Is the Essence of the World Just About Looks

"Damn it, they caught up!" Kiana said indignantly, pulling out her twin guns and facing the girl warily.

"But how can such a young girl be with this robot?" Mei Raiden was a bit confused. Yu Luo sighed, unwilling to believe it. "Although it's cruel, based on my extensive experience, this girl has likely been modified."

"How can that be!" Mei Raiden covered her mouth in disbelief. "Father..."

"Mei, don't listen to his nonsense. This kid is definitely just a pilot!" Kiana deliberately provoked Yu Luo, refuting his guess.

Yu Luo rolled his eyes and, adopting an elder's demeanor, pushed up his non-existent black-rimmed glasses. "You're still too naive. I once roamed the skies, fought with the Zerg, saved Azeroth, forged iron with the Sword Saint, slaughtered the gods of Olympus, and witnessed the eternal glory of humanity. My guesses can be wrong?"

"Hmph, a bunch of things I've never heard of. It's all lies!" Kiana retorted defiantly, completely forgetting about the silver-gray drill-haired girl blocking their escape route.

"Scan complete. Honkai signatures detected. Target confirmed: [Subject A]. Countermeasure plan executed. Recovery operation commencing," the silver-gray drill-haired girl stated in a mechanical voice.

"Um, excuse me, little girl, who exactly are you? What's your relationship with those mecha soldiers?" Mei Raiden still found it hard to believe Yu Luo's conclusion. With a smile, she asked the silver-gray girl, now confirmed as an enemy. Yu Luo and Kiana watched her with wary eyes.

"I am an embedded general-purpose battle weapon girl, the suitable carrier for Heavy-duty Rabbit, Bronya," the silver-gray drill-haired girl replied emotionlessly, her expression unchanged, answering Mei Raiden's question.

"Girl weapon!" Mei Raiden mulled over the words. Yu Luo's conclusion was now clearly proven correct, and anger began to burn within her. "To perform human modification on such a young child..."

"Indeed, humans are so ugly," a nightmarish voice echoed in Mei Raiden's mind, seductive. "Such ugly humans should be destroyed. Come, embrace my power and annihilate all these ugly humans!"

The tempting words reverberated in Mei Raiden's mind. Her eyes glazed over, and she muttered, "Annihilate them all..." She reached out with her right hand, as if to grasp something.

"Fire!" Bronya raised her right hand, and the robot behind her did the same. The large-caliber cannons lit up with fire, aimed at the stunned Mei Raiden.

"Mei, be careful!"

"Dong!" Fire erupted, and the cannonball shot towards the motionless Mei with terrifying initial velocity, exploding violently.

"Henshin!"

"Boom!"

A massive explosion sounded, blasting a three-meter-wide crater in the road. Debris flew everywhere, peppering the abandoned train cars by the roadside with large and small pits. Kiana, with her agility, dodged the flying shrapnel and anxiously focused her gaze on the cannonball's impact point.

"Mei!"

Yu Luo, clad in a light purple kimono, his long blue ponytail fluttering in the wind, held Mei Raiden in his arms. She was the one who was about to be hit by the cannonball. "Kiana, find a place to hide!" Yu Luo set Mei Raiden down and said to her.

"No, I want to fight too. I want to save this child!" Having nearly been possessed by the Third Herrscher just now, Mei Raiden felt immense guilt. At the same time, she felt sorry for Bronya, who had undergone human modification at such a young age. She wanted to rescue the girl from that cold, white robot.

"How dare you attack Senior Mei! I'm fighting too!" Kiana exclaimed furiously, filled with lingering fear and rage. Her mind was consumed with the desire to teach Bronya a lesson, with no other thoughts.

"Target is resisting. Requesting removal of weapon restrictions... Approved. Heavy-duty Rabbit entering combat mode," Bronya's mechanical voice announced. She raised the heavy cannon behind her again, its muzzle gathering fire, preparing to fire another shot at them.

"What an overbearing system!" Yu Luo chuckled in exasperation. "No resistance means annihilation, resistance also means annihilation. Truly worthy of an organization that can perform human modification on such a young girl!"

"????" The system in Yu Luo's mind slowly displayed four question marks. "I'm being so accommodating, where am I being overbearing? Can you speak rationally?"

"None of your business!" Yu Luo's carefully brewed momentum was completely ruined by the system's interruption. He retorted irritably, "How is your reading comprehension so poor? Did your chemistry teacher teach you Chinese?"

"Your system has teachers? What are you doing with your brain, raising fish?" The system's words almost made Yu Luo's nose turn crooked.

"Fire!" Fire spewed forth. The three, now mentally prepared, jumped aside. The cannonball landed in an empty lot, creating another three-meter-deep crater.

"Hya!" Kiana, who had clearly invested all her intelligence points into stamina and strength, charged forward first. She fired a few shots at Bronya, who was aiming the white robot. A phantom shield suddenly appeared in front of Bronya, deflecting the bullets mercilessly.

However, immediately after, a light purple figure suddenly appeared in front of Bronya. Bronya was clearly surprised, but her face showed no expression of shock. "Swish!" Yu Luo swung the katana, similar in length to Bronya's, in his hand. A flash of bright steel appeared, deliberately avoiding Bronya's vital points.

"Crack!" However, to Yu Luo's surprise, his full-power attack with Strength C couldn't break through the virtual shield. It only managed to cut halfway through before getting stuck. But similarly, this shield was completely immobilized by Yu Luo, unable to be withdrawn.

"Mei!" Yu Luo called out to Mei behind him. Mei understood immediately and lunged towards Bronya's seemingly defenseless main body, trying to pull her off the white robot.

"Combat power assessment complete. Capture probability 12.36%, below projected value. Plan change: initiating withdrawal," Bronya's mechanical voice sounded. The half-severed virtual shield disappeared, and Yu Luo, losing his point of leverage, stumbled.

"Rumble!" The white robot roared to life, flames erupting from its feet. Bronya, sitting on the robot's shoulder, flew directly into the air. The three could only watch from the ground as the shrinking white robot carrying Bronya flew away.

"Hey, don't go! Fight me to the death, you punk!" Kiana shouted furiously from the ground, but it was useless against a girl who had been turned into a machine.

"Damn it... what's with that girl! Appearing out of nowhere and running away after the fight! So despicable!" Kiana grumbled indignantly.

Mei Raiden, however, started chasing after the distant Bronya. "Hey, Mei, where are you going?!" Yu Luo deactivated his transformation again. Kojiro's transformation energy was at 72% remaining. This brief engagement had consumed nearly a fifth of his transformation energy, but the good news was that Kojiro's Bond had increased by another 1%, now at 4%.

"I'm going to chase her!"

"She's flying, how can we possibly catch up! Besides, the priority is to escape the Honkai zone!" Kiana stopped Mei Raiden's pursuit, trying to persuade her.

"Okay..." Mei Raiden reluctantly abandoned her idea and agreed with Kiana, but her expression remained dejected.

Yu Luo's mood wasn't much better. Although human modification was common in games and movies, seeing it happen in real life, especially to a girl of thirteen or fourteen, truly touched him.

"To do such a thing, unforgivable!" Yu Luo clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles turning white.

"If the one modified was a two-meter-tall, two-meter-waisted strongman who looked like Schwarzenegger, would you be as angry as you are now?" the System asked curiously.

"I'd kill him on the spot!" Yu Luo answered instinctively, without any thought.

"Tsk!" The System scoffed disdainfully, clearly unwilling to converse with Yu Luo, whom it considered a superficial person.