Kiana and the Captain's Bizarre Adventure

Chapter 183 Actions of all parties

Theresa, unaware of what was happening, was searching for Gray Serpent's whereabouts with her humanoid robot. It wasn't that they didn't know that carrying the humanoid robot might attract Rita's attention.

The main reason is that the humanoid machine can use its location to find the gray snake in reverse. However, what they don't know is that the humanoid machine is actually locating the prosthetic eye that has the highest authority, and that prosthetic eye is currently on Rita's body.

Therefore, Theresa and the others eventually confronted Rita, and as the original plot unfolded, Rita used the powers of her prosthetic eye to reset the humanoid machine's system. This resulted in the group losing track of Kiana, but the good news was that because the system was reset, the humanoid machine was freed from Gray Serpent's control.

She is currently undergoing a physical examination and will be sent to St. Freya Academy afterwards. Seeing that the trail has gone cold, Theresa decisively decided to split up her forces and send Mei and Tesla to continue searching for Kiana's whereabouts, while she herself headed to Sea Abyss City.

Theresa had just received news that Abyss City was under attack by Honkai Beasts. Because this attack was so unusual, Theresa decided to head to Abyss City to provide support out of concern.

Mei and Tesla, who were left behind, began the next round of searching. Perhaps Tesla noticed the anomaly in Sky City, because she managed to retrieve the Honkai energy fluctuation data of Sky City over the past few months. To her surprise, she discovered that dozens of Honkai events, large and small, had occurred in Sky City during those months. This clearly abnormal data immediately reminded Tesla of the data before the Honkai outbreak in Long Sky City.

Upon realizing that someone was using Sky City for Honkai experiments, Tesla immediately began an investigation. Following the clues, he found Shinjo Pharmaceuticals, which was closely related to the Honkai. Unlike Kiana's predicament, Mei had strong support from behind, so after realizing that the Honkai experiments might be related to Shinjo Pharmaceuticals, Mei immediately infiltrated the company.

"This is Mei. She has now infiltrated Shencheng Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Tesla, please give instructions."

“Very good.” Tesla’s voice came through the communicator. “Now it’s time for the actual infiltration. Mei, do you see that door at your nine o’clock position?”

"I saw it."

"A patrol will pass by in about two minutes, after which there will be a gap of about ten minutes, during which there will only be some mechanical guards and surveillance cameras. I have marked the location of the surveillance cameras for you, so remember to be careful!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Mei's tactical eyes displayed a series of directional markers, which undoubtedly pointed to the surveillance cameras she would pass on her way to that door.

Mei felt a headache coming on just looking at all those surveillance cameras. The reason was simple: there were so many of them that they covered every blind spot. To avoid being detected by the cameras, she would have to request outside assistance.

"Dr. Tesla, can you hear me? I need you to hack some surveillance cameras for me, otherwise it will be difficult for me to avoid being detected by them."

"I know it's in progress, please wait about three minutes. I really don't understand why a pharmaceutical company's cybersecurity system is so robust, it's almost as secure as the Pentagon's!"

With Tesla's final command, Mei transformed into a blur and swiftly passed through the door, successfully entering the building.

"This is Mei. I have successfully infiltrated the interior. Please give further instructions."

"Buzz... This is Tesla... Buzz... Next... The signal is really bad!... Mei, listen to me... Now it's up to you... to explore..."

With a hiss, Tesla's voice was completely cut off. There was no doubt that someone had activated a signal jamming device, but why?

Before Mei could figure out the reason, she suddenly heard footsteps. Realizing something was wrong, Mei quickly hid in a secluded spot. A well-equipped security team then passed by where Mei was hiding. Only after the security team left did Mei emerge from her hiding place.

"That group of people just now clearly had an armed force comparable to some tactical squads. Is this really the kind of security force that a pharmaceutical company can possess?"

Mei muttered to herself, and out of curiosity, she decided to secretly follow the security team to see what was going on. Led by the security team, Mei then arrived at the underground laboratory of Shinjo Pharmaceuticals, where she witnessed the inhumane human experiments.

