Honkai, why do you only throw me into high-level battles?

How did he get in here? Cocolia's face darkened as she glared at the two doctors, who also looked startled and suspicious. "Is this your way of 'diplomacy before force'? If I don't give you an answer, you won't let me leave? Preposterous!"

"Cocolia, don't slander us!" Tesla fumed inwardly. Accusing us? I should be asking you that! But with an intruder present, it wasn't the time for internal squabbles. She redirected her fury at Lin Wei. "Who are you? How did you get in? What's your purpose? Explain yourself, or we'll be forced to take action!"

Heh! What a powerful voice! Lin Wei couldn't help but stick a finger in his ear.

The enclosed conference room amplified the sound, making Tesla's outburst even more jarring.

"Hey! You..." His seemingly dismissive gesture further fueled Tesla's anger, and she prepared to teach him a lesson.

Lin Wei gave her a strange look. With such a fiery temper, was your red hair caused by your rage?

The blue-haired woman next to her was much calmer.

"Didn't I just introduce myself? Was I not clear enough? My apologies, my mistake." Lin Wei acted like a polite guest, his gaze sweeping over the two doctors before settling on Cocolia, who stood on the other side of the room.

His tone was courteous and gentle. "I am Lin Wei, a humble civilian, a resident of this very Nagazora City, and a survivor of the Third Honkai Eruption. I offer my greetings to everyone from Anti-Entropy."

"Hmph, nonsense!" Cocolia scoffed, not believing a word.

While Lin Wei was speaking, she had secretly issued commands. As her voice fell, a ring of blue light suddenly appeared around Lin Wei!

She had seen Tesla's outburst and believed that with Tesla's temper, it couldn't have been an act.

Reassured, Cocolia decided to deal with this audacious intruder first, then pry open his annoying mouth.

Lin Wei stood relaxed, his expression calm, looking directly at Cocolia, a faint smile playing on his lips.

He seemed to ignore the blue light, and the Titan mechs that materialized from it, as if completely unprepared.

Four mechs, arriving instantaneously via quantum teleportation, surrounded the seemingly helpless Lin Wei. Their massive cannons opened, blocking all escape routes.

The cold, heavy presence of the steel giants lowered the already tense atmosphere in the room to freezing point.

"I'm sorry, but 'guests' are not welcome here. Especially uninvited, impolite ones like yourself. Anti-Entropy doesn't hesitate to use harsh methods to teach a lesson to those who think they're clever. However, I'll give you one more chance…" Seeing her trap sprung successfully, Cocolia relaxed, sitting back down.

Annoyed at herself for overreacting, she took out her frustration, and the lingering annoyance from her argument with Tesla, on Lin Wei. Her voice was chilling. "I ask, you answer. My patience is limited. Don't test me."

"Clap! Clap! Clap!" Lin Wei used his free hand to applaud, as if Cocolia's threat was merely a captivating performance. "Anti-Entropy is truly impressive, living up to its reputation."

He then turned his gaze to the two doctors, his tone calm and collected. "Don't you two have anything to say?"

Cocolia, you bastard, ruining Anti-Entropy's reputation again! Tesla seethed.

But faced with an intruder, no matter how much they disagreed on other matters, she couldn't undermine her colleague in this situation! Tesla turned her head away, sullen and silent.

"Mr. Lin Wei, if your goal is to sow discord within Anti-Entropy with your words, then you've miscalculated." Einstein spoke calmly, echoing Tesla's thoughts.

However, she felt there was more to this than met the eye. She gave Tesla and Cocolia a warning look, urging caution.

Tesla understood and calmed down.

Cocolia scoffed—As if I need your concern.

"You refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit! Then, my apologies, 'guest.'" Cocolia sneered, then waved her hand, signaling the Titans to eliminate Lin Wei.

Lin Wei couldn't be alone. She still had to check for other intruders and didn't have time for this childish game!

Seconds later, Cocolia looked up, her expression stiff. It was too quiet. Nothing had happened.

"Respected Ms. Cocolia, I said before, I'm a survivor of the Third Honkai Eruption. To survive such a terrifying disaster, naturally, I had to learn a few survival tricks."

Surrounded by Titan mechs, Lin Wei spoke slowly, his tone still calm and unhurried. He extended one hand and placed the other over his chest, bowing slightly, like a magician taking a bow. "I accept your gift. Now, please accept mine."

With that, he snapped his fingers.

The crisp sound was like a command. As Lin Wei straightened up, the four menacing Titan mechs moved in unison—turning their cannons towards the horrified Cocolia, and the holographic projections of Tesla and Einstein.

The atmosphere instantly became charged with tension.

"You!" The sudden turn of events caught Cocolia completely off guard. Panic and confusion surged through her. Why did I lose control of my mechs? How did he do it?

Cocolia couldn't understand.

"Mophead, what's going on? Why are my meticulously designed mechs being controlled by someone unknown?!" Lin Wei's effortless hijacking of the mechs shocked Tesla. Back at North American HQ, she cut off the communication and looked up at Einstein, who was not far from her. Although she hated to admit it, Einstein was superior when it came to information technology.

"EIN, access the information terminal, switch channels to quantum encryption mode, trace the source of the anomaly, and analyze the cause." Einstein reacted even faster than Tesla, cutting off her communication channel the moment the Titans moved, preventing this mysterious hacker from attacking North American HQ.

