Chapter 186: Suspect

Inside the medical room, Clara sat up abruptly on the hospital bed. She rolled out of bed, only to bump into the arms of a nearby medical robot.

This was exactly why medical robots were designed with a soft, squishy outer shell.

“Huh? The people from the Sigma Series were all captured?!”

Outside the infirmary, on the large hangar screen, drone footage confirmed the grim news sent by Nyx. The Sigma Series trio was being besieged by rabbit soldiers and found it impossible to escape.

Dharma Okata, witnessing this scene, looked as if the light had died in her eyes.

“This makes no sense.”

Clara couldn’t figure it out. She had a decent understanding of the rabbit soldiers’ strength.

Although they were numerous and much stronger than the average Moon Rabbit, three quasi-A Rank Heroes shouldn’t have been defeated this quickly, no matter what.

To make matters worse, communication between Nyx and the team was being jammed. The “Raven” drone following them had also been shot down shortly after, leaving them currently out of contact.

“I’m heading out!”

Clara’s main body stood up staggeringly. Her consciousness quickly returned from the Moon Rabbit Combat Body; she was still a bit unadjusted to this body, but she summoned her Squid broom nonetheless. Mounting it, she flew straight out of the infirmary.

Time was of the essence.

Nyx would handle the flight stability; Clara only needed to focus on sitting tight and not falling off, just as she had done when she was harassing the base before.

The headwind blew against Clara’s hair, waking her up a bit.

Nyx asked, 【Clara, even if you rush there now, how do you plan to deal with so many rabbit soldiers by yourself?】

“I can’t just leave them to die, can I? If those guys actually bite the dust, how the hell am I supposed to fight alone?! We might as well all commit suicide and go back to Central City! Come to think of it, committing suicide to go back seems like a pretty good idea. At least our souls wouldn’t be kidnapped by the Moon Rabbits… oof?!”

As Clara grumbled her complaints, raindrops splattered against her small face.

“Oh, it’s raining.”

Above the rainforest, which was currently a sea of fire, the dome’s ecological balance strategy had automatically triggered rainfall. However, the gasoline fuel used in the incendiary bombs wasn’t easily extinguished by rain. Instead, because of the incomplete combustion, the sky over the entire resort began to fill with foul, choking smoke.

“Cough, cough! Nyx!”

Clara put on a gas mask.

【Clara, we have arrived at the destination.】

Nyx brought Clara to the last known location of the Sigma Series before they vanished. However, the situation remained far from optimistic; there was absolutely no sign of the three members of the Sigma Series.

“Tsk, have they already been taken away?”

These rabbits were moving way too fast!

‘I need to check the surroundings for any traces first. There might be a hidden tunnel.’

She had to dig them out.

If those three were also taken by the Mother Moon Rabbit to be reincarnated, Clara truly would be left isolated and without help.

“How is it, Nyx? Can you spot any abnormalities?”

Clara knew her naked eyes were nowhere near as detailed as Nyx’s scans. Thus, when it was time to rely on Nyx, she did so openly. Acting coy didn’t fit her mental age.

【…No results. The fire has covered all traces.】

Tsk, was there really nothing left to do?

“Fran, is that thing ready?”

Clara asked over the intercom, but it was Lucia who answered.

“It’s ready, but—but we haven’t had time to test it yet!”

“There’s no time for testing! I’m coming back to get it!”

“That sounds a bit dangerous…”

“The moment the three of them were captured together, we were already in danger!”

Clara pulled a U-turn on the spot, and several Mach rings appeared in the propulsion flames of the Squid tentacles.

Driven by her surging emotions, her flight speed was faster than it had ever been.

【You really are…】

“Huh?”

【Nothing. Have you decided how to resolve this?】

Clara was the one who had to make the decision; Nyx would no longer interfere with her choices.

“Yeah, I have a lead now.”

The Mother Moon Rabbit’s hiding place might be closer than anyone imagined.

—

“…This… this is so ugly.”

It was a baseball helmet welded with strange electric shock components, connected to a micro-computer the size of a square box. It even integrated a mobile power source, but the wires and everything else were completely exposed. If she wore this helmet to fight the executives of the Fourth Calamity, was she trying to make the enemy die of laughter?

“Hey! This is supposed to be the decisive weapon for our counterattack. Could you make it look at least a little bit better? Is this some kind of handicraft made from scrap metal?”

“There wasn’t enough time!”

Doctor Fran Livka walked over with her hands on her hips, maintaining a “take it or leave it” attitude.

“Many of the parts on this were stripped from Lucia’s Armored Exoskeleton. You’ll just have to make do!”

Clara glanced at the torrential rain outside.

“Is it waterproof?”

“It’s waterproof.”

Clara then looked at Lucia and her disassembled Armored Exoskeleton.

“…Will you still make it for your graduation project?”

Once this battle was over, her Sister wouldn’t be able to graduate from university.

“It’s fine. Once we’re back in Central City, I’ll help her with it. Now, hurry up and get going.”

At this point, aesthetics didn’t matter. Clara put on the primitive-looking equipment and set off again. This time, however, her direction wasn’t toward the Moon Rabbit base. Instead, it was…

The resort.

“The enemy might be closer than we thought.”

【Are you sure?】

“Yeah. How could an enemy who usually lurks in the resort set up their main base in an empty, undeveloped area? That place was just bait to draw our fire.”

Wearing the shoddy helmet, Clara’s mind felt clearer than ever.

Braving the downpour, she raced along the bay, then rushed toward the guest rooms of the Sigma Series staff. Anya, the one who worked day and night…

“Tsk, she’s not here?”

Anya, the mechanic for the Sigma Heroes, was the prime suspect.

According to BB-0027’s recordings, she had been attacked by a Moon Rabbit in the hangar, but then she had reappeared on camera as if nothing had happened to repair a malfunctioning Armored Exoskeleton. She hadn’t mentioned the attack to anyone the next day.

Thinking back on it now, she must have been consumed by Predator at that moment, her soul stuffed into the body of a Large Rabbit on the spot for reincarnation.

The evidence was her peaked cap, which was constantly being pushed up by a pair of rabbit ears.

Since she was the Sigma Series mechanic, it would have been incredibly easy for her to tamper with the Armored Exoskeletons. The reason Blue Cavalier lost so quickly to Predator or Psycho was definitely because of this.

In a sense, the Heroes had lost from the very beginning.

“The Mother Moon Rabbit really is difficult to deal with.”

【We missed her. Do you know where Anya went?】

“I don’t know, but we didn’t come here for nothing. The rainforest side is a scorched mess where we can’t find anything. This place is our only current clue.”

Clara answered as she tapped the helmet on her head.

“But the hive mind knows.”