Chapter 212

Looking around, Medic's gaze lingered for a moment on the handmade furniture that Rosemary and her friends had made in the lounge, revealing a hint of the tenderness she showed to the children... Medic coldly opened the display case and took out the two 'Silver Dancer' that she thought she wouldn't use for a long time.

After all, the ICA was intentionally or unintentionally reducing contact with her... Nana thought that after the mess with the Artificial Angel, she wouldn't be using those two guns for at least a year... She just didn't expect the pharmaceutical company's mission to be so noisy.

Although Medic's current outfit of a tight-fitting suit and hot pants is no longer suitable for concealed gun handling, thankfully he still has that fur-trimmed coat, and the straps on his body also serve the purpose of holstering his gun under his arm... Medic expressionlessly stuffed the cold gun into his chest, and that familiar weight quickly transformed 'Medic' back into 'Number Seventy-Seven'.

But... no, this mission will still be carried out under the identity of Medic. Nana solemnly reminded herself once again not to wear the wrong mask.

"Well, if I'm going to have all my things, including my room, sent to the car... then I'll go check on those worrying guys."

While talking to himself to relieve stress, Medic opened the team level page... Apart from Ms. Saria's template, which was already registered and showed that she could set off at any time, it was a good start for Amiya. Seeing that the Little Bunny's equipment bar would occasionally add a healing item that was not very tiring or troublesome but could still be effective, Medic nodded and looked at the other two people he was very worried about.

Of course, these two aren't referring to Franka and Liskarm... The Blacksteel team are old friends, so there's no need to worry about these experienced Mercenaries causing any trouble... As for Blaze? Although she hasn't had any particularly outstanding performances, Blaze is still Elite Operator trained by ACE, so she shouldn't be incapable of handling such a small matter.

Medic is worried about Typhon and Mika.

Compared to Amiya, who already had a considerable number of medical supplies in her inventory, Typhon's first item submitted was... a box of cold-weather energy bars.

Okay, Sami's little hunters might indeed have an unusual aversion to hunger, but Mika, what's with that box of cream rolls!? Why are they divided into three categories: 'fresh,' 'refrigerated,' and 'nitrogen-filled for 6 months'?

Before Medic sent a question mark to the PRTS team channel, the rather serious and stubborn Ms. Saria was already showing "typing"!

Good news, compared to the hellish start where the team members had a chaotic battle over their values before setting off... Ms. Saria's 'typing' message finally disappeared, and no text was sent.

Bad news, Saria's 'typing' notification seems to have redirected to her own private chat window.

[Don't you think the team equipment registration is a bit odd? I believe professionalism and focus should be maintained at work. Although you reminded me not to be too critical of others... I also think you should strictly manage your subordinates.]

Medic had nothing to say about this... Although upon closer inspection, bringing fresh desserts on board doesn't seem to violate any regulations... or rather, quite the opposite, desserts with a long shelf life should be very beneficial for maintaining morale.

The problem is that Mika's behavior was very unprofessional. How could she post a message like "I brought a cake~" when her equipment and important personal items were nowhere to be found? It's like she cares more about whether she can bring a fresh cream cake roll than her weapons.

After silently grumbling to himself about Mika, Medic went straight down the stairs of the lounge to the LycoLyco Café.

As the former headmistress of Lycoris and the former... part-time Lycoris hunter, Mika and Typhon are both here preparing their belongings.

Beside her stood the blonde Little Fox Seia, whom she had met once before, wearing an apron... Like Mika and Nagisa, Seia, who had also conducted Non-Entropic Applications experiments, possessed a similar Halo to Sankta:

"Ah! Nana's here... I told you, Mika, stop thinking about the Swiss roll. I made it for you... You have more important things to do than making Swiss rolls, don't you?"

"Well, I just wanted everyone to know there would be a Swiss roll today, since we have a newcomer and need to welcome them properly! Besides, my equipment is all right there, I can just grab it and go... It's just a matter of order, Seia, you're making a mountain out of a molehill~"

Seeing Seia's facepalm-like expression, as if she'd been driven mad by Mika, Medic instinctively reached out and poked Mika's puffed-up cheek:

"For people who know each other well, it might not matter, but for those who don't, the wrong order means suspicion... New colleagues might pay more attention to a colleague's professionalism than the welcome party... Does Mika want the newcomers to think she's unreliable?"

"How could that be?! I'm super reliable!"

Setting down the plate of cake rolls in her hand, Mika rushed straight to her room like a whirlwind, leaving Typhon, who was studying with Nagisa in the lobby, completely stunned... A few seconds later, Mika instantly uploaded a long list of professional Firearms Arts and equipment, as well as items for field operators.

