Everyone's gaze instantly focused on her.
"Yun Mengxi."
Fu Hua said the name: "In the second loop, shortly after the Honkai descended, I..."
She paused, choosing a relatively conservative description that was sufficient to attract attention. "I felt extremely strong and anomalous emotional fluctuations from her. Those fluctuations had a synchronicity with the rising curve of Honkai energy that was hard to ignore.
"Moreover, within my personal limited observation during the frozen moment of time, her 'position' and 'state' highly coincided with the core area marked by the model."
"Yun Mengxi..." Himeko repeated the name with some surprise.
"How could it be her... wait..."
Himeko, Fu Hua, and Kallen looked at each other. The three of them had already realized each other's thoughts.
If it were just the emotional fluctuation coinciding with the Honkai energy curve, the other party would at most be listed as a suspect.
But the problem was—Yun Mengxi... she was indeed special enough.
She was the undoubted protagonist of the Pearl of the Sea tonight. After the Honkai outbreak, Yun Mengxi was also one of the survivors. And most importantly... the other party's "burial place" happened to be the Pearl of the Sea.
The place where they fell into this time loop!
Clues began to converge on the name "Yun Mengxi" like magnets.
Special... too special. The other party was so special that even survivor bias couldn't explain it.
The logical chain became clear at this point.
"Then, the primary tactical objective of this loop needs to be thoroughly revised." Himeko stood up straight, the commander's aura returning to her.
"This time, it's no longer a general clearing, warning, or defense... Our core objective is locked on: Approaching and confirming Yun Mengxi's true state.
"Collect all information about her, verify if she is a Herrscher, or her exact relationship with this Honkai and the time loop.
"This might be our only key to unlocking all mysteries and possibly ending the loop."
"Agreed." Joachim nodded, but immediately added the severe constraints of reality. "However, achieving this goal faces two major obstacles.
"First, how to approach her safely? She is a public figure, surrounded by a team and security. More importantly—" He looked at Kallen, signaling her.
"Her concert tonight... the scale is too big. So big that any slight change will cause unexpected huge changes, and even—touch the red line set for us by the Shenzhou officials."
The scale of that concert was just like that: global live broadcast, city-wide broadcast, located in such a most prosperous city, using the grandest building in the city, mobilizing considerable resources throughout the city.
Through this concert, they could do many things, but they would also inevitably touch the red line.
"Senior Kallen." Joachim turned to look at Kallen.
"I need you to describe in detail, from the perspective of an executor, the complete process of your clearing and contacting the targets on the list.
"Don't miss any details, including the environment, the reaction of the contacted targets, the non-target interference you encountered, and anything you felt was 'off'."
Kallen understood and took a deep breath.
She wasn't someone good at making detailed reports, being more accustomed to action.
She tried hard to recall, beginning to narrate in slightly jumpy but vivid language: "After alerting the police, my first target was that smuggling boss at the East District dock warehouse... I intervened during his transaction.
It was strange. usually, there should be many of his men looking out in such a place, but the periphery was unusually 'clean' that day. I broke directly into the core transaction scene...
Less than three minutes after taking care of him, I heard police sirens in the distance. The direction was clear, as if waiting for some signal..."
She narrated section by section, from the dock to the financial building, from private clubs to remote villas.
She described how she used Arahato's mobility to move quickly and strike precisely, and also described some unexpected situations—
A certain target moved in advance, but the transfer route seemed deliberately leaked; unidentified "observers" appeared on some occasions; surveillance systems in certain areas malfunctioned briefly before she arrived and then recovered...
She sounded more like she was telling an adventure story full of eerie coincidences.
Joachim listened extremely patiently, interrupting her from time to time to ask for some details.
"How did the timing of the siren appearance compare to your estimated normal police response time?"
"Did the 'observer' you mentioned dress and act like a civil servant or a private bodyguard?"
"Was the surveillance malfunction full coverage, or did it just avoid your action path?"
With Kallen's narration and Joachim's questioning, a picture hidden under the guise of "superhero punishing evil" gradually became clear.
Joachim's brows furrowed tighter and tighter, but his eyes grew brighter and brighter. It was the sharp light of discovering hidden patterns.
"...In other words," Joachim continued after Kallen finished, "our previous action mode, because of its obvious destructiveness of 'individual heroism,' has always been under the key assessment and limited control of the official stability maintenance system.
"We may have never truly left their sight. If we suddenly turn all our attention to a public idol now and adopt radical contact or investigation methods, it is extremely likely to trigger stricter official intervention immediately.
"We might even alert the enemy, causing the target to be strictly protected or transferred, making us completely lose the opportunity for contact."
The conference room quieted down, with only the soft sound of Joachim's fingertips unconsciously tapping on the table.
He closed his eyes, seemingly reconstructing all the scenes, timelines, and the opponent's reaction patterns described by Kallen quickly in his mind.
A few seconds later, he opened his eyes and spoke slowly, his voice carrying a cold insight: "I understand.
"The Shenzhou officials... no, more accurately, the specific department responsible for crisis management in Sapphire City, their behavioral logic and action priorities are now very clear."
He stood up and walked to the light screen of Natasha's model, as if the screen was an extension of his mind.
"Their core goal is not to eliminate us 'unstable factors' immediately, nor even to prevent the so-called 'capital cleansing.'
"Their highest priority task is: Maintain social stability and prevent the emergence of any 'uncontrollable variables' that could cause mass panic or disorder."
"They are just 'managing' us," Joachim's tone carried a hint of irony. "Drawing an invisible boundary, guiding our destructive power in a direction they deem 'bearable' or 'happy to see.'
"At the same time, they are also ensuring that we don't cross the line, don't touch the 'red line' that could truly trigger social unrest.
"The sirens, observers, malfunctioning and recovering surveillance Kallen encountered, and even the final deterrent contact... are all parts of this 'management system.'
"They are assessing, guiding, and controlling variables."