Asura in Arknights

However, before that, he needed to consider Adele's opinion, since Li Ang had specifically come out with Adele today to relax.

“Then let’s go take a look,” Adele replied after thinking for a moment.

After Jonah's interruption, she had no intention of continuing her shopping. Although the time hadn't been very long, Adele was quite satisfied, as she wasn't the type to indulge in pleasure.

After relaxing, we always have to return to our busy work.

Seeing that Adele had no objections, the two prepared to go to the place Jonah had mentioned to investigate. They did not return to their residence to get their equipment, as that would be too slow, and besides, not wearing the equipment would not have a significant impact on them.

The address Jonah gave was located in the suburbs, far from the city center, in a place where hardly anyone goes.

The area is mostly filled with warehouses and factories. Living in such a place would waste a lot of time, even just going out to buy groceries. Therefore, no matter how cheap the rent is, not many people are willing to live in such a desolate place.

In Li Ang's perception, there were probably only two or three hundred people active in this urban area.

After finding the address, Li Ang knocked on the door without hesitation.

A moment later, the door opened a crack, and an eye peeked out, asking in a low voice, "Who...are you?"

Chapter Sixty-Four Simone

The other party only opened a tiny crack, and since the room was very dark, Adele could only see a pale gold eye. However, Leon had already seen the other party clearly through the room.

She was a woman who looked to be in her early twenties, probably the same age as Magellan. However, because of her height, she looked more mature than Magellan. She was nearly 1.7 meters tall, which is quite tall for a woman.

She had long hair that almost reached her waist, and her left eye was covered by bangs on her forehead. Under the cover of the bangs, Li Ang sensed something else there.

This is an infected person.

Where the eyes should be, there was a piece of Originium crystal the size of a finger growing there, exactly the same as Li Ang's situation, but the other party's situation was obviously worse.

The Originium crystal in Li Ang's eye was a perfect sphere with no signs of growth. Apart from being unable to see, it was not much different from a normal eyeball.

However, this girl had Originium crystals growing out of her eye sockets, making it impossible for her to close her eyelids. Her originally beautiful appearance became hideous and terrifying, which explains why she covered half of her face with her bangs.

These thoughts flashed through Li Ang's mind, but he showed no outward sign of it. He politely greeted the other person and then asked,

"Hello, are you Ms. Simone?"

Upon hearing this, the girl in the crack of the door hesitated for a moment before nodding. "It's me. What do you want with me?"

Li Ang began, "It's like this, I heard that a year ago..."

But he had only said a few words when the girl tried to slam the door shut with great force. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Despite her vehement denial, the fleeting panic in her words was undeniable, confirming to Li Ang that Jonah had indeed not lied to him.

"Don't rush, Miss, I haven't finished speaking yet." Li Ang took a step forward, blocking the door that was about to close.

This girl named Simone was just an ordinary person, and her Li Ang was naturally no match for him. The two were deadlocked for a moment, but if Li Ang wanted to, he could forcefully push the door open.

There's simply no need to do that now.

“I heard you also participated in the mountain festival a year ago. I have some questions I’d like to ask you about it,” Li Ang said calmly.

“I have nothing to say!” Simone said nervously. She pushed the door hard, trying to close it, but the door wouldn’t budge. “Let go! Or I’ll call the police!”

Simone's voice didn't sound particularly confident; after all, even if she called the police now, by the time they arrived, it would be too late.

"Miss Simone, I'm so sorry, please let us finish."

Adele walked to the other side and met Simone's gaze from inside the door. She said with utmost sincerity, "Do you remember those two scholars named Nauman? They are my parents. I'm investigating their affairs. You are the only person I've found who knows what happened back then. Can you tell me what exactly happened? Please!"

"If Miss Simone is willing to cooperate, we can actually sit down and have a proper discussion. We don't want to make the atmosphere so tense."

The two have been playing good cop and bad cop alike, and their teamwork is already quite skilled and effective, usually achieving good results. It remains to be seen how Simone will respond this time.

Sure enough, Adele's words had completely captured Simone's attention. She stared intently at Adele for a while before suddenly saying, "Wait...you look kind of familiar."

As soon as she finished speaking, Simone gave up on confronting Li Ang and turned to walk into the house. Li Ang didn't exert much force, and the door creaked open, revealing the entire room to them.

What's going on here?

Both of them were a little puzzled. Judging from Simone's behavior just now, it was as if they had seen Adele before.

Simone had already run back into the room and was rummaging through a box on the floor. A moment later, she came running back with a metal object in her hand.