In response to the thumbs-up emoji that Ms. Saria sent, Medic thought for a moment and replied, "I just arrived at her dorm room." This wasn't a lie, and it also saved Mika face in the communication.

Afterwards, after checking on Typhon and Nagisa's learning progress in using modern individual combat gadgets... Medic posted a group photo of Typhon and her gear on the team channel, showing Typhon looking very uncomfortable with the equipment spread all over the floor and having to check each piece of equipment one by one to see if she knew how to use them.

The girl's earnest expression as she meticulously checked the items, along with the professional urban field equipment from Lycoris's inventory, earned unanimous praise from the team.

After all, even for Rhodes Island, it's not easy to be as fully equipped with modern gear as Typhon... As the most knowledgeable member of the team, Weedy even took a moment to add market prices to Typhon's photos of the modern equipment...

Then, somewhat incredulously, someone asked, "Does this mean everyone in your Human Resources Department is carrying a million dollars in attendance records?"

Well, Weedy already knows who the emergency defibrillator her workshop is rushing to produce is for. To this, Blaze can only reply, "I don't know!"... After all, although operators can use equipment, if Blaze hadn't been there on-site and learned about the cost, how would she know how much a piece of equipment that can give you an extra life in a critical moment is worth?

Medic also has the same problem... It seems that Weedy's curiosity was aroused, and Typhon, under Nagisa's guidance, took a picture of Medic while learning how to take pictures with his phone and posted it on the channel, asking Weedy how much his Kitty Teacher's outfit cost.

Weedy: [...]Are you sure you want to know?

Saria: [If it involves confidential information, then don't let anyone else know.]

Weedy: [It's not about secrecy... after all, things that are kept secret don't include the cost...]

[To put it simply, Typhon, the bulk of your equipment is a high-performance individual radio. After all, you're a sniper operator, which involves a lot of solo operations to find high ground... That thing costs over 1.2 million on the market, but that's the retail price. If we buy it ourselves, we can get it for under a million.]

[With the fact that we have a magic master like Medic who doesn't charge major fees like compilation and chip design, plus Ms. Saria's process optimization, we can probably get this equipment for around one million. The retail price would probably be well over three million.]

[As for Medic, that's impressive. New materials, new technologies, and heavy equipment specifically supplied to her... I didn't really care about Kal'tsit's claim of being 'Rhodes Island's last line of defense' before, but I only understood it after being in charge. With so much money poured in, coupled with an experienced magic master, it truly is the last line of defense... With her around, don't say things like it's dangerous for us to participate in high-risk missions; the purpose of an operator like her is to deal with high-risk missions...]

[Slightly off-topic. The equipment for Medic is actually hard to calculate, but excluding some special materials with unknown original prices, the total cost is roughly 38 million Lungmen Dollar... And if they fight at full strength, with four Tactical Unit deployed together... Medic operators can burn through 270,000 Lungmen Dollar in an hour!]

Seeing the expressions on the team chat channel as if they were breathing out cold air, as if the atmosphere had suddenly warmed up, Medic had to step in and explain:

[It's only that expensive if Tactical Unit are used, and if there's no intense combat, Tactical Unit also have an economic mode... it only costs about 40,000 Lungmen Dollar per hour.]

Huang: ['Only use'... Good Guy, you probably didn't use the economic mode in the previous exercise, no wonder Kal'tsit looked so grim... Oh, right, Su Sulo seems to know about our mission. Does anyone have any clues about it?]

Did any non-mission members become aware of this classified mission?

Just seeing this topic gave Medic a headache, and everyone in the team channel, including Typhon, a nobody, and Amiya, denied leaking the information.

Just as the mission team was frantically trying to figure out where things went wrong, Touch and Su Sulo suddenly found Medic.

But unlike what the Kitty Killer had imagined, Su Sulo came to find him... It was the Elite Operator Touch who spoke.

"Are you going to rescue that person?"

"That person... is..."

"Alright, stop pretending. This mission isn't hidden from the Elite Operator... all the captain-level personnel know about it..."

As he spoke, the Touch gestured to Su Sulo, who was spreading her hands in an innocent manner:

"Because we overreacted at the time, we accidentally let Su Sulo find out as well. There's nothing I can do. I'll be taking her with me until you leave... Su Sulo, please understand. This was my mistake, but it's also an administrative procedure that must be followed."

The pink- Little Fox understood, even though Su Sulo also complained to Nana about why Huang was taken along but not her.

After reassuring the Little Fox, a specialist in minimally invasive surgery, with the excuse that their expertise didn't match, Medic looked at Touch with suspicion:

"Everyone's reaction was very strong... right?"

