Asura in Arknights

Rhine Labs... Li Ang doesn't seem to have heard of this name before.

So Li Ang asked, "Rhine Lab? What's that?"

“It’s a Colombian company,” Adele explained. “They’re very famous for their research in the life sciences, and they’ve supposedly mastered a cure for Oripathy, though it’s extremely expensive.”

Upon hearing Adele's words, Li Ang's first reaction was that this company was deceiving people.

Strictly speaking, Ore disease is not a disease at all, but a phenomenon similar to altitude sickness, and therefore there is no possibility of a cure.

However, Li Ang did not underestimate Rhine Lab. The fact that they had such rumors proved that they were quite capable. As long as they could delay the onset of Oripathy, it would already be a remarkable achievement.

"Wait a minute, their research focuses on life sciences? Why would a company that researches life sciences build a research station in a place like this?"

"I don't know about that."

Could it be... that there exists something in the far north that Rhine Labs is interested in? This must be a trade secret of their company; even if you asked Magellan, he wouldn't be able to answer that question.

"Never mind, that's not important. Knowing where she comes from is enough."

Li Ang shook his head, deciding not to delve any further into the matter.

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

Adele then chatted with Leon about Rhine Life and Columbia.

Adele was also very curious about Colombia, a newly emerging country, but unfortunately she has never had the chance to go there and explore it.

After tidying up the room, the two of them prepared to rest.

After running around outside for so long, the two of them were exhausted and had no energy to do anything else.

Even the howling wind outside did not affect Adele's sleepiness at all; she fell into a deep sleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Adele didn't know how long she had slept, but she suddenly opened her eyes groggily.

She yawned softly, rubbed her eyes, and groped her way to the slippers placed by the bed in the dark. The high-powered heater had been left in the living room by Li Ang, and the heat it emitted was enough to keep the room at a normal temperature.

Adele checked the time; it was nine in the morning, and the sun should have been up long ago, but it was still pitch black outside.

The strong wind, mixed with snowflakes, pounded against the glass windows, making a series of crisp sounds, making one worry that the glass might shatter at any moment.

Fortunately, the construction quality of the Rhine Life Research Station is still relatively good; it's just that the sound was a bit frightening, but the wind wasn't strong enough to break the windows.

After trying to get used to the noise, Adele began preparing her morning lessons as usual.

There might be something wrong with the power supply line, because the light bulb above her head kept flickering, which bothered Adele somewhat.

Just as she was pondering how to solve this problem, a series of knocks on the door clearly reached Adele's ears.

But when Adele stood up from her chair and instinctively went to open the door, she suddenly froze in place.

It was only then that Adele realized that this was not her room, and there were no acquaintances of hers around except for Leon.

Under these circumstances, what kind of person would stand in a blizzard and knock on the door of this dormitory?

Chapter Twenty-One: The Knocking Sound

Adele swallowed hard, feeling a little nervous.

Could it be Miss Magellan? Perhaps she has some urgent business, which is why she braved the blizzard to come here to find them.

After all, besides her and Li Ang, the only other person here was Miss Magellan.

By the way, where is Li Ang now?

Adele recalled that she hadn't noticed any trace of Leon earlier.

She had low blood sugar when she woke up, and her head felt dizzy. Her reactions were much slower than usual, and it wasn't until now that Adele belatedly noticed this.

Could the person outside be Li Ang? This thought suddenly popped into Adele's mind.

But... if the person outside is Li Ang, why would he go out at a time like this?

As Adele hesitated, the knocking on the door came clearly again. This time, Adele suppressed her unease and prepared to ask who was outside.

Just as Adele was about to speak, a cold hand suddenly reached out from the shadows behind her, covered her mouth, and dragged Adele backward.

"!!!"

Adele's muscles tensed instantly, but she then realized that the hands weren't using much force, and she could break free from their grasp at any time if she wanted to.

