Arknights, but the sickly pretty girl starts

"Mr. Gray Hat, I can't hear you clearly..." Noah turned his head helplessly and pulled the gray hat out of the snow like a carrot. He also helped him to shake off the snowflakes on his body. However, Mr. Gray Hat's lips were blue from the cold. Fortunately, his physique was not bad, otherwise he would have really got frostbite. The gray hat shook his head. Noah picked up the fallen hat from the ground, helped him put it on, and adjusted the angle specially.

If the man in the grey hat didn't know that the person in front of him was the culprit who made him so embarrassed, he might even be a little touched.

"Mr. Gray Hat, there's no need to look at me like that. I won't torture you, nor will I attack you. You're Victoria's eyes and ears, and I know my limits." Noah's tone was very gentle. "If we wanted to kill you, there's no need for us to stop Jian, right? I believe that if Jian really wanted to kill you, no matter how fast you ran... you wouldn't be able to escape her clutches."

"Miss Noah, may I ask you a question? Have you considered everything from the beginning to the end, even including the fact that I will pass your message to Duke Caister?"

Gray Hat's question made Noah a little distracted. She frowned and wanted to deny it, but Gray Hat's expression didn't seem fake. She could only sigh, "If I say these are just accidents, you won't believe me."

"Of course, one could be an accident, but when you combine multiple of them—"

"Okay, I understand what you mean." Noah nodded, sitting on a dead tree trunk, tilting his head and gazing at the "wise man" in the gray hat. "Then I'll tell you what my so-called "plan" is."

Noah's plan... perhaps even Margaret and Mace, who had been accompanying Noah the entire time, didn't know it. Indeed, before entering Kjerag, she had come with the intention of participating in the celebration and learning from Miss Ya'er about power control. But once she got involved in this chaotic situation, she had her own agenda. Rather, she never felt obligated to cooperate with SilverAsh's plans. After all, she wasn't a mercenary, nor was she obligated to do so—she certainly had her own agenda.

"Do you know how many countries there are on Terra?" Noah asked. This question was clearly a no-brainer for Gray Hat. After all, as an intelligence officer, if one didn't have enough knowledge in this area, they were probably just collecting a salary for nothing. Someone collecting a salary for nothing couldn't possibly reach Gray Hat's level. Just as Gray Hat was about to name them one by one, Noah shook his head. "I know you want to name them one by one, but that would take far too long. I just want you to know... there are countless [countries] on Terra. We've been torn apart by natural disasters, terrain, and even all sorts of terrifying and bizarre existences. We—in fact, all of Terra, from ancient times to the present day, has been a divided island."

"Isolated island?" Gray Hat lowered his head and pondered the term. "Shouldn't this be normal? Terra is too vast, and with the division between the natural disasters and the wasteland, we inevitably lack communication."

"Yes, we lack communication. Before Rhine Life's shared mobile signal base station technology, we couldn't even maintain a stable network between countries. Of course, to you, this might be perfectly normal. The lack of communication between countries has led to the development of completely different cultures, histories, and even religions. What's the most common form of communication among these countries on this land?"

"……diplomatic?"

"Hmph... Mr. Gray Hat, playing dumb at this time is no fun. Let me explain it bluntly."

Noah smiled, but this smile made Gray Hat feel creepy. It was a cold smile, just like the expression Noah would have on his face.

“That’s war.”

"..."

"From ancient times to the present, has diplomacy truly been what allows civilizations to communicate with each other?" Noya, once a top student in the history department, certainly understood that Terra's history was built on bloody wars, from the wars between the various nations and the Tekaz in the distant past, to the Khan's expedition that ended the Age of the Gods, to the subsequent numerous Kazdel annihilation wars, the Four Emperors' War, and the Uka War. These bloody wars were the simplest and most frequent means of communication between nations. "Don't kid yourself. It's war. From beginning to end, it's war."

"So what? Cultural differences naturally breed conflict, and conflicts naturally arise; the only difference is the magnitude." The man in the gray hat frowned. "Are you giving me a history lesson?"

"Of course not, Mr. Grey Hat. I'm just asking you to stop deceiving yourself. Relations between nations have never been good. Furthermore, are the conflicts you're talking about really the cause of war?"

"You really want me to say something shocking, are you secretly recording me?"

"I'm not going to record this time. After all, I want you to pass these words on to your superiors." Noah shook his head. "It's hatred, it's resource plundering, it's politicians' dirty tricks, it's profit, it's businessmen's greed, it's ambition, it's maintaining stability, it's shifting contradictions. No matter how good the reasons for war are, the sound of cannons and the wealth of gold, in the final analysis, war itself is dirty and has no glory. Whitewashing it is just a way for people to justify their own bad deeds."

