"We don't only have warriors. There are other infected comrades, and children too... I'm the children's teacher," Alina explained softly.
Bai Ye blinked. That description did fit how Reunion had been portrayed in the early and middle stages.
However, the Reunion Bai Ye had faced as a Player in his previous life—the final version—had been a complete and utter mob organization.
Every infected person had armed themselves. There were no civilians, no children, only thugs and soldiers.
...And plenty of people of unknown origin.
"Valletta Society is awesome!" Bai Ye had never expected the hypothesis Players had come up with in his previous life to actually hold water. Reunion had not started out as a mob; it had gone through a transformation.
"Do you know Talulah?" Bai Ye suddenly asked.
"You know her?" Alina did not deliberately conceal it. "She's my friend, and also Reunion's leader."
Bai Ye breathed a sigh of relief.
The girl he had saved on a whim actually had deep ties to Talulah.
He almost wanted to clap for fate's coincidence.
"She wasn't lying," Skadi whispered softly into Bai Ye's ear.
The Abyssal Hunters' hearing was extraordinarily sharp. They could judge whether someone was lying through their heartbeat and breathing.
Bai Ye nodded lightly.
Then he looked at the girl before him and slowly said, "I'm Bai Ye."
"Her name is... Little Orca."
"Actually, we're merchants and messengers from Lungmen. We came to find Talulah." As Bai Ye spoke, he took a letter and a copied photograph from his pocket, but did not immediately hand them to Alina.
"Lungmen... Talulah's sister?" This time, Alina was the one who was surprised. Talulah had told her about Lungmen, as well as about her sister.
She remembered all of it.
"Can you trust us now?" Bai Ye naturally heard the girl's mutter.
It seemed he had found the right person.
"Mr. Bai Ye, I can take you to Talulah, but..."
"Don't worry, we aren't bad people. We bear no ill will toward the infected." Bai Ye smiled, then pointed at the cardboard box on the floor of the cramped tent. "The infected need medicine too, don't they?"
Naturally, Bai Ye would not use Rhodes Island's medicine for business. But "aiding" an "infected Squad Five" clearly aligned with Rhodes Island's principles.
Alina quietly let out a breath.
Actually, Little Deer had not told him everything. That was... even if Bai Ye wanted to harm Reunion, it would probably be difficult.
The infected's strongest shield was right there in Squad Five...
Talulah walked toward the camp in a daze.
Until the very end, she had found no trace of Alina—not even a body.
But she had found the murderers.
They were the rebels whom the Shield Guards and she had exiled from Squad Five.
Yet she had not even gotten the chance to take revenge.
Those infected carrying fruit and vegetables had been caught by the patrols, then executed one by one.
The infected who had mercilessly attacked an unarmed girl instantly traded places with their victims when they faced the black-clad patrols.
The Ursus soldiers, fresh from defeat, used those people as punching bags.
Talulah witnessed the crime, yet did not step in to stop it.
This was the second time she had felt endless rage flood her chest. For one moment, she even wondered whether something inside her had broken.
Some black, grim, terrifying thoughts quietly seeped out from her mind, from her heart.
Shadows enveloped her heart.
She seemed to hear some schemer whose plot had succeeded sneering with laughter.
She shook her head and cast the strange hallucination from her mind. Watching the Ursus soldiers drag away the bodies, the girl quietly returned to the camp.
The cold wind after she stopped gradually cooled her feverish head—physically. The Red Dragon girl slowly calmed down.
She could not stay away from camp for too long, much less stubbornly keep searching for her friend's trail.
After digging an unnamed grave as a memorial for her friend, she slowly headed toward the camp.
Big Daddy and FrostNova were both gone. There were only Shield Guards, infected warriors, and some unarmed infected civilians and children. The Fourth Army had an outpost within ten kilometers; she had to return at once.
Yet unexpectedly, as she neared the camp, she heard unusually noisy shouting.
"We can't let them go! What if they run off and inform on us..."
"Big Daddy, Talulah and FrostNova aren't here. If our position is exposed, the consequences will be unthinkable!"
"But they saved our friend..."
"What if this is part of their plan?"
"They don't look like bad people to me."
"It's because you idiots are so gullible that you get fooled..."
