Arknights: The Life Inside Chapter 15

In the snow and ice, a girl crawled out from the "pot lid" and quickly retreated back inside.

Everyone watching had the sa strange expression—not fear, but a sense of sothing being off.

Yoren remained the calst among them. Beside him, Kate poked his arm and whispered, "Yoren, what kind of creature is this?"

Yoren blinked, montarily taken aback. Kate, a native of Terra, was asking him about local creatures? Just yesterday, he had been spouting off about Originium guns and sub-Originium powder like he had a doctorate, and now she was looking to him for answers.

But this ti, she had asked the right person.

Yoren smirked, rubbing his chin. "Turtle."

Kate gave him a look. "Yoren, stop ssing around and tell what it is."

"I am telling you. It's a turtle."

Vina, standing nearby, had no patience for the back-and-forth. She strode up to the "turtle shell" with a hamr and kicked it.

"Hey, you! Why are you ambushing our convoy? Speak up!"

A voice piped up from inside. "Who's ambushing? I was sleeping!"

"Sleeping? In the middle of the road? Who's going to believe that? Who sent you?"

Silence.

Vina frowned and started kicking the shell harder. "Stop pretending to be dead and co out, you sneaky little thing!"

When there was still no response, her frustration boiled over. She raised her sledgehamr. "Fine! If you won't talk, I'll just have to—"

Bang! Bang! Bang! The hamr ca down again and again, making a relentless rhythm against the shell. Yoren, watching her determination, found himself unconsciously counting the strikes.

But no matter how many tis Vina struck, the girl inside didn't react.

Yoren sighed and stepped forward. "Vina, stop. You're just scaring her."

"No! She dared to ignore . I won't let her off easy!"

This was the most frustrating kind of opponent—the kind that simply refused to engage. No matter how much force you used, they just hunkered down and waited for the storm to pass.

Yoren placed a hand on Vina's shoulder. "Alright, alright."

"Don't touch ."

"Fine. Just take a break. I've got an idea."

Vina hesitated but eventually stepped back. "You better get her out of there."

"Yeah, yeah."

Yoren crouched by the shell and knocked gently. "Hey, you in there?"

Silence.

"I know you can hear . Look, just co out and apologize, and we'll move on. No one's going to hurt you."

Still nothing.

"Really, there's no point wasting ti like this. If you were just napping and got caught up in all this, we can even give you a ride. Just co out."

Vina, arms crossed, muttered, "She's not budging. Move aside, I'm smashing it open."

Yoren grimaced. Ti for his last trick. He leaned in close, cupping his hands around his mouth so only the girl inside could hear.

"If you don't co out... I'm going to pee on this."

BANG! The lid flew open instantly.

A little girl, dressed in a dark green baseball jacket with a thick brown ponytail, shot out like a startled rabbit. Her face was flushed red with outrage as she glared at Yoren.

"You disgusting—!"

Before he could react, she yanked a tal baseball bat from inside her shell and whack!—

"Ouch!" Yoren yelped, hopping on one foot as he clutched the other where she had struck.

The girl brandished the bat like a weapon, her cheeks puffed with fury. "You pervert! You rogue! You absolute bastard!"

The group stared, dumbfounded by her sudden explosion of rage. Vina, puzzled, leaned in to Yoren. "What the hell did you say to her?"

Yoren coughed, still hopping. "Uh... just a little joke."

But now, there was no doubt in his mind. He knew exactly who this girl was.

Snowsant.

Three years from now, she would be known as Rhodes Island's strongest shield. The one who could block an army's advance singlehandedly. The unbreakable fortress.

Right now, though, she was a furious little girl, gripping her bat with both hands. "Why are you bullying ? I didn't do anything wrong! This is public space—why can't I sleep here?!"

Yoren resisted the urge to sigh. Technically, she wasn't wrong. If soone chose to sleep in the middle of the road, it was their responsibility if sothing happened. Still, this wasn't exactly normal behavior.

