Intermittent, short-cycle sleep.
Equipped with the [Lynx], Merlin gained the feline biological trait that allowed him to rest well throughout the night, even with only light sleep.
All night long, his ears twitched slightly from time to time, or his eyes would half-open and close, maintaining a basic awareness of the external environment.
The next day.
Merlin didn't wake up early, nor did he wake Yol and Lami. Instead, he waited until his mental and physical energy was fully restored before picking up his pocket watch to check the time.
9:30 AM.
Merlin stared at the ceiling of the cave, watching rays of light filter in through the cracks in the stone above.
The environment inside the cave was somewhat damp, which was unavoidable since they couldn't light a fire here.
Looking around the cave, he turned his head to look at Yol's beautiful face close by. A feeling of unreality rose in his heart.
With a thought, a translucent blue equipment interface appeared before Merlin's eyes.
[Equipment Slot]
Merlin looked at the two magical items he had equipped, sensing the real power flowing within his body.
Only then did the lingering sense of unreality gradually fade.
'I really have come to this fantastic world of [ONE PIECE].'
He looked at the synchronization rate displayed on the [Equipment].
[Synchronization Rate: 1%]
Both were still at one percent.
He thought to himself:
"It seems just surviving another day doesn't increase the amount. Does it require my own training and cultivation?"
Synchronization, synchronization. The literal meaning was simple and easy to understand.
Having read countless web novels in his past life, Merlin had some different ideas.
He moved his right arm slightly. The slight movement woke Yol beside him.
Opening her eyes, seeing him looking at her calmly from close range, Yol looked a bit dazed. "Laplace?"
"Mmh! Call me Merlin."
Merlin spoke calmly. Yol's mouth opened slightly, her muddled consciousness fully awakening.
She realized the situation the three of them were in. At the same time, she noticed she was hugging Merlin's right arm tightly with both hands.
A strange look flashed in Yol's eyes, but she pretended to let go nonchalantly, then sat up and asked Merlin softly:
"What time is it?"
Merlin also sat up, moving his slightly numb arm. His gaze shifted. "9:30 AM. By the way, my left cheek stings a bit. Check if some bug bit me."
The light was dim, so Yol leaned in close to inspect carefully.
Merlin observed her eyes; there was no strange glint in them.
"No? There's no sign of any bite on your face."
Merlin breathed a sigh of relief. Of course there wasn't, but the equipment interface in front of his eyes still existed.
'It seems only I can see it. That's good. I won't have to be so cautious about it in the future.'
Merlin smiled. "Maybe I just imagined it."
Yol was confused, but curiosity flashed in her eyes as she looked at Merlin.
"You have some soot on your face. Want me to wipe it off for you?"
Merlin shook his head and stood up, glancing at the entrance. "No need, it serves as camouflage.
"I'm going up to look around. Wake Lami up. There's dry food, you guys eat, don't wait for me."
Saying this, Merlin equipped his dagger, took a grenade, and climbed up. After moving the stone, he crawled out through the rockery.
He saw that the villa had been burned beyond recognition, mostly collapsed, with wisps of black smoke still drifting into the sky.
Merlin squatted quietly on the ground, listening and staying alert to the surroundings.
Ten seconds later, detecting no movement nearby.
Merlin walked to the wall, vaulted over, and patrolled the area.
Everywhere were signs of fire and bomb damage.
Before long, Merlin made his way near the hospital. Thought flashed in his eyes; he hadn't seen many bodies along the way.
"Have they been moved collectively?"
There were tire tracks on the ground. Merlin climbed to the top of a building and looked around. He saw thick smoke rising from several locations on the outskirts of the city.
He rushed over.
Lying prone on the roof of a building facing a harbor, Merlin looked at a mountain of corpses surrounded by raging flames in the open space below.
A thick, pungent stench of burnt flesh filled the air.
His stomach churned violently. Merlin swallowed hard, suppressing the nausea.
