Meanwhile, inside the Observation Theater.
Serena had already closed the distance to Asset 07.
The thick, darkened veins along its neck pulsed rhythmically.
Its unblinking gaze remained completely fixated on Nicholas.
It looked as though it was waiting for a single command.
The second it received it, it would tear through its restraints and obliterate its target.
In a twisted way, this was basically a live demonstration of its combat programming.
Serena's expression remained perfectly neutral. With a flick of her wrist, several slender silver needles materialized between her fingers.
In a blur of motion, the needles sank into critical nerve clusters along Asset 07's neck, wrists, and lower spine.
The creature's rigidly tense body seized up. Its unwavering glare on Nicholas faltered for a fraction of a second.
Serena didn't give it a chance to recover.
Another needle flashed through the air.
This wasn't standard medical equipment. Hidden within the microscopic base of the needle was a custom-built hacking chip.
She had designed it specifically to bypass the ship's internal security scanners.
The moment the needle pierced the skin at the base of Asset 07's skull, Serena pressed her fingertip against the tip, instantly establishing a reverse connection with the control chip embedded in its spine.
Every single move she made was being broadcast on the massive Biometric Monitoring Display outside.
Yet, not a single person in the room realized what she was actually doing.
To the naked eye, it simply looked like The Panacea was using advanced acupuncture to systematically shut down the Augment's neural pathways.
The data on the screens backed up the illusion flawlessly.
Asset 07's muscle tension was dropping rapidly. Its violently spiking neural output was being forced back into a stable, manageable baseline.
Everything was returning to the green zone.
The technicians stared at the stabilizing metrics, their jaws practically hitting the floor.
Not a single one of them noticed that Serena had weaponized the microchip on that final needle and was running a silent extraction protocol.
It was currently ripping a complete copy of Asset 07's core data at lightning speed.
And it was doing it without tripping a single external security alarm.
No one in their right mind would ever suspect that someone could manually subdue an Obsidian Augment while simultaneously hacking its mainframe.
Serena kept the data transfer going while her fingers danced over the other needles, constantly adjusting their depth and angles to maintain the medical facade:
She even had the bandwidth to trace the Ghost Frequency Overlay backward,
hunting for the source of the assassination order.
Her movements were liquid and precise, completely devoid of flaws.
Outside the glass, Nicholas stood with one hand casually tucked into his pocket, his demeanor as cool and detached as ever.
But his dark, striking gaze was locked onto Serena through the monitors.
His eyes darkened with an intense, quiet pride.
The rhythm of her wrists, the exact placement of her strikes, the microscopic
adjustments she made every time her fingers lingered...
He had a pretty good idea of what was really happening.
His Serena was never the type to just clean up someone else's mess.
The more chaotic the situation, the more ruthlessly she would exploit it to extract exactly what she wanted.
Kaelen, however, was entirely blind
to the nuance. He was gripping the
conso
his bloodshot eyes glued to the vitals completely losing his mind. . FindNovel.net
"How is it?! Talk to me!"
He grabbed a technician by the shoulder, his voice frantic and raspy. "Did she stabilize it or not?!"
"Is the target lock on the Sovereign broken?!"
The tech flinched, but couldn't tear his eyes away from the screen. His voice was
laced with profound awe. "It's... it's stabilized!"