Volume Six: What She Lost, What I Gained - The Gathering of Weapons

The anchor's location was very easy to pinpoint; we had already seen it hanging on the bow of the ship when we boarded, and its obvious location made it hard to forget.

The ship was connected to the anchor by an extremely thick and heavy iron chain.

The silver thread threaded through the iron chain, becoming the "core" of the chain, and thus protecting itself from being exposed.

Then, the silver wire embedded in the core of the chain began to move, causing the entire chain to spin.

"What is this...?"

Little Ying stared at all of this in disbelief.

Something quite heavy emerged from underwater beside the container ship, which was wrapped up like a dumpling by its silver-gray walls.

It's an anchor.

The other end was connected to an iron chain, and the anchor was thus lifted into the air as if pulled by an invisible hand.

Then—they began to violently pound on the barrier from the outside.

"Fisher-Fesse? This is also... part of the ship repair?"

At this moment, Little Ying suddenly noticed that Fiser's expression was a little strange.

She looked completely stunned.

Huh? Even Fisesan doesn't know what's going on? Then who exactly is this person...?

Ta-da, ding--ding--ding--, ta-da

... Huh? That's rhythmic!

The anchor wasn't randomly striking the barrier; it was doing so in a certain pattern.

Ta-da, ding--ding--ding--, ta-da

Three short, three long, three short.

"... ah!"

Little Ying remembers it.

While on the road, Xiao Ye said, "Just to be on the safe side, let's decide on a special distress signal for us."

According to her, this is a signal known as "SOS in Morse code".

Although she didn't understand what it meant, she memorized it under Xiao Ye's insistence.

Then--

"Xiao Ye!!!!"

I don't know what's going on or what happened, but if I see all this and don't take action, then I'm truly hopelessly stupid!

It's Xiao Ye! Xiao Ye and the others are trapped inside and are calling for her help!

"Miss Si Nan, please--"

Little Ying dashed out, ignoring Fiser's attempts to stop her. This guy is definitely no good! Thinking this way, everything that seemed off made sense. Fiser must have some wicked scheme up his sleeve, trying to lure her away from Xiao Ye!

She didn't have time to worry about her now; rescuing Xiao Ye was the most important thing! Although she had been repeatedly told not to use too much power, she could have easily blown up this barrier even a year ago!

"Behold my Deluxe Edition Explosion Bubble!!!"

Rumble rumble rumble!!!!

End of event replay.

In a luxurious room in the Business Capital...

A young woman with purplish-blue hair and an overturned cardboard box are being tried.

"... So, not only did you act first, you also lost?"

"A middle-aged man who seems very bookish but actually has a terrible temper," said Casey Sidria irritably.

"Haha, I thought I was fully prepared, but something unexpected still happened."

Yu Xun her head and chuckled, but it was impossible to tell whether she was truly reflecting on her actions.

"No... it's not my fault... I didn't do anything, I didn't do anything, I didn't do anything, I didn't do anything..."

"We didn't do nothing, did we? Weren't we working together very well at the beginning?"

"Waaaaah... I don't know... I don't know, I don't know, I don't know..."

"You bastard..."

Yu Xun stared at the cardboard box that seemed to be trembling, but it was impossible for Chi Ying underneath the box not to feel her gaze.

"Seriously, all of you!"

Casey slammed his hand on the table, spittle flying everywhere. The burly old man smoking a hookah, Vic Fisher, couldn't help but take a step back. But his gaze towards Yu Xun and Chi Ying remained icy as he said, "I think any arbitrary action could put us at a disadvantage. Remember, although Ye and her group are bound by President Yu's contract, don't forget they are super-strong individuals who surpass even Special Class Combatant. If we underestimate them, we'll suffer the consequences."

"That's right, that's right, so I didn't underestimate them at all, and I made meticulous arrangements beforehand..."

"But you failed. You let them escape at the last minute. Who cares how much effort you put in? All Mr. Yu wants are results. If you can't produce good results, you'd better get out of here!"

"... sorry."

Even Yu Xun felt embarrassed after being told this much.

Casey slammed her hand on the table again, sending spittle flying even further.

"So, shouldn't we decide what happens to the losers? If everyone in the Extra Weapon acts so recklessly and doesn't take failure seriously, forget about President Yu, I'll be the first one—"

"--Isn't this a bit too much?"

Trister, a young man whose gender was ambiguous and who had been sitting cross-legged on the ground with a calm expression, interrupted him.

"Huh? What did you say? You, this androgynous thing, think you can find fault with me?"

"Please forgive me if I have offended you, but the more allies we have, the better, right? It's unwise to lose manpower before we even officially start fighting them. Putting that aside, it's absolutely wrong to completely condemn someone based on just one mistake."

"You're playing the saint again... Fine, vote! Vote, okay?"

"Taking the democratic route? There's no reason to oppose it."

"Alright! Let's begin now—those who agree to expel the losers outright, raise your hands!"

Swish—Casey was the first to raise her hand, both hands, followed by Vic.

