K424 of the Collapse World

"However, there is a more suitable candidate for this experiment... Seele's resistance to Honkai energy is stronger than anyone else in the orphanage! So, mother... please let Seele take over Sister Bronya and conduct the experiment in advance!"

"By the way, are you planning to go out with this outfit? Aren't you going to find yourself a pair of shoes?"

In the intricate backstreets, two girls walked side by side. Hill looked at the bare feet of the purple-haired girl beside him, hesitated for a long time, and couldn't help asking a question.

Lan Feng glanced at her indifferently and turned his eyes away.

"I don't have a passport or any other useful documents. Going directly to the main street would just be asking for trouble. And, most importantly, I have no money."

Hill smiled, looked over Lan Feng's body from top to bottom, and a slight smile began to appear on his face.

"This is not a big city. The police won't come to you for no reason. Besides, money is something... it should be easy to make money in your current state, right? As long as you flirt a little bit on the street, you can easily attract a bunch of big pigs. Then, as long as you take on a rich-looking client, the money you make will be enough for you to change your clothes several times~"

203 Departure>>

"..."

Noticing that the girl's crossed pupils had shrunk to a ferocious degree, Hill closed his mouth in time and his expression returned to its original seriousness.

"Okay, no more jokes... But it's uncomfortable to walk barefoot on the ground, right? Especially in a dirty and bumpy back street like this. As for shoes, can't you just find a pair from any house? With your ability, it should be easy, right?"

Hearing this, Lan Feng sighed helplessly.

"Don't take stealing for granted... I don't really want to do such a thing unless it's a special situation. Besides, it's not something I can't adapt to. Here~"

As she spoke, she stopped, then lifted one foot and showed the sole to Hill.

The girl's feet were smooth and unlike ordinary people, there was no callus on her feet. What was even more puzzling was that even after walking on the filthy ground for so long, her soles were still white.

But Hill was just stunned for a moment, then he smiled with understanding.

"Eh... I see. You use Honkai energy to create a force field under your feet, and walk in an extremely small floating state. In fact, your soles don't even touch the ground..."

But after squatting down and looking at Lan Feng's other foot, Hill couldn't help but look a little surprised.

"But... your control is really terrifying. I can't tell that your feet have left the ground even if I observe you directly like this... This kind of precise control, although there are many people with stronger Houkai energy reserves than you, the only person who can achieve such a thing in terms of control is probably..."

While sighing from the bottom of her heart, Hill recalled the strong men in her mind. But when she thought of a certain white-haired figure, her pupils shrank slightly...

"Wait! Even in the last era, no one could manipulate the trace amount of Honkai energy to this extent! Kevin can't do it... What's more, you..."

Taking a quick glance at the metal ring on Lan Feng's wrist, Hill showed a complicated expression to the girl in front of him for the first time.

"You are still under the suppression of soul steel... Even a true Herrscher would find it difficult to do such a thing. But you... have mastered such Honkai power with a human body, and you even retain your sanity..."

Because I have witnessed the same level of power

, Hill was so surprised by the girl in front of her. She realized at this time that the girl in front of her might be an existence beyond common sense...

Lan Feng was slightly stunned. She didn't understand why this girl suddenly became so surprised? Didn't he explain his power to her clearly just now?

“Hill, you…?”

"k424... No, Shiris! Your current power is not inferior to that of a true Herrscher! But you are not a Herrscher... When you took this power from the hands of the god "Honkai", what price did you pay?"

Hearing this question, Lan Feng was silent. After a moment, she shook her head slightly.

"I don't know... what I paid when I first gained these powers. But I can almost imagine what price I will pay to use these powers..."

She gently raised her arm, stared at her frost-white wrist, and smiled bitterly. In her own vision with the added perception of collapse, what she saw was different from what others saw.

Slowly clenching his hands into fists, Lan Feng's eyes became somewhat complicated.

"Perhaps, the Lord God is planning to find a time to let me pay off all my debts at once..."

"..."

"Okay, these things are not a big deal. You just need to know that I can now smash everything except destiny, and that's enough."

Lan Feng shook his head left and right to drive away the mess, then raised his hand and gently tapped Hill's shoulder to wake her up from her thoughts.

