Asura in Arknights

“I’m looking for Director Palvis. We had an appointment last month… The contact person on the registration is Dr. Kal’tsit from Rhodes Island.” Li Ang mentioned the name of Rhodes Island.

"Ah! So it's Rhodes Island... Please wait a moment while I find the appointment record."

Upon hearing the words "Rhodes Island," the woman's voice instantly brightened.

After a series of rustling sounds, the other person said, "Found it... Let me see, it turns out to be a joint consultation with Rhodes Island. Sir, is this what you mean?"

"Yes, that's it. Is Director Ahrendts Parvis in?"

"Professor Palvis is currently leading an experiment. Just let me know if you need anything."

The woman who answered the phone seemed to be a student of the head of the structural engineering department. Seeing that she seemed qualified to get involved in this matter, Li Ang replied, "We have now arrived in Trimont. I would like to ask when is a suitable time to bring the child for a check-up?"

"Anytime is fine. Our structural engineering department has been preparing for this consultation for a long time."

"In that case, I'll head over there later... but how do I get to the structural engineering department then?"

Li Ang had previously checked a map of Trimont. Although Rhine Lab did not occupy an entire city, its area was still quite large. Moreover, due to the involvement of trade secrets, the tourist map only marked the most conspicuous headquarters building. Li Ang had no idea where the Structural Engineering Department was located.

"Please contact me via my private number when the time comes, and I'll come out to pick you up."

Then the woman added, "Rhine Labs has very strict management; you can't enter the park without a pass."

Along with obtaining a phone number, Li Ang also learned the other party's name.

Olivia Hemer, a senior researcher in the Rhine Life Structural Department, has a very similar status to Elena; both of them are the director's prized students.

After agreeing on a meeting time with Hermer, Li Ang hung up the phone.

“The time has been arranged,” Li Ang said, glancing at the two people waiting beside him.

Hearing this, Adele bent down, patted Rosemary's little head, and asked softly, "Are you scared?"

Rosemary didn't actually understand what Adele was saying, but she still shook her head.

"Then let's set off."

Li Ang stepped forward and picked up Rosemary, and the kitten affectionately hugged his neck.

Both of them had white hair, but Li Ang's hair was a pale white without any color, while Rosemary's hair was rich with a subtle hint of light blue.

Furthermore, Li Ang had changed into a more mature outfit, and in places where the light wasn't very strong, the two did indeed look somewhat like father and daughter.

After leaving the hotel, the group hailed a taxi. Their hotel was not far from the headquarters of Rhine Life, and in just a few minutes, the headquarters came into view.

The building's design is quite unique. From a distance, it looks like several rings of the same radius but different thicknesses stacked together. Not far away, there is another slightly smaller ring. Together, the two buildings form a structure similar to the Rhine Life logo.

Their strength can be roughly judged just by the size and design of their headquarters building.

RheinLife is a research-oriented organization that rarely gets involved in actual production. Their engineering department has a small factory that is sufficient to meet the needs of internal testing, so the headquarters is not very large.

As soon as Li Ang and his group got out of the car, they saw a brown-haired Liberian woman wearing round-framed glasses standing in front of the gate's turnstile, looking back and forth anxiously.

If nothing unexpected happens, then it should be Olivia Himer.

At this time, there weren't many pedestrians coming and going from the main entrance of Rhine Labs. Li Ang and his two companions stood out in the crowd, and Hermer spotted them immediately.

Hermer's eyes lit up immediately, and he jogged over, panting, "Excuse me... excuse me..."

Having spent most of her time in the lab without any physical activity, Hermer's physical condition was quite worrying; she was out of breath after just a few steps.

“Miss Himer... right?”

After glancing at the name on the other person's name tag to confirm that he hadn't mistaken her for someone else, Li Ang said to her, "Don't worry, you haven't contacted the wrong person. The person who contacted you just now was me."

"Phew... I'm sorry... Please excuse my poor appearance."

He took a deep breath and finally calmed his racing heart.

When she looked up, Li Ang noticed that Miss Hermer had dark circles under her eyes, as if she hadn't slept well for months.

In Li Ang's perception, Himer's mental state was also very worrying. Her thought processes would occasionally be interrupted for a moment. Although each interruption lasted for less than half a second, and even Himer herself might not have noticed it, it was indeed a very dangerous sign.

Is working at Rhine Life really that hard? Li Ang couldn't help but wonder.

Considering that he and Himer weren't that close, Li Ang didn't say anything more.

"Please follow me. The Structural Engineering Department's laboratory building is over here."

