Inside Random Play, after Wise and Belle finished listening to Nekomata and had almost finished watching Emilian's visual recordings, Belle spoke first.
"Mm… I think I understand. You and Nicole's crew were hunting for the Red Fang Gang's hideout, so you went into the Dead-End Hollow today."
"Exactly! And then all kinds of stuff happened… anyway, Nicole and the others are inside the demolition zone right now!"
Just then, the electricity-devouring boss monster Fairy—having gathered the latest updates—chimed in.
"Master, the news channel is currently pushing content that is highly likely to be closely related to the commission. Please pay attention."
On the TV, after the commercials ended, the familiar bespectacled reporter appeared again.
"Welcome back. We now bring you live coverage: Vision Industries' final transport train is about to depart and pass through the Dead-End Hollow!"
The screen switched to an electronic map of the demolition area.
"It is reported this train is operating in unmanned mode, carrying the last batch of explosives required for the demolition."
"After arrival, Mr. Perlman—stationed at the on-site monitoring point—will personally command the demolition operation. Only after confirming all preparations are foolproof will Mr. Perlman withdraw together with technical staff and return to the command center in the city…"
"Crap! The last train is leaving this early?!"
Hearing that, Nekomata's eyes—finally beginning to relax—blew wide open again. She arched her back, ears pricked straight up, then whirled to Wise and Belle, pleading.
"There's no time to keep watching the recordings! We have to stop the blast! If we don't, Nicole's gonna end up as landfill dust…"
Wise and Belle both started thinking at full speed.
Belle frowned, rubbing her chin.
"How do we stop it? We can't just block the train in front of everyone—Public Security will arrest us on the spot."
Wise scratched his forehead.
"The safest move is to report it… but if we do that, Nicole's identity as a Hollow Raider probably won't stay hidden…"
"Proposal: it is possi—"
Right as Fairy was about to finish, Nekomata suddenly shouted—
"Um! Excuse me—can you contact Chiya right now, meow?"
That instantly made Wise and Belle tense up.
This little cat Thiren hadn't known Nicole's group for long, based on what they knew and what she'd just said… so how did she know Chiya?
Did Nicole or Billy really have that loose a mouth?
No—Anby was with them. With Anby's personality, she wouldn't mention Chiya to someone she didn't trust…
"Sorry, you—"
"Waaah! I don't know what you're thinking, but I'm seriously not a bad person! Anby told me! That green one who looks like a… cabbage!"
"..."
"I'm telling the truth! Anby said if I ever see a kid named Chiya—green eyes, ahoge, total space cadet—in this shop, I should call his Bangboo too. If he's not here, ask the shop owner if they can contact him, meow!"
Wise still had doubts, but Belle relaxed a lot.
"You should've said so earlier! If that's the case, I'll message Chiya right now."
"Belle, you— …Sigh, whatever."
"Don't worry, big bro. I'll just ask where he is."
Wise could only wait as Belle sent the message.
Then—
"I'm checking… Chiya replied— wait, HUH?!"
"Belle! What is it?! Something happened to Chiya?!"
"Big bro! Chiya says he's inside the Dead-End Hollow right now!"
"N-nani?!"
"WHAT, meow?!"
Earlier — after Anton "rescued" Chiya
After Anton carried Chiya out and said goodbye, he returned, full of spirit, to go watch the chaos again.
Meanwhile, Chiya—freshly traumatized by Grace's "bondage play"—had completely lost the courage to stay any longer.
Luckily, courage is a renewable resource.
Even if you burn it all in one go, time will refill it—fast or slow, it always comes back.
Luckily, before Grace tried to drag him away again, most of the workers at Black Goose site had already had their fatigue "released" by Chiya and Nugget's methods.
But still…
Why wasn't Nugget stopping them anymore?
Before, he'd always block those bad women from abducting his master.
(Nugget: I'm tired. I've seen too much. I'm numb.)
Just as Chiya was getting gloomy—
"Mm-neh (Little master, how'd it go?)"
"Nugget! You little traitor—why didn't you stop Grace just now?!"
"Mm-neh mm-neh-da (Little master, I was scared)…"
"Uh…"
When Chiya looked down at him, Nugget—usually always in that ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ power pose—was, for once in his life, making an ΩДΩ face.
"…Yeah, okay, fair. Grace really does want to take you apart for research."
"Hmph! Bad thing. Next time Grace bullies me, I'm bullying Koleda—make her keep paying my 'salary' for this fake honorary position. And raise it by one thousand dennies!"
That's right.
Every time Grace bullied Chiya, Chiya would go to Koleda and demand "emotional damage compensation" and the like.
And because Chiya saved her sister's life, plus he'd provided services at essentially no cost, plus a tiiiiny bit—cough—just a little bit of goodwill…
Koleda considered that adults should be more tolerant of each other.
(And besides, Chiya wasn't even asking for much—just a thousand dennies.)
So every time Chiya demanded a pay raise, Koleda accepted it.
It was also one of the rare chances Koleda could use as an excuse—"to compensate Belobog's massive expenditures"—to invite Chiya out:
Ride the carousel, buy seasonal desserts at the convenience store, and so on…
Of course, none of that mattered to present-day Chiya, because he had a more urgent problem.
"Nugget. Where did our little blue scooter go?"
"Mm-neh (Probably got scanned and taken by someone else.)"
"Gah—damn it. If Jane hadn't stolen my motorcycle keys…"
"Mm-neh-da, mm-neh-da! (Chiya, every time you ride, Public Security traffic division stops you! And every time it's that electrified old hag!)"
"Uh… yeah, that does happen. But it's still faster than walking."
