NIKKE, When the Milky Way Blossoms

Inside, behind her desk, Anise was startled by the sound of the door opening. When she looked up and saw who it was, her eyebrows, which had been furrowing in anger, immediately lifted with delight, and a look of joy spread across her pretty face…

suddenly!

As if she had thought of something, Anise's eyebrows instantly drooped again.

The girl lowered her head, her fingers holding the stylus continuing to write and draw on the tablet, her tone cold and indifferent.

"Rounding down, someone was 327 hours late."

Hmm~ let me think,

It must have been that a traffic light broke down on the way here, so I had to wait and wait at the intersection for over 300 hours until the traffic light was fixed. See? I was right… ugh—!

Before Anise could finish unleashing her sharp tongue, the commander, who had circled behind the desk, bent down and hugged the girl from behind, instantly silencing her rambling mouth.

After a while...

As the silver threads clung to her lips, tracing a humiliating curve, Anise, her cheeks flushed, still puffed out her cheeks in a pretentious manner, and hummed and hawed:

"I can't coax her!"

Although she said that, she took the tablet with her right hand and skillfully swiped through it a few times, bringing up several blurry photos she had secretly taken from afar.

She has black hair, smoky makeup, and a cigarette-shaped electronic cigarette dangling from her mouth.

Even though the resolution wasn't high and the photo was taken from a distance, Phoenix still recognized the woman in the picture at a glance.

—Hybrid.

"My wife is so amazing?!"

Unexpectedly, the man received news of Krau as soon as he arrived in the outer region. Overjoyed, he couldn't help but kiss the girl's cheek again. He took the tablet with his right hand and then noticed that the image next to the photo was of Miss Sakura.

Oh yes……

Before being placed in special custody, he asked Yursya for two favors.

One thing was to inform Anise that he had been imprisoned back at MMR High School, that his life was not in danger, and that she need not worry.

The other task was to have Sakura and Anise communicate with each other and to ask them to try their best to find Clau's whereabouts in the outer region.

Clearly, Miss Sakura, one of the queens of the underworld, is quite skilled at finding people.

They found the other party's whereabouts within 327 hours.

"This is not the latest information."

Seeing the Commander's expression gradually turn serious, Anise changed her previous sulky demeanor and explained earnestly:

"These photos were selected by Sakura based on the Commander's description, using facial recognition to search for features at the Seimei Association's monitoring center."

Because the surveillance range was limited to the Qingming Festival venue, the most recent set of photos was taken 44 days ago.

That day,

According to Sakura's subsequent investigation, three detonators were missing from the Seimei-kai's No. 2 weapons storage room.

Chapter 189 "Cooperation"

detonator.

An explosive typically used to detonate a specific type of explosive.

This thing has been used for a very long time. Although it is not a high-tech product, it is by no means something that can be easily made by hand.

Therefore, it was the uneducated Krau who risked being monitored and recorded to secretly visit a gambling den of the Qingming Society and successfully steal three detonators of unknown expiration date.

In other words, this antisocial individual wanted to trigger at least three explosions.

"Forty-four days ago...did Sakura send you any other messages?" Phoenix stroked his slightly stubble and said:

"Explosions are not difficult to investigate. If Sakura didn't specifically send you a message, we can assume that there were no explosions in the entire Ark during those forty-four days."

Upon hearing the Commander's question, Anis, who could practically recite the chat logs by heart, immediately shook her head and decisively replied:

"No, she didn't send me any other messages besides talking about gangster topics..."

At this point, the girl's relaxed expression suddenly froze, as if she had thought of some horrifying possibility, and a look of surprise and astonishment immediately appeared on her face.

"Wait, wait a minute! If there's still no explosion, does that mean this guy is still stockpiling explosives?!"

"Yes, they probably wanted to stage a series of explosions. Sakura probably considered this possibility as well, which is why they stopped contacting you afterward."

She's probably completely absorbed in the investigation right now.

As Phoenix spoke, he turned his gaze toward the doorway. He watched as Labi and Helen, their expressions somewhat unnatural, appeared at the corner of the corridor, led by the little girl Ilovna.

