Honey Badger

The S-rank male guide from Northern Dipper District who had competed with Luo Ruzhuo and the others for the bracelet had already boarded his aircraft. But then he heard that the Lin Family had invited another S-rank guide over. He made a point of asking for the guide's name, and immediately changed his mind. He wasn't leaving!

As it happened, the other guide from Northern Dipper District whom the Lin Family had invited was his mortal enemy.

The more he thought about it, the more it bothered him. The Lin Family had persuaded him to leave, only to invite his mortal enemy. Why?

By now, he had unconsciously overlooked the fact that he was the one who had offered to leave in the first place. All he could think about was getting the better of his imagined rival.

And so, the S-rank male guide quietly slipped into the containment facility in the middle of the night.

He had made up his mind to purify the SS-rank sentinel before his rival arrived, making the other guide's trip a waste.

But the moment his mental power touched that mental barrier, it was as if he had slammed into an iron wall forged from magma.

It burned! His whole body felt as though it had been set on fire!

He had only touched it for an instant, but the boundless pollution within the wall immediately surged back along the mental tendrils he had extended.

Before he could even withdraw them, a muffled boom rang out in his mental domain. It was as if a ball of intense flame had fallen from a great height and crashed into the deepest reaches of his consciousness. In an instant, his mental domain became a sea of fire.

Agony exploded through him.

The guide's vision abruptly went black, and the world shattered into countless specks of static. His ears buzzed incessantly, as though someone were beating a drum inside his skull.

"Help..." he called out instinctively, but his voice was as faint as a mosquito's. It echoed through the silent, deserted containment room before quickly fading away.

It wasn't until early the next morning that a cleaning robot found the guide unconscious on the floor. It hurriedly notified the Firmament Squad and urgently summoned everyone over.

As soon as they arrived, they sent the guide to the infirmary. Then they watched the surveillance footage of the whole incident, and were left speechless.

The harm suffered by the S-rank guide aside, there was something worse. After being stimulated by the unfamiliar guide's mental power, their captain was now almost unable to keep it suppressed!

The sentinel confined inside the special suppression glass cage was now completely unrecognizable as a human, having fully mutated into the form of a dragon.

Its body was covered in pitch-black scales that gleamed coldly. A gash had opened along its back, and dark red flames were pouring out. Fire spread along its spine and soon engulfed its entire body. Scorching air streamed through the gaps between its scales, warping even the air inside the cage.

Its thick tail slammed into the inner wall of the suppression cage with a muffled boom. The glasslike wall dented inward on impact, then sprang back.

Its enormous body charged the cage wall again and again. The ground shook with every collision, and flames scattered, sizzling against the walls. It clawed restlessly at the ground beneath it, its black talons making a piercing scraping sound as its tail lashed back and forth.

The Firmament Squad members frowned and looked toward the young man in the middle. "Vice captain! We can't go on like this. When will the other S-rank guide get here?"

Lin Sheng immediately glanced at the schedule on his optical computer. "This afternoon at the earliest. Quick, inject the captain with all the Guide Element currently stored in the Black Tower!"

Guide Element was a secretion from a gland unique to guides. As a physical medium for a mental link, it could soothe a sentinel's Mental Entity and purify pollution regardless of rank restrictions. It took a guide about a month to produce one vial, making it extremely precious.

There were only five guides currently working at the Black Tower in War Zone A, even counting the newly arrived Luo Ruzhuo. At present, only four vials of Guide Element remained.

All four vials of Guide Element were injected, but the dragon's condition inside the cage showed no improvement whatsoever.

Luo Ruzhuo had just finished her afternoon purification work.

The sentinel who had come in today had a honey badger as his Mental Entity. The little thing had a foul temper and bit anyone it could get at. Beneath its flat little bangs were a pair of round, defiant eyes that made it look ready to pick a fight at any moment.

The sentinel himself was just like his Mental Entity.

He had a buzz cut and defiant features. His eyes were quite distinctive, like the "broadsword eyes" Luo Ruzhuo had seen in old comics: narrow at the inner corners and tilted upward at the outer corners, each eye curving like the edge of a blade, sharp and striking.

His pollution level was as high as 95%, and his tailbone had already mutated into the shape of his Mental Entity's tail. A thick, short tail swished impatiently behind him, while his broadsword eyes were full of irritability and hostility.

He slammed the door with a thunderous bang as soon as he came in.

"Hey! Murderer guide, can you even purify me?" Broadsword Eyes shot her a sidelong look, sounding as though he had come looking for trouble. "If you can't, hurry up and get back to prison. Don't hog the latrine without taking a shit."

Luo Ruzhuo remained seated. She looked up at him and said evenly, "Whether I can or not, you'll find out if you try."

She pushed the equipment to the edge of the desk and gestured toward it with her chin. "Here. Put it on yourself, then sit on the sofa."

The way she said "here" was like calling a dog.

The buzz-cut sentinel's mouth twitched, but he held back. There was a surveillance camera right above them, and he wasn't stupid enough to start a fight under it.

He reluctantly went through the procedure. The handcuffs clicked shut, and the muzzle enclosed the lower half of his face. Even so, he couldn't resist speaking up.

"I'm going to release my Mental Entity." His voice came through the metal mesh, slightly muffled and distorted. "If you're a coward, stay back. I won't be responsible if someone gets hurt."

As soon as he finished speaking, a distinctly black-and-white honey badger sprang out. The white fur running from the top of its head down its back always made Luo Ruzhuo imagine it wearing a cape.

Though small, the creature had a fierce gaze and thick, short, powerful claws. It bared its teeth, growled threateningly in its throat, and reared up in an attacking stance. An ordinary guide would probably have gone to check whether their compatibility rating was red and prepared to refuse purification.

