"You actually care about retrieval? I didn’t expect that."

"No signs of activity. There’s no approaching enemy force in the area. Looks like the battle has settled down for now."

"It seems so."

Rustle.

The broken escalator, the shattered walls revealing the opposite side of the mall, rain leaking through the wide-open ceiling—this wasn’t all. The glassed floor and walls, parts of the market burning, the melting and solidified walls.

When the firepower that had swept through the shopping mall had passed, the results were more than serious—they were disastrous. Some of the support columns on the second floor had melted or been destroyed, causing parts of the structure to collapse. At least there were huge gaps in the walls that could have delayed the collapse, but that was little comfort.

Yet, neither of the two people in the shopping mall seemed to care.

Eugene took a brief glance at the piles of corpses scattered around. He exhaled quietly.

"Looks like there are about 30 bodies. Other than the sporadic sounds from the outside, it seems the battle has pretty much ended. I wonder if it’s because Rain managed to hold on long enough to let the retreat happen safely, or if they were all pushed out before that."

"The Dagger Team is outside. I don’t think the former is very likely."

"That makes sense."

The bodies scattered around were in terrible condition.

Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, it was fairly easy to tell who had killed whom. Those with large holes in their chest or head were usually the ones Eugene had killed, while the badly mangled bodies were typically the work of Jin.

These bodies belonged to the Artemis combatants who had thrown themselves into blocking Rain’s escape during the operation. It might be said to be somewhat tragic, but the problem was that there was no nobility in their actions.

They had been half-brain-dead, and even though their lives were at stake when orders were given, they charged at their enemies without resistance, like biological puppets. From Artemis’s standpoint, they likely calculated that rescuing Rain would be more beneficial, which is why they gave the order.

What was even more unsettling was something else.

"Artemis probably knew full well they’d be pummeled like this, yet the support still came late. Doesn’t that seem a bit unnatural?"

"Are you implying it was intentional?"

"At least, that’s how I see it."

I might not be completely sure, but something I had said earlier kept nagging at me.

The part about how just because Rain hadn’t made a decision yet, it didn’t mean Artemis hadn’t made one. To put it another way, this suggested that Artemis might… no, most likely, would soon retract the value they had assigned to her.

Rain—despite being a machine, she was more human-like than anyone else. But considering the various negotiations Artemis had put forth and the associated research data, they were probably more likely to reformat her and use her as a regular asset rather than allowing her to remain as she was.

Strictly speaking, I didn’t have to worry about that… but...

"We’ll take what we can."

"What do you mean?"

"It’s nothing, don’t mind me."

Of course, there were other motives as well.

I rummaged through the utility pouch tied to my right thigh and pulled out a small patch. Its purpose was simple: it was a tracker. Originally, it was meant to be attached to Rain or to the truck that would carry her away from the battlefield.

But, unfortunately, it was a failure. The reason was starkly clear from the scattered bodies of Artemis soldiers around us. Next time, it might be better to let the Dagger Team handle it as a separate unit while we buy time here.

I was learning better methods through mistakes.

───Whoosh...

"It doesn’t look like the rain will stop anytime soon."

"The operation has been going on for 45 minutes. Isn’t it about time we head back?"

"Seems so."

With that, I walked toward the spot where I found the limbs. They belonged to Rain. Naturally, these would serve as spare parts for when Jin sustained significant damage. They should be compatible.

The bag quickly became full, and Jin seemed to understand why I was gathering the parts, beginning to clean up the mess.

As the process of gathering necessary items was finishing up, I heard a voice.

"You’ve really made a mess, Eugene."

"Did we hit at least a few bombs? The place is full of holes. We’re going to have to worry about getting out of here before the building collapses."

"We’ve run into quite a strong one again."

The Dagger Team had quietly arrived.

The people who had come to this operation zone were half of the Dagger Team, led by Squad Leader Sirkins. I remembered Logan was at the base, but... judging by the fact that they had made it here, it was likely that the outer areas were almost cleared.

Despite the surrounding exterior walls being full of holes, I could hear no gunfire or tank turret shots. Only the sound of rain. I wondered if this was white noise or something else, but quickly discarded that thought as I spoke.

"What’s the situation outside?"

"Just about ready to retreat. Half of them have retreated, but we’ve caught the other half. Unfortunately, due to this weather, visibility has been poor, so Artemis’s losses weren’t as heavy as expected."

"I heard they’ve been launching UAVs left and right, but identifying retreating forces is difficult. With the rain this heavy and their optical camouflage activated, they’ve managed to slip away unnoticed..."

"We’ll handle it next time," he said, brushing it off.

No one here was unaware of what needed improvement from today’s battle.

Thus, the retreat began. We passed through the dark underground and stepped out into the pouring rain. The surroundings were absolute chaos. But the scale was entirely different. There were parts of the shopping mall’s outer wall that were dented, and some of the fortress walls had evaporated. It seemed like explosions had torn through every visible part of the area.

It was hard to say if there would be enough weapons left to pour out when we eventually met the prototype, but then Lauren took the opportunity to ask.

"By the way, how did the persuasion go?"

"If it had gone well, there might have been one more person next to Jin."

"So, it didn’t go well. That’s a shame."

Essentially, that was the case.

But then, a glance was exchanged, and it was obvious to Lauren and the others that this incident wasn’t going to end here. As expected, I also had no intention of letting go of this easily.

And more than anything...