Seeing one plan fail, the brilliantly clever Kiana immediately hatched another. "Since Alice's side won't work, how about we dig a tunnel?"
"We came through the underground earlier, right?" Mei added details to help. "Why don't we have Fuli transform the Trailing Shadow Swords into drills again to bore a tunnel? I can still provide the necessary Honkai energy."
Herrscher of Thunder Power Bank, back for a limited time!
"That's a great idea!"
Mid-sentence, Kiana suddenly stood up and passed through the light film.
"ORA ORA ORA ORA MURI MURI MURI MURI!"
She shrieked strangely as she waved her pink fists, embodying a humanoid Star Platinum to knock away a super-alloy spear that had pierced the water layer and lost most of its force.
Fuli hurriedly controlled the light film formed by the Trailing Shadow Swords to patch up the breach, while Mei engaged the engine to move the vehicle to a more concealed location.
Even so, the instantly intruding lake water still soaked everyone from head to toe.
Leaving aside the wet bangs plastered to their foreheads, many of their clothes clung tightly to their curvaceous or petite figures. The "wet look" play was incredibly erotic.
What? Why are only two people's curves described?
Bronya, she's graceful.
"How was that idea just now?"
After dealing with the sudden incident, Mei steered the topic back on track.
"Good, but not applicable," Fuli said. "I paid attention while we were sinking. The depth of the lake is around 80 meters. The water pressure from all sides would undoubtedly affect the construction significantly. Of course, even so, I could still create a tunnel large enough for the off-road vehicle to move forward. However, in exchange, the consumption of Honkai energy would increase drastically."
He paused, then added, "Mei, do you remember your reaction yesterday afternoon after I continuously drew Honkai energy from your body?"
The girl recalled and nodded obediently.
Drawing energy frequently and in large amounts over a short period caused extreme fatigue to her, the conduit. After just a few draws previously, she had been too tired to even lift her eyelids. If they really started rumbling through construction now, Mei passing out completely would be a light consequence.
Fainting in such a situation would be more than just "holding everyone back."
Not to mention, no one could guarantee that excessive extraction wouldn't permanently break her as a conduit. The real world isn't Elden Ring; both items and people have durability.
"So that means this idea is also a PASS. Ah, hold your head still!"
Kiana leaned over with a towel, wiping Fuli's dripping wet hair as she said, "Then why don't we ditch the car and swim up? Swim halfway up, then dig a hole to escape. The consumption would be much lower that way, right?"
[Useless.]
Alice suddenly threw out a single word, then vanished without a trace again.
"What is with this person? Only speaking halfway!"
Kiana puffed up her cheeks in anger but didn't dare ignore the warning.
The situation fell into a deadlock again.
Fuli chuckled softly.
"Don't worry, there's no need for us to run around like headless chickens right now."
He leaned back in his seat with a relaxed expression. "Just wait calmly. Wait until 2:07:48 PM."
Mei looked thoughtful. "Is this the big event happening in Nagazora City today that you mentioned last night?"
"Exactly."
Fuli was incredibly certain. "At that time, reinforcements will arrive."
Reinforcements are coming, justice will be served!
"Still ten minutes left."
Kiana listened in a daze, understanding only half of it. Out of trust for her companions, she didn't say much more, but fished a deck of poker cards out of her four-dimensional skirt. "Want to play cards?"
Fuli glanced at her sideways with a wicked grin. "Miss Kiana, do you know that in a deep, enclosed space 80 meters underwater, with a terrible gender ratio of three females to one male, and everyone at an age full of vigor, if one person suddenly suggests playing poker, it's really hard not to think dirty?"
"This Miss meant playing cards! Playing cards seriously!"
Blushing furiously, Kitty Kiana stamped her feet in exasperation. You person, your brain is really full of nothing but lewd thoughts.
Mei looked over with a meaningful expression. "What? Does Mr. Fuli perhaps intend to substantiate your claim of doing it over a million times in the next ten minutes?"
Facing Miss Raiden's flawless smile, a certain someone whose hair stood on end immediately admitted defeat. "Joking! Just joking!"
Over a million times in ten minutes? Even a Galaxy Emperor fighting to the edge of the universe would be wrung dry into Erii Uesugi under the Red Well!
"What are we playing?"
The girl glared at him, took the cards from Kiana, shuffled, and dealt.
"Blackjack."
While enjoying the game of Blackjack, Fuli suddenly got curious. "By the way, you seem to have everything stuffed in that skirt. Do you have Mahjong?"
"I do, but there's not enough space here to play."
Kiana picked up her cards, glanced at them, and tossed them down with a bored look. "Blackjack."
One card was an Ace, and the other was also an Ace.
The other three sucked in a breath of cold air. This was already Kiana's thirteenth consecutive Blackjack right off the bat.
