Chapter 134: Halftime

Dharma Okata is a manager, and at the same time, the supervisor and host of this outdoor camp variety show.

She doesn’t interfere in matters of battle, but as soon as the fighting ends, she rushes over to urge the livestream to start. Although this makes Clara full of complaints, this is Dharma Okata’s job.

“All right, all right, young lady.”

Right now, she even squatted down to massage Clara’s shoulders, persuading her to stand up.

“Your popularity is dropping a bit too much. If this keeps up, you’ll even be violating the contract we signed with the company.”

Boosting Clara’s popularity is also part of the contract. This is to prevent Sigma Heroes Company from playing favorites during collaborations, which could cause an uneven distribution of streaming resources.

“This collaboration isn’t a stage for Sigma alone. You have to get up and show yourself too!”

Clearly, the camera hasn’t given her less screen time, but Clara’s popularity keeps slipping, and she’s even left viewers with a spoiled impression.

If this continues, Sigma Heroes might even have to pay damages.

“What a bother. Even when things like this happen, I still have to keep up appearances.”

Though dissatisfied, when Clara returns to the camera, she still works hard to leave the audience with a good impression. Switching her state of mind at any time is also an essential lesson for a working member of society.

While doing the variety livestream, they also have to watch out for Ps-ycho’s dirty tricks.

In the blink of an eye, they’re back on the beach. This time, Lucia and Fran are both present. After hiding in the wardrobe, both of them are now completely exhausted.

“Welcome back to the livestream, everyone. Let’s continue with the beach volleyball from earlier.”

Dharma Okata is still full of energy, but the four people plus the ball on the field are already worn out.

Pure White Storm also joined the operation to take down the Moon Rabbits. Their armor was left with bite marks of varying severity, even chewed into pits and dents. It didn’t look like rabbit teeth at all, but more like something had sawn them off—jagged all over.

Wearing battle-damaged “Ehh” exoskeletons, they had to wait for Miss Anya to wake up before they could be repaired.

Though all of them were so tired they could barely lift their arms, in front of the camera, they still had to maintain the necessary business-like smiles, running and jumping around on the court.

Clara, on the other hand, was at ease.

She directly passed out asleep inside the volleyball.

With the heroes’ spirits so wilted, the effect of the program was easy to imagine.

However, the viewers in the livestream already knew that the Sigma Series heroes had just assisted the resort in clearing out the group of Moon Rabbits that had burrowed into the station, so they weren’t too harsh.

On the contrary, not seeing any lively scenes of Clara made them think she’d been slacking during the battle, further lowering their evaluation of her.

[“A spoiled, bad sport of a magical girl, Clara.” You’d better restore your reputation, or it’ll be hard to explain to the president.]

“Even if you say that, I don’t really know what responsibility I have.”

In the end, the volleyball match was won by Scarlet Star General and Pure White Storm.

One of them was in the best physical condition, and the other spent most of the time flying and didn’t use much stamina. Compared to their exhausted opponents, their condition was much better, so it was only natural they won.

After the event ended, everyone could finally rest for a bit.

There was a watermelon-splitting activity scheduled before dinner, but first, the four exoskeletons needed to be sent for repairs.

Anya, who had slept all morning, finally woke up and was immediately called to the hangar by Dharma Okata.

“You guys went to war or something?!”

When she saw the four battered exoskeletons, she nearly fainted again. Even the cigarette Dharma Okata handed her fell from her lips to the ground.

Fortunately, compared to the EMP caused by Solar Storm, the Moon Rabbits’ gnawing only damaged the outer armor, making repairs much easier.

“Didn’t expect Moon Rabbits to pop up inside the station, and even be able to move under the dome. Have they evolved?”

As Anya said this, Clara, who had wandered over, quoted Fran:

“That species reproduces very quickly. Since they iterate so fast, theoretically their evolution should also be quick. It wouldn’t be strange if one day they picked up weapons and started fighting humans.”

Not to mention the Fourth Calamity’s specially bred variant, even harder to deal with than wild Moon Rabbits.

Anya pressed the brim of her baseball cap, propped up all four exoskeletons, pulled out her repair tools, and started working. Lucia assisted her at the side.

For some reason, her baseball cap looked much taller than before.

Did she not put it on right after getting up?

Repairing armor was a technical job, so Clara couldn’t help much. She just sat to the side.

Dharma Okata, however, sat beside her, smoking and exhaling clouds, saying,

“If the Fourth Calamity’s plan succeeds, this whole station is done for. Who knows why they’re targeting a tiny little resort?”

Of course, it’s because the “Fourth Calamity” and “Nightmare” are enemies!

Sabotaging a competitor’s yet-to-open business, turning a huge investment into waste.

If the Fourth Calamity owned a resort like this, the Grand Commander would probably send someone to make trouble too—watching a competitor make money feels even worse than losing money yourself.

Although Fran and Clara could more or less guess the reason, this sort of thing still couldn’t be told to the Sigma Heroes.

Nightmare, plus Magical Girl Clara and the Sigma Series, all on the priority list—when these three factors converge, how could the “Fourth Calamity” possibly ignore it?

And so, this three-birds-with-one-stone plan came to be.

At that moment, Dharma Okata’s phone rang.

Clara, who was sitting by her feet hugging her knees, looked up at her and didn’t look away until she finished the call.

“Good news: the resort’s engineer found a cellphone while scanning the rainforest.”

“Oh! Maybe it’s Ps·ycho’s? Did that guy drop it while running away?”

After all, that person was holding their clothes when fleeing—maybe it just fell out of their pocket.

But Dharma Okata shook her head, flicked her cigarette butt to the ground, and stamped it out.

“No, they said it was already crushed to pieces when they found it. Probably didn’t want to leave a final clue behind, right?”

A cellphone smashed to pieces can’t be used as a clue.

But in doing so, they also cut themselves off from their accomplice. If she keeps hiding, it’ll be even harder for Clara and the others to catch her.

From now on, best to assume someone’s eavesdropping on every conversation.

“We need to find a way to recover it and see if we can extract any data.”

Beep beep—

Just then, the Moon Bus under repair honked its horn, drawing everyone’s gaze for a moment, before falling silent.

No one knew what was going on, but Nyx spoke up.

[The bus driver BB-0027 has something to say to you.]

Clara retorted, “How do you know?”

[We’re all AI. We can tell what it means from the sound of the horn.]

Really?

Though skeptical, Clara still boarded the Moon Bus.

As soon as she got on, the door behind her shut.

Since it was under repair, the cabin lights were off. Only the dashboard at the front glowed faintly, BB-0027’s main case displaying a weak indicator light.

The atmosphere was cold and oppressive.

“BB-0027, what kind of stunt are you pulling?” Clara couldn’t help but ask.