As the refrigeration equipment ramped up, extreme cold quickly spread through the storage room. Before long, a thick layer of frost condensed on the glass wall.
"Valkyrie? Heh, negative fifty degrees Celsius plus HSN gas... even a so-called Herrscher probably couldn't escape my grasp."
Vyasa, ultimately, was just an ordinary person. Although a chance encounter had connected him with Schicksal personnel, allowing him to control the inhibitors Schicksal provided for South Asia's disaster areas, he actually knew very little about the Honkai.
As an ordinary person, his understanding of the Honkai was limited to large-scale natural disasters and virus-like infections. Even if he had glimpsed mentions of Herrschers in documents, he merely considered them humans with special abilities.
In other words, he lacked basic reverence for the Honkai.
"This is the first time I've seen someone so confident." Just as Vyasa was gloating, Ren's voice suddenly came from right in front of him.
His expression changed. He quickly wiped the frost off the glass with his sleeve, only to see the two figures walking calmly towards him through the spreading purple gas.
Seeing them completely unharmed, Vyasa looked like he'd seen a ghost.
"Could there be a problem with the equipment?" He pressed his hand against the glass. The next second, intense cold shot up his arm, nearly numbing it completely.
"The equipment is fine? How is that possible?"
Negative fifty degrees Celsius – even a polar bear would need to bundle up. Yet these two, wearing only thin summer clothes, seemed completely unaffected?
"The records say even S-rank Valkyries can't resist HSN agents..." Muttering to himself, Vyasa grew increasingly panicked. "Keep lowering the temperature!"
But before the temperature could drop further, he saw Ren press his hand against the glass. Then, before his horrified eyes, the thick tempered glass slowly melted into molten liquid.
"Monster!" Vyasa shrieked, collapsing onto the floor. Fortunately, the security guards reacted quickly, opening fire.
Instantly, a metal storm swept through the entire underground warehouse. Under the cover of gunfire, Vyasa scrambled towards the elevator.
The dense noise echoed within the warehouse, deafening like rolling thunder. Vyasa didn't dare look back. Only after ducking into the narrow, enclosed elevator did he let out a heavy sigh of relief.
The sharp, cacophonous gunfire now sounded like music to his ears. The longer it lasted, the longer the two were being held back.
But soon, Vyasa realized the gunfire from below was gradually fading.
Luckily, amidst his fear, the elevator finally reached the ground floor safely. The moment the doors opened, he pulled out his pistol and fired several shots into the elevator control panel, ensuring everyone else was trapped below.
Long-missed sunlight spilled onto his face. Vyasa felt as if he had just woken from a nightmare. He couldn't help closing his eyes, savoring the beauty of being alive.
However, when he opened them again, that beautiful life seemed no longer his.
"Going somewhere?" The boy ahead stood silhouetted against the sun, his face obscured. But his golden eyes, like those of a predator hunting in the night, were locked firmly onto Vyasa.
The terrifying threat made Vyasa's heart stop. He frantically raised his gun and repeatedly pulled the trigger at Ren.
"Get away!"
His aim wasn't bad; even in such a panicked state, the muzzle remained pointed at Ren's body. Yet, the next second, he watched as the high-speed bullets disintegrated into fine copper powder the moment they neared Ren.
This bizarre sight completely shattered his mental defenses. His only remaining hope was that the guards at the checkpoint would hear the gunshots and rescue him in time.
But minutes passed, and the checkpoint remained silent. Just as unease crept into his heart, Kiana walked slowly through the door, casually holding a guard in one hand.
"You seem to have some misconceptions about Valkyries." She tossed the unconscious guard aside and dusted off her hands.
"Mon..." The word died halfway. Vyasa quickly slapped himself across the face.
It had to be said, his ability to secure Schicksal's resources showed he wasn't incompetent. Seeing escape was hopeless, he immediately dropped to his knees and started kowtowing, begging for mercy.
"Lord Inspector, it was my blindness! Please, spare this lowly one's life!" As he knelt, his gaze kept darting towards Kiana.
From their previous interactions, begging Ren was clearly useless. Kiana, though powerful, hadn't killed the guards, suggesting she wasn't prone to indiscriminate killing.
If he wanted to survive, his best bet was to plead with Kiana.
"Ren, what should we do?"
"You handle it."
Hearing Ren leave the decision to Kiana, Vyasa felt a surge of joy. He immediately started kowtowing frantically towards Kiana, blood quickly trickling down his forehead.
