Arknights: Studying medicine can't save Terra

"What are you going to do?" the doctor asked.

Without turning his head, Jijing said, "I'm going to find Simone and tell her that you've collapsed, and that she should hurry up and purify you."

"Don't bother them, funerals are very solemn occasions."

This time it's the PhD student's turn to teach a lesson about extreme circumstances.

Then he lowered his head again, pitifully muttering to himself:

"Why can the white-haired dog roam freely inland, and Kal'tsit go to Iberia to enjoy the warm sea breeze, while I have to run to this icy wasteland?"

I've never missed Kjerag so much. It wasn't so cold there, and there were Originium fireplaces.

Stop wallowing in self-pity here.

After returning from the extreme situation, he wrapped his hands tightly around the collar of his winter coat and said with a wry smile, "If you say that Qi Yan is living a carefree life, I agree, but Kal'tsit is going to have a hard time these days. The hidden dangers in Iberia are no less than those in Sami."

"So many disasters and hardships."

As the two were reminiscing, Magellan came running over from a nearby tribe.

"Have you finished your scientific research collection?" Extreme asked.

Magellan nodded, then didn't waste any more words on his own work:

"When I was setting up the instruments with the help of that Sami man, I learned two things from him."

Firstly, there's good news: I've learned of your companion's whereabouts again, and we're getting closer to her. This time, it's only been six days since she and the hunter with the black bow passed through this tribe.

"So, if we keep trying, maybe we can catch up with them before they venture deeper into the mountains?" Ji Jing's face lit up with joy.

Magellan shook his head regretfully: "Then came the second piece of bad news. They received help from a Snow Spirit, who carried two cipher tablets named Andasa and Enjina... Oh, that's a transliteration of Sami. If translated into common language, it would probably be 'Scars' and 'Emptiness'."

Obtaining these two cipher tablets is tantamount to receiving the promise of the Sami grandfather's ancestral spirit father; their journey northward will be fully supported by all the tribes.

"So, these two ladies are going to head north even faster?"

The doctor let out a long, weary sigh.

“It’s hard to say.” Magellan continued to share intelligence. “According to that Sami, this revelation points to the Tree Scar tribe on the Northern Front, and perhaps that’s where the two of them will end up.”

The PhD student concluded, "No matter what, we still need to keep pursuing it."

Extreme conditions take another point into consideration:

"Magellan, is there still no clue as to your teacher's whereabouts?"

Magellan's expression darkened slightly.

“Continuing north would be very dangerous.” Ji Jing recalled his group’s experience with lingering fear. “Those corpses whose faces had turned into black holes suddenly jumped up and charged at us like madmen. There were also frenzied beasts and even absurd events where the ground was flat one second and suddenly turned into a glacier the next.”

I don't think your teacher's expedition team would be so irrational as to take such a risk to continue deeper into the territory.

Magellan smiled wryly upon hearing this: "That only means you don't know my teacher well enough. He must have discovered something. I have a feeling that he is waiting for me in the deepest part of Sami."

“It’s terrifying to say something like that in Sami.”

Extreme was so frightened that it bared its teeth.

"Relax!" Magellan reassured Extreme, "Actually, now is the best opportunity for me to delve deeper into finding my teacher, because I have met you all. If I were to explore on my own in a daze, I really wouldn't dare to go too far."

The PhD also shared his opinion:

"It's best not to split up. Now that we've come this far, it would be more dangerous to let Magellan go back alone."

Anyway, our squadron is already pretty impressive: Magellan, an elite research member from Rhine Lab; Simone, a local from Sami; and me, the designated Sami terminator. Once we find Skadi and that hunter, our team will be so powerful that even if Kal'tsit came, I'd dare glare at her with my nostrils blazing!

Extreme asked in confusion, "Is someone missing? Where am I?"

"You? Aren't you just a portable backpack?"

The doctor waved to the extreme environment: "Give me my thermos. Let me have a sip of hot water to warm myself up before we set off. In this freezing place, the thermos is my life and my hope!"

Extreme used the authority lent to him by the skeletal behemoth to summon a kettle and handed it to the Doctor.

Seeing the Doctor tilt his head back and pour the steaming hot water directly into his mouth, Extreme and Magellan were already used to it.

"Tsk, why does this plain water taste so bland?" The Doctor muttered after taking a sip of hot water. "Extreme, another bowl of instant noodles, please."

"You can eat way too much." Jijing handed over a bowl of instant noodles.

"It's too cold, the body's energy consumption will definitely increase, gurgle gurgle..."

The doctor started demonstrating his amazing skill of making instant noodles with his mouth halfway through his speech.

Extreme couldn't help but complain to Magellan:

"I can't control this guy. Please help me. If he keeps eating, our supplies will be running out. Gold doesn't circulate here."

Magellan smiled and waved his hand, reassuringly saying:

"Alright, we can't let the professor work on the anti-collapse formula on an empty stomach. He's actually been the one who's been working the hardest during this period."

As for supplies, we encountered a strange canned man on the road; he traded some special Originium Ingots with us, which are the real hard currency of the Sami people.”

Extreme cried out in despair, "It's over, you've betrayed us too. I knew you girls would do this."

"Wh...what do you mean? I didn't mean that!" Magellan blushed.

"I'm so handsome, why am I not as popular with girls as Doctor and Qi Yan?" Ji Jing complained from the side. "Sometimes I even wonder if they are the legendary succubuses."

A burp rang out.

The doctor, rubbing his stomach with satisfaction, launched a verbal attack on the extreme realm:

"You're quite handsome, it's a pity you only have a mouth."

Upon hearing this, Jijing was so angry that he immediately started rolling up his sleeves.

