On the Ark.

"If an explosion of this magnitude could kill me, then I don't deserve to stay on Rhodes Island."

ACE had clearly been impacted by the explosion; half of his outer garment was burned off. He ripped it off, revealing a black combat uniform and large areas of burned muscle. Yet, he stood ramrod straight, showing no signs of injury. The militant who had been knocked down tried to get up, but ACE swung his hammer and brought it down on the militant's head. With a muffled thud, the black tactical hammer struck the militant's protective suit, and the militant immediately collapsed to the ground, motionless.

"That's all the guy hiding in the protective suit can do," ACE said coldly, then looked up at the red-haired giant standing not far away. "I hope you can take a beating."

The red-haired giant, gripping his axe, walked around the car and slowly approached ACE.

ACE didn't rush to meet her immediately, but instead looked around, his brow furrowed: "Where's Ifrit?"

"I went to find Himer."

"This is troublesome. It seems that Hamer has been captured by those guys and taken to the factory."

Lin Ye immediately said, "I'll go find them."

"Don't move," ACE said. "Wait for me."

"But……"

"I told you, wait for me!"

As he spoke, he stepped forward. The red-haired giant raised his axe and swung it at him. He blocked it with one hand using his shield, and then swung his hammer down on the red-haired giant's head. The head, which couldn't even be penetrated by bullets, shattered instantly after being hit by ACE's hammer, and the red-haired giant immediately fell to the ground.

Simple, straightforward, and without any unnecessary fuss.

Lin Ye stared blankly.

ACE said, "I told you, wait for me."

……

……

The author's comment: Although the official data doesn't provide ACE's specific combat power, judging from his achievements, he's definitely not just a background character (easily defeating over thirty thugs and soloing Talulah while heavily injured). Based on this, he should be significantly stronger than Nearl, who is also a Defender operator. Therefore, his combat power in this book should be at least five stars, six stars is definitely possible. Aside from not being on par with the absolute top-tier or overpowered characters, he belongs to the strongest group.

Chapter 183 The Little Fire Dragon Went Out of Control

Lin Ye had expected ACE to be strong, after all, he was the captain of the elite squad, but he hadn't anticipated ACE to be this strong. Facing an enemy who was a head taller and three times stronger than him, ACE easily defeated him. Moreover, he didn't use any fancy tricks, but instead engaged in a brutal, hand-to-hand combat with melee weapons.

After defeating the armed personnel and the red-haired giant, Ace helped El take down another armed personnel. Compared to Ace, El's fighting ability was clearly insufficient; after holding out against the armed personnel for nearly a minute, he was already exhausted and almost out of breath.

"Get back to normal as soon as possible." ACE patted El on the shoulder. "We can't afford to lose a single fighter right now. Doctor Hermes was captured by those guys, and Ifrit should have gone in with them. We need to find them."

"I...I know." El took a few deep breaths, and his complexion improved slightly. "I can do it now."

ACE nodded, then led Lin Ye and El toward the factory. They first arrived at the site of the explosion. The truck had been blown in two, and clusters of fire burned on the ground. The fuel was unknown, but as they walked past the flames, they could see things that resembled charred insect shells.

Lin Ye had initially assumed that at such close range, the E3 squad must have suffered heavy losses, and he was somewhat hesitant to look. However, upon arriving at the scene, he discovered that this wasn't the case. Although most of them were injured, at least they were all alive. Judging from the scene, it seemed that during the explosion, the heavy-armored operators used their shields to protect the non-heavy-armored operators from being engulfed by the blast wave. Therefore, the most severely injured were all the heavy-armored operators, like ACE, whose upper half of his body was burned.

"Captain!" One of the operators tossed a medkit to ACE. "Here you go."

ACE caught the medical bottle, unscrewed the cap, and poured it directly onto her burned area. The wound was immediately enveloped in green light and then slowly healed. This scene reminded Lin Ye of Nightingale. Nightingale could instantly heal Lin Ye's injuries with a single spell and even create a shield that could withstand a certain amount of damage. That was Nightingale's skill, but those with such outstanding skills were ultimately few and far between. Even on Rhodes Island, without medical operators, combat operators basically relied on medical bottles, only the effects of medical bottles were far inferior to those of medical operators' skills.

The medic in this squad was none other than Hermes, who had been captured.

“Captain,” an operator said to ACE, “without Dr. Hermes’ assistance, we cannot recover our combat strength in a short time, and Stinger’s injuries are too severe; ordinary medical bottles are no longer sufficient.”

Stinger is another heavy-armored operator in E3 squad, and is the most seriously injured among the operators present. He is currently unconscious.

