"Heave—! Ho!!"
Under the foreman's direction, a massive excavator bucket slammed mercilessly into the ground, violently ripping up the ruined structures obstructing the construction path with an agonizing crunch of shattering concrete.
The further they walked, the more "grand" the construction sites became.
The buildings on the outskirts were merely undergoing renovations, but closer to the center, entire projects were dedicated to ground-up reconstruction. A massive array of heavy machinery began to appear.
Cranes, hoists, bulldozers.
Fortunately, even though a Herrscher had been born in Arc City, because he had been eliminated early and had actively suppressed his own power, the city bore very few traces of Honkai corruption.
In fact, Evolution's early actions—purging the entire city of mutated aberrations—had inadvertently kept the city's overall Honkai energy corruption and pollution levels staggeringly low.
The most prominent example was Arc City's water treatment and purification plants. They simply needed a few replacement parts and a reboot to become fully operational, with virtually no concerns about Honkai pollution.
Shenzhou, on the other hand, suffered from severe water pollution. Only a handful of reservoirs that hadn't seen Honkai Beast activity remained below the toxic threshold.
It wasn't just the inland water; even the seawater and coastline surrounding Shenzhou showed severe signs of Honkai corruption.
The density and fluidity of an object determined its susceptibility to Honkai pollution and the intensity of the resulting corruption. Aside from gases, liquids like water possessed the absolute lowest tolerance to Honkai energy.
In the original timeline, during the Third Eruption, the massive influx of seawater that flooded Nagazora when the coastal levees broke became so heavily polluted by residual Honkai energy that it was entirely unusable and practically impossible to purify.
Of course, that was after marinating for two years. Shenzhou had only been isolated for six months, so the pollution wasn't that bad...
Okay, it was actually very bad.
In the original timeline, the citizens Yun Mengxi had grafted into this world via the Authority of the Past hadn't even survived the initial wave of Honkai corruption during the Great Eruption.
Even if Yun Mengxi had temporarily boosted their baseline Honkai resistance, they still wouldn't survive contact with heavily polluted water sources or mildly polluted objects.
This was precisely why Otto had unilaterally mandated the mass relocation of the entire population to Arc City.
After passing through several dusty construction zones, their field of vision suddenly opened up. The group had finally entered Arc City's central district.
This area, which used to be the city's most prosperous central plaza, now looked like a giant that had just undergone excruciating bone-scraping surgery to remove a fatal poison.
Massive sections of the ground had been torn up, exposing the pale grey concrete bedrock beneath.
Over a dozen yellow engineering mechas were frantically clearing the remaining construction debris from the center of the plaza. Their massive mechanical arms swung rhythmically, uprooting shattered stone pillars and twisted rebar like they were pulling weeds.
Shu subtly tilted his black parasol, shielding Seele from a shower of dust drifting down from above.
"This used to be a musical fountain plaza, right?" Mei looked around, her eyes catching the dismantled decorative lights. "Now it just looks like a giant, open-air warehouse."
"Everything is waiting to be rebuilt," Shu smiled, his gaze sweeping over the row of buildings lining the edge of the plaza.
If he remembered correctly, that used to be Arc City's largest shopping mall.
But now, the once-glittering glass-curtain skyscraper was nothing more than a bare, skeletal framework.
Most of the storefronts outside the base were closed for renovations, their security shutters pulled tight. Only a handful of shops, subsidized by the Fire Moth, were open for business. Long lines snaked out their doors, with people clearly queuing up to purchase essential daily supplies.
Looking at it this way, the single most developed and prosperous commercial street in all of Arc City was the tiny alleyway down in the underground base.
The surface had absolutely nothing.
"Bronya believes that if Shu were to expand his shop into a franchise and open branches across the city, he would undoubtedly make a massive fortune."
Bronya's eyes gleamed as she caught the scent of an incredibly lucrative business opportunity. She pitched the idea to Shu with utmost sincerity.
Shu remained silent for a long moment.
"I feel like the return on investment would be far slower than just opening the system console and manually editing my account balance," Shu replied, completely serious.
Make money?
He had absolutely no worldly desires. You couldn't bribe a Herrscher with Merit Points, and a Honkai Beast wouldn't get nerfed just because you threw cash at it.
Bronya pouted and looked away.
She knew that, obviously. She wasn't an idiot.
But it was such a perfectly primed opportunity! Entering the market now would guarantee a massive market share, allowing them to establish a colossal business empire and enter an infinite loop of compound interest!
With endless capital, a monopolized market, and established IPs, if she ever truly had free time in the future and wanted to produce the anime and games she loved, this would be the perfect foundation!
She could achieve massive success, outright purchase a certain "Tech Otaku" company, demote the original CEO to water-cooler maintenance duty, and live the dream life of casually teasing her cute Estonian secretary every day...
Sigh. What an absolute shame.
"It feels like Sister Bronya is thinking about something extremely ambitious," Seele mumbled quietly. Bronya offered an awkward laugh, not daring to elaborate.
"Actually, I think..." However, the true Idea Master had suddenly respawned.
Kiana crossed her arms, adopting an expression of profound, serious contemplation.
The next second, her eyes flashed with the light of pure genius. She looked incredibly wise.
"Right now, we should establish an idol agency focused purely on entertainment."
Shu: "?"
Everyone else: "?"
Wait... Bronya was suggesting I use my HOMU video store to conquer the market, utilizing established entertainment IPs and luxury items like milk tea to launch a localized commercial blitzkrieg.
What the heck is this 'idol agency' nonsense?
Wait.
In a fraction of a second, Shu's neural pathways suddenly rerouted, achieving an epic, Creation of Adam-level synchronization with Kiana's thought process.
"Don't tell me you want to—" Shu gasped in sheer horror. The thought was so terrifying he physically suppressed it, not daring to utter a single syllable of it aloud.
"Hehe." Kiana let out a smug chuckle.
The second person to successfully synchronize with Kiana's wavelength was Theresa. A look of sheer panic suddenly washed over her bewildered face.
"Kiana, you aren't suggesting—"
"Exactly!" Kiana grinned, flashing a bright, toothy smile. She struck a confident pose, pointing a finger skyward, and delivered a devastatingly unhinged statement that even Bronya, in all her meme-lord glory, could never have conceived.
"Let's debut as idols!!"
Bronya: "?"
Seele: "?"
Mei: "Huh?!"
Bronya is going to fight you natural-born lunatics to the death!
"Because..." Brimming with absolute confidence, Kiana was just about to explain her genius idea when, in an incredibly rare occurrence, Shu aggressively interrupted her.
"I refuse," Shu stated, his tone as serious and resolute as a man taking a blood oath. He repeated his decision with unwavering finality.
"I refuse."