NIKKE, when the stars bloom

Or...

All three???

Chapter 7: This sniper is powerful enough

"Everyone, activate combat mode. Lavi and Lorefu will be in charge of rear protection. Anis, Christine, you two will be in charge of leading the way. The support troops will make sure they are in the middle of the team and responsible for the targets on both sides.

Front, middle and back queues, everyone should be kept 12 meters apart."

As he spoke, Phoenix handed the anti-material sniper cannon on his shoulder to Anis. Seeing this, the girl also stepped forward quite smartly, took the commander's weapon with a smile on her face, and put it behind her back.

For humans, carrying a weight of more than 20 kilograms will definitely bring inconvenience to movement, but this weight is completely insignificant in front of Nikki.

"Everyone follow me closely. If you find anyone falling behind, report to me immediately."

Under the puzzled gazes of Lavi and others, Phoenix took a step forward without hesitation and began to run at a steady speed according to the map in his mind.

"Erosion" - this word is the name given by the Ark Command to the virus designed by Anik without knowing it.

"Phoenix" does not know, nor should he know, "Erosion". This is a reasonable character setting that someone has summed up for himself based on his military academy education and combat experience.

Furthermore, although the distance of 600 meters was not too close, it was not far enough for him to have enough time to pick out the corrupted Nikki from the team.

So Phoenix made a bold assumption in his heart.

The corrupted Nikki is not under the command of Alnik, they just lead people to the "delivery location" of Alnik and Letcher without realizing it.

In fact, they still maintain the awareness and corresponding combat capabilities of obeying their commanders.

In other words, there are still seven people in his team... Oh no, not even counting Pepper who can't reload properly, there are still six combat-ready non-mass-produced Nikkis in his team.

Including myself, there are seven of us.

Seven people...

If everyone can kill ten Letchers, that's seventy Letchers...

Why are you running?!

Instead of trying futilely to escape while being locked, it is better to wipe out these annoying mechanical spiders!

【stop! 】

Arriving under an overpass, Phoenix suddenly raised his hand to stop moving forward, then clenched his right hand into a fist, placed it at the side of his head and pressed it hard, then spread out his five fingers forcefully.

[Find cover! Disperse the formation! ]

Seeing this, Lapi and his companions, who were still unclear about what was going on, first glanced at their teammates around them, and then each looked for a suitable cover.

Anis seemed to understand what was meant. Without anyone saying anything, she took the initiative to return the sniper rifle on her back to her commander.

Unfortunately, ideals are full, but reality always likes to slap ideals in the face for no reason, making us savor what fullness feels like.

As a logistical medical staff, Pepper blinked her innocent big eyes and looked like a little pink duck that had fallen behind the team. She took a step to the left with her shotgun, but felt something was wrong. She turned right, but still felt something was wrong.

In the end, she chose to stand still and said aggrievedly:

"Senior, what does the commander's action mean?"

"I'm not sure, but... it looks like they won't let us move freely." Merry picked up the shotgun with a little shame, and asked a question on behalf of Pepper and herself in the team voice.

However, what Merry did not expect was that the response she received was not from the commander's hoarse voice, but a deafening gunshot.

Zizz—boom——!!!

On the muzzle of the anti-material sniper gun, the palm-sized recoil brake burst out a blue fire. The explosion of gas expanded and created a visible air ripple on the ground that had been covered with dust for more than a hundred years.

Under the guidance of the sniper scope, the specially made heavy armor-piercing bullet was like a hammer hitting tofu, instantly shattering a corner wall more than 400 meters ahead.

Then, behind the wall, a moving Letcher had no time to react before its small half torso was shattered into pieces by armor-piercing bullets.

"Cough--cough!!!"

Under Pepper's stunned gaze and Merry's amazement with her hands covering her lips, someone, whose half body was numb from the recoil, had already bent over, coughing desperately.

I wish I could cough the alveoli out of my throat.

"This is... cough!!! This is too... cough——! Powerful..."

"Commander! Are you okay?"

Seeing that the commander looked like he was in the late stage of tuberculosis, Anis subconsciously wanted to step forward to help him, but she saw the commander poking forward with his left hand and saying intermittently:

"In front... the toy store mascot... cough!"

"what?"

Following the direction of the man's hand, the bewildered Anis saw the toy store mascot located at the intersection that the commander had mentioned - a Q-version unicorn that was tanned pure white by the sunlight.

