Honkai's Thousand Laws, Kidnapping Kiana at the Start

Otto nodded, approving her idea. "The uploader of the photo claims to be Gray Serpent. After investigating, we found he's a well-known information broker in Sky City."

"He possesses a technology that can almost monitor the entire information exchange in Sky City. While the photo might not have been taken by him personally, the fact that he could find its source in such a short time clearly indicates that the news of the Herrscher of Void in Sky City is true."

"Furthermore, it seems someone has observed signs of activity from traitors within the Far East Branch. The fact that it could make Theresa so anxious that she'd risk exposure to follow the lead suggests this intelligence is highly credible."

Rita immediately nodded. "Understood. I will definitely find the source of the information before Lord Theresa arrives."

Beep—

The communication cut off. Rita took a deep breath and quickly headed to Schicksal's command center, where she would board a special fighter jet to Sky City.

Sky City, Shencheng Technology.

The hall was empty, with only the Ouroboros pattern imprinted in a hidden corner. The tall man standing in the darkness had his face completely covered by a mask, and a peculiar emotion flickered in his crimson eyes.

"Interesting. Someone dares to impersonate the Serpent's name. Then let me see if you still have such courage when you are swallowed by the Serpent."

Anti-Entropy.

"Ms. Theresa, the attack helicopter is ready." The door to the operation room opened, and Dr. Einstein, with her dark blue curly hair, walked in. In the room were students from St. Freya, as well as the traitors of Schicksal's Far East Branch: Theresa, Mei, and Bronya.

"Is the source of this intelligence reliable?" Although eager, Theresa, as the principal, still had to ensure the credibility of the information.

Facing Theresa's question, Einstein's expression was calm as she brought up her intelligence panel. "According to Anti-Entropy's multifaceted investigation, there have been multiple Honkai Beast attacks in Sky City within the past month. During this period, survivors occasionally spoke of a white-haired girl saving them. While these rumors are not credible, combined with this photo, it's basically confirmed that Kiana is in Sky City."

She continued, "This is the information broker Gray Serpent you will be trading with. He has sold classified information more than once and enjoys a certain reputation among major organizations. The possibility of him having intelligence on Kiana is very high."

Theresa nodded and looked at the two students beside her. "You've both examined the photo, right?"

"Yes, there are no signs of tampering." As a top hacker, Bronya could naturally discern the authenticity of the photo, which was why they recognized the significance of this transaction.

Mei, who had been staring at the photo in thought, frowned deeply. "I wouldn't mistake Kiana's appearance, but who is this boy next to her?"

"Prepare to move out. Schicksal should also be taking action. We need to bring Kiana back before they do." With Theresa's command, they boarded the attack helicopter bound for Sky City.

The ranch. When Su Jue woke up, he was alone in the room.

There was no surprise, as Kiana's departure was within his plans. He controlled the puppet to secretly take the photo and upload it. Given Kiana's personality, she would never want to burden those around her, so her leaving was only natural.

He unwound the bandages wrapped around his arm; the wounds had already healed significantly. He beckoned, and Tread Snow, who had been gone for a long time, ran in from outside with a bottle of disinfectant. Then came the familiar process of cleaning, applying medicine, and bandaging.

After everything was taken care of, he stood up from the mattress.

The bed Kiana had slept in was neatly made. It seemed she had tidied up before leaving.

Beside the pillow on the bedside table lay Su Jue's phone. She hadn't taken it after all.

And next to the phone was a star-shaped hair accessory, Kiana's favorite, the one she always wore.

There was a voice message on the phone. Su Jue's finger hovered over the play button. But he ultimately didn't listen, nor did he dare to.

Because he was afraid that if he listened, he would no longer have the heart to deceive that poor girl.

He put the hair accessory into his inner pocket.

He threw the phone into the Theater of Domination.

Pushing the door open, with a soft snap of his fingers, the hundreds of animals controlled all night and the ranch owner finally regained consciousness.

Instantly, the once silent ranch became noisy, devoid of insect chirps, of the night breeze, of the whispers of young boys and girls.

A photo, a bait.

Let Schicksal, Anti-Entropy, World Serpent, and everyone from St. Freya begin their pursuit of Kiana.

The young man pressed his chest, his heart beating slowly.

"I'm sorry."

Chapter Twenty-Five: Theater of Domination VI

After clearing all the clues at the ranch, Su Jue quickly returned home using the spatial transfer ability of the Theater of Domination. Sky City would likely be a bit chaotic for a while, something he couldn't intervene in at the moment.

It's worth noting that besides the ongoing Stigmata Awakening project, World Serpent also has a human modification technology.

They use young children as vessels, implanting mechanical and electronic components to turn them into emotionless modified bodies responsible for monitoring the entire city. One of them will be the core hub capable of controlling all modified bodies.

