Jiang Xiao Yu's hands slowly rose to her temples. Her voice, when it came, was low, brittle, and vibrating with tension. "We are investigating a national security threat. A potential high-level conspiracy. Possibly treason. And you people just recruited a squirrel."
Elly, still proud as a fox in a henhouse, beamed. "Technically, he recruited himself. We were just open to talent."
"Not helping," Jiang Xiao Yu muttered, seriously contemplating knocking all three of them unconscious with a single mana burst and calling it a day.
Meanwhile, several blocks away, Squi-Squi was in his element. He zipped across three rooftops with precision that would've made elite scouts weep, his tiny tracker blinking rhythmically with each perfectly timed leap.
Ji Chen sat with his tablet, eyes sharp behind his glasses, monitoring the little guy's movement across a digital map.
"Target reached," Ji Chen said. "He's inside a Division 11 relay zone, about fifteen meters from the main junction node."
