Arknights, but the Family Has Fallen Again, Again, Again

Oute's first battlefield command after returning was the refugee rescue operation where Kal'tsit had previously edited out crucial information.

Since he still had plenty of energy to spare, Oute showed a little respect for Rhodes Island's usual way of doing things and cleared it with zero casualties.

After reviewing the combat footage, Blaze came to a rather subtle conclusion.

Oute was kindhearted.

Yeah, he was kindhearted, so don't die in front of him while he was going for a flawless clear...

Meanwhile, at Wei Yenwu's residence.

"This technology..."

The change in his draconic face was visible to the naked eye. Combined with his tone, he was probably astonished.

"I'm starting to believe Rhodes Island is a charitable organization."

Madam Wen Yue teased, "Didn't you say earlier that you could smell blood on that Oute?"

"Well, scalpels are blades too. Isn't it perfectly normal for a doctor to have a little blood on him?" Wei Yenwu babbled nonsense.

By the time Oute arrived at the temporary base, a batch of Rhodes Island's public information had reached Wei Yenwu along with the latest news from within Chernobog.

Unlike last time, he had focused on gathering every scrap of information concerning Rhodes Island's pharmaceutical work.

The result was even more shocking than the company's military strength. They seemed to be the foremost authorities in the entire field of Originium Infection.

Wei Yenwu had indeed heard rumors about Rhodes Island before, but hearing them and personally gathering information to confirm them were entirely different matters—the former could have been complete exaggeration.

And when it came to himself, when it came to his own people, Wei Yenwu had always been confident.

"And little Ch'en..." Madam Wen Yue hesitated before saying, "Her illness..."

Wei Yenwu fell silent for a long while before saying, "Do you think Rhodes Island is really as... naive as Oute makes them out to be?"

Wen Yue instead said, "I only think your earlier judgment was correct."

What judgment?

Wei Yenwu believed Oute was so arrogant that he considered himself the truth.

Then when he said, "Compared with Rhodes Island's ideals, solving Originium Infection is the simplest and most practical issue."

Subjectively, he would not lie about that.

Yes, it was just that Kal'tsit and Amiya probably had yet to hear about this particular ideal of Rhodes Island...

I'm going to protect my Rhodes Island.JPG

When You See Someone Handing Out Medicine in the Slums

"If Rhodes Island truly is as he says, then it won't just be Hui... perhaps even the slums could become the lower city."

Wei Yenwu let out a long sigh.

This politician only revealed such weakness before a select few.

And at this moment, he was even unwilling to directly refer to Ch'en's infection. It was as though saying it aloud would cause Ch'en, a healthy and normal person, to suddenly contract Originium Infection.

Yet they both knew that Ch'en had long since been infected.

After pacing about for a while, Madam Wen Yue seemed to be warding off bad luck.

She said, "The information on the Reunion Movement..."

Wei Yenwu nodded heavily. Holding a photograph between his fingers, he sighed. "It's her. Not merely someone with the same name."

The photograph seemed to have been secretly taken when "Talulah" breached Chernobog.

Wen Yue lowered her beautiful eyes. "Can you hide it from little Ch'en forever?"

Wei Yenwu said bitterly, "I'm afraid I can't even hide it for a week..."

"The issue Rhodes Island has kept silent about has arrived."

Wei Yenwu stepped onto the balcony.

The red sun was setting beyond the western hills.

The grudges and entanglements of many years had come to him once again.

Like Amiya, Wei Yenwu misunderstood Talulah's purpose.

He believed he completely understood the situation:

Many years ago, Talulah had executed one of her father's murderers through close-range assassination, but one remained—Wei Yenwu.

As the governor of Lungmen, Wei Yenwu gave Talulah no opportunity to get close. So she chose the infected as a useful pawn, used all sorts of means to pull the necessary strings... and after many years, came to seek revenge against him.

Meanwhile, Rhodes Island, as outsiders unaware of the details, mistakenly believed certain Ursus interest groups were plotting something.

Well...

Put tactfully, it would make a decent wuxia drama.

Put bluntly, he understood absolutely nothing.

Confidence and arrogance had always been two sides of the same coin, and most arrogant people often believed they were merely confident.

"Miss, those things were thrown out," a Lupo man said to a Zalak woman reading a newspaper.

The Zalak woman's large ears twitched slightly. "Are they still breathing?"

"They are."

"Carry them back and treat them. Make sure no one sees." The rat girl closed her newspaper.

"Understood!" The Lupo man briskly stepped into the shadows.

This traditional print newspaper had already made Chernobog's fall to "infected rioters" its headline.

Whether limited by information, knowledge, or imagination, everyone had their own unique perspective.

Lin Yuxia, however, noticed that this would have some negative impact on the slums.

The only question was, how bad would that impact be?

She did not yet know.

Although the free clinic had only been open for a short while and it was already getting late, guided by the principle that only fools passed up free stuff, a sea of people quickly gathered beside Rhodes Island's temporary base.

Fortunately, several blind idiots had been thrown out in full view of everyone. The burly men who had orchestrated the matter were still maintaining order, so the crowd remained fairly orderly.

It was almost exactly as Oute had expected.

"Malnutrition and Originium Infection account for more than eighty percent of all patients..." Jessica found it somewhat unbelievable.

This was the slums.

A death spiral gripped everyone by the throat: without sufficient strength or ability to work, they could not compete for jobs, which in turn made them weaker and even less capable of working.

And incidentally, "work" here had a rather old-fashioned meaning.

It included things like taking a knife out to collect protection money...

The remaining cases accounted for far more than twenty percent... poverty meant they often suffered from several illnesses at once.

Unfortunately...

"Painkillers?"

A Zalak woman casually took a vial from the hand of a patient who had just received medicine.

"You've noticed it too, haven't you?" She returned the painkillers to the passerby and asked, "If the medicine you hand out isn't used on the spot..."

"Then it'll be resold on the black market."

It didn't matter.

With the help of the few pieces of pre-civilization technology Kal'tsit could and was willing to use, Rhodes Island's medicine was dirt cheap.

And with Wei Yenwu permitting Rhodes Island's low-altitude aircraft to take off and land in Lungmen, the greatest obstacle to this advertisement-like free clinic was actually the pilots' stamina...

From deep within the base, a hooded weirdo "embracing two beauties" emerged from the shadows, flanked by two women.

Specter was on his left, Blaze on his right.

"Nice to meet you for the first time. I'm Lin Yuxia, president of the Lungmen Young Entrepreneurs Association."

Black was her primary color, while blue and purple decorations added a touch of playfulness to its solemnity. Her pink hair was held in place by a pearl-and-jade hairpin, though a few unruly strands still spilled over her shoulders. Two belts tightly cinched her slender waist, only further accentuating the peaks beneath the buttons on her chest.

Her slightly plump, beautiful legs were tightly wrapped in hazy black stockings, disappearing into angular high heels that probably came with bonus critical damage.

Oute shook her hand. "This does indeed count as our first time meeting you. I'm Oute, Doctor, and consultant for Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals."

Rhodes Island's activities in Lungmen could not be hidden from the local... rat. This could only be called a one-sided first meeting.

"It seems Dr. Oute knows a bit about Lungmen?"

"Before, it was a guess. Now, it's certain. Power abhors a vacuum. Since Mr. Wei is unwilling or unable to manage this place, someone will manage the slums."

"You flatter me. It's just that when a big family gets noisy, it needs a parent eventually."

"Why not come inside and sit?"

Lin Yuxia glanced around. Those Rhodes Island medical operators were still diligently conducting the free clinic.

Even if ninety-nine percent of people only needed painkillers, and even if those who received the painkillers would sell them off... they were unwilling to give up on diagnoses that were nearly futile.

But because Lin Yuxia had appeared, many of those who were less muddleheaded had already begun backing away. They were not afraid of Lin Yuxia herself, but of some conflict breaking out here.

After all, bloodthirsty spectators who thought it'd be worth the price of admission even if I died were a minority in any world.

"Indeed, this isn't a convenient place to talk." Lin Yuxia nodded.

Once they were seated, Specter naturally released Oute's left arm and went to pour tea.

Oute watched the nun's retreating figure.

That was the third time already, wasn't it?

"Dr. Oute, there's something I don't understand."