Bronya raised her small, soft, slender hand. "Project Bunny, fire the Particle Dispersal EMP rounds."
The loyal steel knight stepped forward at her command, and several projectiles resembling missiles roared out, rushing in all directions.
These Particle Dispersal EMP rounds released Mihoyo Particles into the air. Due to their property of carrying a massive electric charge, upon contact with metal objects, they acted like a continuous electromagnetic pulse (EMP), interfering with or even destroying unprotected electronic components.
"No matter what means are used to control it, even if misleading terms like 'activation' are used, a battleship is essentially a mechanical construct."
Bronya casually spat out the chewing gum she had been gnawing on. Across the narrow metal corridor, a [Kheshig Skirmisher], who had been separated from the main unit by her maneuvers, charged forward brandishing a scimitar.
The moment the gum stuck to this C-Rank combatant—
BOOM!
With a loud blast, the bomb, heated to its limit, vaporized both man and armor into ash.
The girl continued, "As long as it is a mechanical construct, it will inevitably be interfered with by Mihoyo Particles, causing significant lag in its actions."
"Geez, Bronya, what are you muttering to yourself for over there?"
"Cyka Blyat!"
The girlish scolding coming through the headset made Bronya momentarily breathless.
Wasn't she rambling all this just to let Kiana, who was on the other side of the cruise ship, know not to worry about the environment shifting in the enemy's favor? Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!
However, this time, Bronya decided not to hold it against her.
After the Fog Capital event ended, Fuli had not only used long-distance comms to vividly describe the twists and turns of the adventure to the girls who stayed on the ship, but he also specifically sent over the description of the A-Rank passive skill, [Extra Ability: Command].
The transcendent effect of 100% critical hit rate on basic attacks made Bronya sit up straight on the spot. According to Kiana, that little wolf pup wanted nothing more than to stick directly to Master Fuli right then and there. Never mind warming his bed or washing his feet—once she reached legal age, she probably wouldn't hesitate for a second to drag him to the bridal chamber.
For a combatant who relied on heavy firepower as her primary means of attack, the effect of [Extra Ability: Command] wasn't just a qualitative change; it was an all-around crushing advantage against enemies of the same rank and type.
Then again, according to Russian law, if both parties are only children, the legal marriage age can be lowered to 14...
Of course, with Fuli's unscrupulous personality, he naturally used [Extra Ability: Command] to tease Kiana as well.
The Kaslana Gun Kata actually included the operation of heavy weapons. Or rather, with the modern development of the Kaslana clan, this technique had gradually transformed into an encyclopedia for manipulating all kinds of weaponry.
Unfortunately, it was rejected by Kiana-loss-la. In her words, "If I use heavy weapons, wouldn't this young lady's setting overlap with Bronya's?!"
Yes, very consistent with that girl's goofy brain circuitry.
...
Floating in mid-air, Bronya drifted past the wreckage of the Kheshig Skirmisher and, remembering something, added, "Asta."
"I-I'm here!"
"Bronya promised you earlier that if I saw a dark-skinned boy with white hair, I would save his life."
The girl's tone was flat. "But if he is already dead when we meet, you still have to pay half of that one hundred million Crystals."
"No problem!"
Asta answered decisively.
Earlier, when Arlan went out to bait the enemy, the young miss had specifically given him her proudest stealth item.
[Name: Phantom of the Opera]
[Rank: C]
[Category: Item]
[Effect: The evening gown of the Phantom of the Opera allows one to blend naturally into the environment. Its cloak assimilates with shadows, granting the wearer ghost-like, elusive power.]
[Note: "My journey is from Wenzhou to Canada!"]
This item was what Asta relied on when sneaking out to play. Its effects were top-tier even among C-Rank items. With its help, Arlan's chances of survival would undoubtedly increase significantly.
"Good."
Bronya hung up the call with satisfaction. A series of explosions soon echoed from the distance.
"Then let's get moving too."
On the other side of the comms, Kiana extended her hand to Asta, who was kneeling on the ground. "By the way, why are those Kheshig troops so obsessed with you?"
As she asked, she expanded her [Tango Sickle], creating an invisible domain with herself as the center and establishing a complex acoustic detection channel.
This thing could not only detect enemy movements within the domain but also judge whether Asta was lying by listening to her heartbeat.
Once separated from her "external brain" (Bronya), the Kaslana intelligence immediately occupied the high ground.
When Kiana got sharp, she wouldn't just blindly obey someone because they were pretty and paid well.
Sure, looking at the Gluttony's Blood Feast, it was obvious the other side wasn't good news. But what if this was just a case of dog-eat-dog?
