Honkai: Fire Moth Herrschers

Ruruye was located in the Southern Hemisphere, and April was the height of autumn there.

The wind blew through the streets, scattering small pebbles across the ground and swirling the yellowed fallen leaves in circles.

The tumbleweeds rolled and danced wildly, and the dust they stirred up blurred the light, making everything in front of them look even more desolate.

Michael frowned. He had a feeling of being watched. He looked up and glared at the drone overhead – it must be Mi… it must be Immer doing it!

The three of them wandered aimlessly through the districts. Suddenly, Michael stopped and looked at a shop on his right.

"What's wrong?" Ellie asked softly.

The situation inside the shop was hidden behind the heavy roller shutter door. The Honkai energy detection instrument also showed no abnormalities. But when she followed Michael's gaze and saw the convenience store sign, she immediately understood.

Michael didn't waste any more words. He lightly tapped his toes and used his hands to grab the roller shutter under the sign. He exerted a little force, and the veins on his arms bulged. With a "click," the roller shutter, the sign, and a large piece of the wall "rustled" down, revealing the convenience store behind it.

The air hadn't circulated for too long. The moment the roller shutter door opened, a cool breeze carrying a faint musty smell escaped. Without electricity, the store was dark. However, the wind chimes hanging by the cashier felt the call of the wind, and the sound of the chimes echoed for a while.

"Ellie, go to the back and check the second floor to see if there are any humans. Sakura, scan the shelves."

Ellie happily accepted the order and left. Sakura was a bit dazed, seemingly not quite understanding the specific meaning of "scan the shelves." But how clever was she? She instantly understood what Michael meant.

Michael himself wasn't idle either. He turned on the flashlight on his multi-functional wristband and also scanned the shelves.

After a while, Ellie came down from upstairs and said, "No humans found."

Sakura finished scanning the last row of shelves. "Almost all the food has been taken. What's left are some daily necessities. There are rotten fruits on the shelves. All the ice cream in the freezer has melted, but the freezer is open. Someone must have taken it… Also, all the batteries, big and small, have been taken."

Ellie wasn't slow-witted. She immediately exclaimed, "There really are people left in the districts… Thinking about it, it's been almost a month. It's hard to imagine that ordinary humans could survive a month without electricity, internet, and a lack of food… But how did they collect supplies? Immer's drones didn't find any signs of human activity?"

"It's simple. They're active during the night and hide during the day." Michael said, "But that makes it even stranger. They'd rather hide in the districts and live like this, collecting supplies at night, even facing the danger of encountering Honkai beasts… Why?"

"Generally speaking, what would make humans willing to take a risk is probably the fact that if they didn't do it, they would face an even greater risk," Sakura said softly.

Michael was stunned for a moment, and then nodded. "That makes sense."

"Buzz buzz buzz… buzz buzz buzz…" The noise from the walkie-talkie was like flies buzzing around a corpse, making Aldemir feel inexplicably annoyed and ironic. He wanted to smash it against the wall to make it wake up, but after thinking about it, there were only eight walkie-talkies in the entire tower, and he couldn't bear to do it.

He opened the back cover, replaced the battery, and patted it hard. The "buzz buzz buzz" sound finally disappeared.

"Boss, boss! I just saw someone enter the districts." Aldemir said, holding a pair of binoculars in one hand to observe the street not far away and a walkie-talkie in the other.

"Buzz buzz…" After a brief crackling sound, a deep male voice, as if suppressing great pain, came from the walkie-talkie. "Are they from the government?"

"It looks like it. They're wearing the official multi-functional wristbands, and there's a drone following them in the sky. But they're a bit young. And there's a little girl. Would the official organization have minors? But that little girl is holding a sword in front of her chest…"

"Hiss…" The man who was called boss sucked in a breath of cold air and then continued to ask. "What are they doing?"

"It looks like they're looking for something? Oh, boss, could they be looking for us?"

"It should… hiss… not be. There are only a few dozen of us left. They need a unit of three thousand people. As long as we hide well, there's no reason for them to spend the time and cost to find us… Hiss! Keep monitoring them and see what they're trying to do."

"I… I I I I I!"

"What's wrong, Aldemir?"

"That young man, he just ripped off the roller shutter and half the wall! He's a human monster!"

"Roller shutter? What shop did they go into?"

Aldemir held up his binoculars and looked intently for a while. "It seems to be a convenience store? Yes, it's one of the first convenience stores we checked. We even made sure to pull down the roller shutter to cover our tracks!"

"Damn it!"

Aldemir heard something fall to the ground on the other end of the walkie-talkie.

"Immer, raise the drone's altitude and confirm again if there are any humans in the districts."

After leaving the convenience store, the feeling of being watched became even stronger.

Michael squinted and looked at the surrounding high-rise buildings. Suddenly, a reflection flashed into his eyes, and then it was gone.

He was stunned for a moment, and then he was overjoyed. In the abandoned districts, polished metal and abandoned mirrors would produce reflections.

But as the First Herrscher, who could analyze everything, Michael could say with certainty that the source of the reflection just now was a convex lens!

Someone was spying on them with binoculars!

"Immer! I've found a possible human presence in the building three hundred meters in front of me!"

"Understood!"

The drone's motors suddenly powered up, and it instantly flew to the position that Michael had reported.

"Sub-Captain, should I scout each floor? Or should I just monitor from high altitude?"

"Maintain high-altitude monitoring. Scouting and capturing are up to us!"

"Understood… Sub-Captain, the person has appeared on the top floor!" Immer was momentarily excited and accidentally touched the control stick. The drone immediately rolled to one side. By the time he managed to control the drone, he only saw a figure wearing a red T-shirt, as agile as an ape, climbing onto the crane on the roof and running on the hollowed-out crane arm.

Even though he was just an observer, Immer's heart was in his throat. The crane arm was long and thick, but it was dozens of meters in the air!

Every step he took, the crane arm would shake. If he missed a step, he would be doomed. But the figure didn't slow down at all. He was even running at a speed like a 100-meter sprint.

The crane arm connected two buildings, but the connection wasn't seamless. The end of the crane arm was more than two meters away from the building. But Aldemir jumped up when he reached the end and successfully jumped over the gap, entering the other building.

"Sub-Captain, the other party has rushed into another building!"

"So fast!"

Michael couldn't help but click his tongue. He quickly abandoned his plan to enter the building and instead turned into a side road.

"Immer, continue to track the other party and provide me with their location."

"Wait, Michael!" Himeko suddenly joined the communication. "It's getting dark!"

The outline of the setting sun had long fallen below the horizon.

And now, the last sliver of light had also disappeared into the world.

"Let's withdraw first. Immer, use the thermal imaging on the drone to continue tracking. We should be able to find their hiding place."

Michael exhaled a breath of air, feeling a bit unwilling.

He looked back at Ellie and Sakura. Their stamina was still sufficient.

"Should we follow orders? Or should we ignore everything and directly find the humans' hiding place?"

Michael was hesitating.

Just at this moment, a cold wind blew past, and more and more footsteps and roars echoed in his ears.

"The Honkai beasts are starting to move… Damn it!"

"Withdraw!"

This feeling of not being able to exert his strength and having to be careful at all times for fear of exposing his abilities was really uncomfortable!