"This is Reunion?" Bai Ye tilted his head toward Alina, who lay on a stretcher beside him.
Following Alina's directions, they had found Reunion's secret backup camp, only to discover that several of the people in charge were absent. Even Talulah was nowhere to be seen.
Then Bai Ye and Skadi were surrounded.
Those people were still fairly restrained. They had not touched Bai Ye's car.
"Everyone, listen to me..." Alina tried to speak up and persuade them, but she was badly injured, and her voice was faint.
Moreover, she was not particularly well-known among the warriors of Squad Five. Many people only knew that several teachers had been educating infected children, while some soldiers who had followed Talulah early on vaguely knew Talulah had a friend.
However, Alina had never shown herself publicly, so she had little name recognition and could not say much.
"...I thought you were some kind of political commissar... Turns out you're surprisingly ordinary." Bai Ye sighed.
So this kid did not have much say after all...
Bai Ye did not know that before she left camp, she and Talulah had agreed that she would start appearing in public afterward...
What terrible timing.
Bai Ye stood up, glanced around, opened his right hand, then clenched it hard.
Bang—
Like thunder cracking beneath a clear sky, an explosive roar rang out above the camp.
Everyone was startled by the blast. Even the Reunion soldiers surrounding Bai Ye and his car jumped in fright.
Clap—
Bai Ye brought his hands together.
The air collided with itself, producing a vast, majestic boom. The aftershock of the air explosion blew away the snow filling the sky.
Only then did everyone notice Bai Ye's raised hands.
"Take her back to camp first. Why leave a patient outside?"
Then Bai Ye swept his gaze across the infected around him and lightly shook his head. "A rabble."
"You—"
Bang—
Just as someone nearby tried to refute him, Bai Ye produced another thunderous blast. Skadi, standing behind him, saw light glowing from the Sword Sheath of the longsword hanging at his back.
When had that sword appeared?
Skadi was slightly dazed. She had not noticed Bai Ye taking out a weapon before...
"Skadi, put on a show for them." Bai Ye lifted his chin.
"Okay."
The girl raised the greatsword in her hand.
She gave it a light swing.
It was likely a motion where the sword tip came straight down, but aside from Bai Ye, who had activated Thought Acceleration, no one could see the girl's movement clearly.
An alloy that did not exist on land struck the frozen Ursus earth at a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow.
Boom—
With Skadi and Bai Ye at the center, the ground collapsed in a circle.
Strangely, not a trace of snow was thrown up. It simply sank along with the ground.
It was as though an invisible cylinder had smashed into the earth.
The infected around them lost their footing and hurriedly backed away, staring in shock at the inconspicuous white-haired girl behind Bai Ye.
Gulp—
Someone swallowed audibly.
"A... a monster."
The Ursus word slipped out.
Yes, a monster.
For anyone who had seen Skadi fight, that was usually the word that came to mind.
Whether bounty hunters, criminals, or the infected before them.
This was terrifying power that land-dwellers could not understand. This was a terrifying existence from the deep sea. With such power and weapons, the Abyssal Hunters could stand against the Seaborn.
To defeat monsters, they had first become monsters themselves.
Monster...
The word was entirely fitting.
"Mm."
Skadi slowly pulled the greatsword from the ground.
She showed neither satisfaction nor pride in the power she had displayed, because she knew she could not compare with her captain or the vice-captain.
Every time she used her strength, she missed her former comrades and companions terribly.
As though sensing the girl's unease, Bai Ye reached out and patted her shoulder.
Although this girl was humbly bragging, the infected beside them were shaken.
Bai Ye suddenly laughed.
He suddenly realized a mistake he had been making all along.
Not everything in this world could be solved with his face.
Perhaps the speech he had given in External Operations had not accomplished much either. In the end, it was the benefits and perks he handed out that had truly allowed him to gain a foothold in the department.
A face was absolutely necessary, but a face alone could not solve everything.
Perhaps ever since crossing over, he had subconsciously been imitating that carefree tea party president with extraordinary personal charisma, while overlooking the advantage he had always possessed—strength.
Before meeting the president, he had never relied on personal charm to communicate—weapons had clearly worked better.
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