usatvline Chapter 114 The Great Attack: Cooperation
Chapter 114 The Great Attack: Cooperation
On June 2nd, two days after Mikie received Kotaro's approval~
Located within the headquarters of DEM in the UK
'Bang! Bang! Bang!'
"Aaaaah—!"
Deafening gunshots rang out like thunderclaps in the corridor, accompanied by chilling screams.
However, at this very moment, a fat, bald, middle-aged man in the luxurious boardroom of DEM Corporation was completely unaware of all this.
He was sitting comfortably in that large, comfortable leather chair, holding a phone in his hand, talking to a woman named Minerva on the other end of the line.
"Minerva! You woman, have you found those three from SSS?!"
Faced with Edgar's anxious questioning, Minerva on the other end of the phone simply responded in a calm and unhurried voice:
"Not yet, you're such a hasty man."
"You should understand, right? We must eliminate those who know Ashcroft's secrets, and you must restore the three platforms that were taken from you!"
Just as he finished speaking, Edgar's expression suddenly darkened, and a flash of anger appeared in his eyes. Then, he abruptly raised his right hand and slammed it hard onto the table in front of him!
A loud bang suddenly rang out, and Edgar's face grew increasingly anxious. "Hurry up! That's the only way to get that man... Westcott out of office!"
Just as Edgar was shouting so urgently, a figure quietly lurked in the shadow cast by the old chair behind him.
A pale arm slowly emerged from the darkness. As she stepped out, the alluring gothic girl in a red and black dress stretched out her arm, revealing a gleaming pistol.
The dark muzzle of the gun was coldly and mercilessly aimed at Edgar's unsuspecting back.
"Huh? Who!"
Feeling the pressure on his back, Edgar instinctively tried to look back.
"Oh dear, you mustn't move, or you'll die, Mr. Edgar."
The girl's alluring yet icy words left Edgar frozen in place.
"Who are you? Did Westcott send you? Please, let me go! I'll give you anything you want, all my money!" Edgar begged uglyly, not daring to turn around.
The girl chuckled softly, the sound echoing eerily in the room. "Haha, how ugly! Who I am is not important, nor do I care how much money you have. What matters is that you are about to die."
The girl's finger slowly tightened on the trigger, and Edgar trembled even more violently.
"To be honest, I was just asked to clean up some trash for someone before going to Tiangong City, so goodbye~" With that, a gunshot rang out throughout the room.
'Bang--!'
Edgar's eyes widened as he collapsed forward onto the table, blood spreading everywhere.
The girl put away her gun, and the room light shone on her fair face, revealing the golden clock-shaped pupil in her left eye.
After Kurumi finished disposing of Edgar's body, her phone suddenly rang.
"Kurumi, have you finished what I asked you to do?" Ming's emotionless voice came through.
"Ah~ As Okamine-san wished, Edgar has been taken care of by me. However, I didn't expect Okamine-san to have such a voice in DEM, to be able to mobilize the defense deployment here."
"It's nothing, Kurumi, the important part is coming up," Ming said calmly on the other end of the phone.
Kurumi smiled, "Hehe, since I flew all the way to England to help you so much, how about you help me forge an identity and sneak into Chan High School..."
"no problem."
Just then, Ming pressed the end call button, while on the other side, Kurumi's figure quickly blended into the surrounding shadows, soon completely engulfing her.
In the blink of an eye, Kurumi vanished completely from Edgar's office without leaving a trace.
After Ming hung up the phone, at the AST base on the other side...
"Bell, what exactly do you mean by all that...?"
At this moment, Miki was walking alone in the base's corridor, hoping to get more information from the auxiliary AI named Bell.
"Would you like to know more, Ms. Mikie?"
Just as Mikie walked around the corner, Cyril was leaning against the wall, speaking leisurely. But when Mikie saw her, her pupils suddenly contracted.
Mikie looked at Cyril warily. "What are you doing here? What do you want?" Cyril just smiled and said, "Relax, Ms. Mikie, I just happened to be passing by."
"Origami-senpai! Captain Ryoko! Someone has sneaked in... mmm..." Just as Mikie was halfway through her shout, Cyril immediately went down and covered her mouth.
Just as Mikie was preparing to put on her clothes to resist, before she could even react, Cyril's lips were already gently pressed against her ear.
“Wait! I’ve already heard about your situation from Ashley, so I’m not here to take Ashcroft from you, but to seek a collaboration with you privately.”
Mikiko froze, stopped struggling, and looked at Saisil in confusion. "Cooperate? Why would you cooperate with me?" Saisil released his hand from her mouth and slowly spoke:
“Let’s talk somewhere else. Because of some reason, I was seen coming in. Let’s talk when we get back to the base. If you don’t trust me, you can betray me now.”
