Asura in Arknights

Although the wind in the canyon was not as fierce as outside, it was still enough to make it difficult for a slender person to move. However, the drone behind them was still able to fly normally.

Li Ang also sensed a dangerous aura from above, indicating that some kind of dangerous weapon module must have been installed there.

Of course, Li Ang could have destroyed the drones behind him before the other side gave the order, but Li Ang wasn't here to fight. He didn't need to do something so offensive before the other side made any outrageous moves.

So Li Ang raised his hands as instructed and shouted, "Please don't be nervous, we mean no harm."

The other party naturally wouldn't believe Li Ang's story so easily, and instead asked with great vigilance, "Who are you? Why are you here?"

If you put yourself in someone else's shoes, it would be very sensible of them not to open fire if someone broke into your yard late at night. Li Ang didn't expect to persuade them with just a few words.

“We are scholars from Kazimierz, originally planning to go to Sami, but we encountered a blizzard on the way. While looking for shelter, we accidentally discovered this place, so we want to take refuge here temporarily from the blizzard,” Adele answered the question on behalf of Leon.

After listening to Adele's explanation, the other person seemed to be caught in some kind of dilemma. After a long silence, they slowly said, "You said you are scholars from Kazimierz, so... is there anything that can prove your identity?"

"Of course."

Li Ang picked up the conversation and replied, "We have identification documents personally issued by the Grand Knight Commander, which are used for communication with Sami. If you need them, we can show them to you."

The identification document was something Li Ang specifically requested from the Certification Council before leaving, just in case. As for whether it was written by the Grand Knight himself, he wasn't sure. In any case, the Grand Knight's personal seal was affixed to the document, which was sufficient to prove their identities to any official authority.

Seeing that the other party hesitated, Li Ang quickly pressed on, saying, "We only plan to take shelter here temporarily and won't cause you any trouble. As soon as the blizzard subsides a little, we'll leave immediately."

After he finished speaking, the canyon fell silent, with only the whistling wind and the sound of the drone's propellers echoing nearby.

After a long period of deliberation, the other party finally made a decision.

“...Alright, I'll allow you to stay here for now until the blizzard stops.”

“There’s an unused dormitory over there. You can stay there, but… I don’t care whether you’re scholars or anyone else, you’re forbidden from approaching any other building except that dormitory.”

The other party warned, "I will adjust the logic of the defense system next. If anything unexpected happens, you will be responsible for the consequences. The self-regulating program is not as easy to talk to as I am."

"Of course, we will take note. Thank you for agreeing to our request. If there is another opportunity, we will definitely repay you," Li Ang said politely.

Slightly surprised, this person was actually quite easy to talk to. Li Ang thought it would take more effort, but the other party agreed to their request so easily.

"By the way, do we still need to verify our identities? Our identification documents are in the car right now, and we can get them for you to confirm."

"No need," the other party replied calmly. "Even if you produce the proof, I won't be able to tell if it's real or fake."

"You decide."

Li Ang shrugged and said indifferently.

Identification documents are meant to be kept in case of emergency, and they're usually hidden deep inside the luggage. It would take a lot of effort to get them out, so since the other party doesn't want to look at them, Li Ang will save himself the trouble.

"By the way, may I ask how to address this lady? This blizzard may not stop anytime soon, and we'll likely have quite a few exchanges going on."

“...Magellan.”

Li Ang sensed a hint of reluctance in the other person's tone, leaving him speechless.

Magellan... that's probably an alias too, right? Oh well... let's just assume it's real.

"Then, Miss Magellan, we won't disturb your rest any longer. We hope you have sweet dreams tonight."

As Li Ang and Adele entered the house designated by Magellan, the drone hovered in the sky for a while. Finding nothing unusual, it flew back to a house in the canyon.

-------------------------------------

"That really scared me to death..."

In the deepest room of the canyon, after retrieving the drone through the skylight, the girl who called herself 'Magellan' patted her chest, still shaken.

Who would have thought that while she was sleeping soundly, two people would suddenly barge in?

Blizzards are common in this region, and Magellan was already used to the weather here, but this was the first time in all these years that someone had broken into this area.

"This doesn't seem like the behavior of a scholar at all..."

