Léon: The Cat Killer

Sometimes, knowing that you can't pinpoint the safe spot in any direction, including where you are, can be quite agonizing.

If Nana was up to no good, then Katie should definitely complain about the sudden cardiac arrest she just experienced... However, seeing Nana's seemingly unchanging expression, Katie could only continue to follow in the footsteps of the captain ahead and catch up quickly.

"...A beautiful sight that only appears after a natural disaster...I wish I had never seen this..."

“Your file says you’ve experienced something similar in the past when you were in the snow-capped mountains… I thought this kind of scene was commonplace for rescue workers.”

Katie shook her head frantically in denial to Nana's question.

Perhaps it's not appropriate to use one's own professional experience to guess someone else's resume, Nana shrugged and continued walking.

Seeing that her captain seemed to be able to discern directions clearly even in the darkness, and stepping on the crunching Originium Dust Desert, Katie asked a question that had puzzled her for a long time:

"...How did the captain receive this mission?"

"What mission?"

"A rescue mission... the Tikkarendo rescue mission... Although Blacksteel and the United Government gradually got involved... why did such an important mission fall to us?"

"...because no one else did it..."

At this point, Nana seemed to realize the inappropriateness of her statement... After all, although Colombia does not have a fully accountable government like the Great Yan, Colombia has many paid, well-serviced disaster relief teams.

ICA also has similar services. As long as you pay enough, you can claim to be rescuing people from natural disasters. Even if you send a landship into a disaster area, countless people will respond.

Thinking this through, Nana habitually calculated the cost of Rhodes Island's rescue operation if it were to arrange the rescue through regular business negotiations... The Vanguard Squad's salaries alone would probably be no less than 30 million LMD.

Thinking this, Nana's gaze towards Katie couldn't help but be filled with pity...

How unlucky must this child have been to meet me, to volunteer for such a difficult task for free... It must have been her moral compass as a member of the rescue team that led her to follow me here.

"To be precise, no one is willing to take pure risks... I don't know what kind of guarantees Kal'tsit used to persuade the Führer to grant permission to operate... and what kind of rhetoric the government prepared to make Blacksteel willing to bear the inevitable heavy price."

I slightly modified the sequence of events from Rhodes Island's perspective, attributing all the inconsistencies to Kal'tsit, and removing all of Nana's coercion and inducement...

Looking at the power armor's built-in navigation system, Nana strained to see into the distance... but because she had missed the already short daylight under the Cataclysmic Clouds, even with the excellent night vision capabilities of the film, Nana could only see the flickering active source stones like an inverted night sky in the black chaos.

There were no mobile cities like mountains around, nor even a trace of human presence.

The three crystal clusters seemed to have devoured everything, with only the excessively smooth Originium crystals mocking the girl who couldn't find her target.

"...Dr. Sussuruo said that you did all this in order to..."

"Daughter? That's just something Susuluo made up... The kitten is my... friend's child... You'll probably be able to tell when you meet... After all, we don't look alike at all."

After a brief pause, Nana stubbornly expanded her search outwards from the navigation point... Logically, the fourth district of Tikkarendo should be nearby, but she saw nothing.

"Whether it's Sussuro or Kal'tsit... oh, the latter is my boss... they've both misunderstood something. They've always thought I've adopted the identity of a kitten's mother... but that's the one thing that's absolutely impossible. I'm well aware of the gap between myself and Cole..."

Even... the truth might not be that the child needs him...

Considering her deep desire to return to the other person's side, the assassin knew perfectly well that she might simply want to bring the cloud-like Felin back into her life.

Does he really need Matilda?

Or is it that... I simply need to stay by Matilda's side and then project my emotions onto that dead person? (Abandon)

Nana couldn't say for sure... after all, her understanding of 'love' was very superficial, just something she wrote down on paper.

