Hello everyone, we are the new Arcadia Group, and our company welcomes you to join us.

Our company is headquartered in York City, W.DC, North America, located in the most prosperous neighborhood, security control area A, with a total of more than 5,000 people, is a company whose main business is energy, medical, electronics, science and technology research and development and security services.

Under our company's operations, approximately one billion people around the world have benefited from our company's high-quality medical care after the Honkai Era, protecting more than 600,000 people who have survived and resettled in the Honkai era, and enjoy the high-quality life protection that our company has carefully provided for you.

At present, we have signed cooperation agreements with the interim governments of more than 80 countries around the world, with the aim of allowing you to return to your previous good life after the collapse is over.

Our company now has cooperation channels in various regions, for people's better life, please contact the HR of our branch through the recruitment hotline at the bottom of the screen, our company is recruiting talents, each position is vacant, looking forward to your joining.

Strive for all the good in this world, New Arcadia Technology Co., Ltd.

- Preface to Chapter 1 of "The Book of Collapse: The Age of Stars": Operation Dawn - A Barren Land of Despair

After the last great natural disaster called the "Era Collapse", humanity ushered in a new era called the "Star Era". After the Great Collapse, the original population of the human population from 6 billion people in the world is now only 1.7 billion people.

After the Great Anno Collapse, humanity still survived tenaciously on this land, and at this time, a company called "New Arcadia Technology Co., Ltd." sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

The company is part of a chaebol organization called the New Arcadia Consortium, and in just five years, New Arcadia Technology has grown around the world and spread like a virus.

In a world where Honkai energy is the main source of energy, they monopolize more than 80% of the world's local energy and grasp the economic lifeblood of each country.

And that's not all. In the streets and alleys of every country, whether it is a large floating subway, urban lighting, artificial intelligence, or as small as a beverage vending machine, communicator, public garbage bin, etc., you can see the presence of new Arcadia technology.

People from every country are trying to get into this company, otherwise they will face a very tragic end - exile to the "non-safe zone" where Honkai beasts are raging, or starve to death in the safe zone.

Until then, this world was still under the joint management of the Mandate of Heaven, the Anti-Entropy, and the World Snake Organization.

After the anti-entropy before the Honkai Era and the disappearance of the World Serpent, the remnants of the Mandate of Heaven organized everyone who wanted to fight against the Honkai were still active in this devastated world, fighting for the future of all mankind.

However, the influence of New Arcadia is too great, so the Mandate of Heaven, as the world's only international peacekeeping organization, has been entrusted by the provisional government, which is aware of the crisis brought by New Arcadia Technology, to confront and investigate the New Arcadia Group.

Chapter 1: Operation Dawn - A Barren Land of Despair

Chapter 1-01 An advertisement

Our story takes place in the Shenzhou branch of New Arcadia, a young man who has just joined the company. He was a mediocre-looking young man who looked like one of those college students who had just come out of school, and a new employee who had arrived in New Arcadia a few months earlier.

He was a boy with short jet-black hair, dressed in a dark black and blue uniform of New Arcadia, and wearing an internal communicator that monitors the daily behavior of employees, covering his otherwise bright orange-brown eyes. In addition to its detection function, this communicator can also correct the wearer's vision, replacing the role of glasses – of course, when it still has electricity. However, the teenager's eyesight was very good and he did not need to wear glasses.

"072C, the equipment here needs to be moved to the warehouse immediately, and then we will set off on a mission."

The person who said this was a long-haired woman with aqua blue who was also wearing a communicator, although she was slightly petite than her taller, half a head taller than a teenager, her face was slightly delicate, and her skin was fair, and she seemed to be doing a lot of maintenance.

The woman is the teenager's boss, named Kamisato Shizuryu, a native of the East, but she is 3 years older than this teenager who has just turned 20, she just celebrated her 23rd birthday yesterday, and her colleagues and subordinates celebrated her all night. She is the head of the security force of this branch, although she is not very old, but because of the relationship of her family "Kamisato family", Shizuru was able to get to this position in just two years, relying on connections and connections.

However, Miss Shizuru's combat strength is terrifying, as a former A-level Valkyrie of the Mandate of Heaven, she once served as a vice captain in the third special operations combat unit of Raiden Mei.

