AQK 011-30 (Patreon)

AQK 011-030

Chapter 11: Sneaking into the ME

"I think there is probably no place more suitable than here for the woman who usurped my father's hard work."

Looking at the towering building in front of her, Mei crossed her arms with a cold expression.

"Hmm... Is this building the headquarters of your father's ME corporation? It looks so tall and big."

While admiring the magnificence of the building, Kiana scratched her cheek.

"But are you sure Cocolia is really here?"

She looked at the sealed entrance of the ME company building and reminded Mei, "Look, this building have been sealed."

Mei didn't care about this.

"Because my father were framed, the headquarters of ME is currently in a semi-shutdown state for investigation."

While explaining, there was a hint of mockery on her face.

"Kiana, don't you think this kind of confined place is more suitable for the woman named Cocolia?"

Kiana nodded. Although she didn't understand, it sounded reasonable.

"But Mei. Have you ever thought about how we can get in?"

From here, they could see that the entrance of the ME company had been closed. It was impossible to enter through the main gate.

And they came here to stop the plan of the woman named Cocolia.

Go through the main gate? If Cocolia was really inside, they would be discovered in a minute.

"This is Uncle Ryoma's company, after all. Mei should know some secret doors, right?"

Suddenly remembering some plots she'd read in street novels, Kiana looked at Mei with expectation.

But Mei regretfully spoke, "Although I've been here several times, my father and I lead two different lives because he's always on business trips."

As she said this, she looked at the ME building with some nostalgia.

"The last time I came to this building was three or four years ago..."

To be honest, Mei didn't know much more about the headquarters of ME than Kiana.

Fortunately, she had anticipated this, so she made a quick decision. "Let's find out about the surrounding area first and see if there’s any place to sneak into this building."

"Kiana, be careful of the surveillance around the building," Mei decided to temporarily stop reminiscing, and reminded Kiana.

"If our whereabouts are exposed, even if we get in, our situation will become very dangerous."

"Well... no problem, it depends on me!"

Kiana didn't take Mei's worries seriously but straightened her body confidently.

"I am very good at investigation!"

"... Anyway, you should pay more attention."

Looking at Kiana's inflated posture, and although it felt suddenly unreliable, Mei she just left a sentence and turned in the direction she had chosen.

After a while, the two met at the back of the ME building.

"I basically didn't find anything here. Did you find anything?"

Mei was a little helpless. The largest exit she could find was a toilet window, and the size of the window was not enough for someone to get through.

Damn, why did my father choose such a broken place for the company's headquarters?!

Having found nothing, Mei couldn't find an outlet to vent her anger, so she could only throw it at her innocent old father who was still in prison.

"Well... I did see an external ventilation duct here." Kiana broke into a cold sweat when she saw Mei's resentful look, then scratched her cheek and said uncertainly, "But I don't know where the duct leads."

"... Anyway, let's go and have a look."

Mei didn't care about the question Kiana was struggling with and sighed slightly. "Anyway, it seems that this is the only choice we have now, isn't it?"

Following Kiana, she carefully avoided the surveillance equipment along the way.

Mei soon saw the ventilation duct that Kiana mentioned.

She took a few steps closer and looked inside.

"CoughCoughCough~"

Mei, who was blown by the dust coming from the pavement, took a few steps back and coughed subconsciously, rubbing her eyes.

"Ah... I forgot to say that this vent looks like there's a lot of dust."

On the side, Kiana slapped her forehead, a little embarrassed.

"... Why didn't you say it earlier?"

After recovering from the shock, Mei glared at Kiana with some resentment, then looked at the vent again and said faintly, "There's not a lot of dust here; there's a vent in the dust."

"How long has it been since my father hired someone to clean this place?"

Seeing Mei complain, Kiana scratched her cheek and tentatively said, "How about we go somewhere else?"

She didn't care about the dust on the vent. After all, she had always been rough in this aspect since she was a child, and she had patience for dirty things after wandering for so long.

But Mei was different. After all, she was still the type of rich young lady She would probably be very repulsive to this dusty vent, right?

"What can we change?"

Mei rolled her eyes when she noticed Kiana's thoughts.

If she could change, she would have brought it up herself.

But this was the only way now, so why change it?

She waved her hand and said nonchalantly, "Don't worry about me, it's just a little dust. I'm not that fragile."

"It's just a little dirty. It's nothing compared to the safety of this city."

After saying that, Mei straightened her clothes and crawled into the ventilation duct without hesitation.

This duct was not big, but it was enough to accommodate a thin person. She and Kiana were both within the range of being thin, so there was no need to worry about getting stuck.

But one has to say...

"There's a lot of dust in this pipe... ahem."

Although Mei had known about this for a long time, she still felt a little resentful when she came into close contact with the dust again.

"I think when I go back, my father probably will have to clean this terrible pipe..."

Crawling forward, Mei felt a little helpless in this narrow space, looking at the pipe wall that had been rubbed shiny by her clothes.

Luckily, the distance of this dusty pipe crawl was not far.

Passing the blower and turning a corner, she could basically see light at the exit.

"Great..."

Seeing the end of this terrible journey, Mei felt somewhat relieved even though she was covered in dust.

At the exit, Mei pushed the barrier net of the ventilation duct with force.

It was screwed in, but it didn't seem to be strongly stuck in place.

With years of practicing family swordsmanship, Mei herself was also strong, so it didn't take much effort to force the barrier net open.

Bang.

Mei jumped to the ground.

She looked around and found that this was the corridor area of ME.

Kiana following behind also jumped out of the duct and landed on the ground.

"Finally, I'm choking to death."

Kiana patted the dust off her body, her face full of dissatisfaction.

She was indeed resistant to dirt, but the feeling of so much dust on her face was unbearable for anyone.

Mei standing by, took a look at Kiana's dusty face and couldn't help but smile.

But when she thought that her current image was not much different from Kiana's, she couldn't continue laughing.

"Let's go clean the dust off our bodies first."

She wanted to suggest this, but...

The next moment, the cold words that sounded in her ears made Mei's face change drastically.

"Intruder intrusion detected."

Chapter 12: Two vs. One?

ME's underground research institute.

"It seems that two rats have come in..."

The blonde woman in brown-green clothes is the target of Kiana and Mei's mission. Cocolia, the scum of the world, observed the two red dots on the instrument monitoring the internal status of the entire ME building with an intrigued expression.

She adjusted the monitoring equipment and activated the cameras in the area of the red dots.

"Oh... I'm not ready to deal with her yet. I didn’t expect the experimental subject to come to my door by itself."

She saw Mei's dusty face on the screen at once. Cocolia couldn’t help but smirk.

"She actually came in through the ventilation duct. Look at her dusty face. It really fits the image of a rat."

On the side, a girl with short purple and pink hair, dressed simply, opened her mouth slightly, revealing her jagged teeth. Her eyes were full of teasing. She was about to speak when the girl sitting quietly beside her, with gray Roman curls and a childish face, spoke expressionlessly.

"Let Bronya handle this."

"...Bronya?"

Cocolia was a little surprised. Since that incident, her relationship with Bronya had become more and more distant. If it hadn’t been for the fact that this matter was related to rescuing Seele, Bronya wouldn’t have followed her at all.

Now, she was actually taking the initiative to deal with the invading enemy.

Was this meant to ease their relationship?

Cocolia felt a small sense of satisfaction at this thought.

She nodded.

"Okay, I’ll leave it to you, Bronya!"

....

"Damn, I was discovered..."

Looking at the expressionless girl with gray curly hair not far away, Mei’s face turned slightly ugly.

Was it not enough just to avoid surveillance?

"Tsk, it's just a kid."

Kiana standing beside Mei didn’t care. Instead, she appeared somewhat indifferent to this blocker due to her deceptive appearance.

"Hey, tell me where the girl named Cocolia is!"

She held the baseball bat she had brought in and said unkindly. "Otherwise, my baseball bat won’t be merciful just because you're young!"

"..."

Bronya stared at Kiana with a look of disbelief.

"Hey! What's that expression on your face?!"

Seeing this expression, Kiana got angry instantly and retorted angrily: "You're really annoying!"

"It seems I have to teach you a lesson to make you understand the seriousness of the matter!"

She cracked her knuckles, the sound echoing in the air.

Meistanding next to her didn’t stop her.

From the undisguised hostility, it was clear that the girl who had suddenly appeared was undoubtedly their enemy.

And no matter what, defeating the enemy was the right choice at the moment.

Probably because of the other party's childish appearance, Mei, somewhat reluctant, whispered, "Be gentle, Kiana..."

Although they were enemies, at this age, it would be a bit cruel to truly kill them.

It would probably be enough to incapacitate them.

"Hehe, I know."

Kiana hummed, nodding.

"Although I don't know why you make me angry, but since Mei said so, I’ll finish you off as quickly as possible!"

With that, she leapt into action, rushing toward Bronya with her baseball bat.

In just two or three steps, Kiana’s light frame closed the distance between them.

"It's over!"

She swung the bat, looking at Bronya's expressionless face. Kiana thought she was scared and unresponsive. She smiled confidently, secretly holding back some of her strength.

If she were hit, she wouldn’t be seriously injured.

But she could expect a hospital stay for two or three years of recovery.

However...

Did Bronya really not react to Kiana’s confident attack?

That was impossible.

Having been trained as a special forces soldier since childhood, Bronya’s reflexes were top-notch.

As Kiana’s attack came, Bronya simply took a step back and dodged the swing with a clever maneuver that left Kiana in disbelief.

But that wasn’t the end.

In that position, Bronya used the special fighting techniques she had learned in the past. She grabbed Kiana’s arm with her backhand, twisted her waist, and threw her against the wall with a sharp motion.

Bang!

Kiana slammed into the wall, the burning pain in her back twisting her pretty face in pain.

"Damn... this little dwarf!"

Kiana gritted her teeth, glaring at Bronya with a surge of frustration.

She had been careless.

If she hadn’t underestimated this girl so much, just relying on the Kaslana family’s monstrous physique and the fighting skills her father had taught her, how could this "dwarf" have thrown her like that?

"Mei, be careful. This dwarf isn’t easy!"

While regretting underestimating Bronya, Kiana quickly warned Mei.

But the warning wasn’t necessary.

Through what Bronya had done to Kiana just now, Mei had already realized that this seemingly young girl was far from weak.

"Sorry, Kiana."

She felt a little guilty toward Kiana.

Kiana could have been faster just now, but probably because of what Mei had said, Kiana had held back more than half of her strength, which allowed this girl to dodge.

"Let me make up for this mistake!"

Knowing it wasn’t the time to feel guilty, Mei glanced at Bronya, whose expression hadn’t changed, and her face grew serious.

She reached for her waist and pulled out a small sword.

Shua!

The small sword appeared in an instant.

Mei held it horizontally in front of her, took a deep breath, and assumed a fighting stance.

The family-inherited Hokushin Ittō-ryū sword style.

She wasn’t just an ordinary girl who was powerless!

Although Mei wasn’t very skilled in hand-to-hand combat, her fighting ability surged the moment she held a blade. For convenience, Mei hadn’t brought her main sword this time, but she always carried a small one with her.

Bronya pulled out a military dagger from the pouch tied to her leg, her face as expressionless as ever.

The atmosphere grew tense.

In the blink of an eye, Mei with her small sword clashed with Bronya.

Kang!

Mei’s precise strike was blocked by Bronya’s military shield, the sound of metal clashing ringing out. This time, Mei wasn’t as careless as Kiana. She launched her attack with full strength from the start, with no intention of holding back.

Using the advantage of being older and more fully developed, Mei’s small sword kept Bronya’s military dagger in check.

Bronya’s eyes shifted slightly.

She had made a mistake.

She was very good with blades.

She shouldn’t have engaged in close combat with this person.

Huh... It had been too long since she had fought closely, and her judgment had declined...

Breathing evenly, Bronya remained locked in the stalemate with Mei. She was preparing to find an opportunity to create some distance.

Fighting in close combat with this person... and even with the idiot from before, was an unwise move.

While her appearance might give her an advantage at first glance, after knowing their abilities, she wouldn’t have the upper hand.

Mei noticed Bronya’s retreat and snorted coldly.

"How could I let you get away so easily?"

Do you think the Hokushin Ittō-ryū have no pride?

Beside them, Kiana had recovered somewhat.

Although her whole body hurt, she gritted her teeth and rushed toward Bronya with her baseball bat, eyeing the stalemate.

She must attack!

As for whether it’s a bit despicable for two people to fight one person?

Heh, only the loser can be called despicable!

They were fighting for this city, and a little despicable action was insignificant!

----

Chapter 13: The Lost Hairpin

Kiana rushed towards the immobile Bronya, and swung the baseball bat fiercely. The air wailed under the swing as Kiana put all her strength into it.

"Successful!"

Because she was about to hit Bronya, Kiana's mouth corners rose, and the pain in her body temporarily subsided a lot.

"You annoying dwarf, you dare throw me!"

"Look, I will let you taste the feeling of pain all over your body!"

Bronya noticed this and looked at the baseball bat coming at her back with terrifying force, without any ripples.

"Kang."

A dull sound rang out in the long, narrow corridor.

The large mechanical hand grasped Kiana's baseball bat, which had enough power to smash a wall.

The passage was made of machinery, and the mechanical creatures, with white and silver as the main colors, floated quietly above Bronya.

Kiana's face changed slightly because of this strange creature that suddenly appeared and blocked her attack.

What the hell?!

Because of this strange creature, Bronya had successfully freed herself from the stalemate with Mei. She then issued a combat order.

"Project Bunny 19c..."

Accompanied by the emotionless and childish voice, the narrow, long mechanical compound eyes of the autonomous combat machine named Project Bunny 19c flashed with red light.

In an instant, a sense of danger surged into Kiana's heart.

Following this feeling, Kiana immediately gave up the handle of the baseball bat in her hand and did a backflip with a clever stance to distance herself from Project Bunny 19c.

"That machine creature gives people a bad feeling..."

Mei, who had come to Kiana's side a moment ago, looked at her with a serious face and then Project Bunny 19c floating in the air as she murmured.

"Well, it's very strong..."

Kiana felt the same as Mei and expressed her feelings about the brief contact just now.

"...It's best not to be attacked by that weird thing; otherwise, it will probably result in serious injury at the least."

The force of the blow she made with all her strength was almost 500 kilograms, but this weird thing caught her swing so easily, so the strength can be imagined.

"Is that so?"

Mei couldn't help but have a headache.

She was only good at close combat, but according to Kiana's statement, close combat with the opponent was obviously a dead end.

The small sword in her hand alone couldn't cut the steel monster, and her weak body couldn't withstand the strange power that Kiana had mentioned.

This compatibility was really bad...

Mei looked at Bronya under Project Bunny again.

This girl is also troublesome.

