Satellite, Martha’s Orphanage.
Kazumo had been feeling irritated lately.
He sat on the steps in front of the main entrance with his chin resting on both hands, blankly staring at the children playing around the plaza before him.
For some reason, even though the scene before him was peaceful and harmonious, it instead made him feel strangely uncomfortable.
Perhaps after being constantly busy one thing after another, this sudden period of leisure had left his mindset unable to adjust.
In the month or so since transmigrating here, he had practically never had any time to rest.
He had constantly been running around everywhere, dealing with all kinds of unexpected situations.
Frequently traveling back and forth between the Satellite and the Tops, he was now so familiar with the underwater garbage processing tunnel connecting the two areas that he could practically drive through it with his eyes closed.
What annoyed him even more was that despite how advanced the Tops were, the Satellite did not even have a single place selling smartphones.
It was practically a technological wasteland.
People throughout the Satellite still commonly used old keypad phones and flip phones, and even their operating systems were absurdly outdated.
Ordinary phones simply could not function between the two regions.
Even though the two places were less than two hours apart by vehicle, it felt like traveling abroad.
Without a phone to play with, these leisurely days seemed even harder to endure.
“Yo!
Kazumo, why’re you sitting here?” Crow’s voice appeared beside him, interrupting Kazumo’s daze.
Today, Crow had once again gone out searching for Weber’s whereabouts, though judging by his expression, he had probably found nothing yet again.
Although he already knew the likely answer, Kazumo still asked, “How’d it go today?”
“Still couldn’t find him.” Crow shook his head, sighing as he sat down beside Kazumo on the steps.
During these past few days, Crow had not rested for even a moment, stubbornly continuing his search throughout the Satellite for the missing Weber.
Kazumo estimated that Weber was most likely already dead.
In his memory, the man had only been an ordinary Duelist like Crow; there was no way he could have escaped becoming a soul sacrifice when the Earthbound Immortal descended.
Crow actually understood this deep down as well, yet he still continued searching as always.
It was to give Sally some sort of closure.
“Right, forget that.
You didn’t look too good just now.
What’s wrong?”
Faced with Crow’s curious question, Kazumo opened his mouth, then fell silent.
He could not explain it.
He only felt his thoughts in chaos, yet had no idea how to put that feeling into words for someone else.
In the end, he still did not voice those emotions.
That said, he also did not want to face that discomfort alone, so Kazumo decided to drag his bro down with him and make him emo together.
He then revealed a strange expression and countered, “You really want to know?”
“What?
Is there something you can’t say?” Crow scratched his head in confusion at his friend’s odd expression.
Following Kazumo’s indication, Crow looked past the children playing in the plaza and toward the woods at the edge of the square.
There stood Akiza Izinski, now dressed in simple everyday clothes.
She pushed a wheelchair along with light steps, occasionally revealing a radiant smile.
Clearly, Yusei, who still sat in the wheelchair recovering from serious injuries, had said something amusing again, making the young woman overjoyed.
Seeing this scene, there were now two irritated people sitting on the entrance steps.
They had all started out together, yet somehow their bro had secretly gotten himself a girlfriend, and was even publicly hurting them with it!
“AAAAAH!
Jack!
Where the hell did you go?!”
Another voice came from the entrance behind them this time, the miserable wail of Carly Carmine on the verge of collapse.
That day, after they rescued Luna and the others and safely evacuated the building, this airhead had actually suggested going home.
At the time, Blister had burst out laughing, looking delighted by the chaos as he encouraged her to hurry home and turn tonight’s experience into a news report.
It would definitely sell well.
And somehow, one dared to say it while the other dared to believe it.
Carly immediately declared she was going home to write the article.
Then she would get promoted and earn a raise, become the general manager, become CEO, “marry the King of Crashes,” and reach the pinnacle of life.
In the end, Crow simply could not stand watching anymore and interrupted Carly’s delusions.
