In Honkai, But Integrated Strategies Activated

"You don't think I'm an idiot, do you?" Anna asked with a look that clearly said, 'Are you calling me stupid?' "Durandal is still at headquarters, and Rita's here too. Forget punching Lord Bishop, you probably couldn't even get onto the floating island."

"Fine, then I'm actually here for sightseeing."

"Who would believe that!"

"Exactly." Flame Willow shrugged. "You don't believe me when I say I have ulterior motives, and you don't believe me when I say I'm here for sightseeing. So what do you believe?"

"Ri-right..." Anna's CPU was whirring at high speed.

"Alright, alright, I won't tease you anymore." Flame Willow handed over a visa. "See? I'm really just here to visit. I'm only staying for a little over a month. What could I possibly do? Am I supposed to infiltrate Schicksal and go undercover?"

"Huh?" Anna, not convinced, took it and flipped through it several times. "Is this real?"

"Of course, it's real." Flame Willow nodded like a pecking chick.

"Okay, okay... I apologize for suspecting you." Anna said, feeling a bit embarrassed. "So, as compensation for doubting you, is there anything I can help you with?"

Huh? She believed me that easily?

Flame Willow suddenly felt like all the reasons she had prepared were wasted.

This Anna has a bit of the Kaslana bloodline, but not much.

Xia Ling commented on the channel: If it were Dumb Goose, she probably would have believed it in the first round, without any need for persuasion.

Anna at least struggled a bit, so Anna > Durandal now.

In that case... Flame Willow pretended to ponder for a moment before saying to Anna, "I need a guide..."

"Uh, that might not be possible..." Anna asked pitifully, "Can I change my request? I've already booked my flight for the day after tomorrow."

"Sigh, I'm the one asking for help, why do you look so pathetic? You're going to get bullied easily like that." Flame Willow reached out and tugged Anna's soft cheek.

"Then help me find a place to stay. I just got off the plane and don't know anyone. I haven't had time to find a hotel yet."

"That's easy." Anna breathed a sigh of relief. "You can just stay at my family's hotel. It's quite big."

"Your... hotel?"

"Yeah, our Saniyat family has very high annual income. A significant portion of it is used to purchase real estate in various locations as benefits for our overseas assignments or garrisons."

"We own several hotels in London, for example, though I only hold shares in one. Of course, if you want to stay at another one, that's fine too."

"I see. I didn't expect you to be such a hidden rich girl, looking so clueless."

Flame Willow pretended to nod thoughtfully. How can I trick her into falling for me...

"Who says things like that out loud!"

"Does that mean you can think about it behind my back?"

"Absolutely not!"

Taking the umbrella from Anna and holding it over them, Flame Willow and Anna strolled through the streets of London.

"By the way, since you're here for tourism, what places are you planning to visit?" Anna asked, leading the way and turning her head.

"Of course, I... don't know." Flame Willow's tone did a 180-degree turn. "If I knew, I wouldn't be looking for a guide, would I? For London attractions, besides Big Ben, Oxford University, and the Thames, I don't know anything else."

"Huh? That's all you know?"

"Does the Clock Tower count?"

"You watch too much anime."

"Fine." Anna sighed. "Who cares, you're practically my savior. Even though my flight is the day after tomorrow, I can still squeeze in half a day tomorrow."

"Let me personally take you around tomorrow."

"So, for this rare half-day tour, where do you want me to take you?"

"Hmm... let's just walk along the Thames." Flame Willow thought for a moment and suggested, "I heard this river runs through the whole of London. Walking along it would be like touring the city."

"Then we'd better get a small boat... we can't possibly walk the whole way." Anna seriously raised a finger. "But I'll handle that. I'll arrange it later."

"Thank you for your trouble, little rich girl."

"What kind of nickname is that!"

... Splash...

That night, during the usual Xia Ling meeting.

"See? Handled it with ease." Flame Willow winked. "Do you understand my value now?"

"I think that's Saniyat's value, not yours." Xi, who had been observing the whole process due to having nothing to do, said speechlessly.

"The three great families of Schicksal are truly bizarre. Kaslanas are hereditarily foolish, Saniyat are hereditarily easy to fool, and the Apocalypse family currently only has Otto, strictly speaking."