Although Mei could get the upper hand in close combat, she was afraid she couldn't get close to that mechanical creature.

"Cough..."

Hearing Kiana's cough, Mei glanced sideways and saw Kiana with a pale face.

...Kiana's condition doesn't seem to be very good.

"There's nothing we can do."

Her eyes flashed with helplessness.

This was the enemy's base camp. There was a tricky enemy blocking the way. Kiana's condition was not good. Staying here was definitely not the right choice.

So...

"Let's leave here first, Kiana," Mei approached Kiana and lowered her voice.

"...I know."

With her current low health, even with Mei, Kiana couldn't beat this dwarf. Although Kiana was still a little unwilling to accept this, she also knew that it was the wisest choice.

"Want to escape?"

Seeing the two retreating, Bronya had a blank expression.

Escape was certainly the right choice, but she would not let these two invaders escape just like that!

"Project Bunny 19c."

Bronya decisively gave the order.

"Take down these two."

As soon as the order was given, the mechanical compound eyes of the previously motionless Project Bunny flashed with red light, and it rushed towards Kiana and Mei at an extremely fast speed.

In response, Kiana, who had been prepared, stretched out her hand from her waist and wiped it.

"Shua."

A stream of light accurately hit the Project Bunny, causing the Project Bunny's movement to stop.

This was the special ability of the Artemis' Guardian that Kiana had drawn before.

The Artemis' Guardian that disrupts the target's gravity state.

This time, to be conservative, Kiana brought a Artemis' Guardian.

Because it was an infiltration mission, it was initially useless in order not to attract attention. But now, as the two were escaping from this building. There was no need to worry about being ostentatious.

Seeing that Project Bunny was hit, Kiana followed Mei and rushed directly to the nearest exit of ME Society without hesitation.

The time that Artemis' Guardian could stop the enemy was extremely limited, and the stronger the enemy, the weaker the restraints. They had to use the time when Project Bunny was stuck to escape from this building.

Fortunately, this was not difficult.

As the eldest lady of ME Club, Mei could still find the way to the exit.

With their speed, a few seconds were enough to rush to the door of ME Club without the trouble of direction.

Hmm... the door wasn't open?

So...

"Bang."

Kiana raised the Moon Guardian and shot the glass of the ME Company's door.

No courtesy at all.

It's Mei's family property anyway, so she didn't have to worry about compensation after breaking it.

After escaping from the ME Company building, Mei was relieved.

As long as she escaped from the ME building, she could basically enter public places. If the other party wanted to chase them in such a crowded place, they couldn't make such a big fuss if they didn't want to cause a sensation.

So, if they escaped to a public place, they were basically safe.

Of course, what they didn't know was that after the Project Bunny was restricted, Bronya didn't intend to chase them at all.

Well... it's not that she didn't want to chase.

Just before Project Bunny was released from control, Bronya was still going to chase them.

But Cocolia called and told her not to chase.

Because the experiment wasn't ready yet.

So even if she caught Mei, she would have to be locked up. So, it would be fine if she could catch her, but if it was difficult to catch her, she could just drive her away.

Anyway, when the time was right, Mei, as the third Herrscher, could run away.

But the monk(Mei) could not flee with the temple(Nagazora).

"Bronya understands."

Bronya was still expressionless.

It didn't matter whether she chased or not.

As long as Seele could return to her side in the end, it didn't matter what she did.

For this goal, it didn't matter if she violated her previous oath or helped Cocolia complete a plan that was anti-human and would never be accepted by Seele!

She turned around and prepared to return to the underground research institute of the ME Company.

However, in a moment, a rare fluctuation appeared in Bronya's gray eyes, which contained neither joy nor sadness.

Her gaze went straight to the broken corner of the wall and the dark blue hairpin lying quietly on the ground.

This familiar hairpin... It can't be wrong, absolutely not wrong!

Picking up the hairpin, Bronya recalled the night many years ago when all the children in the orphanage received gifts from Mother Cocolia. This hairpin was the one that Seele liked the most and always wore on her head.

"Why is it here..." Bronya murmured. She remembered that this hairpin should have disappeared with Seele.

Wait...

Bronya suddenly recalled what happened in the battle just now. She smashed the reckless white-haired idiot against the wall, and then...

Bronya instantly tightened the hairpin in her hand, looking in the direction where Kiana and Mei fled, with a hint of danger in her eyes.

-----

Chapter 14: Swear in the Name of Kaslana

Kiana was seriously injured in this encounter.

Although she didn't suffer any life-threatening injuries because of her Kaslana bloodline, she was covered with scratches and bruises.

Fortunately, none of them were too severe.

Mei had an emergency medical kit at home. She washed Kiana's muddy wounds with clean water, then disinfected them with iodine and wrapped them in bandages while Kiana howled in pain.

To be honest, Mei had never received proper medical training, so her skills weren’t very advanced. However, she tried to use basic methods to treat the wounds, and it seemed to have worked—well, at least on the surface.

Mei looked at Kiana, her finger tapping her chin as she thought about the next steps.

All that was left to do now was... rest.

Mei herself didn’t have any major injuries, just some small scratches from crawling through the pipe. They weren’t a big deal once she treated them.

"Mei, what should we do once we’re down?"

Kiana raised her tightly bound arms, baring her teeth, and looked at Mei.

"...Well, that's a problem," Mei replied, pinching her chin thoughtfully. "We’ve already alerted the enemy, and I’m afraid the defenses will be even stricter the next time we go there."

Thinking of Bronya and Project Bunny, she looked embarrassed.

"That girl, and that troublesome robot, are going to be difficult to deal with. It won’t be easy if we face them head-on."

"Hmph, leave that dwarf to me!"

Kiana was so angry at the mention of Bronya. She believed she was in this state because of her. Kiana looked upset. "If I hadn’t been careless and tricked by that dwarf, I could have easily defeated her even with that broken copper and iron!"

"Don’t underestimate the enemy, Kiana."

Seeing that Kiana was becoming overconfident again, Mei couldn’t help but feel helpless.

She knew Kiana had a tendency to believe she could win with the slightest advantage.

Wasn’t this overconfidence deadly?

There was no other way. To curb Kiana’s flaw, Mei reminded her impatiently, "Have you forgotten how you got these injuries?"

Kiana's face suddenly darkened.

"...Tsk, I won’t fall for that dwarf's tricks next time!"

She muttered.

"It was just an accident this time... yes, just an accident!"

It seemed that Kiana had found a justification and became more confident.

"Sigh... I really can’t do anything with you."

Mei had no choice but to rub her forehead, looking exasperated.

"Anyway, you should wait until your injuries are almost healed."

"Otherwise, what’s the difference between going after that guy with injuries and giving away your head?"

"Eh... but what if Cocolia shows up during this time... what should we do?"

Though Kiana agreed with Mei, she still had concerns.

"...What can we do? Even if that woman starts causing trouble now, can the two of us stop her?"

Mei asked back, and after getting a negative response, she put her hand on Kiana’s shoulder and whispered, "Anyway, we can't stop that woman if we go there now."

"Why not wait until you're fully recovered and then go there, fully prepared?"

"...Is this the only way?" Kiana was still a little upset.

"This is the only way," Mei said seriously.

"Well... okay then."

Looking at Mei’s serious expression, Kiana felt a bit frustrated, but soon recovered and said angrily, "When I recover, I’ll definitely beat that dwarf and that Cocolia!"

"Just... I hope... during this time, that bastard named Cocolia won’t..." Her voice gradually lowered.

Seeing this, Mei held Kiana’s hand and smiled slightly.

"Don’t worry, Kiana."

"I don’t think that woman named Cocolia is ready to cause a Honkai Eruption anytime soon."

"We didn’t come away empty-handed this time."

"I think, in this upcoming eruption, as a Herrscher, I’m probably a more important experimental subject. But Cocolia let us escape this time."

Mei looked at Kiana and spoke calmly.

"Kiana, you understand, right?"

"Well..."

Kiana lowered her head, her voice dull.

After hearing part of what Mei said, she realized the truth.

The reason they were able to escape was not because they were faster than the enemy, or that the opponent couldn’t catch them.

They escaped because the enemy didn’t want to chase them, and had no intention of doing so.

If they can use the entire city as a test site, how could they not catch the test subjects?

So, why didn’t they want to chase them?

"Probably one of these two reasons, right?"

Mei recalled their smooth escape and sighed.

"Either way, it shows that our time isn’t as tight as we imagined."

She comforted Kiana.

"So, don’t worry too much, Kiana."

"But... if, I mean, if we really can’t stop this disaster from happening..."

Kiana whispered to herself.

"At that time, I might become a stranger to myself, just like you told me?"

"At that time..."

Kiana, who had been looking down, grabbed Mei’s wrist fiercely.

"No... absolutely not."

She repeated, determination showing on her face, with a bandage on her cheek.

"Whether it’s this city or Mei, I’ll do my best to protect it!"

"I swear in the name of Kaslana!"

The usual confidence in her voice, the determination in her eyes, left no room for doubt.

Although it wasn’t the first time, Mei was still stunned.

"Ah, it hurts, it hurts."

Perhaps because of the large range of motion, Kiana’s face contorted in pain, and she bared her teeth, crying out.

"Puff," Mei covered her mouth lightly and smiled. "You should heal your wounds first."

She stood up with a smile.

"I’ll go to the supermarket to buy some ribs. I heard that eating well helps your body recover faster."

"Well... Great!"

Kiana’s face lit up with joy at the mention of food, but she bared her teeth again as the wounds on her body were touched.

Seeing this, Mei shook her head slightly.

She adjusted her clothes and made sure everything was fine before walking toward the door.

However, when she opened the door and saw the figure standing outside, Mei was momentarily stunned.

-----

Chapter 15: The Deal from Bronya

The unique gray Roman curls and expressionless face were familiar to Mei.

Isn't this the troublesome girl who suddenly appeared and blocked them?

Damn, she actually chased them home.

The moment she saw Bronya, Mei was stunned for a moment and quickly showed a trace of vigilance. At the same time, she quickly drew the small sword from her waist for self-defense and stepped back a few steps to distance herself.

This obvious hostility made Bronya raise her eyebrows.

But it's normal.

After all, they were enemies not long ago.

Bronya could understand this, so stretched out her right hand in Mei's tense nerves and slowly spread it out.

"...Is that my hairpin?"

When Mei saw Bronya's action, her heartbeat raced with nervousness, but she couldn't help but be stunned when she saw the dark blue hairpin in Bronya's open palm.

Isn't this the ordinary hairpin she got?

She remembered that the hairpin should be with Kiana, but now it is... um... I'm afraid it was left in the building of ME in the previous battle.

Thinking back to the past, Mei frowned and roughly understood why the hairpin was in the hands of this girl.

But...

Now, what does this girl mean?

Why did she show her the hairpin? Is she here to return the hairpin?

No, it's impossible.

Mei didn't consider this possibility at all.

They are still enemies until now.

And as an enemy, it is absolutely impossible to return something, especially something as insignificant as a hairpin. It's really stupid.

Mei's statement made Bronya a little unhappy.

She frowned and said in a cold tone, "This hairpin does not belong to you."

Mei could not deny this.

Although, in terms of ownership, this hairpin was opened by her from the treasure chest and belongs to her.

But according to the above information, the real owner of this hairpin should be the person named Seele, right?

However, Mei was a little curious about Bronya's very certain attitude and reaction.

"How did you know?"

She got this hairpin from the treasure chest.

When Mei opened the treasure chest, she was sure that only she and Kiana were there.

The display of items cannot be opened for people who have not entered that space.

Wait, could it be...

Mei suddenly thought of a possibility and looked at Bronya in surprise.

Could it be...

"You are Seele?"

??

Hearing this, Bronya was instantly confused.

Why do you think I am Seele?

"Bronya is not Seele, Bronya is Bronya's name."

She frowned and emphasized in her childish voice without emotion, "But Seele is Bronya's best friend!"

"Ah this..." Mei was embarrassed because she guessed wrong, but fortunately, the answer was not far off.

It's not Seele herself, but at least she is the friend named Seele, right?

However, despite the embarrassment, Mei also got a lot of useful information through these simple exchanges.

That is, the girl named Bronya in front of her chased her home. Although it is estimated that it is not to return the hairpin, it must be related to this hairpin. At least so far, Mei has not sensed the murderous aura from Bronya as before.

"So, why are you here?" Because the existing information is not sufficient, Mei has to launch a direct question to Bronya.

This is also in line with Bronya's mind.

After all, she came here for this. No matter how much she talks, she will return to this point in the end. She is, as usual, with a blank expression, and she said:

"Bronya wants to know how you got this hairpin!"

"..." Mei was silent.

"That's it?"

Suspecting that she had misheard, Mei looked incredulous.

"You chased me to my house just to ask how we got this hairpin?!"

She really didn't expect that this girl named Bronya chased her to her house just to ask about how this hairpin came from.

"This question is very important to Bronya."

Bronya was quite serious about it after noticing Mei's contempt.

"Are you serious?"

Seeing the unquestionable look in Bronya's eyes, Mei was a little speechless.

But at the same time, she quickly entered a serious state and said bluntly, "Then the question is, why should I tell you?"

"In two hours... not half an hour, um... even now, we are still enemies."

"Why should I answer an enemy's question?"

The issue of obtaining the hairpin involves that magical space, and Mei will not do such a stupid thing as to reveal the existence of that magical space to the enemy.

But then again, even if it is not such an important matter, she also does not need to answer her enemy's question. Now that there is no big fight, it is already very peaceful.

She still wants her to answer the other party's question? She's purely dreaming.

Bronya was well-prepared for this. She raised her head and looked at Mei with her dark gray eyes.

"Whether Bronya is your enemy will depend on your next answer."

"...Are you threatening me?"

Hearing these threatening words, Mei narrowed her eyes, tightened the small sword in her hand, and said coldly, "This is not your base camp. Even if Kiana is injured, there are only you and that troublesome mechanical creature here now."

The two of them chose to retreat because of many factors at the time. If it was just the girl in front of them and the troublesome mechanical creature, it would only be difficult to deal with, but it was not impossible to deal with!

Bronya was silent for a moment.

Although she was confident in the performance of Project Bunny 19c,

But judging from the previous battle, if she puts aside the fatal underestimation of the white-haired fool, her first display of force, and the suddenness of Project Bunny, It was not certain that she couldn't defeat these two people in a simple head-on battle.

So...

Knowing that the situation was not so one-sided, Bronya's attitude eased a lot.

She looked at Mei and said, "Bronya must know this question!"

"So..."

Because this question concerns Seele, we must understand clearly.

"Let's make a deal!"

With a clear goal, Bronya asked Mei to exchange her own intelligence for the answer to this question in the current situation.

As for whether Mei would agree to this request, Bronya didn't even have to think about it.

Since these two people dared to break into the building of ME, they must know something.

