Page 186
Kong Ze remembered that the Black Tower had calculated before that freezing the entire planet should continue to consume the energy of the star core... otherwise, what would be attacking them now would be large groups of creatures from the Rift Valley - everything has its cause, could it be that keeping humans in captivity and devouring all kinds of emotions is also a slow "way of eating" for the star core?
"Star cores and star gods were things that were too far away from us before."
Listening to everyone's discussions, some heroic and some rigorous, Nata barely recovered some strength. She prepared a lot of supplements for herself, but none of them were as effective as the experimental drugs of Wah that Hua Lin got from other camps. This made her feel more complicated than her other companions. This was the first time she had spoken up to participate in the discussion since the camp was set up.
Natasha looked... hesitant and sentimental at this moment, without any of the heroic spirit she had when she was underground:
How could Vahe attract the attention of so many powerful beings...
It was she who exiled her brother. She did not think it was a wrong punishment. Too many people in the lower class were poisoned and died from irresponsible drug experiments. Nata would never cover up for him, even if he was her closest relative.
But in this snowstorm, Nata personally experienced the coldness that almost froze her soul, and she had to give up some of her naive little girl ideas, such as the possibility that Wah might still be alive - saying that she had no regrets would be self-deception.
She even wanted to laugh at herself - her brother was too stubborn and lacked humanity, but she, who had made the so-called correct decision, felt a little regretful after witnessing his research results and the trajectory of his actions that led to his exile.
"...I wanted to ask you this before, Natasha, where did you find the clues about Mr. Vaher? The guards who met your brother in the snowfield before said they couldn't remember clearly..."
"..."
Under Paimon's worried and curious gaze, Natasha silently took out a stack of letters from her bag.
Most of them are still new, and the postmarks on them, the most recent of which is dated two years ago, all say "To Natasha, Lower Class District."
But everyone knew that it was impossible to deliver the letters to Nata through official channels. These letters were kept by her housekeeper. If she hadn't gone back to the city with Kong Qian to take a look at her family's situation, she wouldn't have known that Wah had gone to the snowfield alone... and had no news of him.
Coupled with the news of her father's death, and the successive loss of two close relatives, no matter how strong Natasha was, it would be difficult for her to adjust in a short period of time. Sora took her to personally look for news of her brother in such extreme weather, hoping to fill some of her missing emotions and prevent her from having any risk of emotional breakdown.
The leader of the Earth Fire has persisted for so many years... Just a moment of hesitation is already commendable. This is by no means weakness, she is a human being after all.
Kong's method was very effective. With so many new friends accompanying her, although Nata was sad, when she looked around, she found that she was not alone. Even though they were not Dihuo's companions, they still cared about her so much, and the sadness was reduced a lot.
"...Are these letters not affected?" Ying looked at the letters very keenly - since mentioning the Star God would have an impact on Beloberg, the paper letters must have been tampered with and destroyed as soon as possible.
"Yiting's people took action."
Sora also gently opened one of the letters and simply held it upright to point out the important information inside to everyone.
"Xiao Xin and Yi Ting sent additional assistance to reinforce the 'memories' left by Wah and Natasha's 'memory carrier'. Otherwise, we might not be able to see these letters, and even if we did, they would be added."
"I see... Well, tampering with something like that feels too much..." Sanyue, who had already fallen into the acquaintance trap, didn't mind at all that Yiting was almost "birds of a feather" in her impression before - she pouted and began to read the contents.
"This is the difference in standpoints. Mystery and Balance are not in line with our standpoints right now. If one day they need to borrow the help of Earthfire and Train to do something, they may also present some real information that is beneficial to our development." Although Dan Heng took the letter, he did not open it immediately. He was still waiting for Natasha's approval.
"Please feel free to look at it, Mr. Denheng."
Since Nata shared the letter, it means that she trusts everyone who was there with her.
"I'm in charge of the train think tank...do you mind?"
"I think my brother must have expected this day to come... I'll just record everything about him truthfully."
"Ah."
Dan Heng then opened the envelope, and Kong, who was sitting opposite him, spread out the letter without any psychological pressure, looking like he had already read it privately.
This made everyone look quite subtle - when? This was really a perfect opportunity.
After discarding those not-so-serious associations, everyone noticed that in Wach's letters, he always mentioned his reflections on underground drug testing and experimental events. It was completely impossible to tell that he was a crazy scientist who was incapable of empathy and was more obsessed with ideals than caring about humanity.
The various professional terms interspersed in it made March and Eula dizzy, but they understood a key message: it was because Wah understood the limitations of his own experiment and wanted to recall his original heart that he stepped into the snowfield, and the medicine distributed to those Iron Guards was infinitely close to a finished product.
