Chlorine Sodium's Arknights

What are Infected?

Irredeemable garbage, the lowest of the low, beasts that anyone can trample on, the cheapest labor.

Who would look up to a beast?

This Infected Enforcement Squad has gotten used to throwing its weight around. After all, organizations that are half-official and half-unofficial are more troublesome than imperial tax collectors. Their methods are far more underhanded than official organizations. As the saying goes, the King of Hell is easy to meet, but the minor devils are difficult to handle.

One of the enforcement squad members, with a brutal smile, revealed the baton in his hand.

The baton was a bit old. The original paint had long since peeled off, and mixed with the metallic color were some stubborn brown spots.

That was blood. How many Infected lives and how much blood had this person on their hands?

The moment the black uniform appeared, it evoked the deepest fear within Yelena!

Sheep fear wolves, both physically and psychologically. Rabbits are the same. The "black insects" that are cursed by all common folk are themselves a symbol of terror.

They represent disaster, they represent malice, they represent suppression and violence.

The oppressed always develop a conditioned reflex. For example, seeing members of the enforcement squad instills fear.

However, this is exactly the expression the oppressors want to see on the girl's face.

"Alright, you lowly thing, get on your knees now! Hands behind your head, or I'll break your legs."

Several black-uniformed enforcement squad members had already surrounded her.

Fear, unease, the young girl trembling all over – in the eyes of these men, she was a lamb to the slaughter.

Infected are usually incredibly weak, cowardly, and powerless because they have no strength to resist Ursus's iron fist. Besides, what good would resisting do?

They didn't even know how many "Infected who finally couldn't take it anymore and erupted" these black insects had beaten to death with their clubs.

The rebels were unarmed and completely unable to fight the enforcement squad.

They had no intention of taking the girl away; that would be too much trouble. They were very accustomed to pacifying their targets first, and then killing them on the spot when they knelt down, ready to be butchered.

This was doing a good deed for all of Terra. Killing one Infected meant eradicating a potential source of infection, saving countless people.

However, Originium Arts is always subjective.

The next moment, a cold wind howled!

"Wh-what's happening!"

For no reason, the temperature plummeted.

It was already the dead of winter, and their coats could ward off the severe cold. However, this sudden surge of frigid air even froze their feet to the ground!

"It's... it's magic! This beast knows magic!!"

"Ahhh! My leg, my leg!"

One of them, unable to stand steady when frozen, couldn't bear the weight of his body as his joint snapped with a crisp crack, followed by the man's agonizing wail.

"Watch out for this bitch! She knows magic!"

The world, enveloped in swirling wind and snow, became Yelena's sanctuary. Only in the midst of this winter could she protect herself.

The girl, who had closed her eyes in extreme terror, suddenly remembered her Originium Arts.

The damned villains, after coming into contact with the cold current, retreated in utter panic, trying to escape this death zone that could instantly freeze a person into ice.

That's right, she wasn't the incompetent person she used to be anymore.

Looking at her hands, she realized that what she had been practicing all this time was controlling and suppressing this power.

This was like a curse, an Originium Arts colder than the winter on this land.

Is this what it feels like to have power?

Yelena was, after all, just a young girl. Before this, she had never truly felt the reality of her power. Apart from causing trouble by freezing her own room, it was useless. Not until this moment.

The fear and disbelief on the faces of the enforcement squad members, the thick frost on the two corpses within the wind-swept area, and the tangible reality of this power being summoned stimulated the girl's nerves.

The contrast between her past powerlessness and her present strength. If only she had possessed this power sooner, if only she had used it earlier...

Could all the tragedies have been avoided?

The ugly, hateful faces of the mine overseers overlapped with those of the enforcement squad members before her. Old grievances and new hatreds surged into her mind like flames blooming in her blood.

It was anger, and the long-suppressed emotions from the mine. Hatred for her past weak self, hatred for her powerlessness, hatred for the late arrival of this power, hatred for not being able to pounce and bite those damned overseers to death back then.

Because of her Infected status, all her family members had died in the mine. This was an inescapable nightmare for Yelena.

And now, she wanted to drive away that nightmare.

So, die!

Environments change people, and the girl would release her resentment in the way she understood.

The deadly cold current suddenly expanded!

"How is this possible!"

"Retreat! This bitch has gone mad!!"

The side effects of Originium Arts expanding unprecedentedly were known to many. However, the girl before them probably didn't know, or perhaps, didn't care?

The Enforcement Squad often dealt with these lowly Infected, so they had naturally seen Infected who overloaded their Originium Arts due to improper use, turning into human Originium bombs.

The signs for these people all began with awakening Originium Arts from immense rage. However, one must adapt to using Arts, just like swordsmanship requires learning to be most effective, rather than just swinging it around after picking it up.

That could injure oneself. Originium Arts are similar, but because their effects are so potent, the price is also very heavy.

And the way this guy in front of me is using it, it's obvious he intends to turn himself into an Originium bomb!

This is the cruelty of this world; all gifts of fate have already been priced in the dark.

The men cried out in alarm and fled in disarray, while the unlucky ones who couldn't escape were frozen solid the moment the domain spread!

Perhaps this girl truly has some talent; this is absolutely not the power a child could wield!

This isn't some cold winter; this is an avalanche!!!

