For Volwot-Kochinski to have become a world-renowned multinational corporation, it was certain they weren't fools. Sending someone like that to Chernobog clearly carried ulterior motives. Daniel Davis didn't believe for a second that this arrogant individual wasn't acting under someone's instructions.
If it had been someone else in his place, even if they were extremely displeased, at the very least they wouldn't have shown it on the surface. Even if they later sent someone to eliminate those people in secret, they would have kept up appearances.
The land of Terra was incredibly dangerous. It wasn't uncommon for people to simply disappear. Even if Volwot-Kochinski became suspicious, they would have no proof.
But Daniel Davis was not the type to swallow his anger. Volwot-Kochinski's power might seem formidable to others—even Rhodes Island wouldn't easily provoke them.
That wasn't because Rhodes Island lacked the strength. In a direct comparison, Rhodes Island might not be able to match a major nation, but dealing with a single corporation was no problem.
The main reason Rhodes Island was hesitant to antagonize Volwot-Kochinski was because the company had close ties with Columbia's military.
As an organization committed to saving the Infected and the land of Terra, Rhodes Island naturally tried to avoid offending local authorities. In fact, their cooperation with Columbia was quite strong. Rhein Life and Raythean Industries both had operators serving in Rhodes Island, and some of them were even reluctant to return.
But Daniel had no such concerns. Strictly speaking, this incident was merely a trigger. Ever since Volwot-Kochinski had coveted the nonexistent relic weapon, the two sides had been destined to become enemies.
Not to mention, Volwot-Kochinski was also one of the backers behind Scar Market, making them a target Daniel was bound to eliminate eventually.
"Take him with us. Let's go."
Among the four Sarkaz, the one who was likely the leader immediately ordered the two beside him to help the downed Liberi up. Without wasting a word, they turned and left.
"Talulah, this is Ling, Nian, and Xi's sister."
After the five left, Daniel immediately summoned some members of the Reunion Movement, introduced Ling, Nian, and Xi to them, and then brought the three to Rhodes Island's landship.
Initially, Xi didn't want to go. For her, simply meeting a few members of Reunion was enough. But after hearing Daniel talk about Rhodes Island, her curiosity was piqued.
Xi didn't like dealing with ordinary people—not because she disliked humans, but because of the things she had seen in the past. From the content of her countless paintings, it was clear that she had traveled all across Yan back in the day. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to create so many scrolls.
But upon returning to the world, she was astonished by human development—especially the emergence of movies and television. These "moving paintings" fascinated her. Back in Shangshu, she had binge-watched many dramas, gradually becoming something of a shut-in.
Nian had been eyeing Xi for a while. Xi's artistic talent was perfect for creating keyframes. Nowadays, Nian wasn't just interested in making films—she had become very intrigued by animation as well.
Even Daniel thought Xi's artistic skills were perfect for the role. With her capabilities, there was no need to worry about missed deadlines. In fact, if she wished, she could recreate entire animated worlds within her paintings. If her power advanced further, she might even be able to bring those worlds into reality.
But that was a matter for the future. For now, visiting Rhodes Island was what mattered.
The group soon arrived at the landship docked near Chernobog. Ever since the Chernobog incident had been resolved, the ship had remained there in close cooperation with Reunion.
Rhodes Island played an indispensable role in the successful establishment of Chernobog. Without the medical services they provided, countless Infected would have died. And without the Infected monitoring devices, it would have been impossible to maintain order in the city.
As tragic as the Infected's plight was, the problem with Oripathy couldn't be ignored—namely, the dangers that arose when an Infected died.
Without monitoring devices, it was impossible to determine whose condition was severe just by surface crystallization. Some might have no visible Originium crystals on the outside, but fatal crystallization in their bloodstream.
Not to mention the location of the crystals—some individuals had unique bodies that could lead to rapid onset, like Misha. These were all serious concerns.
This was one of the main reasons the Infected were often isolated. Equipping all Infected with monitoring devices or performing periodic checkups was something no nation on Terra could afford to do.
Forget nations—even among major organizations and corporations, few could achieve this. Rhodes Island was one of the rare exceptions.
But Daniel came from Huaguo, a nation known as the master of infrastructure. Although the task was complex, with his support and Rhodes Island's cooperation, they pulled it off.
Of course, Closure played a key role in all this. True to her boast as a "42-star operator" and one of Kazdel's top youth talents, she used Daniel's resources and Rhodes Island's mobile clinics to create an intelligent Infected diagnostic system after working tirelessly for days.
This system could distinguish between mild and severe cases. Mild Infected only needed to take Rhodes Island's medicine periodically. Only severe cases were examined by medical operators, and depending on their condition, were given monitoring devices.
There was no choice—there were simply too many Infected in Chernobog. Even if Kal'tsit dispatched all the medical operators available, it would still be a drop in the ocean. After all, this wasn't the post-destruction Chernobog with only a few survivors. Periodic checkups would exhaust the medical staff.
Likewise, there weren't enough monitoring devices. Infected residents didn't mind wearing them—compared to their previous suffering, living peacefully in a city, visiting malls, watching movies, and enjoying the internet was heaven by comparison.
But the devices were in short supply. Rhodes Island could manufacture them, but primarily for internal use. Naturally, they didn't mass-produce them.
After Chernobog stabilized, Reunion and Rhodes Island launched their next collaboration: establishing Infected schools and medical operator training institutions.
Rhodes Island had already transferred most of the children from its island base to Chernobog—teachers included. Life in the city was far better for them.