At the same time, that core modified body is also tasked with integrating all the surveillance footage from the modified bodies, which is why World Serpent can unscrupulously obtain intelligence.

If possible, Su Jue still wants to try and snatch her from World Serpent's hands. After all, that one child alone is equivalent to a high-computation quantum computer, which is of great significance to Su Jue, who has no technological development level. If he could control the surveillance network covering Sky City, it would be much more convenient for him to hide or cause trouble.

However, his combat power is still very weak now, and he cannot confront them head-on. He can only pray that Kiana grows up quickly and becomes a qualified Herrscher of Void.

In fact, it would be a better choice if Kiana could stay by his side. Not only would he have an extra bodyguard, but he could also directly use her as a hostage at critical moments. Unfortunately, besides the consciousness of the Herrscher of Void within her, there is an even more threatening existence—Feather Dust, Fu Hua.

Although based on the girl's current performance, Fu Hua's consciousness has not yet been accepted by her, Su Jue would definitely expose some weaknesses if he stayed with Kiana for too long.

He is not a god, after all, and cannot set up a theater for her with the entire world.

Once discovered by people from Schicksal, the fate of the former Herrscher of a Thousand would be quite obvious.

After briefly organizing his next plan, Su Jue chose to go out. He still needed to continue disguising his current identity.

Jian Yun, the sweet girl next door, was already waiting at the intersection. While he was away, she had relied on controlling puppets to attend school for him. He wondered if anything had gone wrong.

"Huh? Brother Su Jue, you seem to be in good spirits today." He was still thinking about potential problems when, upon meeting her, she immediately noticed the difference.

"Uh, I guess I slept pretty well today?" Su Jue scratched his head and chuckled.

"Is that so? So you haven't been sleeping well these past few days. No wonder you were like a wooden doll, ignoring me so many times when I called you." The girl looked a little sulky, glaring at Su Jue with a pout, as if she were genuinely upset.

"..."

"..." There was no reply.

"Hey! Can't you at least comfort me?" Jian Yun, who had expected Su Jue to apologize, widened her eyes. Su Jue beside her had already returned to his usual absent-minded state.

Unfortunately, Su Jue didn't notice her actions at all. Before Jian Yun could finish speaking, accompanied by an ancient, melodious wolf howl, his consciousness entered the Theater of Domination, continuing to control his split consciousness.

Darkness, cold, only a puppet entangled tightly by threads hung its head, like prey caught in a tangled spiderweb.

"Welcome to the Theater of Domination."

As a Westerner, Chris felt he should be considered among the patriotic youth.

Even with endless gang fights and blatant underground dealings, even if the sheer number of murders reported in the news daily was enough for him to write detective novels, he still believed these were just the gangs bringing their own troubles upon themselves.

He was just an ordinary person, a law-abiding citizen.

As he himself said, in this district, Chris was truly a unique person.

He didn't smoke or drink, never went to nightclubs, and never took drugs.

He was like a soul out of sync with this country, his only hobbies each day being playing games when he got home, spending a little time enjoying the latest anime from Japan, and, of course, occasionally reading manga – the lewd kind.

He felt there was nothing wrong with that; humans always had unavoidable desires, and occasionally releasing bodily impurities was beneficial for both physical and mental health.

It was normal; violence was never the only way to release stress.

In his entire life, he had almost never gotten into a fight. The only time he had punched someone in the face was in middle school.

It was raining heavily that day, and coincidentally, the girl he had a crush on was standing next to him, sheltering from the rain. It was a rare opportunity, and his heart was filled with joy.

— That was until he found out the girl he liked was pregnant with the school bully's child. It was unbelievable to him at the time. In his impression, middle schoolers should be concerned about their studies, not children.

So he went to confront the school bully and, as expected, got beaten up — but he didn't lose. That punk with the buzz cut took a solid punch from him, and every time he thought about it, he would smile with pride.

— If he hadn't been expelled the next day.

Knock, knock—

The sound of tapping on the glass brought Chris back from his memories. He looked at the young traffic cop beside him with confusion.

"Hey, buddy, I didn't run a red light," Chris explained slowly, looking at the red light at the intersection.

The uniformed officer was young, seemingly new to the job. Usually, such youngsters had just graduated from police academy, being by-the-book and rigid.

"I know, but your tires crossed the traffic line. If you had studied traffic laws, you'd know that's a violation."

"What are you talking about? I drive this road every day to and from work, and no one ever bothers me." Chris was a bit indignant. He had lived here for over twenty years, and if nothing unexpected happened, he would spend the rest of his decades here too.

The young officer ignored Chris's outburst and mockingly slipped the ticket into the car. "Citizen, the law doesn't care how long you've lived here. If no one bothered you before, it was just because they were incompetent."