Are you talking about these two people?

It was a small metal pendant. Pressing the button on the side would pop open the pendant's casing, revealing a photograph hidden inside.

The photo shows the Naumann family of three looking happy. However, the photo was probably taken seven or eight years ago. Compared to then, Adele has grown up a lot in all aspects, which is why Simone didn't recognize her at first glance.

Simone only connected the photo to Adial after hearing her mention her parents.

"How did you get this?" Adele's heart tightened, and she asked, clutching the pendant tightly.

Although it is unclear where the pendant was previously kept, it was indeed her father's personal item, and now it has ended up in the hands of a stranger.

"...I'm sorry about what happened to them."

After a moment of silence, Simone spoke softly.

Adele felt her heart skip a few beats, and she pressed hard against her chest, finally managing to calm herself down.

"Hoo..." Adele exhaled deeply, her feelings somewhat complicated.

Before this, a thought lingered in her mind: what if those people in Letania were lying to her? What if her parents were still alive, just imprisoned somewhere?

At the time, the information they received was only the one-sided account of the tower sorcerers. The information they gathered after arriving in Sami only stated that the whereabouts of the Nauman couple had been lost. Even the existence of the notebook could not directly prove their death.

Now that one of the eyewitnesses has confirmed it, the last vestige of hope in Adele's heart has vanished.

"What... happened to them?" Adele swallowed hard, her voice hoarse as she asked.

After confirming Adele's identity, Simone also put aside her hostility towards the two of them.

Upon hearing Adele's question, Simone hesitated for a moment, then stepped aside to allow entry into the room and said,

"The situation at the time was...very complicated, and I can't explain it in just a few words. Anyway, please come in first."

"Sorry to bother you."

This time, without Li Ang saying anything, Adele stepped into the room without hesitation.

P.S. I've been quite busy this week, I'll try to resume my normal update schedule by the weekend.

Chapter Sixty-Five: Part of the Truth

Following Adele, they entered Simone's residence.

This place doesn't look like the residence of a young woman at all; the furnishings are so simple that it's almost impossible to tell that anyone lives here.

Based on this alone, Li Ang could roughly imagine what Simone was usually like—sitting motionless at the table like a statue, and before he knew it, a day had passed.

In short, this girl named Simone seemed rather strange. Rather than a living person, she was more like a puppet without her own will, the type who would obey the orders of others without question.

In addition, the room was filled with a very peculiar smell.

Li Ang sniffed carefully; it smelled like a mixture of blood, disinfectant, and some kind of medicine. In the corner of the room, Li Ang also found some bandages stained with blood.

Is Simone injured? After cleaning up her wound, she didn't even bother to dispose of the remaining trash. Luckily, in Sami, the indoor temperature isn't too high, otherwise, if that stuff had gone bad, the room wouldn't have smelled pleasant at all.

However, something is strange... Such a strong smell doesn't seem to have formed overnight. Could it be that Simone is living in this place to do something very dangerous in secret?

Li Ang's thoughts remained mere speculation. After leading them to the living room and seating them, Simone said apologetically, "I'm sorry, we don't have anything to offer you."

“It’s alright, now can you tell me what you know?” Adele said impatiently.

This was the first time she had come so close to the truth, how could Adele not be excited?

“Yes, but…” Simone looked hesitant, as if she didn’t know where to begin.

After hesitating for a few seconds, Simone said somewhat resignedly, "Let's start from the beginning."

"Actually... I am one of the candidates for this generation's Snow Sacrifice."

Before she even opened her mouth, Simone dropped a bombshell on Li Ang and his companion.

They were all very surprised. They never expected that this seemingly ordinary girl would have such an identity. There is no need to elaborate on how important Xue Si's status is in Sami. They actually saw Xue Si, who was a reserve officer, here.

Suddenly, Li Ang had a sudden thought. If that's the case, wouldn't Magellan's problem be solved? Li Ang had been thinking about how to get in touch with the Snow Goddess of this country. He didn't expect that someone would bring him a pillow just as he was dozing off. The Snow Goddess in reserve, that's still a Snow Goddess.

However, Li Ang cannot fully trust Simone yet; this matter needs to be discussed at length.

"Mountain sacrifice...could it be related to the tradition of snow sacrifice?"

Subconsciously, Adele made this conjecture: if that were the case, then everything would make sense.

Why is it that, despite the mountain sacrifice being a tradition passed down from ancient times by the Sami people, the local residents know very little about its specific content? They only know that if the sacrifice is held once every ten years, it will ensure that the Sami people are not invaded by external enemies.

