Chapter 68 – One Fortuitous Encounter, Stalked by a Disaster
Annoyed by the mewing Tama, Misha shoved a red gel at her.
Tama quieted down in an instant. Instead of swallowing the red gel right away, she nibbled it as if she wanted to savor the taste.
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Crystal, Sebastian, and Misha entered the military command center inside the bunker army compound.
The command center located deep inside the underground bunker at the corner, farthest from all the entrances. Inside the tunnel, a built-in office which decorated inside a dug cave was there.
In this room, Thorn, Dolphin, Llamador, and other 17 squad captains presented within the room. They were watching the recorded satellite feeds, reviewing the previous battle.
When Sebastian came in, everyone stood up, and the video was paused.
"At ease, gentlemen."
Everyone sat down, but they still paid attention to this elderly man. However, Thorn and Dolphin widened their eyes in astonishment when they saw the new look of Misha.
'Oh, hell, rat. Misha has evolved.'
'That young miss sure grows up fast.'
Crystal guided Misha to an empty couch, "Misha, take a seat."
Misha sat down, but she raised her butt up instantly. As she was not used to having a tail, the hard lizard tail bumped the seat, and Misha thought that someone touched her buttock.
Sebastian chuckled by the sight of Misha struggling with her new body. He clapped and began the meeting.
"Sorry for the delay, gentlemen. As you can see, we have a unique evolved friend over here that requires my attention, so I have to babysit her. For now, let's move on with our monthly meeting."
Sebastian glanced at Dolphin, who nodded at the elderly commander.
Dolphin stood up and replayed the footage of the previous fight. On the screen, it displayed the record of the battle from the bunker's satellite.
Tautog mechs were exchanging bullets on the battlefield.
Dolphin used his laser pointer and explained, "For the first agenda, please pay attention to this mech. This is where my pilot was kidnapped."
The video clip continued. One of the government missiles hit the highlighted mech and exploded. Fortunately, the pilot ejected from the mech in time.
Bad luck came when the pilot's parachute did not work. He landed on the ground and broke his legs.
Dolphin's face grimace when the footage reached this part.
Two APCs of the government rushed at the pilot. The soldiers exited the vehicles and shot both of his hands. Afterward, they carried the injured pilot and fled.
"One of my men has been kidnapped by those sons of bitches. I wish to commission a quest and ask everyone here to rescue him."
Dolphin placed ten boxes full of red gels on the table at the center of the room.
"I have a total of 500 red gels over here, and it will be the quest reward for this mission. This is everything I have."
Llamador smirked. As he did not like all lizardmen, he planned not to help Dolphin in this personal quest.
The other captains did not say anything. Even though 500 red gels were tempting, rescuing this kidnapped pilot would require them to wage war against an entire city.
It was well-known that each human city stationed at least 50 mechs and over a hundred tanks to defend against monsters, queen eggs, and alpha eggs. That did not include all stationary artilleries and defensive missiles.
The risk was not worth it!
Dolphin could see the reluctant and the unwillingness in their eyes. He lowered his head, saddened that he could not help his subordinate.
Sebastian and Crystal were helpless as well. Thinking for the safety of the people in the bunker, sending out all troops to wage war against a city to save one soldier was illogical.
Misha, who did not know what was going on, looked around in confusion.
*Mrrr?* (Someone is taken by those delicious humans?)
'Seems like it.'
The awkward silence continued for another minute. Dolphin took a deep breath, resolving himself.
He asked, "How much do you want if I want to commission the whole base to save my man."
Crystal screamed in shock, "Dolphin!"
Sebastian pulled Crystal's cloth to draw her back. He stood up from his seat and looked at Dolphin into his eyes.
"War consumes resources, and it's never cheap. Are you prepared to be bankrupted and sold as a slave?"
It was a cold harsh truth of this world. Anyone who got into debts could be sold as a slave in the black market.
Misha and Crystal glanced at Thorn, who shrunk back from the embarrassment. This guy had a high debt that he could have been sold at a black market already had he not skilled with his piloting.
Dolphin gulped. He wanted to say he was ready, but no word came out of his mouth. Both of his hands were trembling from the self-loath as he also could not bear to abandon his family and his daughter to save his subordinate.
In the end, Dolphin took back the gel boxes and retreated back to his seat, grimaced.
Once the Tautog captain withdrew, Sebastian took the stage.
"Next agenda, which is related to the young miss over here. I would like all of you to pay attention to this footage."
The screen changed. It displayed the footage from the satellite, but it focused elsewhere.
It showed the event when Misha was stealing the missile truck from the government army.
All captains had seen this footage a few times already as everyone was talking about how good she was in that battle.
"Commander, we have already seen this. What are you-"
"Please be quiet and watch."
"Y-Yes, sir."
They continued watching the scenes that they were tired of seeing.
In the footage, Misha was fleeing with the missile vehicle, but an APC caught up to her. It drove to the side of the truck.
Sebastian pressed his remote to slow down the clip. Furthermore, he zoomed in the footage and centered on the front windshield glass, which the reflection of Misha could be seen behind it.
Then, the girl behind the windshield transformed into a pretty looking boy.
Sebastian immediately stopped the clip.
"Now, then. Miss Misha, can you explain what happened in this video?"
Misha gulped.
"First question that I want to ask you, how did you transform into another person, Misha? I don't remember that Demi-Human, Demi-Hydra, or even the non-evolved have this ability."
At first, all captains were confused about Sebastian's footage and his question. After a few seconds of processing all the information, they turned their eyes to Misha with their glowing yellow eyes.
They did not hide their killing intent!
'Oh shit!'
Her identity might have been exposed!
Misha secretly opened the game menu as she planned to log out and escape from this situation.
Upon glancing at the log out button, an old saying of her grandmother resounded in her head.
"For each fortuitous you encountered, be prepared for the following disaster."
The log out button was disabled!
There was also a description below the button.
[You are undertaking a chain-quest. Finish the quest first, then you can leave.]
'Oh, god, not again. What kind of quest is this!?'
The second line under the description was also Misha's nightmare.
[Any death during this chain-quest will terminate your character and your progress permanently.]
A streak of disasters really came after the streak of luck.
Seeing that Misha got nervous, Sebastian became more direct.
"Are you an otherworlder, Miss Misha?"
*Click*
Two guns were pointing at Misha's head. One of them was from Crystal while the other one was from Thorn.
Misha could even feel the coldness from the gun.
"Err..."
"We're patient and civilized military men. You can take it slow to explain. Please be warned that if your explanation doesn't make sense, we will use the extreme measure!"
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The existence of all players is known in this world as [Otherworlders]. You are despised by all the locals here as your predecessors did many immoral things when they first arrived.
These mutants were abused and hunted by many otherworlders in the past, and they hate your kind with a passion. Now that your secret identity is exposed, you'll have to choose if you want to correct this misunderstanding, or you shall return to your origins.
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This quest can be solved by confirming your political stance to one of the sides, the local humans, the Hydra Faction, or your otherworlder-kindred.
To join the local human faction again, you must surrender to the local military with the information about this shelter 88 and the location of the mutants you know.
To regain the trust of the mutants, you will have to prove yourself to them.
To follow the footsteps of the previous immoral otherworlders, choose none and become the enemy of this world.
There is no fourth option as before! Pick your choice wisely!
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- Unknown.
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