Love, Gun, Cupid

"Um...can someone help me?"

He called for help on the public channel, but didn't hold out much hope, because he saw the pale blue shield above his head disappear. This meant the Stonewall defense system had collapsed, and now everyone was fighting for themselves; who had time to care about him?

The young man stared nervously at the pale-skinned woman. He was currently unable to move and was the perfect target. However, the pale-skinned woman also seemed to be quite exhausted. She looked at Lin Jiade for a few seconds, gave a few instructions to Buck beside her, and then disappeared.

The fact that she didn't make a move despite having such a good opportunity shows how weak the pale-skinned woman is. Lin Jiade felt that if he tried his best, he might actually be able to fight her... provided that he was willing to make a move.

There is no room for wasting manpower on the battlefield. Soon, the 19th District team came to rescue Lin Jiade. There were only two of them left, and they were not in good condition, but they still used professional tools to rescue Lin Jiade.

"Thanks, bro."

Lin Jiade climbed out of the mecha, ready to rejoin his team for a big battle, when he heard someone behind him ask, "Are you still using this mecha?"

"It wasn't even mine to begin with, and this is my first time driving it... Can it still be fixed?"

“We were just about to give it a try,” the other person chuckled. “Its turret wasn’t completely destroyed, so it might still be of some use.”

Lin Jiade nodded and jumped off the spider-shaped mech. The moment he landed, he saw Buck rushing towards him.

"You've come at the perfect time!"

Traitors are more hateful than enemies. Lin Jiade was instantly engulfed by a furious aura. Jianlan wanted to persuade him to save his precious energy to deal with the Azure Woman, but it seemed that without defeating Buck, there was no way to cause trouble for the Azure Woman. So she turned to assist Lin Jiade.

Lin Jiade first drew his pistol and fired. His aim was poor to begin with, but Buck didn't know this, so it changed from running in a straight line to dodging left and right, greatly reducing its speed. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Lin Jiade pulled out a talisman and shouted, "One cut in two..."

Buck had seen Lin Jiade fight with a longsword, so he had a sense of the attack range of Lin Jiade's weapon. The moment the talisman lit up, he leaped up and pounced on Lin Jiade's head.

Unexpectedly, Lin Jiade stopped halfway through reading his statement, raised his arm to activate the Thunder Magic, and a bright stream of light enveloped Buck's body, which soon burst into flames.

Last month, he could only maintain his lightning spell for three seconds. Now, relying solely on his own energy reserves, Lin Jiade maintained it for ten seconds. Amidst the lightning, Buck jumped, crashed, rolled, and howled, black blood seeping from his torn wounds.

Sword Orchid drew energy from the Amanda Stone reserves and injected it into Lin Jiade's body. Lin Jiade was about to use electroshock therapy again to take away the traitor, but Sword Orchid stopped him and said, "No, his body is rapidly regenerating and has acquired the characteristic of resistance to lightning magic. I'm afraid lightning magic can no longer harm him."

"The ability to not be defeated by the same attack a second time?" Lin Jiade looked down at his clothes. "Who is the real Saint Seiya anyway?"

He repeated the declaration, intending to plunge his sword into Buck's heart to end the fight in the most economical way. However, Buck's body repaired itself first, and when Lin Jiade's blade struck its body, it left only a shallow mark.

"Tsk."

Lin Jiade retreated. Due to Buck's characteristics, he dared not use magic easily. However, the magic that Jianlan was confident of killing Buck with one blow would require consuming half of the energy reserves of Lin Jiade's Gold Cloth.

Clearly, this is a very poor value choice, but the longer they linger here, the greater the chance the pale-faced woman will recover, not to mention...

Lin Jiade looked around. Yuki and Xingjian Feiyu were barely holding off 93's attacks together. Mumian was already at a disadvantage in her one-on-one fight with ?. Arcturus was bleeding profusely. ?'s vicious moves had crippled her fighting ability from the start.

If we delay any longer, everyone will die.

