On July 1, 2017, a plane landed smoothly at Sydney Airport.
A girl with light purple long hair, wearing a white top and a black short skirt, slowly walked out of the plane pulling a suitcase, drawing quite a few glances from people around her.
She followed the signs in the airport to the relevant service window and handed over her ID.
Although Australia’s capital is Canberra, for foreigners, Sydney is obviously more well-known.
As an international metropolis, Sydney Airport naturally receives many foreign tourists every day. For immigration checks on foreigners, just like in the United States and the developed regions of Shenzhou, most of the process is handled by machines.
Name: Bella oSirin
Birthday: February 5, 2000
Age: 17
Place of Birth: Siberia
…
Obviously, although the birth date and age were real, the passport and other documents were all forged by World Serpent.
Although World Serpent’s fake documents could pass inspections by government agencies of various countries, when it came to the name field on important documents, they couldn’t just write [Bella oNo Surname], could they?
Bella came into being because of Sirin, and her name was also given by Sirin. So using Sirin as her surname was completely fine. For Bella herself, it was naturally a great honor.
As for why she had to go through so many tedious steps instead of letting Sirin teleport her directly, it was because Sirin wanted to take this opportunity to give Bella a vacation. All the time outside of missions could be treated as a holiday in Australia.
Bella certainly understood that Sirin, whose real age had already passed thirty, could naturally take care of herself, at most just feeling a little unaccustomed to it.
The reason Bella served Sirin was not because Sirin needed it, but because Bella could gain happiness from it, and even find the value of her life in it.
[Verification passed. Enjoy your pleasant journey.]
Bella left the airport. After checking into a high-class hotel, she established contact with Enoxia.
“So, Bella, how does it feel to fly on a plane for the first time?”
“…Nothing particularly special. The plane’s speed… is so slow. It was only crossing most of the… Pacific Ocean, and yet it took over ten hours. If I flew myself, I would have arrived long ago.”
As a Honkai beast capable of flying to the moon, Bella’s maximum instantaneous speed could escape Earth’s gravity, meaning over 11.2 kilometers per second. Her normal flight speed was also several times to more than ten times the speed of sound. So to Bella, riding a plane felt about the same as an ordinary person sitting in a car stuck in rush-hour traffic.
“Hehe, if you flew yourself, you wouldn’t achieve the element of surprise. You’d probably be discovered by Schicksal’s reconnaissance system before you even reached Australia, and then intercepted. Even if I put you on the whitelist and Schicksal’s detection equipment couldn’t tell you were a Honkai beast, on the entire Earth, the only ones who could reach your speed with pure physical ability would probably be other Judgement-class Honkai beasts or Herrschers.”
“I seem to have gone off topic… Anyway, you know what Sirin means. Enjoy your vacation well. Although based on the preview performance left by the previous puppet, the Herrscher of Domination’s next target is in Sydney, before they start causing trouble, just enjoy your vacation.”
Enoxia ended the communication. Bella looked at the scenery outside the window and felt very lost. Although she was deeply grateful that Sirin wanted her to take a vacation, she had no idea what she was supposed to do during a vacation.
“Right… earlier at the airport, someone seemed to be handing out a ‘Tourism Recommendation Guide’…”
After rummaging through her luggage for a while, Bella pulled out a small booklet. She lay on the bed, flipping through the tourism recommendation guide while her legs swung back and forth.
“Shopping, surfing, playing on the beach… when I’m with Her Majesty the Queen, there’s not much difference… Sydney Opera House…”
Bella shook her head. She really had no interest in music or art. Her aesthetic sense depended entirely on Sirin’s aesthetic sense. Whatever painting Sirin thought was the most beautiful, whatever song Sirin thought sounded the best, she only needed to synchronize her own perception with Sirin’s.
“…Forget it. Let me go see if Sydney has any specialty foods. After I get home, maybe I can make Her Majesty the Queen’s recipes a little richer.”
Bella wandered around the streets until evening, when she finally walked into a high-end restaurant across from the Sydney Opera House. Her reason for choosing this place was also very simple. Unlike the somewhat crowded surroundings, although this restaurant was closer to the Sydney Opera House, it actually had the fewest people.
She casually found a seat and sat down. A waiter who looked very refined immediately came to her side with a menu.
