Domination Play Nine

After explaining the usage instructions for the inhibitors to Mei, Jian Yun retrieved a black smartphone from her pocket.

"This is used by the attendants when communicating. The Queen must immediately use it to contact the other attendants should she have any questions. But please remember, you cannot use it to contact anyone outside of the organization. Anti-Entropy's technology is currently superior to ours and very easily tracked. I know you are currently colluding with them, but I think you should be aware that Kiana Organization's retaliation is absolutely fatal."

In her mind, she suddenly recalled the blazing fires all over the sky above Sky City last night. The high-temperature scorched air made her throat feel somewhat parched even now. Mei had already witnessed once just how unhinged an organization led by a Herrscher could be. If she forcibly took Kiana away, she was afraid it really would spark a conflict between Kiana Organization and Anti-Entropy.

"Alright, if there is anything you don't understand, you can also contact me. This entire industrial zone is our territory, so you don't need to worry about Schicksal's people tracking you here."

"Also, Her Majesty's familiar has already left; it will continue to attract Schicksal's attention. If Her Majesty wishes to summon it, we will also make arrangements immediately."

"Although it currently seems far from qualified, since you have joined the organization, it means wholehearted loyalty to the Queen. I hope you will quickly grow into a qualified attendant." After solemnly saying these words, Jian Yun turned and left.

"Wait."

Her footsteps halting, Jian Yun looked back, wearing a puzzled expression as she asked, "Is there anything else?"

Silently for a moment, Mei looked down at the blade in her hand and asked, "Sky City... what is it like now?"

"Under the leader's full-strength strike, the entire city has already been turned into ruins."

"What about the other attendants? Like that masked man?"

Hearing Mei's words, Jian Yun sighed slightly, her tone becoming exceptionally somber. "You mean Thousand Calamities, right? He died in battle. Not just him, many of our attendants were buried in that city."

"D-Dead?" Unconcealable astonishment appeared on her face, and Mei's heart sank. Although she thoroughly disliked that man, hearing news of his death still felt rather heavy.

"To die in battle for Her Majesty is simply what we ought to do; there is no need for grief. Even though I am merely administrative staff, when the time comes, I too will die on the battlefield without any regrets."

Chapter 123: Forums and Volume Review

The conversation concluded, and Jian Yun had already departed, yet Mei's inner turmoil refused to settle for a long time.

She fancied her feelings for Kiana surpassed anyone else's, but compared to these organization members who gave up their lives without the slightest hesitation, how high could her own resolve possibly be?

If one day in the future requires me to sacrifice myself, could I be like them? she asked herself, and the next second her heart had already provided the answer.

I can!

Once again firming up the thoughts within her mind, Mei closed the door and opened the black box. Inside the box were several flat, specially crafted thin patches. In truth, Mei still harbored some distrust toward Kiana Organization; had they asked her to inject Kiana with syringes of unknown origin, she certainly wouldn't have accepted it easily. Yet Kiana Organization seemed to have taken this into account, providing this directly topical medication. Even though the efficacy would be much poorer, at least it offered peace of mind.

The icy-cold patches covered Kiana's skin. Her feverish body, heated by the erosion, gradually recovered its normal temperature. These patches were capable of absorbing excess Honkai Energy through the pores into the medication, thereby alleviating the erosion.

Confirming that the medication was effective, Mei sat back down against the wall. She should have continued to rest, but upon hearing about the fallen Kiana Organization members, her mind simply refused to calm down.

She took out the smartphone Jian Yun had given her. The phone's functions were extremely simple, featuring only communication and forum modules.

The contact list was divided into two sections: subordinates and attendants. Basically, they only provided code names, and all personal information—including gender—was completely hidden.

However, outside of these names, there were also several code names that had turned gray. Surprisingly, these code names accounted for a full third of the entire list. Among them, Mei found the code name of Thousand Calamities, along with the notation "Deceased" marked beside it.

