"Does it actually say 'field test' on the work order?" The puppet turned to look at the other logistics staff member standing nearby. The man nodded from behind a crate.
"Yeah, apparently they're testing to confirm how well the reagent performs in real conditions." The logistics staffer kept talking as he shuffled his feet, gradually drifting toward the door.
"Oh." The puppet didn't notice him edging away. Instead, the puppet was busy thinking about how to get involved. They did need to know how effective those reagents actually were in practice.
Only then could they decide: destroy this place outright, or seize control of it from the shadows.
For a field test like this, logistics personnel like themselves would probably have to sneak in. After all, the body the puppet was currently inhabiting had no particularly impressive Honkai Resistance on paper — which meant when the test started, they might very well be barred from participating on those grounds alone.
It was, at its core, a Schicksal safety regulation. Nobody wanted a staff member to get Honkai-corrupted on the spot just because their Resistance happened to be too low. A reasonable enough rule, in normal times.
But right now, for the puppet, that rule was nothing but a nuisance. And it wasn't as though it could suddenly announce that its Honkai Resistance had mysteriously spiked.
Without any reason behind it, a jump in Honkai Resistance made no sense at all. The puppet knew it was being brazen, but it certainly wasn't going to parade its own abnormalities right under Schicksal's nose.
If it did, the Valkyries would swarm it before it could blink — and not only would it be finished, it would have thrown away this identity it had worked so hard to build.
Everything had to be done one step at a time. You didn't eat a meal all at once. There was no way it was going to cause a scene here directly. As for gathering intelligence further in — well, that didn't necessarily require going in person. When the time came, it could steal a drone and find a way to park it somewhere nearby.
But just as the puppet was still turning all this over in its head, the logistics staffer seemed to remember something and added: "Oh, right — how come you're not planning to go watch? I'm definitely heading over to take a look."
"Huh?" The puppet looked up, slightly dazed. "Wait — this experiment is open for us to observe? We won't get infected by the Honkai energy?"
"We'll be watching from a distance, and besides, it's not like we have zero Honkai Resistance. What are you so scared of?" The logistics staffer pushed open the door as he spoke.
"Anyway, that's that — hurry up and finish moving these boxes so we can go eat."
With that, the logistics staffer left the room, leaving the puppet alone. The moment the door swung shut behind him, the puppet's expression went blank — flat and still as a corpse.
It stared at the open door for a moment. Then, after a brief silence, it stepped forward and pulled the door closed. It shoved the nearest crate up against it, barricading it shut.
Finally, it closed its eyes and reached inward, connecting to the Herrscher of the Legion Core housed within its body — and through that, linking up with the other puppets.
[Hey. I've found something on my end. They're running a field test inside the factory — testing what those reagents actually do under real combat conditions.]
[Oh? How come I didn't know about this?] A puppet's voice crackled through the network amid the background noise. [That doesn't add up. By all rights, how would I, the factory canteen uncle, not have heard about this?]
It was common knowledge that taverns and canteens were the great clearing houses of information. Streams of people passed through, and every stray word they traded could mean something.
But still...
The canteen puppet raised its head and scanned the Valkyries chatting in front of it. Not a single one was talking about any field test. Had it just missed it somehow?
Impossible. It was a Herrscher, for all intents and purposes. The canteen wasn't that big. There was no way it could have missed—
The thought cut off. Several Valkyries from the Immortal Blades squad had just walked in and come up to the counter, and two of them were discussing exactly that: an upcoming field exercise that was about to begin.
They were wondering aloud whether the reagent would actually hold up in real combat — and another Valkyrie chimed in that even if it didn't, at least it could still come in handy if anyone in their squad ended up corrupted by the Honkai.
The conversation was loose and wandering, but the puppet paid no mind. This wasn't exactly a classified briefing — offhand chatter rarely had much of a point.
Still, it was now beyond question: the tip about the field test was real. The canteen puppet kept scooping food onto trays while simultaneously patching into the Herrscher of the Legion's network.
[I've confirmed the intel on my end too. What do we do? We need to get our hands on firsthand data.]
