***
When Gray Serpent received Raven’s message, his first thought was — are you kidding me?
The Seven Thunders of Retribution was lost?
Stolen?
What a joke. It’s always been World Serpent stealing from others, how could we end up being robbed by someone else?
“What the hell happened?!”
Gray Serpent’s hoarse voice carried suppressed anger and confusion.
He remembered assigning Raven a surveillance mission, right? So you’re telling me that during a surveillance mission, you managed to lose your weapon?!
“I should be grateful I made it back alive, and I owe thanks to that person for sparing my life.”
Miss Dodo on the other end of the projection smiled bitterly, her face full of helplessness.
However, when Gray Serpent heard this, he nearly blurted out—
Why didn’t you lose your life too?
As the saying goes: A weapon is a warrior’s life!
But considering she was at least a colleague, not to mention that Dodo was his adopted daughter, Gray Serpent didn’t voice such cold and heartless words. He just stared at her silently, clearly demanding an explanation.
Being stared at like that, Miss Raven felt utterly aggrieved and said irritably:
“The mission you gave me was absolutely cursed. I was doing surveillance when I spotted a pseudo-Herrscher, and while I was observing, some beautiful pink-haired girl appeared out of nowhere.”
“That person was seriously problematic! I was 800 meters away and had the Seven Thunders of Retribution’s high-dimensional observation function activated, but guess what I saw? She waved directly at me and said: Hi~”
It must be said that Miss Dodo’s resentment toward Jiang Qiao was quite substantial, as she vividly reenacted his appearance through the projection.
However, her performance left Gray Serpent stunned.
A beautiful pink-haired girl who would say “Hi~”?
Damn, these characteristics?!
Familiar, very familiar!
The triggered keywords instantly pulled up data from Gray Serpent’s database regarding the most special of the Flame-Chasers among the thirteen.
Although as a failed product, Gray Serpent wasn’t qualified to know the truth about the thirteen Herrschers, he had at least seen that particular lord!
But watching Raven speak so enthusiastically, Gray Serpent suppressed his urge to ask what that person looked like and patiently listened to what happened next.
At his deliberate request, Dodo had to repeat every word and sentence that Jiang Qiao had said to her.
Of course, when it came to the end, she had to mention the unscrupulous Miss Raven’s distortion of facts.
If Jiang Qiao knew she had told Gray Serpent it was “stolen,” he would definitely correct her seriously, he clearly said it was “borrowed”!
How could you call Miss 【Elysia】 actions stealing?
He clearly said it was borrowed, just that he didn’t mention when it would be returned!
“What’s wrong with you?”
Seeing Gray Serpent frozen in place, not speaking for a long time, Miss Dodo, who had been talking until her mouth was dry and feeling indignant, felt both strange and nervous.
She had said all this to clear herself of responsibility.
The existence of the Seven Thunders of Retribution was extremely important to World Serpent, after all, this was a Divine Key, a very powerful weapon against Honkai.
Losing this thing, even selling herself wouldn’t cover one thousandth of its value.
“Did the girl who took the Divine Key look like this?”
When Raven was sweating profusely, Gray Serpent finally spoke. A portrait appeared in front of Raven’s projection, a picture of a pink-haired girl, the former Flame-Chaser Elysia.
Elysia’s information was classified even in Gray Serpent’s network. Perhaps due to some tampering by their creator Mobius, even searching the entire network would only yield a few scattered photos of Elysia.
“Yes, I’d recognize her even if she turned to ash.”
When saying this, Miss Dodo was still gritting her teeth.
That person was clearly a female rogue who, after taking the Seven Thunders of Retribution, had even reached out to touch her.
What made her most furious was that the other party’s expression at the time was like she was examining pork! Ahhhhh!
Although she didn’t pay much attention to such things, Miss Raven was still a woman, so how could she tolerate that bad woman who robbed both wealth and virtue?
“Anyway, this person wasn’t within the scope of the mission you gave me. If you want to find trouble with her about the stolen Seven Thunders of Retribution… wait, how do you have her photo?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“Logically speaking, losing the Seven Thunders of Retribution makes you undeniably at fault, but—”
“Next, you just need to investigate the situation of the woman in this photo. Not only will your responsibility for losing the Seven Thunders of Retribution be waived, but the original mission payment can be doubled.”
The hoarse voice spoke persuasively, clearly containing obvious coercion and inducement, obviously having figured out Dodo’s nature.
However, regarding this arrangement, Raven directly objected loudly:
“Do you think I’m stupid? Whoever wants to take this mission can take it! I’m not accepting it anyway!”
Indeed, she did love money.
She could also accept risking her life for money.
After all, mercenaries, everyone lived this way, and Raven was no exception.
But—
That pink-haired woman was like a monster!
Damn, not only did she detect me using high-dimensional observation from far away, but she also got right next to me without any warning on my part, and even when I ran for my life, she easily caught me.
Investigate her?
Raven wanted to laugh when she heard this mission.
She had just looked at that monster once and had her weapon stripped away.
If she looked at her again, wouldn’t she be stripped of flesh and bones together?
Seeing Miss Dodo throwing down her burden, Gray Serpent wasn’t indulgent either, his sinister hoarse voice rang out:
“You must accept this mission, otherwise… losing a Divine Key and refusing to accept organizational missions, you should understand what the consequences would be, right?”
World Serpent wasn’t an organization of saints.
If you refuse to complete missions, there’s nothing wrong with the organization removing you from the roster, right? After all, members who refuse assigned missions, even officers, have no meaning staying in World Serpent.
“You’re ruthless!”
Miss Dodo looked aggrieved.
Expelled from World Serpent?
Damn it, where does World Serpent have expulsion? Once you’re out, it’s considered betrayal, and you’re viewed as a traitor by World Serpent.
And becoming a traitor to World Serpent, what’s the difference between that and death?!
Although she absolutely didn’t want to face that pink-hair rogue again, as they say, choose the lesser of two evils.
Going to find pink-hair, although that female rogue was a bit brutal, at least her life wouldn’t be in danger!
Looking at the indignant and very aggrieved Dodo, Gray Serpent hesitated for a moment before speaking:
“How about this, if what you saw really was her, then I can tell you a method to deal with her.”
No one knows exactly what was said, but one thing was clear.
— Miss Dodo’s face was green when she ended the call.