NIKKE, Swordmaster Ark Succubus Daily

"Don't ignore me!"

Unfortunately, no matter how noisy Rita was, she couldn't get Li Zuoyi's attention.

Sandy scratched his head casually: "Actually, the senior is the captain..."

"I'm sorry, it was my fault." Li Zuoyi looked down at Rita again. "Let's go then."

"Hmm." Rita crossed her arms, not wanting to talk to the commander.

"Would you like me to hold your hand?" Li Zuoyi extended his hand.

"unnecessary!"

After navigating several patches of wasteland, the group arrived at Niki's dormitory.

Rita stroked her chin, circled the dormitory a few times with her robotic dog, discussed something with Sandy, and then said to Li Zuoyi:

"It won't be long, it'll be finished soon... but hey, kid, why are you looking at me like that?"

Li Zuoyi squatted down and stared at Rita, "I'm watching to see how you plan to conjure up materials and construction workers."

Seeing that the two women had come with almost nothing, he assumed they were Niki with some special abilities.

“Sandy and I can handle this much work!” Rita, feeling insulted, shouted. “Besides, we’re Niki, not magicians. We can’t conjure up construction materials!”

"So you just came here to take a look today?" Li Zuo sighed, a look of disappointment on his face.

Rita became even angrier when she remembered what had just happened: "No, if the materials hadn't been stuck in traffic, I could have gotten it done for you today!"

"what happened?"

“I don’t know what’s wrong with the road management department these past few days. They’ve been randomly checking cars everywhere. Our truck that was transporting materials was just impounded by them!” Rita said. “Sandy went to talk to them to get it released, so I came here first.”

"It failed." Sandy said apologetically.

"Road management department..." Li Zuoyi thought the name of this department sounded familiar.

Isn't Ethel the head of this department?

Sandy said, "It seems their department head was attacked one night recently, and they are investigating."

"That's the job of the police, isn't it?"

“Commander is so naive.” Anies sighed from the side.

"Hmm, how naive." Rita also adopted an old-fashioned look, then came to her senses: "Where is the naivety?"

“It’s probably this manager’s subordinates trying to curry favor with him,” Labi explained. “Even if it’s just for show, it’s possible to gain the manager’s favor.”

"But if that's the case, my renovation plan..."

Li Zuoyi somewhat regretted not killing Ethel.

Chapter Twenty: Finding Help

Outpost, also known as the Commander's Exile Ground.

It is said that commanders with no future are 'exiled' here by the military.

Usually, within a month, the outpost would be deserted again, quietly waiting for the next exiled commander to keep going to the ground and then die there.

Therefore, when Li Zuoyi looked out from his office, all he saw was wasteland, half-built facilities that had collapsed, and abandoned scaffolding everywhere.

"Hey! Anies, why is there still so much dust here?!"

When Rita saw how dirty the outpost was, it seemed to trigger something in her, making her want to clean it up.

She is now directing Anies and Marian to clean up.

“I’m waiting for the robot vacuum cleaner Rita made to move over,” Anies said.

"You're just trying to be lazy, aren't you? Robot vacuums can't clean everywhere!" Rita pointed at the focused Marian. "Learn from Marian, look how diligent she is!"

Their chatter added a touch of life to the outpost.

Anderson brought Li Zuoyi here.

Anderson was acting mysteriously, seemingly knowing some inside information, and deliberately concealing some of his abilities used in combat.

In the previous capture operation, Anderson submitted a report to his superiors stating that his command of Niki was near perfect and that she fought bravely. The report also included the signatures of various Nikis.

Everyone was intentionally trying to help him hide it.

Li Zuoyi was still somewhat moved.

But as touching as I am, why isn't Anderson answering the phone?

The phone screen kept showing an unanswered message.

Li Zuoyi planned to repair the outpost, but the supplies he needed were 'hijacked' on the way—they were detained by the road transport department and refused to be released.

Since he was currently unable to leave the outpost, he sent Lapi and Sandi of the Extraordinary Tools Unit to negotiate again.

He then called people he knew, hoping to get their help.

Anderson is probably in a meeting; his phone is off.

There seem to be no other people...

Li Zuoyi sent a message to Anick.

[Anik, do you have the phone numbers of the CEOs of the three major companies?]

This constitutes personal information disclosure, and the fact that the information was leaked to the CEOs of three major companies makes it an illegal act.

Anik replied quickly, but his reply was rather cold.

After thinking for a while, Li Zuoyi changed his question:

Is there any way I can contact them?