Looking back, there was indeed Leon standing behind Adele. Adele had just touched Leon's gauntlets, which was why they felt so cold.

So, the person knocking on the door was Magellan?

"plum……"

Li Ang, where did you go just now?

Adele wanted to ask that question, but she only managed to utter half a word before she felt Leon forcefully press down on her, silencing her.

At the same time, the knocking that had been echoing in their ears suddenly stopped.

It was as if... they had noticed Adele's faint voice just now.

Even with Leon wearing a helmet, Adele could feel the heavy atmosphere. The entire room suddenly became incredibly quiet. The only things Adele could hear were the howling wind outside and her own pounding heartbeat.

Leon remained motionless, still holding Adele, the crystal dagger now in his right hand.

Time seemed to freeze at that moment. The two of them remained in that position for an unknown amount of time before the knocking sounded again.

Even if Adele was confused, she now realized that there was definitely something wrong with that knocking sound.

Li Ang pointed to his mouth, then to the doorway, and then waved his hand.

Adele nodded, indicating that she understood, and only then did Leon release her.

Adele took a deep breath, and her somewhat rapid heartbeat gradually calmed down. However, this time, Adele was careful not to make any sound.

After she finished doing all this, Li Ang gently tugged at Adele's sleeve and pointed to the depths of the room.

The two tiptoed deeper into the room, away from the knocking at the door, and dared not make a sound during the process.

After returning to the bedside, Li Ang fetched two sheets of paper and a pen so they could discuss the current situation.

As soon as she got the pen, Adele couldn't wait to write on the paper.

What happened? What's going on?

Listen carefully to the knocking sound.

Li Ang did not answer, but instead told Adele to listen to the knocking.

Adele was a little confused, but she still listened attentively to the now very faint knocking sound, just as Leon had instructed.

After listening for a while, Adele's expression gradually changed, and a feeling called fear began to grow in her heart.

Adele finally noticed that all the knocking sounds she heard were identical in frequency and pauses: three knocks followed by a ten-second pause, after which the cycle would begin again.

Is it possible for humans to do something like this?

At this moment, Li Ang handed her a new note, telling Adele an even more terrifying truth.

As you can hear, that knocking has been going on for almost three hours now, at that frequency.

In other words, the thing was already at their doorstep while Adele was still asleep?

What exactly is outside?

Adele's arm trembled slightly as she wrote these words, resulting in somewhat distorted handwriting.

I don't know... In my perception, there was nothing at the doorway.

Upon seeing this line, Adele fell into a long silence.

Li Ang's perception is also flawed. For example, if you put a can of Pepsi and a can of Coca-Cola in front of him, he cannot tell the difference between them without opening and tasting them.

Of course, ordinary people who are not attracted by the packaging will not be able to distinguish between the two.

This example is used to illustrate that, in some inconspicuous places, many things can confuse Li Ang's perception, and his perception is not as omnipotent as others think.

The moment he heard the knocking, Li Ang woke up from his sleep. The thing standing at their door was almost blending into the surrounding blizzard, and Li Ang couldn't sense any Originium energy, which was why he couldn't be sure what was outside.

After several cautious attempts, Li Ang discovered that things outside seemed to react to the sound. However, if he paid attention and didn't make any noise when the knocking stopped, and waited quietly for a while, the knocking would start again.

This was a real problem for Li Ang, as he was wearing that armor the whole time, and it was really difficult to not make a sound.

Considering that Adele was still resting, waking her abruptly might make noise, and that there was nothing else happening outside except for knocking, Li Ang stayed at the door until Adele woke up naturally.

Now that you're awake, hurry up and put on your protective suit. I want to see what the hell is outside.

[And... what about Miss Magellan?]

[Leave her alone for now. She's been here for so long, she must know what's going on. We need to focus on ourselves.]

Adele thought about it and felt that what Leon said made some sense, so she nodded cautiously.

Meanwhile, the young Magellan, on whom they had placed such high hopes, was trembling in her bed.

