Hide and Seek: The Mad Girl Sees All novel Chapter 62

Chapter 62

Lyra picked up the last piece of braised pork from her plate and stuffed it into her mouth, chewing so hard her cheeks puffed out.

Zoe handed her a tissue, and Lyra took it to wipe the corner of her mouth.

The cafeteria doors burst open and Garrett rushed in, clutching a stack of freshly printed reports. He made a beeline for the table, breathless from running.

“Chief Advisor!” Garrett called out.

Lana set down her chopsticks. “Speak.”

Garrett slapped the files onto the table. “The supercomputer finished crunching all the numbers.”

“Twenty miles,” he announced, his voice tight with urgency.

Lana leaned forward, her eyes fixed on the numbers.

Garrett spoke in a rush. “We extended the boundary twenty miles out from the edge of the gray mist.”

“Any safe zone closer than twenty miles

“The outpost soldiers’ Vital Flame values are dropping.”

He jabbed a finger at a red dashed line on the report. “Fall back past the twenty-mile mark.”

“Their Vital Flame values are holding steady now.”

Lana tapped the table. “Send out the combat orders to every unit.”

“Everyone needs to pull back completely by midnight tonight.”

“All defensive lines, fall back past the twenty-mile mark.”

Garrett snapped to attention and saluted. “Yes, ma’am!”

The next day.

The next day, the conference room at Draconia Strategic Command was packed. People filled both sides of the long conference table.

Garrett stood in front of the screen, laser pointer in hand. The red dot landed on the defensive line at the edge of the map.

“By midnight last night,” Garrett reported, “all troops in the buffer zone had pulled back past the twenty-mile safety line”

Garrett confirmed, “Everyone’s out past the red line now.”

Garrett moved the red dot in a half-circle along the outer perimeter of the defense line.

“The retreat went off without a hitch,” Garrett added. “New temporary outposts are already going up.”

“Heavy firepower networks have been redeployed.”

“Once the troops settled in, their Vital Flame values stopped dropping.”

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Garrett set down the laser pointer and headed back to his seat.

That was the best news they’d gotten overnight.

B

Lana sat at the head of the table, tapping her fingers on the table. The defense line issue is under control for now

She opened the blue folder in front of her. “Next, let’s talk about the second-tier mission.”

“We’ve got a ten-day prep period, and today’s the eighth day. What do you all think?”

A soldier in the front row shot his hand up. “Chief Advisor, we’ve got a huge population base.

“If the draw goes by population, our country has the highest odds of being picked. If it’s by safe zones, our chances are just

average.”

Lana nodded. “Right. If the extra pick ends up being one of ours, then with Lyra, that’ll make two from our side.”

“According to the game rules, if we fail even once, we lose a safe zone,” Lana said.

“If they get pulled in, they might panic or be unfamiliar with the rules, and it’ll be easy for them to get eliminated

Lana tapped the table. “Even if Lyra manages to clear the mission, there’s still a chance we’ll lose another safe zone. We need to prepare for that.”

Lana turned to Lyra. “Lyra, if a player from our side is chosen, can you make sure they follow your lead once they’re inside? As long as it doesn’t put you at risk, do everything you can to protect our players.”

Lyra sat to Lana’s right, sitting up straight like a model student, pen and notebook in hand, ready to take notes.

Hearing this, Lyra looked up at Lana, her face tensed up as she copied the others. “Yes, Chief Advisor! Comrade Vance will accomplish the mission!”

Lana blinked, thinking, ‘Did she just switch up her style out of nowhere?’

“Alright, then I’ll count on you, Comrade Vance!” Lana replied, her eyes twinkling with amusement as she kept her tone perfectly serious.

“Got it!” Lyra nodded.

Lana turned to the communications chief. “Broadcast this nationwide on all channels. No matter who you are, no matter your background, if you get selected by the game to enter the mission, the very first thing you do is find Lyra Vance”

“Don’t try to act on your own. Just do whatever Lyra says-no questions, no hesitation.”

“Yes, ma’am!” the communications chief replied.

Lana closed the first file and opened the second.

The red light on the screen faded, and a multicolored bar chart appeared, its colors interwoven across the display.

“Now, let’s get to the main topic of today’s meeting: Vital Flame,” Lana said.

Lana looked up at the big screen.

“Ever since everyone got access to their attribute panels, we’ve collected over a hundred million data points nationwide,” she

said.

She pointed at the red line on the graph, which was plummeting downward.

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Aside from the S Tier reward Lyra earned-which gave everyone a mandatory ten-point increase to their base Vital Flame” Lana explained,

“not a single value has gone up since the panel was unlocked,” she added.

“Either it stays steady outside the red line, or it drops just like the border guards,” she added.

Ms. Reed sat at the end of the long table, scribbling formulas in her notebook.

Lana continued. “The three Vital Flame values are like built-in batteries inside the human body.

“As long as you’re alive, you’re always using up energy.

“At the front lines, it’s being drained by an external Wraith force.

“In the rear, it’s just your body’s natural wear and tear.”

Ms. Reed looked up. “If we can’t figure out a way to make the three Vital Flame values go up instead of down, everyone’s Vital Flame will run out sooner or later.”

Lana turned to Lyra. “Lyra.”

“Huh?” Lyra blinked, caught off guard.

“Did your Vital Flame go up?” Lana asked.

Lyra shook her head quickly. “No idea.”

She opened up her attribute panel, just like before. “Except for my name, nationality, and age, everything else is just stars- totally blanked out.”

Garrett frowned. “Is it all hidden?”

He looked over at the other data team advisors. “Anyone ever seen a panel where everything’s starred out like this?”

Everyone shook their heads, looking just as confused.

Ms. Reed got to her feet. “There are two possibilities.

“First, her stats are so high they’ve blown past the game’s normal display limit-the numbers just glitched out.

“Second, her data is tied to some rules the System doesn’t want anyone poking into, so the System just hard-locked it.”

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