Chapter 140
Seeing the gazes of Masaki Hina and the others, Shinomiyami Nami lowered her eyes.
"... I'm sorry for saying such discouraging things."
"It's alright, you're not wrong. With the current fighting strength of Xijing City, it's simply impossible to continue a battle that requires the mobilization of the entire city's fighting force. That's an indisputable fact."
Efnir took over the conversation and said in a deep voice.
"I agree with Masaki Hina's statement. Investigating the Apostle is extremely important, both for the sake of our fallen comrades and for the future of this city. If the threat of the Apostle is not eliminated, we will always live in fear. But at the same time, I also believe that Nami's concerns are something we need to seriously consider."
"That's no longer a problem."
Masaki Hina nodded and calmly explained, "The Human Federation's support forces will arrive tonight. They will become your new comrades, and the problem of insufficient combat power will be solved. Simply put..."
Masaki Hina did not hide anything about the transfer and simply explained it to everyone.
Apart from Efnir and Shinomiyami Nami, most people had complicated expressions.
"Now, I will explain my preliminary plan with the Bushiyuan. If you have any comments, please feel free to raise them."
Without saying anything more, Masaki Hina flipped through the documents.
"According to the data, the United Airport in Liujin City has been completely destroyed. Our investigation team cannot choose to travel by air to conduct the investigation. If we choose to travel by land, we will inevitably face the problem of the 'Shielding Device's' endurance, making it difficult to advance the investigation activities in the Fallen Zone Beyond the Boundary."
The massive Shielding Device requires a correspondingly large space for installation and placement, and must also carry equally large functional equipment. With the destruction of old-fashioned ground facilities such as railways, land travel is a very low-priority option.
"But we found another way."
Masaki Hina opened the map, and a general outline of the battle plan appeared on the large screen, with dense text markings spread across the map.
A prominent route is marked on the map.
"By entering the main channel from Maesakagawa, one can directly access the upstream water conservancy project, 'Shimokitazawa'."
"Shimokitazawa is a satellite city of Liujin City and a very important water conservancy project. It is only a little over ten kilometers away from Liujin City. Two years ago, this small town, a key water conservancy project, became a deserted town due to the fall of Liujin City. However, reports from other investigation teams indicate that the equipment here has not been completely abandoned. We can restart the Boundary Stele System in Shimokitazawa and use its power grid directly as a power supply point, making Shimokitazawa our forward base for investigation."
"Then, starting with this, we will conduct a detailed investigation of Liujin City."
"But in order to complete this series of operational plans, the most important task is to carry out the operation to recapture the Maesakagawa area."
Masaki Hina said.
[These chapters cover a lot of material, so they've been quite verbose. Starting with this chapter, I'll try my best to shorten them and omit some explanations.]
204. Song of the Other Shore
The operational plan covers three phases.
"Maesakagawa Recapture Operation", "Forward Base Establishment Operation", and "Liujin City Investigation Operation".
This is not something that can be summarized in a single sentence; there are many aspects that require discussion and detailed planning. Everyone participated in the formulation and revision of the operational plan, so the meeting continued until nightfall.
It was 9 p. m. When the meeting ended, many people returned to their posts or left the headquarters, leaving only Masaki Hina, Fushihara Ayaka Shinomiyami Nami, Efnir, and Yukina in the meeting room.
The meeting room was empty and quiet. Fushihara Ayaka tidied up the documents in her hands and looked at Masaki Hina.
"I'll go get ready and wait for you on the tarmac."
"Okay, I'll be there soon."
"Bushiyuan Plains, please follow me."
After saying goodbye to Evenier and Yukina, Ayaka Shinjihara left with Yominami.
Are you going to United Airport next?
Efnir turned her gaze to Masaki Hina and asked.
"Yes, the new commander of the command is coming with 'aid,' and judging by the time, they should be arriving soon. As senior members and the people in charge here, Bushiyuan and I need to go out and welcome them. The official announcement of their arrival and appointment will probably be made tomorrow."
"You're really busy."
"Yeah, I think so too, but I don't hate my current life."
"What will you do after returning to the Central Province?"
"It's hard to say... I only hope that after I leave, this city can recover from the crisis brought by the Apostle as soon as possible."
In order to eliminate the threat of the Apostle in Xijing City, in addition to interrogating and investigating Sakurai Sachi and Karina, a series of operational plans for Maesakagawa and Liujin City are also very important.
Xijing City and Liujin City are more than 200 kilometers apart. The arrival of the Human Federation's "aid" to Xijing City made the action plan feasible. The biggest difficulty was that Xijing City lacked a large and sturdy enough waterway transport vehicle.
This issue can only be resolved by external forces, such as the Human Federation or other cities. Masaki Hina has also proposed a series of alternative solutions, but the final choice will be a matter to be considered after the successful Maesakagawa Recapture Operation.
"Oh, right, there's something else I wanted to discuss with you and Yukina about staying, something I need to talk to you about privately."
Masaki Hina looked at Yukina and said seriously.
"What?"
"Yukina, I'd like to confirm beforehand, have you posted any cover songs on social media?"
"Huh? This... no, there isn't one..."
Yukina is rather introverted in public and rarely sings, let alone releases cover songs.
I think so too.
Why ask that?
"Efnir asked, puzzled."
"There are just some things that need to be confirmed."
Masaki Hina raised her hand and swiped on the tablet.
"Before I begin, Efnir, I want you to hear this."
As Masaki Hina finished speaking, a melodious tune gradually rose in the command center.
