Unrest

"Our luck is really good. The DNA test results of that small section of finger came out. It's from the same individual as the skin fragments left on the electromagnetic gun. This also eliminates Immer's suspicion. Obviously, it was a trick by the enemy to frame him."

Ato gently waved a report. Himeko took it and just glanced over it briefly before pressing it on the table.

"But he still hasn't been completely cleared of suspicion, right?"

Today, Himeko seemed listless, even giving Ato the illusion that "she doesn't care about anything."

No, perhaps not "doesn't care about anything," but rather a kind of "the sorrow is greater than death" after some kind of "epiphany"?

"Well, there's no way around it. But Immer staying in the interrogation room is also a kind of protection for him, right? At least it separates him from those dangerous Poison Cocoon members. Even if there's some intense conflict later, he won't be involved… Uh, wait a minute."

A flash of light suddenly struck Ato's mind—could this be the original idea of the mastermind behind it?

No, it shouldn't be. Why would those people protect Immer? It didn't make sense…

But before he could let his thoughts wander and figure everything out, Andre rushed into the compartment again. This time, he even skipped the step of knocking on the door.

"Something happened again?"

It was breakfast time. Logically speaking, the First Squad should switch shifts with the Second Squad after distributing breakfast to Poison Cocoon. How could something happen again?

A sense of dryness spread through Ato's chest.

"Captain, it's out of control."

"Out of control? What do you mean? Explain clearly!"

"Out of control is… completely out of control, they're fighting!"

"?"

...

"Come out!"

"All of you, come out!"

"Three, two, one… Not opening the door, right?"

"Boom!"

"What are you doing! Who gave you the authority to do this! Ah—"

Michael peeked secretly through the peephole, and saw angry First Squad soldiers banging roughly on every dormitory door in front of them. Those who obediently opened the door were pulled out and beaten with batons without a word.

Those who disobeyed, the door locks were directly blown open with micro-explosives, and then they were beaten to a bloody pulp, and hung from the ceiling of the corridor with ropes.

He let out a long sigh mixed with guilt and excitement, and disappeared the moment before the soldiers knocked on his door, leaving them only a dorm full of clues.

It wasn't until more than twenty minutes later that Ato arrived late, but he couldn't stop the First Squad soldiers who had lost control of their emotions—as the chief instructor, if he had been here at the beginning of the unrest, perhaps there would have been a possibility of nipping the conflict in the bud.

But it was too late now. More than twenty minutes was neither long nor short, but it was enough for some people to make up their minds. So when Ato arrived, he saw thousands of Poison Cocoon soldiers and First Squad soldiers tangled together in the narrow corridor of the dormitory area.

The Poison Cocoon soldiers were unarmed, but compared to ordinary soldiers, they had been trained in close combat all year round. Fists, feet, elbows, knees, even their heads and teeth were their weapons.

The First Squad soldiers were afraid of accidentally injuring their comrades by firing, and in the end they could only rely on the iron rods and electric batons in their hands to fight the Poison Cocoon soldiers hand-to-hand.

In the dim light, no one could clearly see the facial features of the person opposite them, and they could only judge friend or foe by their attire or intuition.

Echoes of fists and flesh colliding came from all directions, mixed with cries of pain, screams, and grunts. Soon, the "crack" and "crack" sounds of bones breaking also became dense. After that, the ground under their feet began to become slippery and sticky, and occasionally they could step on splashed bone fragments and soft minced meat.

The fighting lasted for nearly an hour, and finally ended hastily after Ato ordered the mech troops to fire tear gas and flashbangs.

"What the hell happened?"

Ato's tone was filled with suppressed anger and self-blame. After what happened last night, he should have switched the First Squad with other squads immediately!

No, perhaps not. If this was the scene the mastermind wanted to see, then no matter what, he wouldn't let go of this friction… No, no, no, perhaps this friction was orchestrated by him!

Ato could even guess some details, for example, when distributing breakfast, both sides had some verbal conflict through the door, or the Poison Cocoon people provoked the First Squad soldiers again, so the conflict suddenly expanded from small to large, which was not surprising in the case of a bloody conflict that had already occurred.

A sense of powerlessness kept growing in Ato's heart—what kind of result did they want?

If this continued, it would be better to just disband Fire Moth!

The smell of blood in the air rushed into his nose, and at the same time, the戾气 [lìqì - baleful aura/fierce energy] in the chaos also seemed to affect Ato invisibly.

He really wanted to ask [those people]—what exactly do you want to do!

He was even about to put all this into action, but fortunately, Andre, holding the statistical report, interrupted him.

"The statistics are out."

A total of 87 bodies were carried out, and there were more than a hundred seriously injured and dying people, and even minor injuries were on everyone.

The question now was, how to deal with those wounded from Poison Cocoon?

Ato took a deep breath, "Take…"

His words paused, and he suddenly thought of Himeko's previous expression, and a bold guess emerged in his mind.

His face began to switch between white and red, and his forehead was covered with sweat.

In the end, he finally made up his mind.

Therefore, there was a bit more relief in Ato's tone, and his speech speed also involuntarily increased.

"Well, gather the injured from Poison Cocoon in Medical Area No. 4."

"Uh? Isn't that a bit too close to the General Staff Headquarters?"

Andre instinctively questioned, but when he raised his head, he saw Ato's grim face.

...

"It seems that it's about time. I have to say, the script given by the United Government is really wonderful. I wanted to intervene and modify it, but couldn't find a place to start…"

"That's normal, after all, those old guys think about this kind of thing all day long."

"Mobius, are you implying that I only know how to fight and kill?"

"I'm not, I didn't, don't overthink it."

In the Golden Courtyard's conference room, Michael held his phone in one hand, and weighed a syringe in the other.

"Speaking of which, is this thing they made reliable?"

"Of course it's not reliable."

Mobius didn't even stop her work, "The principle is simply diluting the fusion factor, so that people with slightly stronger Honkai adaptability can still survive for a period of time after injecting this factor."

"A period of time?"

"What do you think? What they gained was nothing more than the same power as ordinary Honkai beasts, and after dilution, how much combat power can they exert? Not even as good as Mei's little follower's combat power before the surgery."

"But to be fair, Mobius, their plug-and-play idea is still very insightful. Maybe we can use it one day?"

"Tch!"

Mobius expressed her disdain with a short syllable.

"Compared to this, I still prefer the patterns they left on the syringe. To be honest, the artistic effect is good. If I just look at the appearance, if they framed me and said this was my work, I could accept it."

"… You can stop it, Mobius… Such a beautiful and meaningful pattern, if it were to be made, it must be made by me."

Vill-V expressed her opposition vehemently.

Michael rubbed his eyes, closed them, and quickly opened them again. Then he turned his gaze to the fourth, and also the last person, in the conference room.

"Sakura, make combat preparations. Kalpas… forget it, he might go overboard when he makes a move. Do you have a problem doing it alone?"

"Don't worry, leave it to me."

Michael pursed his lips, was silent for a while, and continued to speak:

"Good—then, the operation begins in two hours. I… I'm going to… I have some personal business to deal with, don't worry, I'll be back on time."

As always, without waiting for other people's responses, Michael's figure had already disappeared.

Then, he quietly appeared in the courtyard of the sanatorium. Aponia clasped her hands together, looking up at the night sky without a single star, having waited for a long time.

"Aponia, I'll leave the rest to you… Oh right, Ellie doesn't know about these things, right?—from beginning to end."

"…[Please] rest assured, Ellie shouldn't know these things, and won't know these things."