Are You Alright? (Holding Back Laughter)

Looking at the rose-like Navia in her dress, Virgil felt somewhat intimidated. For those involved in shady dealings, the name "Spina di Rosula" held as much, if not more, power than the Palais Mermonia.

In fact, the Spina di Rosula, with its "eye for an eye" and gang-like nature, was far more ruthless in dealing with criminals.

If one ended up at the Opera Epiclese, no matter how heinous their crimes, they could still survive. After all, although the death penalty existed in Fontaine, it had been practically a decoration for years. Most people believed it was just there to scare people.

As long as one didn't foolishly challenge the Champion Duelist, the worst that could happen was being sent to the Fortress of Meropide, with no real threat to their life.

But if one was targeted by the Spina di Rosula—they wouldn't hesitate to punish criminals, making them disappear without a trace.

Normally, Virgil would never approach such dangerous individuals. He was just a small-time crook compared to Navia, the current leader of the Spina di Rosula. It would be like delivering himself to their doorstep.

But the potential reward this time was too tempting for Virgil to resist.

According to the mysterious person who had contacted him, the secret of Pneuma lay in the place Navia and the others were headed.

This was an irresistible temptation for Virgil, who was just a small-time smuggler.

After all, a commodity like Pneuma, with its addictive properties, was incredibly profitable in Fontaine's underworld; everyone was clamoring for it.

Unfortunately, the supply of Pneuma was almost fixed, and for some reason, its production had sharply declined, making life difficult for Pneuma dealers like Virgil.

He had managed to find some information suggesting that the production method for Pneuma might exist within a certain ruin, but then he encountered this opportunity.

Compared to the possibility of finding the production method for Pneuma, the definite information about a secret stash was naturally more attractive.

Without much thought, the greedy Mr. Virgil took the bait.

As for Navia—although he was somewhat intimidated, he didn't take the current leader of the Spina di Rosula too seriously.

After all, this woman was just a naive girl, easy to deal with.

Virgil, who considered himself a veteran of the underworld, a leader of his own gang, couldn't possibly be afraid of her.

If it were Callas, he would definitely have stayed far away.

His daughter… hehe, she was nothing.

Seeing that Navia didn't doubt his "expert" status, Virgil breathed a sigh of relief, a hint of mockery and disdain in his eyes.

The leader of the Spina di Rosula, nothing more.

Of course—this was also thanks to the mysterious person who had contacted him. After all, it was that person who had "arranged" his expert status.

However, as a member of the esteemed humanoid ape organization, expecting him to feel any gratitude would be wishful thinking.

"Greetings, President Marcel. Your reputation precedes you." Not needing to worry about Navia, Virgil's gaze flickered as he looked at Marcel.

The Chambre de Commerce de Calabre was also a somewhat renowned organization in Fontaine's underworld, but their president, Marcel, had a surprisingly clean reputation. He had even been on the Steambird's charity list, a true philanthropist—Virgil didn't care about that.

Good people were good; he loved taking advantage of good people!

Those unsuspecting fools wouldn't even know they were being scammed until it was too late. Seeing their bewildered expressions always brought Virgil pleasure.

The young miss of the Spina di Rosula, the president of the Chambre de Commerce de Calabre… the thought of his targets being these two prominent figures in Fontaine made him impatient.

And they must be carrying a lot of valuables, right?

Virgil, with his "good guy" face, chuckled.

"Your laugh is so strange."

Lumine looked at him curiously, and Fairy Ely acted as her spokesperson.

"Ah? Cough… haha, I'm just excited about the upcoming exploration! After all, that's the production site of Pneuma, the…" Virgil panicked, noticing their gazes, but quickly regained his composure and said loudly,

"There must be a lot of incriminating evidence hidden there! We must bring that madman to justice!"

At this moment, he was incredibly righteous, like a moral exemplar from the Steambird, determined to fight against all evil.

"Mmm, mmm, yes, yes."

Marcel agreed, but inwardly, he was annoyed with this Virgil.

So eager to condemn me from a moral high ground… hmph, whatever, this guy won't live much longer anyway.

His brief displeasure was quickly appeased by the thought of soon eliminating these obstacles.

The Salacia Plain.

According to the Genshin Impact storyline, Vacher's research base—the research facility where Jacob and René had studied the primordial waters of the Primordial Sea—was located here, containing many abandoned equipment and data.

It was here that Vacher and Venier, during an expedition, had accidentally come into contact with the primordial spring, leading to their separation. After being mocked by Fontaine's absurd legal system, Vacher, twisted and desperate to retrieve his lover, destroyed all traces of his past and became the notorious Marcel.

Jacob's experimental notes gave him hope of retrieving Venier, but also led him further down the wrong path.

Just like the Palais Mermonia, when the in-game locations became reality, their scale increased exponentially, making it difficult to find even places as close as the Salacia Plain and the Palais Mermonia.

Finding the hidden Pneuma factory within such a vast area was practically impossible without considerable effort.