Originium crystals grew at a visible rate, even spreading from the original patterns on her skin to become solid masses covering her skin, directly piercing blood vessels and emerging from muscle tissue!

If this continues, no one can withstand the various side effects of high-degree Originium Crystallization.

The sounds of people gradually faded, and the violence and malice disappeared with them.

The dirt road of the village seemed to fall into complete silence.

The ground was covered in corpses, blanketed by frost and ice. One could even see the grimaces and terror on their faces as they died.

Ha, isn't this... pretty simple.

So these are those damned black bugs? Didn't I kill them all?

Her consciousness was already hazy, and her left eye could see nothing. Perhaps it was the adrenaline surge from the shock that kept the girl from being controlled by pain. She took a few trembling steps forward, standing amidst the corpses. Yelena seemed to feel an unprecedented sense of exhilaration, followed by an emptiness.

Is this revenge?

However, it seemed there were more people arriving.

Someone dressed rather unusually appeared, accompanied by several members of the Enforcement Squad.

More? Then I'll kill them all!

The girl once again ignored the pain and activated her Originium Arts.

The higher the Originium Fusion Rate, the stronger the ability she could wield!

The power that previously required warm-up could now be unleashed casually. A vast torrent of cold air carried the girl's ferocious grin.

Die! Die, die, die!!!

The next moment, a wall forged from the cold wind was broken through by a single hand!!!

What?!

It was a hand wearing a glove, a glove adorned with delicate and intricate patterns. It simply passed through this deathly domain filled with frigid wind!

It's that guy dressed differently from the others!

Yelena panicked, her expression suddenly turning to terror.

It's normal. She's never encountered a situation like this before. Why was the power that was so immense moments ago... so easily broken through?!

The cold current didn't even leave a single trace on that person's hand. How was this possible!!

But the girl had nowhere to retreat. Her body was already extremely fragile from overexerting her abilities, and that hand had long since locked onto Yelena.

As if grabbing a duck, the hand reached out and tightly gripped the girl's slender neck.

Then came the force to crush bone.

"Ughhh!!!"

Before a short cry could even escape, the crisp sound of shattering bone filled her entire consciousness.

That was true fear.

Her Originium Arts dissipated as they were interrupted. Floating in mid-air, the girl could finally see the person's appearance clearly.

It was the embodiment of fear. Her crimson visor reflected the girl's pained expression.

A single hand had neutralized all of the girl's power. This was simply...

Like the nightmare she encountered every time she had a bad dream, a manifestation of her nightmare.

Or rather, the darkness of the past had returned. However, Yelena no longer wanted to go back to that place.

No!

I don't want to go back...

I don't want to go back, ahhh!!!

However, when she tried to cry for help, no sound came out.

When people have seen hope, they fear death immensely. They will struggle desperately on the brink of death, letting out screams that are no longer human. And some people just enjoy witnessing such extreme despair and terror.

The monster, wearing a pitch-black mask and entirely clad in black, was about to snap the girl's neck.

Just then, an explosion that startled a flock of birds suddenly rang out.

Dropping the Infected in his hand, the Emperor's Royal Guard jumped aside, warily scanning his surroundings.

"Who's there!?"

Why couldn't I detect this attack?!

The Emperor's Royal Guard didn't dare to be careless, because normal attacks were incredibly slow in the eyes of elites like the Emperor's Royal Guard, except for this one.

Although the bullet couldn't harm a being of the Emperor's Royal Guard's caliber, it was rare for such an assault to go unnoticed.

Who was it?!

However, when the guard turned to look for the source of the bullet, they saw a silver-haired girl slowly walking towards them, reloading a slug round into her magazine from her pocket.

"Today is truly... a great day for visiting graves."

ps: Some people say the protagonist's name is a bit strange, emmm it's mainly a homophone, plus, I felt calling her Chlorine Sodium was a bit odd, so I just changed it to a homophone. Don't worry, don't worry [heart emoji]

Section 12, Chapter Twelve: The Method of Inch Punch

"Using the Herrscher state to travel is quite a luxurious choice."

Several tens of minutes ago, on the snowfield, Chlorine Sodium, who had just ended her Herrscher state, landed and immediately shed the Herrscher form, running on foot across the snowfield.

Even without using Herrscher abilities, a Valkyrie's physical capabilities alone far surpassed those of ordinary humans. The reason she didn't use her Herrscher state to directly enter the town to check the situation was that she couldn't guarantee Yelena wouldn't spot her.

If she were seen, erasing memories would be much more troublesome.

Besides, her current state wasn't her complete form, and the energy consumed to travel between worlds was too immense. It was too difficult to replenish Honkai Energy in this world; she could only rely on food for recovery, or stop using her Herrscher form and wait for her body to naturally produce Honkai Energy.

However, the consumption of the Herrscher form was truly astonishing. After all, Herrschers were beings capable of manifesting incredible and almost impossible rules, their power so great they could destroy an entire city with a mere flick of their fingers.

The price for such immense power was an enormous consumption of Honkai Energy. The Honkai world could replenish Honkai Energy, but here, unless a Honkai event was triggered, she could only use it sparingly.

Still, it was enough for her to get back. In the eyes of mortals, the power possessed by Valkyries was no different from that of demigods. Schicksal's technology was essentially artificial Herrschers, greatly reducing the power of Herrschers and implanting it into the bodies of Valkyries.