Michael gazed at the sky. It seed divided in two, with his position marking the midline.
To his right, the sky was a deep, profound blue, sparsely decorated with a sliver of a crescent moon and a few scattered stars.
On the other side, the clouds were tinged a golden yellow. The nearby sea shimred with matching scales of light. The tiny Jinwu—the mythical sun-bird of Chinese legend, often depicted as a three-legged crow—was hidden within the rising and falling steel forest of the city. Even though it had pierced the thick curtain of clouds, it was destined to remain unseen by Michael.
But that didn't matter.
Simply gazing at the sky like this allowed him to recall many things—and forget many others. It granted him a fleeting mont of absolute tranquility.
Michael slowly closed his eyes. The cartoon image of the bee and bear flickered across his mind once more. This ti, though, the thought wasn't laden with desire. Instead, he tried to analyze his own shifting emotions.
It was necessary.
He couldn't guarantee that the Honkai wouldn't subtly influence him. He was, after all, a traitorous Herrscher. And recently, he'd noticed changes in his personality.
Most of the ti, he was his usual self. But sotis, he grew impulsive. His needless obsessions and desires beca more intense, reminding him of who he'd been before transmigrating.
Was it because he'd grown complacent from too much peace?
Michael grew wary.
"Squad Leader."
Sakura leaned against the door fra, her gaze complex.
"Awake?"
It was obviously a rhetorical question, but Sakura still nodded seriously.
Perhaps sensing the awkward atmosphere, Michael added, "I already gave our location to Captain Hiko last night. Once Imr gets the new drones, they can airdrop us new equipnt. Sakura, you're still an ordinary person. I'll get you out of here first."
Sakura remained silent for a mont before responding. "Squad Leader, you know I'm carrying out the (cocoon)Chrysalis's mission... And you also know what that mission is."
"Isn't it just to monitor and kill if I risk losing control? Anything else?"
Michael turned to look at her. Her cheeks weren't as thin as he rembered, still carrying a touch of youthful roundness. She held her chin in her hand, looking at him apologetically.
Before she could say anything, Michael spoke first. "You want to ask why I saved you? Simple. During the previous assassination attempts, whether you could actually kill or not, at least you held back. That's your own good karma. Nothing more."
"But that's also your good karma..." Sakura murmured. The rest of her words were scattered by the morning sea breeze.
She suddenly frowned. "Squad Leader, you just said you'd get out first. What about you? Are you going to hunt the Yaksha alone?"
"Do I look that stupid?" Michael rolled his eyes.
He did have a limited Honkai energy sensing ability, but it wasn't anywhere near Kevin's level, which could cover hundreds of kiloters. Finding the Yaksha would be incredibly difficult.
Of course, once he contacted Imr, they could probably use the squad's large detector to search. But Michael had noticed yesterday that the Honkai energy within three blocks was concentrated at several points, each with a similar density. It was impossible to tell which one held the big guy.
This was a classic counter-reconnaissance tactic. It just went to show that the Honkai beasts were getting smarter.
Besides...
"Why bother looking for it if I want to kill the Yaksha? I just have to wait until nightfall, act like I'm alone, and wait for it to take the bait. Oh, and rember to tell Captain Hiko this idea when we get back. After all, only a genius like could co up with such a brilliant plan! Hahaha!"
Sakura didn't laugh at Michael's forcedly lighthearted joke.
She rubbed her brow with her fingers, smoothing out the frown lines. But as soon as she removed her hand, they reappeared. Her hand hovered awkwardly in mid-air.
"Are you... going to look for the humans still living in the blocks?" she asked after a pause.
Michael nodded. It wasn't sothing he needed to hide, and he didn't think Sakura would fail to guess.
"I'll go with you."
Michael looked at her in surprise.
"My mission is to monitor you and prevent you from losing control. Naturally, I can't let you out of my sight." Sakura deliberately put on an official air, eting Michael's gaze impassively.
Unexpectedly, Michael readily agreed. "Fine!"
Sakura blinked, her fingers instinctively reaching for her waist, only to find emptiness there.
Michael glanced at her. "Don't worry. Imr probably wouldn't forget to give you a knife."
Just as he finished speaking, the noisy drone of a UAV ca from the western sky.
Half an hour later, Michael looked at Sakura, yawning and holding dual pistols.
He shook his head. "Uh... I didn't think he'd actually forget..."
"It's fine. But Squad Leader, don't you need a weapon?"
"Do I need a weapon?"
Sakura tilted her head, thinking for a mont. It seed he didn't.