Lin Jiade feared death, and even more so, he feared that those he knew would die before him, which meant that he would inevitably die alone in the end. Thinking of this, he made up his mind and looked at Jianlan. Jianlan understood his thoughts and asked, "In order to defeat the final enemy, there is actually another choice."

"Sacrificing everyone who's protecting me right now? No, I can't do that. Jianlan, let's hurry up and finish this off, then we'll take down the final boss."

“Actually, you have another option,” Buck said. “The reason I betrayed you is because someone showed me a false secret. If you had seen it, I believe you would have made the same choice as me.”

“Then I wouldn’t have watched it in the first place!” Lin Jiade replied.

As the Gladiolus weaves its spell, the energy around Lin Jiade suddenly surges. Buck crouches low and then lunges at Lin Jiade, intending to bite off his throat before the deadly spell is completed.

Just then, a syringe flew by, and an orange-yellow wall rose up, separating Lin Jiade and Buck. Both opposing sides simultaneously stopped moving and looked in the direction from which the syringe had come.

“Mr. Lao Can!” Lin Jiade exclaimed in surprise.

Lao Can and his squad entered the battlefield. He stretched out his palm and injected the compound potion into the bodies of the Kapok Squad members, repairing their wounds, replenishing their energy, and increasing their nerve excitability. Through his magic, Lin Jiade felt that he had fully recovered his vitality and was even stronger than before.

“Go, the fragments of souls will always attract each other, and the same name can only accommodate one self. You and Gladiolus of the Baker Street Squad are destined to fight. Either she will destroy the lady beside you, or the lady beside you will replace her,” Lao Can said.

Lin Jiade nodded, and Lao Can pointed in a direction—the only three-story building standing in the ruins of the town, which was Robinson's former residence.

"Go, and hopefully you can end this nightmare."

Lao Can's team took over the area from the Kapok Squad and stopped Gabak, one of the two members of the Baker Street Squad. The Kapok Squad then regrouped and headed in the direction Lao Can had indicated.

Previously, the Baker Street squad, who had been watching the handover between the two squads with great interest, launched a renewed offensive. 93's bowstring vibrated incessantly, and the arrow appeared and disappeared intermittently, while Buck lunged at Old Man Can.

After Lao Can dodged to the side, he said, "Why betray the ship that was destined to perish?"

Chapter 106 Worms: Secrets

“Because the ship I was on was filthy, absolutely filthy!” Buck replied.

"Is it dirty? I don't think so," Lao Can replied.

Buck let out a howl and said, "Because I loved it, I find it utterly filthy. Perhaps you Imperial agents are so used to working in filthy environments that you don't notice anything."

Having learned his lesson from Lin Jiade, Buck immediately revealed the wrong secret. The old man's fingers left afterimages in the air as he rapidly projected a hearing-blocking drug onto the four team members, but he himself was exposed to the wrong secret.

Buck thought he could find like-minded comrades, but Lao Can remained unmoved after hearing the story. He said, "I know that secret."

"?!"

“My grandfather participated in the assassination of the emperor. A great man fell, and then he was elevated to a god-like status, becoming a spiritual symbol in the empire and the world. Like karma in every story, from then on, my grandfather, my father, and I myself were all cursed.”

Old Can took off his shirt, and on his not-so-strong body, the words "King Killer" were written in the Imperial Common Language and other unknown languages, sharp and profound, as if they were wounds carved into Old Can's body, and within the wounds, blood was faintly visible, but it was a putrid green color that was rare even among magic researchers.

“Bah, you regicide, this is what you deserve!” Buck said.

"Is that so? My family takes pride in assassinating the emperor. The emperor is great, but he should not continue to exist because his prestige has surpassed that of the system. He is a monster that cannot be checked by the system. So when he acts maliciously against the empire and makes wrong decisions, no one can restrain him."

The foundation of social order is checks and balances, the absolute advantage of the collective over the individual. A world where an individual can do whatever they want and overcome the collective cannot form an orderly social order.

