Asking for Help / A Miracle by Coincidence?

Now that he has begun to prepare for a showdown with Otto to some extent, Gwen naturally wants to try to secure conditions that are favorable to himself, such as acting more like Kallen and seeing if he can replicate Theresa's status to some extent.

Of course, Gwen had his reasons for doing so—

Gwen to face the nuclear explosion head-on.

"Call..."

At Destiny Headquarters, having received Gwen's affirmative answer, Otto breathed a sigh of relief, as if the scene from five hundred years ago flashed before his eyes once again.

However, this time Otto was no longer so powerless—

"Application approved. Initiate intensified combat mode, receive new shield program, and prepare for unexpected events."

"Receive."

Upon hearing Gwen immediately activated an intensified battle mode that even he couldn't handle if he went all out.

Fortunately, this time Gwen doesn't need to balance top speed and combat power; all he needs is enough horsepower.

In the sky, a streak of pale blue light traced a subtle arc, brushing against the shield encasing the missile and deflecting it from its original trajectory...

The missile's trajectory changed, and Cocolia, as the instigator, naturally noticed it immediately.

"..."

Cocolia had just been gloating over her operation of adding shields to nuclear missiles, now had a face ashen with gloom.

She never expected that Schicksal's armor technology had reached such a level, completely thwarting all her calculations.

"Mother Cocolia, since the plan has failed..."

In the suburbs of Changkong City, Bronya, who had been keeping up with the command center's information, spoke up at the right time, trying to persuade Cocolia to turn back from her wrong path.

However, upon hearing Bronya's words, which were meant to be persuasive, Cocolia seemed to be provoked and shouted hysterically,

"Shut up!"

Bronya, don't forget Seele!

Cocolia's emerald eyes gleamed with a bloodthirsty light, like those of a vicious wolf, Cocolia shouted sharply.

"For Seele, and for this world to move toward a brighter future, some sacrifices are just a trivial price to pay; they are simply their fate."

"But... Mother Cocolia, is what we're doing what you call justice?"

Sensing Cocolia's hysteria, Bronya had already approached the warehouse Cocolia mentioned, still wanted to try to save her adoptive mother.

What is justice?

Justice is just the high-sounding words spoken by the winners!

There is no justice if you are a loser!

Noticing that Bronya's tone had softened considerably, Cocolia, confident that Bronya was still under her control, quickly adjusted her tone and said,

"And Bronya, we haven't been defeated yet—"

Although our elaborate deception, secret maneuvering, and trapping the thief inside the gate have all been foiled, our feint attack still worked, and... we have another plan to strike at the heart of the problem!

"What?"

Bronya was taken aback, and instantly recalled that there seemed to be a copy of "The Thirty-Six Stratagems" on Cocolia's bedside table.

Meanwhile, far away, unaware that Cocolia was amusing herself with her Thirty-Six Stratagems, Gwen was pushing a nuclear bomb high into the sky, trying to find a safe environment for detonation.

In a corner unknown to anyone, a component of the shield generator on the nuclear missile quietly burned out due to prolonged overload operation, causing the originally rock-solid shield to disappear instantly.

Having lost its target, Gwen crashed into the nuclear missile inside at breakneck speed, causing the small flame to explode instantly.

As for Gwen, his hair stood on end instantly; a terrifying sense of crisis put Gwen on edge to the extreme.

Chapter 232 Seeking Help

"Damn Cocolia, what kind of garbage nuclear bomb is this?!"

Feeling the deadly threat emanating from the nuclear warhead beside him, Gwen began to curse inwardly—

The fact that it could give him such a sense of crisis could only mean that the nuclear bomb in front of him was about to be detonated.

Even though Gwen wasn't a military enthusiast in his previous life, he did have some knowledge of nuclear weapons from novels describing World War II.

This kind of big thing won't explode easily with just a little open flame like homemade explosives; it requires a special fuse to detonate.

In fact, to detonate a hydrogen bomb, the atomic bomb inside must first be detonated.

The nuclear bomb in front of Gwen was about to explode from just a spark or a collision, so Gwen certainly had reason to despise the technology in Cocolia's hands.

As for the possibility that this might be a unique nuclear weapon in the Honkai world, making detonation even simpler?

Gwen, who was bombed, wouldn't even think of apologizing to that madwoman Cocolia.

While cursing Cocolia in his heart, Gwen had already stopped powering the flight module and was focusing all his efforts on strengthening the barrier, whether it was the one that came with the armor or the one he made himself, he was maximizing the defensive power.

With a powerful push of his Gwen foot against the missile in front of him, Gwen finally created some distance between them. In Gwen's eyes, a white-red light suddenly appeared in the missile.

"Grass!"

Before he could create any further distance, Gwen cursed inwardly and summoned the Apollo unit stored in his backpack.

The next moment, Gwen's vision of the missile, which was glowing with a white-red light, was filled by a greatsword tinged with a golden iridescence.

"I'm sorry..."

Before he could even catch a glimpse of his childhood idol, Gwen dodged past the giant sword carried on his back and hid behind Apollo.

The next moment, Gwen's vision was filled with endless white light. Knowing that the nuclear warhead on the missile had been detonated, Gwen immediately closed his eyes, focusing all his efforts on reinforcing his barrier while channeling the excess energy in his body into the Apollo machine in front of him.

Gwen still remembered that what was in front of him was just a machine; its core energy sphere was long gone.

While this might not affect Apollo's physical strength, it was still a close-range nuclear explosion that Gwen hadn't anticipated, with the temperature alone reaching tens of millions of degrees Celsius.

If possible, Gwen still hoped to have some energy to enhance Apollo's machine.

Bang!

