Chapter 134: The True Face of Aya

“Is it better now?”

After tweaking the interface settings slightly, Shion, stationed in the actual secret base, asked Aya again at the frontline.

“It’s finally much better!”

Aya sighed in relief; she no longer had to endure the tinnitus-inducing static from Shion’s microphone.

After accidentally discovering Charlotte’s tracks, Aya and Shion had devised a plan to lure her here.

Shion had deployed numerous thermal sensors inside this factory long ago.

As long as the Charlotte who broke into this factory was still a normal human, she couldn’t escape the sensors’ tracking.

Charlotte was merely using simple Wind Magic to distort the space in front of her to achieve invisibility.

She hadn’t changed her body temperature at all; thus, through the thermal sensors, Shion could clearly see Charlotte’s movements.

While the two were talking, a loud crash suddenly echoed from the nearby railings.

“Watch out! She’s coming again!”

Shion’s urgent warning rang through the earpiece once more.

Seeing this, Aya hurriedly threw a swarm of screws toward the railing where the sound had originated.

Faced with such a dense barrage, Charlotte didn’t rush to counterattack but changed course, attempting to strike from another direction.

Even though she remained invisible, her footsteps on the wire-mesh floor still produced sharp, distinct sounds.

Hearing these sounds, Aya immediately pinpointed Charlotte’s location and unhesitatingly summoned a torrent of screws, hurling them toward the girl’s position.

Under Aya’s counterattack, Charlotte was forced to retreat, her figure flashing as she merged back into the shadows.

This time, Aya couldn’t hear any movement at all; the surrounding silence felt particularly abnormal.

Charlotte wasn’t the type to retreat decisively due to such a counter; she was likely still lurking within the factory, waiting for an opening.

“Shion, report her location to me!”

“Forty-five degrees, distance seven meters!”

“Is she above me?”

Aya was slightly surprised, but on second thought, it made sense for someone who could float to be flying up there.

Consequently, Aya immediately launched several spiral strikes toward the direction forty-five degrees above her.

These screws, controlled by gravity, were as powerful as bullets, blasting a large hole in the wall in that direction in an instant and kicking up dust.

But obviously, the attack failed to hit Charlotte.

Aya didn’t get discouraged; following Shion’s continuous reports, she fired screws toward the designated directions.

Although none of them hurt her, the relentless assault was proving troublesome for Charlotte, who was flying invisibly in mid-air.

‘Why? I clearly used Wind Magic to cloak my body, and I’ve suppressed my breathing to a minimum. Why can she still see me?’

‘Could she actually see through invisibility?’

It seemed so, yet something felt off.

Although the opponent acted like she could see her, her counterattacks were always half a beat late, grazing past Charlotte’s back every time.

While she was thinking, Charlotte noticed something flickering with a faint red light in a nearby corner.

‘What is that?’

Looking closely, she realized it was something like a surveillance camera, and there were such things all over the factory.

This place has been abandoned for so long, so why is the surveillance still functioning?

Could it be…

Suddenly finding a key clue, Charlotte looked sharply toward Aya and discovered a small earpiece hidden beneath her long pink hair.

She must be on a long-distance call with someone who is controlling these devices to lock onto my position and relay it to her in real-time.

Since communicating the position takes time, Aya’s counterattacks were always that tiny half-beat late.

And the person Aya is communicating with is likely the mastermind I’m looking for.

Realizing this, Charlotte gave a slight smile.

If your counters are always half a beat late, then I just need to appear behind you within that half-beat.

With that thought, a small, intricate blue magic circle appeared at the tips of Charlotte’s toes.

This was a magic circle that could temporarily and significantly boost movement speed, perfect for quickly closing the gap to Aya.

“Shion, where did that girl go now?”

Hearing no sound, Aya could only rely on Shion on the other end of the earpiece to find Charlotte’s tracks.

“Look up! She’s directly above you!”

Hearing this, Aya hurriedly raised her right hand, preparing to hurl all the surrounding screws upward.

However, she was a step too late.

As if a gust of wind had brushed past her ear, by the time Aya realized it, she discovered that the Charlotte who had suddenly appeared behind her had already swiped her earpiece.

“No way!”

Aya was terrified by Charlotte’s decisive speed.

At such a speed, she couldn’t react in time.

She hurriedly turned around, attempting to control a pile of screws again, but it was as if her power had failed; this time, not a single screw followed her command.

Charlotte acted as if Aya weren’t even there; after taking the earpiece, she quickly placed it on her own ear.

Instantly, a panicked shout came from the earpiece.

– “No way! How could Aya be so careless?”

Hearing the voice, Charlotte turned and looked toward a direction forty-five degrees behind her.

“So that’s where you are!”

Charlotte’s purpose in stealing the earpiece wasn’t to talk to the person on the other end, although talking was a means to an end.

As long as she could hear the voice coming from the earpiece, she could search for that person’s specific location in reality.

She had used this very method to lock onto Yukina’s location on the night she returned to the real world.

Now that she had found the mastermind’s coordinates, the earpiece was no longer needed.

‘By the way, is the mastermind actually a girl too? It seems I’ll have to have some fun playing with her.’

Charlotte casually tossed the earpiece aside and turned to walk toward the mastermind’s location.

Then, she locked eyes with the terrified Aya.

Aya tried repeatedly but still couldn’t control the surrounding screws; her face was a mask of confusion and bewilderment.

“Oh? You still won’t give up? I’ve turned the weight of everything reachable in this factory to zero; it’s only natural that you have nothing left to control! By the way, I haven’t turned you to zero yet.”

“There’s no need for that; my name is already Aya!”¹

Realizing she was no match for Charlotte, Aya hurriedly scrambled over the railing, using Gravity Manipulation to drop her body into the distant darkness, vanishing in a blink.

Watching Aya’s fleeing silhouette, Charlotte frowned slightly.

“That girl runs pretty fast! Well, no need to worry about her now; it’s time to meet the mastermind.”

With that, Charlotte walked toward the direction where Shion was located.

¹ Aya/Zero: In the original Chinese text, Aya’s name is 绫 (Líng), which is a homophone for 零 (Líng), meaning “zero.” This is a pun on Charlotte’s previous line.

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