Ark Chess Player

The young mercenary girl was being held in the arms of a stranger for the first time. Fear and novelty surged through her, and her heart pounded rapidly. The stench of blood suddenly dissipated, and the slender arms moved up from her waist, emitting a scent she had never smelled before, yet it didn't feel unpleasant.

Just as the girl was about to rise into the suspension bridge effect, the hands that were caressing her upper body suddenly tightened around her neck.

Such idyllic scenes do not exist. How could our exemplary Mr. Lin be someone who would be unable to extricate himself from the allure of beauty?

Lin Lu turned the girl over, lifted her chin with both arms, and applied pressure precisely to her carotid artery. In less than three seconds, the mercenary girl lost her resistance; insufficient blood supply to the brain caused her blood pressure to drop sharply, and she slumped unconscious.

If someone completely ignorant were to perform this action, they would likely strangle the person to death on the spot rather than simply knock them unconscious. This not only requires a certain precision in targeting acupoints, but also demands precise control of the force applied and the enemy's cooperation. Too little force won't knock them unconscious, while too much force will result in immediate death.

Lin Lu had a strange feeling that he had been through countless trials and tribulations, as if he had killed countless women while holding them in his arms, and that practice made perfect, and his body had muscle memory for it.

“…Ah, you can’t tie me up, you can’t tie me up.”

Lin Lu habitually took out the Fulton recovery device from his pocket, almost sticking it directly to the target. Fortunately, he reacted in time and realized that there were no aircraft carrying Fulton recovery devices hovering over Lungmen. If he had just put it there, it would probably have turned into the sixth installment of "The Mercenary Girl's Bizarre Adventure".

"Their talent is average, but their character is good, and they're not bad looking. Why don't we have the conman take them back to the Army Without Borders? The talented ones can be brought back to Rhodes Island, and those who can't be seen by Amiya can be kidnapped and taken back to Paradise Island. Very good, as expected of me... Am I going back to my old ways, or am I a professional child-picker?"

Lin Lu placed the unconscious mercenary girl in a shady spot away from the sun, marked her with a special tag, and sent a terminal message to the scammers.

The other party responded quickly, immediately dispatching a support team to the scene, ready to help the doctor clean up the mess.

"They really are reliable... I'm even a little tempted by an army without borders."

Lin Lu smiled gently; it felt so good to have logistical support.

What to do? Suddenly, the position of leader of the Army Without Borders seems pretty appealing. Is it true that no one in this world can defy the laws of nature? But I, Lin, don't want to be a corporate slave; holding two jobs at once might just lead to my death from overwork sooner or later.

"Let's talk about it later, let's talk about it later."

Lin Lu muttered to himself in a low voice.

The reason he can't get over this mental block is because... he doesn't want to become the Lin Lv of the past.

"Doctor, the enemy's defenses are fully activated. The entire building has become an impenetrable fortress. Our previously planned route map is no longer effective."

An anemone quietly emerged, her eyes gleaming with the light of data, constantly updating the building's information and intelligence.

The Silverwing Tower has seventeen floors and a rooftop. At this moment, mercenaries are guarding every entrance and exit, from stairwells and elevators to even the ventilation ducts, leaving no stone unturned, not even for a rat. Upon learning of the task force's defeat, Wenger immediately declared the entire security contractor to a state of high alert, deploying all on-duty mercenaries.

Most professionally, Wenger called the police.

Yes, he called the police. Officially, Lungmen Silverwing Security Contractor is a legitimate, law-abiding company in Lungmen. All that tax money they pay every month isn't just wasted; it's about enjoying the rights of a Lungmen citizen and entrepreneur, and having the Guard Bureau's agents come and clean up the mess.

"Okay, let's go in through the main entrance then."

At the end of Lin Lu's gaze, the heavy iron bars of the Silverwing Company's main gate were lowered.

He tapped his helmet lightly with two fingers, then pulled out the Ark Driver and a class card from his pocket.

"Sniper"

Chapter 258 Burning Ashes - Jessica (4K)

Silverwing Private Security Contractor Building, first floor reception area.

"Hey, what kind of enemy did you encounter? Is it really necessary to be shaking like this?"

A mercenary nudged the old crossbowman next to him with his elbow, pointing at his trembling arms.