"Sh*t!" Picking up the ticket from under the seat and seeing the 3000 fine, he felt annoyed. This was money he had planned to use to top up his recently purchased game, and now it was going to be wasted because of a young officer's words. "Mxxxxxfxxx!"

After issuing the ticket, the young officer pushed up his police cap as if showing off. He looked at the cursing Chris like he was a clown. "Have a nice day~"

Chris ignored him, still lamenting his money.

Through the rearview mirror, he saw the young officer move on to the car behind him. Chris could only consider himself unlucky. Seeing the green light about to turn on, he quickly put his foot on the accelerator.

The next second.

Bang—!

The police cap flew high into the air, soaring like a free bird.

The young officer's blood mixed with brain matter splattered on the rear window of Chris's car. The headless body still maintained the posture of issuing a ticket.

"Who the hell is that blind idiot."

Hearing the angry shout from the car behind, Chris's heart pounded. Without waiting for the green light to fully turn on, he stomped on the accelerator.

Chapter Twenty-Six: Chris

"I must be crazy, I must have watched too much anime, my brain is hallucinating." Chris kept repeating himself. He didn't even notice that his speed had already reached 120 km/h. Driving at 120 on a 60 km/h road would likely result in another 3000 (currency) fine if caught by a speed camera.

But he couldn't care less. It seemed only the current extreme speed could prevent his memories from catching up to him, allowing him to forget the bloody scene. Yet, the more he tried to forget, the more the brutal scene resurfaced in his mind. Especially the young officer's arrogant expression, which was still vivid.

Through the rearview mirror, Chris noticed the bloodstains on the rear window. He quickly turned on the windshield wipers, frantically pressing the washer fluid button, washing away the bloodstains bit by bit.

However, even though the bloodstains were completely invisible, in Chris's mind, the blood still lingered like a nightmare.

He felt he was probably sick and needed to see a psychologist. He wondered if therapy was expensive; Chris had never been. He had heard that many psychologists were scammers and ineffective.

Chris mused to himself.

But before that, he needed to give his car a good wash.

"It's okay, no one will bother you. The surveillance clearly showed the gangsters were the ones who made the move, it has nothing to do with you, nothing to do with you." Constantly repeating psychological affirmations to himself, Chris's mood slowly calmed down.

He gradually reduced the car's speed back to 60, and his wildly beating heart returned to its usual rhythm. Everything seemed to be back on its original track; he was just like any other day, heading home from work.

Perhaps because today's events were too intense, Chris, who had been on edge, always felt that his peaceful life was different from before.

Woof woof—

The neighbor's dog barked. This was a normal occurrence. He had known for a long time that his neighbor owned a dog, but he had never actually seen what it looked like. However, the dog's barking at all hours was eventually a bit annoying. He had gone over to complain once, and it had indeed been quiet for a few days, with no barking at all.

But when the dog started barking again today, Chris couldn't help but wonder if it was because it smelled the blood on his car.

He felt a little agitated, praying that his neighbor wouldn't call the police because of it.

Fortunately, when he opened his own front door, no police officers suddenly burst in to arrest him.

Tiredly taking off his shoes, he found two or three pairs of unfamiliar leather shoes scattered on the floor by the shoe rack. Chris sighed and tidied them up one by one.

"Probably my sister's colleagues again," he muttered under his breath, glancing at his sister's closed room door with a sense of helplessness. His sister's new job was incredibly demanding; not only did she often work overtime, but she occasionally brought colleagues home.

Whenever there were extra people at home, Chris felt extremely uncomfortable. Even when he locked himself in his room to play games alone, he would often make mistakes.

"I hope they leave soon." After changing his shoes, Chris went to the kitchen to make something simple to eat. Snacks were scattered haphazardly in the kitchen, along with some small candy wrappers he didn't recognize.

Chris didn't like sweets. Compared to desserts, he preferred the legendary Mapo Tofu from Chinese cuisine, which was so highly praised in anime. He heard it was both numbing and spicy, tasting like an erupting volcano. However, he had never eaten real Mapo Tofu in his life. The Chinese restaurants he occasionally visited out of curiosity were all run by locals.

At these restaurants, there were mostly fast-food items like chicken wraps. The flatbread was dry, the chicken was tough, and the price was much higher than at regular fast-food chains. Chris really wanted to loudly complain about them deceiving consumers, but being someone who generally disliked causing trouble, he felt it was better to play a few more games than waste time on that.

Thinking about playing games, Chris's entire day's frustration vanished.

He had a decent high-end computer and later saved up to buy a PS4. His salary wasn't high; after spending on games, he could barely make ends meet, but that was it.

These two devices were almost his entire life, fulfilling most of his entertainment needs.

After locking himself in his small room, Chris felt the entire world quiet down. There was no endless work, no nitpicking boss, no gangsters, and no chaos. All that accompanied him was the beautiful world of anime and games.