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

Chapter 63: Leaving

The vibrations above my head became more and more obvious, and small pieces of brick and stone debris began to fall from the ceiling, gradually accumulating dust in this cramped underground space. Time was running out.

"Bang!" "Bang!"

"Crack!"

After a delay, Anna successfully closed the power room and quickly returned with the dismantled energy core. Along the way, she used guns and swords to knock down the assassins blocking the narrow passage and successfully returned to the hall where she had separated from Lin Wei before.

She had thought that there might be other traps there, such as more and more dangerous assassins; such as Honkai beasts that had never appeared here, or other possible threats.

But she didn't care. If the Honkai energy that kept the base running were to leak, it would cause more deaths, more tragedy, and irreparable damage to the city above. So, she went without hesitation.

If I can remove a deadly threat hidden underground for this city, then this trip won't be in vain, right?

Fortunately, none of that happened. It was just a bit of a hassle to shut down the furnace that had begun to malfunction and leak Houkai energy; and smoothly removing the energy core from the heavily locked and jammed steel machinery was a troublesome task that required complete concentration.

Fortunately, everything went well! Anna was very happy about this.

It seemed like she hadn't felt this pure and happy in a long time. She didn't have to think about those complicated, incomprehensible, and negative things; she only needed to focus on the things in front of her and at hand, do what she wanted to do and what she could do, and enjoy the joy and sense of accomplishment that success brought.

I don’t know how Lin Wei is doing. Anna wondered in her heart, did she leave smoothly?

Returning to the hall where she had previously shared a card with him, Anna saw that it was completely empty except for rows and rows of dormant cells that had long since stopped functioning. Her expression darkened.

She also wanted to share her joy with Lin Wei, just like she had shared it with Yuno and other Valkyries when they lived in the headquarters.

But at this moment, a feeling of being abandoned and lonely arose in her heart, making her mood a little depressed.

Although she had asked Lin Wei to leave first beforehand - the so-called "separate actions", to put it bluntly, meant that one person went first and the other left behind - but now she felt wronged.

Anna sniffed, then cheered herself up and walked towards the only other passage here, ready to catch up with Lin Wei.

But before she entered the passage, she saw Lin Wei coming out.

"You're back? It seems everything went well..."

Great, he is really still waiting for me!

Anna was surprised at first, then became dissatisfied - didn't we agree that you should leave first? Why are you still here?

All I can say is that the girl's mindset is too unpredictable.

"Where's that little sister?"

But she didn't care about these trivial things. Instead, Anna was directly concerned about another issue, because Lin Wei appeared alone at this moment.

"As a victim, she was too frightened, so I let her sleep. Don't worry, she's fine."

Lin Wei waved her hand and asked Anna to follow.

"Let's go, time is running out."

The walls and ceilings kept falling off in pieces of debris, which became more frequent as time went on, and even several lamps had broken.

Anna firmly fixed the Honkai energy core on her back and followed Lin Wei closely, just like she had done all the way here.

"The structure here isn't complicated. It's basically a concentric circle. Two passages originate from here, each forming a semicircle, connecting two different areas. One of them is the power room you visited earlier."

Lin Wei said as he walked, his investigation here was relatively detailed.

"The other semicircle leads to the secret exit of this base. It's very hidden, and is used specifically to transport those 'survivors' who have passed the 'screening,' so it's almost impossible to be discovered."

Lin Wei added some slightly sarcastic emphasis to both words.

"Those dormant pods you saw earlier can be thought of as containers. Just like a factory, qualified goods are packed into boxes and stored securely. Then, once a certain quantity is produced, they are packed together and shipped."

Speaking of this, Lin Wei couldn't help laughing.

"Haha, it really is a complete production process..."

Anna felt a little creepy listening to this. It was hard for her to imagine what kind of terrible fate those people would meet.

As they continued walking, the air gradually became moist; then their vision suddenly became clear - what appeared before their eyes was a medium-sized square "pond", quite large and bottomless, with the breath of the ocean, surrounded by uneven rock walls on three sides, with only a platform similar to a pier where Lin Wei and the others were.

A young girl lay there quietly, her chest rising and falling slightly; not far from her, there was a pool of black ashes after burning, with the stench of burning flesh.

"Lin Wei?"

Anna asked a little uneasily.

She could see clearly that the road had come to an end and there was no other way out.

The frequency of the vibrations became more and more intense, and Anna even felt the ground beneath her feet shaking along with it. Time was really running out.

But Lin Wei remained quite calm and said softly,

"The passage is right here. Coral Island is a man-made island, surrounded by the ocean, so its hidden exit naturally leads to the sea. After all, using the vast ocean to conceal one's whereabouts makes it difficult to be discovered."

Then, without waiting for Anna to speak, Lin Wei sighed. What was coming would eventually come to pass. He smiled helplessly and said,

"Don't worry, I said I can definitely get you out. But, Anna, don't tell anyone what you see next."

Lin Wei looked at Anna seriously, waiting for her response.

Anna was stunned for a moment by Lin Wei's unusual serious look.

She knew that Lin Wei was finally going to reveal her secret to her.

To be fair, she knew that Lin Wei had always been very mysterious, and she was indeed curious about what kind of secrets he was holding; but she also knew that the reason a secret became a secret was because it should not be known by too many people.

