Chapter 1881: Chapter 1879: Hio (The Dream I Forgot Today)
"Ugh......"
Alisa opened her eyes, staring blankly at the tattered ceiling in front of her.
How long had it been since then?
Alisa slowly turned her head, glancing around, but at this moment, she couldn’t even think properly. Ever since that day, the day of the attack, she had been like this.
"—————!!"
A sharp pain shot through Alisa’s right hand, causing her to let out a low moan. Turning her head, she saw that her right hand had completely transformed, no longer resembling a human arm, but more like a limb of some kind of creature.
"Has the transformation into a Wild God... begun?"
Seeing this, Alisa bit her lip as a sense of powerlessness washed over her.
God Eaters are not perfect warriors.
They have undergone Oracle Cell injections, granting them strength and speed beyond that of ordinary humans. This is why Alisa could wield a greatsword heavier than herself with one hand. But conversely, it’s a double-edged sword. In fact, the huge bangle-like object on a God Eater’s arm is a type of "suppressor." Without this suppressor, a God Eater injected with Oracle Cells would inevitably start transforming into a Wild God, eventually becoming an entirely new Wild God.
Alisa was the same. In a previous battle, in her bid to seek support, she left the battlefield, but what she encountered afterward was a nightmare she had never imagined.
The Wild God that had once killed her parents appeared before her again, leading a pack of Wild Gods to attack Alisa.
Although Alisa fought with all her might to kill those Wild Gods and even managed to injure the leader of the giant Wild God, forcing it to flee, during this final strike, Alisa’s bangle was shattered, causing her to lose consciousness.
When she woke up again, it was in this rundown house.
I have to go back, I have to tell everyone the director’s plan...
Thinking of this, Alisa struggled to stand up, but her legs were completely powerless, trembling uncontrollably at just a slight movement.
".........?"
And just at this moment, Alisa suddenly felt a cool sensation on her right hand, which felt like it was burning, which gave her some relief. She turned her head to look beside her, only to see a girl with short white hair, wearing a tattered cloak, sitting next to her, gazing at her with concern.
"Hio......"
Looking at the girl in front of her, Alisa called out softly. The girl blinked curiously, staring back at her.
Although she had no memory, this girl had been by her side ever since she woke up, so it could be inferred that she had rescued her. But what troubled Alisa was that the girl seemed to lack any ability to interact with others. She didn’t even know how to speak and couldn’t understand what Alisa was saying.
She didn’t even have a name.
At first, the girl could only make sounds like "ah" and "ugh," but gradually, she began imitating Alisa’s speech like a baby. Because she didn’t have a name, Alisa gave her the name "Hio."
But how did this child survive?
Alisa found the girl to be full of mystery. In the Wasteland World, a small child surviving alone would be nearly impossible. Although it’s possible she lost her parents at a very young age, if she had been raised by parents, she should at least have some basic communication skills. Why was she like a baby...
But none of this was important.
She had to go back, back to inform everyone of the director’s conspiracy... but right now, Alisa couldn’t even move, and Hio didn’t understand anything about God Eaters or Fenrir, and her communication abilities were very limited. It was impossible to rely on her to pass on messages. Furthermore, Alisa was worried that if the director found out, Hio might be put in danger.
Is there no other option but to rely on the search efforts? But with Fenrir’s manpower...
Thinking this, Alisa fell into deep despair.
However, somewhere beyond Alisa’s imagination...
"Did you find anything over there?"
"No, there’s nothing."
"Thanks, could you move on to another area?"
"No problem."
Looking at the enthusiastic players leaving in front of her, Feli sighed and frowned at the map in front of her.
"Something feels off."
"Off?"
"Yes, indeed."
With Feli’s comment, Misaka Mikoto looked puzzled, while Kuroko Shirai seemed to understand and nodded.
"According to those who acted with Miss Alisa at the time, they encountered a considerable number of Wild Gods. In such a situation, Miss Alisa intended to hold them off so they could escape, but she eventually left due to their insistence. With Miss Alisa’s character, she should have immediately returned to Fenrir for support."
"But it seems Miss Alisa was attacked during her journey... hmm?"
At this moment, Saten Reiko seemed to have realized something, and Kuroko Shirai nodded in agreement.
"That’s right. If nothing happened to her, she should have exhausted all her strength to return. Even if we think of the worst-case scenario, since we didn’t find Miss Alisa’s... remains, it shows she’s probably alive. But this contradiction arises."
"A contradiction?"
"Yes, if Miss Alisa is seriously injured, she shouldn’t have moved too far. But if her injuries aren’t severe, she should have returned to Fenrir quickly. Yet we’ve searched around Fenrir thoroughly, without finding anything. It’s strange."
"That’s how it is."
Feli nodded in agreement with Kuroko Shirai’s words. Upon hearing this, Saten Ruiko’s eyes suddenly lit up.
