In a secluded beachfront house somewhere in the Hawaiian Islands, a black-haired young man sat quietly in the shadows.
His name was Agunua. He pulled out a metallic card with a uniquely textured surface. According to rumors circulating within the Honkai-aware world, this card originated from a mysterious place known as the "Deep Blue Auction House." The venue opened only once every thirty days, and only cardholders were permitted entry.
The cards were divided into four tiers: Bronze at the bottom, followed by Silver, Gold, and finally, Platinum. On paper, these tiers represented the holder's spending power at the auction house. In reality, for Gold and below, this was entirely true.
HUMMM—
As Honkai energy flowed into it, the Platinum card in Agunua's hand emitted a soft, yet impossible-to-ignore glow. The next moment, a spatial portal rippling like water silently unfurled before him. The young man pocketed the card, stood up with an expressionless face, and stepped through.
The spatial transition happened in the blink of an eye. A Greek-style palace came into view, its white marble walls glowing with a soft luster, as if eternally soaked in Mediterranean sunlight.
Before Agunua could even take in his surroundings, an enthusiastic, sunny voice rang out:
"A-Mo! Long time no see!"
A pair of bright, ruby-colored eyes scanned the person who had just materialized.
The girl had radiant, flowing golden hair that draped softly over her shoulders. Her bright eyes overflowed with unabashed warmth, and her delicate, lively features made her instantly endearing. Dressed in a simple white shirt, a dark vest, and a crimson skirt, her whole aesthetic screamed "classic sweet girl-next-door."
"Dystopia," Agunua replied, his voice deep and steady. "According to World Serpent regulations, during organization meetings, as high-ranking executives, we must address each other by our codenames."
Indeed, the singular prerequisite for holding the highest-tier Platinum card for the Deep Blue Auction House was being a top executive of World Serpent.
"Yes, yes, yes," the girl known as Dystopia replied, intentionally dragging out her words with a teasing lilt. "Whatever our great Vice-Sovereign, the Jet-Black Dragon who returned from the moon, says is correct!"
Agunua. In the mythology of the Solomon Islands, he is the cosmic serpent. Within World Serpent, he served as the nominal Vice-Sovereign and primary combat powerhouse. Of course, the Agunua standing here was not the literal deity from myth.
He was given this codename by Gray Serpent simply because, much like the mythological descriptions, he was a dragon-serpent who had flown back from the cosmos—specifically, from the moon, 380,000 kilometers away.
An ordinary person might have felt a flash of cringe at the girl's teasing. "Jet-Black Dragon" and "Cosmic Serpent" were titles so edgy they were practically dripping with eighth-grader syndrome.
Agunua, however, just stood there in silence for a long moment before extremely slowly, and with absolute sincerity, squeezing out a single word:
"...Badass!"
"Ugh!"
Dystopia shot him a look of utter disgust. An invisible surge of telekinesis wrapped around her, lifting her body lightly off the ground as she floated toward the central hall for the routine meeting. Agunua followed closely behind.
Inside the meeting room, Gray Serpent immediately noticed the two entering. He gave a slight nod, speaking in his signature electronic voice, tinged with the sound of grinding metal. "Only Raven has yet to arrive. Per protocol, if she does not arrive before the meeting officially begins, we will assume she has met with foul play—"
"Ah, the familiar 'throw the donkey under the bus once the milling is done' routine."
An irritated female voice accompanied the click of the opening door. Cioara swept into the room, bringing with her a gust of wind carrying the mixed scent of expensive perfume and gunpowder. She dropped into her designated seat.
Because this meeting was a rare occasion where everyone attended in their physical bodies, several executives, Agunua included, raised their eyebrows, sensing an unusual aura around her.
Dystopia leaned in curiously, blinking. "Big Sis Raven, your condition looks a little... off?"
"Just my rotten luck. Don't even bring it up," Cioara clicked her tongue, suppressing the fury in her tone. "I got schemed against by a treacherous, cunning, ruthless bitch."
Every time she remembered how that woman, Raiden Mei, had set her up on the Luofu—causing her strength to plummet, forcing her to flee in a panic, and making all the upgraded gear she had spent so much time acquiring go unsold—Cioara wanted to hack something to pieces.
Raiden Mei, you bitch! If I ever get the chance, I'm going to hire a bunch of women to absolutely wreck your husband right in front of you! she fumed internally. And I'll make you watch the whole thing while you pound your fists on the ground, crying and screaming, "I can't do anything!"
"It's just a slight loss of essential mass," Misteln Schariac, sitting a short distance away, offered a charming smile. "Nothing a few specialized supplements can't patch right up. It's not a big deal."
Of course, by "not a big deal," Misteln meant Cioara was still perfectly capable of wielding the Divine Key, Seven Thunders of Retribution. As for any other side effects... well, that was a matter of perspective.
Cioara, intimately familiar with her colleague's thick-skinned, black-hearted nature, curled her lip and propped her long legs—clad in tight leather pants—up on the alloy conference table.
"Don't just stare at me," she deflected smoothly. "Jackal isn't looking too hot herself, is she?"
Compared to Raven's visible loss of mass, Jackal looked relatively put-together on the outside. However, judging by the way she literally snapped the corner off the alloy table upon hearing the comment, her mood was anything but pleasant.
"Raven! If you don't speak, nobody's going to mistake you for a mute!"
Jackal had been suffering from abysmal luck recently. She had been perfectly content playing CEO of Heliopolis Life Sciences, happily conducting her Stigma activation and Honkai Beast-transformation experiments. But out of nowhere, the Taixu Front got their hands on highly classified intel.
They quietly teamed up with two of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and launched a massive, ruthless purge.
Not only did they completely eradicate Jackal's newly established branch in ARK City and her headquarters in Egypt, but she herself had suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of some kid named Yanqing, barely escaping with her life!
And it wasn't an isolated incident! The Wardance tournament had barely begun, yet over thirty World Serpent branches in the Middle East, along with subordinate organizations like the Mikoyan Central Design Bureau and various other shell companies, had been subjected to swift, precision strikes.
The losses were catastrophic, leaving the executives in charge of those outposts crying foul.
When had they ever experienced something like this? Usually, they were the ones hiding in the shadows, scheming against others! Why did it feel like someone was feeding their exact coordinates to the enemy, like a ghost in the machine?
ACHOO!
Far away in Shenzhou, a certain reincarnator with the surname Fuli sneezed violently, grinning happily as he watched the Classic Squad's points finally flip from negative to positive.
Blissfully unaware of this, Jackal's cold gaze swept from behind her mask over the assembled executives. She gritted her teeth, spitting out every word. "We have a traitor in our midst!"
Why was Snow White's life so full of hardship? Because she was surrounded by little men!
"Exactly! There's definitely a mole!" another executive, whose faction had also been heavily crippled, chimed in heatedly. "And they must be high up in the food chain. How else could the enemy execute such precise strikes?"
For a moment, everyone started talking over each other. The high-level executive meeting quickly devolved into a noisy fish market.
Seeing this, Gray Serpent silently turned toward Agunua. Though it was baffling how a synthetic cyborg managed to "give a look," the black-haired young man seemed to understand perfectly.
BOOM—!
A suffocating, almost tangible pressure crashed down on the room. The sheer might of an absolute powerhouse silenced the clamor instantly, plunging the hall back into dead quiet.
Only then did Gray Serpent speak, his electronic voice completely flat. "I understand that all of you harbor grievances."
As an organization that had existed since the dawn of the Current Era, even with a peerless powerhouse like Kevin Kaslana holding the fort until the 5th Century AD, World Serpent naturally cultivated its own formidable members over the millennia.
It was highly abnormal that today, the organization's top-tier fighting force seemed so depleted. Aside from Agunua, who had unexpectedly awakened and returned a century ago, the rest of the roster was honestly embarrassing—forced to cower and play king in the world's dark underbelly.
The truth was, World Serpent wasn't lacking in strong fighters historically. During its peak, even excluding Sovereign Kevin, they had more S-Rank equivalents in a single era than you could count on both hands. Tragically, those powerhouses had all withered away during three brutal crusades against Vipralopa-class entities.
Five thousand years ago, the pioneers of the MOTHs awakened from their cryo-pods. Through Project EMBER, they attempted to prematurely impart advanced technology to the Current Era to accelerate its growth.
The result? The Vipralopa-class Honkai Beast, Chiyou, made landfall in Shenzhou. Ji Lin, Fuxi, and Nuwa had to sacrifice themselves to seal it in the depths of the South Sea.
Since then, the pioneers stopped actively sharing technology, allowing civilization to develop naturally in an attempt to return it to a normal trajectory. However, there's a saying: You can choose when to start a war, but you cannot choose when it ends.
You can't just scatter highly advanced tech, cause Honkai energy to erupt across the planet thousands of years early, and then, upon realizing your mistake, clap your hands and say, "Oops, my bad! I'm taking my toys and going home. Let's just go back to the Stone Age and live peacefully until the modern era, okay?"
That was pure delusion. The Earth doesn't revolve around any single person.
Thus, two pieces of news followed:
The good news: Thanks to Prometheus #17 hacking the Cocoon of Finality, the Sequence Herrschers wouldn't be born until humanity reached the modern era, just like in the Previous Era.
The bad news: Honkai Beasts didn't count as Herrschers.
Ignoring the localized outbreaks popping up globally, the Current Era had seen the birth of exactly three terrifying Apocalyptic-class Honkai Beasts over the past few millennia.
The only reason they hadn't run rampant and destroyed the world was because World Serpent had intervened from the shadows, sacrificing swaths of their own top-tier fighters to slay them one by one.
The final battle had been especially desperate. At the time, Kevin had been banished to the Sea of Quanta by Su, Su had sealed himself in a pocket dimension above the River Thames, and Fu Hua—the Celestial of Taixu—had her Sword Heart shattered at Mount Taixu. The three great pillars were completely out of commission.
The result? World Serpent blew through almost their entire accumulated forces to blast the beast to pieces. The once-feared, god-devouring Serpent was reduced to a skeleton crew.
This was the source of the executives' resentment. In their eyes, they had bled and died to secretly save the world from annihilation, and now, these ungrateful modern upstarts wanted to wipe them off the map?
Striking at the darkness?
Bullshit!
They made it sound so righteous, but really, it was just greed—opportunists salivating over an organization that held almost all the Previous Era's cutting-edge technology but lacked the raw muscle to protect it!
However, Gray Serpent had a different perspective.
"Regarding the Wardance, AI Alaya had actually intercepted fragments of their intelligence well in advance."
Alaya-Vijnana: a super artificial intelligence on par with Schicksal's E.L.L.A and Anti-Entropy's Femirins. She was the primary reason World Serpent members could remain perfectly hidden in the rapidly changing 21st century.
"What?! You knew?!" Jackal slammed her hand on the table. "If you knew, why didn't you—"
"I didn't stop them, nor did I have her notify you," Gray Serpent interrupted calmly, slowly turning the handle of his umbrella. "Because some of you have been crossing the line lately."
He pointed directly. "Dystopia."
"Huh?" Dystopia, who had been secretly dozing off with her chin propped on her hand, jerked upright.
"You secretly conspired with Floridians to abduct juvenile delinquents who escaped legal punishment, throwing them into an underground colosseum to fight to the death in a battle royale," Gray Serpent stated flatly. "You claimed the last one standing could leave alive—which was a lie. Not only that, you livestreamed the death games on the dark web for crypto donations."
"I made those little bastards' families crowdfund their weapons and gear! And all that money, plus the livestream tips, went straight into compensating the victims' families!" Dystopia argued passionately. "Justice doesn't dispense itself! If the law won't do it, Dystopia will!"
Agunua murmured an ancient proverb in agreement: "When the law cannot bring justice to the victim, personal revenge becomes justified, even noble."
"The fact remains, your livestreaming drastically increased the risk of exposing the organization," Gray Serpent coldly dismissed the ideological debate before turning his gaze. "And you, Raven."
"Eh? I've been perfectly well-behaved!"
"Half a month ago, you gunned down five North American officials in broad daylight. The fallout implicated Anti-Entropy's local assets, resulting in our entire branch there being completely dismantled."
"They're the ones who framed me for running a drug cartel! I was just committing normal tax evasion!" Cioara cried, feeling incredibly wronged. "Besides, I was working as a mercenary! The hit wasn't even on North American soil. Why the hell should I pay them taxes?!"
Gray Serpent ignored her entirely. "Kurokawa."
"Uh..."
"The All-Female Myriad Soul Banner. Care to explain the purpose and origins of this artifact?"
Kurokawa, who had been loudly screaming about a mole just moments ago, instantly shut his mouth, his eyes darting everywhere but at Gray Serpent.
"As for Jackal—"
Gray Serpent's mask turned toward the fiery, dark-skinned woman. For a long time, he just stared.
Then, he sighed. "...Sigh."
It was the exhausted sigh of a man who got hit by a car, only to realize his best friend was driving.
"Hey! At least say something!" Jackal bristled, deeply offended.
"In summary," Gray Serpent concluded, "using this Wardance to purge the accumulated rot within our ranks is not necessarily a bad thing."
