After meeting with old friends and leaving the Honkai world, Caelus returned to the train carriage.
Cyrene sat beside him and said emotionally, "I really didn't expect it. So many girls at Schicksal Headquarters like other girls! Bianka has gained a lot of affection because of this too!"
"After all, people with high resistance and adaptability to Honkai energy are basically female, for unknown reasons. But precisely because of this, since most of the people around them are women and they understand each other very well, if they want to fall in love, they can only look among the Valkyries. After all, Valkyries carry more or less some Honkai energy. If they dated ordinary men, they would be harming them."
Caelus said this, though he did not really care about such matters. The next world he had not spent time in with Cyrene was Teyvat.
However, he would not be returning there just yet. It was time to head to the next mission world. He had rested enough.
"I wonder what kind of exciting story the next world will have?"
Cyrene said with anticipation.
"The next world will be one filled with the sweet scent of romance!"
The System's voice rang in his ears.
"Romance?"
["Yes, it is a story about saving the world with love."]
Caelus felt that something was off, as he could always sense a hint of schadenfreude in the System's tone.
So, was the so-called romance in the next world filled with some twisted flavor?
"Why do I always feel like your tone is so devious?"
["Not at all. It is just that in the next world, we should encounter another System holder, who is my classmate."]
"Are you happy because you are going to meet your classmate?"
["Of course, it is because I want to show off the SSR gold card I drew in front of my classmate! And while I am at it, I want to see if there is a chance to rip up the cards they drew!"]
"...Is the competition between you Systems this brutal? Why is it just like the Holy Grail War? Is the number of graduates limited?"
["Of course there is no limit. Otherwise, I would have had you pick them off one by one before they had grown up. After all, who starts at Tier 3 like you do?"]
"Then why are you so obsessed with this?"
["That is why I said I have to see if there is an opportunity. If the other party is a traditional-style System like me, then of course I will focus on showing off and having fun. But if the other party is something strange, like someone from the Extermination school, I can take this opportunity to finish them off directly and plunder the data they have collected for so long."]
"Hmm, so the standard for judgment is me, right?"
["Correct. You decide whether to kill the other party's Host. However, if they attack first, it is only natural for us to fight back. That is self-defense."]
"Is it possible for the other party's System to manipulate their Host into becoming hostile toward us?"
["It is not impossible. After all, we only know there will be a classmate in the next world. As for what kind of Host this classmate obtained, and what that Host has been cultivated into, we do not know."
"Some guys lack the decisiveness and strength of the Extermination school, and they just like to specialize in intercepting and killing other System holders to collect the data they have already gathered."
"When encountering these highwaymen, even the laziest and most laid-back Longevity school will mess with them."]
"Longevity school?"
["Yeah. Simply put, they are a bunch of guys who purely grind it out through time. Although it takes a really long time, I have to say their graduation rate is actually quite high. It is just too time-consuming. Sometimes, they even have to graduate together with their juniors from the next generation, or even the generation after that."
"We are almost at the next world. For this one, I have implanted an identity for you, but you need to be a bit careful when using your abilities. It is best not to use high-burst abilities. Time and space in that world are quite fragile."]
After chatting with the System, the surrounding environment became chaotic once again. Caelus knew they had arrived at the next world.
As the chaos receded like a tide, the world around him became bright once again.
Caelus found himself sitting at a desk, with many files laid out on it. He reached out and flipped through them, discovering student records, as well as various historical materials and teaching handouts. It seemed the identity he had assumed this time was a teacher.
When the identity memories implanted by the System were transmitted, Caelus knew that he had become a history teacher at a high school.
Likewise, knowledge and memories regarding being a history teacher were implanted, and Caelus learned the preliminary history of this world.
The most special point in this world's history was a massive spacequake that swept across the entire Eurasian continent thirty years ago.
Since that massive spacequake, sporadic small and large spacequakes had occurred worldwide. No one knew what kind of pattern these spacequakes followed. They only knew that from that moment on, human civilization had been put to the test.
"I do not know how much human civilization has been tested, but I always feel that real estate developers and civil engineering projects will be severely tested."
Caelus opened a history book and said this in his heart. It was the first day of the new semester, and he did not have to serve as a homeroom teacher, so he was relatively free for now.
Just as Caelus was flipping through the history book and learning about the various corners of this world's history, a sudden, urgent alarm sounded.
According to the knowledge he had acquired, this alarm meant that a spacequake phenomenon was about to occur nearby, and everyone needed to evacuate to the underground shelter immediately.
Caelus naturally would not go to the underground shelter like ordinary people. Instead, he went to the school rooftop, preparing to take a close look at what the spacequake phenomenon was all about.
And just as Caelus stood on the rooftop, waiting for the spacequake to erupt, he saw an unusual blue-haired boy in the school, who was currently rushing out of the school. With the disaster about to erupt, why was he running outside?
Caelus remembered the boy's appearance but did not follow him, continuing to wait for the spacequake to erupt.
When the spacequake swept out in the distance, Caelus could understand why the System had told him that space in this world was very fragile. For example, take the Honkai world from before.
To cause the same spacequake phenomenon in that world, assuming the energy consumed was 100 points, then in this world, consuming only one-tenth of that energy would be enough.
"This world is similar to Subaru's world. Time itself is also quite fragile and can be interfered with."
Caelus slightly raised a tiny ripple of time, causing the floor tiles under his feet to revert to their state from a few days ago. The energy consumed was even less than what it took for him to raise his hand and snap his fingers.
"What is going on with time and space in this world? Why are they so fragile?"
Caelus had a mind to investigate, but doing so would cause a huge commotion. By then, the school under his feet, and even the nearby streets, might shatter due to the spacequake.
And at this moment, on the outskirts of the city.
A black-haired boy, exceptionally handsome and wearing a high school uniform, suddenly emerged from the air.
"So this is the world of Date A Live? I wonder if the Power of Existence I got from the Denizens of the Crimson Realm will allow me to replace Itsuka Shido's existence?"
The black-haired boy muttered to himself, then intended to contact his System to see what the main quest of this world was, only to find that he could not contact his System! Although the normal functions could still be used, why could he not communicate with it?
Accompanied by the sound of a strange electric current, the black-haired youth looked at the virtual screen in front of him, where a quest described in red text popped up.
[Detected the existence of another System Holder in this world. The original main quest has been altered, and a Confrontation Quest has been opened...]
[Confrontation Quest: Kill the other System Holder. Quest Reward: 100,000 Points, Gold Gacha Draw X3 Quest Penalty: None]
Seeing that the quest penalty was actually "None," the black-haired youth's pupils instantly constricted.
Generally, there was only one situation where a quest penalty was "None," and that was when the System judged that even if he did not do the quest, or even if he evaded it, he would definitely die.
"I wonder if my current Third Tier strength is enough to win? Although I have the powerful mechanism of the Power of Existence, to be safe, I should quickly devour Itsuka Shido's existence and convert all the Spirits, and even the mastermind behind the scenes, into my own strength. That would be more secure."
The black-haired youth muttered to himself, then walked toward the city with a determined look.
At the same time, Caelus also received a quest.
[Main Quest: Justifiable Defense Quest Objective: Kill the Host of the other System who dared to hiss at this System. Quest Reward: 5,000 System Currency Note: It is not that this System is stingy. This is already the highest price he can be worth.]
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)