NIKKE, Swordmaster Ark Succubus Daily

He glanced to the side and saw a long-haired girl wearing a beret holding a rifle and staring straight at him, her beautiful face revealing no emotion.

“I am Lhabi,” the beret-wearing girl introduced herself, then turned to look at the broad-minded girl, “She is…”

"Anis," the short-haired girl said beforehand.

“We belong to the same unit, 04-F.” Lapi then looked at Li Zuoyi, “Now I’m handing over command to you.”

"Why?" Li Zuo tucked his long sword into his waistband, somewhat puzzled. "You must have a commander if you've come to the ground, right?"

“Our original commander was killed in action against Lecher.” Lapi’s tone was devoid of any extra emotion.

"'That wretched Lecher, the enemy of mankind!' With those words, she charged at Lecher with her pistol." Anis sighed helplessly, "It was completely useless."

“Anis, Niki can’t speak ill of the Commander,” Lapi reminded her. “I have the right to punish you…”

“I was referring to the small-caliber pistol she was carrying!” Anis raised his hand and gestured with a pistol. “That’s useless against Lecher. Why does Labi think I’m talking about the Commander?”

Lhabi remained silent.

"what a pity."

Li Zuoyi silently mourned for his brainless colleague, then gave a reassuring smile and patted Lapi on the shoulder, "It's alright, I won't report what Lapi just said to my superiors."

Chapter Two: I'm Very Strong

“…Thank you.” Labi quickly changed the subject. “We saw you being attacked by Lecher on our way to the transport plane, so we came to your rescue.”

Li Zuoyi finally felt relieved.

Finally I can go back.

"I am very grateful to you for coming to my rescue." Li Zuoyi patted the long sword at his waist. "But it's a bit of a pity. If you had come any later, you would have witnessed my heroic figure as I annihilated Lecher."

"Pfft." Anies chuckled, but quickly covered his mouth and turned his head away.

“Anis,” Labi said, his tone becoming more serious.

“I know, I just remembered something interesting,” Anies retorted.

With that ordinary-looking longsword?

If Lecher were so easy to eliminate, there wouldn't be any Niki.

"Hmph, one day I'll show you just how powerful my sword is." Li Zuoyi rubbed his chin and walked towards the ruined bridge pier. "I need to get something. You'll have to wait a bit."

“Strange commander.” Anis said, watching the commander’s back. “I thought we were going to get a good scolding from him. After all, aren’t most commanders arrogant guys?”

Lapi did not answer.

"And did you notice the way he looked at us just now?" Anies looked speechless. "He doesn't still think of Niki as a woman, does he? Waaah—"

Niki has no human rights, so naturally she is not treated as a woman.

Humans would not be in heat with Niki.

“And he even said he wanted to show us his prowess.” Anis squinted. “He wouldn’t actually intend to use that longsword against Lecher, would he?”

“Anis, don’t judge the commander so easily,” Labi reminded her again. “He might be a commander with rich combat experience who can lead us to complete the mission.”

"Really? Let me check." Anies used the networked memory in his body to look up some information and exclaimed in surprise, "This, this..."

"Anis?"

"This commander is a rookie who just graduated from military academy! This is his first mission." Anies covered his face.

The information cascaded through Lhapi's eyes, and looking at the almost blank resume, she couldn't say much.

"It's over." Anis said dejectedly, "Maybe Niki, who he was with, was already dead, otherwise why haven't they shown up yet?"

Lapi felt uneasy. He had thought that encountering a commander would give him more combat power, at least a few more Nikis.

However, the current situation does not seem optimistic.

“We need to get to the transport plane’s landing site immediately.” Lapi checked the condition of his rifle and reloaded it. “The gunfire just now might have attracted more Lechers.”

"Under attack!" Anies shouted. "They're here!"

Lapi quickly turned around and saw more than a dozen Lechers attacking him from the other end of the street.

There's even a hovercraft version of Lecher among them!

Anis kept pulling the trigger, unleashing a barrage of grenades at Letcher, which flew towards him.

The massive explosion caused the already crumbling buildings on both sides of the street to collapse, burying seven or eight Lechers under the rubble.

Lapi knelt down, Niki's specialized body allowing her to precisely control every subtle movement.

Raise your gun, aim, fire, confirm kill, aim again, fire again...

Each bullet, under her control, struck Lecher's weak point and detonated his core.

With their combined efforts, they successfully thwarted this wave of Lecher attacks.

"Phew—thank goodness we spotted it in time." Anies pushed out the spent cartridge, reloaded, and said with lingering fear.

"I'll contact the liaison officer to confirm if we can change the transport plane's landing location. The current location is too far, I'm worried about the commander..." Various information interfaces appeared in Lapi's eyes. "Don't be careless, Anies, go and check on the commander's situation."

"I see."

Anis walked towards the abandoned bridge pier where the commander had just retrieved something. "Commander—! Are you alright? Hmm? Commander, what's wrong?"

She saw the commander hiding behind a bridge pier, his head peeking out, his hands gripping the wall, his face full of displeasure.

"My chance to prove myself..."

Li Zuoyi felt a pang of sadness; all his energy had been wasted.

Anis looked speechless, his voice mechanical, "No, no, no, without a wise commander in charge, how could we have defeated Lecher? It's all thanks to the commander."

“No, your and Labi’s response was very timely.” Li Zuoyi waved his hand. “This is your achievement.”

“Hmm—” Anies was somewhat surprised.

In the past, commanders would only take credit for themselves.

This commander is a bit different.

Li Zuoyi sighed and walked out from behind the abandoned bridge pier, carrying a black cloth bag in his hand.

