K424 of the Collapse World

"Ah, this is... the sea that Sister Bronya plans to take Seele to?"

Cocolia gave her a strange look.

"Xi'er, have you never seen the sea?"

"Well, Xier has been living in her mother's orphanage since she can remember. Except for occasionally going to town, she has basically never left here."

"Oh, yes... that's right. This is my oversight. The orphanage is very close to the coast of Okhotsk, but I didn't have the chance to bring you here."

"No... This has nothing to do with mom. It's Xier's own problem... If I could have found the opportunity earlier, it wouldn't be like this now..."

204 Start >>

Shaking her head gently, Xier looked at the calm blue ocean in front of her, the amazement in her eyes still did not disappear. For her, it was a happy thing to see the ocean that she had never seen before, but the person who had always been by her side did not come with her...

(If this experiment hadn’t happened, Seele would have been able to go to the beach with Sister Bronya the day after tomorrow… but…)

There was a hint of sadness in Xier's eyes, but the next moment, she suddenly thought of something and her expression became firm again.

(No... As long as the experiment is successful, I can still fulfill my promise to Bronya to watch the sea together! That's right, as long as the experiment is successful...)

A moment later, the sound of waves broke the silence of the scene. A small black submarine slowly emerged from the sea not far away and moved towards the two people standing on the beach...

Seeing this, Cocolia put down her hand, put the terminal she had been holding in her hand into her pocket, and then turned her gaze to Xier.

"Xi'er, the experiment is almost over. We should set off."

"Um......"

After getting the girl's response, Cocolia took Xi'er's hand, took her on the submarine, and headed towards the X-10 laboratory built on the seabed...

As they left, the beach returned to silence. Indeed, this coast, with no residents nearby, had always been deserted.

However, on this day, it was destined not to return to peace as usual.

After a while, there was a rustling sound of footsteps coming from a small forest behind the coast. In just a moment, two figures slowly walked out of the dense trees and stood on the beach.

"It turned out to be this scene... I didn't expect it to happen just before Xi'er's experiment began..."

Bare feet on the sand

On the beach, Lan Feng gently moved her body. After arriving at the Cocolia Orphanage yesterday, she could not sense Xi'er's presence in the orphanage, but relying on the connection between Xi'er and the stigmata, they still easily found Xi'er's location. After rushing over overnight, they came to this place...

"Siris, why didn't you take action? Wasn't that a good opportunity just now?"

Hill folded his hands in front of his chest and looked at Lan Feng beside him in confusion. In fact, they had arrived here a long time ago, but Lan Feng had not taken any action, just observing from behind. It was not until the two left, just now, that she led him out of the woods.

Hill was a little confused as to what his partner was trying to do.

"Didn't you want to stop her from doing that experiment? Why did you just watch them leave?"

In response to this, Lan Feng's face showed a hint of bitterness.

"About this... I'm sorry, I really can't figure out what to do. To them, I'm just a shameless betrayer. It's probably not going to work if I go over and negotiate directly. But, I can't just use violence to kidnap Xi'er..."

"What a hassle... You haven't figured out a plan of action yet? I thought you would act after you had thought it through... But, you actually have connections with so many organizations. To be honest, I'm getting more and more curious about your true identity, Shirley..."

"Ah... Let's talk about this later. I accidentally missed it just now, so now I have no choice but to continue chasing it."

Lan Feng made a bitter face and sighed softly. At this moment, her cross-eyes slightly dilated, and she just stared at the vast sea in front of her.

"Cocolia just said that the laboratory is built on the seabed..."

After thinking for a while, Lan Feng squatted down, untied the restraint on his left wrist, and pressed his hand on the beach.

"Sure enough, seawater can indeed block Honkai energy to a certain extent. It's just that the shallow sea is still very clear, and I can sense the position of the submarine, but I can't sense the situation in the deep sea at all. So, it seems that this is the only way..."

As he spoke, Lan Feng stood up again and walked towards the sea...

But the next moment, her arm was suddenly grabbed by Hill.

"Hey wait wait! Are you planning to just go into the sea like this?"

"What else? Can you find a vehicle like a submarine?"

"This... may be difficult. However, I can also..."

