowly approached the edge of the carriage or under the seats, Borgia would grab it and place it back in the center of the floor. Often at these times, the puppet would grin and make a face, causing both people in the carriage to fall under its negative effects, frequently including Borgia who had just grabbed it.
It appears unable to control the same person consecutively, but now it can control two targets. Given the sequence, does it prioritize the one it "dislikes the most"? Angel mentally recorded 2-049's target selection, trying to discern a pattern.
By the time Borgia's shoulder was nearly swollen from all the tapping, the carriage finally entered the dock area, arriving amidst a cluster of warehouses.
After confirming the direction several times, the group zeroed in on a gray-white warehouse hidden deep within the building complex. This area was rarely frequented, unlike the bustling warehouses near the Tussock River.
Borgia grabbed 2-049 as it once again ran to the edge of the carriage. This time, instead of placing it back in the center, he picked up the iron box and stuffed the puppet inside.
He re-locked the mechanical switch and infused spirituality into the night Goddess emblem on the box, sealing the sealed item inside.
During this process, 2-049 showed strong resistance, controlling Borgia five times. No one else in the carriage was spared, with Klein, being closest to Borgia, being chosen three times. However, with four people in the carriage helping each other, they managed to re-seal 2-049 without incident.
Picking up the box again, Borgia finally breathed a sigh of relief. As the primary target of 2-049's attacks, his shoulder had been tapped no less than twenty times during the journey, causing him considerable discomfort. Now that they had finally reached their destination, he was naturally the most eager to proceed.
"Let's go, we're getting off," he said impatiently, "escaping" the carriage with the box containing the Antigonus Puppet.
Leonard tied the horse to a lamppost by the road, and the others also disembarked.
Strangely, 2-049 seemed unable to affect any creatures other than humans. The carriage horse sneezed and waited boredly by the lamppost, completely unaffected by the sealed item.
The group of six lined up again, swinging their arms as if possessed, and walked towards the warehouse where Ray Bieber was hiding.
It was now the busiest time in the dock area, yet this warehouse far from the riverbank was devoid of workers. Apart from the faint, distant clamor carried by the wind, the area around the warehouse was eerily quiet.
Angel vigilantly scanned her surroundings. Since getting off the carriage, she had felt as if someone was watching her, but after looking around, she couldn't spot any observers.
"Something's not right," she decided to voice her concerns after much hesitation. If she was wrong, it would only slightly affect their efficiency, but if the team was indeed being followed, it could mean a fierce battle ahead.
Dunn's gaze met hers through their swinging arms. After a moment, he nodded, "It is indeed too quiet, but we have a 'seer' with us."
He turned back to call Klein, who was at the rear of the group: "Klein, divine whether there's any danger in the warehouse ahead, and if so, try to determine the level of threat."
Lolotta and Leonard cleared the middle of the formation, standing beside Borgia, allowing Klein to distance himself from 2-049's influence.
The "seer" Klein unfurled the pendant tied to his left wrist. The silver chain hung down, with a yellow crystal at its end making irregular movements.
As the swaying subsided, he closed his eyes to enter meditation, softly chanting, "Is there danger in the warehouse ahead?"
After repeating the divination content seven times, the yellow crystal pendant in Klein's hand began to rotate in regular circles, clockwise!
Moreover, its rotation became increasingly larger and more forceful, threatening to pull Klein's arm along with it.
"There is danger, and it's not small," Klein said, looking at the pendant in his hand as he came out of his meditative state. His face was somewhat pale, either from the toll of divination or because the result was unexpected.
The others exchanged glances, then looked towards the warehouse.
"Thump, thump." The 2-049 in Borgia's hand knocked against the iron box again, as if reminding them that Ray Bieber's location was just ahead.
"Leonard," Dunn furrowed his brow, pondering for a few seconds before making a decision, "you and Angel go behind that building and find a way to the roof. If there's indeed danger in the warehouse, I'll need your long-range cover."
He pointed to a two-story residential building on the right. It was an abandoned dwelling with broken window glass on the street-facing wall, leaving only half-covered wooden window frames. The side of the building showed exposed pipes perpendicular to the ground, making it seem not too difficult to climb to the roof.
Importantly, the residential building was connected to a row of warehouse structures on the other side. If they could climb to the roof from here, they could move along the top at any time, bringing the entire open area in front of the warehouse within range of their firearms. If Klein's divination was accurate, arranging for these two to provide support from the roof was a very correct choice.
Leonard also understood this point. He nodded, looked towards Angel, and seeing no objection from her, waved his hand and took the lead.
Don't they worry that four people with 2-049 might be dangerous? Angel watched Leonard turn the corner of the residential building without looking back, then looked at Klein, who was preparing for the next divination, and the other three surrounding 2-049 to "shield" him. She couldn't help but feel worried, but Dunn had already given the order, and she could only comply.
Suppressing the unease in her heart, she checked that the holster under her arm and the pistol on the outside of her thigh were still in place, then took two steps for every three to catch up with Leonard.
Arriving at the side of the residential building, Leonard had already grabbed the protruding water pipe by the wall and climbed up to the second-floor balcony about three meters off the ground. With a flip, he jumped over the rickety wooden railing of the balcony and stood steadily on the inside.
It seemed Dunn had his reasons for letting Leonard climb the building. As an upgrade to the "Sleepless" sequence, the "Midnight Poet" had improvements in body coordination and close combat abilities no less than those of an "Assassin." Although lacking the special skills of an assassin, simple wall climbing posed no difficulty.
Seeing Leonard in position, Angel also climbed up along the water pipe.
Compared to infiltrating the Labor Mutual Aid Association headquarters in the dock area a few days ago, a balcony only three meters high was simple mode. She used the water pipe for leverage, kicked off the pipe wall with both feet, and directly grabbed the protruding floor of the balcony, pulling herself up with a backflip.
The balcony likely led to a bedroom on the second floor of the residence. The floor-to-ceiling window had also lost its glass, exposing the messy interior. The two had no time to appreciate the dilapidation of the dock area and continued to climb towards the roof from the balcony.
This time, Angel took the lead. She stepped onto the rickety wooden balcony railing, pushed off with her other foot, and her lithe body leaped upwards, easily grasping the edge of the roof.
Unlike the sloping roofs common in residential buildings in the city center, these buildings near the warehouses in the dock area had flat rooftops that could be used for drying clothes. It was now afternoon, and sunlight bathed the roof. Some undried puddles reflected the sunlight, and faint traces of moss could be seen under the water.
The stairs leading from the second floor to the roof were sheltered by a simple canopy, forming the only shaded area on the roof.
Looking back, Angel was about to help Leonard, who was preparing to climb, when she heard a series of loud gunshots coming from the direction of the warehouse.
"Bang! Bang!"
She instinctively looked towards the source of the gunfire, but her view was obstructed by the rooftop. She could only faintly hear shouts from that direction, suggesting that the four-person team at the front had encountered an attack and was frantically responding.
"What's happening?" Leonard, who was about to climb onto the roof, had also heard the gunshots. He had one foot on the railing but now forgot about climbing, instead asking anxiously with wide eyes.
"It seems a battle has broken out in front, but I can't see the specifics from here," Angel quickly assessed the situation.
"You go down now and return the same way to help the captain and the others. I'll sneak over the rooftop and see if I can provide support from above," she said.
Without waiting for Leonard's response, she drew the new revolver from under her arm and ran towards the source of the gunfire.