Chapter Ninety-Six: The Front Line, Treshi Appears

In the Welsh region of the United Kingdom, a group of hackers waited in silence at headquarters. They were all subordinates of the Crown Prince, though it would be more fitting to call them his friends.

They were people the Crown Prince had once met, and now they were partners working with him.

"Why is there still no word from His Highness after all this time?"

"Do not be anxious. When has the Crown Prince ever suffered an accident? Perhaps he is merely..."

Before the fifth-ranked hacker on the leaderboard could finish, a link suddenly appeared. Before he could even react, a mountain of data began pouring in.

"What is going on? Has the Crown Prince dealt with it?"

Without waiting to examine it, several hackers and a few data analysts beside them immediately began receiving the flood of information.

"Terminator technology, Skynet... just as expected, the Kingdom of Kestan really does possess this part of the technology..."

As one of them looked over the images called up on the screen, he instantly recognized them.

"Hey, you from Kestan, your homeland really does violate the Earth Convention, doesn't it? Such a pity that this thing..."

"I know. In any case, the Kingdom of Kestan cannot rebuild its homeland for the time being. Maybe the Northern Union and the Eastern Alliance never intended to let us rebuild at all," said one of the Kestan hackers.

"Indeed. Wasn't the Arab Emirates Federation rendered homeless by Israel as well? Those nations never forget a grudge!" said one of the United Kingdom Hacker Alliance members.

"Spare me. Which country was it that created the Ocean Alliance to sanction Europa and the Union States in the first place? Wasn't it your United Kingdom, the Carle Empire, and the Oceanic Republic?" muttered the Kestan hacker. "So, at the bottom of the Atlantic, there may still be the remains of the glorious naval battle from those years!"

"On that point, you can rest easy," said a hacker in front who suddenly turned back. His eyes were filled with data, yet he still answered, "How could our Carle Empire possibly waste so many ship-knot resources? They were already completely recovered long ago!"

"Blue Whale! Shut your mouth," came a voice so strikingly beautiful it seemed to cut through the air.

"Our Carle Empire only recovers metal at most. What are the Union States' ship-knot systems worth?"

"Yes, yes, yes! Boss!" the hacker called Blue Whale replied helplessly. It seemed that, in some sense, the boss's words still carried enormous weight.

"Speaking of which, White Eagle, I remember you used to be from the Union States..." one of the Kestan hackers could not help asking. After all, during the Glorious Revolution twenty years ago, the common enemies of the United Kingdom and the Carle Empire were the Union States and Europa.

"Oh? Do you think I would admit to being from the Union States, which was beaten to a pulp by the Carle Empire? They could not even defend their own waters, were forced to give up sovereignty over their territorial seas, and now along the Gulf Coast there is not even a single military deployment. In my view, the title of the Union States as the old hegemon was already reduced to ashes in that very war!" replied the hacker known as White Eagle.

"Heh. You really do have too much free time!"

Suddenly, a voice appeared out of nowhere. Without any speaker being turned on, it spread through the entire room.

"Your Highness?"

They seemed very familiar with that voice. And the source of it, a figure, was running through the corridor.

"Sigh... how annoying. Wenxin is blocking the door. How am I, the true crown prince, supposed to get in?"

"Your Highness, should we just execute Plan B for now? The people from the Eastern Alliance are getting impatient!" White Eagle could not help replying to the voice.

"If you have nothing better to do, then go ahead. Just do not give yourselves away!"

Mingchuan was pressed against the wall inside the Tashkent city government building. The power had not been restored, the lights were still out, and he lay concealed in the darkness. Straight ahead of him was the so-called core area of the Tashkent city government.

After severing his connection with the hacker alliance, Mingchuan activated stealth mode and appeared within Wenxin's field of vision.

Yet the moment he appeared, Wenxin seemed to have noticed him at once. She immediately went on alert, and in Mingchuan's earpiece, warnings were sent to Katiusha and to him as well. But after hearing Wenxin's shout, Katiusha was held back by another "Mingchuan."