It was a popular song right now, but... listening to that familiar intro, Efnir subtly raised her eyebrows, while Yukina beside her blinked curiously.
"Naoko, isn't this your song?"
"Hmm... that's true..."
As an "idol," Efnir does indeed have quite a few singles, and this is one of them.
This song was written by Efnir as she transitioned from being an organization's spokesperson to becoming an idol agent. If anyone present was most familiar with this song, it would undoubtedly be Efnir herself.
Even though everyone else has left, isn't it a little inappropriate to play your own single in such a serious place as the war room?
Efnir felt strange and embarrassed, but looking at Masaki Hina face, she swallowed the question that was on the tip of her tongue.
"Efnir, perhaps you've noticed, this is one of your singles."
Masaki Hina's eyes flickered slightly, and she took a deep breath.
"But in fact, this is a fragment extracted from your combat recordings during the time when Codename H disappeared, or rather, one of the countless data files parsed from your terminal."
"Data files? No... what's going on? I don't remember having any of these."
"This is the processed sample; the original looks like this."
As soon as Masaki Hina finished speaking, a piercing noise, like glass rubbing together, rang out.
Efnir frowned slightly.
At that moment, she also realized that something was wrong.
"This is..."
"This is the sound of your song played in reverse at high speed, which is the 'noise' you heard when the Codename H disappeared."
Masaki Hina said.
"It was around that time..."
Efnir frowned slightly.
The hooded girl, Codename H, wielded a mysterious power that appeared to originate from the Ruins. After being subdued by Efnir, she vanished inexplicably before Efnir's very eyes.
At that time, Efnir was blocked from the outside world by a strange thin fog. Not only were her sight and hearing interfered, but communication was also cut off. It was at that moment that this noise, like glass scraping, appeared in Efnir's headset.
"Yes, untouched. What's suspicious is that no one else's portable devices received a similar signal. Just as you said, when Codename H disappeared, all signal communication between us was completely cut off, which is unbelievable."
"So, what does this have to do with this? Is there anything special about this song?"
"Efnir asked."
Although she felt something was off, Efnir couldn't imagine whether there were any other clues hidden in it.
"Efnir, this is the audio file obtained after analyzing the suspicious noise that appeared in your communication terminal. Incredibly, this short recording of only a few dozen seconds contains more than 1,200 audio segments, totaling 2,355 hours in length. This information, from who-knows-where, has almost completely filled your terminal's storage chip. The recording dates span a full two years, with the earliest record being four years ago, and the most recent... ending on the day of the 'Xijing University Anomalous Erosion Disaster Incident'."
"This..."
"Isn't that incredible?"
Masaki Hina lowered her eyelashes.
"All the files contain our headquarters' unique identifiers, yet we have no archives of these records. Nobody knows why these things are here, and the terminal itself is absolutely incapable of handling such an astonishing write speed. But it happened, and..."
Masaki Hina looked at Efnir with a deep gaze.
"This song appeared most frequently in 1,200 clips. We extracted it, analyzed and compared it repeatedly, and then discovered something else... It seems the singer of this song is not you, Efnir."
Masaki Hina turned her gaze to Efnir's side, looking at Yukina.
"It's your younger sister, Shiomi Yukina."
Yukina was taken aback, Efnir also frowned slightly.
"That's why I asked you earlier, so... do you have any leads?"
205. Third party
The bedroom lights were blindingly white.
With her earbuds in, Efnir stared intently at the player in her hand, the recording file copied from Masaki Hina playing back in the earbuds.
"Naoko, are you still thinking about that matter?"
"Um..."
With her hair buried in the soft pillow, Efnir lifted her eyelashes and looked at Yukina.
Yukina had just finished showering and was only wrapped in a towel. While drying her wet hair, she picked up a hairdryer.
"... The song in that recording predates Naoko becoming Ephnel by more than two years... that's impossible, right?"
Yukina's words had a somewhat inexplicable meaning.
"It's definitely impossible... but something just feels off..."
The recording consists of 1,200 segments, totaling 2,500 hours.
The extracted clips appeared to be somewhat obscured by interference, but they were still barely discernible amidst the chaotic electrical noise. These files were all combat recordings of an agent.
What's strange is that, from the chaotic signals, the information personnel extracted the feature identification code as "Ephnel".
This is a recording of "Ephnel" during combat.
The time span is roughly two years prior to the "Western Capital University Specific Erosion Disaster Incident".
Clearly, this "Ephnel" is not Efnir herself, because between four and two years ago, Efnir was still an ordinary person living under the identity of "Yanase Naoto". In other words, the code name "Ephnel" here belongs to another agent.
Someone else with the same code name as you.
--The Agent Beacon distributed by the Human Federation to various "cities" are agent-specific equipment that are imitations and improvements based on the "Ruins Beacon System" technology.
Most agents have never actually seen what the original "Beacon" unearthed from the Ruins actually looked like. The Ruins system cannot be matched with humans, so it needs to be modified and reprogrammed, which is unavoidable.
Because current technology cannot fully analyze the inherent functions of the "Beacon System," the Beacon currently used by agents are all "incomplete versions."
Naturally, as a very important piece of equipment, Beacon are not the only ones.
However, the Beacon ultimately allocated to each city were one of each code name. Beacon are not mass-produced products; each Beacon needs to be cast using a rare metal derived from Ruins as a base. The limited availability of raw materials directly restricts the total number of Beacon that the Human Federation can possess.