Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again. Chapter 580

He was checking faces, searching for someone. His eyes, sharp and predatory, scanned the crowd. Time seemed to slow down. His gaze swept past a Mosotoy, past a Solmiri, and then_ it stopped.

He locked eyes with Sunshine.

In that split second, the world of sandwiches and aliens vanished. Sunshine didn’t think; she reacted. She knew that look. It was the look of a wolf that had finally found the scent.

"Sunshine? What’s wrong? You look like you saw a_"

Before Nine could finish his sentence, Sunshine spun around. She didn’t say a word. She ducked her head and dove into the thickest part of the crowd. She moved like water, sliding between a group of tall Glacians and disappearing behind a pillar.

Nine stood there, holding two sandwiches, blinking his large bug eyes. He looked to his left. He looked to his right.

"Sunshine?"

She was gone. One moment she was walking beside him, and the next, it was like she had never existed at all.

Nine looked toward the exit and saw a man in a leather duster pushing people aside, heading straight for where they had just been standing. The man looked furious.

"Uh oh," Nine muttered, clutching the sandwiches to his chest. "What did I do to anger a Noxian?"

Meanwhile, Sunshine materialized back in the quiet, treasure-filled museum, her breath coming in jagged gasps. She leaned her back against a marble pillar, her heart thudding so hard it felt like it might bruise her ribs.

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to think. Why had she run? She was wearing a high-tech disguise when she went to planet Noxian. To the rest of the world, she wasn’t Rocky_ the legendary fugitive the Noxians were hunting. She was just Sunshine, a medium-level repairman.

Rocky was a man; she was a woman. Moreover, Tank was not with her, so how could she have been recognized? However, when she thought back on that moment, every instinct had told her to run. These were instincts she had homed in the apocalypse. They had never lied to her before.

"The way Asgeda looked at me," she whispered, her hand trembling as she pressed it to her chest. "It was like he could see right through me. Like he knew."

[Human instincts are to blame here,sometimes they can be your own worst enemy.] the System’s voice echoed in her mind, cool and robotic. [When a predator stares, the prey runs. It is a basic biological failure.]

"Well, that is not helping system," Sunshine hissed. She started pacing back and forth, her heavy boots clicking on the floor. "I shouldn’t have moved. Now I look suspicious and he will be looking for me."

She waited for what felt like hours, though it was only minutes. Finally, the heavy doors creaked open. Nine walked in, but he didn’t look like the cheerful, sandwich-loving insect from before. His wings were bent, his repairman vest was torn, and he looked like he had been dragged through a hedge backward.

"What the hell happened back there?" Nine demanded, his voice high and shaky. "One second we’re talking about a delicious lunch, and the next, you’re a ghost!"

Sunshine forced her face to go blank. She wiped her sweaty palms on her jumpsuit. "I... I had to piss, Nine. It hit me all at once. I couldn’t hold it in for another second, so I went to the nearest restroom. Blame it on basic human biology that is not as great as yours. We have small bladders."

Nine stared at her with his large, unblinking bug eyes. He looked her up and down, then crossed his middle pair of arms. "Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure about that?"

"Yes! Why wouldn’t I be?" Sunshine asked

"Because," Nine said, stepping closer, "those Noxians_ the big guy who seemed to be their leader told his guys to catch me. They roughed me up, Sunshine. They took the sandwiches! The beautiful, double-dressed sandwiches are probably sitting in a trash can now. And the whole time, they were screaming at me, asking about the repairman who ran away."

Sunshine felt a cold drip of sweat slide down her neck. "That sounds like something that you should report to the Council." She paused "Also I did not run! I moved with purpose toward a toilet. I have never met them so why would they ask about me? It seems to me like they are questioning every repairman they come across. But.....what did you tell them, out of curiosity?"

Nine huffed, a little puff of air escaping his mouth. "I told them I didn’t know what they were talking about. I told them my partner was a weirdo and that you left because you take a massive shit at this time every day."

Sunshine winced at his choice of words, but she let out a breath of relief. "Good. That’s... you did good, Nine." His excuse was disgusting but it had worked perfectly.

Nine didn’t look happy. He narrowed his eyes, his antennas twitching with a strange, sharp rhythm. He walked a slow circle around her, sniffing the air.

"You know," Nine said quietly, "After the Noxians roughed me up, it got me thinking. All Repairmen with high-level Systems have companions. Usually, council assigned robots. And the Noxians say this ’Rocky’ character, the one they want so badly, has a robot companion.

You are the only foolish repairman I know who would be brave enough, or stupid enough, to take a job from the Noxian. The rest of us know better than to take jobs from Noxians, no matter how attractive the pay is. Only a new repairman or a foolish would do something like that.

You are new, and the way you vanished? It told me everything I need to know. Now, on one hand, repairmen have a code, we look out for each other. But that requires honesty. Are you Rocky?"

Sunshine felt the air in the room turn cold. She didn’t move a muscle, but her gaze turned sharp and dangerous. She glared at him; the same look she had given him before throwing the hammer.