In the spacious soundproof room, Elysia sat facing the person in charge of this kidnapping case.
The interrogator wearing black-framed glasses pointed at a photo on the table and asked:
"Is the person in this photo you?"
Elysia looked at the photo and found it was a close-up of a girl making a peace sign at the camera.
Although she wore a mask and had different eye and hair color from herself, based on body parameters alone, Elysia could still recognize that this was a girl who was extremely—even ninety percent—similar to herself!
"This isn't me."
Elysia's fingers swept through her hair, gesturing for the interrogator to notice her pink hair.
"My hair is pink. The person in the photo has light purple hair."
Then she pointed at her own eyes.
"The eye color is also different. Although orange-red pupils are also very pretty, my eyes are gem blue dotted with romantic pink."
As if worried the interrogator wouldn't believe her, she deliberately moved closer.
"Look, completely different, right? Right?"
Watching this self-familiar pink fur lean over, the interrogator wanted to remind her this was a serious interrogation, but unfortunately, this pink fur seemed to have some kind of magic that made people feel close, completely unable to generate any disgust.
"Miss Elysia, we are in the questioning phase. Everything is being recorded."
While saying this, she took out another photo. This was the same as before, but with the hair color changed to pink, the eyes also replaced with Elysia's eye color, and even the mask that was originally worn had disappeared.
She pushed this photo in front of Elysia.
"This is the suspect's appearance calculated by the technical department after collecting on-site data and inputting it into AI. The accuracy rate is over 90%."
"Miss Elysia, do you have anything else to say?"
Looking at the photo, Elysia puffed up her little face, looking extremely wronged.
"This really isn't me..."
"In that case, let's continue answering questions, Miss Elysia." The interrogator put away the photo and asked: "So, where were you at the same time Eden was attacked?"
"On a mission in Australia, exterminating Honkai beasts, and I saved quite a few people."
"Your mission was completed after Eden arrived in the Far East. After that, the action recorder didn't record your itinerary. Where did you go after that?"
Elysia fell into recollection.
"Hmm... After the mission ended, I wandered around nearby. You know, many places in Australia are uninhabited, but there are many interesting animals."
"I ran with cassowaries across the great plains, boxed with kangaroos, fed platypuses and silly geese at lakes in the wilderness. Oh right... I also saw koalas. They're so silly and cute."
"So, Miss Elysia, do you have evidence that you were in Australia at that time?"
"..."
Elysia found that she really had no way to prove it. The places she traveled were basically uninhabited areas with no signal at all.
Seeing Elysia fall silent, the interrogator sighed inwardly.
She had a good impression of this girl. As Fire Moth's currently strongest warrior and the hero who defeated a Herrscher, this girl had extremely high recognition within Fire Moth.
Whether based on reason or emotion, she was unwilling to make things difficult.
It's just that the incident this time was too big.
"Miss Elysia, you know, Miss Eden is not only the most influential person of this era, but also one of Fire Moth's major sponsors."
"Someone captured your information and brought the fire to Fire Moth. We're under a lot of public pressure right now."
"We know you usually are very close with Miss Eden. Perhaps you had some conflict."
At this point, the interrogator's tone even carried a hint of pleading.
"But no matter what the conflict is, you can sit down and talk it out. There's no need to take things to such extremes..."
After listening to the interrogator's extremely sincere persuasion, Elysia only felt more wronged. After all, only those who are falsely accused know how wronged they truly are.
How could she possibly tie up her good Eden... Well, although she had thought about it sometimes, she hadn't actually done it, had she?!
"But it really wasn't me~" Elysia's expression was extremely wronged. "I really didn't kidnap Eden. Really."
Looking at the pink girl's tearless wronged appearance, the interrogator suddenly felt a pang of sympathy.
Could it be that it really wasn't Elysia who did it?
Just as she was thinking this, the desk suddenly made a beeping sound, representing a communication request.
The interrogator thought it was communication from her superiors and connected it.
But after connecting, both the interrogator and Elysia were surprised, because the person communicating was actually Eden, who had been kidnapped.
