Kiana and the Captain's Bizarre Adventure

Chapter 338 Assessment

The next day, Zhe and the others got up very early and then went to Scott's outpost.

Although this place is the first line of defense for the Zero Hole, it is not completely sealed off from citizens, especially now that independent investigators are being recruited. Of course, a thorough search is unavoidable.

After last night's discussion, it was finally decided that Zhe would contact the military. After explaining his purpose, Zhe was quickly taken to a military camp inside the outpost. Soon, he met Lei, the person in charge of recruitment there and a researcher from the Weista Institute.

This time, the commission to summon independent investigators was issued by the Whista Society. After all, Void Zero is like a huge treasure trove for these scholars. However, the soldiers stationed at the outposts are mainly tasked with guarding against the expansion of Void Zero and surrounding the shikigami towers inside those voids. It is really difficult for them to spare the time to help the Society complete additional exploration tasks.

Therefore, issuing a commission to establish an independent investigation team was put on the agenda. Unfortunately, because the threshold for obtaining investigator certification from the Investigation Association is low, Lei has already screened out a lot of people. Lei will not recognize a young person like Zhe until he has produced his own results.

So after explaining the assessment content and telling Zhe to be careful, Lei refocused her attention on the data in front of her. Of course, Zhe wouldn't really make things difficult for her, so he started the equipment next to him without saying a word.

Although this device also has functions such as remote communication with the inside of the void, it is still far inferior to H.D.D. However, before setting off, Fairy had already said that the equipment inside Scott's outpost had been disguised and overwritten under her and Ai's control. As long as Tetsuya activates any device, H.D.D. will instantly take over the system of that device, and at the same time, no abnormal data will be detected.

After briefly adjusting Ies, Zhe instructed Ies to go to a designated location inside the cave. Then, in the scene that Ies passed through, Zhe saw a somewhat familiar figure from behind.

She had long, lustrous silver hair, braided and flowing in the air. Her pupils were, unsurprisingly, azure blue, but Zhe knew that this person was definitely not the Kiana he knew.

"Oh? Has the next person to be tested arrived?" She turned to look at Ies at her feet. "Hello, little one, my name is Karen Kaslana, just call me Karen."

"So you are Miss Karen. My name is Zhe and I know Miss Kiana. She told me about you."

"I didn't expect that Tetsuya knew Kiana. But if that's the case, then you must have been told about this place by that child, right?"

"Yes, for some reason, the family's expenses have increased a lot. Kiana saw that I had knowledge related to cavity observation, so she recommended that I come and give it a try."

"Oh, I see. But since Kiana recommended you, you must be quite capable. Unfortunately, I'm not one of the examiners for this test, so I don't have the authority to pass you directly."

"So Miss Karen isn't one of the examiners?"

"After all, I'm a member of the military and know nothing about cavity observation. The reason I'm here is mainly to protect the safety of the examiners and the examiners. As for your examiner, he's right behind you."

"Hello, I'm the association investigator in charge of providing support for this operation. Just call me Examiner," said a woman with short gray hair.

"Since Miss Karen will be acting as the agent this time, the examinees don't need to lead their agents into the Void. However, it's still important to remind everyone that Void Zero is not like other ordinary voids. Don't underestimate Void Zero. Failing to prepare for unforeseen circumstances will come at a heavy price. At best, your broom will be damaged; in severe cases, you might be wiped out!"

The examiner from the survey association explained the assessment content while informing Zhe of the important points.

"However, with Miss Karen here this time, there's no need to worry too much!"

"Haha, you don't have to flatter me like that." Karen scratched her face awkwardly.

The assessment then officially began. As a legendary rope craftsman, Phaethon naturally had no problem with the difficulty of this assessment and quickly passed the first part perfectly. However, the examiner's expression became increasingly solemn, as the ether detection device held by Ies showed that the ether activity was rapidly increasing.

"...One sound indicates an active reaction, two sounds indicate significant activity, three sounds indicate strong activity, four sounds..."

The examiner snatched the device from Ies's hand and began to recall the meaning of the sound frequencies. Then, she looked around worriedly, and Karen's expression also became serious.

Suddenly, the instrument in the examiner's hand exploded due to excessive ether activity. The examiner quickly led Eis to hide in a downward staircase, while Karen also hid in a nearby dark spot, cautiously looking around.

Then Zhe noticed a giant skeleton, its entire body made of pink and white with its lower body resembling blooming flowers, passing overhead.

