novelhk Chapter 419 I'll deal with you later.
Chapter 419 I'll deal with you later.
As Bronya used the Heavy Bunny to open the "non-automatic automatic door" of the Moon Throne, the four of them stepped into the warship one after another.
Although they had dealt with most of the Honkai Beasts on the deck and kicked the Lava Emperor off the spaceship, and thanks to the spaceship's internal defense system, the sounds of the Honkai Beasts had disappeared from their ears, the four of them remained on edge, fearing that another group of Honkai Beasts might suddenly appear from somewhere...
"Himeko-sensei, did you say that Lava Emperor was destroyed?"
Inside the spaceship's corridor, after Himeko swiftly dealt with the "giant mosquito" that had sprouted in the corner, a somewhat uneasy Seele raised a question.
To reassure her team, Himeko naturally had to answer, but she didn't stop walking as she spoke. With little time left before the plane crashed, they had to hurry.
"Don't worry, Seele. Even though there's the ocean below, falling from this height would turn it into a pancake even if it were made of iron! Even if it's an Emperor-level Honkai Beast, its chances of survival are extremely slim..."
"That means it's not zero... Ouch!"
Thinking of a certain super silly goose, Sora muttered to herself, and Himeko flicked him on the head with her backhand.
"Pah, ptah, ptah, watch your mouth! You talk too much, kid."
Himeko withdrew her hand impatiently and quickened her pace.
“Now is not the time to discuss that guy! Let Hyperion or Helios take a look, our mission is to gain control of this ship and then sail it back to St. Freya! Bronya, the door is in your hands.”
At the end of the corridor was a tightly closed hydraulic door. Bronya skillfully displayed her Heavy Bunny and connected it to the port next to it. Heavy Bunny hovered beside her.
"Major Himeko, the firewall is weaker than expected, we are cracking it... Success! Bronya, please also disable the protection system that is still in operation."
"Well done, Bronya! I knew you were a smart, beautiful, and talented girl! Let's go!"
Having just been given a light tap on the head by Himeko, Sora was eager to change the subject. After sincerely praising Bronya, he was ready to slip through the door at any moment...
Then praise Bronya more, since things might not be so friendly to Duck later.
Bronya, still holding the terminal in her hands, turned her head expressionlessly upon hearing the exaggerated praise that Qiong had used before, a faint hint of helplessness flashing in her gray eyes.
“Brother Qiong, Bronya thinks your attempt to change the subject is too obvious… and everything here is very familiar to Bronya: the protection system, the design style, the design concept, even the emblem markings—it all has the ‘Anti-Entropy’ style.”
click-
As she finished speaking, the hydraulic doors slid open to the sides, revealing the cluttered bridge passageway behind. The Heavy Bunny retracted its mechanical arm and quietly hovered back behind her.
"However, Bronya accepts your compliment, thank you."
Bronya, who was floating, rushed in with Himeko the moment the door opened, her silver-gray spiral twin tails flying to either side.
"Major Himeko, Bronya recognizes this model! Bronya will now lead everyone to the control room!"
Seele keenly noticed that Bronya seemed to be floating a little faster than usual. Afraid that someone might misunderstand her older sister's feelings, Seele gently tugged at Qiong's sleeve.
"Brother Qiong, Sister Bronya is actually very happy..."
"Hey! You two, stop dawdling! We only have seven minutes left—run!"
Bypassing unknown traps and Titan mechs, and stepping over the remains of a few stray Honkai Beasts, the group reached the end of the passage. Under Bronya's control, the final bridge gate slowly opened.
"Give the control panel to Bronya!"
On the control panel, a deep blue holographic screen illuminated Bronya's calm and focused face. The armor of the Heavy Bunny reflected flowing data light; she slightly raised her hand, and the connecting cables once again extended from the mech's palm.
"Main control system access in progress—unknown encryption protocol detected, but logical vulnerabilities exist in the structure. Hmm? Trojan virus? No, it should just be leaked Honkai energy... Himeko-sensei, Bronya needs three minutes!"
Himeko gripped her weapon and warily surveyed her surroundings.
"Men, the mission will be completed in three minutes! Now, all of you, be on high alert! Especially that boy who's been a bit lax until now, do you hear me?"
"Mmmmmmm..."
Qiong gave a perfunctory smile and gripped the baseball bat in her hand tightly—but not towards any potential enemies outside, but towards Bronya.
Who knows when the salted duck will turn into a black duck—of course, it's best if it doesn't.
On the main screen of the bridge, the progress bar is rushing toward the finish line at an astonishing speed; control of the Moon Throne is within reach.
"what?"
Bronya's fingertips stopped on the virtual keyboard.
On the main screen of the bridge, the progress bar suddenly froze at the last moment before completion.
"what happened?"
Himeko, sensing something amiss, held her ship-slaying sword horizontally.
"Authentication...passed?"
Bronya's voice was hesitant.
"But there's no system login password? And all operation permissions are open? Except for the navigation password... Teacher Himeko, it's not that we cracked the firewall, it's that the firewall actively removed itself!"
"what?"
Himeko frowned. Her intuition, honed through years of battlefield experience, told her something was wrong—this was too easy!
They opened all operational permissions and removed the firewall? Doesn't that mean handing over the warships to them for nothing? Isn't Anti-Entropy supposed to keep its technology secret? Why would they be so kind?
