CThe Ninth Mausoleum possessed the core technology behind soulium?
Only then did Vill-V suddenly understand. No wonder the Previous Era possessed a material as absurdly overpowered as soulium. From the very beginning, this technology had never been developed through any normal means.
A material capable of resisting Imaginary erosion from the Honkai while also carrying human memories and consciousness data—could something like that really have been produced by materialist science?
The Previous Era's technology might have been absurdly advanced, but one had to remember that the science of this world had developed along a hard-science path from the very beginning, much like the world of The Three-Body Problem.
For something as anomalous within the broader field of fundamental materials science as soulium to suddenly appear clearly did not fit that hard-science framework.
A self-repairing nanorobotic material?
If humanity's independently developed materials science had already reached the level where it could create something like that, then humanity would have long since used the infrastructure enabled by fundamental science to colonize the universe.
Who would still be huddled on Earth playing around with the Honkai?
This was soulium, a material capable of blocking Imaginary Honkai energy. Building a house on the sun with it would not necessarily be impossible.
Vill-V was just about to listen to Odin continue his explanation when several people dressed in extremely cyberpunk fashion, their bodies covered in cybernetic prosthetics, approached her with their arms around one another's shoulders...
Vill-V initially thought they were undercover agents from the Mobile Response Unit, but it turned out they were merely trying to hit on her.
Wait a second. Why aren't they hitting on cross-dressing expert Odin? Why come after me? Isn't cross-dressing expert Odin attractive? Oh, I guess I technically count as a high-level cross-dressing expert too.
In the Engraving District, people generally considered a high degree of bodily modification beautiful.
After all, greater power meant greater ability to survive.
In the Time District, however, the standard was completely reversed. The people here faced no survival crisis, so they prized a natural physique.
The more extensively someone had been modified, the more severe their genetic defects were assumed to be, since they needed modifications to correct them.
Vill-V and the others, who showed virtually no signs of modification whatsoever, naturally attracted attention.
Not to mention that Vill-V's group consisted entirely of beautiful girls in the first place.
"Yo, you're the obsession in my heart.
"Lights flash, but no one shines brighter than you.
"Yo, dinner, moonlight, dancing alone beneath the candlelight. You and I laugh together, filling the city with life."
"Yo, yo, beauties, wanna try out my newly installed Armstrong Super Deluxe Spiral and fly with me toward..."
Everyone in the Time District was required to install a brain-machine interface, but most people usually wore high-collared clothing to conceal it.
Given the customs of this city, a brain-machine interface connected directly to the brain naturally counted as a private part of the body.
Some people even installed "Chameleon Patches" to conceal theirs.
That was why no one found anything strange about Vill-V and the others not displaying visible brain-machine interfaces.
Yet these clueless singing, dancing, rapping pickup artists had their brain-machine interfaces completely exposed. They had not even unplugged the interface cables, leaving them dangling outside.
Bronya casually swiped a finger, and the pickup artists' brains immediately crashed, turning them into yet another set of common roadside statues.
"Ugh. Their disgusting thoughts were literally flowing through the data stream."
Bronya puffed out her cheeks and angrily deleted some indescribable data, along with the pickup artists' brains while she was at it.
What irritated her most was that they had been staring all over Teacher Vill-V's body without even sparing Bronya or Hua a glance.
Clearly, the veteran locksmith outfit possessed extraordinary charm.
It definitely had nothing to do with Vill-V's outrageously eye-catching figure.
Hua asked in confusion, "What happened?"
Killing them before they had even finished speaking was not Little Bronya's usual style.
Vill-V explained on Bronya's behalf, "Brain-interface chips have lots of functions. A mobile local-area network is one of them. Some particularly twisted exhibitionists like broadcasting their filthy thoughts directly onto the local network."
Perhaps some thrill-seekers would connect with people like that, but Bronya and the others definitely were not among them.
"There's also electronic cocaine," Bronya added.
"Mm. That's a common electronic narcotic program in Dusk City. It directly stimulates the central nervous system with electrical currents, causing the brain to release dopamine. Plenty of gangs in the Engraving District sell it."
"But at least those gangs only give it to you after you've paid credits. These people were directly stuffing it into other people's neural networks."
"If someone really connected to them for a chat just to see what it was like, they'd probably fall straight into the pit of addiction."
Vill-V was not exactly someone who hated evil with every fiber of her being, but she still applauded Bronya for punishing people like these.
"Heh. By the time they wake up, they'll probably have turned into bawling infants... or cyberpsychotic punks."
Meanwhile, the multifunctional cleaning robot sweeping the roadside seemed to detect something abnormal about the pickup artists. It abruptly stopped working and immediately sounded an alarm. "Beep beep. Potential public-security hazard detected! Initiating containment procedures."
Everything in this place could serve as Link Entity's eyes and ears, and cleaning robots were naturally no exception.
They would immediately detect cyberpsychotic individuals, then inspect and dispose of them accordingly.
However, before it could upload the data to the security data center for review, it received a termination command sent by Bronya.
Bronya could not allow it to upload information about their group. She might be a hacker, but hackers were not omnipotent, nor was Bronya some cybernetic god.
Beep beep. "Public-security hazard resolved. Resuming routine cleaning program."
The multifunctional robot terminated its response protocol, then rolled away with its vacuum attachment.
"Everyone here is being monitored by Link Entity too—every single movement they make. The closer we get to the 'companies' at the center of the city, the more obvious that feeling becomes," Bronya explained while tapping the PDA on her arm.
At that moment, Hua raised a question. "Strange. Why was there no response when we attacked people from the 'companies,' but attacking an ordinary passerby triggered such an intense reaction?"
"Because people from the 'companies' install noninterference protocols in pursuit of excitement. Their 'hunting' activities couldn't possibly be legal and compliant, could they?"
"We're here."
Odin led them to a cyberpunk karaoke club.
If Odin had not told them in advance, none of them would ever have imagined that this place belonged to one of Dusk City's famous "companies."
"Hehe. I'll have to show off my singing voice properly later!"
Vill-V declared with complete confidence. There were plenty of hit songs from two lifetimes ago that she had never gotten the chance to perform.
If this world had not been an apocalyptic Honkai world, then even at her worst, Vill-V could have become a global superstar like Eden!
"Huh? The door won't open?"
Odin took out his membership card and swiped it several times, only to discover that the karaoke club's metal door remained completely motionless.
"Don't tell me your membership expired." Vill-V teased him.
Naturally, Odin's lifetime membership card had not expired.
Odin opened the karaoke club's customer-service interface. After being transferred through a long chain of menus, he finally received the message, "All human customer-service representatives are currently busy. Please wait."
"Very well."
Odin calmly walked up to the metal door and then...
Kicked it.
Boom!
The metal door, sturdy enough to withstand a TNT explosion, was blasted off its frame by the sheer force of the kick.
Violent noises came from inside the karaoke club.
Noise inside a karaoke club was perfectly normal, but if it was still this loud through soundproof walls, then something was clearly wrong.
And when the noise consisted of roaring gunfire and explosions, something was even more obviously wrong.
Had Heliopolis Life Sciences discovered something suspicious about the karaoke club?
No.
Vill-V opened the Vision-shaped Honkai energy detector at her waist, which had begun vibrating continuously.
The Honkai energy detector was already glowing purple and emitting a piercing alarm.
"Fifteen hundred Honkai Welts!"
"Are you fucking kidding me? Which Herrscher came to a karaoke club to sing?... Besides me!"