Vina rubbed the back of her head, montarily thrown off by Snowsant's words. "Wait, you really weren't sent by soone?"

Snowsant pouted. "I don't know any organizations! I'm just on my own."

"Uh... okay." Vina had no argunt for that. Just because they outnumbered her didn't an they could demand an apology.

Yoren took a step closer to Vina and whispered, "I actually know her. She's not with any group."

Vina squinted at him. "Are you sure?"

"Positive. Just wait."

He slowly approached Snowsant, hands raised in a peace offering.

"Don't co any closer!" she warned, gripping her bat tighter. "I'm really scary, you know!"

Ignoring her warning, Yoren suddenly grabbed her wrist.

For a brief second, his eyes flickered down to her skin.

There it is.

Small, granular black crystals, barely visible on the inside of her arm.

Snowsant yelped and instinctively swung her bat.

WHACK!

It landed squarely on Yoren's face.

I really did not think that one through.

Five minutes later, Yoren sat on a rock with toilet paper stuffed up his nostrils to stop the bleeding.

Snowsant stood next to him, fidgeting. "I, um... I didn't an to hit you that hard. You scared ."

To be honest, the hit had hurt, but Yoren could take it. For all her strength when inside her "turtle shell," Snowsant's actual attack power was laughably weak.

He pulled the tissue out and gave her a lopsided smile. "It's okay. That was self-defense. If a bad guy ever grabs you, you should do the sa thing. Good job, Snowsant."

Her eyes widened in shock. "Wait—how do you know my na?!"

Yoren t her gaze. "We t a year ago, don't you rember?"

Snowsant looked lost. It wasn't the kind of confusion where soone tries to recall a distant mory—it was the confusion of soone who had no mory at all.

"A year ago? That's... too far back for ."

Yoren exhaled slowly. He had expected as much.

Even three years before the Kjerag incident, Snowsant was already infected.

And she was already suffering from severe amnesia.

Yoren was familiar with every operator in Rhodes Island, and Snowsant was no exception.

[Eh? Where is this place? Who am I?]

That was the first thing Snowsant said when she woke up. One day, while Rhodes Island's mobile base was resupplying in a small Columbia city, the operators found her napping on the deck, basking in the sun. When they roused her, she had no recollection of how she got there or what she had been doing. Every mory from before her arrival at Rhodes Island had vanished.

Yoren glanced at Snowsant, who sat beside him looking uneasy. He had a feeling that her sudden appearance in Rhodes Island after three years wasn't a coincidence. This was the place she had been searching for. Yet, when she finally arrived, she had forgotten why she had been looking for it in the first place.

Yoren didn't understand her reasons, but he was certain of one thing: joining Rhodes Island would only benefit her. After all, she was an Infected.

He reached out and gently ruffled her hair.

"Snowsant, why are you hiking alone through the frozen wastes of Ursus?"

"I... I don't have money. I always travel alone."

"Where are you headed?"

"I want to go to Kjerag. Soone told that if I keep going north, I'll see the Holy Mountain of Karan."

Yoren sighed. Who had given her such awful directions? Heading straight north was practically a death sentence in this frozen wilderness.

"Kjerag is still far from here, and you're not even going the right way. What's waiting for you there?"

"I... I'm looking for soone."

"Who?"

"I... forgot."

Yoren frowned as he took in her appearance. She wore only thin clothes, and her ears were already red from the cold. He could guess how she had been surviving—her only ans of warmth was that peculiar "turtle shell" of hers. Every few steps, she would retreat into it to conserve body heat.

Yoren stood and walked over to Vina.

"Vina, we're heading north anyway. Why don't we give her a ride to Mandel City? She can continue on her own from there."

Vina hesitated. Yoren quickly pressed his advantage.

"Co on, you were hamring her 'turtle shell' a minute ago, and she didn't even complain. She's a tough kid. Just let her ride with us."

