Chapter 350: Is This Some Kind of Entertainment Program?
Ice flooded Tsukishiro Yanagi's veins, freezing her in place. The sensation crawled from the soles of her boots straight to the crown of her head, as if an invisible, suffocating hand had suddenly clamped down around her heart. She was Section 6's anchor—always the composed, hyper-rational deputy. But right now? The mere thought of Miyabi trapped alone inside a transport vehicle bound for an unknown destination, surrounded by enemies coveting her core powers... it broke her composure entirely.
And here they were, her companions, circling aimlessly outside. A crushing wave of panic and bitter self-reproach threatened to swallow Yanagi whole.
"We have to go back. We must support the Section Chief immediately!" Yanagi's voice, usually a steady cadence of logic, fractured. A faint tremor bled into her words. She pivoted on her heel, boots scraping harshly against the concrete, ready to abandon their route to Belobog Heavy Industries and sprint in the opposite direction.
"Section Chief! Calm down!" Harumasa's reflexes flared. Quick-eyed and faster-handed, he lunged forward, his fingers locking around Yanagi's arm like a vice.
His tone lacked its usual laid-back drawl. It was dead-serious, carrying a heavy, grounding weight. "We are only a few blocks away from Belobog Heavy Industries! Bringer's criminal evidence is sitting right in front of us!"
"If we abandon the mission now and turn back, there's no guarantee we'll even catch that transport vehicle. And even if we do? Without hard evidence, what exactly are we going to use to accuse a high-ranking Public Security Officer who is literally about to run for Director-General?"
Harumasa tightened his grip, forcing her to look at him. "He'll just bite back. He'll twist the narrative, and we'll be the ones thrown into a completely passive, defenseless situation!"
He stared intently into Yanagi's wide eyes, rapidly breaking down the tactical reality. "Supporting Miyabi is critical, yes. But splitting into two groups is the absolute optimal solution we have right now!"
"We hit Belobog Heavy Industries. We secure the evidence proving Bringer's involvement—or his outright leadership—in this entire conspiracy. Only then can we fundamentally rip this problem out by the roots and legitimately rescue the Section Chief! As for Miyabi's side..."
Harumasa's gaze shifted, seemingly piercing through the lens of their communicator to focus on Wise and Zhu Yuan. "...we have to rely on the Proxy and Officer Zhu Yuan."
Miles away, standing inside the dimly lit Random Play video store, Zhu Yuan absorbed every word. The crushing gravity of the situation settled squarely onto her shoulders.
She took a slow, deep breath, her chest rising and falling as she leaned toward the communicator. When she spoke, her voice rang out clear, sharp, and unyielding.
"Deputy Section Chief Yanagi, please rest assured. I am Miyabi's friend, too. I will absolutely not stand by and watch her be taken! I will bring her back safely. Leave her to me. As for Belobog Heavy Industries... I leave that battlefield to you!"
Zhu Yuan's fierce determination, fueled by a deep, protective loyalty, acted like a bucket of ice water over Yanagi's head. It snapped the pink-haired deputy out of her spiraling panic.
Yanagi stopped dead in her tracks. She raised both hands and slapped her own cheeks—smack!—forcing her racing mind to reboot.
Harumasa and Zhu Yuan were right. Blind impulsiveness wouldn't save Miyabi; it would only drag Section 6 deeper into the mud.
"...I apologize. I lost my composure." When Yanagi opened her eyes again, the frantic tremor was gone. The sharp, calculating gleam of a seasoned operative had returned, though a heavy shadow of worry still lurked deep within her irises.
"Harumasa, Soukaku. We proceed with the mission. Target: Belobog Heavy Industries. We tear that place apart until we find the key evidence!"
"Understood!" Harumasa and Soukaku barked in unison, their weapons ready.
Yanagi gave a sharp hand signal. In a blur of motion, the three elite operatives—dragging a thoroughly bewildered Pearlman along by the collar—melted into the urban shadows, sprinting toward the looming industrial district.