After exporting the footage from the drone, Magellan looked at the two figures on the monitor and muttered to himself.

One person was dressed like a tin can, and the other looked just as good, with absolutely no trace of a scholar.

However, Magellan noticed that, if she wasn't mistaken, the Caprini girl was wearing the latest model of the Thor Industries Pathfinder series protective suit, and although she didn't recognize the armor worn by the other man, the material didn't look cheap.

Shouldn't this kind of thing be displayed in a showcase so people can see the data? And someone actually takes it out and uses it??

It's simply... outrageously extravagant.

After mentally ranting a few times, Magellan gradually calmed down.

Magellan finally made his concession because he recognized the equipment on the two men.

Chapter Nineteen Explorers

Magellan was an explorer.

Yes, he's the kind of explorer who has nothing better to do than go to those desolate, wilderness areas to die.

Although Magellan was employed by a large corporation, she was no different from other explorers, maintaining a strong curiosity about the unknown world. Perhaps the only difference was that, with the support of the corporation, Magellan had better equipment and more adequate logistics to explore the icy plains she loved so much.

After saying all that, the core message is really just to express one thing.

As an explorer, Magellan's direct combat ability is very weak, extremely weak. Most of her skills are focused on wilderness survival and how to keep her own life.

Although the drone she used was equipped with a weapon module, it was quite effective against infected creatures in the wild, but it was rather inadequate against humans.

Judging from the thickness of the protective suits worn by the enemy, the drone's attack module might not be able to break through their defenses. The laser mining module at its maximum power should be able to do it, but the enemy isn't going to just stand there and let her prepare the laser...

If a fight were to break out, neither side would necessarily gain an advantage. It was based on this realistic reason that Magellan chose to concede and allow the other side to stay at the research station temporarily.

Wearing such expensive gear, these two look more like rich young masters and ladies out for a trip, so they shouldn't be... bad people, right?

"We were already planning to evacuate, so why did this happen..." Magellan grabbed his hair and threw himself heavily onto the bed.

Due to her racial traits, Magellan had a considerable resistance to the cold, which is why she undertook the mission of exploring the far north ice fields.

Magellan sets off every year in early summer and returns from the far north ice fields in winter. She had packed up and finished all the remaining tasks in the past two days and was just about to leave when this happened.

Lying in bed staring blankly at the ceiling, Magellan did not feel sleepy at all even after half a day had passed.

"Ugh, so annoying... I can't sleep..."

With two unidentified individuals living nearby, Magellan wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully for at least the short term.

Magellan believed that any talk of going to Sami was a complete hoax. Based on her past experience, the best time to visit Sami was late spring, allowing her to enter the region in early summer.

And going to Sami now... would only mean hitting the coldest part of winter. What else could that be but a sign of madness? Unless that's not their real purpose at all.

After lying in bed thinking for a long time, Magellan sighed deeply and then slowly got out of bed.

Since I can't sleep right now, I might as well take this opportunity to get up and check the operation of each part of the research station.

Although Magellan will leave, the research station will continue to collect environmental data from the surrounding area until she returns next spring. Since the blizzard has destroyed the camouflage at the entrance, other parts may also have problems.

Before leaving, Magellan wanted to make sure everything was working properly.

Magellan jumped off the bed and walked to the control center of the room.

[System unlocked]

【当前时间：1094-11-29 03:31:43】

[Fingerprint authentication successful. Welcome back, Magellan Expeditionist.]

After manually checking the operational status of each monitoring station, Magellan discovered that almost all of them had suffered varying degrees of damage during the fierce blizzard.

The most serious damage was to the optical camouflage system deployed at the canyon entrance, which was almost completely destroyed by the blizzard.

The information displayed in the control center showed that the optical camouflage system was offline, and the surrounding surveillance was also broken. Magellan was unsure what exactly was wrong.

However, it is certain that with the resources she currently has, there is absolutely no possibility of repairing this system.

"This is troublesome..." Magellan looked somewhat troubled.

It seems we'll have to wait until spring arrives, when she brings back a new camouflage system from the company.

Before that, the only option is to find another way to seal the canyon entrance... Magellan doesn't want to come back next year to find his beloved research station in a mess because of infected creatures.

Apart from this serious problem, the others are mostly minor issues such as line faults, which she can manually repair once the wind subsides a bit.