After using his ID card to help Li Ang and the others pass through the turnstile, Himer led them toward the experimental building located on the west side of the headquarters.

When they approached the laboratory building, an elderly man with white hair, Caprini, was already waiting there for quite some time.

"Professor Palvis, what brings you here?"

Seeing Palvis waiting at the building entrance, he was very surprised and went to greet him.

Upon hearing this, Palvis replied gently, "Hermer, you may not fully understand how significant this joint consultation is for the Structural Department, so as soon as I heard the news, I immediately put down my work and rushed over."

"Is that so...?" Himer looked somewhat confused.

"I'll tell you the specific reasons later," Palvis said with a smile, patting Himer on the shoulder.

Hemer nodded and didn't dwell on the matter any further.

Then, Palvis walked towards Leon and Adele.

As he opened his arms, seemingly wanting to take Rosemary from Li Ang's arms, he said, "Thank you for your hard work. Give me the child; someone from the business department will come to assist you with the remaining procedures later."

Leon took a step back, widening the distance between himself and Parvis.

"...What do you mean by that? Is there a problem?" Palvis frowned, looking somewhat displeased.

“Director Palvis, I think you may have misunderstood something. We are not employees of Rhodes Island,” Leon said, looking at Palvis with a smile. “We are the foster parents of Rosemary.”

The moment Li Ang saw Palvis, he realized that this old man... was definitely not a good person.

Although he appears to be a cheerful and easygoing person on the surface, Palvis's inner emotional fluctuations are completely opposite to his facial expressions. He reveals a temperament similar to Ayin's, which is to disregard laws and morals for the sake of his research.

This actually put Li Ang at ease. There are too many hidden problems in this world. If scientists don't act a little crazy, they might never be able to reach the forefront of technological development.

This old guy may not have any morals, but at least his level of ability is guaranteed.

“Adoptive parents?” Palvis raised an eyebrow, his expression somewhat gloomy.

"What? Doesn't Director Palvis believe me? I brought the complete adoption paperwork. Do you need to verify it, Director?"

Li Ang narrowed his eyes slightly and said with a forced smile, "Or...do you think that even we, as your adoptive parents, have no right to supervise your treatment process?"

The previously relaxed atmosphere suddenly changed. Hermer, who was standing to the side, hesitated, unsure of how to intervene in the conversation between the two.

Perhaps due to the aftereffects of the surgery, Rosemary was more sensitive to this indescribable atmosphere, and she nervously snuggled closer to Li Ang.

Noticing this detail, Palvis quickly realized that even if the man and woman in front of him were not the so-called adoptive parents, their relationship with the test subject was closer than he had imagined.

It seems that... there have been many unexpected changes in this experiment, and realizing his idea is not as easy as it was at the beginning.

“Of course, of course… Your request is perfectly reasonable,” Palvis said kindly, adjusting his glasses.

"I just never expected that anyone would be willing to adopt an... infected person."

Palvis was clearly about to say something even more offensive, but fortunately he changed his mind at the last moment, so that although his words sounded a bit harsh, they were actually not a big problem.

People with Oripathy are such an unpopular group.

“Now we have it,” Li Ang said casually. “Ore disease is just a rather troublesome disease. I thought you researchers were well aware of this.”

“Theoretically, that’s true, but understanding is one thing, fear is another,” Palvis said with a sigh. “Even knowing that Oripathy is almost impossible to spread through everyday contact, how many people would be willing to gamble their future, their entire lives, on that possibility, by living and eating with an infected person?”

When they said these words, both Palvis and Himer felt a complex mix of emotions.

Even in a place like Rhine Lab, where the minimum qualification is a doctorate, discrimination against infected people cannot be eliminated... Li Ang couldn't help but think of Elena. It seems that her ability to stay at Rhine Lab is entirely due to Ferdinand's work.

"Hermer, you happen to have experience in this area, so the rest of the work will be handed over to you. You can put aside your other work and focus on this project first."

After saying that, Palvis left without looking back.

With these two so-called adoptive parents causing trouble, Palvis had to restrain his actions somewhat.

Since he couldn't take action now, Palvis naturally lost interest in staying here. He had many important projects that he needed to personally oversee, and he didn't have time to waste here.

"Phew... Well then, you two, please come with me."

Seeing that the atmosphere had eased a bit, Hermer breathed a sigh of relief and said to Leon and Adele, "Next... we need to give this child a full-body checkup."

"...Her name is Rosemary."

As he said this, Li Ang gently put Rosemary down, but Rosemary immediately grabbed his clothes tightly.

Li Ang whispered to her, "I have something I want to talk to this...sister about. Why don't you go and spend some time with Adele first?"