He carefully explained the stakes involved to her in detail, frightening Carly so badly that her expression changed on the spot, and that very night she followed them back to the Satellite.
Carly had also suffered critical emotional damage from that scene, triggering a severe case of Jack withdrawal.
Watching other people happily flirting and being affectionate instantly caused her longing for Jack to explode.
Seeing that the two in front of her gave absolutely no response and offered not the slightest comfort, Carly irritably sat down on the steps as well.
And so, the number of irritated people sitting on the entrance steps became three.
As for Jack, there was indeed still no news of him whatsoever.
However, aside from Carly, nobody else was worried about the “King of Crashes.”
Jack’s strength was obvious to everyone.
In all of New Domino City, the only ones capable of threatening him were the Dark Signers.
As one of the Signers, he would definitely appear again in future duels.
Soon, a fourth figure sat down on the steps.
The three turned around and discovered it was Blister.
Blister was irritably clawing at his hair, his expression looking unusually grim.
Under the puzzled gazes of the three, he pulled out his phone from his pocket, tapped it several times, then showed everyone a page on the screen.
It was the homepage of DL, the largest social media platform in the Tops.
The massive amount of dirt they had obtained that night had actually been posted brazenly right there on the homepage!
There were even more than ten thousand pages of leaked material uploaded onto the platform, the exposed evidence implicating a huge number of political and business elites from the Tops. You are reading on novelping(.)com, the official source.
Immediately after, Blister performed a few more operations and opened a news article.
It was shockingly a wanted notice for the group of them, their crime listed as stealing classified information.
Right then, everyone understood why Blister looked so upset… the blame had been dumped entirely onto them.
These leaks had obviously been released by Goodwin.
The countless accusations all targeted political figures, corporations, and enterprises opposed to him.
After all, the only ones who possessed these files were the Dark Signer Misty and themselves; that meant this could only have been Goodwin’s doing.
This further confirmed what Kazumo had said before about the Goodwin brothers working together behind both the legal and criminal worlds, orchestrating everything from the shadows.
Combined with the chaos caused by the mass disappearances, the authority of the Public Security Maintenance Bureau had become unprecedentedly powerful.
Thus, a totally one-sided purge had begun among the ruling class of the Tops.
At this rate, it probably would not take long before Goodwin stood alone at the top and took control of the entire Tops.
It seemed their current peaceful days only existed because Goodwin still did not have the spare time to deal with them.
Now that the four of them realized the “Sword of Damocles” hanging over their heads, they became even more anxious.
As for Luna and Leo, they were right there among the group of children ahead, playing carefree without a worry in the world.
Yusei, having finished getting some fresh air, was pushed back toward the entrance.
Akiza, who had originally worn a gentle springlike expression, immediately turned cold the moment she saw Kazumo.
She still had not let go of what happened with Sayer that night.
Although Sayer was hardly a good person, in Akiza’s heart he was still an irreplaceable companion.
Expecting her to show Kazumo a pleasant expression was simply impossible.
If not for Yusei sitting in front of her, this woman probably would have already started fighting Kazumo.
Kazumo was not annoyed either.
He simply stood up silently, brushed the dust off his backside, and stepped aside to clear the entrance path.
The other three beside him also realized they were blocking the way and quickly stood up to make room.
Yusei could sense the shift in atmosphere.
As he passed by Kazumo, he revealed an apologetic bitter smile toward him.
After that, Akiza pushed him back into the infirmary to continue resting.
Once the two had gone far away, Crow could not help complaining on behalf of his bro.
“Tch, what’s wrong with that woman?!”
Kazumo withdrew his gaze and sat back down on the steps, calmly saying, “Let her do whatever she wants.
I didn’t save her expecting a nice expression anyway.”
Crow was still dissatisfied inside, but both sides were his friends.
He could only snort before sitting back down beside Kazumo again.
And so, the irritated people once again returned to sitting on the entrance steps.