The mountain wind had yet to scatter the lingering tenderness from moments ago.
A dazzling light screen popped up before Su Yu's eyes with a "swish," its brightness rivaling the high beams of some inconsiderate driver, brutally overpowering the neon of the distant city.
[High-Risk Daily Mission: "The Rich Big Sister's Late-Night Invitation" — Complete!]
[System Review: This mission really was "High-Risk," Host! If Elysia ever found out, you'd spend the rest of your life as "the failed game producer kept by the world's number-one rich woman"! Social Death Index: MAX!]
Su Yu stared at that bolded prompt, the corner of his mouth twitching fiercely.
He finally understood the true weight of those two words, "high-risk."
Damn high-risk indeed.
This wasn't physical danger to his life—this was the bottom line of a man's dignity walking a tightrope!
[Mission settling...]
The text on the light screen began to jump, as if a progress bar were loading.
[Bond Card updating—]
A golden, shimmering tarot card spun out of the light screen.
[The Empress — Eden]
[Bond Level: Rank 5 → Rank 7]
[Relationship Definition Updated: Angel Investor/Confidante → Secret Underground Lover]
When Su Yu saw that little heart symbol, his temple throbbed.
[Bonus Updated:]
[Hymn of Gold · Enhancement: Cash flow unlocks hidden credit limits. Studio-wide staff benefits +100%. The Host's personal credit rating jumps straight to SSS+ (Note: Your credit rating is now just like your character—entirely propped up by women).]
"Can't this System of yours act normal for once?"
[Swan Song of the Past · Deepening: When engaging in music-related creation with Eden, inspiration value +500%. Remark: Given your "ensemble" performance tonight, the System has reason to believe your "coordination" in other areas will be equally seamless.]
Su Yu's face froze.
[Special Mission Reward Issued—]
[Reward Name: Mount Akina Veteran Driver · Mastery of Driving Skill]
[Effect: Grants the Host S-rank racing driving skills. Comprehensive coverage from theoretical knowledge to practical control, encompassing advanced techniques such as drifting, launch starts, and heel-and-toe shifting.]
[System Message: Next time you go racing with your rich big sister, you can take the wheel yourself! Show off the value of a "little man," and stop always letting the woman be on top—er, in the driver's seat.]
Su Yu was just about to complain about the System's ever-present low-brow humor when the message that followed exploded inside his mind.
[Ding! Tarot card "The Empress" bond detected reaching Rank 7!]
[Armament Authority Unlocked: Star of Eden (Upgradable)]
[Note: A large amount of energy is being fed back to the bound target through the Anchor link—]
[PS: A corner of the world's truth has finally unfolded before you. Soon you'll understand why your foster father wanted you to grind community bonds—by the way, don't you think a gravity-type queen and the Star of Eden are a perfect match?]
Before Su Yu could read it word for word, the light screen instantly shattered into a sky full of golden data streams, evaporating cleanly into the night wind.
He lowered his head and glanced at his wrist.
That bracelet, in a bound state with Kiana's neck ring, was lighting up with a faint pulse of light.
"What's wrong?" Eden, still lazily draped over him, keenly sensed the instant his muscles tensed.
"...It's nothing." Su Yu stared hard at that pulsing light, his brows knotting into a tight wrinkle.
Star of Eden? An armament? Was the production crew sure they hadn't messed up?
Su Yu sank his mind inward and found that there was indeed something new at the boundary of his consciousness—Divine Key: Star of Eden.
Even though in this world without Honkai he couldn't bring out its original power, with the spiritual strength tempered by Tai Xu Sword Qi, he could barely reproduce a portion of its Authority.
That is, gravity manipulation within a certain range.
A flicker of complexity passed through Su Yu's eyes.
He'd long known that beneath this seemingly peaceful urban daily life lurked some filthy things, but in front of that violence-maniac Kiana's fists, those things were at most wild mobs that dropped a bit of experience.
But now he was directly pulling out the Star of Eden? And it even had subsequent upgrades? Later on, this thing wouldn't actually be able to crush an entire continent with gravity, would it?
In this world, just who was this kind of armament meant to blast?
And at that very same moment.
Arc City, Happiness Community, Unit 302.
The living room lights were off.
