Ps·ycho, who had just escaped the scene, quickly regained her strength.
Being touched by those tiny tentacles of the magical girl would cause her abilities to fail. Something similar had happened before at the Monument Square.
Come to think of it, is that girl really a magical girl?
Since when do magical girls have tentacles?
At this moment, Ps·ycho concealed her presence once again and, in a remote corner of the rainforest, dialed her partner’s number.
What followed was a harsh scolding.
“You idiot! Why did you release the ‘Children’ we were supposed to use tonight ahead of time? Didn’t we agree that I’d be the one to do it this time? Do you have any idea how much effort it took me to gather all those ‘Children’? You’ve wasted them all! Now how am I supposed to act tonight?”
With the small number of Moon Rabbits already cleared out, the voice on the other end of the line sounded both frantic and furious, but Ps·ycho remained unconcerned.
“Those rabbits are consumables anyway. We can just make more, right? We still have a week left! Pr·edator, I was the one who got cornered. I had to use them to escape that…”
She hadn’t finished her argument when Pr·edator interrupted her. “Hmph! If you hadn’t insisted on installing that surveillance, would our hiding place have been exposed?”
“So it was the surveillance signal that got tracked?”
“Only just realized? You’re way too slow!”
Ps·ycho grumbled, “I really didn’t expect to get discovered even after hiding it so carefully last night…”
The other end of the line fell silent for a moment, then continued, “You actually dared to use something you stole from someone else? Of course they’d look for it if they found it missing, and naturally they’d find your hiding spot.”
Pr·edator’s words sounded a little guilty.
Still, it was obvious there was tension between the two.
The woman called Pr·edator was the true mastermind of this operation. Ps·ycho, who was sent to help, had acted on her own and ended up dragging them down. Naturally, Pr·edator wasn’t about to show her a pleasant face.
Ps·ycho continued, “You focus on production from here on out. I’ll keep watching them from a safe distance, without getting caught…”
Once again, Ps·ycho was interrupted.
“Don’t order me around. Please, just leave.”
Pr·edator’s tone was cold, polite, distant, and filled with rejection:
“Please leave the resort. It’d be best if you walked out right in front of the heroes, so they’d think the ‘Fourth Calamity’ has failed and let their guard down…”
“Leave? There’s a Strong Solar Storm outside!”
Even a cadre-level monster who’d undergone numerous modifications couldn’t withstand the devastation of a solar storm, not to mention that Ps·ycho still needed oxygen to breathe.
Pr·edator remained harsh:
“If you could die in front of the heroes, that would be ideal.”
“We’ve worked together for so many years—aren’t you being too harsh? Besides, I still want to bring Lady Pure White Storm back home…”
“That’s exactly the problem. It’s your reckless actions, driven by your obsession, that forced me to change the operation plan. Just don’t go after her while I’m moving. Is that too much to ask?”
Having already failed once, making another mess and getting reported to the boss by Pr·edator wouldn’t be worth it.
“Fine, I promise. No one will find me again.”
“Do as you like. But don’t ruin my plans again.”
Click–
Pr·edator hung up.
“No one can find me…”
Ps·ycho crushed her phone into electronic scrap.
“That includes you, Pr·edator.”
After much effort, the Sigma Series finally “cleaned up” the rampaging Moon Rabbits. Now, having shed their gear, they were sitting outside the bunker, taking a break.
Only now did the engineers from the resort arrive, belatedly, to inspect the bunker’s airtightness. If those rabbits had dug deep enough to make it leak, it would be a big problem.
“It’s not too bad. In fact, these tunnels aren’t very deep.”
“Where did these rabbits come from?”
Azure Cavalier asked, already knowing the answer, and the resort engineer just shook his head.
“Who knows, maybe they swam here from the sea?”
The fact that Moon Rabbits could even operate under the gas dome was already beyond belief—swimming from the sea was even more impossible. That engineer was just spouting nonsense.
Because there was suspicion of a mole among the resort staff, the matter of Ps·ycho couldn’t be publicized yet. This would not only avoid dragging innocent people into the mess but also make it easier to fish out the real traitor by exploiting the gaps in information.
Of course, that mole was well aware of this, and in order not to expose himself, he wouldn’t say anything. Before the real action began, he’d keep a low profile.
And so, another round of the game between the two sides had begun.
But for Clara, finding Ps-ycho and her accomplice wasn’t as important as ensuring Fran and Lucia’s safety.
After all, she was only a fake hero. She just wanted to protect those she could reach.
“Collect all these Moon Rabbits!”
The cave was filled with rabbit sauce, but Fran shouted, “See if there’s any good meat left! Let’s make some kebabs!”
“You actually want to eat it?”
Clara doubted her own ears, but Fran nodded seriously.
“Of course! I heard Moon Rabbit meat is delicious. We managed to take down so many; it’d be a shame not to taste it! I’m curious about what they taste like too!”
The curiosity of a researcher was truly terrifying! There was nothing they wouldn’t dare to eat!
But Clara had no appetite for rabbits that walked upright like people.
“I want to try it too.”
Even Sista said this. The seventeen-year-old girl, who was only a year old, hadn’t developed her own common sense yet and was still in a phase of wanting to try anything new.
Clara couldn’t help but sigh.
“Sigh…”
On the other side, Azure Cavalier was sighing too.
“Half an hour really wasn’t enough.”
Clara adjusted her mask before daring to speak to him.
“Ps·ycho came prepared, and we had to rush in. Plus, that green-haired guy messed up your plan, making things go off the rails… It’s not your fault.”
Azure Cavalier replied, “I don’t care whose fault it is. The fact is, it was a failed mission. As a hero, a failed mission affects my rank…”
Clara remembered—like Kamui, he’d also been demoted because of her.
“It’s fine! As long as we don’t mention Ps·ycho, this mission is no different from a hunting trip. You guys wiped out all the Moon Rabbits that invaded the site. The Association won’t count it as a failure~”
“Sigh, I hope so…”
The usually rational, blue-haired handsome guy was a little dejected at this moment.
Unlike “Squirrel,” who’d only ever known failure and never led a mission alone, Azure Cavalier clearly wasn’t good at dealing with setbacks. For him, the recent demotion still weighed heavily.
Clara didn’t know how to comfort him.
“All right! Had enough rest?”
Just then, Okada Dharma came over, waving a loudspeaker.
“If you’re rested, it’s time to get back to the live broadcast!”
Being a hero is so exhausting.
Carnivore meat can’t be good.