[Obviously.] At that moment, a voice came through — the one belonging to the puppet who carried a war-hammer, brash and a little insufferable. [Those idiots never even considered that this reagent might work against corruption — and against us along with it.]
[So the plan is to find a way to get inside, learn exactly how the reagent behaves once it takes effect. If it's slow-acting, we don't bother — just destroy it. If it's fast, we take control of it.]
[We're going to reach right under Schicksal's nose and snatch their trump card out of their hands.]
[So we absolutely have to find a way into that field exercise.]
[No need to sneak. This exercise isn't restricted to Valkyries — logistics staff like us can attend too. So sit tight and wait for good news from me.]
[Though, with thirteen of us here, there's no way we can control every link in the factory chain. Shouldn't we get more people sent over?]
[Obviously. But Shenchen Pharmaceuticals needs manpower too. I— tch. We'll make the arrangements.]
— Shenchen Pharmaceuticals —
Durandal stood leaning on her lance in a corner of the lobby. She had come in on the supply ship this trip — officially, of course, no record of her presence existed in any manifest.
It could fairly be called an official stowaway arrangement. Her purpose was the factory, naturally. If anything went wrong there, she could be on-site and in the thick of it within moments.
Sweeping it clean, if necessary. Though she doubted the factory would need her to worry about it at this point — Irene and the others had arrived, and their combat capability was nothing to sneeze at.
They had already weathered one attack from the signed Plunderers, so things were probably under control. That said, Shenchen Pharmaceuticals itself was hardly peaceful.
Over the past few days, a number of new recruits had joined the staff — people who, on the surface, seemed unremarkable, but whose Honkai Resistance was quietly, impressively high. In normal times, that might simply have been good fortune.
In times like these, though, innocence had to be proven before it could be assumed. Even if none of them were actually problems, they had to be treated as if they might be — so several Gray Serpents were currently tailing each of them.
Their behavior had been suspicious across the board. Every single one of them was trying to get near the data storage rooms, or asking around about Shenchen Pharmaceuticals' research divisions — how to apply, how to get access.
Safe to say, none of them were here for honest reasons.
After a while, Durandal turned to look at Kevin, who sat in the head seat holding Judgment of Shamash: "...Mr. Kevin. Why do you keep looking at me? Is there something you want to say?"
"..." Kevin sat there watching Durandal. After a long silence, he replied, "Let's wait until after this business is finished. We can talk then."
He did, in truth, have certain thoughts about Durandal. He could sense that she was a member of the Kaslana Family — but her Stigmata had not yet awakened.
The Herrscher of the Legion had already arrived. After this, only two more remained: Binding and Corruption. Time was running short. By his estimation...
Optimistically, this world had at most one year left before Finality — before the end — came calling.
Which meant combat strength was needed now, urgently. Once this matter was resolved, perhaps Durandal could be thrown into the Stigmata Space to be tempered. As long as she could awaken her Stigmata, her power could rise another level.
These past couple of days, he'd also noticed something peculiar about Durandal. Her aura was climbing, incrementally, every single day — faint, but undeniable, as though it had no ceiling at all.
Given that, Kevin was willing to give Durandal one more push. And while he was at it, he might as well take a look at Siegfried, who had somehow muddled through all this time — see if he could be folded in as well.
He'd never been through a trial, even now. But he was combat strength, at least in some measure. Keeping him locked away forever served no purpose. Better to salvage what he could. And if Durandal couldn't pull Siegfried out, then Kevin would just have to let him go.
Durandal watched Kevin with narrowed eyes. She had the distinct feeling there was more behind his words, but they were, for the moment, on the same side — so there was nothing more to say about it.
Things were moving fast, though, really. Not long ago they had been enemies; now they were allies. She still had no idea what the Overseer was plotting behind it all.
And Rita — Rita had seemed like she was hiding something lately, too. Speaking of Rita, Durandal wondered how things were going on her end. Wondered how many had made it into the factory by now.
"Hopefully everything goes smoothly."
— Factory · Experimental Grounds —
The puppet slipped quietly into the outermost ring of the crowd, watching the Honkai Beast shackled to the ground ahead of them — a Chariot-class, the lowest tier. Enormous chains pinned it in place.
