Genshin Impact: Watch me turn the tables and kill my servants at the start!

Qin arrived at the meeting point on the outskirts of the city on the morning of the agreed-upon day.

Qin changed into a set of dark casual clothes that were easy to move in, with a sword hanging at her waist, and her long golden hair was gently blown by the wind in the morning light.

Accompanying Qin was a small squad of elite Knights of Favonius, about twenty men, who stood in a row, waiting quietly in the morning mist.

Qin had initially assumed that Fanes would send an advance team to gather terrain information and then formulate a subsequent action plan and engagement strategy based on the reconnaissance results. However, when she saw the armored vehicles parked not far away in the morning mist, she realized she might have been wrong.

There were eight armored vehicles in total, their gray-white paint standing out somewhat in the morning light. They were parked in a row, their engines off, but a few wisps of light-colored heat still seeped out from under the rear of the vehicles, spreading slowly along the low-lying areas of the ground, leaving trails that had not yet dissipated in the morning mist.

Several communications vehicles and a mobile observation post were parked at the rear of the convoy. Dozens of people were moving back and forth in the gaps between the vehicles, but only a small portion of them were actually wearing combat gear.

Most of them were wearing light-colored work clothes, protective gloves and goggles, identification tags on their chests, and various measuring and recording devices in their hands. Some were even holding terminal panels with embedded data acquisition modules, looking like a group of technicians who had just been brought from the laboratory to the field.

Fanes stood in the middle of the convoy, head down, checking numbers with someone holding a data tablet beside him. He saw Qin emerge from the mist, closed the tablet, and waved to her: "You're here? Perfect timing, let's get ready to begin."

Qin walked over and stood beside him, her gaze sweeping over the people in work uniforms: "I thought most of the hundred people you mentioned were combat personnel."

Fanes handed the data panel to the person next to him, then turned to face her: "Only 40% are combat personnel. Of the remaining 60%, half are responsible for recording data, measuring effects, and evaluating overall operational efficiency; the other half are medics, on standby to handle unexpected situations. Anyway, the objective of this operation is that Abyss Ruins, not a ground war. The proportion of combat personnel doesn't have a significant impact on the outcome; what truly determines operational efficiency is the speed and accuracy of data collection."

Qin paused for a moment in the morning mist, using that time to process what Fanes had just said, and then she spoke.

"So, will this operation involve a ground offensive or long-range air support?"

Fanes reached for the terminal panel, brought up the communication interface, drew a line in the confirmation queue, and then turned the panel screen towards Qin: "You'll find out soon enough."

Twenty minutes later, a deep rumble came from the direction of the sea, as if some kind of accumulating airflow had been drawn to a very low place and was being compressed into a wide container, waiting to be released.

The sound lingered in the air for a moment, then was replaced by a shorter, sharper sound, like cloth being torn. Qin saw dozens of thin, white trails piercing through the clouds on the distant horizon, falling towards the ground in an almost parallel arc.

The contrails did not slow down after passing through the clouds, continuing to extend towards the ground. As they approached the ground, the sound intensified into a denser, continuous crackling sound. The tremors on the ground lasted for a short while after the first impacts, then all the sounds were carried away by the wind, leaving only the billowing dust and fading flames above the distant area.

Qin stood there, motionless. She looked at the area; the smoke and dust hadn't completely cleared, and there was no longer any organized resistance or any moving targets. Fanes stood beside her, glancing down at the terminal panel.

"All twenty missiles hit their targets, covering the same area as intended. No one was injured throughout the entire operation."

Fanes closed the panel, glanced back at Qin's expression, and said, "The efficiency is alright."

Qin stood still, maintaining her previous posture, and turned to look at Fanes: "The 'new weapon' you mentioned, is this it?"

Fanes nodded: "Yes."

The cleanup and confirmation work lasted all morning. Recorders set up equipment at the edge of the bombed area to record residual elemental fluctuations and geological changes. Medics remained on standby, receiving no assignments.

Qin stood at the edge of the convoy for a while, then turned and walked towards the communications vehicle, silently confirming the post-battle assessment data and consumption list.

Qin scrolled down line by line, and when she got to the section on expenses, her fingertip moved along the edge of the paper and stopped at the number in the second-to-last column.

The numbers were spread out, taking up the width of two rows of the table, and a note in italics followed: "The total cost of this missile use was 198.6 million Mora."

Jean's gaze lingered on that line of numbers for a long time, then she slowly closed the list, placed it on the folding table beside her, turned to face Fanes, and said, "...Although it exceeded my initial budget, the final figure is still within an acceptable range."

Fanes glanced at her, his gaze shifting back and forth between her and the report: "If you think it's too expensive, I can consider using a lower-spec warhead next time. It will be less effective, but the cost will be reduced by about 30%."

Qin stood beside the folding table, picked it up again, unfolded it, and glanced at the number once more: "The cost this time is still within acceptable limits. If you need to use similar methods next time, please inform us of the estimated cost in advance."

After Qin finished speaking, she folded the report and put it in the inside pocket of her coat, not letting go of it again. The wind from the riverbank was blowing along the shallows, sweeping over the still-lingering dust and grime, rolling gently across the surface of the sedimentary area, passing over the clumps of soil and gravel, spreading southward and dissipating among the distant, fog-covered hills.

Abyss Mage: I don't know either! I was eating hotpot and singing at home when nails started falling from the sky!