Ark Chess Player

“Lei Degang, do you prefer the pink bow or the red bow? If you don’t say anything, I’ll tie the pink bow to your horn… Three, two, one! Okay, I’ve changed my mind, I’ll tie it to your tail! Ouch, it’s quite slippery…”

Amiya shook her head helplessly, ignoring Franka who was playing a prank while Liskarm was immobilized, and took a step forward.

She planned to first help the Kingkiller resolve the current situation before asking him if he knew the Doctor's whereabouts.

The Kingkiller was also present when the Doctor disappeared from the Lungmen Administrative Office.

"Ha...hahahaha!"

A piercing laugh rang out beside Amiya as Charlot, whose arms and legs had been crippled, knelt on the ground. Half of his face was contorted in agony, while the other half remained unchanged thanks to his years of martial arts training, giving him an indescribably grotesque appearance.

"Don't think this is the end of it."

Charlot, forcing a smile through his pain, said coldly, "We've sent out more than just people from here."

Amiya frowned slightly. She had a feeling that Charlot's words had a hidden meaning, but she didn't know what it meant.

“…Instructor Dobermann, could you please come over here for a moment?” Amiya pressed her communication headset, her gaze icy. “Yes, this is reward time.”

Indeed, interrogation matters should be left to professionals.

Amiya thought for a moment, then glanced at the old man Huang, who was trapped in the seven-day lock of the heavy-armored operator Rock's unbreakable bond.

"Alas--!!"

Old Huang was startled by Amiya's gaze; she looked at him as if he were a piece of dried meat about to be dried out.

"None of them will escape."

Amiya said calmly as she walked towards the lone kingslayer.

The once-imposing Royal Guard squad was doomed the moment the Kingslayer appeared. Neither the Sarkaz mercenaries nor the Borderless Army's defense squad could stop her, let alone this group of ragtag soldiers. If it weren't for their Royal Guard uniforms, which might have gotten them into serious trouble, they would have been in serious trouble. If the Kingslayer had drawn her short blades to fight, the time difference would have been reduced by about two-thirds.

"That felt great."

The regicide stood with her hands on her hips, looking refreshed. The long-awaited warm-up exercise made this hyperactive person feel physically and mentally happy.

These past two days, she's been staying obediently in the safe house to take care of Lin Lu, not even daring to stray too far during patrols, which has been driving her crazy. The Kingslayer is too embarrassed to go downstairs to find the Borderless Army's defense squad. Hello everyone, have you eaten yet? Eaten? Even better if you have! I'll beat you all until you vomit!

Amiya slowly lowered her hand, the black arc of light dissipated, and there was no longer any Guardian personnel standing there.

"Miss Kingslayer, I never expected to meet you here."

Amiya smiled gently and got straight to the point without saying a word: "Do you know where the Doctor is?"

"Yes, I know."

"Yeah?!"

Amiya's eyes lit up, and all the coldness melted away like the first snow melting in the spring breeze, turning into gentle ripples of warmth.

She awaited the Kingslayer's reply, and also hoped that the Doctor would suddenly appear from somewhere, even if it was just coming out of the house—wait, if the Doctor was in the house, then what was Rhodes Island doing for all those days that he and the Kingslayer hadn't come back?

Amiya then realized that the Kingslayer was one of her strongest rivals!

“I don’t know the specifics, but the Law sent me here to rescue people.” The Kingslayer thought hard, slightly raising her head to clear her mind of the food, and earnestly reiterated her mission, “He told me to protect the children!”

"You even have children?!"

Amiya exclaimed, but she quickly covered her mouth and turned to look at the safe house.

If she were to enter and see the Doctor and the Kingkiller's child, she didn't know if she would have the courage to face it.

It's only been two days!!

Have you mastered Terra's core technology?

I, as the legal representative of a pharmaceutical company, have never heard of such a thing!

“No, no…” The Kingslayer’s emoticon mask showed a shy expression. She recalled that last week in the private ward on the Rhodes Island ship, Lin Lu had ambiguously reminded her about marriage and having children in the future.

The Kingslayer pointed to the children around Ansuo and said, "They are the ones I need to protect."

Amiya finally understood what the Kingslayer meant. She secretly breathed a sigh of relief as her blank mind finally regained its rationality.

"Could you put it simply and tell me what has happened from the day before yesterday until now?"

“Well… Lu was injured in the administration building. He and I came here with that purple-haired girl to heal. He just woke up today,” the Kingkiller said succinctly, concealing the matter of the Borderless Army from the past two days.

Although the regicide was not good at thinking, it did not mean she was stupid; she simply disliked the process of thinking.

The borderless army must have a different meaning for Lin Lu, and no one can force him to accept it unless he is willing to do so.

"That's really concise..."

Amiya, rubbing her throbbing head, asked, "Where is the Doctor? Is he in his room?"

"No."

The king killer shook his head.

"But someone knows where he went, wait a minute..."

The king-killer looked around and shouted "Liar!" twice, but no one responded.

She slowly tilted her head, asking in confusion, "Where is everyone?"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"Long time no see, Sentry."

The middle-aged man in the black cloak slowly lit a menthol cigarette and took a deep drag.

The thirsty lungs thoroughly enjoyed the coolness, then exhaled thick white mist from their mouths.

Before him, a Sarkaz man in a grey robe crushed the neck of an infected man in a white robe and picked up the crude mask the man was wearing.

