Dusk, a Girl, and a Battleship / Preparations Before the Test

Xia Ling's assessment of this was that it was a concave contract.

Nothing major happened to Flame Willow and Xi. If you had to say something, Flame Willow finally realized that her situation seemed a bit precarious, so she tried to struggle, but was successfully killed by Raven, and their intimacy level increased further.

As Raven captive, Flame Willow was forced to sign several unequal treaties, including but not limited to having to wear a maid's outfit in the villa for a period of time, which greatly shocked Anna, who was visiting at the time.

Incidentally, although Flame Willow looked indignant when she talked about these situations, she was clearly enjoying it as well, judging from the slight upturn of her lips.

As for Highmore... the problem is a bit bigger. Ryan, who has completely integrated the Oceania Branch, is strangely not taking much action against Highmore, but instead starting to study some other things.

Highmore tried to gather intelligence using the small animals within the Oceania Branch, but to no avail. The laboratories were heavily guarded, and not even a mosquito could fly in, let alone the small animals.

The absence of any abnormality is the biggest abnormality. Highmore knew very well that the other party would not allow such an unstable factor as herself to run rampant under their noses. However, her vigilance did not seem to have any effect.

At least based on her current performance, she is not strong enough to do anything. After all, she is suppressing her own strength to avoid stress reactions during experiments that could expose her or trigger Sea Creatures's self-defense instincts under deep anesthesia.

This includes the Honkai Energy energy-saving mode and the dormancy and self-destruction mechanism of all the Sea Creatures cells in the body. Flame Willow even jokingly told Highmore that with her current strength, she might not be able to defeat Cocolia's Titan.

In short, amidst the undercurrents of daily life, time quickly arrived at that day that Xia Ling remembered vividly.

On September 13, 2016, the Moon Throne appeared in the sky above Canghai City.

Chapter Thirty-Two: Dusk, Girl, Battleship

"An unidentified flying object has been detected over Canghai City. Optical detection of the target components showed no bioenergy activity, and its internal structure is unknown..."

On September 13, an alarm about an unidentified warship intruding quickly spread throughout the Far East Branch.

"This day has finally come..."

Xia Ling stood on the bridge, looking sadly at the scenery rushing past outside the Hyperion.

In her previous life, she began her Honkai Impact 3rd journey amidst this warning announcement. Now, she herself has become the one issuing the announcement, and is even involved in the plans behind this warship, which is quite poignant.

"Kiana, prepare to board the ship and begin combat!"

Seeing that Himeko had already given the order, Xia Ling also relayed the message.

Unlike the original work, with Xia Ling sharing the workload with Himeko no longer needs to command the Hyperion while giving orders to Kiana's squad, as she did in the original work. The more detailed squad command work was taken over by Xia Ling.

However, without paying attention, Kiana accidentally destroyed a drone belonging to an allied force.

"Sister Xia Ling, the plane is broken!"

"Don't you know how the plane broke down?"

Xia Ling's roar echoed through the communication channel, "That kick of yours, even if Honkai Beast came, it wouldn't be able to do anything!"

"Hehehe... I've been getting pretty good at closing contracts these past few days, and I just can't help but grab them when I see drones..."

"Still in Challenge Contract! If you break a few more battles, I'll have to work overtime tonight to explain to Schicksal. And while I'm working overtime, you can expect to be fighting your contract in your dreams!"

"No, Sister Xia Ling, please let me have a contract with you for life!"

"Give me a break for now! The new drone has been sent over. Now find a high spot to prepare to board it."

"Mei are almost at their destination. Are you planning to watch Mei and Bronya team up while you're locked out of the ship?"

"No way! I'm coming right away!"

As she spoke, Kiana reached the top of the ruins. Looking at the drones with markings flying overhead, she carefully controlled her strength and lightly leaped onto them.

"Sister Xia Ling, what exactly is going on this time? Why did something like this suddenly appear in the sky above Canghai City?"