The old crossbowman then noticed that his hands were trembling, and he quickly covered them tightly, trying to suppress his fear.

As a crossbowman with extensive combat experience, his eyesight was exceptional; he could see clearly even objects 300 meters away. This was due not only to Liberi's racial talent but also to his daily, persistent visual training.

And that's why, when his crossbow bolt hit the enemy... he saw something he shouldn't have seen.

As the dazzling silver light rose from the black coat, revealing the armor's patterns, the old crossbowman saw a hint of cobalt blue deep within the helmet.

The old mercenary had lived on the battlefield for thirty years; he was arguably the most senior among them. If it weren't for his age, the task force captaincy should have been handed over to him.

The longer you live, the more you learn. The more painful the scars, the deeper the fear.

Those deep, cobalt blue eyes were only the second time he had seen them in his not-so-short life.

The first time I met him was five years ago in Ursus, in a remote, impoverished town.

A rash mercenary had merely accidentally knocked over drinks and candles while looting a tavern, starting a fire. In the border region of Ursus, this was nothing unusual; the tavern owner and his family weren't burned to death, at most they were disfigured. For mercenaries of that era, the most they felt was the loss of a stable source of income; no military or police would come to their aid, and no one would offer a helping hand.

...That's how it should be.

Until a rookie mercenary found a homeless little girl on the streets of the town. He learned from the girl that her family had been burned down because they could not bear the world and the country. In their despair, they committed suicide by burning charcoal.

After the rookie mercenary found out what had happened, he took the little girl to the secret mercenary base he had built twenty miles outside the town. When he walked out, holding the girl's hand, he was covered in blood. Apart from the dark red bloodstains, the only color on his body was his pair of endlessly deep cobalt blue eyes.

The old crossbowman was present, but he wasn't one of the mercenaries; he was part of another group of mercenaries planning to rob the bandits. Mercenaries killing each other is perfectly normal; there will always be those who will stop at nothing to amass wealth, and there will always be stronger ones to fleece them.

The veteran crossbowman in charge of reconnaissance waited patiently until the blood-covered man left. Then, with a tentative mindset, he entered the mercenary's lair to investigate.

...In the end, he walked out with his mouth covered, vomiting all the way, his face pale and his hands trembling.

In the mercenary base, none of the mercenaries who participated in the burning, killing, and looting survived, and none of them had their bodies intact.

Later, the mercenary with cobalt blue eyes became a legend in the mercenary world.

"Legends never die."

The old crossbowman murmured, recalling the long-standing Ursus proverb.

Even though there have been rumors for years that the great BIG BOSS has fallen and been buried in Kazdel, the homeland of the demons.

The legendary mercenary organization, Army Without Borders, vanished without a trace, and no one knows where they went. The status of mercenaries is no longer what it once was; it's as if they've lost their core. Even though this rotten world still needs people to do the dirty work of trading lives, mercenaries have no chance to get a share.

Bounty hunters have risen to prominence, these hunters with formidable individual combat skills taking on tasks that originally belonged to mercenaries. This is why the old crossbowman came to Silverwing Private Contractors; it seems the glorious era of mercenaries has been turned.

Up to this day.

The old crossbowman slowly stopped his trembling hands and let out a deep, weary sigh.

"Have you written your will?" the old crossbowman asked softly.

The young mercenary beside him then realized that the words were being spoken to him.

"There's no need to be so tense, is there? Even if your squad can't win, it doesn't mean all of us can't!" The young mercenary pointed around. They were all hiding under cover, with various longbows and crossbows set up at their positions, and a sniper mercenary with a gun sitting on a high platform to oversee the overall situation.

"Even if that person has the ability to break in, even if he can blow up this iron gate, I'll shoot him into a sieve on the spot if he dares to come in!"

The young mercenary patted the armor on his chest, a mysterious confidence on his face, as if he were the commander in charge.

The old crossbowman didn't respond. He stared intently at the young man for a moment, then silently turned his head to look to the other side.

The other crossbowman who had escaped with him earlier was now standing on the stairs between the first and second floors, shouting at the top of his lungs to report the situation to the person in charge of guarding the first floor.

