Kiana and the Captain's Bizarre Adventure

Chapter 355 Phaethon: Do I owe the Rabbit House a favor? Really?

A disclaimer before viewing: There are alternate settings, some characters may be out of character (OOC), and there may be some scenes with characters appearing stupid. Be prepared to be scolded.

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"Hmm, I see. So you came here because you received a missing person request from the Soryu-ya? And this Miss Nekomiya Matana is an employee of the Soryu-ya?"

After listening to Zhe's explanation, Zhu Yuan looked at the certificate that Mao You handed over with a suspicious expression. After checking, it was indeed a genuine certificate.

That's to be expected, since Cunning Rabbit House is a legitimate agency with a business license, even though the members hadn't bothered to take the Hollow Investigation Certification exam due to funding issues.

However, later, because he and Zhe established a connection with the military through the independent investigation team, they also gained some of the military's privileges, such as the Hollow Investigation Qualification Certificate.

As long as the inspection is passed and the on-site assessment is completed, the certificate can be processed directly without any handling fees. Therefore, Nicole took the opportunity to have everyone in the Rabbit House obtain a formal qualification certificate, including the newly joined Nekomaru.

In other words, the only illegitimate identity here is that of the philosopher Faetong. However, considering Lycaen's guarantee and the person behind Lycaen, Zhu Yuan couldn't immediately lash out.

However, this does not mean that she cannot get involved in Zhe and the others' actions. After all, this involves a case of a citizen going missing, or even possibly being kidnapped. After discussing it with everyone, she decided to let Seth go and take charge of the case.

On one hand, Lycahn needed a sheriff to confirm the facts and monitor Zhe's every move. On the other hand, they wanted Seth to be separated from Jane for a short period of time.

Because Zhu Yuan could clearly sense the deep awkwardness between the two (mainly Seth), and since Seth didn't need to continue following up on the next operation, the task of providing intelligence was now left to Jane and the guard who had been persuaded to surrender.

Just now, the guard who betrayed the Mountain Lion Gang provided the sheriff with a lot of useful information, including the route to the Mountain Lion Gang's stronghold.

After all, this gentleman had been responsible for guarding this transit station since he joined the Mountain Lion Gang. Apart from guarding the supplies, he was bored most of the time, so he would sometimes secretly observe the routes of people transferring from here to headquarters.

Based on his description, the captain quickly located a stable rift leading to Void Zero. This was not surprising, since it was not uncommon for a rift leading to the main void to exist within a companion void. As a companion void to Void Zero, the Balai Building Void would naturally have such a rift.

But who could have imagined that the Mountain Lion Gang would be so skilled and daring as to set up their headquarters inside Hole Zero? No wonder the Security Bureau hadn't been able to obtain any useful information when investigating the Holes where the Mountain Lion Gang had previously appeared.

It turns out they were just using those holes as stepping stones to escape into Hole Zero. No wonder so many anti-etheric drugs were found in their stronghold just now.

After all, they were going to hide in Void Zero for a long time, and only return to the outside from other voids to continue committing crimes after the heat died down.

After understanding the situation, Zhu Yuan led the troops to begin the final cleanup work, leaving only Lekahn and other Victoria Housekeeping staff, Zhe, Maoyou, and Seth at the scene.

Subsequently, under Zhe's guidance, they not only quickly helped Lycan and the others complete the cleaning of most of the floors, but also helped them find out the situation of all the rooms in the current area.

Seth was impressed by Phaethon's abilities and wondered why he didn't use them for good. Seth could tell that Zhe and the others weren't bad people, so why did they have to become illegal rope craftsmen?

Tetsuya could only offer a vague explanation, and Seth, sensing Tetsuya's predicament, fell silent for a moment.

"To be honest, I understand what you're saying, but Phaethon, I still hope you can use your abilities for good, join the Hollow Investigation Association, and stop accepting rope net commissions."

“But we still have a truth that we must uncover, but we have no way of obtaining relevant information from the official organization, and the information itself may very well be information that the government is deliberately concealing. Sheriff Seth, I hope you can understand that sometimes the government is the culprit that conceals the truth.”

