Collapse, Kaslana's Way of Survival

"I understand. As we get older, we all have these concerns. After all, it's menopause...hiss!"

Theresa withdrew her hand that was twisting Keno's thigh, stood up again, and stared at her eldest nephew with gritted teeth.

This is a kiss. If it was Kiana next door, she would definitely take a picture with a Judas gesture.

However, after being interrupted by the other party, her originally heavy mood suddenly became a little helpless.

"Really? Stop interrupting people with jokes when they're in the middle of a conversation. It really ruins the atmosphere." Theresa sighed and knocked on the table twice.

"Nephew, where was I just now?"

"Menopause... ahem, I mean there's something wrong with my memory." Seeing Theresa stretch out her hand again, Kainuo quickly changed his words.

"Oh, right." Theresa nodded, her hands spread on the table. "But that's obviously impossible. I'm the principal, but I'm not Wendy's teacher. Like Himeko and several other teachers, they all remember Wendy. Clearly, there's something wrong with the Oceania branch."

Kayno immediately thought of Theresa's words about each branch retaining its own research results, and offered his own guess: "Because Wendy's experiment was successful, the Oceania branch wants to keep it?"

"...Wait, that's not right. Although the gem was successfully contained, Wendy not only didn't inherit any of the Herrscher's abilities, but also broke her legs. This can't be considered a successful experiment, right?" Before Theresa could respond, Kayno immediately raised another question.

Theresa's eyes widened. "Do you think it's easy to contain the gem with your body?!"

Kainuo pondered for a moment.

My younger sister, Kiana, the Herrscher of Reason, Su Mei in the bubble, Xiao Zhi, and myself, who can use power without a core and was recommended by the priest to receive one. Oh, and Bud...

"I don't know what you're thinking, nephew, but that must be a special case!" Theresa slammed the table twice again. "I wonder how many Valkyries died in the Oceania branch trying to contain the Desire Gem!"

"I see." Kayno nodded.

It had been so long that he didn't remember it for a moment. He didn't know how many clones of his sister had died in the Xilin Project.

Tsk.

"Besides that, there's also the fact that Wendy is from St. Freya," Theresa continued, her chin resting on her hand. "Although she volunteered to participate in the experiment, the Oceania branch needs to consider the possibility that Wendy is a spy for the Far East branch."

Kaino leaned back slightly. "Have the branches reached the point where they're using spies to steal each other's experimental results?!"

"Probably. Jizi has uncovered several spies from other branches in Saint Freya, and Fuhua has also helped uncover one or two." Theresa sighed. "If it weren't for them, Saint Freya would have been completely destroyed long ago, right?"

Kaino gave a smile that was elegant but not polite.

"Anyway, because of these reasons, Wendy and I completely lost contact. There was nothing I could do. When I finally learned about Wendy's situation, I took the initiative to ask Grandpa for help." Theresa said with a pout.

"But you know my grandfather, Kainuo. He's incredibly supportive of his subordinates' research on the Herrscher core. Now that he has an excellent experimental subject, how could he give up so easily?"

Theresa sighed again: "So I didn't accomplish anything in the end."

"That's it..."

Kainuo nodded and leaned back in his chair, falling into silence.

The atmosphere in the room became quiet again.

"Wait, that's not right." Kayno, who was trying to sort out his thoughts, noticed something was wrong and suddenly spoke up, breaking the silence.

He looked at Theresa again, suspicion in his eyes. "Aunt, since the Oceania branch has blocked any news about Wendy, how did you finally find out the truth?"

He didn't think Otto would take the initiative to tell Theresa about Wendy. This was completely unnecessary for the granddaughter-obsessed man.

Theresa was stunned for a moment, then glanced away with a guilty look on her face. "A friend of mine in the Oceania branch happened to know about this. She told me."

"Friend?" Kainuo raised his eyebrows, his voice somewhat teasing.

"They're just friends, what's the big deal?" Theresa steeled herself, raised her head, closed her eyes, and said loudly, "I've worked at headquarters for so many years, so what if I have a few friends?"

"Okay, I believe it." Kainuo nodded perfunctorily.

It's not a big deal anyway.

He picked up the chopsticks on the table, picked up a red pepper for Xier while she was glaring at him, and then poked Theresa.

"Then I'm fine. Go ahead and eat, Auntie. The bitter melon porridge will get cold soon."

