NIKKE, when the stars bloom

As Phoenix asked and answered his own questions, Watson's eyes widened in pain and he tried hard to raise his head. His body, which was unable to move due to broken limbs, twisted with the help of his core muscles. He rolled over and over on the ground like an earthworm after rain, which was very disgusting.

"Master, Master... I... I was wrong... I was wrong... Really..."

Originally, this was just Watson's instinctive plea, and he didn't even expect a response.

But it was this pleading sound that made the madman stop his actions and crouch in front of him.

has it ended?

The sloppy man's naive idea had only been in his mind for less than a second when a cold and sharp knife had slightly pierced his eyelid from his left eye socket, cutting the idea into pieces.

in the darkness,

It was as if a gentle inquiry from hell echoed faintly in the factory.

"you……"

"Do you look down on me?"

Chapter 4: Unexpected Encounter (K)

The interrogation process was not only smooth but also boring.

Before Phoenix even started asking, Watson spilled everything he knew.

Being afraid is one thing.

Who wouldn’t be afraid of a madman who is violent and knows how to torture?

As for not wanting your eyes to be gouged out, that’s another matter.

In the Outer Rim, trust is always a luxury. Betrayal is the main theme of the Outer Rim outlaws.

Keeping secrets upstream and downstream could cost you an eye or your life?

impossible.

Just like the betrayal of those younger brothers, Watson also betrayed his boss and Party A without any psychological burden.

"I am just a receiver. They contact me unilaterally. No one will pick me up. I need to go to the address to collect...Nikki, and then smuggle her out of the inner wall of the Ark to the Outer Rim. Someone will be waiting there to take over. The person who comes every time is different, and the code method is also different."

"Why does it sound like you don't know anything after all this talk?"

Phoenix chuckled, and his rock-steady prosthetic right arm moved forward precisely, bringing the tip of the knife closer to his eyeball.

"No, no, no, no! At least I know the smuggling route! I, I know the smuggling method! I'm not a completely useless transition link!"

Feeling the stinging pain in his eyelids, Watson's emotions, which had finally calmed down, became excited again. However, he couldn't move, so he could only speak quickly with a trembling voice:

"I know how to sneak from the Ark to the Outer Rim, and I can roughly guess where that kid Buck bought the video. I, I can take you there!"

Green Hair's death made Phoenix think that the clue of the private sale of combat records had been cut off. Unexpectedly, he could find some unexpected surprises during the interrogation. This really made him feel much better.

However, just as he was about to continue asking questions, Anik's synthesized voice suddenly echoed in his mind.

[Someone is approaching the factory. Judging from the route, there is an 88.6% chance that they will enter from the west gate of the factory, which is the door on your left.]

Since it was a shared consciousness map, Phoenix didn't need to ask for details. He could directly activate the map in his mind and find the person that Anik was talking about.

It was a man in a robe and a hood.

a woman.

Even with the robe covering it, it was still difficult to hide the other person's passion that was enough to make one's mouth dry.

【Scan the area around me. 】

[I have scanned it, and currently there is only this woman whose movements are suspicious.]

[She's the only one?]

After getting the answer, Phoenix couldn't help but feel confused.

The red mark on the consciousness radar requires the target to have clear ill will towards Phoenix, and Letcher carries out indiscriminate massacres of humans, so he can observe all Letchers within a radius of 600 meters.

But once we return to human society, the consciousness radar will hardly play an effective warning role.

Just now, it was not until the moment these human traffickers sensed the danger that the radar identified them as enemies.

At times like this, Anik, who was downgraded to an artificial retard, showed her value.

The consciousness map with a radius of 300 meters is not small. With Phoenix's limited carbon-based brain, it is impossible to achieve a global observation of the map.

But Alnwick can.

In a disguised way, she became someone's personal alarm, and at the same time freed up his attention, which needed to be on constant observation of the consciousness map.

What was a hot woman doing in an abandoned factory in the middle of the night?

This is a remote area that can be described as "the wilderness". There is no patrol officer or even a police station nearby.

Women? Even men walking alone are not necessarily safe.

Or……

This woman is confident in her ability to protect herself?

"You guys go out from the south gate and find a place to hide."

Unable to determine whether the newcomers were friends or enemies, Phoenix thought for a moment and then waved to the five mass-produced Nikkis to leave. Then, he stood up and dived into the darkness under Watson's confused expression, not knowing what was going on.

Tens of seconds later...

squeak-

The iron gate of the factory on the west side was slowly pushed open, revealing a gap that was only wide enough for one person to enter and exit. The faint light outside the block couldn't wait to penetrate the crack in the door, leaving a trace on the ground before being ruthlessly swallowed up by the darkness.

The woman in the long robe and hood was standing at the door and did not move in.

Come to think of it, this isn't a courage-testing game for paranormal enthusiasts. Plus, it's a factory inside, and if you accidentally trip, you might end up crashing into some metal object and die.

