On the Ark.

Then, footsteps could be heard in the hallway.

Lin Ye struggled to lift his head and saw a tall woman slowly walking towards him.

"You're really lucky to be alive," the woman said softly, looking at Lin Ye.

Reward Notice:

Yeah, as promised, I'd open a bounty as soon as it was released. Now that the chat and comments are closed, I don't see any of those hilarious comments from netizens anymore, which is a bit strange. To remember those hilarious netizens, I've decided to set the bounty at 250, a little less than the initial bounty.

One extra chapter for every 250 monthly votes, one extra chapter for every 250 blades~ No upper limit~ (Currently 5280 monthly votes and 1960 blades)~

Chapter Fifty-Seven: The White Devil's Protection

Lin Ye struggled to lift his head and look at the woman who had suddenly appeared in front of him.

The woman had short, silver-white hair, wore a black coat, and had a short submachine gun slung over her left shoulder, while her right hand held a bomb detonator. She stared at Lin Ye, her eyes as deep as blood.

Lin Ye noticed the horns in her white hair.

Another Sarkaz.

Another demon.

Lin Ye didn't know if there were really that many demons in this world, or if he was born with a special connection to demons. The ones who needed his care were demons, the ones who protected him were demons, and the ones who wanted to kill him were also demons.

Can't an angel come and purify my soul?

Lin Ye shouted in his heart.

The woman looked at Lin Ye and slowly said, "You're from Rhodes Island, aren't you? As an organization led by the Infected, you've chosen to stand against them."

Lin Ye gritted his teeth: "Who are you?"

"Just an ordinary infected person," the woman said calmly. "You can just call me W, although it might be too late now, since you won't have many chances to call me that anymore."

"Damn it..."

W took a remote-controlled bomb out of his pocket and threw it at Lin Ye: "Farewell."

Watching the bomb being thrown into the air, Lin Ye tried to get up, but his leg was crushed under a collapsed wall, leaving it bloody and mangled, making it impossible for him to move.

But at that moment, the floor in front of Lin Ye suddenly cracked.

A second later, a woman wielding a sword leaped up from the floor, then stabbed the remote-controlled bomb in mid-air with her sword, before flicking it back and sending it flying into the adjacent room.

boom!

The bomb exploded, creating a huge blast wave that made the already dilapidated building even more unstable, but fortunately no one was injured.

Lin Ye recognized the person as the leader of one of Rhodes Island's reserve operations teams, named Yato, who was also one of the operators left behind this time.

Lin Ye finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the Rhodes Island people had finally arrived.

"Are you alright?" Yato asked.

Lin Ye smiled bitterly: "They're barely alive, but I don't know how Nightingale and Ifrit are doing."

“The Sarkaz are not so easy to kill.” Nightblade drew his sword and pointed it at W. “But I hope you can get them away as soon as possible.”

"Uh?"

“I have eight years of combat experience,” Yato said slowly. “I can judge the strength of an opponent through my sixth sense, so I don’t think I can defeat this one. She’s too dangerous. But I can buy you some time. The Guard Bureau will be here soon. You take Nightingale and Ifrit and go first.”

"But……"

Yato turned around and with a single stroke, cut the rock pressing on Lin Ye's leg in two.

Lin Ye leaned against the wall and struggled to his feet: "What exactly happened? What do these guys want?"

Yato turned to W again and said softly, "They want people."

"people?"

"You should know about the 'goods' that Lungmen asked us to escort, right?"

Lin Ye was stunned for a moment: "But weren't they already taken away by the Rangers and Melantha?"

“That’s certainly how it appears on the surface,” Yato said. “So there’s only one possibility for this to happen: the Lungmen Guard has lied to us.”

Lungmen Guard Bureau?!

"Isn't Lungmen a partner of Rhodes Island?"

“Indeed, but that doesn’t stop them from deceiving us,” Nightblade said slowly. “The vehicle we were escorting was probably empty. The Guard probably knew that the ‘goods’ were being watched, and that there was a high chance of something going wrong if we went through with the original plan. So Lungmen hired us to escort the goods on the surface, but actually detained the ‘goods’. After our people left Lungmen, they used another group to secretly send the ‘goods’ to Ursus. However, while Lungmen deceived us, they couldn’t deceive the person who was watching the ‘goods,’ am I right, Ms. W?”

Lin Ye was speechless; he hadn't expected things to turn out this way. Then he suddenly remembered the limping Guardian he'd seen a few hours earlier…

"The person who needs to be taken away is disguised as a member of the Guard Bureau to move goods!" Lin Ye blurted out. "They're still in this building!"

While Lin Ye and Yato were talking, W remained silent, simply observing them with calm eyes. Only after they finished speaking did she slowly open her mouth: "I must say, you are not as foolish as I imagined. Although you are still people who have been sold out by Lungmen for so long without knowing it. If we hadn't known about Lungmen's plan in advance, it would be your people suffering now."

Yato said slowly, "This is Lungmen. Even if you find the person you're looking for, you can't take him away."

“Who said we were going to take him away?” W said calmly. “We’re just here to execute a traitor.”

Execute...the traitor?

At that moment, W's communicator beeped. She took it off, held it to her ear, and then put it down after a while.

“Our mission is complete,” W said. “You will all perish with our traitors.”

Yato gripped his sword tightly and shouted, "Run!"

Then it charged toward W.

Lin Ye gritted his teeth, first ran to Ifrit's side, moved the stones off Ifrit's body, and then helped Ifrit up.

These simple actions were not easy for him to perform, as he was covered in wounds and his clothes were soaked in blood. But he had no choice but to endure it, because he still needed to find Nightingale, who should be nearby, and he hoped she was unharmed.

Just as he had this idea, a green light suddenly shone from Lin Ye's body.

The pain vanished like a receding tide, and in the green light, Lin Ye saw his wounds healing at a visible speed.

Could it be...?

Lin Ye immediately turned around and looked behind him. Sure enough, he saw Nightingale, who was standing unsteadily, one hand supporting herself against the wall and the other gripping her staff.

"Liz!"

Lin Ye immediately ran towards Nightingale, and halfway there he noticed an empty syringe at Nightingale's feet.

He suddenly realized something and stared blankly at the nightingale.

Lin Ye could not understand the look in Nightingale's beautiful eyes.

He opened his mouth, about to say something, when another explosion occurred behind him, the shockwave carrying flames towards him.

Nightingale raised her staff and began chanting a spell in a tone Lin Ye had never used before.

The next second, a white shield appeared out of thin air in front of them, blocking all the impact.

Author's BB:

In the game's original setting, Nightingale's second skill was a magic shield, but this has been modified.

Also, that concludes the daily update. Tonight is for catching up on debts. As of now, I owe four chapters in monthly votes and six in death threats, for a total of ten chapters.

Chapter 58 You've Been Enhanced (To be continued, thirteen chapters still owed)

This was the second time Lin Ye had seen Nightingale use magic, or rather, Originium Arts.

The first time was in that pure white intensive care unit, where Nightingale used magic to create a "prison" to imprison herself. This time, she used it to create a light shield to protect herself and Lin Ye. The light shield seemed very fragile, as if it could be pierced with a finger, but it perfectly blocked all impacts. Lin Ye, standing behind the light shield, felt this most deeply. The flames and rubble whipped up by the shockwaves struck the seemingly thin light shield, but could only create weak ripples before being dissipated or falling limply to the ground.

Lin Ye swallowed hard, then turned to look at Nightingale and couldn't help but give her a thumbs up: "Wow, Liz is amazing."

Nightingale glanced at him, said nothing, and simply tapped her staff lightly to heal her injuries.

"Could you heal this unfortunate child?" Seeing this, Lin Ye quickly put Ifrit down. "If we heal her, we'll have one more fighter. It's not good to let Night Blade deal with that woman alone."

Nightingale looked at Ifrit, but instead of using healing magic, she shook her head: "No."

Lin Ye was stunned for a moment: "Why?"

“I can heal her external injuries, but I can’t wake her up,” Nightingale said, examining Ifrit’s condition. “Her biggest problem right now isn’t her external injuries, but that the trauma has worsened her Oripathy symptoms. If she regains consciousness and is subjected to any further stimulation, the stones inside her body might detonate her.”

Lin Ye's lips twitched: "Then what do we do?"

Nightingale thought for a moment and said, "She needs to breathe fresh air, so we must take her to a well-ventilated place. The environment in the stairwell is not good and will increase the burden on her body."

"...Where can I find a well-ventilated place now?" After saying that, Lin Ye thought of something and slowly raised his head. "It seems there really is a place, and it's well-ventilated enough, but..."

It's just about getting back to the top.

To put oneself back in a desperate situation.

Lin Ye asked Nightingale, "How much longer can this unfortunate child hold on?"

Nightingale didn't speak, but simply rolled up Ifrit's sleeve, letting Lin Ye see the black Originium on Ifrit's arm, which was now slightly red, as if it had been heated.

“Five minutes at most,” Nightingale said. “If we do nothing, she’ll explode in five minutes.”

"Damn it, isn't this a complete lack of choice?!" Lin Ye gritted his teeth and carried Ifrit on his back. "This is the twenty-third floor! Five minutes is only enough to go upstairs, not downstairs!"

“That’s what I think too.” Nightingale nodded, then stood up. “Let’s go.”

Lin Ye glanced at Nightingale. He had originally wanted her to stay there. However, he then realized that he had no experience dealing with Oripathy patients, and leaving Nightingale there wouldn't guarantee her safety. So, he decided not to be a sentimental hero.

“Let’s go then.” Lin Ye had just lifted his foot when he hesitated for a moment, then asked, “Although it seems a bit inappropriate for me to ask now, but…” He looked down at the empty syringe, “Have you regained your memories?”

Nightingale shook her head: "No, not at all, I only remember very, very little."

"Then do you know who I am?"

Nightingale frowned slightly: "Lin Ye, the psychologist from Rhodes Island. Is there a problem?"

"...No, no problem, absolutely no problem." Lin Ye took a deep breath, then shouted towards the corridor that had been almost completely destroyed by the explosion, "Yato, be careful, I'm taking the two of them and leaving first!"

Yato didn't reply. She and W had disappeared without a trace. The previous explosion had blasted through several floors, and Lin Ye didn't know where they had gone. He could only pray in his heart that Yato was alright.

"Let's go." Lin Ye felt Ifrit's body gradually getting hotter and knew that they couldn't delay any longer, so he immediately ran towards the safety passage.

Although the corridor was badly damaged, the safety passage was not significantly affected, perhaps because both sides deliberately avoided this lifeline.

They continued climbing, but saw no one. It seemed the thugs who had invaded from the top floor had already gone down, and no one would have expected Lin Ye to return. Everyone knew the top floor was the most dangerous place, because the fighting and explosions continued, and no one could predict when the building would collapse. And if it did collapse, those on the top floor would certainly die.