About the time I was picked up and adopted by Tallulah

On the other side, Orson also walked out of the smoke, and the rest behind him was unusually active, as if it was eager to penetrate and tear apart some living life.

Lappland's fighting instincts were astonishing. If he hadn't been severely trained by the veterans of Rhodes Island and the Reunion Movement, he would have lost long ago. Every second of confrontation with this "mad wolf" increased the possibility of his failure.

But even so...

"A real, long-awaited fight is truly thrilling. Come on! Leave that guy named Texas aside. Now it's time for a round dance just for you and me!"

Orson shook off the blood on his wrist due to the side effects of fever. Perhaps it was due to the excessive secretion of adrenaline in his brain, or perhaps he was infected by Lappland's madness, but Orson became extremely excited and active, waiting for a new round of fighting.

"Great, you're awesome! I accept your challenge—ahem!"

Lappland smiled and gladly accepted Orson's invitation to fight, but something unexpected happened at this moment.

A large amount of blood coughed out of Lappland's mouth. She covered her mouth with her hands, but the scarlet liquid still flowed out from between her fingers.

"Are you spitting blood!?"

Orson was shocked by Lappland's condition, and his brain, which had just been rushed by blood, immediately cooled down.

Let's put things one way or another. Although he had just had a fierce battle with Lappland, if his "memory" was correct, Lappland would also be an operator on Rhodes Island in the future.

Orson immediately ran to Lappland, trying to find out what had happened to the Luper girl.

Although he didn't let the opponent win in the previous battle, he definitely didn't have any intention to kill him - just like Lappland did to him.

Therefore, her injuries were not caused by herself, but more like the onset of some symptoms.

Symptoms…Ore sickness.

"...Heh, so it turns out to be you, puppy?"

"What are you talking about? No, stop talking!"

"Although it's not as good as Texas...haha, it's okay..."

After saying some incomprehensible words, Lappland fell to the ground and completely fainted.

14. Check in with Lagou

In the pitch-black room, there was only the glaring red and a touch of pure white stained with scarlet.

Pure white—Lappland with long white hair stood in the center of the room, and countless corpses lay beside her.

He was cut in half, his head was cut off, and his limbs were torn apart.

Countless people kept rushing towards her, and the White Wolf kept waving the weapon in his hand, letting the blood splatter all over his body.

At some point, a faint light appeared in the room. With that tiny glimmer, Lappland noticed that the corpses around him all had faces identical to his own.

The dream ended here, and Lappland woke up from the room.

She found herself lying on a bed, with her black coat hanging aside, leaving only her white underwear sticking to her body.

"……Well?"

Not only was his coat taken off manually, but when Lappland wanted to stand up and take a closer look at his surroundings, he felt a blockage and a tingling sensation on his neck and palms respectively.

Only then did Lappland notice that a "collar" had been put around his neck, with the other end tightly tied to the bedside cabinet, and a needle had been inserted into his right hand, connected to a bag of plasma hanging on the side.

"Huh... That's great. I was worried you wouldn't wake up."

The room he was being held in wasn't big, just a bedroom and a bathroom. A familiar voice came from nearby.

The young man who had fought with him before was now sitting on the chair next to him. When he noticed that he had woken up, he immediately came over excitedly.

The only thing that made Lapland feel strange was that the boy's expression and mental state seemed to be worse than his own.

"I see, is this how it's going to develop? Hahaha, even though you're a little puppy, you're still a man after all. Come on then, but don't think I'll just stand by and watch your bestiality unfold. I promise you'll regret this action forever... Pfft?!"

Lappland seemed to have come up with a reasonable explanation for her current situation, but she put on an arrogant and intimidating attitude, and before she could finish her words, her black coat covered her face.

"What are you talking about? I don't have those thoughts! Don't slander me!"

Orson retorted in a panic, and threw Lappland's coat to her, indicating that she should put it on.

"...?"

Orson's actions made Lapland a little confused. Although Lapland had never read any messy books, he had been exposed to the darkest and most disgusting behaviors during the years when he was fighting and wandering in the mafia.

Every exchange of fire and fighting between "families" always ends with the destruction of "family members" of varying sizes.

