I'm on the Ark, and I start out as Gretchen.

Even if a few daring individuals tried, their crossbow bolts were always intercepted by Swire's companions. Amidst screams of pain, they abandoned the idea of ​​using crossbows.

Even with their numerical advantage and the ability to wear down the three through rotating attacks, they couldn't overcome the superior skills of the three senior superintendents. With Chen, Swire, and Hoshiguma's skillful teamwork, they were actually beginning to see victory...

The sight of over twenty people lying on the ground groaning in agony was incredibly shocking.

Seeing that he was about to lose, the leader, who was hiding in the shadows, kicked away the others who were trying to stop him and yelled, "Damn it, what are you all waiting for?!"

As he finished speaking, two bundles of crudely made mineral bombs were suddenly thrown down from the high-rise buildings of the unfinished buildings on both sides of the narrow alley.

“That’s…?!”

Chen, with his keen intuition and battlefield sense, immediately noticed the two bundles of rapidly falling objects.

Upon seeing what it was, her pupils constricted sharply as painful memories of the past flooded her mind, causing a dull ache in the area where she had been injured.

Others might not recognize what it was at first glance, but Chen, with his tragic past, recognized it immediately... it was an ore bomb!

In the narrow alleyway, the blast wave could have caused the entire alley to collapse, and they would have had no chance of surviving.

Watching the mineral bomb draw ever closer, like the Grim Reaper's scythe about to reap lives, Chen used all the strength he had ever had to throw Swire beside him away.

Before Swire, who was thrown out unexpectedly, could even curse the damn dragon, she caught sight of the two rapidly falling bombs due to the sudden change in perspective...

The lit fuse, the rapidly falling explosives, her comrades who couldn't get away in time... In an instant, Swire felt as if she was about to lose something...

P.S.: Oh my god, this one is over 4300! That's a bit scary. I've exceeded the limit again. Editing this one is exhausting... Time to sleep. Goodnight everyone.

Chapter 33 The Crisis Relief and Swire's Melancholy (3000 words)

Lady Luck never bestows blessings without reason, but if someone is extremely unlucky at a certain point in time, she might just be about to have good fortune in the next moment.

Swire, who was being thrown towards the exit of the narrow alley, stared intently at the falling explosives in the distance, feeling as if time had slowed down.

She didn't understand why Chen's strength had suddenly become so great... and why his first thought was to throw her out... but she... was truly unwilling!

Swire wanted to change the outcome, to save her friends, even if it was just an attempt. But no matter how frantically she calculated and thought, the final answer remained unsolvable, a dead end.

Because in just a few seconds, the ore bomb falling from the sky will explode.

The shockwave and Originium fragments from the explosion will instantly fill the narrow alley. The impact, Originium fragments, and scorching heat will kill everyone in the alley.

Thinking about what might happen next, Swire felt not only unwilling but also overwhelmed by a sense of powerlessness.

These intense emotions caused Swire to instinctively close her eyes, because she didn't want to see her friend reduced to shattered pieces or charred remains.

The moment she closed her eyes, her active brain started working at high speed due to various stimuli.

Countless scenes and images flashed through Swire's mind like a revolving lantern.

One moment it's the horrific scene she might witness later, the next it's the covert kidnapping scene from the past... Blood, brains, corpses—these images made her feel nauseous and terrified.

However, Swire's state didn't last long, because a scene of her being rescued flashed through her mind... That warm memory calmed her emotions and dispelled the other unpleasant images and scenes in her mind...

Then, as if struck by a sudden thought, Swire abruptly opened her tightly closed eyes and stared intently in the direction of her two companions.

It was as if they wanted to etch their images deeply into their minds.

Although fear still lingered in her heart, and there was nothing she could do or change at that moment... in the end, Swire refused to be a coward who closed his eyes and ran away from everything.

Even if she can't change what's happening now, she should remember it... and not let her comrades' sacrifice be in vain...

However, despite thinking this way and trying her best to calm herself down, Swire's resentment, anger, and sadness still surged uncontrollably, eroding her heart.

If it were possible, if a miracle could truly happen, she desperately hoped that someone would come and save her friend, just as they had saved her during the kidnapping incident…

This time, unexpectedly, a "miracle" answered Swire's lingering hope. Just as she was about to fall to the ground and the tragedy in the distance was about to unfold, a pair of warm hands caught her steadily.

"Canned food, smash them!"

"Meow!"

As a familiar voice came from behind Swire, the sky above the narrow alley suddenly changed. A giant cat emerged from a ring that had been thrown out at some unknown time. The cat let out a loud cry and then plummeted towards the ground.

In an instant, a chill swept through and covered the entire narrow alley at an extremely fast speed.

The mineral bomb that had received special attention from the canned food supplier also instantly went silent. When it fell to the ground, it had already turned into a motionless block of ice.

The moment the massive can hit the ground, a large group of people who didn't have time to react were knocked unconscious, while Chen and Hoshiguma, who were deliberately avoided by it, were shivered by another wave of "cold air".

"..."

A moment later, Chen glanced at the shrunken can after she finished, then at the guy lying haphazardly on the ground, before turning to Pado and Swire in the distance and saying, "Thank you, we'll thank you properly later."

"Swire, you go check the scene. Hoshiguma and I will go after those bastards who threw those ore bombs!"

Before Swire could react, Chen quickly grabbed his sword and charged out with Hoshiguma, his target clear.

After what happened today, the two of them will not let these guys get away with it, especially those who threw the ore bombs earlier... They will definitely make them pay the price!

After watching her two friends, who had survived the ordeal, disappear from sight, Swire finally realized what was happening, and somewhat embarrassed, she broke free from Patto's support and stood up on her own.