“What would you like to eat, miss?”
Bella picked up the menu. After just one glance, she understood why there were so few people here.
Before coming to Sydney, Bella had done some research. She was certain that this restaurant, where even the cheapest dish cost three digits in Australian dollars, was definitely not something ordinary people could afford.
When the waiter saw that Bella’s expression did not change much after looking at the menu, and that she actually began thinking about what to order, his attitude immediately became even more respectful.
“May I ask… what is this emu pizza?”
“Ah… emu, another name for the Australian ostrich. Perhaps you’ve had meat pizza at other restaurants. The biggest difference with emu pizza is that the pork or beef is replaced with emu meat.”
“I see…”
After reading through the menu from beginning to end, Bella finally made up her mind.
“One flat white coffee, one emu pizza, two orders of oysters…”
The waiter very skillfully wrote down all the dishes Bella named. After bowing slightly to her, he walked toward the back with brisk steps.
At that moment, Bella’s gaze fell on a man nearby. He was making latte art in coffee. In just a short while, a pure white flower appeared on the originally brown surface of the coffee.
“Hmm… I remember Her Majesty the Queen also likes cute patterns. If… I also had that kind of ability, Her Majesty the Queen’s mood while dining might be even better…”
Not long after, a sumptuous dinner appeared before Bella. Just as she wanted to savor it carefully, a violent explosion sounded in her ears. She looked toward the source of the explosion. Not far away, inside the Sydney Opera House, flames were already soaring into the sky.
Soon, cries, screams, and wails rose one after another. Bella stood up, slowly walked out of the restaurant, and looked at the Sydney Opera House, now turned red, falling into thought.
“Her Majesty the Queen said the Herrscher of Domination would take action in Sydney soon. But… was this definitely their doing? The power of this explosion… isn’t it a little too weak?”
Bella thought that if she herself were the one attacking the Sydney Opera House, there definitely would not be such noisy sounds nearby. Forget destroying all of Australia; even destroying all of Sydney, she felt, would take her some effort. But wiping out the entire Sydney Opera House in one strike and making sure everyone inside and around it lost their lives before they could even cry out, she could still do that.
The explosion before her was far from Herrscher-level disaster. It could completely be covered up with excuses like a “gas leak” or “natural gas pipeline explosion.”
Soon, the first batch of survivors who had escaped death and had not suffered serious injuries gathered together and began talking all at once. Some felt lucky that they and their families were still alive; some wailed because their relatives had not escaped in time; some carefully watched the distance, afraid of a second explosion; some analyzed the cause of the accident and directed vicious curses at the groups they thought might be responsible.
“I say, this was done by those refugees from the east. I thought at the time that they should never have been allowed into Australia. Look at Europe. Look at what happened after they took in refugees. There’s a warning right in front of them, yet they turn a deaf ear. Those members of parliament, every one of them is an idiot!”
This uncle, who looked about fifty, had a very loud voice. Such prejudiced words quickly sparked an argument.
Bella knew that the “refugees from the east” he mentioned referred to the survivors after the Fourth Eruption a few months ago. The Herrscher of Wind had destroyed most of New Zealand, and countless homeless people had no choice but to flee to other countries. Australia, being closest to New Zealand, naturally became the first choice.
During the Fourth Eruption, although Australia was not like New Zealand, where several large cities were directly leveled, it still suffered attacks from secondary disasters caused by the Herrscher of Wind.
Because the Herrscher of Wind directly disrupted the atmospheric circulation of the entire South Pacific, Australia was hit by several super typhoons within a few days. Major cities such as Sydney and Melbourne suspended all flights for months. In the end, although Australia overcame the crisis, its economy was severely affected.
When the country’s economy was declining and even maintaining the original material standard of living for its own people was very difficult, conflicts breaking out between foreign refugees and citizens over resources and other reasons were an obvious outcome.
And today, the theme of the play being performed at the Sydney Opera House happened to be calling on everyone in Australia to unite, set aside prejudices, and get through the crisis together. A heavy blow to the moderates would clearly intensify Australia’s domestic conflicts.
Using dominated individuals to carry out terrorist attacks and pour fuel on the fire between groups already full of conflict, thereby triggering a crisis of trust among humans, was precisely the Herrscher of Domination’s favorite method.