ACE glanced at Stinger and then said, "Then send two people to stay and take care of Stinger. The rest of you come with me into the factory to rescue Dr. Hermes, and Ifrit too."

The operators were shocked: "Ifrit went in too?"

“Yes, she must have gone to see Hermes,” ACE said in a deep voice. “I know a little about Ifrit’s physical condition, and we absolutely cannot let her lose control here.”

The operators' expressions turned serious. As members of the elite squad, they had obviously heard something about Ifrit.

Lin Ye remained silent throughout. After all, he wasn't a professional combatant, and it was best to obediently listen to mission assignments. Unlike the previous attacks—when they occurred at the Lungmen Building, he was basically running away with Nightingale and Ifrit; in Nightingale's dream, he was running away with Nightingale; and the day before yesterday at the theater, he was running away with Swire—Lin Ye's combat experience showed that he was forced into battle while on the run.

But this time is different. This time, the goal is to bring back Hermes, who was kidnapped by thugs, and Ifrit, who was chasing after Hermes. Moreover, he has a very professional combat team by his side, so listening to ACE is definitely the right thing to do. Lin Ye knows that much.

At this moment, ACE took out his medical bottle and handed it to Lin Ye.

Lin Ye was taken aback: "I'm not injured."

“Take it for now,” ACE said. “Actually, I didn’t really want you to come in with us. You’re not a combatant, and leaving you here to take care of our wounded would be the best option. But I have to consider the worst-case scenario: if Ifrit goes berserk, we need someone to restrain her.”

"You want me to subdue Ifrit?"

“Hermes said that if there’s a third person on Rhodes Island who can control the rampaging Ifrit, it can only be you,” ACE said softly. “And you have your own methods, which is to bring Ifrit back to her senses, just like you did with Nightingale… So, can I ask you for a favor?”

Although he had heard of it many times, Lin Ye had never actually seen what a berserk Ifrit looked like. However, judging from everyone's descriptions, a berserk Ifrit was clearly far more terrifying and dangerous than a runaway Nightingale. A runaway Nightingale didn't have the will to attack; it only instinctively tried to protect itself, even if it meant protecting itself within a pure black nightmare. What would a berserk Ifrit look like? Lin Ye didn't know, but that didn't stop him from taking the medical vial from ACE's hand.

"I shouldn't get hurt." Lin Ye shook the medical bottle in his hand. "I'll keep this for you. If any of you get injured, you can come to me and let me experience what it's like to be a medical operator."

ACE laughed: "You, what are you saying now? When we get back to Rhodes Island, I'll definitely talk to Kal'tsit about giving you a raise. After all, what you've done has already exceeded your job description. Also, stay behind me. Although I know you've been through a lot of battles, this time you just need to find a way to subdue Ifrit. As long as I can stand, you won't get hurt."

Lin Ye nodded, just as he was about to say something, when his phone rang again.

When I took it out, I found it was still Skadi.

Skadi called him twice in a row. Did she have something urgent to tell him?

Just as Lin Ye was about to make the call, the ground suddenly shook, and the surrounding temperature rose instantly.

“Look up!” El pointed upwards.

Everyone looked up and saw a shocking scene.

A burst of raging flames erupted from the fourth floor of the factory, turning the entire sky the color of the setting sun.

"This is troublesome," ACE muttered, then turned around and shouted at the E3 team members, "Quick, everyone, put on your masks! Prepare to enter the factory!"

Chapter 184 Demon? Girl?

“Perfect! Absolutely perfect!” Looking at the raging fire that was about to engulf the entire fourth floor, Mephisto in another factory building couldn’t help but pound his cane on the ground to express his excitement. “So perfect, such pure power, it’s like a work of art… no, not just like, it is a work of art, a true work of art.”

Standing beside Mephisto was a young man with curly black hair, carrying a giant crossbow on his back. He was also gazing at the flames that seemed to be turning the sky red, and said softly, "Such extreme power reminds me of Frostnova."

“Extreme fire, extreme ice, but I think she would be even better than Frostnova.” Mephisto smiled broadly. “Tell me, if Frostnova were here, would the flames melt the ice, or would the ice freeze the flames?”

"do not know."

“Flames cannot be frozen, Faust,” Mephistopheles said with a smile, pulling a vial of reagent from his pocket. “But they can be subdued.”

The young man called Faust took the reagent and asked, "What is this?"

“It was given to us by the researchers at Rhine Lab,” Mephistopheles said. “A special tranquilizer. Apply it to your arrows and then shoot them into the little girl’s body, and we can take her away.”

Faust looked at the reagent in his hand: "Can this tranquilizer really suppress that level of rampage?"

"The researchers said there was a fifty percent probability."

"What about the other fifty percent?"