Only the glow of the streetlamp outside slipped through the half-drawn curtains, casting a crooked, elongated strip across the floor.
Kiana was curled up on the sofa, hugging that big HOMEI plushie to her chest.
Her breathing was shallow, her brows knit together, fine beads of sweat seeping from her temples.
She was dreaming.
At least, she thought she was dreaming.
When she opened her eyes, all around her was a boundless deep blue.
No sky, no ground.
Countless translucent spheres floated within this blue void, each one reflecting a different fragment of a world.
Some were ruins, some were oceans, some were unfamiliar cities she had never seen before.
This was the Sea of Quanta.
Of course, with Kiana's CPU—a brain filled with nothing but eating and fighting—she couldn't yet process such a high-end setting as the "Sea of Quanta."
Kiana lowered her head and looked at her own hand.
Translucent.
Her palm, her arm, her entire body looked like a diluted watercolor painting—she could see the deep blue void behind her showing through from inside her body.
"...Is this... a dream?"
Her voice produced no echo in this space.
Then, the scene seemed to be fast-forwarded at 16x speed.
Countless image fragments came right up in her face, forcibly playing a documentary across her retinas.
She saw Sea Abyss City.
She saw that familiar Bronya, forever wearing her deadpan, three-without expression. The little squirt, clad in [Drive Kometa] armor, weaving frantically through a pile of quantum monsters that looked like sanity-draining mosaics.
She saw Bronya find a short-haired girl trapped in the quantum depths.
Seele.
Like a VIP audience member forced to watch the show, she watched Bronya clear dungeons and pass trials, watched her—rather than looking into Joachim's past—wade through her own suffering-filled life all over again.
In the end, the trial was cleared, and Joachim logged off.
Bronya used her talk-no-jutsu to successfully hoodwink the stunned Seele.
She had thought this would be a happy, all-around reunion ending.
But the very next second, the art style took a sharp turn!
The space shook violently, and the giant alien monster Tlaloc emerged from the Black Tide, swallowing Seele's body into the abyss.
Bronya used every trick she had to try to save Seele, but could only watch as Seele was swallowed by the endless Black Tide.
The azure in Seele's eyes was utterly drowned by the Black Tide.
Kiana's heart suddenly ached with a sharp pang.
She didn't know that short-haired girl at all, and Bronya had never once mentioned her.
But intuition told her that what that girl meant to Bronya was absolutely equivalent to what Mei meant to herself.
Just what kind of place was this? Why was she having a dream like this?
Before Kiana could untangle the thoughts in her mind, the scene before her changed once again.
Amid the imagery constructed from countless world bubbles, Bronya limped forward—battered all over, yet never giving up.
She passed by many impressions reflected by the Sea of Quanta, like an utterly exhausted traveler.
Her body felt as if it were bound in heavy shackles, every step impossibly heavy.
"Seele... Bronya... will definitely save you."
Bronya stretched out her left hand toward what lay ahead.
The next moment, the core from the Herrscher of Reason appeared before Bronya—
However, the side effect of the cheat plugin failing to load appeared—the runaway energy directly summoned the previous Boss, Tlaloc, right back!
Countless ribbon-like eerie substances bound Bronya on the spot, and the terrifying Honkai energy eroded her body like sulfuric acid.
Red patterns crawled across her entire body. Bronya gripped the core tightly, but in the end she couldn't withstand the inhuman agony—her eyes closed, and she went offline on the spot.
"The core... is going out of control..." Bronya plummeted straight down toward the endless deep sea.
In this hopeless dead-end where all resources were spent.
A glowing butterfly spawned out of thin air and gently brushed against Bronya's fingertip.
"Seele..."
Warm light burst open at Bronya's chest, and that Herrscher of Reason core settled steadily into her arms.
Energy instantly maxed out!
"Bang!" The binding ribbons were forcibly shattered!
Glowing butterflies danced across the sky, and amid a pile of impossibly cool blue-and-white mecha parts, Bronya slowly rose.
The battlesuit covered her, and the butterfly transformed into an azure gem on her chest.
The Herrscher of Reason, officially online!
Tlaloc roared deafeningly beneath the abyss. The Bronya of this moment possessed entirely new power, and was wholly unafraid of the loathsome monster before her.
