The Heartthrob Guide: Dodder of S-Class Sentinels

Chapter 225 The Out-of-Control Town

"Parasitic reaction ruled out, but the pollution concentration exceeds the standard, and the rate of transformation is accelerating—immediately transfer to the evacuation room!"

"There's no potential risk here either, quickly get him to the evacuation room!"

"I'm experiencing the same thing!"

"Wounded soldier number 3 has already started to mutate, is it too late?"

"This level of pollution would cause the guides to collectively suffer a mental shock..."

"I can't worry about that now, let's try it first! If it really doesn't work..."

When Lin Nan arrived at the quarantine zone with the other guides, the sight before her made her gasp for breath—

Under the stark white light, more than a dozen sentries were strapped to specially made hospital beds. Beneath their skin, something seemed to writhe, and bluish-black veins spread across their bodies like a spiderweb. The wounded soldier closest to the door was convulsing violently; his fingernails had transformed into sharp, black bone claws, scraping against the metal bed frame with a piercing sound.

These symptoms are exactly the same as those of the sentry during the day.

The air was thick with the acrid smell of a collapsing mental landscape, mixed with the stench of blood and a strange, sweet, metallic scent. Several guides stood on the periphery, their faces deathly pale as they watched the people inside. Despite their best efforts to remain composed, people still occasionally staggered backward from the mental pressure.

The guides in Granville, before the division, were all children from commoner areas. Unlike the noble guides in the central region who were pampered, the people here clearly did not receive the same preferential treatment.

Lin Nan used her mental energy to scan the area. Including herself, there were only five guides here, with an average mental energy level of A-. One of them was not even at level A, which should be said to be B+.

Judging from their ages, they are mostly in their thirties or forties. If we consider that guides typically graduate from college at 16 and are assigned jobs the following year, then these people would have nearly twenty years of work experience. After all these years, they have barely managed to climb to position A.

"There's no need to go to the counseling room; we'll get treatment here."

At this moment, it was an older woman who spoke. She was the oldest and highest-ranking among the guides. Lin Nan had read the information about the guides in the tower last night. She was Su Ping, the head of the medical team here.

Her attitude towards work was more serious and experienced than any guide Lin Nan had ever seen. Soon, the wounded who were crowded together in the isolation room were divided into several groups. Some were slightly injured, some were seriously injured and needed treatment, and some had already mutated and needed human intervention. They were isolated in a corner with added mental restraint.

Lin Nan consciously walked towards the mutated sentinels, but was stopped halfway.

"The newcomer is going to the minor injury area. She has no experience and will only cause trouble!" Ms. Su Ping noticed Lin Nan and shooed her to the easiest place, while she herself went to the most serious area alone.

Lin Nan looked at her quietly. This person was clearly the oldest, but her figure was the smallest. She could sense the hidden kindness in the other person's harsh words.

This was a feeling Lin Nan had never experienced since coming into this world.

She hurriedly caught up with her and explained from behind, "Team leader, actually I'm not very good at mental healing and repair. I'm better at shielding. Let me work with you."

Ms. Su Ping seemed surprised. This time, she looked Lin Nan up and down very carefully, then nodded and said, "Follow me."

Lin Nan followed Su Ping into the corner where the restraints had been added.

Caesar was also inside. The man was wearing a military uniform, his tall body like an impenetrable wall, the crisp uniform stretched taut by his taut muscles, creating sharp lines.

This was the first time Lin Nan had seen Caesar at work, and he was secretly shocked. The majestic golden lion was roaring as it pinned several sentries on the verge of going berserk against the wall. Metal shackles materialized with his mental power, and with a few crisp clicks, the black binding rings precisely fastened to the necks, hands, and feet of each mutant.

The shadow beneath the man's brow bone was sharp as a knife. He gripped the chin of a mutating sentinel with one hand, and under the cold white light, the veins on his forearm bulged sharply: "Pupils unfocused, first stage of mutation, prepare sedatives."

His voice was deep and resonant, like sandpaper scraping against metal, completely unlike the lazy, clingy manner he had been just moments before.

Everyone present was afraid of such a person, and Lin Nan frowned unconsciously.

Perhaps he caught her scent, Caesar turned around, momentarily lost in thought under the spotlight, before wagging his tail and coming over: "Baby~ Didn't I tell you to wait in the room?"

His slurred voice sent shivers down the spines of everyone present, especially the medical staff who were administering sedatives to the wounded, who nearly punctured the wrong vein.

"Just keep them under control, don't be too rough," Lin Nan patted the man's head and whispered to comfort him, "They're all colleagues."

"Hmph, they're just a bunch of bugs!" Caesar said stubbornly as he bent down to enjoy being stroked.

“It’s not them, it’s you.” Lin Nan ruffled his sweaty red hair helplessly, and when her fingertips brushed against the back of his neck, she could clearly feel his tense muscles trembling slightly. “Haven’t you noticed that you’re getting more and more anxious?”

"..."

This time, Caesar remained silent, burying his head in Lin Nan's neck as if only by smelling her scent could he dispel the faint, almost imperceptible, rage within him.

The abnormalities in this city seem to be getting increasingly out of control.

Kaiser himself admitted that he had been in a state of anxiety every day since he arrived here.

At first, they dealt with ordinary people, but later even the sentries in the tower started to act strangely.

"Alright, let's get back to work." Su Ping had been observing the interaction between Lin Nan and Caesar. As an elder in the tower, she naturally understood the relationship between the two.

However, she did not express any opinion. Instead, she went straight to the injured. Three mental barriers unfolded from her thin fingertips without warning, their power so strong that Lin Nan and the vines all trembled.

[What an amazing auntie!]

[Just like the boss, he's a control-type guide.]

【Awesome! Awesome!】

Control and psychological suggestion are the most distinctive characteristics of control-oriented guides.

Their spiritual tendrils are like invisible threads, precisely piercing the restless mental landscape of the sentinels. Unlike the soothing comfort of healing guides, the methods of control guides often carry a sharp sense of oppression—like carving boiling magma with an ice pick, or putting a metal bit on an out-of-control wild horse.

In routine consultations, healing guides are indeed more popular, but as the Sentinels' levels increase and their contamination levels become more severe, the drawbacks of healing guides gradually become apparent.

(End of this chapter)