Seeing that the opponent had left, Zhe controlled Ies to walk out of the cover. Karen quickly called out to warn him, but it was too late. A creature resembling a bee rushed out from the side. In her haste, Karen fired a bullet that only deflected the opponent's trajectory.

But Zhe seemed to be frightened and did not control Ies to react. He just stood there blankly watching the other party rush towards him.

Suddenly, a black-haired, red-eyed fox-eared girl descended from the sky. Upon landing, she instantly drew her sword and swiftly dispatched the giant monster. Without saying a word, the girl merely glanced back at Bangbu before chasing after the direction the giant monster had gone.

The girl disappeared into the distance, and several people in the same uniform arrived at the scene from the direction she had come from.

Zhe knew all these people; in fact, including the fox-eared girl from earlier, there were practically no people in New Ellito who didn't know them.

The name of this team is: Special Operations Squad Zero, Section Six of the Anti-Aircraft Division.

Unlike Kiana and the others, this squad was led by Section Chief Hoshimi Miyabi herself, who was responsible for pursuing various high-level monstrous beings that appeared inside the Zero Void. The one who had just disappeared into the distance was Hoshimi Miyabi, the youngest Void Hunter in the history of New Elido and the head of the Anti-Air Section 6.

"Oh dear, we can't keep up with the section chief who's going full speed ahead at all." The one who spoke was the only male member of the team, and if Tetsuya remembered correctly, his name should be Asaba Yuuma.

"This uniform... belongs to HAND? And they're executives from the Special Operations unit?!" The examiner also recognized these people.

"The Sixth Section of the Special Operations Department for the Void is currently carrying out an emergency suppression mission." It was Deputy Section Chief Tsukishiro Ryu who spoke. "An extremely dangerous individual with unknown intelligence has appeared in this area. Regardless of what mission you are carrying out... I need you as a mobile squad to support this operation—this is the formal mobilization order I issued as the Deputy Section Chief of the Sixth Section for the Void."

"Okay, Liu, don't be so serious," Karen said.

"Senior Karen! What are you doing here?!" Yuecheng Liu exclaimed in surprise. "Shouldn't you be on the front lines?"

"This... hahaha!"

"You didn't come here to slack off again, did you?"

"How could that be! I was just worried about safety during the assessment here, so I applied to come here to ensure my safety, and it also gives me some fresh air."

"Assessment?"

"Yes, you should also know that Scott Outpost is preparing to establish an independent investigation team, right? This area has been designated as an assessment area."

“I see. Unless something unexpected happens, this thoroughly explored location is indeed suitable as an assessment site. However, since the target has deviated from the planned route, we need to use Bangbu, who carries the Carrot Data, for navigation. Senior, you should understand what I mean, right?”

"Of course I understand. It seems the assessment is coming to an end, and the next task is to fully support the operations of the Anti-Air Section Six. But the good news is that you've definitely passed the assessment. Shall we celebrate in advance?"

"Miss Karen, please spare me," Zhe said with a wry smile.

"Zhe?" Yue Chengliu asked.

"Yes, that's the name of the independent investigator who participated in this assessment. You all know about the equipment inside the outpost; thanks to Otto's technological upgrades, it allows for real-time communication between the inside and outside of the void. This independent investigator's abilities are beyond your imagination, after all, he was recommended by Kiana."

"Kiana recommended you..." Tsukishiro Ryu adjusted his slightly slipping glasses. "I understand. Since Kiana recommended you, your abilities are undoubtedly top-notch. Tetsuya, could you please show me the way?"

"I don't think I have the right to refuse, do I?" Zhe said.

“Indeed,” Yuzhen laughed. “Brother, it sounds a bit strange coming from me, but congratulations on having to work overtime.”

Tetsuya's Void Test was temporarily changed to support the Anti-Air Section 6. Along the way, Tetsuya learned from Tsukishiro Ryu and the others that the code name of the giant skeleton was Nineveh.

The one who attacked Ies just now was Nineveh's offspring, Ikai. In the following time, the group cleaned up Ikai while searching for Hoshimi Miya's whereabouts along the route calculated by Tetsuya.

Along the way, Yuma couldn't help but admire Tetsuya's strength. After all, although the equipment in the outpost made real-time communication between the inside and outside of the cave possible, not just anyone could quickly calculate the correct route based on the real-time data transmitted by Bomb.

