Chapter 156: The Capable Bear the Burden

As a pragmatist, Hiroyuki found it completely impossible to understand Tregear's operations. It looked as though he had bound several entirely non-functional, purely decorative straps to his body simply to make the restraints appear symmetrical.

No, wait, they still served a purpose.

"...They act as a distraction against enemies."

After listening in for a moment and noticing Hiroyuki's expression of utter incomprehension, Taro stepped in to explain on Tregear's behalf. "If an enemy's goal is to destroy the restraints, the probability of them succeeding becomes very low. It has the effect of hiding a tree in a forest."

Once he finished speaking, Taro could not help but think: fortunately, the restraints Hiroyuki wore were fitted close to his body and wouldn't normally be seen by others. Otherwise, he would have been tempted to suggest that Hiroyuki also learn from Tregear and tie a few purely decorative straps around himself to scatter the enemy's targets.

Hearing Taro put it that way, Tregear did not react for a moment. It took him a beat to realize that this was indeed the case—so there was actually such an advantage? It was just that he genuinely hadn't encountered any... fellows who had tried to destroy the restraints on him yet.

Thinking of this, Tregear glanced at the two people in front of him who now knew the locations of the key devices for this set of restraints. Was it still too late to silence them? Then he reconsidered: the design blueprints had been left behind at the Science and Technology Bureau, which meant anyone who should know probably knew already... Should he be grateful that the Giants of Light did not have that many twists and turns in their minds?

But Taro... had he only just noticed this now? Or had he known all along...?

Tregear could not help thinking that once this matter was over, he would need to modify this set of restraints on his body as soon as possible. He needed to make the core devices even more miniaturized, preferably designing them so that the wearing position was not fixed, allowing him to swap locations from time to time to enhance security.

Meanwhile, Hiroyuki inexplicably felt a chill run through him. He turned his head to look at the central air conditioning control panel on the wall, suspecting that the temperature might have been set too low.

*

The captain was not in the room at the moment. He had just taken a call and stepped out into the hallway.

"Captain, there are some developments over here."

On the other end of the communication, Zero did not beat around the bush and went straight into his report, only to hear the captain let out a sigh. "Sigh, everything is piling up all at once... Go ahead, what's the situation?"

"Uh, right."

Zero quickly organized his thoughts in his mind and said, "The work to screen for accidental injury cases has made some progress. It happened in an apartment building in the Yui district. A resident living on the third floor was coming home from work, standing at his doorway pulling out his keys to open the door, when he was attacked from behind. Fortunately, the emergency stairwell was right next to him, and his reaction was fast; dragging his injuries, he ran all the way downstairs while shouting loudly for help. A helpful passerby called an ambulance and sent him to the hospital. After the incident, personnel from the Bureau of Unknown Affairs went to investigate the scene. Based on the situation there, they guessed that the attacker must have been hiding in the electrical distribution box opposite the door, seizing the opportunity to launch a sneak attack while the resident was opening the door with his back turned."

The Special Operations Team for Foreign Affairs Defense and Security was a combat unit, not an investigative one, so the investigation tasks were handled by the Bureau of Unknown Affairs. As for the operations team, they were merely synchronizing the investigative progress to prepare for subsequent combat missions.

"Did you find anything in the electrical distribution box?"

"Yes, the personnel found a metal box of unknown purpose inside the electrical distribution box. Its outer shell was slightly warm when discovered, and testing revealed that there was a generator inside the box, emitting a certain type of electrical wave to the outside world... Its waveform was almost identical to the Space Beast vibration wave, and its characteristics matched basically as well."

To be more precise, it was even clearer than the Space Beast vibration wave waveforms recorded on Earth, with less noise, requiring almost no noise reduction or post-processing. Therefore, Zero had also printed out a copy of this record, preparing to send it over to Daichi and X as a return gift.

Of course, a copy would also need to be left at the Land of Light's Science and Technology Bureau.

"In any case, we found a metal box to enclose this thing, and the Space Beast vibration wave response could no longer be detected from the outside. Quite simple, really. With this precedent, the research institute is now rushing to manufacture Space Beast vibration wave detection devices. They expect to complete about thirty sets by 10:00 AM tomorrow and equip them all to the patrol officers—yes, they were also coordinated by the Bureau of Unknown Affairs to come and help."

By then, the patrol officers would be split into thirty action squads, carrying the detection devices to sweep the streets.

"In addition, the personnel also found some residual slime in the electrical distribution box. Upon testing, its composition matches that of snail slime..." Stopping there, Zero paused for a moment, then said, "Since we suspect it's a Space Beast, it should mean that the Space Beast ate a snail and subsequently acquired some of the snail's gene expression."

"No other major discoveries were made. The traces of slime only appeared on the third floor, and the cameras didn't capture anything strange. The surveillance footage only shows the panicked and fleeing victim."

Having said all this, Zero took a breather and continued, "Second matter, Captain. Previously, we found some unknown liquids and solids in the stellar region near the rocket wreckage, and the test report is out—it's ether, Earth's ether. There are agreements among the various nations on this Earth prohibiting the extraction, research, and use of this energy liquid. This matter is much more serious than the previous one, and national security departments have already intervened to investigate the source of this ether, starting with those few research institutes."

The captain remained silent on the other end for a long time. The prolonged quiet made Zero think that the speaker on his end had malfunctioned.

"...Understood," the captain finally spoke. "However, why is it you reporting these matters?"

The person responsible for liaising on these affairs was definitely not a temporary worker like Zero.

"That brings me to the third thing I wanted to mention, Captain," Zero said with a hint of helplessness in his tone. "The person who was supposed to be in charge of liaison—well, Ms. Merisawa, she has left her post. Right when the test reports for that ether came back, she ran straight out without even grabbing her bag."

At this, Zero glanced sideways at Merisawa's workstation. The cup of warm tea left beside the mousepad was still emitting wisps of white steam.

"And she even hacked all the surveillance cameras along the way, acting as though she didn't want anyone to find her."

"Understood," the captain's tone betrayed no particular emotion, remaining calm and flat. "Then, Zero, continue with your mission. Just as I told you before, keep an eye on Merisawa, and contact me if there are any new developments."

"Understood, I am watching her right now."

As he spoke, Zero casually pulled out a chair and sat down. In the sea of his consciousness, a split-screen view remained constantly active. It was a top-down perspective, and right at the center of the screen was the robotic girl with her high ponytail.

She was running.

This was also why Zero was still calmly stationed at the terrestrial headquarters while communicating with the captain. Since the effective range of telepathic tracking was over two hundred kilometers, he felt there was no need to trail her like a stalker; as long as he kept her in sight from a distance, it would suffice. The captain had instructed him precisely to avoid startling Merisawa.

"In that case, Zero, while you keep an eye on her, do me another favor."

Zero's lazy sitting posture instantly vanished. He straightened up into a proper posture and addressed the communicator earnestly, "Name it, Captain."

"Bring that metal box containing the Space Beast vibration wave generator to me."

"Are you asking me to perform a cloning jutsu?"

Zero could not help but smile wryly, thinking that his captain was truly a master of time management, packing his schedule completely full.

"Let the capable do more; I appreciate your hard work."

"Understood, my captain. I'm setting off right now."

The notion of "letting the capable do more" was something Zero still rather enjoyed accepting.