Chapter 210
"Is that... a shooting star?"
On the Ursus Snowfield, FrostNova was leading a squad on patrol. It was the height of midsummer, and the Snowfield had cleared up for a rare moment, with starlight shimmering in the night sky.
Whenever this happened, FrostNova would unconsciously recall the time when the Doctor was there. On the day she left, the weather had been just as clear.
Just as she and the squad were sitting around the campfire roasting potatoes, a pale-cyan meteor streaked across the pitch-black night sky.
"That color..." Big Bear said while flipping a potato, "It doesn't seem quite normal."
"Eh, speaking of which, when the Doctor left and flew into the sky, it looked pretty similar to a shooting star, except the color was red."
As soon as he finished speaking, the atmosphere of the entire squad froze.
"Ah... sorry," Big Bear realized he had misspoken.
Although they had only spent a few short months with the Doctor, her status in everyone's hearts was absolutely peerless.
The Doctor's departure was an eternal pain in everyone's hearts.
Talulah had lost a significant amount of weight now; she threw herself into work all day, often going without sleep or rest. No one's advice worked, and only Alina's words were even marginally effective.
"It's fine," FrostNova sighed. No one wanted to see the Doctor leave, but reality was like that, never letting one have their heart's desire.
"The potatoes are done. Dig them out quick, first come, first served..."
"Big... Big Sister!" Just as everyone lowered their heads to dig out the potatoes, a member of the Snowdrift Squad who had been watching the beautiful cyan meteor in the sky suddenly stammered out.
"What is it? Anton," FrostNova looked up at him, her hand gripping her Staff.
Those who could enter the Snowdrift Squad were basically never mediocre; ordinary situations wouldn't make him hesitate like this.
"The sky! That meteor in the sky!" Anton pointed at the sky in terror. "Is that thing about to crash down on us?!"
"What?" Hearing this, FrostNova looked up, and sure enough, the meteor had changed its trajectory and was crashing toward their camp.
"Careful! Scatter!" she commanded sharply. The other team members immediately scattered in all directions, and FrostNova leaped backward, raising her Staff to prepare her Arts.
In the past, her Arts were much more convenient, but they were quite life-consuming—that's how it was for the Infected. However, after being treated by the Doctor, she could no longer use the Infection crystals on her body to cast spells.
Even if she could, Patriot would absolutely never allow it. This kind of casting was pure suicide for the Infected and would cause the Infection progress to explode catastrophically.
So she had no choice but to obediently pick up a Staff.
The meteor crashed directly into the outskirts of the camp, kicking up a massive amount of snow.
Under the vigilant watch of everyone in the Snowdrift Squad, the snowflakes slowly drifted down and dispersed, revealing the silver-white armor inside.
"To what do we owe the honor of your late-night visit, Your Excellency?" FrostNova questioned loudly while gathering her Arts.
"Is your name... Yelena?" Xia Yu looked at the familiar face and spoke slowly.
"...What if it is? What if it isn't?" FrostNova was full of wariness upon hearing this. It seemed the person really was coming for her!
Could it be that the Ursus Empire couldn't stand the loneliness and wanted to make a move on the Snowfield? Did that monster no longer fear the Doctor's threat?
Tsk, her patrol route was classified. To be predicted so accurately... it seemed there were rats within the Guerrillas as well.
If she could get back...
Seeing her guarded expression, Xia Yu directly deactivated the SAM Armor. Amidst a flash of firelight, Firefly's 'fragile' appearance appeared on the Snowfield for the first time.
"Entrusted by someone to bring you some things."
"Uh," seeing the other party's sincere gesture, FrostNova was also a bit confused.
"May I ask who entrusted you? We don't know many people from the outside world."
"A letter from Lungmen," Xia Yu counted on her fingers. "Written by Talulah's sister to her."
Hearing this, FrostNova lowered her guard slightly. Talulah's sister? She seemed to recall her mentioning having a connection in Lungmen.
"A second letter, from Kazdel," Xia Yu said leisurely. "Written by the current Demon King, Theresa, to your father."
"Uh," hearing that name, FrostNova couldn't help but shrink her head back a bit.
The name of the Demon King of Kazdel was still very potent in the outside world. Even FrostNova couldn't help but take a sharp breath upon hearing the title.
The Demon King of Kazdel... writing a letter to her father, a Wendigo; she feared it wouldn't be anything good.
