Chapter 20: But I Think It's Sacred
March 7th glared at him, her cheeks puffed out like an angry blowfish.
"Clearly, there is something fundamentally wrong with your aesthetic sense!"
"My aesthetic sense?" Rekka pointed a thumb at his own chest, feigning utter shock. "Where exactly is the problem? It doesn't look out of place at all, okay?"
"How is it not out of place?!" she shrieked, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "It is out of place literally everywhere!"
"But I think it's sacred." Rekka offered a casual, unapologetic shrug.
March 7th gasped, taking a horrified step back. "You're... you're not thinking of putting a swimsuit on Mr. Yang's Alahato, are you?"
"I wouldn't go quite that far," Rekka replied, waving a hand dismissively. "Alahato is Mr. Yang's personal treasure. Thunderbolt, however, is my masterpiece. When Thunderbolt takes to the battlefield, it is absolutely the most reliable partner you could ask for."
He spoke with such earnest sincerity that the defensive tension in March 7th's shoulders finally relaxed. Her expression softened.
"Well... that's more like it, I guess..."
"But then again," Rekka rubbed his chin thoughtfully, a mischievous glint returning to his eyes, "if we ever encounter a situation where we desperately need to distract the enemy, a tactical swimsuit paint job might actually come in incredibly handy."
"You still haven't given up on that idea!" she yelled, stomping her foot against the deck.
Chuckling, Rekka strolled over to the far side of the observation room. His fingers danced over the console, bringing several holographic projection buttons to life with a soft hum.
"Want to see the other functions of the Hyperion?"
"What else is there?" March 7th asked, eyeing the glowing panels with extreme wariness. "It's not swimsuit-related again, is it?"
"No, no. The Hyperion isn't some dress-up game like Love Nikki..."
He pivoted on his heel and headed toward a sealed, heavy metal door built into the bulkhead.
"Follow me. I'll take you somewhere actually fun."
"Somewhere fun?" March 7th trailed behind him, her suspicion practically radiating off her in waves. "That is exactly what you said right before you took us to see a giant robot wearing a bikini."
"This time is different." Rekka tapped a rapid string of commands into the security keypad beside the door. The heavy metal hissed, sliding open to reveal the dark interior. "This time it's genuinely fun, and... highly practical."
Beyond the threshold lay a massive, cavernous circular hall. The curving walls were constructed from countless interlocking hexagonal crystal panels, gleaming like a high-tech honeycomb. complex, geometric patterns were etched deeply into the metallic floor, pulsing faintly with an ethereal, pale blue luminescence. Yet, despite the grand architecture, the center of the hall was completely barren.
"Where are we now?" March 7th poked her head through the doorway before cautiously stepping inside. Her boots clicked against the etched floor. "It's completely empty. There isn't even a chair to sit on."
"This is the Holographic Simulation Training Room," Rekka announced, his voice echoing slightly in the vast space. "Or, if you prefer the technical term—the Stigma Space Simulator."
He strode confidently to the exact center of the hall and raised his hand, snapping his fingers with a sharp crack.
"Ai-chan, boot up the system and load Homu Land."
[Received! Homu Land is loading, please wait~] a cheerful, electronic voice chimed from the overhead speakers.
The moment the AI confirmed the command, the desolate hall underwent a world-shaking transformation. Millions of luminescent data particles surged outward from the hexagonal crystal panels, swirling like a digital snowstorm. The light rapidly wove together, constructing solid matter out of thin air. In mere seconds, the cold, sterile metal of the training room vanished entirely, replaced by a vibrant, obnoxiously colorful amusement park.
A towering, bright yellow Homu statue dominated the central plaza. Surrounding it were a spinning carousel, a twisting roller coaster track, and a massive Ferris wheel slowly turning against a painted sky. Bizarre, rabbit-like Homu mascots waddled around the pathways. Overly cheerful, looping carnival music blasted through the air, and, impossibly, the distinct, sugary scent of freshly popped popcorn and spun cotton candy drifted past their noses.
March 7th's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Wow! This is way too realistic!"
"Actually..." Rekka started, then shook his head. "Forget it, don't overthink the mechanics of what this is. Just understand that while this is a simulated space, it is physically realistic in absolutely every aspect." He turned to face the group, his playful demeanor dropping just a fraction. "Are you ready, everyone? The next guests to arrive might not be very friendly."
The sweet scent of cotton candy was abruptly cut by the sharp, metallic tang of fresh blood. The crimson scent thickened in the air as several twisted shadows began to peel themselves away from the dark corners of the amusement park.
