Poseidon in Arknights

"So don't worry, I know everything you say. Generally speaking, I can only hear you when you mention me or when I focus my attention on you."

"And please don't call me Ocean, just call me Xiyue. I'm already annoyed enough by those little guys calling me Ocean."

"Does it feel like billions of the same words are crashing into you like waves? More importantly, you can clearly distinguish who is making the voice."

“Hmm…” Dan thought about the scene and nodded heavily, “That would probably be hell.”

Absolutely no aesthetic appeal. No, in this situation, it probably has nothing to do with aesthetics; it's simply because it's noisy.

"But don't worry, I generally don't pry into other people's thoughts, because other people's thoughts are private." Xi Yue shrugged. "Also, it's okay if you talk about me in other places, I don't care, because it's quite annoying."

After all, if you really try to control some distant sounds, those sounds will be mixed up with the sounds of the Sea Kings. It's easy to distinguish them, as Yuuki is capable of identifying the source of each sound, but it's really annoying.

Of course, such a call is conditional. The caller must have a certain concept of Yuuki, at least know that Yuuki exists, so that Yuuki can hear her call. The clearer and more complete the understanding of Yuuki, the louder the voice will be.

So it doesn't matter if you simply call out "sea" or "ocean," or call out to someone with the same name if you don't know Yuuki at all; Yuuki won't hear you.

According to a certain goddess, it's like having your phone number leaked, annoyingly noisy and impossible to turn off.

Moreover, those sea monsters can make her billions of calls every second, 24 hours a day.

So Yuuzuki learned how to limit the range of her phone calls, keeping them within a certain area around her, and generally not answering calls outside that area.

"That's pretty much it." The illusion of Yu Yue looked at the group. "It seems like your song is almost over. Is there anything else you want to ask?"

"No, no, no." Alty and the others quickly shook their heads. Talking to this person was incredibly stressful, and what questions could they possibly have?

Let's just take it one step at a time. At least the other party's attitude doesn't seem like the kind that's particularly brutal. At least for now, the land should still be there.

And Isamara, who was standing nearby, showed no signs of waking up. At least she was still the same deep-sea hunter. Since that was the case, the band Sunset Fades didn't have any other ideas. They would just continue making music and enjoying life. That's probably it.

"In that case, goodbye?" The illusion of Yuuki waved to them. "I wish you a happy life."

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

"It doesn't seem to be exactly what I wanted to see." In the crowd in the stands, the Emperor looked up at Xiyue beside him. "Perhaps I should have taken you straight into their room yesterday. I think the reaction would have been much stronger that way."

"Hey boss, when did you get here?" Exusiai looked down at the Emperor who had appeared out of nowhere. "Why are you so unpredictable? And shouldn't you be in the players' room right now?"

"I'm not some kind of mysterious figure." The Emperor waved his hand, denying Exusiai's idea, and then pointed to the bodyguards mixed in with the crowd, "I just squeezed through like an ordinary person."

"Hmm, I think it's because you're too short, boss." Exusiai squinted at the Emperor. "But boss, is it really okay for you to appear in front of us right now?"

Exusiai pointed to Specter and Skadi beside her: "We don't think we've contacted you yet."

"First of all, while I am indeed a bit short, Exusiai is not a topic we should be discussing right now." The Emperor shrugged, took out a cigar from his pocket, put it in his mouth, and with the help of his bodyguard, lit it.

"Secondly, it's not convenient to take action here, is it?"

The Emperor was prepared for what Exusiai meant; it was just another case of being exposed for courting disaster and getting beaten up. Besides, he had just finished watching a fairly entertaining spectacle, and was in a good mood.

If that foolish act is exposed, the Emperor might be on high alert, since drowning isn't exactly a fun way to die. But with just three angels, well, that's about it. Whatever happens, happens. We're already prepared.

"By the way, I should mention that my event isn't today." The Emperor casually replied to Exusiai's question earlier. "The Siesta organizers were quite insightful, arranging me as the headliner. Although they weren't great in other aspects, their artistic taste was acceptable."

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

“Hmm…” ACE sat down on the side, leaning on the table, his face visibly pale. “I think I drank a little too much.”

“We probably drank more than a little bit,” Scout said, leaning back on the sofa, his face pale and rubbing his forehead. “If I remember correctly, we drank at least 20 glasses while I was still conscious.”

“You two drank more than 20 glasses.” Huang leaned over and opened his phone to show a photo he had taken of the two of them when he picked them up earlier. In the photo, the two of them were lying on the table, surrounded by piles of those oversized beer glasses.

"I asked the staff at the time, and they said that you two were almost blacked out and still ordered a few more drinks, and ended up passing out on the spot."

"Alright, alright, stop talking." ACE waved his hand. "After all, we're on vacation right now, and we didn't expect to get dragged into a mission like this."