"...Natasha, your brother's research is undoubtedly crucial. If it can be popularized to a wider range of human society, it will not only exist as a warming drug for Beloberg, but also advance the research on human body self-circulation in the entire galaxy."
Kong had already made a conclusion on this.
"He was a guy who didn't want to see humans gain the ability to move freely in the cold wave... I don't know if this sounds too conspiratorial, but his disappearance is probably related to the star core."
Seeing that Nata was hesitant to speak, he added: "I am not trying to excuse him. The key to the success of the experiment and the reason for his disappearance are probably because he risked his life in the end... Maybe this is an epiphany."
"But my brother..."
"Sister Nata, the medicine that Sister Hua Lin found is really effective. Brother Kong has tested it and there are no side effects. I think he should have...successfully realized his dream."
As the second person in the team to swallow "Wind and Snow Immunity", Ling Ke is qualified to say this.
"Do you feel unwell?"
Although Nata's forehead was covered with sweat, she still maintained the rigor of a doctor and kept asking Lingke and Sanyue about their physical sensations, fearing that something might be wrong with them.
"Apart from... feeling hot and dry all over, there's nothing wrong with me... my pantyhose are full of sweat..." Lingke took off her hat and fanned her hair. The beads of sweat in the center of her golden hair were crystal clear.
She will definitely catch a cold if she goes out like this, and someone will need to wipe her face.
But the strange thing was that the first person she wanted to ask for help was not her sisters of the same sex. Instead, she moved towards Kong, as if she really wanted Kong to take the towel from her hand.
Maybe it was because she had just felt a sense of intimacy from Sora that was similar to that from her own brother, but in a completely different form - she had been eagerly waiting for Sora.
Beads of sweat began to appear on Mitsuki's calves. She moved away from the stove, not knowing when her teeth went from chattering to a flushed face. She also picked up the towel and glanced at the golden retriever eagerly, wanting to imitate the plot in the girls' comics and give him some benefits, but she found that Eula was glaring at Sora with a ferocious look that said "If you dare to lay a hand on such a young girl, I will enforce justice on your behalf", and then glanced back and forth between him and Lingke who was approaching.
Even Paimon pursed his lips and signaled to Kong, "Don't go too far."
Under March's slightly numb gaze, Eula snatched Lingke's towel, ignoring the little girl's surprise, helped her clean the snow and sweat on her head, and made the latter quickly reveal an expression of enjoyment like a cat.
In order to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the situation, she took the risk.
On the other side, Nata came over and took the initiative to clean the sweat off March's head.
Anyway, he didn't let Kong have any chance to make a move. Only Ying looked around and finally sighed, as if he was upset about not being able to gain any power of will and Kong not being strong enough.
Although everyone's minds were no longer completely focused on the business... but it took less than half an hour from extreme cold to full of heat, which shows that this thing is quite powerful. According to some iron guards, its effect can last for nearly a week.
"Are you interested, Sister Youla and Sister Ying? It really works!"
"No. The temperature outside is just right for me." Eula ruthlessly rejected the pink-haired girl's kindness.
"Any medicine is almost useless to me, so there's no need to waste it." Yingze shook his head directly.
One of the two visitors from Teyvat stood out as a loner, which made Sanyue feel awkward. She looked at Kong and Danheng pitifully, but the men also looked embarrassed.
One of them is immune to all poisons, and the other can use strong winds to knock down trees. Eating them is just for the sake of "fitting in".
Fortunately, as if to reflect Dan Heng's judgment on the core of the star and to make March calm down, the swirling wind and snow gradually weakened, and Gustav's synchronous anemometer showed that the outer storm was receding, making a dripping sound.
"…Sorry everyone, we can't rest any longer."
Sora glanced at the screen marked "10" and called Gustav back. The giant object holding the tent turned into light particles and scattered.
"We must find Vah's laboratory before the starry sky casts its gaze again."
He asked softly to Nata, whose hair was slightly stuck together but whose expression was much more relaxed: "Nata, can we still come together?"
"I'm fine... sorry to bother you all."
The doctor pursed her lips, and there was no more confusion between her brows.
But she immediately realized that what Kong said was quite ambiguous.
264. Raven, Things Before the Sun and Moon
Before, Natasha didn't pay much attention to the "Raven" that Kong mentioned unintentionally, but after hearing Kong's "Can we still get together?", which seemed to be used to greet someone who was particularly familiar, or even a little too familiar with the other person, Natasha couldn't help but want to explore it.
This mysterious man, with an unknown age and multiple identities, always adheres to the principle of never lying to those he trusts. He is even too honest and sincere to his enemies. It is hard to imagine what kind of environment has transformed him into this person, and what kind of people have influenced him.
The woman named Raven... was a good starting point. Originally, avoiding mentioning her name unintentionally was a matter of basic courtesy, but Kong had been "disrespectful" many times before, so Natasha planned to use this as an excuse to get to know his past in depth.
