Kiana and the Captain's Bizarre Adventure

Chapter 211 Pre-war meeting

Inside a university student dormitory, the captain was unlocking the door while Chen Tianwu stood guard nearby.

"Although we did manage to sneak in, is it really okay to barge into someone else's room like this?"

"What does it matter? We've already gotten permission from the dorm manager, and we even got the key from him. Just go in without worry. But this door is really hard to open. Could the dorm manager have given us the wrong key?"

Chen Tianwu's lips twitched uncontrollably as he recalled the scene in front of the dormitory. He never imagined that the captain could lie so skillfully. Watching him, he almost suspected that the captain was some kind of wanted fraudster.

After a while, the dormitory door was finally opened. The captain and his companion pushed the door open and were immediately choked by the dust that rushed towards them.

After the captain and his companion opened the windows of their dormitory, the air circulation improved the room's air quality somewhat, but no matter how hard they searched, they couldn't find a single suspicious letter.

At this point, the captain also began to doubt whether he had made a mistake.

"This is really strange. Could it be that I've made a mistake?"

"Could it still be in that apartment, but you just haven't found it?"

“That’s certainly possible,” the captain affirmed. “After all, that apartment was his studio. I only did a quick look around to avoid seeming like some weirdo. I really don’t understand why someone who’s already struggling to make ends meet would go to the trouble of renting an apartment as a studio. Is that the kind of pursuit an artist has?”

"I think it's unlikely."

"why?"

"This dorm room looks like it hasn't been cleaned in a long time. I'm even sure it hasn't been used for more than a year, far beyond the earliest time Sean disappeared."

The captain looked around and found that, just as Chen Tianwu had said, the place had not been used for more than a year.

Ultimately, it was the captain who trusted the information in his head too much, even though he had already messed up the plot of this world.

How could the details possibly be the same as in your own world?

After figuring this out, the captain immediately shouted to Chen Tianwu, "Let's go! We need to go back quickly. If I'm not mistaken, Bronya and Seele have probably already been taken to the Theater of Domination!"

"Bronya and Seele? What's going on? Wait for me!"

Before the captain could give an answer, Chen Tianwu saw him dash off like an arrow. Helpless, Chen Tianwu had no choice but to follow him.

When the captain and Chen Tianwu arrived, Bronya and Seele had already returned to the real world, but Bronya didn't seem to be in good condition.

"Was it still too late?"

"Captain, what's going on? Bronya looks so weak."

"We'll discuss the specifics later! Let's take Bronya back to Salt Lake Base for treatment first!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the captain had already carried Bronya on his back and was running towards the Salt Lake Base. Fortunately, it wasn't too far from the Salt Lake Base, and the support that Seele had called for along the way arrived. So, the group escorted Bronya all the way back to the Salt Lake Base.

The captain was then escorted to the conference room. As for why it wasn't an interrogation room, it was mainly because of Seele's pleas that they ultimately decided to let him participate in the following meeting as a second-best option.

"Nice to meet you, Captain," Einstein said.

The captain echoed this sentiment, explaining that this was indeed his first formal meeting with Einstein in this world. Their only previous brief encounter was in Abyss City, but since the captain had a mission to complete and Einstein wasn't present, it couldn't be considered a formal meeting.

"Enough with the small talk, this time we hope the captain can tell us everything he knows."

The captain looked around and said, "It seems you've already learned some of my intelligence through Chen Tianwu."

“Yes,” Theresa said anxiously, “So could you please tell us what exactly is going on with Bronya? Please!”

Seeing Theresa pleading with him in a humble manner, the captain ultimately couldn't bring himself to be ruthless.

"Never mind, you'll find out about these things later anyway, so I'll just be a good person and tell you in advance."

"That's for the best. After all, I believe that Captain's appearance at Yancheng Lake was mainly to resolve this incident, right?"