"Cecilia was easily swept away by Sigfried back then. In the original story, Anna and Chen Tianwu also progressed quickly. Now that I see it, good heavens, the truth is revealed. It turns out this whole family is just naive and sweet."

"Anyway, now someone will show us around the Thames. But the original plan was for Xia Ling and me to look for traces of Thousand Worlds Layered, and now..."

"It's fine, don't worry about me." Xia Ling weakly raised her hand. "I shouldn't be on the boat, I should be at the bottom of the boat. You two enjoy your time together, just tie me to the bottom of the boat later."

"Do you want some Sea Creature cells? I guarantee you'll adapt to the underwater environment quickly." Highmore came over, smiling mischievously.

"Get lost!"

Chapter 4: Flame Willow: "Whoa, London's this small?"

"Ahem, back to business," Xia Ling cleared her throat.

"Since Anna is accompanying you, we can change the plan a bit."

"Fortunately, I was prepared, and even for this situation, there's a backup plan."

As she spoke, Xia Ling exited the system space. A moment later, she reappeared, this time holding a large, bulging bag.

"What's this?" the three of them curiously gathered around.

"I think I have an impression of this, this should be from Schicksal's..."

"It's Schicksal's small anti-interference spatial probe," Xia Ling completed the name for her.

"I've been doing part-time work for Schicksal exploring the Sea of Quantum, right? To ensure safety, instruments like this that measure spatial stability are essential."

"And because it only needs to be equipped with the detection function, this thing is designed to be small and convenient. It doesn't even have a charging device, so it's a disposable item."

Xia Ling took one out of the bag. It was a coin-sized device with a small probe on the front and a gripping mechanism for attachment on the back.

"Because the craftsmanship is too simple, Welt always gives me over a hundred of them. But since my methods of operation in the Sea of Quantum are different from what he imagines, I always have quite a few left over."

"Wow, there's such a good thing," Flame Willow took one and played with it, marveling, "But how do you use this thing?"

"Tomorrow, when you're free on the boat, just throw a few into the river. It'll automatically detect."

Xia Ling took out a strangely shaped device: "I'll follow you at a distance and use this to retrieve the probes."

"But if you throw so many probes into the river, what if you miss some and others pick them up?"

"No, compared to the crude probes, this retrieval device is much more precise. I've used it myself several times."

"So, don't worry about that. I'm not like the system, I'm very reliable," Xia Ling winked. "Scale Cloak plus spatial abilities, professional tailing."

The next day, Anna and Flame Willow arrived at a small boat by the river.

It was a small speedboat with a semi-open cabin. There wasn't much space inside, only enough for two people.

"Here, I just had someone deliver it. Someone in our family bought this before, but then they lost interest in speedboats and left it in a warehouse in London after only using it a few times. According to Schicksal's saying, it's 'girl's own, 99.9% new'?"

"Where did you hear such a weird saying..." Flame Willow applied a little force with her feet and nodded, "Not bad, it seems quite stable."

"Of course, it's stable. Its previous owner was a Valkyrie, after all. The quality is guaranteed."

"Let's go. We can chat as we go, and stop to explore if we find a scenic spot."

"Okay, I'll count on you then." Flame Willow leaned against the railing. A few probes appeared in her hand from system space and silently dropped into the river.

After a while, seeing that no one was around, a figure wearing a gray-black cloak suddenly appeared out of thin air.

"Looks like they've gone far... Scale Cloak is great and all, but there's one problem: it can't make the special effects of other equipment invisible too."

Xia Ling took out a small piece of strange candy from her pocket and swallowed it directly. Then, faint scale patterns began to appear on her body.

"Suddenly I feel like I can breathe underwater. Is this the value of Sea Creature cells..."

At the end of last night, because the retrieval operation required long-term diving, Highmore had given Xia Ling a special candy made from Highmore cells for conversion.

After all, Xia Ling was still human by race. She couldn't stay underwater for extended periods like Flame Willow, who could rely on Dracul's abnormal physical fitness, nor did she have the racial talent of Sea Creatures like Highmore.

Of course, everyone knew what the essence of this candy was. It was a Water Moon-approved product.

However, to allow someone of Xia Ling's level to quickly adapt to underwater conditions through Sea Creatureification, this candy contained a lethal dose of Sea Creature cells. After taking it, she had to return to system space within a day to have Highmore extract the Sea Creature cells, otherwise, there might be some other consequences.

