I'm playing Frostpunk in Arknights

"Where did Mephisto go?" 

Faust had only dozed off and woke with a start to find that Mephisto was no longer in his room. In his place were the members of the Wendigo Squad, huddled in the room blowing on the heat of the food, hesitant to take a bite, several pairs of eyes glancing curiously toward him. 

"Sasha! I can't believe you boys are right next door to me!" 

Petrova came in groggy; the storm was cold, Big Sister was also heavy, and her exhausted body fell into bed and fell asleep, dreaming Frost Nova said she made the candy with less chili added, only to wake up with a jolt. She didn't mean to leave out the chili... Wait, there's no chili in that sugar recipe! Petrova blamed Frost Nova for remembering the recipe wrong and disturbing her beauty sleep because of it, so she planned to go and settle the score with her big sister.

This time she woke up and realized that she had frostbite. The good news was that she was in a warm house, and the better news was that hot food had been brought to her door all by itself. Then it was just a matter of having a nice meal first! 

"Are you happy to see your sisters?" 

Petrova grinned, trying to smile, but couldn't because of the pain. Faust blinked at the guys, surprised, and slammed the door with a bang. "Hey..! Don't ignore me!" 

"People are still young, and you're trying to tease them, Petrova? Aren't you looking for a scolding?" 

Petrova looked over to her sisters in the room; everyone had recovered well, although the frostbite still marked their faces. She snapped, "You're so talkative, put the bowl down and put some frostbite medicine on me. I'll check on my big sister when I'm better." 

The girl she had struck up a conversation with bristled, mentally counting the reprimands, but the big sister's business was important. "Fine, get your clothes off and I'll apply the frostbite medicine right away." 

Petrova nimbly stripped off her clothes, but with a bang, the door opened again. "You know Mephisto... Where did Eno go-" 

The muscles on his tender back were surprisingly tingly; Faust froze for a moment. If he had those muscles, Shelf was afraid he wouldn't be able to sleep at night. 

"Sasha?" Petrova saw the boy looking dumbfounded. "That's the power of a bear; Fedya wouldn't understand." 

Snap! The companion next to Petrova slapped her back, signaling her to be quiet. She turned her head to Faust and laughed, "Are you talking about that white-haired Riobori? He should have gone to find Big Sister." 

"That boy must still be thinking about lullabies!" 

The crowd laughed, and Faust silently closed the door to his room, pretending he hadn't seen anything. Petrova must be freezing; hopefully, with the warmth of the Generator, she will be back to normal soon. 

Faust consoled himself so. 

[Frostbite Medicine: It took Frost Nova years to develop and perfect this medicine to cure injuries brought on by the cold, but they are more likely to be prepared for people who have no intention of offending her.] 

Earthen remedies? Wang Zhan roughly understood Frost Nova's situation, as her innate Source Stone Technique caused her to be very cold. Combined with what was said in the hints, one could roughly surmise the true usefulness of this frostbite medicine. Regardless, it was still timely to help alleviate the problem at hand. 

"Alina, can you tell me about the frostbite medicine that the snow monster squad made themselves?" 

Alina was busy arranging for the next batch of Wendigo Squad members to enter the shed. There were still a dozen or so to go, and Tallulah had gone off to rest, so the next order of business was to prepare for the guerrilla members. 

"Frostbite medicine? They do have it." 

But there shouldn't be much in stock; they'd probably used some of it up before the storm hit, and there hadn't been time to make more. 

"Can we ask them for the formula so we can produce some frostbite medicine ourselves?" 

Alina understood what Mr. Generator meant. The Generator's ability to produce such medicines was certainly much better than the Wendigo Squad. She was also very supportive of this idea, except that there was a fundamental problem - they didn't have the raw materials. With the storm being as big as it was, it wasn't practical to force people out to find these herbs, was it? 

Unless a bunch of unlucky people came along this time of year who just happened to be able to be punished by Mr. Generator for braving the storm in search of medicines. Alina thought further; the idea that all the medicines in the storm would freeze to death was really outlandish then. 

"I'm sure Frost Nova would be willing to tell us the recipe," Alina said. "Frost Nova would be happy to save more people this way; it's just that we don't have the herbs to use to make these frostbite remedies." 