"Doctor, remember to make up for my vacation days."

"Yes, yes, it will be done through accumulated vacation days." The doctor nodded. Anyway, it's all about accumulating vacation days. If you don't invite them, you won't get any. If you do invite them, you'll see.

"Tell me about the situation first?" ACE looked at the Doctor with renewed focus. "Oh, by the way, could you get some sugar water to help with the digestion?"

Huang took some sweet soup from the table and placed it in front of the two of them: "It's been prepared for a while, but aren't you two together now?"

"Just wait a little longer," Scout waved his hand. "What exactly is going on?"

“This must be a serious matter, otherwise so many people wouldn’t be gathered here.” Scout looked at the others in the room. “But it shouldn’t be that urgent, otherwise you would have left long ago, given how drunk we are.”

“You’re right.” The doctor nodded. “It’s roughly like this…”

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

After drinking the sugar water, ACE's complexion improved slightly, but his face remained serious: "I understand, it is indeed a very serious matter."

"Such an irresponsible government." Scout's expression was equally grim, though aside from being drunk, it was mostly due to his dissatisfaction with the Siesta government.

Such an irresponsible government, facing a threat that was so close at hand, did nothing at all and even deliberately concealed it, not only disregarding the lives of the entire city's residents but also the lives of a large number of tourists.

"Then where is Miss Ceylon?" ACE looked around, but most of the people in the room were familiar faces, so Miss Ceylon must not be here.

"Something must have gone wrong." She had a pretty good idea that something was wrong when the Doctor hadn't returned from Ceylon by the afternoon.

However, it is currently unknown whether it was Kronin or the person Ceylon was planning to find who prevented Ceylon from coming over for protection or some other reason.

"However, I have already sent Lion Scorpion to look for it."

“I understand.” ACE nodded. “So, do we need to proceed on both fronts simultaneously? Or…?”

"Let's wait for a report from Lion Scorpion first," the Doctor thought for a moment. "Of course, I'll also send Provence and Skyfire to the volcano to check the situation. If necessary, we can go there first to resolve the issue."

"However, it's just a matter of priority, and I also think that we don't need to worry about Miss Ceylon."

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

"Black, listen to me!" Ceylon sat on the bed, looking at Black, who was sitting calmly by the door with a stool in his hand, with a mix of helplessness and annoyance.

Although Ceylon wasn't wearing any rope and the door wasn't actually locked, whenever Ceylon tried to go out, Blackie would sit right at the doorway and prevent her from leaving.

“I know what you want to say, Miss.” Black sat in the doorway. “But Siesta doesn’t need Miss Ceylon to do anything.”

“But can’t you see the situation of the volcano?” Ceylon suddenly stood up from the bed and walked quickly to the table next to her, which was piled with all the research documents she had collected on the volcano over the past few days.

“Look at these data.” Ceylon walked up to Black with the documents in hand. “These values ​​have become so unstable. A volcanic eruption is imminent.”

"And this is data from the observation station, almost several years' worth of data reused repeatedly. Look at this data, it's just copied and pasted, it's completely fake data!"

“Miss, I don’t understand these things.” Black shook his head, seemingly unmoved by the data in Ceylon’s hands, and remained sitting steadily at the door.

“Hey, listen to that music outside again.” Ceylon pointed out the window. “Think about what the consequences would be if the volcano erupted?”

"If an outbreak were to occur, and it happens during the music festival, how many tourists would die here? Even if Siesta is rebuilt afterward, what will our reputation be like on this land?"

“The situation outside is very dangerous right now, so Miss cannot go out.” Hei didn’t even glance at the data, and seemed to ignore Ceylon’s intentions. “Master will handle it.”

“He’s not even in Siesta right now. What is he dealing with? The volcano is about to erupt. We should evacuate tourists and citizens immediately.”

Seeing that Ceylon's ears were practically standing on end in anger, Black remained as steady as a mountain on his stool: "The master will handle it."

Chapter 144: Nature's Wrath

"The master will handle it?" the doctor asked, looking at the contents of the note that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere on the table. "Are you sure that's what that person said?"

As the doctor raised his question, another note appeared on the table the next moment.

【Yes. 】

“Oh, it seems I’ve got it just as I wished.” The Doctor nodded. “It seems that Siesta has already made preparations for everything except for the volcanic eruption, which is an unavoidable factor.”

"Hey, Doctor, why?" Amiya asked, looking at the Doctor. "Why do you say that?"

“Even we, who were new to Siesta, uncovered a whole host of dirt on that Kninlo.” The Doctor picked up his coffee and took a sip. “It’s an openly known Infected project, yet the Infected are still full of complaints and lamentations, aren’t they?”

"And Siesta's laws explicitly prohibit the continued development of obsidian, yet obsidian continues to be produced in the market."