Many of Rhodes Island's operators were traveling to relocate Infected from other places to Chernobog. After all, no matter how big Rhodes Island was, it was still just a ship.
"Rhodes Island… it's been a long time," Ling said, her voice filled with nostalgic wonder as she looked at the landship.
Just as Daniel was about to ask, the three main leaders of Rhodes Island descended from the bridge. At the forefront was Amiya.
"Katz, Sarkaz… and old friends. How fascinating."
Ling stared at Amiya, Kal'tsit, and the Doctor for a long time before exhaling deeply, her voice tinged with emotion.
"Old friends? Have we met before?" Kal'tsit examined Ling and Xi, then spoke with some confusion. She had already guessed who they were, especially with Nian standing there. But that only made her more puzzled—if she had met someone like Ling, she would never have forgotten.
"I meant this one," Ling said, pointing at the Doctor.
"You know me? Sorry, I have amnesia."
"Amnesia? Hahaha, who would've thought you'd end up like this." The Doctor's response made Ling laugh heartily, as if remembering something amusing.
"Mr. Davis, who are these two?" Amiya asked, turning her attention to Daniel after sizing up Ling and Xi.
"This is Ling and Xi—Nian's older and younger sister," Daniel replied, giving a brief explanation of both sides.
"I'll show them around." After a bit of small talk, the group arrived at the Doctor's office on Rhodes Island. Nian didn't hesitate in the slightest to take Ling and Xi on a tour. She was practically a regular at Rhodes Island. Perhaps due to their film projects, she had built a good relationship with Closure.
"You've come at the right time. I have something I need to discuss with you," Kal'tsit said, not stopping Nian from acting like a hostess. She brought up an issue concerning the children of Ursus.
"Natalia? If that's her intention, I have no objection. We do need talent. Since she's not an Infected, she can help mediate between Infected and non-Infected in Chernobog."
Natalia referred to Early Bloom, the daughter of an Ursus count. The Chernobog incident had a massive impact on her, changing her life's trajectory.
She had been helping Rhodes Island relocate non-Infected who didn't want to stay in Chernobog. Thanks to her, they avoided many problems.
Even though she only had a title left, she still carried weight among the Ursus people. If she returned to Ursus and pulled some strings, reclaiming the title of count would be easy.
Unfortunately, she no longer cared about that. But that didn't stop rumors from swirling within Rhodes Island—especially among the Ursus personnel. After all, she was a pure-blooded noble.
In the original story, Natalia had to work hard to earn acceptance within Rhodes Island. But this time, perhaps due to Chernobog, she had chosen to leave the organization.
Though this meant Rhodes Island lost a six-star sniper operator, Daniel saw it as a good thing—a gain in talent.
"How are Zima and the others?" Since Natalia had come up, Daniel also asked about Zima, Sonya, and the others.
"They all have psychological trauma and need time to recover."
All of the Ursus kids—except for Blaze—suffered from some form of PTSD, including Early Bloom.
"Thank you for all your efforts."
"You're heading to Shereg? The Kazimierz major tournament hasn't even started yet. Is SilverAsh planning to move ahead of schedule?"
A few days later, upon hearing the Doctor was heading to Shereg, Daniel went to Rhodes Island again to inquire. He learned it wasn't SilverAsh who invited her, but his sister, Cliffheart.
Of course, that was only the official story. The Doctor had already figured out that Cliffheart's invitation was prompted by someone else but chose not to expose it.
"Shereg, huh? I've got nothing else going on. Let me join you. Oh, and bring Nearl too."
"Nearl? Why bring her? What do you know?" the Doctor asked, staring into Daniel's eyes.
"I can't be certain, but bringing Nearl might lead to something interesting."
The Radiant Knight vs. the Black Knight—he really wanted to witness their showdown. In the original story, by the time the Doctor went to Shereg, the Kazimierz tournament had already ended and Nearl had stayed behind. That was such a shame.
This time was the perfect chance. Of course, due to timeline shifts, Daniel couldn't be sure they'd encounter SilverAsh's coup attempt.
Maybe, thanks to the butterfly effect, Cliffheart really just wanted to visit her homeland.
"I'll go ask her." Seeing Daniel's persistence, the Doctor agreed to check. Whether it would work was uncertain—Nearl rarely separated from Shining and Nightingale these days.
"I believe in you," Daniel said before heading off to prepare for the journey to Shereg. He planned to take Nian and Xi. Ling had left after returning from Rhodes Island—supposedly to see her older brother.
"Nearl's place is at Rhodes Island, not Kazimierz. It's time to deal with Kazimierz's situation."
Getting Nearl to stay at Rhodes Island was simple—just resolve Kazimierz's problems.
"Shereg, same kind, really," Nian said upon learning others of her kind were there. Her interest was piqued. Xi's reaction was the same.
"No one wants to go?" Daniel had hoped to bring FrostNova, Talulah, and others to Shereg too—after all, it was a land without Catastrophes. But surprisingly, they all declined. Their reason was simple: they were tired of the snowy plains. So it ended up being just Daniel, Nian, and Xi.
"Such an old train. I've never seen one like this."
This time, instead of taking an aircraft, Daniel and the others drove to Shereg's border and transferred to a train—what Daniel considered a relic.
But in Shereg, this was the most advanced technology. Though SilverAsh's Kjerag Trade was wealthy, acquiring advanced tech from certain parties wasn't easy. The best they could get were outdated models.
SilverAsh understood this perfectly but had no choice. Shereg was simply too underdeveloped.
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