"Bronya, what exactly is with this appearance of yours?!"
Elias stared at the girl before him in shock. No, wait! This wasn't the "flat" duck anymore. What stood before him now was the fully evolved version from eight years later—the mature Bronya with curves in all the right places!
The silver-haired girl possessed a delicate-looking face and the flawless figure of a top model. Slim waist, shapely legs, generous chest... even her signature drill curls had transformed into a more mature long-haired style.
The instant Bronya appeared, all the passing girls who had secretly harbored improper thoughts immediately backed down. Originally, they had planned to approach Elias if his companion turned out lacking.
But the moment this noble, elegant, valiant grown-up Bronya entered the scene, she utterly annihilated the competition. Their HP bars shattered on the spot.
(So that's it... the authority of creation.)
Elias instantly understood what was happening.
At this moment, Bronya's body not only contained the Herrscher Core of Truth, but also the Herrscher Core of Death.
This mature Bronya form was clearly the result of her using the authority of creation to artificially accelerate her own growth.
However, before Elias could appreciate the sight for much longer—
"No time to explain—Elias, get on the bike!"
Bronya glanced anxiously at Project Bunny's motorcycle mirror. Then she constructed a motorcycle helmet and placed it on Elias before pulling him onto the back seat.
"???"
Before Elias could react, Bronya accelerated once more, charging toward the green light that would turn yellow in two seconds.
VROOOOOOM—!!
"Uh, Bronya, what happened? Why do you look like you're being chased?"
Even through the helmet, Elias could feel the roaring wind from the motorcycle's near-flight speed.
"...In reality, I am being chased," Bronya replied helplessly.
"Huh?"
"Tch. They've already caught up?"
Bronya frowned slightly and accelerated again.
Elias froze for a moment before turning to look behind him. His eyes widened in shock.
Mobius, Vill-V, Eden, Raiden Mei, Fu Hua, and the others were all pursuing them on various vehicles. Judging from their aggressive momentum, this was clearly a full-scale "hunt."
"Holy crap! What the hell is going on?!"
"To put it simply, Bronya has become the target of jealousy!"
"Huh?"
"Apparently Bronya has been winning too much lately. But the main problem is that green-haired loli auntie over there is way too evil."
The mature Bronya sighed and glared hatefully at Mobius through the rearview mirror.
Meanwhile, Elias' eye twitched slightly as he roughly pieced together the situation.
Recently, Bronya had not only become the Herrscher of Truth, instantly climbing into the top five strongest fighters of the current version, but had also obtained Elias' date invitation.
Naturally, everyone else was envious.
Normally, however, the girls possessed fairly high moral standards. Even if they felt jealous, they wouldn't actually do anything.
But...
The newly joined snake was different.
Mobius: "Morality? What's that? Can you eat it?"
This greatest black-hearted capitalist of the Previous Era, slave-driving owner of Mobius Lab, supreme exploitation specialist, and mad biologist had already permanently shut down her moral conscience fifty thousand years ago.
After all, the previous victim—a certain pink elf—was still buried thousands of meters underground by this snake.
When other people got jealous, they merely stayed jealous.
When Mobius got jealous, she directly took action.
And under her influence, the others had also begun growing restless.
Mobius: "Hehe~ Little Bronya, why don't you join my Mobius Lab? Food and housing included, fulfilling daily experiences guaranteed, and the salary is excellent too."
Vill-V: "Ahem. Dear audience member, I'm extremely interested in your authority of Truth. Let me inspect that Core!"
Raiden Mei: "Bronya, I think you should stay home with Seele. Didn't the two of you agree to go shopping together the other day? As for Elias, leave him to me instead."
Prometheus: "Proposal rejected. The optimal solution is for me to replace her. After all, my appearance is highly similar to this Bronya's. Therefore, it is only logical for me to take her place and go on the date with Elias."
Fu Hua: "Bronya... what exactly is this body of yours? Oh~ I see now. The authority of the Herrscher of Death, hm? Come, your class monitor wants to discuss something with you."
And thus, just as Bronya was about to head out for her date, she was surrounded by everyone.
So she seized the perfect opportunity, transformed Project Bunny into a motorcycle, and fled at full speed.
