The collapse started when Kiana came to the door

"I see. Using a more powerful power of erosion can reverse the erosion? In other words, the key of erosion has also been completed by the man named Li Shubai... Hearing this name, it seems that he is also from Shenzhou?" Fu Hua touched his chin and suddenly felt something was wrong. "Wait, Kiana, you just called him captain?"

"Yes." Kiana nodded. "When they invaded the Hyperion two days ago, you should have heard what Yulandel called that boy, right?"

"Indeed." Yulandel said, "If I remember correctly, I also called that boy "Captain"."

Chapter 4: Captain's Authority (k)

Captain? Theresa frowned slightly and fell into deep thought without saying a word.

For Theresa, who had been acting as captain of the Hyperion for a long time after Ji Zi left, this title was certainly not unfamiliar, and could even be said to be quite familiar.

If we analyze it literally, unless there is any unexpected situation like [the four invaders are not actually from the same group], since the other Yulandel who followed the strange man called him captain, it represents two indisputable facts at the same time.

First, the strange man was the supreme commander of a ship.

Second, the three people over there, Yulandel, Herrscher of Knowledge, and Alicia, are all direct crew members of the ship under the name of that man.

Based on these two points and the common sense of this world, Theresa can derive and infer several other possibilities.

——First of all, in this world... or outside the world, in other unknown areas that have not yet been touched by the people of their world, there may be many existences similar to those four invaders.

Because according to the common sense that Theresa knew, the so-called captain was just a military position. After going through layers of selection, he was directly appointed and dismissed by the local or corresponding organization's theater commander or supreme commander.

For example, the former captain of the Hyperion, Himeko Murayata, was appointed by Theresa, who was the commander-in-chief of the Far East Branch of the Mandate at the time.

And since the strange man is the [Captain], and Yulandel, Herrscher of Knowledge, and Alysia who follow him are the [crew], then it stands to reason that there should also be a superior organization that governs or appoints the four invaders to their current positions.

So the question is, what exactly is that so-called "superior organization"? Since the goal of the four invaders was quite clear from the beginning, and judging from the speed at which they invaded the Hyperion and the method of their escape, this behavior was obviously premeditated and it is unlikely to be just a spur of the moment behavior. It is more likely that the captain accepted the task assigned to him by his superiors.

Besides, since the strange man's position is "Captain", then... no matter if it is a surface fleet such as aircraft carriers, battleships, destroyers and cruisers sailing on the sea, or an aerospace carrier similar to the Hyperion, or even worse, a space battleship that is even higher level than the aerospace carrier... no matter which side it is, there should always be a navigation device that can be called a "ship" accompanying the four invaders.

The second question is, where is that ship? Why has the Tianming satellite monitoring system not had any similar presence on the surface of the earth until now?

Could it be that, for that [Captain], invading their world was just his personal behavior, and not a military action in the traditional sense?

Although there seemed to be so many things going wrong, in the absence of any intelligence, Theresa had no way to correctly infer the purpose of Li Shubai and his team's visit to the Hyperion, so she could only refocus her attention on Kiana, who had spent the longest time with the four invaders in the conference room.

"Kiana, apart from the name 'Li Shubai', have you learned any other information about the four invaders during the time you were forced to cooperate with them?" Theresa asked seriously, "For example, why did they choose to invade the Hyperion? If they just wanted to locate the physical location of the Herrscher of Corrosion through the Internet, there should be no need to use the Hyperion's network, right?"

To be honest, Theresa didn't think Kiana could give her much of a detailed answer to this question.

After all, if Theresa were in the shoes of the four invaders, it would be impossible for her to tell Kiana all her affairs in just two days.

Although from the behavior point of view, the four invaders did not do anything to harm the world from beginning to end. After using another Oath of Judah to subdue Kiana and Yulandel, they did not choose to hurt them. Even when Kiana had to temporarily act with them because her power was taken away, they did send Kiana back intact after all the actions were completed.

- In fact, judging from the mental state Kiana showed to them after returning to the Hyperion, the action she took with the four invaders this time not only did not cause any harm to her, but was even slightly beneficial.