The comms line clicked shut, plunging the channel into temporary silence.
Inside the video store, Zhu Yuan turned to look at Wise. Their eyes met, and in that split second, a silent, absolute consensus was formed.
"Wise, I need full tactical support from Eous and Fairy!" Zhu Yuan demanded, her tone clipped and urgent. "I have to intercept that transport vehicle right now!"
"Eous is locked and loaded!" Wise didn't waste a single breath. He scooped up the newly returned Bangboo from the counter and shoved it directly into Zhu Yuan's waiting arms.
Zhu Yuan spun on her heel and bolted out the front door, sprinting toward her PubSec patrol car parked at the curb. She threw herself into the driver's seat, slammed the ignition, and punched the siren. The emergency lights flared to life, painting the dark street in frantic flashes of red and blue. She reached for the dash radio, preparing to scream at the traffic control center for the transport vehicle's live GPS coordinates.
Before her finger could even depress the transmit button, Wise's voice crackled through Eous's built-in speaker. He sounded slightly breathless, but carried the distinct, smug relief of a man wielding vastly superior technology.
"Save your breath, Zhu Yuan! Fairy already hijacked their signal and locked onto the transport! It's not heading to PubSec Headquarters or any standard detention facility. The route is locked—it's driving straight toward the Civic Center Plaza. Bringer's election speech venue!"
"The speech venue?" Zhu Yuan's stomach plummeted. Why there? In a densely packed public square swarming with civilians and media, what exactly was the enemy planning to do with a captive Section Chief?
"Here's the real problem," Wise's voice grew tight with anxiety. "The main arterial road leading to the Civic Center Plaza is currently hitting peak rush hour. It's a parking lot out there! Given the current gridlock, there is absolutely zero chance you can intercept them by car before they arrive!"
"Then what do we do?!" Zhu Yuan roared over the wailing siren, aggressively wrenching the steering wheel. The heavy patrol car violently hopped the curb, swerving down a narrow back alley to bypass a line of stalled sedans. Even with evasive driving, crossing half of New Eridu in this traffic was a mathematical impossibility.
"I have a route!" Wise's fingers flew across his keyboards back in the store, the clatter echoing through the comms. "According to the city's Hollows distribution grid, there's an active anomaly formed inside an abandoned subway tunnel. The exit node spits out right next to the speech venue! If you punch straight through that dead-end Hollow, you bypass all surface traffic and cut the travel time by eighty percent!"
Crossing a Hollow in a patrol car? Zhu Yuan's knuckles turned white against the leather steering wheel. As a veteran Public Security Officer, she knew exactly how suicidal it was to plunge a standard vehicle into a high-ether corrosion zone. But right now? It was the only card they had left to play.
"Upload the route map to my dash!" Zhu Yuan didn't hesitate for a fraction of a second, her eyes burning with fierce resolve. "We're going through the Hollow!"
The patrol car's engine roared like a caged beast as she slammed the accelerator to the floor. The vehicle tore out of the alley, rocketing toward the next major intersection. Looming ahead was a heavily barricaded, sealed subway entrance—a festering, purple-hued corrosion zone bleeding ether into the air.
While Zhu Yuan wrestled the speeding vehicle through the treacherous, shifting geometry of the Hollow path mapped out by Wise and Fairy, the Proxy was fighting his own battle behind the monitors.
Wise's mind raced, sifting through his contacts. He remembered someone specific—Lycaon.
Victoria Housekeeping Co. had dealt with high-level Hollow anomalies and elite Eridu factions for years. If anyone knew the hidden mechanics behind the Hoshimi family's bloodline and Miyabi's inherited katana, Tailless, it would be them.
He punched in the encrypted frequency. The line connected. After a rapid-fire, breathless explanation of the crisis, Lycaon's smooth, impeccably polite voice replied. Though the wolf-therian claimed it was slightly outside his immediate jurisdiction, the rapid clicking of a keyboard in the background proved his hands were already moving to help.
