At Umbrella, as the helicopter landed steadily on the pad, the four of them—Fujino and the others—slowly stepped out. However, only three people actually appeared to descend; Manticore had erased her presence out of habit.
"The people from Rhodes Island have already arrived." Just as she stepped off the helicopter, Fujino received the intelligence about Rhodes Island's arrival from A2, who had come to meet them.
"Well, they were quite fast." Fujino smiled, then turned to say a few words to First Snow, letting 2B take her for a tour around Umbrella first.
"Alright, A2, let's go."
With that, Fujino began walking forward, with A2 following closely behind.
In the corridor, Fujino listened to A2's report on Umbrella's activities over the past few days.
Mm, just like before, no changes.
After Umbrella became completely famous, no one without eyes dared to come and cause trouble, which actually made Fujino feel a bit bored.
"But you said the reason Rhodes Island came to our Umbrella was because Blacksteel acted as a bridge?"
"Yes," A2 replied. "Shortly after you left, Fujino, this matter was handled by Miss Nanami. However, after Miss Nanami finished handling it, she didn't meet with the Rhodes Island people. Instead, she had them wait in the Umbrella reception room for you to return and handle it."
"You call that handling the matter?" Fujino complained. "She clearly just dumped the work on me!"
"It's like this: Miss Nanami said she's been busy rushing a manuscript lately, so she doesn't have time to handle these things." When she said this, A2 didn't dare look Fujino in the eye. After all, Miss Nanami's publishing house was their own Umbrella; how could they not know whether she needed to rush a manuscript?
"Forget it."
Fujino was truly helpless when it came to Nanami. She shouldn't have let Nanami get into doujinshi in the first place. Her original reason for letting Nanami explore them was to create some ambiguous moments between the two of them and then let things take their natural course.
But it had turned into something else entirely. Ambiguous things did happen, but they weren't what Fujino had imagined. The Nanami who used to get all flustered and blush from a single wall-slam was gone, replaced by a veteran pervert no less skilled than Nia.
However, there was still a difference between Nanami and Nia. For instance, Nia would still hide her perverted side in front of her, using more subtle words to entice Fujino into doing something interesting. Although Nia hadn't succeeded before Fujino came to the Arknights world because Fujino was playing hard to get, Nanami was different. Unlike Nia who feigned subtlety, Nanami seemed to be at full throttle.
The shy Nanami of the past was gone. The current Nanami was a veteran who would drop dirty jokes at any moment. Sometimes she even dragged Fujino into a room, saying they needed some 'practical combat' to find material. The ambiguous things happened here, but the so-called 'practical combat' was not what Fujino had in mind.
Why does the so-called 'material' involve me and 2B performing a live erotic scene in front of you?!
After coming to the Arknights world, she had thrown herself heart and soul into her doujinshi world and used Umbrella's power to thoroughly bring doujinshi culture to this apocalyptic world. She brought a gospel as hot as the sun to countless single and thirsty young men and women, and was even given the title 'Doujinshi Doctor' by her fanatical readers in the Terra world.
Speaking of which, is it necessary to get a 'Doctor' title just by coming to the Arknights world?!
Fujino was extremely helpless about this.
Sighing, Fujino felt she should find some time to have a good talk with Nanami.
"Let's go see Saria and the others first. As for the Rhodes Island people, we'll deal with them later. Since they've already waited, I'm sure they won't mind waiting a bit longer."
"Yes."
In the laboratory belonging to Saria and the others at Umbrella.
Saria sat in a chair, her eyes full of fatigue, but a wide smile was on her face.
Umbrella's technology surpassed the Terra Continent by an unknown margin. The sheer volume of knowledge was so vast that even they couldn't digest it in a short time. Therefore, they all chose to digest Umbrella's technology in the fields they were most proficient in.
Saria chose the aspect of controlling Originium power.
After spending nearly three days without sleep, Saria had finally perfectly absorbed this area of knowledge. Now, as long as Ifrit came to Umbrella, Saria was confident she could resolve the oripathy in Ifrit's body and transform it into Ifrit's own power.
"If I had known, I would have just knocked Ifrit and Silence unconscious and brought them to Umbrella back then." She shook her head helplessly; it was too late for that now. Saria looked at Ptilopsis, who was still working hard nearby, and asked, "Ptilopsis, how are you doing?"
"Response: Data copying has reached forty-two percent." A typical Ptilopsis-style answer.
"I remember you chose the combination of magic and technology?" Saria asked curiously. "How is it now? Have you gone to O11 to test your magic talent?"
Ptilopsis didn't answer, but simply raised a hand. A green glow condensed into a sphere in her palm, and then the green sphere flew in front of Saria.
"Is this magic?" Saria curiously poked the small green ball with her finger. Immediately, she felt refreshed, and the fatigue accumulated from several days of sleepless work vanished without a trace.
"It's this miraculous?!" Saria said in surprise. Feeling her body's condition, she found that her body was incredibly well at the moment. Saria felt that with her current state, she could probably work for another four or five days without sleep with no problem.
"Can I learn it?" Saria asked hurriedly. She was now interested in magic. She had been intrigued ever since she saw such unscientific things within Umbrella, but for the sake of Ifrit's health, Saria had first chosen to absorb knowledge regarding the control of Originium power. Now that she had completely absorbed that knowledge and seen the wonders of magic from Ptilopsis, Saria's interest in magic was skyrocketing.
"Yes, Miss O11 said that everyone has a certain amount of magic talent. oripathy can even strengthen magic talent. Saria, you will be fine," Ptilopsis answered without even looking at Saria, her gaze remaining on the text on the screen.
"Is it because oripathy strengthens Originium Arts? In that case, oripathy isn't exactly something to be loathed anymore," Saria said with a sigh. "If it weren't for Fujino, we wouldn't have come into contact with such miraculous things."
"Agreed."
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