I'm in the Ark, a player.

Page 95

"Explore a new map?"

Is it to be in the Great Knight's territory, CityWalk?

"should?"

Texas nodded.

Although she was well aware of Qin Tianling's ability to cause trouble.

But if it's just a walk, it shouldn't cause any major trouble.

...........

In the courtyard behind the tavern where Qin Tianling ate last time, inside the old craftsman's workshop...

"Girl?"

Girl!

Amidst the old craftsman's repeated shouts, Maria, wielding the hammer, finally snapped out of her daze and looked at the old craftsman in a panic.

"Huh? Huh! What's wrong!?"

"What are you daydreaming about! The iron's already cold!"

The old craftsman pointed to the piece of iron in her tongs, which had faded from bright orange to dark red.

Blacksmithing requires heating the iron to a certain temperature and then hammering it before it cools to below 800 degrees Celsius.

This process is very brief, lasting only a few tens of seconds each time.

Forging at excessively low temperatures will only cause internal cracks.

Maria's attention wandered for even a moment, and she missed the optimal time for training.

"Sorry, I was just thinking about something."

What are you thinking about?

"No...it's nothing."

Maria shook her head.

She had been thinking about how she had cheered for someone who wasn't a knight, which caused her to lose focus.

She was too embarrassed to talk about such trivial things.

Martin looked at her for a moment, then sighed.

"You don't look well today... Sigh, why don't you take a break today, go out for a walk, and clear your head?"

He waved his hand, then turned to tidy up the molds on the forging table.

Maria opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end she just responded, put down the hammer, untied the craftsman's apron hanging on the hook on the wall, and walked out of the workshop.

Walking outside on the street, it was completely dark.

A night breeze blew by, and Maria felt a little cold, but it also made her mind clearer.

So why did I cheer for him?

Because he didn't use any dirty tricks in this match?

Because his opponent was despicable and shameless, and even punished him for a two-on-one fight?

Was this competition too exciting and tense?

Maria was unsure.

Despite possessing such skill, they resorted to such despicable tactics to win the previous two matches.

They could have won by playing normally, and wouldn't have had to bear all this criticism.

Why does he insist on doing it this way?

Not a knight, not a knight...........

His actions, his knighthood,

It's almost like mocking the athletic knight himself.

Could it be that he is dissatisfied with the knightly competition itself, believing that the current knights in the competition are not like real knights, so he deliberately expresses this through this behavior?

Maria was unsure.

She sighed, looked up at the sky, at the seemingly endless neon lights of the city, and at the giant LED screens hanging on the buildings that continuously played advertisements for knightly races.

Suddenly, she saw what appeared to be several figures carrying bows and arrows flash past around the corner.

very strange,

They were acting suspiciously, like they were avoiding ordinary citizens...

What is this for?

For some reason, Maria remembered a legend.

In Kazimierz, a group of unarmored assassins wielding bows and arrows roam the shadows, using their weapons to kill disobedient gladiators and other targets.

They were known as the Unarmored Alliance.

No one can be sure whether they actually exist or are just fictional urban legends copied from movies by busybodies—but this image of assassins is often talked about by citizens and has been used as a movie setting on the screen many times.

Recalling the figures of those people from just now, an outrageous idea popped into my mind.

Could it really be the Unarmored Alliance?

Those figures just now didn't look like normal movie fan cosplay at all.

After thinking for a moment, she decided to follow them.

Because she was a beat too slow, Maria naturally couldn't keep up.

Fortunately, Maria remembered the direction they were heading, and she continued forward in that direction.

Gradually, she arrived at the edge of this mobile city area.

Maria spotted a camp of wandering infected people.

In the corners of this mobile city, amidst a jungle of steel and concrete, homeless infected individuals have built makeshift shelters using cheap sheet metal, discarded planks, and salvaged plastic sheets.

Several electrical wires stolen from the construction site hung between the shacks, and a lighting system pieced together from discarded fluorescent tubes emitted a pale, buzzing light.

The location here is very remote, and even though there are some buildings around, there are no lights on.

Maria found it strange because she couldn't see the guys she had been following.

But the next second she knew she had definitely followed the right place!

She saw black arrows raining down from the night sky, piercing the camp and pinning many infected to the ground!

"What the other infected people are saying is true! Recently, there have been people specifically targeting infected people!!! Run—"

"Go that way! Go that way!"

"Mommy—Mommy—"

Chaos erupted within the camp in an instant.

The infected poured out of the shacks, crying and running.

Arrows rained down in volleys upon volleys.

Nail the infected to death one by one.

In the chaos, a girl was knocked down by an escaped infected person. She was probably not even as tall as a carriage wheel, her messy short hair covering most of her face, and she was wearing an old coat that was clearly an adult's clothes altered to fit her.

Even facing such a young child, the members of the Unarmored Alliance, hidden in the shadows, still raised their bows towards her.

This is an order from above.

Clear out the infected people from the city.

Even the girl in front of us, who looks shorter than a carriage wheel, is the same.

The Grand Knights of Kazimierz have a place to house the infected.

That was a plot of land wandering around the Great Knight's Territory, without any numbering or markings; it was called Plot Zero.

However, not all infected people stay there.

There will still be people who feel like they're in prison just by staying there.

These people will live like rats in every nook and cranny of the Great Knights' territory.

The business federation that controls the Unarmored Alliance and promotes the development of knightly competitions does not recognize the existence of these infected individuals in the Great Knight Territory.

Because all their money was spent on drugs to suppress Oripathy, they were a bunch of poor bastards who couldn't create any commercial value at all.

Moreover, their existence could potentially turn ordinary people who are capable of being exploited into the same kind of risk as them.

Therefore, the Business Federation has been ordering the Unarmored Alliance to clear out the infected within the Great Knight Territory.

An arrow is fired!

However, the arrow did not pierce the infected girl's skull; instead, it was stopped by the lid of a metal trash can.

To be precise, it didn't block it.

The arrow pierced the lid, but as it pierced it, the person holding the lid deflected it, and the arrowhead was deflected by this lateral force, changing its final landing point.

The arrowhead was embedded straight into the mud beside the girl, its tail feathers still humming.

The person holding a trash can lid as a shield is none other than Maria Nearl!

She stood in front of the little girl!

The trash can lid in her hand was one she had just picked up.

Maria doesn't have the habit of carrying weapons when she goes out for a stroll in the city where she's lived since childhood.

Maria knew that she was now without armor or weapons, and charging forward blindly would be tantamount to suicide.

Faced with utter darkness, she didn't even know where the members of the Unarmored Alliance were hiding!

Legend has it that even seasoned knights clad in armor would fear the Unarmored Alliance.

What's more, he himself had no equipment at all.

Without a spellcasting unit, she couldn't even use Originium Arts!

However, due to the upbringing she received from the Rinko family, she instinctively took action when she saw someone whose life was threatened.

"She's blocking our way from carrying out our orders... Shall we just take care of her too?"

The members of the Unarmored Alliance's infected-clearing team, lurking in the shadows, were quite displeased with the sudden appearance of the civilians.

If some nosy citizens accidentally disappear during the cleaning process, that's perfectly normal.

Who let her interfere with the mission?

Just as he nocked his arrow and prepared to shoot again, a voice rang out once more.

"and many more!"

The one who spoke was the squad leader.

"This guy seems to be from the Nearl family..."

The captain of the Unarmored Alliance cleaning team recognized the Pegasus before him.

He spoke to his teammates.

"The people of the Rinko family are also very important to the Kanjōkai."

We can't kill him. If we do, the supervisory council will cause an uproar.

"Our superiors, the Business Federation, will cause us trouble."

"That?"