Casey looked around and said irritably, "Hey—hey—just the two of us? Where's the others?"

The twin sisters, Tia Fais and Di Fei'er Fais, exchanged a glance.

"My dear sister, which side should we choose?"

"Sister, why do you have to dump such troublesome things on me?"

"Because I want to put you in a difficult position."

"Then you might as well go die first. If you agree with these two, then you'll have a legitimate reason to kick them out when they make a mistake, right?"

"As expected of my sister, we thought of the same thing. So—"

The two enigmatic sisters both raised their hands, bringing the number of supporters to four.

"And... what about those who oppose it?"

Swish, swish, swish— Trister, Valentina, and the siblings Wanhua Xing and Su Mengli raised their hands.

"Four votes to four... There are eleven of us in total. Excluding Yu Xun and Chi Ying, there are nine of us. Eight of us voted... Who else?"

Everyone looked at the silent man by the window.

Julia was leaning against the wall, fiddling with a machine that no one else could understand. Dazzling displays, wires, and PCBs were scattered everywhere, creating a chaotic mess.

"... Hey Julia, did you hear that?"

"Process replanning in progress... Opening new cache space... Select answer... Hmm? What is it?"

The camera's blue pupils flickered, and Julia looked at Vic, who had called her name.

"It's just a vote, about whether to kick out the losers who are in the way of the team—hey! I'm talking to you, listen carefully!"

But Julia turned her head back, clearly showing no interest in their vote.

"You better watch out, your vote can directly decide the outcome."

"So what? We build a new algorithm... calculate... draw conclusions... no matter what, the result is still the same, there's nothing to discuss/it's boring."

"What the hell did you say? Huh?"

The hot-tempered Casey lunged forward, intending to grab Julia by the collar and lift her up—but he immediately realized Julia's clothes had no collar, so he gave up.

"We are far too disunited right now, so it's necessary to establish some tough rules."

"You just think it's necessary, right? / You're such an idiot."

"..."

Vic was speechless; this stubborn girl seemed to completely disregard him.

"Shouldn't you straighten out your attitude, Julia? Or do I have to teach you how to respect your elders?"

"Exactly! I've been wanting to get back at you for ages!"

"You're... annoyed by me?"

Julia repeated it.

"Yeah! Always that lousy attitude, you bastard—uh!"

A giant metal hand, haphazardly assembled from countless parts, suddenly grabbed his face and lifted him off the ground.

"Waaaaah... Waaaaah!"

"You seem to have a problem with me? Don't you?"

Julia's voice changed.

That perfect, girlish voice transformed into a cold, piercing mechanical sound, and as the voice changed, her pupils turned crimson.

"Ugh, here we go again," Valentina shook her head helplessly from the back.

Ever since discovering her target, Urahara Sakura Dance, Julia has been acting very strangely. Although she's mostly a quirky and goofy person, sometimes, like when she's provoked, she'll suddenly "switch operating systems," and she can't bear to look at Casey any longer.

Should we help them out of this predicament?

Hmm... never mind.

It was Casey's own fault.

Valentina thought for a moment, then covered her ears with her hands.

"You seem to have a problem with me, huh!???"

Zzzzz!!!

"Wait, it hurts, it hurts so much!!!"

"He's clearly a disgusting middle-aged man! A stupid carbon-based life form! And he's involved in gang bullying? Is he a primary school student?!??? Ahhhhh?"

Crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch!!!

"Aaaaaaah!!! You, you bastard, aren't you looking at me?!"

"Not good? Huh? Keep going!!!"

Thump thump thump thump thump!!!

"Help! Hey you, egg-crushing maniac! Aren't we partners?"

"I don't remember ever having a partner with a good-for-nothing... I can't hear you, I can't hear you..."

"Hello!!!!!"

Splash! It seemed as if warm, rusty liquid splashed onto Valentina's back. "I don't know, I don't know anything," she buryed her head in the sand, her eyes tightly shut and her ears covered.

Click!!!

Julia casually tossed Cassie, who had been turned into a meatball and looked like she'd been turned inside out, aside. Incredibly, Cassie was still breathing.

"Well... alright, everyone, can I say something? Sure, right? You definitely can! If you don't want to listen, then please kill me first!"

No one answered.

Julia's unusual aura was far too exaggerated, even for Extra Weapon.

"Alright, so the loser's name is... Yu Xun Sang, right? As for me, what I hate most is planning! Making a plan is easy, but making a flawless plan is very difficult, right? The flaws in a plan need to be filled with a new plan, but the new plan will have new flaws. It's just like writing those annoying, stupid codes. No matter how hard you try, a perfect, flawless program doesn't exist! So why bother with making plans and using schemes and such?"

Crackling and sparking, red sparks flew from her crimson eyes, eerie and dangerous.

"If you ask me, we don't need to think about any of that nonsense from the start. Search, annihilate, search & kill, it's that simple! On the stage of Business Capital, don't worry about the consequences, just wipe them all out in one fell swoop!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Damn, I only realized I hadn't updated on the 25th when I was about to take a shower in the middle of the night...