After Fuli's reminder, Kiana also realized how outrageous her statement had been.
"Also true, hehe~"
The girl scratched the back of her head, smiling with a naive and charming foolishness.
"Hehe what? (→_→) Hurry up and get it out."
As Fuli spoke, he moved to pry open Bronya's eyelids, adjusting the angle of her eyes to prepare for the upcoming iris identity verification.
"Ooh."
Kiana reached into her pocket and began rummaging for the precious magnetic card she had specifically attached to her key ring.
As she dug, her movements suddenly froze.
"Ah-Li."
"What?"
Hearing her call his name, Fuli felt an ominous premonition rise in his heart for no reason.
"A key ring is really a very practical little tool."
"Practical how?"
"Practical in that it lets me lose all my keys at once."
"Hahahaha Kiana, you f*cking—!!!"
This time Fuli truly couldn't hold it back, spraying a mouthful of spit directly onto the face of Bronya in his arms.
The little girl smacked her lips, her eyes fluttering slightly, as if she were about to wake from a dream.
Fuli instantly delivered another chop to her neck and accepted the tissue Kiana handed over with an ingratiating smile.
While wiping the collagen-rich, lovely face of Bronya, he couldn't help but wonder, "You can even lose stuff from your four-dimensional skirt?"
To be honest, the current composition was quite terrible.
A shirtless, handsome young boy wiping spit off the face of an unconscious girl in his arms, who was unable to resist. No matter how you looked at it, they were charging headfirst into unspeakable territory.
The only pity was that Kiana couldn't care less about that right now.
Her gaze drifted nervously. "Cough, I put that card in my pocket with my key ring..."
"Just asking out of ignorance, but why didn't you put such a crucial item properly into your four-dimensional skirt?"
"Mei said pulling things out from down there in front of boys is too vulgar..."
The white-haired Tuna knew she had messed up, shrinking her head back pitifully.
"I don't even care, so why do you care?!"
"That's right! You even stuck your head in there last time!"
Kiana, realizing this, instantly regretted it, blaming herself for having a brain fart and suddenly caring about her image in front of this guy.
"So what do we do now?"
She pulled a long face.
"What do we do? With our identities, going through the front door equals suicide."
Fuli stood up, hiding Bronya once again within his loose kimono.
Looking up at the Raiden Tower piercing the clouds, he squinted in the sunlight. "Here's the plan. We climb to the top floor from the outside, and assuming we don't alert the enemy, we search downwards floor by floor."
"What about the no-fly zone in the technology park? Flight abilities can't be used, right?"
"Air" refers to flight and space.
Key locations banning flight and teleportation was standard operation for medium-sized organizations and above.
Pointing to the cyan lotus platform condensing under his feet, Fuli reached out his hand to the girl. "This isn't flying; it's a noble double jump."
Void Flash Step ignored the interference of conventional anti-air domains.
Kiana gripped his outstretched hand, bit her thin cherry-blossom lip, stole a glance at his rapidly calming face, and whispered, "Aren't you angry?"
"Being angry is useless. Did you learn your lesson?"
"I learned it!!!"
After several Void Flash Steps to reach the top of the tower and landing steadily on a fire water tank, Fuli released her. "Good. Just don't make the same mistake next time."
"Yes!!!"
Kiana nodded heavily, her gaze toward him clear and bright, rippling with gentle waves.
However, the silly girl, moved deep within her heart, didn't know that the reason this matter was picked up high and put down gently wasn't because Fuli doted on her that much. It was because he suddenly realized a very important issue:
Unlike her eight-year-old self, the current Kiana was a European Emperor (term for someone with extreme luck).
How lucky was she?
When she played mobile games, getting 6+5 in thirty pulls was just basic operation.
Surviving near-death experiences by pure luck was another reliance for the girl to cross the Eurasian continent alone.
And such a Kiana Kaslana had lost the magnetic card—which theoretically allowed unhindered access within ME Corp—at a critical moment.
Everything is inevitable for a true European Emperor.
Looking at it from another angle, could it be that using the magnetic card would have invited disaster, so fate deliberately made her drop the ball?
Thinking of this, Fuli touched the God King Mask he kept close to his chest.
"Old buddy, looks like this isn't the place for your highlight reel."
He muttered in a voice only he could hear.
...
Likely out of guilt, Kiana took the initiative in the subsequent exploration.
Her attitude toward Fuli was super, super good, attending to him with meticulous care and thoughtfulness, making him even less inclined to reveal the reason he let her off the hook.
Before long, he regretted it.
"Ah-Li, don't worry! This Young Lady is an experienced electrician; I'll know if there's electricity just by touching it!"
"Bullsh*t! I'd know if I touched it too!"
"Uh, it's okay! Napoleon said the first soldier to breach a city must come out covered in blood!"
