Upon waking, the first thing Mei saw was Kiana, along with the voices of Kiana and Himeko calling out to her...
"Kiana, thank goodness you're okay..."
Seeing that Kiana was unharmed, Mei immediately felt relieved...
"Mei, you removed your restrictions just now, didn't you?"
Looking at the Emperor-class Honkai Beast that had already been reduced to fragments, Himeko did not need to think to realize what had happened here...
"But... if I hadn't done that..."
Mei knew she had made a mistake. She had clearly promised not to use this power again...
"I'm not blaming you, but don't let it happen again!"
Himeko reached out and helped Mei to her feet. "The Honkai Beasts aboard the battleship have all been cleared out. Now let's go meet up with Bronya. The Moonlight Throne will reach Magic City in only five minutes. We have to hurry!"
"Yes, Major Himeko!"
With Himeko and Kiana's help, Mei got back on her feet...
Looking at Kiana, then at herself, although both of their Valkyrie Armors were basically wrecked, at least everyone was still alive, and their injuries were not too serious!
This was also thanks to the Valkyrie Armor absorbing most of the damage. Kiana and she had suffered nothing more than superficial wounds, while the Honkai energy within Valkyries greatly accelerated wound recovery. So, these minor injuries had basically no impact on Valkyries!
Of course, once they got back, she would still need to take care of her skin. It would be awful if scars were left behind...
"Bronya, are you done yet?"
The three arrived at the control room, where Bronya was still hacking into the Moonlight Throne's systems...
Bronya shook her head slightly and said expressionlessly, "The battleship's systems have multiple layers of encryption. Bronya has only cracked two layers so far, but there is still one core password remaining!"
"Bronya, hurry!" Himeko immediately made a decision as well. "If it isn't finished in the last two minutes, we'll leave the battleship and use the Hyperion's main cannon to destroy it!"
"Himeko, Himeko, Kiana? Can you hear me?"
At that moment, Ling Feng's voice came through Himeko's communicator. Since the Emperor-class Honkai Beast had been eliminated, communications could be used again after a brief repair!
"Ling Feng, we're fine!"
Himeko immediately replied, "But the Moonlight Throne's password still hasn't been cracked. Have the Hyperion's main cannon begin charging. If it comes down to the last two minutes, we'll destroy the battleship!"
"It's already charging. But just now, the Hyperion received an email that seems to be related to the Moonlight Throne!"
As he spoke, Ling Feng sent the email's contents to Himeko's tactical visor. "It says the Moonlight Throne is a gift for Kiana, and that the final password is Kiana's birthday. I don't know if it's real..."
"A gift for Kiana?"
Himeko froze for a moment and asked, "Kiana, do you know anything about this?"
"I don't know anything..."
Kiana merely shook her head. "As far as I remember, I don't have any friends rich enough to give someone a battleship!"
"Let's not worry about that for now. Kiana, tell Bronya your birthday!" Himeko said softly to Kiana. Clearly, she intended to try the clue in the email!
"I don't want to tell her, and who would believe some prank email?" Kiana decisively refused!
"Bronya!"
But then Mei spoke up with a smile. "Kiana's birthday is December seventh!"
Bronya silently entered the birthday...
"Password accepted. Moonlight Throne control authorization obtained!"
As the prompt sounded in the control room, Bronya had obtained control of the battleship!
"Eh... no way, the password really was my birthday..."
Looking at the battleship that had now been brought under control, Kiana was still a little dumbfounded. "What is going on today? So many inexplicable things have happened. First an out-of-control battleship, then an Emperor-class Honkai Beast. I'm completely confused!"
"Once we bring the battleship back to St. Freya Academy and have Tesla analyze it, I'm sure everything will become clear!" Mei appeared relatively calm, although she was still very curious about the battleship's origins!
"All right, Bronya, change the battleship's course. Destination: St. Freya Academy!" Seeing that things had finally come to an end, Himeko also let out a sigh of relief. Team 233's disaster-ridden first combat mission had finally been successfully completed!
"Hehe... you can't have this battleship so easily!"
But at that moment, a familiar voice appeared in Bronya's mind. "Bronya, help me take this battleship back!"
"Highest authority. Forced control system rebooting. Switching to elimination mode. Eliminate all nearby enemies..."
Bronya's eyes suddenly turned red. She turned and stared expressionlessly at the three of them as Project Bunny's cannons began charging...
"This is bad... Bronya... seems to have been controlled again?"
