The Fog Has Rolled In

Not long after the sun set, bathed in the nascent moonlight, the train departed from the station in Sapphire City.

Theresa and her squad once again had a carriage to themselves. With this rare private space, they all seemed much more relaxed than they had been in Sapphire City.

"Mmmph~!" Theresa stretched languidly on the train's sofa.

At this moment, Theresa finally seemed a bit like her usual self back at the base. In fact, having seen her serious side for the past two days, Durandal felt that Theresa was even more relaxed than she was at the base.

This ability to switch modes so easily is something I need to learn...

Durandal couldn't help but remember the time Theresa told her to go rest, and she had no idea what to do.

"Lady Durandal, how are you feeling?" Rita held a tray, on which were the usual three glasses of milk.

Rita handed a glass to Durandal, who took it. It was still that familiar warmth... What did she use to heat it? It seemed to be one of Rita's little habits...

With that thought, Durandal brought the milk to her lips and took a small sip.

"As for how I feel... since I didn't participate much, I don't really have any strong feelings..." After thinking for a moment, Durandal answered seriously.

She really didn't feel much. She had been a little nervous before the battle started, but once it began, her mind was clear of distractions.

If you asked Durandal to summarize the gains and losses of this battle, she could do it. But if you really asked her how she felt... she genuinely couldn't say anything.

After giving Durandal her milk, Rita turned to Theresa. "Lady Theresa, you eliminated so many enemies all by yourself. You must be exhausted."

Rita's words were music to Theresa's ears, but as soon as she looked up and saw the glass of milk Rita was offering, her expression turned suspicious.

The two stared at each other for about two seconds before Theresa finally confirmed that Rita hadn't used any special methods to heat the milk. She tentatively took the glass.

The warm milk was comforting to both body and soul. Theresa downed half the glass in one gulp and gradually melted into the sofa.

"It's so great that this operation was a success..." Theresa sighed, turning to look at the adjacent carriage.

Even though the carriages were separated, the lively noise coming from next door was impossible to ignore.

These survivors were enthusiastically discussing their futures, imagining the MOTH they were about to see.

"Yes..." Durandal completely agreed with Theresa's sentiment. Everyone was rescued. What better ending could there be?

"It's getting foggy outside..." Rita pulled back the curtain. A thin white fog had enveloped the outside world at some point. It wasn't very thick, but it had already obscured the stars in the sky.

"No wonder the warm milk felt so good. It's gotten colder..." Theresa got up to take a look, her small hands cradling the cup, her body huddling up a little.

"After tonight, the weather should start to warm up," Rita said, drawing the curtain again. "Lady Durandal, you should wear an extra layer for the next couple of days."

"Huh? Me?" Durandal, who was basically just wearing a tactical vest, pointed at herself in surprise. "I won't catch a cold..."

"Taking precautions is something everyone should do, Lady Durandal. It's best not to rely on your body to tough out these small issues," Rita said, and with that, her hands had already selected a suitable jacket for Durandal.

Durandal's eye twitched. She appreciated Rita's good intentions, but the jacket Rita had chosen was a bit... Wasn't that some kind of anime merchandise? Why was that even on the train?

"Come now, Lady Durandal." Rita held up the jacket and walked step by step toward the reluctant Durandal. Seemingly aware of what she was doing, Rita added, "Don't resist..."

Durandal scooted backward, suddenly realizing that being on the sofa was a bad choice. The sofas in this carriage were against the wall, so she couldn't even flip over to escape.

You're my only hope! Senior Theresa!

Durandal cast a desperate, pleading look at Theresa, only to see her tilting her head and pretending not to notice.

What are you doing, Senior Theresa!! Why are you just watching?!

In the end, Durandal had to hold her nose and put on the extremely flamboyant jacket.

To call it a jacket was a bit of a stretch; it was more like a cape. However, it didn't seem to be the complete version, but rather a design that the creator had abandoned halfway through.

"This jacket... looks like a rejected design for Shu's coat, doesn't it?" Theresa said in a low voice, watching as Rita made Durandal spin around a couple of times.

Durandal froze. The impulse to take off the jacket vanished almost entirely.

"Really? This was Senior Shu's?" Durandal asked curiously.

"I think so... probably?" Theresa's statement trailed off into uncertainty. She scratched her head. "Huh... was it...?"

Rita and Durandal looked at each other, both seeing the confusion in the other's eyes.

However, neither of them paid much mind to it, and Durandal just let the jacket stay on.

"We'll be coming back to this city, right?" Durandal asked Theresa, sitting on a small stool nearby.

"We should have a pretty long rest this time, about a week or so," Theresa said, pulling herself out of her thoughts about the rejected jacket design. "Then we'll start taking on some cleanup missions."

"Cleanup missions?" Durandal really didn't know much about these things. She only knew about the enemy types.

"That is, missions issued by Lord Bishop, asking us to clean up small Honkai Beasts that appear in the city," Rita explained thoughtfully. "In addition, we will also receive exploration missions for dangerous locations, and some special material collection missions..."

"Isn't that very similar to the city exploration teams?" Durandal pondered, realizing it didn't seem much different, except they also had combat tasks.

Comparing the two, it seemed they were more like adventurers, didn't it?

Just then, Durandal suddenly remembered something. "By the way, Rita, do you think we should still pass on that message for the mother? You know, the one about troubling you and being sorry..."

This time, Rita didn't answer immediately. Instead, she squinted her eyes slightly, looking at Durandal with a smile.

