Chapter 34: Koma's Departure

"What's wrong? What happened to the railway?" Nicole asked nervously after hearing Wise's panicked words. Just then, the soldier Nicole was stepping on cooperatively explained the reason.

"Sir... Sir Perlman, please don't worry! I have already blown up the only railway track leading to New Eridu! They can't get out!"

"You what?!" Koma's eyes widened as she looked at the guard on the ground holding the detonation button. Perlman himself couldn't help but start cursing. "You, you, you, you idiot! Weren't you supposed to blow up the railway after we got out?! You did it now, so not only can those damn commoners not get out, but aren't we trapped here too?!"

"Eh! Oh, that seems to be the case..."

Perlman was about to faint from anger at his own subordinate. Just then, Anby and Billy also returned, and they brought bad news. "Nicole, this is bad! We've found enemy reinforcements on all sides! What do we do now?"

Hearing this, Nicole gritted her teeth and cursed under her breath, but in the end, she immediately took action. "Damn it! Take this short, fat old man, we're getting on the train first."

Finally, the group arrived in the train's driver's cabin. The reinforcements who had rushed over from outside began to call out to Perlman. They first asked if he needed heavy fire support to break in and take out these intruders. However, the reply they got was Perlman's panicked and death-fearing voice.

"Don't, don't shoot! I'm in the driver's cabin! I've been captured by these bast... by the ladies and gentlemen of the Cunning Hares. Hold your fire, hold your fire! Do you hear me? If I get even a single scratch, the company will have your heads!"

Under Perlman's threats, the armed personnel outside temporarily ceased their actions, but the current situation was by no means safe. Just as Nicole and her team were still agonizing over how to solve the problem of not being able to evacuate due to the destroyed railway, Koma suddenly let out a laugh.

"Hey, hey, what time is it for you to be laughing?" Billy asked the chuckling Koma with some confusion. The latter very generously took out a pendant.

"No, I wasn't laughing at what you just said. It's just that during the fight just now, I happened to find my family heirloom." On the pendant was a photo. One of the people in it was Koma. As for the other person, the members of the Cunning Hares were all very familiar with him.

"One of the people in the photo is you, and the other is... Bai Lao from the Red Fang Gang?!" Nicole was clearly surprised by the content of the photo. Koma then began to explain.

"That's right. I lied to you. I'm not an enemy of the Red Fang Gang, but one of the orphans they adopted in Canvas District." In the end, Koma also revealed the reason she had sought out the Cunning Hares. Although she had left the organization because she was disappointed with what the Red Fang Gang had later become and had never gone back, she was still an orphan taken in by Bai Lao. He had shown her kindness, and it was only right that she should avenge him.

But after spending some time with Nicole and her team, Koma's thoughts were changed by their actions. What's more, she later learned that Bai Lao's death was not directly related to the Cunning Hares, so naturally, she had even less reason for revenge.

"I've made my resolve. I will go and negotiate with Vista to find a solution. Don't worry, with Perlman as a bargaining chip, plus my identity as a former member of the Red Fang Gang, this method will definitely work."

After saying this, Koma opened the door and left. She was so fast that even Anby couldn't react in time. And the door of the train, once closed, was so sturdy that it couldn't be broken down in a short amount of time. Thus, they could only watch as Koma left with those armed personnel.

After finally leaving the train's driver's cabin, Nicole and her team wanted to immediately go and support Koma. After all, those guys from Vista were not easy to deal with. But they also couldn't rest easy about the residents in Canvas District. While they were agonizing over this, Wise proposed a good solution. They just needed to make the Hollow's range collapse and shrink, which would allow all the residents to evacuate quickly. And the best way to make a Hollow collapse was naturally to kill the Ethereal within it. But because the number of ordinary Ethereal that needed to be killed was too large, the group immediately set their sights on the strongest Ethereal in the Dead End Hollow—the Dead End Butcher. One of him was equivalent to thousands of ordinary Ethereal.

As for how to kill it? That was, of course, by using the ready-made tools provided by Vista. With such a quantity of explosives, it was more than enough to blow up one Dead End Butcher.

"I hope we can be as quick as possible. I have a bad feeling about this." Wise looked anxiously in the direction Koma had left, and then the group immediately began their plan.

At the same time, on the other side, Koma was also holding the short, fat old man hostage to meet with the person in charge from Vista. The other party was a woman in red, surrounded by a circle of armed soldiers. This group of people was discussing why Perlman had been taken hostage.

As for Koma, she didn't beat around the bush. After seeing the woman in red, she went straight to the point. "You're the person in charge here? My request is simple. As long as Vista stops the demolition and rescues the trapped residents, I will return him to you."

"Hmph, you say it so lightly. If we really do as you say and create such a huge scandal, how do you expect us, Vista Industries, to explain it to the public? Besides, who are you? To come here and negotiate with us all by yourself, aren't you afraid you'll bite off more than you can chew?" The woman in red clearly wouldn't easily agree to Koma's request. The latter had obviously anticipated this and thus offered her own solution.

"My apologies, I did forget to introduce myself. To tell you the truth, my name is Nekomiya Mana, and I'm from the Red Fang Gang!"

Hearing Koma's words, the surrounding armed personnel were a bit surprised. After all, how could they not know the infamous name of the Red Fang Gang? And the solution Koma offered was also very simple: let Vista push all the blame onto her and the Red Fang Gang. This way, Vista's name could be cleared, and they could even gain a good reputation for actively rescuing the trapped residents.

"How about it? My proposal is pretty good, isn't it? As long as you..."

Before Koma could finish speaking, the woman in red opposite her suddenly took out a pistol and shot Perlman, who was beside her.

"Eh?!"

"Don't be nervous, he's not dead. This is just a tranquilizer. Let me teach you a lesson. Before you negotiate, you should first know the value of the bargaining chip in your hands... Unfortunately, Perlman is not as useful to us as you imagined."

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