Ten minutes later—
Outside the Emergency Operation node, Moss Hand.
“Um…”
“Big Sister Xia Ling…”
For once, Bronya’s emotionless voice contained visible confusion.
“What do you mean by ‘absolutely do not get injured’?”
“If Big Sister Xia Ling gave that order because she’s worried about Bronya, it is unnecessary.”
“Bronya worked as a mercenary when she was young.”
“Pain and injury are familiar experiences.”
“Worrying about you is part of it.”
“But more importantly…”
“In the Sami snowfields, once someone becomes injured, it can trigger a chain reaction.”
“Even without injuries, strange phenomena will eventually appear once we travel deep enough.”
“But injuries make them appear sooner.”
What Xia Ling was referring to—
Were the Collapse Paradigms of Sami Integrated Strategies.
As previously explained—
The System Trial had no quantified HP meter.
Nor did enemies simply “leak” through some blue box.
Instead, HP and Shield values were directly reflected through Xia Ling and her squad members.
Higher HP and Shield proportionally improved—
Self-healing.
Physical ability.
Stamina recovery.
Armor durability.
However—
Whenever a squad member suffered damage, Collapse would increase proportionally according to injury severity.
That rule effectively destroyed Xia Ling’s former trade-wounds-for-kills fighting style.
Trade wounds for kills?
Trade my ass.
After one run, she would have enough Nation to carpet the entire floor.
Thus—
Xia Ling’s strategy had always been:
Play as safely as possible.
Taking longer did not matter.
She had plenty of time.
Combined with her speed and mobility—
She could slowly grind enemies down.
“I see…”
Bronya tilted her head.
“Bronya does not completely understand.”
“But Bronya will obey.”
“Good.”
“Now I’ll explain the battle plan.”
Xia Ling opened the detector and enlarged the red Emergency Operation map.
On the right side, the enemy types and numbers were displayed.
“The most troublesome enemies are these crossbowmen and the three Veteran Butchers carrying giant axes.”
“The crossbow bolts significantly increase our chance of taking damage.”
“And the enhanced Butchers are also highly dangerous.”
“So we eliminate the crossbowmen first?”
Bronya looked at Xia Ling.
“Correct.”
“These nodes have a mechanic.”
“They prioritize targeting the first person to enter their detection range.” Get faster updates on g.com.
“So I need you to go in first and draw aggro.”
“I’ll quickly eliminate the crossbowmen.”
“Then we split the enemy group and deal with them in smaller waves.”
“Bronya understands.”
“Like playing a game.”
“Except this time Bronya is the main tank pulling aggro.”
As an elite gamer, Bronya understood instantly.
“Exactly.”
“The most important thing is—don’t greed for damage.”
“Focus entirely on controlling Project Bunny defensively.”
“Minimizing injuries matters more than killing quickly.”
“Understood.”
Xia Ling rubbed Bronya’s twin-drill head.
Then she flashed several times and reached a position she had scouted earlier.
She gave Bronya a hand signal from afar.
Pull the pack.
Bronya nodded.
Three fully charged shells launched simultaneously.
At the same time—
The exoskeleton on her legs erupted with thrust.
Bronya shot straight into the settlement.
Project Bunny appeared behind her instantly.
One massive mechanical arm shielded Bronya.
The other grabbed a nearby Siracusan thug carrying a knife—
And threw him directly into a crowd.
Here—
The enhanced stats of an Emergency Operation became obvious.
Despite taking such a brutal impact—
The thug slowly crawled back up several seconds later.
He had temporarily lost combat effectiveness.
But recovery was clearly only a matter of time.
Meanwhile—
The instant Bronya entered—
Xia Ling moved as well.
Urban alleyways limited Bronya’s long-range bombardment.
But they also limited enemy vision.
Through blind spots among the scattered thugs—
A red shadow slipped silently through.
Thanks to repeated prior experience with this node, Xia Ling easily located the crossbowmen hidden on rooftops and alley corners.
One crossbowman fired his first bolt.
He began reloading the second.
Then—
Xia Ling appeared behind him.
Crescent Rose smashed downward from behind his skull.
Unfortunately—
The crossbowman’s vitality exceeded expectations.
Even with an enormous wound deep enough to expose bone—
He somehow completed the reload.
His trembling hands activated an Originium Art.
The crossbow pointed toward Xia Ling.
“Tsk.”
“I performed such a stylish assassination.”
“If you refuse to die, you make me look really awkward.” New chapters come out on g.com first.
Xia Ling’s silhouette blurred.
This time—
The scythe blade swept upward from below.
At the same time as it struck—
It sent the crossbow flying from his hands.
With catastrophic wounds on both front and back—
The crossbowman finally collapsed.
Xia Ling flicked the blood from her blade and withdrew before several nearby thugs could surround her.
Next crossbowman.
CLANG—!
A Veteran Butcher’s axe crashed violently against Project Bunny’s armored arm.
Metal roared against metal.
The enormous force pushed Bronya backward one step.
Project Bunny swept an arm across, knocking the axe away.
Then the next attack immediately arrived.
At first—
Bronya handled multiple enemies comfortably.
But once the other two Veteran Butchers joined—
Her situation became dangerous.
Fortunately—
Xia Ling had already finished the crossbowmen.
A dull gunshot rang out.
One Butcher’s raised axe froze.
He dropped to one knee.
A bloody cavity had exploded through his left leg.
Bronya immediately felt the pressure ease.
She focused fully.
Project Bunny’s defense became airtight.
After firing several shots from a distance, Xia Ling did not continue long-range harassment.
Instead—
She leapt.
Pointed Crescent Rose backward.
Then fired multiple times.
Using recoil as successive acceleration bursts—
She rocketed toward Bronya.
While killing the crossbowmen earlier, Xia Ling had been inspired by a certain phenomenon on their bodies.
She had thought of a new application for Honkai materialization.
Now—
She intended to test it.
Under Bronya’s confused gaze—
Xia Ling approached at high speed.
But instead of eliminating the weaker Siracusan thugs nearby—
She charged directly toward a completely healthy Veteran Butcher.
There were currently three Butchers.
One engaged with Bronya.
One disabled by a bullet through the knee.
Bronya could safely handle the remaining pressure.
Which made Xia Ling’s intention obvious.
She had a method to eliminate one Veteran Butcher instantly.
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