Fortunately, Callas had already passed on its location to Navia through Melus—with the expanded map, even the in-game locations no longer matched. Only with that record could they find it.

"The underwater world is so amazing," Fairy Ely said, looking at the surrounding fish and aquatic plants, then she looked curiously at the well-hidden cave entrance not far away. "Is this the Pneuma factory?"

"It looks rather inconspicuous."

"Hehe, it's supposed to be inconspicuous. For such shady businesses, being too noticeable wouldn't be good, would it?" Virgil said excitedly, forgetting to hide his true intentions, his gaze fixed greedily on the cave entrance.

"But then again, I didn't expect the Pneuma production base to be so close to the Palais Mermonia. This is really…"

"The Palais Mermonia is a breeding ground for filth, it's not surprising." Navia said coldly, looking at the Pneuma factory with a hint of mockery in her voice.

In a sense, this was also a rare truth.

Saying that everyone in the Palais Mermonia was a bad person would be unfair, wrongly accusing many good people.

But if everyone in the Palais Mermonia was lined up and shot, there would definitely be a lot of people left standing.

"Alright, let's go in."

After they entered, [Furina Qiao]—Furina, who had emerged from the nearby aquatic plants at some point, mumbled softly, "The Palais Mermonia isn't that bad, is it?"

"But it's not exactly good either."

[Furina]—Jiang Qiao sighed. The more glamorous a place was, the more filth it concealed. The morals of those nobles in the Palais Mermonia, even considering all of Teyvat, were "far ahead" among humanoids.

Of course, considering the origins of Fontaine's people, they weren't actually human.

But when it came to Oceanids, one had to understand that they were, besides Seelies and Aranara, the most pure and kind race in the world. They couldn't even tolerate malicious thoughts—because that would cause their consciousness to collapse.

And yet, this race, even before fully becoming human, had reached an extraordinary level of depravity.

However, he could understand the problems of the Palais Mermonia—because that place wasn't exactly built on solid foundations.

The nation of Fontaine was founded by various factions rebelling against the ancient kingdom, and those nobles were previously just tribal chiefs in the primitive stage. In terms of heritage, they were at the bottom of Teyvat.

Fontaine was established through compromise, and the previous Hydro Archon was a hands-off, or rather, powerless ruler, which made things even more difficult.

"Alright, let's follow them."

"Hey, wait for me! I can't keep up!" Furina called out, annoyed.

Although the people of Fontaine could swim, and were protected from drowning by some unknown force, Furina, pampered and unaccustomed to swimming, clearly wasn't proficient in this area. Especially now, using Jiang Qiao's male body, swimming was even more difficult and awkward.

"…Can't be helped." The blue and white-haired girl looked back, shook her head helplessly, then, with Furina's surprised yelp, "Whoa!" wrapped her arms around Furina's waist and pulled her into Marcel's headquarters.

—Jacob and René were people from five hundred years ago, and the dilapidated ruins within this hidden research facility exuded a heavy sense of history.

As an important research base, this ruin was quite vast. After passing through the ruins and surfacing, they saw numerous clockwork automatons, characteristic of Fontaine.

The long period of neglect had left most of the gears rusty and immobile, but the most noticeable were the numerous security automatons.

These canine automatons dutifully performed their guard duties, attacking intruders like Navia—they had initially hesitated, but Marcel, hiding in the shadows, had given the order to "kill without mercy."

Unfortunately, these small security automatons posed little threat to Navia. Even without Melus and Silver, she could easily handle them with her Vision, not to mention Lumine, who was expertly wielding her sword.

Marcel, observing from the side, clicked his tongue. Although he knew that these small automatons couldn't deal with these nuisances, seeing this result still annoyed him.

Hmph, if only the defense mechanisms in this secret base hadn't deteriorated.

He looked at some hidden traps that Navia and the others hadn't noticed—those were left behind by René and Jacob five hundred years ago. And because their relationship with their friend, Alain, hadn't yet broken down at the time, Alain had also helped design the defenses here.

As Fontaine's greatest genius in dynamic engineering, even just a few suggestions from him were enough to significantly enhance the security of this place.

But it didn't matter, even if they dealt with these small security automatons, so what?

Marcel wasn't worried about not being able to deal with Navia and that blonde girl with the pink floating companion. After all—the security automatons he had accumulated over the years from selling Pneuma were all deployed in the deeper areas.

With so many security automatons, even a Vision holder wouldn't be able to escape!

… Wait, where's that Virgil?

Marcel suddenly wondered. Why were only that old dog's daughter and that unknown blonde girl fighting?

Suddenly…

"!!!" A sense of impending doom washed over Marcel—his experience as an adventurer had given him excellent instincts. However, perhaps because he had grown complacent over the years, even though he sensed danger and reacted in time, it was still too late.

Thwack! Blood splattered from his shoulder, a piercing pain making him cry out.

"Ah, sorry."

Looking closely, Virgil, who hadn't participated in the fight, was leaning against the wall, looking "panicked." Beside him was the culprit behind Marcel's pain, a well-hidden steam-powered trap.

The escaping white steam said it all.

