Hello, Arknights

Chapter 312 The Scepter and the Intervention

"What happened?!" Ye Zong originally wanted to find Bai Ge to formally apologize, but in the blink of an eye, he was the only one left on the empty street.

"White Dove? Sona! Where are you?"

The dilapidated, unfinished low-rise building was dark and no one could be seen in the dim vision, but her keen senses told her that there seemed to be something crawling and swimming in the shadow of the building beyond her sight.

Who is there?

Although Ivona was frightened, she did not speak rashly. Enemy, stop. She wanted to confirm the enemy's wait-and-see attitude towards her, whether he just sensed her presence and heard her voice, or was watching her every move silently.

It was quiet and silent all around.

A great panic gradually emerged in her heart. She looked back and found that the road she came from had been replaced by an unfamiliar wall. When she looked up again, the sky seemed a little strange... like a lifeless roof ceiling.

Ivona felt like she was trapped in a large maze, and the dull pressure forced her to instinctively run and find an exit.

Her intuition told her that the current situation was related to the deaths of those seven people.

"..." She repeatedly told herself to stay calm. No matter how impulsive she was normally, she couldn't act rashly at this moment.

Until the endless deformed monsters rose silently from the concrete road, their demonic appearance entangled in steel bars and wires, and they walked towards her step by step with open arms, strides, and ran, not hesitating to knock down their companions.

The Wildmane Knight's scalp exploded instantly, and she turned and ran without hesitation, but she quickly realized that there was a wall behind her and immediately braked, turned along the wall into a dark alley and turned into another unfamiliar street. When she felt something sticky rubbing against her scalp while sneaking in the dark, she could no longer suppress her fear and screamed: "Sona, Justina, where have you been!"

Faced with the monsters that filled the streets as far as the eye could see, she really couldn't muster the courage to fight them with just the spear in her hand. Reason also told her that this was something only a true fool would do.

She seized the opportunity to look back, but could not see anything in the alley which looked like the terrible stomach of a giant beast. If those monsters caught up with her, it would be impossible for them to remain silent. However, the horrible and disgusting touch just now made her dare not stop, and she rushed out of the alley which was who knows how long it was.

Looking around again, she found that the scene before her seemed a little familiar.

"Where is this? This is Jamie's door, but... he doesn't have the time to put a bunch of messy flower pots in front of his house, and his place doesn't have - no! "*Casimir swears* Whose door has three street lamps so close to each other on the street!"

The three electric poles were not standing straight, but slightly tilted, as if there was a monster hiding underneath, baring its weird teeth upwards.

She had no intention of knocking on "Jamie's door". It was obvious that this was not the infected settlement she was familiar with.

Just when she was in a dilemma, a ray of light suddenly flickered in front of the street, but she couldn't see it clearly. Helplessly, she watched cautiously for a moment, but when she heard the sound of some sticky objects rubbing against bricks and stones deep in the alley behind her, she no longer hesitated and rushed forward with the hair on her back standing up.

"Sona! White Dove!"

……

"Captain White Dove, what's going on?" Yanwei, who had hurried over after being called by White Dove, looked at the strange scene in front of him with some confusion, "Aren't we on patrol? What's going on?"

Ling Dengxian gently placed the Frost Leaf and Firewood that he had held between his ribs on the temporary cardboard floor. Black Horn then put down the Wild Mane Knight Ivona and another Infected Knight, and looked at Flame Tail: "It happened suddenly, and I was called here to help move people."

Ling Dengxian said in a deep voice: "After we split into groups and acted separately, we were indeed carrying out the action as planned, but... in fact, it was very sudden, they just fell down. They were still talking peacefully in the last second, and in the next second they fell down like a puppet without strings. At first I thought they were playing a trick on me... but it was not until Shuangye fell straight down on her face that I realized something was wrong."

This cannot be blamed on him, everyone was acting together, and suddenly they all fell down at the same time, which looked really weird. However, Ling Dengxian still felt a little guilty. Although he had done nothing wrong, he always had an uncomfortable sense of dereliction of duty as long as he was fine.

"Bai Ge, you are a doctor, can you tell what's going on?" Yanwei asked nervously.

