Chlorine Sodium's Arknights

"So sour..."

"Huh?"

Chlorine Sodium was caught off guard by the girl's sudden reaction.

The hamburger is sour? Since when did Russians have such heavy tastes??

She ran a finger over the sauce on the packaging and tasted it.

The flavor was a bit strange, but it was okay. Was it sour?

However, the girl didn't hear her sister's surprise. She had merely drifted back into her memories...

Even just fragments she'd managed to retrieve from the depths of her recollection.

But for some reason, the sourness reached straight to her heart.

It seemed like a very hazy past.

Those were the days before the nightmares.

Back when she lived a life woven by a man and a woman whose names she couldn't recall.

"What do you want to eat?"

The woman with a blurred face asked the babbling toddler.

"Hamburger patty!!!"

The toddler, using the few words she'd just learned, jumped and said.

"That's something you can only get elsewhere. You can't have it now. I'll make you a rolled dish instead."

Even though she couldn't remember her face, she could still recall the woman smiling.

A happy smile.

Back then, the future was still bright.

"Sour? How could it be? Isn't this sauce sweet? Is it the meat?"

Although Chlorine Sodium loved life, she had no prejudice against junk food and also enjoyed high-calorie foods like this.

"It's not sweet?"

"No..."

The girl covered her mouth and nose, as if trying to alleviate the sourness spreading into her nostrils.

"It's just sour."

ps: The problem is solved, ahhhhhhh hahahahaha!!!

Orange said he'd have me come get my recommendation on Wednesday!!!!!

Yeeeee! Woohoo, I feel like I'm finally going to take off!!!! [heart]

Section 22, Chapter 22 [Snow Demon]

Crack

The sound of ice cracking faintly echoed beneath her feet.

"This isn't good..."

"Why is it cracking?"

Early in the morning, miles away from the city they'd left, by the river on the frozen tundra.

The ice layer, which had initially looked quite solid, hadn't budged an inch when she threw pebbles or stomped her foot.

It should have been safe. After all, this was Ursus, a land perpetually shrouded in wind and snow on the tundra. It should have been strong enough for vehicles, let alone people.

Yet, before Yelena had even reached the middle, the sound of cracking ice rang out.

"Is it going to break?!"

Hearing the ominous sound, little Yelena quickly stopped. The cracking sound also stopped.

Emmm...

"The ice should be fine."

Having crossed the ice before Yelena, Chlorine Sodium, standing on the bank, crouched down and looked at the ice beneath her feet. The cracks were almost invisible; only the sound of fracturing could be heard.

The girl narrowed her eyes and tapped the frozen surface, receiving only a hard rebound.

It's fine. That's strange.

Her gaze shifted from the ice to Yelena.

Emmm...

"Wh-What's wrong? Sister, is the ice cracking?!"

"No, it's not."

"Then what is it?"

"Yelena... have you... gotten fat?"

The speaker meant nothing by it, but the listener took it to heart. Little Yelena had gradually escaped her past nightmares these days, and with her regular exercise, it was impossible for her to have gained weight.

But children are still growing, and there are always places where fat accumulates.

Combined with her recent development, the little girl had also become a bit vain, naturally disliking others calling her fat.

Even though she didn't yet understand the relationship between being fat and being large.

Sensing her sister's gaze was a bit strange, little Yelena hugged her chest with both hands.

"How could I? And I've been eating... Ah!!"

The girl's startled cry echoed through the valley.

Chlorine Sodium, who hadn't been paying attention to Yelena's words, had slipped over to the girl and poked her in the waist.

Yelena was already quite ticklish, and with that poke, she jolted all over, her originally fair face flushing bright red.

"What are you doing, sister!!"

"Just a normal check of your developmental status."

In response to the girl's playful protest, Chlorine Sodium gently cupped Yelena's cheeks with both hands and began to rub them.

Despite her expressionless face, she could always do such astonishing things.

Truly worthy of being the villainous Chlorine Sodium.

However, these were all necessary methods to close the distance. Behind the warmth lay malicious calculations.