The captain glanced at Einstein with slight surprise, then seemed relieved. Or rather, if he couldn't even guess this, the captain would have doubted whether the person in front of him was really Einstein.

After a moment's thought, the captain told everyone present about the incident caused by the Herrscher of Domination and Her abilities.

After listening to the captain's explanation, Einstein's face showed a rare expression of confusion.

"According to the Captain, this Herrscher of Domination is indeed very troublesome, and can control the power of beings weaker than itself. This is something that the previous civilization did not mention. Could it be that humanity now also possesses Herrschers, and that the Honkai has caused their abilities to evolve?"

“That’s one way to look at it,” the captain said. “After all, the way the previous civilization dealt with the Herrschers was to kill them completely and then use their cores to make Divine Keys. So, it was enough to sow discord among humans.”

"But the current civilization is different, because humanity also has Herrschers who are willing to fight for humanity. In order to ensure that they still have the strength to fight against Herrscher-level beings, they have evolved abilities that are as their name suggests."

“Domination… oh… that’s troublesome!” Einstein said. “Is there any way to prevent power from being stripped away?”

"Aren't you going to ask how to regain your power?"

"First of all, Captain, we must make it clear that we are not as devoid of subjectivity as you might imagine. Therefore, I think the only way to regain our power is to defeat Him."

"Yes and no," the captain said.

Then, under Einstein's questioning gaze, the captain slowly explained: "Besides defeating the Herrscher of Domination, there is another way to regain power, and this method is also applicable to preventing power from being taken away, or rather, regaining power is a byproduct of it."

Upon hearing this, everyone present held their breath, listening intently to what the captain would say next.

"That method is both difficult and easy. It simply means defeating Him in the battle of power. As long as we win, the Herald of Domination will suffer the backlash of His power. At that time, His control over the power will weaken, and the power that He took away will eventually return to the original human body."

"So, Captain, are these all the methods?" Einstein asked uncertainly. "After all, even we could think of these, or are you still hiding some information?"

Seeing this, everyone else also cast scrutinizing glances at the captain, including Chen Tianwu. Among the crowd, only Fu Hua remained unchanged, which brought tears to the captain's eyes.

"That's all I can say. After all, in my world, we only found these clues before we completely defeated the Herrscher of Domination. Any more clues are useless in the face of the fact that we've already defeated her."

“Alright, let’s leave it at that,” Theresa sighed. “But in your world, Kiana used the power of the Herrscher of the Void to pull everyone into that Domination Theater, right? Did Kiana come with you? Is she alright now?”

"It's a pity Kiana didn't come," the captain said, shaking his head. "But I can tell you she's fine, so you don't need to worry."

Hearing the captain's words, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but Chen Tianwu then raised his own question.

"But I remember Kiana had already entered the Paradise of the Dead to undergo trials before the Coral Island incident, right? Is it really that good?"

Hearing Chen Tianwu's words, everyone's hearts, which had been at ease, were once again filled with anxiety.

"Captain! What on earth is going on?"

Now, not only Theresa, but even Mei tensed up. Mei had grabbed the captain by the collar and pulled him in front of her, her sharp eyes piercing the captain's body, causing the captain to instinctively shiver.

"Don't be nervous! Don't be nervous!"

The captain gestured for Chen Tianwu to help pull Mei back so he could explain himself. Chen Tianwu hesitated to act because Mei was a girl, but Fu Hua ultimately stepped in and stopped Mei.

Under Fu Hua's persuasion, Mei gradually calmed down, let go of her collar and took a few steps back. Only then did the captain breathe a sigh of relief.

"Simply put, the so-called Paradise of the Past is a device left behind by the previous civilization. It contains the memories of the last thirteen fusion warriors of the previous civilization and each of them has a system called Imprint. This Imprint system was created by the previous civilization based on a person's ability. The person who is given the Imprint can gain extremely powerful strength as long as they pass the final trial."

“I can vouch for the captain for all of this,” Fu Hua said. “It’s just that the power we ultimately gain might not be acceptable to most people.”

