Chapter 855: NO.224: How is it you! You loser!

NO. 224: How is it you! You loser!

Zhouri Ningjing had heard a saying: everything is difficult at the beginning.

She agreed with it.

As a member of the Inquiry Committee, the 'Omnipotence Department' of the URA Association, she, like her other colleagues, was often assigned strange commissions.

Many commissions were such that she didn't even know where to start, so she had a deep understanding of that saying.

She also never hesitated to seek help.

Even if the other party was the Qianming representative she greatly disliked, or the Aomo Lindun she increasingly despised, she was just as willing to lower herself to solve the problem.

The nickname 'Black Sunday' was originally a name she earned in the past; growing up in Chazuo and even becoming a trainer, Zhouri Ningjing was more often just a member of the Inquiry Committee.

Staying in the URA Association she once looked down on, she gradually shaped the image of a 'reliable friend', and while waiting for an opportunity, she sought to mold it into that of an 'older sister'.

Although she was originally the older sister of Chazuo.

She was taking the stable detour she could best accept, but that detour was not smooth all the way.

Because the association's work itself carried the sludge of mediocrity.

It would let her, who already resigned herself to mediocrity, see even more mediocrity.

Bureaucratic mediocrity, mediocre handling, mediocre thinking inertia.

It is very ordinary, appears non‑coercive, and is something that shows up more or less in everyone's life.

It makes you short of breath when you need to go further, and when you want to change you choose compromise; you loathe it intensely yet cannot grasp its substance.

It turns into numbness, lurking in every aspect of your life and post, and gradually makes you increasingly impatient with those unlike you.

Don't they ever get tired?

Don't they know how to give up?

Could it be that they…… can't understand speech!?

She actually knew, knew that her dislike for these people wasn't just because 'someone always rummages through her hidden past with unclean hands'.

She knew she had long stopped fighting the outside world, and was instead resisting the projection of herself from her inner world outward.

When acting together with Chengtian Bairen and the Qianming representative, she repeatedly had to face the gaze of the Qianming representative she loathed, and each time their blue eyes met, it felt like an interrogation.

Unlike the relatively restrained Aomo Lindun, the Qianming representative always loved to meddle; when she seemed restrained, you had to guard against her attacking from another angle.

Zhouri Ningjing had indeed known her for a long time, long enough to grow accustomed to the 'extreme views' mixed into her ordinary talk.

Like the remark 'Do you hate Aomo, or are you hating yourself?'—such words could be slipped into casual chat by that person, suddenly stabbing out like an assassination dagger, easily tugging at her nerves.

But frankly, even if Aomo Lindun didn't drop a 'true damage' out of the blue, it could still make Zhouri Ningjing's veins bulge.

So she couldn't conclude which of the two raised her blood pressure more.

All she could say was that both were quite annoying.

If there was a chance to avoid them, it was best not to meet, unless there was a chance to mock and retaliate.

So when Aomo's side sent intelligence, letting her fulfill her role as an 'information relay' and pass it to the association's superiors, she considered her wish fulfilled.

In the new orders issued from above, her teammates lacked not only Chengtian Bairen and the Qianming representative; even if those two wanted to appear, she had to take responsibility for stopping them.

The reason, as Ailisuzhi said in the activity room, was that the association could not bear the public‑relations risk of letting a Triple Crown horse girl be in danger.

They even had to stop them if the other side intended to get involved.

However, for now neither her intelligence network nor the association had sent word of this; although she didn't know whether to regret missing a showdown with the Qianming representative, she had to admit that losing those two teammates lowered her solo efficiency considerably.

Perhaps the saying 'Everything is hard at the beginning' should also have a suffix added:

When a task is half‑done and you set it aside, trying to pick it up again becomes even harder.

Yesterday, while merging with Aomo's intelligence, she temporarily halted her investigation, waiting for the association's next order; once she actually received it, she had to confront unfamiliar intel and remake her plan.

This process was nothing short of agonizing, and in the ensuing action she still had to cope with insufficient intelligence details.

What does insufficiency mean? It means that although she could follow the intel's mention of a 'weak point in the artificial‑brain‑built audit system and firewall', after sneaking in via the network she would have to face the fact that Aomo, while having mentioned the starship's room structures, gave no deeper information.

For example, what is the password of this encrypted gate before her?

Right now she is in a sealed space filled with artificially discharged black mist that impairs visual perception; according to Aomo's intel, this is an area he himself could never truly enter, and Zhouri Ningjing knows she must improvise, first considering operating the room's system to clear the mist.

But she was first stopped by an electronic lock.

Although it seemed she could also try contacting the other extraterrestrial agents the association had dispatched for help.

