The promised third collapse, where is it?!!

Fu Li paused for a moment, then a mischievous smile spread across his face. "You mean, you want to 'double fly' with me?"

"Pfft! Dream on!"

Seeing that he still had the energy to joke around, Kiana pouted and let go of his hand.

Mei was still beside them, and it wouldn't be a good influence.

"You're certainly dreaming big," Fu Li said with mock seriousness. "A mere amoeba actually dares to covet the genes of a higher being like a human."

"Are you asking for a beating? Are you asking for a beating!"

The girl menacingly rolled up her sleeves, her clenched fingers making 'crackling' sounds one by one.

"When you get angry, you resort to violence, so— cough!"

Under his increasingly menacing gaze, Fu Li decisively stopped his self-destructive behavior.

There's an old saying in Shenzhou: "He who knows the times is a wise man." He didn't want to be pinned down by the Kaslana family's ancestral super strength and asked to calculate one thousand minus seven.

"Hmph hmph!"

Having achieved a temporary victory, the white-haired furball lifted her chin.

She looked around, then pointed her gun towards the villa complex under the night sky. "That place looks nice, doesn't it? All those mansions— Ah! I suddenly have a disease where I'll die if I don't stay in a mansion!"

"Then let's go take a look. If it's suitable, we'll rest there."

"Climb up from a hidden spot, sneak into the village quietly, and no shooting."

"That's what I just told you, isn't it!"

"That's what I just told you, isn't it!"

"You're a repeater!"

The boy who complained carried Bronya on his back, while the girl supported the half-awake Mei, and they ran towards their temporary shelter amidst the noise.

The ancient sage Mencius of Shenzhou once said: "When Heaven is about to confer a great responsibility on a person, it first tests their resolve, exhausts their muscles and bones, starves their body, confounds their actions, and thus stimulates their nature and strengthens their shortcomings."

Cocolia felt that it didn't need to be that complicated. To truly empower someone and make them strong, all you needed to do was give them a terrible teammate.

"I am extremely sorry, Chairman Cocolia!"

The temporary leader of the pursuit squad stood before Cocolia, shouting in his naturally gruff voice, "We've lost track of Miss Bronya and those three traitorous subjects! Please punish us severely!"

The legendary terrible teammate had appeared!

Yae, acting as her adjutant and driver, gave an awkward laugh, dust clinging to her from her journey, while internally cursing these clueless idiots to the depths of hell. 'So what if you lost them? Are you proud of it, shouting so loudly! Don't you know who you're talking to? Do you believe she can snap her fingers and have a hundred thousand Archangels descend from helicopters to chop you into mincemeat, Kora!'

Cocolia placed a hand on her hip, her expression cold but not losing her composure due to her precious daughter's disappearance.

Instead, she took out her phone and dialed an encrypted number.

No answer.

She frowned and dialed again.

Still no answer.

She looked up at her aide. "Yae!"

"Yes!"

The aide straightened up.

"Use your phone and call this number."

"Understood!"

Yae flusteredly drew her naginata, then realized something was wrong and quickly sheathed it before taking out her phone.

She dialed the number as Cocolia instructed, and soon, an impatient, aged male voice answered. "Who is it? I'm busy!"

Cocolia snatched the phone. "It's me, Cocolia."

Click!

The call was immediately hung up.

The autumn wind whistled past, blowing through her dim blonde hair under her shadow, making her look so small, pathetic, and helpless.

"Executor?"

"Call again!"

Cocolia took a deep breath. "This time, you talk to them!"

The gritted teeth were not hidden at all, mixed with a sigh of helplessness.

The reaction from the other side was no surprise. The people in the Technology Development Department were people she had forcibly conscripted under the guise of a "Large-scale Social Darwinist Experiment." Dr. Eck, the leader, was a super veteran who joined Anti-Entropy in its early days, so it was perfectly normal for him to listen to orders but not necessarily follow them.

In normal times, Cocolia wouldn't have cared about this.

As long as those people finished the work she assigned them, she wouldn't care if they cross-dressed and performed "Kē Mù Sān" on the Spring Festival Gala.

But not now. Bronya and the critically important Raiden Mei had gone missing one after another. To find them, her access to modern facilities like satellites and networks had been unilaterally cut off by Einstein, who was temporarily acting as the leader of Anti-Entropy.

With everything in the dark, Cocolia had no choice but to inform these talents who possessed cutting-edge technology.

"Hello, I'm Yae..."

Yae tremblingly dialed the number, communicating with the other party as Cocolia had instructed.

Two to three minutes later, she hung up the phone amidst the roaring from the other side.

Her deer-like eyes darted over, conveying a not-so-good signal.

Cocolia, who had already figured out the answer, sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder to show encouragement. "What did they say?"