Her leg armor instantly became roller skates, and Bronya pulled off a Newton-defying drift in midair, dodging all of Tlaloc's basic attacks at the very limit!
Tlaloc got desperate, charging up an ultimate beam straight to the face.
At the critical moment, Project Bunny descended like a Wall of Sighs and tanked this nuke-level burst of damage head-on!
As the smoke from the beam's explosion cleared.
"All systems normal?"
"Ride on!"
"Ride on!"
Project Bunny transformed frantically behind Bronya, and in the blink of an eye became an extremely cool heavy motorcycle.
Bronya fused as one with the bike, and like a blue meteor, charged straight at Tlaloc!
Bronya floored the throttle, turning into a blue meteor, and bored clean through the crown of Tlaloc's skull!
Then, she made a dazzling spin in midair and grasped the hand Project Bunny extended once more.
The power of the Herrscher of Reason let Bronya complete her final metamorphosis in that moment.
A blue-and-white gown coalesced around her, setting off her figure as noble and beautiful.
Amid the sky full of floating cannons deployed by the Key of Reason, Bronya's eyes lit up with a cold, brilliant gold.
The next moment, beams poured down like a torrential rainstorm and swallowed Tlaloc's body!
The blue-and-white blast of light instantly illuminated the entire sky, and as the glow faded and the smoke dispersed...
Bronya spread her arms and closed her eyes, drifting among the countless points of light that Tlaloc had become.
"Seele... Bronya has come to find you."
She grasped the hand Project Bunny held out, the corner of her mouth lifting slightly.
"Holy crap! Nicely done, Bronya!"
Watching from the sidelines, Kiana nearly jumped up to applaud.
That play had been way too smooth!
Even though it was a dream, getting to see Bronya pop her ultimate again, she felt this ticket price was totally worth it.
"But then again..." Kiana calmed down for a second and rubbed her chin. "Why am I dreaming about her? By rights, shouldn't I be dreaming about Mei? Could it be that in my heart, Bronya is even more important than Mei?"
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! It must be because I've been hanging out with Bronie every day lately and caught it from her!"
She thought the CG animation was over and was just about to log out—but this dream didn't seem to have a login button, did it?
So what now?
The answer was—the movie was still going.
Under the guise of the Herrscher of Reason, Bronya officially charged into the Sea of Quanta, picking up a talking companion along the way.
The leader of Anti-Entropy, Welt Yang.
Kiana clearly shouldn't have known this leader of Anti-Entropy, but in this strange space, it was like she had cheats enabled.
This feeling really was rather wondrous.
Welt told Bronya that his power was scattered across the various world bubbles, and that as long as she reclaimed that power, the Herrscher of Reason's strength could grow even stronger.
Even if it meant crossing countless world bubbles, Bronya had already made up her mind—she would definitely find Seele.
And then, the scene switched to beneath a giant sakura tree.
Pink petals drifted down through the blue void of the Sea of Quanta, beautiful to the point of unreality.
And at the roots of that tree, a white-haired man stood quietly with his back to the camera.
And standing before him was none other than the short-haired girl Bronya had searched so painstakingly for—Seele.
"Hector knew the kingdom would eventually fall, and Achilles knew he was walking toward his own death.
"But the two of them still stepped onto the battlefield without hesitation.
"In this story doomed to be tragic from the very beginning, not a single one of them ever wavered or hesitated.
"They were so, and we, too, are so."
"I brought her remains back to our homeland. But when I arrived there..."
"What I saw was only a barren wasteland with nothing left."
"A Herrscher had taken control of the missile silos and used nuclear weapons to destroy the last three cities humanity had left."
"I stood in the plaza that had already turned to ruins..."
"And in my eyes, I could not see a single sakura petal."
The white-haired man stood beneath the sakura tree, clenching his fists, as if speaking to himself.
"On that burned-out land, I made a promise to her, to everyone."
He turned his body to look at Seele, and that vow-like murmur thundered through the space.
"—No matter the cost, humanity will definitely triumph over Honkai."
The instant she heard those words, Kiana's heart skipped a beat.
That head of snow-white hair. That face she would recognize even if it were reduced to ash.
"That's—Kevin Kaslana??"
Kiana was utterly dumbfounded.
