NIKKE, when the stars bloom

Rabbi: "Understood, Commander!"

Helen: "...Yes, Lieutenant!"

……

……

The truck responsible for transporting the ingredients for Popit appeared at the gate of MMR High School.

According to the plan, three central personnel disguised as employees handed the same employee clothing to Phoenix and the other two in the cafeteria kitchen.

Afterwards, the three Phoenix men who had changed their clothes replaced the three employees and left, thus achieving the purpose of the substitution.

With the internal arrangements of the central government and the strong assistance of Pure Land, the entire replacement process can be said to be quite smooth, and the three of them did not encounter any obstacles until they stepped onto the transport vehicle.

only……

This so-called smoothness only worked for Lieutenant, Labi, and Helen. The other central secret agents in the transport vehicle did not think it was smooth at all.

They are under a lot of pressure.

Really big.

Before sending this evil star successfully into the outer area, they did not dare to relax at all, and their attitude was even friendlier than currying favor with their superiors.

Have no idea……

If you don't serve your boss well, the worst that can happen is you lose your job.

But if you don't serve the person in front of you well, you may not just lose your job.

"Second Lieutenant... what else do you need? We have three transport vehicles here, and we have prepared a full range of weapons for you, from humans to Nikki. As long as it is a category that the Ark has, we can give you the best style."

Inside the carriage, the captain in charge of this mission spoke respectfully.

Phoenix, who was dressed as an employee, touched the stubble on his chin, thought for a moment, and replied bluntly:

“Are there any snacks?”

"The packaged ones have a shelf life of at least six months. They can be used for things like pork floss bread, ham sandwiches, chocolate, etc."

"..."

The captain's expression began to twitch unnaturally.

"There's none?"

When Lieutenant Phoenix's eyes revealed regret and disappointment, the person in charge felt a chill all over his body and quickly responded with gritted teeth.

"Yes! Yes, Lieutenant!"

"We have everything you want!"

Chapter 187: The Second Lieutenant Finally Arrived at His Loyal Outer Edge

The transport truck arrived at its own food cold storage.

A few hours later, a van quietly set out from the cold storage, zigzagging for a while before passing through the guard gate of the outer edge area. When it arrived at a street somewhere in the outer edge area, it stepped on the brakes...

……

"They seem very afraid of you, Lieutenant."

After getting off the train, Helen looked at the taillights of the car that was running away in a hurry. With the mentality of "starting to learn from the second lieutenant from today", she asked humbly with a backpack of high-calorie packaged snacks in confusion:

"Although it is important to maintain discipline in the army, wouldn't it be counterproductive if it makes the subordinates feel afraid?"

"I don't know them, and they are not my subordinates."

Phoenix, who was also carrying a backpack of snacks, replied unhappily:

"There must be rumors slandering me for killing people at will. These idle people like to spread rumors when they have nothing to do."

Helen: "..."

Rabbi: “…”

Looking at a certain person who broke the record of first-level incarceration, a frequent visitor to the rehabilitation center, the only person in special-level incarceration, a life sentence prisoner...

Not to mention Lavi, even Helen, who had a low emotional intelligence, lowered her head silently at this time and did not respond to the lieutenant's words.

"Meaning... the leader."

In order to prevent the atmosphere from freezing, the considerate and kind Rabbi could only sigh quietly, "Why do we have to bring so many packaged foods?"

"Of course I save it for eating."

Thinking about the fact that every time he went to the ground, he would inevitably experience the dilemma of starving to death or dying of thirst once or twice, Fei's face inevitably darkened.

If the feeling and the impending death from excessive blood loss were compared with these two, to describe it as "a drop in the bucket" would only be considered a declarative sentence.

But then again,

The lieutenant's real purpose in bringing snacks that were more tasty and nutritious was naturally not to keep them for himself.

Someone's idea was very direct. He planned to use these snacks as a bribe after reaching the Far North... no, to give them to Snow White as gifts as a friend.

The old girl who can eat expired canned food with relish must be unable to resist the fresh junk food from human civilization.

Well, I can show her my cooking skills when I have the chance.

For nothing else,

I just wanted to talk to her about the promise I made to bring her the raw materials for the remover...

He forgot.

……

that's it,

The leader, wearing loose clothes and with a mind full of calculations, walked on the dirty streets with his second and third in command, chatting intermittently about the rumors about the outer area.

And around them, pairs of eyes hiding inside the building complex were greedily staring at the bulging backpacks on the backs of the three people, ready to make a move.

[A group of minors. Judging from their heights, some of them are either stunted or no older than twelve years old.]

A total of twenty-seven boys and girls were marked one by one by Anik in the map in his mind, and the expression of the artificial intelligence was unexpectedly confused.

[According to human moral standards, should I show emotions such as pity? ]

[Why do you care about this? No matter what you do or think, as long as you use words like a human, no one will suspect that you are AI. Don't underestimate the diversity of human species.]

