Honkai World, above the Mediterranean Sea, [Schicksal] Headquarters.
"Lord Overseer, you are secretly slacking off to play video games again."
The access key passed, and the door automatically opened. Amber walked into the Overseer's office, only to see a mountain of document approval requests piled on the desk. As well as the virtual projection screen hidden behind the mountain of documents.
On the screen, a white-haired, blue-eyed beautiful girl was using gun-fu to trample the final boss, a donkey-eared monster. Her frame-perfect dodging would make anyone who saw it instinctively complain: Just how many times did she have to die to play like this?
"It's Amber. Just put the documents on the side."
Otto didn't even lift his head from mashing the game controller, staring intently at the boss on the screen and performing dazzling operations.
"..."
Amber felt very helpless. You don't even plan to hide it, so why bother using documents to block the game screen?
He looked just like a student in class setting up a book as a barrier to secretly mess around.
Amber sighed slightly. "Lord Overseer, a report came from the branch. They have discovered the traces of K423, Raiden Mei, and the Silver Wolf of the Urals."
"Oh?"
Hearing this, the man finally grew interested and put down the game controller in his hands.
Of course, he didn't forget to bring up the menu to pause, so as to prevent Kallen from failing the battle.
"Have they finally come out?"
Otto narrowed his eyes slightly.
The vessel K423 was the most important link in Project Sirin. That child had been under [Schicksal]'s surveillance from beginning to end.
Otto didn't know much about what Cocolia wanted to do in Nagazora. The [Schicksal] intelligence network had caught some clues, but he hadn't cared. Otto was very happy to see the radical and conservative factions within Anti-Entropy sabotaging and dragging each other down.
After the large-scale gas leak in Nagazora that caused the explosion in the bustling building district around ME Corp, Otto dispatched operatives from the [Schicksal] Intelligence Department to go to Nagazora to investigate.
Based on the feedback information, he roughly reconstructed the general outline of the incident. But Otto didn't pay attention to Cocolia and Raiden Ryoma; instead, like peeling silk from a cocoon, he caught the shadow of a snake from the complex intelligence.
World Serpent. Otto had noticed this organization hundreds of years ago.
Otto gave enough attention to this venomous snake hidden in the dark corners of the world, but as long as their Sire remained in the Sea of Quanta, they had no bargaining chips to step from the dark into the light.
Aside from the snake's shadow, Otto's greatest focus was on the young girl who acted as the key button and linking point in the entire incident—Bronya Zaychik.
Titles like the King of Assassins, the Silver Wolf of the Urals, were just so-so in front of Otto. Based on the information transmitted from the intelligence network, Otto conducted a psychological profile of the girl, finding an extremely high deviation from Bronya's past personality. Her behavioral style was completely different.
Having lived for five hundred years and being widely experienced, Otto had countless speculations in his mind, but just as he intended to send someone to approach and investigate the other party...
The gray-haired girl disappeared! Along with K423 and the Herrscher of Thunder's vessel, they disappeared together.
Later, through further investigation by the intelligence system, they discovered the faint snake-like trails of World Serpent, but it also ended there. From the existing intelligence, Otto could analyze that both sides had engaged in peaceful negotiations, or perhaps a superficial cooperation conducted under the circumstance where one side possessed the ability to coerce the other.
It was precisely because of this that Otto felt astonished.
First, dismissing the possibility of the three being recruited by World Serpent, given K423's personality, it was impossible for her to agree with World Serpent's behavioral style. Then, eliminating the first possibility, the only remaining one was that the three-person group had something that could make World Serpent bow its head.
Similarly eliminating K423, who grew up under [Schicksal]'s semi-surveillance, and Raiden Mei, who didn't have much of a strong presence from the beginning to the end of the Nagazora incident, the result was self-evident.
The one World Serpent feared was that gray-haired little girl!
Bronya Zaychik.
Although Otto didn't know exactly what kind of divine being was inside that shell, since the other party used this body, he would tentatively call her Bronya.
Otto greatly loathed the appearance of uncontrollable variables in his experiments.
Based on Otto's understanding of World Serpent, those guys who touted their Sire all day long had quite a bit of arrogance. Since that Bronya had the means to push down the opponent's snake head... Then did the other party understand him and [Schicksal], being able to mutually counter-balance to that extent?
If that unknown Bronya wanted to intervene in Project Sirin, it wouldn't be very good for Otto.
"Where are they currently?"
Otto didn't even need to guess where the original trio had gone during this period of disappearance. A place that could make the fully operating [Schicksal] intelligence network fail to find even a single trace—not even an Anti-Entropy base could do that. Only the nest where that snake, hidden in the dark corners of the world since the Previous Era, resided—the base of World Serpent.
"They boarded a small Anti-Entropy warship not long ago. For now, we cannot specify their exact destination..." Amber calmly reported the contents.
"What about the flight trajectory?" Otto picked up the lukewarm black tea on the table and took a sip.
"Please take a look..."
Amber turned on the holographic projection displaying the 3D image of the flight route. Otto casually swiped it and let out a light chuckle:
"I remember that Durandal and the Immortal Blades are currently clearing out Honkai in the Southwestern Pacific, right?"
"Yes, Lord Overseer."
"Have Durandal stand by at the Oceania Branch after completing her mission. Then pass on my orders to transfer all the Valkyrie units at Headquarters to the New Zealand Branch, and then..."
