That day, Nalan, like always, carried her thick briefcase and came to the gates of Rivet Town.
After all, this was the residence of the Emiya family. There were always people coming here in admiration, hoping to get a closer look at these divine figures, so their whole lives would be blessed with smooth fortune.
But today, the gates were frighteningly silent. Not only was there no sign of people, even the little animals that usually darted in and out had all completely vanished.
As a woman who had spent half her life on the battlefield, Nalan instantly realized something had gone wrong.
Since the other side dared to attack the Emiya family, it meant they absolutely had something to rely on. Nalan didn't dare act rashly. She immediately dropped the briefcase and prepared to run to Emiya's shop to call for help.
On the other side, the advance squad sent by the Interstellar Peace Company, using top-level cosmic technology, easily bypassed all the traps set up by Zoe and smoothly infiltrated the residence.
The Special Debt Enforcement Unit responsible for the Jarilo mission had just completed a major operation and had entered a rest phase. At the earliest, it would still take three months before they could arrive on Jarilo.
The Company worried that letting the Emiya family grow stronger would make future debt collection even more difficult, and they also feared that the blessing of Preservation and the Stellaron might be stolen.
With no other choice, the Company had to order an advance squad, which was nearby on another mission, to land on Jarilo ahead of time and kill Zoe.
Afterward, with local collaboration, they would stir up chaos from within, buying time for the Special Debt Enforcement Unit.
But anyone who could join the Company's advance squads was already an elite.
Even on prosperous planets, they could swagger around unchecked. Naturally, they didn't take this fragile planet Jarilo seriously.
No thorough plan, no interest in investigating the Emiya family's combat power.
The advance squad intended to kill everyone on the spot except Zoe, then take Zoe back to the Company's research labs. Someone had paid a sky-high price to study Zoe's brain and body.
At this time, it happened to be lunchtime. Today Emiya had taken the junior employees out to the snowfields for team-building, saying he'd also show them the land of the new city, and wouldn't be back for lunch.
Acheron and the other two didn't feel like cooking at home. They packed up the full barbecue set, cheerfully ran to the grasslands behind Rivet Town, and started a barbecue party.
This plot of land, specially cultivated to feed wild animals, was now full of flowers and greenery.
All kinds of small animals ran and played freely among the trees. From deep underground, a bubbling stream slowly flowed out, bringing not only sweet, delicious spring water but also countless beautiful fish of all shapes and temperaments.
The only small regret was that the sky was not blue with white clouds but cold rock walls. But as long as you didn't deliberately look up, this place was exactly like the legendary paradise beyond the world.
"Phew! A gulp of cold beer, a bite of barbecue, absolutely nothing better than this!"
Taking a big bite of sizzling, oily barbecue, letting her mouth fill with meaty fragrance, then following it up with a big gulp of malty cold beer, this had become Acheron's favorite thing lately.
"Damn it! I clearly eat way more than you, so why won't my chest grow at all?"
Zoe grabbed her chopsticks, unwilling, and poked at Acheron's two soft, heavy mounds of flesh.
"I've had enough of words like 'cute,' 'petite,' 'tiny.' I want mine to 'boing-boing' shake too! I want to be sexy too!"
"Haha, as the saying goes, you are what you eat. Just eating meat isn't enough, you also need to drink more milk!"
With Emiya absent, Acheron also loosened up. Not only did she not feel shy, she even pressed Zoe down onto her own twin peaks and squeezed hard.
Only when Zoe's face turned red, her little hands flapping wildly like fish out of water, did she finally let go.
"You bastard! I'm going to fight you!"
Furious and flustered, Zoe pounced, pushing Acheron down to the ground, viciously straddling her, and launched a flurry of punches on her perky chest, making the waves ripple.
"Ow!" Acheron cried out, quickly grabbing Zoe's hands. With a twist she tried to pin her down instead.
But she forgot they were on a slope. With that one roll, the two of them tumbled together half a mile across the grassland and rolled into a small forest.
Before long, noises of chaos and scuffling came from the forest, clearly, the two of them had gotten heated and turned their play into a fistfight.
Vera propped her chin in one hand, glanced once to confirm their positions, saw everything was fine, then stopped paying attention, quietly eating barbecue and drinking beer, enjoying the rare leisure.
"Teams 1 through 6, capture Acheron and Zoe. Try not to damage their bodies or faces. Everyone else, follow me."
The captain quickly tapped out orders on his watch, then led Teams 7 to 10, all switching to tear gas, sleep gas, and tranquilizer guns, as they crept toward Vera.
These three women were simply too beautiful, and they even looked like they were still pure. The captain planned to capture them, let his men have some fun, and then decide whether to kill them on the spot or sell them to the slave market.
'Anyway, no matter what, this mission was going to be insanely profitable.'
———
Ever since Vera had been caught off guard and captured by Kafka last time, Desolate Skull had grown cautious, constantly monitoring the outside situation.
The moment he sensed enemies closing in, he instinctively wanted to tear open space and seize them.
But with the blessing of the Preservation Aeon hanging right above, Vera worried that if Desolate Skull acted, their secret would be exposed. She forced him back with a shout.
Besides, this bunch of small fry wasn't even worth his effort.
Through Desolate Skull's sight, Vera saw forty heavily armed soldiers surrounding her. A kilometer away, there was also a man who looked like the commander.
Even the weakest among these men were much stronger than Gepard, but compared to the Stellaron Hunters, they were still trash. Compared to Vera herself, they weren't even ants.
"Phew!" Vera took a deep breath and was just about to throw her barbecue skewer and kill them all on the spot. But when she noticed the blatant Interstellar Peace Company insignia on their bodies, she immediately changed her mind.
Zoe had just developed a memory-extraction device. It might come in handy.
And so, these so-called elite soldiers of the Interstellar Peace Company's advance squad, who had roamed across many star systems, were crushed with no resistance at all. A girl snapped their limbs and piled them like garbage into a small hill.
By comparison, the sixty men attacking Acheron's group had it even worse.
Because last time, when Vera was attacked, Acheron hadn't been able to help, that incident left her with a shadow in her heart.
This time, the moment she saw enemies sneaking up, her head was instantly flooded with rage.
Before Zoe could even shout, "Spare them!", everyone was instantly hacked into bloody chunks, then under the fury of thunder, vaporized into mist that drifted up to the ceiling.
"Acheron! Killing them is one thing, but why did you have to destroy their equipment too?"
Zoe's lips pouted high, her eyes full of distress. "That was cutting-edge tech! If I could've gotten my hands on it to study, our robot army's combat power would've instantly doubled!"
"Sorry, I lost control in the moment. You should've said earlier!" Acheron, coming back to herself, also felt she had overreacted, looking embarrassed.
"I wanted to say, but you have to give me the chance!" Zoe bit her lip, sneaking glances at Acheron's proud twin peaks.
"Hmph! So it's true what they say, pretty face, no brains!"
"You brat! That last line is what you really wanted to say, right?!" Acheron finally realized, grabbed Zoe's cheeks with both hands, and yanked them high.
"Enough! Stop messing around, this is serious!" Vera's brows furrowed tightly, her killing intent silently spreading, terrifying all the animals within ten miles into cowering in corners, trembling.
———
When Emiya returned from the snowfields, not only had all the key lower-district officials gathered at Rivet Town.
Gepard and all the Silvermane Guards' elites, the Supreme Guardian Cocolia and her daughter, and even the long-absent Serval Landau had all arrived.
Everyone present wore grim expressions, their eyes filled with fierce killing intent. Many had eyes bloodshot and sockets red.
"What's going on? I swear I was only gone for one day?" Emiya felt a little dazed.
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