I was transported to a broken world, yet my dreams are connected to Star Iron?

　"Is this thing really that terrifying?!"

　Just now, Celine felt a strange sense of comfort from being enveloped by these slime-like semi-fluids, but now, looking at the metal door with a large hole corroded in it, she was too afraid to move.

　She didn't think her skin was tougher than these metals.

　"Don't worry, these substances won't attack me until their energy is depleted."

　Lingmo offered a word of comfort to the trembling girl.

　"What happens when it's all used up?"

　"Uh……"

　Lingmo is actually not good at lying, especially not good at lying to people she is close to.

　So she chose to change the subject.

　"In any case, it won't affect our escape plan!"

　With that, Lingmo held Xilin in one arm and then leaped forward.

　"Cirin, hold on tight! The 13th floor descent is about to begin!"

　"Wait, why did you just jump down like that?!"

　The purple-haired girl's screams echoed in the cramped elevator.

　……

　"Plop—smack!"

　With a strange, unsettling sound, Lingmo, carrying Xilin, successfully landed on the first floor of the elevator lobby. Of course, the price was that a significant portion of the temporary gambling funds' available energy was reduced, and Xilin in her arms was already pale with fright.

　However, Suzuma wasn't jumping around randomly. You know, in the original work, Kiana jumped much higher when she was wearing the B-rank Valkyrie armor. Although Kiana herself is a fall-resistant queen (just kidding), a height of a few dozen meters shouldn't be a problem.

　"Is this the first level of the Tower of Babel...?"

　As Lingmo corroded the elevator door open again, Xilin looked at the scene before her and muttered to herself.

　Although she hadn't been in the Babylonian Laboratory for very long, Celine's memories of anything outside of the laboratory were already quite vague. The hellish experiences she had gone through made her completely unwilling to recall the past. Just thinking about it brought back a flood of negative memories, as if they were about to crush her spirit against the backdrop of those beautiful past memories.

　If it weren't for Lingmo's appearance, which gave her a glimmer of hope in such a dark life, she probably would have completely collapsed long ago... What would she have become then?

　Perhaps because she was about to leave, Sirin's thoughts became lively again after a long time.

　"Strange...why are there almost no guards on the first floor? There aren't even any automated patrolling mechs..."

　Although Suzumo had only been here once, the first floor of the Babylon Laboratory seemed not much different from the game in her previous life. Moreover, given their current speed, the Babylon Laboratory should have a good chance to react.

　"Forget it, let's leave here first."

　Although Lingmo felt something was amiss with the current situation, she didn't have time to think about it further due to the time-sensitive nature of the temporary gambling funds.

　She had to get Sirin out before the backlash from the temporary gambling money hit, and then quickly contact the Great Black Tower on the Star Iron side using the world-switching ability after death. No matter what the cost, she had to get a means of transportation first. Only then would Suzumo have a chance to shake off the pursuers from the Babylonian Laboratory with Sirin.

　and so……

　"Zizi-"

　The sickening sound of metal corroding rang out again, but perhaps because someone had cut corners, the corrosion of the Babylon Laboratory door seemed to be much easier than that of the elevator shaft.

　"This door is just too... uh..."

　Before she could even complain about the poor quality of the Babylon Laboratory's door, a laser cannon, clearly of a different intensity than the previous attacks from the tower, delivered a spectacular door-opening blow to Suzumo.

　"Anti-Entropy spies, you are surrounded! Surrender and surrender, or we will deploy heavy weapons..."

　At this moment, outside the Tower of Babel, a Valkyrie squad carrying multiple heavy weapons was already waiting in ambush outside the gate. Not only that, Suzumo could even hear the roar of heavy patrol aircraft constantly coming from the sky.

　"...So it still doesn't work after all."

　Which force is surrounding this place, and how many enemies there are, are no longer within Suzuma's considerations at this moment.

　After all, that one attack alone reduced his remaining energy by about 15%. In other words, the Valkyrie leading the opposing team, even if she wasn't at the A-rank level, was at least just one step away from it.