Compared to a liking... Nata would rather call it an irrepressible curiosity. Perhaps the stories outside this planet ignited her long-dormant "girlish heart", or maybe... she analyzed it herself and felt that she was uneasy about her own talents and felt that if she didn't know enough about Sora and the train, she wouldn't be able to really help them.
In addition, she couldn't continue talking about Wah... Talking about her brother's past would make the atmosphere infinitely heavy, and she didn't want everyone to be sad with her.
"Sora, can I hear about your experience as a captain?"
The cold air inhaled into the lungs quickly moistened the throat with the help of the "Wind and Snow Immunity" potion and reduced the pain like a knife cutting, so that Nata did not have to rely on her unfamiliar psychic powers to communicate with Kong.
In order to avoid being considered as cheating, she cleverly showed her cards to the other girls - learning from Sora to use honesty as her weapon.
"Hmm? Nata, why are you suddenly interested in my boring past... Oh, I see... You want to ask about Xi'er and the others, right?"
As Sora dug through the wreckage of the house that had collapsed under the weight of the snow, he responded to Nata with some surprise.
He thought that with Nata's personality, she might never take the initiative to ask about this topic in her life, but she was subject to too many external influences.
"Well, besides them, I am also curious about what kind of person 'I' am in the other world."
"Siel and the others are not here, so I won't discuss their counterparts casually. As for Raven... he is very different from you, but you have many similarities in appearance."
The girls pricked up their ears to listen to the gossip, and their movements slowed down a bit. Only Dan Heng, while listening to the gossip, seemed to be more motivated to shovel the snow away from the landmark.
"How should I put it? You are all very gentle people at heart."
Kong threw away a collapsed wooden pillar, revealing the broken planks underneath that also couldn't bear the weight - Vah was really crazy to use such a crudely built house as a laboratory in the snowy field. Even if the Rift Creature didn't kill him, the snow that was quickly piling up on the roof would sooner or later crush him to death.
"Different life trajectories led one of you to choose to save lives, while the other chose to kill people... Honestly, when I learned that you were a doctor, I breathed a sigh of relief."
"She is a killer?" Nata couldn't imagine what a killer with her face would look like.
"She was a mercenary, or a killer, but... the reason why I said she might be a very gentle person is that she finally came to her senses and chose to be with the children she sponsored to experience what it feels like to be alive."
"...You two are really familiar with each other."
"Can you tell? I didn't even mention whether we've worked together before."
Kong sneered.
"Because you often call her name..." Nata was still smiling gently, but even Sora couldn't tell what kind of emotions were in her heart.
I guess it would still be a little awkward and uncomfortable, right? Even if Sora didn't intentionally treat her as someone else's "substitute".
"Okay, Nata... I was wrong. Raven and I had an impure relationship for a while, so every time I see you, I will think of her - when she was still working at World Serpent, we had an evil relationship... It's just that two men and women who are both afraid of dying tomorrow and don't want to die seek warmth from each other and discuss the meaning of life."
Kong sighed, not paying attention to Ling Ke's weird look beside her - it was the first time the little girl heard someone talk about having sex in such a high-sounding way.
Thanks to Pella's influence... Lingke understood the things between men and women a long time ago, without the need for her brothers and sisters to teach her, but after staying in Kong's team for a while, she realized how chaotic relationships in this area could be.
"You can imagine how crazy humans can be when the end of the world is approaching. High pressure can turn us back into animals... Although I am more open-minded about death than most people, Raven has paid a lot to live well... She gave up so much, and in the end she found that the only people who could make her feel alive were a few people who were supposed to be enemies, besides the children she raised. She almost went crazy during that time, in every sense of the word."
Jinmao and Danheng worked together to clear the last obstacle of the laboratory ruins: "In order to find a reason to live, she almost killed me several times. It's hard for me not to remember her."
"...I'm sorry for reminding you of something unpleasant." Nata didn't know whether to smile or show a sad expression at this moment. She was obviously in a heavy mood and the person Kong mentioned was not so likable, but Kong's face, like a candle in the wind, was really unbearable.
She then thought about how she, a woman who was no longer considered "young", had the face of someone who had had several affairs with Kong. She felt a little embarrassed when she imagined herself almost "killing" Kong with all kinds of expressions that she had never shown in front of outsiders.
To be more precise, she actually put herself in Raven's shoes... imagining the chaos and possible beauty in it was what made her shy... she was not young anymore.
After doing some calculations, she felt that it couldn't be calculated that way - if everything Kong said was true, he had spent at least fifty years in one world alone. The age of the soul could not be traced, so compared to him, she didn't seem to be that old.
...Thinking about it this way, Xi'er seems a little too young for Kong...At least women of my and Xiluwa's age have just passed his safety line...