The list provided basic information for these deceased members, including brief personal profiles and their contributions to the organization.

Browsing through the information of these fallen personnel one by one, Mei felt increasingly oppressed in her chest, finally stopping on the profile of a young girl.

"Fallen: Griseo, female, 12 years old."

Her breathing grew somewhat rapid. At twelve years old, Mei herself had merely been an ignorant and innocent child, yet this girl had sacrificed herself in the city to cover her and Kiana's retreat.

Growing progressively heavier at heart, Mei suddenly felt a trace of terror—terrified of this list being seen by Kiana. Mei knew very well that even if these people had all sacrificed themselves voluntarily, given Kiana's personality, she would undoubtedly shoulder all the blame entirely upon herself.

She must never know. The sacrifices of Kiana Organization... I shall inherit them.

Having made up her mind, she no longer needed to look at the rest of the roster. Slightly calming her emotions, Mei tapped into the forum module.

The forum was named [Kiana], but its background was an extravagant theater, with lights shining down upon the stage and black shadows dancing.

Looking somewhat eerie, Mei drew in a sharp breath and began browsing the content within.

The pinned post at the very top was the report of this operation. Perhaps out of absolute trust in the organization's members, the report detailed the operation's objectives, outcome, and casualties in full.

No wonder they don't allow using this phone to contact anyone else. If detailed reports like this were ever acquired by Schicksal or Anti-Entropy, Kiana Organization would face total annihilation. Mei did not know whether these fellows were simply simple-minded or genuinely trusting; confidential material of this sort was openly published right there on the forum.

Unfortunately, Raiden Mei was unaware that this material was simply something Su Jue had spent half an hour writing up, and furthermore, this crappy phone possessed no encryption programs whatsoever because it wasn't connected to the internet at all. Communication was merely achieved by utilizing the Theater of Domination as a relay.

Moreover, that long list of names was mostly fabricated on the spot, while the rest were entirely puppets. The entire organization had only one living person—Mei—and even if she handed over all the data, she would only investigate a whole lot of nothing.

As for Aunt Himeko, she still didn't even know the existence of something called Kiana Organization. Su Jue had deliberately separated her from the other puppets, leaving only Tread Snow behind by her side to act as surveillance. After the performance in Sky City, she had self-righteously come to regard Su Jue as one of her own.

Right now, [Su Jue] had been captured, yet Aunt Himeko had successfully retreated; she was probably currently considering how to go rescue prisoners at Schicksal.

She didn't realize that the one who got captured was the puppet [Su Jue]. What did that have to do with me, the Herrscher of Domination?

Inside the Theater of Domination, seeing that he had finally successfully lured Mei into his camp, Su Jue also heaved a sigh of relief.

All in all, this plan could be considered a perfect conclusion, with the main objectives having all been achieved.

Sitting alone in the audience seating of the Theater of Domination, Su Jue began his review.

First was reversing the impression of the Herrscher of Void in the hearts of civilians.

During the process where Kiana risked her life to send away the Honkai Bomb, the moniker of Magical Girl Kiana had left a sufficiently deep impression in the memories of the civilians. Next, as long as it was spread a little bit, covering Divine Land at the very least wouldn't pose too big of an issue.

Second was the emergence of Kiana Organization.

All along, Su Jue had been deliberately tying Kiana Organization and the Herrscher of Void together. This was both to attract the attention of the three major organizations and simultaneously to elevate Kiana's influence.

When running in the world, one needed backing and power. When people asked Kiana which path she belonged to later on, how would she answer?

If it were just her alone, the three major organizations would undoubtedly think of every possible way to exploit her. But now, with a mysterious organization acting as a deterrent, any move they wanted to make would force them to consider whether their own organization would face retaliation.

Originally, Su Jue was prepared to directly pin the blame on Kiana, echoing that famous anti-fan quote:

"Kiana, even if you are against the entire world, I will still stand by your side."

