NOVEL NEXT Chapter 210: Chapter 210: Both Are Thieves
Inside the Outpost.
The Commander's office had been completely taken over by Anis, Neon, and the others: they had moved in one after another, leaving Mo Chen squeezed into a side room. He was thoroughly displeased.
A bunch of bandits!
Not only that, but his belongings seemed to have become communal property. It wasn't uncommon to see his shirts, towels, and other items mysteriously disappear.
Mo Chen had initially wanted to reprimand them for their shameless behavior.
However, he had underestimated just how thick-skinned these girls were.
"Commander, don't be so stingy. I sleep in your bed, you can sleep in mine. It's not like I'm stopping you."
That was Anis' argument.
"Master, that's essential firepower equipment. It's a decisive weapon! Besides, didn't you like it a lot last time?"
That was Neon's reasoning.
Mo Chen admitted defeat. He had learned his lesson.
Girls might look pure and innocent on the outside, but once they got familiar with you, they were completely shameless. In fact, they were even more brazen than he was. At least 80% of the gossip in their dorms revolved around topics like this.
The Counters Squad at the Outpost was preparing to set off again, making their final pre-battle arrangements.
With Mo Chen now leading them, the Nikkes were significantly more confident.
Anis and Neon had packed plenty of supplies—mostly snacks. Anis, in particular, had the most, claiming, "A world without snacks isn't worth existing."
Neon emerged from her room in a thin shirt, completely unconcerned about revealing anything. She looked at Anis in confusion.
"Anis, did you eat all the pudding by yourself?"
"You're one to talk! Stop stealing my chocolate bars!"
Anis was wrapped in a bath towel, drying her hair with a blow dryer. Fresh from the shower, she smelled pleasantly fragrant, her smooth skin glowing. Her well-endowed chest was barely held in place by the loosely tied towel, which somehow defied gravity and didn't slip.
Neon couldn't help but feel a bit jealous.
Hearing the accusation, Neon became indignant. She stuffed the snacks she had taken from the fridge into her bag and, feeling wronged, protested,
"How can you say I stole it? I told you before I ate it!"
That only made Anis angrier.
"Hey! I wasn't even there! Who were you talking to, the air?"
Neon, standing her ground, replied self-righteously, "But I did say it!"
Anis scoffed, looking down on Neon's logic.
"That just makes you a self-justifying thief."
Unwilling to back down, Neon retorted, "That's still better than a silent thief!"
At that moment, Rapi entered the room carrying a plate of fruit, her expression unreadable.
"At the end of the day, both of you are just thieves."
There was no hint of amusement in her eyes, no emotion whatsoever—like a veil of frost concealing her thoughts, making it impossible to gauge her mood.
An almost imperceptible chill settled into the room, lowering the temperature by a few degrees.
After placing the fruit platter on the table, Rapi left without another word.
Anis and Neon shuddered involuntarily. They exchanged nervous glances, their gazes drifting toward the fruit on the table.
"Neon… do you think Rapi poisoned this to kill us?"
"That… shouldn't be possible, right? Hahaha…" Neon let out two dry, forced laughs. Her expression was unnaturally stiff. "Besides… we're Nikkes, you know."
"Yeah… we're Nikkes."
…
The counteroffensive had begun.
After reorganizing, the Nikke forces officially set out. They traveled via the elevator connecting to the surface, enduring a three-hour trek before finally arriving.
Among the ruins, the former glory and prosperity of this place had long since vanished. All that remained were broken walls swaying in the wind, whispering silent tales of the past. Every shattered stone and every peeling fragment of a wall bore the scars of history, quietly narrating the desolation and decay.
The air was thick with a heavy, oppressive atmosphere, as if even the wind carried a trace of desolation. Occasionally, a gust would rise, stirring up dust that forced them to squint their eyes—further accentuating the loneliness and emptiness of these ruins.
The moment they set foot on the surface, everyone tensed up, staying on high alert as they moved through the wreckage, wary that a Rapture might suddenly appear from behind the debris.
The surface was crawling with Raptures, covering the entire area. According to previous investigations, the chance of encountering a Rapture within an hour was one hundred percent.
"Stop."
At that moment, Eunhwa suddenly raised her hand, halting the squad.
Since Mo Chen's confession, Eunhwa had been avoiding him. However, based on what Emma had told him, her mood had improved significantly. She was even smiling more often than before—several times more than usual.
Even Vesti wasn't as afraid of her anymore.
Mo Chen also noticed something unusual. He walked up to Eunhwa, bent down, and picked up a handful of soil from the ground.
Something was off.
Scarlet threads extended from within the dirt, wriggling like silkworm cocoons, as if trying to wrap around his arm.
Mo Chen's eyes narrowed. In an instant, the Punishing Virus in his body erupted, blasting away the red filaments, which immediately disintegrated into nothingness.
A Rapture virus?
No.
Mo Chen quickly dismissed his own hypothesis.
This was the same kind of virus that had been found on Snow White and the others.
"This substance first appeared on the surface over a month ago," Eunhwa said as she walked up behind him, gazing solemnly at the barren wasteland ahead. "It has strange properties—it can devour living beings, Nikkes, Raptures… even energy. Many of the squad's Nikkes got infected by it before."
From her words, he learned that this unknown substance seemed to possess a powerful form of life, capable of consuming anything that moved.
It was similar to the Rapture virus but had an even stronger corrosive effect.
Normally, it lay dormant beneath the ground, only activating when something—be it a person or a Rapture—stepped on it, at which point it would begin its invasive process.
Like a spider's trap.
Mo Chen froze for a moment. The first thought that came to his mind was—Creep?
It bore an eerie resemblance to the Zerg's Creep.
He scanned his surroundings carefully.
Sure enough, among the wreckage, he spotted the remains of several Raptures. Their frames were shattered, internal wiring exposed, and their cores completely missing. The remnants looked as though they had been digested and excreted—nothing more than lifeless husks.
And then, Mo Chen noticed something even stranger—plants were growing amidst the ruins.
Grass, trees, even flowers.
But they were vastly different from normal vegetation. Their colors were an unnatural deep crimson, as if blood might drip from their leaves at any moment. A faint scarlet mist rose from their surfaces, lingering in the air.
Now he understood where the eerie fog surrounding them was coming from.