K424 of the Collapse World

As Maya cried, the silver-haired girl slowly reached out to her right shoulder. Meryl, who was hiding in the dark, almost held her breath. Although she wanted to save her colleague, she was not arrogant enough to fight against an S-level Valkyrie. And from what she said just now, it seemed that Shilis would not kill Maya...

"—!"

However, at this moment! The silver-haired girl who was about to break Maya's other hand suddenly froze, then raised her hand and grabbed Maya's neck, twisting it hard, and the woman died in convulsions, and was thrown away by the silver-haired girl like a rag doll.

(Why......?)

Didn't you say you wouldn't kill her?!

Then, in Meryl's astonished eyes, the silver-haired girl's blue eyes suddenly locked onto the platform where she was!

"Ah la la~~Another mouse actually sneaked in. This is really unexpected..."

While chuckling eerily, she slowly walked towards the platform.

"That won't do. It's pointless if two people see us at the same time, so we can only kill poor Miss Maya. It's all because of you being here. In other words, you killed her~ Now, it's your turn to take her place."

Meryl's hands tightened on the railing of the platform, and her joints turned white from the excessive force. There was no doubt that Shilis had discovered her presence and was planning to attack...

We can't sit still and wait for death!

Even though she no longer had the power of a Valkyrie, Meryl still acted in the way of a Valkyrie! She stood up suddenly and pushed down the railing in front of her. The heavy platform immediately fell towards the silver-haired girl...

Bang! !

However, the silver-haired girl waved her hand casually, and the metal stand flew away, and the bottles and jars on the stand fell on her body, but it had no effect at all. Meryl did not turn around and run away, but took the opportunity to quickly press forward and actively approached the silver-haired girl!

"Oh?"

Following a slightly mocking whisper, a fierce straight punch hit Meryl's face. Obviously, in the eyes of the other party, rushing forward to die after being discovered was really a stupid act...

However, the former Valkyrie narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked at the approaching fist. Relying on her old fighting instinct, she quickly tilted her head to dodge the not-too-fast straight punch, causing it to pass by her shoulder. Then, at the moment she passed by the silver-haired girl, her right fist crossed the opponent's arm and swung forward, hitting the silver-haired girl's eye socket hard!

Admittedly, Meryl's full-strength punch at this moment would not have much power. However, this punch seemed to work. The silver-haired girl was knocked to the side by the force of the punch, and did not fight back. She did not look like a Valkyrie with rich combat experience at all.

However, Meryl didn't have time to think about it at the moment. After the punch hit her, she instinctively turned around and went around the opponent's back, using her left hand to hit him.

The tightly grasped scalpel stabbed into the side of the silver-haired girl's neck with the force of the rotation, and then pulled it, and a large amount of dark red blood splashed out...

Meryl was a little stunned. She actually won? And it was so easy...?

The moment this thought came to her mind, an extremely awkward and strange feeling suddenly surged into her heart. Before Meryl could come to her senses, the silver-haired girl, who should have died from heavy bleeding, suddenly raised her hand and grabbed Meryl's wrist.

"Uh-huh!!"

The opponent's strength was extremely great! Meryl felt that her arm bones had been broken. She gritted her teeth and stared blankly at the silver-haired girl who had turned around, wondering why she was not dead even after her neck was torn.

"So it's you, haha... A retired Valkyrie? I was really caught off guard. But it's useless. Do you think you can kill an S-rank Valkyrie like this?"

The neck was still bleeding, and the silver-haired girl's right eye was also bleeding, but she didn't care at all. As she spoke, she slowly increased the strength of holding Meryl's wrist...

Hearing the mocking tone of the girl, Meryl raised her head while enduring the pain in her arm and opened her mouth to curse. But the next moment, when she saw the face of the person opposite her clearly, she was stunned.

Although she couldn't see the details in the dim light, some blue crystal fragments flowed out of the right eye that she had hit. Although the eyeball was damaged, Meryl could still see that, unlike the blue pupil of the other eye, the pupil of the girl's injured eye was brown...

She used contact lenses to change her eye color?!

That is to say...

"Haha~~ Since your intrusion killed Miss Maya, you should bear the sins for her!"

The next moment, Meryl's eyes widened as she looked at her arm that was easily broken. She finally couldn't help but scream in pain...

