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ArabicArknights: It Can't Possibly Be My Fault... Right? — Chapter 49
Chapter 49: Baka, Test, and Fireball!
Kal’tsit rubbed her temples, a rare gesture of exasperation. The scent of scorched earth and lingering ozone drifted into the observation deck. Down in the testing grounds, a massive crater still smoked—the direct result of Kai launching a high-yield fireball simply because he was curious. She watched the boisterous group gathered in the distance, silently staring at the ruined landscape.
“What do you think?” a slightly cool, detached voice asked from beside her.
Assuming the question pertained to the smoldering crater, Kal’tsit did not look up from her clipboard. “I will have them take full responsibility for the repairs and the subsequent upkeep of the testing grounds.”
“I am talking about Kai’s data. You are distracted, Kal’tsit.” Y.P pulled up a chair and sat down next to her.
“I haven’t finished reviewing the telemetry yet,” Kal’tsit replied, her expression an unreadable mask. Yet, Y.P clearly saw the subtle twitch of the Feline’s ears.
Y.P had no intention of pressing the issue. Instead, she pulled up the data recorded right after Kai had consumed the Supplements. A quick comparison left the usually stoic operator stunned. The energy output figures were staggering, easily rivaling an Elite Operator like Logos. It was a world away from the baseline metrics they had gathered in his monitoring room.
And this was not even his absolute limit. When the Medical Department had asked him about his maximum tolerance for the Supplements, Kai had paused, thought for a moment, and simply held up a single finger.
Was that one bottle? One entire canister?
“Keep drinking,” he had told them with a straight face.
If not for the Medical Department’s sheer terror regarding potential organ failure and Originium toxicity, he would have chugged the concoctions until the inventory ran dry. The proposal, while terrifyingly dedicated to the pursuit of science, was unanimously vetoed by the medics, leaving Kai visibly disappointed.
“On a side note,” Y.P murmured, tapping the data pad, “I believe Kai’s metrics after consuming the Supplements put him firmly on par with a Top Operator.”
Kal’tsit raised a slender eyebrow. “Are you suggesting we promote him to that rank?”
“No. His baseline state is too vulnerable, and he lacks the operational independence required of a Top Operator. However, keeping him on ordinary internal affairs is a waste of his qualifications. My suggestion is to promote him to a Senior Operator, specifically as a Core Caster. His three-year track record certainly justifies the promotion,” Y.P said after careful consideration.
Kal’tsit gave a slow nod but did not agree immediately. “I will consider it, but not right now. Today is primarily about charting his raw strength.” She buried her head back into the dizzying array of data sheets.
“Just a suggestion.” Seeing that Kal’tsit had her own plans, Y.P dropped the subject.
“That is the spirit! Again, again! This much heat is not enough!” Blaze’s hearty laughter echoed across the scorched testing grounds. She was currently locked in a fierce spar with Kai, who had just downed two full bottles of Supplements.
Unlike the previous accidental explosion, Kal’tsit had explicitly authorized this bout. She needed Elite Operators to push Kai in actual combat to harvest accurate telemetry.
Inside the testing grounds, which had been thoroughly leveled by their resident site cleaning assistant, the battle raged on. Blaze moved like a predator, weaving through the whistling fireballs Kai hurled her way as she locked onto his position and charged.
“Catch this!” Blaze roared, lunging from his blind spot. A massive, heavy steel pipe swung directly toward his face. Since this was merely a practice bout, she had left her signature chainsaw behind and borrowed a solid rod of D32 Steel from the Engineering Department. A Senior Operator of Engineering carrying around a raw D32 Steel pipe was perfectly reasonable, after all.
“Whoa, not the face!” Kai yelled, completely unpanicked. He was fully buffed and overflowing with artificial stamina. Knowing he lacked the veteran reflexes to dodge Blaze’s strike, he opted for the brute-force approach.
