In contrast to the eager-to-go Fuli and Kiana duo, Bronya's attitude was quite pessimistic.
"Are you... serious? Do you really intend to storm an Anti-Entropy branch guarded by an Enforcer with just the two of you?"
Given Fuli's previous friendly attitude and not wanting to be accidentally caught in the crossfire, the little girl offered a friendly explanation:
"Raiden Mei must have made a deal with Mother Cocolia, something like [don't hurt you guys]. That's why the mecha units haven't traced Raiden Mei's path back to surround this place... But once you ignore this kindness and attack ME Corp, let's not even talk about whether two lone wolves who have lost their home-field advantage can break through the joint blockade of Titan mechs, fire control systems, and soldiers. Even if you could, Mother can activate various defensive measures, including but not limited to the Nullifying Field and the Gravity Fear Wall. At that point, you won't have a shred of a chance of survival."
Null-Energy Barrier: Developed based on the Key of Binding, it drastically reduces the Honkai energy index of designated units within the barrier.
Gravitational Dread-Wall: An advanced field control device that manipulates gravity, one of the four fundamental forces, within a certain range.
Combined with the previously mentioned Magnetic Field Canopy, these three were the basic configuration of Anti-Entropy's overseas branches. As the premier Anti-Entropy base in the Eastern Hemisphere, ME Corp naturally had them as well.
"Sorry, almost forgot about you."
Hearing her voice, Fuli glanced over. "Attack ME Corp... Although I had guessed Mei would be there, thanks for the intel."
He raised his hand in a knife-hand chop. "Anything else to say?"
"No."
Seeing that he was serious, Bronya, lying on the floor, rolled her eyes in resignation.
Life was like that smelly treasure in Empress Shiji's arms. Since you can't resist, you might as well lie down and enjoy it.
"Please be gentle with Bronya," the duckling couldn't help but say in the end.
"Sorry. I'll let you go after this is over."
Fuli decisively chopped the back of her neck. The force was precise, and the girl fell cleanly unconscious.
"Are we taking her?" Kiana questioned. "With that Cocolia's despicable style, I feel like using Bronya to threaten her won't be very useful."
"She has other uses," Fuli said without elaborating. "Follow me."
He hoisted the petite Bronya onto his back and turned to walk towards the underground garage.
Kiana followed as told.
The two arrived underground. Fuli summoned a Trailing Shadow Sword, shaped it into a drill, found the right direction, and quietly began to dig.
Before long, with a faint cracking sound, a spacious tunnel appeared before them.
The tunnel was about twenty meters wide and long. Just standing at the entrance felt chilly. Green safety lights lined both sides, leading into the distance. Below was a walkway for people, and in the center flowed an artificial underground drainage river.
Kiana raised an eyebrow. "An underground waterway?"
"Remember the property deed you found earlier?"
"Uh-huh! Huh?"
Uh-huh! —An instinctive response.
Huh? —There was such a thing?
"It had a bird's-eye view of this residential area. One of the sewers is about ten meters below the garage."
Fuli poked his head in, speaking as he looked. "Big cities have extensive underground drainage networks. We'll use this to bypass the patrol units on the surface and get as close as possible to ME Corp's territory."
"You even remembered that!"
The girl's eyes sparkled as she looked at him.
"If you want to survive, you have to remember every piece of information that might be useful. This was also one of the escape routes I had originally prepared. I never thought that not only can I not rely on it to escape now, but I have to use it to approach the enemy's main base."
After confirming it was safe inside, Fuli jumped in first.
So introverted, only dares to use the sewers to go out.
After landing, he kindly reminded, "Stay away from the wastewater in the middle, unless you want to be covered in the recycled five grains."
Kiana, who landed behind him, thought for a long time before she understood that the term referred to... poop.
"The Chinese language is truly profound and... penetrating."
She subtly moved to the other side, using the nearly 1.8-meter-tall boy as her human shield.
"Hey! Have you no shame?"
"None at all!" Kiana said righteously. "A beautiful girl should be fragrant and soft at all times. That way, you boys with your dirty minds will like it!"
Fuli thought she had a good point. He was speechless.
A fragrant, clean Kiana versus a... Kiana. He would definitely prefer—
Alright, he preferred the eight-year-old version.
He liked the little white-haired cutie who used to shout "I want to be the strongest Valkyrie!" and chase him around with an umbrella as a lance, but would also stand up for him, a Shenzhou native, when he was bullied by the local European kids, shouting "You're not allowed to bully Little Li! Take this!" and driving them away, only to blush furiously afterward when he said in a childish voice, "Little Li likes Kiana the most!"
