Fu Hua looked at the three people in front of her: Himeko had a confident look of "judge for yourself if I'm right," Natasha was expressionless but her eyes revealed support, and Kallen showed pure encouragement and trust.
Himeko's combo punches directly disrupted the rigorous logical system that had been running in Fu Hua's brain for over a decade.
She carefully recalled every "advantage," and it seemed... they all made some sense?
Similar age... Yun Mengxi might have heard of her... Yun Feng was a ready-made bridge... She was indeed not chatty... Although martial arts wasn't a common topic, health preservation was...
Could it be... she really could try?
She fell into deep thought for 0.1 seconds.
Then, under everyone's expectant gaze, the hesitation and confusion on Fu Hua's face were gradually replaced by a familiar seriousness when accepting a mission.
She inhaled slightly, straightened her back, and her expression returned to her usual calm solemnity, as if she had accepted a military order to destroy a Honkai Beast nest.
"...I understand." She nodded, her voice steady and firm. "Since the comprehensive assessment is so, then I will execute the mission of contacting and trying to understand Yun Mengxi."
Then, unprecedentedly, Fu Hua added a sentence to her promise.
"I will try my best."
For this matter, she really could only try her best.
Success! A cunning light of a successful plan flashed in Himeko's eyes, and she exchanged a tacit look with Natasha.
Kallen happily gave a thumbs up.
And the honest person Fu Hua had already begun to plan rigorously in her mind.
What should I wear for the first meeting to appear professional but not distant?
How should the opening remarks indicate the intention without being abrupt?
If the other party talks about pop music, how should I respond?
Should I ask Chaoyu to help with an emergency cram session...
Seeing her serious look with unconsciously slightly furrowed brows and her left hand subconsciously resting on her right wrist, Himeko quickly turned around, her shoulders shaking suspiciously twice.
Letting the sect master of the Edge of Taixuan, one of the ceiling combat powers, ponder how to make friends with an idol girl... This scene felt filled with some wonderful comedic sense no matter how many times one looked at it.
But anyway, the captain of the "Strategy Team" officially took office, driven by the parties' half-analysis, half-"fooling," and her own high sense of responsibility.
The battlefield of the third loop: one place was the confrontation between the imminent capital storm and the anti-hero, and the other was the seemingly calm but actually root-related... idol "conquest" frontline.
The main framework of the meeting and the division of labor were finally finalized. The tension condensed by clear goals in the room relaxed slightly, but was replaced by the weight of imminent action.
The plan had been outlined, and the rest was execution and dealing with endless variables.
Just as everyone was about to disperse and start making final preparations for these twelve hours where every second counted, Himeko tapped the table with her knuckles, pulling everyone's attention back.
The relaxed look on her face disappeared, her brows furrowed slightly, and she asked a question that hovered in the minds of at least a few people but had been temporarily shelved due to more urgent strategic discussions earlier.
"There is one more detail, or rather... a case of 'missing persons'."
Himeko's voice carried a trace of imperceptible solemnity. "Ana Schariac, and Chen Tianwu who was with her.
"Since the end of the first loop when we woke up with memories retained, we haven't seen them again, nor could we contact them. In the second loop, they also didn't appear.
"We discussed this issue in the last loop, but had no clue."
The atmosphere stagnated slightly.
"Indeed," Joachim pushed his glasses, his eyes sharp behind the lenses. "According to the initial arrangement you provided, Ana's mission was to protect Yae Rin and serve as a reserve support force with Chen Tianwu.
"But after the first Honkai outbreak and the time loop started, the two of them completely lost contact.
"You hypothesized that they might have been in a special location or state when the loop started, causing them to fail to retain memories, or even encountered misfortune...
"But in the second loop, we should have tried to deploy eyes or leave messages in advance in the areas where they might appear, right?"
Everyone nodded, and Joachim sighed. "The result is obvious. All arrangements were like stones dropped into the sea."
"This is unreasonable," Natasha chipped in, her voice still calm but speaking slightly faster.
"Ana is an experienced warrior and a member of the Schariac family. Chen Tianwu... anyway, with their abilities and set tasks, they should have actively tried to contact known rendezvous points or leave traces of action after the Honkai outbreak.
"But in both loops, they seemed to evaporate into thin air, not participating in any major event nodes, nor leaving any valid traces.
"Most importantly... the problem is not just with Ana. Chen Tianwu, who originally existed in this spacetime, also disappeared together."
Himeko crossed her arms, her fingers unconsciously tapping on her gauntlet.
"Our final inference in the last loop leaned towards their disappearance being related to the 'Herrscher' or the time loop phenomenon itself.
"It could be some special effect generated at the moment Yun Mengxi turned into a Herrscher affected them, or an unknown mutation occurred in the 'reset' mechanism of the loop on them... but lacking evidence, it's just speculation.
"And this loop..."
She looked at everyone and shook her head.
"We still don't know where they are or what state they are in.
"This remains a variable that cannot be ignored. They might become unexpected helpers, or unplanned threats, or worse, another factor stimulating the Herrscher."
Silence descended again. Facing a missing persons case of one's own unit that could not be located or predicted at all, under such urgent time constraints, it indeed made one feel powerless like punching cotton.
In-depth investigation required time and resources, and these were exactly what they lacked most now.
"...Priority adjustment." Joachim finally made a decision, his tone carrying helpless pragmatism. "The mystery of Ana and Chen Tianwu's disappearance is of high importance, but the investigative resources currently available for investment are zero.
"We cannot actively conduct large-scale searches. That would deviate from our core strategy of 'stealth' and might also alert the enemy."
He looked at Himeko, then at Fu Hua and Natasha.
"Therefore, regarding the two of them, we can only adopt passive monitoring and contingency preparation at this stage.
"I will use the City of the Future information network I can mobilize and the peripheral intelligence lines of Heliopolis Life Sciences Pharmaceutical that Natasha can deploy to collect information on these two people as much as possible... If they appear, I will notify you immediately."