The southern coast of Shenzhou in the Imaginary Tree's Proper World, at the sweltering Suxing International Airport around noon.
Amidst the bustling crowd of disembarking passengers, two exceptionally eye-catching young people stepped off the jet bridge, entering the terminal one after the other. Their relationship seemed a bit subtle. They weren't as intimate as a passionately in-love couple, but their equally matched, ultra-high attractiveness was enough to draw plenty of turning heads.
The girl in front walked briskly, while the boy trailing behind was much more leisurely, yet miraculously always managed to keep pace with her.
The First Eruption occurred in the mid-20th century. The resulting spatial tremors caused several city-sized bubble-worlds to float up from the depths of the Sea of Quanta and come into contact with various nations in the Proper World.
At that time, Shenzhou was in a difficult period of internal and external strife. Moreover, since they weren't prone to randomly committing massacres, once they confirmed that these newly appeared territories and their native human inhabitants didn't want war either, they set about formulating a rather special set of policies.
Generally speaking, they functioned similarly to modern-day Special Administrative Regions (SARs), differing from the mainland in terms of law and administration.
However, as Honkai phenomena became increasingly prominent and population pressure mounted, these bubble-worlds—which had originally been treated with caution—were gradually integrated into the map and connected to the mainland under the guise of newly developed land. A massive influx of Shenzhou citizens poured in to work and settle, allowing them to develop just like any ordinary city.
Jigui City was one such metropolis born from a bubble-world.
It had surfaced right near the mouth of the Pearl River. Seizing a uniquely advantageous geographical position amidst the wave of maritime trade and globalization, it gained massive developmental opportunities.
Top Ten Cleanest Cities in the Nation, Top 100 GDP Cities, The Safest City in the World... Wreathed in countless halos, Jigui City's reputation spread far and wide, making it a dazzling star renowned across the globe.
However, compared to these official titles, the city was truly famous among the populace for only one characteristic.
"What do they mean, 'a city characterized by its rat-race and overtime culture'?" Fuli, trailing behind Yunli, complained. "Honestly, is there any city above Tier-2 in this country that isn't caught in a ridiculous rat-race?"
As everyone knows, Labor Law has numerous merits: an eight-hour workday; in principle, a maximum of one hour of overtime per day; no more than 36 hours of overtime per month; 150% pay for regular overtime, and 300% on holidays. By global standards, these are incredibly generous benefits and subsidies.
But Labor Law also has one universally acknowledged flaw: absolutely none of the aforementioned merits are actually enforced.
"Don't generalize," Yunli shot him a dissatisfied glare from the front. "Our Artisanship Commission on the Zhuming has always treated its craftsmen very well!"
"You're the apple of General Huaiyan's eye, and you're famous for having a notoriously blunt temper. Most importantly, you don't hold an official administrative position. Do you really think the middle managers beneath you would actually let you see the miserable 007-grind reality of the frontline craftsmen?" Fuli replied matter-of-factly.
The girl opened her mouth to argue, only to find that his words actually made total sense. Thus, she grew silently sullen, pulled a grumpy kitten face, and turned her head away while speeding up her pace.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Watching her back, Fuli pulled out his phone to check the Hyperion Family group chat. A moment later, he sighed helplessly.
They hadn't been separated for long, yet Bronya and Kiana were already showing off their battle results.
Bronya's initial mission was to rescue a drowning manga artist named Takahashi. In return, the artist gave her a signed, out-of-print deck that was said to be capable of summoning the Divine-Beast type Egyptian Gods.
Kiana's mission was a bit more complicated: investigating a serialized murder cold case involving Honkai elements. With the shrewd and capable Topaz as her teammate, the case was cracked fairly quickly. Long story short: A reclusive web novel author suddenly died from staying up late grinding out chapters. His readers, completely unaware, flooded the comment section cursing him for dropping the story. Unexpectedly, the author's soul didn't dissipate after death. He tried countless times to hit the keyboard to explain, but couldn't interact with reality. His resentment continuously built up until he corrupted into a Ghost Zombie.
The sheer absurdity of the messages—absurdity opening the door for more absurdity—left Fuli dumbfounded. He couldn't help but marvel at the bizarre wonders of the universe.
This was also one of the reasons Yunli was in a bad mood. Everyone was essentially Critical-class. Even if she, a limit-breaker, was just a tiny bit stronger than them, wasn't there something fundamentally wrong with this vague-ass mission prompt on her panel: "Main Mission: Investigate the Truth Behind the Involuted Rat-Race of Jigui City"?
Capitalists being inhuman scum—what other 'truth' could there possibly be to this?
