Arknights' Lock of Heaven

"But at this moment, good news came."

"Rhodes Island, our friends among the Infected, is a pharmaceutical company where countless doctors and academics work day and night to cure Oripathy."

“We had some exchanges in Chernobog,” Anton said, keeping his eyes downcast and his expression unchanged, “and at that time, a deep friendship was forged between the guerrillas and Rhode Island.”

"At the critical moment when the infected in the snowfield were facing life and death, Rhodes Island heard about our plight and spared no expense in spending countless manpower and resources to buy the Orville from the Kazimir government. They also raised hundreds of thousands of tons of food and supplies and traveled thousands of miles across the snowfield to aid us."

"And our emperor has also heard about this matter. You have all heard about the laws His Majesty has promulgated. He sympathizes with us infected, but anyone with a bit of knowledge in Ursus knows His Majesty's situation."

"After hearing about the situation at Rhodes Island, His Majesty personally issued them a trade permit."

It was Xia Yu's suggestion to mention the Ursus Emperor, since ordinary people in this era were certainly more superstitious about such things.

“Those nobles who wanted to exterminate us infected people certainly didn’t want to see these supplies come into our hands, so when the Orville arrived, Cheprini spread the news of the natural disaster.”

"Therefore, the Sixth Army Group sent 20,000 men with two warships to suppress the bandits here."

"Ha, bandit suppression? You all live nearby. When did bandits appear here that require so many people to be mobilized to suppress them?"

"During my trip to town with Village Chief Victor, we were fortunate to meet three scholars from the Orville. They confirmed through their expertise that no natural disaster would occur here."

"And Mr. Victor's old friend also has some connections in Chiplini, as you should know. He also privately reminded us that the natural disaster was purely fictitious."

"Why would they spread this news? Because they want to attack the Orville, but they can't do it openly because of the Emperor's order."

"So the Sixth Army only took action when they wanted the Orville to get away from Cheprini and come to us, and then blamed everything on natural disasters."

"This is the truth that Chief Victor and I found out in the city."

After he finished speaking, Anton sat back down.

“Let me add something,” Xia Yu stood up. “Aren’t you curious about where your village chief Victor got the information that the natural disaster was fake? Before you met Anton and the others, Victor swore that there was no natural disaster, right?”

Facing the curious gazes of the surrounding villagers, he slowly said, "My people spoke with me before and told me the reason."

“Mr. Victor, he is a good teacher who has nurtured many good students. One of his best students graduated from university in St. John’s Castle this year and returned to his hometown to become a messenger of natural disasters.”

"In order to force him to release this false information, the mayor of Ciprini placed his mother, who had raised him alone, under house arrest. He had no choice but to cooperate."

"During a data collection trip, in a nearby forest, he encountered his former mentor. When he returned to the city, he went to find Victor, but only received news that the latter had disappeared after becoming infected."

"After the encounter, because there were people watching him nearby, even though he guessed why Victor was there, he could only tell your village chief not to believe the recent news about natural disasters, and then hurriedly left."

"And now, this messenger of calamity has fled to my Orville with his mother, and he has told my second-in-command everything."

"So, everyone should understand now that this natural disaster doesn't exist; it's a lie fabricated by those people to target the Orville."

"But we are not without countermeasures against their methods."

“You must have seen those corpses when you came out of the village, right? I was worried that you might be frightened by them, but it seems I underestimated the cruelty of the snowfield and underestimated you all.”

"If we can kill five thousand of them with this weapon, we can kill the remaining fifteen thousand as well!"

"The reason we've gathered everyone here tonight is for this very reason."

“Look closely at these rune base plates,” he said, holding up the disc in his hand. “We need you, who are familiar with the surrounding terrain, to lead the guerrillas in twenty-four small teams and set up these base plates in the places I have marked.”

"We need these things to defeat that army."

“Of course, it’s not like we’re making everyone work for nothing,” Xia Yu said with a smile. “Everyone here is infected, and what they need most is medicine to treat the disease. Rhodes Island is a company that specializes in researching Oripathy, and we’ve made some progress over the years.”

He looked at the crowd around him, their faces gleaming in the firelight. "There are a total of 360 base plates. For each base plate that each team buries, each person can receive an inhibitor after the Orville arrives."

"Of course, this only applies to those who are here now. Don't call out the elderly, weak, and children from your families. I'm afraid their bodies can't handle it."

377 Alexei's Choice

The people of Ursus are hardworking.

There is no doubt about this.

This has nothing to do with any ethnic characteristics; it's simply that if you want to survive in the snowfield, you have to give it your all every single day.

Pure natural selection.

Cruel yet effective.

Just like now, dozens of small teams, each carrying a torch, are scattered across the snowfield, their steps hurried, their goal unified.

For them, surviving is the greatest reward.

Meanwhile, in Ceprini to the west, countless undercurrents surged within the pitch-black night.

"Miss Earth Spirit, I heard that the Orville is leaving port tomorrow?"

Igor, panting, ran up to the Earth Spirit and Eyjafjalla, and asked urgently, "I wonder if this news is true?"

“It’s true,” seeing his anxious look, Di Ling gestured for him to sit down. “Isn’t everyone on the ship preparing right now?”

"But why?" Igor asked, puzzled. "The two warships around us are still watching us closely. You have His Majesty the Emperor's order. They probably wouldn't dare to openly attack the Orville in the city."

"But who knows what might happen on that vast snowfield once we leave the city? What if..."

