On the Ark.

"Not using a cell phone is too exaggerated. How do you contact Rhodes Island then?"

Skadi said calmly, "Kal'tsit called me once or twice, and that's all. I don't need to contact anyone, and there are basically no charging outlets where I fight."

"Okay, shall we still switch?"

Skadi handed the phone to Lin Ye: "You can have it."

Lin Ye took Skadi's phone and entered the phonebook. He then discovered that what Skadi had said was true; the phonebook was empty.

Without much thought, he entered his name and number. And so, the blank phone book contained only one contact—Lin Ye.

"You should add more people," Lin Ye joked as he handed the phone back to Skadi.

Skadi glanced at it, then put her phone away.

“You alone are enough.” Skadi put on her hat and said softly, “Goodbye, Lin Ye.”

……

……

Author's note: My cold is finally almost gone. I haven't dared to count how many chapters I owe lately... I'm setting a small goal to start paying off my debts tomorrow.

Chapter 144 Untitled

Skadi is gone again. Many times Lin Ye thought that, unlike the operators stationed on the island, Skadi was more like a passerby to Rhodes Island, always arriving and departing in a hurry… Ugh.

Lin Ye felt nauseous at his own pretentious, artsy thoughts. As a complete science guy, it was best to avoid such sentimental things; it was just too embarrassing. Thankfully, there didn't seem to be any mind-reading operators in Terra, otherwise, if someone had read his mind, he probably would have wanted to crawl into a hole in the ground and disappear.

Hmm? Wait a minute, thinking about it carefully, he seems to be half a mind-reading operator, able to do whatever he wants in a girl's mind.

Uh, that's evil.

But what could he do? He was incredibly bored. After Skadi left, he was left alone in the huge office. He spent almost the entire morning in a daze, completely clueless about what to do, and no one came to find him. In his previous life, it would have been fine; give him a cell phone, and he could stay in his room all day. But in Terra, a cell phone was just a small communication device, completely unusable for surfing the internet.

The pale-faced owl hadn't come to work again, and he couldn't even find someone to talk to to kill time. With almost two hours left before lunch break, Lin Ye couldn't sit still any longer. He decided to go out for a walk, but where should he go? Lin Ye thought for a moment and realized that he didn't seem to have any other choice but to go find Nightingale.

"Then I'll go have lunch with Nightingale," Lin Ye thought to himself. "Even though I still have more than an hour before I get off work, what does it matter? Besides, this is my job, observing the patients' recovery."

Ten minutes later, Lin Ye appeared at the medical department and was told by the staff that Nightingale was in the pharmaceutical department. Lin Ye had never been to the pharmaceutical department before, and after some searching, he finally found this core department of Rhodes Island—the pharmaceutical department. He then immediately saw Nightingale diligently working on a bottle of medicine.

He was about to go in when a mature female voice, tinged with surprise, sounded behind him.

"Lin Ye? What are you doing here?"

Lin Ye turned his head and saw Flash standing behind him.

"Uh," Lin Ye said, embarrassed to admit that he had come to help Nightingale skip work, "I just came to see Liz."

"Really? Then Liz will definitely be happy." Shining walked to Lin Ye's side, and then, as if sensing something, stared at Lin Ye's body.

"What's wrong?" Lin Ye thought he wasn't dressed properly and looked down to check. "Is there something wrong with me?"

"Hmm." Shining nodded, then said, "I feel like you're a little different than before."

"Uh," Lin Ye said, puzzled, "What's different?"

"In many ways."

Suddenly, Shining reached out and placed her hand on Lin Ye's shoulder, applying slight pressure. Just as Lin Ye felt the pain, she released her grip, revealing a rare expression of surprise: "Your physical strength has increased? How is that possible in just a few days?"

Lin Ye was taken aback at first: "Physical strength?"

Then, remembering what Skadi had done to him, he quickly asked, "Has my physical strength increased significantly?"

"You've definitely improved a lot compared to before."

"Am I strong now?" Lin Ye asked expectantly.

“Strength and weakness need to be compared,” Shining asked. “Who do you want to compare yourself to?”

