Honkai, why do you only play high-end games?

Time starts flowing again.

"Follow me closely. As we agreed, you'll help me bypass the security and surveillance facilities here, lead me to where they store the data, and I'll deal with any possible dangers. Then, together, we'll rescue those innocent victims!"

Anna reminded Lin Wei of this. This was something they had just discussed.

As he came out of the room and saw the familiar corridor, the previous embarrassment and unhappiness came to his mind again. He looked at Lin Wei angrily again, and then turned all the embarrassment and unhappiness into motivation and devoted himself to the next action.

This place is weird.

According to Anna, from where she came in, there was a warehouse full of building materials;

The place where Lin Wei came in was a multi-story building with a guard at the gate. The building looked like a design institute. Some drawings could be seen scattered on the tables in some rooms, and they all seemed to be related to the sky-high space project not far away.

The two adjacent buildings are connected together, and then connected to the coral-like buildings stacked up behind them - connected by a network of tunnels and covered bridges, some of which are even integrated.

"This way."

Lin Wei led Anna into the tunnel and pointed in one direction. Ying told him deep in her consciousness that the aura in that direction was slightly different from that in other directions, and was more oppressively dangerous.

The whole journey was extremely quiet, with only the occasional crisp footsteps of a patrolling construct passing by, which walked past without paying attention to anyone in front of Anna's face, as if she were facing a great enemy.

"……how did you do it?"

She had to admit that it was no wonder that Lin Wei was so confident. He was indeed quite capable.

She even wondered if she had been deceived by this guy again and couldn't help but want to question him.

"Shh..."

Lin Wei seemed to have guessed her thoughts and raised the cane in his hand.

"It's just a simple virus interference, causing its visual recognition system to misjudge. To it, we are no different from the stones and bricks on the roadside. Of course, if we make any sound that is detected, we may be discovered."

Anna looked at Lin Wei doubtfully. Is this true?

"Cough cough!"

Lin Wei coughed loudly as if the sun had just risen, and the sound was deafening in the narrow and enclosed tunnel.

"Are you crazy?!"

Anna was horrified and hurriedly covered Lin Wei's mouth with her hand, then looked around suspiciously. Sure enough, she saw the construct that had just left standing there, looking in this direction puzzledly. Scared, Anna stretched out her other hand to cover her mouth. She didn't take her hand away and breathed a sigh of relief until the construct repeatedly confirmed that there was no abnormality, lifted the alarm and returned to normal procedures.

"You believe it?"

Lin Wei asked with a smile, taking away the little hand that was still covering her mouth tightly. It felt soft and cool.

This is a prank and also a little "self-affirmation".

Of course, Pandora could also block the construct's auditory system, but the more flawed the technology, the more reasonable and feasible it would sound.

This can save you from a lot of explanations that become increasingly wrong.

As expected, Anna glared at him angrily, snorted and stopped talking, leaving Lin Wei behind and walking ahead. After a few steps, she felt that Lin Wei was not catching up. She stopped in dissatisfaction and turned back to call out,

"Come on! What are you going to do?"

She was still angry about Lin Wei's recent prank.

"Sorry, I was looking at that thing."

Lin Wei pointed at the construct that had just gone away.

"It? Is there anything strange about it?"

Anna didn't understand. It was indeed strange, but was it necessary to observe it so carefully?

After the task is completed, I will catch one and tear it into eight pieces for you to study slowly. It will scare you to death!

Anna thought viciously.

"Nothing, let's go."

Lin Wei smiled and didn't say much.

That thing, with flesh and blood and machinery seamlessly integrated, is it the same technology as the gray snake?

However, it can only execute some fixed instructions and has no thoughts or consciousness of its own. Is it because it is not connected to the Gray Snake network, or is it just a degraded version that does not originally have such a module reserved?

even……

Lin Wei glanced at Anna again and thought of another person. This kind of faint look made Anna feel uncomfortable.

Chen Tianwu...

Is the mechanized transformation on him such a "mature and reliable" standardized technology?

It’s really sad when you think about it.

The tunnel the two were walking in was narrow and was obviously a pedestrian path, winding downwards. Some of the gentle slopes were probably for small vehicles. There were also escalators - probably because it was late at night, they had stopped working at the moment.

"Underground again?"

Lin Wei couldn't help but mutter, how many times has this happened?

You World Snakes are always digging holes underground. You might as well change your name to World Rats!

"It shouldn't be underground. Look, there's a window over there where you can see the moon."

Anna heard Lin Wei's muttering, looked up, shook her head and said,

"You said we were on a coral island. I've read the information here. This artificial island has three island bases surrounding a large construction site, and each island base has three or four platforms. We should be between two of them."

"It's like a maze here... You've walked so far, are you sure you're not taking the wrong path?"

"...I don't think so."

Lin Wei pondered for a moment, thought about it and asked,

"We've often encountered those strange constructs along the way. Anna, I want to ask you something. In the information you've read about the components of the coral island's defense force, are there any of the things we just saw?"

"No, I've never seen or heard of anything like that before!"

Anna shook her head slightly.

"Really? That's interesting..."

Lin Wei nodded and said to himself,

"You also said that the passages here are like a maze. The existence of those constructs, their 'patrols' here, do you feel that if you connect their locations with a line, it will subtly point out a path?"

"Oh, is that superfluous? I'm afraid not..."

Chapter 41: Hunter

In another corner of the world, the sky is bright.

"Dang Cang..."

She casually threw the scalpel and hemostat in her hands into the tray beside her. A crisp sound of metal collision was heard. The brown-haired woman who did all this took a last look at the poor man on the operating table who had lost all signs of life and had long lost his human form. She sighed with regret, turned around and left, walked to the sink with elegant steps, turned on the running water, and washed out the blood in the pool.

