When Patrick woke up, she found herself locked inside an isolation room.
Beneath her was a cold metal floor. The air seemed thick with the sharp chemical smell of disinfectant.
Patrick instinctively tried to sit up — and found her entire body drained of strength, so much so that even sitting up was difficult.
"This was pulled from your laboratory. It seems to suppress Honkai energy to a certain degree. Effective enough, wouldn't you say?" A mocking laugh sounded beside Patrick.
She laboriously rolled over and found Sirin crouching nearby, watching her with a cheerful grin, an already-emptied syringe in her hand.
"Back when I was a test subject, they were never willing to use this even once on me!"
Patrick's heart went completely cold. She sensed that Sirin's power was noticeably stronger than before.
Fear surged within her. She felt she was almost certainly done for this time.
Suddenly, she felt the floor tremble.
Through the isolation room's door, Patrick watched as Honkai Beasts walked past one after another. And without exception, every one of those Honkai Beasts had a living person clamped in its jaws.
"Herrscher — you inhuman monster!" Patrick couldn't hold back and shouted it aloud.
"Tch... though I admittedly do lack humanity, you're being unjust to me here. Don't worry — I'm not planning to kill them."
As if to confirm Sirin's words, the Honkai Beasts acted with startling intelligence — tossing the people in their mouths into other isolation rooms, then turning and leaving without a backward glance.
"Herrscher — what are you scheming?"
"Taking hostages." Sirin answered as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
After her initial surprise, Patrick sneered: "Taking hostages... ha! So you, a Herrscher, are afraid of mere humans?"
Barely had those words left her mouth when Sirin grabbed her by the collar, hauling her up so their eyes were level.
Patrick found herself staring into Sirin's golden pupils — the inverted cross within them seemed to be branding itself into her eyes.
"Afraid? No — I'm simply deploying the power of intelligence."
After being mocked, Sirin seemed not the least bit angry. She casually dropped Patrick back onto the floor.
"Alright — stop thinking about escape. Stay here and witness me destroying humanity."
"Heh heh... hahahahahaha!" Sirin walked away, laughing wildly.
After a while, Patrick felt her body recovering somewhat. Though her Valkyrie power was nearly gone, at least she had the capability of an ordinary person.
Through the isolation room's small window, she could see her three neighbors directly across from her.
In the room to her left front was a woman in military dress with long golden wavy hair, currently also unconscious on the floor.
In the room directly across was a girl with short black hair, who had already woken up and was kneeling on the floor with tears streaming down her face.
After some thought, Patrick still decided to try to offer some comfort.
"Don't be afraid — Schicksal's forces will come and rescue us soon." Though Patrick had no idea when Schicksal's forces would actually arrive, she still felt she had to offer some hope.
"Schicksal?" The girl across from her stopped crying — though she then asked a completely baffling question. "Do you know what was going on with the artillery fire that fell from the sky not long ago?"
"The artillery fire? You mean the fire coverage Schicksal used to clear the Honkai Beast clusters?"
When facing Honkai Beasts spawned by the Honkai, Schicksal naturally couldn't just send Valkyries in directly for melee combat. Prior to that, extremely heavy firepower would be used to clear Honkai Beasts operating at scale.
Only Honkai Beasts powerful enough to withstand that fire coverage would have Valkyries deployed against them.
Obviously, the girl was asking about the bombardment of the Honkai Beast clusters around the Babylon Tower earlier.
"Right — that was us. Schicksal's forces are very powerful, so don't be afraid. They'll send someone to rescue us soon..."
"WHO CARES ABOUT THAT?!"
"My real estate — the properties I just purchased — were all blown to rubble by your artillery!"
"You people — what exactly did you protect?!"
Miss Natasha was feeling absolutely wretched.
As the president of God City Pharmaceuticals, she was by all appearances an absolute success story in the eyes of others.
But only she herself knew: in order to repay the real estate debts she had racked up in Nagazora earlier, her entire monthly salary had been going toward debt repayment. She could only afford instant noodles during holidays.
To pay off her debts, she had worked herself to exhaustion day and night.
One day, after pulling an all-nighter at the office, she had headed downstairs in the morning to buy breakfast — and failed to notice the hundred-ton truck barreling around the corner.
The last thing she remembered was a grinning, silly-looking pink-haired girl's portrait on the side of the vehicle.
She had thought her life was over — but opened her eyes and found herself in this not-quite-right world.
After the initial shock, Miss Natasha had quickly realized she was going to make something of herself here. Because she discovered that the real estate development here was still stuck decades in the past.
What did that mean? It meant that with her foresight and foreknowledge, she could absolutely enjoy an epic run as a real estate tycoon!
Since her father had some assets of his own, Miss Natasha took out a large loan from the bank in his name, bought up swaths of land in locations she had identified as prime spots, and began developing properties.
And then every single one of those properties was leveled by artillery raining from the sky.
Thinking of this, the grief that welled up in Miss Natasha's heart first had her stamping her feet repeatedly, then dropping to her knees with a thud.
"WAAAH! My properties! My money!"
"Cursed heavens — why do you do this to me?!"
Watching Miss Natasha rolling on the floor, apparently having lost her mind, Patrick felt a measure of pity in her eyes.
Oh — she's got a mental health condition... ah, how sad.
"Excuse me — are you a Valkyrie?" A voice reached her.
Patrick looked over to find it was the neighbor in the room to her right front.
It was a girl sitting on the floor with long pinkish-white hair and mysterious violet pupils.
She wore an elegant dress, radiating a natural air of grace without even trying. Even in this dangerous predicament, she seemed to have lost none of her composure.