Marcel stared at the steam trap in disbelief—he remembered that trap being deactivated!

Because it was no longer functional, at least he hadn't bothered, nor had the ability, to fix it, so he had left it alone.

At this moment, Navia and Lumine had also dealt with the small automatons. Navia, seeing Marcel's bleeding wound, couldn't help but smile, an expression harder to suppress than an AK-47, but with great effort, she still managed to maintain a concerned expression and asked,

"Uncle Marcel, are you alright?!"

Marcel had a deadpan expression—Do I look alright?

If it weren't for his experience as an adventurer, he would have already collapsed on the ground.

Even so, the excruciating pain made his face pale.

He wanted to say something, but Navia patted his shoulder with concern, "Uncle Marcel, if you can't continue, you should stay here. It's not good to move around with an injury."

"I… I'm fine…" Marcel's expression was like he had just eaten something disgusting, but he couldn't curse, only forcing a smile.

"Are you really alright? Your wound doesn't look good."

"…No, you can't go any further. You've taken care of me for so many years, I can't let you risk your life doing such dangerous things, Uncle Marcel." As Marcel lamented internally, Navia first looked at him with suspicion, then put on a conflicted expression and said loudly,

"Uncle Marcel, you're bleeding a lot, let me bandage it for you…"

"No, no, I can do it myself…" Seeing Navia eagerly approaching him, Marcel, whose soul had nearly been shattered by her previous pat, quickly refused.

"How can that be? I must take care of you!"

"No, really, there's no need!"

"Don't be so polite!"

"Ahem!" A sudden cough caught the attention of Navia and Lumine, who had been watching from the side. Virgil, who had been ignored due to Marcel's injury, said with a serious and apologetic expression, "Mr. Marcel was injured because of me, please allow me to do this!"

His expression was serious and determined, as if he would bash his head against the aquatic plants if he wasn't allowed to do it.

"This… alright, let this young man do it." Marcel hesitated, but after glancing at Navia, he felt that Virgil might be a better option. At least he wouldn't be so rough, right?

Navia's actions weren't like she was trying to help; it was more like she was trying to hasten his death.

And although this Virgil also made him angry, after some comparison, to prevent any further problems, Marcel compromised.

Just endure it a little, once we reach the core area, I'll kill them all…

"Aaaaaahhhh—!!!"

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Aaaaaahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I HATE HATE HATE TikTok HI3 fans.

Sorry, my friend, I just need to rant, and y'all can get this extra chapter.

I found one post spreading misinformation about Sushang and Otto. They claimed Sushang liked Otto because he looked like a woman, then stopped liking him when she found out the truth. One sane person asked, "Source?" and their response was, "Manga, and your post is gooner, so [censored] you." Like, what?! I've reread the Seven Swords visual novel for this, and I never found any of these claims.

They gaslight you, saying, "The source is manga/manhwa (man, I want to rage—MANHUA!! Even manhua is the wrong source), you scissor enemy!!!!" "Manhwa, read it, you never read the lore, do you?" etc. Bruh, they even got the source wrong, got corrected, then claimed the source was the VN. Braaaahhh, they didn't even delete their wrong comments! They hardcore gaslight you, saying you never read the main story (like, what's the correlation between the VN and the main story? Scissor Sushang and Susanna? You get the yuri bait, do you?).

And TikTok is trash. I can't upload image scans for proof, the word count is limited, and my comments always get deleted (maybe they're reported, or TikTok is just garbage). Ahhhhh, I want to cry. I've been in this fandom since 2017 with my potato phone, watching how the fandom rots from the inside (2020 was the catalyst for this).

I always try to step away, but these "beings" are so annoying. When I comment about Father Otto's story, they always swoop in and say, "Your ship is just an delusional dream." Like, girl, what's your source? Then they say, "Manga" (again…). I know they're talking about the Durandal (sumeru) manhua, but okay, girl, that's not related. I'm talking about Father Otto from the bubble universe! They parroting everything and don't even read the main story.

Bring up the GGZ era Zero—like Otto and Kallen getting married—and they scream, "NON-CANON NON-CANON NON-CANON!" Since when is GGZ Era Zero non-canon? Their toxic ships are straight outta there, but they'll pretend it doesn't count when it suits them. They're pulling nonsense out of thin air and calling it facts.

They're the most hypocritical people I've ever seen in a fandom. Captain male? "YOU SELF-INSERT SHIT, KILL YOURSELF!" "GOONER!" "Degenerate trash!" "NON-CANON!" "Why does this jerk exist in some degenerate (Captain) universe?" Captain (in Himeko's body)? They don't even read the event. "OHHHHH, CAPTAIN IS A WOMAN!" "Lesbian Captain x Teri-cula, yeyeyyeyeyey!" "Those gooners will never know Captain is a woman!" "Haha, we win, those self-insert losers can eat dirt (then they self-insert themselves)."

Ah, I'm tired now. There's so much more I want to rant about, but my blood pressure can't handle getting any higher. Okay, my friend, thanks for lending an ear to my rant.