The Proper Way to Clean a Deck

However, after three seconds of shock and helplessness, Himeko Murata immediately realized what she needed to do.

"Activate the backup Honkai Energy Reactor, then begin preparations for an emergency landing."

"Use as much power as possible to maintain the air defense systems and levitation systems. Under no circumstances can we let the Hyperion fall from the sky."

After throwing out those two orders, Himeko Murata ignored her subordinates as they sprang frantically into action and rushed toward the deck.

Theresa was clearly no longer someone she could rely on. As the ace of the Far East Branch, she had to go to the deck and see what was happening for herself.

Otherwise, if the Hyperion really crashed on the spot for such an inexplicable reason...

—Even if everyone in the Far East Branch managed to survive, they would be laughed to death by the other branches!

She, Himeko Murata, could not afford that kind of humiliation!

On the deck, Theresa watched Kiana charge toward Mr. Gu Yu and immediately controlled the Oath of Judah, arranging its iron chains into a net that stopped Kiana in her tracks.

"You little runt! What the hell are you trying to do?!"

Seeing Mr. Gu Yu lying on the ground like a corpse, completely motionless, Kiana immediately glared furiously at Theresa after being stopped.

"Little... forget it. I'm not going to argue with you right now."

Seeing Kiana, Raiden Mei, Yae Sakura, and the others staring at her with hostile expressions, Theresa's face suddenly turned incomparably serious.

"A terrifying Honkai energy fluctuation just appeared around this kid. If you had gone over there just now..."

Before Theresa could finish, a terrifying Chaos Barrier began spreading outward from Mr. Gu Yu's body.

Once the barrier spread, everything within an area around Mr. Gu Yu simply vanished.

Not only the dust on the deck—even the Hyperion's incredibly sturdy deck had a whole section erased.

If the Hyperion's deck had not been thick enough, that terrifying barrier might have already punched a hole straight through it.

And the unconscious Mr. Gu Yu would inevitably have fallen directly from the sky toward Changkong City once a hole appeared in the deck.

"There. Like that."

Pursing her lips, Theresa sighed helplessly.

"Just what is this kid's background? The Hyperion's deck can at least withstand attacks from Honkai Beasts, yet he just digs through it whenever he wants—and he carved out an entire section."

After seeing that, Raiden Mei grew even more anxious.

"Miss Theresa, please, you must let me go over there!"

Although the barrier had not caused any damage to Mr. Gu Yu's body, who could guarantee that was not just a coincidence?

What if the next thing the barrier devoured was not the deck, but Mr. Gu Yu himself?

At that thought, Raiden Mei's mind went completely blank.

"Being anxious won't help. You have no way to deal with it, girl."

Frowning as she stared at Mr. Gu Yu, Theresa immediately began considering how to solve the problem.

Then...

"Theresa, I think you'd better give me an explanation!"

She saw Himeko Murata charging toward her in a rage.

Though the two were technically superior and subordinate, neither of them usually cared about that distinction.

Theresa had always regarded Himeko as a friend, so naturally she would not pull rank on her now.

"An explanation? Himeko, what happened?"

"You still have the nerve to ask?! Ever since you brought these people aboard the Hyperion, the Hyperion's Honkai Energy Reactor has been getting its energy drained like crazy."

"There are only a little over two minutes left! If we can't find the cause, the Hyperion is going down!"

After Himeko finished roaring those words, the battleship they stood on seemed to support her claim as it violently shuddered several times.

And amid that shaking, Theresa was utterly dumbfounded.

"Huh? Wh-why did it turn out like this..."

"I think I can roughly guess the reason."

Rita, who stood farthest from the group, narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked at the still-unconscious Mr. Gu Yu.

"Based on the timing Miss Himeko provided, it seems the Hyperion's energy reactor began having problems less than a minute ago."

"And at the same time, less than a minute ago, Mr. Gu Yu collapsed to the ground after removing his armor."

"Then the issue is quite simple."

After Rita pointed out the crux of the problem, Theresa and Himeko both turned to look at Mr. Gu Yu in unison.

This kid...

—Could absorb Honkai Energy???

No, that was not right. It was more than that.

