This Chat Group's Vibe is a Bit Off

"They don't bear the ME Corporation logo, so probably not. Could they be trying to capitalize on the chaos?"

"Fuck, they actually dare to capitalize on the chaos? Looks like they're tired of living."

"Shoot it down for me!"

???

Aboard the Anti-Entropy fleet.

Welt assembled his forces at top speed. To prevent any unexpected incidents, he even overtaxed his body to create a large quantity of weaponry with the Herrscher of Reason's power before immediately rushing over.

"Brothers fighting Otto, hold on! I brought reinforcements to save you!!!"

Chapter 61: Welt: You Bastard, You Bastard!

They actually dared to attack our Heavenly Mandate without knowing their place. They truly had no idea of the immensity of heaven and earth, and clearly didn't take us seriously at all.

In an instant, an unprecedented killing intent filled the Cathedral Building.

They had been worrying over not having anyone to beat up and vent their frustrations on, and now someone had delivered themselves right to their door. Then don't blame us for showing no mercy!

"Shoot them down!" Qianyi pointed with his little hand, and Tens of Thousands of Proverbs was about to activate.

However, before he could activate it, a group of people stopped him.

"That Floating Battleship looks pretty valuable. Don't damage it! Remember to hold back later—best if we can take it without a scratch." Kiana stared at the heavily armed Floating Battleship. She could actually sense a faint trace of threat from it, which made her especially excited.

Something that could threaten her—

Was definitely valuable!

"Be careful not to let them self-destruct later." The dead Toyokawa Shoko immediately got back up.

The fully resurrected Lady Toyokawa Shoko daze☆!

"Qianyi, can Ksitigarbha be used now?" Talulah asked. "With Ksitigarbha, we should be able to easily take over that Floating Battleship."

"Ling has already woken up," Qianyi replied.

"Dimensional Phantom Thieves, attack!" Kiana rose from the bishop's throne, flung out an arm, and strode toward the doors. "Before us, there is no enemy we cannot defeat!"

When she reached the door, she suddenly stopped and looked back, only to find that someone hadn't moved and had fallen behind.

It was Qianyi.

"Children, I will not board an airplane." Qianyi refused to fight in that kind of place and environment.

"Huh?" Everyone was startled and instinctively asked, "But didn't you fight on a Floating Island? Why is a Floating Battleship not okay instead?"

"Children, a Floating Island is a type of land, but a Floating Battleship is an aircraft, the same kind as an airplane," Qianyi explained.

"But both Floating Islands and airplanes fly in the sky. Shouldn't that mean a Floating Island also counts as a kind of airplane?" Talulah asked.

Qianyi scratched his head and fell into deep thought.

Whether a Floating Island counted as an airplane really was a difficult question to define.

"I suddenly thought of an idea. Since Qianyi doesn't want to board an airplane to fight, we can just let you board something else to fight." At that moment, Kiana came up with a brilliant idea.

"Tell me more." Not having to ride an airplane was naturally a good thing for Qianyi.

"You can ride me! I'll carry you through the air, so you won't be boarding an airplane to fight!" Kiana unleashed her earth-shattering wisdom.

"Kiana, you really are a genius!" Qianyi rubbed Kiana's dog head. Riding a person didn't count as riding an airplane, and he could still fly through the sky.

"...Um, am I the only one who thinks you could just find some mech or something and pilot it over there?" Toyokawa Shoko weakly commented.

But looking at the two who had already entered fusion mode, with Qianyi riding on Kiana's back, she silently sighed. If the two of them like playing around, then let them play around.

"Take me with you. I can't fly either." Talulah immediately raised her hand to join.

"Me, me, me! I want in too!" Artoria followed close behind.

"This looks like so much fun. Count me in!" Hiiragi Tina looked at the people who had already stacked themselves up and chose to join as well.

"Well, it looks pretty boring, but since all of you are playing, I'll join too." Seele sounded unwilling, but her body honestly joined the stack anyway.

"I... I'll pass." Seeing everyone having so much fun, Shoko actually wanted to join too, but her pride wouldn't allow her to do something so embarrassing.

"Can you fly?" Before taking off, Qianyi asked Shoko.

"..." Shoko fell silent for two seconds, then silently chose to join them.

And so, an ultra-luxurious "tower ice cream cone" made its debut. Then the towering cone took off from where it stood and smashed straight into Anti-Entropy's Floating Battleship.

We're fucking Laine!

Welt, Einstein, and Tesla all stared dumbfounded at the candied haw skewer that had popped out from Heavenly Mandate headquarters.