"Why?" Theresa asked, puzzled.

"Because that power is the power of a fusion warrior," the captain replied. "A fusion warrior is someone who has Honkai Beast factors surgically or through drugs fused into a human body, giving them power far exceeding that of an ordinary person."

"Isn't that great? I also have Honkai Beast genes in my body. Although it's not good for me to say this, I dare say that half of my talent comes from Vishnu's genes. If you can obtain such power just by passing the trial, doesn't that mean that World Serpent possesses power far exceeding that of the other two organizations?"

"If it were really that good, the World Serpent's executives wouldn't only have a dozen or so people left," Chen Tianwu shrugged.

"You may not know this, but that trial was both a trial to gain power and a trial for the World Serpent to select its leaders. But the World Serpent only has about a dozen leaders, and besides me, the only ones whose names I can name are Raven, Gray Serpent, and Jackal..."

"Could it be that this trial is very dangerous?"

"It's hard to say," Chen Tianwu said. "The main issue is that the final examiner is one of those thirteen heroes. If we encounter an easy-going one, that'll be fine, but if we encounter that Mad King..."

"What is Yingjie? And who is this Mad King you mentioned, Chen Tianwu? Tell me quickly!"

"The so-called heroes actually refer to the thirteen last fusion warriors of the previous civilization," Fu Hua said. "Originally, the previous civilization had a large number of fusion warriors, but due to the fusion tragedy caused by the Herrscher of Binding, almost all of them were killed, leaving only thirteen warriors. In order to manage the remaining thirteen warriors well, someone in the previous civilization proposed to form a special organization for centralized management, and that organization was called the Thirteen Heroes of Fire Chaser."

"So that's how it is. Then who is this so-called Mad King?" Theresa asked.

"The Mad King... I think Chen Tianwu was referring to Qian Jie, who possesses the Annihilation Mark. Indeed, only his personality can be called the Mad King..."

"What's his personality like? Is he very short-tempered?" Mei asked uncertainly.

“Irritable…” Fu Hua murmured, then said, “His personality cannot be summed up by just being irritable. Simply put, he hates everything related to Honkai. He will burn anything related to Honkai without mercy, including Herrschers. He even killed a Herrscher with his own hands in the pre-civilization era.”

"This...this is terrible! No way! I have to go to the World Serpent right now and pull Kiana out of that...this Paradise!"

After saying this, Theresa shouldered the Oath of Judah and prepared to walk outside.

"Principal, wait!" Fu Hua hurriedly called out to Theresa, "Not to mention you don't even know where World Serpent's base is, even if you did find World Serpent, do you think they would give you the chance to go in and find Kiana?"

Theresa paused, realizing she had no idea where the World Serpent base was, and just as Fu Hua had said, the World Serpent people had no reason to let her go in to find Kiana.

“It seems that’s true,” Theresa said, bending over weakly. “Isn’t there any other way?”

Seeing this, Fu Hua comforted her, "Don't worry, just like Chen Tianwu said, there are more than just Qian Jie in the Paradise of the Past. If Kiana encounters one of those examiners, she might pass without even having to go through the final trial."

"Really?"

Theresa's eyes shone with hope, and Fu Hua nodded firmly upon seeing that look.

"Really, although the Thirteen Heroes all have very unique personalities, only Qianjie is the type who will start a battle without saying a word. You can rest assured, Dean."

As she spoke, Fu Hua's voice gradually became less confident, but in order to reassure Theresa, she had no choice but to grit her teeth and continue.

This is also to fulfill the promise Kevin made to Alicia.

Unbeknownst to her, Fu Hua's consciousness returned to that night when Kevin secretly found her after the banquet and told her Alicia's last words.

That night, Fu Hua thought a lot and realized that whether or not they attended the banquet, or whether or not they did, what remained unchanged in their hearts was their unwavering belief in Alicia.