Chat Group: My Multiverse Gacha System — Chapter 364

Chapter 364: Have You Ever Been In An Infernal Affairs Situation? Have You? Have You?

For Yanagi and Qingyi, the concept of remotely controlled robotic avatars had already been thoroughly explained by Wise and Belle. Even so, watching two Wises and two Belles standing side-by-side with their respective Bangboo counterparts still provoked a slight visual dissonance. It was a bizarre cognitive clash, but it remained entirely within their world of logical understanding. Neither of the two New Eridu Public Security officers showed any excessive shock.

However, for Jane Doe, who had just been forcefully “invited” into this bizarre gathering, the scene unfolding before her was an entirely different matter.

Her eyes, previously narrowed with the tense vigilance of an undercover agent whose cover might have just been blown, were now blown wide open. Her head whipped left and right like a frantic rattle-drum. Her gaze bounced wildly between the flesh-and-blood bodies of Wise and Belle and their mechanical Bangboo duplicates. Complete and utter bewilderment washed over her usually composed features. She subconsciously lifted a hand to rub her eyes, genuinely wondering if the accumulated stress of her deep-cover syndicate work was finally causing her to hallucinate in broad daylight.

“Uh… this…?” Jane opened her mouth, her voice catching in her throat before she finally managed to force the words out in a tone of absolute disbelief. “Why… are both of the little store managers doubled? Are you two… twins? Or is this some kind of highly classified, advanced technology I haven’t managed to dig up yet?”

She looked pleadingly at Qingyi, then shifted her gaze to Yanagi, desperately hoping to extract a rational answer from her colleagues. But clearly, even though Yanagi and Qingyi knew the underlying truth, explaining a phenomenon that completely bypassed New Eridu’s conventional technological limits in just a few short sentences was an impossible task.

Qingyi did not immediately address Jane’s burning question. The cyborg officer’s mechanical mind was entirely focused on on the mission parameters.

Her synthetic brows pinched together slightly. She fixed Jane with a look of heavy seriousness. “We will explain the intricacies of this situation at a later time. Jane, I recall our operational agreement dictating that you were to lie low and wait for me to initiate contact and coordinate your extraction. How exactly did you end up breaking protocol to come here, and also…”

Qingyi’s sharp gaze swept over the eclectic crowd gathered around them, lingering heavily on the unfamiliar faces of the Chat Group members. The worry in her optical sensors was evident; she was calculating the exact probability of Jane’s undercover identity being compromised, which would place the rat faunus in lethal danger.

Jane let out a long, helpless sigh. She raised a limp hand and pointed an accusing finger directly at the green-clad bard standing nearby, who was currently attempting to casually slip away with a suspicious smile plastered on his face. Her tone was a messy cocktail of exasperation and dry amusement.

“It is entirely the fault of this poet friend of the two little store managers. He saw me standing alone in the shadows and decided I looked entirely too ‘lonely.’So, out of the goodness of his heart, he kindly’invited’ me to come over and make friends with everyone.”

She deliberately dragged out the words “lonely” and “invited,” letting the heavy sarcasm drip from her tongue.

Venti, having been directly singled out, displayed absolutely zero remorse. Instead, the bard simply winked playfully, plucking an invisible string in the air as he replied in his trademark cheerful, breezy tone. “Ehe! Helping others find joy is the very root of happiness! There is absolutely no need to thank me, my new friend!”

Qingyi stared blankly at Venti’s completely carefree demeanor, then looked back at the utterly defeated expression on Jane’s face. The cyborg officer could only raise a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose, experiencing a deep, simulated sense of deep powerlessness.

She took a slow, measured breath, processing the fact that dwelling on how this breach of protocol occurred was a waste of processing power. The immediate priority was controlling the spread of classified information.

Turning to face the entire crowd, Qingyi let her gaze linger specifically on the newly introduced members of the multiversal Chat Group. She adjusted her posture, adopting her most official PubSec stance.

“Everyone, allow me to formally clarify the situation. Jane is an undercover agent strategically deployed by our Public Security Bureau. She is primarily responsible for infiltrating hostile factions and gathering intelligence through highly classified channels. This impromptu meeting is occurring precisely because she has obtained critical, time-sensitive information regarding the Bringer syndicate’s activities within the Hollow.”

She paused, ensuring her clear, steady voice carried the appropriate weight. “To guarantee Jane’s personal safety and ensure her subsequent operations can proceed without lethal complications, I must ask you all to keep her appearance here and her undercover status strictly confidential. Qingyi thanks you all for your cooperation.”

Qingyi had run a rapid threat assessment and chosen to reveal Jane’s identity directly. Neither the elite operatives of Hollow Special Operations Section 6 nor the mysterious, otherworldly friends of the video store managers were fools. Jane’s sudden appearance and her prior surveillance tactics had already painted a massive target of suspicion on her back. Rather than allowing this highly capable group to speculate privately and potentially trigger a disastrous misunderstanding, the most logical path was absolute transparency to secure their trust and cooperation.

