Humans are in chaos, despicable outsiders.

Imotek was certain that this was indeed the scientist's truest thought—

"To be alive... indeed, to be alive is enough... So go, go and do what you must do..."

The white-haired girl raised her hand and waved, signaling the jackal to retreat.

"I shall take my leave now, sir."

Having received permission, Cleo quickly left the hall, leaving the girl alone on the throne, lost in thought...

"Living...living...ah—living...."

"Humans have never been a species that exists simply for the sake of survival... then how are we any different from beasts—"

"Only war, solely war..."

"We are not fighting for the right to survive... but for the noble right of 'struggle' itself..."

"Therefore, this is what humanity is, and therefore, this is what we call humanity... The gods, who sit in the highest heavens, can never understand."

........

————————————————————

"Come in, Gray Serpent. Do you have any news to report?"

After finishing his rambling, Imotek looked towards the entrance of the hall, where a man dressed in black had been waiting for some time...

"It is a decree from His Majesty, Lord Imotek—"

"Ancestor Kevin? What does he want to instruct us on now?"

Upon hearing that the message came from his own ancestor through a messenger, Imotek became slightly interested—

"His Majesty has fully entrusted you with the command of World Serpent's offensive and negotiation plans against Destiny in North Africa, and hopes that Your Excellency Imotek can recover the Third Divine Key that Destiny seized during World Serpent's operation in London, England in 2015..."

"The Lord didn't mention anything about the fate of the Second Divine Key... but he did mention one other person."

"Who?"

Imotek, already displaying an annoyed expression, asked, "You son of a bitch, you've tricked me again!"

"Bianca Atagina, a Schicksal S-rank Valkyrie, Durandal... another heir to the Kaslana family bloodline in this generation—"

"...What is that silly, dim-witted goose, Kevin, that persistent ghost of the Kaslana family who always brings trouble to his descendants, up to?"

Ignoring Imotek's various pointing and whispering remarks about the Lord, which emanated terrifying resentment, the Gray Serpent paused and reorganized its words—

"My lord desires that you truly awaken the Kaslana Stigmata within Miss Durandal, allowing her to regain her lost memories of the past..."

"Oh... I would have done it even without him telling me; after all, killing Krishna is a must-see for the Kaslana family—how could I miss it...?"

Imotek nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"But Kevin tricked me again, and I'll remember that! He just wait, if he doesn't try to sabotage me, I'll change my mind!!"

"...Lord Imotek, I must reiterate—please do not let your personal grudges affect the World Serpent as a whole..."

"Hmph, this time it definitely won't..."

Imotek, as if struck by a sudden thought, revealed a malicious smile, sending a chill down the spine of the heavily cybernetically modified Grey Serpent...

"Grey Serpent—what do you think..."

"What's the difference between Kevin and Kevin?"

Imotek glanced at the gray snake, who was trying to slip away, not wanting to get involved in the family affairs of the grandparents and grandchildren...

"I have no objection to this. I reiterate my position: as long as the dispute between the two of you does not involve the World Serpent as a whole, you can do whatever you want with it."

The gray snake, who was almost numb, quickly issued a disclaimer and a neutral statement.

"Okay, then go get me a pair of blue contact lenses...yes, the standard Kaslana color—"

"Then, there's one more thing—go find Grandpa Kevin and borrow the Skyfire for me."

"One more thing—remember not to call me Imotek... call me Kevin Kaslana."

While Grey Snake looked completely bewildered, Imotek typed "kai'wen" (凯文/凯雯) into his communication terminal using the Chinese input method, demonstrating to him the profound and extensive nature of Chinese culture...

"this......"

The man's voice, which hadn't been heard for a long time, showed a hint of hesitation...

"Lord Imotek...isn't this bad for the Lord's reputation?"

"What's the point of protecting the reputation of a despicable ancestor who disappeared thousands of years ago, lives only in family legends, and is now obsessed with harming his descendants?"

"Should I post a picture of him in the conference room with both legs on the table, slurping noodles, on the World Serpent's internal forum for you all to admire?"

"...No, gentlemen, whatever makes you happy."

The gray snake beneath the mask, its expression twisted, left the hall...

Chapter 235 Have you ever risked your life for the World Serpent in your lifetime? .jpg

"First, we need to deal with the Herrscher of the Void who is active throughout Sky City—"

Upon returning to see his little ancestor, the jackal tapped the black screen with his cane, highlighting the important information for Raven and Night Owl in the audience.

The two below exchanged a helpless glance, shrugged, and continued watching the jackal perform on stage.

"We need to create another small-scale Stigmata Project experiment, just like we always do, to make the Second Herrscher appear—"

"Then you two take my recently developed little gift—Honkai energy neutralizing mist—and ambush that Second Herrscher."