Upon hearing Li Ang's words, Rosemary reluctantly let go of his hand, obediently ran to the side, and took Adele's hand.

Then, Li Ang beckoned to Hemer and said, "Miss Hemer, could you please come over here for a moment? I have a few things I'd like to tell you."

"......no problem."

Palvis's previous words had mentioned some details, and Himer could roughly guess some of the things, after all, it wasn't the first time she had seen a similar situation.

After following Li Ang to a corner, Himer couldn't help but ask, "That child... is she a victim of some kind of experiment?"

“Indeed…it seems this kind of thing is not uncommon in Colombia,” Leon casually mocked Colombian moral standards, then continued, “That’s exactly what I wanted to talk to you about.”

"Although it has already been mentioned in Rhodes Island's medical records, I would like to remind you again just in case."

"The inhumane experiments caused Rosemary extremely difficult-to-heal psychological trauma. In addition, her mental age is far below her actual age, so some things that are common in the laboratory may be very likely to trigger her."

For example, white coats and scalpels; he was talking about a person in a white coat holding a scalpel.

"For the sake of that child... and for the safety of all of you, please do not agitate the rosemary."

“…I understand.” Himer nodded solemnly.

Chapter 11

Li Ang wasn't bluffing.

Although she knew that Li Ang was very strong, after he made the decision to adopt Rosemary, Kal'tsit still provided him with some videos that Rosemary had filmed when she went berserk.

The videos were all very short, lasting less than ten seconds, because after that, everything in the room was destroyed, including the hidden cameras.

Although the camera couldn't capture Rosemary's brothers, we can roughly imagine what it was like back then.

An invisible force descended upon every corner of the room, crushing every item inside to dust. Even the thick alloy walls were twisted into strange shapes like mud.

This was still an unconscious rampage of Originium Arts after being stimulated. If Rosemary had taken control, she could have easily destroyed the armor layer of the landship.

In addition, Rosemary's brothers... well... even if Rosemary loses consciousness, her brothers will instinctively protect her safety by using Originium Arts.

If Rhine Labs were to commit such a heinous act, a bloody massacre would absolutely erupt here. Li Ang didn't believe anyone could be tougher than an alloy.

"Excuse my intrusion, but I recall... Rosemary was also from Colombia. Could I know which experiment she was a survivor of?"

Himer pushed up his glasses and said with a serious expression, "Since my mentor has assigned me to be in charge of this child, I will do my best. If possible... I will also try my best to help collect the experimental data, which will greatly help the child's treatment."

"If it's really inconvenient, just pretend I didn't say any of this."

Li Ang could sense that Hemer was sincere when he said those words.

She was still young, looking only a few years older than Elena, and probably had only recently joined Rhine Lab. She hadn't yet been corrupted by this big melting pot and still retained the innocence of a student.

If there's anyone in Rhine's life he can trust, then Himer is definitely one of them.

"This matter isn't exactly a secret, and Director Palvis will probably tell you about it later. But since you asked about it, I'll just tell you now."

Li Ang shook his head slightly. "Although I appreciate your willingness to help, I'm afraid you can't obtain those experimental data. You must have heard about the experiment that rosemary went through... no, I should say that in the entire scientific community of Columbia, probably no one is unaware of that experiment."

“Loken water tank,” Li Ang slowly uttered.

"What?! Loken Williams' Loken Tank? There were actually survivors from that experiment?"

Hearing this, Himer was so startled she almost jumped up from the ground, but she quickly realized her slip of the tongue and hurriedly apologized, "Sorry, I didn't mean that... I was just... just a little surprised."

“I understand,” Li Ang nodded. “However, I think you now know how difficult it is to obtain experimental data from the Loken tank.”

Frowning, Himer said with some doubt, "But... I remember Rhine Lab already obtained some of the data from the Loken tank, didn't it?"

“That’s right, otherwise why would Rhodes Island agree to Rhine Lab’s joint consultation?” Li Ang sneered.

Rhine Labs' calculations could be heard even in Kazimierz, but they just happened to have their fingers on Rhodes Island's weakness, forcing them to back down.

Upon hearing this, Hermer's expression immediately became quite interesting. She wasn't stupid, so she could naturally guess Rhine Lab's intentions.

“How could they do this…” Hamer murmured.

Although rationally, Himer knew that Rhine Lab was trying to gain benefits for itself, after all, there was only one experimental subject in the Loken tank, and if it was missed, it would be missed forever.

But emotionally, Himer couldn't accept that they were using such a young child... Besides, she was already pitiful enough.