After introductions were established, Veronika got into reasons.

“You were in the car the whole time?”

“Affirmative.”

She scratched her head with another question that she had reached an answer but needed confirmation. “I didn’t see you when I had inspected the inside.”

“I am equipped with a BioNext Stealth Modulator version 4000, which was on during my downtime. It hides my aura energy and makes me invisible. I had been connected to the car battery when you had activated it. Your spirit energy had disabled my modulator and nearly overpowered my sensors,” Scot cordially answered.

Veronika gulped. It was no wonder he was ready to blow her head off, she had interrupted his nap time. “Oops. Um, sorry about that.”

She internally voiced her question to System on why she had lost control to almost blow them all up.

[Unknown. Maybe it’s related to your awareness of your past life. The odds of transmigrating into a strong likeness of your former self should be almost impossible. Your likeness could also be a random chance of natural occurrences. Completely unintended]

“Maybe.”

Something didn’t sit right with Veronika, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more connecting to her past other than awareness of it. But heaven favors the hero, so maybe Wu Chen’s image was so well revered even cosmic forces couldn’t resist reforging her with the likeness. Either way, there was no point in dwelling on it further. Right now, she was more keen to learn about the execution order on her. It didn't make sense to invest credits into her manufacturing only to discard her during a rookie field assignment because she couldn't demonstrate exceptional traits.

The logical conclusion would have had her returned to base and to be fixed up first. If her destined outcome was to be failure, why embed so many combat manuals into her. That would give her opportunity to succeed. Nothing was connecting a dot.

And there were the two mercenaries who had tried to kill her. So many questions were pestering her brain, not part of System’s. She needed answers.

“Hey, Scot. Is there a public-net terminal nearby?”

“One is accessible in the main compound of Bing Bing’s resident complex, but it is restricted to Starcharter employees with level 1 clearance. And the residents do not allow clones, artificial humans or non-humans to enter the complex.”

“Hmm. No other option?” Veronika frowned with the thought.

“There maybe one in the Junkyard Town, but that is an unsafe area,” Scot said with caution.

“Oh?” Veronika’s ears twitched with interest.

“It is considered a lawless town, as no corporation or government body can manage the area. The prejudice for synthetics and clones is quite high.”

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“But they won’t block our access, so it does sounds like our best bet.”

Scot paused to stare at Veronika like he was doing a prediction analysis on what she’d say next.

But Kami voiced his question without hesitation. “Why’d you want to go there? Food is terrible. Too much powdered fish. Nothing tasty like your beef strip.”

He sniffed around her pockets to see if she had more somewhere in them.

“You know this place, Kami?” Veronika knelt down to give the wolf her attention, but he turned his preoccupation to licking dirt off his back furs.

“I was dumped there.” He growled as he recalled the pack ditching him to that grimy place where only fleshy humans and shiny-skinned lakionians hung about.

“Your pack ditched you? Is that because you were a runt?” She bluntly asked.

Kami barked out his complaints and feelings to her question. “I’m not a runt!”

[I believe you have struck a sensitive spot. Veronika, from my preinstalled information about Arctic Snow Wolf Society, being called a runt is considered a deep insult to Kami’s kind. Most wolves are a proud race. I would assume Kami is no different] System chimed in with her usual nonchalant attitude.

“Oops. Sorry Kami. I didn’t mean to offend you.” Veronika bravely patted his head. “But you are on the, er, dumper side.”

Kami growled and took a snap for her hand.

“I mean, there’s just more of you to, er, admire.” She quickly tacked on with hopes it would appease his attitude.

Kami let go of his mood with a heavy sigh and moved away from her to inspect more of the busted space-car, and mumbling about stupid, ignorant human failures.

This gave Veronika an opportunity to throw out an insensitive question to Scot. “So, is that why you were in this junk car? Were you ditched too?”

Unlike Kami, Scot didn’t take offense to her blunt question. Rather, he just took it as it appeared.

“Ditched. An Earth term humans used to give up on something. It is also defined as having dug a deep hole.” He cordially noted of the term.

“Er, yeah, something like that.” Veronika scratched her head awkwardly.

“In answer to your question, no, I was not cast into a deep hole. But, I was abandoned by my mistress when she had escaped this vehicle.”

“Really?”

“We had entered Seria’s atmosphere on fire due to the vehicle’s inadequate atmospheric pressure modulators. I was able to stabilize the flames so most of the car body could remain intact, but the entry gravity was making the vehicle heavier to specification, so a few alterations were made.”

Veronika guessed the seats were sacrificed in the process. He had likely ripped them out of the car while they were doing a nose-dive. But the car build must have been made from cheap materials if he was able to do some interior decorating while facing an imminent crash.

“Is that where you got the damage?” She pointed to the expose wires on his arm.

“Affirmative. I was able to repair from what I could scavenge from my surroundings.”

Veronika sighed as she stared at the space-car, or what was left of it. “So, I take it that this vehicle isn’t fit for function?”

“Affirmative.”

There was no choice but to use their feet for the getaway. At least the immediate danger had passed, so the severity level of experiencing another shot in the back anytime soon was low.

“Whelp. No point in hanging around here.” She cast her eyes to the setting sun. Night would be upon them soon. “We’d best to look for somewhere to bunker down.”