New Arcadia Technology Co., Ltd., a global monopoly oligopoly company, can bypass the supervision of the local provisional government and lynch the offender even if the people in it commit crimes. This kind of oligopoly enterprise does not pay so much attention to the supremacy of strength and efficiency, nor does it pay attention to the cultivation of talents, and the loss of grassroots employees is as ordinary as a few screws for it.

The boy expressed his concern about going on a mission to a dangerous place this time, and slowly asked her:

"Captain Silent Stream."

"What's wrong, you say."

"I heard that this time I'm going to go on a mission to the north of Area D in the Oko region, and the monsters there are ...... It's quite a lot to hear from my colleagues. ”

Shizuru took off the communicator, revealing beautiful eyes like sapphires and a beautiful tear mole under the corner of his left eye, with a serious and cold expression, staring at the boy who was half a head taller than him.

"It's best if I come back alive, I will go with you this time, after all, it is my responsibility to let everyone come back alive."

Shizuru shook the saber at her waist - the new Arcadian-style high-frequency knife type A, which was specially issued to her by the company the day before she took office, which was obviously different from others. Hearing Jingliu say this, the young man pretended to smile a little, then took a few boxes, hugged them and left.

"When will you be as strong as Miss Shizuru...... Alas, it can't be. That's what he was thinking in his heart at this time.

Because some time ago, he had just attended the funerals of several teammates who died because of the mission, and he also participated in the entire condolence ceremony. Thinking that one day, like his fellow soldiers, he might die outside because of the company's tasks, he didn't know whether he was looking forward to it or being afraid.

He also knows that with such an ordinary family background, he can be admitted here after graduating from college and eat with his mouth, which is already a great luck.

Soon, Shizuru took more than 16 of his subordinates, wearing heavy dark combat bone armor, left the base of the branch, followed the armored vehicles of the energy harvesting force, and flew in the vast Gobi. Unlike the headquarters located in the bustling area of York City in North America, the Shenzhou branch is located close to the energy harvesting site, however, the most common terrain in this place is the desert and the Gobi Desert.

Before the advent of the Honkai Era, there were still people here, not even a scene of yellow sand, but also cities and high-rise buildings. Because of the Honkai, this place has become a wasteland, and the human inhabitants who originally inhabited it have either become part of the Honkai or have been eaten by the Honkai Beasts.

"072C, your suicide note is ready." A male soldier who was traveling with him accosted him.

The boy said that he was not going to die there in the first place, and he believed that Captain Shizuru could take everyone back alive from the northern region of Oko.

The northern part of Aoke, located in the northern desert region of Shenzhou, is very rich in Honkai energy crystallization minerals, which were born after the Honkai Era and are the last survival energy sources that humans rely on. Not only will you have to deal with a giant Honkai beast that is several stories tall, but you will also have to keep an eye out for a nascent peacekeeping organization called Destiny, who has recently begun to set their sights on New Arcadia.

As a new generation of global anti-Honkai peacekeeping organizations, Mandate of Heaven has the right to maintain the peace of the Provisional Governments of the world, and because of this, Mandate of Heaven can also ignore the regulations of the local Provisional Government and forcibly investigate the New Arcadia Technology Company.

Although justice has long been lost in this world, that group of people still believes in justice, even in the face of global monopolies like New Arcadia, they are not afraid. Although 072C has never met the Mandate of Heaven, he is still very worried, after all, he does not want to lose this job.

After all, he had only recently graduated from college, picked up a rifle, and was recruited as a security guard by the branch of New Arcadia, doing the lowest job that could kill him at any time. However, it is even much better to work at the lowest level in New Arcadia than to be an executive at other small companies. That's the benefit of the world's largest oligopoly.

Jingliu accosted him, and made some slightly vague statements about what he had just said, and said:

"You just told me you were scared."

"Ah...... That, Captain Shizuke, I'm ......."

"I know." Shizuru responded. "You've only been here for less than half a year, but I've seen your efforts, and it's not easy to be on your own, 072C."

The boy was taken aback by such a sudden remark, after all, Shizuru had indeed taken care of himself before, but he didn't know what he had been paying attention to by Shizuru.

"Tell me your real name, and if you die, I can report it to your family...... At least I know you're not a member of the fan. ”

"Yes."

