MEI Company, President's Office.
Lucius listened as Mei reported on MEI Company's recent developments.
"The main structure of St. Freya Academy City has basically been completed. You can even see a vast platform rising above the sea surface in the offshore waters outside Nagazora City."
"However, while St. Freya's construction is going relatively smoothly, we've encountered significant resistance in our land acquisition efforts among Nagazora City's residents."
"Even buying at a premium is difficult. Many people have instinctively started hoarding land, waiting for prices to rise."
"Most of those willing to accept our conditions and relocate to St. Freya Academy City are young people seeking opportunities. The majority of middle-aged and elderly people are reluctant to leave."
"Beyond that, there are the trolls spreading dirt about our MEI Company while also furiously smearing Father's reputation."
"They're saying Father is actually a demon sealed by the feng shui of the Far East, and that the real Ryoma was replaced long ago."
"They're also saying we're having Nagazora City residents relocate in order to drain the area's spiritual energy that suppresses demons, so we can release the demons sealed below. It's complete nonsense!"
Speaking of this, Mei couldn't help feeling indignant.
"How can they slander Father like this! It's simply terrible!"
After Lucius calmed Mei down, she composed herself and continued her report:
"Of course, most residents are still rational. Their greater concern is whether MEI Company has the ability and credibility to fulfill its promises."
"It's just... although we've developed rapidly, we're ultimately still a new company without the influence of those conglomerates that have been deeply rooted in this land for decades or even centuries."
Listening to Mei's report, Lucius found that despite obstacles from various forces, the plan was still advancing—just much slower than anticipated.
At the current pace, with everything being dragged out by various disputes, by the time those disputes were resolved, the Final Honkai might have already arrived.
Lucius sighed and said: "In that case, I have no choice but to play dirty."
"Father has already thought of a solution?"
"Of course!" Lucius propped his chin with both hands and said with a smile: "Going forward, we don't need to worry about whether Nagazora City's residents agree anymore. Continue the land acquisition—those willing to sell, buy from them. Those unwilling, that's fine too."
"Next, have the publicity department focus on promoting our Second New Nagazora's earthquake and tsunami resistance capabilities."
Mei nodded in agreement, but still found it somewhat puzzling.
In the earthquake-prone Far East, promoting earthquake and tsunami resistance wasn't anything new. She just couldn't figure out why Lucius was emphasizing this particular point.
Although Mei felt that if she truly asked, Father would certainly tell her the answer, she chose not to ask.
She decided to leave the question for the future, and leave the anticipation for the present.
Soon, Mei left the office. She still needed to go adjust the super AI Prometheus and think about creating a suitable body for it.
After Mei left, Lucius tossed the reports on his desk into the shredder. Then, accompanied by the humming sound of the shredder, he connected to Vill-V's communication.
"Hey, partner, what brings you my way?"
In the screen, Teacher Big V held a wrench in one hand, with a strange inverted pyramid-shaped machine floating behind her.
"Teacher Big V, I wanted to ask—how is the controllable seismic generator I commissioned you to develop coming along?"
Hearing Lucius's question, Vill-V casually tossed aside her wrench, stepped over to the inverted pyramid machine behind her, and reached out to pat it.
"Here, what you asked for. Just need to install the remaining few components and it'll be done."
"As expected of the almighty Teacher Big V!" Lucius gave a thumbs up in praise. "That way, the last piece of the puzzle is finally in place."
"Building the machine isn't the problem. But for this machine to run, there's still one issue that needs to be resolved."
"Oh? What issue?"
"Energy."
"No worries, tell me how much?" With MEI Company under his control now, he was nowhere near short on energy. If he was short... it was just a matter of building a few more nuclear power plants.
"Not that much. Five hundred nuclear bombs, each with a yield of one million tons, should be enough."
"...?"
Vill-V and Lucius stared at each other. Vill-V spread her hands and said: "Energy is conserved. If you want to trigger an earthquake, you need to put in at least an equivalent amount of energy into the machine, right?"
"Does the Honkai world actually have something like energy conservation?"
Although Vill-V liked to joke around, she was reliable when it came to serious matters. She probably wasn't joking about this.
Which meant that to run this machine, he still needed to procure energy equivalent to five hundred nuclear bombs each with a one million ton yield.
Under normal circumstances, this would be a troublesome matter. After all, he couldn't realistically raid the United Government's and Fire Moth's arsenals for hundreds of nuclear bombs.
But fortunately, in the Honkai world, one law took higher priority than energy conservation.
That law was—Honkai, the almighty!
For the energy Vill-V required, Lucius took out a slightly dim crystal from his system inventory.
This was the Herrscher of Reason core he had condensed after briefly becoming the Herrscher of Reason. But once the experience card expired and the authority was reclaimed, the Herrscher core was now just a high-quality crystal containing a large amount of Honkai energy.
However, although the remnant authority was gone, the enormous Honkai energy gathered during his Herrscher transformation still remained within it.
"This should be able to satisfy your requirements. You just need to control the energy output level, otherwise I'm afraid we might directly sink the entire Far East."
After discussing with Vill-V how to install this little toy, Lucius ended the communication and began thinking about the next arrangements.
Kiana, Raiden Mei, Bronya, Cocolia, Raiden Ryoma. All the characters before the Great Honkai of Nagazora City had been placed in their positions. St. Freya was also being built at full speed.
It could be said that the stage for escaping Nagazora was fully constructed. All that remained was emptying Nagazora City of its people, then detonating a Honkai energy reactor in the city as ceremonial cannon fire for Mei's coronation.
However, he still needed one more person to close out this chapter—Himeko descending aboard the Hyperion.
Himeko's counterpart in this era was Fire Moth's Fifth Squad leader Himiko. Lucius already had a plan to recruit her, but he needed to find the right timing...
After delegating the various tasks, Lucius found himself with free time again.
Just as he was pondering whether to take advantage of this free time to take a trip to Shenzhou to prepare for the next chapter...
"Ring ring ring!"
His communicator received a message. Lucius looked at it and discovered it was from his good brother Kiana.
[North Commercial Street entrance of Qianyu Academy. My treat today.]
Lucius put away his communicator, stood up, and headed toward Nagazora City's downtown area.
Since his good brother was treating, what was there to hesitate about?
Just go.
...
But when Lucius arrived at the address Kiana had sent, he didn't find that familiar white figure.
This puzzled him considerably. Given his good brother's personality, she would never stand someone up. Most of the time, she was the first to arrive.
Lucius had just thought to take out his communicator to ask her...
Suddenly, a familiar voice came from not far away.
"Father..."
Lucius instinctively turned around, and saw a familiar white figure—it was his good brother Kiana.
She was holding a voice recorder at this moment, looking at him with a grim expression. Mei's voice was coming from the recorder in her hand.
"Father... Father... Father..."
Lucius's gaze swept around, and he found that among all the passersby on the street, he was the only one who had turned around—standing out conspicuously.
Cold sweat instantly poured out.
"Crack!" Kiana crushed the voice recorder in her hand and stared at him coldly.
Seeing this, Lucius didn't hesitate for a moment. He turned and ran.
"Lucius! Stop right there!"
Lucius ran ahead, Kiana chased behind.
If it were the beginning, Lucius with his stigmata loaded would naturally have far superior physical abilities to Kiana. But now both of them had stigmata, and Kiana possessed the most powerful vessel of this era.
So the chase didn't last long before Kiana caught up to Lucius and tackled him to the ground with a flying leap.
Lucius struggled, but his body was quickly locked in place by Kiana's limbs, with no way to break free.
"So it really was you!" Kiana said through gritted teeth. "Do you know how many times I've nearly crossed the Sanzu River to see my great-grandmother these past few weeks?!"
Looking at his good brother's twisted face right up close, Lucius felt extremely guilty.
"Good brother, hear me out... I mean let me explain. I had my own difficulties too..."
"There's nothing to explain!" Kiana sneered. "Tell me! How do you want to die?!"
"Uh... can I choose not to die?"
"As expected, you should just die."
Kiana increased the pressure. Lucius felt his bones crying out in anguish.
"I'll treat you to snacks next week!" He felt Kiana's force ease slightly.
"I can also give you those collector's edition game cartridges I have." The pressure eased a little more.
"I can give you all my figure collection too!" Lucius felt he wasn't going to die today after all.
But at this moment, the system interface suddenly changed.
Lucius froze, and then suddenly met Kiana's blue eyes right up close. He spoke with a strange expression:
"Good brother, are you interested in playing the hero?"
Kiana blinked, not understanding what Lucius was scheming again.
"Lucius, what are you planning now?"
"Creating an opportunity for you to play the hero."
Lucius looked at the system interface, which displayed:
[Key individuals detected: Kiana, Asakura Miyuki]
[Mission: Complete the 'Three-Year Cherry Blossom' storyline, Reward: A-rank Stigmata Selection Box x1, Crystals 300]
[Mission Status: Incomplete]
...
Kiana pinning Lucius to the ground had attracted quite a few gazes, including that of a girl with long black hair.
"So this is what adolescents going through a turbulent phase look like. But doing this so openly in broad daylight... this is far too indecent."
"I've only been gone a few years. How has Nagazora City become so open-minded?"
She withdrew her gaze and tightened her jacket, covering the combat uniform inside that had a moth insignia inscribed on it.
She took out her communicator to check a group chat named "Fifth Squad Team Building Group."
[Himeko: Yuki, are you home yet?]
[Yuki: Already at Nagazora City]
[Himeko: Remember to let me know you're safe after you get home]
[Yuki: I know, I know. Captain, your tone sounds exactly like my mom]
[Himeko: Nonsense, your captain is forever eighteen!]
[Himeko: Also, remember to send me a few cases of local sakura sake]
[Yuki: That stuff isn't cheap. How much of your salary do you have left, Captain?]
[Himiko: Little fool, didn't you take on a mission when you came back? Just put it in the mission expense report. No need to think about saving money for those lords in the Fire Moth parliament.]
[Yuki: ...]
[Yuki: Understood, understood]
[Himeko: One more thing. There have been abnormal Honkai energy fluctuations in Nagazora City lately. Although the intelligence department has determined they're normal, don't let your guard down]
Closing the group chat, the girl named Yuki opened a photo provided by Fire Moth's intelligence department. It showed a petite girl with silver-gray hair.
If Lucius had seen it, he would have known the photo was of Bronya—or rather, this era's First Herrscher.
However, looking at the photo, Yuki found it quite troubling.
Because the mission required that the target's identity not be disclosed publicly, but at the same time required finding the person. It was as absurd as posting a missing person notice without even including a photo.
"The lords up above only need to issue commands. We poor workers have to think about much more." Yuki laughed at herself wryly.
Suddenly, she felt a chill run through her body.
This feeling was ten times, or at least nine times, more terrifying than being targeted by an Emperor-class Honkai Beast!
She looked left and right, and found that aside from the shameless man and woman still tangled together not far away, there was nothing unusual.
"Strange. Why do I have such an ominous feeling?"
"...It's probably just my imagination?"
---
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