The Captain Just Wants to Go Home and Play Games

And to think that Kiana, that idiot, had given him a friendzone card again.

Watching Kiana sit there like a big shot, patting her belly, Mo Yi felt it was time to get down to business.

Other people ate a six-yuan bowl of spicy hotpot and had to pay the price thirteen times over. Kiana, you just ate a lavish dinner from me, Mo Yi—how could you get off without paying any price at all?

Forgive me, Kiana. This is only the first time. There's still a long road ahead.

"Kiana—"

Mo Yi's expression turned serious as he spoke to her:

"Kiana, since you're staying here with me, and right next door, you should at least let me know a little about your situation. If you're some wanted fugitive or runaway princess, someone ordinary like me can't handle that kind of trouble."

"Don't you think?"

That's right. Mo Yi was planning to dig into Kiana's background. She'd said before that she was an E-class cultivator. As someone part of the supernatural world, she definitely knew a lot of things Mo Yi didn't.

After eating Mo Yi's big meal and sensing no ill intent from him, Kiana's favorability toward him shot up considerably. Besides, what he said did make sense.

So Kiana began to tell her story.

Kiana's father had vanished one day, and she'd set out to find him. The last clue she got was that her father had once appeared in Changkong City, so she followed the trail there.

Mo Yi: This familiar plot—isn't it just the opening backstory of Kiana in Honkai Impact 3rd? If he remembered correctly.

Kiana had probably been on this journey searching for her father the whole time. A girl traveling all alone like this—suffering and hardship were a given. But the process of persevering alone was also incredibly lonely.

For someone as outgoing and cheerful as Kiana, that made it even harder.

So once Mo Yi opened that floodgate, she just kept chattering on and on. Old Man Mo Yi had to guide the conversation to steer her toward the things he was interested in.

After a full hour of talking, Kiana had talked herself dry. Mo Yi actually learned quite a bit of common knowledge about the cultivator world.

Of course, it was only common knowledge. As for more confidential information, someone like Kiana, an E-class cultivator, wouldn't have access to it at all.

First, cultivators didn't have a clear ranking system. As far as Kiana knew, she'd encountered all kinds of cultivators—those who used superpowers, those with mutated bodies, martial artists, mechanical types—a hundred flowers blooming. The only common point was that they could all absorb the spiritual energy in the air to strengthen themselves.

As for the E-class she mentioned earlier, that was just an assessment from the cultivator side. It considered the cultivator's personal strength and potential, as well as their mission completion records and other factors.

E-class wasn't necessarily trash, but the highest rank, S-class, was definitely a big shot.

When she mentioned being an E-class cultivator, Kiana said indignantly that it was only because of certain reasons that she couldn't show her true strength. Otherwise, she definitely wouldn't be E-class—at least C-class.

Whether Kiana was bragging to save face or telling the truth, Mo Yi couldn't say for sure.

"Ahem—"

Hearing Kiana proudly talk about her title, 'Sonic Kiana,' again, Mo Yi couldn't help thinking of that aloof ninja, Sonic the Hedgehog. Holding back his laughter, he suggested: "Kiana, I don't think the title 'Sonic Kiana' really suits you."

"Didn't you say you're good at Gun Fu? How about calling yourself 'Piltover Enforcer Kiana' or 'Berserk Girl Kiana'? Wouldn't that be cooler?"

"Do you think titles are something you can just change yourself?"

Kiana said, exasperated:

"Titles are earned based on mission performance."

"So that means you're really fast?"

"Of course—"

Kiana said proudly:

"I can deliver all the takeout in an entire district within the time limit by myself. If anyone else tried, it would take at least a dozen people."

Mo Yi: "..."

According to Kiana, registered cultivators could get a lot of things from the Cultivator Association that couldn't be found elsewhere. But the most important thing was that cultivators could take missions from the association.

It was actually easy to understand. With unstable elements like cultivators appearing, the major powers naturally needed to pacify and manage them. The Cultivator Association was that kind of organization. Pure restriction wouldn't work—people needed to eat. Releasing missions was a way to guide cultivators to use their power for good.

Besides, it gave cultivators a way to earn money and eat. It killed multiple birds with one stone.

However, these missions all had rank restrictions. Newbies at the lowest rank, like Kiana, could only take missions like delivering takeout.

But the thing that caught Mo Yi's attention the most came next. With the appearance of cultivators, the world had also started seeing little monsters called 'Honkai Beasts.' Eliminating these Honkai Beasts was the main task for high-level cultivators.

Because information was blocked on all sides and Honkai Beasts hadn't appeared frequently yet, most ordinary people like Mo Yi still didn't know about this.

But according to Kiana, for some reason, in the last six months, Honkai Beasts had been appearing more and more often. She'd run into several on her journey.

"Honkai Beasts?"

Hearing that word, Mo Yi immediately felt something was wrong.

And when Kiana said 'Honkai Beasts,' her eyes were clearly shifting—like she was guilty about something.

Chapter Eleven: Coach, I Want to Learn How to Deliver Takeout!

In Kiana's description, starting about sixteen years ago, people began to appear who could absorb the spiritual energy in the air. These people later became today's cultivators.

Similarly, humans weren't the only species that could absorb the new energy appearing on Earth. Other living things and plants could too. However, the energy they absorbed was called Honkai Energy, which was significantly different from the spiritual energy humans absorbed. The living things and plants that evolved by absorbing Honkai Energy were more aggressive, and most were highly hostile.

Of course, this was just the mainstream view at the time.

If it had been before meeting Kiana, Mo Yi might have believed it. But meeting Kiana, the heroine of the Honkai world, plus the fact that his city was called Changkong City—too many coincidences made Mo Yi have to doubt.

If this world generally matched the setting of the Honkai world, then according to Mo Yi's guess, it should be like this: Honkai was something created by Earth or the universe to eliminate the pest called 'human civilization.' It had existed since several ultra-ancient civilizations and had successfully shut down and rebooted human civilization several times.

Therefore, for humans themselves, Honkai Energy is toxic. Only a very few mutants can resist its erosion and use it to strengthen themselves.

And now, this newly emerged energy called 'Aura' that allows humans to cultivate or evolve—whether it existed in the era of the Ancient Civilization is unclear. But 'Aura' feels more like something that appeared specifically to help humans resist Honkai Energy.

As for why it appeared, that's hard to say.

In such a short time, Mo Yi had already thought of several possibilities.

It could be a contingency plan left behind by survivors of the Ancient Civilization, or perhaps a powerful figure from the future traveled back in time to change the past and save the world.

Since Earth itself has a will, and humanity—so tenacious despite being shut down and rebooted multiple times—could it have formed such a 'Will'?

It's hard to say. Perhaps this is something created by the 'Human Civilization Will' to oppose the Honkai Will.

After all, only mystery can counter mystery. If the Honkai Will is clearly taking the path of mystical power to annihilate humanity, then for the Human Civilization Will to not create something similar to fight back, but instead continue developing technology to resist—that would just be stubborn-headedness.