Chapter 297
"Hehehe... Well then, thank you in advance for the Outrage."
Watching Amiya shake the hand that was holding the Outrage up and down, Huang also covered it with her own hand... Seeing the three of them acting like the sworn brothers in Nana's story, Rosemary, who was shoveling radish stew into her mouth, felt out of place with these three.
How can there be such childish people... They keep talking about protection and mission, aren't these people ashamed?!
Just as Rosemary was trying her best to keep a low profile and pretend she didn't exist, slightly heavy footsteps came from the other doorway... However, because it was familiar, Rosemary didn't do anything extra.
"Amiya... the Lungmen Guard Department Superintendent has arrived. They're waiting for you in the living room with the Doctor."
The person knocking on the door was ACE, Elite Operator in charge of the security of the command center.
With her older brother's reminder, Amiya, who had been spacing out since waking up, quickly ate a couple of bites of food, got up, and then drifted towards the living room, followed by Rosemary.
At this moment, in the Penguin Logistics headquarters, where all the desks have been converted into surveillance monitors, the Lungmen police superintendents who helped Nana and the other frontline combat troops clean up the mess have now completed their work and are here to hand over to Rhodes Island. This is the final procedure of yesterday's battle.
"Sorry I'm late..."
"It's alright, we just arrived too early... But Amiya and Rosemary are in the command center too? I thought this was just the Doctor's responsibility..."
Seeing Superintendent Ch'en Hui-chieh's somewhat confused expression, Amiya took the Doctor's hand. The bunny smiled at the girl, whose concentration was slightly waned from staying up all night, then looked at the Lungmen representative, presenting herself as the CEO, the leader of Rhodes Island, and, most sincerely, her true self:
"I am the Doctor's bodyguard, and also the CEO of Rhodes Island... Generally speaking, I should be on the front lines for missions of this level, but the Medic operators think I am still inexperienced, so please allow me to do what I can at command."
"... I won't interfere too much in Rhodes Island's internal affairs... I'm just here to hand over the data related to yesterday's battle... This part includes Lungmen's explanation and supplements, as well as the relevant cooperation documents between Lungmen and Rhodes Island... And correspondingly, Rhodes Island..."
"Last night's battle log, is it? PRTS has it ready... It's not edited, but the master tape requested by Lungmen... Besides that, there's a request from Rhodes Island operator Medic, the representative of the combat team, to hand it over to Lungmen..."
It looked like some kind of gangster deal, with the people behind both sides placing their respective items on the table.
After Amiya and Ch'en Hui-chieh signaled to each other that they could take it, Rabbit picked up the thick stack of documents, while Ch'en Hui-chieh handed the videotape to Hoshiguma and then frowned as she picked up Nana's 'request application'.
"... We need to increase firepower? Yesterday's battle went pretty smoothly, didn't it? Amiya, did Medic say anything about why we need to increase vitality? Didn't the database say that Seaborn's adaptability shouldn't be used with too many technical weapons?"
Faced with Ch'en Hui-chieh's barrage of questions, which came like a machine gun, Amiya and the Doctor exchanged a glance. The Doctor shook his head at Amiya, and then the Little Bunny looked at Ch'en Hui-chieh with slight hesitation:
"Well... perhaps you should ask her the real reason in person?"
Seeing the two people exchanging glances in front of him, Ch'en crossed his arms and tilted his head:
"I see, you didn't know either... Alright then..."
Just as Ch'en Hui-chieh was about to get up and say goodbye, the Doctor, who had been busy all night without rest, suffered from dementia in the morning, and had just regained some of his senses while holding the Little Bunny, said in a hoarse voice:
"Because of 'adaptation'..."
"Ha?"
"Because yesterday, Seaborn never truly 'adapted' to the situation from beginning to end... and of the three tactical squads' attacks, only Medic himself could be considered extremely effective... The permission to upgrade firepower is not only a request for Lungmen to increase their tolerance, but also a request for Lungmen to relax the restrictions on our firepower upgrades."
"That's what they say, but Tactical Unit won't be able to handle it, you know?"
The Doctor nodded at Hoshiguma's gentle smile as she tried to ease the tension.
"Not Tactical Unit..."
But then he shook his head:
"But... in the end, they'll definitely bring in something even more powerful than Tactical Unit..."
As the Doctor sighed, in the early morning of Lungmen, a Grubia Exploration Transporter, under the surveillance of a small armed boat from the Lungmen Guard Department, drove into its berth. The Raythean Industries logo was prominently displayed on both sides of the vehicle.
But if someone actually connected to Raythean Industries were to pick her up... like Jessica, she probably wouldn't recognize the person in front of her at all.
After all, the scene of this young lady descending the boarding stairs step by step, her long white hair simply braided into a plait, wearing a summer dress and a straw hat, seemingly just an ordinary young lady, with two rows of people standing beside her, their posture at attention resembling that of soldiers, was simply too bizarre.
