Chapter 176: Sorry This Chapter Cant Be Translate
Chapter 177: This Fragile Beauty
"Are we playing games today too?"
Delta had been called to the training room early in the morning. When she saw the arcade machine turned on, her face fell.
"Can this game really reach such a high score? Adjutant Lin, is the person you mentioned just someone you made up?"
Hearing this, Lin stopped brewing his tea. He looked down at Delta. "Do you think I'm lying to you?"
"I just feel like..."
"Fine."
Just when Delta thought Lin was going to admit it, he... sat down in front of the arcade machine.
...He's going to play the game?
Delta was a MANTIS; her physical attributes were already beyond what Lin could match. If even she found the game so difficult, how could Lin...
Delta watched suspiciously as Lin started the game.
The early stages of the game were the same as when Delta played. But that was normal; Lin was still a Fire Moth soldier far beyond an average person. His reaction time was definitely...
However, after the game moved past the early stage and into the mid-game, Delta changed her mind.
The game had clear phases. The speed in the mid-game was more than ten times faster than the early game, and it was a sudden acceleration. It was very easy to accidentally break a combo, yet Lin adapted to the mid-game speed with ease.
Strange. His hand speed doesn't look that fast, so why...
He calmly dealt with targets flying from all directions. His control of the joystick remained within a small range, every shot precisely hitting a target. He didn't waste a single bullet.
His score soared. Because he didn't break his combo during the mid-game, his score actually surpassed Delta best result in an instant.
When the game entered the late stage, the speed of those targets surged again and they began to move erratically. Lin hand speed increased as well, but he still maintained a certain rhythm.
Delta watched in utter amazement as those targets—which looked like out-of-control cars to her—were popped one by one like floating balloons in front of Lin. Even with footage that an ordinary person couldn't even keep up with visually, Lin remained composed. The score began to rise at a terrifying rate.
Having comboed from the start into the late stage, the points per target reached over a thousand. The second-place score was easily surpassed. After playing for twenty minutes, the points per target began to be measured in the tens of thousands.
Delta fell completely silent.
Without even needing to surpass first place, Lin released the joystick after hitting a score of five hundred thousand.
"Any more questions?" Lin stood up, staring at Delta.
Gray Serpent was coming to the Tenth Branch soon.
Sakura was certain she had killed him last time. But she was certain she had killed Gray Serpent every time, yet he always "returned from the dead." Thus, Sakura still reported Gray Serpent's upcoming visit to the Tenth Branch to headquarters.
Strangely, headquarters' attitude toward Gray Serpent was subtle. Sakura had reported this unique existence more than once, yet headquarters still only ordered her to eliminate Gray Serpent and destroy the organization, never considering resolving Gray Serpent from the root.
This time, it was even stranger.
The order headquarters issued regarding this was "Monitor."
Not even assassination.
"Hey! Why is it always you going on missions? I'm almost rusting here and I haven't received a mission yet!"
That masked man was loudly shouting his dissatisfaction again. Sakura ignored him, quietly maintaining her sword.
"Lin is the same! No one knows what he's doing all day! A leisurely retirement life?!"
"...He has many things to do," Sakura said without looking up.
"Yes, yes. Every time I say a word about him, you have to defend him. If you care for him so much, why is it Elysia who's always by his side instead of you?" Kalpas stared mockingly at Sakura, speaking with malice.
Sakura had grown used to Kalpas way of speaking. He intentionally spoke in the way most likely to make someone angry. It was best to ignore him; the more you responded, the more energized he became.
Conversely, when Kalpas was in a bad mood, he spoke less and hated others talking to him.
"I saw that girl from the previous gathering yesterday... what was her name... Vil-V, right? She came here too and went straight to Lin."
"And I saw Lin bring another pink-haired girl into his room in the middle of the night. Both have pink hair, but why is there such a difference?"
...Fine. Sakura admitted that Kalpas mastery of making people angry was consummate. At the very least, she was currently quite annoyed.
She stood up, grabbed her sword, and walked out.
"I say, if you care that much, why don't you get closer and look?" Kalpas voice came from behind. "You can bring yourself to kill, yet you're afraid of something like this?"
"..."
"Big Brother Lin~"
Pardo's little head poked through the crack in the door. Her eyes gleamed as she looked at Lin in the training room and Delta sitting at the arcade machine. "Wanna buy my newly arrived treasure?"
"..." Lin looked up at Pardo. Since coming to the Tenth Branch, she had resumed her old trade, getting her hands on weird and wonderful gadgets from who-knows-where and running a business. Business was actually quite good.
However... "newly arrived" treasure? Where did she get it from?
"Hehe, take a look at the treasure I got first. I guarantee it'll surprise you!"
Pardo stole a few glances at Delta, who was playing the game with gritted teeth, and pulled a camera out of her ridiculously large pocket.
This wasn't a modern camera, but a hand-cranked camera full of vintage flavor.
...This design style reminded Lin of a certain person.
"Don't look at how old and broken this camera is. In fact... it can take incredible photos!"
Lin pondered for a moment, glanced at Pardo, and then aimed the camera at Delta sitting over there.
Lin hadn't used a hand-cranked camera before, but he knew how. After focusing, he took a picture. To his surprise, while the camera looked vintage, the resulting photo was clearer than those from the most advanced cameras.
However, he fell silent upon seeing the photo's content.
"Hmm?" Delta had just finished her game. Her low score made her incredibly depressed. Noticing the camera and photo in Lin hand, she walked over curiously to see the content.
"Y-Y-Y-You..."
Her face was overtaken by a crimson flush at an unbelievable speed. She pointed at Lin in a mix of panic and shame, unable to utter a single word in her fury.
"Oh? Why is my camera here?" At that moment, Vil-V walked in. She took the camera from Lin. Seeing the photo, she giggled and said, "I was the one who was supposed to take photos with this. I can't believe you found it. Oh dear... but why did you take a photo of someone else? If you wanted to see, couldn't you have just come to me?"
At this, Delta finally couldn't take it anymore and slapped Lin helmet: "Pervert!"