The boy hadn't thought about dying, especially for the New Arcadia company, so he thought about it for a while, and said his name to Miss Shizuru:

"My name is Rin, and my mother is infected with Honkai Crystallization, so it's inconvenient to move and I can't speak."

"Some of them are like the names of our Far Eastern girls." Shizuru smiled and replied. "However, I regret what happened to your family."

A fellow soldier who was listening also said, "Me too, my family has the same disease, and they are still in the hospital." ”

The boy named "Rin" didn't seem to take this to heart, and said with a smile: "It's okay, after all, people who are engaged in high-risk jobs outside will have this day, and if I die, I will trouble you to lie to my mother, saying that her son is busy with official business and cannot go back for the time being." ”

After listening to what the young Rin said, Shizuru silently turned his head away and stopped squeaking, and the "numbered soldier" also said his real name to Rin.

"Then, Rin, my name is Bowei, let's work hard this time and try to get back alive." The soldier beside him said.

Rin nodded, then smiled bitterly and replied, "Well, definitely." ”

I don't know how long the troops have been marching in the Gobi Desert, and the yellow sand is getting more and more, raging in the air with the strong wind, mixed with the bitter copper smell, and frantically hitting everyone's cheeks. Although it has the protection of a protective force field, the wind and sand that are gradually rising make everyone gradually unable to see the road ahead.

At this moment, the ground began to shake, and the sound of squeaking machinery came from the ground, which was the reaction of the Honkai Beast, and everyone quickly began to be alert. Miss Shizuru hurriedly gave instructions to all the security personnel and said:

"It's a sandworm! Squad members retreat! The number is below 4, I'll solve it. ”

Although Miss Shizuru usually trains very strictly, she is a person who values her subordinates and companions, and she has done almost everything since she became the Minister of Security in the past four years.

She took the lead and used her sword to open the way for her subordinates. With the crackling of the sword light in the sandstorm, the pain of the giant beasts, and everyone could see the writhing figures of the huge sandworms in the sandstorm, and the way they were cut off. The two-minute battle was over, and Shizuru dragged himself out of the sandstorm, while Rin saw Shizuru injured and hurriedly ran up. The rest of the people also saw that Shizuru was injured and followed Rin as well.

"I'm fine, just sprained my foot." Shizuru limped over. "Please bring me the healing gel, I need to fix my ankle."

Rin asked puzzled, "Captain, why don't you let us fire for support?" ”

"I can fix them alone." Shizuru glanced at Rin who was holding her. "The skin of those sandworms is so hard that if a bullet were to shoot them, it wouldn't work at all."

After the medical staff who accompanied her gave Shizuru medicine, she left the sand outside and moved to rest in an armored vehicle. Then she spoke:

"If there's any situation outside, I'm sorry for your guards."

"Yes."

After a few words, Shizuru got into the armored car, which accompanied the soldiers of the Ministry of Security, and slowly moved on the sand in the face of the sandstorm. It was a giant sandworm just now, and if you haven't been able to encounter some more before you reach the target location, you can only use this semi-automatic rifle in your hand to defend it.

Coming to such a dangerous place is as if death is following you, and you may be taken away by it at any time.

I don't know how long it was, but I was lucky, and after ten minutes of travel, nothing happened on the road. New Arcadia security personnel arrived at the target collection point, which was the mine of the New Arcadia Divine Division, where people were stationed.

After settling the location of the collectors, Shizuru's injuries also healed, and she hurriedly commanded all departments to make armed deployments at the collection site to prevent the Honkai Beast and the Mandate of Heaven from interfering here.

Rin and Bowey were stationed in the northern part of the mine, and they were ordered to report any situation to Shizuru immediately.

At this moment, the two of them raised their heads, took off their dark masks, and stared at the yellow sand sky, and the huge machine that was pacing and collecting in the sand. The machine was as big as a castle, its feet on the sand, making a rumbling noise, and at the same time spreading the suction device at the bottom of its platform, constantly grabbing the blue Honkai energy crystals scattered across the sand, like the stomach of New Arcadia.

