Mount Isa City.
Deep within the human-occupied zone, at the headquarters of the "Cyclops" Special Reinforced Regiment.
The "Gultopp," an ultra-heavy vehicle over a hundred meters in length, serving simultaneously as a land cruiser and a "Divine Machine" landing ship, was parked in the center of the ruins.
"Pisses me right off!"
A furious voice echoed within the mobile base.
A long table, spotlights, twelve chairs (not all occupied), and in front of the table, the massive shadow of a figure cast onto the wall-mounted map on either side—this constituted the entire scene in the conference room.
"You bunch of scumbags!"
The owner of the shadow, a "giant" whose muscles threatened to burst his combat uniform, sporting the buzz cut of the strong where no grass grows, the strap of a black eyepatch slanting across a face not much brighter in color, and standing at least two meters tall, slammed a fist onto the long table before him.
"Dong!"
The metal table, sturdy enough to serve as a riot shield, was directly imprinted with a clear fist mark.
"I just fainted… took a little nap for 10 minutes."
"Just 10 minutes!"
The giant raised his clay-pot-sized fist, which had just punched through the metal table, into the air. The loud crack of his knuckles was like New Year's firecrackers, reverberating repeatedly in the sealed conference room.
"And you good-for-nothings managed to lose the 'Heimdall'!"
"Heimer, you piece of… SHIT!"
The giant's name was Kuklops, commander of the "Cyclops" special forces regiment. Heimer, the one he called out to but who didn't respond, was the vice-commander and tech advisor of this unit. He was also the pilot who had brought the Divine Machine back after Kuklops's "Heimdall" was heavily damaged by the Knight Captain.
Simply put.
He was the "Pilot" K.O.'d inside the Heimdall, whom Lu Xing never even saw.
Kuklops didn't continue.
Although the giant was irascible, someone who could sit in this position was definitely not brainless.
The dead are to be respected.
Moreover, Heimer's command at the time had been sound—the test subject encountered an unexpected situation, so he led the strongest combat power within the team (albeit freshly withdrawn from the front) to suppress it, and the weapons used were all chosen with the premise of ensuring no "property damage."
Honestly.
If Kuklops had been in command, he would have made the same choice.
That "SHIT" was merely Kuklops venting.
The atmosphere in the conference room became exceptionally silent, the low pressure lasting until Kuklops started cursing loudly again—
————
"We'll talk about the Heimdall later."
"But this!"
On the wall behind Kuklops, a not-very-clear projection managed to display some recorded images from the battlefield at that time.
Kuklops spread his hand, as large as a cattail leaf fan, and slapped it hard twice on a picture showing a pitch-black Ranger-class Honkai Beast.
"Someone explain to me."
"Why was our 'Heimdall' taken out by 'one' 'ordinary' Ranger-class?"
Kuklops's gaze shot straight to the end of the long table.
Sitting there was the chief secretary of the late Vice-Commander Heimer, attending a regiment headquarters meeting for the first time, and also the scribe with the highest "academic qualifications" present.
"Commander… that wasn't an ordinary Ranger-class, that was a Great Uni…"
Weak, listless.
This certainly wasn't the scribe's fault; even the veterans of the regiment headquarters, who had attended countless meetings, also chose to remain silent under Kuklops's roar.
"Do I f**king not recognize a Great Universe?!"
"Or are you going to tell me that this damn 'Great Universe,' in the Honkai Beasts' non-existent family tree, isn't classified under the Ranger-class category?"
"…"
The poor scribe chose silence.
Whether he answered yes or no, he would definitely be blasted by the commander who was currently fuming.
This young man, attending his first such meeting, finally had a deeper understanding of his direct superior's mental state after every meeting.
The conference room fell silent again, but this time, the quiet atmosphere didn't last long before being broken once more by Kuklops, who had finally calmed down a bit.
"Variant."
Kuklops's expression turned serious. Although his tone and decibel level were much lower, the sense of gravity and pressure emanating from his voice was far greater than before.
Kuklops pointed to the image behind him.
"This creature's intelligence is clearly higher than that of ordinary Honkai Beasts. Even the Sky King I once fought wouldn't employ such targeted tactics against human creations—the Great Universe is obviously quite familiar with the 'Divine Machine's' attack methods. This is definitely not a reaction an ordinary Honkai Beast could make."
"And this move."
Kuklops's thick finger swiped lightly across the wall.
"Honkai Lance Projection."
"The Floater-class's specialty, definitely not a move a Ranger-class could use… not even a Great Universe."
"All evidence indicates that this Ranger-class is a Variant."
"Based on this judgment, it makes sense that it would come to 'rescue' the Deadman that was about to 'awaken'—there are still many mysteries surrounding Variants, but they clearly possess some ability to communicate with each other."
"The problem is…"
Kuklops's sharp gaze swept across everyone present.
"How did it bypass layers of surveillance and find the test subject with such precision?"
————
The designation "Cyclops" wasn't chosen randomly.
It was Australia's only overt special operations unit against Honkai Beasts on the continent, and its internal members were quite complex.
Supporting their formidable combat strength was not just a fighting spirit that might or might not be "for humanity," but also a simpler goal:
"Money."
Money was needed to upgrade equipment, and equipment was needed to better survive. The logic in these chaotic times was just that simple and unadorned.
Therefore.
Acting as a spy once in a while to resell some "internal team assets" in "not very important" situations was completely commonplace for them—as long as it wasn't selling out comrades, it wasn't unacceptable.
Lu Xing's ability to easily penetrate deep into the controlled zone.
It wasn't entirely without the "spies" leading the way.
Although the intended clients of these "spies," by a strange twist of fate, had encountered a "tiny" (read: enormous) little problem.
As Kuklops's gaze swept across both sides of the table—
"Commander, you know me."
"If I were the spy, less than a quarter of us at this table would survive. Waiting until everyone, including you, is dead before taking the test subject, that's the most reliable method."
At the head of the long table.
A burly man with a full beard, his physique not much inferior to Kuklops's, spoke up.
"Commander, you know me."
"If I were…"
"Dong!!"
The dented metal table collapsed under a single punch.
"It's come to this, and you're still spouting that f**king intangible cultural heritage meme, huh?!"
Kuklops paused.
"I don't care who among you took money, whose money you took, or even if everyone took money from someone they knew about but pretended not to know."
"In short."
"Two 'Divine Machines' have been scrapped, less than half of the relevant test data for 'Heimdall' has been preserved. Our ostensible work has already been declared a failure."
"…"
"Yes, we all know, these things aren't important."
"But the most crucial test subject! The test subject actually collaborated with a Variant right under our noses to destroy Heimdall, and then brazenly slipped away!"
"The price for this mission was very high."
"If we fail… I think you all know the consequences."