"Even if you can find it, there's no time now. In the sea, our Honkai perception will be limited. We have to catch up quickly before the submarine goes too far..."

"Are you kidding me?! Do you think you can swim faster than a submarine? Besides, the water pressure at the bottom of the sea is so strong. Although I can use atomization to dissolve it, you..."

"Don't worry, I have no problem, and I have a way to catch up with the submarine. Now that things have come to this, don't think about just walking away, Hill."

As he spoke, Lan Feng dragged the surprised Hill across the beach and rushed into the shallow sea...

·————————————·

"It's amazing, there are so many things in the sea..."

Inside the submarine, Xier lay in front of the submarine's detector and observed the fish, shrimps and crabs in the ocean through the monitoring device. In the images of the military detector, the marine life within the observation range can be seen clearly.

Not far away, a man who looked like a soldier stood at the door with some embarrassment, looking at the blonde woman in front of him.

"Lord Cocolia, isn't this inappropriate? That is a detection device used to search for enemies... If you give it to a child to play with, what if he gets attacked..."

"It's okay. It's impossible to encounter the Destiny Force in this sea area, and there are no Honkai creatures nearby. There's no need to be so nervous. Go and rest for a while. This place is not far from the laboratory."

"But......"

"Obey orders, soldier."

After the man fell silent, Cocolia gently waved her hand, signaling him to leave, and then looked at Xier not far away with some guilt. As for the girl who was about to participate in the experiment, she naturally would not refuse Xier's small request to see the seabed.

......

"Hey... there are humanoid creatures in the sea."

Looking at the fleeting images in the detector, Xier sighed softly, not paying attention to the figure she had just seen.

"It turns out that there are so many things in this world that I have never seen..."

She was about to turn the camera to look elsewhere, but the next moment, a piercing alarm suddenly sounded in the submarine!

"It's the Honkai alert! The concentration... is very high!"

"what happened?"

"Have any Honkai creatures been spotted nearby?"

"..."

As the alarm sounded, the people in the submarine panicked, but before they could take any action, the alarm suddenly stopped, as if what had just happened had never happened...

"How is this going......"

Kokolia frowned and looked at the green "No abnormality" on the detector, feeling strange. So she turned her eyes to the observer who had just returned to work.

"Anything going on around here?"

She asked softly. Although the Honkai alarm disappeared in just a moment, Kokolia didn't think that this was normal. All along, the Honkai detection alarm had never been false alarms. Only those Honkai energies that were too weak to be detected could not be detected, but as long as the alarm sounded, there must be Honkai nearby!

"Lord Cocolia... there are only ordinary life forms reacting nearby, they should just be marine life. As for the Honkai energy reaction... it is completely undetectable!"

Hearing the observer's answer, Kokolia's eyes narrowed slightly...

205 Invasion

"...didn't find anything?"

After hearing what the observer said, Kokolia's face was filled with confusion. She had encountered this kind of Honkai alarm before, but in the end, it was found that it was caused by Honkai creatures. So, this time, it was probably...

"This is impossible! The Honkai energy detectors on the submarine will not make mistakes. There must be something special going on!"

Kokolia muttered to herself, raised her head and looked around. Thinking that the current situation might be very dangerous, she made a quick decision and issued an order quickly.

"Attention everyone, enter the first level alert state! Prepare to fight against the Honkai creatures, observers continue searching!"

"Yes!"

After receiving the order, all the personnel on the submarine began to get busy. Kokolia also came to the middle of the submarine to personally see the images fed back by the detector.

"How strange... I really can't find any Houkai energy reaction. Could it be that the Houkai creatures have left?"

The detection wave had been going on for several minutes, but nothing was found nearby. Even someone as cautious as Cocolia began to wonder if she had made a mistake.

"Lord Cocolia, everything is normal around here. No signs of Houkai have been detected."

"Are you really sure? No source of collapse was found outside the submarine?"

"This... I can't guarantee it, but the detection did not produce any results..."

Without Kokolia calling a halt, the explorers were not sure of their own judgment, which meant that the search would continue. Obviously, this was not going to work, but Kokolia did not dare to let down her guard easily. In any case, if the danger was not eliminated, who knew what would happen next...