Comparing the answers to the questions about these cards and the intelligence related to their own safety plans, the two were compared with each other.

Whether to agree to this deal was naturally obvious.

-----

Chapter 16: Miss Kiana Launches the Charge

It Is a coincidence.

After Mei left, Kiana suddenly felt a little thirsty.

But there was no water in the room, so she could only drag her wounded body and grit her teeth to go to the kitchen to get some water.

But what a coincidence!

As soon as she walked out of the room, she saw Mei standing in front of the door, talking to someone.

Looking through the gap carefully…

Oh my god, isn't this the dwarf who made me miserable?!

Kiana's anger rose instantly.

We don’t fight you, but you come to our door?

Angry, Kiana quickly endured the pain and ran back to the room to pick up the Artemis' Guardian from the table. Then, she rushed out of the room with a whoosh and charged toward Mei, who was talking to Bronya, and shouted!

"Mei, get out of the way, watch me kill this lingering dwarf!"

This sudden move made Mei who was preparing to exchange information stunned.

After reacting, she quickly opened her mouth to stop her. "Kiana..."

But Kiana’s movements were fast enough. Before Mei could say anything to dissuade her, Kiana jumped over and threw the Artemis' Guardian at Bronya.

The movement was extremely smooth and fast.

The gun, with great force, smashed straight toward Bronya's face.

Bronya naturally had no intention of sitting still and waiting for death.

She turned her feet slightly, raised her legs sideways, and lifted her thighs wrapped in mechanical exoskeleton under her skirt. She kicked fiercely, hitting Kiana’s wrist with a precise movement, causing the gun in Kiana’s hand to fly out.

However, at the moment of approach, Bronya’s face changed when she noticed something.

She stared closely at Kiana, focusing on the almost imperceptible arc at the corner of Kiana’s mouth. Her face changed slightly.

Turning her eyes, Bronya focused on the gun in Kiana's hand.

The other gun that had not been kicked away circled around Kiana’s fingertips with an extremely clever movement, then rang with the pull of the trigger.

The distance between the two was very close, so the bullet shot by the protection of the Artemis' Guardian almost instantly rushed toward Bronya.

It succeeded!

Seeing this, Kiana's mouth curled up.

Hum, let you taste the power of this lady’s gunfighting skills!

Bronya was not panicked by the approaching bullet but remained calm as usual.

Because…

In the air, Project Bunny made of metal had quietly appeared and raised its alloy shield to deflect the bullet that was about to hit it.

Then, it protected Bronya under its large mechanical palm.

Seeing this, Kiana frowned.

Although she had seen the existence of Project Bunny,

What she didn’t expect was that she had already closed the distance so much, and deliberately exposed a flaw to show weakness to create an attack that was almost impossible to react to.

In the end, it was still blocked.

Isn’t the reaction speed of this thing too fast?

However… it’s not impossible to deal with it.

Although she was amazed at the reaction speed of the Project Bunny, Kiana was not without a way to deal with it. She immediately prepared to attack again in a moment.

"Stop, Kiana!"

Mei standing by naturally couldn’t let Kiana continue to fight. After reacting, she immediately reached out and grabbed Kiana’s arm, calling for a stop.

"Huh?"

Kiana was a little confused because Mei grabbed her wrist and she couldn’t move forward.

"Why?"

This dwarf is our enemy. She came to our door, and you want me to stop?

"..." Mei looked at Bronya, who was already on guard, and Kiana, who was still eager to try again, and suddenly felt a headache.

This was originally a good situation for them.

How did it suddenly become a fight?

"I’ll explain it to you, and you’ll understand."

Mei couldn’t let Kiana fight anymore. If they continued, there would be no end to it.

They had to fight even though they didn’t plan to.

And Bronya was determined not to give up until she got the answer.

If they really fought, Mei felt that if they couldn’t kill Bronya here, the other party might keep chasing them.

At that time, let alone stopping Cocolia’s plan, their own situation would be worrying.

She approached Kiana and told her everything that had just happened and what she had analyzed.

Then, after hearing all this, Kiana was a little confused.

What the hell?

The hairpin belonged to the dwarf's friend?

Did the dwarf come after her to find out how she got the hairpin?

Then Mei negotiated with the other party and prepared to make a deal?

What the hell is going on?

"Anyway, that’s it. We are not enemies with Bronya, at least not now."

Because Kiana's mind was a bit stiff, Mei, who had spent a lot of words to finish the general story, was helpless. Her mouth was almost dry.

"...Tsk." Kiana was not ignorant of what people said.

After realizing that she couldn’t beat Bronya up for the time being, she glared at Bronya with a vicious look. "Lucky for you, damn dwarf!"

Then, she looked at Mei with a serious expression.

"Are you sure you really want to tell this dwarf about that place, Mei?"

The existence of the QA space could be said to be very important.

Although Kiana had always thought there was nothing good about that place, she understood that it was better not to let too many people know about things that could know the future and obtain various magical items. Otherwise, it would definitely cause a lot of trouble.

"It’s okay, Kiana. Have you forgotten? Just knowing the existence of that place is meaningless. If she is not chosen, even if I tell Bronya about the existence of that place, she can’t do anything."

Mei saw it very clearly at this time, with a smile on her face, but then she showed some worry. "But… if she is chosen, then even if we don’t tell her about that place, as long as Bronya asks the space's consciousness, she should be able to get its information, right?"

"Tsk, how could this dwarf be chosen?"

Hearing Mei’s words, Kiana glanced at Bronya with disdain. "If she can be chosen by that place, I will just… um, forget it!"

Originally, Kiana wanted to bet something, but after thinking about it carefully, she still felt that it was too dangerous to say, so she took back the words she had said halfway.

"You go back and lie down first. I'll talk to her."

Kiana’s behavior made Mei a little amused. She patted Kiana’s shoulder and then turned to Bronya, her expression becoming serious.

"I apologize for Kiana’s recklessness just now."

While expressing her apology, she didn’t forget to promote the transaction.

"I agree and am willing to make this deal, but since your question involves very important and special information, should it be okay for you to give me the information I need first?"

Let Project Bunny return to the quantum state.

Hearing Mei’s words, Bronya nodded.

She naturally had no opinion on this.

As long as she could get the desired result and achieve her goal,

Everything else was fine.

She also prepared the information for the deal with Mei.

It was the information about the third eruption plan planned by Cocolia.

Nothing could attract the attention of the third Herrscher’s body more than this information.

As for whether it would hinder Mother Cocolia’s plan?

What does it matter?

----

Chapter 17: I Have to Find a Reason to Stay!

Bronya told Mei about Cocolia’s crazy plan to release a large amount of Honkai energy to catalyze Mei, who possess the Gem of Conquest, into becoming the true third Herrscher.

Although Mother Cocolia claimed the plan was to control the power of the Herrscher and rescue Seele, after what happened to Seele, Bronya couldn't trust her at all.

"This hairpin belongs to Seele. Many years ago, Bronya saw it disappear with Seele."

While explaining the plan, Bronya also shared some details about Seele. She stared at the hairpin in her hand with her indifferent gray eyes, which betrayed no emotion.

"But now, the hairpin that should have entered the Sea of Quanta with Seele is here, in front of Bronya."

Bronya held the hairpin as she lowered her head slightly, her gray bangs covering her face.

"Although I don't know why, from the first moment I saw the hairpin, Bronya felt that its origin was crucial to how Seele could be rescued."

"So, Bronya must get the answer to this question."

"Now, Bronya has told you everything she knows about Mother Cocolia’s plan for this city. As part of the deal, you should answer Bronya’s question."

She stared at Mei and pursed her lips.

"Tell Bronya, how did you get this hairpin?"

Mei was still in shock. Although she and Kiana knew through the Q&A space that the upcoming Honkai in Nagazora City was planned by Cocolia, and that it was related to her as the third Herrscher body, she had never expected that Cocolia planned this disaster, which would affect millions of lives, just to turn her into the third Herrscher.

The emotions in her heart remained unsettled.

Mei took a deep breath, then glanced at Bronya and nodded.

Honestly, after hearing that Bronya had chased her only to ask about the hairpin’s origin, Mei’s hostility toward her had decreased.

After all, even though this girl was an accomplice of Cocolia, her main goal seemed to be rescuing a friend.

Her methods might be a bit radical and unclear, but Mei could understand this feeling.

After all, if one day her best friend faced a similar situation, Mei felt that she would not make the same choice.

Of course, she might be more rational than Bronya in terms of methods.

"About this hairpin..." Mei spoke slowly, her voice steady as she explained the situation regarding the hairpin and the space she and Kiana had encountered.

It didn’t take long.

The problem with it was that everything she said appeared too magical and didn’t align with the logic of reality. But considering the world’s extremely unreasonable Honkai energy, which could defy Newton’s laws, Bronya who was already exposed to Honkai found it easier to accept than Mei did at first.

Well... it wasn’t too hard to accept.

After all, things like Chuunibyou aren’t so out of place. This kind of magical phenomenon was quite compatible, so Mei’s acceptance was not slow.

"...As long as you answer questions, you can gain information about the future and present, and you can receive a magical reward space if you answer correctly."

After hearing everything Mei said, Bronya glanced at the hairpin in her hand.

"So, this hairpin..."

"Yes, this hairpin came from the reward box I received after Q&A a question correctly last time."

"Well... In addition to this hairpin, there was also information about Cocolia. It was through that that we learned about Cocolia."

Mei took off the glasses she had been wearing and shook her head in mild disdain. "These glasses also came from that box, but they seem useless in terms of functionality."

"The two strange-shaped guns Kiana used earlier also came from the reward box. They appear to have been given to Kiana by her parents. Uh... and the baseball bat she used to hit you..."

Listening to Mei’s mumbling, Bronya remained expressionless, but her heart was anything but calm.

If... if everything this person said is true...

Then... through that space, she might be able to find a way to save Seele!

But how can she enter that space?

Bronya felt a headache coming on.

According to Mei, entering that space was purely based on appearance.

Although Bronya was confident in herself, appearance wasn’t something that could be solved by mere confidence.

Suddenly, Bronya noticed Mei, who was still counting the results of the unboSin, and thought of something.

If she heard correctly...

According to Mei, the first person to enter that space was the white-haired idiot.

Then, when the white-haired idiot was with Mei, she also entered the second QA.

Is this a coincidence?

Bronya didn’t think so.

How could it be such a coincidence?

Rather than believing it was a coincidence, Bronya thought Mei entered it because of the influence of that white-haired idiot.

Of course, this was just a guess.

After all, there was no evidence to prove it.

However, Bronya didn’t want to let go of this faint but possibly reliable hope of saving Seele, even if it was just a guess.

So... she had to find a way to stay with these two people!

Bronya looked calm, but she had made a decision in her heart. She looked at Mei and said, "Let’s make another deal, Mei."

"Huh?" Bronya’s sudden request for a deal confused Mei.

"Bronya will stay with you for the next period of time."

Mei was shocked when she heard this. Although she could understand Bronya’s desire to save her friend, they were still enemies. It was obvious that letting an enemy stay by your side could lead to an undercover agent situation.

If she got stabbed in the back at a critical moment, Mei wouldn’t even know how she died.

Thinking this, Mei was ready to refuse immediately.

Bronya anticipated this, raised her hand to stop Mei, and offered her bargaining chip: "As a reward... Bronya can help you stop Mother Cocolia’s plan!"

"As an assistant to Mother Cocolia’s plan, if you have Bronya’s help, it will undoubtedly be more helpful to stop her, right?"

Mei considered this.

If Bronya could help them, it would indeed be a great advantage in thwarting Cocolia’s plan.

After all, Bronya not only knew the plan but was also highly capable in combat. Having her on their side would make her a powerful ally.

However, the prerequisite for all of this was:

"How can we believe that you’re not an undercover agent, but that you’re truly helping us?"

----

Chapter 18: Who is the Destined Protagonist?

"What? Let this dwarf stay with us?"

Upon hearing that Bronya was going to stay, Kiana looked at Mei in disbelief. She extended her hands, grabbed Mei's shoulders, and shook her hard.

"Are you crazy, Mei?! She's from Cocolia! She's the enemy!"

After breaking free from Kiana's grip, Mei, a little dizzy from being shaken, had expected Kiana's reaction. She took out her prepared words and began to try to persuade Kiana.

"You don't have to worry too much about this. Bronya won't become our enemy from now on because..."

Mei shared her thoughts and considerations with Kiana, feeling a little apologetic.

"I'm sorry, Kiana, I didn't discuss this with you."

"But... please trust Bronya a little, okay?"

Mei's words were sincere.

"..." Kiana was silent for a moment and sighed helplessly.

"Since it was Mei who made the decision, let's do it this way."

"No matter what, I believe in you, Mei."

The unguarded trust in her words made Mei feel touched.

"But it's agreed in advance!"

Kiana emphasized that she was very unhappy with Bronya.

"I don't trust that dwarf. I only trust you, Mei."

After being persuaded, Kiana agreed.

Bronya's plan to stay with the two of them was successful.

Next, all she had to do was wait and look forward to it.

As for the fact that she left her mother without permission and contacted the experimental body, Bronya successfully used the excuse of close monitoring to fool Cocolia.

Although Cocolia was curious about how Bronya could gain the trust of the two and successfully approach them despite appearing as an enemy...

Time passed day by day.

Cocolia of Anti-Entropy was preparing for this crazy experiment.

Kiana was recovering from her injuries, waiting for information or tools that might help stop Cocolia's plan in the next QA space.

It is worth mentioning that although they were enemies before, after approaching the two, Bronya got along relatively well with them.

Well... maybe she was only okay with Mei.

As for Kiana, she would always have a dark expression whenever she saw Bronya.

The fact that the two didn’t fight was already a success, considering Bronya deliberately refrained from counterattacking Kiana’s remarks about her being “short,” the best result achieved when Kiana called her “dwarf.”

And now...

The pendulum clock on the wall was ticking.

Mei was waiting.

Kiana and Bronya were staring at each other, sulking.

Suddenly...

They don't know when...

The sound of the pendulum disappeared.

The surrounding scenery was the same.

Only the endless white.

"Is this the QA space?"

Gray eyes swept across the extremely strange surroundings. Although she was prepared, Bronya was still a little surprised to be here for the first time... and to see such a strange place.

She raised her hand and tried to call out Project Bunny.

But the next moment, the indifference on Bronya’s face, which had remained unchanged for thousands of years, showed a slight change, and her heart grew heavy.

This place... she can’t connect with the Project Bunny at all.

[Are you looking for this?]

It seemed that the voice of the control consciousness was startled by Bronya’s call for the Project Bunny.

Along with its voice, Project Bunny, which Bronya was not unfamiliar with, appeared from the air.

Its mechanical compound eyes kept flashing, circling around Bronya, and it was a little... anxious.

