Chapter 87: Old Man, Time to Drop Your Loot!

Chapter 87: Old Man, Time to Drop Your Loot!

Having lost contact with their leader, Cocolia's entire faction, while not completely defenseless, was only a matter of time from being completely overrun. The small-scale Honkai reactors distributed at key nodes across the city were seized and shut down by the conservative faction's forces.

The streets around ME Corp were shrouded in dust and thick fog, the high temperatures from the explosions distorting the light.

Having coordinated with the conservative faction for days, Raiden Ryoma's exit from prison wasn't a forceful jailbreak; he at least had a judgment and release documents before storming out. There would be consequences, but for him, an Anti-Entropy Executive, it wasn't a major issue.

The current head of the Raiden family staged a "Dragon King's Return," leading his subordinates, mechs, and Mei back to his less-than-loyal ME Corp.

Raiden Ryoma, Raiden Mei. Siegfried, Kiana.

The fathers were old acquaintances, the daughters good friends. The atmosphere was harmonious when they met, each enjoying their own brand of "father-daughter piety."

Siegfried proposed an idea: a competition between the father-daughter pairs to see who could take down more Titans and guard robots.

Raiden Ryoma's face darkened slightly. A competition to destroy his own or Anti-Entropy's property? He'd have to have been kicked in the head by Cocolia to agree to that!

However, seeing the ignited desire to win in his own daughter's eyes, he ultimately agreed to this parent-child activity that would make his ancestors rise from their graves.

Firelight and sword gleams coexisted, sharp sparks flying through the air. Titan mechs and guard robots were destroyed and cut down one after another.

No man with a name in the Honkai world was simple. Raiden Ryoma was best known for his achievements in research; few knew that his skill in swordsmanship was equally remarkable. Raiden Ryoma was, in fact, the legendary Homu Swordmaster.

With the conservative faction's mechs plus two Kaslanas, this was a victory without suspense.

The two father-daughter pairs broke through the defenses smoothly and entered the underground base, where they met the silver-haired girl who had seized the "mother" to command the "courtiers." The interior of the base had been successfully brought under Bronya's control.

At this moment, the silver-haired girl was having people take inventory of Cocolia's assets.

"Bronya, are you okay?" Mei's voice, full of concern, arrived before she did.

"It seems Sister Mei was very worried about me. I'm fine," the silver-haired girl replied with a light, airy laugh. She then cleared her throat and, to Raiden Ryoma's almost explosive shock, pulled a list from her pocket.

"As they say, even close brothers must settle accounts. Uncle Raiden, this base under ME Corp should be considered mine now. Make me an offer."

"And the assets my mother has accumulated over the years, interested? If you can't swallow it all yourself, you can invite the other two from the conservative faction."

"..."

Raiden Ryoma's expression became extremely colorful in an instant. How did this base become hers? Well, on second thought, as Cocolia's daughter, the silver-haired girl did indeed have inheritance rights. And after all this trouble, she couldn't just be accompanying her mother to the sewing machine factory; she had to gain something.

Money was not a problem for Raiden Ryoma.

The main thing was the urging look from his own daughter, which made Raiden Ryoma a bit upset. She used to be his sweet little girl, but now she was siding with an outsider. It was a good thing Bronya was a girl.

He took the list and glanced at it, his brow twitching slightly. "This list, are you serious?"

"Of course, I'm serious." The silver-haired girl's smile was demure, even a little shy, as she gently patted her chest.

"After all, with Mother going to prison, no one will give me an allowance anymore. I have to think about my future."

To overturn Cocolia's years of operations, not just on the hidden side of the world, but also her public companies, such as many heavy industry enterprises in Russia... Bronya and Cocolia were legally adopted mother and daughter, so she already had certain inheritance rights. With Cocolia's 'willing cooperation', and perhaps some help from the conservative faction of Anti-Entropy, selling off her own companies wouldn't be too hard!

As for keeping them herself...

First, the companies were full of Cocolia's people, which would require a major upper-management overhaul. That was too much trouble.

