Chapter 32: Chapter 32: Anby's Stamina
The group made their way deep into the Dead End Hollow, but they still couldn't find the little girl Koma had mentioned. It got to the point where everyone except Anby was about to collapse from exhaustion. Speaking of which, was Anby's stamina always this good? She was even more durable than Billy, who was a robot. Thinking of this, Wise considered whether he should add more attribute points to strength later on. After all, with his current body's foundation, it would be quite difficult to successfully defeat Anby in a special situation.
But those were things to consider later. At this moment, the group in the video was considering why a little girl would appear in a place like this. Koma speculated that she was accidentally left behind during an evacuation. When it was Anby's turn, the tone suddenly changed. She gave examples of ghost sightings in movies, which scared the daylights out of Boss Nicole, who was already afraid of such things.
As luck would have it, just as the group got up to continue their search, they happened to see a little girl standing openly in front of them. But before they could speak, she quickly turned and ran. Seeing this, the group hurriedly gave chase. But at this moment, Koma was a bit surprised. There really was a little girl in the Dead End Hollow. This point was rather thought-provoking.
After chasing after her, the group managed to save the little girl from the mouths of several Ethereal. But what they got was not her gratitude, but a scolding delivered in the tone of a world-weary adult. The little girl, who called herself "this old lady," even punched Billy. To have fists harder than iron at such a young age, her future potential was immeasurable!
However, now was certainly not the time for jokes. Because from this little girl's mouth, the group learned that this area was the territory of a high-risk Ethereal. And then, something dramatic happened. Just as they finished discussing that Ethereal, it broke through a wall and appeared right in front of them. It was the extremely dangerous Ethereal of the Dead End Hollow—the Dead End Butcher. Its enormous size made Nicole gasp in amazement.
But it was clear that a head-on fight was impossible. After all, they had already spent so much effort just to deal with the Dullahan before, let alone the Dead End Butcher.
"Th-that's too scary, isn't it? Then how on earth did you guys escape from that thing?" Belle couldn't help but ask Koma beside her. The latter just gestured for her to keep watching, as the next part was the main point.
In the video, the group, with incredible luck, encountered a Hollow rift that suddenly appeared right behind them. The few of them who were accidentally sucked in thus successfully escaped the Dead End Butcher's pursuit. But the scene after they exited the Hollow left Nicole and her team at a loss.
The place they were in was Canvas District. Nicole naturally recognized it, but the problem was that this was the blast zone for the Vista project. They had said this place had been cleared out long ago, but right now, there were still so many civilians in this area.
After some time, Billy and Anby had also tallied the number of people here—at least over 100. And to prevent the people here from contacting the outside world, it seemed Vista had even specially set up a signal jamming device. After a detailed conversation with the residents, Nicole and her team immediately guessed Vista's intentions. The other party clearly wanted to use the demolition to dispose of the un-evacuated residents, thereby saving on all the costs required for their relocation.
After understanding the detailed situation, Nicole seemed to have thoughts of retreating. After all, they were up against a large corporation; how could their small agency possibly contend with them? Koma, however, was determined not to let Vista's conspiracy succeed and also wanted to save these residents. Billy objectively and calmly chose to support Nicole's decision. But Anby, the most reliable member of the Cunning Hares, shared the same thoughts as Koma at this time.
The Bangboo's visual records had captured a sentence Anby whispered under her breath. Although her voice was very low, Wise heard it very clearly. 'Absolutely do not repeat the same mistake again.' What did that mean? Wise was very confused as to why Anby would say such a thing, but it was clearly related to her past. Although he didn't know the specific situation, it was very important to Anby.
And the Nicole in the video, seeing that Anby had chosen to stay, also resolutely chose to help her. Although our Boss Nicole masked it by saying they could squeeze a lot of profit out of this matter, in reality, she probably just didn't want to abandon her companion.
After deciding to help the trapped residents in Canvas District, Nicole had Koma take her Bangboo to go for reinforcements. As for these reinforcements, it was naturally the two siblings.
"And that's what happened... Nicole told me that they would stay in the engineering zone first to collect commission forms and monitor Vista's movements. And I was to come find you for help. After leaving the Hollow, I came straight here. I'm not lying to you! Whether it's Nicole or those residents, they are all on the brink of life and death right now! So I'm begging you, Phaethon!"
Hearing Koma's solemn request, Wise and Belle naturally couldn't refuse. After all, when encountering such a situation, how could the justice-filled siblings stay out of it? And since they had already agreed to take the commission, the next step was naturally to discuss a suitable plan.
"I have an idea!" Belle had Fairy pull up a map, which concisely marked the locations of the trapped residents and the guards. "Look. Because the trapped residents don't have Aether Adaptation, the armed personnel will only be on guard against a frontal attack from the residents. With a large number of personnel guarding the front, the forces near the monitoring points will be very limited..."
"Mmm, that makes sense. We can circle around to their back through the Hollow and catch them off guard." Wise nodded in agreement after hearing Belle's words. Koma also exclaimed in admiration. "Great idea, meow! And then?"
"And then, we quickly seize the train parked at the guard point, drive it along the Hollow's railway to Canvas District, and then take the residents inside to leave the blast zone." Because the train itself had a certain resistance to corrosion, as long as they left the Hollow quickly, the residents would not be threatened. Plus, with Fairy's help, planning a route to exit the Hollow in the shortest amount of time was no problem at all.
And with no time to lose, the next step was naturally to implement the plan. After handing Eous back to Koma, she was told to hurry and rendezvous with Nicole and her team.
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