Poseidon in Arknights

"makes sense."

—————Rhodes Island—————

"Oh, I see." Exusiai nodded as she listened to Liskarm's explanation. "So you guys were really lucky to run into Yuuki, who happened to be holding a free clinic there?"

“Yes.” Franka nodded. “We were really lucky. If it weren’t for Dr. Yuzuki, we probably would have been ripped off by those shady doctors.”

“Mmm.” Jessica nodded, glancing at Yuuki who was lost in thought beside her, “I was prepared to use several months’ worth of snack money to cover it…”

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'Phew, calm down.' Jesse pulled the tattered cloak over himself, hiding his face better in the shadows under the hood.

Then, Jessica pulled out the notebook she had given him earlier: 'Look for people wearing clothes with a blue diamond symbol. The code is that the weather seems bad today. The reply is that the weather is indeed bad today, and it might rain heavily soon…'

Jessica flipped through the document; essentially, the records were all pretty much the same, only the codes and symbols were different. Of course, the people listed weren't the shady doctor himself, but rather some intermediaries he had found.

Let's take our time looking.

Just then, she heard voices from the side, and Jessica immediately hid behind the shadows of the building.

"Hey, have you heard? A great philanthropist has arrived!"

"Oh, you mean the doctor who came here looking for death a couple of days ago?"

"Yeah, holding a free clinic in a place like this...sigh, I wonder which gang will suddenly take a dislike to that guy."

'Doctor? Free clinic?' Jessica, who was hiding in the shadows, twitched her ears and peeked out slightly to look at the two people chatting.

"Probably not. How can I put it? That doctor did a good thing, and didn't she say that she would only stay for seven days, and that she would pack her things and leave as soon as the seven days were up?"

"Hey, you know so much about this?"

"I was there when the doctor came. Let me tell you, the doctor was an absolute beauty, and not only that, her medical skills were really high."

The two drifted away as they chatted, and Jessica, who had been hiding in the shadows, quietly peeked out.

Perhaps she could go there and take a look, and while she's searching, she could also try to find those quack doctors. Of course, this is just a backup plan. Without even thinking about it, there must be a lot of people gathered there, and there would be quite a few informants among them.

After all, a large number of people can be both a bad thing and a good thing. If they can blend in with the poor people who are also going to see a doctor, it will be quite difficult to find them.

Secondly, Jessica overheard that the doctor seemed to be very skilled, and if possible, Franka and Razer would naturally need better medical care.

Most of those quack doctors couldn't provide adequate medical care. They would just stop the bleeding, give you some medicine, stitch you up, and maybe inject some painkillers made from Originium Bug venom.

This means that the vast majority of unlicensed doctors can only provide medical services that are barely useful, but better than nothing.

'Go and scout out the situation first.'

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Jessica, cloaked and hiding among the crowd, slowly approached the clinic. Just as she expected, many people had come to join the fun.

Moreover, because there are many infected people, many people here are also wearing cloaks like him, making it easier to disguise themselves.

"Go away!"

Just then, Jessica heard a loud shout. Upon hearing this, the people around her immediately scattered and stopped gathering, afraid of getting into some kind of trouble.

Jessica was a step too slow and ended up on the periphery of the crowd. Then she saw a person holding a bow and arrow, pointing it at a group of mercenaries.

"I'll say it again, get out of my way!" Dressed in a white coat and holding a bow and arrow, she faced a large group of mercenaries. "This is a free clinic. Only patients and doctors are allowed here. You won't find the person you're looking for here."

Chapter 88: An Unintentional Healing

"Ha!" The leading mercenary looked at Xiyue with a mocking expression. "What's wrong? Little bird, aren't you afraid of dying?"

"This is a free clinic; there are only patients here." Xi Yue coldly looked at the mercenaries in front of her. "If you're looking for someone, go look outside."

“The patients might be the people we’re looking for.” The mercenary slung his heavy sword over his shoulder and looked at Xiyue. “Besides, what does this group of patients have to do with our kind-hearted doctor who’s come to this place to provide free medical care?”

'That person…' Jessica looked at the mercenary wielding the greatsword, and fearfully squeezed into the crowd. 'It's the one who injured Senior Razer.'