"And… honestly…"
"Calling her an old hag—can't really argue, but it still feels kind of weird…"
Yes.
Last time Jane said goodbye to Chiya, because he'd gone to the Outer Ring and came back smelling like other women, the irritated little rat-girl quietly fished his motorcycle keys away with her tail.
As for Chiya—he did pass his motorcycle license.
But every time, he got caught by a certain Public Security Special Investigations member who drank tea all day and looked absurdly relaxed.
And funny thing was—by all logic, as Qingyi's junior partner, Zhu Yuan should've known Chiya existed long ago.
At this frequency, it didn't make sense to "forget," either.
So why was it that every time—
Only Qingyi, only her…
Only her eyes could see Chiya?
But if that was true then—
Just as Chiya was scratching his ahoge and wondering if "old hag" was too far—
"Mm-neh-da! (You dog-shark!)"
Nugget—who'd been calm—suddenly launched into the air and threw an elbow strike straight at the rapidly approaching Ellen.
"Tch. Miscalculated."
"My Patrol speed was already crazy fast…"
Seeing her plan to drift through the corner and kidnap Chiya fail, Ellen stopped in annoyance, lollipop still in her mouth.
"Ellen? Why are you here?"
As Chiya turned around, two pale, bouncy little shapes appeared at the edge of his vision.
"Aah! It's the naive idiot, yes! Dusura—wait! It's White Grim-Reaper Bangboo, yes!"
"Anastasia—coming out for fresh air, yes!"
A cross-shaped pair of eyes swept over them like a machine gun with a loaded magazine, ready to unleash steel-and-lead apocalypse.
The two Bangboo instantly wilted, like winter sparrows.
Because sure—Nugget might not beat a Void Hunter—
But among Bangboo?
Nugget was basically the eternal emperor.
The Bang-Emperor.
A certain Mr. Wise once tried learning self-defense techniques from Nugget—hoping to upgrade from "can't beat Eous" to "can last two exchanges with Eous"—
But after pulling a muscle, he gave up.
As for Belle, she wasn't interested at all.
Because how could a cute girl turn into a musclebound brute?!
Thanks to Chiya's ever-expanding social circle, Nugget kept evolving too:
From a weak Bangboo who could only watch bad women knock him aside and steal his master—
To a super Bangboo who could beat every Bangboo in New Eridu and even fight strong Thiren without losing ground.
All because of effort and sweat.
(Okay, and maybe a tiny bit of "talent plug-in.")
Seeing his former victims shrink back, Nugget nodded in satisfaction.
As they should.
They should fear him. Respect him. Worship him. Be properly reverent to his lord.
Of course, those two Bangboo wouldn't appear alone—
So Nugget widened his eyes, ready to deal with their owner, that troublesome maid—
But…
The only people who entered his view were Lycaon and a weak-looking, defeated-puppy maid whose name he couldn't remember.
Where was the real bad woman?
"Ugh!"
"Mm-neh?! (Little master?!)"
Hearing Chiya gasp, Nugget spun around—
And in that instant, the seemingly "retreating" but actually lurking Round-Shark-Shark found her opening.
She lifted the scissors embedded in the ground—
And performed a perfect home-run swing.
WHAM.
Nugget—mid-leap—was smacked straight into the freshly built sandcastle structure belonging to a "construction bro" Bangboo.
"…Mm-neh-da—(Gwah! My… my concrete-grinding power, nooo!)"
"MM-NEH!!! MM-NEH MM-NEH-DA!!! (You dog-shark! You fight dirty?!)"
Nugget did a carp-flip to his feet, obliterating the sandcastle—
But it was too late.
His little master was already in the maid's arms, kidnapped like an assassin's prize.
Worse—Ellen even reached out and high-fived that smiling bad woman in celebration?!!
At this moment, Nugget understood:
The shark had been pretending to sleep—
All to lure the enemy.
Nugget was furious.
FURIOUS.
Earlier he'd already suffered humiliation by backing down from Grace out of fear—
And now these two shameless villains dared to—
"Mm-neh—(Nugget, you need to calm down. Stay rational.)"
"Mm-neh (Rational?!) Mm-neh-da (How am I supposed to be rational?!) Mm-neh mm-da! (How am I supposed to be rational!!)"
Lycaon arrived at an unhurried pace and gave a slight bow, explaining with apology as Butler tried to soothe Nugget.
"We are truly sorry, Lord Nugget. In fact, we only came this way because Ellen suddenly broke formation."
"We should have been several kilometers away, preparing to enter the Dead-End Hollow to complete a commission."
Then the timid maid spoke up, panicking.
"Um—Lord Nugget, please don't be angry at everyone in Victoria Housekeeping…"
"Corin… apologizes on behalf of Miss Rina and Miss Ellen…"
"If, if that's still—"
"Mm-neh… (Forget it.)"
First red face, then white face.
Nugget was exhausted.
He looked at Chiya being tug-of-war'd between Rina and Ellen, shut his eyes, and went numb.
Damn it.
At this rate, his little master would eventually be eaten clean by these bad women—
And might even produce…
Wait.
A little-little master.
Nugget reopened his eyes and carefully examined the two female specimens he'd long labeled as "bad women" in his chip.
He had to admit—
Both were top-tier beauties, one-in-ten-thousand.
If his little master bonded with them…
Then the little-little master would be even cuter!!!
At that moment—
Nugget's chip fluttered.
"Butler… can you tell what Lord Nugget is thinking right now?"
"Honestly, I suspect my translator isn't advanced enough."
"..."
"Um, Lord Lycaon… are Miss Rina and Miss Ellen bringing Doctor Chiya over here…?"
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 60)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 80)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 60)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 64)
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