Even the person involved knew very well that insisting on following his "old men" had greatly disrupted his original plans.
"... Lungmen... so the story of Siesta isn't over yet..."
With a sigh, the white-haired girl, carrying a small suitcase, waved away the soldiers around her, then took out her phone and dialed a number.
After waiting a moment and hearing the call connect but no response, the girl with the white single braid gave a sweet smile:
"Nana ~ Come pick me up? I brought everything your 'mom' gave you."
PS: Waaaaaaah!
PSS: Just a little bit... a bit of filler, really just a little bit... After all, it's been a long time since I wrote anything about my daily life, and I found that I still have quite a lot to write about... But we're about to move on to the second round.
This hasn't even started the big mess yet...
9th Lungmen Seafood: 340 Captain's Holiday
Suddenly receiving a call from Colombian Military representative who greeted her in a very familiar tone, Nana's mind would have completely crashed if she hadn't repeatedly confirmed with the captain codenamed Puff whether she was in some kind of disguise Nana.
It took Killer Cat thirty seconds to realize who Puff's 'mom' was... The manager would probably be speechless if he knew.
The identity of Teresa Walter was far too sensitive. Compared to the fact that she had told herself she had passed through Lungmen Customs and was already in Lungmen city, the ICA supplies became insignificant.
After all, the mere fact that the captain of Columbia's newest experimental airship was wandering around Lungmen, a city with an incredibly complex situation, was enough to make Nana's vision go black.
Because the matter involved the Columbia Department of Defense and even more classified departments, Nana, unable to reveal her whereabouts, could only leave a message through PRTS saying she was going out for a while. She then forwarded the corresponding serial number that Puff had sent her to Nagisa and the others, so that Lycoris on Rhodes Island could help Nana receive the reinforcement equipment using the Columbia procedure.
Donning her Rhodes Island uniform with the armband removed, Nana arrived at the Lungmen commercial district. Looking at the meeting address sent by the other party, Nana breathed a sigh of relief as she looked at the surrounding skyscrapers... at least the other party didn't insist on meeting in the slums.
If this group brings their habit of causing trouble in the slums of Bolívar to Great Yan, then Nana will probably have a hard time explaining it to Ch'en Hui-chieh later.
Holding her phone, she Rope through the bustling commercial districts of the metropolis. Accustomed to the daily standard of 10 Lungmen Dollar for maintaining vital signs, she looked back at the luxury clothing costing thousands of Lungmen Dollar, the expensive musical instruments costing millions, and the coffee that dared to sell for 5 Lungmen Dollar a cup with countless brand premiums. The assassin once again felt the unevenness of this land.
Putting aside those notions that could at least prove her money sense wasn't completely broken, Nana focused intently and quickly found the 'meeting place' whose atmosphere was somewhat out of place with its surroundings.
It must be said that even in Lungmen, a Lungmen of diverse cultures and customs where coexistence is possible, the atmosphere among the members of the Columbia special operations warship is uniquely suffocating.
Wearing stretchy short-sleeved shirts, their muscles bulging beneath, resembling Marines, they were scattered around the coffee shop in twos and threes, each doing their own thing. Some were leaning over the shop window, pointing at the prices of the merchandise, while others were harassing the bookstore clerk next door... At first glance, this scene might seem like miners changing shifts or some old men who hadn't been back to civilization for a long time, gathered around some erotic books with strange smiles, and not particularly odd. But if someone like Nana, with her unique work experience, were to notice, these seemingly frivolous guys had created an outer perimeter of one to several hundred meters.
Habitually, I continued to move inward, bypassing the gazes of those people. Apart from the hellish scroll-like exterior that resembled a prison exercise area, near the meeting point, several groups of men in casual suits were carrying drinks and constantly scanning the people around them at the café.
Good news, Puff didn't sneak out of Lungmen on its own after all.
The bad news is that her bodyguards didn't seem to be trying to hide the fact that "there are important people here!"... By the way, what was the pretext by which this group of people, who appeared to be carrying weapons, passed through Lungmen security?
Thinking about these trivial matters, Nana noticed the plainclothes Marines on duty, seemingly unintentionally preventing others from approaching the inner circle, and a few questions arose in her mind... How come they brought Columbia's bad habits to Lungmen? Aren't they afraid of being discovered by acting so openly?
Even assuming the worst, the captain of Columbia's newest warship... might be someone with Lungmen identity of a developer, if you were truly worried about her personal safety, you shouldn't have let her cause trouble in the first place.
Sighing, Nana observed for a while and noticed that the TDD crew seemed to have booked the entire cafe. Only the staff were awkwardly but busily serving food and drinks to everyone. Nana left the shopping street.
