The World of Bengtieli: They All Have designs on me

Is Ling really going to conduct scientific research in this godforsaken place?

[System: The harsh environment of the Belobog edge snowfield, rich in unknown energy reactions, is a key area for geological exploration and extreme environment adaptation research.]

Key areas.

"Key area my foot, I think it's a death trap." Luo Ning muttered to himself, concentrating on dealing with the increasingly complex road conditions. The snowmobile's headlights could only illuminate a few meters ahead in the snowstorm, resulting in extremely poor visibility.

If it weren't for the system's real-time navigation and danger warnings, he probably would have already fallen into some hidden ice crevasse along with his car. Suddenly, a muffled rumble came from above.

[System: Warning! A small-scale snow-covered landslide has occurred on the upper right side of the mountain! It is expected to reach your current location in three seconds! Immediately turn left at the maximum angle! Accelerate!]

Luo Ning's heart clenched. Almost instinctively, he turned the steering wheel all the way to the left and simultaneously twisted the accelerator to the floor with his right hand!

The snowmobile let out a defiant roar, its rear end swishing in a white arc. "Boom—!"

Huge chunks of snow, mixed with pebbles, rushed down from where he had just passed, like a torrent bursting its banks, stirring up a thick, misty spray. Luo Ning felt a powerful shockwave push from behind, causing the snowmobile to shake violently, almost throwing him off.

He clung tightly to the handlebars, feeling as if the whole world was spinning. A few seconds later, the vibrations and roar gradually subsided.

Luo Ning gasped for breath, looking back with lingering fear.

The path we came from was completely buried by thick snow. [Luoning: Holy crap... are we going this far?]

[System: The snowmobile's left rear track is slightly damaged, the protective fender is broken, but the power system is unaffected. The current location has deviated from the original planned route and is being re-planned.]

Luo Ning checked the car's condition and found it was alright; it was just some minor damage.

He pursed his lips. Great! Now he'd have material to make up stories for when he met Sister Lingke later, guaranteed to be "real and believable." He patted his chest, calming his wildly beating heart.

"Keep leading the way, System. We can't let Sister Lingke's surprise be too late." The night grew deeper.

The wind and snow showed no signs of abating; on the contrary, they intensified.

On the edge of a huge ice crevasse, in a sheltered mountain hollow, a faint orange-yellow light shone through.

It was an emergency tent built with special materials. Inside the tent, which had been simply cleared of a shallow cave entrance, Lingke Landau, wrapped in a thick thermal blanket, was looking at a communicator with static-filled lights and frowning.

Her signature short, flaxen hair was a little messy, and her usually radiant eyes now held a hint of weariness and anxiety. "Damn it, still no signal..." Ling Ke slammed her fist on the communicator, muttering under her breath.

The power module is completely destroyed, the backup has also malfunctioned, and now she can't even send out a distress signal. She has been trapped here for almost twelve hours.

Although she was absolutely confident in her ability to survive in the snowfield, the prolonged lack of a stable energy source rendered her research equipment inoperable, leading to...

The problems go far beyond heating and lighting.

Most importantly, her invaluable research data. Suddenly, Ling Ke's ears twitched.

Her extraordinary hearing allowed her to detect a faint but persistent unusual sound amidst the howling wind and snow.

It sounds like...some kind of mechanical engine? Impossible.

Who would come to this desolate place in this awful weather?

Moreover, the nearest supply point is over 100 kilometers away.

Ling Ke frowned, a familiar "troublesome premonition" welling up in her heart.

She silently pulled a multi-functional geological pickaxe from under the thermal blanket, cautiously moved to the tent entrance, and peered out through a small crack. Snow and wind filled the air, reducing visibility to almost zero.

But the sound of an engine, growing louder and louder as it approached, became clearer.

A moment later, a beam of headlights swayed and struggled through the wind and snow, revealing a small snowmobile wobbling toward her.

On the motorcycle, a smaller figure lay sprawled, wrapped up tightly, almost blending into the snow. Lingke's pupils contracted slightly.

The snowmobile, about ten meters from the tent, seemed to have finally exhausted its last bit of strength. The engine sputtered a few times and then completely stalled.

Then, the small figure swayed, rolled off the vehicle, and plunged headfirst into a snowdrift, where it remained motionless.

What's going on with Lingke?

Was it a staged accident in the snow? Or a new type of snow trap? She didn't go out immediately.

The first rule of wilderness survival is to always be vigilant.

The small figure lay in the snow for a while before struggling to move, seemingly trying to get up, but failed several times.

Finally, he/she simply raised one hand and waved it haphazardly in the direction of the tent, letting out a few muffled whistles that were indistinct in the wind and snow.