Lin Ye thought for a moment and said, "Sarkaz, how do I compare to your Sarkaz warriors?"

“There’s still a gap,” Shining said, then, seemingly noticing Lin Ye’s disappointment, she comforted him, “But at least he’s comparable to a child under three years old.”

Lin Ye: "..."

“There’s no need to compare yourself to my people.” Shining shook her head and said softly, “My people are pathetic creatures who know nothing but fighting, while you have something far more valuable than their physical strength, so there’s no need to envy them. You only need to compare yourself to yourself. Can you tell me what happened these past few days? Such a significant increase in physical strength couldn’t have been achieved simply by taking a nap, could it?”

Lin Ye hesitated for a moment, but still chose to tell Shining everything. He felt there was no point in hiding anything from Shining, after all, Shining was the first Rhodes Island operator he had ever met, and could be said to have brought him into Rhodes Island. Before curing Nightingale, he had chosen to trust Shining unconditionally.

Throughout Lin Ye's narration, Shanling remained silent, simply listening attentively. After Lin Ye finished speaking, she also fell silent, as if deep in thought. Lin Ye waited for a while, but Shanling didn't speak, so he asked again, "Is there a problem?"

"The problem?" Shining shook his head. "I'm not sure, but I find it quite amazing, especially that rumor."

Have you heard of it?

“Of course not. That’s so ancient. Even our Sarkaz ancestors probably hadn’t appeared on this continent yet,” Shining said. “The deep sea is also the place we know the least about. You can’t find anyone on Rhodes Island who has studied the deep sea, but Kal’tsit might be one. If you really want to get information about this, you might as well ask Kal’tsit.”

"Ok."

"As for that Leaping Wave Strike," Shining pondered for a moment and said, "At least in Sarkaz, there's no technique that can boost combat power so much in such a short time. I've heard of Skadi, though I've never seen her in person, but Kal'tsit has told me she's one of the island's strongest fighters. The fact that you could block her attack with brute force, even the most ordinary one, is incredible, unless she was deliberately holding back."

Lin Ye was also a little unsure: "They probably won't deliberately go easy on us."

“Shall we give it a try?” Shining said. “If you just find someone who won’t hold back against you and try that technique called Leap Strike again, you should be fine, right?”

Lin Ye thought what Shanling said made sense, and subconsciously responded. Then he realized something was wrong, and unconsciously took a step back, staring at Shanling with wide eyes: "You don't want me to test my skills with you, do you? No, no, no, no, I absolutely will not fight with you, absolutely!"

Shining shrugged: "I didn't say it was me. I don't want to draw my sword anymore."

"That's good." Lin Ye breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't want to fight Flash and wanted to live longer.

“Go find your teacher, Yato.” Shining smiled faintly. “She’ll probably be surprised by how you’ve changed.”

Chapters 145: Battle with Yato (4K, 33 chapters missing)

"Sister Shining, Pineapple... Doctor Lin Ye." Nightingale's voice rang out behind Lin Ye and Shining, "What are you doing here?"

Lin Ye turned his head and saw that Nightingale had come out of the medicine room and was standing behind them.

"Liz," Shining spoke for Lin Ye, "Lin Ye is here to see you."

"Looking for me?" Nightingale looked at Lin Ye and tilted her head.

"Ah, um." Lin Ye immediately turned his attention away from the previous topic and coughed twice. "I came to ask you to have dinner."

"Eat? In the cafeteria?"

"Ah."

Nightingale turned to look at the clock in the lab: "But there's still an hour until lunchtime, Pineapple... Dr. Lin, don't you have any work to do?"

Lin Ye suddenly felt awkward. He wanted to say, "Don't you know perfectly well whether I work or not?" Then, when he looked up, he saw Nightingale blink rapidly. Although she quickly returned to normal, looking puzzled, Lin Ye understood. This unlucky girl was doing it on purpose!

"I came over after I finished my work," Lin Yetian said shamelessly. "I mainly wanted to see how your work was going. Ansel told me that you're always slacking off at work, so he asked me to come and supervise you."

As soon as he finished speaking, a soft voice came from beside Lin Ye: "I don't remember saying that."

