Arknights, but the family had fallen into decline again and again and again

"As your first official appearance, many people have placed unrealistic hopes on you."

Oute gestured to show that he understood.

She paused, then continued, "I still have other matters to handle this morning, but I will accompany you until another Operator takes over your security."

Kal'tsit looked at Specter again.

Based on last night's on-site examination, Specter's mental state had indeed become far more stable.

But when Oute was involved... even the smallest security risk had to be considered.

Oute put on his gloves, pulled up his hood, and completely concealed his featureless face.

"PRTS, when Specter wakes up, tell me. Calm her down as well, and let her know where I am."

Kal'tsit folded her arms. "What are you dawdling for?"

This Intelligence Is Extremely Precious—Keep It All to Yourself

Out in the wilderness, the sun had already passed its zenith and begun to descend.

"What did Kal'tsit say?" Ines asked.

W hurled a pebble with all her strength. It struck the ground and kicked up a cloud of dust.

"That old hag said someone would come cooperate with our operation."

"And what about attacking Lungmen? Did you tell her?" Hedley stood on W's other side, with Ines and him boxing the petite W in between them.

"The only target worth attacking around here is Lungmen. It's not like she's an idiot!" W said bitterly. "And even if she really was, that bastard Oute isn't!"

"Whether that evil spirit is an idiot is hard to say, but didn't he lose his memory?" Ines picked up a stone as well and tossed it forward. "For all we know, he might not even remember where Lungmen is."

"Come to think of it, that Babel channel can still be used even now..." Hedley said with a sigh. "It's almost like... no, never mind."

"Don't disgust me! I told her!"

W activated the bomb.

A luxurious sedan, utterly unsuited to the wilderness, was instantly blown to pieces.

Ines and Hedley shrugged.

Pulling the view back, looking down from above.

As one of the many Sarkaz mercenary bands, W's group had now been dispatched by Garson to do a rather uninteresting job: drive out Chernobog's refugees.

Given the Catastrophe's impact, many of these refugees had contracted Originium Infection without realizing it—or without wanting to realize it.

Under such circumstances, they would become the first wave to overwhelm Lungmen's administrative capacity.

One interesting detail was that not every noble had received the intelligence in time. A small number of those deemed worthless had been left behind on Chernobog's main landmass alongside the masses they despised. The driver of the sedan just blown up belonged to that group.

The sudden explosion immediately sent the refugees into a panic. Fortunately, the group was too scattered for a stampede to occur.

"Their psychological defenses have already collapsed. They'll listen to anything now," Ines said, shaking her head.

W pulled out her radio and ordered, "Brats, time to move in. Get every last one of these refugees into Lungmen. Stuff the dragon's back door until it bursts!"

"No killing! But take whatever money and belongings you want! I get thirty percent!"

The Sarkaz mercenaries lingering around the outskirts of the crowd immediately pushed their way into the refugee column.

While maintaining order, they also ruthlessly squeezed the refugees for their wealth.

Hedley watched the scene before him, sighed, and took out his notebook.

W lightly kicked him. "What's there to write down? Aren't you embarrassed?"

"History should not consist of glory alone."

Hedley put away his notebook. "It is cold, bloody... the corpse of time."

Elsewhere, Rhodes Island's operations briefing room.

"The Reunion Movement's intention to strike Lungmen is already very clear." Kal'tsit pointed at several pieces of footage on the screen.

Oute shook his head.

I can't say.

By common sense, the odds that an openly anti-Ursus Infected organization would capture a border city, then decide to invade a neighboring country for no reason... were practically zero.

Even if a Catastrophe had passed through, leaving Chernobog paralyzed and temporarily worthless... anyone wanting to cross the border and attack another mobile city either had something wrong with their head or had ulterior motives.

Perhaps in a few more days, the evidence on the table would be enough to support Kal'tsit's current conclusion. But this was only the second day after Chernobog's fall. Under normal circumstances, it was not enough to reach such a conclusion.

You just communicated with W and the others, didn't you?

"Doc Otter..." Amiya cautiously tugged at Oute's other sleeve.

Now, everyone in the operations briefing room had turned their eyes toward him.

Though they should have been more serious, the atmosphere in the briefing room was actually quite upbeat—Oute's rescue had been a resounding success, with virtually no casualties.

"Doctor Oute, do you have any thoughts?"