Luo Ruzhuo hadn't seen many mutant beasts during the apocalypse, but every one of them had been fierce.

The one before her really couldn't frighten her.

Ping Tian had been ready to scare her to tears, but the girl calmly walked up to his Mental Entity. There wasn't a trace of fear on her face. Instead, she looked at it with a measure of appraisal and curiosity.

That made all the words he had prepared catch in his throat.

"Hey! What are you looking at..." Before he finished, he saw the girl touch his Mental Entity. At that very moment, a wave of mental power, warm as the sun, suddenly entered his mental domain.

Like a long-dried riverbed welcoming flowing water once more, Ping Tian felt as though he were taking a nap in the afternoon sun, warmth radiating through his body.

His eyelids grew heavier and heavier. The last thing he saw was the girl with her eyes closed, her face serene like a tranquil, all-embracing sea.

Unexpectedly, entering his mental domain wasn't particularly difficult. But once she actually stepped inside, the sight made Luo Ruzhuo frown.

It was a battlefield.

Remains lay scattered in every direction, stretching to the edge of her vision. The faces of these corpses had been blurred beyond recognition by time or pollution. They all wore the same black uniform, and the designs on their armbands were very similar. They were probably members of the same squad.

Black pollution, like a swarm of writhing insects, covered the remains, gnawing away at the remnants of their bodies bit by bit.

What kind of decent person had a mass grave in their mental domain? She really disliked a scene like this.

Frowning, Luo Ruzhuo purified most of the pollution on them, then piled the bodies on the ground together one by one.

Then, pinching her nose, she picked a patch of soft ground nearby, dug a pit, and buried all the bodies in it. After filling it in, she hopped lightly on top and ground it down with her feet to make sure the soil was packed tight. Only then did she leave, satisfied.

The whole purification process was quick, taking only a little over ten minutes or so.

When Ping Tian opened his eyes, his thoughts were still somewhat scattered, as if someone had forcibly woken him from an afternoon nap. He had only just begun to feel sleepy, and then that comforting power had disappeared.

He still looked a little dazed.

Without so much as glancing at the sentinel on the sofa, Luo Ruzhuo took out the purification device and ran a scan.

The detector gave a clear chime. She glanced at the screen and promptly began sending him away.

"Your pollution level has dropped to 65%. The purification is over. You can leave now."

Luo Ruzhuo stepped forward to remove his restraints, and the sentinel suddenly sat up straight.

His build was completely out of keeping with his Mental Entity. A creature as short and ill-tempered as a honey badger corresponded to this tall, silent body. Luo Ruzhuo felt a great shadow fall over her, and even the air seemed to be squeezed away a little.

"I'm sorry." Ping Tian's apology was straightforward and decisive. "I hope you can forgive me for offending you just now."

Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, as though he already knew her answer wouldn't be anything pleasant, he reached out and wrapped his arms around Luo Ruzhuo's waist without waiting for her reply. He lowered his head slightly, bringing it close to her ear.

His embrace was restrained, his hands resting only lightly on her.

But Luo Ruzhuo's expression had already turned completely unfriendly.

Three, two, one. She thought that if he still hadn't let go by the time she counted to one, she would teach this sentinel, who had been baffling from start to finish, a lesson even under the surveillance camera.

She had only just counted to three when the sentinel spoke without prompting.

"Be careful of Fang Squad." His voice was very soft, as though squeezed out of his chest. "They were the ones who booked me an appointment with you and told me to cause trouble."

Luo Ruzhuo froze.

Who was that?

She had no information about that squad in her mind.

Ping Tian's mouth twisted into a mocking smile. When he spoke again, his voice was somewhat muffled. "Sorry. My pollution level is very high because all my teammates died on this last mission. I was the only one who came out alive."

He hadn't actually intended to live either.

Ping Tian had been wallowing in despair for some time. He had still been drinking heavily when they came to him.

He hadn't expected Luo Ruzhuo to actually purify him. When the people from Fang Squad had approached him, they had sworn she was a good-for-nothing who committed every kind of evil, used her awakening as a guide to escape punishment, and didn't actually do anything.

So Ping Tian had accepted the task of causing trouble.

He knew he shouldn't take his anger out on guides as a whole.

But he couldn't help thinking that his teammates' pollution levels had already been very high. If only a guide had purified them a little before the mission.

Just a little, even if it had only been 5%... then they wouldn't have died from complete mutation at 100% pollution.

Who would have thought that a guide Fang Squad had condemned so thoroughly would actually purify him with such care, even when he had treated her badly?

As a guide, she could have refused.

"I'm sorry." Ping Tian apologized again, his tone sincere. "If you ever need me to do anything in the future, whatever it is, I'll do it for you."

With that, the sentinel released his arms from around Luo Ruzhuo. He placed his fist across his chest and gave her a salute.

Luo Ruzhuo: ...

Since he had gone that far and provided some information, although it was all very baffling, she let it go for the sake of his willingness to admit he was wrong.

"All right." Luo Ruzhuo nodded. "I forgive you for offending me."

He got up without saying anything else, went to the washroom to wash the blood from his face, and straightened his clothes before leaving.

Luo Ruzhuo also went to wash her neck. The sentinel speaking beside her ear just now had made it a little itchy. She had just closed the door to the purification room when she heard a communication alert from her optical computer.

The message was brief. In short, it said that she had been at the Black Tower for a full month and her Mental Entity had hatched, so she needed to donate her Guide Element.

Thanks to Big Yellow spending all day in the dormitory telling her about sentinels and guides, she was no longer a complete novice who knew nothing.

She knew what Guide Element was.