On the Ark.

“I think I did give it to them, but I forgot,” Lappland said. “But I don’t like living in there. It’s such a small space, don’t you think it’s like a cage?”

"...I don't feel it at all."

"Tsk tsk, how pathetic, not even aware that you're imprisoned in a cage." Lappland shrugged and sighed. "Forget it, there's no point in fighting someone like you. I'll just go back to sleep."

With that, Lappland turned and left.

Lin Ye thought she was joking. Why would someone leave their perfectly good room to sleep on the playground?

Filled with doubt and a sense of responsibility for his new job, Lin Ye followed. He watched as Lappland found a suitable spot on the lawn, unbuttoned her coat, spread it out on the grass, and lay down. She crossed her legs, chewed on a blade of grass, and gazed up at the moon.

"You really sleep here?" Lin Ye, who had followed, said somewhat speechlessly.

Lappland naturally knew that Lin Ye had followed her. She turned her head, glanced at Lin Ye, and pouted, "What are you still doing here? You're not going to fight me, and you're not leaving."

Lin Ye thought for a moment and asked, "What if it rains?"

"So what if it rains?" Lappland said nonchalantly. "It's not like it hasn't rained before."

Chapter 205 Lin Ye's Judgment (3K)

Lin Ye didn't know why either.

A sick girl lay alone on the grass, without even a shelter from the wind and rain—a sight that should have evoked deep sympathy. But Lin Ye felt no pity. He looked down at Lappland, who looked up at him. After a moment of silence, Lappland said in a rather wary tone, "Hey, you're not trying to steal my spot, are you? I got this spot first. Go find somewhere else to sleep."

Lin Ye: "..."

“You can’t understand me?” Lappland sat up abruptly, then shook her head. “Ugh, so annoying, a bug got into my hair.”

"So I think you'd better go back to your dorm," Lin Ye advised.

"You're so annoying! You won't spar with me, and you keep nagging," Lappland said. "Aren't you a doctor?"

"Well, what happened?"

"Doctors are usually this long-winded?"

"I'm a psychologist."

"Huh?" Lappland looked surprised. "Psychotherapist? This profession really exists?"

Lin Ye countered, "Why doesn't it exist?"

"What can a psychiatrist do? Treat the mentally ill?" Lappland suddenly burst out laughing. "Haha, treat the mentally ill, how stupid. Have you ever seen a mentally ill person? What do they look like?"

Lin Ye looked at Lappland and thought to himself, "Aren't you just a genuine lunatic?" However, he didn't dare say it aloud, since the two knives Lappland was carrying were just too long.

For some reason, Lin Ye asked Lappland, "Why did you join Rhodes Island?"

"Huh?" Lappland tilted her head again. "Why ask such a question?"

Can't I ask?

“It’s not impossible, but didn’t your people already ask about this?” Lappland thought for a moment and said uncertainly, “It was someone named Zilan? I can’t remember clearly, she was a woman, I think.”

Lin Ye was speechless at Lappland's words, remembering her name but not her gender.

Why join XXX? In his previous life, this would have been a staple of job interviews. At Rhodes Island, the person responsible for asking this question was clearly Zilan, the head of the HR department. Lin Ye didn't know what answer Zilan had gotten from Lappland, but he was quite interested in her, so he asked again, as part of his final evaluation of her. While Lappland might have given a formulaic answer to Zilan, the HR director, she was more likely to speak her true feelings to the complete stranger, Lin Ye.

When Lin Ye asked that question, he felt a little strange. Lappland was just chatting with him, while he was "testing" Lappland. He had never experienced this feeling before. After all, Lappland was the first, and he didn't know if he would be able to adapt in the future.

I guess so.

"Why should I join this place..." Lappland sat cross-legged, shaking her head. "Isn't the answer obvious? I always feel like you people here like to ask pointless questions."

"So what's your answer?"

Lin Ye inexplicably felt a sense of anticipation for Lappland's answer.

If this question were asked in a previous life, the interviewee would most likely answer "to study" or "to improve my skills," or perhaps more bluntly, "for money." However, very few would actually answer "for money," even though most people think that way. But to sound better, they'd say something polite during an interview, especially recent college graduates. Lappland, however, doesn't seem like someone who would say polite things; she's clearly a straightforward girl.

"Of course, it's for making a living," Lappland said matter-of-factly.

Lin Ye nodded.

He is indeed the most straightforward of all.

"You said the same thing to Zilan?" Lin Ye asked Lappland.

"Otherwise what?" Lappland retorted to Lin Ye. "If there's nowhere to eat, and we don't come out to find work, are we supposed to steal? If we don't work, where will we eat?"

"You're right." Lin Ye smiled.

Lin Ye already had a first impression of Lappland: she was innocent and straightforward, and he could sense some violent tendencies, but they weren't that obvious yet. She was like a little child... and so on.

He suddenly noticed the scar on Lappland's left eye, and something occurred to him, slowly erasing his initial impression of Lappland.

"What are you looking at?" Lappland asked.

"It's nothing," Lin Ye shook his head.

A person with a dark past (scar), extremely high combat ability (single-handedly killing nearly a hundred bandits), and an infected person who doesn't care about their identity at all (not concealing their exposed Originium). Lin Ye didn't know why he had given the other person a naive and straightforward impression on their first meeting; that was a bit too unprofessional.

Was this the reason for this outcome because Lappland seemed too harmless to him?