He twisted his torso, raised both arms, and braced for impact. The steel pipe slammed into his guard with a deafening crack. The kinetic force sent him skidding backward through the dirt, but the calculated retreat allowed him to dissipate the brunt of the blow.
Blaze stopped, staring at the bent and twisted D32 Steel pipe in her hands with a deeply troubled expression. No one had ever blocked her raw physical strength quite like that. Dust billowed around Kai’s landing zone. “Hey! Kai, are you okay?” she called out, a hint of genuine worry bleeding into her voice.
A fist punched straight through the dust cloud. Kai stepped out, grinning. “Ha! Bring it on!”
“The smoke ignites the sunset, and I ignite the battlefield!”
Blaze’s eyes lit up. “That is a cool line. It is mine from now on!”
“Take this, and this!”
Watching the two of them continue to shout at each other while trading heavy blows in the dirt, Kal’tsit turned her attention back to her notes. Blaze was holding back, not because Kai lacked raw power, but because he lacked the refined combat instincts of a veteran. Still, his performance was exceptional. Two doses were far from his ceiling, yet he was already trading blows with an Elite Operator. How many doses would it take for him to stand on equal footing with Talulah?
“Dr. Kal’tsit.” Amiya’s soft voice broke her train of thought. Our cute little Cautus was still wearing her standard uniform from the morning, but her face was tight with unmistakable anxiety.
“What is wrong?” Kal’tsit set her pen down.
Amiya’s gaze drifted to the paperwork on the desk, landing on the words Originite Prime circled in thick red ink, accompanied by a massive question mark. “Are these… Mr. Kai’s test results?” she asked, briefly sidetracked by curiosity.
“Yes, they were all measured today. But let us set that aside for now. You seem to have something urgent to report.” Kal’tsit picked up her coffee cup and took a slow sip.
Amiya nodded, her long ears drooping slightly. “It is about the Abandoned City. More and more of our scout squads have lost contact with the landship., the final transmission from the last missing squad mentioned severe, unnatural drops in temperature. I am worried…” She trailed off, unable to finish the thought.
Kal’tsit’s brow furrowed. The situation was spiraling toward their worst-case scenario. Within Talulah’s Reunion Movement, two specific factions commanded absolute dread. One was the Guerrillas, led by Patriot, the rumored last pure-blooded Wendigo to walk Terra. The other was the Yeti Squadron, entrenched in the frozen tundra and led by Patriot’s develop daughter, FrostNova. The Infected who had survived her devastating Originium Arts simply called her the Yeti Princess.
What was supposed to be a routine intelligence-gathering operation might now require facing a main force of the Reunion Movement. “Where is the Doctor? He should be managing these deployments.”
“The Doctor has already dispatched another Special Action Squad to gather intelligence,” Amiya reported quickly. “He then personally led a team to Lungmen to negotiate with the Guard Department, hoping to secure their assistance in handling the Abandoned City. After all, the city is practically on their doorstep now.”
“I see.” Kal’tsit relaxed slightly, comforted by the Doctor’s swift tactical response. She looked out the reinforced glass window, watching Kai and Blaze laugh and exchange blows in the dirt. A decision crystallized in her mind.
“Amiya and I are going to help together?” Kai asked, blinking in confusion as Kal’tsit relayed her orders.
After the intense physical exertion, the strange glowing patterns on his skin had become highly visible. Under the strict analysis and bold conjectures of the Medical Department, the Impurity Discharge Theory proposed by Kal’tsit had essentially been confirmed as true. His body was actively purging foreign energy.
Kai casually tossed an empty vial of the lowest-concentration sanity potion into a nearby hazardous waste bin. “I thought you were going to bench me from missions for a while.”
“That was my original intention,” Kal’tsit admitted flatly. She stared intently at his face, tracking the faint, thin glowing lines that traced across his most sensitive skin, a direct reaction to the final, diluted potion.
Her unblinking, clinical stare lingered just a second too long. Kai shifted his weight, suddenly feeling very exposed. “W-what is it?” he stammered, rubbing his cheek.