Ling Ke pursed her lips.

That voice... sounded like a child's?

She took a deep breath, gripped her pickaxe, carefully unzipped the tent, and stepped outside. A blast of cold wind immediately rushed in, making her shiver.

She approached the child lying in the snow, step by step, slowly and cautiously.

As she got closer, she could see that it was a boy, about seven or eight years old, wearing an obviously ill-fitting thick coat. His little face was red and purple from the cold, his lips were chapped, and there was a layer of white frost on his eyelashes.

He was holding a silver-gray metal box tightly in his arms, as if it were the most precious treasure in the world.

“Hey, kid?” Ling Ke bent down and gently patted his shoulder with her gloved hand. The boy’s body was cold and stiff.

He slowly opened his eyes, looking at Ling Ke with a dazed expression, his gaze unfocused for several seconds before finally refocusing.

"Sister... Sister?" The boy's voice was soft and weak, with a heavy nasal tone and an uncontrollable sob. "You... are you Sister Lingke?"

Ling Ke testified, "I am. Who are you? What are you doing here?" Did this child know her?

The boy's eyes instantly reddened, and large tears rolled down his cheeks uncontrollably, freezing into ice beads on his cold skin. "So...so good...Finally...finally found you..." he choked out, his small hands trembling as he pushed the metal box in his arms forward.

"Push," he said. "Grandpa Buck asked me... to deliver this to you..." He added, "It's extremely urgent."

Grandpa Buck?

Ling Ke's gaze fell on the silver-gray metal box, and she recognized the label on it—it was a K-7 high-density energy module specially supplied by the military!

This is what she needs most right now!

But... how did Buck know she was here and send such a tiny little one over?

This is so unreasonable.

“It was Sister Shiluva… who asked her to ask Grandpa Buck.” The boy explained haltingly, as if using all his strength, “She said… your energy module is broken. Being trapped, she told me to make sure you get here.”

Hiluva?

A complex mix of emotions welled up in Ling Ke's heart.

She instinctively reached out to take the box.

Just as her fingertips touched the cold metal casing and the boy's equally cold little hand, a strange feeling suddenly rushed through her mind.

It was extremely slight, like a feather gently brushing past, or like a faint electric current.

She seemed to "see" some blurry, fragmented images—the gray geological exploration institute building, Old Man Buck's impatient face, and the boy's anxious figure as he raced through the snowstorm on his snowmobile.

The image flashed by so quickly that Ling could think it was her imagination. She shook her head and looked at the boy.

The boy, exhausted and cold, closed his eyes again, his small body curled up, shivering slightly. Lingke's brows furrowed tightly.

This child... his appearance was too coincidental.

And that strange feeling she just had… what was it? Was she hallucinating because she was too tired?

Or... is there something wrong with this child?

[Luoning sighs... My first impression was... alright, right? Sister Lingke, please don't let your trouble radar get too sensitive.] Luoning prayed silently in her heart, while trying her best to maintain her "weak and pitiful" persona.

He could feel Ling Ke's scrutiny, a wild intuition that almost pierced through his disguise. This older sister was even more difficult to deal with than his sister, Shiluwa.

Chapter 177 Kid, this package smells amazing!

Lingke's brows furrowed even more.

This child appeared out of nowhere, bringing her the energy module she desperately needed. A coincidence? Or...?

She looked again at the little boy huddled in the snow, his face blue from the cold, and his eyes, which he tried to open but still looked somewhat dazed.

[Luoning: System, how suspicious is Sister Lingke?]

[System: Self-identified Lingke, Current Emotions: Alert 75%, Confused 60%, Demand (for Energy Module) 95%. Overall assessment: Temporarily safe.]

"Grandpa Buck...he said you must be...frozen...tell me to hurry..." Lonin's voice was barely audible, each word seemingly exhausting all his strength.

He struggled to push the metal box in his arms forward a little more, his little hands trembling from exhaustion.

Ling Ke's gaze settled on the silver-gray metal box. [K-7 High-Density Energy Module].

This is a military-grade product, even more advanced than her original model, with energy density and stability far exceeding the standard version. That stubborn old man, Buck, actually gave it away? And entrusted it to such a...little kid?

"Did Hiluva send you to find Buck?" Link finally spoke, her voice slightly hoarse, carrying a hint of barely perceptible inquiry.

"Yes." Luo Ning nodded vigorously, tears welling up in her eyes again. "Sister Xiluwa... said you're most afraid of the cold... and also most afraid of trouble. She told me to make sure... deliver this to..."

