Ark Chess Player.

"Anemone, are you alright?"

Lin Lu muttered to himself, but received no reply.

"Anemone?"

Chapter 123 Zoya (Fourth Update)

Chernobog Upper Town - Rooftop of a Ruins Building

A sense of despair hung in the air among the barely clinging soldiers and policemen. They guarded the only exit, but their guns and crossbows were out of ammunition, and their only remaining supplies were basic military melee weapons. They were making a last-ditch effort, unwilling to give up even when their chances of survival were slim.

Just tens of minutes earlier, a communications machine used to contact the Ursus Third Group garrison was smashed and trampled into pieces by an anxious and manic military policeman during a riot.

Their last hope vanished, but no one blamed the military policeman.

Those who survived were unwilling to hear the futile cries of their deceased comrade's daughter.

Perhaps the little girl doesn't understand what happened, but the adults already know... This city has been abandoned by Ursus, and they have been betrayed by the king of this country.

With military and police inside and troops outside, this is how every mobile city operates. The military and police quell city riots, handle daily disputes large and small, and maintain social order. The army defends the city from foreign invasion, safeguards territorial sovereignty, protects the lives of the people, and also protects the emperor's property.

Now, the emperor is not allowing the army to be deployed to suppress the invaders, and the Reunion Movement is still ravaging the city, slaughtering all the citizens.

It is the emperor's right to invest his own wealth to seek greater profits.

What did the emperor do wrong?

The mistake lies in the fact that these people are citizens of Ursus.

"Zoya, drink up."

A military policeman who had lost his left arm approached the gray-haired, red-eyed girl and handed her the last of her drinking water.

"Uncle Valery... I'm not thirsty... Please give it to the uncles."

Zoya's voice was like a magnetized cassette tape, hoarse and heartbreaking, like sand crunching in her throat.

She no longer had the strength to finish a sentence; all the girl's strength dissipated in her calls throughout the night, and her soul gradually became numb.

"Everyone... is very tired. The uncles... need water even more."

Zoya murmured softly. She wore an oversized Ursus-style bulletproof vest, her clothes covered in dust and mud, with a layer of dark, congealed bloodstains. The girl's short, gray hair was disheveled, and deep dark circles under her eyes revealed profound exhaustion.

So sleepy... but I can't, I can't fall asleep...

Zoya bit her chapped lips, which were so dry and cracked that they seemed to be bleeding.

Her teeth were deeply embedded in her lip, and the stinging sensation kept the girl awake, preventing her from falling asleep.

"Just drink it! We grown men aren't that fragile! You've been shouting all night, if you don't drink it, who will? Here you go!"

Valery roughly shoved the canteen into the girl's hand, clumsily patted her shoulder with his scarred right hand, and turned to walk toward the exhausted soldiers and police.

Zoya looked at Uncle Valery's back, missing an arm, and felt a pang of sadness and helplessness. Her fingers, holding the military water bottle, unconsciously clenched tightly.

Uncle Valery's left arm was cut off by an infected member of the Reunion Movement during a battle three days ago while he was protecting civilians, and he almost lost his life in the process.

However, instead of expressing gratitude, the rescued citizens berated the man, demanding to know what the military and police had done, and yelling at him as a bunch of useless trash, urging him to stop the infected people! They demanded, "Do we pay taxes to support lazy good-for-nothings like you?! You have a duty to protect us!"

After saying that, the citizens ran away, faster than anyone else.

Zoya understood immediately.

The Reunion Movement was a success.

They successfully separated the city's citizens and military/police personnel into two separate groups.

The military and police are not trusted by the citizens, who vent their violence and anger on these people who would not use force against them.

The military and police forces were gradually weakened, and internal conflicts created rifts between them, making it impossible to build a united force. They were defeated one by one by the Integration Movement.

Without military support, the local police force, which served as the city's basic security system, was initially able to maintain order and evacuate crowds. However, as the situation escalated and natural disasters struck, this line of defense eventually crumbled, and violence and panic began to spread rapidly throughout the city.

Zoya's father also died in the line of duty.

The upright and kind-hearted military policeman, who firmly believed that good would prevail over evil, went to Peterheim High School to rescue the residents of the most dangerous area.

When Zoya weaved through the crowds, dodged the crumbling rubble, avoided the vicious thugs harming the city, and followed her father's trail to this school... she felt as if she had entered hell.

