[I think I saw a real angel!]
Such a post was quietly published online in the middle of the night.
The poster attached a photo like this.
They were four barely visible, petite figures, seemingly flying in the sky.
They seemed to have wings spread open on their backs.
The main text read as follows:
“For some reasons, I ran into danger in the Hollow today.
“Falling from a very high place, I thought I was a goner.
“But the feeling of weightlessness quickly disappeared. Carefully opening my eyes, I saw a beautiful girl with wings on her back who caught me. She was just like an angel.”
Below the post, scattered replies could be seen.
Elegant Onlooker: “The poster is either half-asleep or hallucinating from Hollow corruption. Let alone actual angels, I’ve barely even seen any angel Thiren.”
Medical Intern: “Is the poster feeling unwell? You can come to Delai Hospital, I’ll give you a free checkup.”
Not Anonymous: “I can hear the abacus clicking from here, upstairs. Is that really a free checkup? I think you just want someone to practice on.”
Final Fantasy: “It would be so great if there really were angels. I hope the angels can hurry up and eliminate the Hollows.”
Angels of Delusion Fan Club Official: “Did someone mention angels? Come and watch our little angels’ videos! @Delusional Angels Sole Designated Official Account Little Qianxia is super cute, Little Aria is super energetic, Captain Nangong has exquisite dance steps, and Little Tenshi’s camera work and editing are professional-grade!”
Staying Up Late to Watch Videos: “Oh, Angels of Delusion, I know them. They post videos online, and their videos are pretty well-made. Their singing and dancing are also good, but not many people watch them. The girls are all very cute. Maybe because the environment for singing and dancing is always similar, they look nice, but it feels like they lack some novelty. Still, these girls’ short videos are quite interesting.”
At this very moment, the hacker Rain had already returned to her safehouse.
Looking at the replies to the post on the Inter-Knot, she let out a sigh.
After the four girls left, Phaethon and the others also came to the rooftop of the Ballet Twins Building to ask what had happened.
Neither Billy nor she had spoken to anyone else about those four girls.
But…
Rain recalled the moment she was caught by Aria as she fell, her breath hitching slightly, and her heart rate quickened.
That floral scent with a hint of metallic tang seemed to linger at the tip of her nose once more.
Was that an angel Thiren?
Or a real angel?
Now that she had calmed down and thought about it carefully, it was probably more likely the former.
Those kids coming into the Hollow must have accepted some kind of commission, only to get caught up in this incident.
Rain remembered the scene from earlier when the black-haired and green-haired girls were captured.
The pinkish-purple twintailed girl who arrived later and the pink-haired angel who caught her were clearly acquainted with those two girls, and in the end, they all left together.
As a hacker, Rain of course knew that it was best not to expose this matter.
After all, a casual remark can be taken seriously by a listener.
It would be bad if someone found some clues because of this and followed the trail to do harm to those four girls.
However, keeping this matter bottled up inside made her feel a bit uncomfortable.
After all, this time, the strong sense of déjà vu of being saved by an angel brought an unprecedented sensory impact.
So in the end, Rain heavily edited the photo before posting it.
“Angels of Delusion…”
Rain’s gaze focused on the avatar of the username “Angels of Delusion Fan Club Official”.
The avatar of this account was an image of four chibi-style heads clustered together.
Although it was just a simple sketch, the features were very distinct.
Black hair styled like octopus-cut sausages, a tea-green side ponytail, four pink braids, pinkish-purple twintails…
Weren’t these the very girls who had saved her at the Ballet Twins Building earlier?
She swallowed hard and, with trembling fingers, clicked on the tagged “@Delusional Angels Sole Designated Official Account”.
The avatar of this account was pink, featuring a small backpack with tiny wings, and a heart with two eyes in the center.
Scrolling down, she could see some videos.
The covers of the videos were mostly screenshots of the girls together.
These clear pictures allowed Rain to fully confirm it.
These girls were indeed the ones who had saved her.
Out of curiosity, Rain clicked on a short video.
This was a daily dance practice.
Three girls stood together, practicing their dance steps.
The girl with the octopus-sausage hair had skilled dance moves and a harmonious rhythm.
She led the dance while pointing out the issues of the other two girls.
The pink-haired girl learned very quickly and made very few mistakes; once corrected, she wouldn’t make them again.
On the other side, the tea-green-haired girl’s movements were slightly slower and less coordinated, occasionally tripping over her own feet.
“Sunna, you danced it wrong!” the girl with the octopus-sausage hair said to the tea-green-haired girl.
Immediately after, a raspy voice-over that sounded like someone who hadn’t fully woken up spoke: “Alright Nangong, stop bullying Sunna.”