Therefore, he must die. Any entity that attempts to operate outside the social order, attempts to subvert the social order, or has the potential to subvert society must be eliminated in a timely manner.

Our society needs a group of great figures who can check and balance each other, a group of saints who can check and balance each other, and a group of wise men who can check and balance each other. Even though checks and balances may bring internal friction, corruption, and pointless partisan strife, it is still better than entrusting our fate to a wild horse without brakes or reins.

Lao Can pointed to his wound: "Dictators must die. Do you think I'm showing you remorse? No, this is an honor we are proud of."

Buck's belly heaved rapidly. It bared its teeth and looked at Lao Can with hatred in its eyes. Lao Can said calmly, "Even if you reveal the wrong secret, it won't work. Besides, the common people don't even know that the emperor exists."

Even in the underworld where his existence is known, it seems that everyone misses him, and it seems that the emperor's era was far better than today... So the question is, why are the emperor's filial sons and grandsons still unpopular, and why have they not yet ruled the world or even resurrected their idols and gods?

It's very simple. Because you only pay lip service to filial piety, while diligently working overtime and paying taxes for the Senate, the Senate still doesn't care about something so full of errors and secrets.

In theory, it posed a tremendous threat that could shake the imperial order, but in reality, it posed no threat at all.

Buck sneered: "They make it sound so high-sounding, like defenders of the empire, but it's nothing more than the Senate's chosen fathers who can't tolerate their power being taken away by outsiders."

Ironically, it was the incompetence of the chosen fathers themselves that led to the rise of Dictator. You can kill Dictator Gaius Julius Trump, but people will eventually lose faith in the Senate and hope for the next Dictator to rule the empire.

Buck needs time to recover his energy, and Lao Can also needs time to recover from his previous exhaustion. So, their verbal sparring on the battlefields became a peculiar sight.

Meanwhile, 93 and ? had already killed the other four members of Lao Can's team. Even with the help of potions and the advantage of equipment, it would be difficult for an intermediate magic researcher to survive the all-out attack of an advanced magic researcher.

Kapok trees can do it, but not everyone has the experience to develop the ability to take on challenges beyond their current level.

"You regicide, you can no longer salvage the situation. You and the Senate's lackeys will die here today. Afterwards, we will hand over this erroneous secret to a foreign civilization capable of competing with the Empire, and the Senate will pay the price for its arrogance!"

Buck lunged at Lao Can, who dodged and threw a potion hidden in his sleeve at Buck. The potion, 93% effective, exploded in mid-air, releasing a toxic green smoke that spread around it. [Someone] appeared and took it away before Buck could be covered in the green smoke.

Then, they saw the corpse stand up again and grab its weapon.

“Death can be reversed, the Baker Street Squad returns as ghosts; death can be exploited, so the victims can continue to stand, loyal to the Senate and the Empire,” Lao Can said.

"You never intended for them to live to the end, because they learned secrets they shouldn't have known." He spoke up, unusually. "If you successfully defeat us, how many mercenaries will actually leave the Mirror Realm alive?"

Lao Can shook his head: "All of it. Keeping secrets through murder was the style of the imperial era. In the era of the Senate, we preferred to turn those who knew the secrets into part of the Senate system."

The Senate may not shine as brightly as the emperor, but it possesses a benevolence that the emperor never displayed.

"The emperor is like a slightly sour fruit, while the Senate is like a rotten fruit; it's sweet, but it will make you sick," Buck said.

“It doesn’t matter, we all know we can’t persuade them anyway.” Lao Can lowered his arms. “However, thank you for giving me so much time to change my comrades.”

"You're welcome," she said.

He unleashed a spell he had been preparing for a long time, and a black sky enveloped Lao Can's vision. Before he could react, his dagger had already pierced Lao Can's heart.

Between the area containing the teleportation magic circle and the town entrance, Robinson sat there, embracing Friday, head bowed in silence. Lin Jiade activated his Soul Flame Vision and noticed that Friday's soul color had dimmed. Friday was dead, and Robinson was grieving over his death.