“Since it’s a capture plan, the location for the plan doesn’t need to be a crowded place… that would make it difficult for you to carry out the operation, and the Sky City patrol team would react very quickly.”

"This plan has been finalized for the refugee settlement in the western district of Sky Dome City—"

"Okay, let's set it at Underground Street 114. It seems there was some secondary disaster caused by the collapse here before, so there will be far fewer civilians remaining in this area. Most of them have been evacuated."

"This makes it quite convenient for you guys to move around... Hey, you two, give me some feedback?!"

"So I'm the only one talking to myself?"

After the jackal finished explaining the mission overview and the local situation, he looked at the raven and owl who seemed to be doing nothing, and immediately became furious...

"Can't you show even the slightest respect for the funding, salaries, and basic necessities you receive from World Snake?!"

"We're discussing serious matters! What's with that 'I'm rotten' look on your faces?!"

"Do those people who pop children's balloons have the right to judge us?"

The owl wore a nonchalant expression and exchanged a glance with the raven. Both of them had tense faces, seemingly trying hard to avoid laughing out loud.

"You two—! You can't let this go?!"

Jackal slammed his hand on the table, glaring angrily at the two treasure-hunting duo below.

"If you don't have work, you can pop some balloons for kids instead of bothering us—"

"Hey, I'm serious—!!! The young master has already agreed!"

Indeed, if she could take advantage of you, why wouldn't she agree...?

"...Okay, okay, I got it, I got it. West District slums, underground street number 114, right?"

"Anyway, there's no time like the present. If you're ready quickly, we can set off tomorrow and bring that Herrscher back to you."

Seeing the jackal jumping up and down and even bringing up Imotek's name, the two shrugged and said, "Jackal, you're right. Please begin your performance."

"...It can be arranged tomorrow, you just need to be prepared—a mere Herrscher like Cricket, in the end, still has to bow down at the feet of World Serpent."

Jackal looked smugly at the plan on the blackboard, his face radiating an air of superiority.

"Okay—so, when we get back, should we bring you some children's balloons to pop?"

After the owl had toyed with the jackal, it was the raven's turn to use balloons to harass the jackal...

"Damn it, wsm!!! No, get out of here—you guys really have a problem with balloons, don't you?"

.....

Ms. Cleo stormed off, popping the balloons Imotek had brought back that morning to cheer up little Sirin...

"This guy is hopeless... We'd better hurry and get our attending physician, Dr. Kiana..."

The raven and the owl looked at each other, reaching a kind of consensus.

"So, how do you treat it...?"

"Of course, it's electrotherapy—during the Schicksal turmoil, the Second Herrscher reclaimed the Conquest Gem, so now our reliable Kiana can even play Professor Yang for a bit..."

"Fire element plus lightning element... you can handle Overload all by yourself, right...?"

----------------------

"Xicheng District, the former refugee settlement, No. 114 underground street... this is it."

Although Raven had been here once before with Kiana, for some well-known reason, she hadn't memorized the route very well.

Finding the location again took Raven, who was leading the group, a considerable amount of time on the road.

Their target, already impatient, was leaning against a wall in one of the alleys, stomping his feet and munching on a pickle, waiting for the two.

"Is everything settled?"

Raven surveyed the remains of some of the assassins and Honkai Beasts on the surrounding streets and confirmed with the Knight.

"Of course, whatever that guy called Jackal... her traps were way too obvious... how could a bunch of Honkai Beasts and zombies suddenly appear in such a nearly deserted area...?"

Kiana, as a Herrscher, offered her professional insights, offering extensive commentary on the Jackal's plan—

"I can understand Honkai Beasts; aside from animal mutations, there are indeed species that can be generated by the natural aggregation of Honkai energy—but what the heck is this huge group of zombies???"

"Honkai are creatures that only appear when humans are corrupted by Honkai to a certain extent... Everyone here has been evacuated—even if some unlucky soul were corrupted by Honkai energy, and then, by sheer luck, wasn't detected by the patrolling drones and was eliminated by the Sky Dome City's defense forces, and then, by sheer coincidence, ended up in this godforsaken area..."

"There are just too many of those coincidental upper body shots???"

Kiana pointed to the charred corpses of the assassins behind her, her lips twitching...

"Ah, this..."

Raven and Night Owl whistled as they watched the large group of assassins behind the girl, then silently turned their heads away.

—The Honkai Beasts and assassins here were all brought over by Jackal to make up the numbers... In order to dawdle, they were too lazy to tie up the Honkai Beasts that looked heavy, so they carried back a lone assassin of the same species wandering outside Sky Dome City, and then just dragged over a few smaller Honkai Beasts as a token gesture.