Chapter 495: Not Good

"Tsk."

Alchemist, who had just caught up with Renault after hurrying, had not had time to search for the traces left by the two M4A1s around her when she heard Renault's dissatisfied voice in front of her.

Before the voice even finished, Renault, who had been jogging ahead, suddenly took a step and dashed forward!

The sudden increase in speed left Alchemist far behind!

This man!?

Seeing Renault pulling away from her again, Alchemist took a deep breath, and her body's cooling system kicked into overdrive!

She had followed M4A1 and the others all the way here without resting. After that, she had fought in another battle and then sprinted at full speed until now, and her body was nearly overheating.

But speed alone wasn't the issue. The body of the Sangvis Doll was far more resilient than that of a Tactical Doll. This was certainly not her limit.

No matter what, she could not be left behind by Renault! After all, this man was here for M4A1. As long as she followed him, she was sure they would eventually find M4A1!

Although she wasn't sure why she was so confident that Renault could find M4A1's location, Renault ahead paid no attention to her.

His mission was to bring M4A1 back to Griffin Base, not to fight the Sangviss. As long as they didn't attack him first, he had no reason to stray from the contract.

Initially, he thought M4A1 couldn't have gotten far with a wounded soldier, but he didn't expect the military to be so serious this time. A large number of military dolls had rushed into the forest from various borders of Griffin's jurisdiction.

The other side also appears to know exactly where M4A1 was…

Although Renault knew that Griffin's intelligence system was unreliable, he hadn't expected it to be this bad. They couldn't contact their own Dolls or locate them, but the military knew everything?

Heh, if Griffin couldn't offer a suitable price upon his return, Renault would have to find a way to track down the sponsor behind Griffin.

This time was truly a mistake. He never expected that M4A1 and SOP2 would choose the road that was directly ahead of military figures. Their luck was truly terrible.

As he thought, Renault took out a grenade launcher from under his coat, loaded a smoke grenade into the magazine, and fired it into the sky.

Bang!

A smoke grenade?

Alchemist, chasing Renault at full speed in his direction, saw the smoke explode into the sky, slowly drifting away through the gaps in the tree canopy overhead.

No! Is he sending a signal!?

Since humanity and the Sangvis rarely used this ancient method of communication, Alchemist's mind was momentarily confused.

But she quickly recalled Renault's identity: the boss of a security contracting company... This man... wasn't alone!

Although Alchemist had feared her mission might fail when she first saw Renault, she hadn't expected her suspicions to become a reality so soon.

And... where was Agent? Where was the support? Where was the follow-up forces of Sangvis? She was a special combat doll, but not for this kind of special task!

Asking her to capture M4A1 from the military's army alone... wasn't that asking too much?

Da-da-da-da!

Not long after Renault fired the smoke signal, Alchemist heard gunshots coming from the forest ahead.

The dense barrage of gunfire never stopped, but it seemed to be coming solely from the Cyclops' weapons. There was no sound from M4A1's weapon... What was going on?

As Alchemist pondered, a large aircraft whizzed past the treetops above her!

"What is that?!"

No need to guess—it must be Renault's!

It took only a dozen seconds for Alchemist to cover a distance of several hundred meters at full speed.

When she saw Renault again, she also saw M4A1 and her two men surrounded by enemies just ahead of him!

"Heh, they're really tenacious. They're still struggling even at this point?" Alchemist narrowed her eyes at M4A1, who was holding a Cyclops weapon, and the half-crippled SOP2. A smile tugged at her lips as she spoke.

Although she was mocking, Alchemist was not idle. The task given to her by the Mainframe was to bring M4A1 back alive. A destroyed M4A1 clearly wouldn't fulfill that requirement.

She couldn't believe that just moments ago she had been chasing and attacking M4A1 and her team, but now the situation had reversed. Now, she was forced to help M4A1 and her team fight off these military dolls? She had never seen anything more ridiculous than this!

As she thought, Alchemist waved the weapon in her hand and charged toward the military Cyclops!

Even though the number of Cyclops in front of her far exceeded what she could handle alone...

Renault was charging forward! Could she really be outdone by a mere human!?

Duh! Duh! Clang!

Just as Alchemist charged out and knocked down a few military figures, a series of arrows flew from the dense forest ahead!

The powerful arrows came directly at her!

Alchemist dodged the first two, but the third arrow could only be blocked by the weapon in her hand!

Tsk!

But the force of the arrows exceeded the stand shield's limit. The shield around Alchemist failed to block them, and the weapon in her hand was pierced straight through!

The tip of the arrow was only a few centimeters away from her nose!

Meanwhile, the military Dolls who shot the cold arrows from a distance seemed to ignore her completely! And not only did they ignore Alchemist, but even the Cyclops in front of Renault wouldn't attack him unless he attacked first!

What does this mean!? Are these military dolls deliberately targeting her!?

However, despite her growing frustration, Alchemist continued her charge. The Mainframe was constantly urging her to complete the mission, and the repeated commands were starting to disorient her.

Unlike Alchemist, who was teetering on the edge of rage, Renault was calm. He was only doing his job for money, and no one was pressuring him to capture M4A1 right away.

The situation on M4A1's side was stable. There were several large trees, rocks, and pits providing cover. The military dolls couldn't take them down right away.

The only issue was SOP2's condition. Before, she had only been missing half an arm, but now…

It looks like her neck was about to snap…