"Money from the vault... you really hit the jackpot, huh." After hearing Chen Luo's explanation, Theresa couldn't help but sigh.
However, no matter how she looked at it, Theresa couldn't really judge Chen Luo's actions. Nagazora was a place even St. Freya Academy would only cordon off temporarily, not conduct in-depth exploration.
That place might be useful for training later...
Wealth was just a number to Schicksal.
And for St. Freya Academy, while money was indeed important, Theresa's personality meant she would never risk the lives of her students or the crew of the Schicksal warship Hyperion to empty out Nagazora's banks.
"By the way, Chen Luo, tell me where that Pseudo-Herrscher is later," Theresa said casually.
"Wait, what do you plan to do?" Chen Luo instantly grew wary.
"Go deal with it, of course. You said there's a Pseudo-Herrscher, so it naturally needs to be eliminated. Don't worry, I'm an S-rank Valkyrie. Handling a mere Pseudo-Herrscher will be a breeze. I won't get careless like Durandal did," Theresa said proudly.
"..."
You, who got ambushed by Pseudo-Herrschers twice in a row, really have the nerve to say that.
If it weren't for Yae Sakura, you'd have died twice already.
"That Herrscher was killed by Durandal going all out right before she fell," Chen Luo said.
Honestly, Chen Luo had considered going back to loot the corpse, but after some thought, since too much time had passed, the body probably wasn't usable anymore, so he dropped the idea.
Half its body was gone. What's there to even use?
Durandal had been too ruthless.
Though, if it were Chen Luo, he'd probably have been even more ruthless.
"I see," Theresa nodded.
"Alright, alright, visiting hours are over. Time to go back. I need to go hunt some zombies." Seeing that it was almost time, Chen Luo opened the bar door and pushed Theresa inside.
He still needed to hurry up and hunt zombies.
Time was money. No, Primogems. Emm, still wrong—Crystals.
"I know, I know, stop pushing!" Theresa complained about Chen Luo's rough handling.
* * *
Boom! Boom! Boom! Three consecutive explosions rang out, blowing up the zombies lured by the decoy grenade.
This time, Chen Luo used another decoy grenade and also deployed the mechs he could now fully control, using their artillery to bombard the zombie horde.
Chen Luo now only had one remaining "Demon Version" Thermobaric Bomb left. Such a powerful weapon, being the last one, wouldn't be used lightly unless absolutely necessary.
Fortunately, Chen Luo still had those captured mechs.
Among them were many [Thunder Mecha - Assault Type] and [Magnetic Storm Mecha - Standard Type]—the kinds that could fire shells.
What was strange and unfortunate was that killing zombies by controlling mechs and bombing them didn't seem to grant both Honkai Adaptability and Kill Count like the Thermobaric Bomb did, only 50% of Crystals were rewarded.
Killing zombies by controlling mechs only gave Primogems, and even those were halved—2.5 Primogems. Since Primogems had reached their cap, it became 2.5 Crystals.
Wasn't this the same as being in a party?
"Wind Blade!" At Chen Luo's command, endless gusts of wind began slicing through the zombies fleeing in panic after the shock.
As the Honkai energy continuously strengthened his Vision, Chen Luo's control over Anemo energy became more proficient, and its potency increased.
And after using Anemo energy to kill those zombies, Chen Luo received 5 Crystals, along with Honkai Resistance and Kill Count.
This... Chen Luo didn't understand, but he was greatly shocked.
Oh, so using magic gives full rewards, but using mechs doesn't? What kind of logic is that?
Was it about the relationship between effort and reward?
Using Anemo energy required Chen Luo's personal effort, controlling the elements to form wind blades for the kill.
Using a mech just required pressing a button?
But why did the Thermobaric Bomb grant full Kill Count and Honkai Adaptability rewards? Was it because it was something he obtained by spending Primogems on gacha, something he paid a great price for?
Although Chen Luo wasn't sure how this was determined, it didn't stop him from using the mech's artillery to farm points.