No, what the hell was this? Where had Otto found this bunch of God-kin?

Then they heard the white-haired girl at the very bottom of the tower strike a White Crane Spreads Wings pose. "You really dared to invade Heavenly Mandate. You clearly don't take our Dimensional Phantom Thieves seriously at all. We'll make you regret coming here!"

"Dimensional Phantom Thieves?" Welt froze. "What the hell is that?"

"Not only does the enemy refuse to surrender, they're even insulting us?" Seele's expression darkened.

"Everyone, get them!" Kiana hurled everyone into the air with all her strength, took one step forward, and vanished.

"Disappeared?" Welt was shocked. It looked like the girl had used the Herrscher of the Void's power.

The next moment, the back of his head was struck by a chair, and then a group of people descended from the sky and surrounded him, raining punches and kicks on him.

Halfway through the beating, Kiana suddenly noticed, "Wait, these three seem to be Anti-Entropy conservatives, just like Mei's father."

"Good guys?" Artoria looked up.

"They really seem to be. It's Welt, the chicken-head, and the red lobster." Qianyi, having switched over to Talulah's body, took a careful look and realized it really was the three of them.

"So we beat up the wrong people?" Seele looked up.

"We did beat up the wrong people, but wouldn't it be awkward to admit we attacked friendly forces now?" Qianyi felt that admitting they had made a mistake would make their group seem unreliable, and explaining and apologizing would both be troublesome.

"Keep beating them!" Kiana immediately got it.

Damn it! We can hear you!

Welt, Einstein, and Tesla were truly speechless at this bunch of shameless bastards, but they could not call them out to their faces. After all, everyone needed to save some face. So, they promptly surrendered.

Afterward, the three were tied up like rice dumplings and suspended in midair, spinning.

Like an interrogator, Qianyi questioned them, "What kind of work are you lot doing?"

"..." Welt fell silent. He clearly remembered that the young man before him had just called out all three of their names, even mentioning Einstein and Tesla's nicknames. But now that they had fallen into the other side's hands, he could only honestly follow their lead.

"I am Welt, leader of Anti-Entropy. These two are my companions, Einstein and Tesla. We came to help attack Heavenly Mandate."

"Where's the proof?" Qianyi asked.

"Proof?" Welt froze. What proof do we need? Anti-Entropy brought an entire floating fleet to Heavenly Mandate. If we weren't here to fight Heavenly Mandate, were we here to give Otto New Year's red envelopes?

But since they insisted, he could only point it out. "The proof is my body. To make it in time for this battle, I hastily produced a large number of battleships and weapons. My body is already in ruins!"

"Oh~~, so you're friendly forces. A misunderstanding, a misunderstanding!"

Qianyi quickly had Talulah lower the three of them, then bent down to shake Welt's hand. "Ah, this is so embarrassing. You came all this way to help, but we already finished off Otto, so there was nothing left for you to do. You didn't even get a chance to contribute. That truly pains me deeply. How about this? So you won't say we're being unfair and denying you the chance to help, Brother Welt, we'll gladly accept these fleets and weapons. Consider it the tremendous effort you've contributed to the cause of fighting Otto."

Welt was dumbfounded.

While he was still dumbfounded, everyone had already started inventorying the equipment they had brought, clearly treating it as their own property. When he checked again, he found that he had lost control over it.

Damn it! We ran into bandits!!!

The Anti-Entropy Three Tigers watched this group brazenly take over their battleships and prepare to sail them into Heavenly Mandate headquarters' territory under Amber's instructions. They immediately refused.

What kind of joke was this? The floating battleships carried the Moonlight Throne System.

Although it was only a prototype now and would be scrapped after firing at most one shot, its power was not to be underestimated. The Moonlight Throne of the Previous Civilization, when overloaded at self-destructive output, had wiped out roughly 30% of the Herrscher of the End's energy.

This one was not as powerful, but at the cost of self-destruction, even if it could not kill a fully developed Herrscher, it could at least weaken her severely.

This was Anti-Entropy's last line of defense. How could they let these people take it away?

Welt immediately took out the Star of Eden to stop them, only for Kiana to snatch it away. "Ooh, is this the Ninth Divine Key, the Star of Eden?"

Welt: "?"

"O tyrant of the heavens, behold the sight of stars shattering." Kiana played with it in her hands, preparing to experience the sensation of releasing gravity. But nothing happened after she infused it with Honkai Energy. She paused in confusion, then discovered the problem after examining it. "Why is it broken?"

"Broken? Let me see. It really does seem broken." Qianyi took it and inspected it, discovering that it was covered in damage, with only the outer shell still intact.

