"Come to think of it, Miss Natasha did mention that she had once taken on a huge job and rescued a large number of people from the Far East. She nearly lost her life in the process and said she would never accept another ridiculous assignment like that again."
Bronya recalled Raven's past complaints. She had said Mad Hatter never treated her like an outsider and insisted on sending her personally to handle everything.
Even when Bronya had been sent here, Raven had been ordered to escort her in person.
Oh, Bronya had also heard that Raven had once won the Mad Hatter Cup Decathlon Grand Prize, whose prestige was second only to HoMu Company's HoMu Cup Emperor of Part-Time Work.
She had originally been nothing more than a leisurely freelance mercenary, yet she had been worked into becoming Mad Hatter's full-time corporate slave, permanently trapped in overtime.
Unfortunately, Mad Hatter's compensation was simply too generous, and Miss Natasha genuinely needed the money.
To repay her enormous debts, Miss Natasha ultimately failed to escape the law of irresistible temptation.
...
Upon seeing that conspicuous raven emblem again, the katana-wielding captain became visibly excited.
After so many years, an opportunity to repay his savior had finally arrived!
"Big Sis Raven, what are your orders?"
With a sharp swish, Bronya propped up the raven flag with a wooden pole and issued an order beneath the fluttering banner. "Bronya wants every member of the Ghostfire Syndicate to lay down their weapons and stop attacking!"
Oh no. She had let it slip. Bronya should not have referred to herself as Bronya.
One of the lackeys nearby could not stand seeing his captain act so deferentially. "Captain, why are you wasting time talking to this little brat?! Just force her..."
Splurt!
Before he could finish speaking, the katana-wielding captain suddenly attacked. With a single draw-and-slash, he sliced the lackey's head apart.
No one saw the captain move.
They only saw his hand twitch slightly before the lackey was diced into fine mince.
The katana-wielding captain narrowed his eyes. "Does anyone else have something to say?"
Seeing everyone cover their mouths and fall silent, the captain cleared his throat and began speaking with righteous conviction. "The original Ghostfire Syndicate was formed from those of us President Tenmon brought from the Far East. We are all heirs to the yakuza way. In life, we are followers of the yakuza. In death, we are yakuza souls."
"Repaying kindness and avenging grudges is the law of survival among the Far East's yakuza. Anyone who can betray their own savior will never have a place among the yakuza."
He swept an unquestionable gaze across the bikers, causing everyone present to shrink beneath its sharpness.
Even if the cybernetic bikers did not follow the laws of the yakuza, they still followed the law of violence.
More importantly, the core members of the Ghostfire Syndicate—the ones Miss Natasha had once rescued—had already gathered beside the katana-wielding captain. What else was there to say?
The captain raised his sheath high and roared an order. "Since there are no objections, boys, disarm every member of the Ghostfire Syndicate! Move!"
Thus, many cybernetic bikers switched sides. They tore apart the leather jackets symbolizing the Ghostfire Syndicate and helped the Taixu Gang resist the Ghostfire Syndicate's final counterattack and the remaining Honkai Beasts.
Seeing this, Bronya could not help breathing a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, they had not suspected her. Had they demanded proof of her identity, Bronya would have had no choice but to produce some of the strange objects she had swiped from Miss Natasha.
Things like a rolling roly-poly toy and a Raven-brand fountain pen. Bronya had no idea why Miss Natasha carried such meaningless trinkets with her during business trips.
Still, they were rather interesting.
Trackers shook continuously beside her, desperately trying to say something.
Even the face on its screen had changed into (>д<)...
"Don't worry, Trackers. Bronya will reinstall the sound card module she removed. This is what you get for being too noisy."
Using Miss Raven's name to command the Ghostfire Syndicate had not been part of Teacher Vill-V's plan. It had been Bronya's own sudden inspiration.
The risks involved had been enormous, but fortunately, her plan had succeeded without any accidents.
Had the Ghostfire Syndicate refused to accept her authority, Bronya would probably have been captured and turned into a cream puff.
Tap, tap, tap.
The sound card module was reinstalled, and Trackers could finally speak again.
"Miss Bronya, Miss Vill-V has sent an emergency transmission. Please evacuate this location as soon as possible."
Bronya spread her hands. "What? Are you talking about the Ghostfire Syndicate's cruise missile system? Don't worry. Queen of Hearts, one of Poker's court cards, has already gone to the Ghostfire Syndicate headquarters to disable the missile system."
"No. This place is about to..."
Rumble!
The ground collapsed.
"Something terrifying is about to awaken here."
...
Ten minutes earlier.
After Vill-V eliminated Tenmon Soji, she once again covered the surrounding area in a thick cloud of dry ice and used a costume-changing magic trick to return Azure Empyrea's clothes to Hua, who was several miles away.
Lecturer asked, "Magician, since you can exchange other people's clothes whenever you please, why did you still strip Hua in person?"
Magician answered smugly, "Changing the clothes wasn't the important part. The important part was the audience's reaction and their shocked expressions!"
Pure Evil: Ah, Id, you're awake. How do you feel?
Id: Like three wild horses dragged me across a beach for ten kilometers, filled my head with seawater, and nearly established a neural pathway between me and the Trisolarans.
Pure Evil: Ha! Don't worry. In a moment, you'll probably see something just as interesting as the Trisolarans!
Id: I don't find Trisolarans entertaining at all...
Outside, Expert Vill-V's investigation and evidence collection regarding Tenmon Soji's corpse was also nearing completion.
Taixuan Eminence had merely been an illusion, so naturally it could not have killed Tenmon Soji.
The truly fatal weapon had been the high-temperature sol used by Magician.
Glug.
A bubble sounded from within the solidified high-temperature sol.
Bubbles continued producing glug, glug sounds inside the material. The sol reached temperatures of several thousand degrees Celsius, enough to carbonize most chemical elements. Once solidified, it possessed the hardness of alloy steel, allowing it to firmly immobilize a biological corpse and seal it into a statue.
Even a Chariot-class Honkai Beast would obediently become a specimen after being caught in it.
Of course, that would require an enormous quantity of sol. With that much money, producing anti-Honkai weaponry would be far more practical. High-temperature sol was extraordinarily expensive.
Hiss.
Expert pulled the probe she had inserted earlier out of the solidified high-temperature sol, removed the stethoscope she had been using, and said,
"Examination complete. The DNA sample was successfully collected. According to comparisons with the Far East's DNA database, he truly is Tenmon Soji's... host body."
Conductor pressed, "Then what exactly is this thing?"
Expert: "His primary components are not carbon-based cells, but artificial silicon-based cells mixed with extraterrestrial metals."
Glug. Another bubble sounded from inside the sol.
Disbelief filled Conductor's eyes. Vill-V had always possessed immense confidence in herself, bordering on arrogance. She did not believe anyone could surpass her.
Extraterrestrial metals were easy enough to understand. Earth received 6,100 meteorites every year, some of which contained meteoric metals. Vill-V herself occasionally used such materials when constructing weaponry.
But even Vill-V, who stood at the pinnacle of human intellect, could not manufacture artificial silicon-based cells.
That represented a technological barrier. Humanity had never encountered such a thing and naturally had no idea how to design it. All they could do was explore slowly and accumulate experimental data. Even the entirety of Trisolaran humanity in her previous life had failed to unlock that branch of the technological tree. In a sense, this was an epoch-making technology on the same level as faster-than-light spacecraft.
"Artificial? What kind of person could create something so terrifying and then hide it inside human society?"
Having understood everything, Expert calmly gave the answer.
"Aliens."