Chapter 44: Stay Close to Me

[Summer, why are you looking so comfortable there?]

[Summer, let this big sister switch places with you. Just one minute is enough!]

[ONE MINUTE? Girl, be honest. You’d never let go.]

[Captain Noctis, I volunteer as the next person who needs rescuing!]

Summer’s eyes twitched. Comfortable?

She was literally being carried through polluted air while an S-Rank snake tried to spit venom at them.

What part of this looked comfortable? Unfortunately, her body betrayed her.

Her arms were still wrapped around Ilya’s neck and because his grip around her waist was so steady, she didn’t even have to use much strength to hold herself up.

Okay... maybe she did look a little comfortable.

She immediately loosened her arms, but then Ilya scolded her. "What are you doing?"

Summer replied to him in seconds. "Nothing."

"You’re slipping."

"I’m not."

"You are."

Before Summer could argue further, his arm tightened around her waist again and pulled her closer, making her face almost hit his shoulder.

The comment section exploded.

[OH MY GOD.]

[HE PULLED HER CLOSER.]

[SUMMER, MOVE. IT’S MY TURN.]

[MODS, I’m about to say something inappropriate.]

[Don’t.]

Meanwhile, the mutated snake lifted its head again. Dark green venom gathered inside its mouth, thick enough that Summer could see it dripping between its fangs.

Before the snake could spit, Ilya raised his metal arm. A panel along his forearm suddenly slid open with a click and golden light gathered inside it.

The energy became brighter and brighter until the entire metal arm started giving off heat.

BOOM!

A blast of golden plasma shot straight toward the snake, but the venom left its mouth at the exact same time.

The two attacks crashed into each other in midair. For half a second, green and gold pushed against each other.

Fortunately, the snake’s venom couldn’t hold out against the plasma energy released by Ilya.

The golden plasma tore through it and slammed straight into the snake’s face.

BOOM!

Its head snapped backward from the impact. The huge creature crashed into the ruins below, sending broken concrete and dust flying everywhere.

For a second, Summer thought that might have been enough, but it wasn’t.

The snake slowly lifted its head again, still moving, and let out a loud hiss toward Ilya.

Ilya clicked his tongue. "That polluted energy explosion really made everything harder."

Summer looked down at the massive creature below. One side of its face was already burned black from the plasma blast, but it still looked far from dead.

Not long after that, Ilya raised his metal arm again. This time, the panels along his forearm opened wider and the golden light gathered inside the firing chamber.

At the same time, a thin line of blood appeared along his palm. The red drops twisted together in midair, then slowly changed color until they became silver.

The metal stretched longer and longer until it formed a sharp spear, so Ilya caught it with his metal hand.

On the other side, the snake suddenly lunged upward again, but Ilya didn’t move away this time. "Hold on."

Without saying anything, Summer tightened her arms around his neck.

The wings behind his back spread wide before he finally shot downward at a speed faster than the wind.

When he saw the snake open its mouth, he drove the spear into it without hesitation. It pierced through its mouth and went all the way through the back of its head.

The snake’s body started twitching, but Ilya wasn’t done with it.

He grabbed the end of the spear and pulled hard, dragging it down along the snake’s body all the way toward its tail.

The blade ripped through flesh and bone and in the end, the massive snake split cleanly into two.

[Damn! Damn! Damn! That’s the coolest thing I’ve seen all day!]

[Summer, your livestream is always top-tier!]

[Someone clip that! RIGHT NOW!]

[This stream is insane!]

Ilya was the one who had just given the amazing performance, but somehow, Summer was the one getting all the rewards.

Her terminal started ringing nonstop.

[Rich Auntie sent ×5 Plasma Roses: 500 Credits]

[BunnyCultLeader sent ×10 Crystal Hearts: 2,000 Credits]

[CaptainNoctisFan99 sent ×3 Silver Moons: 6,000 Credits]

[MissBunnyPleaseStepOnMe sent ×1 Angel Wings: 5,000 Credits]

[Anonymous Viewer sent ×2 Starships: 20,000 Credits]

[Rich Fox Mommy sent ×1 Mini Galaxy: 20,000 Credits]

[BaronB sent ×1 Celestial Crown: 100,000 Credits]

The smile on Summer’s face grew wider every time she received a gift notification. Even when she was fighting the mutated creatures with Saddie earlier, she seemed to have already earned 250,000 Credits from gifts.

More than that, after checking the history log, it turned out that she had killed 7 D-Rank polluted creatures, 4 C-Rank creatures, 2 B-Rank creatures, and 1 A-Rank creature together with Saddie.

Her whole body was aching now, but at least all that pain had been worth something.

"I need to deal with the rest of them now," Ilya said as he carried Summer back toward the hotel from before. "You can stay here for a while."

He finally set her down in front of the entrance. Summer moved her gaze toward the lobby and saw that the low-rank Sentinels and Guides had already taken shelter inside.

Some of them were injured. Others were sitting on the floor, crying and staring blankly ahead as if they had completely lost hope.

But then Summer saw that Saddie was already there too. Unlike everyone else who was panicking, Saddie somehow stood out like a bright light in the middle of all that fear.

She was already moving around the lobby, helping the injured and ordering the people who could still move to stop sitting around and help too.

Even the people who had refused to get up before were now starting to take care of the wounded.

Summer turned back to Ilya. "Just you alone?" she asked, tilting her head.

Ilya smiled and nodded. "This place was upgraded to an S-Rank Polluted Zone after the polluted energy explosion. I don’t think these people can help me much."

Honestly, Summer understood what he meant.

If they went outside now, most of them would probably just end up becoming food for the monsters.

Waiting for the government to send more help would also take too long.

"They won’t open the gate until the pollution level drops back into a safe range," Ilya explained. "If we leave things like this, the polluted creatures will only get more out of control."

He reassured her, "Don’t worry. You’ll be safe here."

Summer raised an eyebrow. "How can you be so sure?"