That ultimate Office Slave bro whom Su Yu had half-tricked, half-coaxed into the company to serve as CEO, who spent every day miserably typing code and poring over reports, reeking all over of the office grind?!
Instead of losing his hair at the office, what was he doing in this crappy dream acting all deep and brooding?!
No.
That's wrong!
Kiana felt every goosebump on her body erupt all at once in that instant.
The "confused-old-man-staring-at-phone-on-the-subway.jpg" expression froze on her face.
That was absolutely not the Kevin she knew!
That man's white hair almost seemed to melt into the quantum sea, but the terrifying aura emanating from him was like a solid, genuine Mount Everest pressing directly down on her nerves!
This kind of utterly unreasonable strength—forget resistance, she couldn't even summon the thought of drawing her gun!
Kiana had always thought of herself as a monster.
But this man before her was someone who could crush monsters to death like little chicks.
Just as Kiana was nearly suffocated by the pressure, Bronya finally tore through the space on her motorcycle and came charging in.
Bronya, at last driving Project Bunny, tore open the space and arrived in the space where Seele was.
"We meet again, Herrscher of Reason... and his successor."
Facing Bronya and the Welt within the Herrscher Core, Kevin spoke calmly.
"I once thought you were an apostle of Honkai, but in that labyrinth, I saw your past. Your will is no disguise. As a Herrscher, you truly are fighting for humanity."
"So I helped that girl, hoping she could bring you to my side.
"Fighting Honkai is our shared mission; I have no intention of being your enemy."
Although he showed no apparent hostility, Bronya could not easily trust the Kevin before her.
No matter what, she could not allow Kevin to leave this place.
However, facing the Bronya who blocked his way, Kevin's expression did not waver in the slightest.
"Can you stop me?"
"I have slept in this ocean for 1,500 years. In these 1,500 years, Honkai has ravaged ceaselessly, while I could only sink into memories of the past, powerless.
"But now, the time for the Serpent's return has come."
"Whether you accept it or not, I will fulfill the duty I was meant to complete!"
Bronya wanted to use the power of the Herrscher of Reason to fight Kevin.
However, as she drove Project Bunny charging toward Kevin, leaping over the raging tide of shadows, a sudden anomaly occurred.
The Herrscher of Reason's core suddenly began to riot, and was actually separated from Bronya's body in an instant!
Her guise stripped away, her power zeroed out, Bronya crashed straight to the ground, her face full of shock.
Kevin took hold of the Herrscher of Reason's core and gazed at Bronya, who had fallen to the ground.
"Bronya Zaychik, you crossed countless world bubbles, bearing an enormous burden to arrive here. Your body has long been unable to keep up with your will."
Just then, the Herrscher of Reason's core in Kevin's hand suddenly burst with light, and Welt's figure emerged.
"Don't you dare lay a hand on her...!"
Welt lunged at the Gem of Desire, but was knocked flying by an invisible force.
"To protect that girl, you reconstructed your own flesh using the Herrscher of Reason's power? Your strength has grown as well. But with that broken body, what can you possibly do?"
Kevin, however, did not make any further move against Welt, merely standing in place and recounting calmly.
"Whether it's you, or those two girls, you all still have potential. The World Serpent needs people like you."
Welt angrily clenched his fists: "Don't make me laugh! We will never agree with what you're doing!"
Kevin, however, turned a blind eye to Welt's fury: "You don't need to answer now. One day, you will understand."
The Gem of Desire floated above Kevin's hand. He came to the edge of the Sea of Quanta and turned his body to glance at Welt, Bronya, and Seele.
"I offer you my respect. In this era, there is still a group of heroes who hold firm to their ideals and fight for humanity."
"It's just that you are still far too naive—naive enough to be killed by your own ideals."
"———You know nothing about Honkai."
"I will command and lead humanity to complete the Forerunner's true mission."
"Let us meet again in reality."
As his words fell, Kevin turned his head.
Those ice-blue eyes pierced through the layered spatial barriers of the Sea of Quanta, through the countless floating world bubbles, and landed straight upon Kiana.
It was not an illusion.
It was not a coincidence.
He had seen her.
The pressure that gaze brought was completely different from when Kiana faced Sirin in her consciousness space.
Sirin's oppression was mental torment and mockery, but this man's gaze held no emotion at all.
