Sky Striker Princess, but the swan song of Valkyrie.

"I bought something... Ah, I remember now."

After obtaining a keyword, Chris compared it with the other person's face and retrieved the other person's identity from her memory.

She remembered that when she was with Lingyi for some reason, Lingyi often went to a convenience store to buy some daily necessities that she was missing.

In her memory, the image of the young cashier at the convenience store seemed to have a high degree of overlap with the image of the adult woman in front of her who was also a cashier.

"You are... the cashier at that convenience store?"

Chris spoke of what she remembered.

"Hmm, you actually recognized me. I thought you definitely wouldn't remember me, little Chris."

After Chris recognized her, the cashier said warmly.

"Well... that's not true, of course I'm not that forgetful."

Chris responded accordingly.

She planned to take this opportunity to stay here for a while. According to Lingyi, going out might lead to encountering wandering enemies, and she also told herself to wait for her signal.

Therefore, after careful consideration, chatting with this person whom she was somewhat familiar with here was the safest course of action in Chris's opinion.

"But speaking of which, I didn't expect to run into someone I know here. Have you always worked as a cashier here?"

With this in mind, even though she wasn't very good at it, Chris still took the initiative to start a conversation with the other person.

"It's not that I've been doing it all the time, it's just that I'm on vacation from work recently, so I'm helping out at my family's convenience store for a few days."

"That's what the cashier said."

"Speaking of which, little Chris, did you come back here because of little Lingyi?"

The cashier then asked.

Well, I guess so.

Chris answered casually, after all, she had only thought of coming here because of Zero.

"Is that so... That's a bit of a shame. Due to some circumstances, she has moved to a place far away. If you're looking for her, you've come to the wrong place."

After hearing Chris say that, the cashier paused for a moment, then replied with a normal expression.

"Oh, moving to a very far place?"

Chris was initially confused after the other party said that, since Zero was currently at a hot spring inn less than 100 meters away.

But she soon realized that the people in the vicinity might not yet know that Zero was still alive.

For them, the only thing they knew was that a building had disappeared from the ground after a huge explosion and earthquake, and they naturally assumed that there were no survivors.

P.S. Goodnight.

Chapter Forty-Nine: A Brief Exchange

[This should minimize the probability of problems occurring over there.]

Seeing Chris seemingly chatting happily with the cashier on the screen, Lingyi relaxed slightly.

Of course, it was only for a moment; the current situation wasn't yet at a point where she could completely relax.

"Alright, let's continue with the matters here."

Lingyi thought to herself.

When she responded to Chris, she had just presented herself as an unremarkable stranger to Tachibana Hibiki in the most natural way possible.

Let's first look at what this guy said during his conversation with Chris.

His finger slid across the tablet in his hand, shrinking the video window showing Chris's situation, and then his attention shifted to another small bar that was frantically scrolling lines of text.

What's going on? Why is it scrolling so fast?

Looking at the horizontal bar, Lingyi felt a little confused.

As mentioned before, she transferred some less important functions that were normally on her right eye device to her tablet, including voice recognition.

The text scrolling rapidly on the horizontal bar is the final result of translating the surrounding audio data.

What puzzled her was a small ball in the upper right corner of the small bar, indicating that there were 99+ unread messages.

[Judging from the timeline, I only chatted with Chris for a little over a minute, so how could it have taken so long? Is there a problem with the program?]

Seeing this situation, Lingyi couldn't help but feel a little nervous. If her translation system malfunctioned at this moment, her subsequent actions might become extremely troublesome.

Not only will she lose her sensitivity to surrounding information and potentially miss a lot of crucial information, but others may also doubt her hearing ability and associate this characteristic with her true identity.

We need to check this right away.

With this in mind, Lingyi zoomed in on that module to see what went wrong during the minute she hadn't been paying attention.

Soon, with her click, she saw the true form of the 99+ unread messages.

【Ryuyo-chan, Luyo-chan, what's wrong?】

Why have you stopped talking since just now?

Ah, I see.

[Ryuyo-chan, you must be hungry.]

I understand, I understand. When you're hungry, you don't want to do anything.

By the way, if you want to eat something, I recommend something super delicious.

These are the onsen tamago (hot spring eggs) from here!

It's really, really delicious.

When I first tasted it, I felt completely healed.

Ah, it looks similar to a boiled egg, but the texture is completely different.

Let me tell you, those onsen tamago (soft-boiled eggs) have yolks that are completely different from the dry, hard-boiled eggs you usually eat.

It's more like a sticky, viscous liquid.

When you bite into it, the warm yolk bursts out from the bouncy, smooth egg white, carrying an incredibly delicious aroma, perfectly complemented by the flavor of soy sauce.

It's absolutely delicious!

[And also, let me tell you, there are several other ways to eat Rokuyo-chan and onsen tamago (soft-boiled eggs) with other ingredients, such as xx.]

[...just Qi Liu Jiu Shan Hao Liao Qun...]

In just a few seconds, Lingyi had browsed through 99+ messages with content similar to the one above.

What is all this?!

Looking at the list of meaningless records in the window, Lingyi felt a little confused.

Lingyi initially thought the 99+ messages might be due to a recognition error or some kind of garbled text, but after scrolling through them, she realized that all 99+ messages were the thoughts of the flaxen-haired goofball next to her about hot spring food.

[It's only been a little over a minute, just one minute, yet this guy has managed to say so much to someone he's only known for a short time. Even a machine gun couldn't fire as fast as him!]

Lingyi thought to herself with a hint of helplessness.

Ugh, if my hearing hadn't failed me, she probably would have driven me to the brink of a nervous breakdown. This is the first time I've ever been so grateful that my world is so peaceful.