Rin didn't speak, just quietly listened to Bowei's speech, and he also talked about the things before he came to this company:

"Shoal Gatherer, that's what this thing is called, this is the first time you've seen it, right? You've only been here for a short time, and it's the first time you've been to such a high-risk place, Rin. ”

"I don't know when I started working as a security guard here, and I don't know when the world became like this, New Arcadia, this company is all I have, if it weren't for it, I wouldn't even be able to afford to eat right now."

"We are all very ordinary people, if it weren't for the two-handed martial arts, we wouldn't have come here to eat together." Bowe continued. "By the way, Rin, aren't you a college student? And not from the army? ”

Rin smiled bitterly and replied, "No, but it's better now, after all, I know how to shoot people." ”

Slowly, the two of them sat on the sand, looking up at the big guy, greedily sucking the resources on the ground, making a deafening sound. And just as they were staring at the big guy for a while, two sonic missiles silently approached the behemoth.

"Boom!"

The shoal gatherer let out a loud scream, and then large pieces of iron fell from where it had been attacked, falling on the sand, sending waves into waves.

"It's an enemy attack! Fast! Report to Minister Shizuryu! ”

Before Bowe could react, a huge missile wreckage suddenly fell from his head.

"No!"

Rin wanted to pounce on Bowei, but seeing Bowei smashed open by the huge iron wreckage, Rin at this time, adrenaline soared, and quickly took out the communicator, wanting to report the situation to Captain Shizuru. But just as he took out the communicator, a shimmering blue piercing light passed through the center of his palm, making a burnt hissing sound.

"Ah!!!h

He sat on his knees in pain, clutching his pierced right hand, and then, looking around anxiously, he saw a tall woman with two guns in his hand emerging from the sandstorm in front of him.

Her beautiful face showed an indifferent expression, and the gray single ponytail tied behind her head shook violently in the wind and sand with the yellow wind and sand. Her shoulders were exposed, like swan's tail feathers, extending towards the blue tunic she was wearing, a dark blue tunic lined with a pure white velvet lining. The slit fishtail skirt did not touch the ground, wearing a pair of high heels, and walked towards Rin step by step, like a real Valkyrie who had come from heaven and earth to collect the souls of the heroes, which made Rin shudder.

"Stand up, young man."

The tall woman walked up to Rin and looked down at him, and from the woman's body, Rin sensed danger, and the sense of coercion that was going to kill him in the next second spread from his brain.

"Captain Bronya, it's full of New Arcadian fighters, do you want to kill them all?."

The one who spoke was a young woman who followed the Valkyrie named Bronya, who also seemed to be a Valkyrie, with a string of shiny hair ornaments in her dark green hair. It was her hairpin, and she looked quite smart and cute in a short dress lined with white and designed with dark blue water and butterflies as the main design.

She holds her spear and stares at Rin who is caught with a very serious expression, and if he dares to play any tricks in front of her, then she will stab Rin in the head with her spear.

"Take him back, I'm going to ask him something."

"Yes, Captain."

After hearing the order, the girl happily grabbed Rin, and Rin could feel that although the girl didn't seem to be very strong, her strength was first-class.

"Be honest."

Rin realized that these people were agents from the "Mandate of Heaven" organization, that is, the existence known to outsiders as "Valkyrie" and "Ash Agent". And they didn't explain too much, and they couldn't help but say, they directly launched an attack on this new Arcadia mine.

His hand, which had been pierced by Bronya's shot just now, was still aching, and the little Valkyrie, who saw Rin being pierced in the center of his palm, took out the medical gel unhurriedly, applied it to him, and then ripped off part of his shirt and bandaged him.

"Thank you."

"No thanks, you're a captive now, don't think about resisting, I'm very powerful, don't try to escape, you know?"

Rin didn't want to resist, and the moment he came into contact with her, he knew that this was the Valkyrie of Destiny, who was discriminated against by people and even called a "monster".

"Captain, there's something wrong inside."

At this moment, the tall, brown-haired, ash-covered agent man who had stood beside Bronya, who had just spoken a word, spoke. He has muscular arms, a walkie-talkie, a military outfit, body armor, and dark brown body armor trousers.

Half of his hair obscured his gray-brown eyes, and the stubble on his chin seemed to have not been shaved yet, but it gave him a very sophisticated, solid look.