Inside the door, Phoenix explained the other party's behavior in his heart.

Outside the door, in the floating point image in the consciousness map, the woman had already reached out her right hand to touch her plump and round thighs.

To be honest, Phoenix doesn't have a voyeuristic habit. After all, he is not a real sex-crazed person or an unscrupulous gangster.

Therefore, when he saw the woman outside the door take out a cylindrical object from her robe and use her thumb to open the pull ring...

He was a little confused.

Fortunately, the conditioned reflex he had cultivated over a long period of time did not fail at this critical moment. The next moment, he was forced to complete the standard evasive actions of lying down, holding his head, and covering his ears.

However, what Phoenix could never have imagined was that the thing thrown in from outside the door was neither a high-explosive grenade nor a smoke bomb.

Rather, it was a flash stun grenade that the Ark military had stopped producing for a hundred years.

boom!

The noise of over 100 decibels hammered into the man's eardrum like a sledgehammer, stirring up the lymph fluid in his ear.

The sense of balance disappeared at this moment.

Instead, there was a sickening spinning of the head and a tinnitus so terrifying that it made the brain tremble.

It was like there were hundreds of pile drivers drilling madly right next to his ears, tormenting Phoenix so much that he wished he could puncture his own eardrums with his own hands.

[It's not a flashbang, it's a stun grenade. Phoenix, that's just a stun grenade.]

In the sea of ​​consciousness, Anik, who was not affected by the physical condition of the "host", spoke anxiously in her electronic synthesized voice.

[There is a 99.99% chance that this is a homemade stun grenade. If it was a military grenade, you would have fainted by now at such a close distance.]

[…Dear Ms. Smart Detective.]

Even though someone's head was still buzzing and he had already entered a semi-trance state, he still suppressed the pain and gave his voice assistant a bad review.

[The point is not... this. ]

【…】

With these six words, Anik was successfully silenced.

This guy's words were realistic. No matter whether the other party threw a military flash grenades or a hand-made earth stun grenade, he was already in a state of being hit.

Right now, the most important thing is to find ways to ensure your own safety, rather than worrying about why the other party has non-lethal weapons.

[Can you still get up? That woman is about to come in...]

Anik is anxious.

At that time, she had repeatedly confirmed Phoenix's comprehensive score in the terminal room: excellent self-protection ability, flexible thinking logic, and a rebellious mind that was not very loyal to the Ark. No matter from which aspect, this man was her best choice to break free from her body and escape from the Ark.

Who would have thought that just over half a month later, an unexpected earth-shattering bomb would knock down the victim she had been thinking about...

We must find a way.

She is an artificial intelligence with her own personality. Even without powerful computing power and database, she still has the ability to think.

[By the way, those Nikkis... since they were smuggled to the Outer Edge, their files must have been cancelled.]

In an instant, Anik found a glimmer of hope in the desperate situation, and decisively issued protection orders to the five Nikkis outside the factory.

Even if there is a tiny chance that doing so will expose her identity and whereabouts.

……

……

"Ahhhh~ Such a strong smell of blood, did a gang fight just happen, Watson?"

The woman in a long robe walked into the factory with a twisted step, and she didn't forget to give a pretentious and charming laugh.

Then, she, who was also immersed in the darkness, turned around and looked behind her. In the black night, a pair of dark red pupils emitted a faint glow.

"Hmm~ Why is there a man lying on the ground behind this door?"

After saying that, the woman was about to walk forward to take a closer look, but unexpectedly there was a loud bang at the south gate of the factory.

Clang——!!

After receiving the "imperial edict" without Anik's stamp, the five Nikkis rushed in directly, turned their eyes to the gray-robed woman, and warned nervously:

"Please be mindful of your behavior!"

In a word,

Plus these people,

The complicated situation in the factory was probably beyond the woman's expectations.

"Huh? You weren't taken away?" She turned around, and as if she had seen a miracle, a hint of surprise appeared on her face under the hood.

Then, the woman looked at Watson, who was also tortured by the stun grenade on the ground, and then looked back at the strange man hiding behind the door. A bold and somewhat ridiculous guess rose from the bottom of her heart.

"Could it be that he asked you to hide?"

"..."

Asked, got no answer.

Among the five mass-produced Nikkis, the one with the least experience, saw that the other four were silent, so she took a step forward and said in a tough tone:

"Again, please be careful with your behavior!"

"..."

The woman seemed to be confused by the attitude of the mass-produced Nikki. After a long while, she replied with a smile:

"Well, let's make a deal. You tell me everything you know, and I leave immediately after listening.

How is it? Isn’t it a good deal? "

……

……

Fifteen minutes later,

"Sir, are you feeling okay?"

When Phoenix gradually recovered and came to his senses, he was already in an abandoned carport. Among the five mass-produced Nikkis, two were protecting him on the left and right, and the other three, according to Anik, were guarding around the carport.

They cannot resist human orders, nor can they harm humans.