"Hello? Hello?"
"Ah."
Fuli, pulled from his memories, paused and looked away from the familiar, pretty face in front of him.
He rubbed his temples. "Sorry, I was spacing out."
But speaking of which, he had originally thought Mei's disappearance would cause Kiana to lose her composure, have a mental breakdown, and do many irrational things. He had even prepared two large buckets of ice water to physically cool her down at any moment.
He didn't expect the girl to have such good control over her emotions.
"Is this also a benefit of wandering for four years?"
"What?"
"Nothing."
Fuli shook his head, ignoring the white-haired mochi ball with puffed cheeks, and walked quickly towards the depths of the tunnel.
"Wait for me! And it's most annoying when you pique my curiosity and then clam up!"
The girl quickened her pace to catch up, continuing to chatter around the boy.
Like a fluttering white butterfly.
According to design specifications, large underground waterway systems would have one or several large shafts connecting to the surface and equipment rooms at regular intervals. The walls of the equipment rooms would be equipped with a map of part or all of the underground waterway.
This was done to facilitate staff in finding and repairing problems, and to prevent some unlucky souls from getting lost in the maze-like underground space.
Using the existing maps and occasionally climbing to the surface to confirm their position, after a lot of trouble, the not-so-invincible duo finally arrived near ME Corp, covered in dust and grime.
They pushed open a manhole cover, popped their heads out like cats, and then quickly ducked back down, leaving only their two pairs of eyes to observe secretly.
"So many people," Kiana muttered.
In front of the huge technology industrial park, not only were there people and trucks coming and going, but at regular intervals, there were also autonomous humanoid robots with red-glowing eyes (camera lenses reflecting sunlight) patrolling with guns.
Fuli said in a literary tone, "Einstein said, when the front door is crowded, you should try to go in through the back door."
"But there's only this one manhole exit nearby."
As Anti-Entropy's de facto branch in the Far East, ME Corp's sewage system was naturally independent of the municipal grid.
Moreover, with Mei now "in custody," the Magnetic Field Canopy no longer needed to cover the entire Nagazora City.
Now, its effective range had shrunk back to the normal industrial park area.
While protecting it from external enemies/spies, it left only the main gate as a channel for staff to enter and exit normally.
Fuli observed secretly for a moment, then pulled Kiana back underground, circled around to a more distant shaft, and returned to the surface.
He snapped his fingers, and the thin film of Trailing Shadow Swords covering their bodies, along with the dirt on it, peeled off and dissipated into crystal blue light particles in the wind.
Kiana clicked her tongue in amazement. "No matter how many times I've seen it, Ah-Li, your... thing is really convenient to use!"
Although she knew she was talking about the Trailing Shadow Swords, her choice of words still made Fuli facepalm.
"It's only convenient for you," he retorted. "To bypass your absolute Honkai resistance, I had to painstakingly control the film to stay five millimeters away from your body the whole way."
"The whole way?"
The girl, only just realizing, was shocked. "My hair too?"
—Absolute Honkai Resistance, like the monstrous strength to split mountains and crack rocks, was a genetic talent of the Kaslana family, one of the three great families of Schicksal. It was strong enough to not only swim naked in a lake of liquefied Honkai Energy but also to weaken energy reactions that came into contact with the body to a certain extent.
In short, it was magic immunity + magic break.
After entering the underground space, even though he didn't mention it, Fuli had still formed the Trailing Shadow Swords into a thin film to cover both of them, blocking the filth and avoiding the tragic fate of being covered in... excrement.
Unlike skills that had the property of "covering the whole body after release," this film needed to be adjusted every second according to their movements.
The effect of Absolute Honkai Resistance was passive, which meant that any part of Kiana's body that touched the film would directly pierce it.
And along the way, the girl admitted that she had been jumping around and hadn't stayed still for more than a few minutes.
Even so, her body, including her wildly swinging hair and pigtails, had not once touched the Trailing Shadow Sword film covering her?
[This level of fine control over Honkai Energy... he's just Ah-Li, how come he feels even more amazing than that stinky old man in this aspect?]
But she still didn't let up verbally. "Why go to all that trouble controlling the film? Couldn't you have just made a big shield to cover both of us?"
"Gah?"
Fuli, who had been complaining, instantly froze. The blank look he gave her seemed to say, "What? There's a move like that?"
[A king-level player unconsciously showing off a god-tier move in front of a newbie, is that it? What a top-tier humblebrag!]
Kiana puffed her cheeks angrily.
So cute. Babe, you're a big, white-haired hamster with puffed-up cheeks!