Worried about her companion's safety, Asta didn't want to waste time here. She asked tentatively, "Can we talk while we walk?"
"That works for me."
Dead or alive, finding Arlan would earn her another fifty million Crystals.
The competitive Kiana didn't plan on ceding the credit to Bronya. That milky furball should stop trying to get close to Fuli and go sit at the kindergarten table where she belongs!
She flipped her hands, and the [Moon Goddess's Protection] and [Galactic Baseball Bat] appeared in her left and right palms respectively.
"Follow me!"
With a low shout, she charged toward the nearest small squad of Kheshig.
"Bloom, Twilight Blessing!"
"With this fire, sever all!"
Gunshots, roars, and the sound of cutting echoed through the corridor. The situation was essentially a one-sided massacre.
As they say, knowing shame inspires courage. After being crushed by Durandal three months ago, Kiana had been training incredibly hard.
Coupled with top-tier equipment for her level and the recently awakened Stigmata of the Void, it took only a few minutes for the girl to scatter and annihilate the small squad led by two B-Rank Kheshig Guards and fifteen C-Rank Skirmishers.
Her slender foot, clad in a bladed high heel, stomped ruthlessly onto a Guard's chest to deliver the final blow. Wearing a jacket over her White Comet battlesuit, Kiana turned her head. "I see. So they're after the cargo you're carrying."
"Y-Yes..."
Asta, who had truthfully explained the situation during the fight, smiled awkwardly. She felt Kiana's gaze on her was a bit off—giving a strong sense of "Look toward the money, look toward the thick stacks!" and "If conscience and morality hinder me from getting rich, I'll replace them with luxury cars and beauties!"
Thinking about it, it made sense. Precious cargo that required the personal escort of a Corporation Director's daughter and attracted a massive enemy blockade... its value definitely couldn't be measured by a mere two hundred million Crystals reward.
Furthermore, Asta hadn't forgotten that during the Council of Elders meeting three months ago, she, the Fourth Councillor, had cast a "Yes" vote on the motion [Should the Council mobilize fully to crusade against the Hyperion].
Yes, theoretically, only the twelve involved parties plus Otto and Amber knew about this. But facing Kiana, a member of the Hyperion—she... she felt guilty as hell!
Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump!
The heartbeat transmitted back through the Sickle suddenly accelerated, making Kiana realize Asta was in a state of extreme tension.
She sighed and offered comfort. "My surname is Kaslana."
Kaslana. The origin and practitioners of chivalry, the Shield of the People.
For a thousand years, countless poets had crowned this clan with words of praise, for they were born with a sense of justice and spirit of sacrifice that matched those accolades.
Kiana stating her name meant she wouldn't do anything contrary to the Kaslana creed, nor would she engage in murder and robbery. Asta could rest assured.
And Asta's reaction to this?
She got even more nervous!
The Kaslanas are the Shield of the People; they protect the common folk.
And she, Asta Fleming, the eldest daughter of the IPC Director, the daughter of a capitalist who exploits the common people, a prime candidate for the VIP seat hanging from a lamp post... in ancient times, she would be the primary target for a Kaslana hero to rob in order to feed the poor!
Talk about a conflict of interest!
"Um, well, Miss Kiana."
The pink-haired girl swallowed hard, her movements stiff yet revealing a trace of cuteness. "Actually, the cargo I'm transporting is indeed very precious. However, due to its inherent nature, selling it or liquidating it is a huge problem."
In other words: Don't rob me; even if you do, you can't sell it.
She shouldn't have said that. As soon as she did, Kiana's interest was piqued instead.
The girl asked, "What is it then?"
Asta said cautiously, "An Imaginary Collapse Gravity Bomb."
Imaginary Collapse Gravity Bomb. Core kill radius: 20 kilometers. Upon detonation, it generates hyper-gravity within 0.000001 seconds, reaching an intensity about 7.4 times the gravity produced by the sun's mass. Subsequently, it leaves behind a semi-permanent hyper-gravity field.
Its power is enough to shatter the earth's crust, triggering global earthquakes and localized mega-tsunamis. It is a planet-grade, realm-grade weapon of the same specification as the magic cannon Genesis mounted on the Hyperion. In the past, Baiheng, one of the High-Cloud Quintet of Shenzhou, used it to perish together (though the latter didn't die) with the invading divine authority, the [Twin Emperors Shuhu].
"Holy crap!"
Kiana sucked in a breath of cold air. "You dare sell that kind of thing? Is everyone in your company insane?"
