Arknights' Lock of Heaven

To be precise, since joining the army, he has had a smooth career thanks to his family background and his own abilities. In particular, after joining the rebuilt Sixth Army Group, he felt superior to everyone else when he saw the misfits around him.

I've never suffered such a loss before. Look at all those old hands in the command room back then. Although they were equally dismissive of Boris's caution, they never dared to refute him.

Why argue with him? After all, he's the general. Let him be cautious. In the face of two warships, how could that cargo ship possibly escape unnoticed?

Everyone has their own standards, and it's not worth offending your boss over something so trivial.

However, if someone dares to point it out to their face, they are not stingy with praise and applause.

Then just wait patiently to see the show.

Franz was incredibly arrogant, showing no respect to General Boris in front of so many people. Did you really think the compliments he gave afterward were out of genuine admiration?

Maybe some people are, but many more are waiting to see you fail.

Sure enough, here comes the joke.

General Boris said something about being afraid of an ambush, then stopped the ship to provoke Franz, who, unsurprisingly, took the bait and led his men to charge forward.

At least that's how everyone sees it. All that talk about intuition and ambush is just an excuse; it's purely a way to give Franz a warning.

They could have won by simply chasing after them and launching a full-scale attack, but instead they insisted on stopping the ships, saying they were afraid of an ambush...

The good news is that everyone guessed right, Boris was indeed going to give Franz a warning; the bad news is that he himself got dragged into it.

Sigh, if he's going to be so headstrong and charge ahead, just let him go. Why drag me into it?

Hales racked his brains but couldn't figure out when he had offended Boris.

Was it because Franz made sarcastic remarks about Boris and Nikolai that he couldn't suppress the smile on his face?

Or did someone spread rumors about them that you were talking about them privately?

Or perhaps it was simply collateral damage; Boris was also mindful of Franz's background, so while he was giving him a warning, he didn't want to make things too difficult for him.

Hales couldn't understand it.

Franz was still rambling on, and he could only force a smile to appease him.

Just then, the voice of striker Jonathan came through the communicator.

“Lieutenant Colonel Franz, I’ve discovered some information.”

"What's going on?" Franz, who had just been complaining incessantly, frowned and asked, "If it's still the same garbage that Nikolai left behind, then there's no need to report it."

“No… how should I put it, although it is indeed related to Nikola, but…” The voice on the other end of the communicator hesitated for a moment before saying, “It’s not those broken-down vehicles, or rather, it’s not just vehicles.”

"We have discovered Colonel Nikolai's camp."

"...The camp?" Upon hearing this, Franz jumped up and crashed into the roof of the car.

Duang!

"Um, Lieutenant Colonel, what's the situation on your end...?"

“It’s nothing, don’t worry about it,” Franz said into the communicator, grimacing and clutching his head. “Go ask! Ask that idiot Nikolai what’s going on! Does he even know how to fight? Does he know how to lead troops? Was he adopted as a colonel? Is he…”

Franz's barrage of questions left the other side completely bewildered.

After he finally calmed down, the person on the other end said vaguely, "Well... I can't describe the situation. It would be better if you, Lieutenant Colonel, came and see for yourself."

-

"So what exactly are they doing?" Xia Yu asked, scratching her head on the hillside beside the waterway. "Why did they stop?"

"No, this is putting me in a difficult position!"

The plan is progressing smoothly. Xia Yu's stage is all set up, and they are just waiting for the Sixth Army to enter.

The Sixth Army did arrive, but it stopped at the most crucial point...

The brand-new Ural, being the fastest, has already entered the trap.

However, the old warship that was with it was a bit slower, and after it stopped, about a third of its hull was still outside the trap.

This is very embarrassing.

So why did they stop? Shouldn't they have accelerated and charged at the Orville after seeing it stop?

Xia Yu was completely bewildered. What was the Sixth Army doing?

