Arknights' Lock of Heaven

"Speak up, Kal'tsit! Why won't you answer me?"

The angry male voice continued to roar.

“You brought us together, you told us about everything this land has to face, you taught us so much, you gave us a mission.”

“I was once your student, and I believe there are many people like that among you here. It was you who brought us together.”

"But what about now? I'm almost fifty years old, and there are probably not many people here younger than me, right? The old man is almost ninety!"

"I don't want to pry into your secrets, and I don't want to know why you always look so young."

"I just want to know, you've taught us so much, told us so much, but what about now?"

"We're dying, and your so-called hope is really just empty words?"

“Kal’tsit,” the aged voice that had spoken first spoke up at this moment, “I remember the first time I met you was at a university seminar.”

“You were different from everyone else. You stood quietly by the window, your gaze seemingly fixed on the cedar trees outside, or perhaps on the distant land. I was drawn to you then, and that's when I began to learn about your research.”

"But those good years are gone, and I am now very old."

"Perhaps I am destined not to see those disasters that you have told me about your whole life."

"But I still have children, family, and everything I cherish in this world."

"You've shown me the horrors of the future, but you won't tell me about any hope."

"You are really... cold-hearted."

“I’m sorry,” Kal’tsit said, closing her eyes and burying all her emotions before finally speaking, “I really can’t say what the hope I hold in my hands is.”

"We can't afford any more losses."

"But please believe me, we will eventually see the dawn."

"I promise!"

142 Dishui Village

Not all the villains in this world are constantly spouting philosophical theories and philosophical speculations.

Or rather, how many villains would care about these things?

After clearing an international shipping lane, Xia Yu came to a profound understanding of this principle.

Most villains are quite down-to-earth and won't preach to you.

Their limited knowledge restricts their imagination, leaving them only able to do the kinds of bad things that everyone takes for granted in order to maintain a semblance of a living.

For example, robbery, robbery, robbery, and so on.

The main purpose is to rob money; depending on the situation, it may be necessary to sexually assault the victim.

For most bandits, this is the majority of their lives.

Unfortunately, Xia Yu and Lion Scorpion have both been chosen.

After all, you can't just give them the ability to immediately discern Xia Yu's gender, can you?

After all, Enkidu's face was modeled after a woman.

Of the bandits encountered these past few days, a large portion were after Xia Yu, while the rest had less ulterior motives; they were after Xia Yu's high-end SUV.

After all, the presence of the lion scorpion is quite something...

You might not even know there's someone here if they don't say anything.

"Get out of the car obediently!" The bandit leader, wearing a turban, brandished his large knife defiantly. "If you cooperate, I might show you some mercy."

"Otherwise, hehe, look at all these brothers I have, I'm quite lonely~~~"

Another group of robbers who haven't escaped their low-level interests.

Yeah, it's really low-class.

A dozen or so men rode on a few skinny, bony horses and carried a few tattered curved knives as they went out to mingle with bandits.

And they have absolutely no sense of propriety; they're probably a bunch of newbies.

Xia Yu sighed, not getting angry at their insulting words.

It's not worth getting angry at a dead person; you'll only hurt yourself.

Besides, we've encountered countless bandits along the way; how can we let each one go unpunished?

It's very tiring.

Xia Yu stretched her left hand out of the car window and pointed it slightly toward the ground.

In an instant, more than a dozen sharp crystalline spikes shot out from the ground, piercing through the still-smiling bandits, and then were raised high into the sky.

He wasn't some easygoing person who believed in showing mercy and only punishing the ringleaders; he was determined to kill anyone who dared to show their teeth.

They've already robbed and killed people on the road, and you still expect them to repent?

It's not impossible, but people who truly repent are extremely rare.

Once a person has blood on their hands, has taken a life, and has become accustomed to making quick money, it's very difficult for them to go back to the past.

If they had that kind of perseverance, why would they choose to be bandits instead of doing something else?

It cannot be ruled out that there are truly unavoidable circumstances, but as mentioned before, they are extremely rare.

Xia Yu also took the time to distinguish them one by one.

It would be so much easier to just kill all those who have drawn their knives.

They couldn't possibly be brandishing knives at me out of love and peace, could they?

“This is the sixth wave,” Xia Yu sighed, driving around the pile of corpses in front of her. “No wonder Nearl sounded so bitter and resentful when she talked about her hometown. Kazimierz is real…”

These six waves refer to all the bandits encountered during the four days they entered the territory of Kasimir.

In just four days, we've encountered six waves!

This shows how miserable and abject the lives of the lower classes in Kasimmir were.

When Xia Yu was just watching the plot of Shining Light, she was very confused. If the living conditions of the infected in the mobile city of Kazimierz were so bad, why didn't they go to the countryside?

With the city under the control of the Business Federation, surely there must be a place for knights in the countryside too? Otherwise, how can the Securities and Futures Commission fight against the Business Federation?

It wasn't until he arrived in this world that he realized how utterly ignorant his thinking was. He had only seen a one-sided view of the beliefs upheld by Shining and Nearl, and had naively assumed that the knights were the same as them.

But in reality, it was the knightly class that most severely exploited the lower classes of Kazimierz.

People born in prosperous times cannot imagine the lives of ordinary people during the feudal dynasties.

The six simple words in the history books, "Great famine, people eat each other," reveal a horrific reality.

Mobile cities certainly don't treat infected people very well, but what about the countryside?

In the city, at least no one dares to be blatant; everyone has to be secretive. But in the countryside, it's a true lawless place.

Those who have never been to Qasimir cannot imagine how weak the rulers' control was over areas outside the mobile cities.

They were allowed to grow wildly, and neither the Securities and Futures Commission nor the Federation of Industries ever paid any attention to these people who, in theory, should also be their citizens.

No wonder such a thing happened in Dishui Village.

“They don’t seem to be purely bandits,” Lion Scorpion tried to say. “Their mark is that of bounty hunters.”

“Bounty hunters?” Xia Yu shook her head upon hearing this. “Actually, sometimes so-called bounty hunters are no different from bandits.”

Or rather, most bounty hunters wouldn't mind taking on the role of a bandit when given the chance.

They are such a disorganized group.

Upon hearing this, the manticore nodded in agreement.

"But since bounty hunters have also appeared in groups, it seems that Drip Village is not far away."

Upon hearing this, the Lion Scorpion quickly opened the map.

Terra's map isn't like the convenient world map of my previous life, which shows your current location.

To use a map effectively, you first need to be able to do arithmetic.

Use a specific location as the starting point, then calculate the approximate current location using the driving speed and time, and then decide which way to go to reach the destination based on the situation.

Without obvious landmarks, you can only estimate the distance by this method.

If you happen to be off-center... then I wish you bring enough supplies.

Of course, it's not entirely hopeless. If we can find the shipping lanes that the mobile cities have passed through, we can eventually find towns by following those lanes.

It's all down to luck.

However, as a veteran operator of Rhodes Island, Manticore can easily look at a map.

The reason why the Lion Scorpion was sent with Xia Yu when they went to Kal'tsit in Wolumon was because of this.

He was unfamiliar with the world and knew nothing about many common-sense questions.

If we let him go out alone, we might never find him again.

Although I'm not worried about Xia Yu's safety, it wouldn't be good if she got lost and wandered around Terra...