Zeroth Directive

Archive III

Ayerscarpe and Leonhardt have been friends since childhood, and the two also divide labor amongst each other very cleanly. Leonhardt takes on jobs that require negotiation or involve minerals, and Ayerscarpe takes on tasks that require superior athleticism or uncovering things that can't be discovered by others. Don't be fooled by the fact that he often exchanges harsh words with his old friend — he will never make Leonhardt look bad in front of others, and if something ever happens to him, he is the first to rush over. When Leonhardt became a Catastrophe Messenger, Ayerscarpe volunteered to become Leonhardt's private bodyguard. Since Ayerscarpe acquired his unique set of weapons, it would be more profitable to take on jobs of his own rather than protecting the Catastrophe Messenger, but Ayerscarpe stubbornly insists on remaining his friend's bodyguard, while also making it clear that the other party needs to pay up. All in all, Leonhard, not wealthy in the first place, ended up allocating most of his salary to Ayerscarpe, ending up in an even tighter financial situation as a result. Although we didn't know how Ayerscarpe controlled these funds before, we were able to investigate the flow of funds between the two after he became an operator, and the results were mind-blowing. Leonhardt's concept of managing money is rather laissez-faire. While he is good at making money, he's also good at spending it. After joining Rhodes Island, his shopping list grew longer than ever due to stable living arrangements and a higher salary. Except for work-related tools such as dune buggies, which have questionable usability in general circumstances, Leonhardt's stash of new and interesting things has indeed been growing. Most of these items simply reflect his personal taste, but others are for gifting to young operators who he deems to 'not be cool enough,' and he often offers these gifts in a way that is hard to refuse. Sometimes, his consumption habits have caused been problematic, such as when he couldn't pay the bills one time. This time, he has had Ayerscarpe to cover for him. Ayerscarpe's lifestyle has always been very frugal. Other than spending money on necessary living expenses and salted edamame, Ayerscarpe has been saving his money, and he basically returns the 'payment' he received from serving as Leonhardt's bodyguard to his friend at the right time. He knows that Leonhardt doesn't know how to save money, and he knows that sooner or later, he wouldn't be able to purchase something that he actually needed. At that time, he'll use that money to buy things for his friend and send it over to him. Even now when there is no direct financial connection between the two, he still often draws from his savings to fill in the gap for Leonhardt. Of course, he also knows that Leonhardt will repay him in due time. This is the mutual understanding formed after many years of cooperation, and demonstrates the trust between the two friends.

Archive IV

'We found a signal transmitter on Ayerscarpe's weapon, which has already been dismantled, that the operator had no knowledge of.' 'The signal sent from the transmitter automatically searches for a valid port, performs a second transmission, before eliminating all traces until it reaches the target.' 'Most countries' military-grade communications equipment does not have this level of technology.' 'After cracking the transmission path of the launcher and simulating a transmission, we have reason to believe—' 'It's Rhine Lab. I can tell just from looking at it.' 'The signal's final destination is a port located in Ursus.' 'After being intercepted by a node halfway through, it modified the target port before immediately deleting the data. This is an old trick.' 'Do you really think Ursus knows how to make a weapon like this?' 'A reloading blade-gun, a self-calibrating gun, automatic hover blades.' 'Only Rhine Labs has the capacity to deliberately integrate these technologies into a single system.' 'I see.' 'So——' 'How did a Columbian experimental weapon end up in Rim Billiton, in the hands of a young man who has nothing to do with them?' '......' This whole situation has Rhine Lab's fingerprints all over it. Let me give you a hypothetical.' 'Sure.' 'On Terra, there will always be people with extraordinary talents.' 'It is a joy to craft weapons for them.' 'When these weapons are manufactured and their wielders seem to possess all the power in the world within their hands, buyers will arrive in droves to snag up these weapons.' 'In the hands of ordinary people, these 'divine' weapons are not even as useful as a logging hatchet.' 'As for what Rhine Labs did, I actually have an idea.' 'They designed a 'divine weapon,' but realized that it is nothing but a hatchet.' 'This thing?' 'This is a failed design.' 'While the design seems well-integrated as a whole, the Originium undergoes serious leakage problems during conversion, and the accuracy of the hovering blades is unsatisfactory.' 'If not in the hands of someone who has a hobby of getting electrocuted, this weapon is not usable at all.' 'How do we deal with this then?' 'Deal with? There's no need for that. Saria couldn't see eye-to-eye about the way certain departments in Rhine Lab did things, but she wouldn't do anything about these weapon owners.' 'Our biggest fear is that Rhine Lab will use the signal transmitter to take control of the device and do something unspeakable.' 'Since we found out about it, it should be fine now that we've destroyed it.' 'As for what Rhine Lab will do with the data they obtained, will they find another target to experiment upon, or will they create the hatchet that can slay a god?' 'So, what does this have to do with Rhodes Island?' —Unknown time, Rhodes Island, unidentified surveillance recording

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