Bronya probably understood why.

After all, as a gift from Seele, Project Bunny would always protect Bronya immediately.

But because of this space, the connection between the two had been directly cut off.

How could this happen?

If it weren’t for the consciousness pulling Project Bunny in and restoring its connection with Bronya, it would have been scared to death.

"Tsk, this guy can actually come in too."

Kiana standing by was a little unhappy at first when she saw Bronya, but at the same time, she was secretly glad that she hadn’t set any flags before.

Mei was not surprised by this because Bronya had actually stated her purpose when she asked to stay. However, she had been skeptical of Bronya’s guess at the time.

Now it appears that if one followed them... could they really come to this space together?

Mei frowned as she thought about this.

If that’s the case, then they must not bring anyone here casually in the future; otherwise, it might cause some trouble.

[First of all, welcome the new visitor.]

[As for the things in this space, I think you must already know about them from the first two visitors, so I won’t introduce them.]

[You, who understand the rules of this space, probably want to get straight to the point, so I won’t waste any more time.]

[Let’s go straight to the Q&A!]

As the voice of the ruler fell, a light curtain rose from the ground in front of them.

At the same time, lines of text appeared on it.

[1. Among the following options, there are three people who belong to the main destined protagonists of this world, which can also be called the 'The Big Three'. Please choose the one who is not the main destined protagonist.]

[A. Kiana Kaslana]

[B. Raiden Mei]

[C. Bronya Zaychik]

[D. Bianka Ataegina]

Seeing this question, Kiana, Mei, and Bronya all fell into deep thought.

Destined protagonist?

This word was a bit unfamiliar to them.

Mei had a little idea.

Having read many novels, she guessed that this so-called "destined protagonist" was probably similar to the protagonist in the novels she’d read.

"Which one do you think is correct?"

After looking at the options, Mei had a rough idea in her mind, so she looked at Kiana and Bronya.

For questions like this, it was difficult for them to analyze with the limited information they had.

"...I think it should be D."

After being asked, Kiana gave her answer without even a second thought.

"Bronya also thinks it is D."

Bronya thought about it for a moment before choosing the same answer.

"Tsk, you’re only going to choose the same thing as me?"

Kiana, feeling like Bronya was copying her, looked at Bronya with a somewhat mocking expression.

"Stupid, there is only one correct answer. Bronya just chose the answer she thought was correct. Even if there wasn’t an idiot like you, Bronya would still choose D."

After successfully entering the Q&A space she wanted, Bronya gave up her patience for Kiana's ridicule and started to fight back without hesitation.

"Okay, stop arguing."

Seeing that the two were about to quarrel, Mei stopped them with a headache and made her choice.

"Anyway, just choose D!"

-----

Chapter 19: Unacceptable Future

This result did not surprise the three of them.

“It’s really like this…”

Kiana crossed her arms and glanced at Bronya, feeling a little unhappy.

Looking at Kiana's awkward expression, Mei couldn't help but feel a bit amused and sighed.

“It seems that Bronya followed us in, not because of the connection…”

“Am I right?”

She looked up at the sky.

[That's right]

[Only those with a deep affinity are qualified to enter this space.]

[The third visitor, Bronya, is the one with this affinity.]

[Even if she hadn't gotten close to you, even if she hadn't come in this time, she would have eventually come to this space in the following days.]

“I roughly understand, but I still don’t understand what the ‘main destined protagonist’ means,” Mei spoke. She still had some questions in her mind.

"The protagonist is the protagonist, and the destined protagonist should mean being chosen by fate, heaven, etc., but why add ‘main’ in front?"

[Please think about this yourself.]

This time, the space ruler's consciousness did not answer Mei’s question.

“Is that so… there’s nothing we can do,” Mei said, not too disappointed.

If they expected the other party to tell them everything, it was probably unrealistic.

“Please start the next question.”

The first question revealed why the three of them entered this space one after another, which was quite useful information.

Unfortunately, this didn’t alleviate the difficulties Kiana and Mei were facing.

The same was true for Bronya. So, they could only hope that the following questions would provide the necessary information.

The control consciousness did not hesitate to release the next question.

[2. The city of Nagazora where the third major eruption occurred eventually fell as the hardest-hit area of the Honkai.]

[However, at the end of the three main destined protagonists escaping Nagazora City together, the main destined protagonist Kiana was attacked by the Honkai beast in order to protect Raiden Mei and was seriously injured.]

[Raiden Mei, the main destined protagonist, therefore became a Herrscher and fought with the Valkyrie dispatched by the Schicksal Valkyrie branch under Schicksal, which governs the Far East.]

[Among the following options, who was the main factor in defeating the third Herrscher Raiden Mei?]

[A. Kiana Kaslana]

[B. Himeko Murata]

[C. Bronya Zacyhick]

[D. Theresa Apocalypse]

A large row of fonts appeared on the screen. However, the three people who had read the question were in a gloomy mood at the moment.

“Mei became the third Herrscher?”

Kiana's face darkened at the information that Mei had become a Herrscher. Although she had mentally prepared herself when she learned that Mei was the body of the third Herrscher, it still made her uncomfortable seeing it confirmed now.

And the fallen Nagazora City...

“Does this mean we still failed to stop Cocolia in the end?” Kiana raised her head, her expression like that of a lioness whose cubs had been taken away—furious.

“What a joke! I cannot accept such a future!”

“I’m risking my life to protect this city and Mei!”

Her angry words echoed in the space.

Feeling her hand being grabbed, Kiana turned her head. It was Mei.

She lowered her head so no one could see her expression and whispered while holding Kiana's hand, “Don’t be like this, Kiana.”

Although Mei was trying to calm Kiana’s anger, Bronya, standing next to Mei could tell from the bad look on Mei’s face that Mei was not in a better mood than Kiana at the moment.

It looks like these two couldn’t keep calm.

Bronya sighed.

This was actually changing things.

Even though she didn't have a role in this question, she wasn't without emotion after seeing the information revealed in it.

However, due to the emotional damage from the accident, Bronya stayed as calm as possible in this situation.

“You two should calm down first.”

As they both looked at her, Bronya began her rescue explanation.

“Although this space is independent of the world and time, the questions come from both the future and the past.”

She paused and continued, “But the future is never predetermined, right?”

“Bronya guesses that the questions in this space are based on a certain direction in the future.”

“For us living in the present, if we can make reasonable changes, we should be able to prevent things from developing into such a bad situation as described in the question.”

After hearing Bronya's words, the two calmed down. Although Bronya’s words were just guesses, neither Mei nor Kiana could accept the future as described in the question.

“Anyway, let’s answer the question first.”

Seeing that the two’s faces had recovered, Bronya had achieved her goal, so she returned to the topic and looked at the answers in the question.

“Regarding the answers mentioned in the question, Bronya thinks Kiana can be temporarily excluded. After all, the question says that Kiana was attacked by an emperor-level Honkai beast and was seriously injured. In this state, it’s probably unrealistic to expect Kiana to stop Mei from turning into a Herrscher, right?”

She looked at Kiana.

“Hmph...”

When it came to the topic, although Kiana thought she could turn the tide even while seriously injured, she reluctantly nodded in agreement with Bronya’s reasonable speculation.

“Well... then it’s Bronya herself.”

After confirming there was no issue, Bronya glanced at her own name in the options and shook her head slightly.

“Although Bronya is very confident in her combat ability, based on the data about the Herrscher that Bronya has browsed, she feels she probably won’t be the main factor in defeating the Herrscher.”

This choice of showing weakness made Kiana straighten her chest and look confident.

“Hmph, you’re quite self-aware. If I’m excluded, the result won’t be much different with you, a dwarf!”

But the next moment, what Bronya said made Kiana go a little crazy.

“Of course, Bronya doesn’t think Kiana can be the main factor in defeating the Herrscher with her strength.”

Bronya noticed Kiana’s thoughts, so she raised her eyebrows provocatively.

This instantly angered Kiana, and she immediately prepared to launch a wave of verbal attacks with a stern face.

Fortunately, Mei stopped her in time.

Otherwise, there would be no need to continue analyzing this question—they would just prepare to quarrel.

“Go on, Bronya.”

Holding Kiana back, Mei used her eyes to signal Bronya not to care about Kiana.

“Hm…”

Bronya nodded and frowned at the remaining two answers.

“…Then there are the remaining two answers. Bronya doesn’t have any information about these two people.”

She looked at Mei.

“Sister Mei, did you get any useful information from the previous answers?”

----

Chapter 20: It Must Be Me

Since there are no clues now, let's try to find some in the questions we've already answered.

This is the simplest and most effective method.

Mei understood this naturally. After listening to Bronya, she carefully recalled the questions she and Kiana answered last time and shook her head.

"The last question didn't involve these people."

She looked at Kiana with a questioning expression.

"Kiana, did you have anything from that time?"

As the first person to enter the Q&A space, Kiana had talked about this space but never mentioned what she had answered at that time.

Of course, it’s not that she couldn’t tell.

It’s just that Mei hadn’t asked, and Kiana felt that the first question she answered wasn’t important.

"Hmm... Let me think about it."

Kiana scratched the tip of her hair and thought for a moment.

"Well, there was indeed something."

She glanced at the answer to the question.

"I remember the first question was asking who my blood relatives were, but I didn’t recognize any of them except my stinky dad."

"The answer to that question was a person named Sirin. According to the question, Cecilia and this Theresa are all my blood relatives."

"Ah... Come to think of it, the second question about Mei becoming a Herrscher also mentioned this dwarf!"

Kiana, quite unhappy, pointed at Bronya and muttered, "I chose her at that time, which was a mistake. Damn it!"

"From the intelligence of the stupid Kiana, even if the identity of the Herrscher wasn’t attributed to Bronya, it would have been attributed to some other unlucky person, right? Anyway, it’s fine!"

Bronya taunted Kiana rudely.

"Damn it! That question was a blind choice! If I didn’t choose you, there would only be Mei and me!"

Kiana retorted angrily, and without the help of intelligence, how could she have known that the real Herrscher body was actually her good friend Mei?

"Okay, Kiana, the past is over. Let's focus on finding the correct answer to this question first."

Seeing them bickering again, Mei, although used to it by now, had to steer the situation back on track.

"According to what Kiana said, the information we have about this person named Theresa is that she’s Kiana’s blood relative, but beyond that, we know nothing."

"There’s also Himeko Murata. We have no clues about her at the moment and can only rely on guessing."

"Excluding myself and Kiana, who have already been excluded by Bronya, we now have to choose between these two answers."

"Should I choose Theresa or this person named Himeko Murata? Think about it for a while."

After hearing Mei’s words, Bronya and Kiana both quieted down.

They stared at the answer screen in silence.

After a moment...

"Bronya thinks this person called Himeko Murata." Bronya made the first choice.

"I... also choose Himeko Murata."

It wasn’t just Kiana and Bronya who had to make a choice; Mei also had to decide. At this crucial moment, she too made a judgment.

"It’s your turn, Kiana."

Mei looked at Kiana, the only one who hadn’t made a choice.

Although there was no need to ask, there was no rule stating that the minority must obey the majority. However, since Bronya and Mei both chose Himeko Murata, it was clear what choice Kiana—who often followed Mei—would make.

The reason for asking was probably to respect Kiana’s opinion.

"..." Kiana appeared a little hesitant.

Facing the gazes of the two, she slowly said, "To be honest... Mei, I always feel that the answer is not between these two people."

"What’s the reason?"

This surprised Mei. She raised her eyebrows and asked.

"Reasons... I can’t think of them, but I just feel that neither of these two is right."

"Intuition?"

Looking at Kiana’s anxious expression, Mei rested her chin in thought.

Come to think of it, Kiana had said her intuition was quite accurate.

"What do you think, Bronya?"

Mei looked at Bronya, wanting to hear her opinion.

"Maybe it’s just like what the stupid Kiana thought."

Bronya didn’t insist on her choice.

"Bronya once heard that the intuition of idiots is always more sensitive than that of normal people."

"Puff..." Hearing this, Mei quickly covered her mouth to stifle her laughter, but it was still a bit too late—one hand couldn’t hide her smile.

Indeed... Kiana is definitely a fool.

"Ahhhh, stinky dwarf, who do you say is a fool?!"

Unlike Mei who laughed like a pig, Kiana, the person involved, was so angry at Bronya’s statement that her face turned red. Now she looked a little crazy.

Damn it!

Not only did she slander me, but she also misled Mei?!

I am not a fool!

"Ha... Anyway... Pfft... Answer the questions first." Mei tried to hold back her laughter.

"Kiana, just follow your intuition. Which one do you think you should choose?"

Although Bronya’s statement was a little funny, Mei actually agreed with Kiana’s intuition.

Mei naturally had no doubts. She directly chose to abandon the previous reasoning and gave Kiana the final choice.

"Hmph..." A little depressed from Mei’s smile, Kiana hummed.

What should I do if my good friend laughs at me?

Of course, I’ll forgive her.

If it’s Mei, laugh as much as you want.

Kiana will swallow this stupid title with gritted teeth.

But if it’s Bronya, that stinky dwarf, it’s absolutely not okay!

Glowering at Bronya, Kiana turned her head to look at the question.

No need to look at Theresa and Himeko.

Although Mei and Bronya had deduced the answer, Kiana didn’t think it was one of those two, just from her gut feeling. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have said anything.

The remaining answers are only myself and the damn Bronya.

Choose myself or the damn Bronya?

Hmph, why think about it?

Miss Kiana will choose with her feet, and she will never choose the damn Bronya.

"I choose A: Kiana Kaslana."

Without hesitation, Kiana made her choice.

It’s definitely me who can save the situation at the critical moment!

And... from the question, Mei became a Herrscher because of me.

Then no matter what, Kiana would never allow the Herrscher Mei to do anything bad.

What? Seriously injured by Honkai Beast?

It’s just a serious injury; it couldn’t stop Miss Kiana’s pace at all.

As long as the road continues, she will never stop!

----

Chapter 21: Witness with Your Own Eyes

The question is a single-player one, so after Kiana made her choice, the answer was revealed.

It is [correct].

"Hehe, do you think my intuition is right?"

After seeing the result, Kiana’s tail was about to rise to the sky, and she said with a smug look, "At the critical moment, I am still reliable."

She looked at Bronya with a somewhat teasing expression, and her words were mocking, with a little yin and yang: "If I had followed Bronya’s choice just now, then this question would have been wrong."

Bronya curled her lips and was not annoyed by Kiana. Instead, she looked up at her head very evenly.

"Bronya does not question the authenticity of the answer to the question in this space, but... according to what is said in the question, the stupid Kiana should be seriously injured."

"So..."

She did not say the next words.

There is no need to say them.

This is called control consciousness, similar to the existence of managers. They have considerable wisdom. As long as the questioner expresses the general intention, they can know what the questioner wants to ask.