It was at this moment that Mei realized that Shencheng Pharmaceuticals might not be a simple civilian organization that accidentally discovered the Honkai and then reached a deep cooperation with Schicksal, but rather a mysterious organization that had long been aware of the existence of the Honkai—World Serpent.

Although Mei had heard of the organization's name, she was unaware of its existence at first because she had never had any formal contact with it and World Serpent was too mysterious.

Now, thinking back on the sense of unease I felt as I infiltrated the area, and the faint fluctuations of Honkai energy around me, it all indicates that there must be a large number of Honkai-related equipment and items inside Shencheng Pharmaceuticals.

Adding to the security forces and armed forces seen earlier, perhaps the power of this world's Serpent is in no way inferior to that of the two major Honkai conflict organizations, Schicksal and Anti-Entropy. The thought instantly sent chills down Mei's spine. An organization with a foundation no less formidable than the other two had managed to remain hidden until now without being officially discovered; just thinking about it sent shivers down her spine.

This only made Mei more curious about what had happened down there that made the security forces rush down so hastily. Then, the next second, Mei got the answer. Rita, covered in injuries, appeared from where the security forces had just gone down. Seeing Rita's injured state, Mei temporarily put aside her recent grudges and went forward to support Rita's swaying body.

"Rita, what exactly is going on? And why are you here?"

"Hehe, that's a long story," Rita said, panting. "But since Miss Mei is here, you should have realized that those unusual Honkai events in Sky City are inextricably linked to Divine City Medicine, right?"

"Don't speak yet! Let's escape from here first!"

As Mei spoke, she helped Rita begin to move upwards, and then a voice that made Rita grit her teeth came over the radio.

"Oh? I didn't expect there would be a rat in here. But oh well, one more Valkyrie test subject is good too. Security, catch them!"

Although Rita was seriously injured at this time, her physical fitness as an S-class Valkyrie was not to be underestimated. After briefly adjusting her condition, she and Mei broke through the security forces' encirclement.

After escaping from Shencheng Medical Center, Rita ordered the activation of the Helios supply ship's autopilot function, its destination naturally being Shencheng Medical Center. However, Rita's purpose was not to have the Helios come to pick her up, but to head straight for Shencheng Medical Center.

Taking advantage of the chaos caused by Helios's explosion, Rita and Mei successfully escaped and arrived at Mei and Tesla's temporary base.

"So why did going out bring me such a huge problem?!"

On the Helios, which Mei and the others were on, Tesla pointed at Rita, who was bandaging herself, and questioned her.

"I couldn't help it, the situation was so urgent, I ended up bringing her along without even realizing it..." Mei said apologetically, "Besides, seeing how injured she was, I couldn't just leave her there!"

"But you don't really need to bring her back, do you? Don't forget we're enemies with her!"

"Please don't worry about that, Dr. Tesla," Rita, whose wounds had been treated, said. "After all, we're in the same boat now, and I don't have the habit of betraying my own people."

"Ha! That sounds nice, but who knows what you're really thinking? Now that your wound has been treated, please leave quickly!"

"Don't be in such a hurry to send me away, Dr. Tesla. I'm sure you'll be interested in our collaboration after hearing what I'm about to say."

"I have no interest in listening to some self-proclaimed 'destined person' spout nonsense. If you don't leave now, I'm kicking you out!"

Tesla then prepared to activate the defense system on Helios, but Mei acted as a mediator to prevent the situation from escalating.

"Tell me, what exactly did you see at Shencheng Pharmaceutical?"

Tesla sat down irritably, arms crossed, his right index finger tapping his left arm in frustration.

"This all started when I secretly infiltrated Shencheng Pharmaceutical..."

After resetting the humanoid machine's system, Rita realized that Gray Serpent's identity might not be as simple as he appeared to be, just an information broker. Following the trail of Gray Serpent's past, Rita eventually found Shencheng Pharmaceuticals. It was at this point that Rita began to understand that Shencheng Pharmaceuticals was not as simple as it seemed.

