Asura in Arknights

Himer was now itching to rush over and find Director Palvis to get a good answer to what was going on.

Barely suppressing the urge, Himer still harbored a deep resentment. "I'll find a way to help."

"Thank you for your kindness." Li Ang nodded, but he didn't have much hope for Himer's promise.

Faced with such a massive organization, there was far too little that Himer, a mere researcher, could accomplish on her own.

“Miss Himer, I have another question. The agreement mentions that the Melander Foundation will send representatives to oversee Rhine Lab's operations. I would like to ask when they are expected to arrive?”

Now that it was confirmed that Himer was on his side, Li Ang no longer hid his distrust of Rhine Lab.

"They...may need some more time."

Himer frowned; it was clear she didn't particularly enjoy dealing with people from the Melander Foundation, but she still answered Li Ang's question.

"Rosemary has not yet undergone a physical examination, and it will take some time to analyze the results after the examination is completed... Once the treatment plan is finalized and submitted for their review, the Melland Foundation will send a representative to oversee the entire treatment process."

"Thank you for letting me know..."

Li Ang pondered silently in his heart that if that old goat wanted to take advantage of the situation, excluding the possibility that they had bribed the Melander Foundation in advance, this period of time was their last chance to strike.

After a moment of contemplation, Li Ang slowly said to Hemer, "Miss Hemer, I have a favor to ask of you."

"Please speak."

“Miss Himer, I trust your character, but I don’t trust others as much, especially your teacher.”

Li Ang directly targeted Palvis, not worried that Himer would think he was trying to sow discord between teachers and students, "After all... the joint consultation plan was proposed by him."

"So, I hope Miss Himer can help keep an eye on what other people are doing to prevent them from getting their hands on Rosemary."

Although Li Ang would keep a close eye on the situation, he felt it would be better to have an extra layer of security.

Looking back at Palvis's earlier act of kicking people out, what was originally a normal thing seems to have become a bit strange after being viewed through a biased lens.

Hermer looked somewhat embarrassed, but she took a deep breath and then nodded heavily.

"I promise I won't let anyone else harm the rosemary."

"Thank you very much. We should probably head back now; they've been waiting for a long time."

Afterwards, Li Ang and Himer returned to the main entrance of the Structural Science Laboratory Building, called Adele and Rosemary who were waiting there, and entered the building together.

Although Li Ang had warned Himer beforehand, Himer didn't seem to have made any preparations for it.

After some inquiry, it was learned that the Structural Department had also admitted a patient with a similar experience to Rosemary. She also had a stress reaction to objects such as white coats, restraints, and scalpels. The Structural Department had made similar preparations before, so it was enough to use that part of the facilities and no special preparations were needed.

Himer called over a white-haired Liberi researcher to help.

After giving Rosemary a small amount of sedatives to put her to sleep, Hamer and the researcher named Joyce conducted a thorough examination of her.

With Adele inside with Rosemary, Leon stood outside the consultation room separated by glass, silently watching the people bustling about inside.

Meanwhile, Li Ang's senses were also exploring the experimental building layer by layer.

Except for a few key rooms that were shielded, making it inconvenient for Li Ang to forcefully break through using his senses, the entire building had already been brought under his perception.

Unfortunately... Li Ang didn't find anything suspicious.

Perceiving the world is too abstract, and it is indeed a very difficult thing to conduct an investigation when you know nothing about it.

However, during this process, Li Ang discovered some interesting things, such as...

Li Ang suddenly turned his head and looked towards the corner on the other side of the corridor.

The figure hiding around the corner was startled by Li Ang's sudden action and hurriedly pulled its head back, but... why was half of its tail still sticking out?

Judging from the person's build, she should be the other child Hamer mentioned before, who survived the illegal human experiments... Is she here to see Hamer?

Thinking this, Li Ang slowed his pace and quietly walked towards the spot where the tail was showing.

He didn't turn the corner of the corridor; he just stood there silently waiting, waiting for the child to give in and come to him.

After a few minutes, perhaps because he hadn't heard any noise and thought he might not have been discovered, the child gradually became bolder again.

