Xyrin Empire-Chapter 711: Life is Random, Death is Plot-Driven

"Honey~! I’ve got some unfortunate news: our daughter has gone missing again..."

Bubbles’ voice message echoed throughout the empty Central Machine Room, and I instantly broke out in a cold sweat.

"Don’t tell me that kid has run off to my place!"

Without a second thought, I connected with Shadow City through a super-space link. Although Bubbles had sent a one-way short message, I would bet that girl was hanging on the communication link every moment. This isn’t about responsibility, but it’s hugely about her knack for battlefields on multiple dimensions. Sure enough, as soon as the spiritual connection sent the signal, I heard the slightly giggly yet somewhat frustrated voice of the kids’ mom, "If she hadn’t run off to you, I wouldn’t bother calling."

"When did she disappear?" I quickly informed the army stationed in Atlantis City to closely monitor every intersection to track Little Baobao’s movements as soon as possible (considering the little princess’s knack for vanishing, this was a tough task) while I anxiously asked.

Bubbles’ voice sounded terribly frustrated: "A few minutes ago, I was teaching her how to type with her hands instead of rolling her face on the keyboard. In the meantime, some jerk hacked my Orange Rod, and after I knocked him down by opening over two hundred major accounts, the child was gone. I checked data from the Time-Space Administration later, and it turned out she had gone over to your place."

I was silent for a few seconds, nearly bursting into tears, "Bubbles, are you even her real mother?"

"Darling, are you doubting my loyalty to you?" Bubbles’ voice carried a trace of hurt.

"... Get your logic straight before saying anything else!"

"Oh, I forgot that the child was born to me..."

Talking to Bubbles for those few seconds almost shattered my life’s philosophy. When had this otaku girl acquired a deadly capability similar to Qianqian’s?

To preserve what little was left of my moral views, I decisively disconnected the spiritual connection with Bubbles and started pondering where Little Baobao was most likely to appear. Initially, it was pretty certain that the range was within Atlantis City: each time the little one went missing, her general direction was to find daddy. Thanks to her excellent vanishing skills, even if her dad was in another world, Little Baobao could still "drift" over. Hence, this time, the most likely spot for our daughter was this contested city (the struggle there was pretty much over now), but the specific location would depend on the situations. The Time-Space Administration definitely wouldn’t dare to open a door casually for the little princess to slip through; she could only have used her talent to quietly find a dimensional gate and then harnessed the Xyrin Host’s control capability to activate the world channel. Originally, Yukari Yakumo spent several days learning the basic methods of using a dimensional gate, but this, for a Xyrin Host—even just a nascent Xyrin Host—is instinctual technique.

However, due to her being inexperienced, Little Baobao might’ve transported herself to some hidden corner of this city, or even... was strolling around inside a pack of mutant monsters.

Yes, mutant monsters. Even though the Imperial Army had already taken over eighty percent of Atlantis’s critical facilities and over half of its territory, it was still possible that mutant monsters, not yet eradicated, were lurking in the nooks and crannies of this vast city. They posed no threat to our regular army, but to a Xyrin Host nascent form who couldn’t even speak...

Instantly, I broke out in a cold sweat again.

"If it were just a few ordinary Xyrin Apostles who got lost, I wouldn’t be so anxious—after all, the spiritual network of the Apostles is so developed, and their positioning system is accurate down to the nanometer. A single spiritual call would be enough to locate the target. But Little Baobao is an exception: the little guy still can’t talk in the spiritual connection, and trying to use the spiritual network to locate that elusive little girl would be ridiculous.

So, all I could do now was resort to the old method by increasing manpower for a citywide search. However, while I was busy arranging people to search for Little Baobao’s whereabouts, Sandora’s voice suddenly echoed in the spiritual connection, ’Well, Ah Jun, are you listening?’

’I’m online—did you hear that Little Baobao got lost again?’

’That’s what I was about to talk about,’ Sandora’s voice sounded a bit tense, but it was more frustrated and slightly comforting, ’Maybe there’s no need to worry too much. Shadow City just sent me a message, Baobao is carrying something that can keep her safe.’