What do you mean?

Commander, you can't... you can't let her carry this thing away, right?

Just as the absurd idea emerged in Anis' mind, he heard clear instructions from his superiors.

"aim."

"aim?"

"Hurry up... aim."

In the past, faced with such a nonsensical order, with Anis's short temper, she would definitely have criticized her leader openly or secretly.

However, Phoenix's amazing wall-penetrating aiming skills really shocked her, causing Anis to raise the muzzle of the grenade launcher in doubt and aim seriously at the pure white unicorn in the distance.

"emission."

boom!

boom! ! !

There was an explosion.

But there was only an explosion.

Anis was about to turn her head to ask the commander why he opened fire for no reason. The next second, the scene in her sight told her the answer.

Just then, a damn electronic eye appeared in the smoke and dust in front of the entrance of the Cross Toy Store.

It was positioned exactly in front of the doll.

"!"

This... How did the commander know that a Letcher would crawl out from this corner? !

Although she was surprised, Anis' fingers did not slow down at all. The moment she saw Letcher, she immediately fired a grenade at him.

boom! ! !

Because it had been aimed in advance, the shot easily hit the Letcher's torso, blowing its chassis-shaped body into a brilliant red iron flower.

Done!

Anis turned his head excitedly, and his beautiful and smooth shoulder-length hair swung into a lovely and playful arc.

"Lord Commander!"

however……

Commander Phoenix, who was only thinking about killing Letcher, raised his sniper rifle again and performed unreasonable, aimless shooting at Anis at close range.

Zizz—boom——!!!

Gunshots rang out, indicating that another Letcher fell to the ground in despair.

Immediately afterwards...

“Cough--cough! Cough--cough! Cough--cough! Cough--!!!”

Amid the worrying coughing, someone sighed while coughing:

“This sniper… cough——!

***strong enough!!!"

Chapter 8 Grouping

"Commander! This heavy weapon is obviously for our Nikki. How can your body withstand such continuous shooting?!"

Seeing the commander coughing heart-wrenchingly every time he fired a shot, Anis was about to step forward to persuade him, but she saw Phoenix stand up and hand the sniper rifle back to her as a matter of course.

"gather."

The man frowned, swallowed, and tried to stop himself from coughing endlessly, and said:

"Everyone... follow."

Then, he reached out and patted the girl's shoulder as a response, and then ran towards the underground passage beside the overpass.

Anis was left alone, stamping her feet in annoyance.

"Ugh - Really! Do you find me annoying, Commander?"

After saying that, she hurriedly followed.

……

……

"Lavi, Lorfu, you are responsible for guarding the southern underground entrance."

Arriving at the underground passage, Phoenix looked at Rabi, who was standing at the end of the team, and said something a little confusing in an earnest tone.

"Watch this place, and don't allow any threats to come in or out."

"...Understood, Commander."

As the most disciplined member of the team, Lavi immediately realized the most important logic in the order.

No "threats" are allowed in or out.

That threat could be Letcher...or it could be Nikki.

So, why does the commander think that there is a threatening Nikki in the team?

Watching the six people leave, Rabbi began to think about this question that deserves further study. Unlike Anis, who was extremely sensitive, she did not feel sad, angry, hostile or self-pitying because of the commander's suspicion of Nikki's behavior.

She was already used to humans' behavior towards Nikki.

What's more, the commander has shown himself to be quite reliable along the way. Since he believes there are problems in the team, there must be clues that she has not noticed.

Therefore,

Who has questions?

……

……

Who has the problem? This question itself is not difficult for Phoenix to solve.

The difficulty lies in how to solve this problem in a quick, safe and non-confrontational way.

Therefore, the underground passage connected to the subway station is the best place to quickly solve this problem at the moment.

"Anis, give my gun to Pepper! You and Sugar will form a team and go about 200 meters south of the subway track for reconnaissance. Sugar, I allow you to drive the motorcycle."

In the pitch-dark underground food court, Phoenix issued one order after another in a swift and decisive manner.

"Merry and Christine will form a team and advance about 200 meters north of the subway track to conduct reconnaissance."

"Pepper and I will be in charge of the east entrance to the underground passage."

"Everyone, please retreat as soon as you encounter Letcher. Those who do not retreat will be considered to be in violation of military orders, and other members are allowed to shoot them with non-lethal force and lead them away to retreat."

"Understood, Commander."