Among the family members who were sacrificed, there were often some young women. Some of them were relatives of a member of the conflict, and some had no contact with the mafia at all.

But people don't care about this. Those women will be forcibly taken away by the side that wins the war and sent to a place that Lappland doesn't understand and doesn't want to understand for "education."

In the missions that Lapland had carried out, he would occasionally encounter the type of "destroying the hideout", and in the hideouts of most gang members, Lapland could always see women whose whereabouts were unknown.

Imprisoned, tortured, satisfying those people's incomprehensible fetishes, never seeing the sun -

"Please kill me," this is the most common request Lapland has heard from those girls.

Lappland, who thought he would suffer the same fate, was instead frustrated by Orson's shy and panicked reaction.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Lappland used her left hand, which was not holding the needle, to put on her clothes. She noticed that the coat, which was originally covered with dust and blood, had become clean and tidy again, and seemed even brighter than when she went out.

——Could this guy have taken advantage of this opportunity to wash and iron my coat?

Lapland thought uncertainly. She couldn't believe that there was someone who had so much free time and whose ironing skills were no worse than those of a dry cleaner.

"You suddenly fainted earlier, so I had to find a place to put you down. This is a hotel quite far from the city center. Luckily, it's just as I expected; the owner doesn't care as long as you pay enough. Otherwise, I really wouldn't have the energy to look for another place. You have no idea how tiring it is to parkour someone on the top floor of a Longmen building with a rest..."

Orson waved his hand and didn't want to talk about how he moved Lappland here.

"...What exactly do you want, little dog? If your goal isn't to ravage and conquer my body, then are you planning to destroy my will? Or are you simply waiting for the opportunity to sell me to someone who can kill me personally?"

"What are you thinking about? I don't know if you have any enemies, nor do I intend to do anything strange to you. Although this is a hotel, it's only because I can't leave you on the street. And what you are injecting is not some strange liquid, but blood. One last thing - I'm not Coyote, my name is Orson."

Orson explained to Lappland one by one, but it didn't seem to be very effective.

"Your excuse wouldn't even fool a child, would it, little dog?"

Lappland sneered, showing his jagged teeth.

"Haha... Anyway, there are two reasons why I chose to save you. First, I don't want to kill people in a high-profile manner in Longmen, especially in an area like the city center. Being targeted by the Royal Guards will only cause me unnecessary trouble. Second, just as you are very interested in the relationship between Texas and me, as a newcomer who may join Penguin Logistics, I am also very curious about your relationship with Texas. Do you understand?"

Orson held up two fingers and explained to Lappland seriously, of course, these two points were not the most important factors.

Not only because 'Lappland' was a Rhodes Island operator in Orson's memory, but more importantly, Orson heard the melody that Lappland sang before she lost consciousness - it was a breath of indifference, like the relief of death.

This made Orson very concerned. Why did Lappland, who he thought was the epitome of a crazy bootlicker, look like he wanted to think about something?

Perhaps behind her arrogant and unbridled laughter, this Lupo girl has despair and pain that she will never share with others.

"Hmph, it doesn't matter. You can do whatever you want, but remember to be careful, because I will use all my strength to break free from the chains, and then you will be-"

"Oh, sorry I forgot about that. I'll take your collar off right away."

Orson interrupted Lappland's harsh words as if he realized it belatedly. At the same time, he walked to Lappland, took out the key and untied the collar on the other's neck.

"...?"

The collar fell off and landed in Lappland's hand. For the first time, the 'unidentified mysterious killer' showed a confused expression.

"When you were unconscious, you were violently resisting. I had to try to restrain your movements, and this was the only thing I could buy... I'm so sorry."

Orson whispered an apology to Lappland. After all, Orson thought that being collared must be difficult to accept.

"Aren't you, uh, afraid I'll kill you, little dog?"

Lapland still hadn't fully recovered from her shock. Orson's behavior had completely deviated from any script she had planned.

"You are very weak now, it is best not to do this."

Orson responded with a wry smile.

"Ha, I guess you're not much better, are you?"

Lappland laughed at Orson. After all, the other party's face was paler than his, as if he had lost too much blood.