After briefly assessing the damage to the research station, Magellan had a general understanding of what he needed to do next.

Even after Magellan had finished all that, she still wasn't sleepy at all.

"..."

After hesitating for a moment, Magellan couldn't find anything he could do, so he began to look through the data collected by various monitoring stations over the past few days.

This was something Magellan did every week; now it's just that the task has been brought forward.

However, after casually glancing at the recently collected data, Magellan couldn't help but frown.

"The data... seems a bit strange..."

She discovered that... the data collected by the weather station seemed a bit strange.

Generally speaking, the data collected daily by this weather station can accurately predict the weather conditions within a week. However, after carefully comparing the records from the past week, Magellan saw absolutely no sign of snow.

But the blizzard came without any warning.

"Is it because of a natural disaster?"

Magellan pulled up recent disaster reports and found no records of natural disasters in the far north ice field or even the entire Ursus region, thus ruling out the possibility that this was caused by a natural disaster.

So... what caused this unusual weather? Was it man-made? Or some kind of unknown mutation?

For some reason, Magellan had a feeling of unease, as if... something terrible was about to happen.

She herself couldn't explain where this sense of crisis came from; it was probably what's known as an explorer's intuition.

Were they those two guests who suddenly barged in? Magellan decided it couldn't be; the crisis must have come from somewhere far more unexpected.

After a moment's hesitation, Magellan used his authority to raise the alert level of the entire research station to the highest level. Any creature other than Magellan that stepped into the research station's area would be attacked by countless autonomous machines.

As for those two... Magellan has already warned them that if anything goes wrong, it will be their own responsibility.

That should ensure everything goes perfectly.

With this thought in mind, explorer Magellan fell asleep in less than a minute.

Chapter Twenty: A Visitor Arrives at Midnight

"What great luck! I never expected to find a place like this. I have to thank Adele for this."

"Hehehe." Adele smiled a little shyly. "Miss Magellan is such a kind person. We should thank her properly later."

"Yes, I will definitely thank her when I have the chance."

However, Li Ang felt that the other party probably didn't need his thanks. If they could leave here as soon as possible, that would be the greatest help to Miss Magellan.

"Alright, let's talk about repaying later. Let's think about what to do next first."

Adele nodded.

The situation outside now proves that Li Ang's previous decision was correct. The winds outside show no sign of stopping, and if they hadn't risked continuing forward, they would probably have been buried alive by now.

They don't know how long this blizzard will last, so they need to be prepared to live here for a while.

Fortunately, the accommodations Magellan provided for them were quite nice. Although the furnishings were a bit basic, the facilities were very complete. Li Ang even found a large heating device in the corner of the room. After turning it on, the whole room warmed up, allowing them to temporarily take off their protective suits for warmth.

This must be a spare room; it's covered with a thin layer of dust and shows very little sign of use.

Inside the room, Li Ang found the power supply lines. These lines seemed to be specially designed, with an energy storage device installed in each room in addition to the underground Originium reactor, allowing the caster to manually supply Originium energy in an emergency.

The majority of this power system is hidden underground, with thick layers of soil acting as a barrier. No wonder Li Ang didn't notice the situation here. After all, there's usually nothing worth worrying about hidden underground, which is why Li Ang overlooked this possibility.

"I really don't know who built this place..."

Judging by the scale of this base alone, it's not something an ordinary person could build. Li Ang couldn't imagine anyone having the time or inclination to construct a base in such a place.

To Li Ang's surprise, Adele answered his question, "I know, this should be a research station built by Rhine Lab."

"Huh? How did you know?"

"Because the Rhine Life logo is engraved on the wall,"

Adele pointed to the opposite wall and said, "Before coming in, I also took a look around and found that the other buildings should all be monitoring stations with different functions."

So this is a scientific research station... The large number of unknown devices that Li Ang sensed must be the instruments used by the monitoring station.

Following the direction Adele was pointing, Li Ang struggled quite a bit before he could make out a blurry pattern.

Li Ang could easily overlook this pattern, which was carved in relief, if he wasn't paying attention.

It looks like a symbol representing infinity, but there's a small notch in the middle right, with a plus sign and a minus sign placed in the left and right circles respectively.