Operator: Blaze.
Race: Feline. Her Originium Arts can heat the air within a certain area, and if blood is used, the degree of heating can be increased even further.
Her weapon is a large chainsaw, used together with her Originium Arts and tactical style for breakthrough operations.
Simply put, she is the type suited for breaking through enemy lines or holding the front line in direct combat, not for infiltration or low-profile operations.
That applied both to her personality and her combat style.
As for chainsaw-type weapons, they did not require particularly profound skill. As long as the weapon could operate and the user could lift it, it could already deal a certain degree of damage.
Regarding her Originium Arts, she had already developed some understanding of them, and continuing to study in that direction would likely produce good results.
So what Nameless focused on were the small mistakes she frequently made during combat and battle.
"Too many unnecessary movements. Your front is full of openings."
Holding a Rhodes Island standard training sword in one hand, Nameless smoothly deflected the chainsaw coming from the side and swiftly placed the sword beside her neck as he spoke.
After only a few days, she had improved very quickly. However, whether it was because of her personality or because this combat style had already become ingrained in her, Blaze's movements were extremely careless and… violent. After several exchanges without achieving effective results, she became impatient very easily.
And so the scene from just now occurred.
At first, Nameless had specifically projected the swords he usually used, but later he felt that was bullying her too much, so he simply picked up the unsharpened standard sword nearby instead.
Nameless also knew that this would make her feel looked down upon, but that was exactly the effect he wanted.
Trying to reason with her and convince her to clearly recognize her own shortcomings?
Too troublesome. He was not someone skilled with words. Picking up a random weapon from the side and continuously defeating her until she understood her own limits was much simpler.
If she could not even accept this level of setback, then she should stop trying to become an elite operator and work in logistics instead.
"Ugh… You are still as harsh as ever. If anyone else trained like this, they probably would have run away within half a day."
Seeing that her neck had been pinned yet again, Blaze decisively fell backward onto the ground into a spread-eagle position while accusing Nameless of this inhumane training method.
Only heaven knew how she had survived these past few days.
Getting beaten, getting beaten, and aside from getting beaten, still getting beaten.
At first she really did think that him using a standard sword meant he looked down on her, but after several rounds of sparring she recognized her own place.
The one at fault was her, for failing to make him exert himself.
Still, understanding herself and verbally complaining were two different things. Bottling everything up would only make her more emotional, so she might as well say it openly.
Anyway, he did not care.
"Heh. But you did not run away, did you? You seem pretty energetic. How about I add a few more movements to your basic training later?"
While Blaze lay there giving up, Nameless took out the terminal beside him and casually recorded some information about her.
Strictly speaking, Blaze's combat ability was already far better than when she first started, it just did not show while fighting him.
Her main combat style was combining the chainsaw with her air-heating Originium Arts, but against his Servant body, the effects of those Arts could practically be ignored.
Unless she used blood to cast them, but even then the effect on him would still be minimal. As for chainsaw-type weapons, as long as the timing was grasped correctly, they were actually easy to deal with.
After all, they were not as heavy as greatswords. If it were a greatsword, Nameless would never use Rhodes Island's standard sword to block it, otherwise the blade would snap after only a few strikes.
"Eh… Then forget it. If it gets too late there will not be anything left in the cafeteria."
Hearing that Nameless wanted to increase her training, Blaze immediately stopped lying there and quickly sat up.
He did not need to eat, but she did.
After training for most of the day, she needed a huge amount of calories and nutrition. If she arrived too late, there really would not be much left in the cafeteria.
Not even nutritional meals. Those things had all been packed up and sent to Ace and Scout's side.
She also did not dare ask Hibiscus directly. She was afraid that if she ever opened that door, she would end up eating nutritional meals every day for the rest of her life.
And because of her repeated offenses in the past, Kal'tsit had already warned her not to trouble the other chefs into making special meals for her.
As for cooking herself… better not. She would rather eat nutritional meals.
It was not that she could not cook. Occasionally buying ingredients and cooking on Rhodes Island was fine, but if she had to do it every day, her wallet would collapse first.
After all, she still needed to save money to buy equipment to improve her combat abilities, and she also had to purchase the most important thing in life — alcohol.
"Then hurry up and finish the closing exercises. Tomorrow you are supposed to demonstrate the results of these past few days of training to Ace and the others, right? If you lose because your muscles are sore, do not tell people I was the one who trained you."
