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

"Notify all squads. Alpha and Bravo plans terminated. Withdraw to the extraction point immediately according to Charlie Plan."

All squads naturally included the reconnaissance squad.

What I Lost Was Only My Life Experience, Not My Talent

Rhodes Island's group had already broken through the battlefield when a Cautus woman with long white hair covering her left eye finally arrived.

Seeing Talulah dazed and resisting contact, the voluptuous woman could not help but blurt out, "Not just Mephisto... Talulah too!?"

Several armed personnel wrapped in snowstorm cloaks also exclaimed, "This is practically unbelievable! Mephisto was one thing, but Talulah ended up like this too!? It must be some incredibly sinister Originium Art!"

A Yeti Squad member called out, "Boss! There's a drone here!"

The terminal's final image was a beautiful frost flower.

You gouged out my eye, huh? Terra's local rabbits really had no manners at all!

Oute sighed and looked around.

After that battle, the operators' obedience toward Oute had reached a new level.

After the squad's pace had inexplicably "synchronized" several times, producing unusually loud sounds, Oute spoke to them through PRTS. "Too loud. Spread out."

The operators were somewhat stunned, as if they had only just realized what they had been doing.

Once they became aware of it, that strange "synchronization" rapidly vanished like snow beneath the blazing sun.

"Doctor..." one operator could not help asking. "What exactly was that... earlier?"

This newly recruited Guard operator had the codename Guard. Like Medic, the female medical operator who had operated on Oute, he was one of the generic-looking operators who appeared at the very beginning of Arknights' story.

That much could be seen from their codenames. A Guard operator codenamed "Guard," a medical operator codenamed "Medic"...

"That?" PRTS transformed Oute's thoughts into a toneless voice. "There was no difference. They were all the same."

"What was applied to that brat and the Reunion Movement leader was the same as what was applied to you."

Voices immediately rose and fell throughout the group of newly recruited operators.

"As expected of the Doctor's Originium Art!"

"Really? It was actually the same thing?"

"As expected of the Doctor!"

"Do you remember how that felt just now!? It was like being possessed by a god!"

"More importantly, honestly, that hollow feeling after it was taken away..."

"You too!?"

"It felt like falling back to earth..."

"Then won't we end up like those two..."

Originium Art?

Ace remained silent. This was a power Doc Otter had never displayed before.

Dobermann lowered her voice as well. "There was no need to tell them that, was there!? It'll shake their morale!"

Though Dobermann had no idea what exactly "that thing" was, the emptiness after it left her body was etched into her bones. Still, with the attitude of a frontline commander, she raised her doubts to Oute.

Yet PRTS still conveyed Oute's voice to everyone.

"There is no need to worry. Your mental states are all very healthy. Those two were already in extremely precarious states of mind, so they became even more sensitive after being enhanced."

Oute's dry, low voice squeezed out of a throat that had not spoken in a long time. "Keeping soldiers completely uninformed is one form of command. Making soldiers fully understand the situation is another."

"Cough, cough!"

If he spoke in fragmented, disjointed sentences like in the original story, the pressure on his chest when breathing would certainly be much lighter. But Oute would rather cough a few more times than change his manner of speaking.

"Doc Otter!" Amiya cried out, then turned and called Medic over. "Given our current conditions, can he receive further treatment?"

Medic looked troubled. "We're on the march right now. The only thing we can do is use Originium Arts to stimulate the wound's recovery."

Amiya's ears drooped again. She looked at Oute guiltily. "I'm sorry... You just woke up, and we're already pushing you this hard..."

It was about time. His authority had been established, and the dragon girl had been dealt with for the moment.

Oute had no intention of hiding his "amnesia." The reason was simple: due to Arknights' style of storytelling, even as a player, he had mostly been kept in the dark. He knew quite a few scattered secrets, but could be said to know virtually nothing about his own past...

He had not brought it up earlier only to improve his chances when facing Talulah.

"It may be a little late, but perhaps the timing is just right. Amiya, I have amnesia."

"Huh!?" Little Donkey's face was full of shock, and her drooping ears suddenly sprang upright.

"What is there to be surprised about?"

PRTS rendered Oute's voice exceptionally calm, which only made his next words more unbearable for those close to him.

"Pre-bypass, cooling, aortic occlusion, cardioplegia, total bypass, intracardiac operation, rewarming after the intracardiac operation is complete, aortic release, cardiac resuscitation, post-bypass, weaning off the machine, decannulation, neutralization. That is the procedure for cardiopulmonary bypass."

"To preserve the heart's energy reserves, it is best to supplement it with local deep hypothermia of the heart. It can further reduce myocardial energy and oxygen consumption."

Even Oute was startled by those words. He had only glanced at the relevant videos while repeatedly clicking through them. Remembering the conclusion would have been impressive enough! How was he so familiar with the procedure as soon as he opened his mouth?

This also made Medic realize something. Trembling, she said, "But if the heart temperature is too low... aside from arrhythmia, it can also cause... brain damage from hypoxia, cerebral embolism, and so on."

Oute nodded, and PRTS continued speaking for him. "Exactly. At that point, the brain damage is physical."

"In other words, memories damaged during this process cannot be restored."

That was a lie—two lies in a row, in fact—but it was enough to explain the current situation.

First, judging from later developments, the player's amnesia was most likely not just simple brain damage. After a full month of repeated examinations, Kal'tsit concluded that there was nothing wrong with the player's brain. Second, judging by the fact that the Doctor could later remember his wife... no, Priestess, what had been damaged at this moment might not have been the memories themselves.

If those life experiences were treated as files in the brain, then a considerable portion of the memories hidden deep in its filing cabinets had not been completely destroyed in the process—it was more likely that the key to the filing cabinets had simply been lost.

But whether they could be recovered depended on Hypergryph.

Oute looked at the black spot in his left palm. It was not exactly irrefutable proof, but still...

There was a very high chance that this body was his own.

Maybe I can put in some effort myself?

PRTS continued answering for Oute through the earpiece. "There is no need to blame yourself, Medic. Under field hospital conditions, being able to perform an aortic dissection surgery on me already saved my life."

According to research by the player community, the operation the Doctor underwent at the beginning of the story was very likely an "aortic dissection surgery." It came in many different types, and one of them required the implantation of an artificial mechanical valve after treatment.

Patients who had received valve replacements needed to take a certain drug for the rest of their lives and continuously monitor their blood indicators.

That drug was called... warfarin.

Ace approached the matter from another angle. "Then those earlier battles... wouldn't that mean!?"

"What I lost was only my life experience, not my talent."

PRTS's cold voice made Amiya's eyes redden.

"Doc Otter..."

A familiar, warm hand reached into Amiya's long rabbit ear, whose interior looked crimson beneath the sunlight, with blood vessels and nerves still visible.

"Doc Otter!"

Little Donkey's cheeks flushed as she said irritably, "Don't play with my ears like that!"

Sarkaz Disciple

Oute's surname was Ou, and his given name was Te. He was a college student who had been blessed with three years of online classes during a certain pandemic. He had once casually mentioned to his roommates that "Oute" was spelled "Otter" in English, meaning an otter. After they found out that he played Arknights, his online roommates had kept calling him Doc Otter.

As an old internet veteran, on the day he transmigrated, Oute had placed his phone beside him to run auto-deploy while revisiting the classic game Darkest Dungeon 1. Arrogantly, he had assumed he was still as good as he used to be. He had even planned to extinguish the torch on Bloodmoon difficulty to increase the drop rate, intending to make a killing starting from the Old Road.

However, when Light God Thief whistled, his excitement made him misclick the mouse, triggering the apparition.

Along with the apparition's words, "Time is a circle, la la la la la!"

Tutorial stage, two-man squad, three stress!

Every strike burned with fire, critical hits sent both heads of the household away!

His surging emotions compounded with his frail body, and his heart failed in reality, carrying him straight through death's gate.

When he woke again, he saw Amiya looking at him with concern as she spoke his nickname—Doc Otter.

Oute shook his head and cast that pointless melancholy aside.

No time.

Dobermann was somewhat anxious. "The communications equipment has been restored. I've contacted the reconnaissance squad and the reserve operations team assigned to receive us!"

"They encountered Sarkaz mercenaries!"

Oute's gaze shifted slightly.

"Inform the reserve operations team that there is no need to defend the extraction point. They only need to shake off the Sarkaz mercenaries. Our unit has withdrawn intact and retained most of its combat strength."

He paused. "Patch me through to the reconnaissance squad."

Dobermann transferred the communication to Oute. "Though you no longer remember... it's said that Scout, the reconnaissance squad's captain, once fought for you."

The communication quality was poor, with plenty of static during the exchange.

But it was not enough to lose the information.

"...static... Reunion Movement leader... static... has lost combat capability. Our unit has reached the extraction point."

"Do not get drawn into battle. Withdraw immediately."

"Doc Otter!?" The voice on the other end sounded pleasantly surprised.

Scout was a veteran who had fought under the Doctor since the Kazdel Civil War. Because of that, Oute did not even need to use his cheat to make him obey orders easily.

"Doc Otter!? That bastard! So that's how it is!?" A petite Sarkaz girl on Scout's end cursed loudly.

Sarkaz mercenaries, huh?