The girls immediately chased after her, and before long, the situation evolved into this chaotic high-speed pursuit.
Elias raised an eyebrow. He truly hadn't expected today's date to begin with such excitement.
Judging by the expressions of the pedestrians, anyone unaware of the truth would probably think they were filming a sci-fi version of Fast & Furious.
As for why it was specifically sci-fi...
"Uh... aren't everyone's vehicles a little excessive?"
"They absolutely are!"
Bronya desperately wanted to complain too.
Her own vehicle was merely the plain and ordinary Project Bunny motorcycle.
But the pursuers' vehicles...
The MTH-3 Peacekeeper tank (Prometheus), the airborne battleship EOS (Rita), Special Armament Model No. 9 (Vill-V), Krishna (Durandal), and Gurikara (Raiden Mei).
Elias: "Are those even normal vehicles?!"
The girls: "Don't sweat the details! Vehicle ahead, pull over immediately! Otherwise, don't blame us for using force!"
However, the most shocking one of all was Fu Hua.
Her vehicle was the simplest.
The most environmentally friendly.
The most normal.
But from another perspective, it was also the most absurd.
Because she was riding a bicycle!
Could you believe this woman actually caught up to them on a bicycle alone? And her speed wasn't losing at all to tanks, warhorses, dragons, or battleships.
The only thing that could be said was this:
The Immortal Phoenix was terrifying beyond comprehension.
Bronya: "Hmph~ Interesting. In that case, Bronya accepts everyone's challenge. Let all of you become merely the prelude to today's date between Bronya and Elias. Come at us with everything you've got."
It had to be said that ever since obtaining the authority of Truth, Bronya had become just a tiny bit swollen with confidence.
But that was understandable.
After all, the former "flat duck" had always ranked at the bottom of the dormitory.
And this recent comeback had simply been too overwhelming.
As a result, she was currently overflowing with confidence!
In terms of combat strength, she was now a dual-transcendence Herrscher possessing both Truth and Rebirth.
As for her figure... that perfect golden-ratio body nearly shattered a certain flat-chested immortal's Dao heart and drove her close to demonic deviation!
Faced with the girls she normally couldn't defeat except through strategy, Bronya not only showed no fear now, she even took the initiative to provoke them by constructing over a dozen floating Truth Key cannons and opening fire.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM—!
"That's it?" xN
If these had been ordinary vehicles, they would already have exploded into scrap.
But against pursuers driving tanks, battleships, Honkai Beast warhorses, and dragon-type Honkai Beasts...
This level of firepower was little more than harmless scratching.
The only one who posed any real threat was Fu Hua.
But the immortal's cycling skills were absurdly good, and she dodged everything effortlessly.
Bronya herself understood this as well.
So the attack merely represented a declaration of war.
However, there was still one thing she worried about.
What exactly would Elias think about all this?
Yet the result completely exceeded her expectations.
"Bronya, focus on driving."
Elias raised a hand and gently patted her head.
Those heterochromatic eyes of his were filled with obvious excitement and delight.
"Eh?"
Bronya instantly froze.
"Leave everyone else to me!"
Not only was Elias completely unbothered, he was actually eager for more.
He directly constructed numerous "safe-type" weapons and began intercepting the girls behind them.
(Although doing this might be a little inappropriate, today is a very important day for Bronya. I'll properly compensate everyone afterward, so... for now, just obediently withdraw from the stage.)
There was another reason as well.
Elias simply thought this was incredibly fun!
Sitting on the back seat of a beautiful girl's motorcycle while intercepting all sorts of pursuers chasing from behind...
This activity was far more entertaining than the original date plans he had come up with last night.
How should one deal with people interfering during a date?
The optimal answer was to turn them into part of the play!
"Everyone, come at us with your full strength too! Whether it's missiles, lasers, or breath attacks, use every weapon your vehicles have and try to stop Bronya and me!"
Elias turned around, pressing his back against Bronya's as he shouted excitedly toward the girls behind them.
Hearing this, Vill-V and the others froze.
Clearly, none of them had expected such a reaction from Elias.
"Elias, what are you talking about? That's impossible!"
"Exactly! Bronya is one thing, but..."
"How could we possibly attack you, Elias?!"
