NIKKE, When the Milky Way Blossoms

“No, no, you can’t help me beat up Lecher.” Anise raised her head, staring disdainfully at Christine with her new red eyes.

"But... guess... why... Commander... when you're not busy... look at anyone... but... never... look at you."

"you!"

Christine, who always lost more often than she won in verbal sparring, bared her teeth in resentment.

There was no way around it; among the entire team, she and Lapi were the most shy, and once the topic of this kind came up, they were destined to lose to Anis by no means.

"Encountered the enemy!"

Just as Christine was gritting her teeth, wanting to break Anise's head off and stuff it into Sugar's motorcycle trunk, Labi's reminder interrupted the verbal battle about body shape like timely rain.

Despite their bickering, Christine, upon hearing that they had encountered enemies, didn't hesitate and immediately grabbed Meryl's clothes, leading the two of them to a safe location.

"Attention! The number of Lechers is incorrect!!"

"What do you mean?"

As she ran, Christine frowned and asked, "Are there even more than we encountered at the intersection before?!"

"That's too few! The Lecher squadron that fell behind us chose to prioritize attacking the commander!"

Snap! !

The soles of the high boots collided violently with the floor tiles.

Merri, who was following behind Christine, also stopped and stared at Christine's slightly pale face, puzzled.

"Take Anis to Lapi! The battle ahead will be over soon, and there will be no danger."

"how about you?"

"...I'm going to support the commander."

Chapter Fourteen: A Night of Stars

The night wind blew through the exposed steel bars of the high-rise buildings, mournfully telling the world of the suffering this ruin had endured.

Click...

Clack, clack...

Amidst the whistling wind, dozens of Lechers roamed the steel jungle like a pack of wolves, their mechanical spider legs striking and colliding with the ground with unbridled abandon, producing eerie sounds that could send chills down one's spine.

However, such a terrifying display of power failed to exert any deterrent effect once it reached Phoenix's ears.

The commercial district where he is currently hiding is vast, nearly 300 meters long and 70 or 80 meters wide, with tall buildings and easy access in all directions.

If the Lechers wanted to kill him, they had to first leave a certain number of troops on the perimeter to ensure he wouldn't escape by taking a detour, and then the remaining Lechers would use carpet search or carpet bombing to force him out.

The former would waste a lot of time. The latter would require dispatching a master-level Leitcher for support.

Neither of the proposed solutions is particularly efficient for Lecher's side.

Drop drop!

Just as Phoenix was carefully assessing the situation, the radar in his mind suddenly sounded a terrible alarm, indicating trouble.

What?! Lecher is here too?!

The man frowned in annoyance, and a few civilized words involuntarily welled up in his mind.

How many Lechers are there in this godforsaken place, K District?! What are the Central Command and the Intelligence Department even doing?!

After finishing his exclamation, Phoenix wanted to add a few more aggressive words in his native tongue to vent his emotions, but the radar screen blocked his idea of ​​venting his anger.

drop--!!!

A giant red dot, more than four times the size of a normal red dot, was rushing toward the commercial street from the west at an astonishing speed.

what?

How come it's even bigger than the red dot we detected when we first encountered Lhapi during the day?

Phoenix blinked in surprise and immediately pulled up the 3D map according to the instructions given by the planar radar.

Since the coverage area of ​​the stereoscopic map is only half that of the planar radar, that is, a radius of 300 meters, Phoenix had to wait a few more seconds until the huge red dot entered his "see-through" range.

However, to his utter surprise, when the giant red dot stepped into the monitoring area, the scene that appeared in his mind completely exceeded his expectations.

The structure features a bony metal tail, bionic muscle groups, a head that resembles neither a human nor a crocodile, and mechanical opening and closing mechanisms on the cheeks that appear to replace the masseter muscles.

This, this is... "cacophony"?!

Isn't this intelligent Lecher individual always entangled with the "Snow White" of the pilgrim organization in the far north?

Why would someone come to a regular region to join the fun?

Wait, if it's here, doesn't that mean there's a way to solve the erosion problem...?

boom----! ! !

Before Phoenix could even feel the excitement rising, the missile explosions outside the window, resembling a volcanic eruption, pulled him back to the harsh reality.

“Humanity!!!!”

The raucous, rough, and deep roar savagely drowned out the aftershocks of the explosion, echoing throughout the starry sky.

"Come out yourself, or you'll live. I'll come to you, and you'll die!"

The persuasion to surrender phase?

Upon hearing the loud, seemingly fierce but actually urgent threat, the person's heart, which had been pounding wildly due to the explosion, immediately calmed down considerably.

This guy's target is himself, but he doesn't want to waste time looking for himself. It seems that there's probably a girl codenamed "Snow White" Niki searching for him all over the place.

At this thought, a plan immediately came to Phoenix's mind.

Hold on! Hold on until Snow White arrives, then he, the others, and Anise might have a chance to survive!

【commander!】

Pepper finally snapped out of her shock at the news that "Leitch can also be intelligent." Her first reaction was to poke her commander's thigh with her finger and then begin to make eye contact.

What to do! What to do! What to do! What to do!!!

"..."

Seeing Pepper staring at him with hopeful eyes, Phoenix, who was about to shake his head, silently gave her a reassuring look, indicating that everything was still under his control.

He was afraid that if he shook his head, the girl's mindset and emotions would change drastically, leading her to do some strange and unpredictable things.

I don't want to say it a third time!!!

"Come out!!! Or die—!!!"

On the central flowerbed of the commercial street, a creature resembling an ape slammed its fist into the ground in a frenzied, raucous rage. The force was so great that even Phoenix and his companion, dozens of meters away, could feel a slight tremor in the floor beneath them.

Damn!

What kind of force?!

After being intimidated by that punch, Phoenix's expression inevitably changed slightly. Considering Nikki's average weight of one or two hundred kilograms, in the face of such a powerful punch, they were probably fighting with zero room for error, just like human bodies.

"five--!!!"

Outside the window, the countdown to the impending missile bombardment had begun.

Faced with such a desperate situation, Phoenix instinctively shifted his gaze toward Pepper.

However, it was this casual glance that allowed him to notice Pepper's strange yet determined gaze beforehand.

Sensing something amiss, the man reached out without hesitation and grabbed the pink-haired doctor's wrist. At the same time, he frowned and asked the doctor a silent question with a serious expression.

Wait, what are you planning to do?

"Four--!!!"

[Commander, head that way.]

Pepper held the anti-materiel sniper rifle in her left hand, pointed her right hand, which was being held, toward the passage on the right, then pointed to her own nose, then to the left, and finally hugged the sniper rifle with both hands again, nodding vigorously to her commander.

[I'll go this way, with the big gun. Commander, you must find a chance to escape.]

"three--!!!"

Amidst the noisy countdown, Phoenix, enraged by Pepper's plan that resembled a scene from a movie, immediately adopted a fierce expression and silently spoke:

[You're the commander and I'm the commander?! We haven't even been exposed yet, you know that?!]

He kept talking to himself, but Pepper, who had never learned lip reading, couldn't understand him at all.

Of course, even if the girl didn't understand what the commander was saying, she could tell from his expression that he didn't seem to like her plan.

So she shook her head and continued to apply to her commander with an unwavering gaze to execute the plan she had devised.

Unfortunately, the commander not only didn't respond, but even grabbed her wrist and turned away, ignoring her completely.

"one--!!!"

Boom boom boom——!!!