Chapter 39: Her First Choice

The explosion of pollution energy lasted for almost two hours, and at some point, Summer had accidentally fallen asleep on Ilya’s shoulder.

By the time she woke up, the room was a complete mess. Several shelves had fallen over, the lamps on the ceiling were shattered, and pieces of glass were scattered across the floor.

Fortunately, the walls were strong enough to keep the polluted energy outside.

The downside was... they still needed oxygen.

Summer had been using an oxygen nose plug, so she looked much better than everyone else. But the oxygen supply inside the room was limited. Once it ran out, even she would eventually start suffocating in this airtight space.

"The air pollution is still pretty high," Ilya said as he checked the air quality through his terminal. "But the system is back online, so we can at least request oxygen filter masks and have them delivered to the door."

Summer glanced at her own terminal.

The connection had returned, but unfortunately, the livestream was still paused.

She opened the status page.

[Air Pollution: 87%]

[Note: Sentinels with unstable pollution levels are advised to remain close to their Guides.]

Summer had barely finished reading when another notification suddenly appeared.

[Sentinel Detected With High Compatibility Detected!]

[Identity: Ilya Noctis]

[Beast Form: Golden Eagle]

[Sentinel Rank: S]

[Pollution Level: 53%]

[Status: Moderately Polluted.]

[Warning: Guiding Required Soon.]

[Calculating Compatibility with Sentinel Ilya Noctis...]

[Compatibility: 96%.]

Summer widened her eyes because the compatibility percentage between Ilya and Archer was the same.

Was it because they were brothers? But they weren’t even related by blood.

Besides that, Ilya’s pollution level didn’t seem to be this high before. But it seemed like the blast of polluted energy had greatly affected the Sentinels.

Fortunately, they wouldn’t need to stay in this polluted zone any longer.

At least, that was what Summer hoped.

===

"Fuck! We’re fucked!" A sentinel’s panicked shout echoed once Summer went to the exit gate.

In front of the group was a huge crack in the ground, so deep that the bottom could barely be seen. The worst part was that the crack stretched between them and the exit gate and it wasn’t empty.

From the bottom of the crack, more and more polluted energy poured out, followed by a large number of earthworms that had mutated into monsters.

Their bodies were swollen and twisted, far larger than normal earthworms, with sharp teeth covering their mouths.

[Warning! Warning!]

[Mutated Earthworms Detected!]

[Distance: 541 meters]

[Threat Level: A-Rank]

[Please remain alert and seek assistance from the nearest Sentinel.]

The rest of the Sentinels and Guides who had managed to survive the polluted energy explosion immediately gasped, their faces turning pale.

The Sentinels and Guides who had survived the earlier explosion all went pale.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!"

"This is insane!"

"A-Rank, my ass! My ability barely reached D-Rank before!"

"Mom!! Please forgive me! I swear I won’t run away from home again! I wanna go home! Pick me up, please!"

Most of the people here were only D-Rank Sentinels and Guides. Even the stronger ones were mostly C-Rank, with only a few barely reaching B-Rank.

There was quite a noticeable difference between B-Rank and A-Rank, and that ranking also applied to polluted creatures.

Even though Summer knew the situation was getting worse, she tried to stay calm and adjusted her mask before turning toward Ilya.

"Maybe you can try getting out through the sky?" Summer suggested.

He immediately looked up and saw that the clouds above them had already turned almost completely black.

[Warning! Warning!]

[Pollution Density in the Sky Has Reached 97%.]

[Sentinels with pollution levels above 20% are not advised to enter the sky.]

Ilya stared at the message for a second, then he shrugged. "Yeah. I think we’re stuck here."

For someone trapped in a place filled with uncertainty, he looked so relaxed.

Didn’t this man just lecture Saddie earlier about not underestimating polluted zones.

Speaking of Saddie, the fox had already stolen more ammo from Ilya.

Apparently, after receiving so many Super Gifts, Saddie had suddenly rediscovered her will to live.

There was no way she planned to die here now.

"H-Hey, isn’t that Captain Noctis?" one of the D-Rank Sentinels started whispering quietly, but unfortunately, Summer could still hear him.

"Yes, it’s him!"

"Did he come here to save us?"

"No. Someone told me in the comments earlier that he came here to train Miss Bunny."

"But do you think... he’ll still save us?"

No one could answer for sure, and even Summer wasn’t completely certain.

After all, his brother, Archer, was the kind of person who worked alone and rarely cared about anyone outside his mission. So she didn’t expect much from Ilya either.

But then again, Summer wasn’t completely sure if that was fair.

The last time they were in a dangerous zone, the people they had to save were Winter and her group. Maybe that had been one of the reasons Archer didn’t help them in the first place.

This time was different.

Summer barely knew any of these people and because of that, she honestly didn’t know what she wanted to do either.

Back then, saving people had been part of her program. She did it because she was told to, but that program was gone now.

For the first time, Summer had to decide for herself whether she wanted to save someone and strangely enough, she didn’t know the answer yet.

She was still unsure. But the moment she saw a mutated earthworm lunging toward a young woman who was trying to run away, her body moved before she could even think.

Summer raised the poison gun.

Bang!

The shot hit the creature right on its head, and its huge body crashed to the ground.

[You killed ×1 A-Rank Mutated Creature: 30,000 Credits]

Before Summer could even react, another notification appeared.

[Livestream Back Online.]

"T-Thank you! Thank you!" The young Guide stared at Summer with tears in her eyes, looking like she was about to cry.

"Don’t just stand there!" Summer snapped at her. "Go!"