"You conman...it's good that you're still alive."

The sentry looked at the sticky blood on his hands and gently smeared it on the tattered military flag, the bottom of his gray visor glowing with a faint turquoise.

"I can't die even if I want to. Would the Grim Reaper dare to take a rotten person like me?" The conman shrugged, whether he was joking or mocking himself, and asked, "Now that you're back, why don't you come to the paradise for a get-together? Everyone... well, at least I miss you."

The conman lit his cigarette, the smoldering butt falling to the ground. He took a deep drag, letting the nicotine fill his lungs. Because he was supervising Misha, he was always surrounded by children, which meant he had to endure his nicotine craving for a whole week.

“Some people don’t want me to come back.”

The sentry stared at the corpses scattered on the ground; these were the white-robed men who had slaughtered the Lungmen people before him and then retreated.

Because his attention was focused on the infected children, he didn't really fight them, but simply left a mark on them and left. Later, when Amiya and the others arrived, he followed the mark and found where they were.

He just didn't expect the scammers to be able to track him down.

“I should have died three years ago,” the sentry chuckled self-deprecatingly. “At Moonlit Lake.”

"..."

The conman fell silent, leaning against the wall, the cigarette in his hand burning down to the end, almost scalding his hand.

He put the cigarette butt in his hand into his portable cigarette case, a professional duty of an intelligence officer to avoid leaving evidence in any place.

The conman considered his options, but in the end he scratched his head and stammered, "No one blames you for what happened back then."

“Heh, heh heh… The entire defense squad was wiped out, and I’m the only one still alive… I can’t even take them home, I can’t go back to Kazdel.” The sentry hugged the flag tightly, and he was suddenly glad that he hadn’t taken off his mask. He imagined that he must look pathetic right now.

Three years ago, at Moonlit Lake.

The sentry's defense squad is responsible for guarding the only passage to the ancient ruins.

This is the lifeline; if it falls, the people conducting the reconnaissance inside will be in trouble.

Therefore, every member of the defense team for this mission is an elite, and according to the Army Without Borders rating, the lowest rank is A-level mercenary.

Sentinel is the youngest member of the squad. If it weren't for his exceptional ability to sense danger and his outstanding performance in the team's reconnaissance, patrol, and early warning missions, he wouldn't have been recruited into this operation.

The sentry will never forget what happened that day.

A blood-red moon hung high in the night sky, and countless monsters emerged from the shadows.

The exit of the ancient ruins collapsed, and the defense team held their ground. Finding themselves unable to break the strange building materials with Originium Arts, they were forced to move the materials by hand. Some defended against the relentless horde of beasts, while others tried to forge a path to survival.

Finally, when a small hole was barely dug out of the collapsed passage, a pupilless eye appeared inside the passage.

Everyone who saw the one-eyed man exhibited strange behavior, including the Sarkaz swordsman who had been taking good care of the Sentinels at the time. His body was covered in a thick layer of Originium in almost half a minute, turning him into a half-Originium, half-human sculpture.

The Sarkaz are highly adaptable to Originium, and also have the highest infection rate of Oripathy. This Sarkaz magic swordsman sensed his impending explosion and decisively decided to commit suicide. However, his hand could no longer grip his beloved sword, so he could only give orders to the Sentinel, who was least affected.

An extremely cruel order.

Kill me.

How could a Sentinel who was just the group's darling at the time possibly do such a thing?!

The vast majority of Sarkaz people are destined for a tragic fate from the moment they are born.

Endless war, bone-chilling carcinoma, an incomprehensible existence of peaceful days, and a black earth with nowhere to stand.

It was as if they were taught how to kill from the age they learned to speak and walk. No one told them why they killed, nor why they lived. Every Sarkaz born in Kazdel had their hands stained with the blood of their own kind and those of other races.

The sentinel thought he had finally seen the light, that he could eat and sleep well in the Army Without Borders, and that he could live a carefree life under the care of his Big Brothers. He even had the honor of seeing Princess Theresa and her little follower on the ships of Babel.

everything will get better.

That's what the young sentry thought.

With the efforts of the BOSS and Princess Theresa, the Sarkaz people will surely be able to rebuild their home.

As the Sentinel silently wept, he pierced his sword through his elder brother, the Sarkaz swordsman who would never let him go hungry if he had a meal. The blade was deeply embedded in the Sarkaz swordsman's crystallized chest, severing and shattering his heavy, almost stopped heart.

At that moment, the sentry knew that his dream was over.

If the Sarkaz swordsmen were allowed to self-destruct in their Originium form, the passage they had painstakingly carved out would collapse again, all their efforts would be in vain, and all those who had sacrificed themselves would have died in vain. The Sentinel could only obey orders; he firmly believed that their deaths were for the lives of many more people in the ancient ruins.

This is the first one.

A second order was issued very quickly.

The third, the fourth, the fifth... people kept giving orders to the sentries, but the orders were all the same.

Kill me.

In the end, only one sentry remained from the defense squad guarding the exit.

The sentry waited for an unknown amount of time, waving his military flag continuously to repel the monsters that attempted to attack.

At that moment, the boundaries between monsters became blurred.

If a third person were present, they probably wouldn't be able to tell whether the real beast was a twisted, expanding creature constantly born from the shadows, or a blood-soaked person, driven mad by inner frenzy like a moth drawn to a flame, burdened with evil spirits.