Every time she tried to reach that gray slate, the scene of Mamoru's death would flash back to Mio. The way he comforted her and always smiled gently at younger agents, it feel like he was treating Mio like his own daughter. "If this is what you expect, I will help you to rescue that child. Me? You don't have to worry about me, don't forget I'm older than you, and I have more experience in saving people."

The tender smile on her mentor's face makes Mio weak, she can't refuse the advice of Mamoru, and Mio knows this is the biggest mistake she has made. Tears twirl in her eyes, moving concrete away one by one, how many times she picks it up and finds out there is nothing in it, the weight on her shoulder will become lighter. Finally, she heard a fragile voice from a pile of construction material.

"Ms.Adrian..."

Mio instinctively moved towards the direction of a familiar voice, emotions were flooding, her eyes, ablaze with a mix of anger and disbelief fixed upon Elio who was lying down nearby. Elio tried to stand up, and his muscles were visibly shaken, his entire body parts were screaming 'hurt', his breaths coming in quick, ragged gasps, but he still held a perfect smile on his face wanting to tell them that he was fine.

"I thought you knew my name, huh?" Elio's voice wavered slightly, even though he acted normal with all his concentration, a mix of pain and depression in his tone.

Mio clenched her fists tightly, her nails digging into her palms as she fought to control her emotions. Instead of praising nimble movements of Elio's, She stepped forward and grabbed onto his shirt with a fierce grip, her words dripping with anger. "I don't care if you want to throw your life away or what. Can't you think about the consequences before you act ?"

Elio's body tightened, his eyes filled with genuine remorse. "I'm sorry for causing you worry. But some people need my help, Ms. Adrian. I can't just turn a blind eye to them."

"Save your heroics dream for yourself. Those who can't guarantee their safety are not qualified to be agents."

"This isn't I want to be a hero! It's an action based on calculating my abilities."Elio countered, his voice firm.

Mio scoffed, her tone laced with despise."Oh, now you are trying to mimic artificial intelligence? I do the calculation thing blah blah blah, don't make me laugh. Move! You block my way."

Mio scooped the startled girl in her arms while ignoring Elio's protests. No matter how many times Elio tried to explain, Mio wouldn't glare at him, Elio was torn between frustration and aggrieved.

Elio's gaze darted at Mio's indifferent expression, with a heavy heart, he dropped to his knees, a gesture of humility in the face of his abortive.

"Ms.Adrian, I want to tell you I'm really sorry," Elio's voice trembled and full of sincerity. "I promise to heed your guidance from now on. I understand I can't be 100% sure if I would be an absolute success this time. I won't make any excuses, and I'll accept any punishment. However, I cannot abide by Evelyn's judgment, even Nuée has no right to tell which life is more valuable."

"I think you owe somebody an apology but not me. Some people might mourn your loss. In Nuée, agents constantly dance with death, uncertainty looms over us. And no matter how advanced AI becomes in emulating human thought, it will never truly understand what it means to be human. It's a futile endeavor to prove it to Evelyn."Mio's response was cool and calculated, her words cutting through the tension like a knife. "

The team of Mio completed their mission. At the same time, they take a helicopter and leave this broken building. The armed improvement team is bringing in coolant to the B2 floor, they slowly enter the server room. Water stays on the ground, and before they step on it, it still is the surface of the lake, once AI Evelyn has inspected the whole server and found no abnormalities in this area, Evelyn accesses the control center and shuts down all the servers. All of them leave this server room immediately.

People are watching this burning building on the TV, the smoke swallows the whole building, from the camera of the TV station, civilians hugging and crying, and it also captures police running out from the building, then firefighters running into it.

Vic Miller zooms off the window and turns to face her subordinates.

Vic nodded approvingly at Mio. "You've done well again, agent Adrian, one of our best agents and a supportive mentor. But I'd like you to shed some light on your mentee's unauthorized actions." Vic enlarged the footage, presenting it to commanders.

Mio calmly observed the footage, her expression unwavering. Beside her, Elio attempted to interject multiple times while commanders were checking the footage, but Rurika gripped his shoulder firmly.

"Evelyn had already given the order for evacuation," Vic continued a hint of reproach in his tone. "So why did you keep ignoring her order?"

Mio's voice was composed as she explained, "We had a new client who proposed that she wanted to hire us to save her daughter. We had ample time. I understand it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, as Commander Miller has pointed out, I should have adhered to Evelyn's directives. This action was driven by personal desire, and for that, I sincerely apologize."

"Well, You should feel lucky that our new client is kind enough, this mission did increase a better income," Vic acknowledged with a slight nod. "Nancy even sent a thank-you bonus. For your mentee's unappropriated action, you are lucky, we'll let it slide this time. Agent Adrian, you have to finish all the mission reports on your own, I expect to see it on my desk by tomorrow."

With that, Vic Miller and the commanders are leaving only agents behind.

"Why are you taking all the mistakes for me, Ms.Adrian?" Elio's voice was tinged with guilt. "This is my fault!"

Rurika can't stand anymore, she yells to Elio. "Newbird, you should shut your damn mouth or I'll kit your stupid head! Mentee's mistakes would be count on their Mentor, you aren't even qualified enough to be responsible for it, don't you get it?"

"I...I'm sorry. I just want to explain everything to Commander Miller."

"Are you fucking blind? We got the whole footage of this mission, you thought Commander Miller didn't know what happened? No one cares about a new intern, learn the fact!" Rurika was so angry she wanted to pull Elio aside and beat him until he couldn't speak anything stupid.

"Stop it Rurika. It's not necessary to explain anything. I'm tired. If you want to be helpful, I can leave you to write the report."Mio rubbed her sour arm, she dropped one request to Elio and left the whole space for them.

Mio's cold demeanor left Elio feeling uncertain and awkward like he had just eaten a bug. Rurika shoots him a disapproving look, she doesn't like Elio bringing so much trouble to Mio, but Rurika can't help Mio, she just trails after Mio. Issac gave Elio's shoulder a gentle tap, he remained still, watching everyone leave the room, but there was an unexpected person also staying in this place, the Operations Commander of Nuée, Zanoah suddenly stepped close to him.

"Don't worry," Zanoah reassured him. "Mio is sweet. It's her first time being a mentor, I think she feels uncertain, give her some time to figure out how to handle the relationship between you and her."

"Commander Aquilino... I feel like I've pissed my mentor," Elio confessed.

"Pissed, sounds a little weak, but Rurika is furious, I can say for sure," Zanoah replied. "From my perspective,  If Mio hates you, you don't even have a chance to come back. I think this is the only way she comes up to cover your mistake for you, it's clumsy and quite endearing, don't you think?"

"Really? I thought I was too useless to take the responsibility, and I made her have no other choice?" Elio's hope flickered.

"Maybe just me find Mio is lovely. But if I were you, and had a chance to learn from the best, I wouldn't give up so easily. Especially since Mio has rejected me more than ten times," Zanoah encouraged him.

"Ehh...I think we're talking about different things. For the record, I have no special feeling about my mentor, please don't misunderstand what I meant." Elio looks at Zanoah's smiling face, he can feel there is high pressure from this unfamiliar commander.

Elio nervously waved his hands, Zanoah's smile creeps him, and his back got goosebumps.