Léon: The Cat Killer

Page 52

"So... the middle level now... is actually a maze? The kind where we don't even know where it ends? This is troublesome..."

"Can we go around it?"

When Amiya asked her directly, the employee hummed in frustration for a moment, then shrugged.

"Unless we have to drill a hole in the land-based ship... there's definitely no way to get around it... perhaps we should have all moved forward instead of retreating on our own..."

"But going forward, I'll be separated from everyone..."

Perched on Amiya's back, the kitten's ears, still drooping from the exertion, thumped and flapped.

"When I stood there straining, I couldn't move..."

"...Well, so in hindsight, we're currently with the mercenary group and Little Cat, so we're probably safer now."

"Safety alone is useless; we need to rendezvous with Lei Shi and the others!"

“Indeed, if we want to start the city up and running, we must meet up with the Red Hand Gang as planned... Even if we don’t go to the shelter, we still have to go to the lower city.”

……

Listening to Theresa, Elva, and their employees' discussion, Amiya's pale blue mental link flashed by. After exchanging a glance, Amiya interrupted their conversation:

"Um... if we want to go to the lower level, isn't there a ready-made path here?"

After Amiya finished speaking, the kitten pricked up its ears and stretched out a hand... and slowly, a hole big enough for people to pass through was drilled at the junction of the fallen Originium and the floor.

"Let's go down from here! To the lower level, to check the unlocking of the walking mechanism, and to rekindle the extinguished Originium furnace..."

Despite her short stature, Amiya, dressed in her Rhodes Island uniform, appeared surprisingly tall to everyone, carrying a kitten on her back.

“Let’s keep going. Our goal is the same as the Red Hands, so let’s just get to our final destination… Elva, Finn, and the other two officers… You will see that Tikkarendo will stand strong against the calamities.”

PS: Waaaaaah, kitty

Cats and bunnies, and bunnies and grandpa snuggling together~

PS2: A little earlier today than yesterday... Hmm, automatic subscriptions offer a discount of reading 5k chapters for the price of 4k words (just kidding).

In short, I will get back to normal as soon as possible, and I hope everyone stays healthy.

The Mystery of Medic 2: 051 Self-Rescue

The crowd was running inside, and the rain overhead was gradually getting heavier.

Amiya is now very glad that she listened to Dr. Kal'tsit's advice and exercised every day.

Although her shoes and socks covered in Originium crystal dust and her coat scratched by various sharp objects made her look disheveled, compared to the kitten floating in the air beside her, Amiya felt like she had crawled out of a trash can.

But compared to the local salesman who had collapsed and was being carried on the back of a mercenary, Amiya was glad that she hadn't added any burden to Theresa's subordinates.

"The rain is getting heavier... Be on guard!"

From the moment Theresa's smile faded, Amiya knew things were getting complicated... Although there was no need for her, a child, to do anything in the presence of adults, Amiya could see it...

She could see the fear in the mercenaries' hearts, and she could see the unease of the gang girls and young police officers who were protected by the mercenaries.

The proliferating Originium pierced through the rivets and armor of the landship, its sound like ice freezing mixed with the mournful wail of steel.

Black stones seeped out from the cracks... They devoured the upper levels of the mobile city as if they were feeding on it, with large chunks of Originium being plunged into the cake called the Landship like rude cutlery.

The ventilation equipment that was supposed to keep the ship ventilated had all stopped working, and the surface of the fan dust grilles was covered with black crystalline dust. Even though everyone was wearing protective masks, they were still covering their faces with unease.

Despite this having no effect... the humanoid Originium crystal in front of him convulsed, emitting a howl more terrifying than the hollow sound of wind.

"...This is beyond late stage...it's hopeless..."

Seeing Amiya's seemingly expressive gaze beside her, Theresa placed her hands in front of her, bowed slightly, and then took Amiya's hand, leading her past the humanoid crystal that had inexplicably collapsed in the corridor:

“Normally, the spread of Oripathy is a slow process... but with the added benefit of natural disasters, the corrosiveness of Originium also increases... The excessive concentration of Originium dust in the air increases the explosion threshold of the crystals in his body... The active Originium that cannot be expelled from the body in time directly begins to erode the body's cells, and thus a living Originium crystal appears…”

As she spoke, Theresa drew a spare longsword from the mercenary's waist, her gaze behind the dust mask both sorrowful and indifferent... She was about to end the man's life, a life filled with nothing but pain, a 'demon' in the eyes of the outside world, who was now confessing for an unidentified passerby:

"...Even among the different clinical manifestations of Oripathy, being devoured by Originium is definitely one of the most painful...I will grant you relief here...Do you still have any lingering attachments?"

Logically speaking, this 'person' with an Originium cell integration rate exceeding 70% should have lost basic human abilities... With half of their head pierced by Originium, most people wouldn't believe they could still 'hear'...

