As Einstein had predicted, an hour later, Walter Yang arrived at Abyssal City. However, the Schicksal fleet outside still showed no signs of movement.
“Schicksal is, after all, a significant force in the fight against the Honkai. If we were to strike and destroy their fleet directly—killing the Valkyries aboard their ships—humanity’s ability to combat the Honkai would undoubtedly suffer a heavy blow.”
“Moreover, Anti-Entropy and Schicksal would very likely be dragged into a civil war fueled by mutual hatred. In that case, before the Honkai even made a move, humanity would have already destroyed itself.”
“Of course, keeping the bigger picture in mind doesn’t mean we can compromise and retreat without limits. If Schicksal’s fleet launches an attack on Abyssal City, then we will annihilate them completely. But if this is just Otto bluffing, then we simply ignore them.”
During the combat briefing, Walter Yang—as the leader of Anti-Entropy—set the tone for the operation after discussions with Theresa, Cocolia, Einstein, and the others.
After the meeting ended and everyone had dispersed, Anti-Entropy received a mysterious transmission.
“Leader, the caller claims to be from World Serpent.”
The Anti-Entropy operator patched the call through, and the figure of Gray Serpent immediately appeared on the main screen.
“World Serpent has been entrusted to deliver a surprise to you all. Please be ready to sign for it on time.”
With that, Gray Serpent ended the transmission. Just as Walter and the others were left utterly confused, Anti-Entropy detected an unidentified transport vessel approaching Abyssal City at high speed—and it was sending a docking request.
“Leader, this transport vessel, which appears to be carrying nothing at all, managed to pass through Schicksal’s blockade completely unscathed, and there’s still no response to our hails. I’m afraid…”
Walter Yang adjusted his glasses.
“Approve its request. At the same time, inform Lady Theresa and ask her to accompany me to the Third Dock.”
Fifteen minutes later, Walter Yang and Theresa arrived at Abyssal City’s Third Dock.
Unlike Schicksal’s headquarters, the Third Dock at Abyssal City was vast and eerily empty—not a single ship in sight.
After preliminary scans and analysis of the transport vessel’s feedback, Anti-Entropy determined that it was an AI-controlled, unmanned ship. However, its materials were highly unusual. They could tell it wasn’t empty, but what exactly it carried remained a mystery.
Given Walter Yang’s less-than-favorable impression of World Serpent, he believed that their level of recklessness—if not quite on Otto’s level—wasn’t far off.
So, while he had no idea what World Serpent was up to with this stunt, he was fairly certain their so-called “surprise” was more likely to be a shock—and not a prank, but the kind that could threaten many lives.
Yet precisely because it could endanger so many, Walter Yang couldn’t afford to let it wander around unchecked.
If Anti-Entropy rejected its docking request, a vessel capable of evading Schicksal’s detection and possibly carrying dangerous cargo might simply head for a densely populated city—and that would spell serious trouble.
Watching this oddly shaped transport—clearly belonging to neither Schicksal nor Anti-Entropy—descend slowly onto the Third Dock, both Walter and Theresa were on edge. One gripped the chains of Judah tightly, the other clenched the imitation Eden Star. If whatever was inside posed any threat, they would act immediately to contain the situation.
The hatch opened slowly. Both fixed their gazes on the interior, as if at any moment, something terrifying might leap out.
“Um… excuse me… is this… where…?”
A girl with short, deep-blue hair stood at the entrance of the transport, staring at the poised Walter and Theresa with obvious timidity written all over her face.
In stark contrast to her expression were the looks of sheer astonishment on Walter and Theresa’s faces. The girl before them—far from being dangerous or frightening—seemed utterly harmless.
“Don’t be afraid, child. You’re safe now. Even we didn’t know what was inside this ship until you came out. This is Abyssal City, an Anti-Entropy base.”
Theresa felt as though she had been transported back to St. Freya Academy, facing a new student on her first day.
“Anti-Entropy… um, could I contact Cocolia Mama?”
“You’re one of Cocolia’s children from the orphanage? That makes things easier. Come with me.”
Theresa and Walter exchanged a glance, nodded to each other, and led the girl to Cocolia.
“Seele!”
Cocolia wrapped her arms tightly around the girl, too moved to speak. Though there were still many questions about how she had ended up on a World Serpent vessel, the most important thing was that Seele was safe.
After a brief embrace, Cocolia gently patted Seele on the back.
“You’ve grown taller over these years, Seele… Rosaliya, Liliya, and Bronya are all here too. I’m sure they’re dying to see you. Go on—I have some things to take care of anyway, so I won’t keep you.”
(Switching to Bronya’s perspective…)
Bronya was deeply focused, working in a laboratory. With Schicksal potentially launching a large-scale attack at any moment, her task was to inspect Abyssal City’s defense systems.
Einstein had told her that Schicksal had their own cyber experts who could breach the city’s defenses at any time. If the system fell, all the automated mechs and artillery would either malfunction or, worse, turn traitor. Bronya knew full well that this silent war would determine the outcome of the entire battle.
After a thorough inspection, Bronya indeed found issues within Abyssal City’s defense system. But as she worked on repairs, something frustrating happened:
A system that had been functioning normally suddenly crashed after she fixed a bug. The small fix had triggered an even bigger problem. If Schicksal attacked at that moment, Abyssal City would likely crumble instantly. After working overtime, she finally managed to get the system back online before any serious consequences occurred.