At the Destiny Headquarters, watching the figure engulfed in white light on the big screen, Otto, who always appeared to be a master strategist, suddenly stood up, his chair falling to the ground with a resounding crash throughout the command center.

Otto, somewhat out of control, had strings of data reflected in his emerald eyes, comparing them with the data stored in Otto Soul Steel body and the records of Gwen's past battles.

"..."

After a moment of silence, Otto's expression softened slightly as he calculated that his backup plan should be effective, but his voice remained icy—

"Amber, closely monitor the signals from the Changkong City battlefield and capture that female fox!"

"Yes..."

Sensing the murderous intent in Otto's words, Amber, whose mind was unusually filled with strong will, nodded in agreement and immediately began assigning tasks.

At the head of the table, Otto gazed at the light so intense from the nuclear explosion that nothing could be seen, and a surge of controlling desire, suppressed by the message on the necklace, quietly rose within him—

"It was still too reckless..."

Feather of Dust... not good. This child has strong mental power and is not as easy to fool as little Theresa.

So, do we still need some 'growing pains' to grow up faster?

As this thought arose, Otto suddenly remembered some points that he had previously vaguely overlooked—

"Furthermore, the report only mentioned knowing K-423... given their personalities..."

Call...

He really does look like her...

Although some past events were recalled, there was no warmth in Otto's eyes at this moment, only the coldness and calculation that had permeated his life for five hundred years.

"So, we still need to learn some lessons..."

Meanwhile, at the Anti-Entropy base in Vostok, Cocolia looked at the notification that the nuclear missile had been detonated prematurely. Her face was so grim it was almost dripping with water, yet she didn't lose her composure—

The nuclear bomb that exploded was a weapon that had not yet completed all its experiments and could not be used in actual combat. So let it be destroyed. After all the chaos that has happened today, it doesn't matter if it's destroyed or not.

Moreover, it can be considered the first successful experiment; even if the necessary data wasn't collected, it can still serve as a deterrent.

In Cocolia's view, whoever went to intercept them was doomed under those conditions.

Compared to focusing on the nuclear bomb, which was largely a tactical deception and had more strategic significance than tactical significance, Cocolia was more concerned about the battlefield in Changkong City at the moment.

After all, her goal now is not to kill anyone, but to capture Raiden Mei.

To achieve this, Bronya's cooperation is required.

Quietly activating the chip's shallow-level program, making Bronya speak less and more obediently, Cocolia said in a deep voice—

"Bronya, listen carefully, the password can only be entered once. If you enter it incorrectly, the explosives buried underground will destroy this entire place—"

One of the passwords is...

Meanwhile, at the distant site of the nuclear explosion, Gwen, hiding beneath Apollo's massive hull, was plummeting towards the earth along with it.

As Gwen had predicted, the nuclear bomb, despite its layers of protection, did not kill him, but only injured him.

However, Gwen showed no sign of relief; his expression was even more grave than before.

Whether it was the body, lacking its core energy sphere, spontaneously seeking power, or the energy mixed with Honkai Energy injected by Gwen, what was originally just Gwen's token energy input into the Apollo body now seemed impossible to stop—

"No, it's impossible. This machine seems to have formed some kind of connection with your energy because of the previous energy injection, just like the inseparable connection between your body and the energy within it..."

Unusually, Eden's usually calm and elegant voice carried a hint of anxiety and helplessness—

Even Eden, a genius in the field of energy manipulation in Gwen's eyes, was powerless in the face of this situation.

"Okay, thank you for your help, Eden. Let me see if there are any other methods..."

Gwen was now firmly embedded in Apollo's body like an iron nail attracted by a strong magnet, was slightly disappointed, but far from being disheartened.

"I just survived a nuclear blast, but now my energy is connected to the mech blocking my way and I can't disconnect it. Have you had any similar cases?"

First, Gwen sent a request for help to the second Netizen who had just provided the valuable data. Then, he contacted Kevin through their spiritual connection and reiterated the situation.

"... Kevin, do you have a solution?"

"..."

Noticing that this communication was not as smooth as before, but rather quite unstable, Kevin realized that Gwen was probably in real trouble this time.

Moreover, a nuclear explosion...

Through the information shared by Gwen, Kevin clearly realized that the nuclear explosion Gwen mentioned was the same weapon that ultimately caused Velvie's withdrawal from society, which stirred up a ripple in his heart, which was as if it had been frozen in ice.

With mixed feelings, Kevin frowned and carefully examined Gwen's condition.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Ruan Mei, who had just picked up her embroidery and was somewhat distracted while working on it, saw Gwen's message and immediately put down what she was doing. After a moment's thought, her eyebrows furrowed slightly, and she quickly replied:

"I need more accurate information, preferably..."

Halfway through typing, Ruan Mei paused slightly, looking at her still blank profile picture. After a moment's hesitation, she deleted a few words and replied,

"However, according to your description, perhaps this mechanical body underwent some mutation after being contaminated by the Honkai Energy you mentioned, and began to actively seek power."

The simplest approach now is to inject energy into it. Once the energy reaches saturation, your crisis might be resolved...

I have some external energy sources here. If you need them, I can send them to you to try. However, I'm not sure if you can use them, and you might also have to face an enemy you've personally trained..."

Chapter 233 A Miracle Under a Coincidence?

Upon seeing the reply from this Netizen remains anonymous to this day, Gwen frowned.

Indeed, Honkai Energy can corrode not only living things but also machines.

He happens to have an energy source, but as he said, what if he ends up feeding a big dad?

While Gwen was pondering, Kevin had been silent for a moment, finally spoke up—

"This machine was originally supposed to possess a considerable level of intelligence, but it has been contaminated by Honkai Energy and already shows signs of corrosion..."