"Ah... Medic, you're an operator from the post- Rhodes Island era, so you might not know... but actually, we... have complicated feelings towards that person... There's a lot of debate about whether or not to rescue the Doctor... After all... she's the 'Demon of Babel'."

PS: Waaaaaaah!

PS: Hmm, the estimate was very accurate... In the next chapter, after meeting the Elite Operator, we can set off.

The original plan was to bring FrostNova and the others along... but thinking about it, she hasn't joined Rhodes Island yet... but soon, FrostNova will have a role in this volume.

6th Patriot's Gun: 232 'Blessing'

The Doctor's reputation among Elite Operator is rather complex, which was a bit of a surprise to Medic... but Touch didn't come specifically to complain.

Regarding the numerous emotionally complex orders the Doctor issued during the Kazdel Civil War, and the question of whether or not to save Theresa, who is suspected of being involved in her death, the Touch describes how Ace and Scout defied the majority opinion during their internal meeting.

"If it weren't for the Doctor's command, His Highness would probably have been driven to the brink of destruction by those old fogies who live in the past at the very beginning of the war... This is an easy conclusion to reach if one thinks about it calmly."

"If Theresa built the ship that can carry us, then the Doctor is the captain who led us to where we are today. Plus, Minister Kal'tsit holds a lot of information about the Doctor..."

"Ah, I'm not complaining about Kal'tsit's mysticism, but there are many things in this world that are not meant for more people to know. Kal'tsit's secrecy means that the Doctor is involved in even deeper secrets, so whether out of emotion or reason, the Doctor is of great significance to Rhodes Island right now."

Although Medic couldn't quite discern Caprinae's expression—given his constant use of sunglasses and the fact that he was ten centimeters shorter than Medic—he felt the emotional resonance of Caprini's gentle pat on the shoulder and nodded earnestly.

"Special operations teams exist for this purpose; no matter what, we will hold out until we reach Rhodes Island."

"Ah, that will probably be our first time working together on the battlefield... Of course, personally, I'd prefer not to see anything too exciting."

As she spoke, Touch pulled up Su Sulo had been excluded from the operation due to her lack of professional expertise and appeared somewhat resigned to her fate, and gave her a salute to Medic:

"Also, ACE and the others dragged Huang away, saying they're going to give her personal belongings a complete upgrade... The Mechanist and other support staff are already quite familiar with the Doctor, so let's leave Huang's affairs to those guys who weren't able to participate personally and are somewhat unwilling to accept it. I won't bother you any longer."

Waving goodbye to the Touch and unhappy Su Sulo, Seia, who had just gone to prepare tea for the guests, came out with a tray:

"That person... has already left?"

"Hmm, Rhodes Island's Elite Operator don't seem to place as much emphasis on the Victoria -based social system as Columbia... You can be a bit more casual about it from now on."

Seeing Medic's assessment of her three-tiered tea and pastries, which she had prepared for quite some time without Nagisa's presence and only now barely looked presentable, Seia tilted her head and then pushed the black tea and pastries in front of Medic:

"I'll pass this information on to Nagisa... But Rhodes Island is busy too. I haven't had much time to talk to you, Nana, and it seems like you're leaving again... They said the future might change, but it seems like nothing has changed from the past."

"Was it like this in the past...?"

Watching the slender blonde girl carefully lift the teacup, which was far too hot for her, using her sleeve as a cushion, Seia's expression was complex as she looked at Nana's bewildered state, before she smiled slightly.

"No... In the past, we were always going out on missions for various field training exercises, while you were the one who stayed on the farm all the time... Later, because you were so idle, Mom... the researchers said they were getting creeped out by your stares, so later, under Diana's strong opposition, we started assigning you some less dangerous jobs."

"But without realizing it, it seems that the logistics for Mika, Mika's, and our team have gradually fallen to you."

As she spoke, Seia picked up a still-steaming cookie and took a small bite. In the girl's mind, she wondered if it tasted as good as the one made by Nagisa. At the same time, the blonde girl's gaze never left Medic.

The latter, also savoring the black tea that Lycoris and her companions seemed to have brought from school to Rhodes Island, and comparing it to the logistics of the team he was now equally concerned about, Medic's expression was slightly subtle:

"Sounds like I'm not exactly idle... Is this what I'm doing right now? Or has my life remained unchanged for the past few decades?"

"No, people themselves are actually quite difficult to change. What keeps changing is the environment around people. Only in order to adapt to that ever-changing future will people make changes."

Seeing the troubled Medic, Seia's expression turned slightly serious:

"If Nana, you really think this mission is important, then I..."

Before the blonde girl could speak, Nana pointed a finger at her lips.

