Arknights, but the Family Has Fallen into Decline Again and Again and Again

The reclusive nun slowly nodded as well, seemingly in response.

Oute opened a drawer, took out the draft contract and catastrophe report, and said, "Amiya, make copies of these documents. Keep the originals, then bring the copies to the Engineering Department to find me."

"Okay! Doc Otter!" Amiya grabbed the contract and ran off excitedly.

"Slow down! Don't run into anyone!"

Her voice drifted back from afar, growing fainter and fainter. "I understand!"

Oute sighed. "There's still so much work to deal with. I can't rest yet..."

Specter had silently sorted the documents Oute had reviewed into categories and placed them on the desk.

"Well..."

Those documents were merely estimates of imports and exports for various mobile cities, commodity values, Rhodes Island's material consumption across different terrain, production line efficiency, industrial structures, technical data, worker hours and wages...

None of it required Oute's approval.

Put simply, they were reports Oute used to assist his own decision-making.

Having already read through them thoroughly once, there was no need to fuss over them too much. It was enough for them to remain in the office.

They did not need to be arranged so neatly.

That was what he had intended to say.

"Well, that's an excellent job!" Oute said with a smile.

The nun looked up as well, revealing a less fanatical smile.

"Come on. It's time to look at the design proposal."

Taking Specter's delicate hand in his, Oute left his office and arrived at the Engineering Department.

"Hey! Doc Otter! I've got a fantastic treadmill here! Great quality and affordable too—perfect for indoor rehabilitation training!"

Closure was actually here too... Right, this was her department. I see her in the shop every day, so I nearly started treating her as the head of the commercial department!

Oute's mouth twitched.

"No need. I'm here to see the design proposal I requested yesterday."

"Ah..." She hesitated, rubbing her fingers together as she said, "Doc Otter, you don't have much of your memory right now. You might find it difficult to understand the proposal directly... How about I explain it to you?"

You haven't even created the file yet, have you?

Oute did not expose her. After all, the deadline he had given her initially was not today.

If the proposal Closure gave verbally was satisfactory enough, he did not mind letting her off the hook.

"Why not start now?"

Closure looked as though she had been granted a reprieve. After giving two hollow laughs, she said, "Doctor, look. This is Rhodes Island's structural diagram."

That overly familiar "Doc Otter" had reverted to "Doctor."

The structural diagram was incomplete, with some mysteriously convenient blank spaces that would supposedly be needed later.

Still, it was enough for Closure to explain her design.

"Here, here, and here! If we open up these areas, we can create a prison large enough to hold five thousand people in a short period of time!"

Oute looked up. What kind of prison is that?

"Have you considered how they're supposed to sleep?" Oute asked tactfully.

Rhodes Island had a multi-level design, and its overall size was comparable to a district of a mobile city. Its maximum population capacity was much like that of some small mobile towns.

But what Closure had just casually proposed meant that five thousand prisoners would have to stand packed body to body, shoulder to shoulder, in that area she had mentioned...

That was a mass grave.

"Besides, I don't need to imprison five thousand people at once."

"I need a prison that can temporarily detain two to three hundred rioters."

"That is the requirement for the prison itself."

"Additionally, I need one or two extra rooms inside this prison."

"They will be rooms for the guards, located on the outer perimeter. There's no need to consider escape risks."

"Huh?"

"By the way, I mentioned all of this in yesterday's document."

So you didn't even read it, did you?

Oute spoke coldly.

Sensing trouble, the grease goblin immediately hugged Oute's leg and cried, "Doctor Oute! We spent all day yesterday studying the Pneumatic Rifle you designed!"

Look at that. She had been trying to sell him a treadmill just moments ago, and now she was already clinging to his leg!

General Winter, Winter Soldier, Winter... Captain?

If someone knew what was about to happen, it would not be difficult to see that Oute was preparing a prison cell for Talulah.

The other spaces were simply a case of "while we're at it." Who knew when they might come in handy?

"Since you say you spent all day yesterday studying the Pneumatic Rifle, did you achieve anything?"

Closure immediately perked up.

She placed a rugged weapon that looked extremely "Waaaagh" onto the table.

The crude rifle itself looked slightly better than the previous mounted machine gun, but only slightly.

This lathe-made "precision-crafted," "rough" Pneumatic Rifle clearly lacked repeated refinement in its design. It was better than the mounted machine gun, but it was still a proof-of-concept product that would make anyone tear at their hair when actually used.

With Closure leading the Engineering Department, this was what they had cobbled together in a single day... As long as it worked, that was all that mattered.

It was connected through a temporary hose to a liquid nitrogen tank, which was currently mounted on a simple backpack.

Each pull of the trigger released a fixed amount of liquid nitrogen. After being heated in a simple mechanism, it rapidly expanded and propelled the bullet outward.

On Earth, this was not a particularly clever design.

The difficulties were, first, that such a weapon had no competitive edge in performance, and second, that its material requirements posed enormous challenges to Earth's materials science.

However, on the same track in Terra, its greatest competitor in terms of performance was Columbia's automatic crossbows...

Furthermore, Originium, as one of the ultimate creations of a Type II or even Type III civilization, had not merely brought Originium Infection to the animal-eared girls. It had also opened an unobstructed path for Terra's wondrous materials science.

"It still needs more adjustment in terms of caliber and ammunition, and the connection between the rifle and the liquid nitrogen backpack needs further exploration... But the biggest problem right now is the production of liquefied gas."

Closure looked somewhat confused. "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what role this weapon is meant to fill."

"While it effectively reduces the mental strain of frontline combat, allowing operators to focus their concentration solely on aiming at targets, its loading and maintenance are just as complicated as other Originium guns."

For the moment, the grease goblin was confused by the rifle's liquefied gas tank and still classified it as an Originium gun.

At present, it truly did count as an "Originium gun." It required someone proficient in Originium Arts to manually produce the liquefied gas used to fill it, and someone proficient in Originium Arts to manually maintain it...

Oute nodded. Rather than answer Closure's question, he merely said, "Its manufacturing process must be as simple as possible, easy to produce, with as little labor time on the production line as possible. As for the liquefied gas tanks and gas lines, research them in two directions..."

"For the first type, do not consider how it can independently produce liquefied gas. Focus on making the tubes and tanks withstand greater pressure and lower temperatures, completely separating them from Originium circuits. Once the liquefied gas is depleted, simply replace the tank."

Closure suddenly understood, then felt a chill run through her entire body.

"The second type is for elite units who have mastered the relevant Originium Arts. It can still continuously produce liquefied gas through Originium circuits."

Simply put, there would be standard weapons that could be used without mastering Originium Arts and issued on a large scale, as well as elite weapons that required mastery of Originium Arts.

In practice, the elite weapons would also need specially designed, more powerful firearms, but there was no need to consider that for now—time was limited.

Closure swallowed and hinted, "Doc Otter, do you... realize what you're doing?"

"It may run contrary to Rhodes Island's principle of staying out of politics."

Oute replied, "Before we discuss the word 'principle,' you should first seek out the meaning behind that principle."

Kal'tsit had worked hard to uphold Rhodes Island's neutrality, attempting to separate Rhodes Island from all political affairs, hoping that at some point in the future, Rhodes Island could serve her mission as a "benevolent and neutral third party." The clearest embodiment of this was undoubtedly the framework treaty for the future joint maintenance of the Icefield Megastructure by the nations of Terra—the Black Hole Protocol.

But her efforts were fundamentally rather futile.

This pharmaceutical company, which had repeatedly interfered in other nations' internal affairs, had only maintained its neutral status on paper.

Ursus, Yan, Kazimierz, Victoria, Columbia, Bolívar, Sargon... As for a small country like Kjerag, its fate hung on the Doctor's every whim.

This neutrality was more like a fig leaf, and the upper echelons of the parties involved in the Black Hole Protocol almost certainly remembered how Rhodes Island had interfered with them.

To put it more bluntly, under Oute's development, Rhodes Island was bound to grow too vast to be measured merely as a "pharmaceutical company."

So vast that even its paper-thin "neutrality" could no longer be maintained.

Since that was the case, there was no need to adhere too strictly to this so-called "principle."

"She awakened me. She begged me to lead once more. She should have realized where I would sail."

Amiya's voice came from the corridor. "Doc Otter! Your documents!"

She brought over all the documents Oute had asked her to copy earlier.

Oute patted Closure on the shoulder and said, "Maintaining neutrality, staying out of politics... Those are tools that exist to achieve an objective."

He enunciated each word carefully. "Among the many operators of 'Rhodes Island,' you should understand the purpose of 'Rhodes Island' better than most."

Yeah, right.

At most, Closure understood Babel's purpose better.

Yet although Kal'tsit had indeed poured effort into Babel, it too was merely another tool she used to fulfill her "destiny."

Throughout her long life as a tool cat, Theresa was perhaps Kal'tsit's closest friend... But the very fact that they became "friends" was an exceptionally subtle irony.

The six Sarkaz heroes of the Resistance Alliance, the white Demon King who wore the black crown, and a little cat who had tirelessly spent over ten thousand years protecting animal-eared girls from animal-eared girls.

Oh, right. Before the two became friends, the little cat had gathered an alliance. She had destroyed the Sarkaz people's spiritual homeland, Kazdel, again and again and again and again.

All one could say was that Theresa had truly understood sorrow, and from the bottom of her heart believed in the future she had planned for the Sarkaz, putting it into practice herself...

It was not difficult to understand why so many Sarkaz simply could not comprehend Theresa's choice. Kazdel had been destroyed time and time again. Peace? Peace with what damn thing?