But considering that those guys initially didn't even give the starship‑room intel that Aomo did, it's easy to guess that their work is neither thorough nor meticulous.

Although they're all mercenaries, has the quality gap already become apparent……?

That guy has only been a mercenary for less than a year, right?

To be frank, out of personal feeling she doesn't really want to praise Aomo Lindun's ability.

But if she belittled his ability, it would also make Chazuo look lower‑ranked, so she avoids the topic; instead she wonders whether she might run into the police side's agents and then go head‑to‑head with the door system before her.

She is a horse girl from Anmei District; living in that urban area, especially where security is poor, hacking skills are a must.

Even if you don't engage in illegal intrusion, you should still learn self‑defense; Zhouri Ningjing started that way, and once she grew accustomed to the convenience of her spirit body, it was like adding wings to a tiger.

But the encryption system of alien tech from another world clearly still has substance; Zhouri Ningjing was stuck here for five or six minutes, and just when she finally managed to open it…… she heard a familiar voice.

"Is it okay to let them go to the ambush site? My Lord Alliance, although Ultraman Jie De is poor at reacting to sudden attacks, Ultraman Sai Luo is largely……"

Before the voice finished speaking, she—though lacking eyes—could feel her vision clearly swept over, and instantly turned into the black mist blending with the environment, making Zhouri Ningjing struggle to steady her state.

If she were humanoid, she would likely be a silent, tense figure.

"What is this black mist?"

That familiar sound, the way that guy puts on an act, differs greatly from his usual tone; it is largely achieved by using the power of the so‑called 'monster card' itself to alter his voice.

Add to that his tall, exotic form, and even Zhouri Ningjing looking at him cannot deny that he now gives off a natural sense of abnormality, a feeling of 'utterly non‑human', even more inorganic than the creature beside him with three tendrils on its head.

But as she examined his appearance, the V‑shaped dark‑blue crystal tube on his face suddenly pointed at her, making her instinctively turn her head, and only later realize her rashness.

Judging a stranger by sight alone makes him easy to counter‑spy; after retrieving that basic intel, she stopped directly watching the two who entered the room and instead turned her gaze to where the black mist was.

Alliance Lord?

Ah, I seem to have an illusion.

An illusion?

It seems the timing of this door opening is faster than the moment I entered the password by a few hundredths of a second.

"Perhaps a fly got in," that guy said, words that made Zhouri Ningjing hold her breath, then he also said words that raised her blood pressure, "but it's not worth worrying about, the guy still wobbling in the spaceship at this critical moment has a disability when it comes to sniffing out clue information."

You'd better not have done it on purpose…… Zhouri Ningjing stared at the black mist in the distance, doing her best to maintain the stability of her own vaporized state.

No matter how corroded by the poison of mediocrity, her old skills from the past won't be abandoned, although she is more adept at the destructive phase after retrieving something.

Indeed it's not worth mentioning, but to call it a fly is rather hasty, Mefilas; you know that in the past two days, that artificial brain thing has had plenty of problems.

Is my fellow otherworldly kin going to be busy again?

The engineer isn't just him either, the Hippolytian laughed, the combat power of Mefilas people is generally considerable; he'd still be more effective on the battlefield.

Indeed it's the most efficient choice, so would it lead to the previous problem?

The previous problem… ah, these black mists, right? He realized, then casually said, "It's a confidentiality measure to prevent certain guys from using superpowers; it's easy to clean up, namely that device over there."

Having said that, he pulled down the crossbar outside Zhouri Ningjing's view, and then a noticeable blowing sound rang out.

The black mist that had filled Zhouri Ningjing's field of view quickly thinned and dissipated, revealing the bright light within, also causing Zhouri Ningjing to instinctively contract her soul body toward the shadowy corner.

——But this step of hers also got stuck.

It wasn't because the device inside the spaceship for absorbing souls noticed her, but her gaze was firmly drawn to the copper-toned figure in the culture tank.

That is a horse girl.

A well-known horse girl.

She is also the horse girl whom everyone has grown accustomed to occasionally disappearing; besides her physical form, there faintly exists a phantom likewise wrapped in the copperization effect.

In a stance of standing tall with arms outstretched, like an embracing protective pose, it captured almost all of Mefilas's attention.

He hadn't expected to see her, and at this moment he also recalled what the Hippolytians said about 'that guy even Ashaburu doesn't know,' gaining another layer of understanding.

Ultraman Ace, the orphan saved from war by Zoffi, who has close ties with Alien Baburu and the Hippolytians, is the uncle that Sai Luo hasn't mentioned these days……

UltramanAce/Ultraman Ace

He hung there.

With a familiar copper statue outline.

Like a recreation of some famous scene.