Li Pu had Jessica stay in Picto.
The girl had vomited so much today that she couldn't board the "stormbird" again.
So, later, when little Broly was done playing with little Koz and returned to the "Big Martha" Bar, Li Pu would have her look after the two children.
He, meanwhile, took little Martha's grandmother—the first "Noble Person" he had met after his Transmigration—along with several relatives and friends Martha had called, and drove directly to the airport.
After refueling the stormbird with aviation fuel, Li Pu taxied it onto the runway, piloting it into the sky for the second time today.
If they drove, covering the eight or nine hundred miles between Picto and Prudhoe Bay would likely take several days.
But riding the stormbird, Li Pu flew for less than an hour before finding an airport and landing again.
By the time they rented several snowmobiles from the airport and arrived at the Weyland Corporation Oil and Gas Company's station, the sky was just beginning to darken.
Although the call Martha received was from the State Police, the information the State Police received was relayed from the Weyland Corporation's security department, and the State Police had not dispatched officers at all.
In Alaska, especially in areas like Prudhoe Bay, security is managed by "Private Police," which are the security teams of large corporations.
However, according to legal requirements, cases involving human life must be followed up by the State Police, which is why the Weyland Corporation's security department notified them.
Martha showed her driver's license and made another call to the State Police before their group was allowed into the Weyland Corporation station.
Several heavily armed security guards led them to a temporary shed made of plastic steel, where two body bags, specifically for holding corpses, lay on the ground.
On one of the bags, little Martha's name was written with a marker pen.
A man with a handlebar mustache and a face like a Sea Dog Face seemed to be the small leader of these security guards.
He immediately urged them, saying, "Now, hurry up and take this girl away. She has caused us a lot of trouble.
She and her boyfriend were having a damn good time. They ran outside the camp in the middle of the night to have sex and ended up freezing to death.
"It doesn't matter that they died while high.
My brothers and I searched all night, and we only managed to retrieve the two bodies before the Arctic Wolves turned her and her boyfriend into poop."
"Impossible! Martha would never do that! We Athabascans are taught from childhood never to leave our homes in the middle of the night!"
One of Old Martha's cousins shouted, extremely agitated, and his hand instinctively reached for the handle of the hunting rifle slung across his back.
"Hey, Redskin, I warn you! If you touch that gun, I will exercise my right to self-defense and law enforcement rights!"
(Redskin, a derogatory term for Native Americans)
The Sea Dog Face security leader first pointed his finger at Martha's cousin, and then sequentially pointed at everyone else, including Li Pu.
While he was speaking, the other security guards raised the automatic rifles in their hands, surrounding Martha's relatives and Li Pu.
"You red-haired devil!"
"You Black Ghost!"
"..."
Martha's relatives began to curse the Sea Dog Face man and the security guards. Moreover, they also spewed out a large number of discriminatory terms.
That's just how the USA is.
Li Pu did not get involved in their argument.
He simply supported the trembling Martha as she squatted down and pulled open the zipper on little Martha's body bag.
Stroking her granddaughter's flushed face, Martha bit her lip, tears flowing uncontrollably.
Li Pu said nothing.
He saw little Martha's wide-open eyes, the blood hidden in her nostrils, several bluish finger marks on the back of her neck, her thin blue down jacket and cyan jeans, and a pair of feet with severe frostbite... If she had simply frozen to death, a person would not have wide-open eyes, nor would their lungs rupture from inhaling a large amount of snow dust.
Furthermore, Li Pu did not believe that anyone in Alaska would walk barefoot on the snow in the middle of the night.
To confirm his suspicion, he walked toward the other body bag, wanting to see the condition of little Martha's boyfriend.
"Kid, what are you doing!"
The Sea Dog Face security leader saw his action, and though he hadn't drawn his gun before, he suddenly became agitated.
He pulled out the sidearm from his waist and pointed the muzzle at Li Pu, who was zipping open the body bag.
"I bet you won't dare to shoot."
Li Pu took out a new digital camera, which was originally a gift he had given to little Martha, but unexpectedly, it was now serving a different purpose.
Click, click, click... Li Pu continuously took several photos, capturing the tragic appearance of little Martha's boyfriend after suffering severe violent beatings.
"F*ck Q!"
Sea Dog Face immediately became furious and strode forward, attempting to snatch the camera from Li Pu's hand.