She calculated that anyone capable of earning the friendship of Wise and Belle must possess a baseline level of moral integrity.

However, despite all of Qingyi’s advanced computational calculations, her algorithms completely failed to account for a specific anomaly in the crowd—a chaotic variable who entirely disregarded basic common sense.

The very millisecond Qingyi finished her solemn explanation, a voice vibrating with extreme, unadulterated excitement exploded through the air.

“An undercover agent?! Like the ones in the movies?!”

Stelle’s golden eyes instantly ignited, shining with the intensity of high-powered spotlights. She bolted out from her spot beside Dan Heng with the explosive kinetic energy of an untamed wild horse, closing the distance to the still-stunned Jane Doe with terrifying speed.

Before the seasoned spy could even react, Stelle had seized both of Jane’s hands in an iron grip. The Trailblazer leaned in close, her face practically glowing with eager anticipation as she fired off a relentless volley of questions.

“Wow! What kind of organizations have you infiltrated? Was it a super massive underground mafia? Or one of those evil galactic empires trying to rule the world? Oh! Have you experienced that super classic Infernal Affairs plotline?!”

Stelle shook Jane’s hands vigorously, her voice rising in pitch. “Like, during the final dramatic bust, you are standing on a rooftop facing the boss of the organization you infiltrated, the rain is pouring down, and you look him dead in the eye and say something incredibly cool and tragic like, ‘Sorry, I am a cop!’ Did that happen?! Did it?! Did it?! Tell me everything right now!”

Stelle’s rapid-fire interrogation, paired with the blinding, almost predatory light of curiosity burning in her eyes, left the highly experienced Jane Doe completely paralyzed. The rat faunus, who had smooth-talked her way out of countless life-or-death situations, was momentarily rendered entirely dumbfounded. She had absolutely no protocol for handling this level of unhinged enthusiasm.

Jane opened her mouth, her jaw working up and down, but she could not squeeze a single syllable past her lips.

Watching this absurd spectacle unfold from the sidelines, Qingyi felt the corner of her synthetic mouth twitch violently. A powerful, highly unusual sense of self-doubt began to compile within her core processor.

Had it been a catastrophic error in judgment to publicly reveal Jane’s identity? With this chaotic Trailblazer turning the situation into a circus, wouldn’t the grim seriousness and lethal danger of deep-cover espionage be completely reduced to a comedic punchline?

Just as Qingyi was calculating the physical force required to forcibly pry Stelle away from her traumatized informant, Venti seemed to effortlessly read the room. The bard chuckled lightly, the sound carrying a melodic quality as he spoke loud enough for the immediate group to hear.

“Do not worry yourself, Miss Peace Officer. The wind is a faithful friend. It will not allow messages that should not spread to reach the ears of those who should not hear them.”

His words carried a strange, soothing resonance. A gentle, localized breeze suddenly swirled around the group, creating an invisible, sound-dampening barrier that implied the very air currents of the entire district were bending to his will.

Almost simultaneously, a frantic blur of pink and blue darted forward to intervene.

“I am so sorry! This is entirely our fault, we took our eyes off her for two seconds!”

March 7th’s face was flushed a bright, embarrassed red. She grabbed the back of Stelle’s coat, digging her heels into the ground as she tried to physically drag the tall Trailblazer away from the paralyzed undercover agent.

Seeing Stelle resist, March skillfully raised her free hand, formed a tight fist, and brought it down to lightly but firmly knock Stelle directly on the crown of her head.

“Ouch!” Stelle yelped in exaggerated pain, finally dropping Jane’s hands. She immediately brought both hands up to clutch the imaginary bump swelling on her head, letting out a pitiful, wounded whimper.

While still actively trying to wriggle out of March’s iron grip, Stelle whipped her head around to locate Himeko and Welt, who had been quietly observing the chaos from a few steps back.

“Himeko! Uncle Yang!” Stelle shouted, pointing an accusing finger at her assailant. “Look at March! She hit me again! She is always bullying me!”

Himeko, completely unbothered by the accusation, elegantly raised a steaming porcelain coffee cup that had seemingly materialized out of thin air. She took a slow, delicate sip of the dark liquid, her beautiful features arranged into a gentle, entirely inscrutable smile. She offered no verbal defense for the Trailblazer.

Beside her, Welt simply pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. The lenses caught the ambient light, flashing with a silent, deep wisdom. He, too, chose to remain completely silent.

March 7th froze for a fraction of a second at Stelle’s loud complaint. A sudden realization washed over her—the actual parental figures of the Astral Express Crew were standing right there. Theoretically, it would be far more appropriate for the Navigator or the senior trailblazer to step in and discipline their chaotic raccoon.

But as March looked down at Stelle, who was still pouting dramatically, she realized the truth. Reprimanding Stelle had simply become pure muscle memory at this point. It was an ingrained conditioned reflex. Whenever she saw Stelle causing absolute nonsense, her body just moved on its own to stop it.