If this lady just slaughters all of them later, won't the mission automatically complete itself? The girl was sharpening her metaphorical knives, her greatsword practically vibrating with bloodlust.
"I'm not against you taking action, but it's best not to oversimplify things." Having spent a long time with Yunli-cat in his previous life, Fuli naturally knew that smoothing her fur down was the most effective method when she was pissed.
He leaned in cheerfully. "The Matrix of Prescience assigns missions based on everyone's specific circumstances. Since it gave this task to you, it means there's definitely a corresponding level of danger lurking behind it."
Just like how the mission to "Repel Jingliu" was assigned to Fuli. He was the only person on the entire Luofu who possessed the perfect combination of timing, location, and interpersonal dynamics to snag those 20,000 points.
"True." Yunli found that reasonable. Honkai manifested in countless forms, far beyond just Honkai Beasts and Zombies. In fact, those two were the easiest to deal with, because if you kill a monster, it dies. As for other manifestations—war, plagues, natural disasters, comet impacts, or even the descent of mecha-gods—each was deadlier than the last.
The two stopped at their agreed-upon rendezvous point—a pavilion near the airport exit. Yunli stood on her tiptoes, looking around. "That Anna girl said we'd meet here, right? Where is she?"
"Fu-Fu-Old— Mr. Fuli! Miss Yunli! I'm over here!"
A slightly youthful, melodious voice quickly responded. They looked toward the sound and saw a beautiful, Herrscher-class girl with soft chestnut hair and pink eyes running toward them, holding onto her fluffy beret as she jogged.
Even though it was late September, Jigui City's subtropical monsoon climate kept the environment oppressively hot and humid. However, with Anna's arrival, the surrounding air seemed to instantly cool and freshen, involuntarily relaxing the Fuli-Yunli duo's expressions.
Anna Schariac, a member of The Stars' Unspoken Song team alongside Asta. Her mission was entirely identical to Yunli's, so she had specifically rushed over to group up with the Come, Sweet Misery team.
"It's been a while, Anna." Fuli greeted her happily. He was no longer plotting how to copy the future Herrscher of Ice's Stigmata, but at the end of the day, she was still one of the Hyperion's financial backers.
"Oh, you know her. That makes things a lot easier." Yunli shot him a sidelong glance, completely failing to understand why literally everyone this guy knew was a beautiful girl.
"I'll follow your orders carefully, you two! Please assign me any tasks you need!" Entering her Valkyrie mode, Anna bowed earnestly. She looked soft and gentle, but she would never hesitate when it was time to throw down. Compared to being forced into her role as a Schicksal Senator, the girl clearly identified far more with her identity as a warrior.
Follow your orders... Basically, that means she's opting out of using her brain. Yunli scratched her head and cast her gaze toward the only male present, her eyes asking what they should do next.
Recalling the intelligence they gathered before arriving, Fuli was just about to speak: "We'll—"
"Aiyo! If it isn't the three young heroes who have traveled from afar!" An overly enthusiastic—almost voice-cracking—shout interrupted his words.
The teens looked over to see several men in sharp suits walking briskly toward them. Leading the pack was a pot-bellied middle-aged man. He rushed forward in quick strides and reached out to shake hands with Yunli, who looked like the team leader. The artisan maiden nimbly sidestepped backward, grabbing Anna and hiding behind Fuli.
The man didn't miss a beat. He smoothly grasped the boy's hand and pumped it up and down. "Welcome, welcome! I'm Zongzheng, the official in charge of Jigui City! We warmly welcome you three young heroes to our city for an inspection!"
Ugh, the sheer greasy sleaziness rolling off this guy! Fuli was internally revolted, but externally, he plastered on an equally enthusiastic smile. "Thank you, Mr. Zongzheng! We juniors are new here and didn't even know where to begin! You're an absolute lifesaver!"
"Oh, please, don't mention it! By the way, we've already prepared a welcoming banquet for you all." Zongzheng's smile grew even more radiant as he stepped aside and made an inviting gesture. "You must be exhausted from your journey. Let's get you something to eat and let you rest. Work can wait! No rush, no rush at all!"
Faced with the local high-ranking officials' seemingly proactive cooperation, the trio naturally had no reason to refuse.
They hopped into a luxury private car and were taken to an opulently decorated restaurant, where they enjoyed an overly lavish feast. After eating and drinking their fill, they were dropped off at the best hotel in the city. They were given separate presidential suites equipped with all the amenities. After a thorough sweep, they found zero surveillance devices—perhaps the other party had heard of their reputations and didn't dare pull anything cheap.
