Magician, dressed in a splendid magical tuxedo, removed her top hat. Her figure dissolved like an ink painting into the sea of balloons:
"Please accept this special gift—my promotional balloons. They can keep you safe and ensure everything goes smoothly... probably?"
"Oh, right. Free gifts come with no after-sales service~"
Some people who received the balloons looked puzzled, while others began scheming up novel ideas. "Maybe we can use these balloons to distract the beasts? That actually sounds feasible. At least against those fast-moving zombies, we'd have a backup plan."
"Wait, look—there's writing on the balloons!" one gang member shouted.
Under the dim light, glowing words could be seen on the balloons:
"Taixu Gang Recruitment: No overtime, flexible hours, medical reimbursement, year-end bonuses."
Vill-V hadn't lied. It just didn't include a salary—full-time work, around the clock.
What kind of gang pays wages? If you risk your life for the gang, covering your medical expenses is already more than generous.
Printed on the balloons was also the image of Azure Empyrea.
The immortal's long hair reached her waist, adorned with crimson feather ornaments. Her white robes flowed like water, clinging lightly to her slender figure, accentuating her elegant form. The patterns on her qipao resembled drifting feathers.
Unlike the version designed by Dan Zhu in the future, Vill-V had deliberately kept Azure Empyrea's gray hair to avoid the trouble of dyeing Hua's hair.
After all, Hua would need to appear frequently in the future—it wouldn't be practical to dye her hair every day.
"Azure Empyrea? What kind of new character is this?"
"You've got to admit, this Azure Empyrea looks pretty cool."
"Not as sexy as Magician. I want Magician—sell merchandise!"
"This is definitely an ability! Beautiful girls are all illusions!"
Amid the chatter and speculation, someone noticed something wrong in the formation:
"Boss, the Fifteenth Squad ran off with the balloons!"
"The Eighth and Twelfth Squads ran too!"
These balloons were actually tools for escape—some people had accepted the "promotion"!
"Damn it! That Magician is here to poach our people!"
The supervising squad immediately aimed at the people floating in the sky and opened fire. But although the balloons burst, the people vanished after they popped—it was as if they had seen a ghost.
Seeing this, more and more people followed suit, grabbing balloons and fleeing.
Clearly, many of them had been forced into this and had no intention of fighting.
A subordinate beside "Raven" urged anxiously, "Boss, give the order! The brothers can't wait to tear her apart!"
The Treasure-Stealing Gang descended into chaos. Quite a few people took advantage of the confusion to slip away. There were plenty of smart ones—they had long known they were just cannon fodder but had never found a chance to escape. Now was the perfect opportunity.
"Stay calm and prepare for battle. Don't lose formation!"
"Raven" narrowed her eyes but did not order anyone to search for Magician or the deserters.
After all, she never cared about the Treasure-Stealing Gang itself. She only needed the identity of its leader to enter the core area of Heliopolis Life Sciences. Only the heads of major gangs had the qualification to access that place.
Straightening her tie, "Raven" glanced back once before turning away from the farce. She needed to enter Heliopolis Life Sciences before they realized something was wrong with the gang.
"Teacher Vill-V, you've finally come. You were quite hard to find. We'll have to settle the matter of Ido properly."
...
"Achoo—" Far away at the HoMu Company charity orphanage, Bronya sneezed.
The children gathered around her with concern. "Sister Bronya, what's wrong?"
"Bronya is fine. Probably some bad guy is cursing Bronya," she replied, holding a HoMu controller.
A little girl puffed her cheeks. "Sister Bronya is so nice. Why would anyone say bad things about her?"
"Who knows? Maybe they lost to Bronya in the HoMu world and can't accept it."
...
The commotion caused by Magician took quite some time to settle down.
As the sky became shrouded in heavy clouds, a gloomy atmosphere spread through the air.
Alarm clocks began ringing one after another, accompanied by a precise time announcement:
"It is now 4:00 AM."
The Seven-Day Tide had begun!
The emotions that had been stirred up by Magician among the Treasure-Stealing Gang plummeted back into despair.
They saw Honkai Beasts and zombies emerge from the horizon like messengers of nightmares, advancing steadily toward the outskirts.
The Honkai Beasts were massive, like walking fortresses. Their skin was as hard as steel, their eyes gleaming with cold light.
A giant Honkai Beast slammed the ground with force. The earth shook as if struck by a powerful earthquake, splitting into countless cracks.
The already uneven terrain became even more rugged.
Meanwhile, the zombies moved with incredible speed, darting through ruins and trees like ninjas. People could only track them by the reflections of blades.
The members of the Treasure-Stealing Gang stiffened, fear flooding their hearts.
"So this is the Seven-Day Tide? Why are there so many monsters? Can we even kill them all?"
"Don't be afraid. We have heavy artillery. Those monsters are just fertilizer."
Without any command, the gang members raised their guns and fired wildly, completely ignoring timing and ammunition reserves.
But the monsters' armor was incredibly tough. Even specially made bullets barely did any damage, only producing showers of sparks.
Only grenade launchers and anti-tank guns could inflict some harm.
"Why are they so hard?!"
Boom!
A floating turret fired. A blue laser knocked a massive Honkai Beast off its feet, giving everyone a sliver of confidence.
But that hope was immediately crushed. The giant beast shook its pillar-like legs and stood back up in an instant.
"You've got to be kidding... Our trump card can't even kill one of them... Are we really supposed to fight things like this?"
In reality, the floating turret required time to charge to unleash its full power. And the officer responsible for operating it was nowhere to be found.
The shot had been fired by a random underling who got curious. Seeing the high-tech turret unattended, he had snuck in to try it out.
Naturally, the power was greatly reduced—less effective than a rocket launcher.
Intense gunfire echoed across the outskirts. The ruins, once silent, were once again engulfed in flames.
The fire illuminated the zombies as they charged in first. These agile assassins entered the battlefield, swinging their weapons, slashing and piercing anything that resisted.
The gang's modern machine guns were effective against the zombies, but this only provoked their bloodlust.
In just one exchange, over a dozen machine guns fell silent. The fate of their operators was obvious.