"Lady Durandal... what are you talking about?"

---||---

The train finally arrived at its destination, the ARC City station. Everyone got off, boarded the newly reopened light rail line, and soon arrived at the main gate of the MOTH base.

Inspection personnel were already lined up at the gate.

These survivors rescued from Sapphire City still needed to undergo a major inspection before they could enter the base to live. Besides the inspectors, another group had been waiting here for a long time: the city exploration teams.

These are all newcomers! We have to hurry and pull them into our teams to become workhorses... no, I mean, productive members of society!

Three months had already led to the formation of some small cliques within the MOTH, but this trend of factions had been curbed by Otto's strategy of creating even larger group divisions.

Namely, squad fan clubs... You could always find someone to admire among the MOTH's soldiers.

Popular ones, niche ones... the base, with only a few hundred people, had dozens of different groups, big and small.

Even though Rita and Durandal had only been Theresa's squad members for a short time, they already had their own small fan clubs.

Rita knew about this, but Durandal was completely unaware. She had thought everyone was a fan of Shu alone...

The three of them witnessed the entire inspection process, but Durandal was somewhat absent-minded the whole time.

When the inspections were complete, the staff issued an identification card to each survivor, signifying that from that moment on, they were under the full protection of the MOTH.

"Durandal, Rita, take them to the dormitory level. I need to go talk to Grandpa about some things now," Theresa said, waving her hand before turning to leave.

"Understood, Lady Theresa," Rita acknowledged. But when she looked back, the newcomers, no longer surrounded by inspectors, had been swarmed by members of the city exploration teams trying to recruit them.

"Looks like we'll have to wait a little longer..."

Soon, those who were interested were separated from the group. Rita and Durandal led the rest, who had no interest in joining the exploration teams, to the sixth basement level.

"These are your dorms. The cafeteria is on the fourth basement level, and the living areas are on the ninth and tenth. If you need anything, you can go to the office areas on the first and second basement levels for help."

Rita was also tasked with giving the newcomers a tour. Everyone listened attentively, except for Durandal.

She stood beside Rita, staring blankly at an empty dorm room.

That dorm room was strange. The newcomers had already been assigned to all the surrounding rooms, but that one remained empty, as if it had some special meaning.

But there were no signs around. The room was just... conspicuously empty...

The main point was that Durandal vaguely remembered there being some kind of decoration there before... It was...

Her mind was a jumble, repeatedly telling her there had been nothing there from the beginning... It was a strange feeling, making her feel uneasy.

But seeing that no one else seemed to find it strange, Durandal started to wonder if there was something wrong with her.

Maybe I'm just too tired...

Durandal just comforted herself with that thought, and a wave of fatigue really did seem to wash over her. This fatigue only subsided after she had washed up and returned to her bed.

Before falling asleep, Durandal picked up her long-neglected phone and entered the only network that existed now—[Spark].

The information traffic on [Spark] had exploded in the last two days compared to before. Durandal just casually scrolled a couple of times and saw several forums about "Operation Jiao Long."

Each had 99+ discussion posts. Out of curiosity, and a little bit of girlish whim, Durandal clicked on one of the forums.

[When is MOTH coming to save me: Did you all see it? MOTH's Operation Jiao Long was so amazing!]

[Jin Jiao City East Wind Plaza Shelter, 144 people: In this apocalypse, only MOTH can pull off a battle like that, right?]

[Guchuan City Chengfeng District Police Shelter, 39 people: Don't think of it as just a small battle with less than a hundred people. They wiped out a horde of nearly 100,000! That kind of achievement is mind-blowing in any era!]

[Qinghu City Jinghua Community Shelter, 316 people: And that's not all! You saw the battlefield with the Honkai Beasts, right? I'd say that was the most insane part! We all know how powerful those monsters are, and they were taken care of by just a few people?! Those soldiers are incredible! That little girl with the giant golden cross, and the other white-haired woman, she was like a war goddess! The maid and the blonde warrior were amazing too, holding off so many Deadwalkers, and the defensive line held by those Titan mechs was so reassuring! If we were in Sapphire City, wouldn't we have been rescued by now?]

[Fleeing alone in Dongcang: You wrote a lot, so I'm with you. Let's hope we're the next ones MOTH chooses to rescue!]

After scrolling for a bit, Durandal exited the forum, feeling satisfied. Her youthful vanity was easily pleased by a simple "amazing too."

She scrolled a little more. Most of the forums were still in heated discussion, including but not limited to expressing their own hardships, the MOTH's strength, and their envy for the survivors in Sapphire City.

Durandal put down her phone and stared up at the ceiling. After a moment of silence, she whispered.

"We will definitely rescue all of you... definitely..." she said firmly to herself. "Senior Shu would think the same way, right..."

Sleepiness finally overcame her. Before closing her eyes, Durandal had one last thought.

Shu... Who was that again?

---||---

On the other side.

The train named Hyperion slowly came to a stop in a city shrouded in white fog. The cold air blowing from the polar regions was pushing water vapor across the entire world.

And back at the base, no one noticed that something seemed to be missing from their lives. Even Otto only frowned and began to plan a vacation for himself for the next two days.

Maybe I'm just too tired... My mind's a little fuzzy.

Thinking this, Otto looked down at his latest masterpiece—the first-generation Honkai Energy Detector.

Looking at the detector's needle pointing unwaveringly north, a shadow of gloom flashed in Otto's eyes.