"Ritter, follow me. Yu Linqi, you bring this soldier back. ”

Two team members responded with "Yes, Captain". And just when Rin felt no more pain, he suddenly saw a huge battlecruiser moored in the sky, which seemed to be destiny, and it was launching a sonic missile on the ground, and the target of the missile was the shoal gatherer who had just been defeated.

"Boom !!"

Just as the missile was about to fly to the giant monster, the crab-like body of the Shoal Collector suddenly rose from the ground, bringing up a huge amount of wind and sand. With the furious roar of the shoal gatherers, it grabbed the missile and threw it back with its massive mechanical pincers.

"Not good!"

Rin watched as the Destiny's battlecruiser was hit, and the ship's AT force field expanded, and because of the force field, there was only a violent explosion, reducing a lot of damage.

"Bronya! Find a way to stop that big guy! A voice came from Bronya's communicator, sounding like a middle-aged woman.

Bronya replied unhurriedly, "Yes, Lady Shalene." Bronya then hurriedly approached Rin and asked what she could do to stop the shoal gatherers.

"I'm sorry, I'm a newcomer, and I don't know how it can stop."

Bronia judged the current situation, and judged that the shallow inhabitants were beginning to go into an uncontrolled rampage, and said:

"It looks like this big guy has gone berserk, and will be indiscriminate against the targets around his attacks."

Yu Linqi's expression immediately became flustered, she hurriedly looked at Rin who was caught by her, and then asked anxiously, "Aren't you from New Arcadia?" Why don't you know this? ”

"Linqi." The man, Ritter, spoke. "He's new here, don't be embarrassed for him, he definitely doesn't know what this big guy is."

As soon as they finished speaking, the Shoal Gatherer seemed to lock onto them, firing its main and secondary cannons at the Destiny ship in the sky as it creaked and strode toward the four.

"I'm going to stop it, and you're optimistic about this young man." Bronya said.

As Bronya ran towards the big guy, Ritter also aimed his heavy machine gun at the shoal gatherers.

"I'll help you, I can shoot too." Rin said.

"How can you help?" Yu Linqi showed a look of disdain. "It's as tall as a few floors, and it's hard to scratch the skin of the weapon you're holding."

Ritter also said to Rin at the same time, "I don't trust you very much, and besides, what can you do to stop this huge monster?" ”

Faced with such a question, Rin hurriedly pulled Yu Linqi away with one hand, picked up the rifle that Bo Yan had just dropped on the ground, followed Bronya, and ran towards the shoal gatherers.

"Come back! Don't you want to die! ”

Ignoring Yu Linqi's shouts behind him, Rin held his rifle and faced the yellow sand in the air, and hurriedly adjusted his posture and prepared for a surprise attack. As he approached the slope, he quickly adjusted his position and allowed himself to slide down the slope while locking onto the joints of the shoal gatherer's feet.

"072c, don't be distracted when shooting, concentrate, this weapon's sniper mode is very powerful, and the recoil is also very strong."

Thinking of everything Shizuru had taught him, he adjusted the sniper mode of his rifle, and when he slid down the sand slope, he had already mobilized the rifle in his hand and fired at the giant iron crab.

A laser beam mixed with high energy shot from the rifle in Rin's hand pierced through the joints of the shoals' feet, and the accuracy was almost 100% to hit the weak joints of the shoals' footsteps.

With a deafening mechanical sound, Bronya was at the bottom of the Shoal Gatherer, and she leapt to her feet and unleashed her nirvana at its ankles. Suddenly, a circular crack appeared in the space in front of her, and a large mechanical arm reached out of it, and a heavy punch was delivered to the joints of the shallow gatherer's forelimbs.

With a bang, the big iron bump also fell to the ground, and after Bronya said "Well done, reloaded bunny", she withdrew her dimensional weapon, and then jumped to the iron chassis of this huge monster.

And in the distance, Ritter, seeing this, also began to fire constantly, trying to suppress the big guy's firepower. Since Rin had destroyed the shallow dweller's weak joints with a single long-range laser cannon, it was now paralyzed and unable to move.

"He did?" Yu Linqi couldn't believe her eyes. "That New Arcadian rifle...... Is it really that powerful? ”

Ritter suddenly realized something, and said, "No, I don't know if it's crooked, he hit the weaker part of the big guy's joints accurately." ”

But just as the attention of the two people was on the big guy, a violent wind suddenly blew behind them.

