Man on the ark, forced to become king

It's truly... incomprehensible, unimaginable!

What happened to the promised gang control, turf wars, and petty squabbles?

Is this just a small-scale operation? Even in a place like Kazdel, it would be hard to find a madman with such high purity and absolutely no logic. What normal person would think of using city defense cannons to bombard their own people?

W covered his mouth and nose, enduring the blinding heat as he looked around. Relying on his previous memory, he barely managed to find the exact location in the flattened ruins and quickly ran over.

Now there's no need to bother avoiding crossbowmen anymore; if those people weren't made of iron, they wouldn't have survived the bombardment of the city's defensive cannons.

If she remembered correctly, the white wolf and the black wolf had already disappeared into the ruins of the building. If they were in a good position, they might have survived. She didn't want her mission to fail halfway through for no reason.

……

"Ouch~ That really hurts!"

Lappland felt as if her head had been shoved into a washing machine and swung around a dozen times. She was extremely dizzy and disoriented. She tried to move her body, but found that her back and legs seemed to be pinned down by something, and she couldn't move them. The parts of her body that she could move were also in great pain.

Of course, it seems that the only parts of her body she can still move are her two arms and her head.

As far as the eye could see, there was only darkness, not even a glimmer of light. Even a wolf's eyesight could only barely make out some blurry shadows.

“Texas?”

She turned her head with difficulty, called out softly, and reached out her arm to touch her surroundings.

"I'm right below you... Don't move, your leg is probably broken."

Texas's weak voice came from below, and two golden points suddenly lit up in the darkness. They were a pair of golden eyes, and their faint light slightly illuminated the pitch-black space.

With the help of this light, Lappland was finally able to see where they were. They were still in the ruins, but buried deeper. They were completely covered by something that looked like a floor or a wall. Texas was right below her, separated by a piece of broken wood, so she didn't realize it at first.

"Don't move yet, let me recover first, then we'll figure out a way to get out."

Texas said this, then took another breath. The excruciating pain in her body contorted her face. If it weren't for the super-healing ability granted by that leaf, she felt she would be dead by now. But now, there was still a chance to save her.

Boom!Boom!Boom!

Suddenly, a soft knocking sound came from above in the cramped space, followed by a series of breaking sounds, mixed with the sound of stones rubbing together, causing the two seriously injured people below to involuntarily hold their breath.

Not long after, a ray of light shone down, and the obstacle pressing down on them was roughly torn open, leaving a large hole. The white-haired, red-horned Sarkaz girl poked half her head out and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Fortunately, he's not completely dead; there's still hope."

Chapter Nineteen: No Way Out

Unlike cities situated on the earth, mobile cities—the pinnacle of modern Originium industry—can be viewed as a complete and integrated entity.

Although a mobile city is composed of several 'blocks' of varying sizes, all blocks are actually connected by one or more complete energy circulation lines.

If a natural disaster strikes, a large amount of Originium energy will be transferred from the core power furnace to the 'moving structure' of each block through pipelines hidden beneath the steel structure, allowing it to start operating in the shortest possible time. This requires extremely high coordination and stability to ensure that the massive city structure does not collapse or disintegrate while moving.

Meanwhile, in order to combat potential invasions by infected organisms or external threats, each city is equipped with powerful 'city defense cannons', which are also powered by core power reactors. If necessary, these city defense cannons can even forcibly destroy some small natural disasters; they are part of the 'modern natural disaster defense system'.

After all, while mobile cities can move freely, the energy required for each move is astronomical, and they will not easily change location unless necessary. Compared with the energy required to drive the entire city, the energy consumption of city defense cannons is much smaller, and they can be completely classified as semi-conventional weapons.

Of course, this 'semi-conventional' approach is in contrast to the cost of moving an entire city.