"You really understand it well... Miss Noah, but what's the point of what you're saying?" Gray Hat was genuinely confused. Why had he been arrested to listen to all this? What was the point of all this? Was it just to refute war?

But if war can be stopped only through so-called language, then Miss Noah is too naive. The so-called war, or the instinct to fight - is actually just like the battle between the two knights in front of her. It is primitive, something engraved in the blood, it is wild, it is also nature, it is the most basic emotion of human beings. Humans claim to be advanced, but in fact the underlying logic is still exactly the same as that of beasts, that's all.

After all, humans are just a top predator living on Terra.

"...I guess so. But I see another answer." Noah shook his head. "One is that Terra should leave."

"……what?"

"Can you believe that in the future, we can launch huge spikes that soar into the sky and break through the sky? Can you believe that in the future, we can directly utilize the energy of the sun? Can you believe that in the future, Terra will be connected by an invisible and intangible network? Can you believe that the Sarkaz and the Sakota can live in harmony?" Noya described these possibilities with an excited tone. "Mobile cities will rise from the earth, the threats of Originium and natural disasters will no longer exist, Ore sickness will be cured and treated as a disease that can be easily cured like a cold, and people will no longer exclude each other because of their race, but will harmoniously integrate together-"

"...Ms. Noah, please forgive me for being blunt, but that's impossible." The man in the gray hat shook his head. "What you said is indeed desirable, but it's absolutely impossible."

"..." Noah was interrupted by the Gray Hat, but she didn't get angry. She just looked at him with some pity, "Mr. Gray Hat, I know you won't believe it, because in your eyes, this is an era that has never appeared since ancient times. But, I saw it."

Noah saw from the administrator's memory the value created by mankind, the miracles created by mankind, and how mankind relied on itself to conquer its home planet, conquer its own planetary system - even conquer an entire galaxy.

You know, in the Milky Way, there are tens of thousands of stars like Terra’s sun, and the starlight twinkling in the sky is the light of each star!

If Noah was still just a frog in a well who had never seen the vastness of the sky, she would certainly move forward step by step, and she would not be too ambitious. But... she saw it, she saw that humans could roam in the sea of ​​stars, she saw that human art and beauty developed to the pinnacle, human philosophy, technology, and all the things created by humans, step by step, deeply moved the original administrator.

It also exists in Noah's memory... However, achieving this is not without cost.

The ancient humans who were still trapped on their home planet, Earth, paid a painful enough price, but they succeeded. They broke out of their home planet, took root in the sea of ​​stars, and opened up their own unknown territories.

All of this stems from humanity’s successful integration of all its resources.

All the achievements of ancient humans must be based on a great alliance, an organization that exists for all mankind.

"We can't go back to the Garden of Eden."

"The Tower of Babel will also fall."

"But... there have to be people who hold on to idealism and keep moving forward."

“The road we have to take is never easy, but just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean we won’t do it.”

Noya's eyes, those sparkling, star-like eyes, made Gray Hat a little dazed. He even wondered if he had been affected by some Originium technique. His heart, no... not right...

The man in the gray hat suddenly came to his senses... He just realized that he seemed to be no longer on the snowy field. As Noah described, a blue planet appeared before his eyes.

“…What…what is this?”

"It's 29.2% land and 70.8% water. It was born on a young planet five billion years ago. Oceans formed 47 billion years ago, and a stable, solid crust formed about 45 billion years ago. Life appeared near deep-sea hydrothermal vents about four billion years ago... Of course, this is the first time you and her have met. This planet is called Earth, the cradle of pre-civilized humanity. It orbits the sun—yes, this planet also orbits the sun—and completes one orbit every 365 days—an ordinary planet."

And Noah's voice rang in the ears of the man in the gray hat.

"...This...what on earth is this place..." Gray Hat's worldview was shattered. He knew that Terra was a sphere and that Terra revolved around the sun, but he had never, and could never, truly see a deep blue planet from this angle. It looked too delicate to be a natural creation, but rather like some kind of fragile handicraft. His knowledge of astronomy was not extensive. After all, most agents did not need to understand the celestial bodies outside Terra.

Those things are basically the tasks of astrologers—

However, before they became agents, they were still a group of children. When they were children, there would always be a day when they looked up at the stars.

"I just want you to see what I really want to do—" Noah's voice sounded again, "We really can't continue to lower our heads and fight for the rations that have been snatched away countless times."

If you have never seen the ocean, you naturally don’t know how vast it is and how small you are.