"You still aren't allowed to touch it! Are you crazy, touching a high-voltage grid with millions of volts?!"
And—
"Ah-Li, Ah-Li, are you hungry? I still have the KFC set meal I took from McDonald's earlier; do you want it?"
"I guess that's fine; waking up so early, I haven't had time to eat yet— Pfft! Why is this cola hot?!"
"You can't drink cold things early in the morning! This Young Lady heated it up specially! Hehe, attentive enough, right?"
"Heretic, shut up!"
Also—
"It's just an infrared corridor; watch this Young Lady cut them all with scissors!"
"Kiana..."
"Oh?"
"When I was little, my family was very poor. The only valuable thing was the old iron lock on the door. Every time it rained, I would run over, hug it tightly, and shout with all my might."
"Shout what?"
"Old Iron (slang for bro/buddy)! Please don't rust (show off), don't rust!"
"But Ah-Li, you haven't had any good ideas all this way either. And we can't just keep circling around the upper floors. Why not just try my way?"
"..."
In the end, Fuli finally understood.
As bona fide combat-types, finding their little partner without alerting anyone wasn't exactly a fantasy, but it was basically harder than going from Henan to Yunnan (a trek).
Bronya could hack in—Metal Gear Bronya's hacking skills were top 100 in the world. After waking her up, she would definitely be willing to help with this favor.
The only small problem was that this girl belonged to the enemy faction. Once she connected with them, she would one hundred percent betray them instantly.
Tsk, that naturally evil old hag Cocolia, all she knows is how to trick innocent and cute little girls into selling their lives for her!
Let them go and let me handle it!
Meanwhile, seeing Fuli fall silent and thinking her words had hurt his pride, Kiana whispered, "Ah-Li?"
"Hmm?"
The girl's worried gaze called Fuli back from his contemplation.
"What is it?"
"I'll be the bait."
She said seriously.
Given the current situation, letting Kiana step onto the stage alone to attract attention was undoubtedly a way to break the stalemate.
As long as she was willing to create chaos upfront like the Monkey King in Heaven, Fuli could take the opportunity to sneak into the base. Not only could he consume all the elixir pills in Laozi's gourd (loot/gains), but afterward, he could pin everything on that wild monkey causing a scene.
"It's a good idea, but no."
So he said, "How many dishes did you eat (drink) to want to be the 'Qi'-tian Dasheng (Great Sage Equal to Heaven)? Do you have the strength to fight Anti-Entropy?"
"Now is not the time for jokes!"
Kiana's expression was serious.
Earlier, the two had been joking and teasing each other along the way, making it feel like a couple's outing.
But that hadn't delayed their route, and it was also necessary to offset the anxiety and worry in their hearts.
Now, however, the two were trapped here, unable to advance an inch.
To move forward, someone had to make a sacrifice.
Kiana knew she wasn't cut out for finding people. She didn't have Fuli's quick mind; at best, she had some street smarts.
Someone like her was perfect for being bait to attract attention.
"No."
Yet Fuli still refused.
Before his rebirth, he and the trio parted ways after the Great Eruption in Nagazora City. After rebirth, Bronya's heart was with her godmother, and Mei left a farewell letter and quietly departed. If Kiana, the only remaining seedling, was sent out as bait, wouldn't his rebirth be in vain?
"Then what do we do!"
Seeing him refuse to budge, Kiana, like a husky hearing a wolf howl, couldn't help but let out a wail.
"At times like this, we need a surprise move."
Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Fuli took out his phone and began editing a text message.
"Surprise move? Are you calling for backup? You know people? Introduce them to this Young Lady first?"
Seeing this, the girl scrambled over on hands and knees, leaning in close to see what he planned to do.
Fuli scooted his butt away with effort, turning at an angle so she couldn't see.
"?"
Kiana, undeterred, crawled over again and even rested her chin heavily on his shoulder.
"(→_→)"
Fuli glanced at her sideways, then scooted again.
"Grr!"
Kiana put on a stern little face and crawled again!
After spinning around relentlessly like this about twenty times, the boy put away his phone and raised his hand toward the door:
"Open Sesame."
The infrared sensor lights in front of them faded. The green symbol indicating passage lit up, and the metal door at the end of the corridor opened.
Three years later, in mid-2017, an unsolved murder case occurred in Jakarta, Java.
The victim of the case was a sturdy man, two meters tall and weighing two hundred pounds.
He was found dead in his living room by a neighbor who followed the scent of blood. The body was nailed to the wall with a blade through the heart. The state of death was so gruesome that describing it in words would affect one's appetite.
As a renowned figure in Southeast Asia, the reason the Java police left this vicious case in the capital circle unsolved was that it involved the Honkai side.
The dead man's real name was Gongliang Anxuan. That wasn't important. What was important was that he was a top-tier hacker and information broker on the Honkai side, codenamed Alice.