"Also, stop trying to turn us into part of your play!"
The girls insisted that their goal was merely to stop the flat duck.
They had absolutely no intention of hurting Elias...
Though to be fair, none of them actually believed they could hurt him anyway.
In response, Elias curled his lips upward and openly tempted them.
"Come on, don't say that. How about this? Chase us down. No limits on your methods. If you catch us, then I'll let all of you do whatever you want with me~"
"!!!" xN
The moment those words left his mouth, the girls collectively froze for half a second.
Then every single one of them slammed the accelerator to the floor.
Missiles, lasers, gatling guns, lightning breath attacks—every weapon imaginable was unleashed without restraint!
The girls' eyes had all turned red.
The moment they imagined catching Elias and doing all sorts of things to him afterward, every one of them instantly went all out.
They had to catch these two!
No matter what, they had to catch them!
As for Bronya... that could wait.
After all, this level of weaponry was meaningless against Elias.
Since that was the case, there was no need to hold back anymore.
Victory conditions:
Catch Elias and Bronya.
Or simply destroy the Project Bunny motorcycle.
Failure conditions:
All of their vehicles destroyed.
And with Elias' personality, there was no way he'd use his full strength against them.
He would absolutely go easy on them.
Which meant they still had a very high chance of winning!
Faced with such a heaven-sent opportunity, how could they not seize it properly?
"Full barrage launch!"
"Roar, Gurikara!"
"Charge them down, Krishna!"
"Ki—step on the pedals!"
The atmosphere instantly heated up.
The girls who had still harbored reservations moments ago had all thrown off their restraints because of Elias' single sentence and began racing wildly.
Fortunately, Elias was always thoughtful.
Using the authority of the Herrscher of Truth, he directly constructed a dedicated racetrack leading into the sky, thus preventing any harm from affecting ordinary pedestrians.
...
"Hahaha~ That's more like it!"
"Indeed. Now this is getting interesting!"
Both Elias and Bronya grinned widely.
As gaming experts, this real-life racing pursuit game had completely ignited their blood.
If the people chasing them were enemies, then naturally the two would have treated the situation seriously.
But Mei and the others were companions.
So naturally, Elias and Bronya treated this entire thing as a game.
At least, that was how it felt for them.
However...
Project Bunny: (Waaahhh! Nooo! I don't want to be blown to pieces! Lord Elias! Boss Bronya! Have either of you considered my feelings?!)
Clearly, the answer was no~
Watching the tracking missiles, lasers, gatling fire, dragon breath attacks, and countless other assaults raining down from the sky, Project Bunny 19C immediately pushed its speed to the limit while continuously dodging and evading.
Although Project Bunny 19C, as a quantum robot, possessed no sense of pain and could reconstruct itself infinitely, being blown to pieces still felt terrifying!
"Hm? Right, Project Bunny 19C can drive automatically. In that case, I'll leave the driving to Bunny. I want to intercept everyone together with Elias too."
Bronya looked at her motorcycle in delight.
Compared to merely driving and dodging attacks, she much preferred being the one handling the interception.
So Bronya decisively released the handlebars and prepared to turn around.
"Bronya wants to play too? Then let's do it together!"
As he spoke, Elias wrapped one arm around Bronya's slender waist.
With his strength, he effortlessly pulled the mature Bronya into his arms.
Then the two of them simultaneously constructed countless weapons.
"Game Start!" x2
Although Elias and Bronya were at an absolute disadvantage in numbers, as Herrschers of Truth, their firepower was overwhelmingly powerful!
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM—!!!
Thus, atop this sky-piercing racetrack, the greatest and fiercest pursuit battle of the modern era officially began.
The roar of motorcycles.
The thunder of tanks.
The circling of battleships.
The howls of thunder dragons.
The neighing of warhorses.
And...
The ringing of a bicycle bell.
Together, they formed an utterly chaotic racing spectacle.
And because the commotion was simply too massive, both Schicksal and Anti-Entropy soon detected the high-speed pursuit through satellite observation.
Otto: "..."
Welt: "..."
The two men were first left speechless by the absurd scene.
Then Otto and Welt decisively set aside their evil plans and mech model kits before maximizing the display to full screen and enthusiastically becoming spectators.