Second, the main reason was that neither Secondary Wings nor Bronya was interested in running a company. She would be happy as a major shareholder collecting dividends. She trusted Raiden Ryoma wouldn't treat her unfairly.

"So, before I send Mother away for good, I'm just taking back my New Year's money that she took from me over the years. Hmm, with a tiny bit of interest."

The silver-haired girl made a tiny gap with her thumb and forefinger.

In her sweet, girlish voice was the self-evident righteousness of "Old man, time to drop your loot!"

The sheer filial piety stunned the four people present.

Siegfried sucked in a cold breath. Raiden Ryoma's hand holding the list trembled slightly. Both men were grateful in their hearts that they had never taken their daughters' New Year's money.

Speaking of which, what kind of interest could inflate New Year's money to the point where it required selling so many companies to pay it back? Did it grow exponentially with time? Even loan sharks would be moved to tears and bow in reverence.

"Alright, I'll take it. I'll contact the other executives later."

There was an old saying in Shenzhou: one doesn't feel the pain of selling one's body or land.

Today, Raiden Ryoma had seen it all! While marveling at the silver-haired girl's filial piety, he agreed without hesitation. Many of the items on this list were excellent public assets. It was just that Cocolia's assets were no less than the Raiden family's. He would definitely get indigestion if he tried to swallow it all alone, but with a few more executives, it should be no problem.

"Bronya, who's this?"

Kiana had discovered a super-curvy beauty next to Project Bunny's left hand. She was on par with the old mother Cocolia on the right. Even she could deduce that this person's identity was definitely not ordinary.

"Her? She's Jinx the Boom-Boom Crow."

About to acquire a huge fortune that she couldn't have touched even if she had worked from prehistoric times to the modern day in her past life, the silver-haired girl was in a very good mood and answered cheerfully, causing all four people to simultaneously produce golden question marks.

"A member of World Serpent."

Raiden Ryoma: "The Serpent!"

Of the four, he was currently the only one with a vague understanding of World Serpent. Mei, Kiana, and even Siegfried were almost completely in the dark.

"How do you plan to deal with this... Jinx the Boom-Boom Crow?" Raiden Ryoma's expression was grim, only becoming slightly peculiar when he said the 'name'.

Were the codenames of World Serpent members always this strange?

"I made a deal with another cadre of World Serpent, who is also her adoptive father. World Serpent will no longer support my mother, and I will let her go."

The silver-haired girl swung her white-stockinged legs in a leisurely manner, like a mafia princess about to retire.

Gray Serpent had agreed very readily, with almost no hesitation. The reason wasn't Raven's safety... well, maybe there was a tiny factor. After all, Raven was indeed a survivor Gray Serpent had rescued from the Second Eruption and raised as his adopted daughter. Even Gray Serpent wasn't completely devoid of emotion.

What made Gray Serpent retreat so quickly was the silver-haired girl herself. She was just too bizarre!

Cocolia was a cunning vixen. To cooperate with her, Gray Serpent naturally had to thoroughly understand the intelligence beforehand, which included information about the 'daughter' Cocolia treated as a confidante and her most useful weapon.

But everything the Silver Wolf of the Urals displayed today far exceeded Gray Serpent's judgment of her. The Silver Wolf's understanding of the 'Serpent' also surpassed Gray Serpent's expectations, not to mention the mysterious means by which she had instantly defeated Raven.

With Raven's strength, even Schicksal's strongest S-rank Valkyrie couldn't possibly defeat her in an instant!

The unknown ability made Gray Serpent wary.

With things having developed to this point, the Nagazora City plan could be considered a failure. And once the Silver Wolf's plan succeeded, Cocolia would completely lose all value.

With this in mind, Gray Serpent abandoned the worthless Cocolia without hesitation in exchange for Raven's safe departure.

At the same time, Gray Serpent was a little puzzled. The silver-haired girl's asking price was too low! Just withdrawing support for Cocolia was hardly a price for Gray Serpent to pay. Could it be that the ruthless Silver Wolf who had rebelled against her mother was a kind-hearted 'good child'?