She cautiously peeked out from around the corner, trying to check the situation, but bumped right into Li Ang, who had been waiting there for a long time.

Their eyes met, and the little devil was startled, letting out a strange "whoa!" and his body jerked backward, almost falling to the ground.

"That really scared me to death..."

The Sarkaz child swayed, regained her balance, and patted her chest with lingering fear, glaring at Leon. "What are you looking at, you white-haired monster! Nya na na!"

"..."

Li Ang's lips twitched slightly. This brat... he's really not likable.

He simply stepped forward, grabbed the brat by the back of her collar, and lifted her up. "Where did this brat come from, running around here like this?"

The brat tried to dodge, but how could she possibly be faster than Li Ang? She was grabbed and flailed wildly in the air, yelling, "Put me down right now! Or I'll set you on fire!"

"Oh."

With a light laugh, Li Ang ignored the brat's threat and grabbed her, returning to their previous waiting spot.

Upon seeing Himer busy in the examination room, the brat stopped struggling and shouted, "Help me, Himer! I've been captured by a strange guy!"

"Who are you calling a weirdo?"

Li Ang put the kid down and tapped her on the head. "Also, your Dr. Hermer is busy right now. You don't want to disturb her work, do you?"

Sure enough, the moment Li Ang mentioned Hermer, the brat immediately became much more obedient.

The brat pouted. Although she was unwilling, she eventually quieted down. She would rather disturb Hermer's work than be with this annoying guy.

With her eyes fixed on the situation in the examination room, she naturally noticed Rosemary, who was undergoing an examination. She immediately recognized the examinations that had been performed on her.

That brat... could he be like me? This thought naturally crossed her mind, without her realizing that she wasn't much older than Rosemary.

At this point, the examination of the rosemary was also coming to an end.

While organizing the test reports, Himer and Joyce opened the door to the examination room.

"Hermer!!"

Upon seeing Hermer emerge from the door, the brat didn't wait a second longer before rushing over with a joyful expression. The slight displeasure on his face vanished the moment he saw Hermer.

Feeling the force of the sudden movement into his arms, Himer hurriedly hugged the kid and placed all the reports in his hand on Joyce's side.

"Ifrit?! What are you doing out here?"

I miss you, Himer!

"It's a girl named Ifrit!" she called out in a clear voice, showing no trace of her previous unpleasant demeanor.

As she spoke, she glanced at Joyce beside her and said with a grin, "And of course, there's Sister Joyce too."

Joyce held all the documents in her arms, freed one hand to pat Ifrit's head, and said calmly, "Ifrit, it was wrong of you to run away without permission. You shouldn't have caused trouble for others."

Ifrit immediately put on a guilty look and weakly retorted, "Because...because I really miss Himer..."

"I know I was wrong, and I won't do it again next time," she said dejectedly.

"Alright... I'll take Ifrit back later."

Himer sighed helplessly, then released Ifrit from her arms.

Then, Himer regained his usual expression, walked up to Li Ang, and said to him, "Mr. Kennedy, tell me the results of the examination first."

"Rosemary's health condition... is very good."

"He's so healthy, he doesn't look like an infected person at all."

Chapter Twelve: The Night Intruders

"That's normal."

Hermer's test results were not unexpected for Li Ang.

"If you've looked at Rhode Island's medical records, you'll understand that Rosemary wasn't an infected person in the conventional sense."

As he spoke, Li Ang glanced at the brat named Ifrit not far away...

Hamer turned around and immediately understood. She said to Joyce, "Joyce, leave this to me. Please help me take Ifrit back to her room."

Nodding, Joyce handed all the medical reports to Himer and then took Ifrit's hand.

"Let's go, it's time to take your medicine."

"Eh—"

Ifrit started to grumble somewhat, but her attitude softened the moment she saw Himer's expression.

"Okay... I'll go back then..."

After muttering a few words under her breath, Ifrit stopped resisting and obediently let Joey lead her away.

However, as they turned the corner in the corridor, Ifrit suddenly shouted again, "Hime! You must come to see me when you have time!"

