40. Xia Ling: What the hell, aren't you going to keep your Core?

"As expected, I'm still not very good at thinking about these complex problems..."

Kiana lay on the soft bed, murmuring to herself.

"However, even though I asked everyone those strange questions, they all answered me seriously, offered advice, and cared for me and looked after me in various ways."

"I'm so lucky..."

"Thump—"

A strange sound came from outside Kiana's door.

"Who!"

Kiana, who had been feeling drowsy from training, immediately regained her senses.

Salt Lake Base can be considered a semi-military base. After a lot of training during the day, very few people have the energy to stay active at night.

Not to mention, running up to her room, Herrscher was under close surveillance, and making such a noise.

"There shouldn't be anyone here right now, so what fell down?"

Kiana quickly dressed and slowly approached the door.

"Gurgle gurgle—"

A clearer sound came from outside the door than before. Like the previous sound, it was the kind of sound that only wooden objects could make, and this time, it sounded as if something round had rolled past her door.

A monotonous, mechanical voice, carrying an untimely and eerie quality, echoed outside her door.

Kiana's expression turned serious.

There should be no wooden products at the Salt Lake Base, especially around her room.

"... Jun Yang Yi Er Ling_III Wo Ling Qi Si..."

Kiana slowly drew her weapon.

Although she could hear voices constantly, she couldn't sense any aura or hostility, which was strange in itself.

Once a crisis is confirmed, notify others immediately.

Kiana made up her mind, and then—opened the door.

A flash of white light made her instinctively cover her face with one hand.

The moment Kiana opened her eyes, her breath caught in her throat.

"How is this possible? This is..."

"Theater of Domination?!"

"Buzz—Buzz—"

"W-What's going on?!"

Theresa suddenly sat up in bed.

"Level 1 Honkai Alert? Has Herrscher descended upon the Salt Lake Base?"

"I don't know, but I suggest you get dressed quickly."

Xia Ling had already put on her coat and was checking messages through her terminal.

"The situation is extremely serious. All remote communications have been cut off. Based on what I learned after Kishinuma to corrupt the base system, almost all the mechs in the base are now out of control. The Doctor are locked near the vault, and Welt and Bella have already rushed to the hangar."

"Almost all the security doors were down, but it's unclear whether the Doctor did it..."

"Sigh, it's a complete mess."

Seeing that Theresa was already dressed, Xia Ling placed her hand on her body.

"Let's go find the Doctor first. They have almost no combat ability and definitely need to be protected first."

With that, Xia Ling activated her ability and appeared directly outside the room.

"Um?"

"Isn't this teleportation distance wrong?" Theresa frowned.

"That's right, the spatial environment around the base is extremely unstable..." Xia Ling's expression turned grim. "The last time this happened was when the Thousand-Man Herrscher first invaded the Anti-Entropy base."

"Because their Theater of Domination to some extent creates a coverage of the base, it leads to an abnormal spatial environment; in other words, the road conditions become more complicated."

"Then what do we do?"

"Pass it by force, and take care of these controlled mechs along the way."

Xia Ling immediately appeared in front of a gate, Kishinuma instantly appeared in her hand.

"As expected of the Herrscher of Domination... The Corrosion Power has no effect on them."

Xia Ling took a deep breath. "Theresa, don't hold back, just dismantle these mechs."

Things are getting complicated.

Chapter 40 Xia Ling: Byd, you don't want your core anymore?

"Thank goodness... at least someone has come."

Xia Ling and Theresa had just arrived when they heard Tesla's voice.

"Sister Xia Ling, Headmistress."

Seele stood next to Tesla and nodded to them.

"What exactly is going on, Doctor?"

"I was doing an experiment with Chicken Hairy Head when I suddenly saw the mech go out of control on the monitor."

"Chicken-haired guy immediately called Welt via communicator, but before he could finish explaining the situation, the call was cut off."

"We suspect that the Thousand-Man Herrscher may have invaded the base, but if they did, their target must be the hundreds of cores stored there."

"So in order to stop those mechs, before the base's main control system went out of control, I, Lin Mengerlingba (five) O Zhou III Zhou, directly lowered all the isolation walls of the base and sounded the alarm."

"Then... what about the core?" Theresa asked.

"The core is gone." Ain's voice came from the laboratory behind Tesla: "It turns out we were wrong. If they just wanted the core, there was no need for such a big fuss."

"Those cores disappeared right before our eyes; to be precise, they were pulled back into the Imaginary Space by some kind of thread."