This was another point that Theresa found very strange and eerie.

After all, Theresa had been with Kiana for nearly four years as both an elder and the dean. After the Herrscher of the Void incident, Theresa had always been very attentive to Kiana's personal condition. It could even be said that, apart from Fu Hua, who had been following her as a conscious body during the time when she was forced to kill Himeko and wander alone after her body was taken over by the Herrscher of the Void, there was no one on the Hyperion who knew Kiana best than Theresa.

After defeating the Herrscher of the Void and taking down the Thousand Herrscher as the Herrscher of Fire and Flame, Kiana's mental state had actually stabilized to the point where Theresa no longer needed to pay any more attention to her. But even so, as Kiana's only two blood relatives in this world, Theresa still paid considerable attention to Kiana's condition due to her long-standing habit. Therefore, she could keenly perceive the changes in Kiana's mental state.

It was unbelievable. After becoming the Herrscher of the Fire, Theresa felt that Kiana's condition had stabilized quite well. But after disappearing with the two invaders for two days, Kiana returned to the Hyperion and felt more at ease and relaxed than ever before.

After going through hardships and battles, Kiana is no longer as innocent as she was when she was a student at St. Freya's Academy. After becoming the Herrscher of the Fire, Kiana has let go of most of the things about Himeko and the Herrscher of the Void, and has become much more mature and stable while washing away her paranoia with self-destructive impulses.

After all, this world is still shrouded in the shadow of collapse. Kaslana's excessive sense of responsibility and natural kindness still make Kiana, who has matured a lot, feel a hint of pressure that she cannot relax.

For Theresa, Kiana has been maintaining this kind of psychological pressure. Although it makes her feel a little heartbroken and unable to control it, she is unable to help Kiana to relieve it.

After all, even she couldn't completely relax while Honkai was still threatening the world.

It is not immature to be hard on yourself when fighting against Honkai. Even if you tell yourself that relaxation is to show a better state when fighting Honkai, you are still human, not machines. Forcing yourself to relax under the shadow of species destruction will only cause greater psychological pressure.

But now - it's unbelievable. Two days after leaving with the four invaders, Kiana returned to the Hyperion and made Theresa see the shadow of the past for the first time in a long time.

Yes... the shadow of the carefree and innocent Kiana when she was still at St. Freya's Academy.

To be honest, Theresa couldn't tell whether this change was good or bad for Kiana, but from the perspective of a relative, being able to see Kiana pick up her past self again made her feel gratified from the bottom of her heart.

——Forget it, even if I can’t get a detailed answer, just based on the fact that those four invaders made Kiana relax to this extent after a long time, they shouldn’t be dangerous people, right?

But just when Theresa was about to give up trying to get the answer from Kiana, Kiana answered Theresa's question quite naturally.

"I have asked them this question before. Actually, they didn't choose us on purpose." Kiana said a little embarrassedly, "Although it's just Captain Li Shubai's words, I can't guarantee that he didn't lie to me, but he told me...the reason why he chose to invade the Hyperion was not because they wanted to invade here, but it was purely out of helplessness."

"An act of helplessness?" Theresa frowned, a little unhappy. "What does this mean? They invaded our Hyperion to such an extent, and now they want to claim their innocence?"

"Well, I'm just repeating what he said to me. The specific situation depends on how you understand it, right?" Kiana hesitated for a moment. "After all, if the boy didn't lie, from his perspective, as the captain of the Hyperion, his entry into the Hyperion can't be considered an invasion, right?"

After Kiana said this, the conference room fell silent and everyone looked at each other in shock.

"Huh?" Theresa thought she had misheard. "Can you say that again?"

"Uh..." Kiana was stunned, "How can this not be considered an invasion?"

"No, the previous sentence." Theresa said.

"As the captain of the Hyperion, he entered..."

"He is the captain of the Hyperion?" Theresa, who had grasped the key point, interrupted Kiana's words with a look of astonishment on her face. "Did the intruder say that to you?"

"Yes." Kiana nodded. "The captain said that he was the captain of another Hyperion. The reason why he appeared on our Hyperion was not because he invaded us from outside, but because his Hyperion had some kind of space displacement ability. After using that ability, his Hyperion teleported him to our Hyperion..."