"Loser tells a joke, loser tells a joke!"
The victor, transcending the three realms, scanned the battlefield and found that after this round of showdowns, Fuli was the loser.
"Telling jokes is my specialty. I'll tell you one passed down from the end of the Shang Dynasty."
The boy cleared his throat, took the folding fan handed over by the previous round's loser, Bronya, and slammed it onto the center console!
Clap!
"—After King Zhou's relentless plowing day after day, the demonic concubine Su Daji finally became pregnant. But one day, while Daji was strolling in the rear garden, she accidentally slipped and fell on a large rock, miscarrying on the spot!
King Zhou was grief-stricken and cried out on the spot, 'Ji, ni tai mei! Ji, ni shi zai shi ni tai mei!!!' (Daji, your fetus is gone! Daji, the rock really made your fetus gone!!!) [T/N: A pun on the lyrics of a popular song often memed in Chinese internet culture involving a certain idol.]
The ministers also exclaimed, 'Oh! Bei! Bei!' (Oh! Sad! Sad!) [T/N: Sounds like "Baby".]"
"Heh heh!"
Kiana, who had stayed in Shenzhou for a while, laughed coldly like a villain. "Little black fan finally showed his chicken feet!"
"The peak births hypocritical support; the twilight witnesses devout believers!"
Fuli spoke righteously, "Speak nonsense again and I won't give you the eggs laid by our family's Gege (Brother) to eat!"
Mei, who didn't get the reference, shivered, feeling only cold. Bronya, recalling Fuli looping Kun Kun's debut dance video for her last night, immediately pulled a long face, feeling a churning urge in her stomach ready to erupt.
"Walking towards us, you are ready to make a move~"
"Shut up!"
Several more rounds of cards passed quickly. The three put their heads together and unanimously decided not to play with Kiana, the piece of sh*t lucky dog, anymore.
The ostracized girl pouted and climbed back to the relatively intact half of the back seat, stretching her legs and crossing them on the passenger seat.
"Don't put your feet on me!"
Fuli, getting increasingly into the game, barked. "Bronya, hit me!"
"There's only this much space, bear with it."
Kiana couldn't be bothered with him. She lay back with her hands behind her head and began to while away the time.
Her breathing gradually slowed, her delicate nose emitting soft breaths from time to time.
"Tricking others into keeping watch while you take a break, huh?"
After "slandering" her with a joking tone, Fuli winked his left eye at Mei, who had also quieted down, and gently removed Kiana's wet shoes and socks.
Under the dim, hazy car lights, the crystal-clear, white, and tender feet were exposed to the humid, warm, and ambiguous air.
Fuli calmly handed the removed shoes and socks to Mei. The girl activated her ability, converting electric current into heat to dry them.
Taking them back, Fuli skillfully put them back on Kiana, then took off his own semi-dry jacket and passed it over.
Watching them tacitly handle the clothes dampened during the counterattack just now, Bronya, the outsider, suddenly felt a tiny bit envious.
In the distant past, in the barbaric times before even the Previous Era was born, human ancestors helped each other beside bonfires in caves, drying their animal skins and huddled together for warmth.
Perhaps the memory of that time was passed down through genes; seeing a similar scene always made one feel a sense of warmth.
Kiana, resting with her eyes closed, had her eyelashes flutter. A particularly annoying voice contacted her.
[Kiana Kaslana, right?]
Cocolia, having contacted the girl through some means, said: [I have investigated your background. Daughter of the previous Saintess of the Schicksal House of Schariac and Siegfried Kaslana.]
[Want to make a deal? For the intelligence on your father, whom you've been searching for bitterly for four years.]
...
Having dealt with the external matters, Fuli also fell into a state of resting with his eyes closed.
Coincidentally, while Kiana was conversing with Cocolia, a slightly cold, intellectual voice found him too: [Surrounded, aren't we, Host.]
The melodious female voice, distinct from Prometheus, and the familiar word "Host" made Fuli open his eyes a slit. An intellectual woman in a white coat and black stockings was floating there.
[Like Prometheus, as Unit-02 of the system, I am also projecting my existence onto your retina, Host. No need to worry about alerting others.]
Dr. MEI of the Bubble Universe said with a smile.
[Unit-02?]
Fuli skillfully engaged in telepathic communication: [Prometheus-baby never said the Finality Coordinator System had a second AI besides her. And this look of yours.]
She looked completely like a mature, intellectual big-sister version of Mei. The only difference was that Mei herself looked like she loved sports, while this one had a very voluptuous figure but was clearly the type of super athletic idiot who would have to stop and bend over, gasping for breath, after running just a few steps.
[Prometheus mentioned before, right? When the Finality Coordinator System took shape, it subconsciously referenced the opposite sex who left a deep impression in your mind.]
