Cute Bug Overlord Joins the Chat Group!

The dragon girl called out to the little child.

The adorably dazed Zerg withdrew his gaze from the chat group.

The tiny Swarm Overlord pattered over and nestled into the dragon girl's arms.

"A black snake? Zerg already ate it all!"

Zerg tilted his head slightly.

Then he lowered his head close to Kiana's body, his nose twitching faintly.

"Mm... it doesn't smell like a delicious black snake."

The Swarm Overlord gave that assessment.

"I told you, I'm not some immortal black snake!"

Kiana Kaslana let out a breath of relief.

Mm, so the black snake hadn't meant some black-flame dragon that sprayed white liquid.

She'd been overthinking it.

But what strange thing had Zerg eaten, exactly?!

Why did Talulah like feeding him things at random? Wasn't she afraid of upsetting Zerg's stomach?

[Skadi is worried about you and wants to come over. Would you like to invite her?]

A panel popped up in front of Zerg.

The tiny Swarm Overlord nodded without hesitation.

The next moment—

Talulah, at the very top, was caught off guard by the sudden force landing on her back and toppled straight down onto Kiana.

At the very bottom, Kiana was knocked unconscious by the tremendous impact, her eyes rolling back. The immense force even made her stick out her tongue, while blood rushed to her face and dyed her cheeks red.

As for the little child in the middle?

He lost his balance on the spot and was sandwiched between the two girls, his head forcibly buried, with only his hands and feet left outside.

"Where's Zerg?"

Skadi stepped through the portal, only to find a desolate frozen plain before her.

"Where's Zerg?"

The Abyssal Hunter was somewhat confused.

Then she noticed that the sensation beneath her feet was off.

She slowly lowered her head—

This time, it seemed she had stepped on more than one person.

At the very bottom, Kiana was sticking out her tongue with the whites of her eyes showing, looking like she'd just... done that.

Zerg was wedged between two women, with only his barely exposed hands and feet visible.

As for the one currently beneath Skadi's feet, she was a girl with two horns growing from her head.

Who knew what race she was.

"Cough, cough, cough. Could you get off me?"

Feeling the pressure on her back, Talulah spoke with some difficulty.

The sensation underneath her was strange too.

A head was caught between the bodies, distorted from being pressed together.

"Waaah!"

The little child flailed his hands and feet, trying to struggle free.

Yet those struggling movements only made Talulah feel something even stranger.

"...Sorry."

Skadi stepped back onto solid ground.

Whenever she opened a portal, things like this seemed to happen.

Last time, she'd stepped Kiana straight into the ground.

This time... she'd directly stepped on three people.

"..."

Talulah finally regained her freedom.

She tried to stand up.

But the enormous impact from before had injured the dragon girl's body.

After all, no one could have expected someone to suddenly appear behind them.

She staggered and nearly fell again.

"Zerg can finally talk!"

The tiny Swarm Overlord had finally been freed.

He'd been buried between two soft masses earlier, leaving him unable to speak.

"Zerg, are you all right?"

The Abyssal Hunter naturally gathered the little child into her arms.

"Zerg is fine!"

A wide smile bloomed on the little sibling's face.

"That's good."

Skadi let out a sigh of relief.

"..."

Talulah watched this scene and fell silent.

She seemed to have been stepped on earlier too, right?

And Skadi had just brushed it off with a single apology?

But toward Zerg, she was fussing over him so warmly. Wasn't that blatant favoritism?

The dragon girl took a deep breath and suppressed the small turbulent emotions in her heart.

"Are you Skadi?"

She examined this new arrival—

White hair and red eyes.

She looked exactly like Happy Little Orca's avatar in the group chat.

"Mm."

Only then did Skadi have time to examine the girl before her.

Beautiful yet valiant features, a uniform resembling some sort of military attire, and eyes that seemed to burn with an unquenchable flame.

She wasn't a simple person.

Even Skadi, who had wandered the land for so long—

Rarely encountered someone like her.

Perhaps this person might bring some different change to the world on land.

That was what she thought.

But none of it had anything to do with her.

Having her little sibling by her side was enough.

Skadi had always been easy to satisfy.

If she hadn't become an Abyssal Hunter, she probably would have spent her life as an engineer maintaining light arrays.

During breaks from work, she would retreat to her little one-person cabin, fiddle with instruments, and sing Ægir songs.

That was the life Skadi had dreamed of.

And now—

That life seemed almost within reach.

Within the city beneath the sea, tiny purple creatures were busily at work.

Though Ishar'mla was always in her head, thinking wild thoughts, the Seaborn threat was no longer worth fearing.

Zerg and those little creatures seemed to hunt Seaborn for food.

Skadi had personally watched two Zerglings fight over a Seaborn corpse.

As for what changes this new force would bring to the situation beneath the sea?

The Abyssal Hunter didn't care.

Perhaps her former colleagues would care, but Skadi only wanted to live peacefully.

"..."

Unlike Kiana Kaslana, Skadi was an incredibly powerful opponent.

Talulah saw the greatsword strapped to her back.

Someone capable of wielding such a massive sword... was either a fool with no self-awareness or an immensely confident powerhouse.

"If there's nothing else, I'll take Zerg and go back."

Skadi spoke calmly.

Kiana Kaslana, lying on the ground?

Who was that?

They weren't familiar at all.

"You..."

Talulah wanted to say something.

Just then, a clear female voice rang out—

"Talulah, are you busy?"

A girl dressed like a farmwoman emerged from the woods.

Then she saw the situation before her.

"Alina, why are you here?"

The dragon girl was somewhat surprised.

"I noticed you hadn't returned for a long time, Talulah, so I wondered if something had happened to you."

The girl named Alina brushed back the hair by her ear and smiled faintly.

"I didn't expect to find guests here."

She looked toward the two visitors.

One was a cold and beautiful woman with white hair and red eyes.

The other was—a child so adorable he seemed as though he shouldn't exist on the frozen plain.

"Hello, you two. I'm Alina, Talulah's friend."

Alina greeted them.