So when Lin Wei decided to reveal her secret in front of her for the first time at the humanoid machine, she wisely chose to refuse.

And this time...

"Lin Wei, can I refuse?"

Anna gave a bitter smile, and this time she couldn't even pretend to be petty like she did last time.

She felt that if she took this step, it would be difficult for the two of them to go back to the past - although this "past" was just a chance encounter as they were traveling together.

"What should I do? I can't knock you out, right? I can't take two people out at once."

Lin Wei smiled and pointed at the unconscious girl beside her.

"What happened to her? Wasn't she fine before?"

Anna wanted to avoid the previous topic.

"Did something just happen to you?"

She saw the bruises on the girl's wrists, which were really noticeable.

Lin Wei took out a pair of scissors as sharp as a dagger. Anna understood at a glance and felt even more upset.

"How could this be?"

Anna didn't believe that Lin Wei would hurt her on her own initiative. There must be other reasons.

Thinking of her pitiful and well-behaved appearance before, Anna felt disappointment again and again in her heart.

"It's not surprising. This place is like hell for those caught here. It's not impossible for them to become ghosts in order to survive."

Lin Wei said calmly.

He even felt that this was another hidden screening mechanism - with the qualities shown by the girl, there was a high probability that she would be able to catch the eye of the Gray Snake and become a formal member of the World Snake.

After all, to some extent, it was a Gu King, worthy of the snake's cold gaze.

"Shalaala..."

Another burst of gravel fell, splashing water on the water surface.

"Let's go."

Time was running out, so Lin Wei directly said,

"That thing you're carrying on your back is quite heavy, so don't delay any further."

The thing Anna was carrying was as big as a car fuel tank, emitting a glowing purple light, and seemed a bit heavy on the young girl.

"and many more!"

Anna was still resisting, but she couldn't find a suitable excuse.

She didn't really know why she wanted to delay. Perhaps she knew that she would probably be separated from him after leaving here, and she felt a little uneasy.

The world was too complicated for her to understand. But Lin Wei always saw things clearly, making her want to rely on him and not want to be separated from him.

Lin Wei looked at her, then smiled again, as if he understood what she was thinking.

He walked up to Anna, looked down at the half pendant on her neck, then took out the other half from his pocket, held it in his palm, handed it to Anna, and said softly,

"You said this was something very important to you..."

Is it really over? Anna felt sad.

"So you'd like to leave it with me for a while?"

Instead of continuing to argue here, it is better to cut the Gordian knot.

Anna was stunned for a moment, her face flushed, and she lowered her head in a bit of a loss.

Lin Wei despised himself in his heart, then put the pendant away again.

"Okay, it's getting late, let's go."

Anna still lowered her head, even her ears turned red, and she moved quietly.

The effect is immediate.

"Then what you see next will be kept as a secret between the two of us. Don't tell anyone else. Okay?"

Lin Wei bewitched the innocent girl in a gentle tone, and he felt that he was really despicable.

Anna nodded slightly, barely perceptibly, without raising her head, and her neck also turned red.

He had clearly said something similar once before, but the feeling then was completely different from how it sounded now.

"...Lin Weijun, you are so shameless."

Yaesakura's somewhat indignant voice emerged in her heart, and she felt as if she was blind.

Lin Wei was embarrassed and unable to refute.

With a light cough, Lin Wei walked to the water's edge and raised one hand gently. Anna also looked up curiously, wanting to know what Lin Wei was going to do.

A black ball appeared out of thin air in his hand, floating an inch above his palm and slowly rotating.

"Projection·Ninth God Key·Star Harmony!"

Lin Wei stood motionless by the water, but the sea suddenly began to surge without any wind, and then slowly opened to both sides like a curtain with Lin Wei as the center, revealing a deep passage in front of Lin Wei.

Then, the continuous slight vibration under the feet suddenly became violent, and countless rocks were lifted from the ground with a roar, forming a long staircase leading to the distance.

This fairytale-like scene shocked Anna, leaving her mesmerized. Then, her body suddenly trembled, and she remembered something, muttering to herself in disbelief,

"Is this... the power of gravity? Are you... the First Herrscher... Walter?"

As an elite Valkyrie of the Mandate Headquarters, she is very familiar with the information of the famous Anti-Entropy Leader and the First Herrscher.

The one who backstabbed Destiny during the Second Collapse, causing it to suffer heavy losses, killed Senior Cecilia, and single-handedly caused the Third Collapse...

Their leader, the First Herrscher, Walter?

"You... lied to me?"

Anna questioned in a dry voice, her heart in turmoil, feeling that every little thing she had experienced along the way seemed to have become a huge irony in an instant.

At this moment, she only felt that her vision was getting darker and she wished she could stab the hateful bastard to death immediately!

However, she still held a little hope in her heart, which made her resist the urge to act immediately.

"I'm not."

Lin Wei felt helpless, he knew this would happen.

Maintaining the action of his hands, he turned around and said helplessly,

"Do you look like me?"

Being mistaken for Otto by the Anti-Entropy Doctor is bad enough, but now being mistaken for Walter by the Destiny Valkyrie...

So you're just getting bullied by both sides?!

Is there any justice in this world?