"Who knows?" Mephisto shrugged. "Either the Originium inside her will completely detonate, leveling the entire building, or she won't be able to withstand the toxicity of the reagent and will die on the spot."

“But then, wouldn’t all our preparations over the past few days have been for nothing?” Faust said. “We’ve already paid a heavy price to get this little girl, haven’t we?”

“Those are all necessary.” Mephistopheles shrugged. “Can’t you feel the temperature still rising? Faust, if you don’t hurry up and inject the drug into that little girl’s body, she’s really going to explode. In that case, we won’t even have a fifty percent chance.”

“I’ll go right now.” Faust took the crossbow from his back, turned around and took a few steps, then remembered something and looked back at Mephisto. “But what about the Rhodes Island people? They’ve already entered the factory.”

"I have to admit I underestimated them. I thought that truckload of Originium Bugs would be enough to blow them up. No wonder W said these guys are quite capable."

"What are you going to do?"

"Don't worry, you only need to deal with that little girl," Mephistopheles said calmly. "I'll leave everyone else on the first and second floors forever."

……

"Too fast, it makes no sense at all." On the first floor of the factory, the E3 team and Lin Ye were quickly heading towards the stairs leading to the second floor. ACE was leading the way, his expression serious and his tone gloomy. "According to Dr. Hermer, after so many years of her efforts, Ifrit's physical condition should have stabilized long ago. But only a few minutes have passed, and she has already gone berserk. She must have been stimulated, and it is probably related to Hermer."

“It could also be those guys from Rhine Lab. They're the ones who know Ifrit best besides Hermes,” El said through gritted teeth. “We’ve been tricked by these bastards… But that doesn’t make sense. A lot of those guys were killed in the explosion, weren’t they? Why would they drag themselves down with them when they’re trying to trick others?”

“We can only find out the truth by finding those guys,” ACE said in a deep voice. “But our priority right now is to bring Dr. Hermes and Ifrit back.”

Lin Ye didn't participate in the E3 team's conversation; his mind was solely focused on Ifrit. The flames he'd just witnessed had left him speechless with astonishment; he'd never seen such power before. It was hard to believe that such power had erupted from Ifrit's small body, but what would happen after that? Even a demon's body, if burned continuously like that, would eventually be reduced to ashes, wouldn't it?

Damn it, please don't die! I haven't even taken you to see Saria yet!

Lin Ye clenched his fists.

Just then, they heard a rustling noise behind them.

Everyone stopped, turned around, and their expressions changed slightly.

The Rhine Lab researchers who had perished in the explosion were slowly getting up from the ground, taking off their still-burning black robes to reveal their severely burned skin. They then pulled out short knives from under their robes and slowly walked towards the E3 team, their eyes burning with fury.

"What's going on?!" El exclaimed in shock. "Weren't these researchers dead?"

“They are not researchers.” ACE noticed something amiss and frowned. “I have never seen any of these people before, nor have I seen that guy named Kado. They are infected, soldiers who were prepared from the beginning.”

"A soldier who gets bombed once and then gets back up?!" El exclaimed incredulously. "Isn't that a bit too far-fetched?"

“Whether we pull them down or not, they’ve already gotten back up.” ACE slowly put on his gas mask, then gripped the hammer tightly. “We can only knock them down again.”

At this moment, a sniper operator with a crossbow stepped forward and blocked ACE's path.

“Banner and I can handle these enemies,” the sniper operator said. “Captain, you should take Dr. El and Dr. Lin upstairs to find Dr. Hermes and Ifrit. They are much more important than us.”

The operator who was targeted by the sniper was a vanguard operator wielding a two-handed axe. He also took a step forward and said, "Leave it to us, Captain."

ACE did not hesitate, as he was well aware that hesitation in battle was a major taboo.

"Understood, El. Dr. Lin, come with me. The first floor is yours. We'll come to help you once we find Hermes and Ifrit."

The sniper operator laughed and said, "Captain, don't underestimate us. We'll take care of this small group quickly and then go upstairs to help you."

Bonner didn't speak, but simply tapped his two axes to show his stance.

"Row."

ACE turned and left, and Lin Ye followed him. Before he had taken more than a few steps, someone called out to him. He turned around and saw a gas mask being thrown into his hand. It was Bonner who had given it to him.

“Put this on, Dr. Lin,” Bonner said.

"But you..."

“If I don’t give it to you, the captain will definitely give you his own,” Bonner said slowly, then turned to face the “resurrected” infected. “But he’s not infected, he needs a mask. I am, so I don’t need one.”

With ACE's tacit approval, Lin Ye put on the mask.

"You two, be careful," ACE said as a final word of advice.