Kiana immediately thought of something...
"Huh? Controlled? The Hyperion is showing an unknown signal invading Bronya. Hey, what's going on?" Ling Feng, aboard the Hyperion, was instantly dumbfounded. This... situation did not seem right...
Bang!
At some point, Mei had appeared behind Bronya and struck the back of her head with the hilt of her blade. Bronya dropped straight to the floor...
"Whew..."
Mei wiped the sweat from her forehead and let out a huge sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. Even when controlled, Bronya still couldn't get rid of her flaw of ignoring what's behind her..."
Himeko: "..."
Kiana: "..."
Ling Feng: "???"
No matter what, it was good that they were safe...
Afterward, Mei took Bronya back to the Hyperion for examination, while Kiana and Himeko remained aboard the Moonlight Throne and directly piloted the battleship toward St. Freya Academy, where they landed safely!
But Ling Feng still had three major unanswered questions in his heart. Why was Mei a Herrscher? Why had Bronya been controlled? And who was rich enough to give Kiana an entire battleship?
A "Normal" Team 233!
After returning to the academy, Tesla gave Mei and Bronya another comprehensive examination. In the end, she found nothing seriously wrong, so the three girls returned to their apartment to rest. As for Ling Feng, he stayed behind. There were some things he wanted clarified...
"Uh... well..."
Facing Ling Feng's questions, Theresa appeared somewhat embarrassed. She chuckled and said, "Actually, Mei used to be human too. She was only later modified into a Herrscher. As long as she doesn't use Herrscher power, she's no different from an ordinary Valkyrie..."
"Then you should have told me about it. I really never expected there to be a Herrscher in my own team..."
Ling Feng wore a conflicted expression. At the same time, he was deeply grateful that Mei had spared his life when he had seen her naked. If Mei had unleashed her Herrscher power back then, he would probably have vaporized just like a Honkai Beast...
"We didn't expect Mei to unleash her Herrscher power at that time either!"
Himeko helplessly shook her head. "But fortunately, she didn't use it for very long this time, so her consciousness wasn't consumed by the Honkai. But next time might be different. From now on... no matter what happens, we absolutely cannot let Mei use Herrscher power again!"
"Then what's going on with Bronya?"
Skipping over Mei's matter, Ling Feng began asking about Bronya!
"As you just saw, Bronya isn't human in the strictest sense either. At least, not anymore..."
Tesla could explain this question. "Simply put, Bronya once took part in Anti-Entropy's human Honkai experiments. Her legs, which had been broken, were completely burned away. At the same time, eight percent of her brain was also burned away!"
"However, due to Anti-Entropy's technology, Bronya did not die. Instead, she was transformed into a half-human, half-machine person. A Bio-chip was implanted in her brain to replace the parts of Bronya's brain that had been burned away. But she lost the ability to feel emotions. She had no joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness, and always wore only one expression. The person who implanted the Bio-chip in her—the person who saved her life, whom Bronya also called Mother—was none other than one of Anti-Entropy's higher-ups, Cocolia!"
"But Cocolia was not that kindhearted. Because of the Bio-chip, she could still directly control Bronya whenever necessary. And by the way, the one who transformed Mei into a Herrscher was also Cocolia!"
"Cocolia..."
Ling Feng grew more and more curious. Who exactly was this Cocolia? She had gone so far as to turn two perfectly fine girls into this. She was awful...
"Cocolia wasn't Bronya's mother. She was merely the manager of an orphanage. But her purpose in establishing that orphanage was not to care for the orphans. It was to use them as Anti-Entropy's test subjects. Bronya was one of them!"
Tesla continued, "Do you know why I didn't join Anti-Entropy when you asked me last time? Although I wasn't lying then, the more important reason was that Anti-Entropy had far too many horrifying experiments that no one knew about. I simply couldn't stay in a place like that!"
"Ling Feng, although Mei and Bronya aren't normal humans..."
Theresa stood on a chair and patted Ling Feng on the shoulder. "Who doesn't have a past? If not for the Honkai, who wouldn't want to live a peaceful life? But the Honkai has always existed, and to fight it, we need people like us. Mei and Bronya are among them too. They both have their own goals!"
"All right, I understand... o(一︿一+)o"
Ling Feng nodded helplessly and sighed. "Then, if there's nothing else, I'll head back to my team. After all, they won their first real victory today. We said we were going to celebrate, and as their assistant, I can't be absent!"