Perhaps humans are indeed animals, beings that naturally possess all kinds of bad qualities, such as ambition, bloodthirstiness, greed, and the struggle for power and profit - but there is one thing about humans that both the Administrator and Noah deeply love.

Humans will seek their own way out.

Noah thought about it over and over again, and stayed up until dawn several times, but he still couldn't come up with a speech that could convince everyone.

Finally, she suddenly realized it.

The reason why I can walk on this path so firmly may not be because I am so smart or because I have the power of a prophet.

But she thought she knew that this path was feasible.

These memories are not possessed by the people of Terra. They don't know that Noah's path has been helped by countless people through trial and error, and it has almost become a smooth road.

They just thought it was another idealist's fantasy.

After Noah figured this out, she was no longer confused.

In that case, why not share this scenery with everyone?

The reason why the frog in the well is ridiculous is not because of its own stupidity, but because it has never thought that apart from the sky that can be seen from the mouth of the well, there are more distant stars waiting for them.

——The Terrans are not stupid.

Noah is not a prophet.

——Just prove it.

Prove that this road can be taken!

This was the first time she brought someone to see the administrator's memory, and this person was even her enemy in a sense.

But it is precisely because of this that such experiments are valuable.

"Mr. Gray Hat, look up. The stars are so beautiful."

Chapter 33: The Aesthetics of the Gray Hat

This brief journey through the starry sky did not last long, but for the man in the grey hat, it was like witnessing a scene - the man searched his mind for adjectives. He loved literature and liked to write short poems, and he considered himself a cultured person, but at this moment, he could not find any words to describe the experience he had just had.

Although it was just a simple visual sharing, Gray Hat believed that he might have experienced the greatest journey in the world. This journey shocked him and made him sigh at the insignificance of human beings.

Rather, even Terra might be considered insignificant on the scale of the universe.

He even wondered, if he really had to quantify this experience with money, the most vulgar way, how much would this experience, or this performance, be worth?

He is a secret agent of Victoria, an elite. Although he does dangerous work, he also has a salary that most people in Terra can't even dream of. But even if he uses all his savings, even if he sells all the properties under his name, all the secrets stored in the Columbia Bank, even everything he can sell, blood, organs, bones, everything added together, perhaps it can't buy the shock of this second.

He raised his head involuntarily and looked at the vast sky. He opened his mouth, but couldn't say a word.

It was not yet night and the sun was still hanging high in the sky, but he knew that the azure sky was a false reflection, and behind it was a whole sky of twinkling stars.

When a person receives too much information or is extremely surprised, he or she will temporarily lose the ability to speak, because his or her brain has already used most of its functions to understand everything he or she has just seen. Apart from the necessary things such as maintaining breathing and heartbeat, he or she is not even willing to share a little function with language. Anyway, human language is too poor to describe the magnificence of the universe, which is endless, unimaginable, and more beautiful than anything created by humans.

The enormity of this beauty can even make humans seem meaningless, like a speck of dust.

Noah was very patient, waiting until the man in the gray hat's eyes cleared up again from confusion before speaking. "How does it feel to look at the stars?"

"...It's hard to describe." Gray Hat described his feelings honestly. "I thought there was nothing in Terra that could surprise me anymore, but I didn't expect..."

"This is a scene commonplace to pre-civilized people, and it's also something we on Terra will rarely see in our lifetimes." Noa sighed, "But I always feel that it would be a shame if no one could ever see this."

"Indeed... It's a beauty that makes one feel empty within. That infinite beauty can directly fill a person's heart, filling it so completely that there's no room for reflection." The man in the gray hat sighed, "But why did you let me see this? When I think about it, I even feel a little scared. The images you showed me may make it impossible for me to feel any other kind of beauty in the future..."

"Because I want everyone on Terra to see this." Noah said. The area where Noah and Gray Hat were located was some distance away from the battle area between Margaret and Mace. This distance was not far in the physical sense, but Gray Hat no longer cared about the outcome of the battle between the so-called Shining Knight and the Black Knight. He felt that he would definitely not be able to sleep tonight. He had never imagined that the starry sky that he was so familiar with above his head actually contained such a world.

In the past, he might have been interested in who won or lost, but now all he could feel was... emptiness.

"I must be the emptiest person in the world," he lamented. "I even feel like the world has become unreal. Is this normal?"

"Perhaps. It's like someone living inland seeing the ocean for the first time. The boundless sea level directly broadens their worldview—" Noah used an analogy. "And you simply saw what the Terrans of the future should see. Consider it a small advance payment from me."

"...You are such a vicious person."

Noah smiled without saying anything, and readily accepted the other party's vicious comments.

