Arknights' Lock of Heaven

Colonel Nikolai even rejected the general's suggestion to send a high-speed warship, volunteering to lead everyone in a lightly equipped pursuit.

Because everyone thought they couldn't run far and would be captured easily, they didn't even try to intercept them near Ceprini.

And then the nightmare began...

"If we don't get any news by tonight, then you..."

Nikolai's spittle was practically flying onto the officer's face when, just then, a joyful voice, as if all the bitterness had finally turned to sweetness, rang out from outside the command vehicle.

"Report! The squad ahead has spotted the vehicle!"

"What? We finally caught up?" Nikolai roared, his eyes red. "Where is he? Bring him here! I want to see who can run so fast!"

"Uh, Colonel, the squad ahead only spotted the vehicle; the people inside have already abandoned it and fled..."

"what?"

Seeing his superior's blood pressure spike, the messenger immediately explained, "The car is still warm, so the person probably hasn't gone far!"

“Good, good, good,” Nikolai said, turning to the officers. “It’s good that they haven’t gone far. You few will lead a team to chase after them!”

"If you can't catch them by tonight, don't bother coming back!"

364

"Took the bait."

Looking at the hazy lights gathering in the night at the foot of the mountain, Xia Yu turned to Shuang Xing and said, "See, I told you we didn't need to disguise ourselves, right? They'll come in on their own."

"Are they in such a hurry?" Hearing this, Shuangxing looked past Xia Yu and towards the dim lights at the foot of the mountain in the wind and snow. "Searching the mountain on a snowy night is hard work."

“Yes,” Thomas, a guerrilla fighter behind her, asked curiously, “Aren’t they afraid of being ambushed?”

"An ambush?" Froststar turned to look at him. "They don't know our background, they don't know you're here. In their eyes, the advisor and I are just two people running away in panic."

“But sister,” Thomas said, his voice filled with worry, “are those things… really useful?”

"Natural disasters are just too..."

"A pipe dream, right?" Xia Yu shrugged, seeing his hesitant expression. "In your understanding, well, it's a bit absurd?"

“No, of course I believe in my elder sister, and I believe in you, Mr. Advisor,” Thomas said with a wry smile. “There’s no need to say more about my elder sister. You were willing to risk so much to cross the snowfield with the supplies we need most at this time. How could I not believe you?”

"But please understand, Mr. Advisor, I'm just a common soldier who dropped out of school after junior high. Perhaps you really do have the technology to create natural disasters, but it's far beyond the comprehension of a roughneck like me."

“So you don’t need to understand, just watch,” Xia Yu smiled slightly. “After all, this is my first time trying this. Although there’s nothing wrong with it in theory, the possibility of failure cannot be ruled out.”

Upon hearing this, Thomas's body instantly stiffened.

"No, don't scare me!" he said with a mournful face. "How can this be the first time we've used it? Five thousand people are surrounding us now, and there are hundreds of civilians behind us."

"Everyone's lives are in your hands!"

"Don't worry, it's fine," Xia Yu waved her hand. "If the experiment fails, I'll just deal with them manually."

"Manual? But that's five thousand people..."

“Look at Shuangxing, she’s so calm, does she look like something big is going to happen?” Xia Yu pointed at Shuangxing and said confidently, “Relax, relax, leave it to me.”

Hearing this, Thomas looked at Frostnova. Indeed, although her older sister looked somewhat helpless, she showed no sign of panic.

My older sister is definitely reliable, so there shouldn't be any problem... right?

-

"Search! Search everything!" An officer, gritting his teeth, looked at the pitch-black night before him and said, "Send all the men up there! They can't have gone far!"

Ivan and his team remain on the front lines of the search.

"Hey, what's wrong with old Pete? He looks so flustered."

"I've never seen him this enthusiastic before."

One of the team members struggled to pull his leg out of the snow, panting and complaining in a low voice, "Phew, I thought we could go back and rest after finding that car, but it turns out we have to go into the mountains late at night."

"Rest?" Ivan glanced at him upon hearing this, and said, equally panting, "Ha, do you know why old Pete was following us like his pants were on fire?"

"When will someone like him ever personally go to the front lines?"

"He was forced to come by Colonel Nikolai, otherwise why do you think he'd be here with us in the cold wind?"

"It wasn't just him; everyone except the colonel's adjutant and guards was brought up, from officers to cooks, no one was left out."

He lowered his voice and said, "I heard it when I went back to report. Colonel Nikolai gave those officers a thorough dressing-down. In that situation, who would dare to stay in the back?"

"In my opinion, if we don't catch them tonight, those officers will definitely be in big trouble."

"Serves you right," someone said gloatingly. "We've been freezing all day, we're exhausted..."

"Phew, Pence was worried about natural disasters before, but I think they haven't come yet. We're about to be exhausted to death in these mountains."

