Hello, Arknights

"Bagpipe?!" Ling Dengxian's voice rose with surprise, and warm liquid slowly flowed down his cheeks from the stinging sensation.

The city-breaking spear was still stopped between his face and neck, motionless, reflecting the owner's solid basic skills. The arms in front of him were not strong, but he was sure that they made the weapon worthy of its name. He had just felt its sharpness.

This should have been an early morning like any other, with the morning mist still lingering.

Bagpipe felt something was wrong.

The captain asked her to come here in advance as a support. The target of this encirclement and suppression is a notorious mercenary group that has been roaming around the Victoria border for many years. All of them are habitual criminals of smuggling, drug trafficking, and murder. This time, the border army caught some of their whereabouts. After the Victorian dukes played games with each other, they still sent the second team of the Storm Commando to encircle and suppress them, and ordered the local army to cooperate in the operation. Bagpipe was arranged by the captain to cut off the enemy's retreat. She contacted the army in this area several times but only received verbal promises. They didn't even send a reconnaissance team to follow her. They just left the intercom number and told her to call for support if she had any problems.

Bagpipe had no choice but to listen to the captain saying that her side was not much better than hers, and the local troops were not very motivated. This was also the reason why the task of cutting off the enemy's retreat, which could have been given to the local garrison, had to be given to Bagpipe.

What made Fengpi even more confused was that she hadn't started many reconnaissance missions since she came here, but she had been given all kinds of miscellaneous tasks one after another. Food statistics, population review, field area, number of infected people, and physical examination reports, etc., all of which were given to her. Fengpi didn't think much about it at first, and even enjoyed it, until a suspicious person appeared later.

This guy appeared abruptly, and had no obvious racial characteristics. He was not an infected person. Initial speculation was that he might be an Agor. He did not speak Victorian, did not know the way, and his whereabouts were erratic. He often disappeared in an alley in the town, and seemed to have no survival skills. He was struggling for survival. She initially thought he was a vagrant and tentatively offered him a bowl of noodles. As a result, this guy was not wary at all and accepted everyone. It would have been fine to end here, after all, she would leave after completing the mission, and it would be fine to give him the cottage to settle down. However, she unexpectedly discovered that he could speak Yan language, and when she checked the recent entry and exit records of the border, there was no record of any Yan country, nor any smuggling. No matter how thick-skinned Bagpipe was, she would have noticed this, but she did not think of it in a bad way.

But when doubts gather together, suspicion will suddenly erupt at a certain point in time. When Ling Dengxian asked her for advice, Fengdi's brain circuit reluctantly thought about the dangers that would arise if Ling Dengxian was a spy from Yan Country or other countries.

To think about it in a more serious way: a foreigner who sneaked into Victoria without anyone noticing, with extremely superb stealth skills and unknown strength, appeared beside Fengpi, who was acting as a supporter, when an important mercenary group was being sieged, and he was a harmless person. What would it bring?

Bagpipe didn't know, but she knew that if these worst-case scenarios were unfortunately true, even if she didn't understand the sinister lurker's plans, she knew that nothing good would happen.

So she placed the bet with all her might yesterday in the twilight.

Time goes back to last night.

Ling returned to his home town full of life in high spirits. He hummed a folk song from his hometown, lay down in the overturned long box, kept a peaceful expression and remained motionless for a few seconds. He turned over and pulled out a slightly thick book from under the pillow - also collected from the scrap station - and took out a pen from the hollow spine. He carefully turned the pages, glanced at the previous content, then turned to a blank page, picked up the pen and started writing today.

Keeping a diary was a new habit he developed after arriving in another world, which enriched his hard and tiring life to a certain extent.

Although this behavior was initially motivated by his negative thoughts that if he starved to death, he would still leave behind some trace of having been in this world, even if this trace would not last long.

But as the days passed, his life became better and better - the definition of "better" was not discussed for the moment - and the nature of his diary-keeping habit gradually changed. He found that using familiar words to record new events that gradually became the present of his life could help him slowly adapt to life in the other world and make him continue to be full of confidence in the future, even if it was just...

But gradually, the bagpipe's bright smile is like the wind full of sunshine and earth, even the dandelion seeds will yearn for it.