A false identity, empty emotions… a child who has never been loved is taught to love this land, to love others. (Part 5)

Is it too difficult? (蹴)

……Silk

With a sigh, seeing that Katie seemed to fall silent due to the heavy atmosphere, Nana was finally able to carry out her mission at her own pace, just as she usually did when working alone.

The two rested several times along the way, until it was late at night, and with only 24 hours left of the 72-hour countdown, a dust storm carrying primordial particles swallowed all light once more. Nana was forced to drag Katie back to the starting point of the navigation.

The area is very spacious and flat. Although it's a bit strange that we didn't find the fourth district, the navigation point here is perfect for land-based ships to pass through.

"Hmm, Captain! The wind is picking up!"

“We’re using a closed, short-range communication system, so we don’t need to shout that loudly…”

Although Nana said that, her own voice unconsciously rose considerably as the wind howled.

As the gust of wind whipped up active Originium, it slammed against their masks with a crackling sound. Nana pushed Katie aside and made her walk in front, and the two of them retreated back to their original position with their backs to the wind.

"This can't go on...we need to go into hiding..."

"Escape?! Where?!"

As the wind rapidly increased to the point where it seemed capable of blowing the two of them away, Nana glanced at the temperature, which had plummeted to below zero... She knew this was because the cold air cyclone in Columbia was gradually overcoming the high-temperature storm, and in the next few days, the cold wave would quickly reduce the temperature raised by the active source stone, taking advantage of the situation.

Based on historical experience in Ticalendo, the average temperature during winter cold snaps is around minus forty degrees Celsius.

Where can I hide in a situation like this? The surroundings are so flat…

Touching the tidal wave system that had been reactivated by the storm, Nana suddenly looked up at the ground:

"Underground! Let's dig a cellar and hide there temporarily!"

Upon hearing Nana's explanation, Katie, suddenly realizing what was going on, immediately began searching for her tool kit. But just as the girl was about to assemble the shovel in the raging wind, Nana, recalling the explanation of the shockwave, directly performed a medium modification on the ground.

The originally hard ground began to churn like waves under the influence of the tidal wave system, and the surface crystals were quickly carried away by the strong winds.

While Katie exclaimed in surprise, "So that's how it's solved?", Nana suddenly stopped digging after digging to a depth of a little over a meter.

Just as Katie stepped forward in confusion to see what she had discovered, Pero also saw the surface in front of Nana that was severely corroded by Originium, but looked like a steel plate no matter how you looked at it.

"What...is this? Is there some kind of man-made structure underground here?"

The scholar used the shockwave system to pry open the crystal layer, just like the captain of his own team. Looking at the iron plate in front of him, which was covered with traces of crystal cluster erosion, it seemed to have changed the color of the paint. Katie felt like she had seen this somewhere before.

She must have seen something similar somewhere, and it must have happened in the last few days...

The power armor's terminal system was activated, and an image comparison function, which the girl had never been aware of before, suddenly came into play... Soon, Rhine Lab's terminal responded...

It unearthed a silhouette of Tikkarundo's fourth district from a previous mission briefing.

The gray steel plate and red paint under their feet are the same materials used on the sides of the Tikkarondo, as well as the colors of the ship's hull number and name.

At this moment, Katie suddenly understood why her captain had suddenly fallen silent... The cursor on the equipment system, showing 'Image Comparison, [Ticarendo Landship], Compatibility Rate 3%', was flashing glaringly.

"……team leader!"

Although Katie knew that the atmosphere was inappropriate at this moment, if Nana continued to be in a daze, there might be two more corpses at this place that was suspected to be the remains of Ticarendo!

The cause of death was being blown off in the head by Originium flying in the storm!

But thankfully, Nana also took a couple of hits. Perhaps the power armor's alarm was more energizing than her teammates' calls. Nana subconsciously took out some tape to fix the leaking mask before turning the control panel, preparing to unleash a powerful attack and blast a hole in the armor plate beneath her feet.