　Moreover, this was still an A-rank Valkyrie from the Cecilia era. Before the generational gap in Schicksal's combat power, the A-rank Valkyries, aside from the sophistication of their armor and tactics, were probably no different from Rita in her bare armor in the later main storyline.

　"I'm sorry, Sirin..."

　Lingmo gave a wry smile: "If I had known, I wouldn't have run away so hastily. Now that I think about it, even if I were tormented for a few days, it wouldn't be completely unbearable... You might not believe it, but if I had prepared for a few more days, I might have been more confident..."

　"It's ok."

　Xilin shook her head, her golden eyes reflecting the crescent moon in the night: "Actually, I'm already very satisfied to be able to see the moon outside again... No matter what the outcome, I want to thank Lingmo for letting me breathe the outside air again."

　……

　"Boss, what do you mean?"

　Watching Suzuma and Sirin use their remaining energy to create a shield, the Valkyrie opposite them gently nudged her captain with her elbow.

　"..."

　The Valkyrie captain, who didn't look very young, had a strange expression on her face, which was covered by a mask.

　"The person in charge in Babylon requested that the pink-haired one be killed, and the purple-haired one not be harmed, but we cannot take away or destroy the body..."

　"Furthermore, he demanded that we not use any weapons related to Honkai energy, because the other party's abilities are extremely dangerous, and even the corpses would produce a large amount of corrosive liquid when they come into contact with Honkai energy... In short, we should kill them first, and then isolate the corpses and the purple-haired girl together according to the Level 1 pollutant treatment protocol."

　"...?"

　The Valkyrie standing nearby was somewhat indignant: "What kind of stupid order did that fat bastard Byd give? Why doesn't he come himself to such a complicated process? We're just his colleagues, not his clients..."

　"His hand was severed, and it seems like he underwent limb reattachment surgery immediately."

　"Oh, that's okay."

　"Anyway..."

　The captain sighed and said, "You'll understand once you stay at Schicksal longer. These researchers have a lot of tricks up their sleeves. They're like anti-entropy spies. Anti-entropy doesn't even use Valkyries, let alone hire child laborers... These two little girls are probably not even adults yet. You can tell at a glance that some secret experiment has gone out of control again."

　"Then let's..."

　Simply execute the command.

　The Valkyrie captain simply drew her pistol, or rather, her hand cannon, from her waist and aimed it at Suzumo's chest: "Look less, ask less, listen less. That's why I've been able to survive in Schicksal for so long."

　"boom!"

　Chapter 12 The Black Tower: The episode that best understands Professor Radio.

　"Well……"

　"Well?"

　"Gurgle gurgle... Help..."

　What are you muttering about?!

　Black Tower controlled the robotic arm and gently tapped Suzumo's head in the incubation chamber.

　"This is a special premium repair solution that I specially supplied here. I put you in it to prevent any abnormalities caused by synchronous trauma after you wake up. It can save you even if you are drowning, let alone breathing in it."

　"Hey hey hey..."

　Lingmo gave a silly, embarrassed smile.

　"Alright, stop grinning like an idiot. If you're feeling alright, come out quickly."

　Hei Ta sighed, opening the repair pod for Ling Mo while constantly complaining, "I heard that there's a member in the Erudite Society who calls himself the Doctor of Truth, whose mission is to cure people's stupidity. So someone photoshopped a picture of him, which basically means that he would faint from anger after seeing some stupid things."

　"I didn't understand why some people disliked idiots before... Now I know."

　Seeing Lingmo clumsily getting dressed because she had just been resurrected and was not very coordinated, Heita couldn't help but pinch her soft cheek hard.

　"Congratulations, you might be the only person in this Amber Era who almost hurt the great Lady Black Tower. I was almost driven crazy by your actions."

　"No, don't pull... I, I was wrong..."

　Having barely managed to escape the clutches of the Black Tower by covering her flushed face, Lingmo belatedly realized something.

　"Wait, can I understand you?"

　"That's because I injected you with synesthetic beacons while you were asleep."