Re-entering the coffee shop through the staff entrance, Nana found a Victoria maid uniform that fit her in the break room and put it on. Then, she saw the white-haired girl surrounded by two people, her eyes slightly dazed...
Please forgive Nana for using the word "girl" to describe the captain of the TDD experimental airship, but seeing that girl with a white braid draped over her shoulder, sipping her espresso with a blank stare and making a sound like a sigh... under the questioning gaze of the coffee shop manager, Nana, dressed in a maid outfit, generously accepted the plate containing several small cakes, and then quietly took them from behind the Puff:
"Hello, here are your tiramisu, cranberry hazelnut chocolate cookies, and lemon cream scones... Also, gentlemen, could you please remind your subordinates that the bookstore clerk next door is quite troubled, and if you continue to cause trouble, you might have to go to the Guard Bureau to talk to them."
"Ah... thank you, we'll be right there... um?"
As Nana placed several snacks in front of her captain and then sat down in front of the white-haired girl, the two men standing next to Puff belatedly realized what was happening and looked at Nana with expressions of horror... One of them even habitually reached for his waist:
"Although your holster is under your arm... what, are navy people not used to armpit holsters?"
Now, everyone could see the dissatisfaction on the black-haired maid's face. In the coffee shop, a certain Cautus looked at the name tag on Nana's chest with a confused expression and asked his coworker if it was his uniform. Regardless of the situation, the two middle-aged men who had just been standing guard were now sweating profusely, somewhat belatedly realizing that the black-haired cat had quietly served food to their captain.
The girl with the braided hair actually smiled. After putting down her coffee cup, she used her fork to cut a bite of tiramisu, tasted its sweet bitterness, and said:
"... Alright, everyone's really thinking about my safety... Nana, you need to realize that you're actually already far removed from our inner circle."
"If you really don't trust me, then for the sake of your own life, I suggest you don't give me a chance in the first place... When I arrived, seeing the three layers of defensive formations, I thought you'd been kidnapped, Puff. Didn't you even notice how the security here has only recently started to resemble our hometown?"
She shrugged, Puff completely unconcerned... because the Cautus's employee and the coffee shop manager were still being held back a few meters by the Marines, looking like they wanted to say something but couldn't, and they seemed quite pitiful. Nana briefly used the changing room to change back into her own clothes before sitting back down in front of Puff:
"So, what's going on? Why did you suddenly come here...?"
"Hmm... where should I begin... you know, we just did something big back in Siesta, right?"
"Yes, my agent told me about that."
While talking, she kept glancing at the small snacks in front of Puff. The more she thought about being woken up in the middle of the night, the angrier she became. Taking advantage of Puff's attempt to organize her thoughts, Nana quickly and naturally started stuffing the small snacks into her mouth.
Judging from the claim that these things were all bought by Puff to appease her hunger, Nana's actions can be considered a crazy offering of Puff. And from the other party's rambling explanation, Nana also roughly understood why a national treasure like Theresa Walter would appear in Lungmen.
"Because of the need to eliminate the underwater sea monsters... TDD had no choice but to deploy the underwater submersible mode ahead of schedule... Although the initial plan was sound, the enemy's scale exceeded expectations, making damage unavoidable..."
While Nana was muttering about the unrestrained use of fully automatic mode, forced submersion at depths exceeding practical limits, close-range torpedo explosions, and hand-to-hand combat between Mechanical Hunter and large sea monsters in the hangar—all of which sounded ominous—Nana reluctantly accepted the cappuccino from the coffee shop and concluded, 'Actually, it's just a major overhaul after the battle between TDD and Seaborn, which led to these people finally going crazy from boredom.'
"After all, it's being used under overload conditions, so it's only natural that it needs to be rigorously inspected and repaired... Even though TDD does have some connotations of being the ultimate weapon in our country, it's still just a machine at heart. If it's not properly maintained, it's just scrap metal."
"I thought you were going to say you came to help because you were worried about my situation..."
"We don't actually mind continuing to demand a resolution for the people and colleagues who sacrificed themselves in Siesta... but, Lungmen is, after all, the territory of the Great Yan Dynasty, and even our country, now on the 'Golden Path,' cannot interfere at will."
"... I think that instead of those self-aggrandizing 'golden age,' the government should pay more attention to its existing problems and the potential future impact on the public... So you're trying to tell me that you traveled thousands of kilometers just to have a vacation in Lungmen?"
Upon hearing Nana's words, Puff, dressed in a white dress with a simple Puff hat beside her, involuntarily looked away and then let out a "hehe" sound.
"'Hey,' what the heck is that...? Be serious, okay... If you don't like it, do whatever you want, I have a lot of work to do myself..."
Seeing that Nana looked like she couldn't take it anymore and was about to leave, Puff smiled and pushed a card over... It was an encrypted magnetic card. Nana recognized the chip design, and the old ICA equipment of Lycoris in Rhodes Island should have the read specifications.
