Compared to the motorcycles, mechanical hounds, and cybernetic bosozoku, the Taixu Gang was undoubtedly far less mechanized. As a result, the short-circuit module executable Bronya uploaded did not have much effect on them.
Of course, there was still some impact. For example, the Taixu Gang members who wanted to record videos found that their phones had lost power too.
As for cybernetic modifications, the Taixu Gang members were so poor they had to scavenge through trash cans. They had neither the spare money nor the qualification and health certificates required to undergo modification.
Hua pressed the tip of her foot firmly against the blade of the Taixuan Divine Sword. As she sprang away from it, she reached back to grasp the hilt, and her figure transformed into countless sword shadows.
It looked somewhat like the un-Newtonian principle of stepping on one's left foot with one's right, but the properties of superconductive soulium made this contradictory phenomenon possible.
Pale-blue sword shadows locked down the remaining Honkai Beasts and zombies.
With that, the remaining Honkai energy was no longer anything to fear.
The Taixu Gang's morale soared.
"That's the Edge of Taixuan! Azure Empyrea's signature immortal art!"
"What domineering sword energy! One strike like that could shatter mountains and rivers."
"The Ghostfire Syndicate is in trouble."
Meanwhile, the captain of the Ghostfire Syndicate's vanguard Special Assault Team was roaring helplessly, while the underlings in the front row had fled the instant they lost their motorcycles, showing no intention whatsoever of staying to continue the attack.
After all, those frontline underlings had never been elite Special Assault Team Members to begin with. They were nothing more than a group of petty thugs who bullied the weak and feared the strong.
They had been coerced into joining the vanguard.
That was standard gang practice. The ones sent ahead to test the waters before a battle were always cannon fodder.
The moment the Honkai Beasts entered the field, they had already lost all will to fight and wanted only to escape. The Honkai Beasts' attacks had simply prevented them from doing so.
"Just you wait! We're only the vanguard! Once the commander arrives with the Special Assault Team, you'll regret this!"
Having lost his motorcycle and his cannon fodder meat shields, the elite Special Assault Team captain hurled one final threat before scrambling away on all fours.
But before he could limp more than a few steps, the Taixu Gang captured him.
"What? Who'd you say was going to regret it?"
Seeing the fierce Taixu Gang members closing in around him, the Ghostfire Syndicate's elite captain instantly lost his nerve.
After witnessing the Ghostfire Syndicate collapse, discard their weapons and armor, and flee, with some even switching sides on the spot to join the Taixu Gang, the Taixu Gang members felt sincerely relieved and proud.
Choosing to side with the Taixu Gang had indeed been the correct decision.
So even the lofty Ghostfire Syndicate was nothing special!
Even a top-tier criminal gang treated its underlings as cannon fodder. In the Taixu Gang, meanwhile, there was work, storytelling, and even Azure Empyrea's protection. It was incomparably better.
Joining the Taixu Gang was an overwhelming victory.
"Greetings, Azure Empyrea."
"Please forgive my earlier disrespect, Immortal."
"I love you, Azure Empyrea! Train me hard!"
Everyone present bowed deeply, submitting to Azure Empyrea with complete sincerity.
Whether they truly worshiped the immortal or were merely seeking survival, their hearts had converged in that moment.
Within this twilight city that never saw the sun, they had finally glimpsed the first light of hope.
By following the immortal whose future held limitless promise... their own futures would hold limitless promise!
Faced with the fervent gazes of her followers, Hua, who was posing as Azure Empyrea, became somewhat embarrassed.
She had never expected everyone to become so excited over what had just happened.
It had all been Miss Bronya's accomplishment. Hua could not take the credit for herself.
After all, she still possessed the temperament of a young girl who had only recently entered society. Although she had endured the harsh training of her martial artist father, she had never grown in this particular regard.
In the past, she had faced only her father's guilty gaze, her classmates' strange looks, and her teachers' disappointed eyes.
Throughout Hua's life, the only person who had ever looked at her with such passionate expectation was Vill-V.
Hua knew that her talent was mediocre and her personality wooden. No one had ever placed such tremendous expectations upon her.
Now that so many people were looking at her this way, Hua instead found herself at a loss.
"All of you, please get up. I didn't even do anything."
In truth, this was also because Hua had spent too long in the Mad Hatter organization and had seen too much technology far beyond the current era.
As an old fossil and a technological illiterate, Hua possessed no sensitivity whatsoever toward different levels of technology.
For example, when she first encountered an intelligent terminal, Hua reacted no differently than she would have upon seeing a pager or a smartphone.
She displayed no shock or disbelief, merely offering a simple compliment about how convenient technology was.
Of course, Hua could understand such things now... but only when it came to commonly used household devices. She was even less sensitive toward rare forms of black technology.
If she remained this way for another fifty thousand years, then Senti would be entirely justified in calling her an old fossil.
She had absolutely no concept of the times—she was already carrying a shield despite being so young.
The other people living within a normal worldview possessed far more ordinary common sense.
Some of them knew about EMP bombs, but what had just happened was clearly not EMP interference. Their phones and other instruments were still functioning normally. Only the enemy's equipment had malfunctioned.
As for a hacker?
Although this city leaned somewhat toward cyberpunk, this world was still reality, not a game. They had never seen any hacker capable of affecting reality through programs alone. Cyberpunk was science fiction, wasn't it?
Should they believe in science fiction or believe in an immortal?
Everyone present chose to believe in the immortal. After all, no super hacker had suddenly appeared at the scene. Even if one had, would Heliopolis Life Sciences, whose technology made it seem like a god, truly have no countermeasures?
They found it easier to believe that an immortal had descended and displayed divine powers, reversing the administrative building's time, destroying those motorcycles, and immobilizing the hounds and enemies.
In this hopeless twilight city, only a mysterious and unfathomable immortal could contend with the god of Heliopolis. Only an immortal could save them from their sea of suffering.
That was precisely why Vill-V had chosen this method to gather everyone together.
There was no need for them to understand. They merely needed to believe. It was that simple.
...
Watching the Taixu Gang below completely bring the situation under control under Su and Azure Empyrea's leadership, the super hacker Bronie pushed her VR glasses back onto the top of her head and spoke with waning interest.
"That's it? Bronya thought she would have to fight another firewall as troublesome as the previous one. Then again, that city's firewall could even stop Project Bunny. How could a corporate 'commercial network' possibly compare?"
She had originally wanted to engage that firewall in another battle between equals and prove her strength. Borrowing Teacher Vill-V's black technology along with everyone else's support last time had admittedly made her victory feel somewhat unfair.
It felt as dull as borrowing a friend's fully maxed-out character with maximum refinements just to complete a daily mission.
Now that Bronya had gained both ideas and experience for dealing with the elite-monster "firewall" she had previously encountered, she wanted to challenge it again.
After all, that firewall had even managed to intercept Project Bunny's extended system.
Although Project Bunny had not come because it needed to help her grind daily game activity...
Still, the fact that it could intercept a derivative system of a quantum supercomputer was enough to show that this city's network defenses were anything but ordinary.
Bronya even suspected that the legendary world's greatest hacker, "Zero," was hiding somewhere within the city and had personally installed that firewall.