With a faint smile on his face, Otto immediately thought of something else. After pondering for a few seconds, he spoke: "Have Rita come over."
"Yes."
Amber bowed and withdrew.
Before long, the sound of high heels tapping the floor in the empty corridor rang out, peaceful and orderly.
The grayish-blonde-haired girl wore a sheep-horn-style rose Katyusha on her head and walked with elegant steps. The most eye-catching thing was the smile on her face, controlled just right. It was different from an ordinary, stiff customer-service smile, nor was it a conventional template that gave a sense of alienation. It was very difficult for one to find an adjective to interpret such a subtle feeling.
If one really had to say it, it was a nearly perfect smile unique to a maid.
"Lord Overseer." Rita bowed gracefully, fully displaying the demeanor of a lady.
"What are your orders?"
"Rita, I need you to depart for New Zealand immediately. The mission objective is to observe the changes in the vessel K423 and conduct a preliminary probing of Bronya," Otto ordered in a gentle yet authoritative voice.
Strong as Durandal's strength was, her overly straightforward personality was truly unsuitable for probing. The ones they were dealing with this time were not Honkai Beasts, but humans.
In Project Sirin, making the vessel develop deep emotional bonds with the world was a necessary link. Otto had actually chosen a destination for K423 long ago. There was nothing more suitable for this link than the amusement park he had built for his cute granddaughter.
"Yes," the maid bowed slightly, replying with an elegant tone.
As Otto's black glove, this wasn't the first time Rita had done this kind of thing.
On the warship heading towards New Zealand.
"The matter with Cocolia is indeed Anti-Entropy's dereliction of duty. I once again thank you for your help on behalf of Anti-Entropy..."
Sitting across from Silver Wing, the blue-haired girl—who was nearly a hundred years old—had light blue hair that appeared messy, perhaps belonging to the category of natural curls. Sporting large dark circles under her eyes, her tone was plain yet sincere.
Lieserl Albert Einstein, formerly a scientist at the Imperial Research Institute Lab 42 under [Schicksal], currently one of the founders and executors of Anti-Entropy.
"Didn't you already thank me before?"
"Communication through a device ultimately cannot compare to the sincerity of expressing thanks face-to-face."
Einstein was truly grateful to the girl whose filial piety was enough to be renowned through the ages. If not for this girl turning against her side in time, that vixen Cocolia would have done things worse than beasts behind their backs.
That vocabulary originated from Dr. Tesla.
If that had really succeeded... Anti-Entropy's reputation would probably have been completely ruined by Cocolia, that shit-stirrer.
"However, regarding this time, are you sure the Third Eruption will break out in New Zealand?"
The Third Eruption in Nagazora had not occurred, so the original Fourth Eruption became the Third. When they brought down Cocolia earlier, the two had come to Nagazora and had continued to exert their efforts afterward.
However, although the two could handle some governmental affairs, they were ultimately more inclined toward being researchers. After the situation in Nagazora stabilized, they handed the mess over to Raiden Ryoma.
They continued their research—recently, minor Honkai eruptions had broken out frequently all over the world. This abnormal phenomenon was undoubtedly a precursor to the arrival of a Great Eruption. Einstein and Tesla wanted to use data analysis on various precursors to deduce the outbreak point of the Great Eruption, making some preparations as early as possible.
They hadn't expected Silver Wing to call them at this time.
"I'm ninety percent sure."
The gray-haired girl shook her little duck head while sucking on milk tea.
This probability made Einstein fall silent. She really wanted to ask Silver Wing exactly where this intelligence came from. But figuring the other party wouldn't say anyway, she simply decided not to ask at all.
"By the way, who are those two?"
Einstein's attention fell on the pink fat woman pestering Tesla. The other party had long, elf-like ears; beautiful yet terrifying.
Yes, terrifying.
It made Tesla's face turn completely red, looking like a boiled lobster.
As everyone knew, Tesla was an irritable older sister, an expert in the profanity of C-language. When she got angry, every sentence was fully loaded with passive-aggression and 'yo mama' references.
But this was merely a manifestation of her straightforward personality. She was still a very reasonable person, typical of someone who yielded to a soft approach but rejected force.
Facing Elysia—whose personality couldn't simply be called soft, but rather flirtatious, suggestive, gentle, and dark-bellied all at once—she really wanted to curse, but found herself somewhat unable to utter any swear words!
Einstein was even afraid that Tesla might hold it in until she burst. But as the saying goes, 'better you die than me' (let the fellow Daoist die, not the poor monk); selling out Tesla so that she herself could have some peace and quiet was perfectly fine.
"Elysia, Sakura, and Rin. The former two are two of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers from Fire-Moth, originating from the glorious Previous Era fifty thousand years ago. That's the one [Schicksal] and Anti-Entropy made their fortune excavating."
"Rin, on the other hand, is the Herrscher of Corruption who destroyed the last three cities of the Previous Era. She was made into a Divine Key, which I happened to pick up in Nagazora."
"Maybe we can call them Elysia-mon and Sakura-mon? They probably don't count as true Digimon right now, do they? Plus, Elysia definitely wouldn't like having 'mon' added to her name.
"By the way, does reproductive isolation exist between humans and Digimon?"
Stunned from the moment the gray-haired girl uttered her first sentence, Einstein listened dazedly to the girl's subsequent self-indulgent rambling. Even she felt her brain was somewhat insufficient to process it.
This person was speaking such a niche language!
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