"If the detection facilities in Nagazora aren't malfunctioning, the largest source of Honkai Energy contamination in the city should be somewhere around here..."
Tesla sat inside a mech, manipulating its arms to insert several different detection devices into the water.
"But this surge in Honkai Energy concentration has caused way too much damage. Half of Nagazora has turned to ruins outright, and at first glance, the other half looks like it's cosplaying Venice."
"Had I known this place would be such a pain to navigate, I would've brought Bella along this time..."
"No, Dr. Tesla, please, let's not do that."
Mei immediately shook her head. "You don't understand. Recently, for some reason, Sirin has gotten really into cooking, so she's been having Bella teach her."
"After each lesson, she makes us sample the results... If Bella came along this time, it'd just turn into another Sirin cooking session."
"Huh? What's so bad about that?" Tesla asked, puzzled.
"That's what I thought at first too." Mei seemed to have been holding this in for a long time, and the words spilled out in a rush to Tesla.
"When Sirin cooked for the first time, Bella and I resolved that no matter how it tasted, we'd clean our plates."
"But when I reached my chopsticks toward the crab on the plate... it grabbed them."
"Yikes—" Tesla sucked in a sharp breath.
"Suddenly, I'm glad Bella didn't come... Speaking of which, with Sirin cooking like that, didn't Kiana try to stop her?"
"Dr. Tesla, if it's Sirin cooking, at least the kitchen survives until the meal is done." Mei covered her face.
"If it were Kiana... just think back to last time she tried making bell pepper curry. I stepped out for ten minutes, and when I came back, the kitchen had been blasted sky-high."
"...You and Bella have it rough." Tesla fell silent for a moment, then shot Mei a deeply sympathetic look.
"It's fine. I'm used to it by now." Mei sighed. "Let's get back to the matter at hand, Doctor. In your opinion, is Nagazora's contamination..."
"Man-made."
Tesla answered without hesitation.
"If Sirin were here, she'd probably sense it clearly... the spatial conditions in this area show obvious signs of being covered up and disguised."
"Someone must have been conducting some kind of experiment here. Hard to say if it's Otto's doing or World Serpent's..."
"Well, well. You really are the lobster-head doctor the Rascal mentioned. I've been staring at this thing for days without a clue, and you figured it out just by testing the surrounding water and air."
Just then, a lively voice rang out from around them. In an instant, Mei felt her vision blur, and a petite-looking young girl appeared before her eyes.
The girl wore what seemed to be traditional Shenzhou-style clothing, standing atop a flying sword planted in the ground.
Her image immediately reminded Mei of someone—Cheng Lixue, who was practically glued to her master every day, both figuratively and literally.
But compared to Lixue, the sword intent radiating from this girl was noticeably sharper.
And as the girl appeared, the surrounding disguise shattered instantly, revealing a massive Imaginary Singularity hovering directly above them.
"Damn that Otto! He's the lobster-head! His whole family's lobster-heads!"
Clearly, even when not in Nagazora, Otto possessed a profound understanding of how to get under Tesla's skin.
"Uh... the Rascal said that, not me." Hearing the stream of coded expletives from Tesla, the corner of Sushang's mouth twitched, and she quickly distanced herself.
"I just owe him a life, so he asked me to keep an eye on these experimental instruments here. Don't worry, it won't be long. In a few hours, my agreed-upon time will be up, so..."
Sushang snapped her fingers. "How about we pretend we never saw each other and go our separate ways?"
"If I hadn't seen the purpose of this experiment, I might have actually agreed." The long blade in Mei's hand was already drawn.
"But... creating such a massive Imaginary Singularity above Nagazora is something no one could ignore, don't you think?"
"Sigh... I knew you'd say that." Sushang let out a sigh. "Fine then. Rest assured, I'll go easy on you... Li Sushang, head disciple of the Supreme Freedom Sect. I yield to you."
In that instant, a sky-blotting cascade of sword light descended with the girl's words, filling Mei's entire field of vision.
In truth, Sushang hadn't lied to either of them.
She genuinely had the capital to hold back against Mei—after all, Sushang's combat prowess was on a level where she could sit at the same table as an Awakened Herrscher.
But unfortunately... neither Mei nor Tesla knew that.
--+--
At the same time, not far from where Mei was fighting, a young girl with chestnut-colored long hair was gazing at her surroundings with a troubled expression.
That's right—it was Ana, who had left her squad to investigate alone.
However, unlike Anti-Entropy, which had spent a whole day scouting to pinpoint the problem, Ana had known the location of Otto's experiment from the very beginning.
So why did such a troubled look appear on the girl's face?
The answer was simple... she was lost.
Before coming, Ana had specifically downloaded an offline map of Nagazora from Schicksal's internal network and marked the experimental area, planning to check it out as soon as she disembarked from the transport.
But what Ana hadn't anticipated was that due to the natural disasters and water leakage caused by the Honkai, the entire Nagazora had become drastically different from the map she'd downloaded.
And the somewhat scatterbrained Miss Ana had completely failed to notice this until the map led her to a closed body of water and still insisted she move forward.
Only then did she realize something was off... right?
Well, judging by the girl's without hesitation action of starting to strip off her outerwear and armor, preparing for an impromptu cave dive, it seemed she hadn't noticed at all.
A few minutes later, Ana—who, having brought no diving gear, was forced to surface—gazed at her surroundings with a troubled look.
Only now was she certain that the map she'd downloaded... wasn't exactly reliable.
But fortunately, just as Ana was hesitating whether to dive again or turn back, the sound of thunder rumbling in the distance caught her attention.
If she remembered correctly, the intelligence shared by Anti-Entropy indicated that the Herrscher of Thunder was participating in this support operation.
So, the source of that thunderclap not far away was obvious.
"But is her combat presence really that intense? There shouldn't be any Emperor-class Honkai Beasts around here, right? Could it be... she's also discovered the experimental site?"
"Yikes—that's bad. I recall Li Sushang is, like me, an S-rank Valkyrie. And that Miss Mei probably isn't at that level yet, right?"
Realizing the situation might be taking a turn for the worse, Ana hastily put her armor back on and hurried toward the direction from which the thunder had come.
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.