Vina recalled how she had been pounding away at the shell like a miner breaking rock. Her cheeks reddened slightly.

"...Fine. Do what you want. There's space in the truck anyway."

Yoren turned back to Snowsant and held out his hand.

"You don't have to keep walking. We can take you part of the way."

"But..."

"No pressure. You can get off anyti. It's warm in the truck, and there's food."

At the ntion of food, her eyes lit up, but just as quickly, they dimd again.

"But... I'm an Infected."

In Terra, the Infected rarely admitted their status. They were outcasts, shunned by society.

Yoren only smiled. "It's fine. You're just sick. And if you're sick, you should rest in the truck, right?"

Snowsant hesitated, then nodded. Maybe this was the first ti soone had accepted her after learning she was Infected.

She turned, retrieved her "turtle shell" from where she'd left it, and strapped it to her back.

Vina frowned, watching her.

"Wait a second, What is that? It's tougher than any shield I've ever seen."

Snowsant gave it a shake.

"This? It's my bag."

"A bag? Where'd you get it?"

"...I forgot. I've had it for a really long ti."

Yoren knew Snowsant's backpack wasn't ordinary. Even Kal'tsit and the researchers at Rhodes Island couldn't understand its composition. It was supposedly made of an ultra-hard tal stitched together with so near-indestructible technique. More than that, Snowsant could use it to activate a powerful defensive ability.

With that backpack alone, she could wander anywhere, sleep wherever she pleased, and retreat into it at the first sign of danger. For years, she had drifted through the world like a lost traveler, yet she had sohow survived.

Yoren stepped closer and patted her shoulder.

"Turtle—"

"My na isn't Turtle... Well, actually, that's not a bad na. I'll allow it."

It seed she didn't mind the nickna.

Yoren recalled sothing he'd read before. "If I'm not mistaken, you can activate a defensive ability with that backpack, right?"

Snowsant nodded. "Yep."

Yoren took a few steps back. "Show Vina."

"Okay."

Snowsant grabbed the straps of her backpack and closed her eyes. A soft blue glow emanated from the bag, expanding outward to form a translucent, circular barrier around her.

Inside the shield, she opened her eyes.

"There. This is my Absolute Domain. No one outside can hurt , but I can't attack anyone either."

Yoren smirked at Vina. "Miss Wang, go ahead and try. Let's see what you've got."

Vina scoffed, gripping her hamr. "Don't think I couldn't break it earlier—I was just holding back so I wouldn't hurt the kid."

"Oh?" Yoren exaggerated his reaction just enough to needle her pride.

Vina's eye twitched. "You don't believe ? Fine. Hey, kid, just so you know—I won't be responsible if I break through."

Snowsant was unfazed. "You won't."

That did it. Vina roared and charged, hamr swinging.

Five minutes later.

Vina stood with her hamr planted in the ground, panting. "Damn... you're tough."

Inside the barrier, Snowsant looked smug. "I have full confidence in my defense. Not just you—no one here could break it, even if you all attacked at once."

That set everyone off. Even the Death Squad operators weren't ones to back down from a challenge.

"Little girl, you said it yourself. Don't start crying later."

"I won't. Co at ."

Snowsant pouted playfully inside her barrier, waiting for the "onslaught."

A roar went up from the crowd as they charged, weapons raised. Battle axes, swords, maces, every weapon imaginable rained down on the barrier from all directions.

Even the usually reserved ACE kicked it twice for good asure.

CLANG! CRASH! THUD!

Yoren stood at a distance, sipping from a bottle of Wangzai milk. "So noisy. Feels more festive than New Year's."

Ten minutes later.

Snowsant stood inside her barrier, head tilted, eyes half-closed. If not for the racket, she might've fallen asleep.

Around her, operators were sprawled out, clutching their sore arms. So swords had bent from the impact.

The exhausted fighters exchanged looks and heaved deep breaths, their voices laced with reluctant admiration.

"Turtle... you're tough."