"But why would I be against the world?"

"It doesn't matter, I'll help you be against the world."

However, later on, due to some special reasons, he slightly altered the plan.

Third was in order to fish in troubled waters.

Among his prior objectives, Su Jue had already entertained the thought of bringing Sky City under his own possession, but back then the entire city had formed a complete order, making it extremely difficult to shake. Even if he could control the upper-echelon personnel, it remained hard to alter the foundations.

Yet now that the city was mostly destroyed, reconstruction work was bound to begin. Su Jue had purposely avoided attacking civilians and instead destroyed those developed buildings precisely to give the people living in the suburbs a chance to rebel, a chance to reshuffle the deck.

Only in this way could the city plunge into chaos, and only with sufficient chaos could Su Jue quietly seize the lifeblood of the entire city amidst the reconstruction.

The core of the Herrscher of a Thousand was not exclusively controllable through becoming a puppet; much like the core Su Jue shoved into Alvit, in ordinary times they would merely live according to their own habits, yet in reality they would be guided by Domination, acting according to Su Jue's intentions. And at critical moments, Su Jue could directly take control of them.

Such an effect was far inferior to puppets, but its advantage lay in being convenient and covert without requiring Su Jue to personally take action.

Alvit was an important intelligence operative of the Immortal Blade Squad, and the clearance level of intelligence she could access was extremely high. Planting her within Schicksal headquarters could very well become a critical piece in stirring up the war situation when necessary.

Yet concurrently, her personal personality was also quite distinct. If she were completely controlled by Su Jue, it would be difficult to guarantee she wouldn't show any flaws. Precisely for this reason, Su Jue hadn't turned her into a puppet, instead leaving her to function normally and only mobilizing her at crucial moments.

Upon concluding the inventory of his plan, Su Jue simultaneously sorted through the powers currently at his disposal.

In terms of puppets, there were already [Su Jue], [Tread Snow], [Ink Moth], [Mother (Believer)], [Himeko], [Griseo], [Thousand Calamities], [K424], while several others whose cores had been sent out were excluded.

The combat capability—or rather, the control level—of the puppets ranked from highest to lowest as follows: avatars (Su Jue and Tread Snow) higher than self-aware puppets (Himeko) higher than weak autonomy (Griseo) higher than savage wolf puppet (Thousand Calamities) higher than lamb puppet (K424) higher than mere core influence.

Next was personal power. The most core power was naturally that of the Herrscher of Domination, followed by the Plague Gem. Although he was intentionally defeated by Durandal, Su Jue certainly wouldn't directly hand the gem over to Otto; thus, he specifically utilized Domination's theft ability to manufacture a fake Flame Herrscher core. As for whether Otto would discover it, that was a matter for later.

Aside from that, there was Griseo's stigma power. This thing was extremely useful, capable of mimicking the Herrscher of Void while also generating substantial destruction. By then, whether ambushing people or disguising oneself, it would be a fine choice.

Overall, excluding puppets, Su Jue had fully acquired the basic abilities of a Herrscher. Although the power of the Plague Gem could not be fully unleashed, with the coordination of the Thousand Herrscher core, his combat strength was virtually identical.

Finally were some spoils of war.

Su Jue had already used nearly half of Jackal's potions, and when needed in the future, he might even be able to go restock.

The transport ship stolen from Schicksal during the explosion was now also piled within the endless corridors on the outer perimeter of the Theater of Domination, awaiting processing by scientific research personnel.

As for the Ink Moth puppet side, Gray Serpent had successfully utilized the humanoid machine to infiltrate the Hyperion, and the objective turned out to be merely to shake Bronya. The frugal Su Jue naturally couldn't stand such behavior, so he had already covertly gotten the humanoid machine into his own hands. Next, as long as it supplemented Gray Serpent's prosthetic eye, he could possess a humanoid quantum computer, though this similarly required an excellent programmer to process.