"I don't know either." Xia Ling paused for a moment, then said casually, "But it's an unmanned warship... and it's not some old thing that's about to be scrapped. According to the identification name that Himeko found out, the name of this warship should be... Moon Throne."

"Speaking of which, Kiana, your name means the goddess of moonlight. Perhaps this warship was prepared especially for you?"

"Is this some kind of new pun...? Well, if Sister Xia Ling says it this way, does that mean I've returned to my throne?"

"Alright, so you need to prepare to board the ship."

"Oh ho ho, Mei, here I come!"

Kiana deployed the landing system of the White Comet battlesuit and landed directly on the deck of the Moon Throne.

"Mei is on the other side. If you want to meet up, just head straight for the central area. I've already planned the route for Mei."

"Huh? Sister Xia Ling didn't tell me to prioritize the mission?"

"My commands are always very flexible... Moreover, judging from the scan results, there shouldn't be much danger on this Moon Throne, so I'll prioritize your personal feelings."

"Great! Sister Xia Ling, I love you! My dear Mei, I'm coming!"

"Sister Xia Ling, Kiana, I've arrived at the target area... Uh, Kiana, don't you have a lot of people you love...?"

Mei had just connected to the communication channel, heard Kiana's daily rutting and immediately looked annoyed.

"Hehe, with Mei around, we have the strength of a hundred people!"

Then, under Xia Ling's guidance, the two were able to reunite and arrive at the tail of the Moon Throne as planned.

Because Xia Ling had deliberately adjusted the movement route when Kiana was riding the drone, the two did not encounter a Honkai Emperor here as they did in the original work.

Even if they were to encounter it, given their current strength, it would only take a little longer to resolve the situation.

Meanwhile, Bronya successfully breached the security system inside the Moon Throne, opening the door to the ship's interior.

"Sister Xia Ling, there's something a little strange."

After the Big Three reunited, Bronya suddenly spoke up in the communication.

"I've seen most of the security systems here before..."

"Before? Do you mean when you were still practicing Anti-Entropy?"

"Hmm... Whether it's the design style, the design concept, or even the badge markings, they all have strong Anti-Entropy characteristics."

"But why would such an unmanned warship appear? Bronya couldn't understand it."

"Badge markings..." Xia Ling's lips twitched slightly. "Perhaps... it's because they didn't have enough time to finish?"

"That's a really lame joke, Sister Xia Ling."

The problem is I'm not kidding...

Xia Ling knew exactly what was going on, after all, she was in charge of a significant part of the Moonlight Throne Project.

Since Welt was trapped in the Sea of Quantum, the renovation project of the Moon Throne has suffered from a serious shortage of time. After all, it is necessary to keep it a secret and complete the renovation of the Moon Throne by around September. Without Herrscher of Herrscher of Reason's manual ability, the remaining work has to be done almost entirely by Tesla's automated machinery.

Xia Ling also participated in a significant portion of it.

Fortunately, Welt had already completed the core modifications; otherwise, given Xia Ling's level of education, she might not have been able to handle the job as an assistant.

Her main job was to modify the interior design of the Moon Throne according to the roughly modified blueprints of the Anti-Entropy warship, since the Moon Throne needed to be completely renovated.

In other words... Kiana and the other two are actually walking on the fruits of Xia Ling's work.

Incidentally, Vill-V was very unhappy about Anti-Entropy's unauthorized changes to her design, mainly due to the Magician's personality, specifically regarding aesthetics and some minor surprises.

Since the warships were all modified by themselves, Xia Ling was able to easily take on the task of giving directions.

"Yes, go straight ahead, Bronya opens that door, then continue straight."

"There should be a controllable Titan ahead. Try to hack it in."

"After hacking in, just keep going straight ahead until you reach the bridge."

"Sister Xia Ling... Is it really possible to give such a command using only limited scan data... It's like having a cheat code."

Bronya tilted her head. "Could it be that Sister Xia Ling has a talent for this?"

"Hahaha... maybe, is that right?"

Xia Ling answered with a dry laugh.

After all, you can't exactly say that she has X-ray vision and has almost memorized the map.