"Ellie, I heard Fire Moth had some unpleasantness with you?"
Seeing Eden on the screen, Elysia was also extremely surprised and hurriedly asked: "Eden? My good Eden, where are you?"
"Me? Naturally at my residence in the Far East."
After learning Eden was safe, Elysia finally breathed a sigh of relief, but she quickly puffed up again.
"My good Eden, who exactly kidnapped you?" Elysia raised her fist. "I'll teach them a lesson for you."
"It was Elysia~"
"?"
"I mean, I was kidnapped by Ellie."
"..."
The atmosphere suddenly became quiet.
The interrogator looked at the stunned pink fairy lady, then at Miss Eden on the screen, and hurriedly lowered her head, pretending she hadn't heard anything.
She had long heard that there were some strange rumors between these two. Could they be playing some weird play?
As a small fry, it was best for her to pretend she hadn't heard such secret information about big shots.
Ignoring the interrogator trying to lower her presence, Elysia expressed her confusion.
"My good Eden, this isn't the time for jokes. How could I have kidnapped you?"
Eden shook her head.
"It really was Ellie who kidnapped me, but not you. No wait, it is also you."
Her face showed extreme distress.
"The situation is somewhat complicated and can't be explained clearly here. In any case, I'll explain it to you in detail when I return."
...
Thus, time flew by rapidly.
In the blink of an eye, another month had passed.
Although it was only one month, Nagazora City in the past ten years might not have been as lively as this one month.
A company that was about to go bankrupt, whose main business was manufacturing engineering machinery, was fully acquired and then reopened under the name MEI Corp.
The citizens of Nagazora City originally thought this was just a sucker being fooled into taking over, but soon they discovered that the forces behind the acquiring company seemed to have terrifyingly abundant funds.
No factory area? Just buy it directly, or directly acquire companies with corresponding factory areas.
Lacking workers, engineers, and researchers? Just poach them from other companies with higher salaries.
Policy obstructions? Just smash them with money.
Facts proved that 99% of things in this world could be solved with money, and the remaining 0.9% could be solved with more money.
Just like that, in just one month, MEI Corp had erected its framework.
It even launched MEI Corp's first product—an engineering mech named 'Icarus.'
Reportedly, this mech could do the work of ten people in civil engineering operations.
Its efficiency was terrifying. As long as there was enough energy, a team of engineering mechs could raise a high-rise building in half a day.
"But Father, why did MEI Corp choose engineering mechs as its first product?"
The highest building in Nagazora City had been taken over by Lucius. Standing on the top floor, through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, one could even overlook Chiba Academy campus in the distance.
Lucius had chosen this as the president's office.
At this moment, Mei was holding a book, expressing confusion to her father.
"Father, if we want to create higher profits, we could get involved in military mech-related projects."
"The United Government has opened up many access thresholds in the military industry this year. It's actually not difficult for us to obtain related qualifications."
Lucius naturally knew that as the intensity of Honkai gradually increased, the United Government would gradually shift toward military matters.
Therefore, entering the military industry now was the most profitable path, and his military technology from Fire Moth ten years later could definitely make him earn until his pockets overflowed.
But unfortunately, his identity had always been just a director, not a lamppost decoration. MEI Corp was just a tool for him to complete his drama. Whether it made money or not didn't actually matter, as long as it achieved its purpose.
This was also why he chose Fire Moth's future engineering mechs as the first product, because this thing's primary purpose wasn't for sale and profit.
So, in response to Mei's question, Lucius pulled her to a huge table.
Spread out on the table was a map, a map that included Nagazora City and the surrounding sea area.
Under Mei's puzzled gaze, Lucius took out a pen from his breast pocket and drew a circle on the sea area outside Nagazora City on the map.
Looking at Mei, Lucius said seriously:
"I plan to use MEI Corp's resources and power to reclaim land from the sea here and raise a city within one year."
"An academy city cluster covering research, education, industry, and commerce. A New Nagazora II."
"I will name it—St. Freya Academy City Cluster."
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