Aside from personal strength, Kiana Organization's assets and influence in this world were also steadily developing.

E.T. Studio had already released their first game, "Original Demon." Taking a non-conformist path, Su Jue directly used black-red publicity, piggybacking on the popularity of the currently most popular Hoho Fantasy.

Because the two games bore zero relation in either gameplay or genre, this piggybacking earned a thorough chewing out from loyal fans of Hoho Fantasy, but it simultaneously attracted a massive wave of traffic. Furthermore, backed by the manga industry, the revenue of "Original Demon" had been growing day by day.

Aside from that, the initial manga industry had not fallen behind.

"Divine Land Sword Breaking Record" had already been drawn to volume five. Although there were always some fellows claiming to be descendants of ancient Divine Land sects voicing objections, what did my Divine Land Sword Breaking have to do with your Divine Land? Besides, I'm already out to volume five, what volume has your Divine Land Sword Breaking Record reached... Ahem, straying off topic.

Meanwhile, in order to manufacture products like figures, Su Jue directly acquired the industrial zone where Mei and the others were currently hiding out. As long as raw materials were sufficient, they operated 24 hours a day—high quality and massive output. Yet Su Jue wasn't foolish either; he deliberately registered a huge number of companies to handle sales, avoiding being reported for malicious competition.

Next, as long as he could procure Anti-Entropy blueprints, these figure-manufacturing factories could transform into mecha production bases at any moment. Anyway, with the Theater of Domination serving as a relay station, they didn't even need transportation costs.

Everything had already embarked on the right track, yet Su Jue could not afford to stop. Now that Sea Abyss City was about to open, he had to shift his attention toward World Serpent.

As for the erosion on Kiana's body, those thin patches Su Jue provided to Mei were actually constructed from his domination threads, so there was no need to worry.

Chapter 124: Domination Play Nine

Night gradually deepened, and the sky was painted a heavy black by dark clouds.

At this hour, city dwellers indulging in night life finally felt fatigued, and the neon lights on the streets seemed to feel the chill of midnight, extinguishing their illumination.

Yet within the darkness that ought to have been meant for recuperation and rest, lonely lights still burned brightly all through the night.

Thump.

The man slumped over the desk shifted his body slightly, his elbow accidentally bumping into a stack of refreshing beverage cans piled on the edge of the desk. Instantly, a tinkling midnight symphony rang out within the quiet office, as if even the empty cans wanted to go disco dancing at a night club.

The young man woke up with a start, struggling to open his bloodshot eyes. Without looking at the cans that had tumbled all over the floor, he looked anxiously at the computer screen.

On the screen were the bugs that needed fixing today. The densely packed code seemed even smaller than ants, and the youth's severely nearsighted eyes couldn't see clearly, prompting him to hurriedly pick up his glasses from the side and put them on.

"Phew, they're already fixed." The man startled awake from his dream let out a long sigh of relief. He had been terrified that he might have fallen asleep while fixing bugs, in which case his bonus for the month would definitely have been docked entirely.

The bottom right corner of the computer displayed the time as 3:30, marking the deepest hour of the night.

A small potted cactus sat on the office desk, initially raised under the pretext of relieving eye strain, but in the end he never had the time to look at it. Fortunately, being a cactus after all, it wouldn't easily die even from a lack of water. The man poured the remaining half-cup of water from his mug into the flowerpot, which meant he could go another half a month without watering.

On the partition board next to the cactus, two or three photographs were pinned. One of them was a group photo of him and his family, one was a company dinner, and the very last one was a photo of his girlfriend.

He took down the photo with his girlfriend, inscribed with "Greene & Xiaomei", which had been taken together with his girlfriend two months ago on Valentine's Day. However, due to working overtime continuously lately, they hadn't seen each other for two or three weeks, and he didn't even know if she was taking good care of herself.

Thinking of that girl, a trace of a smile inevitably surfaced on Greene's fatigued face. The two of them had been dating since university, spanning three years up to the present.

