There are 24 hours remaining until the "Great Eruption" breaks out in Nagazora.
...
How much hatred, how much resentment?
Is kidnapping really necessary?
Hua's mind raced. At school, she was just a "nobody," and she hadn't offended anyone.
"Get out of the car!"
"?"
At that moment, Hua and Carole realized the car had driven into an abandoned shipyard. Was this the kidnappers' "hideout"?
There was no one around. Were these few the only "kidnappers"? In the few seconds it took to get out of the car, Hua had already analyzed the situation.
And so...
"Run!"
She decisively grabbed Carole's wrist and ran into the distance. Not tying her hands was their biggest mistake.
Hmph, these "kidnappers" aren't professional at all.
The result was predictable. Before Hua and Carole could even run ten meters, Ryuga picked them up like little chicks, one in each hand, and brought them back.
"..."
Hua was stunned, hanging by her collar and not daring to move.
Her martial arts were completely useless against the man in front of her; she couldn't even withstand a single move.
Her powerful "Cannon Punch" had been blocked by a single, lightly extended pinky finger?!
Her conviction shattered.
"..."
Vill-V's lips twitched slightly.
She was starting to suspect if she was being set up.
The Ryuga before her didn't seem like some Demon God at all. That "Giant God Phantom" was probably just like her own creations—a holographic dynamic simulation.
He, that pink-haired girl, and the spicy fish... they really were just kidnappers, weren't they?
The way he handled the "hostages" was so practiced it made her suspicious.
Are you sure they aren't professionals?
Vill-V felt quite sympathetic toward Hua and Carole's plight.
Fortunately, her ship was only scorched by fire.
Her weapons were only disabled.
Her hard work was only cut down.
She...
The more she thought about it, the more Vill-V felt she was the more pitiful one!
So, she tucked away her pity.
Elysia watched with a smile. "Alright, Ryuga-kun, stop teasing them. Let's go see Dr. Einstein."
Dr. Einstein?
Is that some kind of mad scientist?
Are they going to experiment on us?
Carole's face turned pale instantly. Crystal tears hung from her trembling eyelashes. She raised her small hands and sobbed, pleading for mercy, "T-That... I... my family has money. Please, don't kill me. I don't want to die."
"Who exactly are you people? What do you want with us?"
Hua, held by the collar with her feet off the ground by Ryuga, suddenly began to struggle violently.
Honestly, this girl's strength was no joke.
As expected of someone who had practiced martial arts since childhood.
She had a certain ruthlessness and resilience in her bones.
"Alright, Hua, don't be so excited. Do you still recognize me?"
Elysia signaled Ryuga to put her down, then pointed to her own face, smiling with pure, flawless grace.
Carole felt her heart pounding. So beautiful, like a kind older sister.
"...?"
Hua frowned.
Looking at Elysia's pure and flawless face, she couldn't associate the word "kidnapper" with her at all.
She looked familiar, but she couldn't quite remember?
"It's me, Elysia~! I studied archery at your father's dojo for a while."
"I still remember back when you were in elementary school, you were working very hard on your stance in the corner," Elysia said.
"Ah—"
Hua's mouth formed an 'O' as she remembered.
It was hard to forget such a beautiful girl after seeing her.
Back then, she used to steal glances at her, thinking she was so pretty and wondering if she would grow up to be just as beautiful.
As a result, she messed up her breathing during her Plum Blossom Pole training and got scolded by her father.
Besides, she had to go to school, so they didn't meet often.
In her memory, she had only seen her at the dojo three or five times?
Later, she asked her father about it. Her father said she was very smart and had mastered all the essentials of archery in just one week.
Unlike her, who was so clumsy.
And then, she got another beating.
QAQ.
"It's you! So why did you kidnap me?"
Even though they were acquaintances, Hua did not let down her guard.
Did she have a grudge against her father back then?
"Ryuga, let's head to Dr. Einstein's first."
"Yeah."
Then, to the astonishment of Hua and Carole, Ryuga reached into his pocket and pulled out a door.
The two of them stared with wide eyes, rubbing them hard.
They weren't seeing things.
A normal door, larger than a person, was pulled out of a palm-sized pocket.
Slap.
Ryuga was amused; Hua had actually slapped herself?
"This is called the 'Anywhere Door.' I made it. As long as you hold the handle and think of the place you want to go, you'll arrive there when you push the door open."
Vill-V froze in place, her mouth slightly open, subconsciously blinking.
In just this short time, he had produced three Curios?
"Jue the Shapeshifter," the "Anywhere Door," and that "pocket" was clearly a Curio as well. Could it be... a four-dimensional pocket?
Just how many incredible inventions does he have?
If this door opened onto the surface of the sun, wouldn't the Earth explode instantly?
"Ely."
Ryuga signaled with his eyes. Elysia stepped forward and grasped the metal door handle with her slender hand.
After closing her eyes and thinking for a moment, she pushed the door open with a "creak."
From the other side, it looked like nothing special.
Just Elysia standing within the door frame.
But from the front?