“Uh-huh~ Miss Tenshi is so lenient. Do you want to come and dance too?” Nangong said.
“Eh, I have to dance too?” Tenshi’s voice was still off-screen.
“Yes,” Nangong said.
“Come and try it. Actually, I’d prefer if all four of us stood together~” the pink-haired girl said.
“Exactly, exactly. See, even Aria said so,” Sunna also nodded in agreement.
So the scene shifted, and the four girls stood together.
Compared to the others, Tenshi’s movements were even worse.
Although her movements were very standard, she always seemed to be half a beat slower than the others.
When the others started the next move, she hadn’t even finished the previous one.
At the end of the video, Tenshi seemed to lose her footing and fall, and Aria immediately flew over to catch her.
Tenshi lamented, “Dancing is really not for me.”
After watching the video, Rain’s lips curled up slightly without her realizing, feeling a wave of relaxation.
The girls’ daily life felt very beautiful and lighthearted.
But soon, she frowned slightly again, her eyes fixed on Tenshi appearing in the frame.
Rain recalled the pinkish-purple twintailed girl she had seen on the rooftop of the Ballet Twins Building…
Comparing her to the one in the video, although a few faintly glowing cracks could still be seen on her cheeks, they were far fewer than in the video.
Furthermore, she looked much weaker and more listless in the video.
Rain muttered to herself and scrolled through some other videos.
The video she just watched was one of the earlier ones on the account.
In the more recent videos, not only was Tenshi nowhere to be seen, but even her voice-overs were much fewer.
There were also comments below asking why Tenshi was missing, whether they had a falling out, and so on.
The reply said that Tenshi was sick.
The girls’ daily life suddenly didn’t feel so lighthearted anymore.
But thinking of the situation on the rooftop, Rain felt that Tenshi’s illness must have recovered quite well.
After hitting follow on the “Delusional Angels Sole Designated Official Account”, Rain logged out of the Inter-Knot and stretched.
Having cleared her mind, she went back to handling Phaethon’s commission, investigating that mysterious chip.
She also wondered what the “Sacrificial Ghost” mentioned in it was.
Meanwhile…
Inside the Random Play video store.
After the operation at the Ballet Twins Building ended, the siblings Wise and Belle—who were video store managers on the surface but actually the legendary Proxy Phaethon (civilian Hollow guides, officially referred to as Hollow Investigators) in secret—finally gave the chip they obtained during their joint operation with Belobog Heavy Industries to Rain for analysis.
“Brother!”
The younger sister, Belle, had short blue hair and wore a semi-casual, semi-sporty outfit.
Right now, she was frowning, looking at Wise, and questioning him in a serious tone:
“Have you been using Fairy to download something lately?
“Ever since Fairy arrived, our electricity bill has already been incredibly tight. Why has the power consumption been getting worse and worse lately?”
The older brother, Wise, had short silver-gray hair and a clothing style similar to his sister’s.
He took half a step back, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender:
“Belle, how could I? Fairy usually ignores me anyway. It just calls me Assistant No. 2 directly…”
While the siblings were searching for the culprit behind the electricity bill, the real culprit—Fairy—or rather, Aria’s Wishing Fairy, was busy on the Inter-Knot.
Instead of joining the Phaethon siblings’ detective work, immediately after capturing the post published by Rain, it performed multiple modifications on the photo that Rain had already altered, and directly hid the post on the Inter-Knot.
Then, it went to the latest video of the “Delusional Angels Sole Designated Official Account” and posted a comment under the username “Super Intelligent Butler”:
“\Bright-eyed Little Aria!/ \Loud-voiced Little Aria!/ \Energetic-smiling Little Aria!/”
…
“Nyaromon, an In-Training small Digimon… can swell its tail and make its fur sharp to attack enemies.”
During the process of transferring Nyaromon’s data to Sunna’s pet device, Tenshi looked at the orange, cat-tailed, and cat-eared fluffy ball on her phone screen.
“In a game, it doesn’t look like a very strong attacking ability.
“But if it’s synchronized and converted into reality, and strengthened by a pet device modified with Ether technology, then it’s hard to say.”
Tenshi thought to herself.
Although she didn’t know the real-world effect of this move called “Fox Tail,” with various factors combined, its power shouldn’t be small.
After all, even Bubble could drill out to fight the Ethereals.
Tenshi’s gaze fell on the pet device, the digital kitten raised by Sunna.
Bubble’s appearance after coming into reality was pink, looking somewhat like a Bubble in texture.
After the data transmission was complete, Tenshi hid the Information Bridge and returned the pet device to Sunna.
In the current clubroom, the girls also had rooms to stay in.
It was already very late after coming out of the Hollow, so they didn’t go home but slept in the clubroom instead.