Ark Chess Player

"This place is about to collapse, evacuate immediately."

Lin Lu approached Valeri and said, while extending his hand.

Faced with the pitch-black mechanical demon, Valery involuntarily took a step back.

The closer you get to it, the more you realize how terrifying this armor is.

Just minutes before, this pinnacle of war art had impressed him as a beautiful creation, a union of devil and angel, a bipedal form that had captivated countless artisans. Even if it cost him ten years of his life, Valery would gladly trade ten minutes, no, even five minutes, to personally pilot the mech.

The Noah Armored Force stands over two meters tall with a slender frame. Its armor, originally featuring black and gold patterns, has shrunk to a pure black after its energy was nearly depleted. Like the Black Knights of Laterano mythology, it wields flames as wings and beams of light as blades, judging those who have committed heinous crimes. The material of its jet-black armor resembles the skeleton of an unknown creature. Bloodstains on its mirror-like armor slowly slide down, droplets falling to the ground and emitting wisps of white smoke.

Even after a tough battle, showing signs of fatigue, one can't help but feel fear towards it.

It's hard to imagine what kind of enemies this black giant once faced, and how terrifying those enemies must have been.

At least, Valery believed he was not worthy.

Even if he were ten years younger, he still couldn't defeat the man in front of him.

As a soldier who had fought on the battlefield and a military policeman who had guarded border cities for many years, Valery knew very well that even the strongest weaponry was ultimately just a weapon. True strength lay in the person wielding the weapon; how could someone who could fearlessly charge at a monster with a sword in hand be weak?

"Please take good care of her. This is my lifelong request."

Valery let out a deep breath, his right arm, which had long since lost all feeling, trembled as he lowered Zoya and entrusted her to the man before him.

“Ever since I received her distress signal, I have only one purpose in coming here, and that is... to protect her.”

Lin Lu raised his hand and lifted the mask, revealing a slightly pale face and black eyes with a lingering trace of cobalt blue.

Valery hadn't expected their rescuer to be such a young man. He had only seen the man's slender back, long, snow-white hair, and a light red ribbon. From the back alone, one might easily mistake him for the Yeti princess from the North, with the same coldness and unwavering determination.

Lin Lu took the unconscious Zhuoya in his hands. Looking at the girl's furrowed brows even though she was unconscious, he couldn't help but sigh softly.

"Welcome to Rhodes Island, Zoya."

He placed the Fulton recovery device on the girl's youthful, full breasts. The device decompressed, and the securing straps gathered the girl's body.

Valery stared in amazement at the enormous balloon emerging from the palm-sized device, and at the intricate suspension system, finally experiencing a sense of reality, as if he had returned from heaven to earth. This was the kind of industrial machinery he could understand; as for mechanical ghosts and gods, they seemed more like things that had stepped out of mythology.

Wait... Rhodes Island?

"You're from Rhodes Island?" Valery's expression softened with relief. "No wonder... If it's you, it's not surprising that you'd come to this abandoned city. I received intelligence about you when the Reunion infected invaded this place. I heard you came here specifically to fight against the Reunion movement, just to rescue a comrade."

Lin Lu's lips twitched slightly. He silently shifted his gaze and muttered to himself, "You might not believe it, but one day I'll be the one being rescued."

"what?"

Valery was dumbfounded.

Why would someone who finally left this city come back?

Valery's gaze shifted to the Fulton recovery device, which was undergoing signal guidance, and he looked up at Zoya, who was floating in mid-air with her upper body tilted back, and then he understood something.

This man was serious; he wasn't joking.

He heard Zoya's call through the communication device, so he came to pick her up. It was that simple.

This... is anything but simple.

Only this man knows how much faith he had and how difficult the journey was.

"Hopefully, this child can smile again on Rhodes Island... She has lost enough."

Valery watched the balloon rise into the sky and the girl gradually disappear from sight, and a relieved smile appeared on his face.

"You can also come to Rhodes Island. Zoya needs you, and Rhodes Island needs people as outstanding as you. Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals has the industry's top medical talent, equipment, and disease-delaying solutions for Oripathy. If you come, you can also..."

Lin Lu addressed this respectable soldier with a respectful title, for the actions of this Ursus policeman from beginning to end were worthy of Lin Lu's respect.

"No need, young man, you keep it for yourself."

Valery refused Lin Lu's offer. He raised his right arm and attached the Fulton recovery device Lin Lu had handed him back to his black breastplate, pressing firmly on the decompression button. As the device unfolded, black retractable ropes tightly bound the Noah Armor, securing the joints without restricting arm movement.

"Uncle..."

Looking at the white-haired military policeman in front of him, Lin Lu felt a little emotional.

"Hey, that's really amazing. My life has been worth living."

Valery's palm touched the scorching armor, and after experiencing the pinnacle of mechanical engineering, the elderly military policeman couldn't help but think to himself, "For a moment, I felt forty years younger, as if I had returned to my youth."

“Young man, I know you intend to stay here until it all ends.”

Valery picked up the Originium Silencing Device from the ground and tucked the heavy device into his military police coat.

"But it's unnecessary now, it's all over. This city is finished. Whether it's these roaming monsters or the Upper City section that has lost its momentum and can no longer sail, this city has come to an end the moment the emperor of this country abandoned it."

Valery gave an extremely unpleasant smile, with helplessness and anger lingering on his lips, giving off a bitter taste.

Lin Lu sighed deeply and said, "If that's the case, why don't you want to come to Rhodes Island?"

"because……"

Valery picked up the battering ram and slung it over his shoulder, looking at the enormous monster writhing and twisting outside the abandoned rooftop.

"As a military police officer in Chernobog, as a soldier of the Ursus Empire, my war is not over yet."

