Seeing the forum atmosphere was quite harmonious.
It made Grim feel a little relieved.
In the Ark, Nikke's mental condition was always poor. They not only had to fight the Raptures on the battlefield, but also faced discrimination from ordinary people when they returned to the Ark. To maintain emotional stability, the Ark even regularly wiped the memories of Nikke to prevent "mental transformations."
In short, Nikke were humanity's hope to reclaim the Surface—they were the Victory Goddesses.
Frankly speaking, Nikke were beasts of burden, military tools, and humanoid weapons created by humans, fully recyclable.
However, as a Commander, Grim wasn't any different from them. Both were classified as "disposable items" and "cannon fodder." The only difference was that Nikke were reusable consumables, while Commanders were like green onions growing in a field—harvest one, and another would grow back at the military academy.
Grim still remembered more than fifty cadets who graduated with him. Now, some of them were dead, some wounded, and some confined to mental hospitals due to psychological trauma, spending their days trying to heal their hearts that had been brutally torn apart on the battlefield.
The war between humans and Raptures was far too cruel.
That's why most Nikke and Commanders suffered from poor mental health.
"Nice to see everyone so enthusiastic."
Grim sipped his coffee.
Unlike many people in the Ark who held discriminatory attitudes toward Nikke,
as a Commander, he loved Nikke more than anyone.
After all, compared to greedy and selfish humans, the "Victory Goddesses" who stepped onto the battlefield for all sorts of reasons and fought for humanity's hope deserved to be treated like real people—not to live and die, live and die, until the day their brains and bodies were completely destroyed.
Free the Nikke.
Grim picked up his pen and wrote those four powerful words in his notebook at the Commander's Office.
Then he flipped to a new page and added one more sentence:
Even if you max out their affection, you must understand who they really are.
"That's it."
Having decided his future path, Grim chose to first enter the group chat, get to know the Nikke, and become more familiar with them, so that he could later explore their inner worlds.
After two coughs, Grim opened the fan club group forum and sent a message.
William: Hello, I'm a new member~
There was no response for quite a while.
But that was perfectly normal.
After all, Grim was a newcomer, and with such a plain message, silence was to be expected.
Still, when there's no surprise... there's always a surprise.
The Invincible Villain Tyrannosaurus (Drake): I suddenly have a bad feeling today.
Guillotine Hermes (Guillotine): You mean someone from "The Organization"?
Drake: Hahahaha, exactly! My villain senses tell me there's an evil one hiding in the crowd!
Guillotine: That means "they" might've already infiltrated the Guild.
Drake: @William, new guy, is that you?!
Grim flinched.
How did this Drake guess his identity?
Coincidence?
Grim didn't want to reveal who he was.
The internet was a wonderful place—here, you could see things you'd never see in real life.
He had to blend in with the Nikke!
After thinking for a moment, Grim typed a reply.
Grim: I'm just a regular Nikke assigned under a Commander. Lately, I've been pretty close to him because of work.
Drake: I won't believe it unless you show proof.
Grim: Proof? Relax, I've got it. I'll give you a live demo of how to win him over.
Anis: What, you're confessing to Commander too? Mmmm, so far, nobody's succeeded. If you rush it, you'll end up with a red round nose.
Neon: That's right! Sensei's a total workaholic. I wonder when he'll finally open up... (pout)
Drake: Hahahaha, can I enjoy someone else's embarrassment again? So fun!
Grim smirked slightly and quickly used both his main and alt accounts to fake a little interaction.
[William]: You there, Commander? You've been in your post for half a year now, how've you been feeling?
[Commander]: I'm doing fine. Is something wrong?
Drake: I might not be good with words, but my instincts say that anyone who starts with "Are you there?" usually ends up a clown.
Neon: No hope~ Hehe.
Anis: Hehe.
Grim: What's the rush? Keep watching!
[William]: Yeah, I have something I want to ask you.
[Commander]: Go ahead.
[William]: Lately I've seen you taking a lot of Nikke into the counseling room for heart-to-heart talks. Among them, there has to be at least one you like, right?
[Commander]: Hmm... you could say that.
The moment that screenshot was sent, the entire forum blew up.
Anis: ?
Neon: ?
Privaty: ?
Soline: ???
Soline: I just got back from work, what happened?!