14. Xia Ling's Enhancement Plan?

"That's right, thanks to them, we were able to obtain such perfect data. The success of the first clinical trial can also be attributed to luck."

"After all, even with lives on their hands, they couldn't get any results at the main experimental site on the Jackal's side..."

It seemed that the probability of getting two golden lights in almost two shots made Gray Serpent's tone slightly boastful. Compared to his lucky streak, Jackal, who was playing Kamisato Pharmaceuticals in Changkong City, could be considered the unluckiest of the unluckiest.

"Alright, Mr. Lucky Gray Serpent."

"Now that you've finished showing off, you can go find your dead comrades."

"Theresa, do it."

As Ain finished speaking, twelve golden spears of light pierced into the warehouse from outside.

"After all, such a large Honkai Beast would be quite dangerous if it ran outside."

"Fortunately, Deliyin Euling (3) Euling Banner Sibajun Yangsha is not far from here, otherwise, I would have had to spend more time with you."

Before the Gray Serpent could react, the light spears carrying the Power of Restraint wrapped around its body from all directions. Judah's light spears were extremely flexible, and even against the Honkai Beast body of the Gray Serpent, they could bind it tightly.

"Actually... Theresa, you don't need to be so clingy."

Seeing Theresa still having the mind to bind the Gray Serpent with a tortoise shell, Yae Sakura's lips twitched slightly.

To prevent witnessing any more outrageous scenes, she swiftly drew her sword and precisely stabbed the already immobilized Gray Serpent.

A chilling Honkai Energy flowed along the blade, eventually finding and completely destroying the Gray Serpent's temporary core.

As the Honkai Beast slowly collapsed, Theresa slowly retracted her light spear.

"Ahem, let's just consider it practice beforehand..."

"Although I'd love to know what your purpose is in practicing this, my gut feeling tells me not to ask anymore."

Yae Sakura sheathed her sword and her figure slowly disappeared into the air.

"An existence within the Stigmata... Yae Sakura's mode of existence is indeed very convenient."

"Especially in terms of guarding against assassination."

Ain retrieved the sechs that Bronya had freed after she went to the control center. After reading some data, Ain looked at Theresa.

"Let's go. The Gray Serpent is solved. We should go find Ms. Cocolia and demand an explanation."

"Ain, Cocolia... what do you plan to do with her?"

"I checked inside the control center and found a recording of her conversation with Gray Serpent."

"Judging from her appearance and considering the previous situations of Rosalia and Lilia, she probably wasn't very willing to do this for Gray Serpent."

"This recording is the best evidence. Gray Serpent would never leave such a thing behind. It is most likely a chip she used to bet on both sides."

"Therefore, she probably won't put up much resistance to our questioning; she's probably already anticipated this day."

"This woman... even though she's withdrawn from the fight, she's still so troublesome..."

"Cocolia always unleashes unimaginable creative abilities when fighting against her own people, but she is always full of loopholes when fighting against the Honkai."

Perhaps because she had long been dissatisfied with Cocolia's anthropomorphic behavior, even Ain made a rare comment.

"It's hard to imagine that a radical leader like her wouldn't have put up much defense in her own orphanage. If it weren't for the notification and support from headquarters, her orphanage would have had to rely on two children to protect the other children during the Great Honkai."

"In short, if she is sensible enough to hand over command of the mechs and troops in Abyssal City, I will consider how to deal with her."

"It's not impossible that if she cooperates enough, she could even be given a chance to reunite with her daughters and enjoy her retirement."

"What if she doesn't know what's good for her?" Theresa tilted her head.

"Then it will probably be up to Theresa to persuade her."

Ain smiled faintly.

At the same time, Bronya turned off voice synchronization with sechs and then spoke to the other end of the communication.

"Mother Cocolia, this is the last time I'll help you..."

"I hope... you can make the right choice."

"..."

"I understand, thank you, Bronya."

"Ever since that time in Oceania, I... had anticipated this day."

Because Cocolia did not directly target Wendy in Oceania this time, and with Xia Ling's subsequent actions, her last remaining power in Changkong City was completely destroyed.

Therefore, in this life, Bronya is not as disappointed in Cocolia as she was in the original work.

This led to the "tipping-off".

However, Bronya knew very well that this should also be within the scope of Ain approval.

After all, this time, after she retrieved sechs, she didn't shut it down as usual, but let it float beside her.

Chapter Fourteen: Xia Ling's Enhancement Plan?

In Xia Ling's safe house in Changkong City.

Kiana continued to learn the Tai Xu Sword Qi from Fu Hua as always, while Xia Ling would disappear for a period of time every morning under the guise of scouting Kamisato Pharmaceuticals.

Of course, there will be plenty of intelligence to gather. Anyway, Flame Willow is right there, so she can just take pictures of whatever she wants.

The only thing worth mentioning is that the Raven was mysteriously called away by the Gray Serpent not long after it arrived, leaving only the Jackal and the Flame Willow staring at each other.

Fortunately, World Serpent had enough funds, and since they didn't know Flame Willow's background, Jackal didn't dare to be too rude to her.

Thus began Flame Willow's extravagant journey of squandering World Serpent's funds.

Xia Ling's achievements over the past two days have been to spend time in the system space, taking stock of the collections she has acquired during this period, and searching for ways to further strengthen herself within the system.

