"Mecha!" Walter Yang's eyes lit up.
Next, figures in combat began flashing across the screen. A blue-and-white giant dragon soared into the sky, and amid the scattered white clouds, the title of the film appeared.
"Honkai—Second Eruption"
"Did that brief character shot just now include the class monitor?" Kiana asked belatedly, looking toward Fu Hua, who was seated not far away.
"Old antique, when did you do voice acting?" Not only did Kiana not know, even Fu Hua's own younger sister, Little Knowledge, had no idea. She stared wide-eyed at her sister in shock.
Fu Hua's tone remained as calm as ever. "At the courtyard, in the recording studio where Eden records her songs."
"Damn it, Yaqing actually didn't ask me to do voice acting!"
"Little Knowledge..."
"Mmm~, what is it?"
"No swearing."
"Oh..."
(Seating:
First row: Sakura, Ling, Pardo, Kalpas, empty, Kosma.
Second row: empty, Elysia, Yaqing, Kevin, Mei.
Third row: Su, Vill-V, Mobius, empty, empty.
Fourth row: entirely empty.
Fifth row: entirely empty.)
(I made a small group. Everyone is welcome to join and discuss, or explore future plot developments together. 794487750)
Does the Soul Exist
Babylon Tower Experimental Lab on the Siberian Snowfield...
Theresa was browsing through the materials that Bishop Otto had ordered sent over aboard Destiny's seventh-generation fighter jet. When she saw that 322 people from the research facility had suddenly vanished overnight, her hand trembled.
"Wilderness... midnight... and mysterious disappearances... Don't tell me it's haunted?"
Theresa's fair little face turned even paler, but after touching the photo of herself with little Kiana in her pocket, she steadied herself again.
The plane landed on the snowfield. The still-spinning propellers whipped up fierce winds that tousled Theresa's hair. Theresa looked delightedly at the person who had come to greet her.
"You're... Patrick! Long time no see!"
"Yo."
"Aunt, I never thought you'd be afraid of ghosts! Hahahahaha!"
Bold Kiana began teasing the principal.
Amid Kiana's merciless laughter and everyone else's good-natured chuckles, Theresa's face flushed red. She threw back her head and roared, "Shut up! You damn Yaqing, I'm never letting this go!"
"Hahahahaha."
Meanwhile, in the theater hosting the premiere, Patrick looked at the exquisitely detailed model she had spent several sleepless nights creating and nodded in satisfaction. But when she thought of the plot to come, her face darkened again.
Shub rolled her eyes at Patrick. Having a role at all was already good enough. Unlike her and Salome, who had died the moment they appeared.
As though she had seen Shub's look, Salome nodded in agreement.
Cheng Lixue did not have much of an opinion. It could be said that, in this film, her character was the most memorable one in the Snow Wolf Squad.
Inside the Golden Courtyard, Elysia's eyes gleamed. Covering her cheeks, she muttered, "So cute, Yaqing, my dear Yaqing. Is Theresa this tiny and adorable in real life too?"
Watching Elysia cling to Yaqing's arm and act cute, Mobius rolled her eyes irritably, wishing she could sit between them.
"Alright, Elysia, let me think. Theresa... While she is tiny and adorable in real life too, it isn't as exaggerated as in the anime." Yaqing said helplessly, "As far back as I can remember, Theresa seemed to have always been that tall..."
"As far back as you can remember?" Elysia's eyes turned blank with confusion.
Yaqing smiled. "Yeah. I remember that fifteen years ago, Theresa was already this height."
Mei leaned against Kevin's shoulder.
Mobius lay sprawled across the back of Yaqing's seat.
Meanwhile, Yaqing and Elysia chatted happily.
Su pinched the bridge of his nose, smiling as he shook his head.
After Theresa and Patrick met up, they headed together to the surveillance room of the Tower of Babylon. Seeing the white ghostly figure in the footage, Theresa shuddered. Patrick's expression grew solemn, her long, elegant fingers flying across the keyboard.
"Could it really... be a ghost?!"
"No, there are no ghosts in this world." Patrick pulled up the historical records of the Tower of Babylon's Honkai energy reactor and said confidently, "Almost all mysterious phenomena in this world are caused by Honkai energy. This time is no exception."
The reactor's records showed an abnormal shutdown the previous night, but access to the surveillance footage had been locked. A dense concentration of Honkai energy had accumulated in the reactor area, so only she and Theresa could go down to investigate.
"Just... the two of us?!" Theresa pointed one finger at Patrick and another at herself, suddenly losing confidence.
"Yes, just the two of us." Unlike the panicked Theresa, Patrick wore a gentle smile.
"Souls? Interesting." Mobius suddenly became intrigued.
Vill-V excitedly patted Yaqing on the shoulder and asked, "Yaqing, do you think souls really exist in this world?"
As soon as Vill-V asked the question, everyone else looked at Yaqing curiously as well.
What was a soul? Did it exist? The debate had never ceased. Some believed souls truly existed. They firmly believed that souls were immortal, that spirits ascended to heaven, and that there was such a thing as an afterlife. Others did not believe in souls. They believed that when the body died, consciousness dispersed, and only one's spirit could be passed on.
Yaqing had once asked himself whether souls truly existed. He had experienced everything in his dreams as if he were God. Back then, he had looked down from the moon at that blue planet and heard them shout, "Fight for all that is beautiful in the world."