"Squad Leader," Imr's voice crackled through the drone. "I wanted to airdrop a sword, but the drone couldn't carry the weight... By the way, follow this road. After the traffic light, turn right at the first alley, and go straight. The large building at the end is where the humans are hiding."
"Okay," Michael replied casually.
Following Imr's instructions, he turned into the alley. The drone hovered overhead, quietly monitoring their surroundings.
"Squad Leader, soone on the roof is watching you."
"Ignore him."
"There's a gap in the wall on the first floor ahead... Um, Squad Leader, they seem to have an ambush on the first floor."
"Ignore them."
Like a clueless newbie, Michael charged straight through the large hole in the wall. Sakura quickly followed behind.
The mont he stepped halfway inside, guns were pressed against both of his temples. Sakura, right behind him, imdiately aid her pistols to either side.
But more people erged. So even jumped down from the second-floor windows, blocking their retreat.
The group consisted of n and won, mostly young and middle-aged. Aside from the first two firearms, the rest carried baseball bats, shovels, pipes, and small knives.
They were all emaciated, without exception. Their exposed skin was covered in thick gri. On closer inspection, the gri-free areas were a sickly pale, and many had purple veins crawling up their arms.
Despite the guns pressed against his head, Michael remained calm.
His gaze passed over the crowd, landing on the man at the back who seed to be the leader.
The man wore a coat draped over his shoulders, one hand clutching the lapels. Sunglasses hid his eyes, and his gaunt cheeks made his cheekbones look sharp. A ssy, long beard jutted out, resembling a piece of dried ran that had exploded.
"Let's make a bet. Just for a dollar."
The leader-like man paused. "Bet on what?"
"I bet there are no bullets in their guns," Michael said casually.
Sakura, behind him, saw clearly that after Michael spoke, his earlobes turned red. She couldn't tell if he was holding back laughter or feeling deeply ashad.
She bit her lip, using all her strength to suppress the urge to burst out laughing.
The leader-like man chuckled, reaching a hand from under his coat to adjust it as he leaned against the wall.
Michael noticed his movents. He only had one hand.
"Are you with the United Governnt?" the man asked.
"More or less," Michael replied.
"Hmph! With drones and all this high-tech equipnt, who would believe you if you said you weren't?" The young man in red holding a gun next to Michael glared with distrust.
"I don't know if you've heard of Fire Moth," Michael began. "The official explanation is that it's a mobile response unit for special disasters. Of course, in reality, it's for dealing with situations like this."
The leader-like man raised an eyebrow. "You're not with the Ruruye City Hall?"
"Boss, don't trust him!" The young man in red barked. "They're all United Governnt departnts; they must be connected!"
"Actually, no." Michael spread his hands, a gesture that startled the two n holding guns beside him. They quickly stepped back.
"Fire Moth is only responsible for dealing with those monsters outside," Michael continued, his tone calm. "And of course, people like you—Honkai sickness sufferers."
"Anyone who stops us from dealing with the Honkai, regardless of who they are—even Ruruye's city officials—will be eliminated."
Michael scanned the group. He noticed their expressions didn't change much when he ntioned "Honkai sickness." It seed they knew sothing about the truth.
When they heard "Ruruye's city officials," more than half of the group started breathing heavily, their faces filled with resentnt. This reaction matched Michael's guess.
The leader-like man asked, "Was the commotion last night caused by you?"
"Yeah. We ran into a Honkai beast that looked like a moth and fought it."
"?"
All eyes focused on him instantly, their stares intense enough to make Michael's scalp tingle.
"You escaped from it unscathed?" the leader asked urgently.
"We killed it once."
Michael had wanted to say this outright, but as the words reached his lips, he hesitated. They wouldn't necessarily believe him. So, he softened his response to a casual, "Yeah."
Even that caused an uproar in the crowd. Their expressions ranged from suspicion to a mix of admiration and wariness.
The young man who had spoken first narrowed his eyes. "Impossible! Only three of you entered the blocks yesterday. How could three people deal with that kind of monster?"
Michael shrugged. "We've undergone professional training. We were... well, we were born to deal with monsters like that.
"Did you hear about the news a few months ago about Irkutsk being hit by a cot? The actual situation there was much worse than here, and I was there. Only three of the twenty people in our squad survived. The pink-haired girl you saw yesterday and I are two of them."
The crowd fell silent. Slowly, their gazes shifted to the leader.
The leader remained quiet for a few seconds before pulling a coin from his coat. With a flick of his left hand, he tossed it in the air.
The coin landed at Michael's feet.
"You were right," the leader said, a small smile forming. "There are no bullets in their guns."
He straightened and added, "My na is Harris. Welco to the Tower."
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