"Damn it? A vampire? Take this!"

Seeing that Katiusha and "Mingchuan" had not reacted, Wenxin drew her weapon and charged at the shadow before her. However, the "shadow" in front of her merely pulled out something and struck her back at once.

"How vile!"

When Wenxin was forced back, she blurted it out.

"Enough!"

Just as she was about to rush forward again, a voice she knew all too well rang out before her.

"Mingchuan?"

Wenxin was stunned, but before she could question it, the "opponent" before her removed his helmet.

"My apologies, not him."

The golden hair was impossible to miss, yet the face made Wenxin unwilling to believe what she saw.

"Why are you staring at me? Haven't you heard of this crown prince?"

Crown Prince Treshi. Yes, in order not to expose his identity, Mingchuan had changed his hair to Treshi's color.

"That makes sense. I have never seen a crown prince who would go to the front lines like I do. That fellow from the Carle Empire might still be clinging to his sister right now!"

After murmuring those words, Treshi placed a hand on his shoulder, preparing to put his helmet back on.

"Um... could it be that you are..."

Looking at the person before her, who looked almost exactly like Mingchuan, Wenxin suddenly felt her blood surging. She did not even know what she was thinking.

"The Crown Prince of the United Kingdom, and also the Duke and Regent of the Carle Empire. But... you should be from the Eastern Alliance, right? Are you some relation of Mingchuan's?"

The moment Wenxin heard the self-proclaimed crown prince of the United Kingdom mention Mingchuan, she snapped fully awake.

"Huh? Um... I am Mingchuan's... I mean..."

However, judging by the situation, Wenxin was not coming to her senses at all; she was simply frozen in place. Seeing the slightly incoherent look on her face, Treshi could not help smiling as he walked up beside her.

"I think I understand. It is not just being teammates, is it? So the reason that fellow asked for leave at Christmas was because of you?"

Although Mingchuan and Treshi were the same person, when it came to telling lies without batting an eye, that was precisely the identity Treshi excelled at most. Patting Wenxin on the shoulder, Treshi strode straight into the room.

"How is it going?"

"Not bad..." "Mingchuan" answered. "Once the power is restored, we can disable all of the Kingdom of Kestan's defensive weapons at the first possible moment, so that after the electricity comes back, those weapons will not launch defensive strikes against us."

"Then does that mean we have to wait for the other side to finish its mission?"

Having arrived before Mingchuan and Katiusha, Treshi found Katiusha already frozen in place after hearing him enter.

That person was the real Cole, in both appearance and tone of voice... and even...

Just then, while Katiusha was still lost in wild thoughts, the crackling of electrical current sounded, and then the lights in the room abruptly came on.

"Great! Are you human?"

Suddenly, a person appeared on the computer screen in front of "Mingchuan." But upon seeing the armored figure before him, he could not help flinching.

"Do not be alarmed, my dear friend."

After noticing that someone was there, Treshi also appeared on the screen.

"I am Crown Prince Treshi of the United Kingdom. Are you survivors of the Kingdom of Kestan?"

Treshi's appearance and identity greatly reassured the man.

"Hello, Your Highness, Crown Prince of the United Kingdom."

Suddenly, the man on the screen was pushed aside by someone beside him in a military uniform.

"I am Lieutenant General Lauren of the Kingdom of Kestan, the military governor of this city, and also the leader of the one hundred survivors in the basement of this government building."

"One hundred survivors?"

Treshi hesitated, but Lieutenant General Lauren answered him at once.

"You could say it is something like an air-raid shelter. There is a life-support system here, enough for us to cling to life for a while."

"I understand. We will rescue you at once," Treshi said, and left the screen.

"Understood. We will await your arrival, Your Highness!"

I was bored at school, so I casually wrote some drafts to practice my hand. I am now beginning work on a fanfiction novel I call Fate/Mutant War. The Chinese title is Mutant/War of Fate. Of course, I am still at the practice stage, and I will release it in the future. But... the Type-Moon series will not blame me for plagiarism, will they? Even if it is an original plot...