After untying his collar, Orson really didn't take any action. The look he gave Lappland was more like observing his body's recovery.

"Tsk, how boring! You were more interesting back then when you were so excited that you wanted to fight me to death."

Lappland got up from the bed, crossed his legs and sat on the mattress, his furry white tail swinging back and forth behind him.

"That's exactly what I was thinking, but I was interrupted by your coma. The reason for your coma is probably the excessive infection of Originium in your body, coupled with the acute allergic fainting caused by the frequent use of Originium techniques in previous battles. Although I don't know your identity or work, you should change your fighting style. It's too much of a strain on your body."

Orson spoke seriously to Lappland about her situation.

"Huh, you're a doctor?"

"No, but my previous situation was somewhat similar to yours. Back then, my internal organs were almost turning into a mineral cluster... Anyway, your condition was extremely serious, so I had to gamble with this high-risk and crude treatment method. Although the results seem to be good for now."

Orson shook his head to cheer himself up a little.

"The treatment method, the blood bag you mean?"

Lappland looked at the blood bag that had been hanging by the bed and had been transfusing blood for him.

"Yes, this is my blood. It has the ability to prevent infection from mineral sickness to a certain extent. I tried to fill your body with my blood to suppress the infection. Fortunately, there was no rejection reaction, so the result was a success."

Orson sighed quietly, thinking that Kal'tsit would probably shake her head when she saw his temporary "operation", and then summon mon3tr to swing with him to the sky.

"..."

After listening to Orson's explanation, Lappland looked at the blood bags with a complicated look, because she noticed that there were several empty blood bags scattered in the corner beside the bed.

——The reason why he is so weak is that he lost too much blood in one breath when pumping blood into my veins?

This guy……

Lappland frowned, then pulled out the needle from his palm in one breath. Blood immediately flowed out from the needle hole. Lappland brought his palm to his mouth, stretched out his tongue to lick the flowing scarlet liquid, and stood up and walked to Orson.

"You're really interesting. You're so devoted to an enemy who wants to kill you."

Lappland's pale blue eyes stared at Orson.

"Do you really want to kill me? Your best chance to finish me off was when you initially pinned me down, but you chose not to. And after that, you simply kept your distance, oppressing me. Perhaps this was a way of toying with your prey, but I don't think you're someone who enjoys fighting for fun. So the only explanation is—you didn't intend to kill me, you just wanted to extract intelligence about Texas from me."

"You guy..."

Lappland blinked, looking a little surprised at Orson's words.

"You really are good at self-hypnosis, hahaha! In that case, I'll just kill you right here in the room!"

thump!

Lappland suddenly pounced on Orson, but almost at the same time, Orson twisted his body slightly to avoid Lappland's hands. Instead, he pressed his arms against Lappland's chin from bottom to top, and pushed him back onto the bed with a slight force.

"——Woo!"

It was the same scene as when the two first met, except this time the person 'on top' became Orson.

"Once you have recovered, we can continue the battle that was not completed before, but what you need now is rest, Miss White-haired Luper."

Orson withdrew his hand and gently helped Lappland up from the bed. He also helped her put on her coat and smoothed her messy hair.

"...I'm really convinced. I admit defeat! You're so boring! There's no point in killing someone like you."

Faced with Orson's actions, Lappland sighed heavily. She put away her bloodthirsty, violent and perverse look and became calm.

Orson was once again surprised by Lappland's "transformation". Which side of this person who was severely infected with the mineral disease was her true character?

"Do you want to commit suicide?"

After a brief silence, Orson asked this question, which made Lappland's eyes slightly stunned.

"Haha, why do you have such an idea?"

"I can sense the 'melody' in people's hearts, something akin to emotion. And your melody... is like having given up everything, having no expectations for anything, quietly waiting for the end, like a dead silence."

Orson whispered the melody he heard from Lappland.

"...Who knows."

Lappland responded with a smile, but this time her smile was not disguised by madness and bloodlust, but an extremely ordinary smile.

"Your name is Orson, isn't it? It's as dull a name as you are. As for me—ask Texas; she'll be happy to tell you my name."

Lappland got up from the bed and walked to the window.