As Firefly pondered these thoughts, the sound of approaching footsteps grew louder. Soon, four uniformed figures appeared before her.
Their blue eyes and hollowed sockets clearly marked them as foreigners—or, more accurately, Firefly was the foreigner in their eyes.
The group advanced cautiously, scanning their surroundings. They immediately spotted Firefly, and their leader launched into a rapid-fire string of words.
"Qui êtes-vous..."
Firefly: "?"
I don't understand a word!
Seeing her bewildered expression, the leader seemed to realize they didn't share a language and switched to another.
"Wer bist du?"
Firefly: "..."
The leader then tried a third language—English. "Who are you? Why are you still here? Why haven't you evacuated?"
Firefly's English was passable at best. Beyond the vocabulary she retained from her previous life, most of her knowledge came from learning English songs while inhabiting Robin's body.
Firefly struggled to communicate with the squad until one of the members tapped their captain on the shoulder and handed him an earpiece.
After adjusting the language settings and putting it on, Firefly couldn't help but marvel at the absurdity of the device. The moment someone finished speaking, the translated Chinese echoed in her ear with virtually no delay.
Through their conversation, she finally learned where she was:
The European Union!
Long before the Dimensional Rift appeared, pressured by the rising power of the Dragon Nation and the Americas, over twenty European countries had formed a loose alliance. As the Rift materialized and new threats emerged, this alliance gradually solidified into a more stable and cohesive entity.
By now, these nations were so deeply intertwined that they functioned almost as a single unified state.
The squad captain had spoken to Firefly in French and German. In this "nation," it seemed commonplace for people to be fluent in three languages—perhaps locals viewed them as mere regional dialects.
After all, even in the Dragon Nation, there were cases where two villages separated by a single valley couldn't understand each other's speech.
The person questioning Firefly quickly realized her identity: she was an Outsider.
The European Union possessed a remarkable technology called the Dimensional Rift Prediction Device. Similar to an earthquake early warning system, but far more advanced, it could accurately predict the location of a Dimensional Rift approximately five minutes before it opened, triggering an immediate evacuation. This explained why Firefly hadn't seen any pedestrians on the streets earlier; everyone had already been evacuated.
Firefly's inexplicable arrival, her obvious foreign appearance, her inability to communicate, and her utter ignorance of her surroundings—what else could she be but an Outsider?
It's worth noting that White Eagle, Bear Nation, and even Dragon Nation coveted this technology, but the European Union's security measures were impenetrable. They refused to sell it, making it impossible for other countries to acquire one for their own use.
Returning to the matter at hand, after confirming Firefly's identity as an Outsider, Captain Wesley introduced himself. "You can call me Wesley. I regret to inform you, Miss, that you'll likely be stuck in this world for quite some time."
"Is... is that so?" Firefly murmured softly, lowering her head.
Wesley likely interpreted this as a sign that she was struggling to accept reality. After all, being suddenly uprooted from her home and thrust into a completely new place wasn't something everyone could process immediately.
But Firefly had lowered her head entirely to hide her expression. Though she was an Outsider, this wasn't her first time in such a situation!
This was her second time being an Outsider. Shouldn't she act more unfamiliar with this world? What if she slipped up?
To be honest, she'd probably slipped up too many times with Robin, leaving her with a touch of PTSD.
Then again, what was there to expose now? She was genuinely an Outsider. Whether she acted familiar or unfamiliar with this world didn't matter. She could always claim her previous world was similar.
After all, who was there to contradict her description of the world she'd left behind? She could shape that narrative however she pleased.
Wesley gazed at the young girl before him, who inexplicably exuded an air of vulnerability. He was about to offer comfort when disaster struck. The Dimensional Rift hanging in the sky suddenly expanded like an inflating balloon, quickly tripling in size.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The device on Wesley's belt began blaring frantically, and his expression darkened. "Damn it, this signature... It's bad."
In the next instant, Firefly felt the world spin violently. When her vision cleared, she found herself lying on a soft, grassy field, the scent of fresh grass filling her nostrils. A cloudless azure sky stretched endlessly above, and warm sunlight bathed her in a pleasant glow.
Firefly raised an eyebrow, her confusion gradually morphing into utter bewilderment. What the heck is going on? Did I transmigrate again?
Seriously? What's with all this dimension-hopping today?
She slowly sat up and surveyed her surroundings. The four members of the European Union's Bureau of Anomalous Investigations—or rather, their Superhuman Association, as they called it—were nearby. This association classified all metahumans—Evolvers, Transformers, Outsiders, and others—under the umbrella term "Superhuman." But that wasn't her main concern.
The four of them were also observing their surroundings. Wesley, noticing Firefly had woken up, approached her and explained, "Sorry, there was a sudden emergency. We might have been pulled into another place by an Otherworld-type Dimensional Rift."
Realizing she was an Outsider and might not even know what a Dimensional Rift was, he quickly added, "Anyway, we'll figure this out. Don't worry."
Firefly nodded absently, her mind racing. An Otherworld-type Dimensional Rift?
She had seen intelligence reports about such rifts at the Bureau of Anomalous Investigations. They were the complete opposite of Birth-type rifts. While Birth rifts brought monsters into this world, Otherworld rifts pulled people from this world into another "world."