"Those two, wow, how can they run so fast!" he said through gritted teeth.

"If I catch them, phew, I'll skin them alive!"

“I already told you,” Ivan struggled to take heavy steps, his whole body aching terribly. The biting north wind howled against his face, making it numb and frozen as if it weren’t even part of him. “We need to capture them alive. Huff, huff, you peel off a few layers of their skin, and the officer will peel off yours…”

Just as the group was talking absentmindedly in hushed tones, Pence suddenly shouted excitedly from the front, "Here, come quick!"

Upon hearing his voice, Ivan quickly led several team members over and found Pence standing in front of a black object.

Ivan approached and saw that it was a large backpack filled with all sorts of supplies and food.

"They must have known we were coming!" Ivan said excitedly, looking at his backpack. "That's why they had no choice but to abandon everything and run!"

"What? What did you find?"

Just as he was rummaging through his backpack, Old Pete, who had been directing from behind, arrived with two squads.

"Sir, we've found the backpacks they left behind!"

Upon seeing his arrival, Ivan exclaimed excitedly, "It's full of essential survival supplies! The fact that they don't even want these means we're very close to them, and they have no choice but to abandon these things!"

"Good, good, well done!" Old Pete was overjoyed to hear this and patted Ivan's stiff shoulder. "Ivan, you guys found that SUV before, right?"

"Yes!"

"Excellent, excellent," Old Pete said with a beaming smile. "Well done! I'll promote you when we get back!"

"Signal for me! Then keep chasing! Catch them as soon as possible, you don't want to spend the whole night in the snow with them, right?"

"Yes!"

Upon hearing this, Ivan, dragging his aching and numb body, managed to give Old Pete a military salute, then shakily pulled out the issued signal flare from behind him and fired it into the sky.

Although he had previously complained about his superior with others, he was now overjoyed by Old Pete's promise.

As the signal flare soared into the sky, the light snow that had been falling all day seemed to understand the atmosphere and slowly stopped. The howling, biting north wind gradually disappeared, and even the clouds in the sky gradually dispersed, revealing the silver-clad valley before them under the cunning moonlight of the twin moons.

"Even the heavens are on our side!" Old Pete was overjoyed at this sight. He waved to his men and led them toward the valley in front of them.

-

From a broader perspective, this signal flare was like a piece of raw, bloody meat, drawing all the scattered, hazy lights on the ground together as if they were sharks smelling blood.

Five thousand people squeezed into the valley.

To be honest, this valley isn't too small; it could easily accommodate five thousand people.

But according to any country's infantry manual, this commander should be dragged out and shot for five minutes.

At night, the soldiers, exhausted from a full day's march, swarmed into the valley like headless flies. If there were even a thousand or two well-rested ambush troops inside, they could easily overwhelm the five thousand men.

But everyone was getting impatient.

The soldiers couldn't wait any longer. They had been chasing for three whole days, and their physical strength and willpower were almost exhausted. If it weren't for the officers behind them who were all getting anxious and starting to supervise the battle, they would have already started to riot.

The officers couldn't wait any longer. They had just been spitting in the face by their superiors and were ordered not to go back if they didn't catch the person tonight. Although it was probably just said in anger, who would dare to gamble on their superiors' feelings?

Even if the colonel couldn't dismiss all the officers, wasn't he afraid that he would make an example of someone? So they couldn't care less about anything else; nobody wanted to be the chicken that gets killed in the "kill the chicken to scare the monkey" scenario.

Tactics and regulations are all bullshit; the most important thing now is to catch the people.

As for their superior, Colonel Nikolai, he couldn't wait any longer.

Don't blame him for putting pressure on those below; he himself also faces pressure from above.

Before coming here, I had assured General Boris that it would be a piece of cake.

And what happened? Three whole days have passed, and he's only managed to catch a glimpse of them. He can't even imagine how he'll face General Boris if this drags on any longer.

Nikolai knew that although he had some connection with General Boris, it wasn't enough for the latter to support him; at most, it was just a matter of his father-in-law having some acquaintance with him.

If I mess up even this little thing, coupled with the previous incident of abandoning my troops and running away alone, which was suppressed, I will definitely be in deep trouble.

You should know that this matter was arranged by His Excellency the Duke, and these two were specifically requested by His Excellency the Duke. If anything goes wrong, even General Boris cannot protect them.

Of course, as long as he doesn't kill me, there's no reason for him to protect me...

The best outcome would be to resign directly and slink back to his hometown in disgrace; the worst... Nikolai didn't even dare to think about it.

So he didn't care about anything else and just pushed everyone up there.

Five thousand people! Surely they should be able to catch those two by now?

"Looks like they're getting desperate," Xia Yu chuckled as she watched the approaching flames from a boulder halfway up the mountain. "It wasn't for nothing that I spent so long keeping them at bay."