’I know, she has plenty of things on her to protect herself, even an entire army! But would that girl know how to use them? She even types by rolling her face across the keyboard!’

Sandora paused for two seconds before saying, ’It’s an amulet your sister made, or maybe call it a Reverse Misfortune Talisman...’

Me: ’...’

’Although you can’t count on its blessing effect, it could definitely bring misfortune to others to an incredible extent, don’t worry. Even if the monsters in Atlantis are wiped out, Little Baobao won’t run into trouble. For now, we better hurry up and synchronize the two Mother Nests and start up the city purification devices. The sooner we dispel the Abyssal Aura here, the less likely any accidents with Baobao will happen.’

I really believed in what Sandora said, knowing that Little Baobao was carrying a Misfortune Counteracting Talisman (temporary name) made by Big Sister. I had seen the power of those things, even though its true form might just be an ordinary Chinese knot, or something else. Just a while ago, Mercury Lamp sneakily played with a bracelet Sister made. The next morning, we discovered that Lilina got her face plastered with white glue: she wanted to go after Little Light’s yogurt again, but the very thought had her running straight into a pillar...

As the two Mother Nests with full control authority came back online, Atlantis’s city defense systems also regained their functionalities one after another. Although the city shield couldn’t be activated yet, the armed links and Ghost Energy Pipelines embedded within the city structures had started to take effect. Decorative city archways and religious-symbolic ancient columns slowly sank into the ground, rising back up were Wave Energy Towers shimmering with energy grids. The temple exteriors shed their disguises, revealing mighty Guard Towers and Charging Crystal Grids, transforming those mysterious and majestic religious buildings into surreal steel fortresses in an instant. Every street in Atlantis had life-like warrior sculptures several meters tall that came "back to life" as their eyes shone with blue-white light; the Arcane Stone Demons stepped down from their pedestals, stirring up dust and rubble while beginning to thwart the nearby Mutant Monsters. Even some religious murals concealed deadly defense weapons, the eyes of the painted figures started firing dense high-energy lasers at any monsters within their range, swiftly zigzagging beams along every crack of the city’s tiles wherever there was Abyssal presence, countless weapons spewed fatal flames.

And yet what was more effective than these visible weapons was the Purification Radiation that instantly permeated the city. Ghost Energy of a special frequency containing the power to suppress the Abyss began to dispel the dark clouds overhead and the fog over the streets. Without these replenishing fogs, the surviving monsters in the city clearly began to show signs of weakened powers, sluggish response, unbalance, poor digestion, various endocrine disorders, anemia, urinary urgency, kidney failure—a slew of severe symptoms, suffering heavy losses under the attacks from hidden defense weapons in every nook and cranny.

Watching a crystal prism in the Central Machine Room project scenes of combat on some key streets of the city, I couldn’t help but be astounded.

This was an Ultimate Fortress, and the now-revealed, almost countless defense weapons embodied the fierce resolution of Atlantis’s Guardians who had decided to hold every street, fight for every inch of land, and stain every brick red when the doomsday war reached its final stages. The hidden defense weapons in its streets were even more extravagant than the interior of a typical Imperial Battleship—if only the city of Atlantis wasn’t so unlucky to have its Energy Center smashed by a Star Ring Fragment in the beginning. With such densely packed city defenses, the Abyss Energy might hardly stir any trouble at all. But then again, if the Star Ring Fragment hadn’t struck Mount Olympus, the only other place it could’ve hit was residential areas—I really don’t know whether that’s lucky or unfortunate.

As I marveled at the treacherous armament of every tricky nook and cranny within the city of Atlantis, a tiny figure suddenly flashed across the holographic projection.

’Camera, go back!’

