Bodyguard

When Danny Burn woke up, he found himself lying in a small cabin.

Instinctively, he quickly sat up, reaching for his gun, but found nothing.

"If I were you, I wouldn't be so nervous," a voice came from behind.

Burn turned to see Reno sitting on a sofa, holding a bottle of wine in his hand.

Pouring wine into a glass, Reno placed it next to him and handed it to Burn through a robot, "This is for you, sir."

Burn accepted it slowly.

"That's better," Reno smiled. "You need to learn to relax. Being tense doesn't help you make the right decisions."

Without hesitation, Burn replied, "I'm a bodyguard. My duty is to identify the enemy within a second, pull out my gun, and take him down, while pushing my employer out of the enemy's crosshairs."

Reno chuckled, "Sounds like a busy job. No wonder you managed to push Lyle away back then. But now there are no enemies for you to find. You can relax."

"No enemies..." Burn pondered the meaning of the words for a moment, and his initially alert eyes softened slightly.

He looked at his chest, where there used to be a hole, but now there was none. Smooth skin showed no scars.

"Did you save me?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"I almost didn't manage to save you," Reno replied. "You were bleeding heavily, with damage to your heart and spleen, and your lungs had a lot of blood clots... It wasn't difficult to save you, the problem was the urgency of the situation. You could have died in the next second... Luckily, you made it through."

"Why did you save me?"

"Just thought you were decent, skilled, and didn't seem like a bad person."

Danny Burn looked at Reno as if he had heard the world's funniest joke, with an expression of incredulity on his face. "Not a bad person? Are you saying, as a group of wanted criminals, you saved me because I didn't look like a bad person? That's absurd."

"Behind every absurdity usually lies some tragic helplessness," Reno raised his glass, finishing it in one gulp. He said, "We are wanted criminals, but being wanted criminals doesn't mean we are villains. On the contrary, those we work for are the real villains. Take a look at this."

He pressed a button next to him, and a large image appeared on the wall, showing Blakem and Bert Lyle being interrogated. These two were obviously not very courageous people; they confessed quite easily, revealing their collusion with the Bazorro tribe and their arms dealing.

Danny Burn listened in amazement, looking at Reno. "My God, I had no idea about this. How could they do such a thing!"

"I believe Elizabeth has already told us," Reno poured himself another drink. "Originally, you weren't responsible for escorting her. The original bodyguard suddenly fell ill and you had to protect her. Your task was simply to take her to a place and that would have completed your mission, but we happened to cross paths."

Burn looked disappointed. "This was my first big task, and I messed it up."

"That's not your fault," Reno shrugged.

No one could withstand the impact of Tychus; even Reno couldn't. Facing a group of monsters, Burn's failure was not a crime of war; the gap was just too big.

"For a bodyguard, failure is failure, no excuses," Burn drank the bitter wine to numb the pain in his heart.

The ultimate bodyguard he once dreamed of becoming shattered completely with this failure—no one would hire a bodyguard who failed on their first assignment.

Then he looked at Reno, as if remembering something, his eyes filled with surprise. "How did you do it? I mean..."

He gestured with his hand, indicating the gun flying, and then pointed to his face, obviously asking about Reno's telekinesis and Nava's transformation.

Reno laughed.

"That's a long story. Do you want to hear it?"

Burn nodded vigorously.

After confirming that Reno meant no harm, Burn opened up, and curiosity began to take over.

Reno began to tell their story.

He spoke slowly, his tone relaxed, but every word was powerful.

He talked about their life-and-death missions, battles with the godly tribe, and their encounters after returning, revealing the inexplicable until the final mystery was unraveled.

When Burn heard that the New Federation was experimenting on combat heroes for its own selfish reasons, he was outraged.

"How could they do this, how could they?" he shook his head repeatedly.

It was clear that he was a young man full of vigor and dreams.

"I used to think that only my comrades and I had suffered unfair treatment, but after coming here, I found that the situation is much worse than I imagined. In terms of crimes, selling arms to the enemy is by no means lighter than what's happening on Earth. This world is corrupt... at a pace beyond our imagination."

After saying these words, Reno stood up. "Everything that needed to be said has been said. Your wounds are just healing, you need rest. Stay here for two days, there's food in the room."

Then he walked out.

"Can I go out?" Burn asked.

Reno looked back at him and said, "Sorry, not yet."

Reno walked out and locked the door.

Burn stared at him, motionless.

Leaving the room, Reno walked a few steps down the corridor and pushed open another door.

Claire, Nora, and others were waiting in the room.

On the holographic image opposite, Burn sat there like a statue, lost in thought.

"He took quite a hit today," Nava chuckled.

"I don't quite understand, boss," Tychus scratched his head. "Although this kid is okay, is it necessary to invest so much energy in him? I mean, I alone can take down ten of him. He has no abilities, and he doesn't even belong with us."

"Marsha didn't belong with us either, but now she's a member of Free Heart," Reno replied seriously. "For a force to develop and grow, relying solely on the power of elites is not enough. It needs a system, a continuous influx of new talents. To be complacent because we have some abilities and voluntarily segregate ourselves from others is the height of folly. Don't elevate yourself above the masses; only by placing yourself in the sea of the masses can you stand invincible. Yes, the warriors of Free Heart are elite, possessing special abilities, but precisely because of this, we need the help of others. Palma is like this, Sarah is like this, Burn is like this, and there will be more talents joining us in the future. Do you understand?"

With that, Reno glanced around at everyone present.

This was addressed to Tychus, but it was also meant for everyone.

Everyone answered simultaneously, "Understood!"

Reno then turned to Marsha. "How did things go?"

Marsha, small but spirited, made an OK gesture. "The tasks you assigned have been completed."

"Well done."

Reno patted her, then turned to Virus. "Ike, are the identity codes ready?"

Virus nodded. "I used Blakem's identification code as a sample and duplicated a batch to ensure they can pass inspection. But you need to be careful; it's not just about facial recognition there."

The military defense system relied not only on facial recognition but also on smell, fingerprints, retinas, voiceprints, identity codes, and access passwords, among other aspects.

Fortunately, Virus had the identification codes, Nava had the identities, Marsha had the access passwords, and with Camilla, most of the issues could be resolved.

"With me around, there won't be any trouble," Camilla said proudly.

"With me around, even if there is trouble, I'm not afraid," Wang Yile added confidently, not showing any weakness.

Tychus snorted. "With me around, even if there is trouble, I'm not afraid."

"Stop it, you're the troublemaker," Marsha said disdainfully. She was only 14 years old, and such words were not what someone her age would say. So usually, this situation only meant one thing: Marsha had read someone's mind again and directly spoke out their thoughts.

Tychus was furious. "Whose thoughts did you steal?"

"Everyone's," Marsha giggled in response.

"Alright, enough of this nonsense, let's get ready to move," Reno said as his words fell, and everyone began to open the bags beside them.

Inside were the uniforms of the Milky Way Fleet.

Putting on the uniforms, everyone walked out of the room, where a shuttlecraft was quietly waiting on the open ground outside.