"By the way, your measurements are 84-59-87. I suggest you eat more meat to supplement your nutrition when you have time. It would feel better."
"Ahhh, don't say it! You really were taking advantage of me with that move!"
Little fists punching your chest!
...
The duo was currently at a corner far from the park's main gate. From here, they could see many workers wearing hard hats going in and out of the gate.
They used forklifts, wheel loaders, and other industrial equipment to load disassembled parts into large trucks that drove into the park, clearly intending to dismantle all the production lines inside ME Corp and transport them back to North America.
ME Corp was, after all, Anti-Entropy's largest production base in the Far East and even the entire Eastern Hemisphere. Since they were preparing to trigger the Third Eruption in Nagazora City, valuable things naturally had to be transported back in advance.
This wasn't Cocolia making a last-minute effort. This had been going on for several months since Raiden Ryoma was taken down in mid-November.
During this period, many middle and high-level personnel had also lined their own pockets, secretly taking official goods to sell on the black market. The most typical example was the Sos that Kiana bought at a cheap price.
However, this was a business that only middle and high-level personnel were qualified to engage in. The grassroots workers who had lost their jobs had more to consider.
But before these people could cause any trouble, Cocolia, who had long been prepared, sent them and their families to North America with a single agreement, offering them US green cards and more generous salaries to continue working for her.
In the 21st century, talent was the most important thing. Instead of letting these people stay in Nagazora City and become victims of the Great Eruption, it was better to just pack them up and reuse them.
Currently, there were still many forcibly relocated employees complaining, but when the news of the Third Eruption's outbreak spread, the unsuspecting masses would be too busy thanking Cocolia for saving their lives.
He should be thanking us!
And since large trucks were being used to transport various production equipment, the inspection of vehicles entering and leaving would certainly be relaxed.
Seeing a medium-sized truck about to pass the alley entrance, Fuli and Kiana seized the opportunity. The moment it passed, they leaped up and jumped into the truck's empty semi-trailer, sneaking into the factory area.
The two secretly got off the truck while it was being loaded and, after some maneuvering, arrived in front of a large building with a considerable footprint.
Those who have been to a factory know that a production park is divided into a work area and an office area.
ME Corp was no exception. Although the former had people patrolling, it was mostly for show, relying mainly on the Magnetic Field Canopy.
The latter, the Raiden Building in front of them, was different. As the home of the company president and a group of high-level executives, the level of security here could only be described as insane.
The Nullifying Field and Gravity Fear Wall that Bronya mentioned were located here. It could be said that once you entered, you had one foot in the domain of the Grim Reaper.
Faced with such an impenetrable fortress, if Mei weren't here, Fuli's first choice would absolutely be to find a way to blow up the building, not giving the enemy a chance to use their home-field advantage.
But if Mei weren't here, he wouldn't be invading an Anti-Entropy branch's main base for no reason either.
The causal chain was locked.
Fortunately, there were still ways to be clever.
Hiding behind a three-meter-wide scenic stele, Fuli took off the upper half of his large kimono, revealing Bronya's tender and cute face, so adorable it made you want to kiss it.
"Remember what I said before? When the front door is crowded, you should try to go in through the back door."
Kiana sucked in a sharp breath. "You're going to enter her back door?!"
"I'm going to use her to enter the back door," Fuli corrected. "Where's that magnetic card Mei gave you? Hand it over."
Naturally, as part of the Raiden family's industry, the Raiden Building had a back door.
It was generally used for leaders to leave first in critical moments. Mei used it to save time and visit her workaholic father.
And what was needed to open this back door program was, as mentioned before, the magnetic card that symbolized the highest level of access in ME Corp.
After Raiden Ryoma was imprisoned, the owner of this magnetic card changed from Raiden Mei to Bronya Zaychik.
When the three of them were... "undressing" the duckling at the villa, they found it on her. With Mei's consent, Kiana put it in her pocket.
Now, it was time for it to play its role.
"Oh, right!"
Reminded by Fuli, Kiana had a sudden realization.
The magnetic card was here, and Bronya herself was here.
Rounding it up, couldn't they move freely in ME Corp?
"Wait! If we had this, why didn't we use it to get in just now?"
"Hiss—!"
This time, it was Fuli's turn to suck in a sharp breath.
"Hey, sis, are you sure you want me to hold up an unconscious Bronya, in front of a bunch of autonomous mechs and Anti-Entropy employees, and brazenly run into their firing range to swipe a card?"
The building was a semi-enclosed container, after all. If something really happened, they could at least rely on the environment to maneuver.
Doing that in broad daylight... did this girl think dying once wasn't enough?
...