No hostility, no curiosity.
It was simply, purely, "having seen" her.
Like a person glancing at an ant by the roadside.
Kiana's knees went weak.
Her body began to tremble uncontrollably, her teeth chattering audibly.
That chill welling up from the depths of her marrow made her feel, in this temperatureless quantum space, a real, physical cold.
This was no dream.
This was absolutely real!
This was something truly happening in her world!
A trace of puzzlement entered the white-haired man's gaze, but he quickly seemed to lose interest.
Carrying that core, he vanished into the light and shadow of the sakura tree.
Immediately after, the entire Sea of Quanta began to shake violently.
Those floating world bubbles burst one after another, and the blue void began to collapse.
The exit of the Eye of the Sea Abyss was narrowing at a visible speed.
Ahead of Bronya and Seele, the pillar of light from the Eye of the Sea Abyss guided the direction of their escape like a lighthouse.
As long as they reached it, they could leave the Sea of Quanta and return to the real world.
However, just as Bronya and Seele were about to reach the Eye of the Sea Abyss, countless pitch-black tentacles stretched out from behind, seizing Seele's calf and dragging her body back!
Bronya rushed forward and ran the tentacles on Seele through with the dagger in her hand.
She looked up—the overwhelming sea of purple-black tentacles had no intention of letting the two girls go, seeking to keep them in this abyss forever.
Bronya grabbed Seele's hand and kept running toward the Eye of the Sea Abyss, the tentacles all the while constantly trying to seize the two of them, only to be severed by Bronya's swinging dagger.
Just as the two of them had finally, with great difficulty, leapt into the pillar of light, those purple-black tentacles followed right along, coiling tightly around Bronya and Seele.
The number of tentacles kept growing, and Bronya and Seele's bodies were gradually dragged toward the abyss.
At this rate, neither of them would be able to leave.
In the span of a few breaths, Bronya made her decision.
She used all the strength in her body to fling Seele's body out!
The tentacles wrapped around the two of them still connected Bronya and Seele by lingering threads. Seele looked at the Bronya before her, and in that instant understood what Bronya was about to do!
"Sis! Sis!"
She cried out for Bronya in terror, only to find Bronya looking at her with an expression of guilt.
"Seele, I'm sorry."
Without the slightest hesitation, Bronya cut the tentacles with her dagger—
The pull of the Eye of the Sea Abyss sucked Seele's body away. She stared with wide eyes, watching in despair as Bronya was gradually swallowed by the purple-black tide.
Having lost her support, Bronya's body began to plunge, and those purple-black tentacles dragged her into the abyss of despair.
The exit was above her head, growing farther and farther away.
Her vital signs were plummeting rapidly.
Her armor shattered, her core seized, the Honkai energy in her body nearly zeroed out.
Kiana stood there, watching it all.
Her hand was still held out in the same reaching posture.
A translucent hand that could grasp nothing.
"No..."
Her lips were trembling.
"Don't..."
It was like this again.
Again, that feeling of being able to do nothing, of being able only to watch helplessly as someone important to her vanished before her very eyes.
Exactly the same as it had been with Teacher Himeko.
Her right eye began to burn.
Save her, save Bronya!
Even if it meant giving up everything, even if it meant her own death, she didn't care!
"You've finally called upon me of your own will, Kiana—"
That golden pupil representing Sirin throbbed violently, as if something were about to break free from within it.
That familiar voice carried its usual arrogance—but when Sirin's consciousness, through Kiana's line of sight, saw clearly everything before her.
That consciousness froze in place, as if its neck had been seized.
"—Wait, what's going on here? Kiana, what on earth did you do?"
"—Lend me your power!"
"What are you talking about?"
"I said, give me your power!!"
The intense will made the Herrscher Core inside Kiana tremble violently, and Sirin discovered to her horror that her control over the Herrscher Core was rapidly vanishing.
Just like snow melting under a scorching sun.
At the same time, on the wrist of Kiana's left hand, a dark-gold pattern of light she had never seen before was slowly lighting up.
That was not the power of the Herrscher of the Void.
It was some kind of energy entirely unfamiliar to her, carrying a warm texture.
As if it had been transmitted to her from somewhere very, very far away, along some invisible thread.
She did not know what this power was called.
