Volva

When Hesta returned to Dorm 403, she ran into Liz coming out of her room.

"You're back?"

"Yeah."

As soon as they saw each other, a complex emotion surged within them both. They both felt a subtle sense of betrayal towards the other and, as if by unspoken agreement, avoided each other's gaze.

Hesta walked towards her room. As she opened the door, Liz suddenly called out to her.

"Your personal computer just got approved," Liz said softly. "When do you want to pick it up? Tonight or tomorrow during the day is fine."

Hesta thought for a moment. "Then... tonight?"

"Sure, I'll take you."

On the way, Liz kept thinking about how to mention to Hesta that the base had suspended the investigation into Shawn. However, by the time they returned, Liz still hadn't found a suitable opening and could only watch Hesta carry her computer back to her room.

She felt incredibly conflicted. In the afternoon, she had followed Molly's advice and sought out Valenti, but Valenti had told her to come back in a few days. She remembered how, the night before last, she had confidently promised Hesta she would protect her, but now, due to the citizen protests, she had to accept the suspension of the investigation.

Liz tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep.

In another room, Hesta was completely unaware of any of this. After receiving her computer, her attention was quickly captured by the black, portable rectangular device. Before long, using the basic operations she had learned over the past half-month, she found the relevant search pages and, using a two-finger typing method, entered the words "Hekla Wasteland."

Besides a basic introduction to Hekla, most of the remaining search results revolved around the "Hekla Tragedy." Two years ago, the same year the Grangua brothers arrived at the base, the Hekla Wasteland experienced a widespread Chelated Being infection.

As Chelated Beings continuously emerged, the wasteland winds felt like the breath of death, bringing with them endless slaughter.

It was also during the Hekla Tragedy that the Quicksilver Needles first observed cooperative behavior among Chelated Beings. Although it was just a very immature lure-and-ambush combination, such behavior was unprecedented in past observational history.

At the same time, it was also in the Hekla Wasteland that the Quicksilver Needles observed a Chelated Being that survived for 40 days. Previously, the longest survival time for a Chelated Being did not exceed 28 days.

These findings indicated that Chelated Beings might be evolving, but the trigger conditions were still unknown.

Hesta closed those pages and re-typed "Grangua brothers."

As expected, everything was as Chiba had said. News related to the Grangua brothers immediately appeared on the pages. She browsed through them one by one and soon came across the Deer Hunting Behavior that Chiba had mentioned to her.

The debate lasted for more than two months, and this behavior sparked significant controversy in Tanyi at the time. Many began to question whether, if the members of the Quicksilver Needles team were all such inhumane and cruel wasteland survivors, how could the Quicksilver Needles guarantee the reliability and purity of their team?

Many opinion leaders also publicly called for not imposing the moral standards of habitable zones on children who had just left a living hell, calling it a form of "civilizational arrogance."

Finally, the AHgAs Medical Department and Tanyi City First Hospital jointly diagnosed that the "Grangua brothers" had developed acute PTSD symptoms due to the tragedy they experienced in the wasteland, which was why they had acted so absurdly.

Thus, the extensive discussion surrounding the Deer Hunting Behavior truly came to an end.

In all the reports, only a blurry photo taken by a Tanyi citizen captured the Grangua brothers. It was only then that Hesta truly believed the base's claims about protecting new trainees were not false. Even at the height of the heated public discourse, they had not publicly disclosed the names or appearances of the Grangua brothers.

Using a search engine for the first time, Hesta felt immensely shocked, as if she had opened the door to a new world.

Compared to searching through countless volumes in the library, the convenience of the engine was beyond imagination.

Out of curiosity, Hesta searched for her hometown, Askia, which Liz had mentioned to her the day before yesterday.

Similar to Hekla, after the first entry providing basic information about Askia, most of the remaining search results were about the "Askia Tragedy."

Then, she typed in "District 4 Catra City" (Tulan's hometown) and Sol Wasteland (Ligo's hometown). Their experiences were all too similar. After basic introductions to the cities or wastelands, there were subsequent entries about "the XXX Tragedy."

Among the aforementioned regions, only Catra City, being a habitable zone from the start, saw a very timely intervention by the Quicksilver Needles after the first Chelation Disease outbreak. Apart from the twenty-odd victims who were directly killed by Chelated Beings, the entire population of 110,000 people were safe.

Catra City had been designated an isolation zone for two years. After a period of quarantine, the original residents had all been relocated to other habitable zones to start their new lives.

As for Askia and Hekla, the two wasteland regions, the outcome was almost a complete wipeout.

AHgAs seemed to have been making efforts to establish an alarm system for residents in wasteland areas, but the results appeared to be minimal. By the time they discovered a wasteland being invaded by Chelation Disease, it was often already at the stage where patients were collectively exhibiting symptoms. The only thing the Quicksilver Needles could do was to do their best to find any survivors from these living hells and bring them back to habitable zones.

This was also the source of most new Quicksilver Needles recruits.

All night long, Hesta immersed herself in the details of this world until she suddenly remembered a name. With a hint of doubt, she typed "Volva" into the search bar and clicked search.

Her expression slowly shifted from nervous anticipation to calmness. The search results on the engine were all about the female protagonist of "Dagger and Sheath," a love story from District 14.

Hesta lowered her eyes, feeling a bit tired now. She glanced at the clock and realized it was past one in the morning.

She got up to wash up, then collapsed onto the bed, staring at the ceiling in silence until she fell asleep.

Sunday morning, Class D trainee observation area.

When Calvin woke up, he found Shawn had, surprisingly, woken up early. He was sitting lopsidedly at the small table in the observation room, and the sound of flipping pages occasionally drifted over.

The sun must have risen in the west, Calvin thought. He got up, greeted Shawn, and headed for the bathroom.

"Karl, can I borrow your computer later?" Shawn suddenly said.

"No," Calvin replied crisply.

"Okay, fine. I don't need it, just help me search for something," Shawn said lazily, turning his head. "That's acceptable, right?"

Calvin looked at him. "What do you want to search for?"

"A name," Shawn said, looking at him. "'Volva'."