Hua and Carole crept around to the front to look, and their footsteps stopped abruptly, their eyes widening.
On the other side of the door stood a person.
A girl with a doll-like round face, wavy teal hair falling to her shoulders, and wearing red semi-rimmed glasses.
At that moment, she was looking at them with a smile.
Carole: "..."
Trembling, Hua walked around to the other side again; there was only Elysia in the door frame.
Walking back to the front, the view inside the door was replaced by an obvious "laboratory" environment and that teal-haired girl who looked like a porcelain doll.
"..."
Hua stood still for a moment, took off her glasses, and rubbed her eyes.
When she looked again, the scene remained the same.
What a magical door!
And is this the "mad scientist"?
Her smile was too harmless, too ordinary. She looked more like a gentle, approachable girl next door.
"Lord Demon God, Elysia, and everyone else, Einstein has been waiting for a long time."
Hua's throat moved.
Carole unconsciously gripped the hem of her clothes.
...
Inside the laboratory in Nagazora.
Hua and Carole sat dazed on the sofa, sipping coffee in small gulps.
Neither of them knew how to feel right now.
At least they had confirmed it wasn't a kidnapping.
But they couldn't understand all the professional jargon. It seemed they were saying a great disaster was about to break out in Shenzhou City, and Ryuga had come to save them.
"Heh~, is The MOTHs still fighting for power over there?"
"I guess I haven't killed enough of them yet."
Ryuga shook his head. Indeed, there was no hope for the Previous Era.
Even after the Herrscher of Earth destroyed the Mu Continent, they were still fighting for power, even believing that humanity had already defeated the Honkai.
Opening champagne at halftime is truly speechless.
They can't be relied on.
"I have to thank you, Ms. Vill-V."
Vill-V was puzzled. "Thank me for what?"
"Regarding the 'Honkai Energy Concentration Map' I reported, they only sent a perfunctory reply: 'Acknowledged, keep monitoring.'"
"But you published it on the internet, although it didn't do much good anyway."
Einstein shook her head.
Vill-V's lips twitched. If The MOTHs hadn't deleted the post, how could it have been useless?
"See for yourself."
Einstein handed Vill-V the "Honkai Energy Concentration Increase Map" monitored in real-time over the past week.
The moment she took it, Vill-V slammed her fist onto the table with a "bang."
It made Hua and Carole jump.
"This... how is this possible?"
Looking at the Honkai concentration data map, Vill-V swallowed hard, and her shoulders, which she had been forcing to stay upright, suddenly went limp.
This piece of paper wasn't a data map; it was a freaking "Book of the Dead."
"Dr. Ein, is this... is this real?"
"Regrettably, it is true."
Einstein shook her head, took off her glasses, and tiredly pinched the bridge of her nose.
Vill-V felt a bit dizzy. She had thought the Third Honkai Eruption would occur in Shenzhou City, so she had made arrangements there.
But who would have thought...
"Interrupting for a moment, I want to know, what is this 'Honkai' you're talking about?"
Hua finally couldn't help it. She put down her coffee cup and raised her hand like a student seeking knowledge.
Whoosh—
Several sharp gazes pierced through her simultaneously. The atmosphere froze for a moment. Hua's heart tightened, and she subconsciously shrank her neck.
"Honkai?"
"To put it in terms you can understand, when 'Honkai' breaks out, it releases a highly corrosive energy into the air."
"We call it 'Honkai Energy.' Honkai Energy erodes all living things."
"You've seen 'zombies' before, right?"
Ryuga's gaze swept over Hua and Carole as he asked.
"Yes! Yes! It was about a month ago. If Hua hadn't saved me, I probably would have been torn apart and eaten, right?"
Carole nodded tremblingly. Recalling that scene, her face turned pale.
"Those aren't 'zombies'; we call them 'Zombies' (Sishi)."
"At the moment the Honkai erupts, the vast majority of humans will die instantly."
"And those who luckily survive but are eroded will become the 'zombies' you saw, mindlessly hunting all living beings."
"In addition, even stronger 'Honkai Beasts' will be born."
"Most 'Zombies' are much weaker than 'Honkai Beasts.' Of course, there are strong ones too."
"The one you saw, in terms of game levels, was probably the weakest lackey, a mere grunt."
Ryuga stated this calmly, as if it were the most ordinary fact.
But every word felt like an icicle.
Carole's mind went blank.
A lackey?!
Hua's mouth opened slightly, but she couldn't make a sound.
The "zombie" she saw that night was actually just the lowest-level grunt?
Her breath suddenly hitched, and her heart felt as if it were being squeezed hard.
Heh, the weakest grunt?
That one encounter had almost exhausted all her will and strength.
And now you tell me it was actually just a grunt?
A chill ran from her spine to the top of her head. Hua could even hear the sound of her blood freezing.
She couldn't even beat a single small mob?
Is she still... unable to do anything?
Just how terrifying would the real enemies be?
"Are we just going to watch and do nothing?"
"Nagazora, Shenzhou City... there are tens of millions of people living there..."