"Ah? Oh oh." Theresa nodded blankly.

However, after a while, she still maintained that posture without any movement.

"Aunt?" Kainuo asked when he saw something was wrong with the other party.

"Nephew," Theresa hesitated for a moment, then looked at Kaino and asked, "Do you want to go to the Oceania branch to rescue Wendy?"

Kaino didn't answer, but just looked at Theresa and blinked.

It seems like you've been thinking about this for a long time, isn't it obvious?

"No, I don't agree!" Theresa said loudly, understanding what Kayno meant. "That's too dangerous!"

She grabbed Kaino's shoulders and shook him, saying, "The Oceania branch's defenses are very tight. Even if you, Kaino, can now overpower the First Herrscher, uh..."

Halfway through her speech, Theresa suddenly got stuck.

It seems that it is indeed possible in terms of strength alone?

After a brief pause of a second or two, Theresa frowned and continued, "Even if you can get Wendy out safely, Grandpa and the others will definitely arrest you! After all, Wendy, who has the potential to become a controllable Herrscher, is too important to them!"

Kainuo, who was being shaken by Theresa, twitched his lips and pushed Theresa's hands away.

"Don't worry, Auntie, I won't bring Wendy out." Sighing helplessly, Kainuo explained, "And I will hide my identity well and make a good alibi."

After thinking for a while, Theresa nodded hesitantly: "This might be okay..."

"But in this case, nephew, what are you going to do with Wendy?"

"It's simple, just take the Gem of Desire." Kaino shrugged. "An unknown bandit broke through the Oceania branch's defenses and stole the precious Gem of Desire. Not a bad idea, isn't it?"

To be honest, this scene and idea had a sense of déjà vu. If the knight Ziyuan's vest had not been exposed once, he would definitely take the opportunity to show some embarrassment to Otto, who had lost Kallen.

He had this idea when he saw Kallen being sentenced to death by hanging in the Destiny textbook.

"Then, the Oceania branch, having the Desire Gem stolen, won't continue to embarrass Wendy, right?" Kaino said with a smile. "Especially if Wendy's legs miraculously recover after the Desire Gem leaves her body, they'll know exactly what to do."

As a talented person with a good chance of becoming an S-class Valkyrie, the Oceania branch theoretically wouldn't do anything to her.

And now that the Gem of Desire has been lost, his aunt has a good chance of getting Wendy back from Otto.

"Is that so?" Theresa bit her lip and nodded heavily. "Okay, nephew, wait for me."

He quickly took out his phone and started operating it. Soon a picture was sent to Kainuo's phone.

"This is..." Kaino raised an eyebrow after opening Theresa's email and looked at his aunt with a strange look. "The internal structure diagram of the Oceania branch?"

"Yes." Theresa nodded shyly, a blush creeping up her cheeks. "That friend of mine also sent it to me."

"Well, just friends."

Chapter 152 Wendy

the next day.

On the soft big bed, Wendy frowned and then opened her emerald green eyes. She stared at the ceiling, ignoring the bright wall lamp above her, and slowly fell into a daze.

Unlike the boys and girls of the same age in Saint Freya, Wendy did not need to attend classes even on holidays. Unlike the Valkyries who had morning classes every day, Wendy did not have any required exercises to complete.

That's why Wendy could even lie in bed all day long, let alone just being in a daze for a while.

goo~

...if she wasn't hungry.

The feeling of hunger in her stomach finally brought the girl back to her senses. Wendy frowned, raised one hand to touch her stomach, and sighed helplessly.

If possible, she really wanted to lie in bed for a while longer

Wendy bent down as hard as she could, supported her entire body with her arms bent, and then moved herself from the center of the bed to the edge by moving her arms.

She skillfully pulled the wheelchair next to the bed towards her position. She held the wheelchair armrest with one hand and leaned on the edge of the bed with the other hand. She suddenly exerted force with both hands to support her body and moved herself from the bed to the wheelchair.

She will have to rely on this wheelchair for the whole day.

Instead of heading directly to the restaurant, Wendy controlled her wheelchair and went to the wall where the calendar was hung.

As usual, Wendy lightly crossed out a cross on the calendar. Looking at the day that was less than a month away from the end of the year, she sighed softly.

"Looks like I have to spend the day alone." Wendy closed her eyes, looking slightly depressed.