I immediately ordered to switch the view back to a certain street corner where a small girl in a white Princess Dress was casually strolling, sucking on a lollipop as if on an outing, and beside her was a petite golden-haired girl in dazzling armor (note: the breastplate was impressively smooth), visibly anxious, glancing around while muttering something under her breath. Curious, I connected the audio and, after a few seconds, decided to sentence Gilgamesh to eating pickled vegetables with flatbread for the next three days."

Without a doubt, the figures appearing on the surveillance screen were Little Baobao and her devoted nanny, Gilgamesh. Her presence here was quite unexpected; according to reports from Shadow City, there was no indication that Gilgamesh would also be coming along. It seemed that Sister Jier was exceptionally suited for the role of Little Baobao’s nanny, even managing to closely follow behind Little Baobao when she entered her "strolling mode." Plus, being one of the few who could understand Little Baobao’s language, this goof shining with golden light was really impressive—aside from her unpleasant mouth and personality.

The surveillance footage of this intersection was also transmitted to the information network, and the soldiers closest to the block where Little Baobao was located immediately started moving to protect the princess. My heart tightened when I soon discovered that the area where Little Baobao appeared was a region the ground troops hadn’t yet cleared, likely still harboring undiscovered fallen ones...

While pondering, a series of roars suddenly transmitted from the surveillance footage—just as I feared, the soldiers hadn’t even managed to move out when hundreds of mutant monsters, dozens of Valkyries, and dozens of Anubises burst out from the buildings nearby Little Baobao!

Despite knowing that Little Baobao had a misfortune counteracting talisman from Big Sister, despite knowing that Lady Shining was a formidable Heroic Spirit, and despite knowing that numerous Guard Towers had been set up along that street, my tension spiked instantly at the sight of the monsters appearing.

Could a Heroic Spirit handle hundreds of "Artificial Gods"? Could the Guard Towers eliminate all enemies before the girl got injured? Both were simply impossible!

"ROAR!!"

The suddenly emerging monsters roared loudly, seemingly finding their venting target in the midst of their pain from the dissipating Abyssal Aura in the city; they rushed eagerly towards the somewhat stunned Little Baobao and the instinctively protective Lady Shining, who had positioned the Little Princess behind her. Agile mutant monsters and Valkyries were at the forefront, encircling from all sides. Dozens of Anubises then teleported to the perimeter, preparing for a long-range attack; the Dusk Scepter was raised high, and blinding lightning thundered explosively, immediately filling the air with smoke and ghostly wails as hundreds of mutant monsters were electrocuted to death from behind...

Even the Valkyries, warriors armed with Ghost Energy Shields, were half-paralyzed by the misguided lightning from Anubises, crashing down from the sky in a noisy clatter; the Anubises, having just finished their attack, teleported instinctively to near Little Baobao, forcefully thrusting down their scepter preparing to unleash the Lightning Nova, and half a ton of giant iron staff wrapped with the Anubis’s immense strength struck—"puff." Followed by what was supposed to be an area attack via Lightning Nova, ended up striking inside the bodies of the Valkyries—who would have guessed?

They all died...

Indeed, it proved that Big Sister’s Reverse Misfortune was truly formidable.

The heart-wrenching sight at the scene was beyond devastating; after a valiant fight against demons and spirits by a Loli and an airport girl, the final battle was splendidly victorious, leaving only a few dozen survivors—Anubises remained, exchanging glances with Gilgamesh.

She had just arrived in Atlantis City, typically focused only on caring for her little master and quite unaware of our actions, hence she was baffled by what had taken place. After some contemplation, not-so-smart queen of antiquity clapped her hands and said to the nearest Anubis, "I get it now! You all must be performance artists! Here to perform a postscript show for me?"

Suddenly her mind was filled with her boss’s roaring, "Idiot! If you don’t finish these enemies off, next life you are eating pickles with pancakes for me!"

Sister Jier hesitated for a moment, then fury rose from her heart as malice approached her courage; ascending into the air, she summoned a bombardment of knives, spears, swords, halberds, axes, sickles, and hooks along with teddy bears and rogue rabbits, pointing at the group of Anubises and loudly cursing, "You bunch of pickles! All kneel before me!"