Walking aimlessly on the street, Phoenix responded to Anik's questions while observing the traffic conditions nearby.

According to the instructions from his superiors, he has to stay in the block below his feet for the next few days, and subsequent members Nikki will be sent here in batches to join them.

But who is the second lieutenant?

It was unknown how long this journey to the Far North would take, so how could he allow a scum like Krau to run around and cause trouble on his territory?

Even if he had to dig three feet into the ground, he would dig it out within ten days and then bury it back.

"Let me ask you something, little friend."

After a few minutes, Phoenix, who had not been able to find any address signs such as house numbers or street numbers, and had no idea where he was, simply walked to the side of the street and walked towards a few kids who were playing marbles.

"Excuse me, what is the number of this street?" the lieutenant said, and then he took out two pistol bullets from his pocket and said with a smile:

"Is 32588 blocks far from here?"

Bullets have always been hard currency in the Outer Rim Area. Although two bullets are not many, they are definitely more than enough to exchange for a few Popart fruit candies.

Seeing the pie falling from the sky, a clever kid among the group of little kids immediately got up from the ground, stretched out his hand to grab the palm of the adult, fully demonstrating the plastic friendship between the little friends.

"Here it's 28000. To get to 32000 you have to go west, across four districts."

After saying that, the little brat probably realized that he no longer had a place in this marble game, and he didn't even bother to pick up his own beads, and hurriedly ran towards his home.

The child was so fast and nervous that even Helen could tell that he was afraid that other children would come up and snatch the thing from him.

"Outer Edge..."

The kind-hearted blue-haired girl pursed her lips subconsciously and murmured with a look of reluctance.

"…It's different from what was reported in the Ark News."

"Yeah, it's completely different from downtown Ark."

Looking at the direction the child ran away, the lieutenant nodded in agreement and sighed sincerely.

“It’s such a vibrant place.”

Chapter 188 How rude!

Cautious, intelligent, cunning, decisive...

When Phoenix saw the child with a bullet fleeing the scene without hesitation, and when Alnick explained to him that the boy and girl hiding in the dark gave up tracking because of the bullet.

The lieutenant sincerely believed that only humans living in the Outer Rim had enough courage and wisdom to fight Letcher for survival.

All they lack is a reason.

A reason to shed blood.

"let's go."

The man in a good mood turned around and greeted Labi and Helen who were still looking at the alley.

"Time is a bit tight, I'll watch it slowly with you later."

Hearing Phoenix's call, the two girls hurriedly turned around and quickly followed the commander who was heading west.

Although they didn't know what the commander meant by "time is a bit tight".

But since the boss didn't say it explicitly, Lavi, as the adjutant, would definitely not ask too much.

As for Helen, after the "education" from Mihala in the morning, she successfully recognized her position as a younger brother and followed her boss obediently and silently.

……

……

Cement, wood, glass, bricks, and other common materials on the ground are undoubtedly valuable materials for the Ark.

Therefore, among the materials used in the construction of the entire outer edge area, cheap metals account for at least 99.00%.

Only very rare entertainment venues use luxurious wood and glass.

This is a city of metal in a literal sense.

Compared to the hasty first night exploration of the Outer Rim, Lieutenant Phoenix, who was able to observe the details carefully this time, immediately grasped the advantages of the Outer Rim.

Dirty, messy and poor.

The three characteristics of slums actually hide an extremely important strategic message.

——The terrain is solid and complex.

As long as the tactics are well-planned and the personnel have strong combat skills, even if Ark wants to send Nikki to advance when the firepower is insufficient to cover the enemy, the casualties are bound to be extremely tragic.

Taking a step back, what if the Ark moves forward slowly?

The occupied area needs to be defended, which means enough manpower is needed, and the manpower needs to have certain combat qualities.

What the Ark lacks most is its fucking combat skills.

Once the elite troops pushed forward, the rear supply lines would be as fragile as paper. All they had to do was extend the depth of the battlefield, force the Ark to engage in long-term combat, and then conduct a few rounds of guerrilla warfare behind the enemy lines, and they would probably be able to penetrate the Ark's rear defense.

After only half an hour of watching, Phoenix confidently made his judgment.

——The Ark can’t get in.

Given the excellent underground matching mechanism, the only way for people inside the wall to win by force is to remove the near-death restrictions on all Nikkis and allow more than 10,000 Nikkis to push forward outside the wall with absolute force.

But here is the problem.

The Ark Zerg may not have the courage to remove the near-death restrictions for thousands of Nikkis at once.

There are more than 10,000 Nikki troops. Even if half of them are disbanded, as long as a leader can emerge among the 5,000 or 6,000 Nikkis, it is hard to say who will be defeated by Nikki first, inside or outside the wall.