Arknights' Lock of Heaven

Look at him, he has the title of consultant but does the work of a scientist, so why does he need a field team?

Moreover, the average combat effectiveness of the team members is exceptionally high.

It wasn't until Kal'tsit personally examined her and entrusted her with an important task that Mudrock learned the true mission of this squad.

The task is to resolve any troubles as quickly as possible when they arise, ideally without having to deal with them personally.

Players like Skadi and Surtr can easily cause trouble, and most normal people would back down and avoid provoking them.

But the abnormal ones... life and death are left to fate.

The most important thing is to prevent him from causing a big scandal every now and then!

Mudrock was deeply moved when he recalled everything that happened in Kazimierz.

She already had the answer to W's question.

"Wait, is this guy really that laid-back?" W stared wide-eyed incredulously. "This is a perfectly legitimate opportunity to send elite troops to Rhodes Island, and he just gave it up because he's lazy?"

Seeing her incomprehension, Niyan sighed.

I couldn't understand it myself before...

However, the so-called elite elite... refers to that group of mercenaries?

She looked towards the camp in the distance.

Well, it's normal that he wouldn't like these kinds of people.

After all, those Sarkaz war veterans who were terrifying to outsiders were just cannon fodder to him...

They're only one level above cannon fodder.

It seems that this Miss W doesn't know the captain very well, at least not very well about what happened in Kazimierz.

Otherwise, she would definitely understand.

Some people think the world should revolve around them; that's idiotic and childish.

And for some people, this is perfectly natural.

Because in some respects, they are people who stand at the top of the world.

349 The Unlucky Mercenary

"Fariad?" Yan Ke glanced at his companion. "What's wrong with you?"

This veteran mercenary, whose experience was not much less than his own or even slightly higher, always had a high opinion of himself, as could be seen from his attitude during their previous conversation.

Despite his previous complaints about the mission not being a good job, if the regent in Londinium wanted to implement his will through his mercenaries, Fariad would definitely be the first to respond.

The reason wasn't that he was the Regent's man, or that he had any influence over the Regent, but rather that Fariad, well, how should I put it, was a person who naturally admired the strong.

Given the choice between an obscure pharmaceutical company and a renowned regent, this veteran, more than twenty years his senior, would undoubtedly choose the latter without hesitation.

He was never ashamed of defecting to the strong; on the contrary, he was proud of it, considering it a quality that a mercenary who had survived from childhood to the present should possess.

Well, in a way, that's not wrong.

That's how mercenaries are.

Therefore, after discovering the trickery in this mission, someone like Fariad should have looked down on W, that woman, with disdain and arrogance.

Originally, Yan Ke was prepared to stay away from Fariad, and even to one day turn against him with swords.

Because he was prepared to do something that wasn't so much of a 'mercenary'.

But now, facing W, that woman who always wears a fake smile, Yan Ke noticed that Fariad's legs were actually trembling...

What a hell.

What made him so terrified?

Yan Ke and he had carried out many missions, facing opponents ranging from the regular army of Ursus to the criminal families of Syracuse. They had encountered countless adversaries.

Even with a knife to his neck, I've never seen him so... cowardly.

and so……

Yan Ke looked thoughtfully at the arrogant W.

Is there anyone here that Fariad fears?

First, eliminate W.

This woman is a bit crazy, but not to the point that the old mercenary is so wary of her.

Then there was that tall Sarkaz. Hmm, Flamebringer saw him in Reunion. I think his name was Mudrock? A very powerful warrior, but not enough to terrify Fariad so much.

Then there were two people, one in red and one in white.

The red Sarkaz, though seemingly slender, had a massive blade on her back... Flamebringer's intuition told him she was not to be trifled with.

The other woman, also carrying a greatsword, had no distinguishing features; was she an Agorian? Well, none of them were easy to mess with.

The fact that he remained so calm and composed after entering the camp of eight hundred Sarkaz mercenaries shows that he is no ordinary person.

Yan Ke knew all too well how infamous the Sarkaz mercenaries were.

“I say, Flamebringer,” Farid swallowed as he pondered.

"When we were chatting before, you seemed to care a lot about Rhodes Island."

"Do you know anything about that company?"

"What's wrong?" Yan Ke asked with interest. "Why are you suddenly interested in Rhodes Island?"

He looked at W and the others as they walked away and said, "Are there any acquaintances among them?"

“An acquaintance?” Upon hearing this, Fariad gave a bitter laugh. “No, we’re not acquainted.”

"But thanks to her, my former teammates are quite 'close' to me..."

"Oh? How exactly does it mean to be cooked?" Yan Ke asked, even more curious.

“A mercenary team of one hundred men, the kind that can be mastered in three minutes,” Fariad took a deep breath. “If I hadn’t had to leave for a while, I would have been terrified and hidden somewhere far away when I came back and saw the raging fire. Heh.”

Fariad continued his monologue, seemingly trying to alleviate his anxiety and fear through verbal expression: "Haven't you always been curious why I don't like metal armor at all?"

"My former captain was roasted to a crisp by those flames, right there inside his beloved full-metal armor. The armor was like a steamer, it just..."

Seeing him gradually sinking into memories and starting to ramble incoherently, Yan Ke slapped him on the back.

“Hey, snap out of it,” he said to Fariad. “You haven’t had breakfast yet, stop being so disgusting.”

Startled awake, Fariad took a deep breath of fresh air, then looked in the direction W had left and lowered his head in thought.

After a long silence, he finally spoke, "Yan Ke, this mission... is too difficult."

The complaints were as usual, but this time they were much more genuine.

"What," Yan Ke teased, "you're not planning to pledge allegiance to the Regent anymore? Just because of one person? Aren't there eight hundred people here?"

"And they are all elites."

“That’s different, Flamebringer,” Fariad said, closing his eyes.

"Different."

"You mean to say that all eight hundred of us will still be slaughtered by her alone? Just like your hundred former teammates?"

“You said it yourself, that was a former teammate,” Fariad said, his eyes glazed over. “Do you know how my former teammate died?”

"How did she die?" Yan Ke was stunned when he heard this. "So unlucky to run into her again?"

“No,” Fariad shook his head. “It was in Sargon, a damned noble lord, our employer, who took a fancy to a bounty hunter.”

"Long white hair, stunning face, cool red eyes..."

Upon hearing this, Yan Ke gradually began to connect the person he was describing with someone he had just met.

But Fariad continued speaking.

"He asked us to help him get the person back at the last minute."

"And the result?" Yan Ke asked curiously.

"The result is that my teammates changed from them to you," Fariad said with a mournful face. "I thought that fire was the biggest nightmare of my life, but I never thought I would encounter such monsters again..."

"The eighty-man mercenary group was originally hired to suppress a small, unruly tribe called Adaklis in the rainforest."

"Before we even set off... the employer and the entire army were gone. If she hadn't been watching the pile of corpses flowing like a river and not come to check, I probably would have died there too."

Upon hearing this, Yan Ke thought about it carefully, and then silently took a step to the side.

"I always feel that being your teammate is dangerous, especially when you encounter such an incomprehensible strong person."

“Do you think I wanted this?” Fariad said mournfully, “And this mission…”

"What's the difference?" Yan Ke said casually. "Don't you always follow whoever is stronger? In your eyes, who is stronger, the Regent or them?"

"Of course it's the Regent! After all, he has so many powerful figures from the royal court under his command..."

So what are you hesitating about?

"Because the Regent is in Londinium, and they are right in front of us..."