‘Is that possible? That level of persuasiveness?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous! I’ve never seen an ordinary person from Kivotos convince a group of vicious, money-driven rioters with just their mouth’—
I don’t believe it! Even a superhuman handling government affairs needs the support of the Security Office’s armed force beyond charisma!’
‘And the most ridiculous part is this so-called “realizing their own mistakes”! For one day they are riot criminals disrupting Kivotos, they are riot criminals for life! Those who have done wrong must be punished! Otherwise, they’ll never recognize their mistakes!’
Just moments ago, she had been hesitating whether to call in SRT Academy, an academy akin to the president’s private army.
Now, a piece of news that was clearly beneficial to her yet felt as unpleasant as swallowing a fly was placed before her.
Buzhihuo Huaye felt as if she had heard something incomprehensible.
Her face twisted, and a strange light flickered in her eyes.
‘A bunch of vicious riot criminals should be defeated and thrown into the correctional facility. Bad children should be corrected! Where is the chance to atone for their crimes through meritorious service? That would only give them the wrong idea that “mistakes can be made up for,” and another opportunity to commit mistakes with a clear conscience!’
A strange irritation welled up in Buzhihuo Huaye’s heart.
The fingertips gripping her pistol kept relaxing and tensing up.
Fine sweat on her pale palm made the pistol grip sticky, the sensation strange.
Even though her desire to send those girls to the correctional facility was so strong, a voice kept admonishing her.
‘—Is that so? Is that what you think? They’re just children… It wouldn’t hurt to be a little soft-hearted, right?… Even if those girls started a riot, isn’t it ultimately the company’s fault? Making children bear adult responsibilities—doesn’t that stray from the main goal?…’
Her brilliant golden halo was silent, and the cross hung motionless.
Even though she felt a strange frustration in her heart, Buzhihuo Huaye suppressed her inner turmoil and gave the most appropriate order.
“Tell them that as long as they can guarantee the teacher’s… no, the Security Office advisor’s personal safety, and successfully help us break through the rioters’ defenses, the Security Office can overlook their participation in the riot.”
Even though she felt disgusted and was wary of those delinquent students who said they wanted to surrender, why not use usable chess pieces?
Even a thorny branch can become a decent crown when used properly.
With a gloomy expression, she gestured to Ye Zhu, roughly meaning to have the ground forces quickly establish communication with them for a coordinated assault.
—
Kivotos, D.U. White Bird District, outskirts of the Black Market, 3:00 PM
The sand-yellow desert coating of the Abydos tank was particularly conspicuous here, failing to provide any concealment.
The tank had already repelled four waves of attacks, but it had sustained no significant damage.
The worst was a scratch on the paint of the barrel from a grenade thrown by a reckless police officer.
Even the Abydos school emblem on the frontal armor—
A triangle with a sun symbol—
Was only slightly scuffed.
Nothing else had changed.
A main battle tank was basically something these police officers could never penetrate with their standard-issue firearms.
“Damn helmet gang… hiding inside a tank and not coming out! That’s so mean!”
A police officer couldn’t help muttering while hugging her sticker-covered standard-issue rifle.
“Ugh… if we could use the equipment we bought from the armory, we wouldn’t be afraid of these bad guys!”
Another officer complained indignantly while pulling a handkerchief and special lubricant from her uniform, urgently maintaining her slightly jammed rifle on the spot.
“What can we do? Director Huaye called us so urgently, I didn’t even finish my cake before I got the emergency order from the chief. I grabbed my gun right from the cake shop and rushed over. Seriously, it’s Sunday, the rare cake sale day!”
An officer with cake crumbs still at the corner of her mouth was whispering to another drowsy officer while munching on her own small cake.
The other officers, smelling the cake scent, suddenly turned around and found their colleague enjoying the week’s new cake from the shop.
They immediately started shouting and cautiously rushed over from behind cover, demanding a share.
“Hey, you jerks! Watch it! The chief said someone will help us break through the line soon. Pull yourselves together!”