Mikiko frowned slightly, as if she still had some concerns, but seeing that Cyril's eyes had indeed shown no malice and even a hint of urgency, she took a deep breath.
"Okay, I agree!" These three simple words seemed to have used up all her strength.
At that moment, Cyril, who had been standing silently to the side, slowly put away the magic dagger that had been hidden behind her back and tightly gripped in her hand, as Mikie's voice fell.
Saisil also breathed a long sigh of relief.
'Fortunately, as that Asgardian said, we could try to win her over to gain the AST's attention, which made the plan succeed... Otherwise, we would have had to silence her.'
Saisil thought this, but her speed of departure did not slow down at all. A few seconds after Mikie stepped out of the base, the base's alarm sounded.
At this moment, the atmosphere in the AST monitoring room was unusually heavy. Ryoko Kusakabe sat there quietly, her eyes fixed on the monitor screen in front of her, without saying a word.
"What?! Mikie has been turned!"
"How could this happen? We must take action as soon as possible."
"My teammate said anxiously," said Ryoko Kusakabe. She took a deep breath, slowly stood up, and said angrily, "..."
"Origami! All AST members, listen to my command! Arrest Cecilia and Mikie!"
Let's rewind to two hours ago.
"Tell me what to do, you half-glasses pretty boy? Because of that [Flame Beast] joining, AST has already taken [Alice] into its fold!"
Inside the new warehouse base, Ashley was angrily confiding in Hyakume, who had come to discuss the outcome of their confrontation.
“No, little sister, how would I know? We’ve already used our connections to secretly take care of Edgar, the mastermind behind it all. It’s your business if you take back Ashcroft. I have no interest in getting entangled with AST. So, the conclusion is that only a fool would do something so thankless.”
Faced with Hyakume's rational analysis, Ashley's hands were itching to make a move, but she was held back by Leonora just before she could pounce!
"Calm down... Ashley!"
“How can I stay calm? The last two Ashcrofts are now in the hands of AST. If we can’t get them back, then… Al… she has no hope of coming back!” Ashley said, her eyes looking like they could burst into tears at any moment.
At this moment, Cyril, who had been sitting silently on the box, spoke up: "Mr. Baimu, stop lying to Ashley. Since coming here won't be of much use to you, let's be frank and speak openly."
"That's true. I don't like solving riddles, and I especially don't like telling riddles to others."
As he spoke, Bai Mu casually tossed a slip of paper to Sai Xier. Sai Xier caught the paper, opened it, and saw that the words "treat each other with sincerity" were written in the center of the paper.
"Huh, what is that?"
"Ahem, this is Chinese. You can look it up in the dictionary later. It means you can go and tell the truth to Mikie Okamine, who said she wanted to cooperate with you last time, and use non-initiated language to get her to tell me your purpose to AST."
“But… we just arrested her recently to threaten her father, and we don’t want other girls to get involved in our mess…” Saisil analyzed rationally.
"You're so stubborn. DEM is an international company. Even if you take back Ashcroft and resurrect Miss Artemisia, do you think they'll just give up? Even if Edgar is dead, there's always the possibility of a second one appearing, but you've made that public through AST."
After Bai Mu made that shocking proposal, the entire base fell silent, and Onora and Ashley looked at each other in bewilderment.
"Furthermore, Mikie has a reason why she would definitely help you?"
"What are you talking about?" Ashley scratched her head, feeling itchy, as if her brain was about to grow.
"Do you know that the [Red County Cat] is different from other Ashcrofts?"
"She, Ashcroft, has a feature that none of you have: she's equipped with an auxiliary AI called 'Bell'."
"Bell?!" the three exclaimed at the same time, and Ashley seemed to realize something as well.
Sera noticed Ashley's change in expression and gave him a wink, indicating that he would talk about his thoughts on this after Bai Muzhong left.
Seeing everyone's reaction, Bai Mu smiled slightly and turned to leave.
Once outside the stronghold, Hyakume finally took the walkie-talkie off his ear. "Klein brothers, how about that? I've done more than enough, haven't I?"
“Sure, having you relay the message saves a lot of trouble, but…” Ming said calmly, then suddenly paused.
"But?! But what? But, is there anything else I can help you with?"
"Yes, go and forge an enrollment form and identity for me. That shouldn't be too difficult for you, a hacker, right?" Bai Mu Zhongxin's words carried a provocative tone.
"Of course! Send me the photos later, and I'll see if they need to be edited. I've got the enrollment paperwork all set!"
After saying that, Bai Mu finally hung up the phone, looking thoughtfully at the photos Ming had sent.
"This person looks so familiar... black hair, covering the left eye... red right eye, could it be... could it be, is this Klein's sister?!"