"Of course I know, but the reason the authorities chose to cover it up is because if it were exposed, it could trigger a large-scale riot, and a large number of citizens would be caught up in it. I don't want to see such a scene."

"But if we do that, the teacher's innocence cannot be cleared, then what's the point of us doing this...!"

"again?"

"No, it's nothing, please don't worry about it."

In his haste, Zhe blurted out some things, and Seth keenly sensed this. Combined with Zhe's earlier statement that he was investigating the truth behind the fall of the old capital more than a decade ago, Seth felt as if he had learned something extraordinary.

"The fall of the old capital, the injustice done to your teacher—could it be that your teacher, Fae, was Carlos Arna, the one who caused the fall of the old capital? Are you a survivor of the Helios Organization?"

“…Sheriff Seth, has anyone ever told you that sometimes it’s better not to be too blunt with anyone?”

"So I guessed right, didn't I?"

"...Yes, my teacher was indeed Carlos Arna, the one who, in the eyes of the world, was the instigator of the fall of the old capital. But I know that my teacher was wronged, because I saw her being kidnapped that day. Even if the cause of the void explosion was my teacher's experiment, it could also be a frame-up to divert attention. I became Phaethon now in order to investigate the truth of this matter and find my missing teacher, all to clear her name."

"Even if the truth is that your teacher was indeed the culprit who caused the fall of the old capital, will you still continue to investigate?" Lycahn asked.

"To be honest, I have considered this possibility, but I still don't believe that such a kind and gentle teacher would do such a thing. However, if this is the truth, I think I will continue to investigate. If I give up the investigation because I am afraid that the truth of history is not what I imagine, then I would not be myself."

"I understand. It seems you are a man of strong will. Sheriff Seth, after hearing what you said, will you still decide to arrest him after the matter is over?"

Upon hearing Lycaen's words, the cat instantly became alert. Her tails stood straight up, her fur bristled, and she let out a threatening growl.

"No, no, no! I would never do that!" Seth quickly waved his hand and said, "Although Senior Qingyi did instruct me to arrest Fahrenheit depending on the circumstances, from my conversation with you, I know you are a kind-hearted person. Even though the methods you used were not legal, you still maintained your moral principles. Rather than arresting you directly, I would prefer to talk to you face-to-face and persuade you to return to the right path. As for the matter you want to investigate, I will find a way to help you!"

Hearing Seth's earnest words, Zhe smiled. He had to admit that Seth was indeed a sheriff full of a sense of justice, but...

"I'm sorry, I can't agree to that. At least until the truth is clear, I still hope to maintain the Rope Net intelligence network. However, I can consider becoming friends with you. The premise is that we can meet in reality. Of course, I can't tell you my real identity directly. I'll ask Sheriff Seth to investigate on his own."

"Wow! That's really going too far. Couldn't you have given me a hint?"

“There’s no reason to give a sheriff a hint so that he can come and arrest you. Sheriff Seth shouldn’t be thinking he can get away with this.”

"Alright, gentlemen, your rest time is almost up. Next, we're going to another building, to the top floor. If we don't find any clues there either, then it can only mean that our friend from the Rabbit House just happened to be near the Balai Building when he sent the message."

"To be honest, it is indeed a possibility. Did Fairy rule out this possibility at the time?" Zhe asked.

"Definitely. When we were analyzing the information, we ruled out the possibility of sending messages in the vicinity. Considering that only the top floor of the Balai Building is currently exposed outside the hole, I think it is necessary to go to the top floor and search it."

Zhe relayed Fairy's words to the people present, and Lykahn also agreed that it was indeed necessary to go to the top floor to check.

After all, there aren't many people who currently possess the technology to communicate with the outside world from within the void. Apart from Phaethon, who may have inherited the legacy of the Helios Organization, only the Anti-Air Section 6 and the military possess this technology. A citizen with exceptional hacking skills probably wouldn't have the relevant expertise.

