NIKKE, When the Milky Way Blossoms

Then I need information about the rehabilitation center, which takes at least an hour each time. Could you arrange that for me?

Quickly regaining his composure, Phoenix raised his right hand and gently covered his face. With Anick's help, a nano-metal mask that perfectly conformed to his facial bones appeared on the man's face.

……

……

Malfunction - Recovery

Malfunction, recovery, malfunction, recovery...

Malfunction - Recovery

In the Niki detention area of ​​the rehabilitation center, Kancy lowered his head in frustration, looking at the magnetic shackles that bound his hands.

As the signal lights on the shackles malfunctioned rhythmically, the escape master, who had communicated with the lieutenant in Morse code beforehand, realized that the other party had encountered an unexpected situation where they could not return in time.

In other words, she should run away too.

Assisting prisoners in first-degree prison wards to escape is a crime that, if discovered, will absolutely lead to the central government demanding that the prison be reset to its original state!

"Lieutenant, you really owe this a huge favor!"

Knowing she was caught in the vortex of the struggle, Kancy muttered irritably. Then she used her abilities to disable the cameras in the cell and crawled into the newly dug tunnel.

……

……

drip-

The private cell phone rang crisply, just like the owner's decisive and efficient style of doing things.

Glancing at the unfamiliar number on the screen, Ingrid raised her hand with a serious expression and answered the call.

Few people in Fangzhou knew her private phone number.

Few people would proactively call her private number—not Anderson, not Mustin, not her assistant, and certainly not Shum.

After thinking it over, the only thing that could be it was that bastard lieutenant who told her not to come at night.

Even though it was a young girl's voice coming from the phone, Ingrid still stuck to her guess.

Sure enough, after exchanging greetings, the other party succinctly summarized the scoundrel's predicament.

He escaped from prison.

But he didn't really want to escape from prison.

When I was planning to go home, I encountered some trouble and can't come back for a while.

What is he doing in the outer perimeter area?

Without Kancy revealing anything, Ingrid could deduce from just the phrase "he won't come back" that he had probably gone to the outer region.

There's no way around it. The city center is so peaceful; who can trap that bastard without making a scene?

Only the outer perimeter area is allowed, because the activity in the outer perimeter area cannot be transmitted to the city center in a short period of time.

"I don't know, the lieutenant didn't tell me. I'm just a messenger, the big boss is..."

"and many more."

Before Cansey could hang up, Ingrid called out to the girl from afar, saying:

"I'll be at the rehabilitation center at six o'clock, no later than ten. Could you pass this message on to Lieutenant Phoenix?"

"I……"

Just as Kancy was about to explain that the communication between the lieutenant and himself was one-way, the magnetic shackles on his wrists suddenly flashed a chilling red light, indicating they were malfunctioning.

"……OK."

"Well, that's it."

drip-

After receiving Niki's reply, Ingrid hung up the phone without exchanging pleasantries, then lay back in her chair, revealing an unusual weariness and helplessness.

Helping that damned lieutenant buy time was undoubtedly the biggest risk she had taken in the past two days, but Ingrid had no other choice.

Without Phoenix's false testimony, she would lack the most compelling evidence to question Elysium's involvement in the human transformation plot in Parliament.

If she loses this political infighting, she will face a reckoning that is crueler than anyone can imagine.

Death might be the happiest ending for her.

Therefore, protecting that bastard is equivalent to protecting yourself.

……

……

"Ingrid offered to protect me?"

More than an hour later, the lieutenant, who was hiding near the ruins of the bakery, learned from the ghost girl about the CEO of Elysium's decision.

Just as a woman deduced that he was in the outer region from the news that "he won't be coming back," Phoenix easily judged the other person's situation from the decisions they made.

The fact that she'd rather play her cards openly than give up on herself shows that the woman has very little confidence in her current situation...

It seems we still have to return to the Ark. As long as we can help Ingrid settle things at Elysium, then the two of them, who had conspired together to give false testimony, can be considered to be on the same boat...

【coming. 】

Just as Phoenix was contemplating his political capital, Anick, who was conducting a high-intensity scan of the surrounding 300 meters, brought him some good news.

—A dozen or so armed men are heading toward the bakery.

Judging from the rapid pace of their journey, they are very likely the original faction to which this secret passage belonged.

If someone can open up a smuggling route, they should at least know something about other secret routes in the outer area.

Hua la la la——

The sound of leaves rustling came from the lieutenant's right hand, and a long sword instantly replaced the man's arm.

Tonight's night,

It's destined to be eerily dark.

Chapter 159 Qingming Festival

"Uemura, the road has been bombed. To make it look like this, the enemy must have used a lot of explosives."

"Are you one of those who dare to provoke the Qingming Society, or those who belong to the red jungle?"

"Tch—Ever since the person in charge left, our lives have become more and more stifling. Now, any Tom, Dick, or Harry dares to bully us like we're easy targets."

"If you ask me, women shouldn't be involved in anything! This is the outer area, where force matters. All this talk of winning people over with virtue is bullshit!"

Inside and outside the ruins of the bakery, the twenty-odd members of the Qingming Society, after confirming that the secret passage was beyond repair, were all cursing and complaining, completely unaware that in the shadows of this steel jungle, a man was eavesdropping on their conversation.

Qingming Festival?

Are these guys from Sakura?

Phoenix had a fairly good understanding of the underworld queen forces. Sakura's Seimei-kai, Rosanna's Hedonia, and Peony's Peony-kai were the three underworld forces that jointly maintained the basic rules of the game in the outer district.

Is human trafficking occurring during the Qingming Festival?

This clearly does not align with Sakura's personal stance of wanting to transform into a legitimate business.

In other words, these guys were secretly carrying out human trafficking behind their master's back.

With that thought in mind, Phoenix stood up, turned the corner of a building, and walked openly toward the ruins of the bakery.

"Hey! Are you blind? Can't you see we're holding a Qingming Festival event?!"

One of the thugs on the outermost perimeter, upon seeing the person wearing an iron mask approaching them, immediately and impatiently shooed him away:

"What? You think you're a sword saint just because you have a knife in your right hand?! Get lost, or else..."

Swah——

A flash of cold light appeared, and a fine head fell to the ground.

The next second, the prosthetic arm, which had transformed back into an arm, snatched the submachine gun from the corpse's hand and, under Anik's complete control, began firing in bursts with terrifying precision and speed.

The way he flicked his gun, almost like teleporting, was exactly the same as when he activated a violent headshot lock in a game.

Bang bang bang bang bang——

One bullet after another embedded themselves precisely between the eyebrows of the members of the Qingming Society.

After losing more than a dozen brothers in succession, the thugs, who had just come to their senses, finally realized that they should raise their guns and fight back.

However, in the short time it took to raise his gun, three more brothers were blown to the head by the enemy's submachine gun. When the trigger was actually pulled, there were only four or five lines of fire left.

Bang bang bang bang bang——

What kind of monster is that?!

When the underling, Kamimura, had emptied an entire magazine of bullets but still failed to break through the opponent's extremely strange liquid metal, the fear of the unknown successfully forced him to turn around and run away.

Unfortunately, all twenty-odd of his brothers were dead, and there was no one left to buy him time to escape.