After casually glancing at her and speaking, Nameless returned his attention to the terminal in his hand. Once he confirmed that everything worth recording had been entered, he tossed it into Blaze's arms and said:
"And keep this properly. Later, show it to the operations department and equipment department so they can arrange combat methods and tactical equipment based on your current condition. As for Originium Arts, go ask Logos or the other casters for advice later."
After speaking, Nameless directly left the training grounds, leaving Blaze behind alone.
Nameless's training for Blaze had already come to an end. At first, he thought she would give up because the training regimen was too harsh, but unexpectedly she persisted.
She belonged to the type who constantly complained with her mouth while never slowing down with her hands.
Nameless could roughly understand why Ace, Scout, Amiya, and the others were willing to trouble him for Blaze's sake.
Acting according to the same ideals as Rhodes Island, willing to endure hardship, and possessing talent as well. Becoming an elite operator was only a matter of time for her.
Still, the training matter ended there. He had already taught her everything he could. The rest depended on Blaze's own efforts.
He only happened to have some free time these past few days. Next, Rhodes Island would move eastward to avoid a Catastrophe, and they would stop between Ursus and Yan.
And his next objective was to head to Ursus and Yan to gather intelligence.
According to Kal'tsit and the information currently available on Rhodes Island, compared to Yan, intelligence regarding Ursus was much scarcer.
After all, that place did not welcome the Infected.
Most of Rhodes Island's information on Ursus had been collected incidentally by operators carrying out missions there, or obtained through Kal'tsit's own private channels.
Most of the information within the latter's intelligence network consisted of things ordinary operators could not access, so it was inconvenient to make them public directly.
What surprised Nameless somewhat was that among the intelligence Kal'tsit had sent him, there was one mobile city described in especially great detail.
Compared to the other intelligence, the information regarding that mobile city could even be considered fairly ordinary, yet she still had no intention of placing it into Rhodes Island's intelligence database.
There was definitely something suspicious hidden within it, but Nameless had no intention of interfering. After digesting the information, he simply recorded it in his notebook so he could carry out targeted investigations later.
Even without those reasons, however, his first stop would still have been Ursus, specifically the sparsely populated northern tundra of Ursus.
From Ursus civilians and patrol squads, it was possible to learn that there was a group of Infected operating in the northern tundra, and among them was a "Red Devil" capable of firing arrows over extremely long distances.
Most people could only see a vague red silhouette through telescopes or Originium Arts, which was how the title came about.
If nothing unexpected happened, the probability of this so-called Red Devil being a Servant was extremely high.
And for some reason, Nameless felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity toward it, though after thinking for a long time he still could not figure out why.
That did not affect his plans to gather intelligence there. After all, this was the first clue related to a suspected Servant since arriving on this land, so no matter what, he was going to make the trip.
Though that would only happen a few days later. By then, Kal'tsit would probably arrange for operators to accompany him, and Nameless felt there was a very high chance she would assign Blaze to go with him.
Without training or equipment support, ordinary operators would face countless difficulties operating in the northern tundra of Ursus. The temperatures there were extremely low.
Blaze's Originium Arts were enough to support her activities in the tundra, and since he had been training her these past few days, the probability of Kal'tsit assigning her was practically eighty percent.
Still, if he could choose, Nameless preferred acting alone.
Ring ring ring—
The sound of the terminal pulled Nameless back from his thoughts. He took out the device and glanced at the name displayed on it — Closure.
Seeing Closure's name, Nameless already had a rough idea what it was about.
Aside from training during these past few days, he had also been helping Closure's side with inspections and testing of the security systems.
There were issues, though not many.
At least the defensive systems themselves did not have too many problems. They only needed additional details added onto the existing foundation.
As a large landship, especially one functioning as a pharmaceutical company, Rhodes Island was destined to handle a huge volume of cargo entering and leaving every day. Because of that, extra attention needed to be paid there to prevent someone from sneaking in among the supplies.
As for incidents like the previous Sarkaz assassin attempting to kill Amiya, that depended on whether the HR department was competent enough.
It could only be said that Rhodes Island was rather lax internally, and Nameless had also made suggestions regarding that.
The result was Closure being forced to work overtime for three days straight, her dark circles growing even worse as authentication requirements for most rooms and facilities on Rhodes Island became much stricter.
This also caused Closure to contact him immediately whenever there was a problem. Nameless did not know whether she had accepted that she was inferior to him in this field or whether she simply wanted revenge on him.
"Ah… Nameless? All the issues you brought up last time have already been solved. Want to come take another look?"
The moment he answered the call, Nameless heard Closure's lifeless voice.