[Understand.]

The answer of the control consciousness surprised Mei.

Based on her experience of talking with the other party last time, she thought that Bronya's request would be rejected by the control consciousness without hesitation.

In the expectant eyes of the three people, the surrounding scene suddenly changed.

It was no longer snow-white but filled with various colors.

Those colors constituted the scenery.

From the surrounding scenery, this was the top of a tall building.

"Wow."

Feeling a little surprised, Kiana tried to run to the edge of the tall building and looked down.

She saw the bottom at a glance.

But at the first glance, Kiana’s blue pupils shrank.

"Is this Nagazora City?"

Next to her, Mei came with Kiana. She looked at the scenery downstairs with some disbelief.

Looking down from the top of this building, you could see all the buildings filled with a dilapidated atmosphere.

There were dense figures wandering on the street. They were aimlessly walking with shaky steps, not knowing what they were doing.

"Zombies..."

Kiana, who had greeted these creatures more than once at close range under Siegfried’s supervision when she was young, recognized the identities of these wandering figures at a glance.

Of course, because they were ordinary citizens in their lifetime,

These Zombies were basically the lowest existences.

Kiana knew very well that only those who mixed in with the crowd and had special clothes were the most difficult existences.

They were the ones who truly deserved the name of Zombies, and they used melee weapons transformed by the Honkai energy to ruthlessly take the lives of the living.

[This is the future described in the title, and you will witness it with your own eyes. What happened in the city.]

The voice of the control consciousness reminded the three people that they had not left the Q&A space.

[Of course, as phantoms, you can only witness, but not interfere.]

…

"Don’t block my way if you are dead!"

Mei holding a shotgun followed behind Kiana who was leading the way in front. She raised the muzzle of the revolver and standard pistol she found by chance and pulled the trigger with an unhappy face.

"Bang." "Bang." "Bang." "Bang."

Accompanied by the sound of gunfire, the startled group of dead soldiers fell to the ground before they could become agitated.

["Ah, this lady is really handsome."]

Next to the two, Kiana looked at her future self, who defeated those dead soldiers with that fluent and handsome posture.

She looked at Bronya, who was following her, and said with some pride: ["Hehe... stinky Bronya, where did you go to at this time in the future?"]

Before Bronya could react, the situation suddenly changed.

The building above Kiana and Mei collapsed as if it had been hit hard.

["Hey, hey, hey, what’s going on?!"]

Kiana was startled by this suddenness, but she reacted at the same time and dragged Mei next to her to the side and rolled out.

Ah... wait, Bronya was pressed down?

No way, this dwarf couldn’t even react to this?

Seeing that Bronya didn’t roll out with her, Kiana felt extremely heavy.

But the next moment, Bronya, who was supposed to be pressed under the rubble, walked out of the debris as if she was walking through a wall.

She said expressionlessly.

["Stupid."]

["Damn, I forgot."]

Kiana finally remembered that they were fake to this world, so there was no need to worry about getting hurt.

Ahhh… because she encountered danger, she subconsciously wanted to dodge. Damn it.

Kiana held her head and was a little crazy.

But there was obviously something more important than going crazy at the moment.

That was to pay attention to the current state of her future self.

Kiana understood this, so she looked over quickly.

The two were not injured but had dodged in time.

["Huh… I can even avoid this kind of thing."]

Seeing this, Kiana was relieved but not surprised.

As a false existence, she could dodge in time even though she couldn’t sense danger.

As the future self involved, it was natural for her to be able to dodge this kind of thing.

[Then... let me see which bastard actually attacked me in the future.]

Focusing on the culprit who destroyed the building, Kiana turned her head and looked behind her. At a glance, she saw a Honkai beast as tall as a floor in the dust.

["Damn... it’s this thing."]

Kiana, who recognized it at a glance, couldn't help cursing.

Chariot-class Honkai beast.

If she remembered correctly, she had the misfortune to encounter one when she was young. At that time, her stinky father had asked her to try it first.

But the result was predictable.

If Siegfried hadn’t acted in time, she would have been smashed into a Kiana cake by this thing.

["It’s troublesome."]

After looking at it, looking at this huge monster, Kiana bit her finger with some worry and frowned.

If it was a smaller Honkai beast, it would be easy to deal with.

But Honkai beasts of this size, to be honest, even she was hard-pressed to fight now.

And her future self...

Kiana looked at her future self’s hand and pulled the corner of her mouth.

A standard pistol and a revolver.

Mei had a shotgun.

With this weapon configuration, it was pure dreaming to want to fight this thing.

The reason she thought she could fight it now was because the power of the Artemis' Guardiandess's Guardian from the reward box was relatively strong, enough to break the defense of this thing in front of her.

"It’s really endless, this pervert who keeps chasing girls!"

As expected by Kiana, her future self was also very surprised by the fact that a Chariot-class Honkai beast was following her.

But from what she said, was she being hunted by this thing?

"Target locked."

The childish voice, with a hint of milk powder and no emotional fluctuations, sounded in her ears, startling Kiana, who was thinking.

The few people who were familiar with this voice raised their heads, including Bronya herself.

As expected...

It was Bronya in the future.

She jumped down from the top floor and called out in mid-air. Project Bunny caught the gravitational potential energy and punched the Chariot-class Honkai beast on the head with a straight trend.

"Bang."

The Chariot-class Honkai beast fell to the ground and could not get up again.

Project Bunny had completed the task, so it slowly disappeared.

The future Bronya fell to the ground, holding the Homu doll in one hand, and walked to the future Kiana and Mei.

"Mission completed." She replied lightly.

"Thank you."

On the side, Mei, who had been paddling without knowing it, gave thanks and praise with a smile. "You showed up just in time, Bronya!"

The future Kiana appeared to be stimulated by this, with her hands on her waist and a look of displeasure.

"What is there to thank for?"

"Suddenly appeared and smashed around."

She pointed at Bronya unceremoniously.

"You almost implicated me!"

"You useless little thing!"

Hearing this, Bronya glanced at Kiana and said something that made Kiana's forehead appear with a "#" character.

"The system has determined that Kiana’s safety priority does not need to be concerned about her life or death."

As expected, Kiana was also angry and said with a fake smile: "Do you want to start a war?"

"Bronya’s chance of winning is confirmed to be 99.999999%."

Bronya directly counterattacked.

"Mine is 100%!"

Kiana was not to be outdone.

The two started arguing directly.

["Ah... The relationship between Bronya and Kiana in the future is not very good."]

On the side, seeing the two people arguing in the future, Mei looked at the two people who also started arguing on the other side with some helplessness and said with a wry smile: ["But there is not much difference between us in the past."]

["It’s the future me..."]

Mei focused her attention on herself, who was thinking about something instead of trying to stop the fight. She was a little surprised.

It appears that she was thinking about something.

Was the direction of her sight towards the killed Honkai beast?

["What will my future self think?"]

Curious about this, Mei tried to think in her own way.

Anyway, it’s all me, and the time difference is probably not far away.

What my future self can think of, I probably won’t be much different.

-----

Chapter 22: Are You Comfortable?

Suddenly, Bronya who had been arguing with Kiana noticed something and turned her head slightly to look at Mei. She asked with some concern, "Sister Mei, are you injured?"

Mei looked at the wound on her arm that was oozing blood and shook her head with a smile.

"It's okay, it's just a small wound..."

"Come, let me see."

Kiana walked towards Mei, stretched out her hand, interlocked her fingers with Mei's, and looked at the wound on her arm.

"Well... if it's this level of injury..."

She lowered her head, and in Mei's puzzled gaze, she approached the wound with a feeling of affection, then licked the wound with her clever pink tongue.

"Eh~"

Kiana's sudden action surprised Mei, and she subconsciously took a step back.

"Project Bunny 19C."

Bronya also reacted, immediately calling out the Project Bunny.

"Lock on the target, Kiana!"

The startled Kiana looked at Bronya.

"Mei showed obvious resistance to Kiana's behavior."

With an indifferent expression, Bronya raised her palm toward Kiana, saying, "If you don't stop here, I will immediately execute the attack order."

"Tsk..."

Although Kiana wasn't scared, she lost interest in continuing her previous action after being warned. She said with a natural, confident look, "Where's the resistance? Mei is obviously very comfortable when I lick her!"

"Huh?!"

This ambiguous statement made Mei blush.

"Is it really comfortable, Sister Mei?"

"Huh?!"

Mei's face turned even redder as Bronya stared at her seriously.

"Of course it's comfortable, right, Mei?"

"This..."

Kiana's confident and expectant gaze completely ignited Mei's shyness.

In that innocent and hopeful look, Mei's shy voice was as soft as a mosquito's hum.

"Comfortable..."

"Hey, I heard it! Mei said it was comfortable!"

Kiana, with her excellent hearing, looked very proud.

How could Mei let that go?

The extremely shy Mei blushed and loudly retorted, "How can it be comfortable?!"

Her loud voice attracted the attention of many surrounding Zombies, which took some effort to deal with.

All of this was observed by the three people watching their future selves.

["Hehe, Mei."]

Kiana teased, smiling shyly, ["Is it really comfortable?"]

Though it was her future self, the still shy and introverted Mei instantly entered the same bashful state as her future self when she heard Kiana speak about it.

["Don't ask me that kind of question!"]

With a bit of shyness, Mei became angry.

Beside her, Bronya quietly watched the interaction between the two, recalling the scene when her future self quarreled with Kiana.

It looks like her future self had a good relationship with the silly Kiana and Mei. If that was the case, she could try to get close to them in the future.

Suddenly, Bronya noticed the setting sun.

She suddenly remembered something important and looked up at the sky, asking, ["How is the time calculated?"]

This question caught the attention of Mei and Kiana, who were still playing around.

Yes, they had all forgotten about this.

[It was real time before.]

[But you can choose this.]

[Real time or a moment is fine.]

["How much time has passed in reality?"] Mei asked hurriedly.

[Three hours.]

"Huh."

Mei sighed in relief when she heard the answer.

Luckily, it's not ten days or half a month. If that were the case, they wouldn't be able to stop Cocolia's plan when they get out. They'd have to fast-forward to the part of escaping from Nagazora City.

["Please adjust the next time to a moment."]

Mei asked. In case she forgot to prevent what she thought might happen.

[No problem.]

After a clear answer, the scene continued.

The three people from the future found a safer building to rest as it was getting dark.

Mei placed her right hand on Bronya, who was sleeping on her knees, and sighed. "After running all day, I can finally take a break..."

At night, the low-level zombies on the street were no longer as troublesome as during the day. As long as they didn't deliberately bump into them or make any loud noises, they wouldn't be disturbed by these things. It was a rare moment of rest.

"Hmph, liar."

Hearing this voice, Mei looked at Kiana leaning on the sofa with her hands on her knees. She was mumbling with an awkward look on her face, "It should be very comfortable!"

Mei smiled bitterly, she was still thinking about what had happened during the day.

Kiana glanced at Bronya sleeping quietly on Mei's legs.

The position she'd dreamed of had actually been taken by this little thing. Damn it!

She puffed her cheeks in a rather unkind manner and muttered, "She actually slept on Mei's legs. I really shouldn't have picked her up!"

["Pick her up?"]

Next to her, Bronya noticed the key word from Future Kiana's words.

However, she turned her head, glanced at Kiana and Mei, and shook her head slightly.

Indeed, she should have approached the two after the plan was implemented. But because these two had come to her door unexpectedly, she had to contact them in advance. Later, because of Seele's hairpin, they all ended up in this space together.

["Tsk."]

Not only was the future Kiana unhappy to see the sleeping Bronya, but the past Kiana wouldn't be in a good mood either.

She stared at Bronya with her burning gaze seeming to shoot through Bronya, who was lying on Mei's legs.

Suddenly, Kiana thought of something and showed a sinister smile.

In Mei's puzzled expression, Kiana walked toward her future self.

What is this... for? We shouldn't be able to touch each other.

But the next moment, she was doing exactly that.

With a little helplessness, Mei looked at Kiana's behavior of stepping on and spitting on the sleeping Bronya, but unable to touch her at all. She couldn't help but feel a little speechless.

Isn't this too childish?

Also, if you want to spit on Bronya, forget it... don't spit on me too.

Although she knew that Kiana couldn't touch her, Mei still felt suffocated when she saw Kiana's actions affecting her future self.

All those affected felt the same.

As the person involved, Bronya's mood at that moment was naturally understandable.

Although her face remained blank, in her heart, Bronya had crossed Kiana's name off countless times.

In order to prevent Kiana from continuing to insult her future self and disgust her, Bronya directly summoned Project Bunny and ordered it to rush over, grab Kiana, and hang her in the air.

Seeing this, Mei secretly covered her mouth and chuckled.

She didn't mean to dissuade Bronya.

Now, it's better for Kiana to be stable.

Thinking this, Mei continued to watch the development of events.

However, the next scene that unfolded would stay with Mei forever.

You are so lustful.jpg

----

Chapter 23: Uncontrollable Sadness

"Don't say that. If it weren't for Bronya, we wouldn't have been so victorious along the way."

Mei said this, nodding her head as she looked at the sleeping Bronya. Her heart was moved.

She stretched out her index finger and gently touched Bronya's delicate face, like a porcelain doll.

"Yes, yes, Bronya is really amazing."

Watching the intimate behavior between the two made Kiana feel jealous. She responded unhappily:

"Anyway, Mei must like her the most."

Mei smiled and whispered, "Yes, I like her the most."

"Well..."

Kiana hadn't expected Mei to affirm her words, so puffed her cheeks in anger, her frustration growing.

But before her emotions could escalate, Mei's gentle words reached her ears.

"I like Kiana the most, too!"

Touched by this, the previous anger and jealousy gradually dissipated, and Kiana was delighted.

She leaned forward and asked happily, "Really?"

"Of course, Kiana is my savior!"

Mei smiled and unashamed.

On the side, witnessing this heartwarming scene, Kiana who had escaped from the clutches of Project Bunny smiled foolishly.

["Great, Mei likes me!"]

["That's my future self!"]

Seeing herself express affection for someone, Kiana roughly understood what her future self was thinking, but had to helplessly reflect on her own ambiguous feelings.

["Well... Mei, do you not like me?"]

Hearing this, Mei, her face a little flushed under Kiana's fiery gaze, replied somewhat self-deprecatingly, ["...Okay, okay, I like you."]

At the same time, she glanced at her future self.

Though she was a little different in the past, one thing remained unchanged...

If it was the feeling of liking Kiana, it had probably never wavered.

If anything had changed, it was probably that this feeling, which words could not express, had only deepened over time.

"It's incredible..."

Looking out the window at the wandering dead on the streets, the tiny stars, and the dark night...

"We've only known each other for a short time..."

"It feels like we've known each other forever."

Feeling this dreamlike experience, Mei whispered softly.

"It would be great if I could leave here safely..."

