Arknights' Lock of Heaven

Upon hearing this, Merlin also made a sighing sound, perfectly fitting the situation.

“Oh, I see,” the man hesitated for two seconds, then gritted his teeth, “I still have some leftover jerky from my rations, how about…”

“No, no need. I thank you for your kindness on their behalf,” Merlin said with a sigh before Andrew could speak. “But their physical condition… no longer supports eating normal food.”

As he said this, he looked at the rice in his arms, "I can only pick out some rice and cook it into porridge using the Yan method for them to drink."

Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent.

"I see..." the person said with empathy, "Sigh, we infected people will all have this day, right?"

“Doctor, you are such a good person. Yes, to die on an empty stomach... is such a cruel thing,” he shook his head with a bitter smile. “Ever since I was banished to the snowy plains, hunger has been a nightmare in my life.”

"I hope they won't be infected in their next life."

Having said that, he nodded to the three of them and then left with a heavy expression.

After watching him walk away, Merlin stroked his chin and muttered to himself, "Doctor, hmm, sounds good."

“I’m sorry, but to avoid arousing suspicion from spies, I can only say you’re a doctor,” Andrew said with a wry smile. “To do something like this… it could only be someone within the logistics department, right, Petal?”

“Hmm,” the latter, who had been secretly observing Merlin, immediately looked away after hearing Andrew call his name and replied, “Yes, it’s Wilmot. Fortunately, I heard they’re going to launch at night, so we still have time.”

“Wilmot…” Andrew sighed upon hearing this, “I had high hopes for him, but I never expected him to be a spy.”

"Let's go, let's ensure Mr. Merlin's safety first. We need to report to the captain."

Hearing this, Perta looked at Merlin again and asked, "And this gentleman is...?"

“You can call me Merlin,” Merlin said with a bright smile after hearing his question, “or Dr. Merlin, or Consultant Merlin. I quite like those titles.”

“Uh,” Perta looked at Andrew.

“Mr. Merlin… is a distinguished guest,” Andrew hesitated for two seconds, then said, “That’s all you need to know. Don’t ask about things you shouldn’t know. I’m doing this for your own good, Perta.”

“Oh, is that so? Of course I know,” Perta smiled knowingly, wiped his mouth to indicate that he would keep quiet. “Then let’s go. We must not let those people ruin our last food supplies.”

Hearing this, Andrew nodded in satisfaction, and then led the two of them off again.

Perta, walking at the very back, looked at Merlin with burning passion.

Even though the base's food supplies are almost exhausted, food security has to take a backseat to this person at a time like this...

Adding to what I had heard before, did this person cure the Patriot's illness?

What illness could a patriot possibly have?

Wow, what a surprise! The highest priority intelligence has actually come knocking on our door like this.

Haha, David, don't blame me for being ruthless, this intelligence is just too tempting.

We'll have to use your subordinates as stepping stones for now!

436 Something's not right!!!

"What? Someone in the warehouse district wants to blow up our last food supplies?"

Upon hearing this, Lukashenko immediately looked at Merlin.

"Is Mr. Merlin alright?"

The others also turned their concerned gazes toward Merlin.

“I’m sorry,” Patriot said with a sigh as he approached Merlin. “This is the worst thing that could have happened. It was our negligence.”

Upon hearing this, a glint of light flashed in Petal's eyes as he followed at the back.

Not only Andrew, but even Patriot himself treated this man who called himself Merlin with great respect... It seems he has really encountered a big fish!

"Oh dear, do I look like something's wrong?" Merlin shrugged. "I just went for a stroll, nothing serious."

"Rather than that, I suggest you all pay more attention to the issue of food security."

“Yes, we will,” Patriot said decisively, turning to Andrew. “What exactly happened?”

Faced with his question, Andrew shook his head, indicating that he didn't know either, and then looked at Petal at the very back.

“It was the clue I discovered, Mr. Patriot,” Petal said confidently, facing the gazes of the Shield Guards. “I was supposed to see a doctor at noon today, but Mr. Andrew was very worried about my health and arranged the itinerary for me.”

"But the medical department is already overwhelmed. There are so many patients who are more seriously ill than me... Sigh, although I know Mr. Andrew is concerned about me, I really don't want to trouble the doctors with this."

“I only contracted Oripathy a few months ago, and I can still manage.”

"So I quietly went back to the storage area, planning to find a place to hide and wait for Mr. Andrew to ask, and then say that I had seen it."

He gave a wry smile at this point, "I didn't expect it to turn out so by accident. The place I chose was a warehouse for storing Originium. As everyone knows, since Originium can't be eaten or worn, no one was assigned to guard it."

"Coincidentally, I was in charge of building these warehouses and managing them afterwards, so I am still very familiar with what they look like inside."

“There, I discovered something was wrong; the number of Originium Ingots had changed.”

"At first, I thought it was just someone stealing Originium. After all, we in the storage department know the base's food situation best. I was afraid that someone felt they couldn't survive and wanted to run away with Originium ingots, a form of hard currency."