But Theresa was undoubtedly an exception; the pure white demon lord could communicate with sentient beings even using only sight. The humanoid Originium, its clothes so crystallized that no markings were visible, stiffly pried open a pocket, and a wallet, equally covered in black crystalline dust, fell to the ground.

Theresa had only taken a name card as a record of her identity, and then... the humanoid crystal stopped moving. Everyone only saw a flash of sword light in the darkness. Even the little cat floating in the sky was stunned and its fur stood on end. Only Amiya was used to it.

"...Did he...escape from some shelter?"

Nodding, Theresa wrote down the name on the business card and let go... The business card, also covered in crystalline dust, became part of the Originium crystal as it fell.

"Just as underground shelters on Earth can occasionally fail due to earthquakes... it's also normal for land-based ships to lose functionality due to tectonic plate damage and deformation... this is precisely why mobile cities are kept mobile at high costs..."

Recalling Kal'tsit's teachings, Amiya murmured:

"There's nothing you can be sure you won't be threatened by natural disasters..."

Watching the mercenaries carefully crush the humanoid crystal bit by bit with their weapons, and after confirming that it was gradually turning into powder rather than exploding, the main force quietly walked through the corridor.

Just as the atmosphere was beginning to improve after leaving that area, Fen's communicator suddenly rang.

[Zi...Fen...Team...Fen Squad...Can you hear me?]

[Squad Leader Finn, please respond. This is the police station!]

Finn instinctively answered the call, but seeing the disapproving looks from the mercenaries around her, she didn't reply immediately. Instead, she looked at Miss 'Thea'... The latter guided Finn's gaze to Amiya... The little rabbit eventually nodded, and only then did Finn begin to reply:

"This is Finland..."

[Fen's squad, you failed to return to base as ordered. Where are you now?]

"We're still in Zone 4!"

It seemed that the girl had suddenly remembered that she was a police officer, and Finn became excited as she held the communicator:

"We've completed the civilian evacuation! We're now on our way to the power core, but we've encountered many obstacles along the way. However, the civilians... Rhodes Island and the Red Hand are cooperating fully with us... Sir, we need backup!"

"...At a time like this, what's the point of talking about providing support..."

The officer's words made the Kuranta girl frown. Even through the breathing mask, everyone could see that Finn was gripping the spear tightly.

Listen, because of the recent series of attacks, the entire mobile city cluster is urging decoupling, and the infected area is judged to be unable to restart its power in the short term... The core city has begun to urgently cut off the circulation...

"Wait...please wait a moment! We're already heading towards the power zone!"

[...But the decoupling will be complete in fifteen minutes...That's definitely not enough time to repair the power system in Block 4...There aren't enough engineers or heavy equipment in the infected block, you understand?!]

The heavily jammed communications were like a sledgehammer, leaving the young policewoman and the gang girl dizzy and disoriented. Theresa and Amiya seemed lost in thought... only the kitten was scratching its head and ears...

The kitten had just been quite agitated, and after smoothing its hair and ear fur, it even stroked its tail... The calm and composed Matilda contrasted sharply with Elva and the others, who were unwilling to accept that things had deteriorated so much.

[If we don't decouple as soon as possible, not only the fourth district, but all the districts could be hit by massive Originium bombs... This decision was made to consider the overall situation...]

There's still a little time... There's a government personnel-only evacuation route on the east side of the block. Although you can't return to the core city, you can use it to evacuate to other blocks...

"But... there are still many wounded in the fourth sector. We even saw people on the road who were forced to leave the shelter because of the Originium impact... and the internal circulation switch here is not complete. The complete disengagement while the power system is damaged means..."

This means that the remaining power supply to the fourth district will also be cut off.

This means that everyone may be forced to face the Colombian winter of 1091 in the disaster-stricken area.

The scale of the natural disaster exceeded expectations. Although most of the people in Block 4 are undocumented, our police department has provided them with sufficient preparation... There has been no shortage of various supplies and technical parts. If they are lucky, the infected will be able to leave the disaster area on their own...

They need to find their own way to survive, while you need to evacuate as soon as possible. This is an order.

Seeing that the communication was about to be cut off, Amiya took a step forward, looking at Finn who was speechless with surprise:

"Excuse me? I am... a collaborator... We are 'Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals'."

Rhodes Island?

The voice on the other end of the communicator was full of doubt, but fortunately, the names of the people on Rhodes Island and what kind of organization they were had nothing to do with what Amiya wanted to do.

The little rabbit first looked at Theresa, whose eyes were full of encouragement, and then looked at Matilda Bruce, who was currently the most powerful magic user she could use, besides Theresa.

Despite Dr. Kal'tsit's statement that both she and her friend's magic were dangerous, Amiya had already discovered during their previous collaborations that when the two were together, their abilities formed a mutually supportive Möbius strip.

