NIKKE, When the Milky Way Blossoms

Thank goodness, Commander was just playing a prank after all...

"I said it would be at least two hundred."

Anise: "..."

What does two hundred Lechers mean?

It's like having about two hundred heavily armed machine guns right in front of you. Even if you hide behind cover or underground, they can still force you out with their firepower.

"So how did the commander escape?"

After the initial shock, Lapi quickly realized a problem more important than the two hundred Lechers. And it was precisely because of her question that a sense of unease arose in the hearts of the other six Nikis.

How did the commander survive?

If we rephrase this question, it would be: Why was only the commander the only one who survived?

“I didn’t need to escape because I didn’t let those Lechers find Team 055-A.”

Sensing the growing suspicion in the air, Phoenix, who had a fairly good understanding of the game's plot, carefully considered his words and slowly said:

"The morning after I discovered the Lecher Group, when I woke up, all four members of my squad had disappeared."

Instead of telling the girls the truth directly, the man chose to mix truth with falsehood, weaving a lie that wasn't entirely false as a way of dealing with them.

In fact, his four mass-produced Nikis had already been used as bargaining chips by the Ark's main AI, Anik, before they even left the Ark. After their systems were infected with viruses, they were sent to the ground to be used as expendable resources by Lecher.

Using history from the previous life as an example, the Ark on the ground is the Song Dynasty, and Lecher is the Liao Dynasty. The Ark ceded territory and paid reparations just to prevent Lecher from launching a full-scale attack, clinging to life with the spirit of living one day at a time.

The difference is that, at least the Song Dynasty's treaty was signed by humans, while the Ark was a "contract" signed secretly between artificial intelligence and Lecher behind the backs of humans.

It's hard to say whether anyone else among humanity, besides him, this transmigrator who achieved a dimensional reduction attack, knows about this.

Therefore, even if the truth were told to the Lapis, they probably wouldn't believe it.

As I said before, he is a time traveler. He knows these characters who once lived on paper and is familiar with their experiences, so he naturally feels a sense of familiarity and closeness to them.

but!

From the perspective of Labi, Anis, and others, he was just a commander they had known for less than 24 hours who possessed a strange ability to escape.

No one of normal intelligence would trust him completely.

drop--

Just as Phoenix was observing the expressions of Labi and the others after hearing the lie, a series of ethereal alerts suddenly emanated from the flat radar map in his mind.

Beep be ...

Suddenly, countless flashing red dots appeared at the edge of the radar map.

An encirclement?!

The man, realizing a certain possibility, instantly fixed his gaze on the newly arrived support troops.

Sugar, Pepper, Merry...

Which of them was infected with the virus by Anick?!

Or...

All three are ???

Chapter Seven: That sniper shot was awesome!

"All personnel, activate combat mode. Lapi and Lorf will be in one group to provide rear protection. Anise and Christine, you two will be in one group with me to lead the way. Support troops, make sure you are in the middle of the group and take responsibility for the targets on both sides."

The front, middle, and rear lines should maintain a distance of twelve meters between each other.

As he spoke, Phoenix handed the anti-materiel sniper rifle slung over his shoulder to Anise. Seeing this, the girl cleverly stepped forward, smiling as she took the commander's weapon and slung it over her back.

For humans, carrying a load of more than 20 kilograms would definitely cause inconvenience in movement, but this weight is nothing to Niki.

"Everyone stay close to me. If anyone falls behind, report to me immediately."

Under the questioning gazes of Labi and the others, Phoenix took a step without hesitation and began to run at a steady pace according to the map in his mind.

"Erosion"—this is the name the Ark Command used to refer to the virus designed by Anik without their knowledge.

"Phoenix" neither knows nor should know about "Erosion," which is a plausible persona someone has created for themselves based on their military academy education and combat experience.

Furthermore, while 600 meters isn't exactly close, it's not far enough for him to have enough time to pick out the corrupted Niki from the group.

So Phoenix made a bold assumption in his mind.

The corrupted Niki do not obey Anik; they simply lead people to Anik and Lecher's "delivery point" without their knowledge.

In fact, they still maintain the awareness of obeying their commanders and the corresponding combat capabilities.

In other words, there are still seven... no, not counting Pepper who can't even load her ammunition properly, there are still six non-mass-produced Nikis in her team who are capable of fighting.

If you include yourself, that makes seven people.

Seven people...

If each person can kill ten Lechers, that's seventy Lechers...

What are you still running for?!

Instead of wasting time trying to escape while locked in place, it's better to turn the tables and wipe out these annoying mechanical spiders!

【stop! 】

Upon reaching the foot of a pedestrian bridge, Phoenix suddenly raised his hand to stop moving forward, then clenched his right fist, pressed it firmly against the side of his head, and then forcefully opened his five fingers.

[Find cover! Spread out!]

Seeing this, the Lapi and his companions, who were still unclear about what was going on, first glanced at their teammates, and then each looked for suitable cover.

Anis seemed to understand perfectly, and without anyone saying a word, she consciously handed the sniper rifle on her back back to her commander.

Unfortunately, ideals are often grand, but reality always seems to have a way of slapping them in the face, making them savor the feeling of being so full of promise.

As a medical support staff member, Pepper blinked her innocent big eyes, looking just like a little pink duck that had fallen behind. She took a step to the left with her shotgun, but then felt something was wrong, so she turned to the right, but still felt something was wrong.

In the end, she chose to stand still, and said with a wronged expression:

"Senior, what does the commander's action mean?"

“I’m not entirely sure either, but… it doesn’t seem like we’re free to do whatever we want.” Merri, slightly embarrassed, picked up her shotgun and asked the question on behalf of Pepper and herself in the squad voice chat.

However, to Merri's surprise, the response she received was not from the commander's hoarse voice, but from a deafening gunshot.

Zzz—BOOM—!!!

The muzzle of the anti-material sniper cannon, with its palm-sized muzzle brake, emitted a brilliant blue flame. The exploding gas expanded, instantly creating a visible ripple in the air across the ground, which had been covered in dust for over a century.

Guided by the sniper scope, the specially designed heavy armor-piercing rounds struck like a hammer striking tofu, instantly shattering a corner wall more than 400 meters away.

Then, behind the wall, before a moving Lecher could react, half of its main body was blasted into fragments by an armor-piercing shell.

"Cough, vomit—cough!!!"

Under Pepper's dumbfounded gaze and Merri's gasp of surprise, the person whose body was numb on one side from the recoil was already bent over, coughing uncontrollably.

I wish I could cough my lungs out of my throat.

"This...cough!!! This is too...cough—! Powerful..."

"Commander! Are you alright?"

Seeing that the commander looked like he was in the late stages of tuberculosis, Anise instinctively wanted to step forward to help him, but then she saw the commander jabbing his left hand forward and saying intermittently:

"Up ahead... the toy store mascot... cough!"

"what?"

Following the man's hand, a bewildered and confused Anise spotted the toy store mascot at the crossroads that the commander had mentioned—a chibi-style unicorn bathed in sunlight until it was pure white.

What do you mean?

Commander, you can't... you can't let her carry this thing away, can you?

The absurd idea had just surfaced in Anis's mind when he heard clear instructions from his superiors.

"aim."

"aim?"

"Quickly...aim."

In the past, faced with such a nonsensical order, Anise, with her fiery temper, would definitely have openly or subtly complained to her boss.

However, Phoenix's incredible wall-penetrating aiming had truly shocked her, causing Anise to raise the grenade launcher's muzzle with some skepticism and seriously aim at the pure white unicorn in the distance.

"emission."

boom!

boom! ! !