As a rule of thumb, a café isn't a street-side BBQ stand, a hotpot joint, or a family diner.
Not that there was anything inherently more noble about a café. Ling Ke, for one, vastly preferred the vibe of the other three.
But given the nature of the business, a café is generally expected to be on the quieter side.
Yet, just a moment ago, this particular establishment had been incredibly noisy.
Raiden Mei had actually considered it a blessing. The bustling atmosphere gave her the perfect cover to talk freely with MEI and Kevin without being overheard.
But keeping that in mind...
If the sheer volume of noise could be written off by the shop's prime real estate on a busy downtown street, then...
Ever since Mei, MEI, and Kevin first sat down, only one table of customers had actually left.
They had been sitting here for over an hour.
In all that time, not a single other person had gotten up to leave. No new customers had walked through the door, either.
There weren't even any walk-ins grabbing a quick takeout coffee at the counter.
In fact, the three of them had been so deep in conversation that it took the ever-simple Kevin to point out the most glaring anomaly: their orders still hadn't arrived...
It was a stark contrast to the bustling foot traffic right outside the cafe.
And there was another anomaly. Even though Ling Ke hadn't orchestrated it...
Raiden Mei remained completely oblivious.
All he could say was...
"If you were Raven, you would've realized something was wrong ages ago." Ling Ke glanced out the cafe window, clicking his tongue. "Tsk, tsk."
"In our line of work, 'naivety' is a dirty word, Miss Raiden Mei."
"You really are..."
Shing!
Clang!
Mei had no intention of letting Ling Ke finish, let alone dignifying him with a response. She simply drew her bizarre blade, letting a sudden, violent strike speak for her current mood.
Unfortunately, that abrupt, explosive slash—a strike packing enough sheer force to cleave the entire building in half and carve a thousand-meter shockwave in its wake—
—was dead-stopped by a short-haired girl who materialized out of thin air.
[ Puppet of Domination: Anby. ]
As Ling Ke's very first character template, she inherited her original switch-parry mechanics from Zenless Zone Zero. As long as an attack wasn't a massive AOE, she could perfectly block any singular strike.
Gripping her black blade in a reverse grip, she slid back to Ling Ke's side. She kept a wary eye on Raiden Mei, completely prepared to lunge forward and clash with her again at a moment's notice.
Clap.
Clap.
Clap.
Despite being the one under protection, Ling Ke wasn't the least bit panicked. He clapped his hands in a slow, deliberate rhythm. "Not bad. Not bad at all."
He looked at Raiden Mei, the corners of his mouth curling upward. "You were actually quite decisive just now."
"Facing me again, you've completely shed that former hesitation of yours. I suppose you aren't completely hopeless after all."
Hearing him say that...
"That's because I don't feel a shred of guilt toward you anymore."
Raiden Mei tightened her two-handed grip on her odachi-length blade, glaring daggers at Ling Ke. "Now, you are nothing but an enemy I despise."
Hearing this...
"Oh?"
Ling Ke's interest was piqued. "So... are you going to take your revenge on me?"
"No, I should phrase it like this..."
A mocking sneer surfaced on his face. "Are you even capable of it?"
"With just that sword in your hands? A weapon you only got as a fluke by sacrificing the entirety of the Days Past—the Current Era?"
"..."
Raiden Mei didn't answer.
She was already bracing to launch another attack.
She knew full well that in a battle of words, she... was completely outmatched by Ling Ke.
But just then—
BOOM!
Raiden Mei had barely shifted a single step forward when the cafe's front doors were blown off their hinges with a deafening blast.
Closely followed by...
Thump.Thump.Thump.
Several tear gas grenades bounced into the shop.
Amidst the sudden chaos...
"This is exactly why I said your vigilance is terrible... even worse than it used to be."
"They started evacuating the crowds outside ages ago. The international airport is just down the road, yet the streets are dead silent. Did you seriously not notice?"
Smoke rapidly filled the room.
Ling Ke, however, couldn't care less.
He sneered. After tossing out his mocking critique, his gaze drifted away from Raiden Mei, landing on MEI and Kevin behind her.
Cough, cough!
Right now, those two were nothing more than a pair of ordinary Far East high schoolers.
The gas was too thick. MEI and Kevin couldn't hold their breath any longer.
A violent fit of coughing overtook them.
Their consciousness quickly faded, and they both collapsed.
Even as his limbs went limp, the young Kevin instinctively shielded MEI, sheltering her in his arms as they hit the floor.
Tramp, tramp, tramp.
The heavy, synchronized tread of combat boots echoed from outside.
Through the cafe's floor-to-ceiling windows, the street was now swarming with heavily armed soldiers.
Every rifle was trained on the interior of the shop. For the moment, however, they held their fire.
Raiden Mei kept her guard firmly up against Ling Ke.
She slowly shifted her footing to adjust her stance. Glancing past him, she caught sight of the military blockade outside.
Her glare immediately snapped back to Ling Ke.
Seeing her hostility...
"Don't get the wrong idea."
Ling Ke threw his hands up in a placating shrug. "I didn't invite these gatecrashers."
As he spoke, he turned toward the unconscious teens...
Snap!
With a snap of his fingers, the disguise cloaking Kevin Kaslana completely shattered.
"!!!" x2
For a fraction of a second, genuine surprise flashed across both Raiden Mei and Ancestor Kevin's faces.
Neither of them, however, had the time to dwell on whatever absurdly tasteless minor details the "Puppet of Domination: Sparkle" had thrown into the mix.
Meeting Ling Ke's stare...
"..."
Kevin Kaslana's expression darkened.
He stood from his seat, reached into his coat pocket, and pulled out an object slightly smaller than a ping-pong ball.
It was an electronic eye.
"Your doing?"
Kevin glared at the device in his palm, staring down its constantly shifting 'pupil'. His voice was dead cold.
In response to his icy interrogation, the eye lit up. The red glow wasn't blinding, but it radiated an undeniable sense of foreboding.
The eerie light pulsed faintly, mimicking the steady rhythm of a heartbeat...
"Please quell your anger, Lord Sovereign. Gray Serpent remains your most loyal right hand."
The raspy, synthesized voice echoed through the shop.
"Your unwavering resolve—unbroken even after thousands of years of erosion—has always been the paragon I revere above all else."
"But..."
The scarlet mechanical eye hovered just above Kevin's palm.
It spun rapidly, its optical lens eventually locking onto the figure lying on the ground a short distance away—the purple-haired girl cradled protectively in the young Kevin's arms.
MEI!
"Once, you were like glacial ice. Solid, impenetrable, utterly devoid of flaws."
"For humble servants such as ourselves, we merely needed to faithfully discharge our duties and strive to follow in your footsteps."
Gray Serpent articulated every word with deliberate care. "But now, you have attachments. You have a weakness."
"And so..."
The eye pivoted back to Kevin. "So, I took the liberty of drafting a contingency plan."
"And that contingency is... my reborn creator—"
"The advent of the Serpent Lord."