In the blink of an eye, the hand holding the gun was gripped by Li Pu's large hand. He was "shielded" against Li Pu's chest as Li Pu stood up, and the muzzle was redirected toward his own chin.
The man struggled desperately, unable even to pull his finger out of the trigger guard.
He truly dared not shoot now, because if he did, the bullet would blow off his own skull.
"Look, you're clearly a coward who doesn't even dare to shoot himself in the head, so why did you dare to..."
Before he finished speaking, Li Pu's other hand drew the revolver he had specifically brought back to Alaska—more for nostalgia than self-defense—and emptied the cylinder into the other Weyland Corporation security guards present.
The idiots, who had become so complacent from staying in Prudhoe Bay for too long that they hadn't even engaged their safety mechanisms, didn't have time to react before each had an extra bullet in their forehead.
"...rape, murder, and then attempting to conceal the truth and evade punishment?"
As he spoke, Li Pu pressed the hot gun barrel against the Sea Dog Face man's face, turning the garbage talk the man was about to spew out for courage into a string of "Ah, ah, ah."
"Come on, take me to see who gave you the guts? Has your Big Boss come to Prudhoe Bay for an inspection?
I want to have a talk with him.
Whether it's opening up honestly or pouring out my heart, either is fine. In short, I will definitely let you know how sincere I am.
You Son of a Bitch!"
Not long ago, when the stormbird landed, he noticed that a Bombardier was parked at the small airport and was refueling.
Although Alaska has hundreds of airports, making it the leader in North America, seeing a Bombardier here... while not impossible, is extremely rare.
That airport was the closest to Prudhoe Bay. The planes that usually landed there were either transporting workers or delivering precision parts.
After arriving at this Weyland Corporation camp and sensing the area slightly, Li Pu discovered another anomaly.
Besides Sea Dog Face and a few other security guards, everyone else was absent from the camp.
These people were gathered about two miles north of the camp, seemingly engaged in some kind of underground operation.
You must know that even in the summer, the temperature in Prudhoe Bay can plummet to minus 20 or 30 degrees after dark.
Although Capitalists won't spare the workers, they do calculate costs.
At such low temperatures, if drilling work must be carried out, expensive drill bits can easily be ruined.
Therefore, oil fields in the Arctic Circle generally do not operate at night, or at least they don't easily drill into the ground.
But now, those people were still gathered together, working enthusiastically.
Coupled with seeing a Bombardier at the airport earlier, Li Pu was basically certain that the Big Boss of the Weyland Corporation had arrived.
Moreover, that Big Boss was probably not here to drill for oil; he might have something else going on.
Therefore, Li Pu gave Martha and her relatives a few more instructions, telling them to stay safely inside the shed and not go out.
As Picto's formerly strongest hunter, capable of successfully hunting Brown Bear and reindeer without using a firearm, his prestige still remained despite being away for a year or two.
Especially since Li Pu had swiftly dealt with several security guards, and then displayed little Martha's frostbitten feet and the tragic sight of her boyfriend beaten to death... this made everyone present understand the truth of the matter.
They might not be able to Take Revenge Readily as Li Pu could, but they were equally unwilling to let the matter drop and certainly wouldn't hold Li Pu back.
"May the Ten Thousand Spirits bless Li Pu's successful hunt!"
Martha and her relatives began to pray and bless Li Pu using the Indigenous Language of the Athabascans.
At the same time, they took turns prying open the mouths of the dead security guards and spitting their saliva into the dead men's mouths.
It is said that this is a ritual performed against the Soul of the prey, carrying the dual meaning of conquest and transcendence—
The reason you were killed has nothing to do with the hunter; it's simply because you were too weak... "Take off your shoes and socks."
As he pushed Sea Dog Face out of the shed, Li Pu used his gun to force the man to step barefoot onto the perennially frozen snow of the Arctic Circle.
As night fell, the heavy wind carrying snow dust across Alaska also began to blow.
"It's only about two or three miles from here to your boss, and I'm letting you wear clothes much thicker than little Martha's.
Run there barefoot. If you can make it in one go, I promise I won't shoot your Rotten Heart.
This must be the last thing you did to little Martha last night, right?
Well, now it's your turn, you bastard.
RUN!"
Shouting the final word, "Run," Li Pu raised his hand and fired a shot, the bullet tearing off a piece of flesh from the man's ear.
Li Pu was a man of his word; when he said he wouldn't shoot the Rotten Heart, he would definitely adjust the muzzle a few centimeters higher before pulling the trigger.