【Now?】

【Now. 】

A few seconds later, a link was sent to his phone.

Li Zuo opened the app and was immediately taken to the dialer interface, where he dialed a number.

Before he could react, the call was connected.

"This is the CEO's transfer room. May I ask who this is?" The voice on the other end sounded quite intellectual.

"Anik, at least tell me which company's CEO you are..." Li Zuoyi hurriedly said, "Um, I'm Commander Li Zuoyi from the outpost..."

"Commander Li Zuoyi?!"

The person on the other end seemed startled, their voice cracked.

Li Zuoyi smiled somewhat awkwardly: "Yes, it's me. May I speak with your CEO? I have some personal matters to attend to."

"I'm sorry, I'll transfer you right away."

Li Zuo breathed a sigh of relief; at least he had made contact.

He has met Ingrid, the CEO of Gokuraku Jodo, and Shun, the CEO of Missilis, but he has not met the CEO of Tetra.

He didn't know the CEO of Tetra at all, and Shuen... the two of them didn't get along.

The only one is that strong, independent CEO, Ingrid.

'beep--'

The call appears to have been successfully transferred.

"It's me, Li Zuoyi."

"...Hello, how do you know this number?" A slightly shrill voice came from the receiver.

Li Zuoyi felt goosebumps rise on his skin. The person opposite him was actually Shu En?!

Why did Anick connect him to Shum's number?!

Li Zuoyi's phone vibrated. He glanced at the screen; it was a message from Anik.

[Ingrid and Anderson will need to stay in a closed environment for the next few weeks due to the noise of their research, and will not be allowed to contact anyone other than researchers.]

So that’s it!

"Hey! Where have you been?!" Shuen shouted, "I'm asking you how you got this number?!"

"Hmph, that's not something you should know," Li Zuoyi said mysteriously. "There are many things in the world that you can't understand."

"...Never mind, what do you want from me?"

Ok?

Li Zuoyi thought Shu En would yell at him and hang up, but this situation was a bit unexpected.

Was it because he brought back the noise?

"Didn't you send your company's Extraordinary Tools Unit? They've arrived, but the supplies that were supposed to come with them were stopped by the road transport department. Could you...?"

"I—refuse—to do so."

Shuen seemed to shout directly into the microphone, his voice was explosive.

As expected... Li Zuoyi shouldn't have had any expectations of her; in fact, he shouldn't have had any expectations in the first place.

"You want me, the CEO of Missilis, to do things for you without even offering any terms? Isn't that a bit too wishful thinking?"

“Doesn’t the noise count?” Li Zuoyi asked.

"That's your job, it's only natural."

Tch, you wretched brat, you're quite the bargainer...

"What do you want?" If it's unreasonable, he'll hang up the phone immediately.

“I want to know your abilities,” Shuen said with unexpected seriousness.

Anderson stated that, as CEOs of the three major companies within Ark, they also had access to some secrets.

"For what reason?" Li Zuoyi did not immediately refuse.

"For the sake of Misilis's technological advancement, the probability of the Ark being able to reclaim the surface will also become much greater."

Wow, that's quite the talker. Is smooth talk one of the standard skills for a CEO...?

"What's the truth?"

"...This has nothing to do with you. You just need to say whether you agree or not."

“I refuse too,” Li Zuoyi replied. “The scales of this deal are completely unbalanced. I’m hanging up.”

It's just some resources and materials; we can wait another month or two, even though it really takes a lot of time.

"Wait a moment!"

I don't know if I misheard, but Shu En's tone sounded like he was pleading.

"No wait."

'drop'

Li Zuoyi held his phone, looking out the window at the abandoned outpost.

He has clearly brought Xiao Cao back, which can greatly accelerate the technological progress of the Ark, and he deserves to be treated differently.

But as if on purpose, Ark seems to be giving this matter the cold shoulder.

Although he was given a lot of money and supplies, the matter was not publicized.

Li Zuoyi felt that Fang Zhou didn't want him to become famous.

In fact, this is quite good.

Because he remembered that when he was still in the rehabilitation center, he had also met a commander, I think he was from 'Morning Star'... something like that.

That commander was apparently too famous, which led to him being ostracized by the Ark's higher-ups, and he was eventually framed and sent to the rehabilitation center.

Although it seems that the commander eventually escaped with him, he should be dead by now, after all, sixty years have passed.

Moreover, Li Zuoyi didn't want to be seen as a thorn in the side by the Ark's higher-ups so quickly.

However, even transporting supplies to the outposts gets blocked, which is the downside of being unknown.