Causing Trouble, Causing Trouble

"Anna, even if it's payday, there's no need to be in such a hurry, right? We're all coworkers. Even if you're recovering at home, I'll still bring it to your door. Here, this is for you. Go home and rest now, I won't see you off, bye~~"

When she came to her senses, Anna was already placed dozens of meters away from the construction site gate, with her back to the entrance and a thick envelope in her hand.

"Um?"

"Who am I?"

Where am I?

Why am I here?

"Oh, payday!"

Anna finally regained consciousness.

She touched her stomach, longing for the aroma of breakfast she had vaguely smelled in her half-awake state.

"So if you're not working, you can't eat the construction site breakfast?"

Anna glanced back, her fair face filled with disappointment, and she even bit her lip with tears in her eyes.

But getting paid is a good thing.

So Anna quickly opened the envelope and saw a larger sum of money than she had expected.

"Huh? Quite a lot more... Oh, it's workers' compensation, right? That's great, now I can buy that pretty dress I've been eyeing!"

Anna used to be a rich woman and wouldn't have cared about this salary.

After all, she was the most promising child of the Saniyat generation. Although she was far less stunning than her Aunt Cecilia was back then, a sixteen-year-old A-grade was not a disgrace to the family. Therefore, the elders in the family were exceptionally generous when giving her small gifts. At one time, she owned prime real estate around the world and shares in many large multinational corporations. She was the type who could count money in her lifetime without lifting a finger.

Unfortunately, after being captured, those things were taken away by Cocolia, under the guise of confiscating spoils of war.

Anna didn't care about money, and she didn't pay much attention even when all her capital was taken away. From then on, the wages from the construction site became this young lady's only source of income.

It's all thanks to this money that she can buy new dresses, high-end cosmetics, and cute decorations for her room. She has to take it seriously!

"But wait a minute! This kind of life—being able to walk around the base freely, get paid after cleaning up the ash, and even buy things—isn't this just like working in the sea?"

A cold sweat broke out all over my head.

The captured young Valkyrie stood in the sea breeze, bewildered by this surreal reality—even though she had actually been working for several months and had received her wages three or four times.

Anna was finally able to have breakfast at another cafeteria not far away.

"It's pretty good, especially the milk tea, awesome!"

Her bright and beautiful eyes narrowed into adorable crescent shapes as she enjoyed herself.

Anna, leaning on her cane, stood at the entrance of the cafeteria. After hesitating for a moment, she headed towards the scene where she had been kicked and rolled on the ground more than a dozen times yesterday.

That's the training camp of the Iron Pilot Corps, where you can find some information about the now-famous giant Titan BT72.

"It was you who insisted on not restricting me, not me deliberately trying to gather intelligence!"

"At least get some useful information back; that way, we might be able to cover up the fact that we were captured."

"My goal is to keep my A rating. Let's do this!"

Anna muttered to herself as she limped to her destination.

Meanwhile, on the training field, giant mechs were locked in combat, while many mech pilots clad in white armor weaved through the gaps in the battlefield, engaging in another level of entanglement and confrontation.

In Anna's eyes, Anti-Entropy is playing with something very new.

They seem to have no intention of fixing the pilot inside the mech, nor of making the pilot a weakness of the mech, but rather as a special combat force that can jump out at any time to fight in coordination with the mech.

From Schicksal's perspective, Anti-Entropy is building a combined legion of Valkyrie and Divine Machines.

Moreover, it has undoubtedly been very effective, demonstrating a comprehensive strength far exceeding that of the Valkyrie Legion on the Manila Honkai Outbreak battlefield.

Why did you come here?

A white armor descended from the sky, exuding the solid texture of steel, yet its form-fitting design accentuated an exceptionally hot and alluring figure.

Then the helmet opened, Kuerla's delicate face appeared in Anna's eyes.

"Yeah, I'm just browsing, haha!"

"Alright, since you can't work anyway because you're injured, maybe you'll be interested in continuing to participate in the test after reading this."

"Ah, yes, yes, that's it!"

Anna nodded repeatedly, like a chick pecking at rice.

Kuerla was speechless for a moment—did this guy really think he was blind? With such poor acting skills, his little schemes were written all over his face. Who was he trying to fool?

However, Kuerla didn't care about being watched. Firstly, the core secret of the mecha was Anqi herself, and the key could not be seen even after a hundred years of looking with the naked eye; secondly, she had no intention of letting go of this original Herrscher of Ice body, since it would always be under her nose anyway, so let her look if she wanted.

"To be honest, I still have some doubts. Did you buy your Class A certificate?"

"Of course not! How could that be?"

"But you are unbelievably weak. Most of my team members, wearing basic armor like this, are not much weaker than you—have we trained a hundred S-rank Valkyrie- level soldiers?"

"No way, no way, it shouldn't be like that, right?"

Anna was initially confident, but watching the armored pilots exchanging fire on the field, their speed and power were astonishing, and their combat skills were also extremely high—if Titans were added, it would be easy to crush her into a pancake.

So, she wavered.

Upon closer examination, it seems not impossible that a family might bribe the examiners to save face.

"Impossible! I definitely passed based on my own ability! Yes, that must be it!"

Anna forced a smile, her pitiful little eyes conveying more of a struggle than a rebuttal.

Kuerla remained silent again, and after a long while, hesitantly asked:

"May I ask, do you have Kaslana blood?"

"How did you know? Intermarriage between the three great families is an old tradition of Schicksal. I have many Kaslana in my direct line of ancestry!"

