The entire day of classes flowed by in this kind of silence.
Just like thousands of past dusk hours, the school dismissal bell echoed leisurely above the campus.
Raiden Mei stepped out of the classroom first and turned left after exiting the door.
If she were going home after school, she should have turned right out the door; the left side was where other classes and the restrooms were located.
Li Wu didn't know what she was going to do and didn't think much of it. He picked up his school bag and stood up, but just as he was about to leave, his wrist was firmly grabbed by Anna.
He tried to pull away but found he couldn't budge her at all.
Li Wu simply gave up and sat back down, letting out a long sigh. His brows unfurled, and his facial muscles completely relaxed, looking like a soldier who had thrown away his armor and raised his hands above his head in surrender.
"You have to at least let me go back and pack my luggage, right? Don't tell me you're going to prepare all my clothes for me? Though that wouldn't be impossible..."
Anna's lips had just curved into a sweet arc before she said with utter disgust, "Shoo, shoo, shoo, who wants to prepare your things for you? I just wanted to ask, did you buy the Holy Blood?"
As soon as her words fell, Li Wu stiffly turned his head away.
"My injuries were treated by World Serpent. I don't need the Holy Blood anymore."
"So you didn't buy it, right?"
"Uh... mmh, I didn't not buy it on purpose. I'm really grateful that you provided that information, I..."
"You don't need to say anymore."
Anna let go of Li Wu's hand and buried her head in packing her own school bag.
Li Wu thought Anna was angry. Just as he was racking his brains thinking of how to coax her, Anna suddenly spoke up, "As long as you're fine, that's what matters. As for the Holy Blood, you don't need to worry about it; I'll handle it myself."
"You just need to..."
Anna's voice suddenly lowered, sounding muffled and unclear as if underwater.
"...Prove that you are a normal human, not an anomaly, and definitely not a threat to humanity... Please, you must prove it, otherwise..."
She didn't finish her sentence, but the meaning was already crystal clear.
Schicksal would not allow anomalies to survive in the world. Even someone as noble as the Kaslana Young Miss, once confirmed as the vessel of the Herrscher of the Void, was destined to meet an end where her value was squeezed dry before she died.
Let alone an ordinary student like him with no background whatsoever.
Once an anomaly was detected, what awaited him would be an endless cycle of Returns by Death.
Like a speck of dust floating in the universe—tiny, helpless, only able to watch as it was pulled and deformed by countless gravitational forces, becoming something unlike itself over millions of years.
Or being absorbed by a passing planet, or falling into an unknown black hole and instantly being stretched to infinity, or perhaps breaking down into even smaller atoms in the explosion of a white dwarf, drifting in eternity.
Until the monkey at the typewriter typed out a complete copy of Hamlet.
At that time, eternal life and immortality would become the greatest curse, the beginning of all pain and tragedy.
The cruelest, most disgusting, and most heinous tortures in human history would happen to him one by one in an endless cycle.
Just thinking about it casually, Li Wu already felt deep despair.
Because this time, he didn't even have the option to give up.
Once wanted by Schicksal, he would absolutely meet an irrecoverable dead end.
Being spawn-camped by an S-rank Valkyrie—killed every time he revived.
The opponent would refresh with a complete physical and mental state alongside the loop, never getting tired.
But the terrifying mental toll on him would be continuous. Even if he fought with all his might, he probably still wouldn't be able to defeat an S-rank Valkyrie in the end.
His brain wouldn't be able to handle the immense mental pressure and would collapse directly.
The result... might be even more severe than "depersonalization."
Phantom pain — Somatization disorder — Depersonalization — Unknown.
He couldn't imagine, nor did he dare to think about what he would become if he died more times.
If he had to use a word to describe that unknown state, Li Wu might use eldritch.
A person who is immortal but whose mind has completely collapsed can no longer be measured by human cognitive standards.
In the endless years, who the fuck knows what bizarre and evil mutations would occur...
The decaying, yellow flower-like sunlight spilled in from the window, slipping into the classroom as if pressing the shutter button, capturing the silent and still scene of the two into a photograph.
"Don't worry, I'm a normal person. I won't cause you trouble. Detected as an anomaly? The probability of that is too small; it feels like winning the lottery. This time is purely a paid vacation arranged by Schicksal. Don't be nervous. After a month passes, everything will return to normal."
Li Wu suddenly broke into a smile, as brisk as a bird.