Instinct taking over, March 7th tried to step back to create some distance between herself and the encroaching darkness. Instead, she let out a quiet yelp as her back collided with an invisible, solid wall of air with a heavy thud.
[Simulated Stigma Space Training System, Combat Mode activated. Current simulation targets: Zombies, Assault-class Honkai Beasts. Difficulty level: Normal. Environment fidelity: 100%.]
Ai-chan's voice chimed again, though the cheerful tone was now replaced by a sterile, mechanical clip.
The creeping shadows finally solidified under the bright carnival lights. They were grotesque, distorted humanoid creatures. They wore the tattered, bloodstained remnants of high school sailor uniforms, their exposed skin a deathly, necrotic grey. Each of them dragged a massive, wicked-looking scythe across the cobblestone. Their upper faces were entirely obscured by black blindfolds—or perhaps some dark, organic substance—leaving only the lower halves of their bloodless, slack-jawed faces visible.
Behind the shambling Zombies, several large, entirely white creatures slowly levitated into the air. These were the Honkai Beasts. Their sleek, aerodynamic bodies were flanked by giant wings that looked disturbingly like the armored limbs of a crustacean, the sharp tips shimmering with a volatile, pink-purple energy.
"Wh... what are these monsters?" March 7th stammered, her hand instinctively reaching for her bow.
"Honkai Beasts and Zombies," Rekka answered calmly.
Standing near the back, Himeko froze. Her elegant brows drew together in a tight frown. She stared intensely at the slowly approaching white floating creatures, then shifted her gaze to the scythe-wielding humanoid figures. A bizarre, deeply ingrained sense of familiarity washed over her, tugging at the edges of her memory, yet she couldn't quite grasp the specific source.
'Why do these things feel so extremely familiar?'
March 7th had already drawn her bow, the icy string pulled taut as she aimed a frost-tipped arrow directly at the nearest Zombie. "These things look incredibly creepy... Do they even move?"
As if answering her question, the Zombie at the very front suddenly snapped its head up. Two piercing points of crimson light flared from beneath its black blindfold.
Of course they do.
"Watch out!"
Dan Heng reacted the fastest. Cloud-Piercer shot forward in a blur of motion, the razor-sharp tip piercing straight through the Zombie's chest with a sickening crunch. However, the monster barely even staggered. Ignoring the fatal wound entirely, it swung its massive scythe in a brutal, sweeping arc aimed directly at March 7th's neck.
March 7th threw herself to the side, her agility saving her from decapitation. In the same fluid motion, she released her bowstring. A crystalline Ice Arrow struck the Zombie, instantly encasing its pale grey body in a block of solid, biting frost.
Without missing a beat, Dan Heng twisted his spear, shattering the frozen monster into a thousand glittering shards.
The distorted figure finally collapsed, its shattered remains rapidly dissipating into harmless points of digital light before they even hit the ground.
"Phew—that gave me a scare." March 7th patted her chest, blowing a stray strand of pink hair out of her face.
"Mr. Yang is actually an expert at dealing with these things," Rekka noted with a casual shrug, watching the data particles fade.
Unfortunately, the mature, mecha-loving Trailblazer was currently entirely too busy playing with his beloved Alahato back in the other room to join the simulation.
Overhead, the Assault-class Honkai Beasts didn't fare much better. Under the relentless, coordinated barrage of Dan Heng's precise spear thrusts and March 7th's freezing arrows, the floating white crustacean-like monsters were quickly reduced to dissipating light.
"Phew—" March 7th finally stowed her bow on her back and let out a long, exaggerated breath. "That really gave me a scare at first. I thought they were going to be super tough, but they were just pushovers... Eh? Wait a minute." She blinked, suddenly turning to glare at the chaotic protagonist. "By the way, why weren't any of the monsters attacking you?"
"In the system's judgment, I am registered as a friendly unit, or rather, an untargetable admin state," Rekka explained, looking incredibly smug about it. "If they were to attack me, that would be a massive system bug. Oh, and don't worry too much. The pain you feel from their attacks is just a neural simulation; it's not actual physical damage."
"Oh, no wonder." March 7th crossed her arms, realization dawning on her face. "I was wondering about that. When that big, weird mosquito-thing bumped into my shoulder just now, I clearly felt the sting, but there wasn't a single scratch on my jacket."
Dan Heng smoothly twirled Cloud-Piercer before dissolving the spear into thin air.
"The attack patterns of these specific monsters are very simple and predictable," the stoic guard commented, his sharp eyes scanning the now-empty plaza. "But if they were to appear in large, coordinated numbers, it could quickly become troublesome."
After all, Dan Heng, in his current normal state, wasn't particularly suited for crowd control against massive swarms of enemies.
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