Arknights' Lock of Heaven

"Thor, why are you just watching? You're Commander Severin's son, how can you let Dr. Anto handle something like this alone?"

"Why don't you come out and say something for Dr. Anto? And you, Biederman, if it weren't for Dr. Anto helping you smooth things over with everyone, you'd still be hiding in City Hall, trembling with fear!"

"Why don't you even dare to speak up for the doctor?"

Thor? Biederman?

Xia Yu narrowed her eyes slightly upon hearing this.

It's just the two of you!

Xia Yu carefully examined their appearances, then winked slightly at Lion Scorpion.

After receiving the message, the latter quietly retreated into the shadows.

Her mission has begun.

Seeing the lion scorpion disappear into the shadows, Xia Yu turned to look at Dr. Anto beside her, only to find that she was actually calmly observing the three people by the fire.

He showed no intention whatsoever of speaking up to help them out.

"Kevin, don't get agitated. I just believe in Dr. Anto's abilities. She can definitely handle it."

The Letanian youth named Thor shrugged. "See? Didn't Dr. Anto handle it very well?"

"By the way, who is this?"

He shook off Kevin's hand, walked leisurely to Xia Yu, and extended his right hand. "You must be the Rhodes Island support that Dr. Anto mentioned, bringing the scarce medicine. You've been a great help."

Although he was talking to himself, his eyes kept glancing at Eyjafjalla behind him.

Seeing the young man's sunny smile, Xia Yu didn't even bother with polite formalities and turned to look at Anto beside her.

"Dr. Kal'tsit has some very personal matters to discuss with you."

“The teacher’s instructions,” Anto nodded, feigning sudden realization. “Let’s go inside the tent and talk about it.”

After saying that, she left Thor, who was frozen in place, and turned to walk with Xia Yu and Eyjafjalla into her tent.

Kevin sighed inwardly upon seeing this; it seemed that this Rhodes Island advisor didn't have a very good impression of Wolumond.

Indeed, Thor's behavior was truly appalling; as the son of the local sheriff, he remained completely silent in the face of such a situation...

He's been like this ever since he came back from the noble family, and Kevin feels like he hardly recognizes his old friend anymore.

"Ugh……"

“Sorry to have shown you the bad side,” Anto said, bringing out two folding chairs and inviting Xia Yu and Eyjafjalla to sit down.

"It's alright, no one can avoid these kinds of things. In fact, you did a good job," Xia Yu nodded approvingly. "No wonder Kal'tsit let you out alone."

“My teacher said that what I need now is experience, so I need to go out and travel more to improve myself,” Anto smiled modestly, then looked at Eyjafjalla.

"Who is this?"

"Hello, I am the new Scourge Messenger who joined Rhodes Island, codename Eyjafjalla."

The little lamb politely introduced itself to Anto.

“A messenger of natural disasters,” Anto nodded. “That’s quite something. Oh, by the way, just call me Anto.”

Anto's reaction was normal; messengers of natural disasters are not common in this world.

To become a messenger of natural disasters requires a high level of education, a courageous heart, and a spirit of dedication.

Education goes without saying, but how can one predict natural disasters without a certain level of knowledge?

Courage is essential; every Cataclysm Messenger must confront the catastrophe head-on and be prepared to contract Oripathy at any time.

As for the spirit of dedication, it's because if we have the above two points, then what is safer than walking on the edge of life and death?

Therefore, some small towns in this world cannot afford to hire messengers of natural disasters.

As for why Wolumonde exists, it's because Wolumonde, together with a series of smaller towns, forms one of Letania's commercial centers, and the wealthy town hall can even hire a Scourge messenger.

Moreover, while Biederman's level of expertise wasn't exceptional, it wasn't too bad either; he could generally predict most natural disasters.

But this time, Henai was extremely unlucky. The real cause of the disaster was thousands of meters underground. Although Biederman observed the accompanying phenomena at the last moment and notified the city hall in time, allowing most of Wolumonde to be safely evacuated, even the people on the damaged plots survived.

But the angry crowd doesn't care about any of that; can they vent their anger on natural phenomena?

Therefore, Biederman became the target of public anger, and if it weren't for the timely protection of the city hall, we don't know if he would be alive or dead now.

Although Anto didn't know Eyjafjalla's skill level, the fact that this advisor personally came to pick her up showed that she was no ordinary person.

