After sending Sista, who wanted to stay by her side, on her way, Clara tidied up the guest room, which had become a mess from all the searching, and finally sat down on the sofa to think by herself.
Just then, the doorbell rang.
“Clara-senpai, I’m here!”
From the voice alone, she knew it was Lucia bringing breakfast.
Sista actually asked her if the culprit could possibly be Lucia or Fran.
But it was understandable—just as she would never suspect Lucia or Fran, Pure White Storm wouldn’t suspect any of the staff team, including Ms. Damo.
That was why there had been that question before Sista left.
“I’m coming.”
Clara opened the door and glanced around behind Lucia.
After confirming there were no signs of being followed, she pulled Lucia inside and quickly closed the door.
“Nix, help me keep watch.”
“Roger.”
Because Lucia was present, Nix’s voice came from the phone.
“Ah, so Ms. Nix is also in Clara-senpai’s phone?”
After placing the breakfast tray on the long table facing the beach, Lucia muttered,
“Speaking of which… where exactly is Ms. Nix’s core server? How can you use it in a resort with no internet?”
“Nix uses some special technology. I don’t really understand, you’ll have to ask Fran.”
Clara didn’t dare get into a technical discussion with top student Lucia, so she decided to toss it to Fran to make something up…
In reality, if Lucia could return to Central City now, she wouldn’t be able to use Nix’s terminal app at all.
After all, Nix’s ‘server’ was right inside Clara’s stomach, but there was no way Clara could tell her that.
“By the way, where did Fran go?”
Faced with this situation, Clara only wanted to discuss it with Fran.
She didn’t plan to tell Lucia about someone breaking into the guest room—partly to avoid alerting the culprit, and partly so Lucia wouldn’t worry.
Still, she was quite curious about Fran’s whereabouts…
She hadn’t seen her all morning. What was she up to?
“Oh, Ms. Fran is still in the guest room! She got her hands on the Sigma Series exoskeleton parameters last night, so she’s trying to analyze useful technology.”
“So you guys really went to be tech thieves, huh!”
And you actually managed to steal something?
Let’s rewind to 9 p.m. last night.
After the meeting, the Sigma Hero’s maintenance engineer didn’t let Lucia go back to sleep right away. Instead, she dragged her to the hangar.
The four Sigma Series exoskeleton armors were placed here. When the armor was removed, it looked like they were teleported away, but due to the effects of the solar storm, they couldn’t be sent back to the Sigma Company and instead had to be brought to Anya for repairs…
That’s why a maintenance engineer needed to travel with them.
“Sorry for dragging you to work overtime when you’re so tired, but your big sister is really pressed for time… Once this collaboration is over, if you have any problems, come find your big sister! I’ll even treat you to a meal, okay?”
Apologizing as she dragged Lucia along, Anya had to get the exoskeletons back into working condition before tomorrow.
If not for the time crunch, she wouldn’t have invited a maintenance engineer from another company to help fix the Sigma Hero’s exoskeletons. Even if she wanted to, Okata Damo wouldn’t have agreed.
This time was a special case, but the work assigned to Lucia was just some basic checks—finding the faulty parts of the exoskeletons. Such routine tasks could be handled even by an intern, but they would still lighten Anya’s load quite a bit.
Anya really trusted Lucia, but it made Lucia herself feel a little awkward.
After all, she was here to be a thief.
She nervously asked, “Um, is it really okay for an outsider like me to touch Sigma’s exoskeletons? Aren’t those company secrets?”
It sounded a little too suspicious, but Anya didn’t notice.
She simply replied, “Technology requires accumulation. If it can be stolen just by taking a quick look, it doesn’t count as real technology, right?”
Normally, outsiders would never be allowed to touch Sigma’s exoskeletons. But right now, Anya would borrow a cat’s paw if she could.
Unfortunately, what she borrowed this time was a thief’s hand.
Although she felt a little sorry for Anya, Lucia decided to go through with Fran’s plan. After all, she was an employee of Dream Witch Company and had to put the company’s interests first.
Of course, she was personally curious about Sigma’s technology too.
If she could make use of it—even if she only picked up some superficial ideas—it might help her improve her graduation project…
She felt guilty, but not that much.
Like most ordinary people, Lucia wasn’t particularly righteous—she just had to finish Anya’s assigned inspection work before doing anything shady.
So she secretly tapped open a certain app on her phone.
“Ms. Anya, Azure Cavalier’s Faraday shield has been damaged. If he uses electromagnetic radiation, he might shock himself… Good thing I found this early, right? This could be serious, couldn’t it?”
While Anya was still fiddling with the repair equipment, Lucia had already finished checking the first exoskeleton—her efficiency was ten times higher than Anya expected.
“Yeah, that could be serious. I’ll handle it after this.”
At the time, Anya hadn’t thought much of it—she just assumed Lucia had found a problem by chance.
“Verdant Echo’s solid hologram module is also malfunctioning. It might create doppelgangers with appearances or clothing different from the original. I’m not great with software—could we have Ms. Fran assist remotely…?”
“No need, minor glitches can wait until we’re back… Wait, how are you so fast?”
Only then did Anya look up at Lucia, but the latter was simply connecting her phone to the exoskeleton, seemingly running a system scan… Hm?
“Why are you using your own phone to scan the system? The dedicated scanner should be more powerful, right? It should be faster than your phone.”
She didn’t suspect information theft—after all, trying to crack the exoskeleton’s core system with just a phone was pure fantasy. Even if connected, a phone would only show information necessary for maintenance.
“I-I’m not used to those advanced devices… I have an app Dr. Fran made, so it’s really fast for me!” Lucia explained evasively.
“Just do it however you’re used to, but be careful! As maintenance engineers, our work is a matter of life and death for the heroes!”
Confident in her own company’s firewalls and systems, Anya didn’t object.
“Crimson Star General’s fire control unit is burnt out, so there’s a risk of a misfire—you’d better remove the entire firepower assembly… Ah, the tritium battery membrane is damaged too! The hydraulic rod is deformed!”
“Wait! Aren’t you a bit too fast at this?!”
Seeing Lucia uncover a string of issues, Anya couldn’t stay calm any longer.
After all, this went beyond her experience and common sense as a maintenance engineer.
Was Lucia just desperate to get off work early?
That Dr. Fran app… was it really that fast?
Being a bit too obvious there.