"Theresa, what do you mean Lihua disappeared?!"
Inside the villa, facing a furious Otto, Theresa could only hug her doll and tremble. "Grand...Grandpa, but she just vanished... Kallen and Eleanor can both testify!"
Looking at Eleanor, who lay on the side, pale as a ghost, and Kallen, who had shrunk into a corner as if she had turned into burnt-out white ash, even if Otto was unwilling to admit it, he now had to face the fact—in the short time he was out, his home had been robbed!
It wasn't that Otto hadn't considered the possibility of something happening to Lihua. After all, if Xiangzi could be affected, it was normal for Lihua to experience a similar situation.
To prevent any accidents, before he went to investigate the abnormal Honkai energy battle this time, he had specifically asked Kallen and the other two to stay behind and protect Lihua. At the same time, it was also to ensure Lihua herself didn't… they didn't protect anything at all!
"Did Lihua say anything when she left?!"
"I, I don't know..."
Theresa shrank her neck, almost on the verge of tears. If she had known things would turn out like this, she wouldn't have touched the game console today, not even if it killed her!
Indeed, playing games was too distracting. The first time she looked back, Lihua was still sitting there reading a book. The second time she looked back, Lihua had already disappeared, leaving only Kallen and Eleanor looking like they'd lost their parents.
"Kallen Kaslana, Eleanor Schariac—get up, you two... What exactly happened? Tell me!"
Watching the furious Otto and the chaotic scene, Caelus and his companions from the Astral Express exchanged a glance, asking suspiciously, "Mr. Otto, are you sure you've arranged everything properly...?"
After roughly communicating the current situation with the others from the Blue Earth, Otto had stated that he fully understood the current situation and invited the Astral Express crew to his home for a discussion, and to meet his perfect Lihua.
Because Welt vouched for Otto's intellect, Caelus and the others ultimately chose to trust Otto and temporarily cooperate with him, albeit with caution.
However, judging by his current frantic state, he didn't seem very reliable…
"...No matter, no matter." Taking deep breaths, Otto desperately tried to calm his thoughts, gritting his teeth. "It's just some minor turbulence."
No matter how agitated he felt, what was the point now that everything had already happened? Instead of raging helplessly, it was better to first solve all the current problems and then bring Lihua back.
It was just Lihua disappearing again, it wasn't like he hadn't prepared for it in advance... Damn it, but even with mental preparation, it still felt so awful!!!
"Anyway, on the way here earlier, everyone should already be clear about the current situation. If there are no surprises, Miss Twilight, whom you are looking for, is now in a similar controlled state as Lee and Lihua..."
Gathering his thoughts, Otto was about to find a place to sit down when he realized that the chair beside him had, at some point, been occupied by the cold-faced Kevin.
Looking around, he noticed that the usually spacious hall was now quite crowded.
Kiana and the others who had come from the Blue Earth with Kevin, Elysia and the Previous Era heroes she had summoned, himself, Fu Hua, Kallen, and others… If you added the newly arrived Astral Express crew and the absent Makima and her group, dozens of people had unknowingly gathered here.
And the reason so many people had gathered was because the people they cared about were, more or less, in the grasp of that unknown entity.
Although there were people like Bronya and Durandal who weren't directly connected to the current situation, thankfully, they were also enthusiastic and righteous individuals, more than willing to lend a hand.
With so much powerful combat strength, it would be enough to destroy a planet—yes, even destroying the Blue Earth would be perfectly sufficient. It was because of this that Otto had made up his mind to go all in.
"Everyone should be clear about the current situation, so I won't elaborate further... I'll get straight to the point. I've found some traces of the entity behind the manipulation of Lihua and the people you all care about."
As soon as he said this, Otto could feel all eyes in the vicinity lock onto him. They were excited, fervent, or icy, but all were waiting for his next words.
"First, I must thank our Miss MEI. It's thanks to her analysis of the energy fluctuations in Lihua and Shoko during this period that I was able to obtain results for comparison—as for things like installing certain monitoring devices in your laboratory beforehand, please don't mind it."
The Soulium body now demonstrated its wonderful utility. Otto merely tapped a few times in the void, and the fully equipped Soulium body thoughtfully projected holographic images of complex data.
"First, we need to determine who our enemy is... To be honest, we had no clue about this before. We didn't know who It was, nor Its purpose, nor Its relationship with Lihua and the others. But after some analysis and reasoning, we might be able to get a vague answer..."
"Miss MEI previously discovered in her experiments that both Lihua and Shoko possess a certain powerful and unknown energy. If there are no surprises, Miss Lee and Miss Twilight are likely similar... I speculate that this is most likely the energy that mysterious entity used to resurrect them. However, in later experiments, it was unexpectedly discovered that there is one other thing that also has fluctuations of this energy."
Otto silently snapped his fingers, summoning a holographic image of the entire Blue Earth. "And that is this barrier covering the entire Blue Earth."
"Whether it was when we fought that imposter Herrscher masquerading as Miss Lee, or when you, Miss Elysia, just clashed with the real Lee, you should have felt it, right? Once our intense battles start causing destruction to the surroundings, a mysterious barrier force envelops the area, ensuring that other things on the Blue Earth are not affected by the battle..."
"To be frank, I analyzed that power earlier, and its fluctuations and nature are consistent with the mysterious power Miss MEI discovered in Lihua and Shoko."
A glint flashed in Otto's eyes. He clenched his fists and declared decisively, "In other words, the entity protecting the Blue Earth is the same entity manipulating Lihua and the others!"
"I see... But this doesn't seem to help our current situation much, does it?"
Elysia squatted to the side, disappointed. She had thought Otto, having gathered so many people, would have some profound insight, but it turned out to be just such unremarkable news—
"No... It helps a lot." Unlike Elysia, MEI, who was standing to the side, along with Mobius and Vill-V, suddenly had their eyes light up, leaving the others around them confused.
"We can try to forcibly draw that entity out," MEI explained calmly. "Using the entire Blue Earth as a hostage."