"I am." Patrick asked with curiosity: "You know about Valkyries?"
"I do — for work-related reasons, I'm quite familiar with Schicksal."
She rose, ran her fingers through her pinkish-white hair, and said with a smile: "I'm Mus Suoli Nutrishko. Bit of a long name — Mus is fine."
"I'm sorry we're meeting under these circumstances, Miss Mus." Patrick sighed. "As a Valkyrie I have no way to rescue you right now."
"Don't lose heart — there's still hope." Miss Mus said.
A hairpin appeared in her hand from nowhere. She slipped it into the lock, worked it around for a moment, and the door swung open.
Patrick stared blankly. "Wait — are the locks in the Babylon Tower laboratory really this easy to open?!"
While she was still gaping, Miss Mus had already come to stand at Patrick's door, manipulated the lock mechanism a few times, and opened it.
"See? I told you there was still hope."
Patrick was just about to stand up — then sank back down again as the weakness in her body returned. She smiled bitterly: "You go — my body has no strength left. Bringing me along would only slow you down."
Though she was very scared of dying, the rationality of a science-and-engineering student still preserved her last shred of dignity. Miss Mus alone might be able to escape, but the two of them together would certainly be caught.
Miss Mus said nothing. She simply produced a syringe and administered it to the side of Patrick's neck.
At the sharp sting in her neck, Patrick felt the suppressed power in her body returning rapidly.
"How do you have something that neutralizes Honkai energy suppression?" Patrick stood up, asking in surprise.
A sorrowful expression crossed Miss Mus's face, and she said with a bitter smile: "I was one of the researchers at this tower myself. I contributed some work to its development."
Patrick didn't question this. With her strength restored, she felt a new surge of confidence, and said to Miss Mus: "I'll get you all out of here."
"No — you go alone. Don't take a single person with you." Miss Mus said without hesitation.
"No way!"
Patrick was just about to argue when Miss Mus placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Listen to me, Valkyrie. The Babylon Tower is completely surrounded by Honkai Beasts right now. If you bring us all out, are you trying to feed them?"
Patrick fell silent. A wave of helplessness washed over her — she felt an overwhelming urge to shout I can't do anything.
Miss Mus spoke calmly:
"The area around the Babylon Tower is ringed with Honkai Beasts. Charging straight out is just walking into death. But I know the layout of this tower, and I know how to create the biggest possible commotion."
"I'll go draw them away to create a path out to the outside. You go tell Schicksal what's happened here. This Herrscher absolutely cannot be allowed to survive."
Patrick thought it through quickly and understood: if they really did this, Miss Mus would almost certainly die.
Her lips trembled. She couldn't help asking: "Why would you help me? Aren't you afraid of dying?"
Miss Mus ran her fingers through her pinkish-white hair and said with serene composure: "I'm helping myself. Staying here is certain death. Only by Schicksal noticing this place is there any chance of survival."
"Unknown Valkyrie — prepare to depart. Remember to come back and save me... if I'm still alive by then." Mus turned and moved toward the exit of the isolation area.
Patrick stood in place, a wordless sadness filling her heart. She knew that not everyone in the world clung to life the way she did — that for some people, there were things more important than survival.
And it was only upon truly witnessing such a person that she understood how they shone.
——BOOM!
Very shortly, a thunderous explosion rang out.
Patrick glanced in the direction the explosion came from, bit down hard on her teeth, and without hesitation turned and ran in the opposite direction.
"I... I absolutely have to survive!"
In a direction Patrick had no knowledge of.
Sirin floated in midair and snapped her fingers lightly.
Spatial energy gathered in the distant snowfield, forming a golden orb of light. It contracted to a point — then erupted in a thunderous explosion.
The sound of the violent blast carried into the distance.
"Lady Sirin — that should do it." A soft laugh came from behind Sirin. "I imagine that Valkyrie has now safely left the Babylon Tower."
Sirin turned to look at the pinkish-white haired woman waiting in a composed posture behind her. This was Mus.
"Mus — you have proven your worth to me. I hereby allow you to serve as my servant."
"When you have made contributions to the Honkai, I will naturally bestow power upon you."
Hearing this, Mus bowed gracefully. A flicker of joy crossed her otherwise composed face. "Lady Sirin — it is my honor to serve someone as powerful as you."
Sirin paid little attention to her etiquette — or more precisely, she had no real frame of reference for it. Right now her mood was rather excellent, and the corner of her mouth kept curling up involuntarily. "She's taken the bait. Very soon, information about this place will reach both Schicksal and Anti-Entropy."
Yes — she had let Patrick go deliberately.
"Release word that there are large numbers of humans here. If they don't want those people caught in the crossfire, they'll have to tread carefully."
"All I have to do is set an ambush and wait for them to come to me — and I can deal them maximum damage with minimum effort."
Listening to Sirin's confident words, Mus began to applaud. Her violet pupils were written full of admiration.
"Lady Sirin's foresight is truly without equal! When will I ever have even half of your wisdom?"
"Hmph! It's nothing but a small measure of strategy."
Though she spoke as though she couldn't care less, upon hearing Mus's praise, Sirin's lips curled further and further, the entire shape of her becoming more and more buoyant.
Good grief — being praised feels this amazing? This is like, ten, even nine times better than killing someone!
Sirin suddenly realized: compared to charging straight at people with her fists, using her head actually felt unexpectedly good?
"I'll go lay the trap. Mus — watch these hostages. The Honkai Beasts nearby will follow your commands."
Miss Mus returned a perfect smile.
"Lady Sirin, I will not disappoint your expectations. Mm... not at all."
---
Advanced 30+ Chapters in pat/reon.com/Sleepy_Hua