Asura in Arknights

However, after arriving at the Great Knight's territory, Ferdinand's mission was fraught with setbacks, as he received a series of bad news.

The former chairman and chief researcher died one after another, the factory area was destroyed by natural disasters, and the experimental data disappeared without a trace... If this plan were not so important to him and to Rhine Life, Ferdinand would have turned around and left immediately. Whoever wants to do such a troublesome thing can do it; he doesn't have that much time to waste.

The only good news is that the new chairman of Pol Pharmaceuticals is quite cooperative. Although we didn't get to meet him, he fulfilled most of his requests.

As long as the experimental data is still buried in the ruins and not damaged, even if it takes a little time, they will eventually be able to successfully retrieve the experimental data of Project Dream and report it to the military.

Ferdinand planned to hand the task over to his students. He couldn't stay here any longer, and the task wasn't difficult, just a bit troublesome. It would be good for his students to get some experience.

Elena will go back and fool those idiots in the military first, while she stays here to lead a few other trusted confidantes to do the work.

This is how it should be.

Can……

"Why are people from the General Construction Department here?" Ferdinand muttered to himself.

Despite his doubts, Ferdinand knew he had to leave now.

Reality roared and yelled, and then he stood there dumbfounded, his face turning pale and then red. Just now, a kind passerby had asked him if he needed help calling an ambulance.

After checking the nearby shops, Ferdinand randomly picked a coffee shop and hurried inside.

After ordering a few things at random, Ferdinand once again fell into deep thought, pondering the reason why the General Components Department was here.

The General Components Department was the department managed by Christen Wright, the founder of Rhine Lab, and was also the nominal manager of Rhine Lab.

Rhine Life Sciences was originally a company formed by a group of like-minded people. The various departments are independent of each other and there is actually no hierarchy among them.

However, due to Christen's existence, the ten departments of Rhine Life were still willing to obey her orders.

When he received the internal message from Rhine Life the night before, Ferdinand felt no joy, only deep confusion.

This means that all his actions are under the control of that woman, Christensen, even though his secret operation has even escaped the notice of the military spies who are closely monitoring him.

This is not normal.

Kristen had no possibility, nor any reason, to know about his actions.

"What exactly does Christen want to do?"

While casually stirring his coffee, Ferdinand asked himself the same question once again.

Once upon a time, a group of researchers at Columbia University, fed up with the academic environment, were drawn to Christensen's ideas and the blueprint she outlined, and eventually united to found Rhine Lab.

Although they studied different fields, they were both striving for the same ideal, a period that Ferdinand still finds unforgettable.

Naturally, such a honeymoon period will not last long. People who get together on impulse will eventually discover each other's flaws after spending a long time together.

As minor frictions arose, numerous conflicts also occurred among the heads of various departments at Rhine Life.

As the one who connected everyone, Christensen had the ability to solve these problems, but in the end she did nothing.

Ferdinand also expressed his understanding, saying that it's possible to explain whether or not to intervene in such matters. Kristen can intervene once or twice, but can he really continue to do so indefinitely?

As long as Rhine Lab maintains its apparent stability, minor problems can be resolved privately.

At that moment, Ferdinand realized that it had been a long time since he last saw Christensen.

"You want me to cooperate in recovering 'Star Fragments'... Hah, do you really think I'm an idiot?"

The night before last, a special force directly under the General Components Division contacted Ferdinand, demanding his cooperation with the General Components Division's operation on Plot 21. They even brought up the name of that woman, Christensen, to threaten Ferdinand.

Ferdinand merely sneered at this, outwardly agreeing but having no intention of cooperating with their actions.

"The identities of those people are strange."

After receiving the call, Ferdinand made up an excuse and met with those people.

Although the meeting only lasted two or three minutes, Ferdinand instinctively realized that something was wrong.

Ferdinand wasn't particularly skilled in Originium Arts, but his sixth sense was remarkably sharp.

The other party's identity was confirmed; he was indeed an employee of the General Construction Department and had indeed brought Christen's orders. What made Ferdinand feel something was wrong was the person himself.

