Chat Group: Starting by Body Swapping with Elysia? - Chapter 116

Chapter 116: My Friend, You Are the True Clown

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— Several thousand meters above the Pacific Ocean, a pitch-black battleship with a metallic sheen and highly futuristic appearance floated in this location, though the hull clearly showed many signs of damage.

In the ship’s command center, a blonde woman in a green military coat — none other than the designated civil war phantom god who had fled from Nagazora City, Cocolia.

At this moment, just from her expression alone, it was clear that her mood was far from pleasant.

This was only natural.

After all, in Cocolia’s calculations, the Honkai eruption in Nagazora City should have proceeded according to her expectations — a major eruption triggered by the detonation of the Honkai energy reactor, which would then awaken the 3rd Herrscher’s vessel.

At that point, she could have directly returned to capture the 3rd Herrscher.

But—

Why did things turn out this way?

Although there was indeed a Herrscher-level energy reaction as imagined, Nagazora City showed no signs of a major Honkai eruption at all. Not only that, but it seemed even the Honkai energy reactors she had planted had all gone silent.

This abnormal situation made Cocolia, who had originally planned to return, ultimately choose to retreat and abandon her schemes in Nagazora City.

She really couldn’t figure out what was going on, and if she rashly returned… years of intuition told Cocolia that something terrible would definitely happen.

Although quite arrogant, she still trusted this intuition that had saved her countless times in crises.

— And indeed, if she hadn’t run fast enough, the effect of Jiang Qiao’s arrow would definitely not have been limited to merely extinguishing all the Honkai source reactors in Nagazora City.

And the failure in Nagazora City wasn’t even the most frustrating thing.

What made Cocolia most irritated was that after leaving Nagazora City, she had the misfortune of running into the Hyperion on patrol from the Far East branch.

Anti-Entropy and Schicksal were already enemies, so meeting meant it was like enemies meeting with extra animosity.

Schicksal’s aerial battleships had superior performance, plus the ship Cocolia was riding had been hastily equipped and wasn’t fully prepared. With no ability to fight back, she was directly chased all the way, fleeing from the middle of the Pacific to the edge of the ocean near Oceania before barely escaping.

This situation made Cocolia, who had been relatively smooth sailing before, quite furious.

The only good news was—

“Bronya, you’re alright.”

Looking at the projection on the other end of the communication, Cocolia’s terrible expression improved considerably.

Although she had indeed harbored the thought — that Bronya had betrayed her, after leaving Nagazora City and thinking calmly, Cocolia overturned her own suspicions.

Even though they had grown somewhat distant as mother and daughter due to Seele’s matter, even if it was to save Seele, Bronya wouldn’t betray her, right? Although triggering the Third Eruption was indeed partly driven by personal desire, setting aside the facts, Cocolia felt she was genuinely working hard to make up for the regret she had left behind years ago.

“Yes, Bronya is fine.”

Bronya’s expressionless little face showed no emotion, she simply responded in her monotone voice.

Cocolia, accustomed to this, didn’t mind and asked the question in her heart:

“What exactly did you encounter?”

Although she convinced herself to believe that Bronya hadn’t betrayed her, her daughter’s situation in Nagazora City really left her unable to get a clear read, especially since…

According to reports from her subordinates, the control chip she had placed in Bronya’s head had become ineffective.

But Cocolia couldn’t ask directly — “How did the chip I put in your head break?” That kind of question.

She could only use her usual motherly tone, gentle and concerned, trying to gather useful information from it.

— Unfortunately.

Looking at this version of Cocolia, Bronya showed no expression, but disappointment and mockery flowed from the depths of her eyes.

After learning what the other party had done to her, the mother-daughter bond between her and Mama Cocolia had completely severed.

However—

“I hope you can still maintain contact with Cocolia and keep track of her movements.”

Recalling the words that white-haired, incredibly composed girl had said to her when they were alone together, Bronya chose to comply.

After all, the possibility of saving Seele still rested on that person.

Compared to the scheming and wicked Mama Cocolia, she felt that 【Kiana】 was much more trustworthy.

Bronya already had a clear understanding of how to handle Cocolia’s verbal tactics, and her accidentally acquired deadpan expression made it impossible for even Cocolia, that old fox, to see through any flaws.

Regarding what happened before she was turned, except for matters related to Seele, Ducky told everything truthfully. As for what came after, and Cocolia’s inquiries about what exactly happened in Nagazora City, Ducky employed the universal answer — I don’t know.

— She really wasn’t lying.

Bronya had indeed never seen a Herrscher in person, and as for Herrscher fluctuations… Ducky wasn’t a Honkai energy detection radar!

As long as she kept the story of being turned afterward completely hidden, then everything she said would be the truth. You could bring a lie detector over and it wouldn’t work!

— Although in Jiang Qiao’s view, Cocolia was merely a clown.

But the good news was — she was a clown.

The bad news was — her destructive power when doing bad things was also clown-level… well, but in terms of destructive power, this one had already surpassed clowns.

Even clowns would look on and could only sigh in admiration, giving a thumbs up — My friend, you are the true clown!

In this regard, probably only that joker gentleman at Schicksal headquarters could surpass her.

To prevent this mother fox who succeeded at nothing but failed at everything from stirring up more trouble while she was unaware, understanding her next moves was necessary.

Perhaps because she trusted too much, Cocolia dismissed her suspicions about Bronya.

She took the initiative to speak:

“Since nothing happened, Bronya, come to New Zealand as quickly as possible.”

“New Zealand?”

Facing her adopted daughter’s confusion, Cocolia didn’t hide anything and spoke frankly:

“Yes, our next target is Schicksal’s Oceania branch. According to intelligence I obtained, the Gem of Desire, one of the four gems scattered by the 2nd Herrscher after the Second Eruption, is currently there.”

Although the Nagazora City incident ended in failure, her cooperative relationship with Gray Serpent hadn’t terminated.

In a secret meeting, they decided to set their sights on the Gem of Desire located at the Oceania branch.

This time, they would definitely succeed!

Ducky remained expressionless:

“Bronya understands.”