"Well, then. What now?"

It was fortunate for Misha that she did not have any handcuff or ankle chain. However, she did not have a lead where she should go.

She flicked her tongue to sense her surrounding while her yellowish snake eyes darted around. Misha stood still a whole minute to calculate what she should do next.

"I'm weaponless, but I can tell where all the monsters are. I'll just avoid them for now. Still …"

*Guuu*

Misha's stomach cried as her hunger bar reached 10% already. Because of the long idle period of time in the alternate s.p.a.ce with her grandmother's hologram, this character had not eaten anything for too long.

"Ugh, now I miss my precious. Where am I going to find something to eat here?"

Misha wondered through the wasteland, using only her instinct. She avoided odd life signatures of mutants, zombies, and suspicious looking geography.

Unfortunately, it did not take long for the MWG and the local military to notice her presence. A squadron of mobile AHMU units had been deployed to search for her.

10 Minutes after Misha got into the game, the very same Raptor Squadron reached her previous starting location.

"The source said she was here a few minutes ago. She shouldn't be too far."

"Track her. Raptor 3, trace her footprints. Raptor 4, check the satellite footage."

.

Meanwhile

A sand dune, which blended to the surrounding wasteland, shook and crumbled, revealing rusty metallic missile silo with the writing [Bunker 88]. The silo plates slowly withdrew to the edges, opening the cover and showing the inside.

The elevator under the silo lifted a 10-meter-tall mech unit upward toward the surface of the ground.

The unit was without a proper plate s.h.i.+eld or cover, which looked awkward and ugly compared to the Mafdet's official robots with plating decoration. However, it was customized to suit the pilot.

A pulse rifle loaded with AP sh.e.l.ls and AR sh.e.l.ls were in the hands of the mech. On its shoulders, they were equipped with missile launchers with HE rockets.

Thorn C. Cha, the previous ambulance driver who delivered Misha to the secret facility, was piloting this AHMU. His yellowish snake eyes flashed in golden light as he checked the status of his mech in the c.o.c.kpit one last time.

"System, all green! Zeris One, ready for deployment!"

Energy cables were detached while all bridges withdrew from the mech.

Within the c.o.c.kpit, a monitor showed the face of a woman with ponytail brown hair in her late 20s. She had the same snake eyes, but snake scales replaced her skins on her cheeks. In addition, a trace of burnt scars was left on her missing right ear, which showed that she had been through a harsh life.

"Chacha, they deployed the Raptor Squad to retrieve that girl a few minutes ago. You will be likely to face them head-on in this mission. Are you sure you have everything prepared?"

Thorn C. Cha, or Chacha, took a rolled paper with [Herbs] inside before he lighted the joint with a lighter. He puffed a smoke with a smile on his face.

"They're no match for me. I'll be back with our new family member in 20 minutes."

"Be careful out there. Otherworlder's activities are getting more active. Don't look down on those espers."

"Aye, chief! Zeris One, moving out!"

.

While Misha was searching for a settlement to find food, she was not stupid enough to not detect the sounds of mobile mech units. The whistling noise of mech engines and the trembling earth gave it away that something huge was chasing after her.

'Should I change back to myself and roast these chasers to charcoal?'

Misha could see several shadow figures in the dust cloud from the horizon. As she watched the oncoming mechs, she contemplated if she should reveal her trump cards to drive back the pursuers.

The five 10-meter-high mechs reached Misha in less than a minute. The captain of the squad immediately spoke through his loudspeaker inside the c.o.c.kpit.

"Trainee Misha, you're under arrest for stealing our government's artifact. Surrender immediately!"

The face of Misha changed as her mouth curved down.

"Artifact? Arti-my-foot! You already took every gel I had back then. I owe you nothing! Look at me! I'm here with only my cloth. Is all my clothe your artifact!?"

The squad ignored her protest, "Surrender now! Don't make me arrest you by force!"

All mechs aimed their pistols which were loaded with stun bullets to capture Misha back alive.

The frown of Misha deepened. Should a bullet of those mech pistols. .h.i.t her, she would have fallen into a cripple state again since each pistol barrel hole was bigger than the size of her head.

'Tama, I'm sorry. I'll have to transform into my old self.'

*Mrrr*

Misha took a deep breath as she gathered her strength into both legs, getting ready to run toward the mech to fight it out.

Before she put her thought into action, all mechs suddenly leaped backward and spread out.

*BANG*

*BANG*

A loud gunshot sounded from behind Misha, which the bullets landed behind the place where the five mechs were standing.

The bullets missed the targets as they moved backward and hid behind sand dunes.

Upon turning around, she saw a lone mech, which was the same size as mech the Raptor Squad was using. It looked old, ugly, and rusty. Yet, Misha could tell from a glance that this robot could never be underestimated.

Just now, the giant strange mech shot at the squad.

'Who is this!?'

Soon, the pilot of the rusty giant mech spoke through the intercom loudspeaker.

"Yo, missy! I'm here to pick you up. Are you hungry? We have green gels, yellow gels, and even red gels at our base. Join us today, and we'll sell you three jellies at the price of one!"

"Huh?"

Misha was confused. He had never made any friend outside of the base, but this pilot of the weird mech seemed to know her.

"Who are you?"

"Wow, you're cold! Don't you remember me? I'm the one giving you tips about the G.o.dd.a.m.n Illuminati base inside that hospital. I drove you there!"

"Err, who?"

"Seriously. You really have short memories. I'm the ambulance driver!"

"Oh, okay. But who are you?"

"…"

.

Thorn had a headache as he did not know what to explain to this airhead.

'She has just mutated. Maybe her brain doesn't function very well because of the parasite. Oh well, I'll get rid of these fools first.'

On his 180 degrees monitor, five red crosshairs had already aimed at the five targets before he could even send the command to his suit.

The corner of Thorn's mouth twitched. He looked back to see his buddy as seven tentacles grew from his back like wings.

Five yellow tentacles had latched onto five ancient fighting gamepads, which they were controlling the crosshairs. Two other eyeb.a.l.l.s looked at different directions.

"Oi, Kai. Don't you fire any weapon without my permission. We have limited supplies."

*Meow* *Meow* *Ong*

(Limited supplies? The supplies are right before you, junkie rat! Kill those hamsters, and we'll loot their ammo and their machines.)

"Right. I forgot. s.h.i.+t, I promised the chief that I'll go back in 20 minutes. How many minutes have pa.s.sed now?"

*Meow*

(Let's get rid of these hamsters first and save our baby rat. Forget about your chief for once.)

"Alright, alright. Let's concentrate."

Two eyes on the monitor,

Two hands on the flight sticks,

Two legs on the flight panels,

Five tentacles on five different gamepads,

Two external tentacle eyeb.a.l.l.s on side monitors,

Two small eyeb.a.l.l.s inside Thorn's eyes,

This was how Thorn C. Cha and his partner piloted his machine.

*Meow*

(They are coming!)

"Rockets on them! I'll handle the footwork!"

*Ong*

(On it!)