"If I could tell, I wouldn't be in such a hurry to call you back. Anyway, the operation is suspended. Black Horn also found people who fell on the way here. Let's gather the victims together and take care of them. At the same time..." Ling Dengxian remembered that he had said before that the "sudden death" phenomenon occurred in a concentrated manner, and had a bad premonition, "Let's see which areas have this problem."

This is not a medical problem. He has checked and found that all vital signs are normal. However, some of the people in shock have scars on their bodies, but they are not fatal and cannot cause shock.

But the bodies found before had no external injuries... Wait, "Originium crystal?"

"Bai Ge! I'm here. What happened?" Huang rushed over in a hurry. Ling Dengxian was relieved to see that Huang was fine, but at the same time, the self-blame brought by the sense of dereliction of duty in his heart became even heavier.

"It was an emergency. Without any warning, some people in each team fainted and went into shock. There were no symptoms. Both Frost Leaf and Xinhuo had this problem." Ling Dengxian thought about it again and confirmed that no information was missed.

"Also, Huang, Hei Jiao, you have also seen those remains. Do you remember those places that have already crystallized?"

"Remember, the degree is not high, but it is still dangerous."

"No, I'm asking about the location of the crystallization."

"...What do you mean?" Huang was a little confused. Yanwei looked up suddenly, as if he realized something.

"Huang, when infected people die from open wounds, do they tend to cover the wounds first when their bodies crystallize?"

"Generally speaking, yes..." Huang immediately realized what he meant, "Didn't they die suddenly?"

"How were we misled?" Ling Dengxian had just asked the question when a terrible wound suddenly appeared on Xinhuo's shoulder right under his nose. His pupils shrank.

No one had ever seen such a scene before. It was as if an invisible weapon had torn open Wolper's shoulder, but Xinhuo's expression was quite calm, as if the wound was not on his body.

"I remember there have been reports of collective sudden deaths in other urban areas recently, but it is said that the reason is the company's unreasonable overtime system, and they are now in court..." Heijiao said in a deep voice.

"But those bodies seem to be intact. I'm afraid they are not in the same situation as us. They are just capitalist beasts..." Ling Dengxian frowned and was thinking. He felt something was wrong. Suddenly, his instinctive alertness made him draw his sword instantly -

"It's the same reason. We were at the scene and did a little bit of cleaning on their bodies. Otherwise, if things got out of hand, it would be much harder to handle than with you infected people."

A red hair cut by the sword fell quietly to the ground. Nightmare wearing a half-face mask smiled at him. Black Horn immediately stepped forward to occupy the right half area that might be attacked for him. The fact that White Dove drew his sword reflexively only meant that the other party who greeted him in an unconventional way had some extraordinary plans. Huang also came forward with a chainsaw to block the left side.

At this time, many people in uniform emerged from the shadows behind the red-haired Kuranta. Ling Dengxian did not look into Kuranta's beautiful purple-red eyes. His gaze was fixed on her and a symbol on the chest of those people.

Ling Xiran left this world without leaving any body behind, and even the clothes on her body were shattered into dust in her final transformation. Only her eye mask, which she gave to Ling Dengxian personally before she lost herself, was her only relic.

Naturally, he didn't dare to carry it with him, in case it was destroyed by a sudden battle, he would lose this last bit of memory.

Apart from him and Wisenrolna, few people remembered A'ran. Even her biological parents, the Scepter and the People, and Saria of Rhine Life, only knew her as "Ain Dovna".

He is her only relative.

He would never forget the symbol on the inside of the eye patch.

The angel wings and the devil wings reflected each other, with a half-open eye in the middle... It represented the name of an organization that once faded out of his life, but he never forgot.

"…The scepter and the place."

"It seems that Sir Platinum Knight still remembers the snowstorm in Tobrand—"

The crisp sound of weapons colliding was heard, and the red-haired Kuranta took a step back and used his cane to block the boy's crossed swords. There was only one sound just now, but in fact the weapons collided four times in a row. He had to stop, as he was locked in changing his moves.

"...I know it's a bit hurtful to bring this up, but I'm sorry, Platinum Knight, Operator White Dove, I'm in a hurry, so I have to make it short - do you want to save these people? These people who were involved because of some accidents."