The Hyperion's Honkai reactor had a maximum output of 1380 HW. With Schicksal's current research into Honkai energy, 1500 HW was practically the absolute limit.

Honkai Energy intensity exceeding 1500 HW could only appear in one kind of existence.

At present, according to Schicksal's estimates, a Herrscher's minimum Honkai Energy intensity was roughly 2000 HW.

Hmm, draining the Hyperion's 1380-HW Honkai reactor in three minutes... Let's do the math...

This guy could drain all the Honkai Energy from a Herrscher in four minutes????

The moment they reached that conclusion, the looks in their eyes changed completely.

Just where had this monstrous boy come from???

And at that moment, Theresa thought of something else.

Just now, the boy had been on guard against Rita and had not intended to dismiss his armor.

The reason he dismissed it and collapsed to the ground was because Theresa had persuaded him to.

Wait—if that was the case, wasn't she herself the reason the Hyperion had crashed????

The instant she realized that, Theresa panicked.

The Hyperion was the Far East Branch's greatest trump card. If they lost this battleship, how was she supposed to explain herself to her Grandpa, Otto???

When the time came, the Far East Branch's everyday operations would struggle to function.

Their work of exterminating Honkai Beasts and saving humanity would also be severely affected by the loss of the Hyperion.

Because of her own mistake, more people were going to die???

Having talked herself into a corner, Theresa's mind went completely blank, and she shut down entirely.

"Ahhh, forget it."

Thinking that a single sentence from her could have caused such enormous consequences, Theresa—who had just been telling Mei and Kiana to stay calm—grabbed Judas and charged at Gu Yu.

"Let's separate this brat from the deck first. We can deal with everything else later!"

"Please wait, Lady Theresa."

Just as Theresa rushed toward Gu Yu, Rita stepped in front of her with her scythe in hand.

Then, after bowing to Theresa, she said with a hint of apology, "My apologies for obstructing you, but I believe you should listen to this communication before taking action."

"A communication? Who has time for that now!"

After shooting Rita a vicious glare, Theresa nearly lost control and swung Judas at her.

"Theresa, my dear granddaughter, do you not even wish to hear a communication from me?"

But this time, upon hearing the voice coming from the communicator in Rita's hand, Theresa froze on the spot.

"Grandpa?"

The voice coming from the communicator was undoubtedly that of her grandfather, [Schicksal Grand Bishop] Otto Apocalypse.

PS1: I'm sorry for updating at this ungodly hour, but writer's block really is my old nemesis. If I can't beat it, there's nothing I can do.

As for the reason for the writer's block... A lot of the time, I've already figured out the plot and am ready to start writing, then my hands get itchy and I go read the chapter comments. Oho, and then trouble starts.

Reading chapter comments has always been one of the joys of writing. After all, authors write for fun, and if you want to see wild ideas, you still have to look at the readers' comments.

But...

Someone once said that I shouldn't keep staring at the people criticizing me, since most readers support me. I wholeheartedly agree with that.

But...

Imagine you're happily eating a meal, then halfway through, crunch—you bite into a cockroach, and you've already bitten down...

Now you understand how disgusted I feel when I read the chapter comments.

It's too hard not to care, because it has already happened [stares at the sky].

PS2: Next, I have a very serious announcement to make.

As of today, this dog of an author officially acknowledges that I am a cloud player.

These days, I really don't understand what qualifies as not being a cloud player. Judging by the feedback in the comments, as long as you misremember one detail or get the order of one English name wrong, then you, dog author, are a cloud player.

I don't understand what those readers criticizing me for being a cloud player are thinking. Maybe they're hardcore enough to recite Honkai Impact 3rd's plot text, item description text, and character profile text backward and forward.

If that is the only way not to count as a cloud player, then I admit it today: I can't memorize every piece of text in Honkai Impact 3rd.

From today onward, I am a cloud player.

If I make a detail mistake in the future and someone calls me a cloud player, I can just tell them directly: yes, I am...

Eh, come to think of it, that seems to solve a lot of problems.

Yay!

PS3: There are some things programmers really ought to update. Wouldn't it be nice to remove the character limit on an author's chapter comments?

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