"Where's the evidence?" Theresa asked, "Since he claims to be the captain of the Hyperion, he should have evidence to prove his identity, right?"

"About that." Kiana raised her head and placed her palm next to her mouth, "Ai-chan, are you there?"

"I'm here?" A bright and pleasant voice came from the Hyperion's broadcasting system. "Aiyi Hyperion, on call at any time. May I ask what Kiana can do for you?"

"Ai-chan, your database should still contain all the logs of the Hyperion being hacked two days ago, right?" Kiana asked. "At that time, there should have been a boy who used the Hyperion's public frequency band network. Can I ask what identity he used when he used our network?"

"Let me take a look." The bright and lively voice said, "Hmm... the intrusion record from two days ago..."

"Wait, come to think of it, I just noticed it now." Theresa's mind suddenly flashed with an idea, "Ai-chan, why didn't you send me the log of your behavior that day immediately after the Hyperion was invaded that day?"

"Huh?" That bright voice sounded extremely puzzled. "But boss, I clearly sent all the operation records for the day to your terminal that evening?"

"..." Theresa frowned deeply. She took out her personal terminal that looked like a virtual screen and looked through it carefully. Finally, she shook her head with great certainty, "No, I didn't receive the operation records you sent me at all."

"Huh?" Along with a puzzled voice coming from the radio, another transparent screen unfolded in front of Theresa's eyes. "But, two days ago, I clearly sent the Hyperion's daily log to your mailbox, boss?"

Theresa shifted her gaze to the screen that Aiyi Hyperion had unfolded in front of her, her pupils shrinking slightly: "Ai-chan, take a closer look at the captain's name."

"Huh?" After a moment of silence, an extremely panicked voice came from the radio, "How... How is it possible?! When was the captain's data changed to someone else's?"

"..." Theresa took a deep breath. "Kiana, you said before that the invader used his Hyperion and used a space-displacement ability to teleport to our Hyperion... Is that right?"

"Yes." Kiana nodded.

"Then do you know where the space that was replaced is?" Theresa asked.

Kiana scratched her head and thought for a moment: "I remember... it seems to be the military intelligence room?"

"Ai-chan, retrieve all the surveillance footage of the military intelligence room and its surroundings from two days ago." Theresa gave Ai-chan a clear order without hesitation, "Also, Dr. Einstein, Dr. Tesla, please work with Ai-chan to immediately conduct a deep self-inspection of the Hyperion's internal systems."

"I see." Einstein nodded expressionlessly. "I am also curious about the extent to which the intruder who calls himself the captain can modify the internal system of our Hyperion."

Chapter 4 Sisters Talk (k)

After the short meeting, everyone got busy with their respective duties.

Theresa returned to the bridge and took the position of acting captain again. As a matter of course, she began to dispatch all the logistics staff to conduct a comprehensive review of all areas of the Hyperion, down to every screw; Bronya followed Einstein and Dr. Tesla into the central control room under the bridge, and according to Theresa's instructions, assisted the two doctors in conducting an in-depth self-inspection of the Hyperion's internal network and the artificial intelligence system named Ai Hyperion.

Kiana·Bad Student·Bug·Kaslana looked around at the figures gradually dispersing in the conference room, wiped the sweat from her forehead imperceptibly, then shrank her neck, tiptoed, took extremely cautious steps, and tried to escape from this place of trouble without making a sound.

It was not known whether it was intentional or not, but after giving clear instructions and division of labor to all members of the Hyperion, Theresa did not further ask Kiana about the four invaders, nor did she assign any work to her like other people at the end of the meeting. Instead, she just left Kiana alone in the meeting room.

Of course, no matter what, she successfully fooled the questioning this time. Although it was not Kiana's intention to hide the truth from Theresa, as a condition of [not using Yu Duchen to modify her own memory], this was the biggest concession that Captain Li Shubai could make.

Just as Kiana crouched and tiptoed to the door of the conference room, a pair of huge, snow-white, round breasts suddenly appeared in front of her.

Uh, this shape and upright posture...