"It's not like we sell them often! Otherwise, we wouldn't have been targeted this time..."
Asta scratched her hair, sounding a bit lacking in confidence when she said "not often."
"But this thing is mainly for deterrence. The buyer is a small country in World Bubble 0121."
She gestured with her hands, her pink side-ponytail bouncing. "That country is currently facing an invasion from extraterrestrial visitors. They just wanted a trump card for mutual destruction, to make the enemy hesitate."
"Like how Saudi Arabia went to Shenzhou in the 80s to buy the Dongfeng series to make Saddam think twice, huh?"
Kiana, who frequently scrolled through TikTok and Bilibili, understood immediately. Her eyes shone with an excessive, lustrous light. "What about the other one?"
"Huh?"
Asta blinked, not understanding what she meant.
The information transmitted back by the Sickle told Kiana the other party wasn't lying. She furrowed her shapely brows. "The spatial device you're carrying—there are two high-energy reactions inside."
After awakening the Void Stigmata, ordinary spatial masking couldn't hide anything from the girl's beautiful heterochromatic eyes of gold and azure.
"N-No, that can't be!"
Asta flusteredly checked her spatial device but found nothing after searching for a long time.
"Let me."
A small hand, lustrous as jade, snatched the spatial device away. After rummaging through it, she pulled something out like a magic trick.
It was a small falcon sealed in an amber-like substance. Its wings were curled up, its body was pure white, and its sharp claws left no doubt they could sever gold and iron.
And those eagle eyes—
"It! It's blinking!"
Kiana poked the amber in surprise, then made a funny face at the little guy inside. "It's alive? Your spatial device doesn't look like it can store living things. Is this amber layer doing the trick?"
"The Eternal Gyrfalcon!"
Asta evidently recognized the species of the falcon. She leaned against the wall, muttering to herself, "No wonder it attracted the Kheshig."
Mönkh Tengeri—the highest deity in Mongolian mythology. Because the Mongols regarded the blue sky as the eternal god, they called it the Eternal Heaven (Tengri).
And the Eternal Gyrfalcon (Haitongqing) was the Eternal Heaven's most cherished pet, as well as the symbol of the steppe people.
Asta had originally thought the Kheshig were sent by the mastermind, and she had even pinned the blame on a shareholder within the company who possessed Golden Family lineage.
Now it seemed the Kheshig were simply reclaiming the kidnapped symbol of their people, having sensed it and come voluntarily to retrieve it.
"Your company's internal strife is pretty intense."
Kiana clicked her tongue in wonder. Since Asta could broadcast a distress signal to a wide area, she certainly would have found a way to leave a message before dying.
If she had died without the truth coming to light, her mother would have interpreted the message and treated the Golden Family as enemies. While the two sides fought in darkness, the real mastermind could have sat back and watched the tigers fight from the mountain.
However, despite saying this, Kiana didn't feel any guilt about killing the 'innocent' Kheshig. The moment she learned these people had set up the Gluttony's Blood Feast, the girl had already sentenced them to death in her heart.
Kiana's only worry was this: If the real mastermind wanted to solidify the narrative of [Kheshig attacks Asta], they would definitely send someone to wipe out the Kheshig troops who had 'completed the mission' afterward.
That was an elite force of 3 A-Ranks, over a dozen B-Ranks, and dozens of C-Ranks. To wipe them out completely without leaving a trace, the enemy would have to dispatch at least a "Critical" (Limit) level combatant.
"Bronya! Did you hear that!"
"I've been listening the whole time."
The silver-haired girl's voice on the other end of the headset was laced with a bit of confusion. "More importantly, Bronya is curious about who switched Kiana's personality."
"Huh? Why?"
"Your IQ has spiked unreasonably high, to the point where one suspects you are cheating."
"Hey! This young lady has always been sharp as a tack, okay!"
Kiana shouted, then her voice turned serious. "Anyway, watch out for a sneak attack from an unknown Critical-level enemy. If this young lady's guess is right, he should already be on this ship!"
Don't ask; it's just the Kaslana's defied-logic intuition.
"It doesn't matter."
Bronya sounded calm and breezy. "The arrival of a Critical-level enemy was already within Bronya's calculations. Just proceed according to the plan discussed earlier."
"Who can remember over a hundred contingency plans?! Hello? Hello?"
The complaining Tuna realized the other side had already hung up.
She scratched her long, straight white hair—the hair Fuli constantly pined for—and said with annoyance:
"Whatever. Basically, if we meet an enemy we can't beat, lure them to the deck, right? Fine! Let's go with that!"
...