Chapter 10: Mr. Snake, I Can Bark!

After seeing the coldness in Summer’s eyes, Winter immediately grabbed her gun and forced herself back to her feet.

She did not dare to say anything else because she was afraid that if she opened her mouth again, she would only make Summer even angrier.

"You were strong enough to steal my fiancé, so I’m sure you’re strong enough to survive in this zone," Summer said coldly. "This isn’t your first time in a Polluted Zone. Stop crying and fight, because no one is going to help you."

Winter tightened her grip on her gun and lowered her head. Her whole body was still trembling, but there was no anger in her eyes, only guilt.

After everything she had done to Summer, she had no right to be angry. She had betrayed her own sister by taking the man she loved, yet somehow, that same sister had ended up being the reason she was still alive right now.

The thought only made the guilt in Winter’s chest grow heavier.

Summer stared at her for a few seconds before scoffed at her. "Consider this the price you pay for getting involved with a man," she said. Her voice was calm now, but somehow, that made her words sting even more. "You wanted him so badly that you were willing to betray your own sister for him. Now you’ve finally learned what happens when that man decides you’re no longer worth protecting."

Summer glanced at her but felt no satisfaction from seeing the guilt on her face. Whatever Winter felt now had nothing to do with her anymore.

"Go."

Winter slowly raised her head. "What?"

"Get out of here," Summer said, already turning away from her. "Run back to the entrance, find another exit, hide somewhere until this is over. I don’t care what you do."

Winter’s face immediately turned pale. "S-Summer, I—"

"I already saved you once." Summer looked back at her, her expression cold. "Don’t mistake that for me wanting to protect you."

Winter lowered her eyes again, her lips trembling slightly.

Summer did not wait for an answer. She turned around and walked away, leaving Winter standing alone behind her.

Whether Winter followed her advice and ran toward the exit, found somewhere to hide, or foolishly went searching for Ryland again was none of Summer’s concern.

Summer had barely taken a few steps when the comments on her livestream suddenly exploded.

[OH MY GOD. SHE REALLY JUST LEFT HER THERE.]

["Consider this the price you pay for getting involved with a man." I’M WRITING THAT DOWN.]

[Why does it feel like Summer isn’t just talking about Winter anymore?]

[She definitely has personal experience. That sounded WAY too natural.]

[Winter looks like she’s about to cry again.]

[Then cry while running! This is a Polluted Zone, not a therapy room!]

"You left her," Archer said as they walked side by side toward their destination.

She paused the livestream before replying to him, "I did." She turned to him and asked, "Do you have a problem with that?"

Most ordinary people seemed to believe that the higher someone’s rank was, the stronger their hero complex would be. They thought powerful Sentinels and Guides would naturally feel responsible for protecting everyone weaker than them.

But Summer knew better.

She had once been one of the elite Hunters herself, and she knew far more about people like Archer than the viewers watching from behind their screens.

"No," Archer replied without even a hint of guilt. "Like I said before, I’m here to get my job done, not to save my coworkers."

The wrong assessment of the Polluted Zone was bad luck, but it was still the government’s mistake. Archer did not see why that suddenly made it his responsibility to save everyone who had entered this place based on the wrong information.

Besides, the people they had just left behind were the same people who had hurt his Guide and that alone gave Archer even less reason to help them.

After that short conversation, Summer turned her livestream back on.

The moment the screen returned, the comments immediately flooded in so quickly that she could barely read them.

[Why did you suddenly turn off the livestream?!]

[What happened during those few minutes?!]

[Did something attack you?]

That question was quickly buried beneath dozens of other comments.

Apparently, instead of worrying that something dangerous had happened, most of the viewers had already come up with a completely different explanation for why Summer had suddenly needed some privacy.

[YOU TWO KISSED, DIDN’T YOU?!]

[THAT’S WHY SHE TURNED OFF THE CAMERA!]

[Summer Beaumont, ANSWER THE QUESTION.]

She stared at the floating screen in disbelief, wondering how they had managed to reach that conclusion so quickly.

[ARCHER! SHOW YOUR FACE! WE NEED TO CHECK HIS LIPS!]

[What are you going to check?!]

[For evidence, obviously.]

[BaronB, are you seeing this?! Your woman might have kissed another man again!]

Summer rolled her eyes and ignored them since paying attention to the road was more important.

However, she did not even need to lift a hand along the way because Archer had done most of the work eliminating the mutated creatures.

A-Rank mutated creatures were a nightmare for a B-Rank team. For Archer, however, they seemed to be nothing more than a light snack.

He had already taken down so many of them, yet he had barely even broken a sweat.

"How’s your pollution level? Is it still all right?" she asked as Archer returned to her side and continued walking with her.

Summer could actually see his pollution level on her panel whenever she wanted, but she only asked because she was trying to find something to talk about.

"It’s still fine," Archer answered simply.

In fact, it was more than fine, and Archer still found it a little strange.

For years, he had lived with his pollution level constantly hanging over his head. He had gotten so used to the pain, the pressure, and the danger that he had almost forgotten what it felt like to be normal.

But now, after Summer had guided him, all of that was gone.

[Aw, Miss Bunny is finally having more interactions with Mr. Snake.]

Summer’s eye twitched the moment she saw the new nicknames.

Miss Bunny? Mr. Snake? Since when did they have nicknames?

Before she could think about it any further, Archer suddenly stopped, causing Summer to almost walk straight into his back.

"What?" she asked.

"We’re here."

Summer immediately looked past him and saw a tall metal wall surrounding the area. Most of it had already rusted, and several sections had been torn apart by mutated creatures, leaving huge holes in the wall.

Behind it stood a massive industrial complex.

This was the power station that processed Energy Crystals formed within the Polluted Zone and converted them into Energy Cells, which could be used to generate electricity for safe zones.

"This place is too quiet," Summer murmured as she stared at the buildings beyond the broken wall. "Do you think anyone is still alive in there?"

Something about this place did not feel right.

Even if the workers had already been attacked and eaten by mutated creatures, there should still be some kind of sound. Scratching, growling, something moving inside the buildings, or even mutated creatures fighting over whatever remained.

But there was nothing.

Everything was completely silent and it was the kind of silence that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

On the other side, Archer opened his terminal and began scanning the area. A holographic panel appeared in front of him as his eyes moved across the information on the screen.

After a few moments, he closed it. "I don’t think anyone is still alive in there," Archer said. "But I need to retrieve the Energy Cells that have already been produced."

Summer raised an eyebrow. "How many Energy Cells are we talking about?"

Because if Archer was planning to walk into this creepy, abandoned place for two or three Energy Cells, Summer was seriously going to question his priorities.

Archer glanced at her. "Around five thousand."

Summer stared at him. "How many?"

"Five thousand Energy Cells," Archer repeated. "We’ll get 1,000 Credits for every Energy Cell we retrieve. I just need to get this job done. You can have all the Credits later."

[HAHAHAHA! Look at Miss Bunny’s face!]

[Someone check her eyes. I swear I just saw credit signs in them.]

Summer blinked several times as she did the math in her head.

Five thousand multiplied by one thousand... that was five million Credits!

She asked Archer to make sure, "Wait. You’re giving all of it to me?"

He replied without hesitation, "Yes."

[WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T NEED FIVE MILLION CREDITS?!]

[Mr. Snake, please reconsider. You can give them to me instead.]

[Sir, I need those Credits. I need them very badly.]

[I can cook!]

[I can clean!]

[I CAN BARK!]

[WOOF WOOF!]

[GET OUT! Have some dignity!]

[Dignity doesn’t pay rent.]