On the Ark.

Mephistopheles, however, seemed to recall something and clicked his tongue, saying, "Speaking of which, those idiot researchers at Rhine Labs contacted bounty hunters before they came looking for us, didn't they?"

"I do not know."

"That must be it, otherwise there's no reason for it." Mephistopheles looked at the one-sided battle on the opposite floor with some regret. "It seems we won't be able to take that child away today. What a pity."

“It’s not entirely without a chance,” Faust said, looking at Mephistopheles. “As long as you use…”

“There’s no need.” Mephistopheles shook his head, then grinned. “That’s my trump card, the one I’m saving to avenge Big Sister. How can I easily expose it here?”

Faust turned to Mephistopheles: "Should we give up? We've given so much, only to end up with nothing."

“The task the boss gave us was already completed. That little guy was just a gift I wanted to give to the boss.” Mephistopheles shrugged. “Since it can’t be done this time, then we’ll do it next time. We should go, Faust.”

With that, Mephistopheles turned and left.

Faust stopped him: "It's fine if we don't care about those people at Rhine Life, but what about our people?"

Mephistopheles stopped but did not turn around. He simply said slowly, "Faust, on the road to greatness, there must always be sacrifices."

Faust understood Mephistopheles' meaning, nodded, and said softly, "I understand."

Mephistopheles turned to look at Faust and smiled. “Their sacrifice wasn’t in vain. Remember that deep-sea hunter. If she dares to stop us again, the boss will cut off her head and throw it back into the deep sea. All those who defy us will perish at the bottom of the ocean.”

……

……

Author's Note: 1. Some readers said that it was not reasonable for Lin Ye to take off his gas mask when he was seriously injured. I thought about it and it seems that it is indeed the case. It might have been better if Skadi had helped Lin Ye take it off, so I changed it.

2. Skadi didn't just appear out of nowhere. I've already foreshadowed this. Two days ago, when Lin Ye called Skadi, her focus was already on attacking Lin Ye's forces. The same was true for the three phone calls within a day.

3. Some readers said my writing is like a Mary Sue novel...emmm, after thinking about it carefully, I realized it does seem to be, holy crap, what's going on? How did I become a Mary Sue novel author? As for whether it's a harem...you guess.

4. The bounty is temporarily closed. I'll finish paying off the 30 chapters I owe first.

5. I've already discussed the illustration requirements with the artist, so please look forward to it~ This is money I paid for myself, just look at all the monthly votes and razor blades... hehehehe

6. Guess which seven cats are there? Just a heads-up, more than half haven't appeared yet.

By the way, I'd like to recommend my father-in-law's new book, "A Novice Cultivator with 46 Billion Years of Cultivation." Anything he writes is bound to be a masterpiece. If you're interested, you can check it out.

Chapter 188 If you're alright, why do you need to know I was here?

It was a completely one-sided battle.

Lin Ye had initially thought that even if Skadi managed to defeat so many formidable enemies, it would be a very difficult task. Therefore, he was still praying that the medicine would heal his injuries quickly so he could help Skadi, since he hadn't used his Leap Strike yet today. However, he hadn't expected that these thugs posed virtually no threat to Skadi.

Most thugs couldn't withstand a single sword strike from Skadi. Only the red-haired giant and the chainsaw-wielding men could withstand two or three strikes from Skadi, but that was the limit; they were basically defeated in a single exchange.

Skadi's swordsmanship was far less graceful and agile than Yato's; she always used the simplest movements. But even these simplest movements were too much for the thugs to handle. Some thugs managed to attack Skadi, but the metal blades only grazed her clothes, unable to even cut her skin, leaving only shallow marks. The next second, these thugs who attacked Skadi would be cut in half at the waist. In stark contrast, Skadi attacked the heavily armed personnel in their heavy protective suits as easily as cutting vegetables.

After taking the lives of eight thugs, the remaining thugs dared not attack Skadi. Although they were frenzied, they were somewhat at a loss when faced with an opponent like Skadi, thus losing their desire to attack and instinctively retreating.

Having witnessed all of this, Lin Ye had only one thought in his mind.

That's too, too powerful.