After glancing at Specter beside Oute, Kal'tsit tapped the table.

The others present undoubtedly noticed that look.

Oute said, "Rather than a strike, it would be more accurate to call it an attack."

"They'll drive the old, weak, sick, and disabled into the defensive line, then send in their elite forces."

"It is a very classical and brutal tactic."

"Doc Otter, you mean... the Reunion Movement is going to assault the city?" Ace sounded somewhat uncertain.

"No, impossible. That was merely a metaphor." Oute shook his head. "Last night... not long ago, I looked through their files."

"Although the Reunion Movement's predecessor, the Icefield Guerrillas, had an obvious Ursus military background, the Reunion Movement as a whole is now mostly composed of Infected thugs without formal training."

"This group lacks the capability to run Chernobog, much less operate Ursus's war machine and launch a frontal siege."

"What I mean to point out is that although they lack the ability to besiege a city, all evidence indicates that they do indeed intend to attack Lungmen."

All evidence?

Kal'tsit definitely already had it in hand, but she had not shown it.

Scout said, "If they intend to attack, yet lack the capacity for a frontal assault..."

Oute nodded. "A large number of Reunion Movement members will inevitably hide among the refugees and attempt to enter Lungmen with them."

"And conversely, if the number of Reunion Movement members among the refugees reaches a certain level..."

"Then their intent to attack Lungmen will have been directly confirmed," Kal'tsit said calmly. "To that end, we will launch an emergency rescue operation against a group of refugees who have just left Chernobog, near the city."

She began lying through her teeth. "Having only recently left Chernobog, Reunion Movement members will not have removed their masks so quickly. If we discover an excessive number of Reunion Movement members during the rescue, the operation record will serve as irrefutable proof to persuade Lungmen."

Oute glanced at her.

Most likely W's intelligence.

Because I cleared Chernobog so quickly, W never got the chance to smoothly take control of the Sarkaz mercenaries. The value of the intelligence she could provide had to be reduced by a whole tier. Besides, Ines most likely would not be able to glimpse Talulah's shadow during this process...

Right now, Hedley's group is completely in the dark. Setting aside their individual combat strength, it is hard to say what role they could play in this incident.

Ah, I understand. Hedley's group is still acting from Babel's standpoint. Joining this mercenary company hired by Talulah was itself a coincidence, and from the very beginning, they had wanted to use the mercenary companies Theresis had scattered across Terra to get close to the Regent again!

As long as they could get close to Theresis again and investigate his movements, Hedley's group did not care how they approached him.

And in W's eyes, the simplest and quickest reason... was Garson's death.

That's right. That was also the other purpose behind her deal with Scout in the original story.

Excellent tactical planning? But tactics and strategy are two different things.

Still, Garson's death and the change in ownership of the mercenary company were valuable in themselves.

Give them a push.

Oute tapped the table. "This morning, the Engineering Department and I modified the low-altitude aircraft and revised the tactical manual. This battle will not be especially intense. Let Bad Boy join the operation."

Bad Boy was the name Dylan, its pilot, had given to that "Rhodes Island low-altitude aircraft."

Oute did not mind using the name officially to further strengthen Dylan's sense of belonging to Rhodes Island.

An Ugly Infant

One thing worth noting was that technological progress across this land had, thus far, mostly depended on the development of Originium.

For example, weapons like "guns," which looked almost identical to firearms, were in essence staffs that fired other staffs.

This led to a simple fact: technical weapons such as artillery imposed two rounds of selection on their users.

The first was based on knowledge; the second was based on Originium Arts.

Even knowledge requirements could be replaced by experience if one's Originium Arts were sufficient.

Even though the Originium Arts requirements for the technical weapons issued by armies had already been simplified through many iterations and could be mastered through study...

You either could do it, or you could not.

This paradoxical yet natural state of affairs undoubtedly influenced the design of certain weapons.

For instance, Terrans deployed all manner of wildly different drones on the battlefield and mounted massive artillery pieces on high-speed warships... yet showed no particular interest in arming low-altitude aircraft.

Then again, Oute remembered that in Earth's history, the earliest weapon installed on airplanes... seemed to have been the pilot's own little pistol.

Skipping over that awkward infancy, bombs and autocannons quickly joined the aircraft's arsenal.

But on magical Terra, both of these weapons required their users' Originium Arts...