Jessica glanced at the bandage wrapped around the mercenary's chest: 'Did Razer's shot allow him to move so freely so quickly?'

"Similarly, I don't care what their relationship is with you, even if the person you're looking for is among them?" Xi Yue looked at the restless mercenaries. "Here, they are my patients, not the people you're looking for."

"You're asking for death!" Another mercenary glared at the thin doctor blocking their way. Even though she was holding a bow and arrow, couldn't she see the situation clearly? There were so many of them here, what was she thinking?

Besides, where on earth is there such a kind person? Is this a joke? Even if there is, she would only appear in a pampered big family, living in a wealthy neighborhood in a mobile city.

How could someone like this come to this slum, become a doctor, and even hold free clinics here? And there's not a single bodyguard around?

So the mercenaries concluded that this guy was just bluffing. If they forced their way in to search, he would immediately back away. He couldn't take money for a free clinic, and at least he hadn't seen him take any money. Why risk his life?

So the mercenary took his weapon and strode forward, intending to pull back the blanket of the patient on the nearest hospital bed.

In the last instant, he heard the unique sound of an arrow piercing the air. The arrow struck his chest in an instant, then shattered upon impact, and the water that made up the arrow enveloped him like a large net.

"Ah!" The mercenary was engulfed by the flowing water and fell to the ground. No matter what, struggling in the water was meaningless. Lying on the ground, he was like a useless maggot.

"Damn it, Doctor, you're asking for it!" The other mercenaries, seeing that Xiyue actually dared to fight back, immediately got carried away and charged forward.

But then another arrow pierced the air, striking a building next to them. Immediately, a chilling sensation swept over them.

When they turned to look, in a short instant, huge blocks of ice formed on the surface of the building that had been hit.

"Wow, that's amazing." Jessica stared blankly at the frozen building. Back in Blacksteel International, she had seen some powerful sorcerers before.

However, they all require a certain amount of casting time, or they need to bury original stone circuits around them in advance, or they need to use spell chanting to destroy a building in an instant.

But the doctor in front of us, who could freeze a building solid with a single arrow, is a completely different matter, and...

Jessica turned to look at Yuuyue, wondering if it was just her imagination or the sunlight reflecting off the ice on the frozen building, but the doctor seemed to be enveloped in light, shining brightly in Jessica's eyes.

"This is the last warning." Another arrow slowly appeared on the bowstring. Xi Yue looked at the wary mercenary in front of her and said, "Now, get out of here. I don't mind having a few more patients who need to be treated for hypothermia later."

The lead mercenary glanced at Xi Yue, then out of the corner of his eye at the frozen building beside them as he slowly retreated: 'A warlock, and a very powerful one at that. No wonder he dares to hold a free clinic in a place like this.'

"Let's go, drag that unlucky guy away too."

"Yes, yes, yes." The surrounding mercenaries hurriedly nodded, and two of the bolder ones mustered their courage and pulled the unfortunate man out of the water.

Ultimately, they are just a group of mercenaries who work for money. Their employers ask them to retrieve items, and they are willing to risk their lives to steal them, since their profession involves putting their heads on the line.

However, under this premise, minimizing unnecessary losses and conflicts is also a way for them to survive. They can fight desperately, but only if the mission objective is right in front of them.

In the current situation, although they might receive treatment at this free clinic, it's not worth the risk. If the doctor in front of them is preventing them from entering, then it's best to leave as he suggested. There's no need to risk everything here; it's an unnecessary risk.

They live a life of constant danger, but they're not stupid enough to risk their lives for such unnecessary risks.

Anyway, this doctor will only stay here for seven days in principle. All we need to do is send someone to monitor him. He's a patient here. Do you expect him to interfere in other areas?

“This should be a safe place.” Jessica pulled down her hood as she watched the mercenaries leave. 'I need to hurry and bring Senior Razer and Senior Franka over.'

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Jessica carefully returned to the ruins where they had been hiding, looked around, and quietly climbed up the nearly broken stairs to the second floor.

Then, using the railing on the second floor, I jumped over a gap in the third-floor corridor and successfully reached the third floor.

"I'm back." Jessica entered the room through a gap in the wall and looked at Razer and Franka inside.

