Although no path was left for humans to pass through, there was still a maintenance layer that allowed drones to enter and exit, giving the Moon Rabbit Combat Unit an opportunity.
At the entrance of the maintenance tunnel, Bald Uncle confirmed with the rabbit in his hand.
“A familiar that is not a familiar, you know what you need to do, right?”
“Squeak!”
The rabbit, held by the scruff of its neck, even saluted in a somewhat convincing manner.
Then it turned its head and dove into the narrow passage originally meant for drones.
Bald Uncle was a bit helpless.
Clara was also half a suspect, so it would have been more appropriate to have the Administration Bureau’s small drones search instead.
‘Nyx is remotely hacking into the system to assist you, but further ahead is the territory of the hero network. Although I don’t know its capabilities, there’s probably not much Nyx can do.’
“There’s no need to do much either. Just tell me the situation inside and remind me not to get crushed by some mechanical structure.”
The Moon Rabbit was larger than a normal rabbit, so in this space even narrower than a rabbit hole, it was simply insufficient for Clara to stand up and run.
Fortunately, she wasn’t a rabbit for the first time.
Although her movements were a bit rusty, she quickly adapted.
‘There are also cameras in the inspection passage, probably used to check the drones’ status.’
‘Ahead is an elevator used by drones.’
The elevator cabin opened; it was the Afro in the interrogation room operating it remotely.
Contrary to the narrow passage, the opened elevator was surprisingly quite large.
‘This elevator probably also has the function of transporting maintenance materials.’
‘Please prepare yourself mentally.’
The elevator began to descend at high speed.
“Aah——”
Her heart palpitated from the sudden feeling of weightlessness.
Clara in the interrogation room looked a bit pale. Kamui poked her cheek and asked:
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Just… suddenly feeling a bit unwell.”
What felt unwell was the Moon Rabbit Combat Unit.
Drones’ elevators don’t need to consider passenger comfort; they descend rapidly while ensuring the cargo isn’t damaged.
In Clara’s opinion, that speed might be just a little better than free fall.
The first-person view of the Moon Rabbit Combat Unit was all seen by everyone in the interrogation room through the camera on its neck.
As a result, the elevator door had been open for a while, but the rabbit never walked out, maintaining a relatively static image.
“Huh? Did it freeze?” asked Bald Uncle, who had just returned to the interrogation room not long ago.
“It didn’t freeze,” replied the Afro.
‘Then it’s dumb,’ Clara added internally.
Clara really had a tough job as a rabbit agent; every time she carried out dangerous tasks dancing on the edge of a knife, she was like the James Bond among Moon Rabbits.
The maintenance layer was a low, large flat floor, but its height was less than half a meter.
Although the height was concerning, the entire plane was open, with no walls except necessary support pillars. Looking out, it was both spacious and oppressive, like some eerie infinite space.
The floor hatches of the passage were also hollow; even without going down, Clara could observe the situation in the server room through the gaps.
Through a series of narrow shafts downward, one could reach any location in the server room.
Looking down through the first hatch in front of the elevator, the first thing that came into view was that big iron ball surrounded by blue light strips, giving an impression like a final weapon to destroy the world.
Because of this thing, the entire server room had a floor height of nearly ten meters, a good two or three stories high.
Moreover, countless cables and pipes passed through the maintenance layer, connecting from above the sphere to transmit data and supply the necessary energy for its operation.
That was the main body of the hero network.
Although some server racks were scattered around, they seemed insignificant compared to the big iron ball.
“That is the mainframe of the hero network.”
Kamui was seeing this thing for the first time.
“If you hadn’t told me, I would have thought it was some alien spaceship.”
She let out a similar exclamation as Clara had before, and the latter, like Alice had done back then, introduced:
“What you see is just its shell. The real contents are inside that iron ball.”
To concentrate on the rabbit’s side, Clara sat in the chair with her eyes closed.
But she still said:
“But maybe there really is an alien locked inside?”
However, in this day and age, even if aliens really existed, no one would be surprised.
With the help of the Afro technician, the iron hatch in front of the Moon Rabbit Combat Unit opened.
“The range that humans can operate ends at this door.”
The Afro’s hands left the keyboard, and he added:
“From here on, it’s an area autonomously governed and maintained by the hero network. No one can say what you’ll encounter.”
‘What if the culprit is itself?’
Nyx was still insisting on her conjecture.
‘If the thief really is here, they’ve probably already been captured by the hero network’s sub-units, right?’
Clara didn’t respond.
The Moon Rabbit Combat Unit jumped down from the ten-meter high maintenance layer.
The height of nearly ten meters wasn’t short, but as a super rabbit, the Moon Rabbit Combat Unit had decent physical ability.
With just a roll to absorb the impact, it landed steadily on top of the row of server racks in a hero’s landing pose.
“Yo, the rabbit’s performance is pretty cool.”
Kamui praised.
Clara, with eyes closed, seemed to have no reaction at first glance, but the corners of her mouth and her head unconsciously tilted upward by fifteen degrees.
Then Kamui started rubbing her face again.
However, the purpose of the Moon Rabbit Combat Unit was not to tour the server room.
Its mission was to find any possible thief or the stolen relic here.
As Bald Uncle had said before, the entire server room had almost no passage for humans, with only about 0.3 meters of gap between server racks.
Spider-like eight-legged drones climbed back and forth in these gaps; they were the sub-units responsible for maintaining the entire server room.
The design was a bit creepy.
Although it was still peaceful now, it felt like once an alarm was triggered, their eyes (indicator lights) would turn red and they would attack.
Although the layout design was somewhat “anti-human,” the structure of the server room wasn’t complicated.
It was just a big sphere above, surrounded by a ring of operating server racks.
Fewer gaps in the corners meant fewer places to hide things, so checking should not take much effort…
As the saying goes, “You can find something without effort after searching high and low.”
“Squeak?!”
Clara actually found a white cloth package between two server racks that was out of place with the surroundings.
“Ha? She actually found it?!”
Kamui stood up, pressed down on Clara’s head, and leaned over the Afro’s laptop.
Clara, with Kamui’s ribs on top of her head, said:
“Look, this is the reasoning of the Great Detective Clara!”
But Bald Uncle was still suspicious.
“Could it be that you’re the culprit? The one stealing is that rabbit?”
“Uncle, you really shouldn’t be working at the Administration Bureau.”
Clara twitched the corner of her mouth and glared at him.
“A mental hospital suits you better.”
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