The little idiot raised his head and saw his sister, Yulandel, who looked a little embarrassed. She stood straight in front of him, raised her fist to her mouth and coughed. Then she pretended to be very calm and asked in a very stiff tone: "Um... Kiana, do you have time next time?"

"..." Kiana did not respond to Yulandel's invitation immediately, but bent her already crouched waist even deeper. She controlled her upper body to go around Yulandel's well-proportioned waist that was both powerful and beautiful, and turned her head to glance around the conference room.

After confirming that there was no one nearby and everyone had left the door, Kiana retracted her upper body and stood up in front of Yulandel. She looked up and down at this person who she had previously thought was just a respectable Valkyrie and comrade-in-arms, but now inexplicably became her blood-related [sister]. She scratched her head a little embarrassedly and laughed awkwardly: "You should have heard what we talked about in the conference room just now. The dean didn't assign me any tasks, and I just happened to have something to tell you, so... let's chat together?"

"That's exactly what I meant." Yulandel said with a stern face, as if facing a great enemy.

The expression of her neat and beautiful facial features showed a kind of heroism and determination, as if saying "I will go forward even if there are thousands of people against me".

"Hey, why are you so nervous? You're making me nervous too." Kiana rubbed her shoulders and felt a layer of goose bumps on her back. "Although I'm not sure what you want to talk to me about, it shouldn't be something that makes you so nervous, right? In fact... for the two of us and the dean, it should be a good thing?"

"Hmm... do I look that nervous?" Yulandel touched her face at a loss. When she realized that her facial muscles were so stiff that she couldn't make any other expressions except a stern face, she couldn't help but cough again in embarrassment, and a blush floated up her cheek uncontrollably.

After a long silence, Yulandel finally chose to face the reality and put as much apology as possible into her tone of voice: "I'm sorry if I made you feel embarrassed."

Kiana was speechless. She put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "You are a good person. You take everything too seriously. Of course, this is not a shortcoming. But, at least in front of your trusted friends, can you relax a little?"

"Is... is that so?" Usually, she taught Kiana as a senior during training, but now she was taught a lesson by her blood-related sister. This made Youlandel feel a little embarrassed, and she couldn't help but reflect on whether her character was really flawed. "In the past, Rita also said something similar to me. Maybe... with my personality, I'm not really suitable for getting along with friends."

"Don't be so depressed. This is just my personal opinion." Seeing that Youlandel was depressed because of her casual complaint, Kiana waved her hand to dispel the heavy atmosphere and changed the subject: "Speaking of which, we both have something to say to each other, right? There is still a long time to go, and it is not a good idea to stand at the door of the meeting room all the time. Why don't we go to my room and talk together first?"

After accepting the proposal, Yulandel followed Kiana to her room.

The room where Kiana lives in the Hyperion is not spacious. Compared with the villa-style dormitories at St. Freya College and the spacious rooms at the Anti-Entropy Salt Lake Base, the dormitory of the Hyperion only provides the minimum living guarantee. The whole room is like an inverted iron box. Although it looks extremely simple, it does not lose the beauty of technology.

Kiana sat down beside the metal bed and waved to Youlandel who was standing by the door, motioning her to sit next to her. She felt a little emotional for some reason: "Thinking back on this period of time, after the battle with Bishop Otto, it seems that we have never had a chance to have a good talk like now."

"After all, everyone has their own duties and work. After the Klosten incident, all members of SkyMing have been working overtime non-stop with no end in sight." Yulandel followed Kiana's instructions and sat down next to her. She paused for a moment, then frankly admitted her weakness, "Of course, for me, I'm probably just trying to use this excuse to temporarily avoid the facts, right?"

"So you also have things you don't want to face. That's really surprising." Kiana bent her legs, resting the soles of her feet against the edge of the iron bed, with her arms wrapped around her knees. She turned her face slightly and joked, "I thought that no matter what happened, the most powerful Valkyrie of Destiny should be able to face it calmly."

"Don't make fun of me." Yulandel looked embarrassed. "Everyone has weaknesses, and I am no exception."