The most direct manifestation is that the number of words about bagpipes in Ling Dengxian's diary has increased sharply. Now he doesn't think there is anything wrong, but he just feels a little embarrassed (it will be more embarrassed in the future).

With the dim light from the flashlight, Ling Dengxian wrote about 800 words at a relatively fast speed and in a concise manner before he hurriedly packed up his things, covered himself with an old blanket and went to sleep.

The barking of wild beasts at night on normal days sounded particularly long tonight, and the moon was hazy in the mountains.

Without any warning, as soon as Ling Dengxian walked out of the alley, he was greeted by a sharp light even earlier than the morning mist, and then the scene at the beginning appeared.

"Where have you been?" Vaifan's usual smile was gone from her face. At this moment, the boy seemed to realize that she was a soldier.

There were some ripples in the blue eyes, but the attitude did not change. Ling Dengxian was confused. His mind was blank after waking up: "What...?"

He was clearly joking about teaching me how to use the city-breaking spear yesterday, how come... don't tell him that this is also part of the teaching, what a joke!

"Yan Country? Or somewhere else? Where are you from? Ling Dengxian... I hope you can answer my questions seriously."

"What happened?" Ling Dengxian had just made a move when Fengdi opened his almond-shaped eyes, and the spear moved away from above his neck, and he struck back with the spear on his back.

It was like a tree trunk hit his back with a strong wind, and the illusion of skin and flesh was raging. "Ugh!!" He couldn't help but scream in pain, and his body was smashed to the ground. It seemed that some dust had entered his mouth, and the dry feeling was very uncomfortable. Ling Dengxian instinctively wanted to get up, but just when he propped up half of his upper body, Fengpi grabbed the collar on the back of his neck with one hand and lifted it up with strange strength. Before he could stand firm, he punched him in the chest with a backhand.

His heart seemed to skip a beat, and the pain made him speechless for a moment. When Ling Dengxian came to his senses again, he was already twisted together with the earth in pain, emitting a struggling cry.

Vaifan pulled out the weapon that was inserted beside him. The cold edge was sharp without any mud or mist, and it went straight to the target.

Once again, Ling Dengxian was pointed at his neck with a sharp edge. He struggled to look through his eyes in the dust, trying to convey his thoughts. The bagpipe remained silent, and the tip of the city-breaking spear unconsciously raised a little.

It's so embarrassing.

"Ling Dengxian... Tell me, where are you from? Why are you here? I, I really don't want to hurt... I don't want to be hated by my friends either -

"If there is no other way... I don't want to..." Bagpipe's tone gradually softened, and the boy finally saw the clear blue color, which was true guilt.

Well, it seems there is no other choice... No, it should be called an equal exchange... Let's exchange the truth for the truth.

The young man lay on his back on the slightly agitated dust, suppressed his groans, and spoke intermittently: "I am indeed not from Yan Country...but my hometown is very similar to Yan Country, but...very far away...

"So far away that I may, I may not be able to go back.

"I don't know what happened... I just took a nap, and when I woke up I found myself in an unknown place. There was no one I knew, no place I knew, no place to live, no food, no words I could understand... The bastard who threw me here without asking for my consent didn't seem to have a way to send me back. Damn it... I finally met you, and we didn't mention eating, but just talked to each other.

"I am very, very lucky."

"I just want to go home, but the road won't be easy, so I have to learn a lot of things... That's why I came to you, and that's why I want to learn how to use a city-breaking spear... What else can I do?! It seems that the only one I can rely on is..."

The feeling of powerlessness is wrapped in words, like dormant waves. The invisible and silent appearance in daily life does not mean that everything is calm and nothing happens, but it will suddenly erupt because of a little bit of factors or accumulation or touch.

"I know that such inexplicable words are not convincing, but, but if I don't say it like this... I don't know what's going on! I want to go home!" Although he knew it was embarrassing, his voice inevitably carried a hint of tears.

Suddenly, a huge weapon was inserted aside, and the boy raised his eyes, "...I'm sorry." The girl whispered, "I believe you."

"Also, I'll teach you how to use a city-breaking spear."

The skirt fluttered and the morning light danced on the girl's outstretched fingertips - the sun had risen without her knowing.