"By the way, where's the medicine I ordered?"

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Anto suddenly realized what was happening and jumped up from his chair, staring at Xia Yu and asking.

Because she observed Xia Yu and the others' vehicles while she was outside, she realized that a modified SUV couldn't possibly hold 1,500 doses of medicine.

"The medicine is all good, so don't worry," Xia Yu said, reaching out to press the excited cat that had jumped in front of her back onto the chair.

"But we can't just take it out like that."

"What do you mean?" Anto frowned upon hearing this. "I remember applying for unconditional aid, right?"

Rhodes Island has channels for providing free aid, mainly to areas like Wolumonde that are hit by sudden disasters.

In other regions, medications still need to be charged; after all, it's not charity, so how could they not charge a single penny?

However, we tried our best to sell it at a relatively low price after deducting costs and shipping fees.

To be honest, the meager profits each year were simply not enough to support such a large operation, but Rhodes Island operated smoothly for three years.

This is all thanks to Kal'tsit; heaven knows how she managed to secure sponsorships from all sorts of bizarre sources.

“The medication is of course free,” Xia Yu shook her head, “but you also know the current situation in Wolumond.”

Upon hearing this, Anto quietly returned to her chair. She had heard about this special advisor from Xiao Yanzi.

He's unlikely to be the kind of person who would take advantage of Wolumonde's current predicament to make a quick buck.

Otherwise, Kal'tsit wouldn't have made someone like that a member of Amiya's guard.

"I'm asking you, what is Wolumond's biggest problem right now?"

Hearing this, Anto sighed.

As expected of a special advisor, he immediately saw that Wolumond's biggest problem was not the conflict between the infected and ordinary people.

“The biggest problem is the rescue,” Anto said with a wry smile, “because a wedding has rendered tens of thousands of people completely insignificant…”

"What about the next issue?"

“Secondary,” Anto paused for a moment, then quickly replied, “That is the food problem. Commander Severin told me that Wolumonde's food reserves are running low, and if reinforcements don't arrive soon…”

During her time in Wolumonde, Anto had completely won the trust of the locals, and even ordinary citizens held her in high esteem.

Therefore, the Wolumonde City Hall, which had to unite all forces to overcome the difficulties, did not hide the issue of food from her.

Even the local sheriff, Severin, personally spoke with her, hoping she could try her best to stabilize the infected population.

The first problem is the rescue; once this problem is solved, everything else will no longer be a problem.

But who can make those high and mighty nobles lower their heads and even glance at them?

Then there's the food. This little bit of food we have isn't enough to keep everyone alive through the winter, no matter how much we tighten our belts.

Finally, there is the conflict between the infected and ordinary people.

“I have good news for you,” Xia Yu said to Anto. “I used some ‘personal connections’ to get enough food to feed 10,000 people for more than two months.”

"Although the quality varied due to time constraints, at least it filled our stomachs."

You can't expect a bunch of highway robbers to have good quality food, right?

Upon hearing this, Anto jumped up excitedly and hugged Xia Yu tightly.

"That's great, that's great... Two months, two months is already a long time!"

As expected of Kal'tsit's rumored old friend, she possesses immense power, just like her teacher.

With everyone's quota reduced slightly, plus the food reserves in Wolumond, getting through this winter shouldn't be a problem.

The long tail of the Felin tribe swayed back and forth in front of Xia Yu, making one want to pluck it.

Xia Yu is an honest person, so she grabbed him right away.

"Eh~~~"

Anto snapped to attention and released his grip on him.

"Calm down first," Xia Yu said casually, releasing her grip on Anto's tail and changing the subject. "The food isn't here right now."

“Uh,” Anto said, blushing, before remembering the SUV that Xia Yu had driven when she arrived.

They couldn't even fit the medicines they applied for themselves, let alone feed tens of thousands of people for two months.

Anto quieted down and stared longingly at Xia Yu.

"I left the food and 1,300 doses of medicine in a cave near the Great Rift Valley. Now I only have 200 doses of medicine."

“Um,” Anto paused for a moment, then said, “Is it a problem with transportation?”

“Of course not,” Xia Yu waved her hand, and golden ripples spread through the air as boxes of medicine fell out of thin air.

"Transportation is not a problem for me."