After all, the scene of the task force leader being defeated by Euler in three and a half pages was shocking. Although mercenaries were always separated for various reasons and scattered into different teams, with little affection between them, seeing their former leader fall to the ground in less than half a minute, his life hanging in the balance, even these people who had lived on the edge of death couldn't help but feel a sense of shared sorrow.

Although it was impossible to hear what the two were saying, judging from the expressions of the mercenaries in the back row, they probably had a bad argument and parted on bad terms.

After all, mercenaries are proud, and only by possessing this pride can they persevere in completing missions that teeter on the brink of death.

Perhaps the commander mistakenly thought they were lying to shirk responsibility? After all, they were deserters, utterly disgraceful, though the mercenary world has always been lenient towards deserters. Everyone's risking their lives for money; how many mercenaries truly sacrifice everything for some so-called ideal?

The old crossbowman muttered to himself, "If he really is that person, he will definitely come, and he will come in through the main gate."

The old crossbowman was thinking to himself when he suddenly squatted down and placed his palm on the ground.

It's a pity that they couldn't detect anything; it's not the first or second time that a veteran's experience has failed in the face of high technology.

He was still living in the past; he hadn't yet recovered from his carefree past. It was precisely because of this that he knew just how terrifying this enemy was.

"coming."

The old crossbowman suddenly felt a sharp pain in his heart; his intuition told him that the man had arrived.

He suddenly tilted his head back, placed the crossbow against the side of the bunker, and looked straight ahead.

If it really is him, he will definitely attack from the front gate.

The old crossbowman firmly believed this.

"--Bang!!"

A deafening roar came from the main entrance, thick smoke billowed up, and a wave of intense heat swept in from outside.

The old crossbowman's arms trembled; he didn't know whether to feel joy or fear. Perhaps he would become one of those fragmented corpses from five years ago, but witnessing the legend's return filled him with immense excitement, a feeling of participating in the course of history.

"First echelon, focus fire!"

"The Silverwing Commander, who was standing on the stairs, shouted."

The mercenaries guarding the first floor were divided into two echelons to ensure crossfire for ranged attacks, preventing a period of inactivity after a single burst of fire that would leave them all needing to reload. Furthermore, this allowed them to probe whether the enemy truly intended to force a breakthrough. If they revealed their trump cards from the outset, and the opponent remained observant from a distance, they would face an utterly crushing defeat.

A barrage of arrows.

Arrows and darts transformed into a surging barrage of projectiles, striking the smoke-shrouded main gate with a dense, muffled thud.

Just as the young mercenary beside the old crossbowman said, anyone who dares to come will be shot into a pincushion on the spot.

"Second wave, focus fire!!"

The sounds of bows and crossbows rang out in unison, accompanied by a series of muffled thuds.

A figure could be seen in the thick smoke. The only mercenary wielding a gun squinted as he channeled Originium Arts into the gun's casting unit. His mental energy enveloped every part of the weapon, enhancing the power of the condensed armor-piercing bullet, calculating the deviation, and pulling the trigger.

A heavy sound came from the thick smoke. The sound alone confirmed a 100% hit, but it was still impossible to tell whether the enemy had lost their ability to fight.

When the second wave of fire failed, the first wave had already replaced their crossbow bolts, but did not immediately begin firing.

They were waiting for their commander's orders; no formal organization would tolerate someone who disobeyed orders from superiors at will.

The Silverwing commander squinted, his raised hand remaining still, unable to assess the situation yet, but a result would soon be forthcoming. Initially, the ground collapsed due to the impact, kicking up thick, gray smoke, but under the cover of fire, the smoke was churned, and a standing figure could be vaguely seen.

"What's this?"

As the wisps of smoke dissipated, a semi-transparent, illusory wall of light stood before the main entrance.

Beneath the wall of light lay bent bows and arrows, symbolizing that everything the mercenaries had done before was futile and useless.

The thick reinforced walls and metal objects, as well as the dragon scale panels of the third layer of protection, have neat rectangular gaps, and the figure standing outside the door has his arms outstretched.

"Sniper"

A faint purple hue appeared on the illusory wall of light, and the icon symbolizing the Sniper class slowly emerged.

The light curtain surged and moved rapidly toward Lin Lu, engulfing his figure in an instant.

"Aurhorize (Authorization successful)".

A clearly audible mechanical female voice echoed from the illusory light screen.