“It’s stopped,” Frostnova shook her head as she saw this. “Perhaps it’s just that we’ve encountered a cautious general. Boris, well, I haven’t heard of him much before.”

“Indeed,” Anton, who was standing nearby, shook his head as well. “At least when we were still serving in the army, we had never heard of this person.”

"Aren't you surprised at all?" Xia Yu asked, turning her head in confusion.

“An accident? Of course it was an accident,” Frostnova replied, tilting her head. “It’s just that I’m used to it.”

"After all, it's war. No one can guarantee that everything will go according to plan. Didn't you also prepare contingency plans?"

“Indeed,” Xia Yu nodded upon hearing this, though he was only slightly surprised.

Despite the unexpected turn of events, they were not without options.

The simplest solution is to get the Orville moving. Even if they discover a problem, would the Sixth Army dare not give chase?

If he dares not pursue, the Duke behind him will skin Boris alive.

The reason for arranging the scene to stop was simply to allow W to subdue those Sarkaz mercenaries.

If we restart it now, it'll be W, who's showing off on the deck right now, who'll lose face. What does it have to do with me?

Could she really go around telling everyone that this was a script she designed for her?

386 Nikolai... The entire army was wiped out?

Where is Nikolai?

After getting out of the car, Franz walked towards the camp, which was surrounded by the advance team, shouting as he went, "Tell him to come out and see me?"

The troops cannot be without a commander, so Hales stayed in the convoy while he came here with his guards.

“Lieutenant Colonel…this…” Upon seeing this, a junior officer looked troubled. “Colonel Nikolai…”

Before he could finish speaking, Franz impatiently pushed him aside and strode towards the simple campsite in front of him.

"Nikola! Nikola!" He kicked open a section of the rickety fence. "You son of a bitch..."

Then the Ursus curse that was about to be uttered came to an abrupt halt.

What came into view was a bewildered, silent face.

Or rather, an ice sculpture.

An Ursus soldier, frozen to death in place, appeared abruptly in front of him, still in the same position as when he was alive.

It made him suppress everything he was holding back, which he had been bottling up.

How is this going?

Franz looked around blankly.

Ice sculptures like these are everywhere you look.

He paused for a moment, then turned and grabbed the collar of the advance team officer behind him, asking with trembling lips, "What's going on?"

"Well... Lieutenant Colonel, we don't know either," the officer thought to himself, but said aggrievedly, "It was like this when we arrived."

"How could..."

“He’s not lying,” a weary voice said just as Franz was at his wit’s end. “Let him go, Franz. We really don’t know anything.”

“Jonathan?” Hearing this, he turned to look at the speaker. “You mean…”

“Come with me,” Jonathan said with a sigh, looking at the flustered Franz. “Nikola, whom you’ve been longing for, is over there.”

Franz heard this but said nothing, following behind him with a blank expression.

The two of them arrived at the center of the simple camp one after the other.

Franz remembered that command vehicle; that showy guy Nikolai had added a lot of fancy decorations to it, which Franz had always disapproved of and would always say something about it whenever he saw it.

But now he didn't even have the mood to criticize anymore, and went to the command vehicle to look at the open door.

That's how Nikolai came into his view.

His mouth was wide open, and he was gesturing wildly as he held the communicator as if he were angrily cursing someone.

He has become an ice sculpture.

“This is…this is…” Franz could no longer care about Nikolai, whom he had been “longing for”. He looked around tremblingly.

The camp was in complete disarray, littered with similar corpses.

No wonder there was no communication. He thought it was because Nikolai, that coward, hadn't completed his mission and didn't dare send anyone over. Turns out, the entire army had been wiped out.

Hahaha.

Normally, he could throw a banquet on the spot just based on this news.

But now, looking at the corpses around him, his heart turned ice-cold.

"Is this... a natural disaster?"

He said incredulously, "But... wasn't it said that the natural disasters here were just rumors spread to target a specific group?"