To be honest, she really didn't expect that a miracle would actually happen at that crucial moment... and that this miracle was from Padofelis, the one who had left her with such complicated feelings...

However, regardless of the nature of this "miracle," Swire felt fortunate at that moment.

That's great... I don't have to face sadness, I don't have to face parting, I don't have to see my friends on the inspection team's list of dead.

that is really good……

Thinking about it, Swire couldn't help but turn her back, because she didn't want to let others see her pathetic state.

Padre was delighted with this, as she saw it as a perfect opportunity to slip away.

After all, she knew perfectly well what would happen to her if she stayed here and waited until people realized what was going on. She definitely didn't want to end up in jail.

Although Pado could indeed escape, that would be a waste of time; she would be better off using that time to buy more goods.

But before the cat could take two steps, she stopped. Her cat ears, standing upright on her head, allowed her to keenly detect the almost inaudible sobbing.

"..."

After hesitating for a moment, Pado helplessly shrugged, then took out a tissue from her pocket, silently handed it over, and casually comforted her, "Hey, don't be sad, it's all over now, and nothing serious happened."

"..."

Upon hearing this, Swire silently accepted Patto's tissue. After wiping away her tears and calming herself down, she suddenly turned around and grabbed someone's wrist, saying seriously, "Pato, you're the Dragon Gate Thief, aren't you?"

"!"

Pado admitted that she was nervous and even sweating profusely the moment she was grabbed. However, as a seasoned shopper, her observation skills were still top-notch.

Cat quickly noticed that everything from Swire's expression and movements to her words and micro-expressions pointed to a possibility.

Just as she had guessed, Swire now possessed some evidence regarding her sourcing of goods...

But so what? Would Pado admit it willingly? Of course not! She's not stupid; with incomplete evidence on the other side, why would she walk right into a trap?

"Haha, how could that be?" Thinking this, Pado scratched her head and responded with a laugh.

"..."

Upon hearing this, Swire, who was holding Paddy's wrist, remained silent for a moment before nodding in agreement and saying, "That's true, how could you possibly be a master thief..."

Despite saying that, the little tiger's grip on the cat's wrist didn't loosen; instead, it tightened its grip even more, as if afraid the person in front of it would run away.

"However, there's one thing I'm curious about, Pado: why are you here at this time?"

As she spoke, Swire raised her eyes.

She looked intently at the person in front of her, waiting for her answer.

"Haha... We just happened to be shopping here and then we noticed the commotion."

Although Swire's eyes were slightly red and she looked pitiful, not a single word she said made Paddo nervous and guilty.

Just as the cat was frantically trying to think of a way to escape, a scene in the distance suddenly caught her eye, and she quickly said:

"Ah, it seems like all the Royal Guard officers have arrived?"

"Eh?"

Pado's words unconsciously made Swire look towards the narrow alleyway connecting the back streets, and sure enough, a large group of special police officers were orderly heading towards the area.

In that brief moment of distraction, Swire's wrist, which she had been holding, was suddenly and forcefully pulled away. When she hurriedly turned around, all she could see was a receding figure disappearing into the distance…

"...Am I really that scary? Seriously!"

Looking at that retreating figure, Swire suddenly felt a strange mix of resentment and complex emotions welling up inside her...

She would have let them go after asking the questions, even if the answers were false.

"Forget it, let's settle this score later!" With that, Swire turned around with a fierce expression and directed the newly arrived police officers to handle the situation at the scene.

————————————————————

A short while after the cat left, Chen and Hoshiguma returned to the scene with the criminal.

The radical terrorists who had fled earlier were not difficult to capture. Apart from their vicious ways of doing things, they had not received rigorous military training, so their evacuation was a terrible mess.

No one wanted to stay behind unnoticed, nor could they easily conceal their tracks. Therefore, Chen and Hoshiguma quickly caught up with them.

Then, after an extremely violent process, almost all of the thugs who threw ore bombs and attacked the police were captured, except for a very few who managed to escape by blending into the crowd.

……

"..."

Although the people had been beaten and captured, Chen, Xingxiong, and Swire all felt a headache coming on as they looked at the large group of thugs in front of them.

P.S.: Revising is so painful, the more I revise, the messier it gets, the more I revise, the more there is, it's just unbearable!! I worked on it until almost 2 a.m. last night and I still wasn't finished.

I originally wanted to merge them into one post this morning, but if I post them together, it would be more than 5000 words, so I'll separate them. I'll update it later after I finish editing the rest.

Chapter 34: Conclusion and Reunion (3000 words)

"What should we do with these thirty or forty people? They're not only infected, but most of them are severely ill." Chen turned his gaze away from the thugs in front of him and said meaningfully to Swire.

"Yes, what's the best way to deal with these thirty or forty people?" After hearing Chen's words, Swire raised her eyebrows slightly and then asked her a question that seemed to be off-topic.

After a brief examination by medical staff, the three men were blatantly confronted with the increasingly severe and dire physical conditions of each of the thugs.

It's no exaggeration to say that even without this incident, most of these people wouldn't have lived much longer...

The problem that troubled the three of them was that the prisons outside the slums did not have many places or conditions to accommodate patients with Oripathy. It was okay if the cases were mild or moderate, but there was simply no good place to accommodate severe cases like this, who were almost dying.

Because in the eyes of many people, the existence of a person with severe Oripathy is a trouble in itself, and an even bigger trouble in death, because if not handled carefully, he could become a new source of infection.

However, this is only the current situation. If we could go back a while, these people would have been relatively easier to contain.