Chapter Twenty-Two Strange Objects

What the hell is that outside?!

Magellan buried his head under the covers, his mind raging.

Last night, she was investigating the abnormal data collected by the monitoring station. She didn't know exactly when it happened, but she was so tired that she couldn't stand it anymore and finally fell asleep on the bed.

She didn't discover any connection between the anomalous data until Magellan fell asleep.

Therefore, Magellan planned to copy the data and take it back to her company for analysis by professionals at Rhine Lab. After all, she was just an explorer, and it was already quite remarkable that she could understand the meaning of the data; we couldn't ask her to do anything more.

Magellan rested for about two or three minutes before being awakened by a series of urgent knocks on the door.

Having been suddenly awakened without getting enough sleep, Magellan felt a splitting headache and was filled with rage. The only people who could do such a thing were those two guys who broke in early yesterday morning.

Are these two crazy? I told them to stay in the spare dormitory and not wander around. The supplies in the dormitory are enough for them for a while. Why can't they understand what I'm saying?

Awakened by the noise, Magellan decided to teach those two a lesson.

After making up his mind, Magellan replaced the module on his drone with a new one. Although the new module was not very lethal, it was enough to leave an ordinary person covered in dust.

While she was changing the module, the knocking outside showed no sign of stopping. Magellan held her breath and didn't make a sound. She wanted to see how long that guy could hold out outside.

Soon after, Magellan completed the modification of the drone and released it through a hidden exit in the room.

Amid the blizzard outside, it took Magellan some time to regain the drone's balance. She then maneuvered the drone in a circle in the sky, quietly approaching her dormitory from behind.

However, when Magellan saw what was knocking on the door, her mind inevitably went blank for a moment.

Judging from the footage captured by the drone, the person standing at her door was not the two people who appeared yesterday, but a monster with a human appearance, but as thin as a skeleton, and surrounded by an ominous aura.

The monster was blocking Magellan's door, relentlessly banging on it.

Seeing something incomprehensible, Magellan inevitably panicked and inadvertently forgot to control the drone.

Without Magellan's control, the drone plummeted to the ground, making a loud noise amidst the blizzard.

A flash of black light appeared in the footage captured by the drone. Magellan was completely unaware of what had happened, and all that remained in the footage was a speck of snow.

“Ah, my Dragon Soar…” Magellan said subconsciously.

The drone she just launched was a custom-made one by Rhine Labs. By changing different modules, it can deal with most dangers in the wild. These drones are very expensive, and each one that breaks down will break her heart for a long time.

Moreover, Magellan only takes a maximum of five Dragon Drones with her when she goes out, and one of them was destroyed in that one encounter.

However, Magellan had no time to lament his losses. Ever since the drone was destroyed, the monster's knocking had stopped. Without the knocking, Magellan had no way of knowing the monster's location.

Cold sweat dripped down her forehead, and all she could hear was the noise from the central control computer and the heating device.

【It's all over, it's all over, it's all over...】

Hiding under the covers with the controller for the Dragon Drone, Magellan didn't dare to move an inch.

Magellan had ventured into many dangerous places and encountered numerous perilous creatures rarely seen by others, but none of his previous experiences could compare to this one. Even through the footage captured by the camera, Magellan could feel a deep chill, as if...

Like an alien creature, that monster should never have appeared in this world.

[Think quickly, think quickly, what exactly is that weird thing outside...? This is a huge crisis...]

Countless explorers have perished in the face of unknown dangers; is Magellan going to be next?

Magellan's brain was working at full speed, constantly searching for information related to the monster.

First of all, this is definitely not a human or any other common creature. Magellan's head contains almost a complete Terran creature encyclopedia, and she can recognize any common creature at a glance.

Apart from that, we can only look for it in folk legends.

Magellan would come here every year, and during that time he would naturally come into contact with the locals. But no matter how hard he thought about it, Magellan couldn't think of anything in the legend that resembled the monster.