But her body reacted before her mind did.
If it was this power—
Then she could change everything happening before her eyes.
Kiana suddenly took a step forward.
In that moment, her translucent body erupted with dazzling light.
The gold of her right eye and the dark-gold of her left wrist collided, fused, and resonated within her.
The Herrscher of the Void's space-tearing ability and that gravity-distorting power of unknown origin perfectly stacked together in that instant.
She stretched out her right hand toward the falling Bronya.
"Bronya!"
The spatial barrier of the Sea of Quanta shattered before her like glass.
An Imaginary portal radiating dark-gold light tore open out of thin air, accompanied by an extremely powerful gravitational distortion that ground the tentacles devouring Bronya into pieces.
Within the golden light, a hand passed through the rift between dimensions and gripped Bronya's wrist tightly.
Bronya's consciousness, at the brink of death, was wrenched violently back by this power.
The falling Bronya felt it.
A warm power, carrying a familiar aura, pierced through the chaos of the quantum sea and held fast to her.
She was pulled out of the vortex.
Within the golden light, Bronya saw a figure.
Long white hair scattering across the void.
The left eye sky-blue, the right eye amber-gold.
That face she dreamed of even in her sleep—the one that both angered and worried her, the face belonging to that idiot.
Was it a dream?
Her brain must have been fried by Honkai energy—the life-flashing montage she saw before dying was actually this hopeless idiot?
Idiot Kiana.
Where... on earth are you?
The vortex's suction was forcibly reversed by that gravitational field.
Bronya's body stopped falling.
Accompanied by a sound like a mirror shattering, a white figure plummeted rapidly from the heavens, with countless Quantum Shadow lunging at her.
"Please, the other me! Help me save the one who has always... always been protecting us... our sister!"
"...You really are hopeless."
As crimson light burst forth, the Quantum Shadow besieging Seele were instantly blasted away by this terrifying power.
Dark Seele's figure appeared behind Seele, her hands crossed before Seele's chest.
The crimson light merged into Seele's body, and after Dark Seele withdrew her hands, the power that erupted from the Stigmata spread out like a spiderweb, instantly transforming into white chains that sealed the movements of the Quantum Shadow.
Within what seemed like frozen time.
"Go, Seele—together, let's save our sister."
Dark Seele's whisper echoed through the space as she instantly transformed into a giant crimson scythe, gripped tightly by Seele.
The power of the Stigmata sketched out butterfly-like wings behind Seele.
Seele opened her eyes, and within those vivid crimson pupils there was not a trace of confusion.
As she swung the red scythe in her hand—
The crimson light split the abyss in two in an instant, and with this single strike, all the Quantum Shadow blocking Seele were annihilated with unstoppable, overwhelming force.
The second strike that immediately followed pierced through the space, striking the purple-black tentacles coiled around the entire pillar of light.
The purple-black tentacles were dissolved by this power, reduced to ash in an instant.
As that figure descending from the heavens rapidly drew near, Kiana too had already reached her limit.
She poured all her strength into yanking Bronya's body upward—
A hand steadily took over from hers, firmly grasping Bronya's arm.
"Sister Bronya, this time, we'll never be separated again..."
The girl's murmur was very soft, yet it sounded with perfect clarity in Kiana's ears.
Kiana looked at the two figures floating ceaselessly upward, and extreme exhaustion sent her own body plunging downward.
Time seemed to be infinitely stretched out in that moment.
"Bronya..."
The corner of the girl's mouth lifted.
"This time, did I protect you properly?"
Above, Bronya's consciousness briefly recovered for an instant amid the violent shock.
In that instant, as if sensing something, she looked downward.
Amid the collapsing fragments of the quantum sea and the dark-gold light, a translucent figure with white hair and heterochromatic eyes hovered in the void.
That figure's right hand was still held in the posture of having just released energy, the arm covered in tiny cracks.
That face.
Those eyes.
That stubborn ahoge that would never fall down no matter the circumstances.
She was looking at her.
The corner of her mouth curved upward.
She was smiling.
That smile was like seeing an old friend long parted from.
Bronya's lips began to tremble.
Her voice pierced through the collapsing space, through the information noise of the quantum sea, through that barrier between two worlds that should never have been broken.
"Kiana... is that you?"
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