Inside the Hollow, Geno and Twiggy walked one after the other along the subway line.
Twiggy frowned slightly, staring intently at the device in her hand.
"Twiggy, what exactly are you looking at?"
From the moment they entered the Hollow, she had been watching this dial. Apart from that, she hadn't said a word, and he didn't know what she was doing.
"I'm calculating the potential location where Anby and the others might have fallen. This companion Hollow isn't very big, but it's connected to the Crete Hollow. If they fell into the Crete Hollow, the difficulty of the search would increase significantly."
Immediately after, Twiggy adjusted the input data and quickly obtained a result.
"As expected, they did fall into the Crete Hollow."
As a professional technician, Twiggy's technological prowess was beyond doubt.
Soon, the two arrived at the location Twiggy had calculated. As expected, it was empty.
"Next, it's up to you."
"Leave it to me."
Hearing this, Geno closed his eyes and began to carefully search for the traces of Ether left behind by those two on their bodies.
"This way."
The traces were fresh; it shouldn't have been too long since they left.
They chased all the way, circling around several places in the process. Obviously, the other party didn't have a way to leave the Hollow either.
"Wait, why is there suddenly one more?"
A new trace suddenly appeared in Geno's field of vision—small and very faint.
And soon, Geno discovered that after this small trace appeared, the movements of Anby and the others became regular, and they no longer went in circles.
"Is this person the Proxy they found? To be this fast."
Usually, a Proxy needs to rely on a massive amount of data support to calculate a path. The more powerful the Proxy, the more massive the database about the Hollows they control.
To be able to find someone and lead them away at such speed—this Proxy is not simple.
"They actually have this kind of connection; it really exceeds my imagination."
"At least they are safe now. You can rest assured, right?"
With the situation stabilized, Twiggy's old face instantly blushed upon hearing Geno's teasing.
"Who... who cares about her! I was just... just..."
"Twiggy, it's time you faced your own heart."
Geno shook his head. Clearly, she was anxious enough to hang up his call earlier, yet now she was saying she didn't care. Such a tsundere, really...
"I... I know. I..."
Twiggy lowered her head. She currently found it hard to convince herself to acknowledge Anby, yet her heart couldn't stop wanting to care about what Anby was going through.
Usually so rational, she was currently so divided.
Taking a deep breath, Twiggy suppressed her emotional side. Returning to her peak rationality, she looked at the device in her hand and spoke faintly.
"I will go and explain everything clearly. This time it's for real. I... am ready."
Seeing that Twiggy had finally made up her mind, Geno felt happy for her.
And since it was confirmed that Anby and the others were safe, then next, it was time to do some proper business.
"Twiggy, can you find that box?"
"No problem. If that box fell into the Hollow with them, then the positions where it could appear are all within my calculations. Let's go to the next point."
The two continued their action, preparing to retrieve that safe first to exchange for money.
Meanwhile, on the other side, the Cunning Hares group, having been brought back to Sixth Street by Eous (Belle), was also preparing to request the Proxy siblings to explore the Hollow once again.
"Well then, we're counting on you, Proxy. We'll go rest for a bit first and await your good news."
"Take care."
Belle waved her hand, sending off today's big clients—even though they hadn't paid yet.
"The HDD still has some spare computing power; it should be able to restore the contents inside this thing."
Belle's brother, Wise—a grey-haired man referred to by Belle as a 'super-dense bot'—took the USB drive from Belle's hand and plugged it into the HDD's interface with a click.
This USB drive was picked up from the ground by Nicole while fleeing for her life. Its previous owner was [Whitey] Miguel of the Red Fang Gang.
Nicole had a premonition that the contents inside were definitely related to the safe's password, so she handed it over to the Phaethon siblings for restoration.
As for Belle herself, she stretched her waist and sat back on the sofa, grabbing her phone to scroll through videos in boredom.
"Hey, Belle, I'm working my heart out here, and you're just watching from the side. Is this really okay?"
"What does it matter? You're my brother, aren't you? Isn't it only right for a brother to take care of his sister? Besides, I was just piloting Eous running all over the Hollow; it tired me out enough."
"The one running all over was clearly Eous; what does that have to do with you?"
Wise retorted weakly.
"Anyway, if you have nothing to do, go buy me a cup of coffee. I estimate I'll be pulling an all-nighter tonight."
Hearing Wise ask her to run an errand, Belle instantly perked up, bouncing up from the sofa and darting in front of Wise.
"Then, about the money for the coffee..."
"Don't you have your own pocket money?"
Belle rubbed her hands together sheepishly and said, "Godfinger is releasing a new game recently, and they're also selling a mobile version! My pocket money has all been used on that."
Wise was speechless. Belle was always like this, spending money lavishly. If not for him, this family would fall apart sooner or later.
"Here, this should be enough."
"Hehe, thank you, Brother! Wait, why is there an extra portion of money?"
Belle counted the bills in her hand. Why was there an extra part besides the coffee money?
"Since you're buying the new game, aren't you going to bring back a copy for me? Anyway, after completing this commission, Nicole will be able to pay off all the debts, and our finances won't have to be so tight."
"No problem! Leave it to me!"
Belle took the money and went shopping like the wind, leaving Brother Wise shaking his head helplessly as he looked at his sister with a doting expression.
Let's continue with the work at hand.
Brother Wise sat back in his chair, his hands typing rapidly on the keyboard.
The progress bar on the computer screen loaded at a very significant speed, but what Wise didn't know was that this might be the last time he used the HDD for such complex work.
And Belle, having come out of the house, skipped and hopped her way to the Godfinger Arcade first to pre-order a copy of the new game for Wise. Then, she ran to Master Tinman's coffee shop to buy two cups of rich latte.
She wanted to drink too, only not for overtime work, but to stay up late playing games~
"Oh my, Little Belle, you're here to buy coffee too!"
"Ah, it's Twiggy!"
Twiggy and Geno, who had just returned from the Hollow, looked at Belle coming out of the coffee shop and greeted her happily.
Belle did the same; she liked this new friend she had just met yesterday.
Only, why were they holding a safe in their hands?
Although she had doubts in her heart, Belle didn't ask them directly; after all, that would be impolite.
She kept these thoughts inside, but the more she thought about it on the way back, the stranger it seemed.
Why were there boxes everywhere recently? Nicole and her team almost got into an accident for a box, and Twiggy and her partner also brought a box back. How could it be so coincidental?
Could it be... that it's the same one?
____
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