She wasn't sure if it was just an illusion, but she always felt that the city was becoming more and more dangerous.

She was also confused and anxious about whether she could escape from this city.

Suddenly, her shoulders felt heavy.

"I can do it!"

In Mei's sight, Kiana spoke with full seriousness.

"I will always protect Mei, so it will definitely work!"

"Kiana..."

As if witnessing a dazzling light, Mei was stunned.

But before she could say anything—

"Kacha."

A dull sound rang through the air.

["Something's outside."]

Bronya reminded them expressionlessly.

"Boom!"

Accompanied by a loud crash, the wall collapsed under the attack of a huge entity.

The scattered rubble passed through the three illusory figures, rushing toward Kiana and the others in the future.

Fortunately, their movements were quick, and they avoided any damage.

Looking up, they finally saw the figure of the enemy who had attacked.

It was a high-level Honkai beast, as big as a building, wielding a pale, cold-bladed spear.

Seeing the enormous size of the Honkai beast, although it wasn't surprising to hear from her father that Honkai beasts could be massive, Kiana couldn't help but widen her eyes.

["What is this?!"]

"...It's a Templar-class Honkai Beast," Bronya answered expressionlessly.

After that incident, her relationship with Mother Cocolia had reached a freezing point. However, to rescue Seele, she suppressed her anger and gathered the necessary intelligence from Cocolia.

Because of this, she had developed some ability to identify Honkai beasts.

Templar-class Honkai Beasts were huge monsters. They generally only appeared during rare, large-scale Honkai outbreaks, and once they appeared, they would quickly be eliminated by surrounding anti-Honkai organizations.

Considering that this was Nagazora City, where the Third Eruption was occurring, it was normal for such troublesome Honkai Beasts to appear.

["Stupid Kiana and Mei can't deal with this kind of thing..."]

Bronya glanced coldly at the Templar-class Honkai Beast. The exaggerated Honkai Beast data appeared in her mind. Bronya sighed inwardly.

What bad luck.

Being entangled with such a troublesome creature.

But fortunately...

Bronya looked at her future self, who had woken from hibernation just in time to avoid the Templar-class Honkai Beast's surprise attack. She felt somewhat relieved.

If it were her, she should be able to deal with this thing with Project Bunny.

With some confidence, she watched as her future self summoned Project Bunny and deployed the lance module to strike the Templar-class Honkai Beast hard.

Very good. Very handsome.

It should be evenly matched.

Then, fast forward to the will competition, and then her future self fell behind. A burst of momentum overturned the Templar-class Honkai Beast.

Ah, what kind of hot-blooded migrant worker like in the manga.

Bronya shook her head, eliminating some of the "Homu Brave Never Loses" plotlines from her mind.

Next...

Very good, clean, and neat.

Someone competed with the Honkai Beast in strength and was beaten away, but I won’t mention who.

Looking at her future self, who had been smashed through countless walls and would probably have to temporarily withdraw from the battlefield, Bronya covered her face with her hands and couldn't bear to watch.

Damn, her future self was defeated!

"Bronya."

The future Mei, sweating coldly, was a little worried.

But what she didn’t notice was that after knocking over Bronya and her beloved baby carriage, the Templar-class Honkai Beast had set its sights on Mei.

Hearing the sound of breaking air, Mei turned her head and saw the sharp blade, enough to split her in two, approaching. Her pupils shrank slightly from nervousness and the fear of death.

But at the same time, Mei felt a strange calm.

Ah... am I going to die?

It seems there is no way to escape this city.

However, if it were Kiana...

If I hadn't been a burden, I might have been able to escape this city in the end.

And...

I don't know what Bronya’s situation is, I don’t know how she is...

"I always think about what Bronya said..."

An unexpected figure appeared and pressed against Mei while speaking with a hint of helplessness.

At a short distance, Kiana gently stroked Mei’s shoulder, smiling at Mei’s stunned expression.

"I’ll be jealous."

Slsh!

The words fell, and with the sound of "tearing," bright blood blossomed under the blade of the Templar-class Honkai Beast.

Kiana and Mei collapsed after blocking the attack with their bodies, hitting the ground.

Bright red blood scattered across the floor, the strong smell of blood filling the air. They fell heavily to the ground.

Mei's back should have been burning with pain, but she ignored it at that moment.

She just stared absentmindedly at the bloodstained Kiana in her arms.

With trembling hands, she stroked the hideous wound, blood constantly oozing from it.

Tick-tick...

Tears dripped onto Kiana’s shoulders, soaking her clothes.

My heart hurts...

What is this uncontrollable sadness...

---

Chapter 24: Miss Bronya is Unhappy

Seeing the future Kiana fall into her future self’s arms, Mei collapsed to the ground.

Touching her chest, the indescribable pain continued to spread through her nerves.

This pain, this sadness, was all felt by her future self.

In the field, Mei hugged Kiana with sadness and anger.

A massive surge of Honkai energy erupted, and the Honkai energy shield with arcs stopped the lance from advancing further.

Outside the field, Mei, like her future self, also had lightning flashing across her body.

Snap.

Mei’s hand was grabbed.

She raised her head and looked.

It was Kiana.

[“Don’t be like this, Mei."]

Kiana shook her head slightly, her expression complicated. [“I... don’t want to see you like this.”]

At that moment, the arcs gradually dissipated, and the oppressive feeling slowly faded away.

Kiana felt a weight in her arms.

It was Mei.

If this were in the past, she would feel overjoyed, but after what she saw earlier, she knew she should let Mei go.

Now, she couldn’t feel happy at all.

[“I’m sorry, Kiana...”]

Hugging Kiana tightly, Mei apologized through small sobs.

[“But... seeing that scene... my heart hurts so much.”]

She choked, tears welling up in her eyes as she whispered, ["It hurts so much that I can’t control myself...”]

Although Mei had learned about this from a previous title, and though she had sensed something was off, she had prepared herself and didn’t expect any major problems...

But she had forgotten that what she read before was just a line of text: [Kiana is seriously injured].

This was completely different from seeing Kiana fall to protect her.

The moment she saw it, Mei felt like her entire world had collapsed.

Her brain that was once sharp, now felt stunned.

All her previous resolve to stay calm vanished. She forgot everything.

["...I understand."]

Feeling the warmth in her arms, Kiana didn’t try to comfort Mei, but instead held her quietly.

She wasn’t good at comforting others. If she tried to comfort Mei in this situation, her clumsy words might have made things worse. Instead, she knew this silence was enough.

Thinking this, Kiana looked at her own form, cradled in the arms of future Mei.

To be honest, it felt a bit cruel to see Mei like this.

But Kiana wasn’t surprised by the actions of her future self.

After all, even she would have acted the same way if faced with such a situation.

But...

The condition of Mei wasn’t looking too good.

Kiana looked at Mei's future self, her expression now completely different—full of coldness and murderous intent. Mei, surrounded by lightning, seemed overwhelming.

Was this... the Herrscherization?

Though it was just an illusion, Kiana could sense the suffocating pressure by simply observing the scene.

Ah... so powerful.

The Templar-class Honkai Beast that had severely injured her future self was now engulfed in roaring thunder as Mei waved her hand.

The arcs wrapped around its body, and the massive creature made of Honkai energy crumbled under the power of the Third Herrscher.

"Disappear, scum!"

Watching the Honkai Beast scream in agony, Mei spoke with deadly intent.

As her words fell, the thick thunder split the sky and earth, completely annihilating the Templar-class Honkai Beast.

All the surrounding Honkai Beasts that had moved in due to the disturbance were affected by the thunder and turned to ashes.

After this, Mei hovered in the air, surrounded by electric arcs, her gaze fixed on Kiana in her arms.

“It’s so ugly to get hurt just to protect that coward.”

"Kiana."

Looking at Kiana gritting her teeth in pain while unconscious, Herrscher Mei’s calmness turned to dissatisfaction.

“Wake up quickly. I won’t allow you to die so easily.” She spoke slowly.

“I’m the only one who can take your life.”

["..."]

Hearing this, Kiana pulled the corner of her mouth. This was truly terrifying.

Suddenly, the sky was covered by a shadow.

Kiana looked up at the sky, startled.

["What is this?"]

Seeing the sci-fi ship overhead, she almost thought she was watching a science fiction movie.

["Look at the logo, it’s the sky battleship of Schicksal."] Next to her, Bronya glanced back and spoke expressionlessly.

["Ah... I don't understand."]

Though her father had told her some things about Schicksal, Kiana still didn’t know much about this aspect.

["By the way, what about the future you who got hit?"]

Suddenly remembering that the future Bronya had been overturned by a vehicle, Kiana felt a bit of happiness and curiosity.

That could’ve hit several buildings, right?

Even if she was attacked like this, she would likely be seriously injured.

[“Not a big deal.”]

Bronya sighed.

[“Bronya asked Project Bunny to check. The future Bronya was protected by Project Bunny and was basically unharmed.”]

To be honest, it was a good thing that her future self hadn’t been hurt, but now, Miss Bronya felt a little hurt.

Because she was somewhat aggrieved.

Kiana though couldn’t help but feel a bit of gloating.

No way. You, little one, didn’t I enjoy tossing you around before?

Look at how long the future is. Why are you so late?

...

It’s really useful.

If you get hit by a lightning column from Mei, you’d probably disappear even if you were protected.

Fortunately, Himeko had been a Valkyrie for many years, with rich combat experience.

As a Herrscher, Mei basically didn’t know any other skills except for discharging energy.

Either a big electric ball or a lightning column.

Well... though it’s a bit monotonous.

But as the old saying goes,

A good plaster is one that draws out the pus.

The things Mei plays with are much more useful than the iron egg that explodes in half and just makes noise.

At least Himeko was beaten to the point of wanting to curse.

"I have to praise you for holding on until now, but you're just a little stronger than the other bastards."

Seeing that Himeko’s strength exhausted, Mei sneered.

"I'm getting a little fed up."

"Disappear!"

With this command, Mei, now fully transformed into a Herrscher, prepared to end this boring farce.

But...

---

Chapter 25: Seele's Notebook

"... Stop it."

A faint strained voice sounded in her ears, causing Mei to stop moving.

She glanced at Kiana with a smile on her face.

"Hmph, you're not dead yet?"

"Well, I'll cure you after I get rid of these annoying bastards."

"Your death must be approved by me!"

Mei spoke with domineering and unquestionable words, and her expression clearly indicated that she had already claimed Kiana as her own.

["Very handsome."]

Kiana standing on the ground, listened and admired, with a hint of regret in her eyes.

["But... if it wasn't in this state, I might feel happier."]

["... Sorry."]

Hearing these words, Mei looked at the evil expression of her other self and felt a little guilty.

Her future self had become like this.

This also meant she had lost to the Herrscher.

It was really... lame.

["It's okay, it's not Mei's fault, right?"]

["It's probably more my fault that it turned out like this?"]

Kiana comforted Mei.

["It's come to this now, so I should end this matter."]

Looking at the sky, she saw the scene at the end of the title.

She saw herself—seriously injured—tearing Mei's wings as a Herrscher with her bare hands.

She saw herself and Mei falling to the ground, sleeping deeply.

She watched everything unfold before her eyes.

Kiana fell silent.

Mei escaped the haze due to the actions of future Kiana.

Bronya... Miss Bronya was still unhappy about her failure.

However, while sulking, she was secretly watching everything with her peripheral vision.

The scene shifted. All the scenery disappeared.

The world returned to its pale emptiness.

The three of them stood in front of the screen, unable to calm down for a long time due to what they had just witnessed.

After a long pause, Mei said softly, "Please start the next question."

As her voice fell, the screen changed.

[3. Which of the following options is the nickname of Bronya Zacyhik?]

[A. Siberian Big Tailed Wolf]

[B. Yae Village Car God]

[C. Orphanage Harem King]

[D. Ural Silver Wolf]

It was a simple question. It was clear at a glance. But...

Mei and Kiana looked at each other, then turned their attention to Bronya.

This was obviously a question for Bronya, so it was most appropriate for her to answer it.

Bronya wouldn’t refuse.

She glanced at the question with her gray eyes, showing no emotion.

She skipped through the options one by one.

A is wrong. Bronya doesn't recall ever getting such a weird title.

B. Yae Village Car God?

Another strange answer. Bronya doesn't remember visiting Yae Village. God of Cars? She did think that after rescuing Seele, she’d drive her beloved baby motorcycle with Seele to fulfill her promise of seeing the sea.

But "Car God" is a gross exaggeration.

Answer C...

Orphanage Harem King?

When she saw this, Bronya’s face remained expressionless, but inside, she thought, "DAMN."

According to her understanding, a harem should refer to men. Does "Orphanage Harem King" literally mean that all the orphans are her harem?

Bronya pulled the corner of her mouth. She resisted the urge to kill someone and quickly eliminating the answer in her heart.

Answer D...

When she saw this answer, Bronya’s face remained normal, but a trace of memory appeared in her eyes.

This title was earned when she was a young mercenary.

So many years had passed, and if it weren’t for this question, Bronya would have almost forgotten that she had this name.

"It seems that Bronya already has the answer in her heart."

Looking at Bronya's clear eyes, which had never been confused, Mei smiled slightly.

"Yeah."

Bronya nodded and said, "Bronya chooses, D. Ural Silver Wolf."

When the words fell, she didn’t even look at the result.

This question was basically a free point, so she didn't feel much joy in being correct. On the contrary, she felt a bit disappointed.

Although the question was simple, it had nothing to do with what Bronya expected in terms of how to save Seele.

And with that, the round of question-Q&A was over.

Disappointed, Bronya could only pin her hopes on her the Homu Reward Box, secretly praying that it would contain the items she needed to save Seele.

However...

Bronya stared at the Homu Box on the ground with her eyes somewhat blank.

To be precise, she stared at the Homu logo on the box.

According to Kiana and Mei, the box would disappear after it was opened.

This made Bronya somewhat reluctant to open it.

But...

For Seele, Bronya would accept giving up her beloved Homu, even if it meant parting with it.

So, with a heavy heart and nervous anticipation, she opened the Homu Reward Box.

For a moment, golden light shone everywhere.

The Homu Box slowly disappeared, leaving only a dark blue book with deep depth in Bronya's hand.

"Is this... a notebook?"

Looking at the words on the cover of the book in her hand, Bronya was a little disappointed.

This didn’t look like an item that could achieve what she expected.

"Try looking at the information. The items in the reward box are usually not ordinary."

Mei noticed Bronya’s disappointment and immediately reminded her.

Even the useless glasses she opened had the function of being indestructible and automatically adjusting the degree.

The hairpin was similar.

So, this notebook was probably not an ordinary item, right?

At least it must have something special.

But whether it was useful or not was another matter.

"Yeah." Bronya nodded, rekindling her hope. She followed Mei's method and opened the notebook's information sheet.

