Chapter 27: Meow!

Belle, at the side, gave Wise a strange look, her eyes seemingly filled with a hint of worry. Somewhat confused, Wise checked his sister's inner thoughts, and what he saw was unexpected.

'He's already so protective of Anby now. If their relationship gets even closer in the future and Anby and I have a conflict, whose side will brother take?'

The worry Belle was showing was completely unnecessary. After all, in Wise's heart, they were all his "wings." How could he possibly be partial to one side? If a conflict really did arise, Wise would most likely choose to draw the fire onto himself to resolve the trouble.

To stop his sister from overthinking, Wise naturally had to take action. "What's wrong, little sister? You seem a little strange."

"Huh? N-no, it's nothing. It's just your imagination, brother." Hearing Wise's concerned words, Belle was stunned for a moment, then naturally denied it. After all, for any normal little sister, she probably wouldn't directly ask such a question, right? Not to mention Belle had a slightly tsundere personality.

"Mmm, it's good that it's nothing. But if something really is wrong, remember to tell me. After all... I'm your dearest brother." As he spoke, Wise reached out and patted Belle's little head. She pushed his hand away with a look of annoyance, but of course, not with much force, so Wise still got to pat her to his heart's content. "Brother, honestly. Why are you suddenly saying such sappy things?"

Belle's face was slightly red, clearly a bit shy, but hearing Wise's words, her heart still calmed down a lot. At the same time, she also felt a little lost. So, she collected some of Wise's hair and some of her own, planning to secretly send them for testing. (This part was added later, everyone please don't mind it.)

"Hey! The video is almost over! Are you two even watching seriously? Meow!" Koma, at the side, clearly couldn't stand the atmosphere anymore and spoke up with a hint of dissatisfaction to remind the two of them.

Hearing this, Wise finally retracted his hand with satisfaction and continued to watch the video. In it, Anby used the excuse of 'making it convenient to ask others to find a Rope-master in an emergency' to gloss over the matter of having Wise's photo in her wallet. Afterward, Nicole had Koma return the wallet to Anby and told the latter to put her knife away before asking about the appearance of the item they were looking for. But how could Koma possibly make up something that didn't exist in the first place? If she made something up, it might arouse suspicion, so she could only be vague about it.

Of course, the way she was vague also made it impossible for the members of the Cunning Hares to refute. After all, their complaint rate was ranked in the top three on the "Mouth-to-Mouth Forum" charts. What's more, the top 50 complaint comments were all things like 'commission item was damaged,' 'commission item was taken by someone from the Cunning Hares,' and other similar messages. Looking at this situation, Wise was no longer surprised why Anby had to secretly get people to farm good reviews for the Cunning Hares.

But after temporarily setting that matter aside, the group in the video went to another one of the Red Fang Gang's strongholds. And in this stronghold, they found the gang's ledger. Although a part of it had been burned, they could still vaguely make out the contents.

"All in all, it seems Koma's heirloom isn't here either."

"It's not my heirloom, it's a family heirloom! Are you deliberately trying to curse me?" Anby's words were quickly met with an angry retort from Koma. But speaking of which, seeing the two of them teasing each other like this, their relationship didn't seem too bad.

However, since they didn't find the item here either, the next natural step was to head to the last stronghold. But the location of this last stronghold was no ordinary place. It was actually inside the Dead End Hollow. The subway renovation project of Vista Industries used the Dead End Hollow to transport explosives to the blast zone. The purpose was to eliminate a powerful Ethereal in this Hollow, one named the Dead End Butcher.

Faced with such a dangerous commission, Nicole, who was initially unaware of the full situation, now arrived at a familiar stage of the process. In the end, after a round of negotiations, Koma offered a 30% increase to the commission fee to have Nicole and her team continue to help her. In summary, adding more money made things easy.

"It's just the Dead End Hollow. For the sake of our client's wish, we'll go brave it tomorrow."

"Really, meow? Yay~ Then I'm counting on you for my family's heirloom, meow!" The Nicole in the video said confidently to Koma, who replied in a coquettish, cutesy voice.

Watching this scene, the present-day Koma's face turned red. She held her face in her hands, her feet seemingly digging a three-bedroom apartment into the floor out of embarrassment. "Ugh... why is watching myself act cutesy so mortifying...!"

"What? Is your habit of adding 'meow' to your sentences just an act?" Wise and Belle both looked at Koma at the same time. The latter nervously denied it.

"Eh?! How could that be? We Nekomata all talk like this! ...Meow!"

Alright, since it wasn't a very important matter, the siblings didn't pay it too much mind. Belle then spoke again with a serious tone. "Mmm, I've pretty much understood the situation. You and Nicole's team went to the Dead End Hollow today to find the Red Fang Gang's stronghold."

"That's right! And then all sorts of things happened... In short, Nicole and her team are in the blast zone right now!"

Although what Koma said was about as good as saying nothing, Fairy suddenly popped up at this moment.

[Master, the content currently being pushed on the news channel is presumed to be related to the commission content. Please pay timely attention.]

Hearing Fairy's words, Wise also looked at the TV, which had been on the whole time. The news was broadcasting in real-time that Vista Industries' last train was about to depart through the Dead End Hollow. And not long after the unmanned train arrived, the demolition project would begin.

"This is bad! The last train is leaving so early!" Koma's expression changed drastically upon noticing this. She then spoke to Wise and Belle with an anxious look on her face. "There's no time to keep watching the visual records! We have to find a way to stop the explosion! Otherwise, Nicole and her team will be turned into landfill ash!"

"Even if you say that, how do we stop it? We can't just go and block the train in front of everyone, can we? We'd be immediately taken away by the Public Security Bureau." Belle pinched her chin, thinking of a countermeasure. Wise also rubbed his forehead, equally troubled. "The safest method is to report it to the authorities, but if we do that, Nicole and her team's identities as Hollow-raiders will be exposed..."

[Suggestion: You can intercept the train inside the Hollow.]

"Oh, right! The smart butler is right! The outside world can't directly investigate the situation inside a Hollow. This way, we won't get caught!"

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