　Hei Ta withdrew his hand from pinching Ling Mo's cheek, and looked at the belatedly aware Ling Mo with a playful expression: "Strange, you seem quite surprised by this. Synesthesia beacons should be quite common, except for some unexplored areas, right?"

　"You didn't show any special micro-expressions when I mentioned things like the Knowledge Society and the Doctor of Truth, but after realizing you understood me, you showed obvious surprise... In other words, you clearly know that synesthetic beacons exist in almost 100% of the universe, yet you think you shouldn't be carrying such a thing?"

　"Uh……"

　Lingmo quickly covered her mouth.

　Sure enough, geniuses are terrifying. She hadn't even said anything yet, and her secrets were almost completely exposed... Trying to hide your secrets from these smart people is really wishful thinking.

　"Did you misunderstand something?"

　Seeing Lingmo's cautious demeanor, Heita couldn't help but find it a little amusing: "Don't worry, I have no interest in the secrets behind you... or rather, I have no interest in forcibly investigating them."

　"Even if I am a member of the Genius Club, I would not provoke an envoy with an unclear attitude for no reason... Besides, I was the one who interfered with the other party's experiment first."

　"Commander? Me, me..."

　Do you consider yourself the messenger?

　I don't think so.

　"That's right, so don't overthink it."

　Black Tower gently tapped Bellmo's head.

　"At least for now, the entity that gave you this ability doesn't seem to have any ill intentions towards you... Focus on dealing with your current problems; that's your current task."

　"Anyway, wait a moment, I'm going to find something..."

　While Black Tower seemed to be setting up some experimental equipment, Lingmo quietly called upon her system spirit in her mind.

　"Hey, does Black Tower think of the system as some kind of messenger-level entity?"

　Uh, maybe...

　Customer service representative Xiaoqi, who had remained silent since Lingmo began her escape, gave an ambiguous answer.

　"You're basically saying nothing at all..."

　Although Lingmo was somewhat annoyed by Xiaoqi's evasive tactics, she could tell that Xiaoqi didn't seem to want to interfere too much with her choices. Or rather, apart from matters related to system functions, Xiaoqi was mostly just a silent bystander.

　This indirectly overturns Lingmo's previous conjecture that customer service Xiaoqi might indeed have some connection with Kiana. After all, regardless of which era Kiana was in, Lingmo found it hard to imagine that she would be indifferent to this part of the history of the Tower of Babel.

　Of course, it's also possible that the other party is unable to act for some reason... but that would require another opportunity to test the waters later.

　"All right."

　Black Tower's voice pulled Lingmo back to reality from her thoughts. In the short time that had just passed, Black Tower had quickly assembled a screen, and the scene on it was undoubtedly the route Lingmo had taken during her escape.

　"Before that, let me ask you something, since I will no longer be able to monitor the information of the other world in your dream after you wake up."

　Black Tower tapped the screen and said.

　"While your consciousness remains in this world, shouldn't anything too significant happen in the other world of your dreams?"

　"Probably not?"

　Lingmo blinked: "The director said before that he wouldn't kill Xilin, at most he would do some experiments on me, and my physical condition wouldn't be refreshed before I was resurrected... so I'm probably still in that 'open-minded' state right now, right?"

　"As long as I don't stay in this world for more than a week, there shouldn't be any major problems?"

　"That's good. By the way, your reaction also confirms another guess I had about you."

　Black Tower sighed: "As expected, you know nothing about your own abilities, perhaps even less than I do..."

　"Alright, before we review your actions, let me first explain the characteristics of your abilities... First and foremost, the first thing you need to remember is—"

　"The world you live in now and the world in your dream do not have the same flow of time."

　"It could even be said that the rate of time flow is not fixed. You might spend a day here, while only two days have passed in another world. But the next time you spend a day here, ten years will have passed in another world."

　"This rate of time flow is not affected by your personal will, physical condition, or the manipulation of that mysterious messenger... I haven't yet clearly identified the factors influencing it, but what is certain is that it seems to be a kind of..."

　Black Tower carefully considered his words, and after a moment, he slowly uttered four words.

　"A natural phenomenon?"

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