Seconds later, the communication line was forcefully rerouted. A new voice filled Wise's headset—a steady, authoritative, and deeply weathered middle-aged man. It was Hoshimi Soichiro...
Meanwhile, inside the heavily armored, sealed compartment of the smoothly rolling transport vehicle.
Hoshimi Miyabi sat perfectly upright on the cold metal bench. Heavy, ether-suppressing handcuffs locked her wrists together, yet her face betrayed absolutely zero panic. She looked less like a high-value prisoner and more like a bored commuter waiting for her stop.
Sitting directly across from her was not some grunt escort officer. It was a woman draped in a sharply tailored, high-end designer suit. She radiated a cold, predatory elegance. This was Sarah—the true, hidden mastermind orchestrating the Vision Corporation scandal.
Sarah leaned forward, her eyes lazily raking over Miyabi's restrained form. A mysterious, deeply arrogant smile played at the corners of her lips.
Miyabi slowly raised her eyelids. Her striking crimson eyes swept over the woman with the kind of dull indifference usually reserved for a speck of dust on a windshield. Her voice was cool, crisp, and utterly devoid of fear. "It's fine. You alone pose absolutely no threat to me."
It wasn't arrogance. It was a simple statement of fact, born from a lifetime of absolute, overwhelming strength.
The smug smile on Sarah's face only deepened. She slowly stood up, the heels of her shoes clicking sharply against the metal floorboards, and walked toward the empty seat beside Miyabi. Resting quietly on the bench was Miyabi's legendary katana—Tailless.
Miyabi didn't even twitch. She watched Sarah's approaching hand without making a single move to stop her. In Miyabi's mind, the logic was flawless: no one in this world except herself could draw Tailless from its scabbard. Sarah's little performance was entirely futile.
Sarah reached out, her manicured fingers brushing against the freezing, ornate metal of the scabbard. She tilted her head, locking eyes with the Section Chief. "Is that really so?"
Moving with practiced precision, Sarah executed a preset instruction. She pressed her thumb firmly against a tiny, hidden biometric identification plate located just beneath the tsuba.
She gripped the hilt, fully intending to unlock the mechanism and draw the legendary blade right in front of its master.
However... the blade refused to budge.
Tailless lay dead and heavy in her grip, the locking mechanism completely unresponsive. It felt less like a divine weapon and more like a stubborn, fused block of scrap iron.
The triumphant smirk on Sarah's face instantly shattered. She blinked, adjusting her grip. She tried again, pressing her thumb down on the scanner with enough force to turn her knuckle white. She yanked her arm upward, muscles straining against the hilt.
Still locked. A complete, humiliating failure.
"What is going on?" Sarah hissed under her breath, a sharp flicker of genuine surprise and mounting confusion cracking her elegant facade. This was absolutely not how the simulation had gone.
Miyabi sat quietly, watching Sarah violently wrestle with the sword like a frustrated child trying to open a jar. A faint, almost imperceptible glimmer of dry amusement flashed through Miyabi's crimson eyes.
She tilted her head slightly, her voice laced with deadpan curiosity. "Is this some sort of... entertainment program you've prepared for me?"
Sarah didn't answer. Her face darkened into an ugly scowl. Abandoning the sword, she immediately tapped the hidden earpiece tucked beneath her hair, her voice dropping into a furious, panicked whisper. "White Noise! Thousand Faces! What the hell is going on?! The scabbard won't unlock!"
Frantic electronic tones and panicked typing bled through the earpiece. "...We're detecting a massive firewall! The scabbard's encryption algorithm has been reinforced by an unknown external source! The entire digital structure is completely different from our intel! We need more time to re-crack it!"
"Damn it!" Sarah cursed viciously, slamming her fist against the metal wall. Time was already up. She could feel the heavy transport vehicle decelerating, the brakes whining as it prepared to pull into its final destination.
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]