Soon, under Eous's guidance, the group arrived before a wall.
"Proxy, where do we go next?"
Billy stared blankly at the dead end in front of them, clearly confused.
"Full speed ahead!"
Eous commanded with enthusiasm.
"Full speed? But there's a wall ahead!"
Billy's eyes widened like brass bells as he looked at Eous in disbelief. "Proxy, are you messing with us because Boss Nicole wouldn't let you have Su Chen?"
"You're not only questioning my expertise, you're doubting my character!"
Belle shouted angrily. "This is the right path—go through, and we're out of the Hollow!"
"But it's still a wall!"
Billy continued to shout.
"Do as the Proxy says. You know how chaotic and disordered Hollows are," Nicole reminded.
Anby added, "What looks like a path may be a dead end. What looks like a dead end may be the path."
"Now these two know what's what."
Belle nodded in approval. "Well then, I'm logging out. Don't forget to return Eous to the video store!"
With that, Belle disconnected her sensory link to Eous, and the Bangboo's screen went dark.
"Well then, let's go."
Su Chen looked at the wall with intrigue.
This would be his first time walking through one.
He picked up the Bangboo and charged forward toward the wall.
Behind him, Anby and Nicole followed closely.
"Wait for me! That really looks like it's going to hurt!"
Billy shut his eyes and ran at the wall in a ridiculous pose.
With a strange sensation of release, the four of them—and the Bangboo—successfully passed through.
Like surfacing from underwater, the oppressive Ether pressure vanished instantly.
"Phew, finally out!"
Billy inhaled the air with delight, savoring how amazing the outside world felt.
"Who would've thought fetching a safe would lead to all this?" Nicole said gloomily. "We didn't even get the safe, and now we've added another task to our plate."
"Relax, didn't we harvest a ton of Ethereal cores this time?"
Su Chen patted Nicole's shoulder. "If you're short on funds, just take on more fights."
Truth be told, he still hadn't had enough.
Monsters dropping currency in the real world? That's the dream.
"You think this is a game, where you farm mobs for coins?" Nicole gave Su Chen a side-eye. "This stuff's dangerous. The fewer the better. I'm not risking everyone's lives over a few Dennies."
"If we hadn't already accepted this commission, I'd have dropped it."
Getting ambushed by dozens of Ethereal at once had really shaken her.
Without Su Chen, they might not have made it out.
…
Sixth Street, RandomPlay Video Store.
Back from the Hollow, the Cunning Hares returned Eous to the store.
"As expected of the legendary Proxy Phaethon! We wouldn't have made it out without your help!"
Billy gave Belle and Wise a big thumbs-up.
"Ehehe, flatter me a bit more and I might give you a discount~"
Belle tilted her head, smiling brightly.
"If that's true, Nicole will be very happy."
Anby responded in her usual deadpan tone.
"Ah, the store manager's just joking."
Billy sighed, facepalming.
"But really, thank you both for today. Without you, we would've been stuck in there."
"No need for thanks. We were just fulfilling Nicole's commission."
Wise smiled gently and added apologetically, "And I apologize for some of my sister's words. We never intended to poach anyone."
As he spoke, he shot Belle a glance.
Belle just stuck her tongue out with a playful expression.
"It's fine. Just give us a discount on this job, and I'll forgive everything~"
Nicole said with a sweet smile.
"Now that's the one thing we can't do. You've owed us for months. Not charging interest is already a generous deal."
Wise smiled as he turned her down.
"Speaking of which—we've brought your guy back from the Hollow safe and sound. Nicole, didn't you promise to pay off the debt once we did?"
Belle looked to Nicole and asked.
"The job's not done yet, so I can't pay the final fee. I said we needed to bring both my guy and the client's item out of the Hollow. So far, we've only done half."
"Which means, until we recover the safe, the commission's incomplete."
Nicole flashed a cunning smile.
"Knew it. Nicole, you're as sly as a hare."
Wise said with an unsurprised sigh.
Belle: "Once we get that safe, you'd better not back out."
"Don't worry, the Cunning Hares always honor their contracts!"
Nicole thumped her chest confidently.
"Heh, Nicole, you really know how to crack a joke."
Belle gave a few unamused chuckles.
"Right—according to intel from Anby and Billy, the safe is within the territory of a high-threat Ethereal, [Dullahan]. It used to be the Red Fang Gang boss, Miguel Silver, before he was transformed by Ether corruption. He's still got a serious obsession with that safe."
Nicole ignored Belle's sarcasm and explained the situation seriously.
"An obsessed upper-tier Ethereal… definitely tricky."
Wise frowned slightly, clearly concerned.
"It's not that bad. At least it's better than the surprise eighty-plus Ethereal we ran into today."
Nicole waved it off.
With just Anby and Billy, they could hold off Dullahan. Add her and Su Chen, and taking him down wouldn't be an issue.
"True enough."
Wise instinctively glanced at Su Chen.
Through the HDD projection, he'd seen Su Chen's performance—and it was incredible.
"By the way, I also picked up this USB stick from Miguel Silver. He valued it a lot—could be linked to the safe."
Nicole pulled out a red, beast fang-shaped pendant. One end was scorched and had a melted metal connector.
"Picked it off his body?"
Belle gave Nicole a teasing look.
That sounded a lot like looting.
"Not important." Nicole waved it off. "What matters is, Miguel carried it everywhere. It must contain something valuable—maybe even the safe's secret."
"But the USB seems partially damaged."
Wise frowned as he examined the burnt end.
"It's only slightly busted. With Phaethon's skills, recovering the data should be a breeze, right?"
Nicole looked at the two with hopeful eyes.
"HDD's processing power is mostly tied up calculating Carrot. Not much left to spare. But if it's just exporting chip data, we might be able to borrow compute from the Inter-Knot."
Wise took the USB and examined the extent of the damage.
As a legendary Proxy, Phaethon's account held significant privileges within the Inter-Knot and could tap into parts of its resources.
"Be careful extracting the data. There might be a virus in there."
Su Chen suddenly spoke up.
Based on the story so far, the hacker probably planted something nasty in that USB.
Otherwise, a hacker capable of breaching the Inter-Knot wouldn't fall for such a simple sibling trap.
Better to keep Phaethon's high-level account safe.
"I'll be careful."
Wise agreed—it made sense.
He then inserted the USB into the computer and began a careful scan for viruses.
"Hmm?"
A question mark popped over Su Chen's head, followed by a blank expression.
That's what you call careful?
Phaethon, your account's gone!