Arknights, but the family has fallen again

"Welcome to my world," Ott said.

Vina remained silent and pinched her face.

Not dreaming?

"Do you remember your request?" Otto said, "You want to truly integrate into Rhodes Island—not just as a hired operator, but as a member of Rhodes Island."

"...I remember." Vina was a little embarrassed.

That's rhetoric.

Rhodes Island and Vina have similar goals.

No matter what she wants to do in the end, Vina cannot do without Rhodes Island's help to return to Londinium.

This afternoon, Gao Wen, who had not been seen for a long time, suddenly appeared and taught Vina this speech skill. He said that this could help Vina fulfill her wish.

But...what exactly is my wish?

Vina had only vague impulses and was unable to form a concise program or even a logically complete appeal.

During her time in Chernobyl, she heard Ott's lecture on "blood pay" and even took part in it herself not long ago to protect the villagers of Casimir from bloodshed.

Is this what Victoria needs?

Maybe.

But does Victoria need me?

do not know.

"Come back to your senses." Ott interrupted the "King of Sedimentation" and said, "We still have work to do."

He opened the gate and led Vina towards the center of the town.

"Where? How many should be killed?" Vina followed quickly.

After personally visiting the town, Vina discovered that although it was small, it had everything she needed. She not only saw a library, but also a bank!

But strangely, there have been mosquitoes committing suicide by colliding with the dead trees and sculptures in the center of the town.

Is this a new way to repel mosquitoes?

No, it was just that some idiot mistook this "junction" for a room of time. Since he couldn't find the corresponding hero equipment for his professional orange class, he had little interest in attacking the boss.

After walking out of the tavern that had been converted into a dormitory, Vina saw two familiar faces next to the cart: Margaret Linguang and Amiya.

"Huh? Miss Vina is the last team member?" Amiya was a little surprised.

"It's a farm theme after all," Ott said. "I believe this will save me some time to settle down."

Settling time?

Amiya habitually put on an awkward smile for herself, but found that Vina didn't feel offended at all.

"Farm?" Vina asked. "What farm? Are there potatoes?"

As expected, he is a British person from another world.

"Given the context, it's highly likely that the Columbian Exchange occurred," Ott said. "But even if the land was cultivated before, the only thing it can grow now is crystals."

"Crystallization!?" Amiya exclaimed.

She has gradually accepted Kal'tsit's setting and regards the border area as an organic combination of Ott's subconscious and memory fragments.

"Look over there." Ott pointed to the sky in the distance.

Under the dark blue background, there seems to be a thick halo surging.

"A meteorite hit the mill there. More precisely, the mill there was hit by a meteorite in the past, and now, that meteorite has hit the mill now."

What is all this mess?

Vina frowned.

"Besides the mill, the miller cultivated a vast expanse of land. But a bad year ruined everything. The crops were struck by blight, and the miller suffered heavy losses. He tried again the following year, but drought drained his lifeblood."

"In desperation, the miller turned to the local nobles for help."

"The learned local nobleman came up with a miraculous solution: he sent the miller a stone tablet engraved with celestial figures."

"One night, with a loud bang, a meteorite from the dark depths of space destroyed the miller's mill."

"From the meteorite emitting a strange light, countless crystals emerged. These crystals also emitted the same light. Those illuminated by this light also grew the same crystals."

"The once fertile land has become a lifeless wasteland, bearing only polluted fruit. The fields are filled with crystallized people, and the farms are covered with crystallized crops."

But why is the halo so thick... It hurts!

Warm power surged from her forehead, and Vina quickly realized that it was Ott's Originium skill.

"Don't think about it. When faced with these things, the more you think about them, the more you try to dig deep, and the more problems you're likely to encounter." Ott said, "Contrary to your appearance, you're surprisingly a person with a heavy heart and are hesitant in doing things."

Unlike those who "know a little bit" about Otto, Vina did not think about the connection between all this and Otto, but instead inadvertently asked herself a fatal question.

She subconsciously pondered the "crazy colors" and touched upon an underlying rule that sewn together the narrow cracks of this world.

"...I'll take it as a compliment."

"No, this is criticism." After arriving in this secret realm, Dr. Ott became unexpectedly frank. "When faced with a dilemma, hesitation is human nature. But the commander must not use this as an excuse - if he is just an ordinary person, why would he become the commander?"

"Vina, if you were just an ordinary person, you would be a disaster for everyone."

"Teacher...Did Gawain come to see you?!"

Ott shook his head: "I don't need anyone to solve this mystery for me."

He only had to ask Keltsit.

Although as a player, he already knew this, this question would bring a little psychological comfort to Maomao...

"We've been delayed long enough, it's time for us to get going."

"Wait, where are we going!?"

“Let practice be the teacher this time!”

Chapter 314: Crystallization Era

Following the road leading to the mansion ruins, you can see a small path leading to an abandoned farm.

Under the dim blue light, half of a mill stands abruptly in the center of the farm.