'Don't say anymore,' Nana's meaning was clear: doctor

"Although I still don't quite grasp the medical records Dr. Kal'tsit wrote for you, Seia, you need to be aware that you were just pulled back from the brink of death... 'Prophecy' itself has various limitations, and if you rely on this ability, you won't even know if you're heading towards death... So, you don't need to, and absolutely shouldn't, use that again. This is 'medical advice'."

After finishing the fluffy cupcake in his hand, Medic unconsciously licked his lips, then glanced at Mika, who was fooling around with Typhon in the distance, and Nagisa, who was facepalming beside him.

"Although I'll be leaving by the day after tomorrow at the latest, it seems like only today that we've sat down and talked face-to-face since you left the ICU, Seia... But this won't be our last conversation, and the coffee shop isn't even open yet... We have plenty of time ahead of us, and with this mission, we'll meet again by the end of the year at the latest."

"So please wait for me a little while. Also, if you can, could you please look after the Rosemary for me..." - Mio

"You mean the child you adopted?"

"Adoption...her mother has always been with me...saying adoption isn't quite right..." Liu

After thinking for a while, Nana sighed helplessly. (Yo)

He was merely fulfilling a request he had made to a certain Feline girl at the entrance of the Laisenton Apartment safe house in 1991.

Even her eyes stayed with her, always watching the Little Cat, right up to this day.

Waving goodbye to everyone at the coffee shop, he figured that the guy he was most worried about in the team should be fine now, thanks to the care of the former Lycoris team.

Medic can finally get back to his own business.

With two empty 'Silver Dancer' pistols, not even magazines in their holsters, under his armpits, Rhino Revolver given to him by the priest in his right thigh holster, also without any ammunition, and a compact M1911 always in a ready-to-fire position in his back holster, Medic found the church on Rhodes Island.

Located on the middle deck of the Landship between the public and medical areas, this space occupies six public lounges, spanning two floors (three above and three below).

The ceiling was much higher than in a normal cabin, giving one the illusion that they had actually arrived at a monastery rather than still being on Landship.

However, because the bell needs to be rung, and in order not to disturb the patients' rest and treatment, the entire chapel inside the Landship is surrounded by thick soundproofing material. Although it is much more spacious than a normal cabin due to its spatial design, a detailed calculation reveals that it is only slightly larger than a regular lounge.

Even those spaces were mostly filled with benches for ordinary patients and believers to use daily.

The key to making this place feel spacious and tranquil lies in the extensive use of openwork and the visual design that leads directly to the pulpit. This style of decoration is undoubtedly characteristic of Laterano.

The white stone bricks laid according to the specifications of the church, along with the walls of the same color, create a strong Laterano style, while the furniture and pulpit are simply decorated with dark solid wood.

The small, bronze monastery bell is placed in the corner where the soundproofing material is thickest, with sprigs of new green and crimson flowers adorning the flowerpot beneath it.

The ceiling lights mimicked sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows of a church, and an orange-haired Feline girl in a nun's habit was kneeling before the altar, praying intently... seemingly engaged in her own spiritual practice.

Looking at the Oripathy monitoring device on Mary's wrist, Medic had a complicated expression... Although Mary had experienced an acute Oripathy back in Ursus, the fact that she was wearing the monitoring device now meant that Mary condition had reached the intermediate stage, requiring more intensive treatment.

The cost of treatment at Rhodes Island is not much cheaper than at regular medical institutions, which would be a considerable burden for Sister Mary, who is supposed to adhere to the Law poverty.

I wonder what Laterano has planned...

Just as Medic was considering whether to go and ask Federico the Executor, Federico, dressed in his Executor uniform, quietly sat down two seats away from Medic.

Good afternoon, sister, may the Lord bless you.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Federico... when did you arrive?"

"I've always been here."

Because Medic looked completely puzzled, Federico had to offer an additional explanation:

"After concluding with Ms. Kal'tsit that Laterano would be forming a cooperative relationship with Rhodes Island, I was among the first batch of cooperative operators and am currently stationed at the Rhodes Island Monastery... Although this place is only a place for prayer and rest, and as a monastery it lacks an armory and related defense and logistical support systems, considering that it is located inside Landship and other infrastructure is already in place, the conditions are already a testament to Rhodes Island's sincerity. Therefore, I usually stay here to maintain order in the sanctuary."

"Answer complete. Now, question... Sister Nana Ivy is not a priestess like Sister Mary. As an operator similar to Executor, you must have another purpose in coming to the sanctuary today."

"I won't mention that you made me seem like I had ulterior motives... As for my purpose, I did have one..."

As he spoke, Medic slowly gestured to Federico with his holster and took out Firearms Arts from it:

"I'm here to maintain the weapons and prepare for the 'Blessing' ritual."