–+–
Sandrone and Columbina had gone over Pulonia’s recovery plan in detail last night.
In the end, Sandrone rejected the idea of having Columbina lead the way straight into Cretan Hollow.
There was only one reason.
Efficiency.
Columbina’s way of finding a path was, at its core, finding order within chaos.
In her own words, it was like “solving a jigsaw puzzle while walking through a maze.”
That meant she needed time to test, check, and compare the warped space in front of her with the “right” path she sensed.
Give her enough time to learn the deeper logic of Hollows, and this “human-shaped, self-moving Bangboo” would no doubt become one of New Eridu’s top Proxies.
But right now, they had less than three days.
They had to recover five hidden parts from randomly scattered coordinate points inside a Hollow that changed by the moment.
They didn’t have room for that slow, careful “puzzle game” approach.
What they needed now was speed and precision.
Sandrone tapped a finger against the armrest of the sofa and made her decision.
“We need a local guide who knows Hollow structure inside and out. Someone who can recover the parts fast, and also let you observe how the ‘professionals’ of this world work.”
She took out her phone and lit up the screen.
On Knock Knock, her contact count was: 2.
One was marked “Columbina.” The other was “Cunning Hares – Nicole.”
Sandrone opened her chat with Nicole, and her fingers danced across the screen.
[Sandrone: Good morning, Miss Nicole. Could you recommend a reliable Proxy? We need to enter yesterday’s Hollow again and recover several important lost items.]
The reply came almost at once.
[Nicole: Morning, darling! Just call me Nicole~ The Proxies on the Inter-Knot are a mixed bag. Most of them are half-baked scammers. But don’t worry, anyone I recommend is the real deal!]
[Nicole: Go to the Random Play video store on Sixth Street! Look for the owner there. Mention my name and say you’re looking for “Phaethon”!]
Sandrone raised an eyebrow.
That close?
The Random Play video store on Sixth Street?
She had some impression of it.
It was right next to the ramen shop from last night.
She’d meant to go in and look around at the time, but Columbina’s soul had been hooked by the smell of ramen, and no amount of pulling could move her.
[Sandrone: Phaethon? The Bangboo from yesterday?]
[Nicole: That’s right! You saw what they could do in the Hollow, didn’t you? They’re legends among Proxies! Totally reliable!]
Sandrone thought back to yesterday in the Hollow.
That Bangboo had guided everyone through twist after turn, brushing past dead ends and Ethereals several times before bringing them to the exit without a scratch.
That kind of total control over the route was flawless.
[Sandrone: Thank you, but no need. It’s not far. We can go by ourselves.]
Just as she was about to end the conversation, Sandrone’s finger paused over the screen for a moment.
She hesitated.
It was a little hard to ask, but to sort out their current financial state, and to confirm the buying power of “Moonfall Silver” in this world, she had to ask.
She weighed her words and didn’t ask “how much is it worth” outright.
Instead, she sent a more tactful message.
[Sandrone: One more thing. About yesterday’s fare, that piece of “Moonfall Silver”… how was the price?]
This time, the “typing…” indicator at the top of the chat box flashed for a long while.
It lasted a full half minute, as if the person on the other end was locked in some fierce inner struggle.
At last, a message popped up.
Every word carried a thin, hollow air of someone trying far too hard to cover something up.
[Nicole: Ah! That thing… it was fine! Pretty much just enough for gas and labor! That’s all! No need to make up the difference! I’ve got something urgent to handle over here! Talk later!]
Right after that, Nicole’s profile icon turned gray at lightning speed.
She went offline so fast it was as if she feared Sandrone might keep digging into the matter.
Sandrone looked at the gray icon, lost in thought, then put away her phone.
“‘Just enough’…” She repeated the words with faint interest.
“It seems that piece of Moonfall Silver is worth far more than fifty thousand dennies.”
Nicole’s evasive reaction only proved how precious it was.
In that case, their financial crisis seemed to have found an unexpected way out.
“Let’s go.” Sandrone stood and patted down her skirt.
“We’ll talk about the Moonfall Silver later. First, we go to that video store.”
Sandrone took Columbina’s hand and pushed the door open.
What Sandrone didn’t know was that only a few hours earlier, deep in the night, a “financial earthquake” had struck the Cunning Hares’ base, one that would go down in Nicole Demara’s personal business history.
–+–
Time turned back to late last night.
In the bedroom on the second floor of the Cunning Hares’ base, Nicole wore a thin nightgown and a hydrating face mask.
She was just about to enjoy the rare beauty sleep she could get at the end of a long day.
Then the phone on her bedside table buzzed.
“Who’s calling in the middle of the night—”
Nicole grabbed the phone in a huff.
The moment she pressed answer, a completely unhinged scream exploded from the receiver.
The shout from the other end blasted Nicole’s eardrums numb.
She almost threw the phone away.
It was one of her senior appraiser friends from the Hollow Investigative Association.
This highly educated woman, who usually spoke in a soft voice and carried herself with grace, now sounded like she’d just downed a whole liter of adrenaline.
Her voice shook so hard it almost lost its shape.
“That stone you gave me during the day! Where did you get it?! Tell me! Tell me now!!”
Nicole’s hand jerked from fright, and the face mask slid straight down to her chin.
“D-Did you take the wrong medicine or something? Didn’t I tell you already? A client used it to pay the fare! What’s wrong? Is there a problem?”
“Pay the fare?! They used this to pay a fare?! Are you kidding me?!”
The other woman’s voice shot up by eight whole pitches.
Just from the sound alone, Nicole could almost see her face twisted with disbelief.
“So how much is it worth?” Nicole had a faint sense that something was off.
“This isn’t about money anymore!”
The woman’s voice burned with the kind of frenzy people had when they saw a miracle.
Even through the receiver, Nicole could feel the excitement spraying spit everywhere.
“Nicole, do you have any idea how absurd this thing’s physical properties are? Extremely high Ether inertia! Energy transmission efficiency close to superconductivity! And chemical toughness close to gold! This isn’t a mineral that could form in nature! This is a miracle! A nuclear bomb for academia!”
She grew so excited that her words started tripping over themselves.
“With this single sample alone, I could publish dozens—no! Hundreds of papers! I could even get tenure outright!!”
“Stop, stop, stop! I don’t understand papers or professors!”
Nicole yanked off the mask.
Her sharp business sense made her heart pound.
“Just tell me one thing. Is this thing… worth money?”
“Worth money? This is priceless—”
The woman slammed the brakes on her words and drew in a deep breath, trying to bring a little reason back into her voice.
She still trembled.
“Listen, Nicole. If any company could analyze this material, or even mass-produce it, the seats in the TOPS Alliance would have to be reshuffled. But before that… as a research sample…”
The other end of the line fell into a short silence.
Only heavy breathing came through.
After a long while, the woman seemed to make up her mind and forced a number out through her teeth.
“Five hundred thousand dennies.”
“This… This is all the liquid cash I can move from my personal account right now! I’m begging you, leave the sample with me! This is the request of my life!!!”
“H-How much?!”
Nicole held the phone, frozen stiff on the bed.
Her mind went blank in an instant.