Hmm, not quite. If only one word could describe Lappland, it would be dangerous, not harmless. After all, her words and actions reflected that. However, before Lin Ye noticed the scar on her eye, he didn't feel much wariness.

This puzzled Lin Ye, since he was still very wary of infected people when he was in Chernobog.

After much thought, Lin Ye concluded there was only one possibility. That was because most of the female Infected he'd encountered during his two months on Rhodes Island—such as Nightingale, Ifrit, and White Owl—were harmless. Even Ifrit, who appeared fierce but was essentially a pitiful child due to a lack of parental discipline, was harmless. Therefore, upon seeing Lappland, Lin Ye instinctively categorized her as one of Nightingale, Ifrit, and White Owl.

It wasn't until Lappland's scars reminded Lin Ye that things changed.

Yes, how could a warrior with such a fatal scar be someone who looks so innocent, so straightforward... or even so foolish?

Lin Ye has a new assessment of Lappland.

"Hey, what are you thinking about? Why aren't you saying anything?"

Lappland's slightly disgruntled voice pulled Lin Ye out of his thoughts.

"nothing."

Lin Ye shook his head, but he was still very proud of himself for not being fooled by Lappland's seemingly honest appearance and her eye-catching figure!

That's right, Lin Ye hadn't expected it before, or rather, he was constrained by his coat, making him look like a tomboy.

When Lappland took off her coat, revealing a black tank top underneath, Lin Ye realized he had misjudged her. The curves that had been hidden before were now so prominent that Lin Ye was too embarrassed to look at them, so he could only stare intently into Lappland's eyes.

This struck Lappland as odd, and she tilted her head, saying, "I always feel like there's something strange about you."

"Something seems off?"

"You seem to have ill intentions," Lappland said. "I'm warning you, don't try to frame me, or you'll regret it."

"How could that be?" Lin Ye said seriously. "Just look at my face, and you'll know I can't be a bad person."

"Hmm, a face that exudes the aura of a weakling."

Lin Ye: "..."

"Alright, alright, stop bothering me." Lappland lay back down, turning her back to Lin Ye. "I asked you to spar with me, but you refused. You keep bothering me. If you keep bothering me, I'll have no choice but to force you to spar."

Forced sparring is fine...

Despite what Lappland said, Lin Ye remained unfazed and stood still.

"Are you really going to sleep here? Isn't that a bit inappropriate?" Lin Ye continued to persuade him. "If you don't want to sleep in the dorm, you can come to my place."

"what?"

“I’m talking about my place, not the dormitory area, but the fourth floor of the office building, you know?” Lin Ye said. “Actually, I’m not only a psychologist, but also the floor manager there. I often take in runaway kids…”

What does "kicking out of home" mean?

“It’s like you, someone who doesn’t like living with other people,” Lin Ye said. “Although there’s another guest on my floor, it’s still quite spacious overall. You can find a room, eat something, and sleep anywhere. It’s fine.”

"...Your tone sounds so irritating." Lappland jumped up again. "I'm telling you, you're really annoying! Do you really want to fight me?!"

As Lappland spoke, she placed her hand on the hilt of her knife.

Lin Ye had no choice but to take two steps back to show that he had no bad intentions: "I just didn't want to see you sleeping in a place like this."

"You're being far too nosy! And what's wrong with this place? It's huge, so spacious, you can sleep wherever you want!" Lappland shouted. "Those people you just mentioned who ran away from home, can they sleep as comfortably as I do? Can they be as carefree as me?! Can they even do that?!"

Lin Ye's lips twitched slightly, thinking that what Lappland said actually made some sense. No matter how spacious his office building was, it couldn't compare to the training ground, which was open-air and had much better ventilation.

"I've already wasted a lot of time talking nonsense with you." Lappland drew her sword, pointed it at Lin Ye, and said coldly, "Whether you mean well or not, this is my territory tonight. If you know what's good for you, leave now or I'll lose my temper."

Having said all that, Lin Ye had no choice but to leave. What could he do if the other party was determined to sleep there?

After taking a couple of steps, he seemed to remember something and turned to look at Lappland.

"Aren't you leaving yet?"

"Let's go, let's go right now. I just wanted to ask, it's the cafeteria's late-night snack time now, do you want to have some?"

"night snack?"

Upon hearing those two words, Lappland's ears twitched.

……

……

Author's note: A long-awaited 6,000-word update! I closed the bounty when I owed 30 updates last time, and now I still owe 29 updates!

Chapter 206 Texas!!! (3K)

Slurp slurp.

Its silvery-white tail swayed rapidly, and its furry wolf ears twitched.

Sitting on the other side, Lin Ye watched Lappland, who had almost buried her head in the bowl, fall into deep thought.

This girl's eating posture looks...so much like a dog. Her tail wags so happily, and she eats so loudly, attracting the attention of countless people in the cafeteria. Even Lin Ye, who brought her for a late-night snack, became the focus of attention, making him a little uncomfortable. So he coughed lightly twice: "Um, Lappland."

"Hmm?" Lappland looked up from her rice bowl, a few grains of rice still clinging to the corner of her mouth. "What's wrong?"

“I said, you can eat slowly, there’s no need to rush,” Lin Ye said. “No one is going to take it from you.”

"What are you talking about?" Lappland tilted her head. "I'm already eating very slowly."

This is considered slow...