Chapter 134 Day and Night Alternate, Dawn Arrives (5K)

My war is not over yet.

This is what the one-armed man said.

The moment Lin Lu first saw him, Valery's life force, as displayed in the data-driven spiritual domain, was already as fragile as a candle in the wind, and he could die at any moment.

Logically, the blood flowing from Valery's wounds had already exceeded one-third of his body weight, reaching the point of death. He should have obediently closed his eyes long ago, never to open them again. But an invisible force supported his spine, allowing him to boldly shed his blood in his final moments.

Lin Lu's instincts compelled him to immediately rush forward and deliver a full set of close-quarters combat (CQC) to Valery, knocking him unconscious and sending him to Rhodes Island. As the saying goes, a miserable life is worse than a good death. At worst, after kidnapping Valery back to Rhodes Island, Lin Lu could spend a week talking to him, sorting out his thoughts, and telling him that life isn't just about war and death, but also about poetry and distant horizons.

It's not shameful to recruit senior and experienced operators through public channels.

After all, he's a six-star character with exceptional tactical planning and physical endurance. Even if you have to coax and plead, you'll have to make him obediently submit to Rhodes Island.

However, Lin Lu controlled his thoughts and his restless hands.

The era of borderless armies is over; Rhodes Island is the present.

Rhodes Island will not force any operator to do anything against their will; each operator is free to act as long as it does not jeopardize Rhodes Island's interests.

This is the principle of Rhodes Island, and also the principle established by someone who once lay in a sarcophagus.

"Faced with a monster like this, anyone would suffer from a fear of insufficient firepower..."

Fulton's recovery device pulled the heavy Noah Armor upwards into the sky, allowing Lin Lu to see the details of the monster's writhing more clearly.

Even a Source Cannon powerful enough to pierce through the steel walls of a mobile city could not completely erase the Frankenstein monster from this world.

Even if the core of this immortal monster is destroyed, it can still devour the flesh and blood of infected people along a wisp of debris and be reborn.

Perhaps all the infected and monsters in the city have gathered here? Otherwise, a monster as tall as twenty meters wouldn't have been born.

Extremely unpleasant sounds rang out continuously. The monster's red and white flesh seemed unable to bear its weight, and the bones in its lower body were crushed into dust, turning into a semi-solidified swamp. The infected and the monster, which had not been decomposed, were forcibly connected by countless flesh and fascia, and were forcibly fused together while still alive, struggling incessantly, a horrifying scene like a living hell.

A semi-circular head, large enough to cause heart arrest in someone with trypophobia, kept solidifying, its face consisting of only three holes, perfectly triggering the uncanny valley effect and making it appear as a human face. Wings formed from solidified flesh spread out, transforming into six extending bone spears. The monster's body continued to collapse under its own weight, large amounts of flesh cascading down like a waterfall, only to reform and recombine again, in an endless cycle.

This can't even be described as bizarre; it shouldn't exist in this world at all. The best way to deal with this monster is to ask the Doom Slayer to use a BFG to fire thirty shots right up to its face.

but……

All of this has nothing to do with Lin Lu anymore.

Lin Lu continued to ascend, and the Fulton recovery system was just able to withstand the weight of the Noah Armor, but it could not fly to a height of 200 meters in an instant as before.

Inside Noah Armor, Lin Lu leaned his head back, took a deep breath, and calmed himself down.

Lin Lu's mission is complete. The rescue target, Zoya, has been successfully delivered to the Bad Guy. Now, all that's left is to take her and Sonia to the Rhodes Island ship for safe treatment.

The long night has finally come to an end, and Lin Lu can finally get some rest; he should have rested long ago.

His injuries, accumulated fatigue, and heavy burdens have made it difficult for him to move an inch.

Whether the monster ultimately turns the city into a sea of ​​fire or survives and continues to roam this desolate plain, it's all irrelevant to him.

but……

When Lin Lu saw Valery sprinting from the crumbling military and police building, leaping high over the fence, and landing on the Stitched Monster's head to swing the battering ram, something inside him seemed to tighten. His heartbeat slowed, and a sense of powerlessness welled up and spread throughout his body.

The pitch-black Noah Armor emitted a muffled thud, as if it were sighing.

This game of chess has reached a dead end.

The opponent has an endless supply of pieces, while we only have a handful left...

Valery.

Lin Lu said softly, "I saw Valery being swallowed whole by the Stitched Monster, his right arm, which was bitten off and still clutching the battering ram, fall from the sky and disappear into a swamp of flesh and blood."

This respectable soldier passed away in this way, his death ordinary and unremarkable. Like the other citizens of this city, he died in his hometown.

Even though it was just someone he'd met for less than half an hour, Lin Lu felt a deep sadness in his heart, as if it were immersing him in water.

Is this what it feels like to lose a six-star operator?

It really makes one feel...

I'm not reconciled.

It's like there's a fire burning in my heart.

It's like a child losing a very precious treasure.

Lin Lu could almost hear Mephistopheles's mocking laughter, a grating sound like a broken cassette tape stuck and playing on repeat.

If I were to slink away like this, what would become of me...?

Does he still deserve the title of Doctor of Rhodes Island?

“Ibitas”.

Lin Lu called out in a deep voice, as if he were going to see someone.

Time seemed to stand still as a silver astrolabe floated in mid-air, as bright as a rising second moon. Three dials, each with twelve Roman numerals, rotated, not hands, with countless gears appearing behind them. If Noah's Armor was a masterpiece of mechanical craftsmanship, then this astrolabe that blotted out the heavens and earth was a divine creation.

The great presence will be projected above Chernobog, the firelight shining brightly, casting incomprehensible silhouettes in the night sky.

"Me and you."