Dr. MEI delivered her prepared lines: [Prometheus referenced Bronya Zaychik, while I referenced Raiden Mei. And considering your relationship with Miss Kiana, we coincidentally both excluded her, despite her leaving the deepest impression.]
[That's actually quite thoughtful.]
Fuli recalled the explanation from back then: [And then to prevent me from having cognitive errors, you deliberately made some changes to the appearance?]
[Precisely.]
[I understand.]
Fuli didn't comment further on that. [So your purpose for coming out is? Afraid the Host is lonely by himself and came specifically to chat?]
—By the way, if the Finality Coordinator System truly has an unknown origin, how does the Host plan to respond?
—Stay calm and react as things happen. A great man knows when to yield and when not to. That's about all I can do right now.
Recalling the conversation Fuli had with Prometheus about the system's origins, Dr. MEI's smile was very intriguing.
Pushing up her glasses with a finger that seemed carved from porcelain, she said: [Does the Host intend to just wait bitterly here?]
Fuli was serious: [Holding the line with the goal of persisting until reinforcements arrive.]
[There's no need for us to swap concepts through wordplay.]
After emphasizing their relationship of living and dying together, Dr. MEI cut straight to the point: [Pardon my bluntness, but why is the Host so certain that there will actually be reinforcements? Simply because the Third Eruption in the previous cycle occurred on March 28, 2014, at 14:07:48?]
[Yes.]
[If that's all, then I suggest the Host prepare more for how to escape the dragnet laid by the enemy later.]
Dr. MEI sighed slightly: [Individual strength is still too insignificant compared to a behemoth like Anti-Entropy. Ten minutes is enough for the opponent to seal this last Utopia watertight.]
[Too bad. They are the ones surrounded.]
Fuli closed his eyes to rest, completely unmoved.
Seeing his attitude of "a dead pig isn't afraid of boiling water," Dr. MEI furrowed her cool, alluring brows.
She didn't dislike stubbornness, because it was a necessary quality for becoming strong.
But she disliked those without self-awareness. The current situation clearly indicated that the occurrence of the Third Eruption was inextricably linked to Cocolia and Raiden Mei.
She didn't believe Fuli couldn't see this; otherwise, he wouldn't have repeatedly asked Yuya about their purpose in Nagazora City back at the Raiden Tower.
Or has psychological trauma forced him to become extreme in this regard?
Considering that Fuli had experienced the Third Eruption fully as an ordinary person and his subsequent pathological obsession with becoming strong, this wasn't too hard to understand.
Dr. MEI wouldn't treat his experience in the Great Eruption of Nagazora as trivial just because Fuli spoke of it lightly. Her prototype—Dr. MEI of the Fire Moth—had also experienced the Third Eruption of the Previous Era. Possessing that memory, she understood far better than Prometheus what kind of purgatory that was.
Thinking of this, she sighed faintly, her gaze toward the boy taking on a touch of pity and softness.
Try to persuade this child again.
She thought, and was about to speak.
"My patience has a limit!"
A high-pitched female voice suppressing anger suddenly echoed in the enclosed space 80 meters underwater.
It was Cocolia.
God knows what Kiana talked about with her, but her patience had been worn down to the breaking point, and her words had become incredibly manic.
"Warning you one last time! Hand over Raiden Mei and Bronya, and I promise to let you leave safely!"
"Laughable."
Fuli was not polite at all in clapping back: "If you were Zhu Yunwen, would you think Zhu Di was very supportive of you stripping away the feudal lords' power, and then brought over a hundred thousand troops outside Yingtian City to hand over military power?"
Kiana also shouted in support: "That's right, that's right! This is like Li Shimin telling Li Yuan 'Trick or Treat' if he doesn't give up the Tang Dynasty! Sima Zhao's intent is known to everyone on the street!"
Mei whispered a reminder: "Is that earlier analogy really appropriate here?"
"This Miss is saying we are her daddy!"
"You!"
Cocolia was furious.
Bronya raised her eyelids to glance at the loudly shouting Kiana. She thought to herself that Cocolia-mama had secretly contacted her just now, saying this white-haired dumpling would cooperate to ambush Fuli and the others.
Now it seemed the negotiations had collapsed?
"There is no need to talk."
Noticing the little girl's gaze, Kiana's tone was firm. "If I betrayed my friends for intelligence on my smelly dad, he wouldn't recognize me as his daughter!"
Just like that, the group ignored Cocolia's spewing of fragrant words (curses) and continued to wait for the scheduled time.
Time flew like a white horse passing a crevice. With each tick of the second hand, the time on the watch finally stopped at 14:07:48, the exact moment the Third Eruption broke out in the previous cycle.
Quiet.
Silent.
In Nagazora City, nothing happened.
...