Then, he walked up to Anna, formed his hand into a "gun," pointed it at his own heart, and changed his tone: "If one day I really do become an anomaly, don't feel troubled. Just do what you have to do; I won't blame you."
Of course, that was impossible.
Li Wu only said this to put Anna's mind at ease a bit.
The special nature of Returns by Death didn't allow him to truly die. As a basic function of the system, it was impossible to be detected no matter what.
Aside from Returns by Death, the only thing that could potentially cause a problem was what Raven had fed him.
But that was just some enhancer. How could an enhancer be judged as an anomaly? No matter how much it enhanced, it ultimately only enhanced the human body, not acquiring new extraordinary powers—like activating a Herrscher Core, for instance.
Anna didn't know the thoughts in Li Wu's mind. She just blankly turned her head and looked at the gradually dimming sunlight outside the window.
The light was fading at an imperceptible speed. Soon, the moon would quietly climb as high as the trees.
"See you tomorrow," Li Wu stepped out of the back door of the classroom first, turning back to wave.
"See you tomorrow," Anna replied. Only after Li Wu had disappeared around the corner for several minutes did she pack her school bag again, walk to the front door of the classroom, and turn off all the lights and the air conditioner.
Accidents and tomorrow.
No one knew which would come first.
A strong sense of unease rose in Anna's heart. She remembered when she had just become a C-rank Valkyrie and took on a B-rank mission with her teammates. The result was her team being wiped out, leaving only her hiding fearfully in the corner of the ruins, trembling all over like a stray dog.
On the eve of executing this mission, she felt this same familiar unease.
That incident had passed so long ago—so long that Anna had almost forgotten this extreme unease—until she witnessed Li Wu deliberately making some inexplicable jokes to lighten the mood just to put her mind at ease.
Once upon a time, before her first squad was wiped out, everyone had also comforted each other like this, believing that after completing that B-rank mission, they could return to their peaceful and warm daily training.
"Ugh..."
Anna covered her mouth, trying hard to suppress the nauseating feeling of stomach acid backing up.
Over the years of executing missions, she had long become accustomed to corpses and bloody scenes. But whenever she recalled the image of her former squad members being pierced through right in front of her eyes—their eyes hollow, their brains splattering—her body instinctively resisted and went soft. In the end, her powerful strength couldn't support her fragile heart.
She felt as if she had returned to that most helpless and despairing moment, shivering in the corner of the ruins.
Now, there were no Honkai Beasts in the corridors of Senba Academy, there was no danger, and she was no longer that timid C-rank Valkyrie who only knew how to hide behind the team.
Yet she still felt scared, still felt fear.
This feeling didn't last too long. Anna supported herself against the wall, stood back up, and staggered toward the school exit.
"I won't let that kind of tragedy happen before my eyes again."
"Absolutely not."
This was exactly the reason she had become stronger.
The next day—
The moon had long risen above the treetops, and the sky was still dim.
As always, Li Wu didn't dream. Even before his transmigration, he almost never dreamed.
Every time his classmates talked about the dreams they had at night, Li Wu found it novel, as it was an experience he had never had.
What was even more exaggerated was that some classmates could actually fall asleep during a ten-minute break, have a dream, and wake up full of energy.
Conversely, he seemed immune to dreams. No, he couldn't say immune either.
At the Cioara Orphanage, he had a very strange dream—so realistic that he couldn't distinguish it from reality while dreaming. All the senses in the dream unfolded from a first-person perspective, as if he were personally experiencing it.
Other than that, most of his dreams were a colorless void.
While fast asleep, Li Wu's consciousness vaguely sensed something. He suddenly opened his eyes, just in time to see Anna squeezing in through the broken glass window.
"..."
"..."
Their eyes met, both filled with deep confusion.
"Morning."
"Morning."
Like bots, their conversation lacked any human touch.
Li Wu stared at the things Anna was carrying in her hands—two suitcases. It seemed she was prepared for this one-month observation mission.
But it's not even dawn yet, right?
What's with climbing in through the window in the middle of the night?
Shouldn't a normal person take the elevator, knock on the door, and then call if there's no response?
Li Wu remembered that he and Anna had exchanged phone numbers. Flipping straight in through the window like Spider-Man was too scary.
"Do you have insomnia?" Anna tilted her head and asked in confusion.
She was certain she hadn't made a single sound. Outside the window, she had even seen Li Wu with his eyes closed. But the moment she flipped over the windowsill, Li Wu opened his eyes. It was very strange, completely defying human common sense.
It must be a coincidence.