When it comes to strengthening herself, the first thing Xia Ling thinks of is asking the system if there is an option to reach Elite 3.

After all, while his Honkai Energy Materialization and Acceleration Talent seem to have little potential for further improvement, his Gate Opening talent clearly has a higher ceiling.

I've only mastered the connection part of the talent system so far, and I have absolutely no idea about the blocking part that was amplified after using the King's Set last time.

However, the system's reply was simple: no.

That's what she said.

[Host, instead of letting the system evolve to Elite 3 on its own, why don't you ask Otto to help you find the coordinates of the world before you transmigrated?]

[Then go straight to Hypergryph headquarters, find that Ocean Cat, and have him implement a Tier 3 feature for you in the Ark.]

[The system should be updated within a week.]

So, with the system's approach blocked, Xia Ling began looking for other methods.

First, there's the collection. Although there wasn't a single super-standard collection like the Continuance of Civilization, Xia Ling actually found two things among the pile of collections she had created that could allow her to "break through her limits."

Unfortunately, the side effects of these two artifacts were equally terrible. Although they didn't King's Set's, they were still not much better than death.

[Ritual Bell: You can choose to lose one of your five senses. For each sense lost, you will gain a ten-second power boost. One sense will be restored each week.]

[Duke Duck Gold Brick: Amplifies abilities, but a blind roll will be performed upon use, randomly determining the duration of the amplification and taking a portion of the user's power as a cost.]

The first of these two collectibles comes from Sami's Integrated Strategies. The original version's effect is to restore life when the Anti-Interference Index is lost. However, in the real world, the Anti-Interference Index seems to be personified as Xia Ling's own perception.

Given the exorbitant cost, the life-restoring effect naturally evolved into an ability-boosting effect.

The second item... had a rather mysterious effect.

Xia Ling really couldn't figure out what the cost of this so-called random taking would be.

If a part of the body disappears and then something like the heart is randomly replaced, it's no different from being dead.

The key point is that this thing's power boost comes after the penalty is imposed. In other words, if you're unlucky, you'll basically be finished before you even have a chance to use the boosted power.

Looking at it this way, the effect of the Ritual Bell seems to have become much more refined.

Although she made some gains in terms of collections, Xia Ling was not very satisfied.

After all, both of these items are very expensive, and I can't just go looking for someone else to self-destruct for no reason.

So, she started browsing through her emails when she had nothing else to do.

As it turned out, she actually found something good.

She suddenly discovered that she still had an unused 4-star half-price Recruitment Voucher in her email.

Of course, since the strength of recruited operators is limited by their star rating, Xia Ling would not recruit a four-star operator since there is no shortage of personnel at present.

What came to her mind was that the system had once said that she could choose to imprint the abilities of the operators she drew onto herself.

Knowing full well the principle that one should not bite off more than one can chew, and that her own abilities were not yet fully developed, plus the fact that operators need to be randomly drawn and there is no guarantee that she will get the one she wants, Xia Ling had never considered this option for a long time.

But the situation is different now. My abilities have reached a bottleneck in the short term, and the talent ceiling of four-star operators is not high. In other words, they are not that difficult to master.

Therefore, it seems necessary for me to develop a new skill.

Once the plan was finalized, Xia Ling immediately called the system to prepare for the card draw.

With the goal of imprinting rather than adding operators clearly defined, the system became much more efficient, and soon a black operator pack appeared before Xia Ling's eyes.

As she slightly unzipped the zipper, a burst of purple light rushed out. Almost instinctively, Xia Ling immediately zipped it back up.

[Don't get excited, host, this isn't your ten-pull.]

"Phew, seeing the purple aura coming from the east, my first instinct was to throw this bag away."

Xia Ling took a deep breath and opened the operator pack again.

A character card emitting a purple glow appeared in front of her.

"Well..."

[Well...]

"Is this considered... a complimentary service?"

[Perhaps it's because the sniper scope the host drew was just too amazing.]

"I'd like to try my luck with everything you've said so far and see if I can get the Pink Piggy's abilities too."

[Draw cards with caution, host.]

"I was just saying..."

Looking at the character card representing Ambriel in her hand, Xia Ling sighed.

"Now I'm really going to become the eldest brother."

Ambriel, a Lateran, is a sharpshooter in the sniper class. Due to her unique skill set, she is one of the most distinctive four-star operators and also the best four-star operator for soloing roguelike missions.

The reason is simple: her second skill has an attack range that covers the entire map.

This means that as long as her collection is good enough, she can simply place it anywhere and activate her skill to instantly kill any monster that appears in the entire area.

The Scout's Sniper Scope that Xia Ling recently acquired is one of the operator's "signature weapons".

"Alright, system, I'm very satisfied with this operator. Let's proceed with the ability imprinting."

[A word of caution, host: imprinting other character cards may cause certain negative effects...]

"Are there negative effects?"

Xia Ling's eyes widened. "Why didn't you say so sooner?"

[This effect only appears when the ability is used; it can be turned off at other times...]

[When the host uses Ambriel's skills and talents, some racial characteristics belonging to Ambriel will appear on their body.]

Specifically, the host may develop an aura and wings.

"???"

"Wait, system."

"My appearance and hair color shouldn't change, right?"

Of course not, host.