"Then, could it be that Alisa knows someone in Fenrir is against her, so she had to choose to run away? Look, didn’t those people also tell us that they suspect the minister has a plot to harm Alisa?"
"But in that case, she should have come to us first, yet up until now, there has been no news from the roaming bus or Jernie’s side, and none of the adventurers have found any clues."
"So, we have to expand our search range, is this really okay? I feel like it’s too much trouble for those adventurers."
Hearing this, Feli seemed a little uneasy. Honestly, because this time it was about their concern for a friend, they couldn’t offer any rewards to those ’adventurers.’ Initially, Feli was only trying it on a whim, but she didn’t expect that almost everyone agreed to her request. Even if they didn’t find anything, they showed no sign of discouragement and hoped Feli would continue to ask for their help.
At first, Feli doubted if the other side had any motives towards her, as such people existed in Jernie too, but she soon discovered that while those adventurers seemed to like her indeed, they genuinely wanted to help her with her requests. Occasionally, Feli even overheard those ’adventurers’ seriously discussing whether they had found any clues, not as if they were doing it just to please a woman.
These people are almost too good!
Because Feli and her friends had nothing to offer as compensation, these adventurers were basically working for free, which made Feli and her friends rack their brains, unable to understand why the other side was so committed to such a time and effort-consuming task with little to no gain.
"But since Little Hei said it’s fine, it should be fine, right."
Saten Ruiko expressed calmly.
"It’s great that everyone is such a good person."
"That’s true....."
"Wahaha, Miss Feli, we’ve found a clue!"
Just then, suddenly, a group of ’adventurers’ rushed in, greeting everyone cheerfully. The girls were used to this; these adventurers, although friendly, didn’t seem to care much about etiquette, and their demeanor towards them was somewhat different from how ordinary people interacted with them... all in all, it seemed like a characteristic unique to the Otherworlders?
"What clue? Did you find Miss Alisa?"
Hearing this, Saten Ruiko quickly asked, and the leading player shook his head.
"No, no, but I think it has something to do with Miss Alisa’s disappearance."
"Oh? Really?"
"Yes, yes."
The adventurer exchanged a glance with his companions, then spoke up.
"Didn’t we say that the minister must have some conspiracy to harm Miss Alisa? So we snuck into the base, trying to find any clues..."
"Uh..."
Hearing this, the girls showed slightly subtle expressions. The truth was, this wasn’t the first time they encountered such a situation. Although these Otherworld adventurers were very friendly and helpful, sometimes they could be quite self-centered, doing whatever came to mind without considering the consequences.
Like now, the girls couldn’t understand why almost all ’adventurers’ seemed to unanimously think that Minister Kalian was the Prime Culprit, desperately digging up all sorts of dark history and evidence, with seemingly no one doubting it. This made the girls feel somewhat... at a loss for words.
After all, sneaking into a moving city’s interior to investigate is technically illegal!
"Then we followed that minister and found a secret passage, leading to a very distant place, and it’s quite disgusting in there!"
"Quite..."
"...disgusting?"
Facing this unexpected adjective, the girls looked at each other in confusion. If it were terrifying or brutal, they would somewhat understand, but what was with it being quite disgusting?
"We found that the passage connects to a space covered with what looks like flesh or blood vessel-like things everywhere, resembling a scene from a B-grade horror film..."
"Yeah, yeah, it even harbors a giant creature, but then we were discovered by that man, and we died back here."
Died back here...
Hearing this, the girls were at a loss for words. They completely didn’t understand what this meant, but at least they got what the others did.
"What do you think? I feel that minister must have some conspiracy, why don’t we just go and crush him now?"
"This..."
Seeing the adventurer’s eyes shining with excitement, Feli, perplexed, exchanged looks with the others, then shook her head.
"Sorry, these clues aren’t enough right now, and honestly, we aren’t very familiar with the legacy of God Eaters. After all, we aren’t part of Fenrir; if we want to know what happened, we’ll probably need to find Miss Alisa..."
At this point, Feli secretly sighed in relief. She knew many of these adventurers were much stronger than herself, but what puzzled Feli was, even though the adventurers were much stronger than them, they seemed to insist on waiting for her orders before taking action.
Logically, if these adventurers wanted to attack Fenrir, they couldn’t stop them. But surprisingly, all the adventurers seemed to treat them as leaders, constantly asking if they should attack Fenrir, and even when refused, they weren’t discouraged or took action on their own, but instead continued with other tasks.
"So, the person who knows about the situation inside, got it!"
Hearing this, the adventurer nodded firmly and then directly led the others out, leaving Feli standing there dazed.
"I just now... didn’t say anything I shouldn’t have, right?"
"This... I don’t know either..."
For some reason, watching the adventurers’ retreating figures, the girls couldn’t shake off a sense of bad premonition deep in their hearts.