"Ritter! Lin Qi! Be careful! ”

Just as their communicator heard Ms. Shalene's voice, a high-frequency knife had quietly approached them, followed by a dense stream of bullets. It was the seven soldiers of New Arcadia, who seemed to have just realized that there was an enemy attack, and rushed here to attack Bronya and the others.

"Enemy attack!" Realizing the arrival of the enemy, Ritter quickly opened the stealth device on his body and hid in the wind and sand. And Lin Qi, who has no stealth ability, is brandishing the spear in his hand and fighting with Jingliu, who has just arrived.

Jingliu snorted coldly and said to Lin Qi, "Sure enough, it's you, the Valkyrie of Destiny." Then drive your own high-frequency photonic frequency knife, ready to continue the attack.

"If you know, don't you surrender obediently?"

Just as Shizuru slashed at Lin Qi again, the spear in Lin Qi's hand suddenly began to change, turning into another water-like soft whip, and a whip hit Shizuru's high-frequency knife.

And Lin Qi's attack was faster, and the water whip-like weapon seemed to be alive, and while quickly hitting Shizura's weapon, it turned around and swung out again, hitting Shizura's waist and abdomen.

"Hmm......"

"Hmph, look at you still underestimate me! I'm amazing! ”

Seeing that Shizuru was injured, Lin Qi then swung her water whip forward, trying to defeat Shizuru with the advantage of range. However, Jingliu seemed to see something, and Lin Qi's attack didn't seem to be so disorderly.

Just when Lin Qi realized that the whip did not hit Jing Liu, Jing Liu had already come to Lin Qi's side.

"I said it...... It's over, Valkyrie. ”

But just as the next second, when Shizuru was about to pierce Lin Qi's abdomen with a knife, a laser beam cannon from nowhere interrupted the attack.

It's the sneaky Ritter, who is trying to provide fire support to Lin Qi while sniping out the redundant New Arcadia soldiers while fighting Lin Qi and Shizuru. However, just as Shizuru was about to pick up the knife and attack again, something more dangerous happened.

The shallow gatherers, who were paralyzed and unable to move, were deploying all their secondary guns and firing them in all directions, and the battlefield was instantly reduced to a pile of ruins. The remaining 3 New Acadia soldiers, when they saw the shells fired by the shoal gatherers, had no time to hide and were directly blown to pieces.

"Damn ......" Jingliu didn't think much about it, and hurriedly fled the battlefield with extremely fast steps.

She knew that this large machine, which seemed to have been damaged by the Destiny ship, had damaged the AI self-consciousness system, and was now in a state of madness, using the Honkai energy absorbed from the mineral residue to bombard all around it indiscriminately.

"Back to the Hela! Ritter! Yu Linqi! ”

So, in such a chaotic situation, it seemed that they did not care about the safety of the captain and the new Acadia soldier, and the two decided to return to the battlecruiser Hella by making an emergency jump.

A huge crater in an unknown area

After a long time, as if to find the surroundings gloomy, the boy woke up from the cave under the sand.

Just now, in order to stop the runaway mechanical crab, he followed behind Bronya and fired a laser sniper bullet at its forelimb joints. After that, he seemed to see Bronya jump onto the big crab, but he was buried in the sand by the joint that Bronya had just broken.

He realized that it seemed that he was lucky, and when the huge joint fell, he had just been saved by the fall hole that the big crab had stepped on, so the big piece of iron did not hit him. However, it seems that he is a few hundred meters underground in the hollowed-out mine, and only a little light penetrates, so that he cannot find his way.

Fortunately, he still has a communicator pinned to his waist, which has night vision.

He put on his night vision goggles, and the control system in front of him kept alerting him to the presence of life around him, and he searched in that direction, only to find a Valkyrie who had been seriously injured and unconscious.

"Is this the Valkyrie named 'Bronya'?"

He didn't care so much, whether she was an enemy or not, he wanted to pick up the unconscious Bronya from the ground, and the two of them escaped underground by finding the exit of the cave. And just as he was about to touch Bronya, Bronya suddenly got up, pulled out the pistol at her waist, and aimed the cold muzzle at his head.

"Don't move, New Arcadia soldiers, if you move again, I'll kill you."