"What strange guy has Christen been hooking up with this time?"

Although the man appeared to be just an ordinary Luper male, Ferdinand felt a rather subtle sensation about him... He didn't know how to describe the feeling, as if the other person wasn't a living person, but a moving corpse.

This strange feeling seemed familiar, and Ferdinand frowned, racking his brains for memories.

After a long while, he slowly uttered a name.

"Tin Man".

There's no mistake, that man gave Ferdinand a feeling very similar to the Tin Man.

Although they are living people, their bodies are not 'alive'.

"Could it be the Melander Foundation?"

Although the troublesome foundation provided some financial assistance in the early stages of Rhine Life's development, it later caused a great deal of obstacles to Rhine Life's development.

The Tin Man is a senior agent of the Melander Foundation, an old friend of theirs, a freak whose entire body has been transformed into machinery. Many of Rhine Lab's weaknesses were uncovered by this guy, and Ferdinand hates him to the core.

Of all the intelligence Ferdinand had, only the Melander Foundation possessed the technology to transform a person into a machine.

But if it's the Melander Foundation, what exactly is Christensen plotting with them?

Putting the matter of that strange thing aside for the time being, Ferdinand is now increasingly dissatisfied with Christensen.

Ferdinand had noticed long ago that Christensen had changed and was no longer the Christensen they knew.

She spends all her time hiding in her office, seemingly engrossed in some unknown research, while Rhine Lab goes down the wrong path under her neglect.

Now, Christensen has finally shown his face, only to order him to cooperate in retrieving a so-called 'star fragment'?

As he pondered this, a mocking smile crept onto Ferdinand's lips.

"You really are someone who doesn't care about anything else when it comes to yourself..."

An uncontrollable rage welled up in Ferdinand's heart.

Do you know how troublesome it is to clean up the mess left by those bastards? Do you know how difficult it is to secure a suitable sponsorship?

Ferdinand has had no personal time for a long time, and he has mostly delegated his research work to his staff and students.

Despite not being the commander-in-chief, he performed the duties of one, going to great lengths for the Rhine's survival.

"No... I need to calm down."

Ferdinand closed his eyes and pressed hard on the throbbing veins on his forehead.

After several days without rest, coupled with a sudden surge of anger, he was genuinely worried that his cerebral blood vessels might not be able to withstand the pressure.

Fortunately, after taking several deep breaths, Ferdinand's blood pressure finally stabilized.

"Rhine Labs is not just your Rhine Labs."

When Ferdinand opened his eyes again, his gaze was filled with determination.

"Since you don't want to manage it, then let me manage it for you."

He had long harbored similar thoughts, but Ferdinand always held a glimmer of hope that Christensen could step in to reorganize Rhine Life and sweep away the chaos between the various departments.

In the end, however, Ferdinand was disappointed.

Christen could only see the starry sky above her head... well, maybe also the head of a certain defense department; the tiny Rhine lives were simply not worth her attention.

Ferdinand has finally made up his mind to seize Christensen's full power and bring everything under his control.

"All of this... is for Rhine Life."

After making up his mind, Ferdinand began to quickly analyze Christensen's purpose.

[Star fragments? I know what those are.]

About two weeks ago, a spectacular meteor shower appeared in the sky, scattering across every corner of the continent.

One of the fragments happened to fall near Trimont, was obtained by an employee of Rhine Lab, and eventually ended up in the hands of that old goat in the Structural Department.

It seems that Christensen also received this news and managed to get it from Palvis.

It's not surprising that the Grand Knights have a similar fragment, but what's unexpected is that Christen's ability to act is so strong.

Anyway, it's all for her wish, so don't worry about it.

Ferdinand had absolutely no interest in such things.

The one we should really care about is the guy who's carrying out the mission.

Ferdinand's intuition told him that the guy had come here for more than just to collect star fragments. If he acted recklessly, he was bound to cause a huge mess... or he had already caused one, but Ferdinand didn't know it yet.