The last character to give him this feeling was Exia, who also single-handedly took down a large group of enemies. But Exia is different from Skadi. Exia comes into battle carrying a whole bag of guns, and in one battle, she wiped out Lin Ye's entire year's income in Chernobog. Although it looked impressive, the shock it brought Lin Ye was not as profound as the bloodshed and ruthlessness of Skadi's attacks.

"It's impossible," the thugs whispered among themselves. "We can't defeat her, she's a monster!"

"What happened to the remote support Mephisto mentioned?! Why aren't we attacking her?!"

"Where is Faust?! Where is Faust?!"

They began to panic. They weren't afraid of dying, but they were afraid of being abandoned. After discussing it, they decided to retreat first.

Just then, Skadi forced them back into the emergency exit. So they immediately turned and ran, but as they ran into the exit, they saw a heavily wounded man standing in the middle of the corridor, leaning against a shield, a nearly burnt-out cigarette dangling from his mouth, and a dead Originium Bug in his other hand. When the thugs saw him, he smiled at them, then grabbed the Originium Bug and threw it at them, before softly saying, "Goodbye."

As it was thrown into the air, the Originium on the back of the Originium worm rapidly expanded. By the time the thugs realized something was wrong, it was too late. The entrance and exit of the safety passage were far too narrow; they couldn't move forward or backward and could only watch helplessly as the Originium worm landed at their feet.

boom!

It wasn't a huge explosion, but it was enough to engulf them all.

ACE raised his shield and blocked the shockwave from the explosion, a move he had done countless times today.

The shattered corpses and stones fell onto the shield like rain, making a crisp sound.

ACE spat out the burnt-out cigarette butt, put down his shield, looked at the scene before him, and said calmly, "Don't look for me as your opponent in the next life. Wouldn't it be better to live a little longer?"

……

The battle ended in this way.

All things considered, this battle... no, strictly speaking, it was an accident, lasting less than two hours from start to finish. But to Lin Ye, it felt like it had been going on for days.

Team E3 suffered heavy losses, with three members going into shock due to severe injuries. The good news was that no one lost their lives, which eased ACE's tense expression considerably. Actually, he was probably the most seriously injured, considering he single-handedly held off an entire floor of exploding Originium bugs and even managed to retrieve one to use as a bomb to deal with the fleeing thugs. He was arguably the most powerful and manly guy Lin Ye had ever seen.

Himer and Ifrit were no longer in mortal danger, since the people from Rhine Lab never intended to take their lives in the first place. Ifrit was their primary target, and Himer was the one who knew Ifrit best.

As a medic, Himer was the first to recover and immediately stabilized Ifrit's condition. However, when ACE helped her remove the arrows from Ifrit's body, Himer couldn't stop her tears from falling, which was heartbreaking to see.

Finally...

Lin Ye turned to look at Skadi and asked the question he had wanted to ask the moment he saw her: "How did you get here? How did you find me?"

Skadi glanced at Lin Ye and said slowly, "You mentioned it to me."

"I?"

“The Reunion Movement, you said you were attacked by the Reunion Movement.” Skadi looked at the corpses of the thugs on the ground. “These are the Reunion Movement members. It seems my guess was right.”

Lin Ye still didn't quite understand: "You know about the Reunion Movement?"

“The Reunion Movement is a relatively recent organization, primarily composed of Infected individuals. I know them because I'm a bounty hunter, and they also take on bounty missions,” Skadi said. “After your attack, I went back to the bounty hunter camp and heard that a group wanted to hire a group of bounty hunters to do some things in Lungmen. Because of the Lungmen Guard Bureau, bounty hunters generally don't approach Lungmen, so that mission left a deep impression on the hunters.”

Lin Ye understood something: "You mean, the mission was issued by Rhine Lab, and the mission was accepted by Reunion?"

"Yes, but they didn't go through the bounty hunters' camp, so they probably made contact privately."

"I see... But how did you know we were here?"

Before Skadi could speak, Ace walked towards them, carrying the remains of an Originium Bug, which he then tossed at Lin Ye's feet: "Because of this. This kind of thing is contraband all over the world. Apart from the special channels of bounty hunters, no organization can transport Originium Bugs of this size to a place less than fifty kilometers from Lungmen. However, this kind of information is absolutely forbidden to be leaked among bounty hunters. How did you find out?"