Himeko strode to the console, her eyes scanning the interface.
"Something's not right. Would Anti-Entropy really be so kind?"
Out of caution, Himeko pressed down on her earpiece.
"Hyperion, this is Himeko Murata! Report on the energy reactions you detected at the Moon Throne, especially from the direction of the power module!"
After a brief static noise, Ai-chan's voice came through.
"Reporting to the boss, the Honkai energy readings inside the Moon Throne are very stable!"
"Didn't you find any hidden Honkai Beasts or high-explosives?"
"No findings have been made so far!"
Bronya's fingers had already blurred into afterimages on the holographic keyboard.
"Searching... Himeko-sensei, the access command was only received ten minutes ago!"
"So, someone offered us the entire ship as soon as we arrived?"
Speaking of this, Xier suddenly remembered Uncle Yang, who wore glasses and liked to act cool—wasn't he the boss of Anti-Entropy?
"Is Anti-Entropy really that kind?"
Himeko's gaze swept across every detail of the control panel like a knife, but she saw nothing.
"What? Do the Anti-Entropy people think that handing us over is better than being captured by headquarters? But why don't they move to other bases? I remember Anti-Entropy has more than one base in North America, right? I thought they wanted to let the Valkyrie in before detonating it, causing us to perish in the Pacific Ocean!"
Himeko let out a long sigh—forget it, there's no point in thinking about it so much. She might as well go back and study it.
"Never mind, Bronya. First, restore the propulsion system, then take over the navigation system, and finally check the fuel remaining settings and auto-program. Change the Moon Throne's destination to the Far East Branch—and, what about the emails?"
At Himeko's prompting, Bronya clicked on the email, and a notification popped up on the main screen. The sender field was garbled, but the title was clearly visible: Dear Kiana.
"Kiana? Bronya, open it."
Bronya quickly opened the email, and a string of not-so-concise text appeared on the holographic screen.
"My dearest Kiana, hello! This warship, the Moon Throne, is finally returned to you after thirteen years—"
Thirteen years?
Sora, who had been silently circling behind Bronya while holding the baseball bat, finally spoke up.
"What's wrong, Brother Qiong? What happened thirteen years ago—why were you pointing a baseball bat at Sister Bronya?"
Hearing Seele's words, Bronya also turned to look at Sora. Feeling uneasy under Duck's gaze, Sora had no choice but to put away her baseball bat.
"No, there's nothing at all... Hahaha..."
It should have been "fourteen years".
Although Qiong was acting a little strangely, it was normal for her to act a little strangely from time to time, so the group didn't pay too much attention to her behavior and continued reading the email.
"You will ascend the throne and shape a new world. But before that, you must find four 'keys': the lightning of conquest, the flames of plague, the storm of desire, and the silence of death. Oh, and the voyage code is your birthday~—A Herrscher of Reason, the leader of the Anti-Entropy Alliance, who wishes to remain anonymous but is absolutely familiar to you..."
At the end of the email, a simple Houmu avatar was attached.
Qiong & Bronya & Seele: ...
Okay, looks like we know who wrote this email.
"Is this... the symbol of Houmu?"
Himeko stared at the Houmu avatar, speechless.
"This ship was a gift from the leader of the Anti-Entropy Alliance? Is that the arrogant lunatic who attacked us? But why is he using the Houmu symbol?"
"Ahem, that's not important! Seele, you agree, right?"
"Yes, that's right!"
The man surnamed Yang had no intention of revealing his identity, so Qiong also did not intend to expose the matter—although it was almost an open secret, and only Himeko was kept in the dark.
"Kiana mentioned that her birthday is... December 7th! Himeko-sensei, the navigation code has been confirmed to be valid!"
Bronya's voice broke the awkward silence.
"System takeover complete, autopilot program initiated..."
The crisis seemed to have been averted, and the mission was completed far more smoothly than expected.
"Something unusual must be going on."
Himeko sheathed her ship-slaying sword, but her brow remained furrowed. She still found it hard to believe that Anti-Entropy would be so kind.
But this high-risk mission was finally complete! Slightly relieved, she looked at her three students: Bronya remained expressionless, but her fingers were lightly tapping on the control panel; Seele's lips were slightly pursed, and there was something unnatural in her eyes; as for Qiong...
She didn't understand why the kid looked like he was about to rush up and hug Bronya.
"Qiong boy, what are you thinking? You've been staring at Bronya the whole time, did you notice anything?"
Startled by Himeko's sudden question, Sora froze in mid-air, his hand holding the baseball bat and reaching towards Bronya hanging in mid-air. He opened his mouth, his gaze quickly shifting between Bronya's profile and Himeko's scrutinizing eyes.
"I...I just felt..."
Qiong's Adam's apple bobbed. He was ready to knock the duck unconscious with a stick at any moment to prevent it from turning evil. Was this something he could say?
Bronya seems...reliable!
Bronya stopped typing at the console.
"Oh? Reliable?"
Himeko raised an eyebrow, and the heavily armed bunny also gripped a large hand tightly.
"Yes, yes, super reliable! Himeko-neechan? You think so too, right? I just realized that Bronya when she's working hard is like a super cute doll, she'll definitely grow up to be a stunning beauty! So you're saying, 'capture Bronya... I mean, invite her to replace Anna as her secretary'—Bronya, is that really necessary?!"
boom!