Tesla thought for a moment. She couldn't just abandon Cocolia. She switched to the more secure quantum communication mode and reconnected to ME Corp.

Einstein bit her lip. The sudden changes were too much. Schicksal had no reason to attack Anti-Entropy now. Who is he?

Her slender fingers flew across the keyboard, lines of data flashing before her eyes. She grew increasingly bewildered—the captured anomaly data didn't match any known virus. It was like a different species invading the digital world, rendering all decryption, disassembly, and analysis methods useless.

This was technology far surpassing anything Anti-Entropy currently possessed!

How is this possible? Einstein felt a chill. This unknown virus was a lethal threat to Anti-Entropy!

Is Schicksal demonstrating their power to us? Einstein concluded.

Schicksal monopolized and hoarded much of the previous civilization's advanced technology. They were the most likely culprit!

With the analysis making little progress, she abandoned it and picked up her communicator, preparing to recall Welt from St. Freya Academy.

This bizarre situation might require the Herrscher of Reason's power to deal with.

Moreover, if Otto had truly turned against them, the Sovereign's continued presence there could be dangerous!

Anti-Entropy was always so passive in front of Otto!

This frustrating reality filled Einstein with resentment.

Damn it!

Before she could take further action, all the data on the screen suddenly returned to normal.

Einstein checked carefully. The captured virus information was gone without a trace, as if nothing had happened.

What happened now?

Einstein's heart skipped a beat. Had something new happened at ME Corp? Had Cocolia dealt with the intruder?

Before Einstein could relax, she heard Tesla's furious roar. The few short words shocked her, and she immediately reconnected to the communication, abandoning all other thoughts.

Too many things had happened today…

......

Time rewound slightly.

"You!" The Titans' sudden "betrayal" was beyond everyone's expectations, especially Cocolia, who felt a chill run down her spine as she stared down the barrels of the cannons.

What just happened? No one could understand.

Lin Wei just smiled silently.

In the face of the Key of Corruption, Anti-Entropy's technology was utterly helpless.

He didn't even need to do much. Just a thought was enough to sever their data links and hijack their channels, bringing them under his control as easily as molding clay.

If he wanted to, he could control them like he had a brain-computer interface.

If he didn't want to bother, Pandora could do it all for him, according to his will.

It was completely unreasonable!

This was how he'd navigated the building so easily.

Lin Wei glanced at the two doctors, who had disconnected their communications, and smiled indifferently—they would be back.

But before that…

"Bang!" A sudden gunshot rang out, hitting Lin Wei right between the eyes. He collapsed to the ground, disbelief etched on his face, blood and brain matter splattering across the floor.

"Tch, that was easier than I thought." Cocolia lowered her still-smoking pistol, staring at the barrel, then at Lin Wei's bloodied corpse, also in disbelief…

That… was it?

She had merely seen a moment of distraction from Lin Wei and, out of a soldier's instinct, had seized the opportunity to fire, not expecting to succeed.

But…

Cocolia recalled her previous apprehension and spat in disappointment.

What a waste of emotion!

"Hmph, you got lucky. I was ready to use my ultimate weapon, even though it's not time to reveal it yet." Cocolia sneered, looking around the now-empty conference room. "This is better. Saved me a lot of trouble."

She prepared to leave and inspect her "territory," checking for anything she might have missed.

"Oh? Is that so? There was a grand finale? What a shame to miss it."

Cocolia suddenly heard a familiar voice—Lin Wei's! She turned incredulously towards the motionless corpse.

Impossible! Isn't he dead?

Then, her mind cleared as she saw black feathers falling, making the already dim room even more eerie.

Where was the corpse?

And Cocolia realized she was still sitting in her chair, unable to move!

What just happened??

"Yo, awake now? Sleep well?"

Lin Wei, who should have been "dead," was now sitting in the chair opposite her, looking down at her, casually playing with her pistol. "This gun is pretty good! At least you think it's accurate!"

Cocolia quickly checked herself, finding nothing unusual. Just as she was about to attack, a cold gun barrel pressed against her forehead. She heard Lin Wei's playful voice, "Don't move, Ms. Cocolia. I'm easily startled. My hand might slip, and it would be a shame if the gun went off. Bullets don't have eyes, you know..."

Being threatened with my own gun? The humiliation enraged Cocolia. "What did you do to me?"

"Oh, nothing much. I was just looking for something interesting, but no luck. Tch, seems it's been wiped clean… But that's okay, a few crumbs are enough." Lin Wei's tone was cryptic, as if he was explaining things to her, or perhaps just to himself.

"You should get some sleep and forget everything that just happened... I'm guessing this isn't the first time something like this has happened to you, right?"

"Wha—" Cocolia felt a sense of dread and prepared to fight back, but Lin Wei brushed a black feather across her face. Her eyes glazed over, losing focus, and she fell into a deep sleep.

"Is that the Key of Consciousness, the Fenghuang Down? No, that's in someone else's hands..." Tesla, having reconnected, had witnessed almost everything. Her voice was laced with increasing fury. "Then there's only one other possibility, the Void Archive?! Otto... was it you?"

Tesla's rage erupted like a volcano. Her eyes were bloodshot as she glared at Lin Wei, roaring, "Was it you, you bastard?!"

"Huh?" The volume of her voice made Lin Wei's ears ring and his head throb.

He looked around wildly—

Otto? Where?!