"I will."

Himer nodded, which was a nod to Ifrit.

After watching her and Joyce's figures disappear at the end of the corridor, Himer said somewhat apologetically, "Sorry, Ifrit is a bit too clingy to me. She was just rescued from an underground laboratory near Tremont by the Defense Department not long ago."

"That's good. Being energetic is always a good thing."

Although... Li Ang felt that the brat was a bit too energetic.

However, for that child, this excessive activity could also be a way for her to release her emotions.

Only when she touched Himer did Ifrit's fear begin to ease slightly.

She was a very strong child, so Li Ang was also quite patient with her.

"Um......"

He nodded silently, then shifted the topic back to rosemary.

“Mr. Kennedy, let’s continue with our previous topic… The teacher didn’t leave me any information, and based on Rosemary’s examination results, I don’t quite understand what exactly is wrong with her.”

They really have no sincerity at all... Are they planning to treat Rosemary as a precious specimen for research if they can't experiment on her? Or are they just going to give her to Himer and ignore her?

Or... could we find out where Rhine Lab stores those experimental data? Considering that there might be an identification mechanism there, Li Ang thought it would be simpler to find where Locken Williams was being held and just kidnap him.

However, Li Ang also discussed this possibility with Kal'tsit. Kal'tsit said that the experiment that happened to Rosemary was almost impossible to replicate. Even if Loken himself were brought here, it would not make much sense. The important thing was the original data. A prison break could only be used as a last resort.

Shaking his head slightly in his heart, Li Ang said, "Oripathy is troublesome, but Rhodes Island and I have quite a few methods to control it. If it were just this kind of problem... we wouldn't have to hold our noses and negotiate with Rhine Lab."

"Rosemary's main problem is that a special infected organ was implanted in her brainstem. This infected organ does not increase the density of Originium crystals in her blood, so we can only say that Rosemary is an infected person, but we cannot say that she has Oripathy."

As he spoke, Li Ang found Rosemary's head CT scan and pointed to a small, barely noticeable shadow in the brainstem area, "Look, it's right here."

"Rosem's physiological functions are currently normal, and this special infected organ has indeed enhanced Rosemary's Originium Arts. However, no one can guarantee what kind of impact it will have on Rosemary herself after the infected organ is removed."

"Even if we maintain the status quo, that infected organ has had many negative effects on her, and... we can't be sure whether these effects originate from her physical body or her soul... Do you understand what I mean?"

Li Ang briefly explained the difficulties they were facing to Himer, and of course, the most likely explanation was that the infected organ had caused both physical and spiritual effects on Rosemary.

His demands weren't high. If the infected organs couldn't be removed, as long as the suturing at the soul level could be resolved, the remaining problems could actually be solved.

"soul?"

Himer frowned reflexively, after all, in all the medical knowledge she had learned, there was absolutely nothing that could be related to the word "soul".

However, she had heard similar words from those con artists.

"The soul is real."

Seeing what Himer was thinking, Li Ang explained, "I think you don't need to understand this as a purely medical issue. It should be considered a combination of medicine and Originium Arts."

God knows how Loken managed to come up with this kind of black technology all by himself; even the sorcerers of Rhodes Island couldn't do anything about it.

"Originium Arts Application Department..."

Himer immediately thought of the department within Rhine Lab that specializes in researching the applications of Originium Arts in various fields.

If we can get their help, it should be very helpful in treating rosemary.

However, Himer suddenly thought of a possibility, "Wait...could they also be involved in this?"

"You mean the experimental data from the Loken tank? Of course they got it too. In fact, several departments at Rhine Lab responsible for research and development all got some of the data. If you're talking about the current joint consultation... well, of course not. How could the Structural Engineering Department possibly give up such a good opportunity to someone else?"

Hemer felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

"Take it easy, it's not your fault. It's just that some people, for the sake of their so-called research, have forgotten that they are also human beings."

This place... was completely different from what she had imagined. Hemer wanted to say something, but felt at a loss for words, and could only fall silent, her shoulders drooping helplessly.