Miss Cbast kept smirking as she sat across the desk.


    A gadget strapped to her bulked-up infiltrator suit radiated an incredible amount of interference in the office, to the point of distorting the air and bombarding their ears with noise. It was in fact the original signal jammer that inspired Ves to develop a knock-off version.


    So far, Ves vaguely judged that Cbast’s signal jammer was a lot more refined than his own version. This was a piece of extremely advanced technology and worked on principles that he didn’t entirely understand.


    It signified another area where Cbast enjoyed an advantage. Whoever she worked for must be an extremely powerful and well-funded organization. None of her gear looked cheap, including her armored infiltrator suit.


    As someone who recently became enlightened in stealth tech, he recognized the masterpiece of her infiltrator suit. Developing something like that was absolutely not simple, and even if Ves studied this field for ten straight years, he still wouldn’t be able to design something as potent without taking up a huge amount of space.


    "Are you finally willing to get to the point?" Ves asked after he centered himself again.


    Now that he put his mind into a state of moderate concentration, he shouldn’t be as emotionally affected to her taunts as before.


    Miss Cbast crossed her arms and tapped the ground with her foot. "You possess an interesting mind, Mr. Larkinson. No wonder you’ve shot up ever since you became a mech designer. That makes me d I’ve approached you out of all the alternatives."


    "What are you up to?"


    "Nothing much." She casually shrugged. "I merely wish to extend an invitation to you to visit the Starlight Megalodon with me. There is something I need to retrieve from the battleship, but I need your help to get past the hurdles."


    Ves stared at Cbast as if she was crazy. "Are you kidding? Me? Enter the Starlight Megalodon? For heaven’s sake, I’m not some kind of super spy like you! Besides, there’s no reason for me to abandon the Vandals and join you in your wild trip to a ce which immobilizes everything that gets close and drags them straight to who-knows-where."


    "The Starlight Megalodon hasn’t harmed your precious Vandals and Swordmaidens, if that’s what you’re asking. The immediate area around the crashed capital ship has been turned into a safe zone. Those who enter won’t be able to exit at will, but at the very least they are treated as guests."


    "And I’m supposed to take your word for it?" Ves raised his eyebrow.


    "This is critical information, especially in light of what I have to say next." She spoke, adopting a seemingly sincere expression. "The grant Swordmaidens on the ground stand no chance in theing battle against Lady Amalia’s forces. Your defeat is set in stone."


    "Forgive me, Miss Cbast, but I’m not gullible enough to take the word of a foreign intelligence operative at her word. Even if the grant Swordmaidens is disadvantaged, I still have faith they’ll pull through somehow. I’ve survived too many crises with the Vandals. I can survive one more."


    Miss Cbast shook her head. "If you are aware of what I know, you wouldn’t be so confident. I can say with a hundred percent certainty that the grant Swordmaidens will face defeat. It’s only a matter of when. The only hope you have left of surviving theing massacre is toe with me to the Starlight Megalodon. As soon as you enter the safe zone, even ten-thousand Vesians won’t be able toy a hand on you. Perhaps you’ll even have the opportunity to be reunited with the only surviving Vandals and Swordmaidens on the surface of this."


    The devious woman expressed so much confidence and sincerity in her ims that Ves felt inclined to believe her words. As much as Ves wanted to resist her pessimistic prediction, in his heart he strongly agreed with her sentiment.


    Her poison was spreading!


    "Do you have any proof?" Ves gritted his teeth as he tried to resist being swayed by her argument. "I’m not going to abandon myrades on hearsay alone. Not when ites from a snake like you."


    At least with Talkative Jimmy, they shared somemon ground. Miss Cbast on the other hand constantly shrouded herself in smoke. Ves still hadn’t pinned down her loyalties. Did she work for the Vesian royals? Did she work for a foreign state from a neighboring star sector? Who knew.


    "Even if I tell you the reasons and serve you up with proof, you’ll only cast doubt on them." Miss Cbast urately pointed out. "Let me just state that whether you believe it or not, you’lle running to me the moment the Vandals and Swordmaidens are defeated on the battlefield. I’m gracious enough to forgive your current skepticism. When the timees, run towards these coordinates near your camp."


    Miss Cbast passed him aposite print etched with a set of very specific coordinates that he could feed in hism.


    While Ves didn’t want anything to do with Miss Cbast, her words nted a seed of doubt in his mind. If her prediction came true, wouldn’t it be prudent to prepare an escape route? Since she was generous enough to provide him one, he might as well keep the option on hand. He could always choose to disregard the coordinates if the grant Swordmaidens won the battle.


    "No matter what you’re going to say, I’m sticking to myrades." He dered.


    "Men." She sighed. "Very well. I respect your determination, childish it may be. In any case, I suggest you prepare to bug out sometime within the next twenty-four hours. While I’m notpletely certain when the Vesians willunch their attack, they have already begun their final preparations."


    As much as Ves wanted to believe the grant Swordmaidens would prevail, Miss Cbast made a lot of sense. If nothing happened, then Ves only wasted some time. If disaster truly struck, then he’d be instantly ready to leave without any dy.


    "I’ll take your advice into consideration." He replied neutrally. "You sure seem well-informed of the Vesians. Are you spying on both our forces?"


    "Our eyes have never left sight of your ground expeditions the moment younded."


