Chapter 011 : "Mother" and "Daughter"

Anti-Entropy had many bases established within North America.

Cocolia, who had been imprisoned, was not held in the Salt Lake Base.

Today, in the Yellowstone Base belonging to Anti-Entropy...

In the underground prison area...

Clang!

The iron bars of a solitary cell were opened from the outside.

A petite, gray-haired, gray-eyed girl walked in.

She had curly twin tails and was dressed in a brown women's suit.

Her legs, all the way down to her feet, were covered by mechanical prosthetics.

Seeing her, the person in the cell...

"Bronya!"

She... Cocolia, was clearly very happy. "Why have you come?"

She quickly took a few steps forward and embraced the girl.

Perhaps, only at this moment was her maternal love genuine.

As for before...

The maternal love that used her daughters for human experiments.

The maternal love that installed biochips in her daughters' brains.

The maternal love that lived in luxury hotels while her daughters couldn't afford cake.

The maternal love that forcibly controlled her daughter's body, making her harm her closest friend.

Cocolia's maternal love was something most people couldn't handle.

But now, she had lost everything and was no longer as reckless with human lives as before.

Finally, she showed genuine emotion.

Facing all this...

"Mother Cocolia."

The gray-haired girl spoke slowly, "We've encountered some issues and need to ask you a few questions. The situation is urgent, so we hope you can cooperate."

"A new Herrscher has appeared."

In just a few short sentences...

"!!!"

Cocolia's heart skipped a beat.

A new Herrscher?

Related to her?

Now... to be honest, she really didn't want to hear such news.

She knew exactly what she had done in the past.

So, she didn't want to see her image in her daughters' eyes become even worse.

But now...

"Alright! Ask away."

"Bronya, I'll tell you everything I know."

Cocolia released her embrace, but her hands remained on the gray-haired girl's shoulders, unwilling to let go.

She wanted to be closer to her daughter, even if only for this brief moment.

It was at this time...

"Years ago, when you triggered the artificial Honkai eruption in Nagazora City, you ordered me to capture a black-haired young man."

The gray-haired girl asked directly, "I want to know, why did you give that order back then? What was so special about that black-haired young man? And where did you get the information about him?"

Hearing these questions...

"Huh~"

Cocolia didn't expect that the Bronya before her would bring up something from so long ago.

But she quickly began to recall.

After a long while, she carefully answered...

"At that time, to ensure the success of the artificial Honkai eruption experiment, I had many informants stationed in Nagazora City."

"It's strange, though."

Cocolia frowned, "That black-haired young man, who seemed to be from Shenzhou, was just an ordinary person, but for some reason, he knew in advance what I was planning to do."

"He reported the relevant information to Raiden Mei... your Mei-senpai."

The gray-haired girl's expression shifted slightly, but she remained silent.

"Unfortunately..."

Cocolia's expression became somewhat peculiar, "Perhaps it was because Raiden Mei hadn't been exposed to anything related to the 'Honkai' at that time."

"Raiden Ryoma had protected her too well."

"Back then, after meeting that black-haired young man, because she knew nothing about it, she didn't trust him and chose to call the police."

"After all, to a young lady who had never known the truth of the world, everything about the 'Honkai' sounded too fantastical, didn't it?"

"And because of that, my subordinates intercepted Raiden Mei's call to the police, and then..."

"Heh!"

The gray-haired girl in front of her suddenly laughed.

The sudden shift in the gray-haired girl's expression—from a completely blank face one moment to a grin so wide it seemed to stretch to her ears the next, exuding an utterly deranged aura—startled Cocolia.

Instinctively, her hands recoiled from the girl's shoulders as if electrocuted.

In her field of vision...

"Heh! Hehehe! Hahahaha!"

The gray-haired girl paid no attention to Cocolia. She was already laughing uncontrollably, her entire demeanor completely unhinged.

She even clutched her stomach, unable to straighten up.

"To think... to think it all started with something so ridiculous."

"A clown! A clown!"

"Ling Ke, you're just a useless, pathetic, dumb (beep~)."

"Self-indulgent, self-righteous... spouting nonsense about how beautiful the world is, only to have no one believe you in the end."

"And then they sold you out, hahahaha!"

She ranted hysterically, laughing and cursing at the same time, her mental state extremely unstable.

By now, Cocolia had realized something.

Her daughter... Bronya, almost never referred to herself as "I."

"Who... who are you?"

Cocolia took several steps back, her face pale.

The thought that she had just... actually...

"Oh, dear Co~co~lia~ Mom~."

The gray-haired girl finally noticed her.

She tilted her head at an angle that seemed like her spine might snap, looking over with a horrifying grin. "I even deliberately left clues, yet you couldn't even recognize your own daughter?"

"What a failure, a complete failure."

"Is this your so-called maternal love?"

"In the end, you're just like me—a genuine 'failure!'"

At that moment...

Tap, tap, tap~

The sound of hurried footsteps echoed from the corridor outside the cell.

In just a moment...

"You!"

Outside the iron bars appeared another gray-haired girl.

Bronya Zaychik.

Behind her were several Anti-Entropy special forces members.

And...

A few "familiar faces" that Ling Ke would never forget.

"Who are you?"

Bronya's first question was almost reflexive.

After all, the gray-haired girl in front of her looked exactly like her.

But as soon as the words left her mouth, she immediately realized.

"You're Ling Ke? That Herrscher?"

Bronya had already confirmed the other's identity.

She hadn't expected that the other party also possessed the ability to transform.

She couldn't possibly know that this wasn't a traditional transformation ability at all.

But rather...

After annihilating over thirty thousand people at the West Asia branch, Ling Ke had drawn the corresponding game character template.

[Game Character Template: Silver Wolf's Dawn]

[From: "Honkai Impact 3rd"]

[Character Traits: Level System, HP System, Infinite Stamina, Indestructible Equipment, Special Abilities, Physical Core, Stun Core, Weakness Core, Time-Space Core, Character Switching...]

[Game Skills: Normal Attack: Heavy Particle Cannon, Dodge: Void Flash, Special Attack: Explosive Impact, Ultimate Skill: Thunderous Strike, Leader Skill: Harmonic Resonance...]

[Background Talents: High Honkai Energy Adaptation, World's Number One Assassin, Firearms Mastery, Elite Frogman, High IQ (180), Stock Market Expert, Programming Genius, Top Hacker, High-End Gamer...]

[Related Introduction: Full Name: Bronya Zaychik. This battlesuit is actually the formal dress she wore while in Anti-Entropy. The earrings were a gift from her "mother"...]

Right now...

"Long time no see."

The gray-haired girl in the cell stood in front of Cocolia, looking at Bronya with the same face, sneering. "Tell me, do I count as your dark past?"

"A malicious entity you personally dragged into the initial hell, now returned from that hell."

As she spoke, the gray-haired girl raised her left hand...

Clang!

A massive cannon materialized beside her.

Its barrel pointed directly at Cocolia behind her.

"Stop!"

It was like a reflex.

The real Bronya, in her panic, summoned her Heavy Bunny.

The cannon on its side aimed at the gray-haired girl with the mocking smile.

Behind her, a white-haired girl and another gray-haired girl also tensed up.

Each of them gripped their weapons tightly.

Seeing them...

"Kiana Kaslana, and... should I call you Hua, or Fu Hua?"

The gray-haired girl deliberately spoke loudly. "Huh? Where's Raiden Mei?"

"Bronya has found her Seele, but where's your Mei?"

"Oh, right, right..."

"Mei's with World Serpent!"

At this moment, he was indeed the true Herrscher of a Thousand.