“Of course, I also wondered if it was a counterfeit, so I had someone send some samples to Eyjafjalla.” The Doctor put down his coffee and looked at Amiya beside him. “But it turns out that the obsidian circulating in the market has the same chemical composition as the obsidian collected by Skyfire and in the mountains of Provence.”

“I don’t think the mayor of Siesta was completely unaware of the unimplemented infected person project and the illegal circulation of obsidian products.”

"If he really couldn't even detect this kind of blatant corruption, he wouldn't have been able to build such a large tourist city, nor would he have been able to maintain it for so long."

Amiya nodded thoughtfully: "I see. So, Doctor, you think that the mayor of Siesta was already prepared for Kninlo's corruption and inaction?"

“Otherwise?” the doctor stood up. “As for us, I think we need a new partner to alleviate our financial pressure.”

"Of course, words are not enough. We naturally need to demonstrate our strength to our future partners first."

"Huh?" Amiya paused for a moment, then quickly realized, "Doctor, you mean?"

"Let's go." The doctor pulled up his hood. "I wonder if this protective suit will be enough to withstand the harsh environment inside the volcano?"

——————Siesta Volcano——————

Inside a cave, Tianhuo and Provence, carrying torches, cautiously advanced. It wasn't that they lacked flashlights or similar items; however, in the tunnel, oxygen was a crucial factor they had to consider.

Although the flames would compete with them for oxygen from the cave, if the flames showed signs of going out, they would have to consider retreating, because this meant that the oxygen ahead was dwindling, or that something else was causing the flames to gradually die out.

In any case, once this situation occurs, they will immediately begin to retreat. Although the flashlight can shine far, it cannot help them judge the oxygen concentration.

“Provence, look at these dug tunnels.” Tianhuo held up a torch, bent over, and looked at the small tunnel in front of him. “They’re like a maze of ants.”

"They were all dug out by Originium Bugs, right?" Provence held his crossbow in one hand, with arrows already loaded and ready to fire at any moment, and a flashlight in the other, shining it into a passageway to the side.

Looking at the passageway that turned at the end and seemed to lead nowhere, Provence said, "Perhaps it is these interconnected passageways that make the entire mountain unstable."

"What are you thinking?" Skyfire turned around and glanced at Provence helplessly. "Perhaps that's part of the reason, but it's not the main reason. This volcano itself is active and could erupt at any time. It's just that the tunnels dug by the Originium Bugs catalyzed the process."

“That includes the problems Siesta had during mining,” Provence said, as if he had discovered something. He bent down and pulled a pickaxe that had appeared out of nowhere from the passageway. “It looks pretty new. The production label is even from last year?”

“It looks like someone’s not following the law.” Skyfire glanced back at the shovel in Provence’s hand. “If I remember correctly, Siesta’s laws completely banned obsidian mining several years ago.”

“I think so, but I don’t remember it very clearly.” Provence casually tossed down the pickaxe in his hand. “I thought it was something from a long time ago because it didn’t have a handle. But it doesn’t look like this mine is abandoned. No wonder we were able to pry up those wooden planks so easily.”

“I estimate there are several mines like this on the entire volcano.” Provence waved his flashlight from side to side, finally pointing to a square pit in the rock wall beside him. “Look, there are still traces left from when the wooden supports were built here, but those supports have probably been eaten by Originium Bugs by now, right?”

Skyfire nodded thoughtfully: "Then, the Originium Bugs dug tunnels everywhere on the basis of this mine as nests."

“You’re wrong about one thing.” Provence touched the rock wall. “It wasn’t that the Originium Bugs dug tunnels on top of the mine shafts to use as their nests; this was originally their nest.”

"Isn't this supposed to be an excavated mine tunnel?" Skyfire looked at Skyfire beside him in confusion. "How did it turn into a nest of Originium Bugs?"

“That’s why you shouldn’t just stay in the lab all the time, come out and take a look around more.” Provence rolled his eyes. “There are almost no signs of excavation near the entrance. You see, there are also many places in these mine tunnels that don’t show any signs of excavation. This doesn’t look like an artificial mine tunnel at all. I guess there was probably a cave originally.”

“We just happened to come here because there is a lot of obsidian available for mining.” Provence simply scanned the surroundings with his light. “And natural caves are just too suitable for the Originium Bugs to live in, so I guessed that this place was probably originally an Originium Bug nest.”

"It was only after the people of Siesta discovered that there was a large amount of obsidian here that they drove away the Originium Bugs. They only returned after the obsidian here was completely mined out and the mine was abandoned."

“If that’s the case, then that means…” Tianhuo looked at the surrounding rock walls, as if he suddenly understood something, snatched the flashlight from Provence’s hand, and shone the light on the surrounding rock walls.