"Huff... huff..."
Only after Cassius's footsteps had completely faded did Lynn finally relax.
He collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath, every breath carrying the taste of blood and a burning pain in his lungs.
It seemed he was safe for now.
But he knew this had merely commuted his death sentence to a suspended one.
The threat posed by Cassius and the Sons of Medusa squad had to be eliminated completely.
For now, he had merely used the system's bizarre nature to temporarily create an unstable "cooperative" arrangement.
He struggled to his feet, bracing himself against the wall as he staggered toward the warehouse doors.
The moment he pushed them open, the junior officers and clerks waiting outside stared at him in surprise.
They had thought this mortal inspector, summoned alone by the sergeant, might never walk out of those doors again.
And considering the sergeant's shit-eating expression just now, what exactly had happened in the warehouse?
Lynn ignored their nosy gazes, merely lowering his head and haphazardly wiping the blood from his face with his sleeve.
Dragging his utterly exhausted body along, he left the Sons of Medusa's base one step at a time.
Beneath the Hive City's perpetually dim light, his retreating figure looked particularly frail, yet carried an indescribable calm that followed madness.
Upon returning to a temporary safe house, Lynn immediately used the system to send a message to Rena, who was hiding beneath the base to recover:
"The immediate crisis is over. Focus on recovering for now; I reached an agreement with the Space Marine and have to keep providing him with information."
Rena's reply remained succinct: [Received.]
Over the following days, Lynn slotted back into the terrifying war machine that was the Sons of Medusa like the most precise of gears.
He proved even more "efficient" than before.
Using Rena's special sensitivity to the Tyranid network, Lynn supplied Cassius's squad with one piece of Tyranid intelligence after another.
This intelligence pointed to Tyranid nodes of varying sizes, Genestealer Cult strongholds, or clusters of spore sacs about to hatch.
Like a blazing, efficient purifying flame, Cassius's squad swept through them one by one according to the intelligence.
The thunder of the Heavy Bolter, the shriek of melta beams, and the roar of flamethrowers rang out across the Hive City.
Cassius himself harbored extremely complicated feelings toward Lynn.
He honored their cooperative arrangement under that absurd "agreement," no longer targeting Rena directly-or rather, temporarily moving her down his list of priorities.
He also accepted and acted on the intelligence Lynn provided.
But in private, the two barely exchanged a word.
Cassius always looked at Lynn with scrutiny, wariness, and a trace of barely perceptible "awkwardness."
Everything that had happened that night occasionally stirred an indescribable irritation in him.
The same was true of Lynn.
Especially as the number and efficiency of their missions continued to rise.
Cassius's affection kept increasing.
Affection was a seriously uncanny thing, because it worked both ways.
In other words, Lynn's "affection" for Cassius would keep increasing too.
After staring at Cassius's gleaming bald head for long enough, Lynn even felt that something different was about to stir in his heart.
That absolutely could not happen!
Although, in a sense, all these tin cans counted as virgins in Lynn's eyes.
But I, Lynn, am a warrior of pure love. I am absolutely faithful to Rena!
So Cassius absolutely cannot be allowed to stay!
Whenever he saw Cassius looking at him with the same awkward gaze, Lynn knew the other man was thinking the same thing.
Ah, what a star-crossed pair we are!
To stop this inappropriate romantic storyline from developing any further, Lynn simply stopped pretending.
He was going to rapidly increase Rena's strength!
He no longer hid from the Sons of Medusa, instead using their power to frantically weaken the other Tyranid forces.
At the same time, he seized time and resources for himself and Rena to develop!
So whenever Cassius's squad finished a purge, leaving Tyranid remains and biomass strewn across the ground.
Lynn would "happen" to lead his patrol team over to handle perimeter security and the initial battlefield cleanup.
The Sons of Medusa had no objections. Dealing with remains was tedious and "inefficient" work anyway, perfect for leaving to mortals.
What they did not know was that Lynn's "cleanup" was essentially Rena's all-you-can-eat buffet.
He selected almost exclusively the best, most energy-rich "essence"-the parts most helpful to Rena's recovery and growth.
He had the swarms Rena dispatched collect them and bring them back to the base for her to devour.
Meanwhile, he led his patrol team on "diligent" patrols around the perimeter, when in reality he was standing guard while Rena's "takeout" was packed up.
This business of hiding almost in plain sight was extremely risky, but the returns were enormous too.
Nourished by high-quality biomass, Rena's injuries healed at an astonishing speed.
More importantly, her strength began to soar at an unprecedented rate.
On Lynn's system interface, after the number representing Rena's affection had spent a long time inching upward.
With Lynn's almost "extravagant" investment of resources during this period and their experience of "sharing hardships" (although Lynn had suffered most of those hardships).
It finally reached what Lynn had hoped for.
[Rena's affection +0.1] [Current affection: 30 (a possibly trustworthy (?) special symbiotic unit)]
The instant her affection crossed the thirty-point threshold, a new system notification arrived:
[Total available skill points: 3]
Three skill points!
Those three skill points had been anything but easy to earn. Ever since her affection rose above zero, getting that number to change had become extremely difficult.
There was no telling how much Lynn had given to earn those thirty points of affection.
Lynn stared at the ferocious yet beautiful portrait of Rena as a Tyranid warrior on the system interface without the slightest hesitation.
Put every point into the "personal path"!
What he wanted was neither swarm tactics (the development path) nor the art of command (the tactical path).
What he most urgently needed now was a "top-tier individual combatant" who could meet the enemy head-on at a critical moment, and perhaps even work miracles!
A "trump card" capable of opposing, or even threatening, Cassius's squad!
[Skill points invested: 3 → "Personal" skill tree.] Core skill unlocked: [Shapeshifter Armor].
The instant the skill took effect, Rena, recovering far away in a concealed fault somewhere deep within the Hive City, let out a low, pleased hiss.
The dark purple carapace covering her body began to undergo subtle changes.
Its color grew deeper and more subdued, while the texture and reflective properties of its surface began to adaptively adjust.
[Shapeshifter Armor] effect: adaptively evolves camouflaged chitinous armor best suited to current needs according to the surrounding environment. Current enhancement direction: "concealment" against the Sons of Medusa.