"The third matter," Xia Yu continued, "Tarnished asked me to deliver some things to you."
"Uh, and this Tarnished is..." FrostNova was somewhat puzzled.
"She said she worked as a doctor here," Xia Yu explained. "Not for long, just a few months."
"It's the Doctor?!" Hearing this, the entire Snowdrift Squad erupted.
"That's it, it's definitely the Doctor!" Big Bear said excitedly. "That ability to fly in the sky is exactly the same as the Doctor's, just a different color!"
"Are you the Doctor's friend?" FrostNova looked at Xia Yu with burning eyes.
"Yes, a teammate," Xia Yu nodded. "You can call me Firefly."
"She is currently in the sea investigating the ecosystem of the Seaborn and can't find the time, so she could only have me run the errand along the way."
"Come, come, please come in," hearing this, FrostNova immediately withdrew her Arts and warmly pulled Xia Yu to sit by the campfire. "Miss Firefly, right? You've come at the perfect time. We were just about to eat... uh."
She looked at the potatoes in the fire that had been charred black because of the delay caused by Xia Yu's arrival, and was momentarily speechless.
How could they offer this to a guest? They were simply unpresentable...
"Big Sister, today is the last day of the patrol..." Big Bear rubbed his hands awkwardly. "We're going back to the base tomorrow. These few potatoes are our last food..."
"The group of Infected we met the day before yesterday who were heading to the Snowfield for refuge... we gave a lot of our food to them... we were thinking of toughing it out through today before heading back."
Now the entire squad felt awkward.
It seemed that life on the Snowfield was truly difficult, Xia Yu thought as she watched. But it was normal.
With so many Infected gathered together, the barren land of the Snowfield didn't have much output. Although Ursus didn't dare send people to attack out of fear of the Dragon Lord, the Nobles could still manage a tacit economic blockade.
They were living much more bitterly than the Sarkaz. No matter how barren the wastes of Kazdel were, at least there was a fixed output.
"If it's food, I can solve that on my end," Xia Yu pulled a shipping container directly from her Gate of Babylon. "I was going to give it to you anyway."
"This is..." Seeing the large iron crate fall from the void, the members of the Snowdrift Squad looked at each other.
"Inside is the food Tarnished prepared for you," Xia Yu walked over and opened the container, saying, "Tarnished is the codename of the person you call the Doctor. I'm used to calling her 'Tarnished'."
Creeeak.
Xia Yu opened the container, only to see it was packed with PPSh-41s.
FrostNova leaned in for a look and then hesitated to speak.
Could this stuff be eaten?
"Don't panic," Xia Yu slammed the container shut. "This was an accident. Hmm, let's just swap for another one."
The container in front of her sank into a Golden Ripple, and another container descended from the sky.
Creeeak.
Good, it wasn't PPSh-41s this time.
Xia Yu looked at the full container of vodka with a deadpan expression, her face almost breaking character.
Close the door again, swap the container!
Creeeak...
Phew, this one was reliable.
A shipping container full of frozen meat.
"This time it's correct," she turned and said to FrostNova. "This batch of supplies was recycled from our old stock, so some strange things got mixed in."
"Uh, it's fine, it's fine," FrostNova waved her hands repeatedly upon hearing this and looked at the container of pork. "What... what kind of meat is this?"
"Pork, similar to Beast meat," Xia Yu moved aside. "Take it out and put it by the fire to defrost."
"Is this really okay?" The Snowdrift Squad members looked on with some hesitation.
"This was meant for you in the first place," Xia Yu nodded. "Quickly, take it out and roast it. I haven't had dinner yet either."
"Got it!" Hearing this, the members of the Snowdrift Squad swarmed forward. It had been a long time since they had eaten meat.
Watching their joyful faces, Xia Yu couldn't help but sigh.
"The scale of aid this time is very large," she turned to look at FrostNova beside her. "How many Infected are currently on the Snowfield?"
"There are already over two hundred thousand," FrostNova said joyfully. "We are already trying our best to take people in, it's just..."
"You can't support them all, right," Xia Yu nodded. "That's why Tarnished specifically asked me to bring you some things while I was passing through."
Since there were only two hundred thousand, she couldn't be as lavish as she was in Kazdel.
Mainly because if she gave them that much stuff directly, just building warehouses to store the supplies would be a huge problem for two hundred thousand people.
With over ten million Sarkaz in Kazdel, the one thing they didn't lack was labor.
