Chapter 415

Chapter 415: Chapter 415

"And she’s getting married soon anyway. Her engagement was confirmed just a little while ago, and her fiancé is quite an impressive man himself—though who knows if he’ll actually be able to get her to settle down."

At this point, Fiona also recalled Rina’s fiancé, Adam.

He was another rare gem, but unfortunately, he already belonged to Rina. Otherwise, she would have wanted to try her luck too.

She believed her own capabilities weren’t inferior to Rina’s—she had her own team and was currently a team leader.

The only real gap between her and Rina was probably family background. If she also had the base commander for a father, she would definitely be stronger than Rina was right now.

Her thoughts drifted for a moment, but Fiona quickly pulled them back and resumed staring at Mark.

Cool moonlight cascaded across the ground, illuminating Mark’s incomparably exquisite face. His hair was gently ruffled by the wind, and his eyes were slightly narrowed as he sat deep in thought, resembling a beautifully carved statue.

Watching this scene, Fiona was momentarily mesmerized.

If only such a beautiful person could belong to me, Fiona thought to herself.

"Besides those, is there any other interesting news?" Mark asked.

"More gossip about Miss Jackson—"

Before Fiona could finish, Mark interrupted her, "I don’t want to hear about her."

Being interrupted again didn’t cause Fiona the slightest annoyance; instead, she felt secretly thrilled.

Awesome! It looks like Mark really has no interest in Rina.

If he were interested in Rina, he definitely would have kept asking.

Her strategy was working!

While rejoicing over the success of her tactic, Fiona asked Mark, "What do you want to know then?"

Mark thought carefully for a moment, recalling the delay at the base entrance when he and Suzy first arrived, as well as what Suzy had said back then.

Something seemed to have happened near the base.

Perhaps Fiona would know?

"When I came to the base a few days ago, I had to wait in line for a very long time," Mark said softly.

Fiona smiled, "That’s normal. A lot of people enter the base every day, and whenever there’s a crowd, the queue takes longer."

Mark shook his head. "I heard something happened nearby that caused a manpower shortage, which is why the wait time was so unusually long that day."

As he said this, Mark kept his eyes fixed on Fiona.

Feeling somewhat awkward under his gaze, Fiona lowered her eyes slightly.

However, after hearing Mark’s words, her expression shifted subtly.

"Do you know what happened?" Mark asked.

Fiona opened her mouth, hesitation evident on her face.

After several tens of seconds of silence, she finally squeezed out, "That’s classified information. I can’t say."

Yet Mark caught a hint of something unusual from her words.

"You know, don’t you? Did you participate in it as well?"

Fiona looked at him in surprise, not expecting him to guess even that.

"I... suppose you could say that," Fiona let out a soft breath.

Mark suddenly smiled, tilting his head slightly as he said in a low voice, "Fiona, tell me, please."

This was the first time Mark had called Fiona by her name.

And it was the first time he had smiled at her.

It had to be said that the charm offensive was remarkably effective; Fiona was completely dazed by Mark’s smile, rendered temporarily speechless.

Seeing that this tactic worked, Mark didn’t mind using his looks a bit further, the curl of his lips deepening slightly.

"Can you really not tell me?" Mark leaned a fraction closer to Fiona, his tone carrying a touch of disappointment.

Even though it was only a slight shift forward, Fiona felt it immediately.

Especially hearing that tinge of disappointment in Mark’s voice, she found it impossible to stay composed.

"I... I’ll tell you then," Fiona stammered.

Mark smiled at her once more. "Thank you."

Fiona’s mind was completely befuddled now, thoroughly spellbound by his handsome appearance, forgetting everything else as she began telling Mark about everything that had happened back then.

"Something did happen that day."

Fiona lowered her voice, her eyes instinctively scanning the surroundings.

Only after confirming that no one was approaching did she look back and fix her gaze on Mark’s face again.

"That day, we received a mission stating that there was an abnormal signal on the outer perimeter of the West District, and people needed to be sent over to investigate," she said.

"Our team was assigned to outer perimeter security duty—we didn’t need to enter the core area, just set up defenses within the designated range to prevent anything from coming out."

Mark didn’t interrupt her, listening quietly.

Fiona paused, as if trying to recall the details from that day: "When we arrived, a team had already gone inside—one of the top-ranked teams in the base, though I’m not sure exactly which one. All we knew was that they stayed inside for about two hours, and when they came out..."

Her voice dropped even lower, as if afraid of being overheard by something unseen, "When they came out, they were missing two people."

"Missing two people?" Mark repeated.

Fiona nodded. "We were on the outer perimeter at the time, and we only saw that everyone coming out was injured, quite severely."

"...I heard people say later that something like a black mist seemed to have appeared there—anyway, it was pitch black, and there seemed to be monsters inside."

"You’re saying there’s a black mist out there?" Mark repeated her words.

Fiona nodded. "Yeah."

"Have you seen it yourself?" Mark asked.

Fiona fell silent for a short while before continuing, "I saw it once, but only from a great distance."

"What did it look like?" Mark pressed on.

Seeing how interested he was, Fiona didn’t want to spoil the mood and made an effort to recall the details of that encounter. The event had occurred some time ago, and she hadn’t gotten a crystal-clear look, but she still remembered key specifics.

"I... well, I actually felt like that thing was somewhat like a barrier—it appeared out of nowhere. I’d never seen anything like it before. Supposedly, people can step inside, though that’s just what I heard."

Hearing this, Mark’s eyes flickered.