[Seele's Notebook]

[A very ordinary notebook. It looks very thin but can record surprisingly much.]

[It is said that if you call Seele’s name incorrectly, 'Seele' will write your name down in this notebook with resentment.]

[The notebook records the thoughts and feelings of her every day spent alone in the Sea of Quanta.]

[Function: This item has a large recording capacity.]

[Note: Can be used as an anchor to lock Seele's location.]

"Uh... it seems to be just a useless notebook." Mei scratched her cheek, a little speechless.

Forget it, the encouragement just now was in vain.

This notebook is really like her glasses—just a waste.

"No..."

Bronya who had read the information didn’t think so. She shook her head at Mei's judgment.

She nodded and looked at the notebook in her hand, the corners of her mouth stiffly curving into a smile.

"Bronya is very satisfied with being able to get this."

----

Chapter 26: Mei Cried

Bronya shifted her attention away from the notebook and tucked it under her arm, planning to read through its contents slowly later when she had the time.

She turned her gaze to the two people next to her and asked curiously, "Sister Mei, Idiot Kiana, what did you get?"

"Huh? I'm not an Idiot!" Kiana frowned at the remark.

Mei smiled at Kiana, shook her head slightly, and pointed to the Homu box beside her. "We haven't opened it yet."

Neither of them noticed the subtle change in Bronya's address and attitude.

"It's our turn, Kiana."

Up until now, they'd been focused on Bronya, so they hadn't noticed the reward box. Now that Bronya had opened hers, it was their turn.

As soon as they started talking about opening boxes, Kiana’s previously disgruntled expression turned into one of excitement.

"It’s my turn to show my power!"

She reached for her reward box, her face full of confidence.

"Watch me, I'm going to draw a magic box!"

With those words, the Homu box was opened, spilling out a burst of golden light.

Then, a thin card appeared in Kiana's hand.

"Huh? What is this?"

She turned the card over and looked at it carefully, feeling confused by its contents.

No way. Did I really pull a card that looks completely useless?

"Forget it," she muttered. "I’ll check the information. That should clear things up."

Puzzled by the seemingly meaningless card, Kiana decided to check the item’s details.

[Powerful Resurrection Card (1/5)]

[It looks like a beautiful card, but it contains powerful magic.]

[This card can revive parts of the deceased.]

[Don’t worry if you can’t collect all the cards; this powerful card can still be used even if it's incomplete.]

[Suggestion: Although it can be used even if incomplete, be cautious when using it prematurely.]

[Also: Please don’t use this series of cards to revive different people.]

After reading the card, the three of them looked at each other. They were unsure of what to say at first.

Resurrection...

A word that defies science.

Just by looking at the description, this card can actually revive the dead?

This ability was beyond their expectations. Even the usually unvery sensitive Kiana, understood how incredible this was.

"Kiana, your luck is really something..."

Mei’s expression grew complicated.

The first time, the Sub-space lance bat looked ordinary but was actually a very useful weapon.

The second time, the Artemis' Guardian—Mei, who had seen Kiana test its maximum power—knew it was a pair of extremely powerful weapons.

And now, Kiana had drawn a magical card that could resurrect the dead.

Meanwhile, Mei herself had only received a hair accessory and a pair of useless glasses the first time she opened a box.

The first two had been useful after all—one revealed the nature of their enemies, and the other attracted Bronya to them.

Well... except for the last useless pair of glasses.

But after some reflection, Mei consoled herself: Three items weren’t bad luck.

However, as the saying goes, “You’ll die if you compare people, and goods will disappoint if compared.”

Everything suffers by comparison.

When Mei compared her supposed "good luck" to Kiana’s, it felt like the difference between a beggar and an emperor.

"Tsk, what’s the point of having something like this?" Mei muttered.

Though she realized how outrageous the card was, Kiana didn’t care about it too much after thinking it over.

After all, there was no one for her to revive.

What she really wanted were more fun things, something delicious, or perhaps a powerful weapon.

Of course, this didn’t mean she wasn’t satisfied with the protection the Artemis' Guardiandess’s Guardian gave her.

On the contrary, Kiana valued it a lot—it was very important, even in a basic sense.

However, after seeing her future self unable to resist the Templar-class Honkai Beast, she yearned for a weapon that could stand up to such threats.

Well... maybe something like her father’s Judgement of Shamash would be enough.

Thinking back to the strongest weapon she had ever seen, Kiana recalled her father often using the Shamash to bake pizza.

"Alright, enough about this," Kiana said, shaking her thoughts away. She smiled.

"Let’s see what Mei opens!" She patted Mei’s shoulder, offering encouragement. "Come on, Mei, I believe you'll definitely get something good!"

"...Yeah."

Mei nodded absently and reached out to open the Homu box.

Sure enough, golden light spilled out once more.

Mei and Kiana were used to this by now.

Before, they thought golden light meant getting something like an SSR in a Shenzhou gacha game.

But now, after seeing it so many times, they suspected the golden light was just standard—likely to mislead people.

It probably had nothing to do with the actual rewards.

The Homu box slowly faded away, revealing the rewards inside.

But...

Looking at the rewards in her hands, Mei’s expression fell into disbelief.

The reason was simple.

Because...

Isn’t this... a Salted Tuna?

She stared at the large salted tuna in her hands with a look of despair, and she could even vaguely smell the seafood.

"Ah, this..."

Kiana and Bronya both spoke in unison, their expressions mirroring each other’s confusion.

How did a Salted Tuna come out?

"Don’t cry, Mei."

"Let’s check its properties first. Maybe this Salted Tuna is no ordinary Salted Tuna?!"

Seeing the anger rising in Mei’s eyes, Kiana hurried to comfort her.

Then...

The properties of the Salted Tuna appeared before the three of them.

[Salted Tuna]

[A dried and pickled deep-sea tuna, with its white eyes as if it was dying with its eyes open.]

[Although it looks like an ingredient, it can actually be used as a weapon. The edge of this fish is extremely sharp. Of course, using it requires certain skills, and you must be able to tolerate the taste of seafood.]

[Of course, if you want to use it as food, that’s not impossible, because the person who pickled this salted tuna is very skilled, making it just salty enough.]

[Special Effect: When used as a weapon, it attracts the surprised eyes of those around you. When the target sees the white eyes of the salted tuna, their spirit will be shocked.]

[Salted Tuna Stab (lives under the crotch): Summons a Salted Tuna from the ground out of thin air to attack by surprise. It has the special effect of doubling the attack power for men.]

[You may not believe it, but it was the Salted Tuna that did it!]

After reading the description, Mei looked like she had no will to live.

Ah, what a powerful weapon.

The extra attributes alone were almost on par with Kiana's Artemis' Guardian.

But...

This is still a Salted Tuna, no matter how you spin it!

----

Chapter 27: As Long as Nothing Unexpected Happens

Mei looked at the Salted Tuna in her hand with tears in her eyes.

From the properties alone, this was really a very good weapon.

But the problem was that this thing couldn't be used.

You could say she was okay with fighting with a small sword, but what kind of trouble was she going to cause with a Salted Tuna?

If she really used this thing to fight, I'm afraid that before she could kill the opponent, they’d be laughing to death from this weird weapon.

What's worse is that this Salted Tuna sword was actually a Salted Tuna. So, if you got a little closer, you could smell the fishy odor of seafood.

As a girl who loved cleanliness, Mei refused to use something that would obviously make her smell bad, both physically and psychologically.

"Let's find a time to stew this Salted Tuna."

With a little resistance in her heart, Mei pulled the corner of her mouth.

Compared to using this kind of thing in Battle, it was definitely more appropriate to use it as food.

"Hmm..."

Kiana hesitated to speak when she heard Mei's decision.

To be honest, as a foodie, she should be happy to hear Mei say she wanted to use this thing as food.

But just looking at the properties of this Salted Tuna, even she thought it would be a bit too wasteful to just use it as food.

However, if it was Mei's decision, then she had nothing to dissuade her from.

"Sister Mei, Bronya thinks it is not necessary."

Bronya standing next to her expressed her opinion.

After attracting the attention of Mei and Kiana, she spoke in an orderly manner.

"Although Bronya also thinks that this... Salted Tuna sword is not suitable for fighting,"

"Just looking at the information, Bronya recommends that Sister Mei carry the Salted Tuna sword with her instead of using it as food."

"There are two benefits to this."

"First, you can use the Salted Tuna sword to ease the crisis when needed. After all, this Salted Tuna sword comes with a skill, which may be helpful at a critical moment."

"If it is not weaker than the skill used by Kiana's gun to block Bronya before, it is necessary to keep it."

"And judging by the appearance, it's easy for the enemy to underestimate the use of this Salted Tuna sword, which will create opportunities for us."

"Second, when it is really necessary, you can use this Salted Tuna sword as emergency food in the future."

Listening to this, Mei’s frown eased a little, but she still had some resistance.

Bronya naturally understood the reason for this.

"Sister Mei probably doesn’t like the seafood smell that comes with this Salted Tuna sword? Then why not find something to isolate it, so it won’t be contaminated by the smell of seafood?"

Just like that...

The only problem that bothered Mei was solved after Bronya gave a solution.

"In that case, what else can I say?"

Mei said, implying that she would no longer think of using the Salted Tuna to make soup.

Apart from the effect and smell issues, the only thing left was that carrying the Salted Tuna sword might affect her actions to a certain extent.

But just looking at the information of the Salted Tuna sword, this negative effect was within Mei's acceptable range.

"Then, let’s discuss the plan to stop Cocolia."

At present, the most important thing was this, so Mei pointed it out.

"...If you want me to say it, just rush to the door! Simple and clear, not troublesome!"

Kiana fiddled with the Artemis'Guardian in her hand, looking confident.

This time, she was going to bring two guns.

And her injuries had healed, so she wouldn’t be afraid even if she ran into another Bronya.

Besides, Bronya was on their side now.

"Stupid Kiana, if you still want to fight like before, even if Bronya didn’t stop you, you’d be smashed to pieces by Mother Cocolia’s Titan army."

Seeing the source of Kiana’s confidence, Bronya poured a basin of cold water on her mercilessly, and added: "Like the chariot-class Honkai beast in the illusion we just saw in the Q&A space."

"For this kind of thing, one Titan is enough to solve it."

"Even the Templar-class Honkai Beast behind can’t defeat more than one Titan."

"Although Bronya didn’t count them at the base, there are at least dozens of Titans on standby at Mother Cocolia’s place."

Listening to Bronya’s story, Kiana’s face turned grim.

Although she didn’t like Bronya very much, Bronya had basically never bluffed her since she said that.

If this was the case, it was a good thing that she and Mei met Bronya last time.

If they really met the Titans Bronya mentioned, they probably wouldn’t even be able to escape.

"So, a strong attack won’t work?"

Mei recalled the information about the Titans in the last reward.

"Come to think of it, the information I got from the Q&A last time also mentioned the Titans that defeated the Herrscher, but I didn’t expect them to be so powerful."

She didn’t know how powerful the Herrscher was, but she had seen it from her future self just now.

It could only be said that it was really cruel—one person could take down an air battleship.

And these Titans could actually defeat the Herrscher.

"Defeat the Herrscher?"

Hearing this, Bronya was stunned, then shook her head.

"Bronya doesn’t know much about this."

She had tried to operate the Titans, but didn’t know much about the others.

"Then what can we do to stop Cocolia?" Mei had a bit of distress on her face.

This Titan unit was so powerful, the three of them would definitely not be able to break through it.

But if they didn’t break through the Titan unit’s defense line, it would be like dreaming to stop Cocolia’s plan.

"If it’s just one Titan, Bronya can deal with it with the Project Bunny, but it won’t work with multiple Titans."

Bronya had a blank expression.

"So forcing our way through definitely won’t work. We can only outsmart it."

This statement attracted Mei’s attention.

She was a little curious.

"How do we outsmart it?"

"...Bronya will go back to Mother Cocolia to be an insider, looking for opportunities to destroy the Titan unit from the inside, and at the same time delay Sin."

"Sin?"

Hearing this strange name, Mei was a little confused.

"Sin is Bronya’s companion in the orphanage. She came here with Mother Cocolia." Bronya explained.

"Although from the perspective of strength, Sin is not stronger than Bronya, but because Sin’s ability is very troublesome, Bronya may not be able to defeat Sin in a short time."

"Bronya will send you a signal later."

"Mother Cocolia is left to you. The idiot Kiana and Mei should be able to deal with Mother Cocolia."

After entering the Q&A space, Bronya had already thought of this plan to stop Mother Cocolia.

And now, it was just time to execute it.

As long as there is no accident, Mother Cocolia could definitely be defeated.

Well... as long as there is no accident.

--------

Chapter 28: Bronya in Action

Underground of the ME Society Experimental Building, Anti-Entropy Laboratory

"The experimental body has always been wary of Bronya." Bronya looked at Cocolia expressionlessly, remaining very calm.

"Judging that the purpose of the action cannot be achieved, Bronya chose to terminate this action."

"Really..."

Cocolia didn't show any emotion in response.

She didn't have any hope for Bronya's sudden decision, and she didn't even agree with it. It was only because Bronya had been firm in her stance that Cocolia, not wanting to disrupt the relationship that had finally shown signs of easing, agreed to Bronya's request to get close to and monitor the experimental body.

"Bronya, go down and take a rest."

As she said this, Cocolia turned her attention back to the equipment being debugged.

It wouldn't be long before this long-planned scheme could begin.

As long as the plan succeeded, she had the possibility of rescuing Seele, who had fallen into the Sea of Quanta.

Of course... more importantly, she could further enhance her influence within Anti-Entropy.

The power of the Herrscher.

The same power as the Lord Alliance Leader.

Hehe, once she controls this power, she can even compete with the Lord Alliance Leader.

Thinking of this, Cocolia's lips curled into a smile.

As for whether someone would try to stop her plan, Cocolia didn’t even consider it.

Because the most troublesome Ryoma had already been tricked into prison.

Those two idiots from the conservative faction… humph, not to mention that they didn’t know her plan; even if they did, they couldn't do anything to her with the leader gone.

The only threat was probably the man at Schicksal Headquarters.

But as everything had been going so smoothly so far, Cocolia could roughly guess that the Archbishop must have some hidden plans regarding this.

....

Bronya stepped out of Cocolia's presence and walked toward the hangar with ease.

Although Titans can enter quantization, they are usually parked in the hangar for inspection by technicians when there is no battle.

To eliminate these dangerous Titans, now was the most opportune moment.

She walked to the steel door and glanced at the iris recognition device next to it with her gray eyes.

[Recognition successful]

Click

The mechanized door slowly opened.

The scene inside the door unfolded before Bronya's eyes.

In the spacious underground hangar, rows of dark purple-painted, extremely majestic Titans stood quietly in their designated areas without moving.

