"Ugh, this damned familiarity. It's like a rush of long-buried, painful memories flooding back."
As Mo Wang stepped off the Hyperion and onto the floor of ME Corp, the familiar scent and sight immediately triggered those accursed memories to resurface.
"Captain, have you been here before?" Wendy asked, looking at Mo Wang with a hint of curiosity.
If she wasn't mistaken, this was Anti-Entropy territory, right?
"How should I put this? You could say I have, and you could say I haven't." Mo Wang rubbed his chin, unsure how to explain it to Wendy at the moment.
The moment he set foot in ME Corp, Mo Wang couldn't help but recall his days playing Honkai 3rd. If you were to ask which Honkai maps were the most familiar in the early days, ME Corp would definitely take a top spot.
After all, back then, not to mention how events and the old Abyss mode loved to shove players into this map to slowly grind through, just the Tyrant boss alone, Mo Wang didn't know how many times he'd fought it.
Back then, he didn't even have a decent weapon, and every time he played co-op, he'd be driven mad by incompetent teammates – truly unforgettable memories for Mo Wang. If he had his way, Mo Wang genuinely wished he didn't have to recall those damned memories.
"What do you mean, 'been here and not been here'?" Wendy really couldn't grasp what Mo Wang's paradoxical speech was supposed to mean.
Before Wendy could figure it out, Theresa, who seemed to be used to this, patted Wendy's shoulder and said, "Don't mind him, he's always like this. He's got a whole repertoire of abstract nonsense."
Just as the three of them were talking, the ME Building suddenly began to tremble slightly. A low rumble echoed through the air, as if some immense force was approaching. The trio instinctively looked up, their gazes fixed on the ceiling.
The ceiling suddenly shattered into a myriad of fragments. Immediately after, dozens of Titan mechs plummeted rapidly from the broken ceiling, surrounding Mo Wang and his companions.
The moment these Titan mechs landed, they quickly adjusted their stances, their massive cyclopean eyes glowing with a chilling red light, as if locking onto prey. Mo Wang looked at the Anti-Entropy mechs with some surprise, his eyes widening.
"Whoa, didn't expect such a grand entrance right off the bat. Cocolia's really pulling out all the stops, isn't she?"
Aside from the highest-tier red mechs, all the other Anti-Entropy mechs were fully equipped. There were quite a few white and orange ones too. If someone told him this wasn't that woman Cocolia's entire arsenal, he wouldn't believe it for a second.
And for some reason, Mo Wang's tsundere brat detector suddenly started blaring.
"You bunch of idiots, how dare you trespass on Anti-Entropy territory? You've got a death wish, don't you?"
Just then, an incredibly arrogant voice echoed in Mo Wang and the others' ears. From amidst the pile of Titans, a peculiar girl with shark-like teeth, golden pupils, and dual-colored pink and purple hair sprang out of a Titan mech.
The moment he saw her, Mo Wang's face broke into an expression of sudden realization. Who did he think it was? Turns out it's General Sin Mal! No wonder his tsundere brat detector went off. It was the renowned Honkai brat, Sin Mal!
"There's a kid inside a Titan mech?" Wendy, upon seeing Sin Mal emerge from the mech, froze for a couple of seconds. It seemed she hadn't expected such a small child to be piloting a mech.
"Hey! Who are you calling a kid, you puffball-head?!" The moment Sin Mal heard Wendy call her a kid, a prominent tic mark appeared on her forehead.
"Careful, Wendy. That one came out of a Titan mech. Don't underestimate her," Theresa warned Wendy. "She might be a high-ranking Anti-Entropy official. Be careful, she's very dangerous."
"Hmph hmph, looks like you guys have good eyes after all! Yours truly—"
However, before she could gloat too much, Theresa added, "But this kid really is too small, isn't she? Maybe only around 14 years old?" Theresa said, sounding a little uncertain.
"You're the kids! Your whole family are kids!"
"You green algae puffball over there! And you little white midget! Listen up! Yours truly is already sixteen! That little white midget is clearly shorter than me and obviously an idiot! What gives you the right to say I'm 14?!
"And you green algae puffball, don't think having a good figure makes you hot stuff! I'll put you in a wheelchair, I swear!"
Hearing Sin Mal's words, Mo Wang nearly blurted out, "Holy crap!" Seriously, General Sin Mal, are you that bold? Do you even know who those two in front of you are? Even he wouldn't dare speak to them like that.
Mo Wang stiffly turned his head away. Sure enough, Wendy and Theresa's expressions were, to put it mildly, absolutely terrifying.
"Green puffball-head? Put me in a wheelchair?"
"Little white midget? Obviously an idiot?"
Mo Wang looked at the two girls, whose faces were so dark they could practically drip water, and silently observed two seconds of silence for General Sin Mal. He'd always known General Sin Mal had a venomous tongue, but he hadn't expected her to be so precise at hitting all the tripwires.
Mo Wang could already predict what kind of scene was about to unfold.
"Captain, we didn't see anything here, did we?"
"That's right, there's no little girl here at all. We must have been mistaken, right?"
"Honestly, is ME Corp haunted or something?"
"Looks like we should properly perform an exorcism, shouldn't we?"
Mo Wang stood aside, not daring to interject. By the sound of it, were these two planning on turning General Sin Mal into an actual ghost? Seriously, these two were absolutely terrifying right now.
"Hey! You three idiots from St. Freya! Don't you dare ignore yours truly! You're surrounded and still so arrogant! I'll capture you all right now and hand you over to Mama!"
The moment Sin Mal finished speaking, the surrounding mech forces surged towards the trio. And Sin Mal herself charged directly at Wendy, seemingly because she sensed a particularly loathsome familiarity emanating from Wendy.
"Ah, General Sin Mal, I think you've completely misunderstood," Mo Wang sighed.
In this situation, were they truly surrounded by mech forces? Try telling him that an S-rank Valkyrie, an awakened Herrscher, and a pathstrider anomaly were surrounded by a bunch of Titan mechs. Who would believe that?
Mo Wang couldn't help but recall a famous line: "Not only did the enemy refuse to surrender, but they also launched an attack on us."
Mo Wang could only pray that General Sin Mal wouldn't be completely torn apart by these two enraged girls.