Skadi did not respond, as if she had not heard Ace at all.

ACE smiled and said, "It's just as rumored. I didn't mean to doubt you. I'm very grateful for your help. If it weren't for you, no one knows how things would have ended today. I owe you a favor. My name is ACE. Thank you again for your help."

Seemingly having understood Skadi's personality, this time ACE didn't wait for Skadi's reply and went straight back to take care of his teammates.

At this moment, Lin Ye finally understood why everyone on Rhodes Island thought Skadi was difficult to get along with; it really was true.

"Did you call me earlier just to tell me about this?" Lin Ye asked.

Skadi shook her head: "No, the idea that Reunion would ambush you here is just my guess. There's no point in saying something that hasn't been confirmed."

"then you……"

“I just wanted to confirm your location,” Skadi said calmly. “If you had answered my call earlier, you wouldn’t be in such a mess.”

Lin Ye scratched his head and smiled awkwardly: "It seems that's really the case. I definitely won't hang up on you next time."

"Maybe."

Lin Ye lowered his hand, then suddenly thought of a loophole: "Wait, what if your guess is wrong, and that organization called Reunion Movement doesn't attack us?"

"Ok?"

"You just said that you called me not to tell me your speculation, so if the Reunion Movement didn't attack us, you're going to say nothing?"

"If you hadn't been attacked, you should be on your way back to Rhodes Island by now."

"how about you?"

"What do you mean?"

“If we hadn’t been attacked and you hadn’t told us, wouldn’t we have no idea what you were doing? We wouldn’t have known you came here.”

“Hmm.” Skadi nodded. “So?”

Lin Ye looked into Skadi's eyes and suddenly fell silent.

"If you're alright, why would you know I was here?" Skadi said calmly.

Author's BB: Recommending two books in a row!

One is a fanfiction of Arknights called "Dragon Gate Infernal Affairs" by the silly and cute Youmeng. It's a story about a spy who goes to the Reunion Movement to become a spy and is then thrown back to Dragon Gate by the Reunion Movement. 233. Synopsis: Four books in total, read with confidence.

"We agreed on three months, then another three months, then another three months, and now it's been a year, boss! I'm about to become the head of the Reunion Movement! When can we go back to Lungmen, Inspector Chen?"

Xiu Xian is an unlucky transmigrator who inexplicably ended up in the Lungmen Guard Bureau and was then inexplicably sent to the Reunion Movement as an undercover agent.

"You'd better treat me better. Only I in Lungmen know your true identity. I'll go back and delete your information; you can be a member of Reunion for the rest of your life!"

"Please, I'm almost the boss! You still want me to stay there? Lead the Reunion Movement to take Lungmen, Inspector Chen!"

"I'll let you come back once this is over."

"Come on, I've heard that a million times. This is intelligence."

Hsiu-Hsien, who longed to return to a stable society, reluctantly returned to the Reunion Movement. However, he was brought before Talulah.

Just when Xiu Xian thought he was about to be exposed...

"You've been here for a while now. You have no background, but you're capable, quick-witted, and most importantly, you've never exposed yourself. The organization is giving you a mission: go to Longmen and be their eyes and ears."

"Code name: Gin".

Leave

I went out to run errands today and didn't get back until quite late. I also had writer's block, so I'm taking a day off. The Lungmen arc has also come to an end. After the protagonist returns to Rhodes Island and Skadi XXX for a few chapters, a new arc will begin, probably heading to Kjerag. As for the SilverAsh siblings' storyline...

Chapter 188 Adding a Helping Skadi Wash Her Hair

After dealing with the wounded, another problem arose for everyone.

That meant all the cars were destroyed, and they had no means of transportation back to Rhodes Island. El tried to repair the front of the car that had been damaged by the Red-Haired Titan, tinkering with it for nearly half an hour. Finally, he threw down the wrench and said with a sense of helplessness, "It's impossible. Too many major parts can't be replaced. Unless we take it to a repair shop, this car is not going to leave."

Lin Ye, who was watching from the side, casually said, "Then what do we do? Should we walk back?"