Although she wasn't from Shenzhou or the Far East, Wendy had a habit of celebrating the Lunar New Year thanks to her studies at St. Freya. Furthermore, because her time at St. Freya was the happiest time since her homeland was destroyed by the Honkai Impact, Wendy actually looked forward to the Lunar New Year.

Of course, that was before coming to the Oceania branch.

After coming here, she has never celebrated New Year again - it's a simple reason, it's impossible to celebrate New Year alone.

"No!" Wendy suddenly shook her head, patted her cheeks lightly with both hands and took a deep breath.

"Wendy, you must remain calm and mentally healthy. You must not be defeated by setbacks, and you absolutely must not be manipulated by the Core."

After encouraging herself, Wendy's eyes became bright again.

"Well then," Wendy clenched her right hand into a fist and gently placed her left hand on her stomach, "let's go eat first."

Gently pushing the joystick on the wheelchair, Wendy walked towards the kitchen.

……

"Wow, I'm so full." Wendy rubbed her bloated stomach with a faint smile on her lips.

Because researchers from the Pacific branch would control the robot to put any leftover food into the refrigerator after she fell asleep, the worry-free meal time every day was a rare enjoyment for her.

Fortunately, she has a body type that won't gain weight no matter how much she eats, otherwise she might be restricted from even this greatest enjoyment.

But what to do after breakfast?

Wendy half lowered her head, looking slightly distressed.

She'd watched the few remaining Homunculus anime countless times, and she could complete the few games on her handheld console with her eyes closed. Her legs, unable to move properly, made most activities impossible, and after thinking about it, the only thing she could do was...

Wendy turned her head and looked at the only and largest window in the entire room.

Although it is far from the window, the flowers, plants and trees swaying in the wind are still clearly visible.

She controlled the wheelchair to slowly move toward the window and finally stop completely. Wendy completely relaxed in the wheelchair, her eyes slowly narrowed, her mind cleared, and she began to enjoy the quiet and beautiful scenery.

Watching the swaying of flowers, plants and trees outside the window and the walking tracks of various small animals is a pretty good way she has found to kill time recently.

As for the result, Wendy thought it was pretty good, at least much better than playing those tired games again.

Suddenly, a dripping sound broke the quiet atmosphere.

Wendy's expression froze slightly, and almost without thinking, she pressed a button on the armrest of the wheelchair with her right hand, looking at the light screen that suddenly appeared in front of her with anticipation.

"Ah, Miss Wendy, hello..." A slightly restrained male voice suddenly sounded.

A strange adult man in a white coat appeared on the screen. Although he spoke politely and smiled, Wendy, who was sensitive because of being alone for a long time, immediately noticed the forced smile and the fear in his voice.

To herself, no doubt.

Suppressing the bitterness in her heart, Wendy took a deep breath, and looked at the other person with a forced smile on her lips.

"Hello?"

"Ah, I haven't introduced myself yet." The man's voice became even more reserved in the face of Wendy's kindness. "Miss Zev, who was responsible for taking you to the experiment, is on vacation. From now on, I will be in charge of your experiment."

Wendy's eyes darkened for a moment, but returned to normal the next moment.

"I understand. Thank you for your help." Wendy nodded. "May I have your name?"

"No, forget it." As if he was afraid of something, the man swallowed and shook his head. "I won't be in charge of you forever. I'll be leaving when Miss Zefu comes back. There's no need to know my name."

Wendy's eyes flickered, and then she nodded slightly disappointedly.

"I understand."

"Oh, right," the man said, finally remembering the main reason for calling. "There won't be any related experiments for the next week. You can take a good rest."

"Ah..." Wendy opened her mouth slightly, then smiled bitterly, "Is that so? I understand. Thank you for your help."

Although it was an experiment that caused her legs to completely lose their function, Wendy actually had no aversion to continuing to participate in the experiment and even had a hint of desire.

The reason is simple. Anyone who stays in a monotonous place for a long time will be eager to go out and see different scenery, especially to talk to different experimenters after going out.

"Phew, I'm glad you understand." The man took a deep breath and his expression visibly relaxed. "Goodbye then."

Then, without waiting for Wendy's response, the man closed the communication as if fleeing.

Wendy lowered her head, sighed helplessly, and looked back at the window in front of her.

Fortunately, she still has a window...

pat.