"Don't think about those useless things. Let's go find the orphanage as soon as possible. Who knows when their experiments will start."

"Ah...hmm."

Hill responded absentmindedly, staring blankly at the back of the purple-haired girl walking in front of him. Suddenly, she seemed to think of something, her eyes focused, and her blue eyes turned blood red again. But this time, there was no murderous intent in her eyes, but a calmness. In her ruby-like pupils, there was a clear insight into everything...

In her vision, white dots kept flashing on the girl's exposed skin, then quickly returned to normal, and appeared again the next moment, repeating the cycle...

Hill was stunned. Obviously, this was a sign that the collapse had begun to erode, but the erosion rate and the ability to resist erosion were resisting each other, at a rather delicate critical value.

(The outward Houkai energy that can only be suppressed by the Soul Steel Limiter, the critical point of erosion... I see...)

In fact, as Hill saw, Lan Feng's body had reached the critical point of being eroded by Honkai. Due to the body's self-protection mechanism, her body began to automatically release Honkai energy and entered an irreversible Pseudo-Herrscher state, thereby consuming the excess Honkai energy that was enough to erode her body.

Therefore, with the help of the suppression of soul steel, she could offset her leaked Honkai energy and avoid being detected by the Honkai energy alarms all over the world...

(But... this should be very uncomfortable, right? You actually live this way... Is this the fate of androids, or is it a choice you made yourself? It's a little, a little sad...)

"what happened?"

Lan Feng turned around and looked at Hill who was still standing there, and asked with some confusion.

"No...nothing."

Hill came back to her senses, stretched slowly, and then quickly followed. Her expression had returned to its previous smiling look, but there was a hint of hidden pity in her eyes as she looked at Lan Feng.

"Is there anything you want to say to me, Hill?"

"No, now that you have decided on this matter, it's up to you to do what you want to do next. Anyway, as long as your destination is the orphanage, then I will just follow you..."

As he spoke, Hill ran back to Lan Feng's side and walked side by side with her.

Lan Feng was a little puzzled. She felt that the distance between her and this girl had suddenly become much closer, and the previous grudges seemed to have disappeared, which made her feel a little uncomfortable...

(never mind......)

Lan Feng shook his head and didn't take it too seriously. It should be a good thing that the relationship between him and Hill had become more harmonious.

"Well, I hope we can have a good cooperation this time... Hill."

As she spoke, Lan Feng took the lead and walked forward. She stopped thinking about what happened just now and focused her mind on the next x-10 experiment.

Gently stroking the soul steel ring on his left wrist, a trace of confusion flashed in Lan Feng's eyes.

(But, having said that, what should I do... In order to save Seele, is it really enough to just stop her from participating in the experiment? If so, how can I convince her...)

204 start

Cocoli

Asia Orphanage...

In the early morning, faint sunlight shone in from the window, pouring into a small house, dispelling the darkness in the corners of the room and announcing the arrival of dawn.

However, no one in the room noticed any of this. She was still lying on the table with her arms resting on her head, breathing softly as her chest rose and fell slightly.

The curly silver-gray braids lay on the table, gleaming faintly in the sunlight...

As time went by, the sun slowly rose, and the light gradually became stronger and warmer. The angle of the light gradually became higher. Gradually, the sunlight covered the desk and the gray-haired girl's body.

Finally, feeling the warmth of the sun, the girl lying on the desk opened her eyes drowsily and looked around with a slightly dazed expression.

"Huh...? Why am I in Xi'er's room? What happened yesterday..."

She shook her head, and the drowsiness from just waking up gradually disappeared. Bronya quickly remembered what happened yesterday.

"By the way, after I came back from my mother's place, I couldn't find Xier, so I waited for her in front of the desk in this room, and then... I fell asleep in a daze..."

She felt a little guilty about her negligence, but suddenly she remembered something more important and quickly put the matter behind her.

Looking at the empty bed beside her, Bronya frowned slightly and her expression became uneasy.

"But where is Xi'er? If she came back, she would definitely wake me up. Could it be that...she didn't come back to her room all night?"

Bronya speculated, and because it involved Seele's safety, she began to become more and more anxious.

"Xi'er stays in her room every day. It's impossible for her to stay overnight somewhere else for no reason...but I haven't heard any news. Something must have happened!"

