Lingwind stood at the entrance to the Sharp Peak Black Market, taking several deep breaths in a row.
The hopes of the entire club now rested on her shoulders.
She was responsible for gathering information on the owner of the Sharp Peak Black Market Duel Arena.
Boss Su planned to recruit a group of unfortunate Mecha Girls from here as support staff.
But the problem was that the owner of the Duel Arena might not be willing to let them go. Especially if he heard the buyer was Boss Su, then he would be even less likely to release them.
The reason was simple.
Boss Su and Mr. Xavier were on good terms.
And the black market Duel Arena under Mr. Xavier was a competitor of the Sharp Peak Black Market Duel Arena.
That was what Stella had told her.
Although those reasons were full of holes.
Lingwind somehow could not tell what was wrong with them.
"Lingwind, you can do this!"
"You're the best!"
Lingwind clenched her fists and cheered herself on.
Looking at the dark entrance to the underground black market, her gaze gradually became firm.
If I don't walk into hell, who will?
Once this job was done, she would go back and make that idiot Zane see her in a whole new light, change his mind, abandon that madam cleaning crew captain from Zuanka Company, and return to her, Lingwind the Mecha Girl.
At that moment, she was full of ambition.
Lingwind felt as if even the wind around her was burning hot.
With courage in her heart, Lingwind strode into the black market with the swagger of a fearless social butterfly. But the instant she stepped through the entrance, she curled in on herself, lowered her head, let her bangs cover her eyes, and turned "socially anxious."
That one moment of courage was already the best she could do.
She made her way to the entrance of the Duel Arena.
Bang!
Bang, bang!
The sounds of fierce fighting could be heard clearly from inside.
Lingwind stood on tiptoe and looked in.
She saw two Mecha Girls, both modified beyond recognition, fighting madly in their deployed forms.
One Mecha Girl had a sharp razor blade installed at her front end, tearing off fragments with every collision. The other was no less extreme. Her four tires had been replaced with drill bits, and while dodging attacks, she kept looking for chances to strike her opponent with them.
There were quite a few people in the stands.
Their excited roars seemed ready to tear the dark ceiling open.
Lingwind stared blankly at the scene.
Her shoulders trembled with fear.
To humans, the sight of Mecha Girls fighting with illegal modifications might just be entertainment. But to Mecha Girls, it was completely different. It was like humans watching their own kind slaughter each other in a duel arena, their bodies covered in grotesque mutations. Two heads, arms turned into blades, a gaping maw growing from the stomach, and more.
That was how bizarre it looked.
To Lingwind, these scenes were far more terrifying than any horror movie.
She covered her mouth and crouched on the ground, her petite body curling into a ball as coldness enveloped her whole body. There were plenty of scenes like this at the Haitang Black Market's Duel Arena too, but Zane had never let her watch them. She had rarely seen something like this up close.
The fight in the Duel Arena seemed close to reaching a result.
One Mecha Girl's scream was especially piercing.
It was like a cold snake drilling into Lingwind's ear, its tail hooking around her heart and breath, slowly tightening.
Yet the shouts from the spectators around her only grew more heated.
Like demons in a frenzy.
"Hey, whose Mecha Girl are you?"
A voice rang out.
Lingwind raised her eyes and saw a pair of leather shoes in front of her.
Her gaze moved upward.
It was a shifty-eyed middle-aged man.
He was dressed in a suit, but it did not suit him at all. His left hand was in his pocket, and his right hand held a cigarette. He was deliberately trying to look cool, but he looked more like a thug.
Lingwind knew who this man was.
Her mission target, the owner of the Sharp Peak Duel Arena.
...
"Well, I thought you were here to join the black market."
In the room beside the arena.
After hearing why Lingwind had come, the owner sighed regretfully.
The Mecha Girl in front of him looked so lively.
She was pretty too. If she entered the arena, she would definitely be popular.
But she was a proper Mecha Girl with a club and a pilot, so he could only give up on recruiting her.
"The Mecha Girls here are for sale. You buy the contract directly. Five million each. As long as you pay, you can take one away right now."
Hearing the owner say this, Lingwind's eyes lit up.
In that case, her mission was basically complete. She only had to go back and report to Boss Su.
But in the next second, the owner changed the subject. "But there is one Mecha Girl who cannot be sold. There." He jerked his chin toward the window.
Lingwind followed the owner's gaze and saw a Mecha Girl cleaning in a corner of the arena.
She was hunched over, struggling to wipe the barred gate with a rag.
In the dim light, Lingwind could see that her pale face was covered in cracks.
"That's her. She isn't for sale."
The owner withdrew his gaze, blew out a smoke ring, and said flatly, "Our boss gave strict orders that this Mecha Girl cannot be sold. You can take any of the others. To be honest, life here isn't great for them, but I'm just an employee. I have quotas to meet. If they can switch to another place, that would count as a kind of escape for them."
"That Mecha Girl..." Lingwind's heart clenched as she murmured, "Her core is about to fail, isn't it?"
"Yeah." The owner nodded. "She gets the worst treatment. Orders from above."
"If her core gets damaged, isn't that illegal?"
"It is, but who cares about her? She doesn't have a pilot. Besides, someone higher up is protecting this place. I can tell you this openly because reporting it won't do anything. There have been kindhearted pilots who reported it before, but it all went nowhere. No one cares."
The owner's tone was flat, carrying the numb indifference of someone who had seen too much of it.
Lingwind bit her red lip, her face pale as her heart twisted sharply.
No one cared. No one would do anything.
They could only watch as she fell apart piece by piece.
"I understand. I'll relay what you said to my master." Lingwind took a deep breath, stood up, and bowed politely.
She felt disgust and anger toward this place, but there was not much fear left in her anymore. She had to hurry back and tell Boss Su what was happening here. They had to rescue this unfortunate Mecha Girl.
The owner waved dismissively.
Lingwind left the room and passed by Crimson.
"You will definitely be rescued!" she said firmly, standing in front of Crimson.
Crimson, who was wiping the railing, raised her eyes and froze for a long while before realizing that this petite Mecha Girl was speaking to her.
But after saying that, Lingwind had already hurried away.
"Rescued?"
Crimson gave a bitter laugh.
She lowered her head. The murky water basin reflected her shattered face.
She picked up the rag again. Dirty water flowed along the cracks in her hands, bringing waves of stinging pain.
A word like "rescued" was far too much of a luxury for her.
She pressed her dry lips together.
Then she continued wiping the rust-covered railing.
This place was very dark. A narrow corridor separated the cold, gloomy corner from the arena, and no light reached inside. Even the roars from the stands had become muffled. Ethan Yang had once given her many choices. Any one of them would have let her live better than she did now, but she had chosen the one that meant she would never betray her own pilot.
Her only wish.
Was to see her pilot once more before she completely shattered.
Her only family.
And tell him.
"Crimson did not bring shame on him."
"Crimson never gave in!"
...
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