Among all the weapons deployed in the city, the city defense artillery is still ranked last. Generally, only the true controller of the city is qualified to activate it—because this weapon is too dangerous. Even the weakest city defense artillery can easily destroy a block. If it falls into the hands of someone with ill intentions, it will be a disaster for the entire city, just like now.

The sturdy building was completely torn apart and crushed into pieces of varying sizes. At the epicenter of the bomb explosion, the reinforced concrete road surface was completely ripped open, exposing the steel structure supporting it, which had reached the true core of the city block.

—The main structure of the city defense cannon usually adopts electromagnetic propulsion, and no Originium components are placed inside the projectile. Even so, only a few people can directly face this kind of attack.

Most people would suffer the same fate as the crossbowmen hiding in the buildings when faced with the bombardment of the city's defensive cannons—their bodies would be no stronger than an egg in the face of the explosive shock that could crush brick walls into dust, and if they were a little too close, they might even be burned to ashes by the high temperature at the core of the explosion.

W glanced at the flattened ruins, muttering curses under his breath to vent his anger.

Before coming to Syracuse, she had considered many possibilities, such as why there was a large group of assassins, or methods such as poisoning or assassination, but those were just battles between people, and she never thought she would face weapons of this caliber.

Fortunately, she was lucky to have a tough, regressive werewolf as a backup, otherwise she would probably have returned to the Golden Tree by now.

But she survived, what about the two wolves?

W casually lifted a broken floorboard, having already given up all hope.

Beneath these ruins, she couldn't sense the familiar aura of the Golden Blessing at all. If those two wolves were still alive, she should have been able to sense at least one of them, but now she felt nothing—wait!

A faint, firefly-like blessing suddenly shone from beneath the ruins. W was startled and quickly sped up his digging, roughly throwing the broken building debris aside to reveal a narrow opening.

-------------------------------------

"Are all you Syracuseans so irritable? You're always resorting to cannon fire?"

Sitting on the ruins, W breathed a sigh of relief. The pain that had been suppressed for so long suddenly burst forth, causing her cheeks to twitch slightly. She couldn't help but ask a question.

She simply couldn't understand the ins and outs of this city defense cannon.

Even if the people of Syracuse are known for their simple and honest ways and like to use city defense cannons as regular weapons, there's no way they would act so recklessly.

It's not like they're the only ones here. Aren't those crossbowmen and that werewolf with reverted bloodlines human?

The key question is, what deep-seated grudge could warrant using city defense cannons? Each shot costs a fortune, and those cannonballs are incredibly expensive. You could hire a top-ranked assassin on the black market for more than enough money for one shot. Why bother using cannons?

"I don't understand why either. To be honest, this is the first time in my life I've ever seen a city defense cannon activated."

The only true Syracuse present, Lappland, shook his head frantically, indicating that even Syracuses couldn't understand this.

It wasn't that she was being self-deprecating, but even before the bounty on Texas was lifted, the two of them together wouldn't be worth a single cannonball from the city defenses. What right did they have to be bombed by the city defenses?

Moreover, this is not outside the city, but inside the city.

Pointing the city's defensive artillery, meant to defend against military invasions and natural disasters, at the inner city is a huge undertaking, tantamount to causing a major upheaval. Even the Lucchese family, one of the twelve great families, would not fare well with such actions.

It's true that the city is their domain, but even a powerful family like the Lucchese relies on their smaller families and ordinary citizens for support. Therefore, they must abide by certain established rules and cannot act arbitrarily.

When the shells from the city defense cannons landed in the city, it was as if the rules had been trampled underfoot. The balance that could have been maintained on the surface collapsed and vanished completely.

Not only would other families use this as an excuse to attack them, but even small families and ordinary people living in the city would live in fear, seriously affecting social stability. No one wants to live in a city that could be bombed by cannons at any time. You can try to resist man-made battles, but how can you resist a bomb that could hit your head at any time?

This matter brought absolutely no benefit to the Lucchese family, but they did it anyway, and no one else had the authority to activate the city's defensive cannons.