Chapter Thirty-Three: Preparations Before the Assessment

With a soft click indicating that permission had been granted, the bridge gates of the Moon Throne slowly opened.

"There seems to be no guard inside at all?"

The three people who were standing guard against the air were momentarily stunned.

"Unfortunately, that's true." Xia Ling's voice came through the channel. "The anti-camouflage system is not responding at all, and the spatial fluctuations are also unusually stable. Although it's strange, there really seems to be no defense here."

"Then what was the purpose of all those mechs in the corridor before? To prevent Honkai Beast from accidentally entering?" Kiana asked, puzzled.

"Maybe it's to add some spice to your otherwise empty exploration process?"

Xia Ling tries to reveal the truth through casual conversation.

"The person who designed these things must have been incredibly bored."

"Uh..." Xia Ling, feeling sorry for being teased for being boring, clutched her chest in distress.

"Ahem, anyway, Bronya is going to start cracking the control system." Bronya placed her hand on the control panel: "Let Bronya take a look at this warship's operating system... eh?"

A rare hint of surprise flickered in Bronya's usually indifferent eyes.

"No login password, all operation permissions are open... How could this be?"

"Doesn't that mean the other side essentially handed this warship to us for free?" Xia Ling recited her prepared lines.

"Bronya, you must be careful when you operate, to avoid the other party hiding a Trojan program."

"There's no Trojan program, but Sister Xia Ling, Bronya found a strange email on the central control computer."

With that, Bronya clicked play.

"Dear Kiana, hello! This warship, the Moon Throne, is finally being returned to you after fourteen years."

"You will ascend the throne and shape a new world. But before that, you must find four keys."

"The Conquest's Lightning, the Plague's Flame, the Longing's Storm, the Silence's Death. Oh, and the navigation system's password is your birthday~"

The control room was silent, accompanied by the sound of machinery.

"Wait, Sister Xia Ling was right? This warship really is the 'Moonlight Throne'?"

Kiana was completely bewildered. "Among the people I know, none of them are rich enough to give away a warship as a gift?"

If it were on Xingtie's side, there might indeed be people like you described... Xia Ling thought silently.

"Could it be..." Mei guessed, "Your father?"

"Impossible, absolutely impossible." Kiana shook her head fiercely. "My old man would never be that kind of pretentious person."

That's not true... because it was written by Tesla.

Silence fell on the other end of the communication channel. Xia Ling spoke up at the opportune moment, guiding the conversation. "Conquest's Lightning, Longing's Storm... wait, don't you think these descriptions sound a little familiar?"

"I remember... this seems to be the naming convention Schicksal uses for the Herrscher Core..."

Good student Mei immediately realized what was going on.

"In any case, once we sail the warship back to St. Freya, everything will become clear."

Xia Ling made a decision. "Bronya, try entering Kiana's birthday."

Bronya remembered that Kiana's birthday was December 7th, and on that day she even had the privilege of smearing cake on other people's faces whenever she wanted...

Bronya muttered to herself as she typed in the password, clearly still vividly remembering the day Kiana turned her into a creamy duck.

"Navigation rights granted. Destination changed. New destination: St. Freya Academy."

"Huh? The activation password is actually my birthday?" Kiana looked completely bewildered.

"Yes, my dear moon goddess, your throne has been granted to the faithful St. Freya."

"Eh... Sister Xia Ling, you should be way past the age of being a chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) kid."

Then, the Moon Throne slowly turned and headed towards the St. Freya Academy.

What? You mean where's the part about Bronya turning evil?

Fun fact: Bronya's corruption has nothing to do with the main control system; she was controlled when she touched the Titan Mech.

Having made preparations in advance, Xia Ling naturally couldn't let that control program remain there. In fact, Xia Ling was also very interested in how Cocolia had put that program into the Moon Throne.

All I can say is that this is the level of security provided by Anti-Entropy.

After intercepting this program, Xia Ling went to ask Dr. Einstein for help to develop a countermeasure against Cocolia's backstabbing.