Man-eating monsters roam the tattered lawn, flames burn everywhere, walls are covered in intricate graffiti, garbage is scattered all over the ground, and there is debris all around.

On the scorched ground, she saw a pile of school uniforms stained with blood.

as well as……

Father's uniform.

When Zoya regained consciousness, she had already been rescued by Uncle Valery who had come to her aid.

She had nowhere to go.

She no longer has a home.

Her home was located on the street that was initially attacked by the Reunion Movement, and by the time the rescue team arrived at Zoya's neighborhood, the situation was already beyond repair.

The high temperature melted everything—grass, trees, bricks, steel bars, everything—even snow could no longer accumulate on that scorched earth.

Her mother was burned to ashes in the fire, leaving only charred remains.

Her father failed to keep his promise and failed to protect her and her mother.

We failed to protect...this city.

Having lost her home, Zoya had no choice but to follow Uncle Valery.

In just three days, the military and police went from initially trying to maintain order and protect civilians to being unable to protect themselves and even having to scramble for food to barely survive.

This is an abandoned, dead city. A military policeman on intelligence-gathering mission once delivered a hysterical report that the upper city of Chernobog had been cut off from the mobile city network. The central and core areas of Chernobog, with their main hubs, had left, leaving the upper city abandoned in this wasteland, with no way out for anyone.

After delivering his final message, the military policeman stood on the edge of the city, turning to look at the countless monsters surrounding him.

He silently put the pistol in his mouth and, without hesitation, shot himself in the head.

The monsters did not spare him because of his death; they swarmed forward and began to devour his corpse.

The sounds of chewing human bodies were transmitted through communicators to the military and police building, which was still barely functioning at the time, casting a shadow of despair over everyone's hearts.

Deformed, twisted monsters roamed the streets, and infected individuals covered in Originium went mad, hunting the living like madmen. These infected weren't even members of Reunion, but former citizens of Chernobog. Reunion had quietly left the Upper City, disappearing with the mobile city.

It's unknown whether anyone else survives in this desolate place; perhaps they are the only ones still breathing.

"Gaa gaa gaa gaa gaa gaa!"

The only entrance to the abandoned building was breached amidst terrifying screams.

Zoya quickly stood up and placed her hand on the equipment left by her father, an Originium Arts trigger device shaped like a revolver.

She lamented in her heart...

The most desperate night—will we still not see the sunrise?

Chapter 124 Ursus Military Police (4K)

Chernobog, Upper Town, Third Avenue.

Lin Lu drove the Noah motorcycle at breakneck speed along the barely drivable road.

The asphalt road was littered with debris and riddled with potholes, making it even more rugged and steep than the roads in the wilderness.

The houses along the way were mostly destroyed, and traces of the ravages of fire remained in every corner of the city, leaving behind a scene of desolation everywhere.

After extracting Mephisto's Herd Originium Arts, Lin Lu gained some ability to sense the mutated, deformed monsters, unlike before when he was completely clueless and couldn't even detect a monster waving its claws right in front of him.

The Spirit Realm is like a computer system that updates its data and upgrades its version based on different environments.

This means that Lin Lu still has a limit; he can become stronger and there is still room for development.

"Anemone, how are you?"

Lin Lu shouted towards the mobile terminal hanging on the Noah Heavy Machinery's dial.

The mobile device screen lit up, and the girl in her pajamas rubbed her eyes and yawned widely.

The anemone wore a specially made knitted nightcap on her horns. She looked tired as she reached into her thin nightgown and scratched her chest.

The mobile screen only showed the upper half of the anemone, and she adjusted the camera position as if she were taking a selfie, sometimes flashing glimpses of her long, white legs.

"I'm so sleepy, Doctor. If there's nothing else, I'll go touch it now."

The anemone had its eyes half-closed, looking as if it was about to enter a dormant state.

"Sleep? No sleeping! Come on, foreman, shout it out, everyone get up and work overtime, work overtime, work overtime!"

"Dr. Trash! The people are very disappointed in you! You need to raise your hope level to 15% within two days!"

Anemone angrily threw her pillow at the other end of the screen, but unfortunately it failed to break through the dimensional barrier and hit the scumbag in the face.

All he does is flirt with girls. One wasn't enough, he flirted with five! And not only that, but after successfully flirting with five, he didn't even remember to thank her, his super AI maid! Without her, Lin Lu would basically collapse in his current mental state. What is he even thinking about?!