After all, even an S-rank Valkyrie couldn't do this; there had to be at least some movement outside to wake up quickly.
"I just woke up, and as soon as I woke up, I saw you climbing through my window. Luckily there's moonlight, otherwise, I definitely would have thought you were a thief."
Li Wu pulled the blanket tighter, covering his mouth.
"Since you're awake, hurry up and get out of bed. The plane arranged by Schicksal is arriving soon."
"A plane... I've never been on one. Do I need to prepare anything?"
"You don't need to prepare anything. It's a private jet, just bring yourself. Oh right, remember to wear something thick. Siberia is very cold; the temperature is basically many degrees below zero."
"Then can you turn around?"
"Turn around? Why, are you going to run away?"
"If I really could run away wearing only a pair of boxers, then sure."
Li Wu reached one hand out of the blanket and pointed to the pile of clothes on the bedside table.
Anna looked sideways, then immediately lowered her head guiltily, turned her back, and mumbled unclearly, "You, hurry up and change, I won't look."
Li Wu fell silent, not knowing if Anna was truly foolish or just playing dumb.
No, I asked you to turn around, and you actually just turned your back!
"Actually, you could go wait in the living room for a bit. With you staying here... I just have that habit."
"Oh, oh, oh... okay. I, I'll go wait for you in the living room first. Hurry up and get dressed!"
Anna was like a flying arrow, quickly fleeing the bedroom. When closing the bedroom door, she forgot to control her strength. The moment the door slammed into the wall, it made a huge BANG, shaking the white plaster off the wall, which fell to the floor and formed a pale stain.
Straight female, no doubt about it.
Li Wu was getting to know Anna better and better. He found that Anna's personality in daily life and during missions were complete extremes.
In her daily life, she was truly naive and very easily flustered; but in her work state, she was serious and responsible, meticulous in every detail.
He quickly changed clothes and brought out the suitcase he had prepared last night.
Li Wu found that the living room was pitch black...
"You... didn't turn on the light?"
"Ah? Oh, oh, right. I forgot."
Anna looked around but couldn't find the light switch after half a day. Finally, it was Li Wu who walked over to the connection between the living room and the kitchen and turned on the living room chandelier.
The orange-yellow light illuminated the small apartment like a brand-new dawn.
By the bright light, Li Wu finally saw Anna's slightly panicked and bashful face clearly. She seemed to be wearing makeup—very light, yet different from every previous day, as if she had put a lot of thought into it.
Perhaps because her brain couldn't process it, Anna didn't notice at all that Li Wu had been staring at her. She looked left and right; the scene in the living room was no different from the last time.
"By the way, what are Schicksal's arrangements? Have you looked?" Li Wu reminded her.
"I haven't looked yet. Yesterday they only gave the time and place. As for the mission content, it wasn't specified, but I should be able to see it today." Anna took out her phone, opened the email, and the moment she finished reading it, her pupils shrank to pinpricks. A faint pallor washed over her lovely little face, which even the orange-yellow light in the room couldn't dispel. "How... how is this possible?!"
"What is it?"
Li Wu stepped forward and took Anna's phone without any resistance.
His gaze quickly locked onto the mission content—
[Mission Content: A-rank Valkyrie Anna Schariac and observation subject Li Wu are to alone penetrate deep into the central zone of Siberia and clear one thousand lower-level Honkai Beasts and one hundred upper-level Honkai Beasts within one day.]
[Addendum: The completion rate will determine the difficulty of subsequent missions. The lower the completion rate, the higher the difficulty of subsequent missions.]
Siberia...
Li Wu remembered a map from the manga.
During the Second Eruption, Sirin launched a revenge attack on humanity. After finally being killed by the combined forces of Anti-Entropy and Schicksal, her dying counterattack tore open a rift between reality and the Imaginary Space, turning parts of Siberia into a living hell that even Schicksal couldn't completely purify.
At all times, Honkai Beasts would emerge from the spatial rift and roam in fixed areas.
Mechs and ordinary people would be corrupted by the Honkai the moment they got close.
The only solution was to dispatch a massive amount of combat power to exterminate them, and then use Authority to close the rift, but the cost of doing so was too great.
Since the Honkai Beasts were locked in a fixed area and couldn't leave anyway, it was better to simply leave them be.
Furthermore, it was an excellent experimental site. Because there was never a shortage of Honkai Beasts and Honkai Energy, the abundance of experimental samples and subjects led to the creation of one of Schicksal's three major experimental facilities—the Babylon Tower.