"So, you're still willing to be Team 233's assistant?" Theresa asked with a delighted smile!
"When did I ever say I wasn't willing?"
Ling Feng curled his lip slightly and said helplessly, "I was just concerned about the pasts of my team members. Since I'm their assistant, it would be far too unqualified of me to know nothing about my own Valkyries!"
"Haha, all right, all right, I understand!"
Theresa could not help laughing. Then she cleared her throat and put on a serious expression. "Ahem. Ling Feng, since Team 233 has been promoted to a B-rank team, the team's funding and the assistant's salary will both increase to a certain extent. However, that will start next month. Also, I'll be counting on you from now on!"
"Let's talk about it next time. Goodbye!"
Ling Feng did not want to stay any longer. After making a farewell gesture, he directly left the principal's office. It had to be said, today had been a truly disaster-ridden day...
In his team, one was Mei, the Third Herrscher, while the other was Bronya, who could be controlled and turn against them at any moment. Why did he always end up with such unusual teams? But fortunately...
At least in his team, Kiana was still a normal person. Uh... probably...
When Ling Feng returned to the apartment, the three girls were enthusiastically preparing for the party. Although there were only the three of them and the room had barely changed, they had everything they needed to ensure they would not be bored!
"Ling Feng, you're the slowest every time..."
Seeing Ling Feng return, Kiana immediately put on a dissatisfied expression. "Seriously, Mei and I are both injured, yet instead of coming back to help, you hid outside and slacked off. That's too much!"
"Kiana, you can't say that!"
Mei lightly knocked Kiana on the head and said in an admonishing tone, "Ling Feng is our assistant. There must have been other matters to deal with after this battle. Besides, isn't Ling Feng back already?"
As she spoke, Mei smiled at Ling Feng as well. "Welcome back!"
"Thank you, Mei, Kiana, and Bronya!"
Ling Feng did not say any unnecessary words. He could not be bothered to bring up what had happened before. Whether it was Mei's identity as a Herrscher or Bronya's past, those were certainly not things they wanted to talk about!
"Hehe, if you want to thank me, then treat me to a fancy meal!"
Kiana deliberately said, "We've been eating at the academy all this time. Mei's cooking is delicious too, but I really want to go out for a big meal. Come to think of it, I've never even been to any high-end restaurants before. How pitiful!"
"Kiana, our funding isn't that much. We need to save!"
Mei rejected Kiana's proposal without hesitation. As the one in charge of the team's funds, she knew full well that half of their spending went toward Kiana's food expenses...
Tomorrow We're Going Shopping!
"It's okay, Mei!"
Ling Feng calmly stopped Mei and said with a smile, "Let's not touch the team funds, but I still have a salary. It isn't much, but it's more than enough to treat three girls to a fancy meal. How about this? Not this week. Next weekend, I'll take you to Magic City for a full day of fun. What do you think?"
"Ling Feng, there's no need for that. We actually..."
Mei wanted to refuse. Magic City's cost of living was not low at all, and while Ling Feng received a salary as an assistant, it definitely would not be much. So Mei did not want Ling Feng spending money on something like this!
"It's fine, Mei!"
But Ling Feng remained insistent. "I'm Team 233's assistant, after all, but it seems I've never given any of you anything. So let's treat this shopping trip as making up for that!"
"This... all right then. Thank you for the trouble, Ling Feng!" Mei lowered her head slightly in thanks and did not refuse again. If she kept refusing, it would seem somewhat tactless!
"Then let's go tomorrow!"
Kiana immediately voiced her opinion, her face full of anticipation. "If we go next week, I might not be able to sleep for the whole week. I'll keep looking forward to it, so let's go tomorrow!"
"Eh... are your injuries going to be okay?"
Ling Feng could understand Kiana's feelings, but he was still a little concerned about the two girls' condition. Valkyries recovered quickly, but they were only B-rank Valkyries. One night might not be enough for them to recover completely!
"Hehe, of course it'll be fine!"
Kiana waved her arm to show how healthy she was, then looked at Ling Feng with an adorable expression and coquettishly called, "Tomorrow, please? Assistant Ling Feng!"
Ling Feng: "..." Damn, why did my heart suddenly skip a beat? No, no, it must be an illusion!
"Mei, what about you?"
Ling Feng had no intention of refusing Kiana, but he still had to ask Mei symbolically. Of course, Ling Feng knew Mei would definitely agree too!
Before you continue