Arknights: Studying medicine can't save Terra

Monroe immediately stepped forward and stood before the thirteen warriors whose blood was flowing with black.

"Comrade, report your situation."

“Captain…I heard…my mother calling me…”

"It's so dark, it's so dark all around... Captain, do you crave power?"

"Please kill me, I...I will live forever..."

Monroe listened quietly to the warriors' words, some sobbing, some in disarray, watching as a layer of black gradually settled on their faces.

He silently lowered his head and paid tribute to the thirteen soldiers.

Three seconds later, he raised his head again and looked at the military staff officer beside him:

"Have you recorded everything?"

"The record is complete. The sacrifice of these thirteen comrades will be forever engraved on the monument. They are important contributors to the collapse paradigm derivation."

"Let's do it."

The sound of blades piercing flesh rang out one after another.

Thirteen corpses lay side by side on the snowfield, their blood, which should have been bright red, stained a nauseating black, polluting the surrounding white snow.

The staff officer beckoned to a special team, which began the cleanup work around the thirteen corpses.

Without disturbing these professionals, Monroe gave an order to the intelligence officer standing guard beside him:

"Continue to consolidate the formation. We need to begin a forced march. We cannot afford to delay in engaging these things."

Before the team was fully reorganized, the special squad also finished their busy work.

White snowflakes gradually buried the thirteen bodies.

"Purification complete."

"Parameters have been collected."

"Contamination sample collection complete."

Monroe's gaze swept over the thirteen corpses one last time, and he waved his hand, saying:

The team advanced again.

The sounds of battle occasionally reached Monroe's ears.

His gaze pierced through the wind and snow, and he saw a group of figures dressed as Sami constantly harassing his group.

However, these people were not true Sami people; their faces had no features, only pitch blackness and a black hole with an eerie glow.

These people may have once been warriors fighting against evil, but now they have been corrupted and have become mere manipulated shells.

Whenever the Ursus team's attacks landed on these tainted shells, it was as if they had struck a withered corpse. The tainted shells would then immediately begin to shake and appear in another location in the blink of an eye with a strange movement.

"I'll emphasize it again: don't get entangled with these tainted bodies."

"Monroe shouted."

The team responded in unison, abandoning most of their offensive tactics and instead having the vanguard and shield guards set up a defensive line on the perimeter, using feints to make the tainted bodies flash continuously.

"Captain, the target area is now within firing range."

The roar of artillery fire rang out almost simultaneously with Monroe's order.

An explosion from Ursus shattered the snowstorm in Sami.

The firelight painted this white world with a fiery orange glow.

When the first round of firepower ceased, Monroe stared intently at the area where the snowstorm had briefly dissipated.

A slender figure draped in a white fleece danced amidst the flames and melting snowflakes.

But her collapsed, dark, and empty face made what should have been a beautiful scene feel eerie.

Xue Si danced in the flames, her figure ghostly, leaving behind one afterimage after another, her form constantly flashing in everyone's sight.

"Captain, this Yukishi is a bit special. She can maintain non-linear movement throughout the entire process."

The staff officer said with a grim expression, "In this situation, the effect of long-range fire coverage is practically nonexistent. If we want to inflict actual damage on her, we must forcibly insert a quantitative measure into the middle of her movement pattern."

“Speak like a human being.” Monroe glared at the staff officer.

The staff officer said with difficulty, "We need to use human lives to block her, so that soldiers can rush forward and use their flesh and blood to touch her and stop her in order to carry out an effective attack."

Monroe frowned: "Since this is also a collapse paradigm, is there no way to break it through computation?"

"Yes, but the conditions are not right now."

What conditions are required?

"First of all, forcibly deriving a paradigm requires terrifying computing power, requiring a supercomputer. If someone can derive a paradigm on the spot, that's beyond what can be described as genius."

Hearing this, Monroe was somewhat annoyed.

He hissed angrily in a low voice:

"All of you, with so many advisors and experts, are no match for a single machine?"

The staff officer could only smile wryly and explain:

"The so-called collapse paradigm does not only act on these collapsed bodies. When we observe this phenomenon, it means that we are also in the midst of this phenomenon."

As he spoke, the staff officer pointed ahead and asked:

"Captain, is the Snow Maiden you see active at the location I pointed to?"

“But in my eyes, she is right there.” The staff officer then pointed to the other soldiers. “In fact, everyone present sees Xue Si’s location differently. Only after the quantitative implantation will her location collapse into a point that can be observed.”

Monroe's gaze shifted back and forth between the two areas, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes becoming more pronounced as he squinted.

The staff officer hesitated for a moment, but finally spoke up to persuade him:

"Captain, now is not the time to hesitate. That Xue Si's dance is clearly some kind of trick. Once she completes it, an even more swift attack will engulf our army."