Only the squad leader scolded them in a disappointed tone over the radio.
Unfortunately, few officers were listening.
The ones who had listened earlier had already been knocked down by the tank’s shells, lying on the ground with eyes closed, carried back behind the lines by their sisters to rest.
Even though waking up had no physical effects, being hit by a tank only meant resting for a week or two, at most a month, and then a few scars.
But they had a few cakes a month—
How many credits was that worth?
Fighting to the death?
Not worth it.
Besides, the other side was stalling for time.
Despite being a combat zone, with bullet and shell marks everywhere, it strangely exuded the lively vitality and innocence of youth.
Hundreds of police officers hid among the ruins of the street, “tense” and “anxious” as they faced off against the Abydos tank in the center of the battered street, which was defiantly rotating its barrel.
“Hahaha! This tank is really impressive! Our Plop Plop Helmet Gang is gonna have something like this too! Look at those cops—they don’t dare fight us at all!”
The leader of the Plop Plop Helmet Gang laughed heartily inside the tank, looking contentedly at the people who used to chase them around, now suppressed by this tank and hiding.
“Boss… um, our ammo’s almost gone… and everyone’s bullets are running out too… Maybe we should surrender… The employer paid well, but staying cooped up in here is so uncomfortable…”
“Yeah… it’s so hot… We’ve been at it for an hour… I’m so tired…”
“Same here… I feel like even if we surrender and get sent to the correctional facility, it’d be okay… At least they’d provide food and housing, and even introduce part-time jobs… Stuck in here in the middle of summer, it’s really awful…”
The cramped interior of the tank was already crowded with the loader, driver, observer, and other regular crew, plus three or four helmet gang members acting as executives.
The scene inside was a living hell.
Girls were forced to press elbows against elbows, thighs against thighs, their young bodies squeezed together, outlining a graceful scene.
But they themselves let out broken whimpers.
Struggling to turn around, the leader glared at her incompetent subordinates and scolded them.
“Hey, you guys! Are you going to break the contract? Our Plop Plop Helmet Gang is one of the top evil forces in the Black Market! If we break the contract, wouldn’t that be a huge disgrace?”
In the sweltering heat inside the tank, a helmet gang girl with eyes starting to spin mumbled dazedly.
“Only the boss would lose face… We were all dragged here by the boss… Even if this job pays well, we don’t want to suffer like this… Might as well have taken that task from Handyman 68 to assist in attacking Abydos High School… At least we could go to that ramen shop in Abydos that’s a bit famous on Momotalk and eat ramen…”
The leader’s face turned redder than any explanation.
“Damn it… Once we finish this job, I’ll take that task and use the money to take you all to Abydos for ramen! Okay?!”
“Three… cheers…”
“Ah… I’m gonna die…”
“Haha… ramen… delicious ramen… Grandma… why are you here?”
Unfortunately, although the other girls regained a bit of energy from the boss’s promise, they soon returned to their half-dead state in the heat.
The Plop Plop Helmet Gang leader herself was squeezed against the observation window, letting out helpless whimpers.
She naturally understood the urgency of the situation, but what could she do?
The convenience store bento boxes, bullets, gun stickers, and their housing weren’t free.
If they didn’t do this, how would the dropped-out students, who couldn’t enjoy student treatment, afford to live in Kivotos?
Just as both sides were deadlocked at the Black Market entrance disguised as a regular commercial street, a huge explosion sounded from inside the Black Market!
Everyone present turned their heads in unison toward that end of the street!
“Iku zo! Everyone in the Waga Waga Helmet Gang, pay attention! Protect the teacher and break through according to the plan! Objective: destroy that tank and open the road into the Black Market!”
“Yes!!!”
The wall of a building inside the Black Market was instantly blown open, kicking up huge dust and debris!
Then, a sand-yellow tank also bearing the Abydos school emblem directly rolled over the still-smoking ruins and burst out of the building!