If it involves the inheritance of the Snow Sacrifice, it would easily explain why there is such a lack of relevant information.

Seeing the expression on Simone's face, Adele knew she had guessed correctly.

"Wait, is it okay for me to know this?" Adele then realized that if she guessed the truth, would she be silenced by the Sami people?

“It’s alright,” Simone sighed. “Even if this gets leaked now, it won’t matter anymore.”

Simone's expression turned somewhat somber as she said this.

"Is there a problem with the mountain sacrifice? Is it because of the accident that happened a year ago?" Li Ang guessed.

Simone shook her head. "That's exactly what I wanted to tell you."

"We encountered the accident because we were investigating why the mountain ritual went wrong. It's not that the accident happened and caused the mountain ritual to go wrong."

After Simone's explanation, Li Ang realized that they had misunderstood the initial cause-and-effect relationship, which was not a problem that could be easily ignored.

"You may not know this, but in the past twenty years, not a single new Snow Priest has been born in Sami." Since Adele had already guessed the truth about the mountain sacrifice, Simone explained with less concern.

The mountain worship ceremony can only be held once every ten years, and each time, barring any unforeseen circumstances, a Snow Goddess is born.

Take the Knights of Kazimierz as an example. Players of this level can actually be mass-produced. As long as you can afford the cost, you can use money to build an ordinary person to this level.

Above the Knight Champions are the pinnacle of ordinary people. Masters like Xuan Tie Dawei and Jingzhe are at this level. With such strength, one can basically move freely in most parts of Terra.

However, there are many people in this world who are more powerful than them, such as Shining and Manna. Compared to them, the likes of Xuan Tie are at best combat units and have no power to fight back in a one-on-one situation.

Xue Si is a powerhouse of this caliber. For a small country like Sami, the fact that a powerhouse surpassing the limits of ordinary people is born every ten years is already terrifying. Several Xue Si working together are enough to protect the safety of the entire Sami territory.

However, starting with a certain mountain festival, no new snow festival was held for twenty years.

This was a very serious matter for Sami, who had not yet recovered from the war. Fortunately, the Ursus Empire had just changed its emperor, and its internal factions were fighting each other and had no time to pay attention to this seemingly strong but weak neighbor. This gave Sami a chance to catch his breath.

However, if the issue of the mountain sacrifice is not resolved, Sami will eventually be annexed by the gradually stabilizing Ursus.

Therefore, the only remaining member of the Yukishi clan decided to take advantage of last year's opportunity to investigate the problems that occurred during the ritual.

At this moment, a couple came into their view. The couple somehow persuaded Yuki to join the investigation team.

“Those are your parents, Miss Nauman,” Simone said calmly, looking at Adele.

As for how she persuaded him, Simone couldn't say for sure. After all, she was just a reserve Snow Fairy and couldn't possibly know everything.

Throughout the journey, the Naumans acted as recorders, faithfully documenting everything that happened during the ceremony, leaving the specific reasons for the failure to be investigated later.

"Everything went smoothly at first, until we entered the last training ground, when an accident happened."

As Simone spoke, the unexpected indeed occurred.

Suddenly, without warning, she tensed up, and large and small wounds appeared on Simone's body in an instant, turning her into a blood-soaked figure.

Chapter Sixty-Six: The Guest

Is this a sign of Ore disease?

Simone is indeed an infected person, and her symptoms do resemble an acute Oripathy attack. However, with Li Ang present, how could he just stand by and watch Oripathy flare up? Therefore, this option can be largely ruled out.

But if it's not Oripathy, then what is it?

Although Simone looks terrible now, almost covered in blood, a closer examination reveals that these are mostly superficial injuries and do not pose a threat to her life.

At this moment, the bandages that Simone had prepared in the room came in handy, and Li Ang finally understood why the room smelled so peculiar.

Clearly, this wasn't the first time something like this had happened, and Simone had even prepared countermeasures long ago.

"This is... the price."

After quickly stopping her bleeding, Simone, panting, replied while wrapping her wound with bandages, "The ritual wasn't complete; this is the price I have to pay."

Adele wanted to help, but Simone politely declined.

She used a minor spell to cleanse her body, and after a short while, apart from having a few more bandages on her body, she looked no different from before.

Li Ang, who witnessed the whole process, noticed that the injury was unusual. It didn't seem like an external injury, but rather that Simone's body itself had a problem.

The price of a failed ritual...