In most of the past, including when facing Kiana, Yulandel had a psychological advantage because she was the strongest Valkyrie of destiny. In addition to accepting the teachings of Bishop Otto, Yulandel was always the one who gave when dealing with anyone else, and rarely asked for anything.

Based on this psychological advantage, she would always take it for granted to think and evaluate others from a higher perspective, and would also appear to be quite paranoid and selfish about the things she believes in.

It is precisely because of Yulandel's character that after awakening Kaslana's stigma and learning about her own life experience, she would take it for granted that she should not tell this matter to others, and should not let Kiana and Theresa know that [the real Kiana is still alive].

But at this moment, a sudden accident occurred.

The Hyperion was easily invaded by four invaders, and among them was one named "Yulandel", who had fully awakened the Kaslana Stigmata like her, but was slightly younger than her.

At first, Yulandel didn't notice anything wrong. She faced the enemy normally, followed the space crack opened by Kiana to catch up with the four invaders normally, and then prepared to cooperate with Kiana to defeat them normally. Everything was normal.

Until the only boy among the four invaders calmly took out a Judas's Oath.

Then she was captured together with Kiana, without any ability to resist.

Being caught was not a big problem. After all, the four invaders did not harm them at all and released her not long after. Although Kiana had to follow the four invaders because her power was temporarily controlled, in Yulandel's view, since the younger Yulandel over there had also fully awakened the stigmata of Kaslana, she would definitely not do anything to hurt Kiana.

However, when she returned to the Hyperion first, and soon after, Kiana also ran back to report her safety, Yulandel suddenly discovered that... Kiana's attitude towards her seemed to become a little strange.

If Kiana had previously interacted with her with respect, trust, and a competitive spirit, after dealing with the four invaders, Kiana's attitude toward her...had obviously become a little closer than that of a comrade-in-arms.

Then Yulandel suddenly realized it.

Is it true that...that [Yulandel] over there revealed Kiana's background during the time she worked with her?

When she first realized this, Yulandel was worried for a while. After all, from the very beginning, she chose to conceal her life experience because she didn't want this matter to cause harm to Kiana, Theresa and others.

But after observing Kiana carefully for a while, Yulandel found that her mood did not seem to become depressed because she knew that she - the [real Kiana] was still alive. Instead, she became happier than before.

When she discovered that Kiana didn't seem to be hurt by the fact that [the real Kiana was still alive], Yulandel finally realized that she had made a very serious mistake.

She believed that this matter would do no good except to hurt Kiana and the others. However, compared to the possible harm caused by [knowing that their relatives are still alive], for Kiana... or Theresa as well, what they valued more was the fact that [their relatives are still alive].

Compared to the fact that [the real Kiana is still alive], the harm caused to them by this incident is not a big deal at all. In other words, both Kiana and Theresa are the kind of people who are willing to hurt themselves for the lives of their loved ones.

So, after realizing that Kiana already knew about this matter but did not seem to be hurt by this fact, a feeling of guilt and cowardice that she had never felt before suddenly occupied the thoughts of this most powerful Valkyrie.

Although she was timid, Yulandel was not the kind of person who would not change her mistakes after knowing them. So, after struggling for a while, she finally made up her mind and chose to reveal her identity to Kiana.

Seeing Yulandel's embarrassed expression, Kiana couldn't help but grin and let out a clear and pleasant laugh like a silver bell, and said excitedly: "Yulandel, why didn't I realize that you are such a lovely person before."

“Kekekeke… cute?!” Hearing Kiana’s extremely sincere evaluation, Yulandel’s face, which was already slightly flushed, suddenly became even more rosy. “You, you, you said that on purpose because you knew my identity?!”

"Yes!" Kiana nodded decisively, with an extremely arrogant smile of gratitude.

"You really admitted it without hesitation!" Yulandel was furious. Determined to teach this sister who didn't know how to respect her sister a lesson, she rushed in front of Kiana, then stretched out her hands and ravaged Kiana's face with gritted teeth.

"Wait wait wait - it hurts! Stop it!" Kiana struggled against Yulandel's actions while laughing uncontrollably.

"Laugh! You're still laughing!"

"Wait, I was wrong! I was really wrong! Hahaha..."