From the dust, three or four smoke grenades were thrown out, accurately landing in various corners of the street.
Pfft!
The blind spots created by the fast-acting smoke grenades perfectly confused both sides, whose attention had been somewhat scattered.
Both the helmet gang and the police officers became tense again.
“Reinforcements?”
Both sides involuntarily thought that.
The new tank silently adjusted its direction and began to rotate its barrel.
Then, as the smoke grenades quickly dissipated, the Plop Plop Helmet Gang leader stared at the scene before her, widening her eyes and muttering.
“Wait, wait! Hey, no way! Isn’t that our tank? Why, why is the barrel aimed at us!”
BOOM!
She instinctively closed her eyes.
The huge recoil shook the unfamiliar main battle tank.
The shell fired from the barrel perfectly crossed several dozen meters in an instant, like a miracle, hitting the side of the Plop Plop Helmet Gang’s tank, which hadn’t had time to turn.
BOOM!!!
Amid the explosions of shells, the tank, and various bullets and a few leftover shells, the Plop Plop Helmet Gang leader and her unlucky executives flew into the air like birds.
“Ah… such a familiar feeling… So you can fly even without the wings of those Trinity girls…”
At the moment of unconsciousness, the flying Plop Plop Helmet Gang leader must have remembered a long, long time ago, when she hadn’t yet dropped out of Gehenna Academy, known as the “Land of Chaos.”
She had run into a leader of the rival academy, Trinity Academy, on the street without recognizing her.
After telling a Trinity hell joke in front of her, she had been punched flying by that girl that afternoon…
The huge blast wave swept through the entire street.
The biggest obstacle blocking the police officers had now become a burning heap of scrap metal.
The police officers on site were stunned for a moment, then saw several helmet gang girls who had just been blown off falling plop plop like dumplings, hitting the ground one after another.
The next moment, one squad—
No, several squads of new helmet gang girls burst out from behind the tank’s cover.
They clustered around a strange man like chicks, advancing forward while suppressing any helmet gang members still conscious with gunfire!
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!
The sounds of bullets and shell casings falling, which had disappeared, rang out again.
The Plop Plop Helmet Gang leader, who had still been conscious and wanting to see who it was, had her eyes roll back in the dense gunfire and passed out completely.
“Reporting to the leader! Reporting to the teacher! The obstacles have been cleared as per the teacher’s instructions. The road into the Black Market is open! We can escort you to the police station!”
A girl in a motorcycle helmet, apparently an executive, returned to the man surrounded by the girls after finishing the clean-up.
Ignoring her own leader’s displeased look, she tugged at his sleeve and proudly looked up to report the results.
The man with a gentle smile laughed, reaching out to pat her head, but found she was still wearing a helmet, so he gave up.
But the girl took the initiative to remove the helmet that symbolized the Helmet Gang’s identity, revealing her smooth black hair that reached her shoulders.
She looked up at him with expectant eyes.
The man paused, then laughed, reached out, and patted her head.
“Thank you, everyone. You’ve worked hard. But it’s not over yet. Can I ask you all to escort me all the way to the Security Office director? I think I have some things to discuss with her.”
Although their faces showed fear and timidity at the mention of the Security Office, both the reporting girl and the Waga Waga Helmet Gang leader, who was barely hiding her displeasure and also started tugging at the man’s sleeve, answered without hesitation.
“Yes! We guarantee to complete the mission!”
The police officers watching the interaction were all dumbfounded, looking at each other.
“I… I’m not seeing things, right? That guy is an outsider without a halo?”
“Hey hey, that’s the Waga Waga Helmet Gang, right? I thought they were always against us? How come?…”
Only the squad leader looked at the scene and took a sharp breath.
“As expected of the new Security Office advisor! He managed to make a deal with the Helmet Gang so quickly? But doesn’t this conflict with Director Huaye’s stance?…”
She was one of the few students who knew from the communication with the main office that the other party was the Security Office advisor.