BXBX NOVEL Chapter 271 - Underground Gathering
"Master, what is this?" Fenriri asked while raising two newly bought and worn fingerless fluffy white paw gloves.
"They are winter gloves; very good for keeping warm in the cold," Albion casually answered while glancing at her, "Why? You don\'t like it?"
"Well... Fenriri likes it... but it\'s not cold on this side. Isn\'t this a little overdressed?" Fenriri mentioned.
At that moment, she was also wearing a fluffy ear hat on top of her hood and a thick fur coat over her cloak, among other pieces of winter clothing, making her look like a little dwarf.
Ring, ring~!
Suddenly, Albion received from Anya Seymour.
A few minutes later, they met up near a churros stall before Albion casually asked, "Why did you want to meet up? I thought you wanted to do things on your own."
"There\'s something I need to talk to you about," Anya Seymour stated. Then, after glancing around for a moment, she softly said, "Let\'s talk somewhere quieter."
"Fine."
Sometime later, they sat at a private booth, found inside a maid café on the second floor of the anime convention center, where there were noticeably fewer people than on the ground floor.
"What did you want to talk about?" Albion casually said as he sat on the opposite side of Anya Seymour with Fenriri while stirring his hot coffee.
Fenriri was curious about Albion\'s action before she mimicked him and stirred her own cup of hot chocolate.
"So what happened was that I ran into a person earlier—someone who asked me whether I want to join the Otaku Terrorists or not," Anya Seymour began recounting her experience.
"I know my father would be against me joining such a dubious group, but I also know he has a lot of respect for you. So I wanted to ask if you want to join the Otaku Terrorists with me? If not, I won\'t join either."
"Are you serious?" Albion responded with a look that implies he was going to admonish her for having such thoughts.
Anya Seymour\'s expression became nervous immediately.
She was not afraid of being lectured by Albion, but if he told her father about it, she might be grounded for a long while.
However, he shortly asked, "Join! Of course, I\'ll join! Where do we sign up?"
"What?"
Anya Seymour was immediately dumbfounded.
Although she had a feeling that he might agree, which was why she mentioned it to him in the first place.
But why did he have to give off such mixed feelings?
"You do know that this is a terrorist organization that puts you at odds with the world government, right? So are you really sure you want to join?" Anya Seymour asked Albion.
But at the same time, she was also asking herself.
Nevertheless, Albion was resolute in his answer.
"Isn\'t that obvious? The world government doesn\'t concern me," Albion said arrogantly before adding, "What\'s important is whether the Otaku Terrorists are useful or not."
"If the Otaku Terrorists are useful to me, then I don\'t mind helping them grow. But if they are detrimental, then I don\'t mind destroying them myself either. After all, it will be easier to find out about them from inside."
"Now, where is this recruiter you mentioned? Let\'s go to him now," Albion urged shortly after.
Anya Seymour was taken aback by Albion\'s claim. Evidently, he had his own plans for the Otaku Terrorists.
It was no longer a question of whether Albion wants to join the Otaku Terrorists, but whether they want him or not.
After smiling wryly for a moment, Anya Seymour said, "Sure, I\'ll take you back to the place where I met the person."
At that moment, Fenriri continued to stir her drink with a frown, having yet to taken a single sip as her master was still stirring his own drink without a sip.
"What\'s wrong?" Albion quickly noticed Fenriri\'s expression after Anya promised to take them to the recruiter.
"Aren\'t we going to drink, Master?" Fenriri asked.
Albion immediately cracked a smile and reached out his hand to pat Fenriri\'s head before he said, "You didn\'t need to wait for me. Nevertheless, we can finish our drinks before we go."
Fenriri\'s eyes lit up at once before she picked up her cup of hot chocolate and took a long sip of it, devouring all of its contents down in one go while savoring all of its delicious goodness at the same time.
Her pupils quickly dilated as if she was injected with addictive drugs and had her horizons expanded, as did her pupils.
"Master, this drink is incredible! What is it called?" Fenriri said enthusiastically.
The drink was chosen by him.
"It\'s called hot chocolate," Albion casually said before finishing his own drink and asked, "Did you like it?"