"Don't mistake me for someone who doesn't do anything productive. I'm here to deliver something to you, after all..."
"Couldn't you just send any other messenger for that kind of thing?"
"It's more formal for me to come in person... Besides, some of these things wouldn't have reached you if I hadn't come myself."
Although she didn't know what Puff was up to, Nana wasn't too concerned. So, after accepting the magnetic card as her 'item list,' Nana glanced around, her eyes meeting those of the vice-captain she'd met briefly Ticarondo, and the TDD members she vaguely remembered. After that, Nana decided to get straight to the point:
"So, I did receive the items. What are your plans now?"
"Of course, we'll continue our vacation!"
"In Lungmen?"
No, actually I want to go to Rhodes Island.
Seeing Nana's furrowed brows and slightly open mouth, Puff chuckled and shoved a piece of cake into the mouth of the cat in front of her, who was more like one of her own kind than a collaborator.
Nana's expression reminded her of when she had told the crew she was going to Rhodes Island.
When the aging vice-captain heard me say I wanted to rest, he pulled out several travel brochures from his folder and recommended various tourist attractions in the surrounding countries. I guess my expression was similar to Nana's now.
Just like when she interrupted her own vice-captain, Tessa propped her head up and continued:
"After all, it's Rhodes Island that has captivated you and that guy, and its predecessor, that tower, is shrouded in mystery... Not to mention the legendary Lady Kal'tsit, who is highly regarded by the Grand Commander. I've wanted to visit her for a long time."
Seeing that Puff seemed genuinely looking forward to it, Nana blinked, but instead of following the 'stop' look from the middle-aged man with the Mediterranean glasses beside her... she spoke her true feelings:
"It's alright. Rhodes Island is still safer than Lungmen itself..."
Seeing Nana so readily allow Tessa to enter the dangerous area, the vice-captain's eyes turned fierce:
"Excuse me... my former colleague, setting aside the uncertain security risks, are you sure the local hygiene standards can guarantee the captain's health? Even though we weren't originally part of the same system, our 'Miss' status is still special... In a special hospital like Rhodes Island, can 'Miss's' physique remain healthy?!"
"... If the people of Lungmen heard you say that, they might scold you. I just picked up a child from the slums yesterday. They're trying their best to survive in the shantytown... Lungmen is a proper Mobile City, after all. How can you say the sanitation is unbearable? As for Rhodes Island... Rhodes Island is a hospital. There's no cleaner place than Rhodes Island."
Despite raising this question, seeing the slightly forlorn expression on the braided girl's face and the serious expressions of the two accompanying officers, who were not joking, the girl codenamed Puff pointed to her finger and said helplessly in the face of Nana's questioning gaze:
"But... this land is such a fragile thing that it could die from drinking a cup of dirty water... Speaking of which, Nana doesn't even know my race?"
As time passed, the light outside the café gradually brightened and enveloped the girl... She had lustrous gray-blonde hair, paired with large gray eyes, and wore a sleeveless dress. She reached up and slightly lifted a strand of hair from her temple, revealing pointed ears that resembled those of Durin or the Bloodfiend.
"Actually, I... am Water Spirit. Yeah, the one that seems to get Oripathy from the Originium Engine exhaust, even more fragile than the Rim Billiton Sand Beast... but..."
Holding a coffee cup, Teresa Walter, an incredibly fragile yet vital talent at Columbia and the lead designer of TDD, smiled at Nana:
"But I'm not at the point where I need to be in a sterile ward, am I? Take me there, Rhodes Island!"
PS: Waaaaaaah!
PSS: It seems we're running out of illustrations again... Also, the Puff didn't just appear here randomly; she has a very important mission.
9th Lungmen Seafood: 341 Captain's Holiday (2)
Although Miss Puff's words caused the surrounding vice-captain, instructors, Mechanical Hunter, and even mech cavalry marines to show expressions of immense pain, their mere suffering without further rebuttal clearly indicated that the captain still held absolute authority over her ship.
Seeing this, the white-haired girl with braided pigtails put down her coffee cup and tilted her head and put her hands on her hips as if to prove something. However, in Nana's current thoughts, she felt that if looks could kill, the looks of the TDD crew members around her could simply annihilate her on the spot.
So what expression should I make now?
According to what the agent has said in the past, a smile is probably the best thing to do in situations like this.
As for Puff's request to visit Rhodes Island... or rather, to meet Kal'tsit, Nana sent it to Kal'tsit via PRTS encryption. Originally, Nana said that this matter should end there, and the subsequent handover could be handed over to SWEEP or simply Ascalon personally receive her.
But seeing Nana's reluctant expression, Miss Puff only needed one sentence to get Nana to stay by her side: