Saiyan stowaways on the Ark

"Huh? You called me?"

The old man mentioned a word that made the forest ranger repeat it unconsciously. The operator Meteor next to him pointed to himself with a puzzled look, and the forest ranger immediately explained:

"Oh no, I meant a shooting star in the literal sense."

According to the elderly and other residents, something fell from the sky before the fire broke out, causing a loud noise and impact. Before people could go to check, the fire spread.

At this moment, Frostnova arrived at the meeting place with her Yeti squad, interrupting their conversation.

“That might not have been a simple meteor; I saw strange marks right in the center of the fire.”

The forester asked, "Strange marks?"

"Hmm... there are traces of something breaking through the soil from the very center of the pit, and sharp footprints that look like they were pierced by a blade were also found around it."

Frostnova responded with a tone of uncertainty.

Even when no natural disaster clouds form in Terra, meteorites occasionally fall, sometimes as strange metal parts that resemble small parts of a giant entity, and sometimes as seemingly ordinary rocks.

But they shouldn't move at all.

The traces that Frostnova found at the scene, as well as the suspicious footprints that the team members saw in the surrounding area, all seemed to defy common sense and were quite eerie.

"Could it be that someone in their fight flew out, created a crater, and then crawled out of the crater to continue fighting...?"

One Yeti speculated.

"It shouldn't be. Tomat said they didn't use any air blasts during the fight, they only fought with their fists and feet, and they were very far away from here. Besides, those marks weren't footprints."

But this was quickly denied by Frostnova.

The forester asked, "Did you try to trace the footprints?"

Froststar shook her head and said, "We tracked it for a while, but it suddenly disappeared. It was probably covered by the ashes from the fire."

"......"

For a moment, everyone fell silent.

In any case, there must be some unknown secrets hidden in this seemingly ordinary fire.

But the abrupt end of the clues did not give them the opportunity to continue exploring.

All they could do was continue to help resettle the local residents, patrol the forest for potential fire hazards, and try to look on the bright side.

There's nothing suspicious in the forest. Even if there were some dangerous creatures, it shouldn't have much of an impact, right?

Some time later, the official firefighting team arrived at the scene, along with a small group of knights.

The former came to put out the fire, while the latter came to inspect the situation.

We can't overlook any suspicious circumstances in this kind of situation; it might just be sabotage by the Ursus advance reconnaissance force.

During several wars between Kavu and Uzbekistan, they burned down forests and massacred local residents in this way.

Rhodes Island operators, suspected of being armed, were also questioned. However, after they revealed their identities, the Knights of Conquest's attitude changed noticeably, becoming less aggressive. This was clearly due to Ioleta's intervention.

Although the attitude has improved, the Rhodes Island members are still asked to leave the area, since strictly speaking, it is their internal affair.

But before leaving, the forest ranger revealed a disdainful expression and muttered:

“If you knights really cared so much about your people, then I wouldn’t be the only forest ranger left.”

Her past experience of having her compatriots slaughtered by the Ursus people, while the self-proclaimed noble and benevolent knights offered no help, has left her with a lingering resentment towards knights.

However, she did not have any major conflicts with the conquering knights, but instead left directly with the members of Rhodes Island.

"Um, everyone, the fire has been put out by the people who were there before..."

The local elder, speaking in a trembling voice, told the Kazimir firefighters that he did not want them to enter the forest.

"That won't do! They say it's all fine, so it's all fine? What if the fire reignites, and you'll be begging us then!"

Perhaps in some countries where firefighters are public officials, their words would stem from a sense of responsibility and duty.

But it's different in Kazimierz. Even the firefighters are corporate employees who chose this profession to make money. They rescue Kazimierz people who have lost everything due to losing a game or other reasons and are lining up to jump off the roof. Then they extort a large sum of money from them, leaving them with even greater debts and forcing them to engage in certain gray industries, or even participate in knightly competitions—saving lives while making them live in even more pain.

Therefore, if they only came once for this fire rescue, the reward they received wouldn't even cover the cost of the Originium Engines they burned during the round trip.

In other words, if they were to go in and put out the fire—whether it was a genuine resurgence or arson—the locals would have to pay more money. These residents, who live far from the city and rely on hunting for a living, have lost much of their property and may not even be able to pay their housing tax for the year, let alone continue to pay high firefighting fees.

Although the attendance fees alone are shockingly high, we're already thankful that we've avoided being ripped off again.

"Alright, stop pulling me. You'll regret it when you get burned to death!"

The man in the firefighter's uniform shoved the old man aside and drove off into the forest on his own.

The knights had long since ventured deep into the forest, seemingly searching for something, ignoring the residents who were powerless to dissuade them from entering.

[Main Text] Terra Battle for Supremacy: Chapter 5 A Scream

For the Knights of Conquest, investigating the unexplained forest fires was only one of the reasons for their actions.

More reports came from the Great Knight Territory Observatory—they did see a meteor fall nearby, and although they couldn't rule out the possibility that it was the Ursus people who were behind it, they were still given the task of "retrieving the fallen object".

Especially after receiving information from the group that left Rhodes Island that "a huge crater appeared in the middle of the fire," they became even more convinced that this was just a simple planetary crash.

The reason for recycling them is that what falls from the sky occasionally is not just rocks, but also high-tech products with lost technology, which have considerable research value for the country.

This is why many countries in Terra are so enthusiastic about excavating ancient ruins. After all, many people are convinced that Terra once had an unimaginably advanced technological peak. Now, whether it is the basic mobile city technology or certain secret technological achievements that can affect international status, such as Colombia's weapons of mass destruction and Ursus's "sarcophagus", most of them are obtained by studying the technological samples left behind in ancient times.

"Hey, if there was anything there, didn't those people take it already?"

Among the knights advancing along the trail of fire towards the very center, one of them, presumably a squire, asked his captain a question.

The captain rolled his eyes at him, but his expression of being too lazy to explain was hidden by the mask, revealing only a voice that was a mixture of impatience and confusion.

"Let them take it, what else can we do? Go and force them to hand it over?"

Even the Conqueror Knights maintained a level of composure that most Arena Knights lacked.

Ordering around a group of outsiders who rescued the people of Kazimierz will only further damage their already poor reputation.

However, the real reason for his helpless attitude towards the situation the attendants had guessed, and the source of his confusion, actually came from Ioleta's message.

"A business alliance is one thing, but I didn't expect the Supervisory Commission to be so subdued when dealing with this company... The Grandmaster said not to get into conflicts with them without authorization."

—Do not interfere with their actions unless they are actually harming Kazimir's interests.

The duty of a knight in arms is to obey orders.

No matter how many doubts they had about the order, they could not disobey the Grandmaster's will.

"Besides, nobody knows what fell down. Even if they hold it in their hands, we still won't know what it is."

Although they knew in their hearts that there was a possibility that something had already been picked up, they continued to move towards their destination.

Ahead, there were signs of ice, and the charred vegetation remained dilapidated under the frost. Not long ago, the forest was a sea of ​​fire, but now it was permeated with a biting cold.

"That's terrifying... I'm afraid several hectares of forest were frozen in an instant... and that was while they were burning fiercely."

Judging from the state of the burning tree trunks, the freezing did not occur when the fire had subsided and only dark red charcoal remained; at that time, the area was still burning.

"Did the people of Rhodes Island use some kind of large-scale cooling system?"

The solid and smooth ice surface turned this place into an unobstructed window, but the armor of the conquering knights, who had always targeted Ursus, also had ample anti-slip and cold-proof properties.

"This kind of effect... it could have been used as a weapon long ago, right? I've never heard of such a device, and even Ursus warlocks who are skilled in frost magic have never seen such power. At least an entire squad would have to cast spells at the same time to freeze such a large area instantly under such high temperatures."

Ultimately, it was just a retrieval mission, and there was no one nearby to supervise the march, so the atmosphere of this expeditionary knight squad's march wasn't that serious.

"You've never seen an Ursus warlock before? You're just a greenhorn, you've never fought a battle against Ursus people before!"

Looking at the strange sights around them, the knights, who were unfamiliar with the frozen snowfields because Kazimir and Ursus had not fought for a long time, began to whisper among themselves.

"A powerful cooling device, incredibly strong warlocks, or a complete squadron of frost warlocks—whichever it may be, it only proves that we were right not to clash with them."

The captain spoke convincingly based on his observations.

If the people of Rhodes Island can go to such lengths to put out a fire, what if they used that power in combat?

This is not a situation that a small team sent out to investigate can handle. After all, they are not the legendary Silver Spear Heavenly Horses, who can take on a thousand men when they are together.

The knights arrived at the location of the pit, which was also covered by a thick layer of frost. Like Frostnova, who arrived first, they found nothing of interest in the pit.

"There weren't even any stones... which means that something useful actually fell down and was taken by the people of Rhodes Island?"

Seeing the empty pit, one of the conquering knights made this judgment.

But the captain is the captain after all. He kept a clear head and calmly examined the marks on the pit, and quickly denied them.

"No, if it was Rhodes Island people who took the item... whether they came for the item or accidentally discovered it while putting out the fire, they would have first extinguished the flames by freezing it to avoid burns and make it easier to retrieve, and then broken through the ice to take the item away. The order of freezing first and then retrieving the item would not change."

The captain squatted down in the center of the pit, stroking the ice as he analyzed the situation.

"But this ice layer has never been damaged since it was formed—unless they went to great lengths to repair the damage and refreezing after breaking it."

He tapped the solid ice surface. Ice of this hardness could not possibly have been made by normal means; it must have been infused with high-level Originium Arts.

Restoring it to its original state would be far more difficult than creating it directly. Breaking it, taking things away, and then restoring it might be possible to do so if one has the skill or the time, but the empty little pit under the ice layer completely refutes this speculation.

"But if the cover-up went this far, why not put something inside, even a stone? There's nothing under there, not because someone took it, but because there was nothing there when it was frozen."

However, this reasonable inference and rejection raises another very "unreasonable" possibility, which some people have also voiced:

"Did someone come to the center of the fire and take the item while it was still burning?"

However, the captain suddenly ruled out this possibility in a serious tone:

"No...that's not right..."

He stood up, took his spear from his entourage, and fiercely chipped away at the ice—but the sight inside horrified him even more.

"The signs of soil disturbance beneath the ice... indicate that it was dug out from the inside out, not from the outside, meaning that someone took something from inside."

The captain suddenly activated the communicator on his gauntlet, sending signals and making contact while explaining to the still somewhat confused knights around him:

"...but rather 'something came out of it'."

—Then, a piercing scream came from the distant woods.

[Main Text] Terra Battle for Supremacy: Chapter Six - A Massacre

Although they can earn a decent amount of money from callers for a single call, it is not enough to satisfy the Qasimir people who become firefighters for the sake of making money.