Mockery appeared in his eyes. "So they know to burn bodies to prevent plagues?"
Thinking of the six-man squads of soldiers he had seen patrolling the city to clean up survivors along the way, he murmured:
"They really intend to exterminate everyone!"
On the way back,
Merlin found two one-liter canteens in a few shops untouched by the fire and filled them with clean drinking water.
Avoiding patrols on the road, Merlin returned to the cave. By now, the two females had packed up. Merlin handed over the canteens:
"Drink some water! We'll set off in a bit."
Yol took them and rehydrated along with Lami.
Merlin began to equip grenades. He took seven for himself and gave five to Yol. Yol carried the katana and rifle.
After everything was ready.
The three set off together.
---
Northern outskirts of the city.
Merlin, Yol, and Lami lay behind a half-collapsed wall.
In an alley three hundred meters away, intense gunfire rang out.
A group of Flevance survivors were in a fierce firefight with foreign soldiers.
A light appeared in Merlin's eyes. "As expected, this country produces lead bullets. The people here won't be wiped out overnight so easily."
Beside him, Yol's eyes grew agitated as she looked at Merlin:
"Are we going to join them and fight back?"
Merlin shook his head.
"You go notify them. I'll circle around and ambush from behind. Wait for the chaos to start there. I assume those still alive aren't idiots."
Seeing Yol's worried look, Merlin shook his head. "Listen to me."
With that, Merlin hunched over and ran quickly to the side. Yol pursed her lips watching Merlin leave, her gaze firming. She looked at the ruins nearby for hiding, then at Lami, and said:
"Hide here for now. We'll come find you when we're done."
Lami nodded obediently, lay on the ground, and crawled into a gap under a wall that had collapsed at a right angle.
Yol watched Lami hide, took a deep breath, grabbed her gun, and hunched over, running toward the group of survivors.
Soon, Yol found one of their leaders and reached an agreement.
Moreover,
This leader was an "acquaintance" Yol had spoken with a few times.
Merlin, with an empty backpack on his chest, circled around to the back. Lying on the edge of a two-story roof, he looked down at the foreign soldiers hiding in the ruins and fighting the survivors opposite them.
There were twelve of them in total.
A grenade sat in front of him.
Gripping another grenade in his right hand, holding down the safety lever, click! a soft sound. Merlin pulled the pin, counted two seconds silently, and threw it hard into a cluster of people below.
Immediately after, he threw the other grenade in front of him into another group using the same method.
BOOM!
BOOM-BOOM!!!
The grenades exploded in the crowd.
Two unlucky soldiers had the grenades on their bodies detonated as well.
Instantly, the gunfire on this side ceased.
The crowd was overturned by the sudden blast shockwave, and miserable wails rose one after another.
At the same time, the survivors' gunfire opposite them also stopped. Merlin jumped down from the roof, sprinting to a soldier who hadn't been hit by the blast.
He drove his dagger ruthlessly through the man's neck. Pulling it out without hesitation, he rushed toward another soldier who was dazed by the explosion.
Dagger raised, dagger falls.
Another soldier down.
Quickly, Merlin finished off the remaining two soldiers three meters away who had only been stunned by the blast.
Then he went around delivering the final blow to all the remaining soldiers heavily injured by the grenades.
Merlin glanced at the survivors running toward him and began to clean up the battlefield.
He collected all the grenades from the soldiers' waists, stuffing them into the backpack on his chest.
A total harvest of seventeen grenades.
A few seconds later, fourteen survivors arrived together, looking at Merlin with approval. Yol walked quickly to Merlin's side, her face relaxing when she saw he was unharmed.
At this moment, Merlin held his right hand behind his back, gripping a grenade. He looked at the obvious leader of the group standing three meters away.
A middle-aged man with a resolute face, two meters tall, short black hair, but with eyes full of bloodshots.
Merlin's gaze held a hint of wariness:
"How should I address you, brother?"