"Hmph! Hahahahaha…" A private laugh suddenly rang out, instantly breaking the already low and oppressive atmosphere in the conference room. Everyone looked up in astonishment, their gazes turning toward the figure sitting at the head of the table — Otto.
"Otto, you bastard! I've endured you for a long time!" Tesla raised her right fist, covered by the exoskeleton armor, and smashed it toward Otto's soul steel face.
Unfortunately, although the people from Schicksal also disliked Otto for disrupting the atmosphere, he was after all the Archbishop of Schicksal and represented Schicksal's face. They could not really let Tesla smash him.
"Sorry, my friends. I just remembered something happy." Otto crossed his legs and couldn't help but let out his private laugh again.
After this interlude, everyone tacitly ignored Otto once more. After all, other than causing trouble, he hadn't helped at all while sitting in this conference room.
"According to Anti-Entropy's detection, Sirin first appeared in Moscow. At that time, the Honkai energy reaction inside her body was 3000 HW. Yet in less than twelve short hours, when she appeared at Babylon Tower, the Honkai energy reaction inside her body had already reached 10000 HW, surpassing the world's largest Honkai energy reactor."
"We need to know where Sirin went in that short half-day period and why she became so much stronger. This kind of thing has never happened with Joyce."
Einstein asked the group. In truth, the person she really wanted to ask was Otto, who sat at the head of the table. After all, the people sitting opposite them were all Schicksal's combat personnel.
Asking them this question was as difficult as asking an elementary school student to explain the principles of relativity.
"Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?" At this moment, an inappropriate voice rang out. Everyone turned their heads and saw Otto lounging in his chair with his legs crossed, watching SpongeBob SquarePants on the conference room's large screen.
"Grandpa!" Theresa summoned Judah, ready to give Otto a world's cutest heavy strike so that the old man would learn what filial piety meant.
"Sorry, wrong channel." Otto pressed the remote and switched the video to a classic Shenzhou program — "A Bite of Shenzhou." This episode happened to be about the making of mooncakes.
"If you want to answer our questions next time, there's no need to go through so many twists and turns." Einstein held her forehead and sighed. Back when she wanted to leave Schicksal and establish her own faction, it wasn't without the reason of having had enough of this idiot leader Otto.
"Everyone, if there are no little surprises in life, wouldn't it be very boring?"
"Bishop Otto, this is a matter of life and death for humanity. Can't you find a better time for your little surprises?" Einstein was already trying very hard to control her emotions.
"Chickadee, don't give this bastard any good face." Tesla made it clear that if it weren't for the fact that anyone in this room could easily crush the two of them, she would have already exploded at Otto long ago.
"Dr. Tesla, we are cooperating with Schicksal. Even if you dislike him, he is currently the leader of Schicksal and our partner in cooperation."
"Yeah, Dr. Tesla. If only you had learned half of Lady Nancy's shrewdness back then. In that case, Universal Corporation would probably still be the golden-egg-laying chicken for Anti-Entropy!" Otto continued to provoke Tesla's nerves.
(For readers who may not know, Nancy is Edison, also considered one of Anti-Entropy's elders. In the Honkai worldview, she can be regarded as Tesla's close friend. Hard to judge.)
"Alright, Bishop Otto. We came here to cooperate with Schicksal. Please stop your jokes that have no bottom line."
"Fine, fine. I surrender. I've said what I needed to say. You can continue." Otto wrapped the Judah chain he had pulled off earlier back around his mouth, indicating that he would absolutely not speak again.
With Otto, this unstable factor, removed, the meeting's progress obviously sped up considerably. Although Einstein had been leading the discussion the whole time, there was no other way. Aside from Otto, no one on Schicksal's side was qualified to engage in academic exchange with Einstein. Professional matters should be left to professionals. Everyone present was smart and naturally understood this principle.
"Then our 'Go to the Moon' plan is confirmed like this. The personnel will be Mr. Siegfried and me. Is that acceptable?" For the sake of fairness, Schicksal and Anti-Entropy would each send one important person.
Otto nodded. No matter how well the discussions went between Anti-Entropy and the Valkyries, this matter ultimately required his approval as Archbishop to take effect.
"Congratulations, Dr. Einstein. This should be Anti-Entropy's first cooperation with Schicksal since its founding. It's truly a pity that the two Herrscher of Reason who dedicated their noble lives for humanity won't be able to see it."
Otto's casual remark put Einstein on alert. Had they already discovered that Yang was not Joyce?
But neither of them pointed it out publicly. After all, regardless of the truth, the Herrscher of Reason had been cut off in this generation. No one knew whether Yang's plan could succeed…
The lunar landing plan, jointly carried out by the two giant organizations Schicksal and Anti-Entropy on Earth, was proceeding in an orderly manner. Because Sirin had set a forty-eight-hour deadline for humanity, Otto also brought out some of his trump-card technology.
The lunar spacecraft would be debugged and launched in three hours. The round trip was estimated to take thirty hours, plus time for exploration on the Moon and analyzing the clues brought back. Schicksal had already arranged several thousand seemingly serious suicide squads to go to Sirin's side to "card bugs," at least buying another forty-eight hours.
Otto was in a very good mood. Although an accident had occurred today — when that meteorite fell and wiped out Poland without a trace, Otto had even felt that his five-hundred-year-long wish might end here — the moment he saw the information about Sirin handed to him by his subordinate afterward, he relaxed.
"Long time no see, old friend." He stroked the photo in the document and couldn't help but reveal a flamboyant smile. He had struggled in the darkness for five hundred years and had finally waited until the appointed time arrived.
In this long and lonely moment, the solitary Schicksal Archbishop stood quietly like a sculpture forgotten by time. His deep eyes gazed into the distance, as if they could pierce through the endless void and see the figure that was about to arrive.
Time flew like a shuttle, years passed in the blink of an eye. This Archbishop had spent countless days and nights alone. He had looked up at the starry sky on silent nights, praying quietly, and wandered among crowds during noisy days, yet could never truly blend in. His heart was like a barren desert, thirsting for reunion with his close friend.