Therefore, the hollow operations inside the outpost still mainly rely on pre-prepared carrots, but Zhe's method is more like real-time navigation than pre-prepared carrots.

The advantage is that the path can be changed at any time. The disadvantage is that because the data is not encoded into a radish and imported into the Bomb, the agents inside the hole will become headless flies and lose their direction once communication is blocked.

Of course, this was on the premise that they only had Fairy as their AI. Now that Ai-chan is supporting them, this problem has naturally been completely solved.

Fairy is responsible for calculating the route inside the void, while Ai-chan compiles this data into radish data and sends it to Ies's database as a backup. If necessary, even if the external connection to the internal connection is completely lost, Ies can still locate the final exit position for the agent based on the backup radish data.

Finally, the group found Hoshimi Miyabi in an area with relatively erratic gravity. She was rapidly approaching Nineveh by traversing the floating ruins of buildings.

Nineveh, naturally, wouldn't let Hoshimi get close to her so easily, so she commanded her offspring to launch an attack on Hoshimi.

Unfortunately, these sub-bodies were no match for Hoshimi Miyabi. With just one strike, Hoshimi Miyabi killed them all, and the distance between her and Ninavi grew ever closer.

Finally, Nineveh realized that her offspring, the skeleton, could not delay Hoshimi Miyabi's pace at all, so she turned around and rushed towards Hoshimi Miyabi. Hoshimi Miyabi stopped when she saw the other party rushing towards her, closed her eyes, put her sword back into its sheath, and gently placed her right hand on the hilt, holding her breath and concentrating.

Then, he pressed his left thumb hard on the fingerprint unlock port on the scabbard. The next second, a sharp friction sound came from Hoshimi Miyabi's scabbard. It was the sound of the sword rubbing against the scabbard.

"boom!"

Hoshimi Miyabi's all-out attack collided with Nineveh's attack, and the resulting explosion affected the building beneath Hoshimi Miyabi's feet, instantly shattering the remaining structure. Hoshimi Miyabi lost her footing and began to fall rapidly, while Nineveh seized the opportunity to quickly leave the area.

Not long after, Hoshimi Miyabi reunited with the group. Unfortunately, according to Hoshimi Miyabi's description, the group learned that Nineveh was not seriously injured by the attack just now, and they still needed to confirm its whereabouts.

However, the other party has now completely disappeared into the sky. Further investigation is needed to find out their whereabouts if we want to continue tracking them. Moreover, because of the battle between Hoshimi Aya and Nineveh just now, a large number of skeletons are gathering around them. However, most of these skeletons have been dealt with by Kallen, and the rest have been handed over to the members of the Anti-Air Section 6.

After clearing away the remains, the group decided to return to the outpost, and the operation was temporarily concluded.

After returning to the outpost, he briefly reported the situation to the people of the Sixth Anti-Air Division and Rei from the Academy before heading back. As for Tetsuya's assessment, although it was terminated early due to the situation with Nineveh, his achievements in assisting the Sixth Anti-Air Division in suppressing Nineveh were enough to prove his qualifications.

Without a doubt, Zhe passed the test and officially became the leader of the independent investigation team. Next, he can invite his familiar agents or find available defense soldiers to assist the Whista Society's commission.

Afterwards, Ling arrived at Scott Outpost and picked up Zhe. Once back, Zhe immediately took Ies to the nearby Bomb Modification Shop, since Ies would be going to the Zero Hole for quite some time in the coming days, and some modifications were necessary.

It just so happens that Enzo, the owner of the shop next door, knows Zhe and can offer him a discount. More importantly, Enzo has access to military-grade nylon parts that are normally unavailable, which is why Zhe came to him for help with the modification.

While searching for Enzo, some unexpected things happened. Enzo found a paper bag lying in front of his shop and kindly fixed it. However, since his shop was a Bomb Modification Shop, he was a little worried about leaving a combat-specialized Bomb in the shop.

So he asked Zhe to help look after things. Anyway, Bangbu seemed to like Zhe quite a bit, and their two families lived close by, so he could come over anytime if adjustments needed to be made.

Considering that it would allow Ies and the others to make more friends, Zhe agreed. Enzo, seeing how readily Zhe agreed, further reduced the modification fee for Zhe.

After finishing all that, it was already completely dark. Zhezai, who had returned to the video store with the two Bangbu, explained the situation to Rin and then went back to rest.

The next day, Ling knocked on Zhe's door with good news.