Chapter 74: The Last Night of Vacation

On the fourth day, they focused more on building her strength.

Ilya made her carry heavy bags while walking through the forest, hold difficult positions until her muscles started shaking, and pull herself over large rocks again and again.

The training itself was simple, but after doing it for hours, even raising her arms started to hurt.

By the fifth day, Ilya finally began mixing physical training with combat.

That was when he noticed something strange.

Summer was a very fast learner when it came to fighting. Or rather, it felt like she already knew many moves that even Ilya had not expected her to know.

The only problem was her body.

It could not fully keep up with her movements yet, and she was not as flexible as her fighting style needed her to be. Sometimes, it looked like she was controlling someone else’s body instead of her own.

"Where did you learn these moves?" Ilya asked, clearly confused.

Summer stopped moving at once after hearing Ilya’s question.

"TakTak," she answered after a short pause. "Just... you know. It’s easier to learn new things from the internet."

Ilya nodded, but then asked, "What’s the account name? Maybe I can check it out too."

Summer immediately shook her head. "Oh, no, no, no. I already forgot the account name. It’s been a long time, and I deleted my account to cure my social media addiction."

For a moment, Ilya looked like he did not completely believe her. But in the end, he only nodded. "Alright, then."

Summer let out a sigh of relief right away. From now on, it seemed like she really had to adjust her fighting style so it would not look strange.

After that, they continued their training until the sun went down. Ilya gave her another Recovery Glow Candy.

"Eat this so your body won’t be sore tomorrow," Ilya said, giving Summer two candies instead.

Summer stared at the candies in her palm. "Two? Aren’t these expensive?"

Her livestream comments had mentioned several times that Recovery Glow Candy was not cheap, so Summer had looked it up herself.

It turned out, one bottle containing ten candies cost around $3,000.

"Not for me," Ilya said with a smile.

Summer honestly had no idea who was richer between Archer and Ilya.

Both brothers seemed to have made a huge amount of money from going in and out of high-ranking polluted zones.

Even though Ilya rarely entered those zones now and spent most of his time working as an instructor, he still seemed wealthy enough that money was never a problem for him.

Maybe he had other businesses too.

But then he suddenly said, "I need to enter an S-Rank Polluted Zone tomorrow morning."

Summer had just finished eating the candies when she looked at him. "Do you want me to come with you?"

Ilya smiled. "Thank you for asking, but I don’t think you’re ready to truly enter an S-Rank Polluted Zone yet."

Summer looked at him in confusion because she had already encountered S-Rank polluted creatures in the two zones she had entered before.

But yeah, encountering a few S-Rank polluted creatures and entering a zone where all the creatures were S-Rank were two different things.

"But what if your pollution level goes up?" Summer asked.

"Just like Archer, my pollution level will be fine after a long guiding session with you," Ilya explained. "Besides, this is only a small mission. I’m not fully back to doing missions inside high-ranking polluted zones. I’ll be fine."

Summer stayed quiet for a moment. To be honest, she had already started to suspect that the government had some kind of deal with Archer and Ilya.

After all, both of them were still willing to enter dangerous high-ranking polluted zones even after the military had tried to disable one brother and imprison the other.

Still, it was not like the government completely controlled them because Archer and Ilya clearly did not fully obey the government either.

That made the balance of power between them rather confusing.

Summer wanted to ask more about it, but if it involved the government, she doubted either brother would explain everything to her right away.

"I see," Summer finally said. "I might go to an E-Rank Polluted Zone with Saddie and Julie tomorrow too."

"Oh? Which zone?" Ilya asked. "I can take you there by helicopter since Archer will probably be busy."

Summer opened Saddie’s last message and checked it again. "Zone 33."

The moment she said it, she frowned.

Wait a minute. Zone 33 was where the original owner of this body used to live!

Should she just cancel the plan? Or should she go there and finally deal with the original Summer’s family?

Her eyes slowly narrowed. Interesting.

"Can you take me there?" Summer asked at last.

"Of course," Ilya replied without hesitation. "It’s not a big deal."

Right after that, Ilya cooked dinner for her, and once they finished eating, they finally started getting ready for bed.

Summer looked at him for a moment before asking, "Do you want to do some light guiding?"

"We can just hold hands while we sleep," Summer explained. "It’s not that hard."

His current pollution level was around fifteen, but Summer still did not feel like that was low enough.

At first, Ilya looked like he wanted to refuse. However, after thinking about it for a few seconds, he seemed to realize that turning down a sweet treat would be a pretty foolish choice.

So in the end, he nodded. "If you don’t mind."

And just like that, on the last night of their vacation, Ilya and Summer slept together on the second floor while holding hands.

At least, that was how they fell asleep.

When they woke up the next morning, their hands were no longer simply linked together.

Somehow, they had ended up hugging each other in their sleep.

Summer froze for a few seconds after realizing it and Ilya also went completely silent.

However, neither of them said anything about it because it was simply too embarrassing.

So they quietly separated, got ready for the day, and acted as if absolutely nothing had happened.

Before seven in the morning, the sound of helicopter blades finally echoed across the lake.

The helicopter slowly descended nearby, sending strong wind across the grass and water.

Once they traveled with it, they dropped Summer off at Zone 33 first before continuing toward Ilya’s destination.

Once Summer climbed out, she turned back toward the helicopter.

"Be careful!" Ilya shouted over the loud sound of the blades. "If anything bad happens, contact us!"

"Yes!" Summer shouted back just as loudly.

She was about to turn around when Ilya called out again. "Your official rank might come out today!"

Ilya smiled. "Good luck!"