When selling intelligence, this guy habitually used the avatar of Shionji Yuuko from Kami-sama no Memo-chou as his virtual image and absolutely refused to mention his real gender or age, leading many to believe he was actually a cute girl similar to his avatar.
Fuli had some prior friendship with him; the previously mentioned intel on the Divine Key excavation was sold by him at a friendly price.
Of course, after fighting tooth and nail to retrieve the Key of Domination 0017 only to find it was a useless fake (silver-like pewter spearhead), Fuli was so angry upon learning the truth that he almost split Alice alive with a Divine Departure (Kamusari) slash.
Unfortunately, Alice had already croaked before Fuli could get to him.
This was normal. Being in the intelligence business meant being targeted and hated. Even if this cross-dressing pervert had safe houses all over the globe like a cunning rabbit, provoking the wrong person still meant GG.
Not to mention this guy had skewed all his talent points into intelligence; his actual combat strength was even less intimidating than his face, which could stop a child from crying.
By the way, there were rumors that an S-rank Valkyrie fell in love with his virtual avatar, chased him all the way to his home to propose after much hardship, only to find a burly man in front of the computer leering at the screen. Unable to hold back, she physically "dumped" him (took his head) on the spot, using his dirty blood to mourn her lost youth.
truly disgusting and sh*tty.
But at least in the 2014 of this timeline, Alice was still active in the 2D world as a cute, long black-haired loli.
Truly active in the 2D world.
His ability was digitization. When activated, he could convert his spiritual power into electronic signals, traversing the world via undersea cables, satellites, and other signal transmission mediums.
And what Fuli just did was contact him through a special network channel, using the location of Alice's base in Java as leverage to exchange for this super hacker—whose abilities rivaled Bronya's—to help them clear the level.
Fuli had to balance this carefully. Saying too much would reveal information, while implying threats might make the dog jump over the wall in desperation, notifying Cocolia of intruders to kill with a borrowed knife.
Information brokers placed immense importance on their own safety. Upon learning his base was exposed, Alice would not only abandon it immediately but also discard all his bases in other countries.
At the same time, he would start investigating Fuli's background to see who this guy popping out of nowhere was.
Fuli only called for help now based on this point.
Yes, at first glance, he was exploiting his information advantage as a New Game+ player for convenience.
However, even if Alice could only find part of his pre-rebirth data, wasn't this also exposing his existence to others?
But in any case, the other party definitely wouldn't be able to investigate how Fuli obtained the base coordinates.
This would undoubtedly bring more wariness and speculation, but it also provided the possibility for a transaction between both parties.
Blank Contract. A consumable item existing in D/C/B/A grades. The most widely circulated contract on the Honkai side, essentially a meme presented in the form needed by the user.
Both parties to the contract must voluntarily sign regarding the confidentiality of specific information without negative interference such as threats, blackmail, or coercion. The content is drafted by both parties.
Once both parties sign their true names, the contract takes effect.
After signing, a discipline directly acting on self-consciousness is established between the parties. Any subjective or objective attempt to leak the secret will cause irreversible abnormalities in the leaker's higher brain intelligent processing related to learning memory and judgment.
This produces severe cognitive impairment, preventing the expression of confidential content through narration, statement, elaboration, retelling, or any form of behavior interacting with external information. Forced execution may even lead to death.
[Note: Contract text has size regulations; font too small doesn't count as content. Devils, don't think about scamming people with this.]
The contract was provided by Alice, and it was the highest grade, A-grade.
But it wasn't expensive; the price was even less than Mikazuki Munechika without its historical value.
After all, an unsigned contract is too stiff even for toilet paper.
The contract stipulated that Fuli could not inform a third party in any form how he knew Alice's location, and simultaneously prohibited him from exposing the location of the other party's base and person. In exchange, Alice would help him and Kiana infiltrate ME Corp to find Mei.
The above content is just a rough summary. There were many small details to prevent bug exploitation, loopholes, and intrigue between the two parties, but due to word count issues, they won't be expanded upon here.
Alice, having signed the contract, was satisfied. Even an S-rank Valkyrie would suffer greatly for violating an A-grade contract; his safety was temporarily guaranteed.
Fuli signed readily as well, but felt quite depressed inside.
Meeting acquaintances from the previous timeline was troublesome. Being too nice to them would make them think you had ulterior motives, but treating them badly made his conscience uneasy.
It couldn't be helped; few of the people Fuli had taken a fancy to were fools.
But at least this time, that guy Alice wouldn't die alone in that narrow room.
—Maybe he didn't necessarily die in the previous timeline?
Noticing that the signature on the other side wasn't [Gongliang Anxuan] but the feminine true name [Houraiji Kyuushou], Fuli, having signed his own name, looked thoughtful.
Well, indeed, none of them are fuel-efficient lamps (easy to deal with).
...