Things went as he expected. Seeing him already covered in blood, Kiana's expression gradually softened. After all, her upbringing wouldn't allow her to continue torturing him.
"Answer my questions honestly, and I won't kill you."
Granted amnesty, Vyasa felt like he'd struck gold, nodding repeatedly. "Yes, yes, yes!"
"Why did you attack us?"
"Because the Relief Association's paperwork isn't complete. If Schicksal investigated, I'd be finished." Having conceded defeat, Vyasa didn't hide anything. Someone like him, who didn't even know what Honkai was, could never have received official authorization from Schicksal.
"There is no such organization as the South Asia Relief Association. I built this base solely to convince Schicksal such an organization existed, thereby securing inhibitor support."
"Meaning, you actually scammed Schicksal out of the inhibitors?" It was hard to imagine someone daring to cheat Otto Apocalypse.
"Correct." Perhaps Kiana's lenient attitude gave Vyasa some confidence back. He turned the tables, "So you can't kill me. Only I can contact Schicksal. Without me, all of South Asia has no chance of receiving aid."
"Are you kidding me? We're Schicksal inspectors; we just need to report the situation here," Kiana scoffed, almost laughing.
But Vyasa simply shook his head. "But you're not."
"..."
"Wondering how I knew? Simple. Because you show absolutely no loyalty to Schicksal, nor do you understand its systems."
"Schicksal never cares about the lives of South Asians. They only provide supplies; they don't participate in rescue efforts. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to establish the Relief Association."
He looked up at Kiana's furrowed brow. "If I'm not mistaken, you came from the infected zone, didn't you?"
Vyasa's ability to read people, which allowed him to establish the Relief Association, was indeed sharp. By simply observing Kiana's expression, he had found leverage to save himself.
"You saw the situation in the infected zone. Without inhibitors, they'll all die."
"But the inhibitors were provided free by Schicksal, yet you used them for profit?"
"So what? They're the lowest of the low caste anyway. Without me, they would have died without ever knowing inhibitors existed. I gave them a chance to live; what's wrong with charging a little money?" Vyasa spoke with righteous indignation, as if he occupied the moral high ground.
Unfortunately for him, Kiana happened to fall for it. Blocked by Schicksal herself, she truly had no way to solve the infection problem currently. If she killed Vyasa and Schicksal stopped supplying inhibitors, what would happen to the victims in the infected zone?
"Wait, you said without you, the refugees would just die. But based on the warehouse inventory, nearly half the inhibitors are still remaining. And we've seen the situation in the infected zone; you clearly haven't provided many inhibitors. Where did the used portion go?"
"The excess inhibitors were naturally sent into the city."
Vyasa wasn't lying; the two had indeed seen the truck delivering medicine when they left the city. But that made even less sense. "The infected people are all outside the city, why send the medicine into the city?"
"Is that strange? According to the caste system, higher-ranking people have the right to enjoy the majority of resources. Those untouchables outside the city never had the chance to enjoy such things anyway."
"Caste..." Kiana had heard the word before, but she still didn't understand its meaning. "They're all your compatriots; why divide them into ranks?"
Now it was Vyasa's turn to look confused. "Shouldn't they be differentiated? From the day a person is born, their caste determines their identity. If I weren't first-caste, how could I possibly have contacted Schicksal?"
"Everyone should be equal!" Kiana felt he was just making excuses.
But Vyasa still shook his head. "Caste is ordained by the gods. No one is born equal. Higher castes live inside the city, lower castes outside. This is a rule everyone accepts."
The boy who guided them earlier had said his mother was assaulted, resulting in his birth. No legal punishment, no rules broken – it was as if being born into the lowest rung branded one's very being from day one.
"No! There's no divinely ordained system! Humans shouldn't be divided into ranks! This is wrong!"
The things she had witnessed on this trip dealt a powerful blow to Kiana's worldview. She instinctively wanted to argue, but realized the world wouldn't change just because of her thoughts.
Because she had never seen even a hint of desire to resist the system in the eyes of that boy.
She suddenly understood: this system was deeply ingrained in the very bones of the South Asian people.
Seeing Kiana lost in confusion, Ren couldn't help but sigh.
As the perfect savior, Kiana's nature was gentle yet strong, driven by a pure desire to save the world. Unfortunately, on the path to salvation, such a personality often became the very shackles that bound her.