As he spoke, he frantically tried to unbutton his coat, as if trying to prove he was really freezing. Ling didn't stop him; she just watched quietly.

The child's words sounded perfect, yet strange in every way.

But right now, the energy module is real, and the fact that her equipment urgently needs to be started is also real.

"The ultimate efficient lazy person"—that's the label Hiluva gave her, and to some extent, it is indeed her code of conduct.

"Resolve the main problem; the rest... can wait." She reached out and took the cold metal box.

It felt heavy in my hand, and the surface still carried the faint warmth of the boy's body.

The moment her fingers touched the box, that strange, feather-like sensation returned, even more clearly than before.

Several more coherent fragments flashed through my mind—the boy fiddling with something in the dimly lit room, a pale blue virtual screen flashing by, followed by an image of him speeding through the snowstorm on a snowmobile, the perspective seemingly following him from behind. …

Lingke shook her head violently, and the images vanished instantly. Was it an illusion? Or a hallucination caused by the low temperature?

She suppressed the strange feeling in her heart, no longer hesitated, and turned to walk towards the tent: "Come in, you'll freeze to death outside." Luo Ning felt as if he had been granted a pardon, and scrambled up from the snowdrift, running after Ling Ke.

Inside the tent, though simple, it was sheltered from the wind and snow, and the temperature was slightly higher. Ling skillfully connected the energy module to the main unit of her scientific research equipment.

With a slight electrical hum, the instrument indicator lights, which had been completely black on the screen, lit up one by one, emitting a pleasant "beep" sound.

Communication channels, environmental monitoring, data analysis... all functions are being restored one by one. "Phew." Ling Ke let out a long sigh of relief, her tense nerves finally relaxing a little. She glanced warily at Luo Ning, who was huddled in the corner, hugging her knees and trembling.

The frost on the little guy's face had melted, turning into water droplets that clung to his eyelashes, making him look pitiful. "Where's your snowmobile?" Lingke asked casually while operating the equipment.

"It's bad. It's bad," Luo Ning's voice still trembled with tears, "To avoid a... a huge snowdrift, I crashed into it, hit the ice... and then it just stopped moving..."

He secretly observed Ling Ke's reaction.

[System: Lingke, Emotions: Alert 55%, Confused 50%, Satisfaction (towards energy module) 80%. Crisis temporarily averted.] Lingke paused in her actions as she operated the equipment.

The snowmobile broke down, and in this weather, there was no way the child could walk back to the supply point by herself. She glanced at the still raging snowstorm outside.

“Ugh, this is so annoying,” she muttered under her breath, but there wasn’t much genuine annoyance in her voice.

Able to solve problems efficiently. A minor inconvenience. This was her initial assessment of Luo Ning.

“Just wait here. I’ll see if I can fix your car after the snow stops.” Ling Ke said without turning her head. “Thank you, thank you, sister.” Luo Ning wiped her face with her sleeve, her voice full of gratitude.

[Luoning: Plan in place. First step: successfully latching onto them.] Night deepened.

The wind and snow outside the tent showed no signs of abating; on the contrary, they intensified, emitting sounds like the wailing of ghosts and the howling of wolves.

The emergency tent swayed slightly in the strong wind, but the tent fabric, made of special materials, was exceptionally tough, keeping the bitter cold firmly at bay.

Lingke has devoted herself to her research data recovery and analysis work. The new energy module is powerful and has greatly improved the operating efficiency of her equipment.

Luo Ning huddled in a corner of the tent, clutching a spare thermal blanket Ling Ke had tossed him, trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible. He was indeed very cold and tired, but he dared not completely relax.

Although Ling Ke had temporarily taken him in, her scrutiny and suspicion hadn't completely disappeared. [Luo Ning: System, has Sister Ling Ke's affection for me changed?]

[System: Target Ling Ke, favorability -10. Current status: Neutral to wary. Host, please be careful with your words and actions.] Luo Ning

Negative? That's not a good start.

He secretly glanced at Ling Ke, who was focused on her work.

Her short, flaxen hair was slightly disheveled from wearing a hood for so long, with a few strands clinging to her temples. From the side, her nose was high, and her lips were pressed into a strong, straight line.

Even in this environment, she possessed a unique focus and wildness befitting a researcher. Luo Ning knew that this older sister was not easily fooled.

He had to act more like a "harmless" and "useful" child.

After a while, Lingke seemed to have finished processing a piece of data. She rubbed her temples, picked up a military water bottle from the side, unscrewed the cap, and took a sip.

Luo Ning seized the opportunity and cautiously began, "Sister... are you thirsty? I... I can help you with a hot water bottle..."