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Faced with a dead body at her feet, she coldly stooped down and grabbed its head to check its identity. Having done that, she withdrew her hand, letting the lifeless face slam back down onto the ground.

Oof… she definitely has a grudge against that person in life…

“That corpse was Kang Dazhi, one of the persons I was supposed to protect. One of his hobbies used to be groping, but now he can’t.”

Yup. A grudge…

Other than that corpse, there were two other researchers lying not too far away from the first. Perhaps they were all rushing for the same exit when the ghosts struck.

Stepping over those corpses, Floater entered a smaller room that looked to be a workshop of sorts, roughly 300 square meters in size. As long as it was an exosuit part, it was displayed neatly on a shelf in a corner. Nearer to the center of the room was a giant petri dish-like structure that held a vat of colorless fluid. Not being very technically inclined, I couldn’t even begin to guess what this fluid was. But based on the fact that there was a half-finished exosuit soaking inside of it, the fluid most likely was used in the creation of exosuits.

Why a petri dish though? Shouldn’t these exosuits be made on assembly lines?

“This is the new variant of exosuit being researched by Kang Dazhi and those two researchers. The terrorists were the ones who came up with the prototype. The three of them were fascinated by the possibilities so they stayed behind to research the topic and write up a report.” Floater explained in a single breath as she walked up to the petri dish. The machine was still lacking a hand and a leg, but was otherwise complete. “Seems like they were at the last stage too. Pity. They would have easily become a professor had they submitted a thesis on this.”

The three of them probably worked day and night to rush out these exosuits. As luck would have it, they suffered a ghost attack right at the very end…

As I continued looking at the half-finished exosuit, I couldn’t shake off this strange feeling in me. Something was up, but I couldn’t just pinpoint where.

“Are there no other exosuits here? And why is that exosuit soaking in a petri dish? It’s not even a biological project.” As Bitong eyed the machine brows furrowed, she continued asking, “With how big this workshop is, it can’t be the only machine left.”

“All the complete prototypes would be shipped out of the facility. The only ones left behind would be…” Floater thought about it for a second then said, “Haven’t you seen them already?”

“The two at the entrance?” Bitong gasped in surprise, but that quickly changed to annoyance.

Yet before she could even say a word, Qiaoqiao started protesting, “Qiaoqiao doesn’t want to touch something a dead man used!”

Bitong followed up, “And those two machines still have a corpse rotting inside of them.”

“This is war – you don’t get to pick and choose.” Floater coolly stated in the face of their accusatory tone. “ “In war, it’s to be expected that you would end up sleeping and eating where a corpse used to be. What’s riding a used exosuit compared to that?”

Clearly, Floater felt these two girls were just being picky. After all, who hasn’t touched an object used by a dead person? Antiques were all used by dead persons – was there anything wrong with touching them? Nope!

Naturally, these exosuits weren’t antiques, but the logic was the same. At least, it was so for Floater. If a person was going to be such a clean freak, they shouldn’t even bother entering the battlefield.

“Well, Qiaoqiao is not touching them! If you like those corpses so much, why don’t you just…”

“Qiaoqiao!” I quickly interrupted the girl before she went overboard with her comments. At the end of the day, it was through the sacrifice of soldiers like Floater that we enjoyed the peace we had. They certainly did not deserve being insulted like that.

However, Qiaoqiao was still just eleven years old. Being caught in this whole crisis was already asking a lot of her. Even I was reticent about handling corpses in the beginning.

“I hope you don’t mind, Floater. Qiaoqiao is still just a kid. She doesn’t think too much before speaking…”

“When has Qiaoqiao spoken without thinking?”

“Just now.” I raised an eyebrow at her. “So you won’t listen to your big brother anymore?”

“I… okay…” Qiaoqiao was about to say something when she noticed the look on my face. Realising that I was furious, she hurriedly lowered her head and pouted.

“You do? If you do listen to me, apologise to your big sister Floater, right this instant.”

“…”

“Apologise!” Seeing her stubbornly refuse to apologise, I raised my voice further. “Well?!”

“weep… Qiaoqiao… Qiaoqiao is sorry… Sister Floater… Sorry… Big brother is the worst!” Having just finished her forced apology, she ran off crying.

“I’ll go find her!” Bitong immediately chased after the girl, having realised how difficult this situation had just gotten.

“Sorry about that, Floater. Qiaoqiao was just being willful.” I sincerely apologised to Floater. “I hope you can forgive her, she’s just a kid.”

“Mhm.” Floater coolly replied, not at all bothered by that little dispute.

Regardless, that was inappropriate of Qiaoqiao to act like that. Even if she was always close to me, I couldn’t let it slide this time. However, it seemed I had gone overboard with my scolding…

Floater wasn’t wrong in what she said. Using those exosuits was the equivalent of looting corpses in the past for usable supplies. The difference being that an exosuit was a lot more personal than just swords or arrows. Seen in that light, it was only to be expected that the girls wouldn’t be eager to start riding these used exosuits.

Honestly, I wasn’t all too willing as well. But with finished exosuits available, there wasn’t much choice left to us…

What a conundrum…

“Your Highness, could you pass me a vial of A31 from the cabinet on the left?” It was at that point that our resident middle-schooler syndrome girl spoke up. She seemed to be asking for that vial over there?

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE