On the Ark.

He confirmed that he hadn't misread it, and that the row of zeros didn't look like a miswritten stroke.

He felt a jolt in his heart, couldn't catch his breath, and everything went black before his eyes.

"Hey? Sir! Sir, don't faint! Pay first before you faint!"

This was the last sound Lin Ye heard before he fell into a coma.

Chapter Sixty-Two: Angels are a more terrifying species than demons

Lin Ye felt like he was having a dream, a dream in which he finally saw an angel. However, this angel was somewhat different from what he had imagined. Although it had a halo and wings, it didn't exude any sense of holiness, and it didn't use holy light or flames to redeem evil people, but rather bullets. What terrified him most was that this angel wasn't providing free services; the thought of the row of zeros at the end of the bill made Lin Ye wake up in a fright.

When he woke up, he found himself sleeping on a soft bed, with soft light shining on his face.

"Was it all a dream?" Lin Ye breathed a sigh of relief.

"What are you dreaming about?" A familiar voice rang in Lin Ye's ears.

Lin Ye was startled. He turned around and found Exusiai sitting on the bed next to him, holding a piece of cake in her hands.

"Hey, did you rest well?" Exusiai greeted him. "You suddenly passed out, it was quite scary."

Lin Ye stared expressionlessly at the halo above Exusiai's head. He then realized that the room was dark, and the soft light was emanating from Exusiai's forehead.

"Are you starving?" Exusiai stood up and handed over the cake she was holding. "Would you like a slice of apple pie?"

Although he was indeed a little hungry, Lin Ye shook his head and then asked, "How are you?"

What do you want to ask?

“Everything.” Lin Ye looked around. “I’m still in the dorm, so that means the situation has stabilized?”

“Yes.” Exusiai nodded. “Things have stabilized for a while now. Your floor is alright; it wasn’t affected by the battle. The floors above the 20th are not so good; they’re uninhabitable now. It’ll probably cost a lot of money to repair them.”

That's not what I'm asking.

“I know, I know.” Exusiai nodded repeatedly. “You mean people? As for people, your two Sarkaz companions have been checked by the medical staff and are fine. They are resting in the next room and probably haven’t woken up yet. As for the invading thugs, they have been cleared out. The Guard Bureau, led by Commander Chen, did have a hard time dealing with them. But the problem is, the leader of the thugs seems to have escaped.”

"That guy named W?"

“I don’t know who it is, I only know she ran away.” Exusiai shrugged. “Commander Chen seems quite angry, but there’s nothing he can do. Lungmen is too big; even the Guard Bureau can’t find a specific person in Lungmen in a short time. As for Rhodes Island, Dr. Kal’tsit is on her way back. The team that went out seems to be planning to continue their mission, transporting the ‘goods’ to Ursus and then back.”

Lin Ye was stunned for a moment: "Why? Wasn't there nothing in that car? Longmen's intentions have been seen through, so their escort was pointless, wasn't it?"

Exusiai snapped her fingers and shook her head: "You're mistaken. How could it be meaningless? The commission Lungmen gave you was to deliver the 'cargo' in that vehicle to Ursus, right? Whether there was 'cargo' in the vehicle or not was Lungmen's business. Rhodes Island just needed to complete the mission and take the reward."

Lin Ye suddenly realized: "Oh right. Anyway, this is a pit that Longmen dug themselves. Now that they've found out, they can only jump into it themselves."

“That’s right.” Exusiai said with a grin, “For Lungmen, this is a trap, but for you, it’s free money. A mission with no danger and a generous reward, so you’ve made a killing. Although it might not be so good for you.”

Lin Ye sighed, "I almost lost my life, how can I be alright?"

"So there are gains and losses. Lungmen has realized this, which is why they've reluctantly accepted it," Exusiai said. "You know, Lungmen's 'goods' are gone, so they can no longer get money from Ursus."

"...Cargo?" Exusiai reminded Lin Ye, who immediately asked, "That 'cargo' is people, right? People hidden in the Guard Bureau, the invading thugs say he's a traitor."

“I don’t know the specifics of the goods,” Exusiai said. “However, the Guardian agents who stayed here to move the medicine were indeed killed. I don’t know which one of them was the ‘goods.’ But judging from Commander Chen’s expression, they probably didn’t survive. So from that perspective, Rhodes Island is quite lucky.”

"Lucky?" Lin Ye asked, puzzled. "Why do you say that?"

"Your team doesn't have that many people in total, does it?" Exusiai shrugged, stuffed the apple pie in her mouth, and then mumbled, "So if you're actually transporting 'goods,' the outcome might not be so certain."

Lin Ye thought about it and realized that it seemed to be true.

"Well then, I should go too." Exusiai clapped her hands. "The work is done, I should go back now."

Lin Ye nodded: "Okay, thank you this time."

"You're welcome."

After exchanging pleasantries, neither of them moved.

Exusiai looked at Lin Ye, and Lin Ye looked at Exusiai, finding the halo around her forehead rather dazzling.

"No way." Exusiai propped her head up and took out the same manuscript again. "Boss, you're not really planning to renege on my money, are you? Wow, I came all this way to save you."

Lin Ye was also a little embarrassed: "I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to renege on the debt... it's just that I really can't come up with that much money right now, and besides, your fees are a bit too expensive."

“How cheap can the job of moving life and death be?” Exusiai said. “Besides, I’ve already given you a discount, so you can’t possibly not afford it, can you?”

Lin Ye genuinely couldn't afford it. The price Exusiai had quoted was something he'd have to work in Chernobog for five years straight, without eating or drinking, to have any chance of paying back. Therefore, he wanted to wait for Kal'tsit to return and ask if Rhodes Island should reimburse him for the expense. After all, from a certain perspective, this could be considered a work-related injury…

"Are all your company's fees this outrageous?" Lin Ye couldn't help but ask.

"It's alright, actually Package Two and Package Three are cheaper," Exusiai said. "Package One is more expensive."

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

“Because Package One is me,” Exusiai said matter-of-factly. “You’ve seen me in battle, right? You’re the one who has to pay for all the ammunition I’ve fired.”

"So, packages two and three don't require ammunition reimbursement?"

"Of course not, because I'm the only one who uses a gun."

Lin Ye's face turned green: "Then why didn't you let me choose Package Two or Package Three?"

Exusiai looked at Lin Ye with some confusion, the light on her forehead shining even brighter.

"You didn't ask."

Lin Ye didn't want to talk anymore.

He now felt that angels were more terrifying than demons.

Author's BB:

I recommend the Arknights fanfiction by the author "Kengshu," titled "It's Arknights!" You can check it out if you're interested.

Chapter Sixty-Three: Baked Pineapple Buns

In the end, the money that Hemer reimbursed Lin Ye stayed in Lin Ye's wallet for less than a day before it ended up in the hands of a certain unscrupulous red-haired angel. Yes, even though the other party had saved his life, Lin Ye still felt that she was unscrupulous, especially when she was taking the money; her smile was even brighter than the halo on her forehead.

"Thank you for your patronage." Exusiai also gave Lin Ye an invoice. "Here, keep this safe. And this is the installment payment application. This is your first installment; you still have five installments to pay in total."

Lin Ye's face was ashen: "If I don't comply, will you shoot me?"

“How could that be?” Exusiai shook her head. “After all, I’m not some kind of demon…”

You are more terrifying than the devil...

“If you can’t pay me back, I’ll come find you. Anyway, you’re on Rhodes Island.” Exusiai patted Lin Ye on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, although Penguin Logistics is known for transporting life and death, we don’t use violence to collect debts. You can rest assured about that. Rhodes Island is a very good partner of Penguin Logistics.”

Lin Ye sighed. He could only pray that Kal'tsit would reimburse the expense; otherwise, the feeling of being burdened with debt before even earning much money was truly unpleasant.

"Don't look so gloomy, boss." The unscrupulous angel was still comforting Lin Ye. "No matter what, your life is saved. Just consider it a loss to avoid a disaster. Besides, you had such an exciting experience. Ordinary people might never have such an experience in their entire lives."

Lin Ye said irritably, "I hope I never encounter this kind of mess in my entire life."

"Really? I thought that people who joined Rhodes Island would have some kind of awareness of this."

Lin Ye no longer wanted to explain to Exusiai that he was just a psychologist, not a combat operator, because he realized that since joining the company, he hadn't really been doing the work of a psychologist.

After receiving the money, Exusiai didn't plan to stay any longer. She wasn't from Rhodes Island or the Guard Bureau; she was just "delivering goods" here.

"Happy transaction, boss," Exusiai said to Lin Ye with a smile. "If there's a next time, be sure to come back to me!"

Lin Ye didn't say anything, but thought to himself: If I contact you again, I'd be a fool.

After collecting the money, Exusiai hummed a song and left. Lin Ye thought for a moment; after all, she was his savior, so he escorted her to the door. Perhaps due to a broken circuit, the hallway was dark, with no lights on, making it difficult to even see where one was going. However, this was clearly no problem for Exusiai; the halo around her forehead was a portable light source, illuminating half the hallway by herself.

Lin Ye originally intended to drop Exusiai off outside and then return home, but after seeing this situation, he simply left the room with Exusiai.

"Aren't you going to continue resting?" Exusiai asked.

"I want to go see the nightingale."

"Oh, I understand. I'll be going then." Exusiai turned to leave, but after taking a couple of steps, she noticed Lin Ye was still following her, so she looked at him with some confusion, "What are you doing?"

Lin Ye pointed to the halo above Exusiai's head without saying a word.

But Exusiai understood what Lin Ye meant.

"Hey, hey, hey, I'm not a flashlight!" Exusiai yelled.

"I know, you're much brighter than a flashlight."

Exusiai: "..."

In the end, Exusiai escorted Lin Ye to Nightingale's room before leaving.

As the humanoid self-propelled light source gradually disappeared into the distance, Lin Ye withdrew his gaze and also put away the inexplicable thoughts in his mind.

From the moment Lin Ye saw Exusiai, he felt a strong urge to touch her halo. He had never seen anything so magical before; it seemed to be powered independently of electricity. Would it get hot? Could he fry an egg on it if he put a black pan on it? And most importantly, it was an angel's halo! Just the name alone was enough to make Lin Ye want to touch it. But for an angel, touching the halo would be considered blasphemy, wouldn't it? Although Lin Ye still didn't want to believe that Exusiai was truly an angel.

As he pondered this, Lin Ye pushed open the door to his room. Then, another thought popped into his mind.

If he couldn't touch the angel's halo, could he at least touch the devil's horns? Come to think of it, he'd never even touched a nightingale's horns before; he wondered what they felt like…

Hmm, isn't this a bit too evil?

Lin Ye shook his head, clearing his mind of distracting thoughts. He told himself that he should be a kind person, an upright person, and a person who had transcended base desires, before entering Nightingale's room.

The lights were not on in Nightingale's room, probably so as not to disturb her rest.

Lin Ye could smell a faint medicinal scent in the room, which must have been left by the medical staff.

Since that was the case, Lin Ye decided not to turn on the lights. He groped his way inside and then pulled back the curtains a little to let the moonlight in.

In this way, the room was no longer pitch black.

Lin Ye turned his head and saw Nightingale fast asleep. She was lying on her side on the bed, with half of her face bathed in moonlight, which added a touch of moonlight to her already fair skin, making her look serene and beautiful.

After being "extorted" by the angel, Lin Ye now thinks the devil is more adorable.

only……

As Lin Ye recalled Nightingale's earlier ordeal, a thought lingered in his mind: If only he were stronger, Nightingale wouldn't be bullied by those invaders. Although Nightingale's complexion appeared normal now, Lin Ye still remembered the way her face was swollen from being slapped by those thugs, and how she weakly called out "Pineapple Bun." This feeling of helplessness intensified.

"Sigh." He sighed softly.

He had originally intended to touch Nightingale's horns while she slept. But now all wicked thoughts vanished. He couldn't bear to spoil this beautiful scene before him. He only wanted to watch quietly, waiting for Nightingale to wake up, then offer her a gentle smile and softly say, "You're awake."

Yes, the script is ready.

All that's left is to wait for the nightingale to wake up.