"Work hard. As soon as this month's salary is issued, I can make up the final installment for the ring and propose to her directly." Greene was a very responsible person; his girlfriend had accompanied him for three years, and all her sacrifices were witnessed by him. His desperate overtime work this month was actually in preparation for marriage.

"Ugh, why do I feel like I'm setting a flag?" Greene, who frequently browsed video websites, was quite familiar with such internet slang. He quickly spat twice to ward off bad luck, but upon reacting, he immediately burst into laughter at his own action.

He wasn't going off to participate in combat; he was merely an ordinary corporate slave going to work every day—where would there be so many accidents?

He reached out to rub the toy pig his girlfriend had given him, which sat beside his hand. Under his kneading, the little pig continuously stuck out its tongue, easing his nervous mood quite a bit as well.

He looked up toward the office. Unsurprisingly, it was long since empty. That made sense; everyone else at most stayed up until one or two o'clock. If it weren't for the leadership demanding overnight bug fixes, Greene would have long since returned to his rented apartment to rest.

Rising from his chair, the joints all over his body cracked. Sitting in front of the computer for long hours made him feel as though his entire person was on the verge of falling apart.

Picking up his water mug, Greene prepared to head to the water dispenser for another cup of warm water to moisten his throat. Walking through the silent office, Greene suddenly felt a sense of freedom.

His work was finished, and he didn't need to care about the gazes of those around him. Subconsciously taking steps forward while recalling dance steps he had seen on television as a child, he danced to amuse himself.

Unfortunately, his exhausted body quickly issued a warning, telling him he was no longer the energetic child of yesteryear. Ultimately, it ended with a single sigh as he honestly picked up his mug and drank his warm water.

"I'll bring some wolfberry next time. Even though it's a bit embarrassing, what people say online is right—keeping healthy should start from the young."

After finishing all this, Greene returned to his chair once more.

His body felt so tired.

It would be 4:00 soon, and across the past two days he hadn't even slept a total of five hours. Going home was definitely out of the question; he would just make do in the office.

He hugged a throw pillow and slumped over the desk, preparing to continue sleeping, yet he found himself somewhat unable to fall asleep because he had consumed too much refreshing beverage earlier. Left with nothing to do, he idly scrolled through videos, eventually drifting into a hazy slumber.

Early the next morning, the commotion of the company woke him up. Greene's brain felt dizzy and muddled, unable to even figure out what his colleagues were saying to him, and he could only reply with perfunctory "Mhm, mhm" noises.

Fortunately, there weren't many matters today. Greene's programming skills were inherently the best among his colleagues, but precisely because of that, he ended up having to work even more overtime than the others, having to rush through work overnight every time they encountered complex, vicious bugs.

Brewing a few more cups of coffee to forcefully rally his spirits and finish today's work, by afternoon he had already locked onto the timing.

Tonight was his date with his girlfriend; he absolutely could not let himself be requested to work overtime again.

The end-of-work hour arrived, yet not a single person among the surrounding colleagues moved; everyone was already accustomed to overtime. Greene vaguely caught sight of the supervisor walking toward the office holding a USB drive. A cold sneer flashed across his face as he fluidly saved his work, locked his screen, and walked out.

"Sorry, I don't feel like working overtime today." Amidst the astonished gazes of his colleagues, Greene was full of vigor, feeling that today he looked exceptionally handsome. He smoothly swiped his card to leave work, even greeting the supervisor walking toward the door before stepping into the elevator just as the other party barely had time to open their mouth to ask a question.

The sky outside wasn't dark yet at quitting time, but such a view was something he seemed not to have seen in a long time.

Every day was voluntary overtime. A quitting time of 6:00 meant nobody dared to leave before 10:00 out of fear that their bonuses wouldn't be guaranteed. After all, internet companies were simply like that—base salaries were pitifully low, and wanting to earn money essentially relied entirely on overtime.