    That sounded ominous. It sounded like a bluff, but Ves could very well imagine that someone as devious as Cbast nted spies among the Vandals and Vesians.


    Perhaps he could take advantage of her spying operations.


    "If you’re so well-informed, do you know what’s going on with Venerable Karol Xie? He’s the expert pilot we’ve picked up in the frontier. He originally hailed from the Dark sma Star Sector and ims to have turned a new leaf. I have reason to believe he is not asmitted to the Vandals as he appears."


    "Ah, your stray expert pilot. He’s an interesting man." Cbast smirked in amusement. "I’ll give you a freebie. We’ve observed your esteemed expert pilot entering into a ndestine meeting with a Vesian spy. While I’m not privy to their conversation, the fact that this meeting took ce at all should be enough to know his intentions."


    If either Talkative Jimmy or Miss Cbast imed that Venerable Xie turned his coat, then Ves would still hold his doubts. Yet if both of them separately came up to him with this im, then Ves couldn’t cling to his skepticism any longer.


    The odds that Venerable Xie might truly be colluding with the Vesians became a very real possibility!


    It would be one thing if the grant Swordmaidens lost their only expert pilot. It would be another thing if Venerable Xie turned the Pale Dancer against them! The expert pilot probably wouldn’t spare Ves either if that was the case!


    Ves believed the Vesians would certainly field at least one expert pilot in theing battle. If the grant Swordmaidens couldn’t constrain the enemy expert pilot, the battle might certainly be lost before they knew it! This might be the main reason why Miss Cbast expressed absolute confidence in their defeat!


    "Obviously, you want something from me." Ves spoke, sure of his guess. "Since you approached me in such a friendly manner, I bet that you won’t be able to get what you want from me through force. Whatever you need me for at the Starlight Megalodon, is it because of my mech design expertise?"


    Miss Cbast smiled at Ves but declined to respond. Perhaps Ves was on the track, or perhaps made apletely wrong guess and she wanted him to stick to his wrong assumptions.


    "Whatever the case, I bet you’d rather have my willing cooperation. Maybe it has something to do with the so-called safe zone you just talked about. After all, you can’t force me to do anything if you aren’t able to make good on your threats."


    "What a clever boy." She chuckled, as if she was praising a precocious little kid who attempted to impress her. Ves really wanted to smack her incessant smirk off her face. "I believe in win-win situations. In exchange for saving your life and arranging a way back to your fleet, I merely want you to lend your services to me at the Starlight Megalodon. I get what I want out of the battleship while you won’t get captured and tortured to death by the Vesians. Sounds like a good deal, no?"


    Ah. Ves and Miss Cbast entered into another negotiation. The entire reason for her friendly approach and her seemingly generous terms was because she really wanted something that only Ves could provide.


    While Ves possessed plenty of special qualities, he struggled toe up with a reason why Miss Cbasat wanted his help. If she needed a mech designer, she could have approached someone else.


    "Why aren’t you approaching one of the many Vesian mech designers with your offer? What I can do, they can probably do as well. If they are fully equipped for this mission, then they doubtlessly sent down a genuine Journeyman Mech Designer to apany their ground forces."


    "Nice attempt at fishing for information." She smirked, instantly seeing through his ploy. "It is true that the Vesians sent down mech designers that have entered my shortlist. You are simply at the top. However, don’t misunderstand your value. If you aren’t willing to y along, I still have plenty of alternatives. They are just a bit more troublesome to convince. After all, it’s not every day a mech designer is about to go down with the crashing ship that is the ground forces of the grant Swordmaidens."


    "Even so, I’d like to obtain some more sincerity from you. As long as you agree to lend me some favors, I’ll be much more inclined to cooperate with any schemes you have in mind."


    "Oh? Tell me what you have in mind."


    "First, if the grant Swordmaidens are truly fated to suffer a defeat on the ground, I want to bring someone along with me. Maybe two."


    Miss Cbast immediately shook her head. "It’s already a strain to sneak you away from Vesian pursuit. As soon as they win the battle, they’ll be scouring the camp and the surroundings for any fleeing Vandals and Swordmaidens. I may have a lot of tricks up my sleeve, but even I’m not capable of hiding more than you and I from their carpet search."


    "I really need this. I trust in your capabilities. Either you promise me this, or I’ll rather take my chances with the Vesians."


    In fact, Ves was bluffing. He tried his best topose his face and give nothing away, but so long as Miss Cbast rejected his request, he was willing to continue to y along.


    If Miss Cbast knew hisck of determination, she didn’t show any sign of it. Instead, she contemted the demand and seemingly reluctantly nodded.


    "I think I can make some adjustments to our means of escape. As long as you don’t bring too much gear, I think I can squeeze an extra person."


    Ves smiled for the first time in their talk. "Good. You don’t know how much this means to me. Even if I can let go of everyone else, I can’t abandon the only person I care about in this expedition."


    Even if Miss Cbast rejected him, he nned to bring along Ketis to the coordinates anyway. If the vixen still rejected bringing Ketis along, then Ves was willing to take his chances with using force to save them both.


    "Is there anything else you’d like with your order?" Cbast asked with a somewhat irritated voice.


    "Yes. For my second request, I hope you can do something specific for me." He said. "Since Venerable Xie ismitted to betray the Vandals, then we might as well stab his back first. Can you assassinate Venerable Xie for me?"