Having taken a shower, Fuli lay on the massive, soft bed, staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling.
"This isn't normal."
"It definitely isn't."
The moment the words fell, he felt the mattress dip beside him. Turning his head, he saw that Yunli had slipped in at some point and was sitting on the edge of the bed. Her slender, beautiful feet casually bobbed the disposable slippers up and down. Her round toes were as distinct as pearls, and faint blue veins were barely visible beneath almost translucent skin, weaving into an alluring network.
Seriously, how does she keep them so well-maintained when she runs around barefoot all day?
Fuli retracted his gaze. With a thought, his Shadow-Trailing Sword formed into a giant hand and popped open the window, allowing a light figure to flip inside.
Seeing everyone assembled, Fuli sat up and cut to the chase. "During dinner, I tried talking to those execs. They're incredibly wary of us. No matter what I asked, they just deflected with corporate Tai Chi."
"I think... that's actually fairly normal," the angelic Anna raised her hand to speak. After a half-year stint in the Schicksal Senate, she had clearly accumulated plenty of experience dealing with politicians. "Every place has its own little cliques. Jigui City's special policies practically make it an independent kingdom. Being highly defensive against outside forces suddenly barging in is just standard procedure."
"But the problem is, how did they know exactly when we'd arrive?" Yunli furrowed her pretty brows. "In theory, only the assignees and teammates on the same mission are supposed to know the details issued by the Matrix of Prescience."
"That's not too strange either," Fuli analyzed. "The Wardance is a massive event. People at their level can't possibly be out of the loop. Plus, we didn't exactly hide our identities when we arrived. Two Critical-class powerhouses and a Schicksal Senator showing up at the same time? Anyone with a halfway decent political nose would realize something was up."
"But they definitely still don't know the exact details of the mission," Anna added. "Otherwise, they wouldn't have kept probing for information during the banquet."
"Argh! So annoying!" Yunli scratched her head in frustration. "Can't we just jump straight to violence? Beat those slippery old geezers one by one until they spill their guts?"
Enemies! Kill! Enemies! Smash!
"You don't slap a smiling face. They're currently wining and dining us and smiling the whole time. Attacking them in broad daylight would be an absolute PR disaster," Fuli shook his head. "Besides, we can't guarantee our mission is actually connected to them. What if they're literally just hissing at strangers to protect their turf? They're all fifty- or sixty-something old men. I'd feel kinda bad if we beat up the wrong guys."
Anna quietly chimed in from the side: "What Mr. Fuli means is: we can't do it in broad daylight, so we should go ambush them with a sack of doorknobs in the middle of the night."
Throw a stone into a crowd, and only the one who gets hit will scream.
Seeing the three of them arrive, if anyone among the higher-ups was truly connected to a mastermind, they would definitely make a move tonight. Be it online, in reality, or even through bizarre Honkai abilities—as long as they moved, they would leave a trace.
Yunli looked at him like he was crazy. "Hold on. We arrive with massive fanfare during the day, and then an exec gets brutally mugged in the middle of the night? Doesn't that explicitly scream we did it?!"
"That's just a guess. There's no hard evidence." Fuli shrugged. "As long as it's not out in the open, they could be grinding their teeth in pure hatred, but they'd still have to pretend nothing happened."
He flashed a grin. "After all, our average age is under twenty. Heavily armed teenagers aren't corporate slaves burdened with mortgages, car loans, bride prices, and families to feed. If we act on impulse, we literally will draw blades and start killing."
"More importantly than that." The boy pulled out his personal terminal again. "Come watch this video."
The girls exchanged a glance and curiously gathered around. The video's content wasn't complex. It was a news interview clip featuring a reporter from an authoritative media outlet on the streets of Jigui City, asking citizens about their views on the rat-race and overtime.
In the video, whether it was office workers in suits, blue-collar workers in uniforms, or even clerks at street-side shops—when facing the camera, every single one of them smiled genuinely and spoke eloquently. They expressed how much they loved their jobs and enjoyed the grind. Not a single trace of resentment or exhaustion could be seen on their faces.
The reporter then randomly interviewed more people—from innocent kindergarteners to a seventy-three-year-old street cleaner. Almost everyone's face radiated a pure, distilled sense of positivity. It was so uncanny that just watching it triggered a bizarre wave of nausea and discomfort in Yunli and Anna.
It was as if... they genuinely enjoyed this high-intensity, fast-paced, hours-of-daily-overtime, no-holidays bullshit rat-race existence?
Anna asked tentatively, "Was this interview really completely random?"