"But as I continued tracking, I gradually realized something was wrong. Behind the warehouse, I discovered some hidden magic arrays. According to my analysis, if these arrays were activated, they would ignite the Originium ingots throughout the warehouse."

“I’ve seen this technique on construction sites before. It’s very crude, but it works.”

"After discovering these, I secretly investigated the warehouses. Only the three warehouses closest to the grain warehouse had any guards. Thank goodness, I guess no one usually comes into the Originium warehouses, so they didn't send anyone to guard them."

"But what does this have to do with food?" Lukashenko asked, puzzled.

Hearing this, Petal smiled wryly, "Because the food warehouse is right next door. Our last remaining food is around that warehouse. If those Originium are activated and detonated, all our food supplies will be contaminated..."

After hearing his explanation, Lukashenko flew into a rage, demanding, "Who stored Originium and food in the same place?"

“It was me,” Andrew stepped forward and explained helplessly, “It was a last resort. Those warehouses were originally built to store grain, but we didn’t have that much grain to store, so many warehouses are just empty.”

"It wasn't until Frostnova sent back a message from Rhodes Island that we discovered we could use Originium ore to exchange for a continuous stream of aid. The Originium ingots that everyone had collected ended up in the logistics department, and by then it was already winter."

"The surrounding forests have already been cleared away. If we want to build a special storage warehouse for those Originium Ingots, we would have to send people to cut down trees more than ten miles away. That's hard work, and we don't have that much food to consume."

"In the end, we could only put those Originium in the warehouses that were originally meant for storing food. At the time, we figured those warehouses were just sitting empty anyway," Andrew said regretfully. "I never expected such a big mistake to happen."

"But why are all the remaining food supplies located near the Originium warehouse?" Lukashenko asked, frowning. "That's strange!"

“I can answer that,” Petal said with a helpless shrug. “Sir, we are all infected, Originium… we have all suffered greatly from it.”

"So, if possible, everyone will take food from places far away from the Originium warehouse first. Although I know it's just psychological, and well-preserved Originium can't contaminate the stored food, everyone is just very wary of this."

"In the end, this is how the situation came about."

"Sigh, I understand," Lukashenko sighed and stopped asking questions.

This kind of thing would be a major incident anywhere, and theoretically it should be thoroughly investigated.

However, this is only in theory, since theory and practice cannot be discussed in the same breath.

He had witnessed firsthand how overwhelming Andrew's work was, and the thought of managing such a large base sent chills down his spine.

To put it bluntly, the base is currently a makeshift operation. The sudden influx of so many people has paralyzed the guerrillas' management system, and everyone's livelihood is uncertain. The fact that it has been able to operate smoothly without any major problems is thanks to the hard work of Andrew and the logistics team.

No wonder he is.

“Then, what we need to do is very clear,” Lukashenko said. “Do you have anyone you suspect?”

“Wilmot,” Petal replied, “when I took leave, Mr. Andrew was also not there, so he was the one who called the shots in the storage area!”

“If there’s any movement below, it can’t be hidden from his eyes at all, since there are only a few of us in charge of management.”

"The fact that we haven't found his report so far means that either he's already in trouble, or he's the one who caused the trouble."

Petar shook his head at this point, "I only took half a day off. Although Mr. Andrew is in charge of the logistics of the entire camp, he is not always in the storage area."

"Not many people knew that I had asked for leave; only a few of my subordinates and Wilmot, the person I was in contact with, knew about it."

"So as long as we launch a surprise attack on him first, we can follow the clues and find the source, right?" Lukashenko asked upon hearing this.

“No, my suggestion is to crush them with the most powerful force!” Upon hearing this, Petal shook his head and said, “We don’t have much food left, and we can’t afford any losses. Their plan has obvious flaws; without the Originium warehouses, it’s all useless.”

“Then we’ll concentrate our elite forces and launch a direct raid on the Originium warehouse,” Andrew decided. “I also know about the magic array Petal mentioned. It’s unusable if one link is missing. As long as we destroy those magic arrays as soon as possible, we can completely protect our food supplies.”

Hearing this, Lukashenko subconsciously glanced at Merlin, then said, "I still suggest capturing the spy first. If we alert them and they commit suicide, that would be troublesome. I'm counting on interrogating him..."

“Food is important,” Patriot interrupted him at that moment, “Let’s do as Andrew and the others say.”

"I will personally lead the team. Each of you will find five people. Remember, they must be Shield Guards."

"Yes, Captain," the shield guards around him nodded and then left.

“Andrew, you’ll stay with me,” Patriot said, turning to Petal. “As for Mr. Petal, you’re not a combatant, so please stay here and wait for news.”

“Yes,” Petar replied respectfully. Patriot’s scarlet eyes seemed to freeze the soul, and Petar dared not meet his gaze, so he could only use this seemingly respectful attitude to avoid it.

"Shieldbearers, move out!"

As Patriot left with his signature halberd, only a few people remained in the tent.

Something is wrong!

Something is wrong!

Petar's mind raced through the scene that had just unfolded.

Their reaction was completely wrong!

There's clearly not enough food to last a week, and just yesterday Andrew was fretting about it...