Lingyi couldn't help but sigh. You see, in order to make it easier for herself to see and to prevent others from spying on her, her translation system always presented the recognized speech in Chinese.

Even so, she could still feel the noise through the message log. It was hard to imagine how noisy it would be if the guy next to her bombarded her with messages in Japanese.

[Oh, right, right.]

Besides the onsen tamago (soft-boiled eggs), there are many other delicious things to eat here.

Let me introduce you to Lucy-chan again, for example...

Even now, the text on the screen, formed by recognizing surrounding speech, is still appearing one by one, and the speed at which it appears is even gradually accelerating.

"Well, that's fine, Ms. Tachibana. You don't need to be so enthusiastic in recommending it. Besides, I'd rather experience it myself when I have time than hear about it from others."

Composing herself, Lingyi spoke with a gentle, unremarkable smile.

In order to avoid overloading her simultaneous translation system and to maintain her appearance as an ordinary stranger, Lingyi ultimately interrupted the person next to her who was enthusiastically introducing the hot spring-related food.

"Is that so? Okay then."

After being told that by Rei, Tachibana Hibiki stopped her machine-gun-like chatter. At the same time, the text on Rei's tablet stopped appearing, even though it was so loud it was jarring to the eyes.

"But there are so many delicious things here, Ruyo-chan, you must try them if you have the chance."

Hibiki Tachibana smiled brightly, and it seemed that she really enjoyed tasting delicious food; her eyes even seemed to sparkle when she mentioned food.

"Yes, definitely if I have the chance."

Lingyi only gave a perfunctory response to the other party's enthusiasm. After all, she could not allow food whose safety had not been confirmed to enter her body, so she could only temporarily put up with it.

Alright, now my presence in this guy's memory should be low enough. A complete stranger I met briefly and chatted with—this image shouldn't arouse any suspicion.

Lingyi pondered.

Her actions were all aimed at making her identity as plausible as possible and avoiding any appearance of suspicion.

If her actions raise suspicion, she will not only face the loss of her previous plans, but may also be besieged by the entire Second Section without any preparation, which is unacceptable to her.

[However, that should be enough. I've played the role of an ordinary stranger convincingly; now it's time to find a reason to leave.]

Lingyi thought of it.

Chapter Fifty Unexpected

"Speaking of which, Tachibana, you must have come here to soak in the hot springs, so why are you back in the changing room now?"

After thinking for a while, Lingyi had an idea and took the initiative to start a conversation.

After careful consideration, she abandoned the idea of ​​leaving by offering some reason.

Because she couldn't guarantee that if she gave some reasonable reason for leaving, Tachibana Hibiki wouldn't enthusiastically invite her to go with her.

Although Rei's goal is to capture Hibiki Tachibana, according to her observations, Hibiki herself is quite sensitive to the attention of Section 2.

If she were to make any unusual moves, it could easily trigger their sensitive nerves, eventually escalating into a sudden, all-out battle, which Zero doesn't like.

If we want to leave this enemy territory without touching a nerve with Hibiki Tachibana, we must ensure that Hibiki herself is held up by something while she is leaving.

Therefore, Rei brought up the topic of hot springs, which would both keep Tachibana Hibiki occupied with something and allow her to ascertain how long she would stay there, making it easier for her to decide the minimum time to launch her offensive.

"Ugh----I really want to soak in a hot spring, but, well, for some reasons, I'm planning to wait a while before going."

When faced with Rei's question, Tachibana Hibiki frowned slightly, a conflicted look on her face.

She certainly liked the warm feeling of hot springs, but she also couldn't handle Ms. Sakurai Ryoko's somewhat provocative teasing when they were completely naked in the hot springs.

Therefore, she planned to go in and enjoy the hot spring after Ms. Sakurai came out, so that she wouldn't have to deal with that embarrassing situation.

"Is that so? But I suggest you hurry up, Tachibana. It's getting late. If you hesitate for too long, the place might be closed when you want to enjoy it, and you'll have wasted your hot spring ticket."

Seeing the troubled look on Tachibana Hibiki's face, Rei pondered for a moment and said this, adding weight to Tachibana Hibiki's decision.

"That's true, um—it's so hard to decide."

It seemed that Rei's words had an effect. Tachibana Hibiki looked at the curtain at the entrance of the hot spring, narrowed her eyes, and seemed to be making some difficult decision.

"Um... Tachibana, don't you like soaking in hot springs?"

Rei was somewhat confused by Tachibana's behavior.

"Could it be that you're the type of person who feels compelled to participate in team building activities because of workplace orders or face-saving concerns?"

She originally thought that since they came to soak in hot springs, Tachibana Hibiki must have some longing for hot springs, so it would be easier to succeed in that regard.

However, if Hibiki Tachibana herself doesn't like soaking in hot springs, then she'll have to come up with other ways to get Hibiki Tachibana to leave, such as causing her stomach discomfort through some means.

"I do like hot springs, but there's someone I can't handle in there, so I plan to wait until she comes out before I go in for a soak."

Hibiki Tachibana explained it this way, with a hint of helplessness in her expression.

"Hmm, is it someone you don't get along with? Well, I can understand. Indeed, everyone has someone they feel uncomfortable just by getting close to."

Seeing Tachibana Hibiki's reaction, Rei gave up the idea of ​​continuing to persuade her. Saying more might reveal her bias and could lead to her being judged as having impure intentions.

"In that case, Tachibana, you can decide for yourself. Since you're here to soak in a hot spring, your own happiness is the most important thing. You're here to relax, so don't add to your stress because of this."

Immediately, Zero, posing as a helpful stranger, said this to Tachibana Hibiki.

[Is there any other way to get Tachibana Hibiki to leave? It seems like there isn't. Maybe we should try to get that person who can't handle the hot spring to leave early?]