Wang Zhan remained silent. Without a decree as a guide, it would indeed be troublesome. He clicked on the decree again; the next decree was already determined to be a root cure, and the next level up in the Ore Disease decree was still unreadable. It looked like he would have to dismiss the idea for the time being. 

"When the storm passes, we can try to produce this frostbite medicine." 

The ambulance station under the Generator could only run one for the time being. Wang Zhan glanced at the time; it was already eight o'clock. It was time to replace the fuel with source stone. 

"Alina, inform the crowd that I will be replacing the fuel. The concentration of source stone dust around the area under the Generator will rise, tell those who are not scheduled to stay inside the work shed." 

He wasn't worried about the crowds under the Generator; they'd all been scheduled. Only the Wendigo Squad needed extra care. 

"How are you doing with the Wendigo Squad's screening?" 

Alina flipped through the roster in her hands. "Basically checked out; there are still a dozen people left." There was still Frost Nova, but she was in the ambulance station, so even if something went wrong, the station would take care of it immediately. 

"Trouble." 

Tallulah sat in the corridor, using the Source Stone Technique to fight the storm; it was a real strain, but Frost Nova had led the Wendigo Squad to make it all the way down to the Generator. What an amazing white rabbit! It seemed that her own Source Stone Technique still needed to be refined, and her will needed to be sharpened. Tallulah sighed darkly as she held a cup of hot water, feeling cozy as she listened to the sound of the wind and the people outside the door—the loud sound of steel colliding.

She was able to rest for a while while Alina helped her attend to many affairs of the camp. The "pulsing" of the Generator stopped for a moment, and Tallulah looked up at the window to see white dust pouring out of the top of the tower, quickly blending into the storm. 

"Mr. Generator is starting to burn the source stones! Anyone who isn't scheduled to do so go into the shed and take shelter! If anyone has a rapid onset of ore sickness, report it quickly to the street patrols! There are still spaces available at the ambulance station! Don't hide your illnesses, everyone!" 

Tallulah lowered her head, taking a sip of hot water as the Wendigo Squad stepped out of the room and handed over a half bowl of cooked meat. "Tallulah, you have some too." 

"No, I'll go to the mess hall and claim it when I'm hungry." The others' mouths couldn't stop chewing; how could they have had the chance to eat so much meat when they were in the snowy plains? 

"Claim? All this meat, you each get a share?" 

Tallulah smiled proudly. "Yes, everyone." 

The infected person in front of her felt a bit embarrassed. "So, this bowl of meat is actually one person's share?" 

"Yes, it's one person's share," Tallulah froze. Why would someone from the Wendigo Squad say that? Tallulah had a bad idea all of a sudden. "Did you guys only get one bowl? Tell me who handed out food to you!" 

Surprisingly, there were infected people who dared to take food for themselves in such a critical situation. She must tell Mr. Generator so he could severely punish this scum! 

"You calm down! Don't be angry, don't be angry~" 

Tallulah's look of giving them justice made him feel embarrassed. "It's really the first time everyone has seen so much meat, so they assumed it was several days' worth of servings. This bowl of meat took ages to share." 

But with a little more thought, one could understand that giving out several days' worth of portions at once was very unreasonable. Tallulah was speechless; she thought someone was hiding food. One was just too sensitive to such facts. 

"Come under the Generator; you won't be left to starve," Tallulah advised kindly. Everyone had been used to saving in the past and were often half-full. "Share the rest of your food; there will be more tomorrow." 

The squad of snow monsters smiled and thanked her. 

"Speaking of which, where did you guys get these houses, and these clothes?" the member of the Wendigo Squad pointed to the cold-proof clothing that Tallulah was wearing, especially the carrying lamp around her waist. "I didn't notice it when I first came in, but now I realize how warm these houses are." 

"And that big heater outside—"

He found Tallulah in front of him looking reserved but revealing total smugness. "That is the being that gave us all of this. The houses you see, the clothing, and this bowl of meat you hold in your hand are all from him." 

There was more than that—there was the decree, the order—but those things weren't as intuitive, so Tallulah only said the part they cared about. 

"If the gladiator says so," the member of the snow monster squad turned decisively in the direction of the Generator and thanked him profusely. He didn't care if it was awkward or not; he was done being thankful first. "Should I kowtow a few more times or do some kind of dance? That's what those legends say." 