As for whether it's a hell inside or has many people waiting to be rescued... we'll only be able to determine that once the two of us survive and complete the necessary preparations for subsequent aid.

"...Sorry, my mind just went blank for a moment... Anyway, let's go in first...we'll talk inside."

P.S.: Waaaaaah, kitty...

PS2: ...As expected, writing a nihilistic protagonist is still difficult... But the fatal thing is that her character's positioning seems to be constantly changing... It feels a bit out of control... Anyway, let's hurry up and reunite, little film that's like touching a cloud...

I wish there was rosemary on my skin when I got my injection...

We really need to get the kitten back its title soon.

The Mystery of Medic 2: 060 My Only Wish

As a user of Tikkaz sorcery, Nana has a thorough understanding of Originium Arts.

Even Nana, who possesses both blood manipulation and stone goblin summoning abilities, and can even comprehend the ultimate techniques of space and time manipulation, making her practically an expert in Originium magic... was still incredibly surprised by this device called 'Hyperwave'.

After all, being able to use magic isn't anything special; to put it politically incorrectly, any infected person would resort to magic if pushed to the limit. But transferring technology ingrained in one's bloodline to devices so that everyone can enjoy its convenience... one can only say that Rhine Labs truly deserves its reputation as an outstanding researcher supported by the national funding from the entire Colombian government.

With the help of the shockwave system, they navigated through obstacles while maintaining the integrity of the structure... Nana and Katie were able to use ropes to descend into this place that resembled the ruins of Tikkarundo.

However, Nana left something on it.

"...Captain, your helmet..."

"I turned on its recorder... pointing it in the direction of Jessica and the others, so that we wouldn't miss the most important signal flare."

Watching Nana enter the ship and put her breathing mask back on, Katie looked at the storm live stream projected on the upper right corner of her helmet visor, and something seemed to choke her up again.

This is the epicenter of a natural disaster. Aren't you afraid of getting Oripathy?

Katie couldn't bring herself to say something like that...

It feels like saying it out loud is like admitting that I'm really afraid of Oripathy... and that I've given up on it.

And this hesitation might prove that he was indeed afraid of it...

After all, he had witnessed firsthand what happened to Stewart and Andrcher in that city. Even though he wasn't sick, the rescue team still dismissed him... and those two couldn't even go out to buy necessities.

I was terrified of those days, which is why I readily accepted the captain's invitation... to live on Rhodes Island, a place that accepts the infected, together with my friends.

The only thing that Katie didn't expect was that her three-day onboarding experience at Rhodes Island seemed to have gone too far.

Even when the Letania Sled Rescue Team was closest to natural disasters, Katie had never seen anyone as... dazzling as the captain was now.

Compared to the rescue team work that often involves finding lost tourists, warning of dangerous areas, and guiding people... Rhodes Island's so-called 'solving the infected problem' directly points to natural disasters.

This made Katie feel incredible, but also gave her a sense of mission she had never felt before.

What is a 'COVID-19 expert'?

What she sees on Rhodes Island right now is a pragmatic approach where everyone is doing their best to reduce infections at the source, from disaster warnings to post-disaster relief and helping refugees.

Although Sussuro and the captain both said that she was working so hard because there were important people still in Ticalendo... if it weren't for that, it's hard to say whether the organizers would have been the most powerful disaster relief force in Colombian history.

But... this doesn't diminish how dazzling and radiant Nana Ivy appears in Katie's eyes.

Just comparing her to her former boss in the sled rescue team, that Eraphil who always sat in the office giving orders and left early every day and couldn't be found at crucial moments... not to mention the professional skills she displayed along the way, Nana's hands-on and leading-by-the-leader demeanor alone was enough to make the girl Pero shout in her heart, "I love you!"—a statement that could easily be misunderstood.

But the more Katie thought the girl before her was incredibly radiant, the more she felt a mix of emotions when she saw her silent in the face of the ruins lying across the ground.