"Damn it, what on earth is going on! And it has to happen at this time..."

At this time, Xier looked at the tense situation around her and her expression became a little uneasy.

She walked towards Cocolia with a little worry and shook Cocolia's clothes.

"Mom...what just happened?"

"Ah...it's nothing, don't worry, Xi'er."

Cocolia was a little upset, but she still gently comforted Xier. She was about to direct the investigation around her, but suddenly she thought of something and cast her eyes on Xier.

"By the way, Seele... I remember that you can already control Honkai energy to a certain extent, right?"

"Ah? Well... that's true, but I can only do what I did last night. I can't control it any better..."

Seeing Seele nod, Cocolia recalled the reaction of the Honkai alarm when Seele showed her the stigmata yesterday. Thinking of this, she suddenly had some enlightenment in her eyes.

"Well, I'm going to ask you a question. Answer me truthfully, Xi'er. Has the Honkai energy in your body ever gone out of control before?"

"......out of control?"

Hearing this, Seele's pupils shrank slightly. She almost instantly thought of the terrible hallucinations she had seen the day before she met Bronya...

"I don't know if that can be considered out of control, but I can definitely feel that sometimes the Honkai energy cannot be well controlled, as if it is obeying something else..."

Xier stammered, she didn't know how to describe the feeling at that time. After all, she was already in a state of confusion at that time, and had no idea what was going on.

However, after hearing what Xier said, Cocolia's expression softened.

"I see. Then... can you show us again how you released Honkai energy yesterday?"

"Eh? Well... I see."

Xier nodded, then exhaled softly. The next moment, as a little black mist emerged, the Honkai alarm in the submarine sounded again.

The next call was sounded, causing a commotion among the people.

"Alright, that's enough, stop it."

As Kokolia stopped Xier's actions, the alarm sounded. The people in the submarine operation room looked at each other, not understanding what was going on.

"Okay, let's lift the alert. I think I understand what happened."

Waving her hand to signal others to calm down, Cocolia sighed and looked at Xier again.

"As I expected, the Honkai manipulation you performed using the stigmata was not perfect, so it is natural that Honkai energy leakage will occur. Some trace amounts of Honkai energy leakage will not cause any harm, but within a certain distance, it will trigger the Honkai energy alarm. So, you should be a little more careful in the future, Xier."

"But mom, I didn't..."

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"No, it's nothing... I'm sorry, Mom. I'll be more careful next time."

Xier shook her head gently and swallowed the words in her mind. To be honest, she didn't know what was going on with her body, so she didn't say what she was thinking.

"Really? We've wasted so much time. The alert has been lifted and we can move on."

After a few casual sighs, Kokolia ordered to set off again. Then, the submarine began to sink again, slowly heading towards the glowing building deep under the sea...

·————————————·

At this time, outside, at the rear of the submarine, a small hand firmly grasped the submarine's tail fin. After seeing the propeller start again, Lan Feng breathed a sigh of relief and exhaled a string of bubbles.

(My Honkai energy must have been detected just now... But luckily I activated the limiter in time, otherwise, who knows what would have happened...)

After the limiter is released, the Honkai energy will leak out from Lan Feng's body. Although the concentration is very high, the amount leaked is very small. Therefore, as long as he does not get too close to some detectors, he will not be detected.

But just now, the submarine suddenly stopped, and then a sensor-like device extended from the top, scanning around. Obviously, my Honkai energy should have been sensed just now. But now that the submarine has started again, it should be fine.

Holding the end of the submarine's tail fin tightly, she hid her body behind the propeller as much as possible. Although she felt a little uncomfortable with the strong water flow caused by the propeller, she was able to avoid the submarine's detection device.

On Lan Feng's back, a thin layer of black mist surrounded most of her body. This was naturally the mimicry of Hill's Herrscher's body. Although her Herrscher's physique was fully capable of resisting this level of water pressure, it was more suitable for concealment to maintain this state than for two people to hold on to the submarine together.

(As I expected... Even in water, the force field created by Houkai energy is still useful. As long as the direction of the force field is changed, it can create propulsion.)