"The world allows consciousness to be matched with a new vessel, but it does not allow a vessel to gather dispersed consciousness." Yaqing borrowed a line from the Fool to express his thoughts.
A strange light rose in the eyes of Mobius, Mei, and Vill-V at the same time.
"Is this your new theory? It truly is an entirely new direction. But it seems you don't believe in souls. That makes sense. Your film also mentioned that ghosts do not exist in this world." Vill-V seemed to be acting up again, muttering to herself without pause.
"This isn't my theory," Yaqing said calmly.
"Then whose is it?" Greed flickered in Mobius's eyes, the look of a snake eyeing its prey.
"Bishop Otto's."
Yaqing lowered his head slightly, expressing his highest respect for that man.
Everyone was puzzled. They had never seen Yaqing speak of Otto, the president of Destiny, with such respect.
Theresa and Patrick arrived at the Tower of Babylon's reactor area. Patrick was the first to find faint traces of Honkai energy on the ground. In the even darker surroundings, Theresa was terrified that some unknown thing might suddenly leap out from somewhere, making her stammer whenever she spoke.
Seeing this, Patrick could not help but smile. Theresa had defeated even Emperor-class Honkai Beasts, yet ghosts scared her this badly. Especially when Patrick remembered Theresa screaming in fright at a carousel last time.
"Help... help, is anyone there? Please... save us..."
A faint cry for help echoed through the empty area. Both of their expressions changed. Patrick looked solemnly toward the sound, while Theresa cried out in fright, "A g-ghost... the ghost is out!"
"No, that's the voice of a human girl!"
Patrick and Theresa jogged toward the source of the voice. Beside the Honkai energy reactor was an enormous, empty factory-like space, almost like a prison. Theresa wondered why there was a place like this inside the research facility.
Patrick had already taken hold of a hand reaching out through the iron bars. Dim light fell over the thin face of a girl covered in many wounds. Tears filled her eyes as she looked at the newcomers.
"Save... save us..."
Patrick lowered her head, her brown-and-white hair obscuring her eyes.
"Why? Why is there a prison in the research facility? And..." Pardo looked at Yaqing, seated in the back row, in disbelief.
Kevin had been smiling moments earlier, but his expression instantly darkened.
Su frowned.
Mei spoke a few words. "Human experimentation."
"Bastards!" Kalpas smashed the armrest of his seat with a single punch. Breathing heavily, he glared at Yaqing as though he would charge forward the moment Yaqing confirmed it.
Elysia became serious in a rare display.
"I knew you'd ask." Yaqing sighed, then smiled. "Don't worry. If anyone in a Destiny research facility dared to defy orders and conduct human experiments, they definitely wouldn't live to see the next day's sun."
Yaqing dared to be so certain because he had once controlled Destiny's research direction, and he had once tied forty-seven researchers to hundred-pound stones and thrown them into the middle of the Pacific Ocean in a single day.
Would exposing Destiny's past mistakes cause its stock price to plummet to rock bottom? Yaqing did not care, and Otto certainly did not care either.
Otto only worried whether Kallen would take all of it upon herself.
Sure enough, Kallen, who had been happily eating potato chips, fell silent.
"Otto, Destiny wouldn't..."
Otto quickly wrapped an arm around Kallen's slender waist, letting her bury her head against his chest as he softly comforted her. "It's alright, Kallen. What happened in the film will not happen in Destiny, because the person who truly controls the research direction is Yaqing."
"Mm..."
Otto smiled bitterly. Kallen could not even bear this much. If all the later content were shown...
(Initial setting, Golden Courtyard ages:
Hen: 38 years old, Griseo's father, corporate drone.
Blanca: 35 years old, Griseo's mother, Mobius's assistant.
Aponia: 31 years old, orphanage director.
Eden: 30 years old, world-renowned superstar.
Mobius: 29 years old, World Serpent doctor.
Vill-V: 29 years old, World Serpent doctor.
Kevin: 28 years old, corporate drone.
Yaqing: 28 years old, president of Destiny's Far East branch.
Su: 28 years old, chief surgeon at a top-tier hospital.
Kalpas: 28 years old, head chef at a five-star hotel.
Mei: 27 years old, World Serpent doctor.
Sakura: 26 years old, corporate drone.
Elysia: 25 years old, streamer.
Pardo: 23 years old, unemployed.
Fu Hua: 20 years old, third-year university student.
Little Knowledge: 20 years old, third-year university student.
Kosma: 17 years old, second-year high school student.
Ling: 14 years old, second-year middle school student.
Griseo: 12 years old, sixth-grade elementary school student.)
Revenge—Revenge Against the Valkyries, Revenge Against Destiny
Theresa grabbed the iron bars and pulled outward with all her strength. With a crack, she forcibly tore down the nearly two-meter-tall steel barrier. Facing these children, whose faces were still wrapped in bandages, Theresa felt both heartache and anger.
Her heart ached over the inhuman treatment these children had suffered here, while she was furious that she knew of Destiny's darkness behind the scenes yet could not stop it.
Theresa extended her hand toward the children, wearing a gentle smile.
"Come out. You're all safe now."
The children carefully walked out. A brown-haired girl about the same size as Theresa bowed gratefully to her, and Theresa hurriedly waved her hands.
Leaning against the wall, Patrick explained the girls' circumstances. They were merely test subjects—orphaned children recruited by Destiny for human experiments testing adaptation to Honkai energy. Destiny had at least several thousand test subjects like them, and no one cared whether they lived or died.
Before you continue