Good thing we’re not on foot.

Yekase sighed, hugging a tin mug as steam curled up like a tame ghost.

Southern-born, southern-raised—a country girl whose Sovell Conference trip is only her second time abroad—she’d still underestimated the Arctic’s harsh bite, even with evolved strength.

At the rim it’s already minus twenty-something, cold like knives on bone. Go deeper—how cold would it get?

First, the other three ordinary folks would run out of stamina. Second, even if she didn’t freeze, walking would take until time itself wore thin.

If she couldn’t hold back and fired up a flight spell, worse—everything on her would frost solid in a heartbeat.

Right now, sitting in a heated SUV, lazily watching snow-scrub scenery, steeping instant seaweed soup and sipping with numbed fingers, felt like decadent luxury.

“Thank you, Aurora. Thank you, Sidonia Dragon Fortress...”

This is how cooperation should feel—warm as a hearth in a white wasteland.

The Tunguska Cosmic Bubble, this Arctic run—both proved Sidonia Development a reliable ally, steady as bedrock.

One crucial small detail—like a pin holding the wheel:

Mira had joined the Fortress during Huaxia’s layoff tide, bringing Carol Liancheng along. Aurora knew Yekase and her didn’t mesh; meeting abroad would double the awkwardness.

So she arranged to send Mira away for a bit—thoughtful to the bone.

Alice, meanwhile, was a sadistic client who wouldn’t spare a kind look. If Yekase hadn’t thick-skinned her way into payment, she’d have worked for free. Compared to the humane treatment here, they’re worlds apart.

“Hey, what’s that over there?” Dorothy shouted.

Yekase sat up and looked left. On a tundra patched with scrub and snow, many brown shapes drifted in a loose, slow-moving herd.

“Wild animals, maybe? Wanna check?” Harrison asked, hands already turning the wheel toward them.

“Feels like a wildlife park,” Yekase mused.

Interest sparked, she dug out several packs of sauced beef jerky, long expired and faintly sour, from her Transport Box.

“Not sure if they eat meat. Maybe I can bribe them. I’ve never ridden an animal!”

Harrison wore a please-spare-me face. “You want to ride a carnivore?! Even if you could beat it, that’s a time sink!”

“You don’t get it. Wild animals have sharp crisis instinct. The moment they see me, they’ll know they’re outmatched. Then it’s simple: I share jerky, trade for riding rights. That’s a mix of mercy and menace.”

“If you say so.”

“What’s a wildlife park?” asked Dorothy, long hair, short experience.

“You sit in a cage and let the wild animals stare at you.”

“Sounds pretty modern.”

“You’ve got modernity seriously twisted, you silly daughter of a petty ‘earth emperor’!”

“Silly daughter of an earth emperor?!”

The SUV rolled closer; the four saw them clearly. A big, brawny herd of yaks.

“Alright, I’m riding a yak!”

Buzzing, Yekase rolled down the window and vaulted out.

“Alright, me too!”

Dorothy followed suit, but didn’t dare jump. She opened Cosmic Wizard, and an armored knight named Mafty caught her like a steel guardian.

In a blink, only two remained in the car.

“You’ve got it rough,” Harrison said, sympathetic and clearly mistaken.

Lu Yao knew exactly what he’d misread. She stayed quiet, then squeezed out, “...Same to you.”

Down on the tundra, Yekase went to the outermost yak and made warm, earnest contact. She tried feeding it beef jerky, absurdity steaming like breath in winter.

In a brutal tundra, a beautiful girl offering food to a beast several sizes larger—picture-perfect harmony between human and nature.

If only the food weren’t beef.

From its heavy coat, wet eyes watched the underdressed outsider. The faintly sour sauced scent hit its nose; it snorted loud.

“Wanna eat, distant cousin?”

The yak didn’t understand; otherwise it’d have kicked her into the sky. Herbivore instinct prevailed; it turned away, bored.

Yekase saw it wasn’t keen. She stuffed the jerky into her own mouth, then reached into the Transport Box, hoping for hay with low expectations.

Of course, no hay.

She fished out two Mind Energy torque nuts, some tripwire steel, a few press triggers—relics from her wage-slave days. Up to the Triple Calamity at most; after that, her style grew blunt and explosive, all proactive strikes, no more trench defense.

Gazing at those still-dangerous trinkets, a tide of old battles surged. Her path unrolled in memory, and emotions flooded like thaw water...