It was completely different from the energetic manner she displayed while running her shop, which clearly showed how much work pressure she had been under recently.
Although most of this additional workload existed because of his suggestions in the first place.
"Alright, I am heading over now. Remember to find people for the testing."
After checking the schedule on his terminal and confirming he had nothing else to do, Nameless agreed.
The testing method was simple as well. Just find several people and have them actually infiltrate the important areas.
After speaking, Nameless put away the terminal and quickened his pace toward the testing area.
"Yo, you are here?"
Pushing open the door, Nameless saw the pale-faced Closure greeting him.
She looked as though she might collapse and die on the spot at any moment.
"I am here. Did you arrange the personnel?"
Nameless showed absolutely no concern for Closure's exhausted state. Completely ignoring her overworked appearance, he directly moved to the main topic.
Having some understanding of the physical toughness of the Sarkaz race, he knew very well this was far from her limit. A couple days of rest would be enough for recovery.
And even if something really did happen… Rhodes Island was a pharmaceutical company, and Kal'tsit definitely would not allow Closure to collapse. After all, she was the engineer responsible for most of Rhodes Island's construction projects.
If she went down, things would become troublesome.
"Already arranged. The systems have also been configured. We are monitoring them now."
Closure was already used to Nameless's cold attitude, so she quickly entered work mode as well.
The two of them, along with several engineering department members, watched the monitoring screens in front of them to see how effective the new security system could be.
The previous system had been designed using everything they had learned throughout their lives, only for it to be criticized by him as completely worthless.
But there was no denying that all the problems he pointed out genuinely existed, and he had also provided solutions. The final result now stood before them—
Enhanced automatic monitoring, reduced manpower requirements, clearer and more understandable operational logic, and greatly reduced future workload.
Though it was rather exhausting for Closure, because Nameless only provided the problems and solutions, while Closure had to handle all the detailed implementation herself.
"The testing operators have already had their records removed from the security system, and the few of them have also undergone disguise processing. Preparations for testing Originium Arts have also been completed—"
Before Closure could finish introducing the entirely new security system, the device in front of them suddenly emitted an alarm.
One of the screens enlarged significantly, displaying an operator moving through Rhodes Island using Originium Arts that concealed their presence.
Relying on the advantage of invisibility, the operator freely moved throughout Rhodes Island.
However, even though the system had not detected the person, some of the people passing by still noticed the operator's behavior.
It was just that operators generally recognized each other after meeting several times.
After all, they were all familiar faces, so no one particularly bothered reporting the issue and simply acted as though they had seen nothing.
And that was only the first one. After that, several more screens appeared one after another, each marking suspicious individuals and footage.
One, two, three, four…
Thirteen screens appeared in succession, while Nameless continued observing other areas before asking:
"Much better than before. So far I do not see any problems. How many people are involved in the test?"
"Fifteen. Two are still missing, but those two should be avoiding the surveillance routes… Right, there are two alerts from the ventilation ducts."
Closure replied while pulling up the data at the side. Two sections were currently issuing warnings.
Seeing this result, she finally let out a sigh of relief.
At last, she could escape her overtime-filled life. This kind of work was truly inhuman, especially under Nameless's extremely high standards and Kal'tsit's supervision. Closure did not dare slack off in the slightest.
She was terrified of being double-teamed by those two pitch-black monsters.
Yes, those two being Nameless and Mon3tr.
"Ventilation ducts… If I remember correctly, there are also people in S.W.E.E.P who move through those areas. Reinforce the intersections and important sections there. Other than that, there are no major problems."
Based on his own experience, Nameless confirmed that the security system in front of him was already capable of handling most situations.
Although it still fell short of the most perfect system in his understanding. Without magecraft and certain hardware support, achieving that level was difficult.
Still, this was enough to deal with most circumstances. As long as people continued managing and upgrading the system in the future, Rhodes Island's security would become far better than before.
The previous system had been somewhat crude. If he remembered correctly, it had been designed by Closure and her friends together, which Nameless felt was somewhat inappropriate.
There might not be any problems now, but who could say what the future held?
Suppose someone was currently a good person, both in thought and action. But if one day they encountered some major upheaval, or became indifferent toward committing evil acts, then Rhodes Island's security would immediately become questionable.
After all, people could never remain unchanged forever.
Humans were creatures shaped by the passage of time, changes in the era, and the people around them.
Some called this growth, while others called it maturity.
If he had to describe it himself…
It was nothing more than suffering society's beatings and becoming trapped within the whirlpool called reality, unable to escape.