135: Expectation, Recognition

"Useless trash that ruined more than it accomplished."

The undisguised mockery had not come from Lord Akechi, but from the young hacker girl on the team.

Her cutting words sliced through the air like blades, immediately drawing murderous glares from the two combat operatives stationed at the base—the five, now only three, combat personnel belonged to the same operational squad as them.

Facing the fury of the two men whose comrades had been insulted, the hacker girl merely responded with a disdainful sneer.

"Was I wrong?" She tilted her head, twirling a lock of hair around her fingertip. "They disobeyed Lord Akechi's orders and acted on their own. After getting intercepted and being unable to escape, they could not even kill themselves, yet they expect Lord Akechi to risk himself to extract them—does that kind of trash deserve to call themselves Arasaka's elite?"

Her voice abruptly rose. "A true warrior should be dying in loyalty to Lord Akechi and Miss Hanako right now! Even if they cannot kill the enemy, they should at least have the resolve to take their own lives! Clinging to life so shamefully makes them no different from traitors!"

At the hacker girl's words, one of the combat operatives slammed his hand onto the table and shot to his feet, his cybernetic arm emitting a dangerous hum, only to be firmly held back by his companion.

The air throughout the safehouse seemed to freeze, leaving only the faint crackle of electricity from the device in the hacker girl's hand.

The hacker girl looked contemptuously at the two combat operatives. The near-outburst from one of them had not frightened her in the slightest. If they truly dared to make a move in front of Lord Akechi, she would not mind using her connection to teach them just