In that case...wouldn't he, as the head of the energy department, become the perfect scapegoat?

"Elena, the authorization has been obtained. I will send the attachment to your email later. Get Rhodes Island to start operations as soon as possible. You will be in charge of the exploration work. I have other matters to attend to."

After sending a message to his student, Ferdinand got up and left the coffee shop.

Do you really think I'm easy to bully?

This time, he brought back quite a few good things from Rhine Lab.

Chapter 53 Confusion and Progress

"...That's interesting."

Meanwhile, after handing over the task to Hinterlaya and standing on the balcony for a while to admire the scenery, Li Ang received another reply from Hinterlaya.

The text message mentioned the abnormal mental state of the Rhine Lab supervisor, but that was not important to Li Ang. What was important was that he finally took this opportunity to identify all the current members of Rhine Lab in the Grand Knight Territory.

At least all members of Mingming.

In a coffee shop, Ferdinand Clooney is furious and powerless; Elena Ubica is affectionately cuddling with her sister on the Rhodes Island ship; and several others are staying at a hotel, having just received news that they are preparing to go to Rhodes Island to assist Elena in her next task.

Of course, Li Ang's biggest gain was that he overheard a lot of key information from Ferdinand's soliloquy.

Thanks to Ferdinand, who was so tired that he had to talk to himself to organize his thoughts. Although it was very troublesome for Li Ang's perception to lock onto a person, as long as the specific location could be determined, eavesdropping with his perception was almost always successful.

So far, no one has been able to detect this spying from power.

"Internal strife within Rhine Labs..."

After a moment of contemplation, Li Ang revealed a somewhat troubled expression.

It can be basically confirmed that the entity causing trouble on Plot Zero was not Rhine Life Energy Technology.

The purpose of this mentor and apprentice was very simple—to come and collect experimental data from the collaborative project, and incidentally, to see if they needed to renew their current cooperation agreement with Pol Pharmaceuticals.

They just didn't expect that there were more than just them from Rhine Life here, and the master and apprentice who were openly acting ended up taking the blame for someone else.

That employee in charge of the component department is the one Li Ang should be looking for; he's suspected to be the real culprit behind the recent series of chaos.

Unfortunately, Li Ang was unable to pinpoint the person's location.

The occasional words Ferdinand uttered were of no help whatsoever; the Tin Man and the Melander Foundation only confused Li Ang further.

However, as long as he kept an eye on Ferdinand, Leon was always able to catch that man by the skin of his teeth.

The price... is just a reduction in sleep time for the next period of time. Li Ang could tell that Ferdinand was just an ordinary person with no trace of Originium Arts on him, so it wouldn't be difficult to keep track of his movements.

After clearing up this misunderstanding, Li Ang felt it was necessary to change his attitude towards the master and apprentice.

If we exclude subjective factors, they are actually very good partners.

Ferdinand was capable, ambitious, and had exceptional drive; once he made up his mind, he immediately took action.

If you share the same goals as this type of person, cooperating with them is definitely not a bad thing.

Judging from Ferdinand's previous remarks, he had long been dissatisfied with the actions of Rhine Lab, and this incident triggered his outburst.

It seems that Ferdinand, having reached his limit of tolerance, is finally planning to seize power.

At this moment, Ferdinand rushed back to his hotel room, rummaged through his luggage and found a small suitcase. After confirming that everything inside was correct, he lay down on the bed and fell fast asleep.

After all, an ordinary person's body can't withstand several days and nights without rest.

It was only after Ferdinand woke up that he could begin to take action.

And the briefcase he took out... to be honest, Li Ang couldn't figure out what it was.

The limitation of his perception was this: he could only see that there was a sphere with an unusually complex mechanical structure inside, but he had no idea what the sphere did.

Returning to the sofa and sitting down, Li Ang fell into deep thought while keeping an eye on Ferdinand's every move.

So, what could Li Ang do and what could he gain during Ferdinand's usurpation of power?

"How about we get involved and see if we can get a piece of the pie?"