Anemone grew angrier and angrier, to the point that her body became unstable; she was practically ready to raise a flag and declare that she wanted to give it away for free!

"Anemone, thank you for your trouble," Lin Lu said in a deep voice.

"Hmph... Okay, okay, I know."

Anemone closes her eyes and opens her arms in the mobile terminal.

The torrent of data flowed through her hands, like a queen wielding supernatural powers.

"The distress signal likely originated from an abandoned military and police building in the central part of the Upper City. The signal communication device was destroyed approximately one hour and twelve minutes ago. This device was connected to the Ursus military's communication system. Trying to trace back to the source might result in you being marked by the Ursus military, so I did not attempt to reverse the route."

Anemone said wearily, the fictional humanoid form becoming thin and seemingly about to vanish at any moment.

Nearly half of the mental energy Lin Lu expended during the extraction of the Seed of Evil was borne by Anemone along with him. As a result, she no longer even maintains her chibi-style three-dimensional human form, and can only barely materialize her existence using Rhodes Island's mobile terminal.

Fortunately, she directly controls the PRTS system, allowing her to quietly erase her traces and prevent others from discovering them.

Anemone opened her eyes, her hands twirling the fluorescent light in front of her, as if she were operating an invisible command and data input device.

"The optimal navigation route has been shared to the Data Realm, and the Unethical Map will provide timely navigation. Please note that the Ark Drive is overloaded and temporarily unavailable. Please do not push yourself too hard; the area is currently extremely dangerous. Noah's armed systems are fully unlocked, and PRTS will now provide support."

"Thanks, Anemone."

Looking at the indicator arrows appearing in the data-driven spiritual domain perspective, and the yellow-green indicator line rising from the ground, Lin Lu couldn't help but admire the anemone's excellence in certain aspects. Aside from its occasional sweet talk, its inherent intelligence-lowering aura, and its tendency to cause friendly fire, it wasn't bad at all.

The overload of the Ark Driver was also one of the reasons why Lin Lu felt mentally weak at the moment. A portion of his mental energy was passively used to repair the Ark Driver, which was one of the costs of binding it. Fortunately, Lin Lu had confiscated the two katanas of the Sarkaz and tied them to the storage box of the Noah Heavy Machine, so he was not unarmed.

"You're welcome, Doctor. May I go to sleep now?"

Anemone rubbed her eyes and yawned repeatedly, seemingly having thrown all sense of propriety about being a maid.

"That's right."

"Thank you, Doctor. You're so kind."

The anemone swayed and fell forward, its face pressing against the screen, making one's face look flat.

Lin Lu helplessly raised his hand to turn off the screen of the mobile terminal and turned off a light for the sleeping girl.

Lin was no scoundrel; he was just one step away from his goal and didn't want to give up halfway.

The night was quiet and still. The oncoming wind was less forceful due to the unique silhouette of the Noah motorcycle, but even so, Lin Lu still felt a chill run through his body. All he could hear was the rustling of monsters. Monsters whose evil seeds had sprouted and infected people who had transformed into herds followed him closely, like a hungry lion spotting a lost traveler in the desert.

"No wonder there wasn't a single Reunion member when I climbed the city walls. It turns out this city has been abandoned... That makes sense. If Mephisto dared to openly reveal the monster breeding farm, unless all the Reunion members were madmen and intended to be enemies of every country in the world, how could such an inhumane act be accepted?"

Lin Lu accelerated the Noah motorcycle towards its destination. The scenery along the way was reflected in the data, and he naturally noticed something amiss. Unfortunately, there wasn't time to investigate where Mephisto's spellcasting device was installed; otherwise, he could have a deeper understanding of the principles of the herd magic. If Little White Hair could cast a spell covering the entire upper city single-handedly without any assistance, wouldn't he be incredibly powerful? Why wouldn't he just fly to the heavens?

Saving lives is the priority now, and Lin Lu doesn't know if the girl can hold out until he arrives.

If she is still alive, Lin Lu will take her back to Rhodes Island.

If she dies...

"Let this city be her burial offering."

Lin Lu gripped the throttle tightly, and the Noor motorcycle roared to the heavens as it accelerated forward.

Behind him, countless monsters charged forward, their footsteps thundering like lightning.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Chernobog Upper Town, rooftop of an abandoned building.

Fifteen minutes have passed since the deformed monster broke through the only entrance to the passage.