"You were worried about this before?" Hearing this, Di Ling was stunned for a moment, then asked in surprise, "I thought you would support leaving the port now."

"After all, given your status, if the Prini City Hall comes to us demanding you and your mother back, aren't you afraid we'll hand you over?"

“First of all, I think that since your company was able to make the decision to support the infected in the snowfield at this time, you must not be a bad person,” Igor said with a wry smile. “Secondly, I really think that leaving the port now... has no chance of winning.”

Hearing this, Di Ling stared at him for a while before slowly saying, "Actually, we... never mind, you can continue to be so naive."

“Since you say there’s no chance of winning if we leave port now, when should we leave? You know we can’t wait in Ciprini forever.”

“…Four days later!” Igor hesitated for a moment after hearing her question, then said, “From my perspective, there is no way we can defeat these armies.”

"We only have one chance, and that's that fake natural disaster!"

“I’ve observed the soldiers around us. Although the higher-ups know that the disaster was fake, the soldiers don’t!”

"Five days later, the natural disaster I was forced to fabricate will arrive. We can send people over the next three days to exaggerate the horror of this natural disaster and reveal the specific time and location to them."

Igor said without hesitation, "We'll set off in four days. Those two warships won't attack then, out of consideration for the royal family's reputation. Let's take this opportunity to reach the designated location in one day."

"And then, it's time to gamble!"

"I'm betting that these officers won't dare spread the truth everywhere and explain to the soldiers that the so-called natural disaster simply doesn't exist, and that the soldiers won't dare to sail their warships straight into the natural disaster."

Diling watched as a young man, resentful of the news of the natural disaster that the Chepulini government was about to release, now discussed on the Orville how to exploit this fabricated disaster.

“Your plan is really all a gamble,” Igor said, and Diling was both amused and exasperated. “What are the chances of it succeeding?”

“Thirty percent? That can’t be more than that,” Igor said with a wry smile. “But that’s the best-case scenario I’ve ever anticipated. I know this plan is far too idealistic; it’s based on the assumption that the enemy will make a stupid mistake at almost every crucial juncture.”

"To be frank, based on the information I have now, we have almost no chance of escaping from those two warships."

"So, do you regret it? Regret coming to this ship?"

“I don’t regret it,” Igor said with a bitter smile, “It’s just regret and self-blame. My mother, she raised me with so much hardship all these years, and she hasn’t even had a chance to enjoy happiness with me before I dragged her into this kind of thing…”

“Just like an experiment lacking several key data points, the results will definitely be drastically different,” Eyjafjalla, who had been listening in, put down the documents in her hand and said, “You don’t need to worry so much. If we dared to come to the snowfield, we must have some secret weapons.”

"It's not that we were completely unprepared, but I'm sorry, we can't let everyone know what it is right now."

“It’s alright, I… I think I know too,” Igor said, not at all offended but relieved. “It’s good if there’s hidden power, at least we won’t be completely powerless.”

He hesitated for two seconds before finally speaking, "Do you remember my teacher, Mr. Victor, whom I told you about?"

“According to my investigation, he disappeared after becoming infected, until I encountered him in the snowfield while I was out gathering information.”

"There's a high probability that a group of infected people live in those mountains and forests, otherwise it would be very difficult for the teacher to survive on the snowfield alone."

"If... I mean if, in the end, things don't work out, I can take a few people to the place where we first met the teacher and seek help from those infected people."

"They might not be able to fight off the Ursus army, but having survived there, they should be familiar with the surroundings. With their help, maybe we can..."

"Is the Victor you're talking about someone who looks to be in his fifties, around 1.74 meters tall, with gray hair, a beard about one finger's length, round-framed glasses, brown eyes, and very cultured in his speech and manners...?"

Eyjafjalla was interrupted by Igor's urgent words before she could finish speaking.

"Wait, I don't think I described the teacher's appearance to you, did I?" he asked excitedly. "Miss Eyjafjalla, how do you know so much about him? Did you run into the teacher? Where is he? Is he alright?"

“Ah, we met just a few days ago,” Eyjafjalla recalled. “He’s now the chief of a small village of infected people. Because of what you said when you met him, he had to come to the city with, well, with the guerrillas to find you.”

The current story on the ship is that the guerrillas have sent people to meet them. Everyone thinks they need to rely on the guerrillas to deal with the surrounding army, so telling Igor is no big deal.

What's even more amazing is that the reason everyone was able to work so efficiently was because of the Ursus newspapers that W brought back...

The newspapers that exaggerated the Patriot threat actually helped stabilize morale. Since the Patriots' achievements in the newspapers were so exaggerated, defeating an army of 20,000 men must be a piece of cake!

After all, the newspapers reported that he had led guerrillas to achieve similar victories countless times.

There's a saying that goes, "Battle reports can be deceiving, but the front lines can't."

Those in the know could immediately see the problem by looking at the battle lines that were suffering heavy defeats every day but hardly moving back.

But that's the cunning thing about these newspapers; they don't report on the battle lines at all, only on the wins and losses of small-scale battles.

Sometimes, even if a guerrilla unit successfully attacks a 2,000-strong camp belonging to an Ursus army group, it will be reported as the entire army group suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of the Patriots...

Those who know the inside story find it quite surreal.

Those who truly understand will shake their heads.

Actually, everyone was quite restrained at first... it wasn't that magical, but the problem is that these Ursus armies have never been a monolithic entity.

Grand Dukes are powerful, aren't they? But on the front lines, there are countless army groups belonging to different Grand Dukes, not to mention the various large and small armies controlled by powerful nobles.