The windmill's blades were still creaking and spinning aimlessly, unaware that they were already dead: a huge gap almost cut the mill off at the waist.

From a physical point of view, the structure, which is so thin that it is barely as thick as a palm, cannot possibly support the windmill on top of the mill.

But reality has given the laws of physics a resounding slap in the face.

"Why didn't it fall down?" Vina looked up.

Inadvertently, the lonely moon in this world entered her eyes.

Fortunately, she didn't care.

"You can always blame it on the spell," Ott said.

"What's the point of using Originium technology to maintain a mill like this?" Lin Guang also sighed.

Amiya glanced at Ott and said, "I guess the mill is not important."

Ott looked up and said, "No, the mill is important."

"'The Miller' is important, too," he said in Casimir.

"Maenna?" Lin Guang frowned: "What's wrong, uncle?"

That’s right, Mainna Linguang, the meaning of his name is “miller”.

"Poor 'Maenna', she suffered at the hands of her ancestors."

The story has already been told, so Otto will not say more.

However, it was only at this time that Lin Guang realized that the metaphor that Otto used before setting off... was actually the arrow shot at himself.

Walking along the deserted path, the group soon arrived at the "entrance" of the farm.

"Where is the mill?" Vina scratched her head.

In the distance, you can still see the ever-changing halo with a faint blue tone. But once you get closer, the endless jungle and the tightly-fitting stone slabs block your way.

The stone slab was engraved with a pattern of stars, but some ignorant mortal connected the stars on the slab together and called them "constellations." It seemed that in this way, the plants, birds and animals on the earth could be connected to the blazing fireballs in the sky.

Besides the stars, the stone slab was also covered with densely packed linear characters, which looked blurred and indistinguishable from the perspective of an outsider.

But if you look closely, the words begin to wriggle like worms.

Amiya reminded her, "Ms. Vina, these words are fragments of Doc Otter's memory. Although they are blurry to our eyes, I still suggest you not to delve into them."

"...Oh." Vina was a little absent-minded.

Lin Guang had already accepted this setting when she was training new operators and Sarkaz land servants, and she had never paid attention to the text from the beginning.

They walked for a long time in front of a long wall surrounded by dense forests and stone slabs, and finally found a stone slab inlaid with a stone plate.

Ott held out his hand.

The whole world seemed to be taken away for a frame, and when his hand touched the place where the stone disc should have been, the stone disc disappeared.

At this moment, the worm-like inscription on the stone slab followed the girls' line of sight and crawled into their brains. Those "fragments of Otto's memories" gnawed at their brains, winding and eroding out a line of words:

Gravity is desire, time is vision.

"Just now..." Lin Guang was a little confused: "What did that feel like?"

Ott was reluctant to elaborate: "I've heard that it's not people who are constantly pursuing knowledge, but knowledge that is constantly pursuing people."

"And its pursuit is cruel and emotionless, like the falcon and hounds catching the rabbit."

Amiya exclaimed: "Why are you capturing me!?"

Under the little rabbit's antics, Vina and Lin Guang's already weak desire to get to the bottom of the matter also faded away.

"Lin Guang, you take the lead. Vina, follow behind."

"understand!"

Lin Guang, a master of Originium, walked in the front row, carrying a heat-driven halberd. Behind Vina, who carried a warhammer, stood Ott, anxiously toying with a crystal-shell dagger.

Amiya hooked her arm around his and asked worriedly, "Doc, are you okay with that feeling just now?"

She believed that Otto's previous sigh was just an excuse, and the illusion that was gnawing at his brain was a sign that Otto's memory was gradually recovering.

If she had a choice, she didn't want Otto to recover his memory.

"Here, time has never existed. Even if it existed, it would be a maze." Otto did not answer Amiya's question. Instead, he pointed to the sky.

There, the night sky is like a photograph being exposed in a dark room, recording the comet's trail.

"The comet destroyed the farm long ago, and the farm was sealed with stone slabs long ago. But all this has only just happened."

As soon as the words fell, before the girls could understand, several "mummies" that had been exposed to meteorite radiation for hundreds or even thousands of years crawled up.

They... no, they are still alive, but in every crevice of their skin, there is a flickering light that changes unpredictably.

Shrunken monster, farm worker.

Not only that, the heavy plow horse that had been dead for a long time under the group's feet also shook its head and climbed up from the plowed land. Unlike the farm workers, its back was pierced by a dazzling dark blue crystal.

A shrunken monster, a plow horse.

This... is indeed the projection of Originium disease in Doc Otter's consciousness!

The plow horse snorted and pounced heavily on its hooves, stirring up a cloud of dust. It was this action that attracted everyone's attention.

"The hooves of this beast of burden are light!"

It turns out that what sews together the bodies of these shriveled monsters is light!

The dust raised by the plowing horses also emitted a dim and changing fluorescent light, and there was no trace of it at all.

"Lin Guang, force it to show itself. Vina, stop those two workers."

"understand!"

"Roger that!"