"I see."

No wonder she's so simple-minded; the Kaslana bloodline really does have a lot of negative effects.

Anna seemed to sense some kind of malice, but seeing no one else around, she thought for a moment and decided to continue probing for information, saying:

"Speaking of which, are your armors and Titans already in mass production?"

"No, there are technical limitations. The maximum number of BTs is 100. Any more would require rebuilding a central intelligent system, which is a huge project. The armor is better, but the cost is also very high, making it difficult to scale up production. However, the research department is designing armor similar to this, which will be thicker and heavier, carrying heavy firepower and chainsaws, and relying heavily on manpower—you can think of it as a thick iron shell."

"A big iron shell? Why would anyone make something like that?"

"Because of the low cost, it allows ordinary soldiers to enter the Honkai Battlefield while keeping costs low. However, it is still in the exploratory stage, and it is uncertain whether it will work in the end."

Kuerla said casually.

But these things actually have little to do with defeating the Honkai.

Knowing the main storyline well, Anqi understands that the key to overcoming the Honkai lies in making good use of the backdoor to the Cocoon of the Finality Previous Civilization. In this process, most ordinary people cannot play a significant role.

It is pointless to send more soldiers to the battlefield.

However, Cocolia needs such a facade to gather people's hearts and extract resources, for more powerful Titan puppets, for building an ever-expanding Theater of Domination, and even more so to maintain a pivotal position in the future.

"Cocolia seems to be doing something big!"

Anna nodded as if she understood—although she was also influenced by Kaslana, she was not as lucky as Kiana in finding an external brain circuit that she could completely trust, so in most cases Anna was still considered to be clever and quick-witted.

Therefore, Anna could imagine the extent to which Anti-Entropy's military power would expand once that thing was created. Coupled with the imminent large-scale expansion of the East Sea Base, she could fully appreciate Cocolia's extremely strong ambition.

"What kind of person is Cocolia? I heard you two seem to know each other quite well?"

"Yes, we're quite familiar with each other."

It refers to the kind of familiarity where they are the same person.

Anna blinked and pressed for an answer:

"Then tell me about her! She saved Manila, kindly treated that poor man, and didn't mistreat me. I feel like she might be a good person!"

"Cocolia is a very decisive leader. You can't judge her as good or bad, because she sometimes gives ruthless orders. But I believe that's always for a greater justice. Also, she really likes little girls; she's a true doting father."

"If I call her 'Mom,' will she let me go?"

Anna's eyes lit up, as if she had discovered a blind spot, completely ignoring the fact that her biological mother was still waiting for her at home.

Kuerla paused for a long time, and finally could only sigh softly.

"I can't say whether it will work or not, but I'm certain that your Kaslana bloodline is quite pure."

"Huh? Really? Thanks for the compliment, but I'm not that amazing!"

Anna scratched her head and laughed sheepishly. She still had many inaccurate feelings about the name Kaslana.

Afterwards, Anna awkwardly asked Kuerla about some of the dynamics of Anti-Entropy.

If she hadn't contacted Kuerla, she would likely have been treated as a spy.

That evening, having finally unlocked the most basic channel of communication—letter writing—thanks to her recent good behavior, Anna solemnly laid out the letter paper and wrote a letter home. It read:

[Mom, how much money did our family bribe examiner, Irene, for the S-rank Valkyrie assessment back then?]

Chapter 155 Making Trouble

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

The sound of hurried, disordered footsteps echoed in the dark alley.

This was a man in a suit who appeared to be from an elite, upper-class background, and he carried a gun, yet his expression was one of utter terror. It was as if a monster, which no weapon could defeat, was chasing him from behind.

Then the sound of running stopped abruptly. He stopped, breathing heavily, and watched a petite girl slowly land before him, her sweat-covered face trembling uncontrollably.

She was a very cute little girl.

A casual off-white trench coat and denim shorts, her slender, shapely legs encased in white stockings, like exquisite and fragile works of art.

"Bang!"

But he fired without hesitation.

Nothing happened after that; there was no bloodshed, no tragic scene of a girl collapsing and dying.

She was simply holding the sword in one hand, and with the other hand, she held a bullet that was emitting gunpowder smoke, with her index finger and thumb out.

"A monster..."

"Thanks."

Anqi said this, appearing behind the other party as if by teleportation, holding the mission objective she had just obtained—a pitch-black iron box containing something related to Honkai.

Then, she walked out of the alley on her own.

As for the corpses left behind along the way, that was the responsibility of the logistics personnel.

To emphasize, although Anqi has her principles and is quite friendly to most people, she still has a dangerous side in essence.

The Valkyrie was there to meet her appeared in front of a milk tea shop on the street and greeted Anqi with a smile.

Anqi walked over with a blank expression.

"Mission complete, please confirm."

"Yes, it's the item described in the document. Great, your efficiency is the highest I've ever encountered—but as a student, this should be your first time taking on this kind of task, right? Aren't you feeling a bit out of sorts?"

Which point are you referring to?

"Kill."

Irene accepted the quest items and observed Anqi's expression.

However, Anqi's expression didn't change much; she simply replied calmly:

"I didn't have any trouble adjusting. I had already done it before entering St. Freya."

"That doesn't sound like a good thing."

"It's all in the past, there's nothing to talk about. Now that the mission is over, I'll be leaving."

"Bye-bye, I hope we'll have the opportunity to work together again next time!"

Irene watched the little girl leave until she was completely lost in the crowd.