Unbeknownst to them, the girls had imagined a farcical situation where the content could not be displayed.

Therefore, the man did not think much of it. After urging the two to come over quickly, he introduced Anise.

"This is Helen, formerly of the Aegis Force."

The intelligence department formed a special squadron of twelve members named Niki. Helen, like Lapi, was a member of this squadron, which I commanded.

After briefly introducing the noblewoman's identity, Commander Phoenix calmly took Anise's hand and then uttered something surprising.

"Lavi, Helen, let me introduce you. This is my girlfriend."

……

……

The matter of acknowledging and showing their relationship status to outsiders,

Men usually don't care too much, but women rarely don't.

This is why girls always hope their boyfriends will post photos of them together on their social media pages. While it's true that purely showing affection is rare, they are essentially trying to assert their dominance over other women.

The Commander's willingness to openly acknowledge their romantic relationship undoubtedly touched Anise's heart.

All the 327-hour delay vanished in an instant.

"Hello everyone~"

As if she didn't recognize Lhabi, the smiling girl quickly raised her left hand, spread her five fingers, and playfully swung her wrist from side to side.

"It's nice to meet you all, but we have more important things to talk about, right, darling?"

Although her eyes narrowed into crescents with joy, Anise's instinct to remain highly vigilant towards others continued as usual, and she did not casually reveal her name to Helen.

The Commander doesn't trust this Niki.

Without needing to ponder details like "why didn't he introduce his girlfriend's name," the girl could sense her boyfriend's underlying attitude towards Helen simply through her intuition.

—An outsider.

They're probably not on their side; they're most likely spies planted by other forces in that squadron.

"Darling, what are you planning to do with this bomber?"

Amidst the mixed emotions in Lapi's eyes, Anis tacitly cooperated with the lieutenant and took the initiative to bring up the topic of Krau.

"ACPU is currently busy investigating the assassination attempt on the CEO of Elysium Pure Land, so they definitely don't have any experienced personnel available to investigate this matter," the Commander casually added.

"We can inform the triangular unit, but those who specialize in fixed-point counter-terrorism may not be good at search and capture, and might alert the enemy halfway."

The above two sentences were, of course, spoken by Phoenix to Helen.

What follows is the strategic policy that the lieutenant truly wants to implement.

“Local gangsters are best at finding people in their own territory, so this should be done in cooperation with a highly reputable gang.”

As he gently stroked Anise's small hand, the man's tone was calm and amiable, and a warm smile even appeared on his lips.

Seeing his expression, among the ladies present, only Anise, who knew him better, understood the deeper meaning hidden in his words.

Take action first, then negotiate.

This is the cooperation process that her commander likes best and is most familiar with.

……

……

“From 30915 to 30967, this entire section is under our management. Since there is no gambling operation, our daily income mainly comes from the personal safety insurance fees for shops and residents. Considering the mobility of the outer area, this money is usually settled every three days.”

Walking down the street, Anise acted as both secretary and tour guide, following the Commander and explaining the basic rules of the outer perimeter.

"Cao Lan, Xuan Mei, and a few others are mainly responsible for patrolling the border areas of 30915 and 916, which are close to the territory of other gangs."

The more in-depth, safer areas were taken care of by Nancy and her group. Because we didn't have enough manpower, I also hired more than twenty homeless people from outside the area to assist them in patrolling the small groups.

There are three gangs bordering us, the largest of which is located to our southwest, south, southeast and part of the east.

The gang's name is Black Maru Society, we're not sure about their income source, and their relationship with us hasn't been great lately.

"Perhaps our personal safety guarantee fee isn't high enough, while they're squeezing too much money from us, causing many people to secretly move here."

Based on Anise's explanation and with Anik's visualization assistance, the lieutenant quickly grasped the current situation.

"Can you get in touch with them? Tell them that our leader has decided to sell this land, cash transaction. As for the amount, you can name it, just don't let them feel like we're losing money, but of course, don't let them think we're being too generous either."

"Understand"