458 Suspicion

When I regained consciousness, I felt an indescribable fatigue...

"Well......?"

Meryl slowly opened her eyes, and a dazzling light suddenly appeared in her field of vision, causing her to close her eyes tightly. After adjusting herself a little, she opened them again.

Unlike the dimness in her vague memory, the warehouse's sensor lights had resumed power supply, and the messy shelves around were brightly displayed before her eyes. Then, as the haziness of waking up gradually faded, the increasing pain in her right arm made her frown.

Feeling that she was in an extremely uncomfortable lying position, Meryl subconsciously wanted to get up, but she was surprised to find that her right hand could not move as she wished. Then, her right arm, which had only been aching slightly, suddenly felt an unbearable pain!

“Hiss! This, this is…”

She struggled to get up, and the next moment, she saw her bloodstained white coat, and the broken glass shards of medicine bottles scattered all over the floor. Not far in front of her, there was a pool of dark red blood on the ground. Seeing this, the remaining sleepiness immediately dissipated.

"By the way, I was... No, it should be the impostor!"

Her left hand seemed fine, but her right arm was not in good condition. The entire sleeve on the right side of her white coat was stained with blood, and the tearing pain gradually became real. But at this moment, Meryl had no time to check the injury on her arm. She turned her head quickly and saw Maya, who had been attacked, lying motionless on the ground, with her eyes wide open and blank, and no signs of life.

“That guy…!”

Meryl stood up with all the previous scenes flashing through her mind. She remembered clearly that her fist had broken the contact lens of the pretender, revealing her original eye color. This alone was enough to confirm that the person was definitely not Shiris! Moreover, although the opponent's pure strength was terrifying, the stiff and slow movements did not look like those of a trained Valkyrie at all.

(She seemed to have said before that it would be meaningless if two people saw it. What does that mean... Never mind! No matter what her purpose is, her true identity must be exposed as soon as possible... Dr. Weisen must have been misled, so he pointed the finger at Lady Shilis...)

Although the disguise was a bit rough, it was almost impossible to tell in the dim space. Meryl was also a little puzzled. Her fist broke the woman's contact lens and damaged her eyeball, but she didn't seem to notice it, as if she had no consciousness...

Moreover, his aorta was cut and blood was gushing out, but it seemed to have no effect on her. Is that guy really a human?

(Did she think that I hadn’t figured out her identity? Damn, what the hell was going on… Did that guy not realize that his eyes were exposed, or did he deliberately leak the information of his “fake identity” to her?)

Meryl's movements were not slow at all as she pondered. She staggered towards the warehouse's built-in terminal, raised her intact left hand, activated the control system, and directly turned on the alarm on the main page. The next moment, a piercing alarm sounded.

The entire experimental area...

Indeed, rather than guessing the truth of the matter like this, it would be more useful to tell those who are better at this aspect the information I currently know.

The guards gathered faster than expected. Within a few minutes of the alarm, the patrolling Valkyries arrived at the warehouse. When they saw the broken glass containers and bloodstains scattered all over the floor, everyone was shocked.

Meryl carefully observed the expressions and appearances of these Valkyries, trying to find the criminal who attacked her. But among these Valkyries, none of them had brown pupils, or had eye and neck injuries...

However, this was only natural. Even if the attacker was really an active Valkyrie, Meryl didn't think that guy would dare to sneak up on her among the guards.

The captain of the Valkyries took a quick look at Maya lying on the ground, then shook his head and signaled his subordinates to cover the body. The injured Meryl was placed on a stretcher by the Valkyries and prepared to be taken for treatment.

However, before she was carried away, Meryl suddenly reached out and grabbed the Valkyrie next to her, stopping her action.

"Please take me to see Lady Caroline. I have something important to report to the Minister!"

"Lady Caroline is not working with us, ma'am. Your injuries are not optimistic. I suggest you get treatment first. You are a survivor of this attack. Lady Caroline would have visited you in person even if you didn't bring it up yourself."

"No! This matter is really important! Please take me to see Lady Caroline while my mind is still clear. There is no need to rush for treatment. Anyway, sooner or later, my hand will be useless..."

Meryl said helplessly, shaking her head to dispel the pessimism in her eyes, looking pleadingly at the Valkyrie captain beside her, and gently holding her hand.

"Ms. Valkyrie, you should know that the timeliness of intelligence is very important, especially for a murder case like this... Please, this will definitely help Lady Caroline's investigation!"

"But you..."

The Valkyrie captain, who was in her early twenties, was in a dilemma when she saw Meryl's determined eyes. Logically, she should ignore the patient's opinion and send her directly to the emergency room. However, Meryl's determined eyes, which were no less than those of the Valkyrie, undoubtedly touched her.

Looking at the twisted right arm that was completely stained with blood, the Valkyrie captain had mixed feelings. With such a serious injury, she herself might not be able to stay calm, let alone a weak researcher?

"What do you want to tell me, Miss Researcher?"

However, at this moment, a sudden voice dispelled the Valkyrie captain's worries. Caroline led the branch's Valkyrie troops into the warehouse and walked straight to Meryl who was placed on a stretcher.

"Minister Carolyn, how could you...?"

The Valkyrie bowed hurriedly and asked in surprise. But Caroline just waved her hand gently, with a faint smile in her slightly tired eyes.

"Such a big thing happened in the experimental area. As the branch chief, how can I just wrap myself in a blanket and sleep soundly, and push all the investigation work to my subordinates?"

As she spoke, Caroline raised her hand to look at her watch. Seeing the time was a quarter past four in the morning, she yawned slightly, then walked to Meryl's stretcher and slowly bent down.

"Please tell me, ma'am, what important information do you know?"

"Ah... Minister, I am Meryl Kazeren, assistant director of the L-4 research group. The story is this... At night, I followed Dr. Wesson's order to go to the warehouse to get a drug, and then..."

Trying hard to recall what she had seen before, Meryl recounted the events in as much detail as possible, including what the "silver-haired girl" said to Maya, and what she saw after she injured her eyes.

458 Suspicion >>

"Although she also has silver hair and blue eyes, she only used makeup to imitate Lady Silis's appearance! Although it sounds unbelievable, it is almost impossible to tell the real from the fake in the dark environment. She is obviously the same person who attacked Dr. Weisen before. There was a power outage that night, so Dr. Weisen thought it was Lady Silis who did it! That guy deliberately spared the victim's life just to frame Lady Silis!"

Meryl said, her expression was a little flustered. She didn't know how to explain some abstract things, such as the woman who had her eyes destroyed but still looked calm. Meryl didn't know whether she had no sense of pain at all or she was enduring the pain with willpower...

"I used a scalpel to cut her neck. The blood on the ground is from her. As long as we test the blood samples, we can find out the true identity of that guy! I can guarantee that Lady Shilis has been wrongly accused!"

Meryl's emotions became excited. Caroline lowered her head slightly, lost in thought. After a moment, she nodded slightly.

"I understand. Thank you for the information you provided, but some things still need further investigation. Go get treatment quickly. I will contact you later."

"Yes! Lady Caroline, Dr. Weissen can also explain the misunderstanding for him. He still thought that it was Lady Shilis who did it, so he has been brooding over it. Please be sure to tell him the truth..."

"..."

After Meryl was carried away, Caroline's expression gradually became solemn. She squatted down, looked at the pool of blood still on the ground, and gently twisted it with her fingers.

"Look everyone, is this really blood? Humph... It's just like water with dye added. Even if we do a test, we won't get any results. What do you think?"

Caroline said, turning around and looking at the Valkyries around her. Hearing this, the girls looked at each other, their expressions becoming a little hesitant. Obviously, they also had their own ideas.

"Mr. Minister, Dr. Weisen insisted that it was Miss Hillis who launched the attack, but Miss Meryl said that the attacker was someone else who was just pretending to be Miss Hillis... Although the latter's words are more convincing, I think that neither of them can be trusted!"

"That's right. Although Miss Meryl pointed out a lot of evidence, it was only her one-sided statement after all. After all, the surveillance last night was also ineffective. We have no idea what exactly happened."

"In this case, Miss Meryl is also a suspect... There was only her and another dead person at the scene. Although there were these 'bloodstains' on the ground, it is also possible that she was the culprit who crippled Dr. Weisen's hands and killed Miss Maya... Well, of course, this is just my guess..."

"It's not a good habit to make your guesses so certain, Miss Bellica."

"Well......"

The Valkyries had many different opinions on the truth, most of which were analyzed from an objective perspective. Indeed, in the absence of effective evidence, Miss Meryl, one of the victims, was also suspected.