"... I don't think Mr. Generator would like that." 

Faced with the enthusiasm of the Wendigo Squad, Tallulah could only avoid demonizing Mr. Generator's image. If Alina really looked deeper into it, she would be the one to blame and could be afraid of being laughed at by her for the rest of her life. 

"Tallulah!" 

Carl burst through the door. "Come on! There's an emergency situation!" 

An emergency situation? 

Tallulah stood up immediately at his words, handing the hot water in her hand to the infected in front of her as she ran out. "I'll be waiting for you when you get back!" 

The infected looked at the hot water, but a cup of it didn't seem necessary to wait. "Then it's good to add more." 

Wang Zhan stared at the seven black-clad picketers with white frost and protective masks on the screen, not knowing whether to cry or laugh. The enemy had really appeared, and perhaps Quanta didn't have a strategy to deal with it. 

The infected all stood at their original positions, glaring coldly at the seven picket officers as they waited for Alina's instructions. According to the rules under the Generator, any sinner must have a chastisement inflicted by Mr. Generator! 

"What happened?" 

Alina was the first to arrive; she frowned fiercely at the sight of the seven, her distaste for these picketers written all over her face. But someone on both sides had to speak up. "Are you the picketers of the neighborhood?" 

The seven men finally responded; they had been standing around since they saw that the atmosphere didn't seem right. One of them whispered, "Yes, ma'am, I don't know what town this is." He looked to the Generator high above; a power furnace of this caliber was a Viscount's family property at the very least. "Could you ask your lord to show some kindness? We're collecting taxes in the snowy plains; who knew we'd run into this hellish weather?" 

Another man chimed in, "This storm is killing us; we were almost all buried in the snow! If we hadn't seen your lighthouse... we would have all been accounted for." 

Wang Zhan couldn't help but feel amused; these picketers treated him as one of their own. Ridiculous. 

Alina surveyed these people; their masks were covered with white frost, so she couldn't see that the few standing guard could be infected. She thought about it again; these infected were wearing cold weather clothing all in the same hue and equipped with lanterns, so it wasn't hard to understand why the picketers would misunderstand. Naturally, the infected were not able to afford these things. 

Wang Zhan asked Alina, "Which lord sent you out?" 

"The lord of Zweiburg, Unger." 

Zweiburg—kind of interesting. Wang Zhan remembered that White Eyes was an infected person from Zweiburg. 

One of the seven immediately slapped him and said quietly, "Unger is from the new nobility faction; the lord here looks like he's from the old nobility!" The conversing picket officer heard that it was so; he was the dog of his nemesis. It was good that this lord didn't beat him to death. 

"Sorry, I misremembered; it was Baron Olof who sent us out." 

Wang Zhan sighed. That old greaseball changed his story really fast. Isn't this treating him like an idiot? Anyone with a discerning eye could see that they were cheating. 

"That's a shame; my family's lord is not from the old noble faction." 

Tallulah replied in response, and when the picketers saw this new woman's aggressiveness, they realized that she was extremely powerful. They hastily changed their words. "Look at our brains; they're frozen! It's actually the Lord of Zweiburg, Unger who sent us out!" 

The seven were confident; Alina couldn't help but laugh, and many infected were amused as well. Wang Zhan sneered; isn't this a chameleon? 

"That's even more of a pity; my lord isn't from the new noble faction either." 

This... The seven people made a mistake—not the old nobles nor the new nobles. Then, could it be—the emperor's people! When the seven considered it, it was ridiculous, but it was still more reliable than the infected, right? 

What was with the kneeling again? 

"Are you sent by the Emperor on a mission here!" 

The crowd couldn't hold it in; their joyful laughter drifted above the Generator. Wang Zhan was even laughing his ass off; this guy had all the wrong answers lined up. He just wouldn't take off his mask to confirm it with his own eyes. 

How stupid. 

"Black Bug! Take off your mask and take a good look at what we really are!" 

Tallulah snapped, and the seven finally snapped out of it; the kneeling picket officer shuddered as he rose to his feet, and as soon as he removed his frost-covered mask— 

All of them were infected! 

"We're surrounded by infected... How is that possible! Why would the infected have a town! What makes them survive a storm like this?"