Choosing Jeanne was a decision Clara made with her own considerations.
The Moon Rabbit Rebels had already broken away from the hive mind network, and they were likely to face retribution from the hive mind.
Handing the authority over to Jeanne would create a balance of power between the rational hive consciousness and the independent individuals, giving them a means of self-preservation.
Clara walked alone through the rainforest outside the resort.
The mycelial carpet was receding. The Moon Rabbits awaiting judgment were gathered here, their morale visibly low.
The Moon Rabbit population had been nearly halved in the previous battles. Currently, there were less than a thousand ordinary Moon Rabbits left, and the number of rabbit soldiers barely exceeded a hundred.
The main force of rabbit soldiers had primarily died at Sista’s hands. Mossima and Qiexiya had killed a portion upon landing, followed by Fran’s virus, and finally the resort’s Security Division, which had collapsed at the first contact.
Sista had single-handedly blocked ninety Moon Rabbit soldiers and killed them all, creating what could be called an impossible miracle. Even Clara was surprised when she witnessed the scene.
Moon Rabbits that die cannot be revived. Doesn’t the hive mind understand this?
It must understand.
It had a reason for wanting to seize the resort, even at the cost of sacrifice—a place for its kind to live.
But humans could never allow these rabbits to do as they pleased.
“This is an irreconcilable conflict.”
[We’re almost there.]
Guided by Nyx, Clara found Jeanne in the rainforest, along with Mossima, who had come to negotiate with the Moon Rabbits.
“Minister Mossima, Jeanne.”
Jeanne trotted over to Clara, hugged her, and sniffed. “Jichu.”
This smell—it was a bad habit she already had, but it had gotten worse after being hugged by President Qiexiya. Hopefully, she wouldn’t learn to bite people like Qiexiya.
Mossima was still standing on the mycelial carpet. She was communicating with the surrounding Moon Rabbits and the hive mind through the mycelium, so she didn’t respond to Clara.
Clara tossed the test tube to Jeanne. “This is for you.”
Jeanne held it in her hand, sniffed it for a while, then let go of Clara and asked, “This… what?”
“Drink it, and you’ll become the new control tower.”
“Chu?!”
“From now on, you’ll manage the hive consciousness. This is for your own good too.”
Jeanne showed a resistant attitude. “No… want.”
The reason Jeanne and the Moon Rabbit Rebels had been severed from the hive mind was to eliminate the control tower and liberate the group from Labi’s control.
Now that they had finally succeeded, if she were to become the new control tower, wouldn’t that defeat the whole purpose?
So she refused.
“Don’t you dare refuse! If you feel that using the authority would be unfair to your kin, then don’t use it. But someone must hold this authority to prevent your group from running out of control…”
“The Moon Rabbits must have a control tower to keep them in check, just as there must always be a Lich King.”
Clara continued, “Besides, this is also for the sake of you Moon Rabbit Rebels.”
Having just liberated the Moon Rabbits, if the hive mind were to turn on them now, she would truly become a “Jeanne.”
Although Jeanne couldn’t even speak properly, having fused the minds of several Moon Rabbit Rebels, she at least possessed relatively normal intelligence. She understood Clara’s words.
Reluctantly, she pulled out the stopper of the test tube and sniffed it again.
Just as Clara thought she was about to down it in one gulp, Jeanne suddenly brought the test tube around from behind, directly pressed it into Clara’s mouth, and lifted her chin, forcing her to drink.
Clara’s throat trembled as she swallowed it all. “Guoh—”
She hadn’t anticipated Jeanne pulling this move at all.
What good would handing the authority over to her do? She couldn’t possibly stay at the resort forever; it would have no deterrent effect on the Moon Rabbits.
Perhaps the medicine was taking effect. Clara felt a splitting headache.
It wasn’t just a feeling… her head really seemed like it was about to split open.
A visible bulge swelled up on top of her head, like the protrusion when Labi transformed. It didn’t look normal at all.
“I’m going to die!” Clara screamed, breaking out in a cold sweat.
[You won’t die.]
Nyx offered what could hardly be called comfort and explained:
[Fran’s reagent modifies the structure of the head, creating an interface to connect with the hive mind, and takes over the control tower again through a backdoor left in the rabbit brain…]
Modify the brain? A backdoor?
[All Moon Rabbits are children born from Labi. It would be incredibly easy for her to leave a backdoor in their brains. Dr. Fran found that backdoor, but to connect to the hive mind through it requires a slight modification… That’s what this reagent does.]
“Oooohhh!!”
Clara clutched her throbbing skull, feeling like something was really about to burst out from the top of her head…
Couldn’t you have just modified me directly using Labi’s data then?!
[This reagent wasn’t prepared for you.]
Yet it ended up being poured into Clara’s mouth, making her suffer for nothing…
After the intense pain reached its peak, with a poof, a pair of black rabbit ears sprouted from Clara’s head, and the pain vanished.
“…Is this the price for becoming the control tower?”
Clara touched the pair of large rabbit ears, no smaller than Jeanne’s.
[Those are antennas.]
So the rabbit ears are antennas?!
[Congratulations on increasing your height by eighteen centimeters (including ear tuft hair).]
…I’m not happy about that at all! The Moon Rabbit Combat Units having rabbit ears is enough, even though these ears are much longer than theirs.
“Clara?”
At that moment, the motionless Mossima began to move again. She looked at the large rabbit ears on Clara’s head with her featureless face, then specifically morphed a hand with skin tone and clear skin texture to pinch, rub, and tug at them.
Clara closed her eyes and endured at first, waiting for Mossima to let go on her own, but the latter showed no sign of stopping.
Unable to bear it any longer, Clara slapped Mossima’s hand away. “Alright! Stop playing! What did the hive mind say?”
Only then did Mossima withdraw her hand and straighten her tie. “Hmm, we had a thorough and candid exchange… It agreed.”
The hive mind had no choice but to compromise. There was no need to fight anymore.
Next, they just had to wait for the solar storm to pass and return to Central City.
Clara relaxed, but Mossima continued:
“Then I’ll leave the subsequent coordination work to you.”
“Huh? Coordination work?”
Clara suddenly remembered she didn’t know what suggestion Mossima had given to President Qiexiya, nor did she know how they planned to settle these Moon Rabbits.
“Mhm, we’ll probably need a batch of humanoid rabbits too.”
“What work do I need to coordinate?” Clara asked.
“No, what we need are receptionists.”
“Aren’t there already so many humanoid rabbits?”
Mossima shook her head. “No, we need receptionists.”
Her clothing writhed and transformed into the resort’s female staff uniform. She also raised her hands and mimicked a pair of rabbit ears on her head.
“We need staff like this.”
You want bunny girls?
Clara roughly understood what suggestion Mossima had given to President Qiexiya… They wanted the Moon Rabbits to work at the resort?!
Mossima nodded and said, “To be precise, we want to outsource the entire resort station to these rabbits as a condition for letting them live here.”
The Moon Rabbits, just liberated from their slavemasters…
Were now falling into the trap of capitalists?
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Accursed Capitalists.