Then... he got so cold that he put his sleeves back down and started shivering, hugging his arms.

Just as the three were chatting and laughing, Simone emerged from the woods.

"Gentlemen, get ready, we need to get going quickly," Simone said bluntly.

"So urgent?"

All three of them were somewhat surprised.

Simone turned to look north, where a white mountain peak appeared and disappeared at the edge of her vision.

She whispered, "I just received a revelation from Sami; my prey is just ahead."

Chapter 992 Skadi's Pigeon Journey

The boots crunched softly on the snow, which eventually swallowed them whole.

The white-haired girl glanced behind her.

Her long, flowing hair nearly fell into the snow. Skadi looked at her companion and, unsurprisingly, found three marks on the path Typhon had taken.

In the middle are footprints, and on both sides are traces left by Typhon's long, curly purple braid.

Typhon seemed to notice something, turned his head and narrowed his eyes slightly:

"What impolite things are you thinking, aren't you!"

Skadi looked at her companion, who was much shorter than her, and the muscles at the corner of her mouth almost twitched uncontrollably.

“I didn’t,” she replied curtly.

“You know what?” Typhon said angrily, “You may seem aloof, but once you get to know you, you’ll find that you’re actually quite easy to understand.”

Skadi looked away and began to wonder if she really was like that.

The two chatted and laughed, their steps unwavering, continuing their journey through the increasingly deep snow-covered forest.

Skadi's thoughts were quickly interrupted by the outside world.

It wasn't because her long hair, which she was usually most proud of, was getting into the snow as it got deeper, but because there was something unusual happening ahead.

"Someone is coming."

“I’ve discovered it, there’s more than one… it’s like a hunt.”

The two exchanged a glance and decisively quickened their pace to meet him.

Before long, they came face to face with a Sami man covered in blood, and behind him was a group of Ursus soldiers wearing black winter coats.

Upon seeing Skadi and her companion, the Sami man immediately shouted:

"Run! Make sure you tell everyone else, those Ursus bastards have broken in!"

He called out urgently, forgetting that many unexpected things could lurk in the snow in Sami.

A pebble caused the Sami man to lose his balance and fall headfirst to the ground.

The Ursus soldiers behind them rushed up instantly, pinning down the Sami man while keeping a wary eye on Skadi and his companion in front of them.

From the Ursus team, their captain stepped out, his face shrouded in a thick mask, with only his wrinkled eyes revealing him to be a veteran.

“Sarkaz?” Captain Ursus’s voice sounded somewhat muffled through his mask. “There are indeed rumors of Sarkaz activity in the Sami region, but it’s not common, and you’re not the Cyclops mentioned in the intelligence.”

"Let him go!"

Typhon didn't waste any words, his eyes flashing with hostility as he issued a warning.

Captain Ursus looked down at the Sami forced to kneel at his feet and asked:

"Answer me, are you willing to submit?"

"You're dreaming!" Blood splattered from the Sami man's mouth as he roared. "We should never have believed the lies of you tyrannical Ursus people! You are not lost beacons, nor are you here with friendly intentions; you only want to annex the Sami!"

Captain Ursus remained unmoved by the Sami's accusations.

Seeing this, the Sami looked at Typhon and said urgently:

"The enemy has other troops behind them. Don't act rashly, run! Go back and tell the other tribes!"

Typhon stood firm in place, drew her massive black bow, which was taller than herself, and said coldly:

"Ursus man, I'm warning you, release him!"

“Sarkaz, killing was not Ursus’s intention. If he agrees to submit, I will naturally let him go, including you.”

Captain Ursus's deep voice echoed through the forest: "Of course, if you are unwilling to submit, you may leave, after all, you are not Sami."

"In the end, aren't you still committing atrocities in Sami?"

Typhon's anger was almost igniting her.

Most Sami tribes are small, but even the smallest tribes are full of vibrant lives.

Seeing the state of the Sami people before him, Typhon could already imagine the fate of the remaining Sami who had failed to escape.

Captain Ursus remained calm, responding without the slightest fluctuation in his tone:

"Violence is our means, I won't deny that, but violence is not our goal. The endless ice plains are changing, and a crisis is gradually awakening in the deepest part."

Ursus yearns to quell this crisis; Ursus is willing to stand at the forefront of this land, but the Sami do not understand. They are corrupt and stubborn, clinging to their long-withered traditions and wasting their time on this land.

"You are simply unreasonable!"

Typhon was nearly driven mad by the Ursus captain's words: "You say you want to be at the forefront of this land, so you want to kill these warriors who guard the ice plains first?"

"Their corruption and stubbornness have threatened victory!"

Captain Ursus's tone gradually became serious: "As Ursus people who are confronting the Sami, we know our opponents best. The Sami rely on the power of this ice field to fight the crisis, but the power of the ice field is gradually weakening."

You are a Sarkaz living in Sami. You should know that the Sami heritage has become increasingly rare in recent years. Do we really have to wait until the Sami people are completely assimilated by the crisis, and let these warriors who swore to protect Sami become our biggest threat?

Now that Sami has shown signs of weakness, he must either kneel down or retreat, and Ursus will bring victory to this land! Otherwise, Ursus will crush all obstacles on the road to victory!

Typhon stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

For a moment, she didn't know whether to call these Ursus people crazy or noble.

Captain Ursus pointed to the road Typhon had come from and commanded:

"Step back, or become an enemy of Ursus!"

"...Incomprehensible!"

Typhon drew a massive arrow from his quiver, one that could even be called a spear, and without hesitation nocked it on his bowstring.

Ursus's troops also decisively adopted a defensive stance, with their crossbows neatly arranged and aimed at the giant bow.