"Are we just going to watch them die?"
Having not yet left school and still being naive, Hua, who hadn't encountered much of the dark side, couldn't accept the doctors discussing human lives as a string of cold numbers.
She couldn't understand The MOTHs deleting posts, concealing the truth, and arresting whistleblowers.
Einstein looked at her silently, without saying a word.
She had once been that passionate too.
Ryuga shook his head regretfully. "It's too late."
Hua froze in place. "Why?"
"Hua."
Carole quietly reached out and gently tugged her best friend's sleeve, worried she would anger Ryuga.
Ryuga saw that Hua was very upset and gently patted the girl's shoulder.
This is Fu Hua.
Just as she said: "Now is not the time for despair, because I am here."
The never-giving-up Fu Hua.
"The Third Great Eruption is unprecedented."
"With Nagazora and Shenzhou City as the center, it will radiate outward. The aftershocks of the Honkai will ignite one after another like points on a map, eventually affecting the entire East Asian region."
"Even if they flee now, they won't survive."
"The continuously rising concentration of Honkai Energy in the air has already eroded their bodies. The moment the 'Great Eruption' descends, they will all die."
"And where would they run?"
"The Continent? How do you know the next 'Great Eruption' won't happen there?"
"Also, immigration, plane tickets... is there enough time for any of that?"
Hua's body suddenly swayed, as if all her strength had been drained, and she nearly collapsed.
She bit her lip hard, feeling cold all over.
Was she still too naive?
Indeed!
Tens of millions of people—how could they possibly be evacuated?
In a disaster of this global scale, you can run for a moment, but can you run for a lifetime?
Where is truly safe?
"Nagazora and Shenzhou City cannot be saved."
...
Time passed minute by minute. Hua couldn't sleep all night.
Carole, on the other hand, was big-hearted enough to sleep soundly.
Ryuga used the "Anywhere Door" to bring over Hua's father and Carole's parents.
After seeing the "Anywhere Door," Carole's father decisively sold everything he could and converted it all into gold.
Dusk, dawn, and dusk again.
Countdown to the Great Eruption in Nagazora: 59:59.
Buzz, buzz, buzz!
A piercing alarm suddenly exploded in the laboratory, making everyone's scalp tingle.
On Dr. Ein's terminal screen, a crimson light point abruptly lit up, spreading across the screen like ripples.
Everyone hurried forward.
"This... Shenzhou City actually erupted early!"
Dr. Ein was stunned.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. Photos and videos were transmitted one after another.
A giant snake, like a small mountain, was coiled in the center of the city. Its black and green scales continuously released terrifying lightning.
Its massive body writhed between skyscrapers.
Under the pressure of its thick trunk, hundred-meter-tall buildings collapsed like dregs.
The giant snake's body surface continuously sprayed pools of viscous black-green fluid. Its terrifying corrosiveness melted iron and gold, turning vehicles into liquid.
The entire Shenzhou City had become the giant beast's hunting ground.
Hua's brow throbbed, and she trembled all over. Carole was the same.
That terrifying monster... if she were still in Shenzhou City, she would have probably been corroded into a pool of unknown liquid by now, right?
...
"The main force of The MOTHs has begun to assemble toward Shenzhou City immediately."
"The nuclear warheads are also ready."
Elysia said, listening to the report in her earpiece.
"It seems this is the companion Honkai Beast of the Third Herrscher." Ryuga tapped his finger on the table and suddenly asked, "What about the Honkai concentration in Nagazora?"
"Hmm? Strange, it's still rising?"
"And the Honkai values clearly exceed those of Shenzhou City."
Einstein felt something was wrong.
Ryuga was silent for a moment. "The Herrscher is still gestating in Nagazora."
Everyone: "Ah?"
Elysia's eyes suddenly lit up. "Ryuga, I remember you said that 'companion Honkai Beasts' are meant to protect their Herrscher masters. So, is this a lure-away tactic?"
Einstein was dumbfounded.
Vill-V: "Wait, wait, wait. Does the Honkai understand military strategy too?"
"Skirk, you go to Shenzhou City. Be careful; it can recover and be reborn."
Ryuga opened the Anywhere Door.
Skirk said nothing, only nodded and strode inside.
"Ely, inform The MOTHs that we'll handle Shenzhou City as well. Tell them to retreat."
"Okay."
...
Time passed minute by minute.
In the night sky of Nagazora, streaks of incandescent light suddenly fell, trailing rainbow-colored exhaust flames.
Suddenly, the monitoring equipment began to alarm frantically.
"It's here, Lord Demon God. The Honkai Energy concentration in Nagazora has suddenly increased nearly a hundredfold."
Einstein shouted.
"It's time for the surprise attack."
Ryuga slowly stood up, his spine cracking and his whole body popping like roasted beans.
"Hua, never give up hope."
"Some souls are destined to burn."
Ryuga smiled, turned, and strode out from the balcony, leaping into the air.
"If there are no more stars in this world, then I shall be the only light!"
To be continued…
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