"Yeah! Can I get another one?" Fenriri requested with a hopeful gaze.
However, Albion shook his head and said, "Maybe next time. Besides, there are better drinks out there than just hot chocolate. You don\'t want to keep getting hot chocolate and miss out on the other drinks, right?"
With a few words, Albion quickly convinced Fenriri to give up on her hot chocolate before they continued on their way.
"Please come again, Master. Nya~!"
The maid wearing cat ears bid the group goodbye as they were leaving the maid café, causing Albion to hasten his steps and left ahead of the group.
"Haiz, even guys can be maids with cat ears these days. You just can\'t trust anyone or anything anymore," Albion said with a sigh.
…
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Sometime later, Anya brought Albion and Fenriri to the location before looking around for the person she previously mentioned.
"This is where I met the person, but he doesn\'t seem to be around here anymore," Anya said with a frown after failing to locate the person.
Albion slightly smiled and said, "He might have been scared off after you left without joining on the spot, thinking you might contact the authorities to capture him."
"Nevertheless, the person is careful enough. At least, this means that the people in the Otaku Terrorists are a little capable and not stupid—"
"Oh, there he is!"
Albion was suddenly interrupted as Anya pointed into the distance, where a man could be seen walking towards them.
"Where did you go? We were just looking for you and could have missed you if you weren\'t here, you know?" Anya said to the man.
The man was immediately taken aback before he replied vexedly, "Can\'t a man even have a short toilet break?"
Anya was immediately embarrassed by the person\'s crude words as her cheeks flushed with redness.
A short moment later, the man asked, "Have you made your decision already?"
"Yeah, I want to join," Anya nodded and said, "But these two would also like to join. Is that okay?"
"Oh?" the man surprised for a moment before he wore a big smile and said, "The more people, the better. Since you have all decided to join, I will take you to our gathering area for new recruits to register."
The group quickly followed the man.
Although Albion was slightly disappointed by the lack of security and caution, he silently decided it was too early to judge the Otaku Terrorists based on one person.
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Beneath the anime convention center, a few dozen youths were gathered inside a spacious room after agreeing to join the Otaku Terrorists.
As they waited for official members of the Otaku Terrorists to arrive and direct them, they chatted amongst themselves with eagerness and anticipation.
"I always wanted to join the Otaku Terrorists. But, never thought that I would get the chance today," an 18-year-old young man spoke excitedly.
"I guess it was true that the Otaku Terrorists have moved their activities down from the north. It must be related to the appearance of the Dimensional Rifts."
"Hey, I\'m sure that everyone has been following the news related to the Otaku Terrorists and knows that they have been rearing interdimensional creatures to push forward their evolution. But has anyone heard that some are on the verge of achieving stage-3 evolution?"
Once a bespectacled 16-year-old boy mentioned this, it immediately caught everyone\'s attention before a nearby 17-year-old girl asks, "What does a stage-3 evolution mean? What about stage-1 and stage-2?"
"Stage-1 is what most of the world normally sees of the interdimensional creatures; plain black with weird codes running on their bodies. As for stage-2, it is when they assume their true appearances as we imagined them to be like in reality."
"And what about stage-3?
"Well, no one knows what a stage-3 evolved interdimensional creature is like yet. However, I, like the Otaku Terrorists, do hope that stage-3 evolution will help the interdimensional creatures develop their intelligence," the bespectacled 16-year-old boy said.
It was the lifelong dream of the Otaku Terrorists to communicate with their favorite interdimensional creatures and coexist with them.
"In that case, I also hope stage-3 evolution will develop their intelligence and finally allow us to communicate with them. But, even so, isn\'t this a little too dangerous?" the young girl raised her concern.
However, the young boy pushed up his glasses before stating, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."
"How can we ever hope to achieve our dream if we don\'t dare to take that step forward and find out? If we don\'t, a dream will only remain as it is; a dream."
The words that came out of the young boy\'s mouth were hardly something many would expect to come out from someone of his age.
However, it quickly reached the agreement of many as they nodded with acknowledgment.
"Well said!"