Dongdong stared blankly at the Blade Hunter, which had turned into scraps, and cast his gaze on Su Mo’s back, saying, “Damn… Boss, I’m starting to admire you a bit.”

Su Mo turned his head and joked, “Really? How much admiration? Go back and write an 800-word essay, any style is fine, except poetry.”

Dongdong couldn’t help but curse, “Get lost, get lost, taking advantage of my illiteracy, huh!”

Su Mo returned to seriousness and came over to help Dongdong check her injuries.

Though she looked quite horrible covered in blood and grime, most of her injuries were merely flesh wounds.

The worst was the gaping hole in her side pierced by a tail sting, and her left arm was broken.

Fortunately, the side wound did not damage her organs, and her left arm was already prosthetic, so breaking it didn’t lead to severe bleeding like in ordinary people, avoiding life-threatening situations.

Su Mo breathed a sigh of relief and softly said, “I’m really sorry this time. You’ve suffered so much…”

Dongdong scratched her head, “Huh? Isn’t this sort of thing typical for mercenaries? Every mission should be quite perilous, right?”

Su Mo: “No… you seem to misinterpret mercenaries… most of our missions are low-intensity; this time we encountered a special situation.”

Dongdong lazily said, “Hey, then I’m really lucky, just started in the business and hit something big. Maybe it’s a sign from the heavens that someday I’ll become a New Moon City legend.”

Su Mo chuckled, wrapped his arm around Dongdong’s waist and legs, and picked her up in a princess carry, “Let’s go, the mess here is over.”

Dongdong’s face turned red, and she kept pushing Su Mo away, “Don’t treat me like a cripple, I can walk by myself!”

Su Mo helplessly laughed, “You can’t even stand steadily, and yet you want to walk by yourself?”

He adjusted Dongdong in his arms a little, and gently said, “Stop it, be a good girl.”

Dongdong hummed lightly, stopped struggling, but still defiantly leaned her head on Su Mo’s shoulder, muttering, “Fine… I won’t refuse a free ride…”

As Su Mo walked, Dongdong discerned the direction and asked puzzledly, “Why are you heading back? This way leads to TL730, right?”

Su Mo pouted forward, “There’s someone I need to bring back with us, I caught him on the road just now. Look, over there.”

Not far away, Dorne, looking disheveled, was hanging from a tree, with hands and legs broken, unable to move.

Seeing Dorne, Dongdong got angry and jumped out of Su Mo’s arms, ready to charge, “I’m gonna use his head as a baseball!”

Su Mo grabbed Dongdong and said quietly, “No, this guy is a witness, alive he’s much more useful than dead. If he dies, our situation here becomes incomprehensible, we must take him back alive to Iron Blood.”

Dongdong had no rebuttal and could only stand there sulking, holding her waist with one hand.

When Su Mo put Dorne down, Dongdong took advantage and secretly kicked Dorne’s butt to vent her anger.

Su Mo found a thick tree trunk to sit on, and questioned Dorne, “Speak up, what’s really going on here? Why are you, a person of Iron Blood Alliance, mixing with Black Domain Group people?”

Dorne lowered his gaze, pursed his lips tightly, showing no intention to cooperate.

Dongdong picked up a baseball bat, posed a batting stance, and drew two lines over Dorne’s head.

Dorne was scared stiff, “What are you doing?!”

Su Mo played along with Dongdong, sneering, “My little partner here is nicknamed the Bat Maniac. Likes to take people’s heads for baseball practice. Heads she’s batted can circle Iron Wall three times.”

“If you don’t want her to hit a home run with you, you’d better cooperate sincerely, otherwise I can’t protect you.”

“Rua!” Dongdong showed her teeth and gums, looking fiercely cute.

Dorne realized there’s no rescue coming for him.

He was merely holding up, his psychological defenses had long collapsed, quickly giving in, “I’ll talk… I’ll talk…”

Su Mo: “Speak, why target us?”

Dorne closed his eyes, “I’ve said before, it’s not aimed at you but at Iron Blood Alliance.”

“Black Domain Group is dissatisfied with Iron Blood expanding into Land of No Master, so they sent people to slaughter exploration teams, you guys just happened to be in the way.”

Su Mo didn’t say much, such occurrences are too common in Dawn Realm.

The three big corporations are inherently competitors anyway.

Exploring Land of No Master is a high-risk, high-reward endeavor.

Perhaps one corporation explores and finds some technological relics, which leads to explosive research progress, leaving the other two far behind—this is unacceptable.

Thus, these three have been openly and covertly fighting each other, placing obstacles everywhere, today you send people to bomb my research base, tomorrow I send people to intercept your exploration team; it’s been going on for over a century.

The TL730 incident is just another minor splash in the big wave.

Su Mo continued asking, “I’m curious, can’t you work well at Iron Blood Alliance? Why help people from Black Domain Group to harm your own?”

Dorne’s face showed a bleak smile, “Being in a giant corporation researching prosthetic limbs while I am a staunch rejecter of them, do you think I can get along?”

“Can you understand that feeling? Everyone around has prosthetic limbs, they’re all little supermen, even the janitorial staff use civilian prosthetics for increased efficiency, yet I am the lowest of ordinary people.”

“My bosses look down on me, colleagues ridicule me, everyone treats me like a joke… I’ve diligently worked at Iron Blood Alliance for decades, yet still a basic external employee, even fresh graduates have the nerve to call me ‘Xiaodu’!”

“What can I do? I can’t do anything! All I can do is bow and scrape and smile to them, do all the junk tasks they throw at me, being ordered around like a dog!”

Dorne said this with eyes filled with intense hatred, “I’ve had enough of living like this! I want Iron Blood to know, I am not a piece of trash they can bully at will! Losing me is Iron Blood’s loss, and they will deeply regret it!”

“I vowed in my heart, someday… someday! I’ll change my fate against heaven! Trample everyone who looked down on me beneath my feet!”

Su Mo pondered, “So you got in touch with Black Domain Group, collaborated with them to backstab TL730 exploration team, using this as a token to switch to their side?”

Bringing up TL730 made Dorne sound deflated, “If the backstab succeeded and wiped you out, I’d get to work at Black Domain Group branch…”

“They promised me a decent position, where I could sit in the office every day, have a dozen people reporting to me, my salary being sufficient to buy a house, a car, and even marry a beautiful woman…”

“Now it’s all gone… everything is gone…”

Su Mo sighed lightly.

Objectively speaking, he indeed felt a bit sorry for Dorne.

After all, the guy wasn’t bad from the start, gradually twisted in that oppressive environment, ending up like this.

In Dawn Realm such a place where the weak are prey to the strong, natural-born weak really struggle to hold their heads high.

Of course, feeling sorry doesn’t equate to sympathy for Dorne.

If he had guts, he’d strap a bomb and storm into Iron Blood Office to drag those that bullied him into death together, Su Mo would respect him as a true man.

But he willingly let Black Domain Group use him as a pawn, harming a bunch of mercenaries who had no grudges against him—there’s really nothing to sympathize with.

“Let’s go, this should all come to an end,” Su Mo said after finishing, picking up Dongdong with one hand and grabbing Dorne with the other, running towards Lindong Mountain Range.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep