"Chirp chirp!"
Watching the fully armed guards suddenly embrace each other and start chirping affectionately, Huck felt his eyes burn from the absurdity. Without hesitation, he fired another shot from the water gun. A guard was instantly wrapped in a soap bubble and lifted into midair.
The bubble looked thin and fragile, yet the guard inside could not break free no matter how he struggled. He could distort its shape, but even when his tactical dagger pierced the surface, the bubble immediately restored itself.
Strangely, no alarms sounded along the way.
At every trap and mechanism, Mr. Mad Hatter merely pried open a wall panel and brushed his fingers across the circuitry a few times before everything shut down.
Just like that, the three of them infiltrated smoothly to the third underground level.
Clang—krrrk.
A heavy steel door slid open, revealing a long corridor.
The lights flickered faintly, like dying candle flames that unsettled the heart. Whimpering echoed from both sides.
Huck glanced toward the barred cells. Through the rails he could vaguely see human faces—gaunt, filthy, starved. There was no need to ask what kind of inhuman treatment they had endured.
"Animals," Huck muttered, fury blazing in his eyes as he cursed MOTH.
Beep—
The door at the end of the corridor rose upward, revealing a silver-white laboratory.
Soft, bright lighting and immaculate floors formed a stark contrast with the dim corridor behind them, like a gate from hell into heaven.
There were few scientific instruments inside—yet numerous devices that resembled torture equipment.
A man in an expensive suit stared at Vill-V in shock.
"You... who are you? How did you get in? Why didn't the alarm go off?"
From beneath the mask came a cold voice.
"We are enforcement officers of MOTH's Supervisory Committee. You have violated Article 24 of the Honkai Management Act and Article 389 of the Regulatory Code. Come with us."
The suited man's face turned ashen. He adjusted the diamond-studded watch on his wrist and snorted.
"I report directly to the Seven-Member Council. The Supervisory Committee has no authority over me."
"That's not for you to decide, sir," Huck said, pressing his gun against the man's forehead. "I think the people you harmed might have something to say."
The man's expression twisted with shock and anger.
"If anything happens to me, none of you will leave this base alive—"
Before he could finish, Huck kicked him hard, forcing him to his knees.
"Test Subject Eight. This is how you made her kneel, right?"
Huck grabbed the man's hair and forced his eyes toward a photograph.
The man's eyes widened in disbelief. He could not understand how information about this facility had leaked. He had been meticulous—airtight.
"And this one. And this one."
Each time Huck displayed a photo, he struck the man.
Only when the base alarms finally began blaring did Huck stop.
"That was for the dead. As for your fate—it will be judged by the living."
Mr. Mad Hatter moved to the control console and began operating it.
Unlike before, the screen now flashed: ERROR! ERROR!
"We've been discovered," he said. "Remote authority lockout. Someone reacted quickly. MOTH's engineers aren't incompetent. But magic tricks aren't so easily seen through."
Even as he spoke, his hands never stopped moving. Exploiting a vulnerability in manual override switching, he opened every laboratory door.
The alarm, however, could not be silenced.
"Staff, please proceed backstage. It's time for the magician's performance!"
Huck understood the order to withdraw.
He and his men retreated through the lab exit—but did not go far, keeping watch on Mr. Mad Hatter.
Vill-V dragged the half-dead suited man back into the corridor.
The cell doors were now open. Those still capable of movement staggered toward her.
Not only humans had been imprisoned here.
Strange creatures howled as the lab's hibernation systems shut down, straining against their cages.
Vill-V had not opened their cells.
Even if she had, the laboratory had a third restraint system ready for such dangerous entities.
"It seems some audience members can't wait to shake hands with the great magician's new assistant," Vill-V laughed, surveying the crowd. "But the performance has only just begun. Please enjoy the show."
Thud.
Two sharp spikes suddenly erupted from the ground, piercing through both the suited man and Vill-V.
Yet she showed no sign of distress.
Her bloodstained cloak and hood split apart—revealing two Vill-Vs standing at the corridor entrance.
"Human sawing. Impalement. Some audience members are quite knowledgeable," the two figures said in unison. "But those old tricks aren't in the great magician's repertoire. Did our 'duet' impress you?"
Two eerie violet lights shot from the crowd, attacking both figures simultaneously.
Faced with the incoming threat, Vill-V remained utterly calm.
She simply began applauding.
A blinding flash erupted. The violet blades vanished.
Vill-V was gone.
"I repeat—the magician is only one. Not an illusion," her voice echoed through the corridor, now from every direction. "But this time... who can say?"
Hidden among the crowd, MOTH soldiers made a split-second decision.
They began attacking the surrounding prisoners to force her to reveal herself.
A concealed door in the corridor wall slid open.
Vill-V appeared behind it.
Six MOTH soldiers rushed her at once.
One of them moved at a speed beyond human reaction. In a flash, he was behind her, blade poised to cut her in two.
But those lightning-fast hands were caught.
"Surprised? The best part is yet to come."
Vill-V seized his arm and leapt down a ventilation shaft—dragging him with her.
The remaining soldiers followed immediately.
Only then did Huck and his assistant dare peer over the edge.
"According to plan, Mr. Mad Hatter has drawn all enemies away. Use the Bubble Blaster to evacuate the survivors," Huck ordered before hurrying to the shaft.
When he looked down, he froze.
The six MOTH soldiers were already chirping together in a tangled embrace.
The Chirp gun's power was terrifying.
But Mr. Mad Hatter's danger was not over.
An unseen enemy continued attacking him at the bottom of the shaft.
He moved lightly, weaving between machinery and scalding pipes, dodging sudden strikes.
Sparks burst from his weapon as he countered.
The environment had been devastated—walls blackened with smoke, flames licking at shattered metal, the air thick with gunpowder and heat.
From the shadows extended a dark gun barrel.
Above him, beneath a metal catwalk, something ominous lurked.
Even without seeing clearly, Huck felt a chill crawl up his spine.
Mr. Mad Hatter's body was covered in wounds. His clothes were torn and ragged.
Yet he remained composed.
Something was off.
From the shredded flesh seeped not blood—but red oil.
And what had been torn away by chains was... a wig?
"Ah. It seems all the actors have arrived."
The magician raised his arm awkwardly, holding the top hat high.
Then he let it fall.
The hat shattered on the ground, revealing the bald head of a puppet.
The puppet magician seemed to smile.
With proud posture, it spread its arms and bowed deeply.
"At curtain call—applaud with all your might!"
Only then did the MOTH soldiers sense something wrong.
Too late.
Fragments of the shattered hat ignited the oil spread throughout the area—simultaneously detonating explosives planted long before.
A scorching shockwave swallowed them whole.
Even mechanized soldiers could not withstand such destructive force.
A massive mushroom cloud erupted from the ventilation shaft.
The explosion shook the entire facility.
Huck dove behind cover, shielding his head from flying debris.
"So our boss was a bomb all along. I've been following a bomb this whole time... damn—"
After the heat wave subsided, Huck returned to help transport the survivors.
As for the suited man—
He had already been torn apart by the survivors and thrown into the Honkai beast enclosure.