She felt she could do something...

She had to do something to ensure her own and her companions' survival.

The little rabbit politely took the communicator from Finn. Although her tone was childish, Amiya already possessed the mature demeanor of a corporate leader... The little rabbit was glad that she hadn't thought that Dr. Kal'tsit's etiquette lessons were useless... Tone, intonation, and even the way she phrased her words... Amiya truly knew how to be persuasive.

"I apologize for interrupting your conversation with your subordinates, but I think we can talk about Block 4."

[Heh... I don't know who it is... but are you also suggesting delaying decoupling?]

"No, quite the opposite. Everyone should contact the link as soon as possible... After all, as the intensity of the natural disasters increases, incidents like the Infected Block breaching the surface will only become more frequent..."

Amiya raised her finger to calm Finn and her friends down, and continued:

"But making such a forced decoupling decision must have put considerable pressure on the municipal government... What you're saying about undocumented immigrants and infected individuals is irrelevant... but the Fourth Block is, after all, a perfectly intact mobile city... Giving it up like this would be devastating for the political careers of the municipal authorities..."

What exactly are you trying to say?

"...Rhodes Island is an expert in infected individuals, and our staff has extensive experience in working in hazardous environments and using equipment... Of course, even if it's just for our own survival, we will do our best to activate the power module and walking mechanism of the fourth block."

"We are willing to do everything in our power to save this city under the leadership of the Colombian municipal authorities... but if the workers despair first and directly attack your evacuation routes... it will be too late for our teams to do anything..."

"So, how about giving us a little assistance? We don't need the core area or other districts to bear any risk... all we need is for each district to coordinate with external agencies to cut off the internal circulation of District Four." (Qi)

"This won't affect your decoupling efforts, but it will definitely give hope to the Fourth District..."

Amiya's words caused a few seconds of silence on the other end, after which even the voice on the communicator changed: "I..."

【While we'd love to provide support to the Fourth District, how can we get old-fashioned manual equipment to work with the latest automated machinery? It's technically impossible, isn't it?】Nine

"No... actually, it's possible..."

Amiya glanced at Theresa again… the little rabbit saw through the white demon king's eyes to the other's concealed soul… After conversing with the memories of the dead, Amiya obtained that word from the engineer whose name Theresa had recently memorized:

"...Automatic switching when the warning is overflowing."

【……What? 】

"An old-fashioned land-based ship circulation protection system... Whether it's the Originium vaporization pipelines or the laying of various water and electrical systems... its storage end has an overflow warning... According to what the police officer said earlier, under the condition that the materials in Block 4 are distributed completely normally, the mobile city should maintain an 80% reserve surplus... In other words, as long as the surrounding cities continue to inject capacitors, water tanks, and Originium compressed gas to saturation... all pipelines in Block 4 will activate the overflow warning and automatically shut down..."

"What might be just a few minutes of core pressure for other cities is a ray of hope for Block 4 and its people."

"In this way, Rhodes Island will have the conditions to cooperate with the local workers to start this mobile city."

[...A very interesting mechanism; this is the first time I've heard of such a use... But, doing so means that a large portion of what people in other districts depend on for survival will be injected into the fourth district... How can I be sure that Rhodes Island will use this to save citizens... or even, how can I be sure that you are indeed the Rhodes Island I'm talking about?]

Just as Amiya was struggling to answer the question, "How can I prove that I am myself?", a chaotic sound suddenly came from the other end of the communicator.

First, the other party's voice moved away from the microphone, offering a respectful response. Then, very quickly, a voice that Amiya knew all too well came from the other end of the communication channel:

Amiya? This is Kal'tsit.

"Doctor Kelsey!?"

[It's me. To make a long story short, I've obtained Rhodes Island's certification and authorization to operate the mobile city, along with the signature of the President of Columbia... Rhodes Island has already participated in the natural disaster crisis in Ticalendo as part of a disaster relief operation... This is a crisis contract, and your objective... is obvious.]

Hearing the calm, authoritative female voice that always seemed to say she had everything under control, Amiya twitched her ears and responded energetically:

"Yes! Sister Thea and I will definitely be able to start it successfully..."

[Also, did you manage to get the kitten lost?]

“The kitten… Ah, Matilda is right next to me… She’s fine, not hurt, and safe.”

Or rather, there is no one safer here than her.

Just as Rabbit was lost in thought, she heard Kal'tsit sigh, a rare occurrence for her:

"That's good. Listen, little kitten... your guardian is on their way to find you."

"……Eh?"

On the road?

Is this weather?

While everyone else was puzzled, only Matilda's eyes gradually filled with surprise:

"Nana-neechan is coming to see me?!"

Yes, she came to you with the rescue package from the Crisis Contract...