Why is it that the harder people work on this land, the less they get what they want?

Could it be that the captain took off his helmet because he thought something had happened to his adopted daughter, which is why he looked so pale?

……

If Nana could hear what Katie was thinking, she would probably only be able to express her bewilderment with a "Huh?"

Although Nana was momentarily stunned and confused when she first discovered the wreckage due to Kate and Cole's exclamations, the three ladies, including Nana, quickly calmed down when the cat's father, who rarely showed his face, finally spoke.

After all, as Andy said, considering the extent of the damage to the mobile city, the destruction in this area was far too severe... and there were far too few corpses.

[Note the orientation of the outer deck... Recall that the deck surface was facing upwards... This is clearly illogical. Even under Originium rain, the abandoned city's walking mechanism would eventually remain stable, and there's no way it would end up with the deck surface facing upwards... Unless you're suggesting the mobile city capsizes... But how could a mobile city, which is often thousands of meters wide, possibly capsize...?]

Listening to the former Colombian civil servant's analysis, Nana silently tried to explore. After finding several torn windows in the carbon material and determining that further progress would lead to the contact surface of the deep underground wasteland, Nana felt that she had a pretty good idea of ​​how things would develop.

"...This should be a section of the mobile city wall that was torn off due to the city's forced decoupling..."

"The outer walls of a mobile city?"

Following Katie's bewildered and stunned question, Nana, who was without her helmet and headlamp, could only use her flashlight to point Katie to the side... which was originally the pipe at the top.

They have clearly been pulled very hard; not only are they broken into very deformed shapes, but the components that hold the pipes in place have also been scattered everywhere.

"Yes, it's the part of the armored linked districts where the system's comparison accuracy was 3% before... See those twisted pipes? When the city blockchain is connected, the pipes of each district are interconnected. The sudden arrival of the natural disaster panicked some districts. If they don't switch the loop mode and only focus on escaping, it will indeed cause chaos on both sides... Of course, according to our intelligence, the truth may be that those districts couldn't wait for the fourth district, where the equipment was old and mostly required manual operation, and tore off a part of the expansion from the fourth district on their own... Or it may be this district that is under maintenance."

"...This is, forced decoupling..."

"Hmm, Kal'tsit said that it seems the fastest city district only took less than an hour to forcibly disconnect and escape... However, a forced disconnect should theoretically cause damage to internal pipelines, and various systems should also collapse... Logically, the fourth city district should be stuck in place and unable to move afterward..."

Seeing that Nana seemed to be thinking, Katie quickly gestured wildly and said:

"Maybe they're the ones who started the city's development?! After all, Rhodes Island and the government are both mediating, aren't they?"

"...It's hard to say, but the fact is they're not here..."

Taking out her terminal to glance at the helmet's real-time monitoring, Nana revealed a rare look of confusion... The weather can be predicted, and the damage can be controlled... but the person she was trying so hard to save was no longer there.

The fast-moving vehicles have been split into outposts, and now it seems that supplies are only enough for a few days.

Although the wreckage of Ticalendo could provide shelter from the storm, it was located on the outer edge of the city, with the main structure consisting of external armor and lower-level traffic compartments... Apart from a few scattered wrenches or fire extinguishers, there was no food or water.

So, who is really in trouble?

Seeing Nana sink again, Katie asked nervously:

"...So, should we wait for the storm to subside before continuing our search for District Four?"

"As you've seen along the way, active Originium crystals cover everything on the ground, even the tracks of the mobile city are probably filled... Otherwise, we wouldn't have been deceived by this armor plate and wandered around for several hours thinking this was flat ground... Chasing after the mobile city while braving natural disasters is unwise, at least... I really don't understand the idea of ​​both of us going to look for the mobile city."

Looking up at Katie, Nana assessed the child's mental state and physical condition... Although ordering her to stay here seemed no different from ordering her to die, Nana really had no other choice.