"But speaking of which, this friend from the Rabbit House shouldn't have done anything illegal, right?" Seth asked.

“Of course not!” Zhe immediately retorted. “She’s just a cybersecurity professional. It’s perfectly normal for her to know some hacking techniques to prevent hackers from attacking servers. Besides, she’s said to be quite famous in the industry. Maybe her disappearance is related to that.”

All of the above is Tetsuya's nonsense, but Ai-chan has already turned Tetsuya's words into Rui-en's real experience on the internet, in order to prevent the police from conducting a surprise inspection afterwards.

Fortunately, it wasn't Qingyi who came along, but just the naive young sheriff Seth. Otherwise, Qingyi could have easily analyzed the flaws based on Zhe's words in no time. Ever since they accidentally learned from Kiana that Qingyi was Yu'ou, Zhe and Ling had become much more cautious when interacting with Qingyi.

As they ventured deeper, the group got closer and closer to the skybridge connecting the two buildings, and they began to feel that the surroundings were becoming increasingly eerie.

First, the door to the empty room closed automatically, and then shadowy figures flashed by in the dark, creating an eerie atmosphere that made everyone tense.

The tense atmosphere then reached its peak when the gates of the overpass suddenly descended rapidly before everyone's eyes, closing the overpass and locking the gates completely.

Fortunately, Ai-chan and Fairy's scanning analysis revealed that these strange phenomena were caused by two special skeletons.

According to the data obtained from the scan, the etheric energy of these two skeletons has reached the standard for notoriety. Strangely, these two skeletons did not show much hostility towards humans.

Instead, it seemed as if they were preventing everyone from moving forward. Ai-chan speculated that these two Mukuro were influenced by the obsessions they had when they were still human.

Some studies suggest that if a human retains a strong enough obsession before being corrupted and mutated into a skeleton, it is possible that the mutated skeleton may act in accordance with that obsession to a certain extent.

Of course, it's also possible that the two skeletons simply considered the other building their territory and blocked everyone's way forward purely because they didn't want anyone to enter their territory.

Regardless of the reason, the group had to pass through the building opposite to reach the roof exposed outside the hole.

Normally, this situation would require everyone to go to the control room to operate it, but Ai-chan said she could use Ies to hack into the control room and remotely control it via the electronic device nearby. Tetsuya immediately manipulated Ies to the electronic device and handed it over to Ai-chan to operate. During this time, Seth went to Nekomata's side and asked a question.

"Speaking of which, I've been wanting to ask this for a while now: why didn't your Rabbit House just call the police instead of hiring the rope craftsman for help?"

Cat was startled by Seth's sudden question, but fortunately, her years of experience in the underworld allowed her to quickly come up with an answer.

"That's because Nicole was in a hurry to get to the airship. You know, our Rabbit House had previously accepted a case from the victims of the Vision bombing, and the police department's processing takes time. The situation was urgent, and Fahrenheit happened to owe us a favor, so we asked him to help."

Nekomaru's flawed explanation left Tetsuya and Rin, who were sitting next to H.D.D., speechless. Putting aside the fact that they owed a favor to Kouto-ya, which was against all reason, would the other party really believe such an obviously fake reason?

"I see. But I still hope that in the future you will contact the police station first, and please don't go to illegal places like rope nets to solve your problems just for convenience, okay?"

He actually believed it?!

Even the cat looked at Seth with surprise, she never expected that Seth, who was also a cat-people, could be so innocent.

However, at least they managed to fool everyone. Just then, the door opened, and everyone immediately went inside another building.

Upon entering, the group discovered a bag on a nearby platform. Based on the information Nicole had given them before leaving, Zhe confirmed that this was the bag that Ryan usually carried when she went out.

Meanwhile, the group also found a music player inside. Upon inspection, the music player did not show any obvious signs of etheric erosion and was still functioning normally.

It can be inferred that this bag was recently abandoned here, but why did it end up here in the first place?

Just as everyone was puzzled, a figure resembling a ballerina appeared before them.