Yae's face crumpled. "They said, they said to hurry up and get out of their way, stop hindering their progress, they've already started researching room-temperature superconductivity..."

Damn it, the heavens are still in chaos!

"Room-temperature superconductivity?"

Cocolia frowned. "Wasn't that invented in the 1990s?"

"The Doctor said it's pure technology room-temperature superconductivity, without any Honkai Energy mixed in..."

Upon hearing this, Cocolia's eyes widened.

Then, a look of helplessness crossed her face. "Then I really can't disturb them."

The technological tree in the Honkai world is quite peculiar. Its development path can be summarized into two main branches:

One is the conventional technology that the general public is familiar with, progressing step by step. The other is Honkai technology, which incorporates the mysterious energy known as Honkai Energy. The former needs no further explanation; most of the technologies widely used in daily life today are of this type.

The latter is what truly requires attention.

"Any physical formula becomes simpler when the variable of Honkai Energy is introduced." It is based on this principle that Honkai technology can exist.

Whether it's room-temperature superconductivity, space-time battleships, or controlled nuclear fusion, the industrial revolution-level barriers that conventional technology has yet to break through have all been achieved by Honkai technology in the latter half of the last century during the Cold War.

Even so, society is still dominated by conventional technology, and the existence of Honkai remains hidden behind the scenes.

Why is that?

Are the people who developed these things unwilling to make them public?

Of course not.

The real reason preventing the widespread adoption of Honkai technology lies in its name—Honkai.

Is room-temperature superconductivity amazing?

Yes, yes, with almost zero energy loss, you could charge your phone once and it wouldn't need charging again until it breaks.

But it's Honkai.

Is stable nuclear fusion amazing?

Infinite clean energy, essential for humanity's journey to the stars.

But it's Honkai.

It contains Honkai Energy, which means ordinary people will turn into SeeDs if they come into contact with it.

It doesn't matter for military use. A certain major country in the South Asian subcontinent has already built two aerospace aircraft carriers. Although they crash into the Indian Ocean once every three flights, the salvage teams are exhausted.

However, if it were to be spread on a large scale like electricity...

"Eight billion humans turn into SeeDs"—that statement is a bit exaggerated.

After all, there are still many people who lack resistance and are instantly annihilated upon contact.

Considering the dosage, let's discount it to two billion.

With two billion SeeDs and zombies unleashed, such a massive population base would inevitably give rise to millions of pseudo-Herrschers.

Just thinking about that scene made Cocolia's scalp tingle.

This is the main reason for the current separation between military and civilian technology. Aerospace battleships fly everywhere, and armored units form legions, yet the quality of life for ordinary people is no different from the early 21st century in a world without magic.

However, Cocolia did know something about room-temperature superconductivity.

There's a popular saying online:

Technological inventions that existed before one was born are natural necessities; Technological inventions that appeared between the ages of 20 and 40 are extraordinary creations that change human society; Technological inventions that appeared after the age of 40 are unnecessary evil heresies.

This saying makes sense, but it only applies to those who are content with the status quo.

As an executive of Anti-Entropy, Cocolia may not be able to grasp every detail of scientific research, but she can generally understand the gist of it.

As far as she understood, without the influence of Honkai Energy, it was theoretically impossible for current civilization's technological standards to develop a sci-fi material like room-temperature superconductivity.

Conventional technology emphasizes gradual progress. If certain prerequisites aren't met, no amount of effort will allow you to jump to the next step.

Even so, Cocolia chose to tolerate the research team's haphazard work rather than forcefully ordering them to cooperate.

The reason was simple: in scientific research, materials science, in particular, truly had a touch of the mystical to it.

Countless real-world examples have shown that something people have spent half their lives researching without success might actually come about from a slight tremor of the hand when adding materials.

However, this is only under the premise of having a solid foundation.

Eating two bowls of noodles to feel full is about eating both bowls, not just the last bite of the second.

So, the question arises: does the research team, led by the senior engineer Dr. Eck, have a solid foundation?

Hilarious.

Cocolia quickly composed herself. "Continue ordering the mechanical troops to search."

Noticing Yae's surprised gaze, she smiled. "Do your best."

Research team engrossed in experiments; Einstein cut off permissions; Adjustable forces harbor ulterior motives; Raiden Mei mysteriously disappeared.

To think that these few things alone could leave Cocolia helpless was to underestimate her far too much.

However...

Gazing at the photo of the white-haired girl with a foolishly simple smile, and recalling the white-haired Valkyrie who descended from the sky during the Second Honkai, Cocolia fell silent for a moment.

"Cancel the bounty on Kiana Kaslana; only issue bounties for Fu Li and Raiden Mei. Also, inform that Green Serpent that I've agreed to the conditions and have her send me the Mental Platform Generator and the pseudo-Herrscher core."

"Ah? Yes!"