Lin Ye was startled. He turned around and saw Ansel, wearing a lab coat, walking past him with a stack of documents. Ansel glanced at him and said with some disdain, "Psychologists who just sleep at work shouldn't come to such an important department as the pharmaceutical division to lecture people."

Ansel's words made Shining and Nightingale laugh, but Lin Ye felt even more embarrassed.

"How could you slander me like this? When did I ever sleep at work? It must be White Owl spreading rumors about me. You actually believe White Owl's words?!"

Ansel didn't argue with Lin Ye. After giving a cold laugh, he took the documents and went into the pharmaceutical room, leaving Lin Ye looking utterly dejected.

“Liz,” Shining asked Nightingale, “is the work finished?”

Nightingale gave a soft "hmm": "I have prepared the potion you asked me to prepare, and I am just waiting for Ansel to check it."

Shining raised her hand and ruffled Nightingale's hair: "That's good. Let's go eat."

"But it's not time to get off work yet."

“It’s okay, it’s fine to leave early after finishing the work,” Shining said. “Besides, you used to go out to eat around this time when you were with Lin Ye.”

Nightingale's face immediately turned red. She secretly glanced at Lin Ye, but Lin Ye didn't notice.

Lin Ye was still thinking that Ansel had become increasingly arrogant lately, and whether he should find an opportunity to teach him a lesson and let him know who the real 15C was... Well, he was more senior, so Lin Ye decided to accept it.

"You can go now, Lin Ye." Shining patted Lin Ye on the shoulder. "Liz is in your hands now."

And so, Lin Ye successfully took Nightingale to the cafeteria for lunch an hour early. The two talked the whole time, initially in a question-and-answer format, with Lin Ye asking questions and Nightingale answering. Later, Nightingale started talking on her own.

"Pharmaceutical manufacturing seems so complicated." Nightingale looked up at the azure sky, where a flock of gray birds flew past beneath the clouds, their reflections shimmering in her clear eyes. "The people in the medical department know so much, but I'm the only one who doesn't do anything."

"Because you're rather silly."

"What did you say?"

“I said it’s because you don’t study enough,” Lin Ye changed his tune. “After all, everyone else has studied for so long. Look at Ansel, he reads every night. There’s nothing to be proud of in someone like you who spends all day eating, drinking, and having fun and doing nothing, and you have to work hard to surpass him.”

"It's so crooked."

"What's so crooked?"

"What a twisted logic."

Lin Ye clicked his tongue and said, "That's clearly correct."

“It’s clearly crooked,” Nightingale suddenly exclaimed. “Pineapple bun.”

"Hmm... huh?" Lin Ye was taken aback. "Why are you calling me pineapple bun again?"

“Because there’s no one else here,” Nightingale said softly. “I want to change how I address you, but I can’t, it’s too much trouble. Every time I see you, I think of a pineapple bun, probably because you look so much like one.”

"Nonsense, how could I possibly look like a lump of yellow bread?"

"Only the bread you make looks like that."

What started as a normal conversation gradually turned into a bickering match. Lin Ye didn't know why, but Nightingale's fighting spirit seemed to have suddenly returned; he hadn't managed to gain the upper hand in the verbal sparring! However, he wasn't too upset; on the contrary, he was in a good mood. The two continued bickering all the way to the cafeteria, where the cafeteria worker informed them that the card reader was broken that day.

"We can't accept cards anymore," the cafeteria worker said. "Today we're using meal vouchers to order food; you should have seen the notice, right?"

Lin Ye thought he was doomed. He hadn't paid any attention to the notification, so naturally he hadn't collected the meal vouchers. Just as he was about to return to the office building to get the vouchers from Zilan, Nightingale suddenly took out a stack of blue meal vouchers from her pocket, waved them in front of Lin Ye, and said with a hint of smugness, "I got them."

Is it enough for the two of us?

“That’s more than enough,” Nightingale said. “This is for three people.”

"Impressive." Lin Ye gave Nightingale a thumbs up. "You're really rich, taking enough for three people."

Hearing Lin Ye's words, Nightingale opened her mouth slightly.