"Gavial, I naturally trust the person you recommend, but if her skill level is truly as high as you say, I don't know if she'd be willing to come, and if Kal'tsit would be willing to let her go."
Kanna recalled for a long time but still couldn't remember anything about Anto, so she put that matter aside and instead thought about who else the team needed.
Not far away in Rhodes Island, besides the Lungmen group, there was another group of people who were also dumbfounded watching the match—Zima and her group from Ursus.
Previously, members of their ACE Squad had acted as examiners and conducted "guidance battles" with them. The result was self-evident; only two opponents were dispatched, and with Dahlia and Rosmontis not allowed to participate, they were utterly defeated.
They lost that "guidance battle" with a completely crushing record. After that, everyone had been striving to improve themselves with the ACE Squad's combat power as their goal. As a result, besides Kanna, that "monster," there was actually another girl on Rhodes Island, of the same age, who could beat the ACE Squad.
Of course, they couldn't see how badly ACE's team members were ambushed by Kanna before engaging, but they could see that just three people—one adult and two children—had beaten the Operators who had once put infinite pressure on their group until they were covered in bumps, and even at the very end, others had to sacrifice themselves for the remaining people to escape.
"Are all of you at Rhodes Island monsters...?" After the battle ended, Zima couldn't help but complain to Ifrit, who was beside her.
"I've seen that long-tailed one a few times; I never expected her to be so skilled... As for the red-clothed one, hmm... You haven't been at Rhodes Island long, and there are no Lupo people among you, so you probably haven't heard her name. Although not many people have seen her, it's said that no Lupo tail on Rhodes Island has escaped her clutches."
Although Manticore is skilled at invisibility, she doesn't always stay that way. After all, in crowded situations like eating, she still appears before everyone, and her exaggerated large tail naturally attracts a lot of attention. Even if one only occasionally encounters her, most Operators know who she is just by seeing that tail.
And Red... could be said to be "infamous" on Rhodes Island, the strongest and most wicked tail hunter of Rhodes Island. Crucially, she only targets the Lupo race, while the very similar Pero and Ripubba are completely unaffected, which makes the Lupo Operators on the island "suffer greatly." Moreover, her senses are particularly keen; no matter how well disguised, as soon as one is alone, they will inevitably be harassed by her. This has made her reputation spread wider and wider within Rhodes Island.
So, even without having seen her in person, Ifrit could recognize Red based solely on the "legends" circulating within Rhodes Island.
"Do we need to go down and pick up Kanna?" Zima asked, looking at the car driving back to Rhodes Island.
"Let's not. So many people were knocked out in this drill; the area below is probably jammed with the Medical Department. If we go down now, we'll likely just be chased right back up. I'll tell you a secret: the most untouchable people on Rhodes Island are the Medical Operators. When they're busy, they'll scold anyone. I've seen several Elite Operators get chewed out by Doctors for blocking the way and not daring to talk back."
As a frequent visitor to Rhodes Island's intensive care unit, Ifrit couldn't go out for a long time. Her only entertainment was standing by the bed and watching Doctors and patients come and go outside. She had seen many Operators being yelled at by various Doctors for getting in the way, and even Doctors chasing patients with hammers.
Especially once, a person who looked very ill kept crying out in pain and couldn't help but move around. Then she saw the green-haired Doctor punch that person, and they immediately stopped moving. It scared her so much that she dared not leave her room for a while.
"Rhodes Island is inherently a large medical institution, and one of its current leaders is also the head of the Medical Department, so it's normal for Medical Operators to have high status." Truth pushed up her glasses, offering her opinion on what Ifrit had said.
Just as the children upstairs had strayed off-topic, Kanna and her group successfully returned to Rhodes Island.
"Everyone worked hard!" Amiya patted Kanna's forehead, then took her hand and walked over to ACE.
"It wasn't hard, but this time we really embarrassed ourselves." ACE took the defeat in stride; after all, no one would be sad about an inevitable failure.
As for the Operators under him, there was even less pressure. After all, the Doctor had shamelessly deployed Kanna, so the meaning was clear: he never intended for them to win.
Moreover, being able to retain nearly half of their effective forces against Kanna, even if the opponent wasn't serious, was still a very impressive feat to boast about.
"However, from this experience, the Doctor is right. We do need to consider how to minimize losses when facing some formidable enemies."
ACE recalled the drill from earlier; his side had indeed made countless mistakes. It could be said that if the opposing side had truly intended to harm them, even without Kanna's intervention, SWEEP could have annihilated them.
While Amiya and ACE were discussing matters, Kanna saw Nian waving at her from above. She turned to Amiya, said a word, and then slipped out.
"Yo! That was a good fight, even if your moves are still a bit rough," Nian praised, clapping her hands after Kanna approached.
"You know Kanna?" Chen was surprised, as she hadn't seen Nian on Rhodes Island before. Nian must have only recently arrived on Rhodes Island from Yan, yet she knew Kanna, a person who was quite a 'recluse.'
"Of course, ever since Kanna and I met yesterday, it was truly like we were old friends, regretting not meeting sooner. And I even promised her I'd join her little squad or whatever it was called…"
Nian wasn't worried at all about others knowing about her friendship with Kanna. After all, in her opinion, her 'friendship' with Kanna far exceeded the understanding of ordinary people.
"Chen, Hoshiguma, Swire-jie, you're all here too!" Kanna waved at the trio from the Lungmen Lungmen Guard Department / Guard Department.
"Wait, why do you call Hoshiguma and me by our names, but you call Swire, that char siu cat, 'jie'?" Chen, as a Senior Superintendent, immediately noticed the difference in Kanna's address for the three.
"Because Swire-jie's cakes are delicious!" The 'jie' for Swire was earned the first time they met at that dessert shop, in exchange for almost an entire dessert shop's worth of food.
Hearing Kanna's words, Chen and Hoshiguma looked at Swire with disdain. They never expected that char siu cat to do something so low-class.
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