Lucas hurriedly reached out to touch Aurelia's cheek, but the moment his fingers brushed her burning-hot skin, he flinched back, waving his hand as if scalded—Aurelia's face felt like it was on fire.
"Stop, stop, stop!" Lucas yelled. "I only said to blush, not to grill yourself alive!"
As the smoke gradually thinned, Aurelia stared ahead with a dazed look. "My temperature control system… seems… to have malfunctioned…" she muttered. With a dull thud, she collapsed onto the floor.
Lucas dropped down next to her, forcing a weak laugh. "Why does every new trick I teach you blow up into a crazy mess? Hey… you okay?"
Aurelia opened her mouth, letting out a plume of thick white smoke. Voice hoarse, she rasped, "Auto-repair protocol… in progress…"
Jumping to his feet, Lucas cried, "Hang in there—I'll get you some cold water to cool down!" Shit, that was close. Thank God it didn't happen while she was blowing me—my cock would've ended up as a roasted hot dog.
Just as Lucas was scurrying around the shelter, a hover bike pulled up quietly above the entrance.
With a soft click, a figure sprang nimbly off the floating bike, dropping gracefully to the ground.
The rider turned out to be a woman, her shape looking impressively lean under the bright sunlight. Her hair was blue and cut short at the ears, and a giant pair of sunglasses covered half her face, leaving only a sculpted chin and slightly pursed lips.
She wore sleek black boots and a tight-fitting deep-blue bodysuit that hugged her generous curves. A shining badge of a high-ranking Alliance enforcer sparkled between her upright breasts.
"A27, run a scan!" she ordered the hovering bike in a cold voice. "Range… 6 miles."
"Commencing scan… complete. Due to material interference, underground status is undetectable. On the surface within 6 miles, no anomalies. No signs of life," answered the synthesized voice from the vehicle.
The woman's face darkened, her brows knitting together. "Scan again… verify."
"Scan complete… results confirmed."
"Fuck… not a single damn person?" Once the area was confirmed empty, the woman dropped her frosty demeanor. She plopped onto the ground with zero composure, swearing loudly. Her long, sexy legs splayed out without any hint of lady-like manners—but, unfortunately (or not), she was wearing a bodysuit, so there was no glimpse of underwear.
"Sending me out here to nab some criminal in a shithole like this is a total waste… Are all those jackasses at the Unified Enforcement Department good for nothing but taking dumps?" she ranted.
"This zone is designated a B-level danger zone," the bike's A27 computer piped up in a precise monotone. "Currently, all high-ranking enforcers authorized to enter are on assignment. Lower- and mid-level enforcers lack proper clearance."
The woman, exasperated, sprang to her feet. "They're all off on dates! Living it up! Using whatever's under their bellies to screw around! Just because I'm slower to sign up, I get stuck with this shitty job… Dammit! I wanna go on a date too!"
Rage literally pulsed off her in waves, and the reinforced ground under her feet started cracking. This B-level shelter's exterior was as tough as granite, but clearly no match for her brute strength.
Oblivious to her own violent outburst, the woman kept going: "He's just a D-level petty thief! I could kill him with my breasts alone… Why on earth would he hide in a place that could kill him any second? If he's so eager to die, wouldn't robbing Noah's HQ be faster…? A27, confirm coordinates. This miserable dump is definitely the spot, right?"
"Pursuing unknown D-level offender, code 0928. Checking coordinates… Last known disappearance point confirmed. Must receive clearance for B-level danger zone entry. Please confirm authority."
The woman gave a weary sigh. "Confirmed. Alliance High Enforcer Captain Alice, authorized to enter this zone."
"Authorization verified… Captain Alice, you have been granted five hours in this zone to apprehend offender 0928. You may remain here for that duration…"
"Five hours, huh?" Captain Alice tucked away her shades and hopped down into the shelter entrance. "If it isn't too filthy down there, I won't need to redo my makeup… God willing, that idiot thief's already dead in some random hole, so I can still make it to the 7 PM pool party…"
"Captain Alice… you did not bring any armor. Please exercise caution! By Enforcement Department regulations, you must wear protective gear in a B-level zone!" A27's alarm echoed behind her, but Alice had already raced into the corridor, ignoring the warning.
Meanwhile, deep inside the shelter, the dozing white rat suddenly jerked upright, every strand of fur bristling. His eyes flickered on and off like busted bulbs.
"Intruder alert! Intruder… beep beep beep… intruder… beep beep beep… intruder…"
"Jesus, are you possessed or something?" Lucas snapped. He was holding a bowl of cold water ready to pour over Aurelia, but gadget's shouts made him jump, and he ended up soaking his own crotch.
Listening for a moment, he decided to be bold and grabbed the backpack lying on the ground, swinging it threateningly at the rat. "You're drunk, so just go back to sleep while I figure out what the hell your problem is… Maybe I can poke around and see if there's an off switch or something…"
Even as he spoke, Lucas gently picked up the half-conscious Gadget and laid him on a straw pile on the stone platform. Then he started checking the rat from head to toe. Sure, both were male, but one was a man, the other a rodent, so it wasn't like rummaging around on a dissected lab rat in biology class bothered him. He felt no shame at all.
In fact, Lucas was so hyped about unearthing secrets, hidden stashes, or hush-hush knowledge that he barely noticed how bizarre he must've looked, groping around on a giant rat.
He even started daydreaming, imagining the rat's white fur glinting like diamonds. He pictured himself back five centuries, hurling gleaming gemstones at some maiden while saying in a half-teasing tone, "Come on, gorgeous, I've got diamonds… you wanna hook up?"
"Boom!" A deafening roar cut off his fantasy. A chunk of the wall across from Lucas exploded, and a fist sheathed in a blue glove punched right through.
Without showing her face yet, a sultry voice drifted in: "Damn… you're even more impatient than I am? Fine, no need for doors—I'll just bust through the wall to find you faster…"
Then the fist withdrew, followed by a rapid spate of pounding—"Bang! Bang! Crack! Crash!"
In just a few strikes, that sturdy wall got battered into a person-sized hole. Dust billowed everywhere, and through the haze, the dramatic S-curve of Captain Alice's body slowly came into view.