"Okay, let's stop with the meaningless speculation. Let's just follow what Miss Meryl said and collect these blood-like substances and hand them over to the experimental team for testing. In addition..."

Caroline thought about it, a trace of helplessness appearing on her face.

"Let's start with Weisen. After all, he is also a survivor of the encounter with the 'silver-haired girl'. We should be able to confirm the authenticity of Miss Meryl's information from him. As for other information, don't reveal it yet. Okay, let's get started. We don't have much time left to search."

In the operating room, a thin man with his upper body exposed sat on the edge of the bed, silently listening to the Valkyrie's story in front of him.

Weisen's lost arms had been replaced with new military mechanical prostheses. The slightly slender Valkyrie-specific mechanical arms were not out of place on a thin researcher like him. However, for this man, the weight of the two metal arms seemed a bit too much to bear.

As for why he chose a military metal prosthesis instead of an ordinary lightweight robotic arm, we have to ask Weissen himself why he made such a sudden decision.

(Damn, it looks like I'll need an exoskeleton armor to use these new arms properly...)

After finishing the prosthetic surgery, Weisen was just quietly adjusting his new arm and didn't pay attention to the female warrior who came to investigate. However, when he heard a certain name, Weisen seemed to switch to a different mode, and his eyes immediately became gloomy.

Then, he listened to the Valkyrie's story word for word.

"Heh... Are you saying that the Shilis who attacked me was an imposter, and someone disguised themselves as her in order to frame her?"

"Well, that's it."

"Because she's an S-rank Valkyrie at the headquarters, there are 'impostors' like this, right? I understand... Low-level employees like us can't afford to offend such a big shot, right?"

"Well, Mr. Weisen, this is the information provided by your assistant, Ms. Meryl. According to her, when she was attacked, she discovered the true identity of the impostor. So I would like to confirm with you, Mr. Weisen, whether there is anything wrong with the 'Cilis' you encountered?"

The Valkyrie in charge of the investigation said helplessly. Facing Weisen's suspicious eyes, she had no other choice but to continue asking according to the minister's instructions.

"Meryl? Hahaha...what's there to say? It's nothing more than that she was bribed. I thought she was a trustworthy person, but it turns out that all the Valkyries at the headquarters are of the same character!"

"Sir, please be mindful of your words. Also, as I just said, Miss Merrill was indeed attacked and is currently in the emergency room."

"What's the point of making such a small sacrifice to help my employer cover up his lies? You think you can fool me? No way!

I will never give in to someone who would snatch my research results for fame and fortune!"

Listening to Dr. Weisen's angry voice, the Valkyrie secretly shook her head. It seems that it is not easy to get Dr. Weisen to cooperate with the investigation...

"Well, Dr. Weisen, you just underwent surgery and need to recuperate. I will not disturb your rest."

Leaving these words expressionlessly, the Valkyrie closed the file bag in her hand and turned to leave the operating room. Weisen frowned and looked at his heavy mechanical hand, slowly tightening it...

"Even Meryl betrayed me... what a waste! If that's the case, I'll do it myself!"

459 I heard the pace is a bit slow

Tianming has branches in various parts of the world. Generally speaking, their sphere of influence spans across several countries on a continent. In some areas, the entire continent is under their control.

The Oceania branch of Destiny is like this, covering all the countries around Oceania, centered on Australia. Although the overall land area is not as large as that of the Eurasian continent, the distribution of national power in Oceania is extremely uneven, so the handling of affairs is no easier than in other regions.

As the head of the Oceania branch, Caroline had to deal with the Honkai incidents in 25 countries, which was many times more work than that of a silver-haired dwarf. During this period, assisting the specialist from the headquarters undoubtedly increased her work pressure. But if the assistant team was responsible for reviewing the documents temporarily, she could also temporarily pull herself away and go to New Zealand to assist the specialist.

But what happened in the past few days is probably enough to make any branch leader busy and anxious...

"What did you say?"

The middle-aged woman who was working at her desk raised her head, looked at the slightly hesitant Valkyrie in front of her, and frowned her slightly wrinkled brows.

"Um... I'm sorry, Lady Caroline. Dr. Wisen refused to cooperate with the investigation and insisted that Miss Hillis was the attacker. He also said that our investigation results were forged by Miss Hillis using her power..."