Chapter 138: Ch 138: Information Extraction

"Accessing all information regarding the monster cores. Keyword: retrieval...found two matches. Retrieving data..."

The blue glow softly pulsed across Lumi’s skin, giving her an otherworldly feeling. But it slowly began to grow more erratic and intense.

"M-More data...retrieval..."

"Hey, is this normal? She’s bleeding."

Reina noticed the bleeding first with her sharp, trained senses. She moved to help, but Serena caught her arm before she could get closer.

"Don’t disturb her. This might look like it’s hurting Lumi, but this is her preferred way of using her powers. Just...give her some time. We’ll step in if it becomes too dangerous."

Reina pulled back with a defeated look on her face.

"E-Extraction of information successful."

The child’s body, half-suspended in the air, was finally lowered, and the glow started to concentrate in front of her.

The words slowly solidified into a screen, and Lumi clutched it while panting.

"This is all the information I was able to find. It has been compiled onto this disk. Do you want to take a look?"

Lumi asked in a tired voice. Using her powers left her feeling drained, which was very different from anyone else Rin had seen use magic before. People usually were not exhausted after using one or two skills.

[It’s because the user doesn’t have much life force left to sustain herself. She has to rely on the system to provide most of it, so when the system gets busy, her life is put at risk.]

That sounded dangerous. But since it was not something Rin could help with, he decided to keep an eye on the situation.

"Here, allow me to take a look at you."

Reina decided to overcome her hesitation and check on the kid herself.

Lumi looked uncomfortable, but complied despite her agitation. Reina activated her powers, and Lumi relaxed before collapsing soon after.

Serena moved in an instant to close the distance between herself and Reina and immediately held Reina at gunpoint.

"What are you planning to do to our librarian?"

The fact that Serena had acted so fast could only mean she had been ready for betrayal this entire time.

"Hey, isn’t that too much? All I’m doing is trying to help. Do you really need to hold me hostage like this?"

Reina asked while letting Lumi go.

"I’m inclined to believe you. But I need proof first. So please, step away from our librarian."

Reina stepped away, and they waited for Lumi to regain consciousness.

Thankfully, she looked well-rested and nothing else. Even her focus seemed to have improved after that short nap.

Serena did not look like she regretted what she did, but because she had been proven wrong, she was willing to pull back and apologize.

"I’m sorry for taking excessive action without evidence."

Reina was the victim this time, but the person who stepped forward to smooth things over was Madam Yao.

"Your side made a mistake, and our side made a mistake. Let’s call things even and forget about the payment."

Payment...this was not something they had discussed. In fact, it was not something that should have been brought up beforehand...

"Ah, look at the time. We should get going. Now that we have the information, we need to start decoding it immediately."

Madam Yao did not miss a beat when she declared this. From start to finish, it seemed like she knew the stakes and how to play them well.

...

"This silence...did I do something wrong? Do you want me to apologize? Please let me make it up to you-"

"Just how shameless can you be? If that lady had not told us about the payment, or agreed to cancel it, who would have paid? What would we even have paid?"

Reina was losing her patience at this point. It was a mystery how she had managed to keep herself under control for this long.

"Shhh, it was always going to be alright. The reason I approached you all was because of that exact reason."

Rin had already guessed this, so it did not come as a surprise to him. But it was harder for Reina to accept.

"Darn it!"

The frustrating part was not the fact that she was being used, but that she understood the feeling and acknowledged it.

They were both willing to dirty themselves for the sake of their loved ones.

...

"So, now that we are back, I should get going now-"

"Madam Yao, please hand the data over to us. We’ll take care of things from here. And please, don’t even think about refusing."

"Oh! Do we really need to talk like this? Why don’t we put this behind us and—fine. I’ll give in this time."

Madam Yao made a big fuss as though she were reluctantly giving up, but it was easy to see that she was happy to hand it over. It was almost as if she had wanted their group to take responsibility from the very beginning.

But by the time anyone realized what had happened, it was too late, and Madam Yao had already left with a smile on her face.

"That woman-! She made fools out of all of us. I don’t think I can ever get along with her."

Reina complained after no longer being able to keep her feelings in check. Rin silently patted her back in support of her anger.

He understood and agreed with Reina. Madam Yao was too much at times. But they still needed her help.

...

[Information for the next task will be released early as a reward for Task Five.]

[Users will compete in system-selected teams to reach the qualification rounds. Trusting your teammates will be crucial.]

[However, not everyone is your friend. Some enemies wear the faces of your friends, so beware.]

...

Rin absorbed the information in front of him with a blank expression. The next round sounded like a mess.

Fighting alongside strangers was not a problem. But fighting alongside someone who could betray you at any second was psychological torture.

And now, the next task was to endure such a situation without losing himself in the chaos.

[Rookie, let this system issue you a warning beforehand — during the next task, you are not allowed to kill anyone.]