Outrageous.

Lappland could only describe it with these two words. In fact, she had always felt that the atmosphere in Syracuse was not right recently. Whether it was the relentless pursuit she was being chased for killing someone or the city defense cannon that fell from the sky, it was all outrageous and did not conform to the logic of normal people.

"Anyway, find a way to get out of here... hiss~"

Texas supported herself with one hand and shakily sat up from the ground. Bright red granulation tissue quickly grew on her mangled leg, filling the wound and restoring some mobility. Although it was still painful, it was much better than being completely paralyzed.

She knew very well that if it weren't for the leaf, the best outcome would be lying under the rubble waiting to die. Just look at Lappland. Compared to her visible recovery speed, Lappland couldn't do anything except move one arm. The bones in both legs were obviously broken, and one of her arms was twisted at an unnatural angle. It was extremely lucky that she was alive.

"You two can leave now."

Leaning against a shard of wall, Lappland shook his head, his face expressionless.

"The patrol team and the city guards may have already surrounded this place, just waiting for the dust from the explosion to dissipate. If they delay any longer, they won't be able to leave."

"..."

Texas lowered her eyes, struggled to get up from the ground, moved to Lappland's side, said nothing, but grabbed her good arm, bent down, and tried to pull her onto her back.

"Hey, hey, hey, that hurts! Can't you let me die with some dignity?"

Lappland rolled her eyes, her mouth twitching in pain, but she didn't intend to move.

"I don't have your abnormal recovery ability. I can't even move right now. You can't escape with me."

"Someone has specifically named you as the one who wants to kill you, so you have to stay alive."

W stood up, and the wound had completely healed in a short time, so there was no trace of having been injured.

The blessing of the Golden Tree on her body is incomparable to the inferior product like Dassim's. With the blessing as a foundation, she can recover quickly as long as she is not instantly fatally injured. It can even be considered a weakened version of 'immortality' in a certain sense.

As for Lappland's situation, she also had a solution. The Golden Tree Blessing couldn't be given to others, but the Golden Tree Dew condensed from the Golden Tree could have the same effect. Considering that the mission objective was 'protection', she brought some with her when she came out this time, and now it came in handy.

"Hey, waaaaah!"

Lappland stared wide-eyed, about to speak, when a hand wearing a tattered tactical glove grabbed her cheek, roughly forced her mouth open, and watched helplessly as a drop of bright yellow liquid flowed from the reagent tube and fell into her mouth.

Immediately afterwards, the pain in my body vanished without a trace, and a warm current surged from my abdomen, flowing to my limbs and bones. The flesh on my mangled legs began to grow back, and my drooping arms regained feeling.

In just over ten seconds, the white wolf girl felt as if she had returned to her peak condition, and even the physical strength she had consumed was replenished.

"Huh? All done?"

She jumped up from the ground, stomped her feet in surprise, and found that she was indeed unharmed, as if her previous serious injury and near death were just an illusion.

What kind of miraculous healing potion is this? The effects are simply too amazing!

Compared to this, the inferior goods bought on the black market should be thrown down the drain!

But when she thought about how the potion's restorative effect seemed to be passive for some people, Lappland's surprise faded considerably. Her gaze swept over the tears in Texas's and the mercenary's clothes, and she felt a little sore.

Those two guys' abnormal regenerative abilities must be a permanent effect, right?

Such a serious injury, which would be fatal to an ordinary person, has been cured in such a short time and he is acting like nothing happened?

If she had that ability, would she still be being chased and killed so miserably?

Unfortunately, some things can't be envied. Thinking of Dasimi and the mercenary woman's formidable spirit, Lappland no longer felt sour.

Although Texas's current performance is relatively normal, she still has ample reason to suspect that their recovery abilities are achieved by trading their brains.

I have a feeling you're thinking about something really bad.

Texas glanced at her, her expression calm, and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.