"How do you feel?"
Seeing that Geno and the other had already drunk down the medicine, Twiggy began to ask.
"It's sweet—pretty tasty, actually."
"Who asked you about the taste? I'm asking how your body feels."
Twiggy forced down the urge to give Geno another knuckle-rap on the head, while Geno came back to his senses and carefully felt out the changes in his body.
"Hm? My wound—it's healing at high speed?"
Feeling the itch coming from his back, Geno was suddenly astonished. After all, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call his back an utter mess.
Yet after drinking the medicine Twiggy had given him, his wound began to heal at high speed; in just a moment, by Geno's own perception, the wound was probably down to about the level of a scrape from a tumble.
So he hurriedly lifted the bandage, and sure enough, his smooth, clean back was revealed before everyone—where now was that bloody, mangled state from before?
"Very good. Looks like this formula can serve as an excellent product too."
"Huh? You used me to test your medicine?" "What? Is that not allowed?"
"Of course... no problem at all..."
Geno, who'd wanted to grumble a couple more words, took one look at Twiggy's slightly threatening gaze and instantly wilted.
To reiterate, Geno is a henpecked man.
However, while the little couple was bickering and flirting, Jane Doe, off to the side, really did feel her eyelid twitching nonstop.
A whole head's worth of black lines cascaded down like a waterfall.
I'm just saying—it's fine if you two lovebirds want to mess around with this yourselves, but could you spare a thought for me?
I'm a Mouse Thirren, not a lab-mouse Thirren!!
But complaints aside, Twiggy's medicine took effect on Jane Doe as well. Her arm, which had been somewhat numb and stiff, now had a surge of warmth welling up through it.
Then came a ticklish, tingling sensation flowing into her brain, making Jane Doe involuntarily swish her tail.
Although she didn't recover as fast as Geno, her wound was now pretty much healed too.
"Truly miraculous. This is the first time I've ever seen such a high-efficiency healing medicine."
Jane Doe tentatively put strength into her arm—there was no longer the slightest sense of blockage.
An injury that would originally have taken a month or two to fully recover from now looked like it would be completely healed in another two or three days.
"No wonder Miss Twiggy is held in such high regard. Now I understand—those people up on high, indeed, not a single one of them is a fool."
"I'll just take that as you flattering me."
Twiggy's attitude toward Jane Doe couldn't be called friendly, but it wasn't hostile either.
In her view, Jane Doe was much like Yanagi Tsukishiro—both of them people who had been thrown together by this incident.
Meanwhile, Geno still had a few lingering doubts in his heart.
"Haven't we gotten a bit off track? So what exactly did Anby and Number 11 go off to do?"
With neither of them having shown up even now, Geno realized they must have discovered something.
So he pressed Twiggy, wanting to get some sort of answer out of her.
But before she could open her mouth, Yanagi Tsukishiro, off to the side, was the first to step forward.
"This matter—let me be the one to explain. It starts right after we split up just now; Miss Twiggy and I went to investigate the rebels' clues..."
Then, Twiggy recounted to Geno how she and Yanagi Tsukishiro had found the rebels' base inside the Hollow.
As for why Anby and Number 11 weren't around—it was because they'd gone off to scout out the rebels' encampment.
"Just to be safe, Eous went along with them too." Geno got it—that explained why he hadn't seen any sign of Eous around either. Still, with just Anby and Number 11 alone, would it really be all right?
On the other side, the two-member Silver Squad duo, who had already arrived at the rebel base, were at this moment lying prone on a hilltop in the distance, watching the chaotic rebel base and mulling over their next move.
"Why bother fussing over all that—let's just go up there and cut them down." "Calm down a little!" Seeing Number 11 about to charge in with blade drawn, Anby hurriedly yanked her back down, pressing on her arm to keep her from rushing up again.
How come this silly kid is still such a goofball after all these years?!
"Exactly. Calm down first—besides, there's no way you can beat this many people."
Good heavens~ that's several thousand people we're talking about, and this silly kid wants to charge in the second she says so. Does she even know the meaning of 'a lone dummy can't take on a crowd'?
"Then what do we do?"
After being talked down by the two of them, Number 11 calmed down as well, but she still hadn't the faintest clue about what to do next.
After all, a little while ago, Twiggy and Yanagi Tsukishiro had already kicked up a commotion here.
For the two of them to pull off a repeat performance now was rather unrealistic.
Just as the two were at their wits' end, all of a sudden, a great big lightbulb popped up above Eous's little head.
"! I've got an idea!"
Hearing that Eous had come up with a plan, Anby and Number 11 both turned their gazes over, and then watched as Eous leaned in by their ears, furtively whispering something.
After they raised their heads again, question marks floated up above both Anby's and Number 11's heads. This... will it actually work?
"Just trust me, okay! It'll definitely be fine—worst case, we just make a run for it afterward!"
Eous propped its little hands on its little waist, looking at the two of them very smugly.
Anby and Number 11, for their part, exchanged a glance—indeed, there really wasn't any better option.
Half an hour later, before the gate of the rebel base.
Having just been through a dangerous intrusion incident, the rebels had carried out a thorough cleanup of the entire base, so much so that the soldiers now standing guard were all a bit worn out.
"Ugh~ so tired. What on earth did those two intruders even come here for—purely to pile on our work hours and make our jobs harder?!"
"All right, quit complaining. At least they ran fast enough; if they'd run any slower, the higher-ups would've activated those monsters, and by then, you and I—neither of us might have gotten away."
What the gatekeeper spoke of was precisely the Beast Demon soldiers Geno had fought against before. Although these soldiers' combat power had been greatly enhanced—so much so that they could even go toe-to-toe with some Tier-3 Ethereals single-handedly—
what came in exchange was that, after using that power, their intelligence would drop markedly; apart from carrying out the very last command they'd received, they cared about nothing at all, and any obstacle blocking their path would be swept clean away.
Because of this, they were also dreaded by some of the soldiers, who feared that one day a comrade fighting shoulder to shoulder with them one second might, the very next second, turn into the killer who took their life.
And the other gatekeeper, the instant he pictured that scene, shuddered involuntarily.
"Uh, I think you've got a point. Indeed—it really is a good thing they ran fast."
Just as the two were chatting idly, two unfamiliar figures came walking over from not far off, instantly drawing their attention.
"Halt! Who goes there!"
The two reacted quickly, leveling their gun barrels at the slender figures not far away; what surprised them, however, was that the other party's reaction was utterly different from what they'd imagined.
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🔥 New history: COTE: Counterattack System
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