“There’s a vulnerability here… and this area has issues too… no, this part looks weird… wait, Bronya remembers that the class monitor once said—in her homeland, there’s a saying:
‘A mighty dam can collapse due to an ant hole.’ Every minor flaw could lead to the entire defense system’s collapse. Bronya must find and fix every single one of them…”
Soon, Bronya came to fully appreciate the flaws in Anti-Entropy’s organizational structure.
Because Anti-Entropy was a coalition of countless branches, a large fortress like Abyssal City couldn’t have its entire defense system designed by Einstein alone—she had other responsibilities. The final solution was to outsource the work to multiple branches, each handling a portion.
The problem was that different contractors had different capabilities and coding styles. While the end result worked—each section functioned properly—it posed a massive challenge for Bronya, who had to check for vulnerabilities.
Some code was clean and clear—even without comments, Bronya could understand it at a glance. But other pieces nearly made the emotionally stunted Bronya see red. The issues she encountered included, but were not limited to:
- Meaningless and incomprehensible variable names, e.g., const aNumber = 2; let dogFishSkin = ‘dog’;
- Overly long functions that made your head spin—when in reality, Bronya found she could shorten them to one-fifth or even one-tenth of their original length while achieving the same output.
- Massive blocks of repeated code left unencapsulated.
- Tens of thousands of nested if-else statements with no comments. Bronya discovered that in some places, once triggered, the if-loop would run at least ten thousand times.
In short, Bronya’s current job was to fix all the bugs in a mountain of spaghetti code that had been running for over a decade.
Why did such a critical location as Abyssal City have these problems? Ultimately, it came down to Anti-Entropy’s system. As mentioned, the defense system was outsourced by Einstein to various branches, and those branches often subcontracted further.
The advantage of this approach was that many individuals and companies working for Anti-Entropy didn’t even know they were serving the organization, offering excellent concealment and confidentiality.
But the downsides of multi-layered outsourcing were equally apparent. First, when different standards were combined into a single system, issues were almost inevitable. Many people simply wanted to finish the job, get paid, and move on—as long as it worked, that was enough. Bugs? They left that for future generations to handle.
Second, accountability was nearly impossible. To prevent Schicksal from tracing code back to Anti-Entropy programmers, most of the code was stripped of identifying information by the time it reached Einstein and others. No one knew who wrote which part. So if something broke, there was no one to hold responsible.
Schicksal, in contrast, operated quite differently. Though their programs weren’t written by one person either, every contributor was clearly documented. If a critical system—like Schicksal’s headquarters defense—had a vulnerability, they could immediately trace responsibility. Offenders faced everything from fines and dismissal to imprisonment or even physical elimination. Under that system, any Schicksal programmer who dared cut corners would have a death wish.
After what felt like an eternity, Bronya slumped against the wall, exhaustion etched across her face. Even as a top-tier hacker, she finally understood the pain of debugging a codebase until your hair fell out.
“Problems everywhere. At this rate, even overtime won’t finish the job on time… Hm?”
Just as she was feeling both frustrated and drained, Bronya suddenly felt her neck sink into something soft—a fluffy, fragrant U-shaped pillow.
At the same time, two arms wrapped around her waist from behind. Bronya’s entire body jolted as if electrified.
“Seele…”
“Bronya, it’s me.”
The gentle voice, warm breath brushing against her ear, combined with the physical sensation, made her realize—this wasn’t a hallucination brought on by overwork.
“Bronya is still as diligent as ever, isn’t she?”
Hearing that, Bronya immediately understood that Seele had probably been here for a while, and she hadn’t even noticed.
“I’m sorry…”
“Huh? Why is Bronya apologizing…? I may not fully understand what you’re doing right now, but taking a break might actually make you more efficient. And besides, I also want to…”
“Mm, I understand. Whatever Seele says.”
Bronya completely let go of all her tension, savoring this long-awaited moment to the fullest.
“Can you tell me what Seele has been through all these years?”
Seele nodded gently.
“Of course. After the X-10 experiment, my form changed, and I drifted in the Sea of Quanta for over a year. Then World Serpent found my location, and with the help of Sister Sirin and Sister Enoxia, I was brought back to the real world.”
“The Herrscher of the Void’s authority… being able to enter the Sea of Quanta freely—there really is no one else who could do that.”
“After returning to the real world, I stayed at Sister Eno’s home until a few days ago, when she said it was time for me to leave. So I came here on World Serpent’s transport, and also…”
“Hm?”
“No… it’s nothing.”
Perhaps because she hadn’t seen Bronya in so long, Seele almost spilled everything about her time at Enoxia’s residence. According to Enoxia, she would eventually reunite Bronya with her mother, but the time wasn’t right yet. Seele barely managed to swallow the words that were on the tip of her tongue.
With her mind fully at ease, Bronya closed her eyes and rested against Seele, her thoughts growing hazier as drowsiness slowly enveloped her. She didn’t notice that Seele was holding something back.
Listening to Bronya’s steady breathing, Seele gently shifted her body, carefully adjusting her into a more comfortable position without waking her.
[You’ve seen Bronya now. Are you satisfied?]
“Mm. From now on, we can be together with Bronya forever.”
[We, you say… who said… ah, well, if it’s for Sister’s sake, I suppose it’s not so bad.]
About fifteen minutes later, Bronya rebooted. She felt that her once-foggy mind was now sharper than ever before.
She turned around and looked at Seele’s adorable face. The memories that belonged only to the two of them flooded back. She reached out, cupped Seele’s cheeks in her hands, and pressed her lips against Seele’s.
“Bronya remembers everything about Seele. Before we parted last time, Seele said that when we met again, Bronya would return Seele’s kiss.”
“Now is the time for Bronya to fulfill that promise.”
