Queenstown was a famous tourist attraction in New Zealand. This small town situated in the Southern Alps had an excellent environment and abundant conditions, which is why the 4th Research Department was located here.
Looking at the surrounding scenery, 【Elysia】 couldn’t help but exclaim:
“The scenery here is really beautiful.”
“Indeed, this place used to be quite lively, but unfortunately, since the weather turned bad, there haven’t been many tourists… I quite liked having a cup of outdoor coffee at that cafe in the afternoon when the sunlight was abundant, with that feeling of a cool breeze… Mm~”
As she said this, a cold wind blew past, making Little Bird, who was somewhat intoxicated reminiscing about the peaceful life of the past, shiver involuntarily.
Because it was a tourist destination, for the purpose of not attracting attention, Fire Moth’s 4th Research Department was located in an extremely secluded corner of this small town with rare human traces. Even its appearance looked no different from other buildings in the town, and there were no Fire Moth insignias.
“Don’t let the ordinary appearance fool you, there’s quite a lot inside~”
Following the chestnut-haired girl into the spacious wooden house, Jiang Qiao listened to these words and smiled noncommittally. The next moment, the scene that entered his view suddenly changed.
Completely different from the rustic wooden house building seen from outside, the interior of the 4th Research Department was extremely modern, incredibly simple, and full of technological atmosphere.
Research personnel carrying various research materials were walking around everywhere in a hurry.
“Welcome to the 4th Research Department!”
Totori proudly showed off her workplace to 【Elysia】 behind her, then acted like a guide and introduced the internal facilities of the 4th Research Department to Jiang Qiao:
“The 4th Research Department is mainly a research department focused on meteorological studies, divided into above-ground and below-ground levels. What you see now is only a very small part of the 4th Research Department. The real main body is located in the underground base that you can’t see, where 80% of the research projects are located.”
— This was also why MEI had told him to come to the 4th Research Department.
Although Fire Moth’s various research departments were not unified due to the countries behind them, to avoid wasting resources as much as possible and for efficiency purposes.
Each research department’s projects were in different directions. Even the 1st Research Department where MEI, Mobius, and Vill-V were located — the research headquarters that was the strongest and most comprehensive of Fire Moth — might not necessarily match these other research departments that specialized in one direction in certain fields.
As a meteorological research department, although the 4th Research Department’s scale was not among the top, its status was extremely important.
Once it was destroyed, Fire Moth’s database and accumulation of talent and technology in meteorological aspects would be severely damaged.
Taking out her authentication card, Totori took Jiang Qiao in the elevator going down.
Under her guidance, Jiang Qiao soon met the head of the 4th Research Department — Dr. Rylia.
She was an older woman with hair color highly similar to Totori, exuding an intellectual aura throughout.
“Hello, I’m Rylia, the head of the 4th Research Department.”
Compared to Mobius, she appeared much more gentle and easy to talk to.
Of course, a certain someone still preferred Dr. Mobius more. After all, the snake that would get so angry she’d jump up and down was really cute~
“I already know about your purpose for coming.”
MEI had already arranged everything in advance, so when Rylia saw 【Elysia】, although she would pay special attention to him due to his achievements in the Second Eruption, perhaps because of the direct style of researchers, she didn’t engage in much small talk and cut straight to the point:
“Follow me.”
“Hmm… what a decisive personality, completely different from her gentle demeanor.”
Looking at her back, the pink-haired girl couldn’t help but comment.
Totori beside her seemed a bit embarrassed and said quietly:
“…Teacher is just like that. If there’s anything offensive, please don’t take it to heart. I’ll go first. You can come find me after you’re done, see you later.”
“Mm, see you later.”
【Elysia】 smiled and nodded, then followed Dr. Rylia’s steps.
Entering a certain room, the first thing that caught his eye were numerous screens, making him exclaim:
“So many screens.”
He could see that those screens displayed weather maps and various dense columns and data. Even though Jiang Qiao wasn’t like Miss Fatty in terms of intellectual capacity, receiving this information as 【Elysia】 still made him feel somewhat dizzy.
“Yes, these screens monitor meteorological information for the entire Oceania region and even the Pacific area.”
“Since the end of the Third Eruption… no, the starting point of this extreme weather began shortly after the Third Eruption outbreak. Initially, I thought this was the influence of the Third Eruption, but all kinds of data indicate that this anomaly has no connection to the Third Eruption…”
— No, no, no, there actually is some connection.
Looking at Dr. Rylia’s worried expression, the pink-haired girl calmly thought this in her heart.
Without doubt, this was a precursor to the Fourth Eruption.
But according to the original progression, the timing of the Honkai eruption shouldn’t be this rapid.
Even if small-scale eruptions occasionally occurred within major Honkai events, the scope of this disaster affecting the entire Oceania region, and even causing the same abnormal changes 50,000 years later — this disaster’s range might have already affected the entire branch of the 【Honkai Impact 3rd Main World】.
Although it was excessive, Jiang Qiao wasn’t surprised at all.
After all, if The Cocoon noticed his intentions and made such countermeasures, it would be the most natural thing.
The path to saving the world would never be smooth sailing.
Even if he hoped he could complete his goals more easily, he wouldn’t fear the future.
— At worst, the final outcome wouldn’t be worse than splitting himself into several hundred million pieces.
Not knowing what the girl in front of her was thinking, Dr. Rylia said quite earnestly:
“Miss Elysia, if possible, I hope you can make a trip to this place.”
“Eh?”
Instinctively, a certain someone looked at his own hair.
This isn’t yellow either…
“Because of Miss Vill-V from the 1st Research Department, the 4th Research Department’s research equipment has been somewhat renovated. Based on some information provided by Dr. MEI, we suspect that the source of the extreme weather might come from this area. You came here to investigate the climate anomalies, right?”
“Ah… yes.”
He immediately realized this should be an excuse MEI had made up for him, otherwise 【Elysia】 trip wouldn’t have been so easy.
But… this yellow-haired idiot’s script.
Forget it, this trip was originally to find the imaginary dark side of the Fourth Eruption anyway, so making this trip wasn’t a problem.
The pink-haired girl sighed and glanced at the marker Dr. Rylia had given.
— Auckland.