So even Schicksal wasn't entirely sure how well the field test would go, it seemed — or perhaps they were simply being cautious about the danger. Either way, this would tell them how Schicksal intended to deploy the reagent.
Then the puppet watched a Valkyrie stride to the center of the arena, hauling what appeared to be a Gatling gun of peculiar design, trailing a long belt of ammunition behind her.
The puppet stared at the Gatling gun and fell briefly, silently speechless. Was this how Schicksal operated these days? Just brute firepower?
But wait — how were they going to deliver a reagent through a Gatling gun?
Despite its thousand questions, the puppet did nothing but watch.
At the center of the test field, the Chariot-class Honkai Beast strained against the thick chains pinning it to the ground, thrashing as it rumbled low and dangerous.
"All positions ready!" The Valkyrie's voice rang out through the amplifier system. A long ammunition belt stretched out behind her — and the rounds were visibly modified. Not standard warheads at all. The conventional shape had been abandoned entirely, replaced with something resembling hypodermic needles.
"Commencing test."
The Valkyrie squeezed the trigger. The Gatling's barrels began to spin, and a deafening roar swallowed the entire test floor. A torrent of fire erupted, rounds hammering into the Honkai Beast like a downpour.
The needle-tipped rounds struck the beast's carapace. At first, they failed to pierce through — but the casings shattered on impact, and the liquid that sprayed out immediately began stripping away the Honkai energy surrounding the beast.
With its Honkai energy gone, the beast's armor collapsed under the sustained barrage in an instant. The needles punched through and buried themselves inside.
And the effect inside the body was dramatically stronger than what had happened on the surface. The beast simply began to come apart — dissolving visibly before everyone's eyes, dissipating into nothing at a pace anyone could follow.
By the time most of the beast's body had vanished, the Valkyrie released the trigger.
The puppet stood motionless, expression flat, thoughts racing. It opened a connection through the Legion network to the other puppets:
[Reagent effect is significant. Capable of suppressing Honkai energy activity in a short timeframe and achieving full elimination. Time from impact to effect onset is approximately thirty seconds. Larger Honkai Beasts may require longer. But if sustained hits keep delivering the reagent — even we wouldn't be able to take it.]
[That effective? If it's that strong against Honkai Beasts, then the effect on Valkyries ought to be considerable as well.]
Valkyries were, at the end of the day, still human — so at most this reagent would just strip the Honkai energy off them. But a Valkyrie with no Honkai energy was about as useful as deadweight, wasn't it?
[Then we need to gradually replace the personnel inside. We have to control at least most of the supply chain, so we can siphon these reagents over to ourselves.]
The voice of the war-hammer puppet came back: [They're still actively hiring, right? Has anyone managed to get into the recruitment loop?]
[No. How would that even be possible?] The puppet rolled its eyes. Still — controlling the cargo-handling side of things should be doable with more bodies. One person grabs a little, tucks a little away — it could add up.
The thought flashed through the puppet's mind almost unbidden. Bottom line: they needed to flood this place with as many people as possible. The more there were, the easier this would be to manage — and to keep hidden.
So the puppet said directly: [We need a large number of people planted here. We have to find a way. These reagents could all end up in our hands.]
At that moment, a new voice came through the Legion network — one that sounded thoroughly exhausted: [I think... I could help get people in.]
[Huh.] The voice was so unexpected that the other Herrschers of the Legion were all briefly thrown. They didn't seem to recognize this one — had they just never spoken before?
Reaching out carefully with their senses, the others confirmed: yes, there was a Herrscher of the Legion Core there. So this one had simply never spoken up before — which was why nobody had any impression of them.
Quietly impressive, honestly. All this time, apparently, one of their number had maneuvered themselves into a position where they could bring in new recruits — and done it without anyone even noticing.
[Is something wrong?]
[Nothing at all, our dear comrade.] A ripple of amusement passed through the Legion network. If they had someone in that position, there was no way they were letting a comrade's hard work go to waste.
[So then, dear comrade — what's your name?]
[I'm... Klein.]
[Alright, Klein. We're all counting on you.]
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