Hmm, she would give them a tenth first. At least they wouldn't be worked to death by the placement of supplies.
After all, could ordinary Infected and Sarkaz be held to the same labor standard?
How could that be possible!
Out of two hundred thousand people, who knew how many were old, weak, sick, or disabled, plus the impact of Oripathy—tsk tsk tsk.
"There are enough supplies for about one million people to eat for a year," Xia Yu returned to the campfire, pushed aside the ashes, picked up a charred potato, and peeled away the carbonized outer layer. There was still a bit of soft, cooked potato left in the center.
"Can you manage to house them?"
"One million people..." FrostNova froze upon hearing this. She couldn't even imagine how much that many supplies would be.
After all, she hadn't received any proper education since she was a child.
"I'm not quite sure about that; I'll have to go back and ask Talulah," she watched Xia Yu eat that tiny bit of potato with relish. "This..."
"It's fine, I haven't eaten roasted potatoes in a long time either," Xia Yu waved her hand dismissively.
Just to have a taste, even though she had just eaten with the Doctor not long ago.
The members of the Snowdrift Squad nearby were already excitedly setting up campfires and beginning to defrost and roast meat.
"May I ask how the Doctor's health is now?" FrostNova hesitated for two seconds and then sat down beside Xia Yu to ask.
"Tarnished? Oh, she's doing great now," Xia Yu said while eating. "Among those pure Seaborn in the sea, there's no oppression, no Savage acts, and the Frenzied Flame can't kick up much of a fuss."
"She just needs to stay for a few more years. After all, that Frenzied Flame stuff is quite sinister," she bluffed. "But don't worry, you'll be able to see her again in a few years."
"If we had known earlier that the Seaborn were so easy to communicate with, she would have gone long ago. There would have been no need to be tortured for all those years."
"That's good, that's good," FrostNova couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Kazdel, bridge of the Rhodes Island.
The Doctor stood here alone, looking at the false Star Ocean in the sky, and couldn't help but recall the past.
At that time... the sky wasn't this beautiful. A rift would occupy a large portion of the starry sky.
That was the firelight of a broken portal, like a smoldering rift streaking across the sky.
It wouldn't dissipate into nothingness until centuries later.
He recalled his conversation with Kal'tsit.
'The stars have drifted far from where we stand, like leaves of the night, but the ships of Talos-II have still come to this ruin strewn with rubble.
That is life.
That is something we once lost after the end, an ancient hymn that can dispel all the misty darkness.
To this day, we still do not understand how life appeared in the vast Sea of Stars, but I think we should all sing of all living things, and sing of ourselves.
Originium is the sheet music we have written, a melody dedicated to those who come after. To meddle in the evolution of civilization is arrogant, but I have no other choice.'
"I broke my promise. I betrayed her who waited in time."
At that time, the Doctor had said to Kal'tsit: "That is because I love. I love life, I love existence. Love is an eternal innocence that keeps me from thinking."
"Kal'tsit, learn to love, learn to believe. You will have to think, to guide, to face the rolling stones that always scream as they fall down the slope."
"But... in the end... I believe you will learn to love. That is the eternal innocence, the children of breath, the nature of you and me. Go, Kal'tsit. First, look around the surroundings, then go look at the far side of that mountain. Go find the forms of existence... I have to go back."
"She once taught me everything, once passionately explored all of this, but she has changed. She won't leave much time for me, acting on my own."
He recalled the past and then glanced behind him.
Kal'tsit was slumped over the desk, sleeping soundly. Even in her sleep, she hadn't let go of the fountain pen in her hand.
And beside her, Theresa was acting like a thief, taking her hair and gently brushing it against Kal'tsit's ear, her nose...
The latter's nose twitched uncomfortably, and she turned her face to the other side to sleep.
Theresa also moved to the other side, tirelessly enjoying herself.
'Kal'tsit, I wanted you to learn to love, learn to love people, learn to love this world.'
The Doctor watched this scene wordlessly.
But this love, is it a bit...
He frowned and then thought of Priestess again.
...It seems I'm not in a position to say anything either... Wait, could it be that Kal'tsit being like this is because she was influenced by me and Priestess?
The Doctor began to think deeply.
Should... shouldn't be possible, right?
She was scared to death of Priestess.
Though he was scared too.
Sigh, speaking of Priestess, when she wakes up, how am I going to explain things to her...
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T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me.
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