Noticing something, Bronya glanced to the side.

In addition to the dozens of Titans, there were hundreds of spherical, six-legged, dark purple small robots in the hangar.

Unlike the expensive Titans, the manufacturing cost of these small machines was much lower, but that didn't mean they should be underestimated.

They were called Poison Spider Mechas.

Although small and far less intimidating than the massive Titans, these little machines were filled with high-energy explosives and current interference modules.

When they get close to the enemy, they will entangle the enemy without hesitation and then explode in a dangerous red light.

The power they release is enough to instantly blow up a Chariot-class Honkai beast.

With such incredible power, these Poison Spider Mechas were undoubtedly a serious threat.

Bronya glanced at the Poison Spider Mechas, the light in her calm gray eyes shifting as if she had thought of something.

...I have to clean them up anyway.

Why not use these Poison Spider Mechas to destroy them? These Titans are ready.

She thought this and immediately set the plan into motion.

Walking to the control console next to her, Bronya tapped the control keys.

She didn’t have control over these mechas.

This kind of action required authorization from Cocolia.

But what she was about to do was clearly unauthorized, so Bronya was prepared to be rough and directly hack into the system to seize control of these mechas.

As for why she could take control but still had to destroy them, the reason was simple.

When the Titans were first designed, someone had considered the possibility that the enemy might take control of them. So, they designed a corresponding response—burying a secret backdoor in the Titan's underlying system.

When the enemy controls a Titan, they can use this backdoor to regain control. The existence of this backdoor was highly secretive.

Only very experienced technicians knew about it, so ordinary people were unaware.

However, Bronya's position was strong enough. With Cocolia, an executor, as her adoptive mother, and Cocolia's trust in her, Bronya had accidentally learned about this backdoor from Cocolia.

Of course, she only knew it existed and had no idea how to operate it.

Therefore, to deal with these Titans, the only method left was destruction. The firewall of Anti-Entropy was very strong.

Although not as robust as Schicksal's, it was likely the strongest firewall in the world—except for the one that had yet to appear: the World Serpent.

But unfortunately, this attack came from within.

As a super hacker and an internal member, Bronya needed only a few minutes to breach the firewall and seize control.

Of course, this behavior wasn't without consequences.

Bronya's attack was detected.

The control room of the base triggered a red alarm.

Cocolia, who had been confident that no one could stop her plan, turned pale due to the sudden breach.

Because of this unexpected attack, the accumulation and slow release of Honkai energy were temporarily interrupted.

"What's the situation?"

Cocolia, in a very bad mood, looked at the operator sitting in front of the control panel and asked, her anger rising.

"It's not good; the firewall has been breached."

The operator stared at the screen, cold sweat running down his face, as he reported the situation without turning around.

"How is that possible?!"

Cocolia looked incredulous, her eyes filled with fury.

"Even if someone from Schicksal came, it would be impossible to breach the firewall here in such a short time!"

However, questioning was meaningless given the situation. Understanding this, Cocolia gave a clear order: "Find out who did it and what their intentions were!"

"Yes!"

The technicians responded quickly.

Cocolia's request was straightforward.

Because Bronya hadn’t hidden her intentions, the technicians quickly found out the truth.

"The target’s identity is unknown, but their purpose appears to be to seize control of the mechas."

The technicians reported, one by one, then said in shock:

"...Wait, this is an attack from within!"

"From within?!"

Upon hearing this, Cocolia looked cold and asked, "Who is it?"

"The identity is unknown, but based on the hangar access data, it's suspected to be... your adopted daughter, Cocolia-sama... Miss Bronya."

Hearing this, Cocolia slowly closed her eyes, a mix of anger and confusion flashing in her heart.

"Bronya, what on earth do you want to do?!"

----

Chapter 29: Bronya and Sin

In the alley far from the ME building

Kiana and Mei are ready to go, as they waited for news from Bronya.

They are some distance away from the ME club because, according to Bronya, Cocolia has a special instrument to monitor Mei's approximate location. If they get too close, it will definitely attract Cocolia's attention.

Of course, although the distance is very close now, it is an intermediate value.

On the premise of not arousing Cocolia's suspicion as much as possible, this location was chosen so that, as long as they go all out, they can reach the ME building in the shortest time.

"Alas, is Bronya okay?"

Kiana leaned against the wall, feeling a little bored, and the Artemis' Guardian flowed nimbly at her fingertips.

From the beginning of the preparation, by the time Bronya entered, it had probably been several dozen minutes. This time was not long, to be honest, but Kiana was a person with no patience. It was really torture for her to wait on the side.

"Don't worry."

After all, she had been with Kiana for a while, so Mei knew Kiana's temper. She said helplessly, "Maybe Bronya was held back by something."

"Ding." A sound came from the skirt pocket.

Mei quickly took out her outdated mobile phone from the pocket of her skirt, took a look, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Look, isn't it here?"

She raised her mobile phone to let Kiana see the message from Bronya on the screen.

Before the action, Bronya had said that she would send two types of messages.

The first one is success, which means the action can begin.

The second one means that an accident occurred, and the action was terminated.

Now, the message from Bronya on Mei's phone is the former.

"Well done!"

Kiana rarely praised Bronya and then excitedly urged, "Mei, let's go!"

She couldn't wait to rush into the ME Building and crush Cocolia's horrific plan with her fists.

"Wait for me, Kiana..."

Seeing that Kiana had already started to rush, Mei put the tightly wrapped Salted Tuna sword on her back from the corner, and followed her helplessly.

Because of her family's swordsmanship, Mei's physical fitness is not weak. But compared to Kiana or Bronya, who have received professional training, Mei is far behind. She can only hang far behind Kiana.

This is actually the reason why Kiana is more considerate. If she really rushed forward regardless of anything, Mei would be out of sight in less than two seconds once she started running.

Fortunately, the distance between the two of them and the ME Building is not far. If they sprint at full speed, it will take only a few minutes to reach the building, even at Mei's speed.

After learning that Bronya had hacked into the system, Sin, who also has the identity of an executor and has special feelings for Bronya, arrived at the hangar as soon as possible.

Sin looked at the figure standing on the operating table and asked angrily, "Asshole Bronya, what are you doing!?"

Hearing this voice, Bronya slowly turned around and glanced at Sin. The poisonous spider mechas started one by one, then hugged the Titan mechas on standby in the hangar and began flashing red lights.

"Boom!"

Accompanied by a series of explosions, all the Titans entered a paralyzed state. From the appearance alone, they were seriously damaged.

Although the defense device was not turned on, the defense of the exposed Titan mecha itself should not be underestimated. It is impossible to completely destroy the Titan with the explosive power of the poisonous spider mecha, but if it is just to make the Titan unable to fight, it is very simple to enter a paralyzed state.

"You?!"

Seeing this scene, Sin's eyes widened, and she growled in disbelief, "Do you know what you are doing?!"

Each of these Titans costs hundreds of millions to build. After Bronya's actions, although these Titans are not completely scrapped, they can still be used after repair. But it will cost at least tens of billions of dollars to rebuild such a set.

...Leaving aside the economic issues for the time being, what Sin cares about more now is why Bronya did such a thing.

"Bronya wants to stop Mother Cocolia's plan."

Bronya did not hide her intentions from Sin and stated her purpose in a concise manner.

After saying this, Sin instantly understood.

"Because of those ordinary citizens?"

After seeing Bronya nod slightly, Sin smiled and laughed very wantonly.

"I remember what you said when you followed Mother Cocolia here."

"You also said that as long as you can save the coward Seele, you don't care about anything." Sin looked at Bronya with a mocking expression.

"Now you are going to stop Mother Cocolia's plan for those rubbish? This is not like your temper."

"Why, you are not going to save Seele?!"

Hearing this, Bronya shook her head slightly.

"Seele will definitely not be happy if she knows that Mother did such a sinful thing to save her."

"Besides... Bronya has found another way to save Seele!"

She said very seriously: "So, it's no longer necessary!"

Sin stared at Bronya without saying a word. This face was still as cold and expressionless. But this feeling, it really felt like the past...

Sin missed Bronya in this state. But the more she missed her, the more unhappy she felt, especially when she heard the annoying name Seele...

With all her feelings, she returned to reality from her complicated thoughts. Sin looked at Bronya's emotionless face, grinned slightly, revealing the shark teeth that were enough to scare kids, and said in a very affirmative tone: "I will not let you interfere with Mother Cocolia's plan!"

"If you want to stop Mother Cocolia, you have to get past me first!"

Bronya was not surprised to hear this. She had expected this. Since the orphanage, Sin has been Mother Cocolia's right-hand man. She unconditionally agrees with the decisions and choices made by Mother Cocolia. So she never thought from the beginning that Sin would sit back and watch her stop Mother Cocolia's plan.

However, when she thought about really taking action, Bronya couldn't help but sigh in her heart.

She and Sin were friends in the orphanage after all, and although they had been prepared for the battle, when it came to the real fight, she still felt a little complicated.

With Mother Cocolia, this is true. Although Bronya disagrees with Mother Cocolia's cruel plan from the bottom of her heart, and because of the incident that happened back then, she is very opposed to Mother Cocolia... but Bronya is still the type who is nostalgic.

If possible, she doesn't want to fight Cocolia in person. So...

Just stay here with Sin for a while.

As for Mother Cocolia, leave it to the Idiot Kiana and Mei sister.

----

Chapter 30: Cocolia's Trump Card

"...I know, Bronya is in your hands."

After listening to Sin's report on the situation in the hangar, Cocolia made a decision with a grim expression and then cut off the communication.

"I didn’t expect Bronya to... Alas."

With a bit of anger, Cocolia massaged her temples. She never expected Bronya to cause such a big surprise after returning from her mission.

"But..."

Cocolia glanced coldly at Kiana and Mei on the monitoring screen.

"It’s too naive to think that you can stop my plan with just these two brats."

Paralyzing the mecha troops, stopping Sin, and then turning against her—Bronya had indeed planned very carefully.

At least on the surface, it appeared as though all the defenses Cocolia had set up were now gone.

But this was only on the surface.

As the most ruthless person in Anti-Entropy and known as the cunning "female fox," Cocolia had secretly kept more than one card up her sleeve.

"Let me teach you a lesson, my lovely daughter."

With a slight gnashing of teeth, Cocolia looked at the two people in the picture with a cold expression before turning away.

Walking out of the control room, she headed to the most hidden door, which was declared to be an abandoned room for staff.

The only person qualified to enter this room in all of Anti-Entropy was Cocolia herself.

This was her biggest hidden card.

The mechanical door slowly opened.

Inside was a spacious, undecorated room with a flat floor. It seemed like just another abandoned, useless room as Cocolia had told the staff.

However, after operating the encoder she carried, a silver culture chamber slowly emerged.

Looking inside through the transparent glass, a blue-haired young man was lying inside, wearing simple clothes.

This was the clone Cocolia had created using the genetic data of Welt Joyce, the leader of Anti-Entropy.

Through cloning technology, she had tried to replicate the powerful abilities of Welt, the first Herrscher.

But unfortunately, the result was not as successful as hoped.

The clones created by the technology weren’t as strong as the original and were prone to defects, such as brain issues, extreme self-centeredness, or even abnormal sexual fetishes.

However, despite the imperfections, after removing the defects, the clones did have some of Welt's abilities.

The one before her was the first in the clone series.

This one could control gravity up to one hundred times.

Compared to the ten thousand times gravity of the perfect Star of Eden, it was insignificant.

Of course, this level was still enough for now.

Gravity was an ability that should not be mastered by humans. Even at just one hundred times, it was enough to kill an A-rank Valkyrie from Schicksal. If it hit an S-rank Valkyrie, even they might not survive unless they were an extremely special individual.

And now, just relying on those two little girls?

Through the controller, Cocolia directly opened the incubator and woke up Welt(Clone) inside. He stood respectfully beside it as the blue-haired man inside opened his eyes slowly, stood up, tilted his neck, stretched his arms, and flexed his stiff bones.

"Tell me, what made you wake me up?"

With a bit of frivolity in his tone, Welt(Cl

one) glanced at Cocolia impatiently. According to the information Cocolia had given him, he should have been in a state of serious injury due to the second eruption, so he needed to rest in the incubator and should only be awakened when absolutely necessary.

The pressure made Cocolia lower her head slightly as she spoke in a dull tone.

"...Because of the trouble caused by my adopted daughter, two little girls took advantage of the chaos to enter the base and try to destroy our plan."

"Huh?" Welt(Clone)'s eyes suddenly turned cold, and the gravity flowing through his muscles instinctively applied pressure to Cocolia. The attack was so sudden that it caused Cocolia to kneel immediately.

"Just two little girls woke me up?" Welt(Clone) asked as he looked down at Cocolia from above, his eyes sharp and filled with dissatisfaction. He bent his knees slightly and squatted down, extending his hand to pinch Cocolia's chin, lifting it up. He sneered, "If you can't even handle something so small, I don't think there's any reason to keep you around, is there?"

"...Sorry, Lord Welt... The issue with my adopted daughter is that I failed to discipline her properly, but... one of the two little girls who came to attack is the third Herrscher in the plan."

For this rudeness, Cocolia did not show any dissatisfaction and was extremely servile.

"To be on the safe side, I woke up Lord Welt."

"Oh?" Welt seemed intrigued.

In an instant, Cocolia felt the gravity that had almost crushed her disappear without a trace.

"Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen any others of her kind yet."

The real Welt had experienced the Second Honkai and seen the Second Herrscher.

Originally, this should have been engraved in Welt's genes, but due to Cocolia’s inadequate skills, this version of Welt only remembered that he had participated in the Second Honkai, with no recollection of the Second Herrscher.

"Hmph, I’ll spare you for now since you’ve made many contributions in the past."

Welt picked up a hooded coat from nearby and put it on, smiling with a hint of frivolity.

Honestly speaking, the original Welt(Clone) was a handsome gentleman, but the replica, while inheriting the original’s appearance, carried an unbearable amount of bad taste.

"Let me see what that fellow looks like."

He walked out and stopped just before the door, turning back slightly to leave a chilling warning.

"If you wake me up for such trivial matters again, I think you know what will happen, right?"

"I understand!"

Cocolia quickly responded.

This inferior product had an extremely violent personality. If the answer wasn’t satisfactory, it would lead to discomfort on her side.

"I understand."

With that, Welt disappeared into the corridor, leaving only Cocolia behind.

She straightened her clothes, which had become messy due to the gravity.

With great skill, she tidied herself up before dealing with the secret room.

Cocolia returned to the control room, glancing at the monitoring screen. She watched as the two people neared Welt, and a curve appeared at the corner of her mouth.

"Let them fight. It’s better if they can hold out a little longer."

In that case, she could also collect some data from the battle to improve future versions of the Welt clone.

If it’s a one-sided battle, it would be too boring.