So, relying on her status as a destined S-class Valkyrie, Rita arrived at the Shencheng Pharmaceutical Development Zone without any obstacles. It was here that Rita was stopped for the first time.

But who is Rita?

This level of security was no obstacle for her, and she easily slipped in. Then, "led" by a researcher, she arrived at the underground experimental area, where Rita witnessed the inhumane experiments.

Life support pods, which can be seen everywhere, contain all sorts of undead. Some are mutilated, while others have many unwanted body parts, or even the tissues of Honkai Beasts.

This made Rita realize that Shencheng Pharmaceuticals and World Snake might have some connection. It wasn't until Jackal appeared that Rita understood that Shencheng Pharmaceuticals was World Snake's completely overt company.

And the executive director Cleo, whom he met, was none other than Jackal!

Just as Rita was regretting that she hadn't noticed sooner, the jackal struck first.

First, she released gas that could decompose Honkai energy in the human body through the air circulation system, and then she released the modified zombie variants.

Rita originally wanted to call for support from the Undying Blade members who had come with her, but to her surprise, instead of a response from her teammates, she heard their horrific screams of being slaughtered through the communicator.

Ultimately, Rita, consumed by rage, unleashed unprecedented fighting power and successfully broke through the encirclement. She then met Mei in the upper-level laboratory and eventually escaped from Shinjo Medical with Mei.

"So, Shencheng Pharmaceuticals is actually a company established with funding from that World Serpent, and you found those cruel experimental evidences in its underground operations?"

"Yes."

"But what does that have to do with us? After all, we're just here to find Kiana's whereabouts. What does it matter to us whether Shencheng Medicine is an affiliated organization of World Serpent?"

"What would you think if I told you they were plotting something that could destroy Sky City?"

"what?!"

Tesla looked at Rita with surprise, who was smiling. Rita was clearly very satisfied with her reaction, and her smile widened.

"Just during my infiltration earlier, I inadvertently discovered their plan..."

Then Rita slowly explained the plan, but they didn't know that the plan had actually been cancelled.

After listening to Rita's explanation, Mei and Tesla's faces turned serious. After all, if this plan succeeded, the damage it would cause would be no less than the Great Collapse that broke out in Changkong City.

Because of this plan, Tesla had no choice but to agree to Rita's request for cooperation, and the two parties thus began their collaboration to save Sky City.

Meanwhile, the captain successfully arrived at the sea area where Abyss City is located, but because he did not have suitable diving equipment, he had to wait on the beach to rendezvous with Gray Serpent.

Of course, Gray Serpent did not disappoint the captain. Shortly after his arrival, Gray Serpent's figure appeared in the captain's field of vision.

"So how do we get down?"

The captain didn't want to waste any more words and went straight to the point after meeting Gray Serpent. Fortunately, Gray Serpent wasn't one to mince words either.

"Of course we'll go down in a professional submarine. Do you think we have any other way to get down? Please, we're not Valkyries; we don't have their physical strength."

In fact, the captain could have done it; if he had a diving suit and oxygen tank, he would have already secretly dived down by himself. However, the captain didn't want to reveal the fact that his physical abilities far exceeded those of ordinary people, so he obediently followed Gray Serpent into the interior of Abyss City.

Meanwhile, Kiana was following Raven to Siegfried's location. The two wisely remained silent along the way, and Kiana had several times considered secretly leaving the group to reach their destination first.

However, she didn't have any specific coordinates, and the raven could immediately detect her if she left, so in the end she followed the raven to the outer perimeter of the base.

“We’ve arrived. Since our goal is to steal the Judgment of Heavenly Fire from Siegfried, let’s try not to cause any trouble and just use your ability to teleport in. Remember to get an injection to stabilize your Honkai energy before using your ability.”

“Of course I know,” Kiana replied impatiently.

Although she sounded impatient, Kiana's actions didn't hesitate at all. Since she couldn't let her father escape beforehand anyway, she might as well keep going until World Serpent, where she could at least use her position as a cadre to protect him.

Without hesitation, Kiana opened the portal after injecting the potion, and immediately a piercing alarm sounded inside the base.