The temporary alliance led by the Taixu Front might win, but World Serpent certainly wouldn't be the ultimate loser.
"Fine..." Dystopia grumbled, mentally calculating how fast she needed to shut down the livestream when she got back. She didn't even want to think about the venomous mockery Sparkle would subject her to. Whatever, I'll just bring A-Mo with me. If she talks trash, I'll just beat her up!
Having made her decision, she suddenly remembered the core issue. "So, how exactly did they get all that highly classified intel on us?"
Dystopia hadn't even considered the possibility of a mole among the executives. She trusted Gray Serpent and Alaya's capabilities implicitly.
"Perhaps it's a divination ability," Jackal said, her mood still foul and her tone stiff. "That Fu Xuan from the Luofu is quite skilled at it, isn't she? Since the Luofu is hosting the Wardance this time, maybe she read the stars and figured it out."
"Or maybe some organizations just picked up our trail," Cioara shrugged dismissively. "Like those failed Stigma Awakeners who call themselves the Gods of Serpent-Devouring."
"Could it be Hyperion?" Dystopia asked, thinking of a certain highly active faction. "Big Sis Raven, weren't you ambushed by their people?"
"It's not them," Cioara shook her head. "Raiden Mei and I have a personal grudge. If the organization's identity was truly compromised, why would they only send her to deal with an executive of my level?"
"True." The others nodded in agreement, mentally categorizing Hyperion as oblivious bystanders.
Only Jackal kept fanning the flames. "If you have a grudge against them, why not just find an opportunity to wipe them out?" She had plenty of experimental sites in Jigui City that had been trashed by the Classic Squad; she considered them enemies, too.
Cioara, currently maintaining the Seven Thunders of Retribution, seemed slightly tempted. "How much are you paying?"
Jackal stared. "You want money for this?"
"Of course!" The island-bombing Raven stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Yes, I hate them enough to grind my teeth, but I don't mix my professional and personal lives. No money, no kills!"
"Then forget it." Jackal backed down. Her funds were tight right now; she didn't have the spare cash to hire this mercenary to assassinate several Critical-class powerhouses.
Still, she remained unsatisfied. "Even if you want to purge the 'rot,' are we really just going to sit here and watch them shit on our heads?"
"Naturally not," Misteln smoothly took over the conversation with a pleasant smile. "I've already requested Alaya to contaminate the Matrix of Prescience. It should disrupt their calculations or issue some incredibly irritating special missions to the Taixu Front's upper brass, just to keep them scrambling."
Like assigning little Fuli to provide professional lap-pillow and ear-cleaning services to the hardworking General Fu Xuan and Diviner Qingque~
Of course, the "recipients" of the service had the right to refuse the mission. But would they really? (Smiles).
"Oh, that's good, that's good—wait a minute!" Dystopia paused, startled. "Doesn't the Matrix of Prescience have Bai Ze guarding it? He's a super AI too. Can little Alaya handle that?"
"She can."
A gentle voice echoed in everyone's ears. A girl with a golden, radiant halo solidified from the void. Her moon-white hair cascaded down like a waterfall, and her elegantly curved tube top perfectly accentuated her slender waist.
Three pairs of dream-like white wings extended from her back, the middle pair folding downward like a skirt, wrapping softly around her figure and highlighting her fair legs, which were inscribed with purple circuitry.
"Because this time, I am not acting alone."
Alaya blinked her elegant, pale purple eyes, floating serenely beside Hare. Her delicate face was flawless, looking like God's most perfect masterpiece.
"...What do you mean?" Agunua asked, his voice deep.
Misteln explained. "Simply put, hacking into the Matrix of Prescience using various technologies to gain an advantage in this Wardance isn't something only we are doing. Schicksal, Anti-Entropy, and a few other capable organizations and individuals are all currently running similar operations."
Like issuing missions to crusade against rival factions, or just causing trouble for people they didn't like. At the end of the day, the system—where you accept a mission, complete it, and get points for high-tier rewards—was just too convenient to ignore.
"Looks like a 1v1, but it's really a jumping," Dystopia summarized flawlessly. "Even with the home-field advantage, Bai Ze is in for a world of hurt."
She then asked her usual question, "By the way, when can we stop hiding like rats?"
"Soon..."
The red light in Gray Serpent's electronic eye flickered as he continued to meticulously plan for the Sovereign's return.
This world is too chaotic. I, Gray Serpent, am reaching my absolute limit.