Once again confirming that no one was paying attention, Xia Ling slowly submerged into the Thames River.

At the same time, the device in her hand began to light up, guiding her towards the nearest probe.

Time slowly passed in the damp environment of the riverbank, until...

"Huh?" Xia Ling poked her head out of the water. "Why did Flame Willow's position signal go underwater?"

Before she could even ask in the channel, Flame Willow's terrified voice rang out.

"Whoa, I think I saw Raven!"

"..."

"Hahahaha!" xN

The channel was instantly filled with a joyful atmosphere.

"What is this scene of catching someone cheating?" Xi laughed so hard she was slapping the table in system space. "Quick, quick, give me a shared consciousness, I want to spectate."

"Spectate what? I'm really at the bottom of the boat right now. Are you planning to use shared consciousness to watch the little fish in the Thames baring their teeth?" Flame Willow said irritably.

Three minutes ago, Flame Willow and Anna had docked the small boat at the shore, preparing to go buy some desserts.

As everyone knew, the culinary standards in Britain were rather worrying. It was approaching noon, and neither Flame Willow nor Anna had any desire to sample the local specialty cuisine.

"Then why don't we go buy some desserts?" Anna suggested. "We can have the hotel chef make us lunch when we get back. Eating out... is a bit unappetizing."

Flame Willow readily agreed to Anna's suggestion, and the two began to prepare to disembark and stroll through a place that looked like a food street along the shore.

However, just as Flame Willow was preparing to disembark, she suddenly noticed a familiar figure emerging from a bar in an alley along the food street by the shore.

Her short black hair, form-fitting black combat suit, and curvaceous figure immediately reminded Flame Willow of someone she knew well.

This older sister with black hair seemed to be on the phone with someone. She paced back and forth in front of the hotel with a somewhat indignant expression. The moment she turned around, Flame Willow clearly caught sight of her face.

"Whoa, it's actually Raven!" Flame Willow felt a headache coming on. She truly hadn't expected London to be so small. To run into Anna on her first day and then Raven on the second… at this rate, would she bump into a little boy with blonde hair on the third day?

Flame Willow initially wanted to tell Anna to quickly get back on the ship and leave. But then she considered that sailing around the city might actually draw more attention. Recalling the joke Xia Ling had made last night about hiding underwater, Flame Willow gritted her teeth and quickly took action.

"Anna, I ran into someone I know and need to hide for a bit. Go buy your dessert yourself first, and remember to bring me one."

Without time for further explanation, after leaving a message in Anna's ear, Flame Willow used the blind spot of the ship's cabin to dive into the water.

Chapter 5: Raven: Why Does It Feel Like Only I Keep Getting Tricked?

"Huh??"

Flame Willow's sudden approach startled Anna. However, before she could react, Flame Willow had already vanished from her spot, leaving Anna standing foolishly by the ship.

Confused, Anna looked around but couldn't figure out who the acquaintance Flame Willow mentioned was. Helpless, she could only head to the food street alone as Flame Willow had requested earlier.

Meanwhile, after a furious rant over the phone, Raven angrily hung up.

"This Jackal! I'm a high-ranking cadre of World Serpent, even on the same level as her, and she's asking me to dig a hole for her? Is she used to bossing Gray Serpent around all the time?"

Putting down her phone, Raven sighed helplessly.

Although she and Jackal never got along well, and she didn't particularly approve of Jackal's methods, Jackal was still World Serpent's chief scientist. Just as Kevin had said later, she was very useful, in other aspects.

Therefore, no matter how much she disliked Jackal, Raven had to cooperate with her orders as much as possible. While she wouldn't personally go and modify the trap Jackal mentioned, just mobilizing a bit of funding and with a little help from Gray Serpent's subordinates... it wasn't too difficult to resolve.

As she pondered her next course of action, Raven suddenly noticed someone standing beside her for a while.

She subtly glanced to the side. The person was a young girl with long chestnut hair, not very old. However, judging by her well-proportioned figure and the toned skin visible, the girl seemed to be quite fit. Currently, the girl was holding an ice cream cone in one hand, occasionally sticking out her small tongue to lick it, looking perfectly normal.