"Actually, I didn't just come to you to show you this. I'm sorry, but I've gotten to know you a little bit—" Noah explained. "Although you appear to be an unapproachable person, a capable elite agent, seemingly a far cry from what I'm looking for, after I peeked into your heart, I discovered... you're actually quite a romantic."

"...What the hell did you see?" The man in the gray hat blinked and asked subconsciously, "Can't I have a little privacy in front of you?"

"You like movies, novels, and the occasional art exhibition. You also enjoy opera and band performances. You even paid a fortune to see Leitania's concert—I didn't expect you to be such a fan of art." Noah smiled as he recounted everything he had seen. "But it's precisely because of this that I think you might understand—understand the shock I felt when I first saw these things."

"I think any normal person would lose their ability to speak when seeing that scene, just like me." The man in the gray hat retorted, "Even if I were a mediocre person, I would never turn a blind eye to that scene. God, I can't imagine anyone being completely unmoved by such a scene..."

He shook his top hat, but he also knew... he had indeed taken the bait.

"What do you want me to do, Miss Noah?" Gray Hat knew that Noah's letting him see this was definitely not meaningless. "Even if I had to trade my life for just one glimpse of that scene, I would gladly do it. But it's obvious that my life is of no use to you, so I'm even more curious... What exactly are you trying so hard to get me to do?"

"..."

Boom——

It was unknown how many times they had clashed. Although both of them were top fighters, their strength had its limits. The nearby mountains and forests had been completely destroyed, but the two top fighters had not yet decided the winner. They sat back to back, their blood having dried up. Margaret was using her Originium skills to help the mace heal its wounds. From this point of view, Margaret might win the battle in the end... For no other reason, she at least had an extra health bar.

However, neither of them would really fight to that extent, so Margaret and Jian actually assumed that the two were tied.

This is the result they least want to see, but perhaps also the result they most hope for... A draw, no matter from which perspective, it seems to be the same.

"You hit me hard... My weapons are all broken. Luckily Noah gave me a sword."

"Heh, my weapons were also specially customized for me by Noah. It will cost a lot of money to repair these two weapons."

"...You can actually joke?" Margaret was a little surprised. "I thought you were the serious type."

"Actually, I smile a lot around her." Mace shrugged, "It's just that you didn't see it much. Besides, I didn't expect you to fight even harder than me."

"I guess I can blame my ancestors for this. They were so healthy that they didn't take care of themselves. As long as they weren't dying, they could probably just lie down for half a month and be healthy again," Margaret said with a smile. "That's just how we Golden Pegasus are."

"That's a really good ancestor..." Mace sighed, "After the fight today, Nuoya will definitely be angry."

"Indeed, so do you want us to tell a lie?"

"Are you going to lie to her?"

"Even though we're bound to be discovered, we still have to try."

"Forget it. Lying in front of her would only make the crime worse. Besides...she probably watched the whole thing from hiding."

After a fight, Margaret and Jian opened up the conversation and it was obvious that most of their topics would mention Noah. After all, the biggest connection between the two, apart from the title of knight competition, was Noah.

"That's true..." Margaret knew the fight between her and Jian would definitely make quite a noise. Even though they were in the deep mountains and forests, it would be difficult to hide it from Noah's hearing. Since Noah didn't stop them, he probably knew the two wouldn't really fight to the point of death, so he acquiesced. But if she thought about it carefully, Jian had essentially started the fight between her and Jian... Was she at most an accomplice?

Even the Brilliant Knight would reveal a hint of cunning when faced with explaining to his loved one an incident that would surely infuriate her.

Rather, it was only in front of Noah that she didn't need to bear so many expectations... to be a perfect knight.

When the healing was almost complete, Margaret stood up. It was then that she noticed the devastation caused by the duel. Almost all the trees within a ten-meter radius had been destroyed, leaving not much snow behind. It was as if a bulldozer had run over the ground. Just then, she heard the fluttering of wings from the sky. She looked up and saw Noah landing gracefully in front of her, a disconcerting smile on his face.

"Have you had enough of the commotion?"

"Ahem... Noah..." Margaret scratched her head awkwardly, "I guess so."

"..." Noah folded up his gray wings and looked at Mace, who was still lying there in a daze. Then he looked at Margaret, who looked embarrassed, and suddenly sighed. "Did you come up with any answers?"

"No, it's a draw." This time it was Jian who answered. Her voice, undeterred by her injuries, was as clear and bright as ever. "But Noah, you've been watching for so long, don't you have any opinion? Or, in your opinion, who won between us?"

"If even the parties involved don't know the outcome, how can I, a bystander, know?" Noah shook his head. "This isn't chess. There's no such thing as a bystander seeing things clearly."