"What a big bag! What's inside?" Anis asked, noticing how much the commander seemed to value the bag. "Is it a mission delivery item?"

"No, it's..."

Before Li Zuoyi could finish speaking, Labi ran over with a rifle in hand: "Commander, nearly a hundred Lechers are attacking!"

Anis had already seen the Lecher that filled the street behind Lhapi.

"Commander! Please give the order!"

"Lavi, things have come to this..."

A bullet grazed Li Zuoyi's cheek, and he immediately gave the order, "Run! Run at full speed!"

Without any hesitation, the three of them fled in the opposite direction at top speed.

With such a large number of enemies, and without any cover, a direct gunfight would only result in certain death.

The three of them traversed several city blocks, using various terrain features to their advantage, and destroyed more than a dozen Lechers.

But it was a drop in the ocean; the remaining Lechers relentlessly pursued them, firing various bullets and lasers, determined to kill them.

"I'm going to die! I'm going to die!" Anis shouted during the escape, "Lavi, haven't you contacted the Ark yet?!"

Lapi gritted her teeth, her pupils trembling slightly. Before her eyes were one red "lost signal" sign after another. "The concentration of Avira particles around us is too high. We have lost contact with the Ark."

"Commander, what should we do now?!" Anis asked the commander beside him in despair, "You must have learned what to do in this situation when you were in military school!"

Even if this rookie commander spouted some far-fetched plans, Anis took it as a sign that he had tried his best.

"Oh, of course I've studied that." Li Zuo hugged the black cloth bag to his chest, his lips twitching slightly.

"What is it?" Anies seemed to see a glimmer of hope.

Li Zuoyi pointed to a pistol at his waist, "Dispose of Niki next to me to prevent her from being corrupted by Letcher and becoming an enemy of the Ark."

Chapter 3 Can I Hit Him?

"What kind of handling is this?!"

"I'm the one who's miserable, okay?! After punishing you all, I still have to shout 'For the Ark!' and then die with them!"

"Didn't you just say you were going to show us what you're made of? Now's the perfect opportunity!"

In this situation, Anies no longer cared about the hierarchy.

"That's suicide! Don't confuse the two!" Li Zuoyi retorted. "You're Niki, right? Protecting the Commander is your duty! Don't worry, I'll definitely bring your head back to the Ark!"

“If I could hold off these Lechers by myself, I would have stayed long ago. I don’t need you, Commander, to tell me!” Anis smoothly vaulted over a broken wall. “Also, as a commander, you are absolutely terrible!”

He's just spouting nonsense about taking her back to the Ark.

A rookie commander like him would probably be eager to return to the Ark as soon as he was out of danger, and would hardly think about her being killed by Lecher.

Unlike such a terrible commander, Anies really would do as she said: if staying behind could stop Lecher, then she would definitely send herself to cover the rear.

The three of them slipped into a commercial district, where the dense buildings prevented the Lechers from getting in for the time being, giving them a brief respite.

Li Zuoyi placed the black cloth bag he was holding to his chest at his feet and rested, panting.

Niki's head... is quite heavy.

After observing the somewhat cramped surroundings, Li Zuoyi felt that this place was not suitable for combat.

If a fight breaks out, the falling buildings might bury them.

"Commander, where do you plan to take us?" Lapi, who had been silently trying to establish contact with the Ark, interrupted their passionate conversation.

"Wow—Labi, you're quite perceptive, you actually noticed." Li Zuo pinched his chin with one hand, his face showing an expression that said, "I didn't expect you to understand me so well."

“I noticed that too,” Anies sighed. “You’ve always been a bit faster than me and Labi, guiding us somewhere, haven’t you?”

Li Zuo opened his mouth, staring at Anies in utter shock.

"What is it now?" Anis felt strange being stared at so intently by the commander.

"So you're not an idiot after all," Li Zuoyi said in surprise.

“I’m quite perceptive too!” Anies puffed out his cheeks. “So where exactly does the Commander intend to take us?”

If Anis hadn't sensed the deeper meaning behind the commander's actions, he wouldn't have talked to him so much.

“These are the fortifications built in this area not long after the Lecher invasion,” Li Zuoyi said. “I saw them from afar when I arrived here.”

"Why didn't you say there was such a place sooner?" Anis's face fell. "Could it be that you did it on purpose, just to see me and Labi looking so miserable..."

Anis gradually mastered the rhythm of speaking with this commander.

Surprisingly, I didn't feel any dislike.

“I’m not that perverse.” Li Zuo pointed at Anis with one finger, his frivolous demeanor fading. “Because that place won’t help us get out of this situation; on the contrary, it will make it worse.”

“That’s a large settlement area in Lecher.” Lapi’s eyes regained focus. “I just checked the situation in this area using offline data. The place the commander mentioned is the most dangerous S-class.”

“S… In that kind of area, the casualty rate for both Niki and the Commander is 99.9%…” Anis stammered twice, then turned to the Commander and shouted, “Are you leading us to our deaths? You can do that with your pistol!”

Li Zuoyi chuckled: "I would never shoot my own men!"

Anis covered his face and sighed, looking up at the sky: "In this situation, I'd rather you shot me in the head!"

"I will not shoot!"

Li Zuoyi took the pistol from his waist, made a baseball throwing motion, and threw it far away.

"What's the point of saying such cool things at a time like this?!"

“Commander…” Lapi looked at the commander.

"Are you captivated by me, Lapi?" Li Zuoyi's lips curled up, quite pleased with himself.

Anis stuck out his tongue. "I take back what I just said, Commander. You're so greasy."