"Hey, cough cough..." Franka looked at Jessica who had quietly entered, "So? Did you find the person? Did you ask for an exorbitant price?"

Jessica shook her head: "I didn't find that person, but I found a safe place."

"Hmm?" Razer looked at Jessica strangely. If it weren't for those shady doctors, where else in this place could be considered safe? Those small, public clinics? These places would have been under surveillance long ago, wouldn't they?

Jessica tensed up again under Razer's gaze: "Um, that..."

“Alright Razer, cough cough, let’s hear what Jessica has to say?” Franka smiled as she watched Jessica become nervous again. “Take a deep breath, don’t be nervous, we trust your judgment, speak slowly.”

“Phew…” Jessica took a deep breath. “Well, that’s how it is. Not far from here, a doctor was holding a free clinic…”

Jessica slowly told Razer and Franka everything she had seen at the free clinic.

After hearing Jessica's description, Franka couldn't help but be surprised: "What a rare kind person..."

As far as Franka knew, the healers were kind, after all, no one would leave the safe mobile city to come to this wilderness to practice medicine if they weren't kind.

However, the fact that they were willing to forcibly drive away troublesome mercenaries while conducting free medical clinics in the slums, instead of sitting idly by, shows that, in common sense, there is actually no relationship between patients and doctors, and in the case of free medical clinics, there is not even a customer relationship.

Why would the other party take such a huge risk, even if they have great power? It's unreasonable. You could say that the doctor won't get anything.

In this situation, all Franka could say was that a truly good person had actually appeared on this land, and a rare and exceptionally good one at that.

"What do you think, Razer?" Franka asked, turning to Razer beside her after her reflection. "Those mercenaries won't let this go easily. There are definitely a lot of spies around that clinic. Are we willing to take this risk?"

“It’s a risk worth taking.” Razer stood up, leaning on his shield. “Both of our injuries, especially yours, require better medical care.”

“Those quack doctors can’t provide it to us, but it’s a risk we can take.”

“That makes sense.” Franka nodded, then looked at Jessica: “Come on, cutie, help me up.”

"Oh, it's Franka-senpai." Jessica quickly stepped forward and helped Franka up from the wooden plank.

"Oh, right, wait a minute." Franka suddenly spoke up, raising her hand with difficulty to point to the bag in the corner, "I brought some disguise stuff, mostly hair dye. There won't be a shortage of eyeliners over there."

"What if you get better after treatment, only to be ambushed again as soon as you go out?"

Razer raised an eyebrow: "You brought this with you?"

"Just in case." Isn't that a normal thing to do? Franka sat on the wooden plank and shrugged. "Okay, stop standing there, hurry up."

"Good good."

-----------

After a while, the three of them finally got their disguises done. Franka changed all her clothes into old ones, and her hair was dyed into a very conspicuous golden color.

The tail behind it was also the same, turning into a somewhat dark gold, and for the sake of naturalness, Razer even used white at the tip of the tail.

Razer himself dyed his cool-toned blue hair white, and perhaps because he used too much dye, his white hair almost seemed to reflect light.

Meanwhile, Jessica, who had changed into her old clothes, pitifully touched her tail, which had been dyed yellow. Of course, Jessica's hair had also been completely dyed yellow by Razer.

"Franka-senpai, can this color be washed off?" Jessica pitifully stuck the scar patch on her cheek. "And this patch..."

"Don't worry, don't worry~" Franka touched her now golden tail to make sure it wouldn't fade. "I definitely wouldn't buy one of those dyes that can't be faded. This is for disguise, not for dyeing my own hair."

After Franka raised her hand to make sure the color wouldn't fade, she rummaged through her bag and pulled out a box of colored contact lenses. After picking through them, she took out a pair of purple lenses and put them on.

Franka blinked, then looked at Razer one last time: "So? Can Razer still tell?"

Razer carefully examined Franka and the pitiful Jessica beside her: "It's not very noticeable, but race can't be disguised, so it still needs to be covered up to some extent."

Razer picked up the tattered cloak from the ground and draped it over the two of them. He then changed into his own worn clothes and put on the cloak. After looking at the shield in his hand, he pondered for a while.