Planst flicked his wrist and separated his sword blade with his cane, but he did not seize the open space in front of him. Instead, he jumped back gracefully with one knee slightly bent, and tapped the ground with his cane to create distance.

Huang and Heijiao did not see clearly how Ling Dengxian rushed out from behind them. When they found out that he had taken action and were about to do something, the confrontation between the two had already ended.

Compared to them, the Scepter and the members of the institute did not take any corresponding actions, but continued to do what they were supposed to do, seemingly trying to connect to specific communication terminal channels and draw maps.

"We are... well, we should say, 'rescuing' these people." Kuranta looked at his watch and frowned. "Don't you want to help?"

"...Bai Ge?" Hei Jiao didn't know whether it was appropriate to interrupt the conversation rashly. Bai Ge seemed to have some connection with the organization behind the other party, but he also knew that now was not the time to think about this. He was a little anxious because Bai Ge had not spoken.

"...What do you need me to do?" Ling Dengxian gripped the hilt tightly, but forced himself to put the weapon away little by little and put it into the scabbard.

"Are you sure you will listen to me?" Ling Dengxian's straightforward attitude made Planst hesitate. No matter how much she tried to figure it out, she couldn't say she was 100% sure about it. She couldn't afford the price.

She could beat him, even the current him, but that didn't mean she wasn't afraid of him.

Just because he wasn't a threat to her didn't mean he wasn't a threat to the plan.

What's more, the conditions for influence were too easy to achieve, so she was very cautious and must not let him realize which factor he could influence.

In other words, you must never fight him with all your strength.

"It's very simple. Negotiate with the people here on our behalf and tell them not to set foot in the area we've designated and cause trouble. This is a regional anomaly." Nightmare made the decision quickly because there was no time to waste.

"What about me?" Ling Dengxian said calmly, "I can't hand over my people to you easily."

"..." Planst considered the decision.

"Director, everything is ready." Her subordinates reported the work progress to her and handed her an accurate area coverage map.

"Okay, then it's just you. Come with me and don't take any action. I will explain to you the reason for the abnormality on the way. If you can't agree... then we will leave immediately and you can find a way to save them yourself." Nightmare stretched out his hand to him.

"Hey, Bai Ge...what's going on? Who are they? What are they going to do?" Huang Yan, who had been holding back from speaking, saw Ling Dengxian turn around and formally explain the agency matters. He had no choice but to ignore everything and asked.

Yanwei was also very worried about the situation of her companions. She didn't dare to act rashly. When she heard Huang ask, she hurried over.

"It's unclear whether this anomaly has anything to do with them, but they... the organization behind them undoubtedly knows more about this disaster than we do. If they say they can save us, then we can only try." Ling Dengxian took off the armband of the Rhodes Island team leader and handed it to Huang. "I can't just stand by and watch my teammate's life in the hands of others and do nothing... I've already lost once, and I can't let this happen again."

"I promised Rhode Island that I would be responsible for their lives."

"Huang, I now appoint you as the temporary captain. Do a good job of connecting with the infected settlement to prevent accidents. Do not take any risky actions. This concerns the lives of the infected victims and our team members. Do you understand?"

"..." An indescribable complex emotion emerged in Huang's heart. Ling Dengxian didn't say anything more and turned to Heijiao: "Heijiao, help organize it and wait for me to come back."

"If necessary, notify Operator Night Blade and Texas directly. Don't try to be brave."

"Understood, Operator White Dove, you should be careful too."

Ling Dengxian looked at Yanwei again: "Captain Yanwei, I will bring all your companions back."

After saying that, he ran towards the nightmare.

"…Remember, don't act rashly. Do whatever I say."

"Ah."

Planst looked at his subordinates and said, "You go ahead."

After the order was given, the Scepter and its members lay down in the places they had found and fell into a deep sleep.

"What are they doing..." Ling Dengxian was a little confused.

"It's necessary. If you can, look after them. If you can't, that's fine."

"We want it too?"

"No, let's take 'another way'." Planst tapped his cane lightly, his purple-red eyes gradually glowed with a strange light, and he pulled Ling Dengxian.

"Don't use Originium techniques. This concerns our lives." This was Planster's last warning before the two disappeared on the spot.