"But what if their target isn't the core..."

Theresa felt a chill run down her spine when she saw Fu Hua and Bronya arriving.

"Oh no, where's Kiana?"

"Kiana has been out of contact, and Bronya thought she was with you."

"Alright, that's confirmed now." Ain sighed, "They still don't want to let Kiana go."

"But what do we do now...? It seems we don't have the time to defeat the puppets one by one and collect the cores again like before."

Theresa looked troubled. "Even getting into the Theater of Domination is extremely difficult."

"The Thousand-Man Herrscher lay in wait for two weeks, just to lower our guard, and then used the controlled mechs to remove the electromagnetic shield and take back the core."

Ain's fingers tapped incessantly on the keyboard. "But they made a mistake."

"They underestimated the research capabilities of Anti-Entropy and gave us the core technology for two weeks to study."

"Come with me, I have a way to reverse-access the Theater of Domination... Although this method may be unstable, it should be one of the few methods we have right now."

On the other side, at the World Serpent Base.

"Mei Raiden, you're right on time."

Gray Serpent still held his gray umbrella, even though it was indoors.

"Long time no see, but this time you actually went to the trouble of using a body to see me?"

"It seems you still don't understand the Gray Serpent enough. Although we are all Gray Serpent, unlike Bishop Otto, we are all independent individuals."

"So, this should be our first meeting."

"Alright, so, this is my first time meeting Gray Serpent." Mei shrugged. "What brings you to the rendezvous point so late at night?"

"It's very simple. I was asked to be a deliveryman."

Gray Serpent tossed a small box to Mei.

"This is what Xia Ling left for you. She told me to wait until the right time to give it to you."

What's inside the box?

Mei held the box in her hand, not in a hurry to open it.

"I don't know. That's how she gave it to me. I have no right to open her things."

"However, there is a message I need to share with you, and you'll probably understand why once you hear it."

Gray Serpent slowly said, "The Herrscher of Domination has not been defeated. All the cores we seized earlier have disappeared."

"According to reliable intelligence from our informants, Anti-Entropy's Salt Lake Base has entered a state of high alert, suspected of being attacked by Thousand-Man Herrscher."

"Okay, I understand."

Mei immediately understood what Gray Serpent meant, and she opened the box without hesitation.

Sure enough, the box contained an antique key, which still retained a familiar power.

"Based on our previous assessment, we have discovered that the puppets are not as capable as we imagined of being able to Theater of Domination at any time."

"They opened up that kind of crack into the theater, which required a very important prerequisite."

Ain dragged out a box.

"This is... a doll?"

Theresa was startled; Judah appeared beside her in an instant.

"Don't get excited, Theresa, we've already taken control of this doll."

Ain quickly stopped Theresa's actions and continued to explain, "The prerequisite is that there must be a puppet on site, and then use the core inside the puppet as an anchor point - just like using a thumbtack to nail a piece of paper to the wall."

"But... analyzing this situation usually requires a massive amount of computational data, and we obviously don't have time to collect that data right now."

"This is the risk I was talking about. First, we may not be able to find the right path. Second, we may be discovered by the Herrscher of Domination at any time and then actively cut off the path."

"Of course, even if we cut it off, there are other ways... but that would take even longer."

"Leave the first risk to me. Although I don't have spatial abilities strictly speaking, I can still determine the path..." Xia Ling smiled.

"It's just about figuring out how to open the door. That's my specialty. This method is similar to how I usually hack into theaters."

"Then there's the matter of who gets in. To be on the safe side, I don't recommend Fu Hua and Bronya go into the theater first."

"You understand the reason. After all, based on the current intelligence, the Thousand-Man Herrscher seem to be a specialized type of Herrscher —which is obviously very disadvantageous to you."

"Then I'll go in first, Theresa will follow, then Seele, Fu Hua, Bronya."

Xia Ling quickly determined the order of entry.

"Okay, get ready, I'm about to begin." Ain adjusted the box containing the doll a few times, and then pressed a button.

Suddenly, a seemingly illusory portal opened in front of them. Xia Ling put her hand inside the portal, and after groping around with her eyes closed several times, she suddenly opened her eyes.

"Found it!"

With a forceful push from Xia Ling, she instantly disappeared into the crack.

"Communications are working properly, Doctor. I have successfully entered the theater."

"Okay, Theresa."

"Um."

Theresa dragged Judah along, following closely behind.

"I also..."