"It seems little Yelena is starting to grow up too."

"Stop saying such weird things!!"

She was originally the sister who had saved her from danger.

Why had it become like this?

She had the first chance to live, and then she had someone to help her.

Two happy things should have created more happiness, and a better future should have been the result.

But... why?

Why was her sister's image becoming increasingly strange in Yelena's mind?

Ignoring the cracking sounds and the fissures on the ice, Yelena simply walked across.

At worst, she wouldn't walk on the ice next time.

"Tsk, children are getting harder to handle." [Sigh]

"Do you want to raise the danger level?"

The Garrison Legion "Ruins."

It was called "Ruins" because the former military camp had completely disappeared.

Disappeared in a physical sense.

The original military camp was a restricted military zone surrounded by barbed wire, iron fences, and low walls.

But now, none of that remained. The melted and re-cooled iron fences lay askew in the snow. The entire military camp looked as if it had been raked over by a battery of city defense cannons, leaving only scorched military land vehicles, collapsed buildings, countless large pits, and bodies everywhere, gnawed by scavenging birds.

The entire structure of the Garrison Legion had been nearly wiped out, and all resistance had turned into wishful thinking.

According to limited records, the attacked camp had initially counterattacked. Ursus's military strength was unparalleled on Terra; no one dared to openly challenge Ursus in terms of military power.

Therefore, the Ursus army was naturally not a pushover and wouldn't fail to retaliate when attacked.

However, the most bizarre thing was that the vast majority of casualties occurred during the counterattack.

Finally, the structure was broken, the morale of the entire legion was shattered, and the attack ended only when the soldiers completely broke and fled in all directions.

The attackers did not pursue but disappeared on their own.

And this attacker was an unknown entity codenamed [Snow Demon] by the Ursus military.

"No, not yet. It's just a Snow Demon. The Emperor's Royal Guard is merely the empire's insurance. The sporadic elimination of the Royal Guard isn't enough to warrant raising the danger level."

"Emperor's Royal Guard? It's only natural that those idiots were instantly eliminated."

A discordant female voice appeared beside the investigator.

She seemed quite disdainful of it.

ps: This might get recommended, so please give more votes!!! I beg you!!!

Section 23 Chapter Twenty-Three [The Gods]

She was a woman who looked quite alluring.

However, contrasting with her allure was her nun's habit.

She looked like someone from the church.

However, the cover of the thick book that the woman had just closed bore a rather dated engraving of a hexagram.

"Emperor's Royal Guard? Isn't it normal for those idiots to be instantly defeated?"

"It was just crushing a few guards, plus a bunch of insignificant mortals. It's really nothing, yet those people below are hyping it up like a god has descended."

The woman's tone was filled with disdain.

"Or perhaps, Duke Koschei, have you truly grown old? Is this something worth our intervention?"

Among the people present, the most striking was this alluring woman, followed by Koschei in his white attire. On this land where strength dictated everything, besides the Ursus Emperor, only these monsters held any real power.

After all, this was a demi-human world where all legends were materialized. Whether it was the ancient dragons of the East, the evil dragons of the West, or even the evil gods of Ursus, they all existed in reality.

This included the woman named Yaga Glazunov.

Her name was strange, more like a stitched-together phrase than a given name and surname.

"Of course not. It's merely the existence of the Snow Demon that has me deeply perplexed."

The Duke said humbly. He was always like this, with a faint, almost imperceptible smile on his face, elegant and deferential, appearing as the perfect embodiment of nobility.

Among this group of monsters, Koschei was the most composed and mysteriously enigmatic.

"After all, we have no need to be enemies. Whether we arrived first or later, we all love this land. I believe this [Snow Demon] certainly feels the same, but her actions were too extreme. That's why I wanted to seek your help. After all, she casually killed four Emperor's Royal Guards and leveled an entire military camp. This is already the second military base. Even though Ursus is vast and rich, this will still unsettle those mortals. That won't do, will it?"

Koschei said.