"Well, Jackal, you sent me all this way here just so I could see your daily work up close?"

Raven was leaning against the doorway, her hood already removed, revealing her short grey hair and pretty face. She glanced at the woman in the room, her tone tinged with undisguised disgust and a hint of mockery.

"I can't believe our evil scientist would actually sigh over the death of a 'guinea pig' at his own hands? What are these, crocodile tears?"

"Enough of the taunting, Raven..."

Jackal wiped the blood off her hands, raised her hand and took off the mask on her face, sniffing the bloody scent between her fingers, a smell she had long since become accustomed to. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, she was interrupted by Raven's expressionless face.

"Call me Natasha Sciorra."

The jackal frowned, then changed the name without any hesitation.

"Okay, Nata. I asked you to come here because I need your assistance for something important. I'm just sorry, I was at a critical juncture in my work just now and couldn't spare any time."

"Huh, World Serpent really has no one left? They even want to send someone like me, an irrelevant person who has already left the company a long time ago?"

Hearing the extremely intimate name "Nata", Raven lowered his arms from his chest with a look of rejection on his face.

"First of all, this is a personal commission, and there's an additional fee. The price depends on the difficulty of the task, so it's not cheap... Don't look at me like that. I'm a freelance mercenary now, working only for the money. Also, please state clearly what you want me to do. Forget about anything too cumbersome. I'm not really short of money lately anyway."

A few days ago, Raven, who was originally enjoying a relaxing vacation, was ruined by the sudden call from the Jackal. After thinking it over, he still came to the appointment with a sullen look on his face.

After all, we have worked together for so long, so I have to give him some face.

"Don't worry, you just need to do some simple work..."

The Jackal chuckled and briefly described his plan and the parts that Raven would be responsible for, his tone filled with innate confidence.

"...Sniping the S-rank Valkyrie who killed Destiny? Are you serious?"

After hearing the Jackal's plan, Raven had a strange expression on her face, but it wasn't surprising at all. She had known for a long time that the Jackal was going to teach Tianming a lesson.

"You really have a strong desire for revenge. I guess I should be more careful when I face you."

The Jackal was already used to Raven's sarcasm and simply ignored her trash talk.

"Who made it so that only you can use that disobedient divine key?"

"...Huh, is this considered relying on me?"

The God's Key that looked like an old man was simply Raven's nightmare. He originally thought that he would not have to serve it anymore after leaving the job.

"Don't worry, your mission is simple. You just need to act as a sniper from a distance. At the critical moment, aim at the target and gently pull the trigger. And then... bang!"

The Jackal excitedly raised a slender, beautiful bronze palm and made an explosion gesture. The mere thought of that scene made her tremble with excitement.

"Haha, I wonder what the difference is between the so-called S-rank Valkyrie's body and everyone else's? I'm really looking forward to it!"

"It sounds really simple. Okay, I'll take it."

Like the jackal, the raven had already learned to filter out the other party's trash talk. Before leaving, the raven couldn't help but ask a question.

"Jackal, what were you thinking about when you sighed just now?"

She didn't believe that the femme fatale in front of her would have any mercy, but, maybe?

"Nothing much, just a somewhat precious specimen."

The jackal's tone was as regretful as if he had lost an interesting toy.

"A male who survived the Collapse has research value hundreds of times higher than a female specimen with the same physical characteristics! Unfortunately, such specimens are too rare to support my research."

"..."

Well, she was disappointed.

"By the way, speaking of..."

The jackal seemed to remember something, turned his head to look at the raven, and opened his mouth to say something.

"If you still want to walk out of here alive, Jackal, I advise you to put away those useless thoughts!"

The raven remembered that some of the children he had adopted were boys, and immediately warned the jackal in a bad tone, like an old hen protecting her chicks.

"Oh, yes. If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have forgotten that you adopted a group of children during the Third Collapse. Tsk, what a shame. Don't worry, you know the organization's discipline. Every member must strictly abide by it, even if you leave."

The jackal shook his head regretfully, signaling her to be patient.

"It just suddenly occurred to me that a few days ago, news came from Southeast Asia that another male specimen had been found, seemingly from Shenzhou, but for some reason, nothing more has been heard about it. I'd like you to help me check it out and not lose my precious specimen."

"...Is this another commission? Fine, it's on our way anyway. The price will be determined separately."

Anyway, the raven said unhappily, if you have something to say, just say it all at once.

"So fussy? Never mind. Since you happen to be living in Southeast Asia lately, why not run some errands for me while you're there?"

The jackal always spoke in a very commanding tone.

"Heh, the World Serpent really knows my whereabouts perfectly..."

Raven laughed at himself, thinking that he couldn't get away from it completely. Thinking of this, he said in a somewhat discouraged tone,

"I'm planning to build a house for myself, and I'm just looking around there. As for whether to build my new home in Southeast Asia or the Mediterranean, I haven't decided yet..."

"Haha, it's up to you. You won't invite me to be your guest anyway."

The jackal's intention was not to warn, but to speak without thinking.

"Okay, enough chit-chat. Go help me find out what happened to those stupid guys. Did they lose my precious specimen... Hmm?"

As she spoke, a window suddenly popped up on the communicator she had casually tossed aside. A medium-sized yellow exclamation mark flashed on it, indicating that an unexpected event had occurred, but it wasn't very urgent.

Coral Island monitored a communication band belonging to Tianming and subsequently observed unusual movements of the Valkyrie troops stationed in Southeast Asia. Gray Snake reminded Jackal, the direct person in charge, to hurry up and make arrangements to avoid exposing their tracks too early.