Even if it only gave half the Primogem reward, it was still a reward.
There were so many zombies in all of Nagazora. Relying on Chen Luo alone to kill them all would be tough, so using the mechs appropriately was quite rational.
Besides, Chen Luo also had a small floating warship captured from Anti-Entropy.
He just couldn't overdo it. If he killed off the majority of the gathered zombies just to farm Primogems...
Then when going to kill the remaining zombies, because they were too scattered, he couldn't eliminate them quickly, delaying the achievement progress and Honkai Adaptability progress. If that resulted in not reaching 200% Honkai Adaptability or not achieving the 5-star achievement, Chen Luo would regret it to death.
At the very least, the currently known method of obtaining Honkai Adaptability was only by killing zombies or beings from the Honkai faction during this 7-day event.
As for whether the 5-star achievement had to be completed within these 7 days, the talent panel didn't say, and it didn't answer when asked.
The key was that Chen Luo didn't dare to gamble.
Crystals were important, but the conceptual skills attached to that 5-star achievement were even more important.
However, after Chen Luo achieved the accomplishment, he could use the mechs to bomb indiscriminately.
It was just a question of whether he'd have enough ammunition by then.
He could probably buy Silver Bullets from the Anti-Entropy faction and Honkai Fission Bombs from the Schicksal faction.
It's just... if even close-range mech artillery bombardment resulted in halved Crystals, Chen Luo couldn't even imagine how pathetic the rewards would be for large-scale, indiscriminate, omnidirectional bombardment.
...What if the talent panel considered it some kind of sudden natural disaster and didn't give him a single credit?
Then he'd truly have suffered a double loss—losing both the "wife" (the opportunity) and the "soldiers" (the resources).
After all, the prices for these two things were exorbitantly high in both factions.
"So this is what you meant by 'support'?" Raven emerged from the shadows, holding the Third Divine Key, and looked helplessly at Chen Luo, who was resting atop a mech.
Working with Chen Luo was utterly boring because Raven couldn't snag a single kill.
Well, she had gotten a few, but compared to the unbelievably massive horde of zombies, those few kills meant nothing.
Raven's commission was paid per kill. Now that the employer was hogging all the kills, her profits had plummeted.
And this was supposed to be support?
"Look at what you're saying. Isn't the point of support to ensure the main DPS doesn't take any damage? Just tell me, have you been injured at all? Haven't I protected you perfectly?" Chen Luo retorted, patting the mech beneath him.
"...Let's just split up and act separately," Raven said after a moment of silence.
With you like this, how can I possibly get any kills? No kills mean no cash income. Are you going to support me then?
"Huh? Was my protection not good enough?" Chen Luo was taken aback.
"No, it was too good," Raven said coldly, then turned and walked off in another direction.
Watching each potential $1,000 vanish before her eyes made Raven's heart ache.
"Go solo? Well, alright then..." After a moment's hesitation, Chen Luo nodded. Perhaps Raven was right; he had been protecting her a bit too well.
Besides, splitting up would greatly improve efficiency. During the previous encirclement, Raven hadn't contributed much, yet it had wasted a significant amount of time.
Both Chen Luo and Raven were the type who worked best alone. Forcing them to team up didn't seem beneficial for either.
"Only 5 decoy grenades left. Guess I need to use them sparingly. Time to move on and check elsewhere." Chen Luo patted the mech, which had nearly exhausted its ammunition.
The mech, as if understanding his intention or simply "moved" by Chen Luo's Furniture Mastery, slowly and clumsily began flying towards the distance.
These basic mechs could fly, just not very fast or very high.
Thinking of this made Chen Luo miss the Project Bunny even more. That was a perfect means of transportation.
It could fly and launch rockets—truly an ideal tool for farming points.
At the same time, Chen Luo drew his Dull Blade.
A thin strand of Anemo energy tightly wrapped around the blade. Manipulating it, Chen Luo sent the sword flying far out, eliminating scattered zombies at mid-to-close range.
