Chapter 112: You... pervert!

Not daring to lose a single second, Bunny had the little dragon snatch Kai up in its jaws, and they scrambled to retreat.

A spirit guide’s power stems directly from its Sentinel master. With Kai in a state of extreme exhaustion, the little dragon’s combat reserves were virtually spent—after breathing a single blast of fire, it couldn’t manage another.

She had to rely entirely on herself.

After hurling her very last incendiary grenade, woman and beast fought their way back along the path they came through a wall of towering flames.

The hatchlings were weak individually, but their sheer agility and repulsive numbers made them a nightmare. Bunny shook off a cluster of hatchlings clinging to her lower leg, shooting and falling back simultaneously.

The mining shaft had already suffered prior structural cave-ins; its brittle rock walls began shuddering violently under the gunfire.

Struggling to keep her balance, Bunny stumbled toward the vertical ladder shaft, vaulting out like an agile monkey a split second before the collapse.

"Fly!"

Densely packed swarms of hatchlings were still pouring out of the shaft opening. Bunny hastily scrambled onto the dragon’s back, and the creature flapped its wings, cutting through the turbulence to launch straight into the sky.

The little dragon had intended to return to its lair, but its energy reserves were totally depleted. Mid-flight, its power gave out, sending Bunny crashing down hard onto the wasteland ground.

Left with no choice, Bunny sought refuge in a nearby deserted apartment building.

Unable to confirm whether Kai was hosting any parasitic larvae, Bunny found a heavy dog chain and secured him to a beam. Since there were no wearable clothes around, she simply draped a blanket over him for warmth.

Kai’s mental domain was in appalling condition due to radiation exposure, riddled with gaping voids across his spiritual mesh. She performed a quick, surface-level cleansing, leaving the damaged network sections to be repaired slowly at a later time.

Having finished all of this, Bunny unfolded a paper map she had scavenged from the apartment, studying it intently while wondering if a century-old map held any practical value.

In his unconscious state, Kai was trapped in a dream.

Blinding fluorescent lights. Masked figures clad in hazard suits stained with dried blood. The agonized shrieks of his own kind locked inside glass enclosures.

"Restrain him! Administer another dose of sedative!"

"The active compounds in the Generation 3 Resurgence Serum are unstable! Command has explicitly banned further development..."

"Then what do we do with these test samples?"

"Mass destruction."

"..."

The scenes shifted rapidly. Those masked faces twisted into horrifying, ghastly visages, screaming as they lunged toward him. Kai jolted awake from the nightmare, cold beads of sweat coating his forehead.

His spiritual sea surged out of control once more. His entire body trembled violently as his muscles spasmed and cramped, forcing low, gut-wrenching groans from his throat.

Seeing his distress, Bunny rushed over and pulled him into her arms without hesitation.

Gentle streams of Guide spiritual strands wrapped around his entire body like a warm current, soothing the man’s tightly strung, erratic nerves. Her soft body and sweet, honey-like scent served as a soothing balm he drank in eagerly.

He instinctively leaned closer toward the warm source. The woman stroked his back over and over with endless patience, as if comforting a fragile, frightened young beast:

"It’s okay, it’s okay now... you’re safe..."

Kai’s trembling slowly subsided, and his breathing leveled out.

He curled obediently against Bunny’s chest, raising his head to lock his captivating, deep purple eyes onto hers without blinking.

It looked partly like curiosity, but even more like a predator locking onto a target.

One of his hands remained tightly tangled in the hem of her jacket, refusing to let go.

Seeing that his state had stabilized, Bunny prepared to release him—after all, cuddling up with a completely naked man felt entirely inappropriate.

Yet the moment she loosened her grip, he clung right back to her like a whiny, needy puppy, refusing to let her leave.

Bunny put on a stern face. "I haven’t even verified if you’re carrying parasites! Release me right now, or I’m gonna slap you."

Her threat proved completely ineffective. Kai simply stared up at her with a pouting, handsome face, pleading silently in a way that made it impossible not to feel a pang of sympathy.

He looked a little silly and noticeably dim-witted—could his brain have been fried by radiation?

Ultimately, Bunny grabbed a pillow, wrapped her outer jacket tightly around it, and handed it to him to cuddle instead.

Items carrying her scent would help keep his volatile emotions grounded.

Kai held the pillow like a prized treasure, nuzzling his nose against it repeatedly like a dog.

Bunny returned to analyzing the map. If the geographical landmarks hadn’t shifted, heading straight north would lead back to the 616’s border.

Given Kai’s unstable mental state, however, could she really manage to trek back with him in tow?

Suppressing a yawn, Bunny decided to get some sleep to regain her energy, planning to set off early tomorrow morning.

At that moment, she noticed Kai sitting with his back turned to her, clutching the pillow while secretly doing something behind her back.

Bunny walked over. "What are you doing?"

Caught in the act, Kai flinched violently, turning his head with an expression of complete innocence and clarity.

Bunny’s eyes drifted downward—and her face instantly turned beet red.

With no clothes on, the man’s natural physiological reaction was blindingly obvious.

Bunny bit her lip in sheer embarrassment and fury. "You... pervert!"

Bunny snatched the pillow right out of his arms. How on earth was this behavior any different from that absolute freak, Cyrus?!

With his arms suddenly feeling empty, a wave of visible disappointment washed over Kai, and he stared up at her pitifully.

He just liked her scent a bit too much—was that really so wrong?

It wasn’t as if he had done anything truly unforgivable.

Nuzzling his head affectionately against her palm to appease her, his lower body nevertheless remained blatantly upright.

He desperately wanted to retrieve his favorite security tool.