Hide and Seek: The Mad Girl Sees All novel Chapter 178

Chapter 178

Lyra was still fiddling with her new gun, feeling like she hadn’t had enough fun yet. If it weren’t for the 10 AM video conference, she would’ve loved to dive back in for another round.

Messing around with the Vital Flame grenades was just way too much fun. Even without the gun, she could just toss a compressed Vital Flame and it’d hit just as hard, only problem was, it didn’t go as far.

“Fall in,” Zoe’s voice called out, snapping Lyra out of her thoughts.

“Alright, let’s go. Time to head back and report. Lyra said, holstering her gun and turning to follow the team.

The group didn’t waste any time. On their way back, they once again passed through the Wraith mist and arrived at the Ghost Wall.

They were already pros at this routine.

The ten souls lined up and took turns channeling their soul power to Lyra’s aunt. Her silhouette got a bit brighter, but the difference was still barely there.

Then, Clara channeled her soul power to Snow again.

Snow’s outline became even clearer as the soul power poured in. She seemed pretty used to this wake-up routine now, and after they finished, she gave Lyra a gentle nod, her way of saying thanks.

“Big Sis Snow, we’re heading out now. We’ll come see you again this afternoon!” Lyra called out, waving goodbye.

Snow’s lips moved, but no sound came out. Her eyes sparkled with much more life than yesterday.

Once everything was done, the team finally started their journey back, quickly withdrawing from the Wraith mist zone.

They did not know that soon after they left, a tall figure burst from deep inside Sunvale, saw the wreckage, and howled in fury. Snow froze mid-extraction, lifted her head, and turned back.

At Sunvale Base, in the conference room.

Emily and her two colleagues were huddled around a table strewn with printed reports. With red, tired eyes, they flipped through the pages, arguing heatedly.

“The energy channel design is still too conservative. The Vital Flame’s energy transfer rate is hitting a bottleneck!” one of them said.

“We can make the barrel’s heat-resistant coating thicker. Look at this data, at maximum load, there’s a risk of melting.” another chimed in.

Bang!

The conference room door swung open.

The heated discussion died instantly. Emily and her two colleagues snapped their heads up as Lyra and Zoe walked in. They scrambled to their feet and rushed over.

“Captain Zoe! Major General Lyra! How did it go?” Emily croaked, her voice even rougher than before, but her face lit up with hope.

Zoe gave her a small smile and passed her a tiny memory card.

“Engineer Clark, we did it,” Zoe said.

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Chapter 178

Those few words made Emily’s bloodshot eyes suddenly sparkle.

She reached out, her hand shaking as she took the card, like she was holding something precious.

35 чикстер

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“Good, good, good! This is amazing!” Emily stammered, so thrilled she could barely speak.

The two researchers next to her leaned in, their eyes burning with excitement as they stared at the card.

Then we… we’ll head back to the lab!” Emily said, clutching the memory card tight. “Gotta hurry back and start analyzing the data, make some upgrades!”

She turned to leave, wishing she could just fly back to the lab.

“Hey, Engineer Clark, hold on a second,” Zoe said with a smile, reaching out to stop her.

Emily turned back, looking puzzled.

“The video footage on the memory card is just part of it,” Zoe said, pulling up another file on her phone. “We’ve got some new updates for you as well.”

She paused for a moment, then shared the first major update.

“Aside from Toni’s Vital Flame bullets, Nancy came up with a whole new way to attack,” Zoe explained.

“Lyra’s been calling it the ‘Vital Flame Grenade’ for now,” Zoe added.

“Vital Flame Grenade?” Emily echoed, looking completely floored.

Zoe broke down exactly how Nancy pulled it off.

“She didn’t even use bullets, she just stuffed a ton of super-compressed Vital Flame right into the barrel and blasted it out like a warhead,” Zoe explained.

“The explosion was like a mini grenade, blew the Wraith’s upper body to pieces in a flash, and its energy core just got vaporized,” Zoe added.

The conference room went dead silent. Emily and her two colleagues just stared at Zoe, jaws hanging open, like they’d just heard something straight out of a fairy tale.

“Wait, you actually used Vital Flame as the bullet?” one of the researchers stammered, eyes wide. “The barrel didn’t explode? That was just a test model we slapped together overnight! Just a test model!”

“Nope.” Zoe shook her head. “The barrel just turned red and got super hot, but it held up. But we only fired one round, if we want to shoot more than once, the barrel’s gonna need some serious upgrades.”

“Oh my god,” Emily muttered, grabbing her colleague’s arm. “This is a whole new way of thinking! We’ve been trying to figure out how to make bullets carry Vital Flame, but never thought Vital Flame itself could be the bullet!”

Emily’s breathing sped up. “How much does it drain? Is it a huge hit for the user?”

“Yeah, it’s a big drain,” Zoe said, glancing at Nancy. “One shot pretty much wiped out all her Vital Flame, she was totally spent and couldn’t fight anymore.”

Emily nodded, eyes bright. “That’s normal! With that much power, of course the cost is high. It proves we’re right. We can develop regular infused bullets for sustained combat, and explosive energy rounds as our ace.”

Zoe shot a look at Lyra.

“Oh, and Lyra,” she added.

Chapter 178

“She can actually blow up the Vital Flame bullets remotely, after they’ve hit the target,” Zoe explained.

Emily turned to Lyra, eyes wide, like she’d just discovered a prodigy. “Remotely detonate?”

That’s right, Lyra grinned. “Just like pressing a button on a remote, biu, and then boom!” She mimed an explosion with her hands.

Emily felt like her brain was about to short-circuit. Every piece of news this morning was bigger than the last

“I get it. I totally get it now,” she said, taking a deep breath. “Thank you! This data, these ideas, they’re pure gold!”

She straightened up and turned to her colleagues. “Let’s go! Back to the lab! No sleep till we crank out the second-gen model!”

The three of them charged out of the conference room, fired up and ready to work.

Zoe watched them rush out, shaking her head with a wry smile. Then she picked up her comms device and started reporting the morning’s test results to Lana.

At 9:50 AM.

Same conference room as before, with the big screen divided into three panels.

On the left was Draconia Strategic Command, with Lana, Ms. Reed, and Garrett all on camera.

In the middle was Southern Reach’s temporary command center, with Lina and Commander Yelena front and center.

Lyra and Zoe appeared on the right.

“We’ve completed Lina’s physical exam,” Commander Yelena from Southern Reach spoke up first.

“All the test results came back normal, no difference from our previous medical report. Right now, it looks like only normal blood was used for the ritual, so there’s no risk to her life,” Commander Yelena added.

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