Curse the Mainframe! 357 Mushrooms!

The silence continued, and it caused Rhoda's subordinates to doubt her sudden shout.

What was the captain doing? Was she wrong finally? After all this time?

This move of hers had always worked, so they never once doubted it, but this time, nothing came out. Not even a ghost.

But even when they were confused, the two subordinates kept their guard up, looking around warily.

Other than the bunny, there was nothing else in the vicinity with them.

All they saw were the trees and the various marks left behind by animals and creatures.

Rhoda too, was puzzled.

Why were they not following the script? Usually, when she shouted this, the people who were hiding would obediently come out, saying something like 'Hehe, you discovered me?'. But this time, no one came out indeed.

Had she really been wrong, and their targets weren't here?

Rhoda slowly let down her guard, appearing as if she had truly let go of the idea that someone was there.

In the end, there really wasn't anyone who attacked her when she relaxed her guard, stunning her.

From the place Alec was watching their futile reactions, he almost rolled his eyes. What did she expect?

Who would actually let their guard down in a place like this where they'd already called out, 'Who's there?'.

Instead, if someone really did reveal themselves or attack, then both of them were fools.

Alec almost wanted to grin. Was that woman just acting silly, or was she being genuine? It was rather strange. The first impression that Alec got from her was that she was rather sharp.

But now…

He took it as his new array working perfectly well. But, how well would it work in such a circumstance where there was more than one person inside the array? Would it affect all of them equally?

He looked silently at the array that they were in the middle of.

There was a particular set of runes that he was now testing out on these people. It was meant to induce a decrease of deductive functions and reasoning, but he didn't know how much of their thinking was affected, and how much of it remained.

As such, Alec remained, observing them.

He'd just barely managed to curb his urge to engage in live combat with them and used them as test subjects instead.

It wasn't every day that he managed to get human test subjects, after all.

Still, these people… how could he say it? Why did they seem so humorous?

He wondered how entertaining this was going to turn out to be.

Down below, Rhoda and her two subordinates were still standing in a triangle as they guarded against sneak attacks.

However, there was nothing but the sound of leaves rustling.

Five minutes passed…

Ten minutes passed…

Finally, Rhoda seemed defeated, but she stubbornly maintained her stance.

David, her subordinate, couldn't take it any longer. He started to speak quietly. "Ma'am, do you think that maybe –"

"Shh!" Rhoda shushed him harshly. "If we cannot hear the enemy because of your words, then it's all your fault!"

David and Kiel looked stunned.

What was this logic that she was using??

In the first place, the sentence she just spoke was so much louder than what David used to ask the almost silent question. She even started berating them.

"I am sure they're here!" Rhoda insisted, her eyes darting about wildly. "I just know it!"

David and Kiel looked at each other, confusion stark in their minds. What in the world was happening to their captain now?

Rhoda's head kept moving from side to side, and her thoughts seemed impaired by something.

"Why are you not responding?" Rhoda furrowed her brows, turning around to look at them. "Do you want to be written up when we get back?!"

Just a moment earlier, she'd been so concerned that she couldn't hear the target's movements that she wouldn't allow David to make a sound, but now, she was blatantly turning her back just to look at them.

Alarm spiked in both David and Kiel, and they exchanged another look.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Rhoda asked.

David lunged forward, grabbing Rhoda.

"Sorry about this, captain!"

Likewise, Kiel darted around and smacked the captain up the head.

It wasn't enough to knock her out, but it was enough to rattle her brains. Doing this would cause most effects that affected the mental state to dissipate.

Unfortunately, what Alec was using was an array of his own creation, and he had painstakingly tweaked it until he was sure that it would not be so easily dispelled by someone else.

As such, Rhoda looked at her loyal subordinate, stunned. "You… what are you doing?!"

Kiel looked hopelessly at David. "It didn't seem to have done anything?"

"What are you conspiring?" Rhoda shouted; her shout so loud that it caused their ears to ring.

The two hurriedly shushed her, Kiel slapping a hand over his captain's mouth.

"Mmph!" Rhoda shook her head wildly, trying to dislodge Kiel's hand or throw off David's grip.

The three of them struggled until all three of them were completely drained and panting.

"You… why are you doing this?!" Rhoda hissed. Her mind was confused. Why had things developed in such a way?

This was completely illogical!

Likewise, David and Kiel were thinking the same thing. Why was their normally level-headed and logical captain behaving like this?!

What the three of them didn't realize at all was that enough time had passed that the rest of the squad should have returned by now, having finished dealing with the other target.

Yet, none of them had returned.

This showed that even David and Kiel's judgement was lacking at this point. However, the two of them only noticed that Rhoda was acting strangely.

Up above in the trees, Alec smothered the smile that was on his face.

The scene that he'd just been treated to was truly… something else.

Who knew that the array would have such hilarious effects? Seeing three people act like they were utterly devoid of intelligence astounded him.

The entertainment value was very high. With his hearing, he could hear their every conversation.

They didn't even think to use magic earlier when they were struggling against each other.

At this moment, the three of them started struggling against each other again.

"Unhand me!" Rhoda growled, twisting her body.

Her leg kicked backwards, which David hurriedly released her to dodge, saving his family jewels.

Just as Rhoda got free, she was seized by Kiel instead, frustrating her immensely.

Alec covered his mouth, smothering the laughter that wanted to leave him. He couldn't even muster up the normal bloodlust. It was like watching a bunch of elementary school children fighting against each other on the playground.

He decided to add more chaos to the situation.

At this moment, many mushrooms started growing at a rapid pace on the ground, literally springing out in moments.

The three who were still arguing amongst each other didn't even notice it at all.

By the time they noticed, they were already virtually surrounded by a forest of mushrooms that had been created singlehandedly by Loeri.

David made a sound of shock. "Mushrooms!"

Rhoda growled, her eyes glaring at David. "Put aside your futile attempts to distract me –"

Kiel forcefully turned her head, causing her eyes to go wide.

"Mushrooms!"

While the three of them were staring with stunned, wide eyes, a veritable army of rabbits and tiny wolves surrounded them, causing the three of them to clutch each other, subconsciously feeling alarmed.

Chapter end

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