The three of them continued along the light rail tracks. Unlike that morning, Mei Raiden was clearly preoccupied. No matter how many times Kiana tried to act cute around her, she only brushed her off absentmindedly. Yu Luo was also full of thoughts about Bronya—those black thigh-high stockings and that pale, flawless absolute territory. No, it was her emotionless words and cold expression that kept echoing in his mind.
"Fine, I'll go help you chase that girl, okay?!" Unable to stand the heavy atmosphere any longer, Kiana clutched her head and shouted in resignation.
"Really?" Mei Raiden's eyes suddenly lit up as she looked at Kiana expectantly. Yu Luo also turned to look at her.
"Sigh..." Kiana let out a deep breath and said seriously for once, "There's an abandoned train over there. Let's see if it still works. Walking is way too slow."
"Thank you, Kiana!" Mei Raiden excitedly threw her arms around Kiana. Kiana's serious expression instantly vanished, replaced by a lecherous grin. Yu Luo saw it clearly. This idiot's obsession with Mei was probably as terminal as his own fixation on looks. There was no saving either of them.
The three of them piled into the train parked nearby. The carriage was filled with crates, none of them marked in any way. There was no telling what they contained.
"Looks like those robots were supposed to transport this train's cargo. They just happened to run into us and got wiped out instead," Yu Luo said thoughtfully, stroking his chin.
Kiana rolled her eyes. "Can you say something useful for once?"
The door leading to the front car was locked. Mei Raiden cleanly sliced through the lock with one stroke, and the three of them entered one after another. Kiana took the lead and sat down at the control console, operating it with a serious expression. Yu Luo's head hurt just looking at the complicated buttons and levers, and he could not help but feel respect for Kiana.
"I didn't know you could drive a light rail train. Don't tell me your dad taught you in Hawaii?"
"I can't drive," Kiana replied as if that were perfectly natural.
"What the hell? If you can't drive, what are you messing with?"
"Relax, relax! This thing's easy!" Kiana waved her hand carelessly. "You just press every button once, and eventually you'll hit the start button!" As she spoke, her hands flew across the console at a speed that would leave men silent and women in tears.
Whether Mei Raiden cried or not, Yu Luo did not know. But he definitely fell silent. Raising his right hand, he brought it down hard on Kiana's head in a chop.
"Ow!" Kiana clutched her head with tears in the corners of her eyes, then turned and glared fiercely at Yu Luo. "What was that for?!"
"Move. I'll do it!" Yu Luo had already transformed into Billy the Kid. He pulled Kiana out of the driver's seat and sat down himself, closing his eyes and placing his hands on the console as he activated Billy the Kid's Inherent Skill: Riding C+.
According to the setting, the Inherent Skill Riding allowed its user to handle all mounts. Vehicles like planes and trains counted as well. Yu Luo did not know whether Billy the Kid's C+-rank Riding could operate a light rail train, but it had to be better than Kiana randomly pressing buttons.
"Hmph, what a show-off!" Kiana grumbled from the side.
Yu Luo opened his eyes. The knowledge required to operate the light rail had actually flooded into his mind. Hearing Kiana's muttering, he grinned. "Let me show you what the God of Akina Mountain can do!"
With that, Yu Luo pressed the start button. The light rail slowly began moving, gradually picking up speed before racing down the tracks. Yu Luo smugly said to Mei Raiden, "Well, Mei? I'm more reliable than this white-haired idiot, right?"
"Do you even have a light rail license? You're driving without one!" Kiana picked at him.
"Huh? You need a license to drive a light rail train?" Yu Luo looked utterly confused.
"If you're hungry, you eat. If someone gets killed, they die. So of course you need a license to drive!"
"..."
The light rail did not stop because Yu Luo and Kiana were bickering. It continued racing along the tracks into the unknown. After nearly two hours, Kiana boredly played with the twin guns in her hands and said impatiently, "Where are we even going? We've been traveling for so long, we could've crossed all of Changkong City by now. Don't tell me we've driven straight into the enemy's lair?"
"It's okay, Kiana. We should be close," Mei Raiden comforted her, though the uncertainty in her voice made it sound more like she was comforting herself.
Screech! The entire train suddenly let out a piercing grinding sound as it rapidly slowed down. Kiana and Mei Raiden jolted, nearly falling to the floor.
"There's no track ahead. We're here," Yu Luo said succinctly. He drew the revolver at his waist. Kiana and Mei Raiden exchanged a glance and gripped their weapons as well. All three stood behind the closed train doors.
Hiss! The light rail doors slowly opened. With his B-rank Agility, Yu Luo slipped through the half-open door first. The first thing he saw was a massive hangar. As far as the eye could see, it was filled with Titans like the ones they had fought before, lined up in row after row. There was no telling how many there were.
Kiana and Mei Raiden both sucked in a breath at the sight. Meanwhile, the electronic eyes of two patrolling robot squads turned red. They raised their machine guns at the three of them, and an emotionless electronic voice rang out. "Intruders detected. Under Directive Three, eliminate on sight!"
"Kiana, you and that cursed mouth!" Yu Luo leaned forward and sprinted close to the ground, dodging the machine-gun fire from the two squads. Then, catching an opening in the barrage, he fired twice and blew apart the electronic eyes of two robots.
"Why don't you mention that you're the one who drove us here? Did that girl pay you off or something?" Kiana's mouth did not lose an inch to his, and her movements remained just as nimble as she picked off another robot.
"Yeah. She said she'd give me a really good hug once this was over. I thought that sounded pretty nice." Yu Luo's hands never stopped moving as he continued trading jabs with Kiana.
Mei Raiden had finally had enough of their endless bickering. A flash of sword light cut a robot into pieces, and she shouted in exasperation, "Can you two act normal? Can you be serious during a fight?!"
Yu Luo and Kiana exchanged a look. In that instant, they reached the same understanding: We can lose the fight, but the trash talk can't stop. That's our way of fighting!
"Ahhh! I'm done with you two!" Mei Raiden charged into the robots in resignation. Her blade rose and fell, and the sword net woven by Hokushin Itto-ryu carved every robot into scattered parts.
After a rather intense battle, at least from Yu Luo and Kiana's perspective, the three-person team completely cleared out the robots in the hangar. What relieved Yu Luo was that, perhaps because the Titans in the hangar were unfinished products, not a single one had activated during the battle.
Clang... clang... Kiana curiously knocked twice on one of the motionless steel monsters, then circled around it in confusion. "Hey, why doesn't this thing have a cockpit? I wanted to try driving one!"
"What are you even thinking..." Yu Luo despaired at Kiana's intelligence. "A Honkai outbreak is happening in Changkong City right now. Every living person can be infected by Honkai. These things are stored here, so obviously they're unmanned and controlled by AI!"
"Maybe they didn't move because the AI hasn't been installed yet," Mei Raiden added.
"Tch!" Kiana instantly lost interest in the things she could not drive and urged the other two onward. "Let's hurry up and find a way out of here. We have to teach that self-willed brat a lesson!"
Isn't the self-willed one you? Yu Luo complained inwardly, but did not say it aloud. Just then, Mei Raiden's cry drew both of their attention.
"What is it, Mei?"
"Here..." Mei pointed at the floor in the center of the hangar. A sideways S-shaped emblem was printed there, with the words ME Corp beside it. It was exactly the same as the symbol on the can of [Imouto Juice] Yu Luo had found at Senba Academy.
"This is the ME Corp building!" Mei Raiden said in disbelief.
Before you continue