The Dull Blade could grow stronger through continuous combat with its master, and even slaughtering weak foes counted. So, after acquiring the thread-control technique, Chen Luo began practicing "flying sword" manipulation.
In a way, Chen Luo had now learned sword flight.
This was also why Chen Luo didn't simply pilot the small floating warship or use flight magic to snipe zombies from above.
Of course, besides the flying sword, the bow in Chen Luo's hand wasn't just for show. Zombies that were too far away required the bow to deal with.
* * *
"Hmm?" Chen Luo, who had been searching for zombies along the road, suddenly paused.
There were indeed many zombies and Honkai beasts in Nagazora, but Chen Luo's targets were only the zombies, not the Honkai beasts.
Honkai beasts were much tougher to deal with than zombies. Compared to killing zombies, eliminating Honkai beasts was laborious and offered little reward. With Little Senti's assistance, Chen Luo could distinguish where zombies were and where Honkai beasts were.
But while the number of zombies was large, it was still finite. After being bombarded by Chen Luo so many times, finding zombies had become quite troublesome.
This time, however, Chen Luo paused not because he couldn't find any more zombies to kill, but because something was wrong with his Vision.
It wasn't that his Vision was about to evolve or explode, but rather that someone had taken it.
Someone was touching his Vision.
Probably the Vision I left in the Honkai reactor has been discovered, he thought. This was normal, though. The Vision had been continuously absorbing Honkai energy from the reactor at high power. If they still hadn't noticed anything, it would mean Anti-Entropy was utterly incompetent.
And Chen Luo wasn't worried at all. After all, he could recall the Vision to his inventory anytime he wanted.
Visions were quite sturdy, and Chen Luo's, in particular, was exceptionally robust.
He had once made a bet with the Herrscher of Sentience that she couldn't break it. Unconvinced, she tried slashing it with her sword. After half a day with no effect, she started punching it.
In the end, if Chen Luo hadn't stopped her, she would have resorted to using Edge of Taixuan: Eminence.
Chen Luo wasn't in a hurry to retrieve the Vision immediately because the Honkai energy concentration at ME Corp was remarkably high.
"Hmm?" Chen Luo's body suddenly shuddered.
It wasn't for any other reason; he was just startled by the sudden, unexpected sensation.
"Which bastard is throwing my Vision around?" Chen Luo muttered.
No matter the distance, Chen Luo could vaguely sense the state of his Vision. Right now, for instance, he could feel it being dropped.
However, while he could sense its state, he didn't share its sensations or suffer any harm based on what happened to the Vision.
"Hmm? Which bastard is now trying to bite my Vision with their teeth?"
"Dammit! Now they're zapping it with electricity?"
"Goddammit! If it weren't for the high Honkai energy concentration at ME Corp..."
Chen Luo could sense that the Vision had never left the ME Corp area. It was probably picked up by the team sent to rescue Sin Mal. They were likely conducting experiments on it now.
When he had looted their material storage, he hadn't taken all the experimental equipment from a few labs because he had already grabbed several sets.
So, it wasn't surprising that they still had materials available for experiments.
And who said they had necessarily told him about all their secret bases?
"Wow, Honkai energy, such strong Honkai energy..." After enduring insane levels of beating, water dousing, and fire burning, Chen Luo finally got what he was waiting for.
* * *
"Report, Lady Cocolia. This glass ball glows when stimulated by Honkai energy and produces a relatively intense Honkai energy reaction, as if it's absorbing the energy. However, we don't know what will happen once it reaches saturation."
"Then intensify the input! Nagazora has no shortage of Honkai energy right now! Since someone delivered it to us, we'd be fools not to accept it. Analyze this thing diligently! I want results within three days," Cocolia's voice ordered from the other end of the communicator.
"Yes!"
* * *
"Hmm, which kind soul is continuously infusing my Vision with Honkai energy?" Chen Luo pondered silently.