That was a joke that would make even Gray Serpent laugh.

After some thought, Gray Serpent found the blind spot. "Silver Wolf, let Raven leave exactly as she was when she met you."

"Oh, you reminded me. The Third Divine Key, the Key of Judgment, the Seven Thunders of Retribution, could indeed fetch a good price."

Hearing these words, Gray Serpent fell silent. It wasn't that he had shot himself in the foot, but a chilling realization struck him. She knows!

As a server-limited weapon, a Divine Key was extremely precious even to World Serpent. Losing a Divine Key was worse than losing Raven!

"So, you make an offer."

Then, the silver-haired girl said something that astonished even Gray Serpent. She was actually letting him buy back the Divine Key with money!

With a mercenary cadre like Raven, Gray Serpent understood the obsession mercenaries and assassins had with money to some extent. He could only understand that the silver-haired girl and Raven were the same kind of people. After all, they were both assassins, weren't they?

There was no bargaining; the silver-haired girl gave no opportunity.

In the end, Gray Serpent bought back the Divine Key, and the bonus item Raven, for a huge sum of money.

Of course, the silver-haired girl had intentionally let Raven go.

Caelus would need Miss Raven's help as a substitute player later. How could he make things difficult for her here? This included not keeping the Third Divine Key. Maybe 'she' would need it later.

As for the method of instantly defeating Raven, it was very simple.

It was a method that only worked on Natasha Cioara.

Caelus had used the Midnight Absinthe character card, enabled auto-battle, and kicked Raven's consciousness into the Star Rail world. Her unconscious body here naturally fell asleep in an instant.

By the way, Caelus had put Midnight Absinthe back into the system's Valkyrie space after enabling auto-battle, leaving Raven's consciousness inside.

The situation over on the Star Rail side was not a suitable time for Raven to make an appearance.

"And that's that. The rest is up to you."

The silver-haired girl handed the trussed-up old mother to Raiden Ryoma.

"Bronya... where are you going?" Raiden Mei asked with confusion and concern.

"Bronya isn't going anywhere, Sister Mei."

Raiden Mei, Kiana, and even Siegfried's eyes widened in astonishment. It wasn't because of the words, but because the moment the words fell, the silver-haired girl's small face changed from an angelic smile to an emotionless indifference in a single frame.

The Third Eruption had been snuffed out at its source. She had fulfilled her filial duty to her mother in this world. The other world couldn't be treated differently. The real show was about to begin!

Secondary Wings ended the reverse consciousness mapping.

"Bronya, you... what is this..."

Meeting those stagnant, silver eyes, Mei's expression gradually became bewildered.

"No, Mei, this isn't Bronya. Who are you?"

Compared to the uncertain Mei, Kiana's reaction was more direct. She immediately raised her baseball bat, her expression wary.

"Where did you take Bronya?"

Although the body hadn't changed, the contrast between the cynical big sister's aura and the current three-no little loli was too stark! The contrast was so great that even seeing it with their own eyes, it was hard to believe the current three-no loli and the previous silver-haired girl were the same person.

"Answer: Bronya is Bronya."

The emotionless voice, like that of a machine or a tool, was how Bronya spoke truthfully.

When interacting with Kiana and Mei, she had been almost entirely afk in the background. This was Bronya's first time talking to them.

"Silver Wolf, can you explain?"

Raiden Ryoma had seen the girl's two-faced reversal in prison before. At this moment, his brow was also furrowed.

The atmosphere in the command room grew a bit cold. Bronya's eyes swept over everyone, and she could see the faint wariness in them. The feeling in her heart was strange. She was clearly the real Bronya.

However, she was not Silver Wing. As the owner of the body, she was affected by the damage to her emotional center.

After a long silence, Bronya nodded.

Although Silver Wing had left the choice of whether to tell everyone the truth to her, the difference in their performance while controlling the body was something that couldn't be hidden.

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