At that, Welt coughed up two mouthfuls of blood. After wiping them away with a tissue, he said, "During the last battle, both this Divine Key and I suffered severe damage. Repairing my own body alone exhausted all my strength. I truly had no spare power to repair it."

His injuries from the Second Honkai War had yet to heal when he was attacked by Murata Ryusuke. The fact that he was still alive was already a miracle. That was why he had been forced to abandon all of Anti-Entropy's affairs and disguise himself as a teacher at St. Freya Academy, teaching there while recovering from his injuries. It was also because of this that Cocolia had been able to exploit the situation.

His capable subordinate, Raiden Ryoma, had been imprisoned. It was not that he did not want to save him; he truly lacked the strength to do so, because he himself had been on the verge of death.

"It's this broken? How did you even use it?" Qianyi felt like the Star of Eden would shatter into pieces with a casual squeeze.

"I repaired it while using it in battle," Welt explained.

"No wonder this thing breaks all the time." Qianyi understood.

So that was why, when he had watched the story before, this thing had shattered at the drop of a hat. It had been broken from the start. Welt had only patched it up temporarily and brought it out for battle, then after the fight, it went back to doing sit-ups with Welt.

"I remember that the Herrscher of Reason's authority lets it use Honkai Energy to construct objects it fully understands. So with that power, couldn't it create all of our damaged items at once?" Toyokawa Shoko suddenly spoke, pinching her chin.

In an instant, everyone's gaze converged on Welt, as though they were looking at a hen that could endlessly lay golden eggs.

With so many people suddenly staring at him, Welt swallowed and shook his head. "I can't do that."

"Why not?" Seele asked.

"Because my body has already reached its limit. If I use my power one more time, I will die." Welt had been saving that use to self-destruct alongside Otto. Once he used it, his body would dissolve on its own.

In other words, if he fought one more battle, he would die.

Although there was a chance that, after death, he could use the Herrscher of Reason's authority to recreate himself like before, that was far too difficult to pull off.

But the moment he said it, he regretted it, because he realized that the group had not looked away. Instead, their gazes had become even more intense.

They... they aren't planning to rob me of my core, are they?

However, reality was even more terrifying than he imagined.

"Old Yang, look what this is." With a snap of Kiana's fingers, Abyss Flower fell from the sky and landed in her hand.

"Abyss Flower!" Einstein and Tesla were astonished. The two of them had survived until now thanks in no small part to this Divine Key. If it was this Divine Key, then perhaps Welt really could be healed.

"After healing your injuries, could you reproduce ten copies according to the quantities listed here?" Qianyi handed Welt the Schicksal loss report Amber had given him earlier.

"If you're willing to heal me, then ten copies..." Welt paused when he saw what exactly was on the list.

Soul Steel, Schicksal AEsir, Valkyrie armor...

Do you people think I'm a wishing machine?!

Welt cursed inwardly, but kept a solemn expression on the surface. "Actually, this has nothing to do with my injuries. It's that I can no longer synchronize with the Herrscher of Reason Core. Even if you heal me, I won't be able to use its powers anymore."

"Then what do we do?! Schicksal's deficit is enormous!" Kiana was devastated. If Welt couldn't make up the losses, then being Schicksal's Overseer was no different from having a Golden Toilet—a bottomless money pit.

Kiana, unleash your invincible Kaslana wisdom!

You have to come up with a foolproof plan!

"Right!" A flash of inspiration struck Kiana. "We can choose someone to inherit the Herrscher of Reason's powers. Wouldn't that solve the problem?"

At that, everyone in the group looked toward Qianyi, who was presumably the most educated among them.

"No, thanks." Qianyi smiled. He wasn't an idiot. Wasn't this obviously the core of the Herrscher of Cattle and Horses?

If he took it, he'd have to become an infrastructure maniac every day, doing construction work for the group.

Children, my future is to become Prime Minister, rule the world, and introduce a Band Dissolution Tax—not to lose my mind hauling concrete at a construction site and get knocked unconscious with a shovel to the face by some civil engineering underclassman who mistakes me for a supernatural beast.

Everyone was stumped. The others didn't seem like they could use the thing either.

Watching this group already discuss who should take his core, Welt felt that he had to step forward. "The Herrscher of Reason Core is Anti-Entropy property. There is no possibility of handing it over to you."

"That is a problem." Qianyi nodded. "After all, we're not bandits. If you're unwilling, there's nothing we can do."

You've already swiped so much of my equipment, and you still say you're not bandits?!