“—Waaahhh!!”

......

The reminiscence got cut in half.

She looked up. Dorothy had been flung off a yak, head-first, planted in the turf like a slapstick panel, half her body buried.

Yekase hurried over and yanked her out.

Dorothy’s upper half was caked in slush. Cradled in Yekase’s arms, she whispered, barely alive, “Teacher, the future of France, of Europe... I leave it to you...”

...Her head lolled, and she fainted.

“Dorothy! No—!!”

Yekase threw back her head and howled theatrically. She laid down Dorothy’s muddy body and stood.

She was no longer fighting alone. She bore her student’s fate, ideals, and wishes on her back like a banner in the wind.

“Viva la... la what again... uh, Viva la Vida!”

“Teacher, it’s vive la France, not that song,” the corpse on the ground murmured.

“Vive la France!—Is it okay for someone from Huaxia to shout that?”

“Just pretend you’re Lymriel right now.”

“Flexible identity. I like it.”

But Harrison and Lu Yao were still behind her, so Yekase couldn’t don her doll shell to perfect the cosplay. She fixed on the yak that had tossed Dorothy—a hulking bull with whitish chest hair, adding to its aura.

“I’ll be your opponent!”

Yekase shouted and leapt onto its back.

Feeling a second challenger’s weight, the yak bellowed and bolted. Its bulk charged about like a runaway hill. Dorothy, afraid of getting trampled, stopped playing dead and summoned a lion ghost to carry her back to the SUV.

A lion was way more majestic than a yak, she consoled herself.

Harrison, nervous, asked Lu Yao, “Is she... actually like this? Not long ago in Soville City, I worked with her a bit. She felt... more mature and wise.”

“She’s an old fox. Any persona you see may not be the real one. For instance, back in Huaxia, she killed many people—without hesitation,” Lu Yao warned.

“Ew...!”

Harrison shrank.

Lu Yao felt she’d finally landed a counter on Yekase, and a quiet satisfaction warmed her like sun through frost.

She wasn’t lying. Yekase’s solo raid on the Huaxia Branch marks her as a top-tier outlaw anywhere. Back then, she hadn’t even ascended ranks.

Any other branch would’ve executed her on sight. Only Gu Xiangshi, that arrogant woman, thought she could win and let the tiger back to its mountain.

“I’m a cowboy, yet at the bar I only order milk—”

Over there, Yekase had started singing.

“Why not drink beer? Because beer hurts—”

The yak bucked and leaped in a final, vicious struggle. Yekase’s voice jolted in rhythm, bouncing like pebbles on ice.

“—hurts, hurts, hurts the body!”

However—

A mere ungulate could never beat an Infinite Power-tempered body.

The yak fought to its last gasp. Until it tried to spear Yekase’s belly with its horns, she believed two strangers on the steppe might still find mutual understanding...

But in the end, it returned to the old law—life clashing against life.

“Smells divine.”

—Yekase said that half an hour later, tasting the first bite of stewed yak.

Harrison set up a field pot beside the SUV. He directed Yekase to carve the fattest cuts with Dawn of Eden. Lu Yao used Peace Walker’s laser to dry and ignite damp roots, making their first tundra meal.

Aside from a wild gaminess that wouldn’t quit, the aroma was truly heavenly.

It wasn’t camp time yet; after eating they’d keep moving. Lazy, they didn’t even pitch a windbreak. In the wide-open plain, they circled a steaming pot, each on a small stool, sipping beef broth.

“Any dangerous carnivores on the tundra? Will they smell this and ambush us?” Dorothy asked, lips glossy with fat.

“Then we’ll have a bonus course tonight,” Yekase replied between sips. “Oh, the pot covers two meals—tomorrow’s bonus, then.”

“Fair point.”

Two Infinite Power elites plus a true mage with superpowers—hard to see how they lose.

“W-what about me?” Harrison asked, shaking.

“Lower your presence. Make sure predators don’t bite you first. Give us reaction time to protect you.”

“The more you say, the more scared I get!”

Harrison pressed his back to the SUV to cut blind spots, scanning for Dorothy’s carnivores. He slipped, and his bare nape touched the icy metal door; skin froze to it. He screamed in pain.

The sparsely trodden tundra suddenly filled with a lively, laughing air.

(They later thawed him off gently with hot water.)