Reboot: Mechanic

Mary's introduction seemed to have eased the tension. 

Samantha and Nancy both acknowledged her contribution, while Damon, though still not entirely pleased, didn't press the matter further. 

And Theobold seized the opportunity to steer the conversation back to their current situation.

"Anyway, what are your plans for coming all the way here in the frontline?" Theobold asked, clearly stunned by their appearance. There were numerous monster waves in the past and were difficult to suppress too, but never once had these people shown their appearance. 

However, this time, all five of them had respectively arrived at the frontline, causing Theobold to believe there were definitely more than the eyes met. Samantha, Nancy, and Damon all suddenly made a pause in their movements, clearly unwilling to divulge or answer Theobold's simple question.

"Haha, I think we should set up a camp first before we continue any discussion. My soldiers are still waiting at the back, so I can't afford to idle here." Samantha made an awkward laugh and gave an excuse. 

Nancy seemingly followed suit and added to Samantha's excuse, proclaiming that her soldiers needed to settle down first as well.

As for Damon, he didn't even bother making an excuse and just outright commanded his soldiers to start finding a good spot to settle down. 

Seeing all three of them hastily leave as if they were frightened, Theobold shook his head in disbelief. He knew it was too good to be true to have them coming here and truly wanted to suppress the monster wave. 

As the original tension atmosphere dimmed down, Theobold breathed a sigh of relief as he turned his attention to Mary.

"Well, those three have left, but what about you?" Theobold asked calmly. "There must have been a reason why you followed me and needed to talk to me directly instead of relaying the news to one of my soldiers." 

Mary nodded her head, but suspiciously glanced left and right, indirectly telling him that she wanted a safe and secure place to actually talk about what was on her mind. 

Theobold naturally understood such a signal, given his experience. Without hesitation, Theobold guided Mary to the command center and ordered the soldiers inside to temporarily leave the premises. 

Although he trusted his soldiers, confidential and important information was still best to keep at a minimum, meaning the fewer people knew, the better it was. 

"Okay, you may speak your mind now." Theobold took a seat and informed her that it was safe to talk. 

Mary didn't bother to say anything and directly took out her USB flash drive, handing it to him.

Seeing how she was still unwilling to talk about it and simply handed him a USB flash drive, Theobold's expression turned even more solemn. There wasn't an explanation needed to tell the USB flash drive must have contained some crucial and critical information for their current situation. 

Not wasting a single second, Theobold inserted the USB flash drive into one of the devices that was secured dearly. As soon as the USB flash drive was plugged in, Theobold quickly accessed the information within.

A few minutes later, his expression gradually changed and by the time he finished browsing through the information, shock and disbelief filled his eyes. 

"Outrageous!" Theobold suddenly shouted and slammed his palm at the desk. 

He was enraged thoroughly, not because of the information Mary sent him, but the fact that he only managed to obtain such information through Mary.

"Mary, how did you manage to find this information?" Calming his emotion slightly so as to not frighten Mary, Theobold attempted to ask in a soft tone. 

Though it was somewhat unnecessary, given that Mary wasn't surprised or stunned by the sudden outburst. 

In fact, she had subtly expected that Theobold would have such a reaction when his soldiers were so incompetent to figure out such critical information. 

It was clear that something must have gone wrong if an ordinary civilian like her could search it, then how was it possible for his soldiers to be unable to when they are trained for this? 

"Well, after what Vanessa had relayed to me regarding the strange energy, I did some filtering in a software to check the map area, especially the magicule density," Mary explained calmly. 

"That kind of filtering… our software has it as well." Theobold breathed deeply and muttered. 

"Can you explain the process more thoroughly please, Mary?" He then asked, clearly on the verge of exploding. 

If the processes Mary had taken or done were somewhat different than what his soldiers were talented at, then he could understand why they failed to detect any abnormality.

However, if it was almost identical or it was very minimal changes than their usual process, then Theobold needed to rethink whether his soldiers were his or not.

And sure enough, by the time Mary finished explaining all the details explicitly, Theobold's fist was clenched tightly.

"Are you okay, Commander Theobold?" Seeing how unusual Theobold was acting, Mary asked somewhat in concern. 

After all, the situation here still needed Theobold to remain calm and collected to maintain it. Otherwise, chaos would definitely ensue, especially with the arrival of the five military commanders.

Theobold made a slight smile as he nodded his head. 

"Yeah, I'm alright. It's just a bit disheartening how incompetent my soldiers were, or if they were perfectly concealing the information from me." Theobold said, turning his attention to the screen.

His actions were quite obvious to Mary– he was definitely trying to search for the information himself. 

A brief moment later, Theobold's expression changed even more drastically. 

"Mary, can you do the same thing you did on your computer here?" Theobold stepped back a bit and asked Mary. 

"I trust you enough to simply do as I've said and nothing else." He added.

Normally, Theobold wouldn't allow any other non-personnel to interact with these screens, given most of the information and contents inside were confidential. 

But the situation he was facing required confirmation. 

A foreboding confirmation that Theobold wished it was just his imagination and nothing else.