Thinking of this, Bronya immediately stood up from the chair, ignoring her numb legs, stumbled towards the door, opened it and ran out.

"Xi'er! Xi'er?! Where are you?"

Bronya shouted anxiously, and the empty corridor was filled with her echoes. Several children who were awakened opened the door and looked at the panicked Bronya with doubts in their eyes.

"Do you know where Xi'er is?"

As Bronya asked, her eyes were still looking around their room, trying to find the black-haired girl who was always with her.

"Xi'er? I don't know..."

"Isn't she with you?"

"I don't know... is she missing?"

......

However, every girl Bronya asked shook her head, and no one knew where Seele was.

(But, in this case, all that's left is...)

Bronya gritted her teeth secretly, thought for a moment, and ran towards another building not far from the dormitory building...

"Mom Cocolia, Xi'er is missing...!"

Shouting anxiously, Bronya pushed open the door in front of her, but what she saw was an empty office. The blonde woman who always sat at the desk working was not there at this moment...

"Mother......?"

Bronya was stunned. Looking at the empty office, she suddenly felt a little scared. She couldn't imagine what would happen to her if she couldn't find the girl.

The next moment, she suddenly heard footsteps behind her. Bronya turned around quickly and saw a brown-haired girl who was slightly shorter than her.

"Eh? Sister Bronya?"

After thinking about it carefully, Bronya

"You are... Remya? What are you doing here? Oh, right! Have you seen where Cocolia's mother is? I need to find her urgently..."

After seeing the girl, she asked hurriedly. Bronya didn't want to miss any chance to find Seele. As long as there was a glimmer of hope, she would try her best to grab it. Fortunately, the girl in front of her did not disappoint her. She was just stunned for a moment, and then a warm smile appeared on her face.

"Ah, Sister Bronya... You are looking for Seele, right? I'm sorry, but Mom left the orphanage last night for something, and Seele was with her. Because she was in a hurry, she only told me before she left. I was just planning to tell everyone the news... I didn't expect you to get up so early. I'm sorry for making you worry, Sister Bronya."

Hearing this, the anxiety in Bronya's eyes slowly disappeared. She breathed a sigh of relief and gradually returned to her usual gentle and calm demeanor.

"It's okay, thank you very much... Remya."

While expressing her gratitude, Bronya exhaled and slowed down her rapid breathing. Now that she knew Seele had not suffered any accident, she was not as worried as before.

"Well, you're welcome. Seele treats you as her sister, Bronya, so I should do the same.

Get along well with you~ At the beginning, Sister Xi Lisi took care of me a lot, she really cared about Xier......"

"Shiris... Well, I did hear Xier mention her. She was a very good person and the one who cared about her at the beginning..."

Bronya nodded and didn't say much. Although she was grateful to that Shirley for taking care of Seele, she didn't know her so she didn't care too much.

"But what on earth is going on that makes Mom want to take Xi'er with her?"

Bronya turned around and stared at the rising sun outside the window behind her. For some reason, the inexplicable anxiety in her heart could not be shaken off...

"Lumiya, do you know where Mom went?"

"I don't know about this. My mother didn't tell me either."

"I see... But since Xi'er is staying with her mother, nothing should happen..."

At the same time, on the coast of Okhotsk...

"... Just in case, I'll ask you again, have you really made up your mind, Xier? Although the experiment has been prepared long ago, once it officially begins, you won't have the chance to regret it."

"Well, Seele has made her decision. She will take part in the experiment in place of Sister Bronya."

Hearing this, the blonde woman lowered her head slightly, and seeing the determined look in the eyes of the black-haired girl beside her, she sighed softly and stopped dissuading her.

"You two are really... Well, well, if that's what you want... Indeed, for you who have the stigmata, the success rate of the experiment is higher than theirs."

"Well, thank you, Mom."

Xier said softly, casting her eyes towards the boundless sea in front of her. Looking at the sparkling sea, Xier's eyes were shining with longing.

"Mom, where is...?"

"This is the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, and the X-10 laboratory is built on the seafloor."

While answering Xier's questions, Cocolia used the terminal to check the configuration of the experiment.

"This way, we can use seawater to prevent the leakage of Honkai energy and prevent the Destiny Organization from detecting it during the experiment."