The Anubises, having no recognition of her, were puzzled as to why their attacks were ineffective; seeing the enemy voluntarily becoming moving targets high in the sky, they became collectively indignant. As the big iron staffs swung vigorously with numerous bolts of lightning—aside from a few unfortunate ones dying from electrocuting Little Baobao—countless lightning bolts buried Lady Shining.

The powerful arcane lightning converged to form a blinding light ball nearly thirty feet in diameter. Ordinary heroic spirits, even those on Dingdang’s side, wouldn’t stand a chance against dozens of Anubises, let alone emerge unscathed. At that moment, I couldn’t help but worry about Jil, that arrogant, complacent girl—if she got herself killed and sent to the Heroic Spirit Hall, she wouldn’t need pickles for her meal next week.

But to everyone’s astonishment, what followed such a grandiose attack wasn’t the triumph of Anubis but a sky-covering barrage of "True•Nanny’s Fury•Treasure and Toys Ultimate Rainstorm" made of blades and teddy bears. All the Anubises were floored with severe knee injuries; they were struck by not just one arrow, and not just with arrows.

By this time, the distant guard towers finally got into the act, following the plot-driven response and opened fire. The Anubises, made of "obsidian" material, couldn’t dodge due to the shattering knee fractures, and their ability to teleport was disabled due to the huge energy drain from their previous powerful skills, leaving them all lying dead on the spot—as the saying goes, born randomly, dead by plot. Hopefully, when they’re reborn, their new production factories have already been fully self-purified and ready to dive into the radiant glory of Imperial Ideology to avoid such undeserved disasters today.

The thunder ball in mid-air also quickly dissipated as the spellcaster’s casting was interrupted, and what appeared in mid-air was not Sister Jier, but a huge metallic sphere with many spikes on its surface, connected at the bottom to the Heavenly Lock. The other end of the Heavenly Lock was tied at some point to a nearby Wave Energy Tower—which by then was half melted.

A brilliant electrical shield + lightning rod setup, Sister Jier’s muffled voice came from inside the metallic sphere, potentially overconfident, "Ohohoho~! I am the greatest! Junior High Physics Volume Two bestows me power ... uh, why is it so dark in here, where’s the switch... aaahhh!!"

After a dreadful scream, the summoned metallic shielding sphere and the conductive cable of the Heavenly Lock disappeared simultaneously, and Sister Jier, with her hair blown out in all directions, landed with a thud.

It proves that knowledge can change destiny—but the actual effectiveness depends on the intelligence of the person being changed. Although I’m also not quite sure why, despite having a ground wire, Sister Jier still got electrocuted ... Could it be that the amulet on Little Baobao is still having some residual effect?

"Ow... it hurts..."

Seemingly victorious yet utterly disheveled, Sister Jier stood up rubbing her head, first updating her sooty dignified appearance with magic power, but the cowlick on her head just wouldn’t stay down, turning one into two. Looking around at the bodies, she murmured, "This really is a weird place, they seemed to be using Ghost Energy. Where could that scoundrel have gone to, does he die if he doesn’t come to such bizarre places every day!"

"Guu ah~~" Little Baobao tugged at her nanny’s sleeve, gesturing with her little hands.

"Huh? You don’t want me to speak ill of him? What’s good about that dummy, anyway? Sweetie, I’ll tell you a story when we get back, let that scoundrel fend for himself in this world. He doesn’t even show his face when his daughter risks so much to find him!" Lady Shining said, clearly indignant on Little Baobao’s behalf.

"Wu gu!"

"Alright alright, your majesty knows that scoundrel has extensive powers, but he won’t hear us, sweetie. You wouldn’t betray your sister, right?"

A hand patted Sister Jier shoulder.

"Stop it, I’m consoling the child!" Sister Jier instinctively responded, then suddenly stiffened all over.

Little Baobao had already cheered and lunged into the arms of her dear dad, leaving Jier Jiamishi standing there like a bereaved family member. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it on Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)

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