Alina

So the thugs said nothing and attacked the girl.

"What was that noise?"

"An engine? Damn, the officer lords are catching up! Those damned black bugs..."

"Damn it, we grabbed the stuff and ran. What do we do with this woman?"

"Leave her here. Who cares? If she dies, she dies!"

When Bai Ye and Skadi stopped the vehicle, they saw only a mess of footprints left in the snow, several black dots fleeing in panic, and a curled-up girl lying in the snow.

Steaming blood flowed from her wounds, staining the nearby snow red.

"We're here?" Skadi looked around in confusion.

"Outside the village, within a five-mile radius, this is where the most people gathered..." Bai Ye jumped out of the vehicle and walked toward the girl lying on the ground.

"Not dead..." Skadi's senses were incredibly sharp, so she could naturally hear the girl's still-weak breathing.

"If we leave her much longer, she probably won't be saved." Bai Ye knew that the people of Terra in Arknights Online had astonishing physical abilities. Even ordinary Perro possessed frightening vitality and self-healing abilities.

But even so, if a severely injured girl was left unattended in the snow for too long, she would die from blood loss and the cold.

"An Elafia..." Bai Ye gently picked the girl up.

"You're going to save her?" Skadi tilted her head.

Bai Ye looked at the nearly unconscious girl. "She's pretty cute, isn't she? She's the first living person we've encountered since entering the snowfield."

As he spoke, he carried the Elafia into the vehicle and placed her on the back seat.

"Skadi, help stop her bleeding first. We need to find somewhere to make camp."

Bai Ye drove toward a place where the wind was less deafening, while Skadi began searching for gauze...

It was warm.

It was bright.

In her haze, the girl gradually regained consciousness, though her thoughts remained muddled...

What had happened?

Oh, right. She had been attacked.

Several Infected had assaulted her and taken the food she had traded for in the village.

It hurt...

It was cold...

As a knowledgeable teacher, she knew what fate awaited her.

Death.

So death was such an easy, comfortable thing.

There was no pain, no sorrow.

Only warmth.

So pain was only temporary. Where was she now? Perhaps, in Laterano doctrine, this place was called... heaven?

The faint sound of strangers talking reached her ears.

"How is she?"

"Her abdomen was stabbed through, her left hand is fractured, her right hand was nearly torn off, she lost blood, and her Oripathy flared up... But fortunately, she's past the critical stage."

"Land-dwellers are so weak. If an Abyssal Hunter suffered wounds like these, she'd recover in no time and keep fighting..."

"How can we compare to you..."

"Hmm, but you're actually a doctor?"

"No, I only started learning recently. Didn't expect it to come in handy so soon... Luckily, it was something I could handle, and there was emergency medicine in the vehicle."

"Her breathing is fairly stable, and she's still receiving a transfusion... She should survive."

"Death..."

Death... wait!

She didn't want to die...

She couldn't die!

"I can't die... If I die, who will pull her back from over there?!"

"!"

Her muddled consciousness gradually cleared.

The voices by her ears became clearer.

Pain stimulated her body.

The girl suddenly opened her eyes.

"You're awake..."

Bai Ye stood and walked over to the stretcher, looking at the girl who had awakened.

She had long silver hair and delicate, branch-like horns.

Bai Ye was quite pleased. The medical knowledge and skills he had mastered were very useful; he had successfully pulled this Little Deer's life back from the hands of death.

She had passed the most dangerous stage. From here on, she only needed time and an Elafia's constitution.

"Who are you?" The girl tried to sit up, only to discover that she had no strength at all. Both hands were secured in splints, leaving her unable to move.

"Just travelers passing by... Mm, don't move around. You need rest." Bai Ye took out medical equipment and began examining her condition. He looked like a professional doctor—if one ignored the medical textbook open beside him.

In truth, Basic Medicine knowledge alone had not been enough. Bai Ye had crammed emergency treatment knowledge in a short period, while the battle-hardened Skadi had contributed her battlefield first-aid experience.

"Thank you for saving me."

The girl played dumb despite knowing better.

Being clever, she did not need to think hard to realize that the two were concealing their identities—there were no travelers on this frozen land.

This was no tourist destination.

Alina

After another battle, Talulah led her warriors and Shield Guards to defeat the Infected Provost that had been drawn to them.

They had even crushed an entire reinforcement unit.

Even though FrostNova and Big Daddy were absent.

Yet Talulah felt no relief. She had a foreboding feeling because she had heard several children crying about how their older sister had not returned...

Unease and anxiety flooded her heart.

Until a Shield Guard told her that the surviving Provost had fled east.

East...

Talulah remembered that her friend was in that direction. She had wanted to trade for some vegetables and fruit.

So Talulah sprinted out.

At that moment, the formidable life born of two supreme royal bloodlines—the Dolak and the Great Yan Dragon race—erupted with its astounding power.

With one stomp, snow shot into the air. The sheer kinetic force even held it suspended in midair for an instant.

Astonishing heat steamed from the girl's body, melting snowflakes before they could approach her.

Yet the girl did not notice the changes occurring to her body. She had forgotten everything and ran desperately eastward.

Who knew how much time had passed before she stopped.

Even though the snow had covered the traces, she could still smell the lingering scent of blood in the air, along with that familiar scent. Yes, Red Dragons had sharp senses of smell.

She knelt on the ground and swept aside the newly accumulated loose snow, revealing a shallow depression stained by dark red, almost black blood.

Yes, the girl had been so petite and frail that she could only leave such a shallow indentation in the ground.

For an instant, Talulah nearly fainted, but she quickly gritted her teeth and endured.

"No... this isn't right... It can't be..."

"There's no body here. You'll be all right, won't you... Alina..."

"Your name is Alina?"

Bai Ye fed spoonful after spoonful of hot soup to the girl whose hands could not move.

Skadi sat nearby with great interest. As a happy Little Orca, she was actually quite good at finding amusement for herself.

For example, she remembered how her captain had once simply poured food directly into an injured person's mouth... After all, for an Abyssal Hunter, being alive was already pretty good. Who knew when she might go insane?

So in critical moments, they were not particularly fussy about details.

"Yes, I'm Alina, a... teacher from a nearby village. Thank you..."

Alina thanked them again. She felt she had encountered very good people; they did not even care that she was Infected... And this medicine...

Out of the corner of her eye, the girl spotted the Oripathy suppressant placed on the ground nearby.

She had never seen packaging or a symbol like that before.

The medicine's effects were also remarkable.

Who exactly were these two...

What did they want?

"Where do you live? Which village? We'll take you home right away."

After feeding her the hot soup, Bai Ye took out a towel and wiped Alina's face before speaking.

"Uh... there's no need to trouble yourselves..." The girl instinctively wanted to refuse.

After all, where she was from was not an ordinary "village."

Bai Ye gave the girl a strange look, then checked her temperature. "No inflammation or fever... What nonsense are you talking about? With your tiny body, you think you can go back alone with injuries this serious? There's a blizzard outside."

"It wasn't easy for us to save you. Don't go throwing your life away..."

By "not easy," Bai Ye meant that he had used the girl as practice, though he definitely could not say that outright...

"..." Alina felt somewhat ashamed. These two had saved her life, yet she was still hiding things from them.

She could sense goodwill from them.

After making up her mind, the girl said, "Actually, I come from a... group made up of Infected. We call ourselves Reunion."

After saying that, she carefully observed the reactions of the two before her.

Bai Ye and Skadi exchanged a look.

Well then, it seemed they really had saved the right person.

"But she's so weak... Isn't Reunion made up of warriors?" Skadi looked Alina up and down.

This child was not a warrior.