"It wasn't a pre-arranged script," Fuli said, answering the girl's underlying question with absolute certainty. "This is a report from Xinhua News Agency. Before coming here, I even managed to track down the reporter in the video to confirm there was no fabrication."
"Something's wrong! Ten parts wrong out of ten!" Yunli decreed.
She didn't deny that some people genuinely loved their jobs. She, for example, could forge divine weapons for days and nights without shutting her eyes. However, the reality was that for the vast majority of wage slaves, being exhausted the moment they clocked in was the normal state of affairs.
Randomly interviewing so many citizens from different industries and age groups, only to find zero negative emotions on their faces? It was like they had been subjected to mass brainwashing!
"It's about time." Glancing out the window at the bright moon and sparse stars, Fuli stood up. "Before coming here, I pulled some strings to get the home addresses of the local execs. What do you think? Who should we 'visit' first?"
"That Zongzheng guy!" Yunli said without hesitation, clearly still holding a massive grudge over the sleazy uncle trying to hold her hand.
She pulled out three delicate, palm-sized dolls. The three of them each injected a trace of Honkai energy into one. Almost instantly, the dolls morphed into perfect body doubles.
After arranging the clones in their respective rooms to make it look like they were sleeping, Fuli "dual-wielded" Yunli and Anna, activated Lan's Form and Presence Concealment, and ghosted into the boundless night. After a few bounds, the trio arrived at a high-end residential complex inside the Second Ring Road, stopping on the roof of a mansion with a private courtyard.
The sensory domain of Cold River Reflecting the Moon silently expanded, meticulously scanning the house below.
"Only his wife and child are home," Anna whispered. "Like you said: throw a stone into a crowd, and only the one who gets hit screams."
For the man to have been so eager to greet them at the airport and accompany them the whole time, he was either guilty as sin, or operating under a mastermind's orders.
Yunli threw her hands up and looked at Fuli. "The guy's gone. What now?"
"This is exactly when our omnipotent Miss Yunli steps up to show off her skills!" Fuli immediately buttered her up.
"Hmph, glad you know your place!" The girl smirked upon landing. Just as she was about to pull out one of her Baiye-crafted magical gadgets...
"Eh? But can't Mr. Fuli make those... um, magical Vivre Cards?" The angelic Anna helpfully pointed out. "Since this is Mr. Zongzheng's house, it should be super easy to find a stray hair or some dead skin cells, right?"
Hissss! This girl was perfect in every way, except she was sometimes completely oblivious to reading the room. Fuli thought bitterly as he glanced sideways at Yunli.
Sure enough, the girl pouted in displeasure. "Fine, just use your little life card thing."
Ah, missed the affection points window on that one. Helpless, Fuli could only do as told. He focused his mind and quickly gathered enough biological material from the mansion to craft four pristine white paper cards. Two cards pointed inside the house—clearly pointing to Zongzheng's beautiful wife and child. The other two pointed east and west, respectively.
Unable to tell which was the real target, the trio decided to check the eastern marker first. A few minutes later, they arrived at a luxury apartment and found a remarkably handsome young man.
A handsome young man... who frequently appeared in another man's house...
The three of them exchanged glances, their eyes filled with a sudden, collective dawn of understanding and profound pity. They immediately turned around and sped off toward the western marker.
This time, the Vivre Card led them to a semi-underground bar. The bar ostensibly only had two floors, but Fuli's 3D topographical map confirmed there was a hidden space forged from pure alloy below.
Being a very considerate person, Fuli didn't interrupt the patrons' fun. He merely cast a silent immobilization spell, completely freezing every non-allied entity in the venue weaker than himself. Then, he walked up to the entrance leading to the third basement level.
BOOM!
He politely raised his foot and instantly pulverized the alloy door, which had been sturdy enough to rival a bank vault.
Amidst the billowing dust, Fuli spotted a panicked figure desperately trying to hide. Before Fuli even had to lift a finger, Anna effortlessly knocked out the professional bodyguards rushing toward them.
"I think we can sit down and have a proper chat, Mr. Zongzheng." Fuli raised his hand, and the emotional compass symbolizing the Clockwork trick materialized in his palm.
"I hope you can answer my questions truthfully. Otherwise, I might have to resort to some unconventional methods to jog your memory." The boy decided to be polite before getting physical. "For example, giving you a very special enema using a non-Newtonian fluid. The kind where, if you strain on the toilet, absolutely nothing comes out—but the moment you relax your sphincter to walk normally, it uncontrollably oozes everywhere."
"I imagine that would be quite an unforgettable experience."
He fully embraced the philosophy of: As long as I have zero morals, I never have to worry about being morally blackmailed.