The Kapok Squad raised their weapons but did not attack immediately. If possible, they would certainly like to conserve their energy and make their way there peacefully. But as they cautiously took their first step, Robinson looked up.

“Who killed Friday?” he asked.

Chapter 107 Worm: The Lone Army (42→41)

The Kapok Squad looked at each other in bewilderment. They were certain that Friday had died in the battle between Lin Jiade and the Pale Woman, but they had no idea who had killed Friday.

“Gladimir said you killed Friday. That single shot from the spider-like mech killed everyone inside that building,” Robinson said, answering his own question. “The next question is, who was piloting the spider-like mech?”

“It’s me,” Lin Jiade said.

Robinson laid Friday's body down, and the ground rose up, forming a stone coffin to seal Friday. Lin Jiade said, "I understand your grief, but this matter..."

"No, you don't understand. You don't understand what it feels like for a sixty-year-old father to lose his family! I don't want the truth, I just want an explanation!"

I understand. Lin Jiade thought to himself, "Last month, I fought to the death with an elderly man who had lost his family and was completely out of his mind. My revenge is not to comfort the dead, but to bring solace to the living."

Lin Jiade understood, but that didn't stop him from taking action. The moment Robinson ran towards him, he raised his left hand and unleashed his prepared Thunderbolt attack towards Robinson's face.

The rest of the squad were also prepared. Kapok's sword was pointed at Robinson's ribs, Starfish raised its shield forward, Yuki aimed its bow at Robinson's joints, and Arcturus gripped her launcher like a baseball bat, ready to deliver a head-on blow to Robinson.

Before that, however, the blocks were stacked in the small area where Robinson and Lin Jiade were, forming a platform that pushed them into the sky. Lin Jiade swayed, and his spell lost its aim. He had no choice but to cancel the spell and look at Robinson in front of him, the blocks brewing in his hands.

Yuki hastily fired an arrow, which was easily dodged by Robinson on the high platform. She bit her lip and cast a wind element spell on the cotton tree that was rushing up the platform.

"Shall we climb up too?" Arcturus asked.

“I’m afraid that won’t work,” Starfish shook its head. “A new enemy has appeared.”

He raised his shield, blocking a full-force blow from an iron fist, and staggered back several steps before regaining his balance. Hongye withdrew his fist; the skin he had used for disguise had been completely worn away in the previous battle, revealing an unusual beauty in his silvery-white metallic shell.

"Let me introduce you. This is Hongye, the healer for the Baker Street Squad," said the perfunctory guy.

The members of the Kapok Squad didn't recognize Kureha, but they were impressed by another one. Yuki drew his bow and fired, and the perfunctory monster with blood on his hands casually dodged. The arrow exploded behind him, and smoke and dust spread. Arcturus roared, and the rocket launcher transformed into a battle axe, hacking at Kureha's head with all his might... However, Kureha didn't move an inch, and his mechanical prosthetic eye coldly assessed Arcturus's situation.

“The Tauren healer has only a small amount of residual energy and is not a high threat,” Hongye said.

Startled, Arcturus stammered, "How could you..."

“You are very strong, and it was the right decision to kill the healer first. You didn’t succeed only because I am stronger than you.”

Hongye punched Arcturus in the abdomen, but Arcturus's muscles and fat reduced the force of the blow. However, when one of Hongye's fingers deformed into a steel needle and began to discharge electricity, Arcturus's strong body was powerless, and a scream rang out.

"asshole!"

Yuki drew her bow and pointed it at Momiji's head. The arrow she fired carried a strong gust of wind, aiming to separate Arcturus from Momiji. She stretched out a hand in the arrow's flight path to block it.

"Before you, there was a swindler named Tang Ao who fought for you. He sacrificed himself to hold us back and buy you time."

The perfunctory monster casually tossed the broken arrow aside: "Unfortunately, you people are unworthy of his sacrifice, because you are worthless and destined to die here."