Chapter 826: Intel, the queen stepped on a verbal landmine?
While Andrew and Marcus were troubled over how to continue their plot, Wu Yan was similarly stressed.
He wanted to invite Mikoto, Shokuhou Misaki, Kinuhata Saiai, Frenda, and Takitsubou Rikou with him, however, a problem quickly became apparent.
What about the sisters?
The Beast King is still somewhere in this forest, the root cause of the monster's abberant movement is still alive. The Giant Beast Forest is like a ticking time bomb. He's not comfortable placing the sisters here when the Beast King can return at any time.
No way in hell is Wu Yan going to leave them behind in a dangerous place like this. He reckons they are going to need to stay here for a while, helping the sisters achieve tier 7 power or even tier 8 power, just to play it safe.
Ignoring what Wu Yan had to say, Mikoto is definitely not going to ditch the sisters...
Maintain the current status quo?
Now that they have left Silvaria World Institute, if they left on a global journey, it would be a long time before they return. In other words, he would need to say goodbye to Misaki & co.
Wu Yan spent 3 years away from the girls during his stay in SAO, however, he endured that duration by thinking that the girls only missed him by days, just because he can do it doesn't mean the girls can handle it.
They weathered ups and downs with him, sharing their lives and fate with him. Ignoring the time dilation effect, he can still manage being separated from the girls. However, he wouldn't wish his experience upon anyone, let alone the girls he loved.
Take the sisters with them? There are so many sisters here they easily outnumbered any small-scale army in the world.
Place them in the bio-containment units?
That's one way of doing it but Wu Yan doesn't want to do that. They finally got a chance to live and interact with others in Silvaria. Placing them in Bio-containment units would make him no less heartless than Aleister.
Coming up with brilliant plans isn't Wu Yan's strong point. He's quite frankly, a dumb-dumb. He can solve a problem but Shokuhou Misaki can do it faster and usually in a more effective manner. Heck, she would probably sip tea while waiting for Wu Yan to finish.
Thus, Wu Yan delegated the problem to the Queen, earning her ire and she told him to give her some time. Then, she left the tent, she went off somewhere to do her stuff.
Since they are stuck here for now, he hanged out with the girls. At times, he would also go diving into the Giant Beast Forest, hunting monsters with the Sisters accompanying him. Other than that, he would spend time training his magic and mana. In any case, he lived rather fulfilling and productive days.
Wu Yan didn't peg himself as a cultivation enthusiast. However, after starting training, he found himself addicted to the sensation of improving visibly after each cultivation session. For instance, boring as it may be to sit and fiddle with mana, the sense of growth and the feeling of power surging through him were surprisingly pleasant.
Wu Yan still remembered to eat when he got serious about mana cultivation. However, he would use his spare time on mana cultivation, in a sense, he isn't as lazy as before.
He built up an image as the super genius who graduated early from Silvaria World Institute. He's regarded as someone who trained hard despite having immense talent. Some of the soldiers here even admired Wu Yan for his attitude. Wu Yan felt awkward about his new fame while the girls silently judged him.
Only they know Wu Yan's tendency to train when there is still sunlight. When night comes, that's when this beast becomes his true self.
When the sun is out, Wu Yan would pick one or two girls in his harem and drag the screaming girls back to his tent like a brute. Then, he would proceed to throw them onto his bed and go to town on their secret gardens.
Is he hardworking?
Sure, he's probably the only one who spent every waking moment doing something worthwhile.
And so, half a month went by just like that...
Shokuhou Misaki sat in her tent, sipping tea like a classy lady. She tidied her hair up while Kinuhata Saiai, Frenda, and Takitsubou Rikou tallied the gains they got from the sisters' most recent hunting expedition.
These trio who used to be in ITEM grew rather close to Misaki. They followed Shokuhou Misaki so it's hard to see them not hanging out with each other.
The ITEM trio treated Shokuhou Misaki like a Mugino replacement. They listened to Misaki's orders. Unless Wu Yan ordered them to do something else, they stood by Misaki. Hinagiku and Mikoto couldn't get them to do anything because of this.
Kinuhata Saiai, Frenda, and Takitsubou Rikou followed Misaki's instruction to count their profit.
Marcus nailed one thing right in his hypothesis, the sisters shared a real-time communication system, the Misaka Network.
However, this network is more than just a communication medium, it's something that links the sisters together, it's a collective network of memories and experience.
Marcus thought he did a good job hiding his tracks but the Misaka Network's existence meant that anything happening in this base, sighted or heard by the Sisters will reach Misaki by the time a sister report to her.
Mikoto isn't too happy that her sisters are doing Misaki's bidding but she endured it because Shokuhou Misaki took good care of the sisters. She was also a great leader who put the sisters to good use and gave all the profit back to Wu Yan. Mikoto just looked the other way when it comes to this.
Shokuhou Misaki is a good boss, that she cannot deny.
And so, Shokuhou Misaki came across trouble...
"Hmm...?"
Takitsubou Rikou voiced her confusion out loud as she gave Shokuhou Misaki a piece of paper.
"Shokuhou, take a look at this..."
"Yeah?"
Shokuhou Misaki looked at the document and she frowned with visible puzzlement.
"Soldiers are going missing in this base?"
Kinuhata Saiai and Frenda stopped. They took a look at the paper in Shokuhou Misaki's hand before they frowned too.
Low-ranking soldiers are going missing? Despite multiple reports, none of the higher-ranking officers are taking action?"
Frenda gasped.
"The heck are the top brass super doing?"
Kinuhata Saiai grumbled.
"It's already causing a commotion, they should really send someone to sort this out."
Shokuhou Misaki's starry eyes lit up as she threw the document on a table near her.
"This isn't as simple as it looks..."
Shokuhou Misaki can smell something fishy going on. She gave Takitsubou Rikou an order.
"Takitsubou, get the sisters to look into this!"
Takitsubou Rikou nodded...