"Hesitating? No, I'm just thinking."

Monroe asked, "Answer me, after this battle, will this paradigm be successfully incorporated?"

"it should be OK."

"I guarantee I'll complete the mission; I'll stake my life on it!"

Monroe nodded and strode confidently to the front of his group.

He announced loudly, "All elite vanguard soldiers, step forward!"

The fully armed soldiers stepped forward.

"Put away your weapons and take off your gloves."

The soldiers acted swiftly to complete the order.

Monroe also removed his tactical gloves, letting the chill seep into his palms.

The wind howled, and the soldiers stood silently.

"Comrades, the time has come for Ursus to need us. Our mission is to use our flesh and blood to capture the calamity before us. The moment it stops will be the moment when Ursus's artillery fire descends."

Monrod ripped off his mask, revealing his aged face, making his voice clearer: "We may sacrifice ourselves, but Ursus will not stop."

For this land, for Ursus, and for the homeland behind us... Follow me, charge!

Chapter 995 Paving the way with blood, building a city with flesh

The soldiers scattered and charged forward toward what they saw as the enemy.

Monroe was also charging down this path.

He saw his companions around him being entangled by the non-linearly moving collapse bodies, saw the black filth seeping into their bodies through the warriors' wounds, and saw the Snow Sacrifice Staff waving before him, bestowing its power upon the other collapse bodies.

Similarly, he heard singing, perhaps coming from the snow shrine before him.

Perhaps it was his hallucination.

Just as the staff officer had deduced, when he observed this phenomenon, he was already caught up in it.

One familiar voice after another echoed in my ears: my mother's calls, my father's admonitions, my lover's instructions, my daughter's soft laughter...

Monroe's wrinkles at the corners of his eyes became more pronounced, but the determination in his eyes remained unwavering.

All he knew was that his comrades were by his side!

He was facing the enemy!

Forward, ever forward!

Monroe knew perfectly well that he was on the right path, and that he was getting closer and closer to Xue Si.

As Xue Si waved her staff, a ghostly light grazed Monrod's shoulder, enveloping his entire left arm in a terrifying chill that rendered it numb.

"You're retaliating. It seems we've successfully closed the distance to your attack range, making you feel threatened."

Monroe's steps grew increasingly firm.

A clear singing voice emanated from Xue Si's hollow body.

Monroe didn't understand the language used in Xuesi's lyrics, but he could clearly feel the emotions in Xuesi's singing.

Sadness, anger, helplessness, expectation...

As the leader who fought against the demons, Xue Si ultimately became a puppet of the demons and destroyed her tribe. She craved victory, but in the end, she became a major obstacle on the road to victory.

"I have come to send you to rest in peace, my honorable warrior."

Monroe successfully rushed to the front of Xue Si in his eyes, stared directly at the other's empty black face, and reached out to grab the other's slender, cold wrist.

A sigh echoed in his ears.

The wrist that had just been restrained by the palm disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Monroe realized that he had still failed to capture it.

But there was no time for him to regret it. A sudden attack was already upon him, and Monroe ducked to barely avoid the incoming lightsaber.

"Huh? A lightsaber?"

Monroe paused, stared intently, and then fell silent.

He was shocked to see a soldier dressed in Columbia equipment, wielding a kinetic lightsaber, charging towards him.

"I've been contaminated too..."

Realizing this, Monroe did not hesitate at all, and cleanly kicked the enemy in front of him away.

Having resolved the immediate crisis, the song once again echoed in Monroe's ears.

He scanned his surroundings and found that all around him was a vast expanse of white snow, and there was no sign of any of his companions.

Ironically, under these circumstances, Monroe felt his vision growing increasingly dark, as if a dense shadow was gathering around him, trying to completely engulf him.

"Flota".

The ethereal voice suddenly drowned out the singing and clearly reached Monroe's ears.

"What...no good!"

Monroe instinctively asked a question, but immediately realized something was wrong; he had actually responded with that kind of voice.

His heart rate quickened slightly, and he forced himself to stay focused, scanning his surroundings warily.

The crisis has not yet arrived.

The calamities gradually receded.

The voice caused the darkness in Monrod's eyes to gradually fade, and the figures of his companions reappeared. The movements of the Snow Spirit also became less elusive.

"Father of Ancestral Spirits..."

Monroe didn't know how to describe the emotions he was feeling at that moment.

He had caused the deaths of countless Sami people, yet now he was receiving help from what the Sami people called their ancestral father.

Without time to ponder this absurd situation, Monrod charged at the snow-covered figure before him once more.

The surrounding warriors seemed to have received the same help from the Father of Ancestral Spirits, changing direction and charging together towards the Snow Sacrifice, whose non-linear movement was restricted.