Chapter 193: White Valentine's Day
[Simulated Enemy: Ganesha.]
[Note: Ganesha's strength is classified at the Emperor-class Honkai Beast tier and is extremely dangerous. Proceed with simulation?]
A colossal Honkai Beast, towering nearly thirty meters high, materialized in the center of the virtual arena. Heavy, suffocating pressure radiated from its massive, armored form. Locking its glowing eyes onto Rovel, the beast unhinged its jaw, drawing in the surrounding air as terrifying, purple Honkai Energy began to pool in its maw.
Simultaneously, a massive torrent of tactical data flooded Rovel's mind. His brows furrowed slightly. Wasn't this data volume a bit excessive for a simple test run?
It was supposed to be a standard calibration sequence. Did it really require such a staggering amount of raw calculation?
Fortunately, with his enhanced cognitive processing power, this mental burden was nothing more than a light breeze.
"Morning Star, calibration complete. Locking on target. Fire."
The Morning Star firearm in Rovel's grip shifted, its mechanical parts sliding into a new configuration with a crisp metallic clack. He pulled the trigger. The discharged round tore through the air and struck Ganesha's head with pinpoint accuracy, blasting a bowl-sized crater straight through its thick, bone-white armor plating.
Ganesha recoiled, letting out a deafening roar of pain. The concentrated Honkai Energy beam gathering in its mouth sputtered and died.
Among Emperor-class Honkai Beasts, Ganesha's armor was renowned for its sheer durability. Piercing it with a single, uncharged shot was completely unexpected.
Recovering quickly, the massive beast lowered its head and attempted a brutal charge. Rovel didn't even flinch. He calmly pulled the trigger three more times. Each bullet traced the exact same trajectory, slamming precisely into the fractured crater left by the first shot.
[-35134!]
[Armor Break applied: Damage taken increased by 100%]
The sheer kinetic impact of the consecutive rounds forced Ganesha to stumble back several heavy steps, the virtual ground trembling beneath its weight.
But the thick-skinned behemoth simply shook its massive head, planting its feet firmly as it began accumulating another devastating Honkai Energy beam.
"Form Transformation: Electromagnetic Railgun. Three... two... one. Fire."
The weapon in Rovel's hands expanded, venting hot steam before spitting out a blinding, terrifying beam of pure light. The railgun blast collided mid-air with the purple Honkai Energy beam erupting from Ganesha's mouth.
There was no dramatic struggle for dominance. It was an absolute, one-sided steamroll.
The railgun's overwhelming force pushed the Honkai Energy beam straight back down Ganesha's throat.
A violent, devastating explosion engulfed the arena.
As the thick smoke slowly cleared, a string of glowing numbers drifted upward.
[Ganesha killed. Experience gained: 300,000 + 150,000. (Data simulation experience gain reduced by 80%) (Xuanyuan's Blessing: Experience gain +50%)]
[Level increased to 32. All four attributes +10, Free Attribute Points +20.]
Taking down a terrifying Emperor-class Honkai Beast with just four standard shots and a single railgun blast... wasn't this combat efficiency a bit too violent?
'That much experience?'Rovel's eyes lit up with sudden enthusiasm.'Does that mean I can just sit here and grind levels?'
Just as he reached out to the console to generate another Emperor-class punching bag, a bright red warning flashed across his vision. His permissions were restricted.
A second later, Theresa's communication feed snapped open, effectively dumping a bucket of ice water over his grand leveling plans.
"Rovel! Do you have any idea how much base energy it consumes to simulate an Emperor-class Honkai Beast?" Her voice echoed through the training room, laced with financial distress. "It is incredibly expensive!"
"From now on, you are absolutely not allowed to generate Emperor-class Honkai Beasts without my explicit permission!"
"Uh... yes, Principal." Rovel's lip twitched. He genuinely hadn't considered the facility's electric bill.
Still, the brief test had given him a preliminary understanding of the terrifying combat power housed within the Godslayer Armor: Hell Knight - Moon Ember.
The only minor flaw was that the damage output relied entirely on the equipment's internal systems. It didn't receive any scaling bonuses from his personal attributes.
In other words, even if Rovel's physical stats all exceeded the ten thousand mark, the armor's firepower would remain exactly the same.
This was a common, unavoidable drawback of all purely mechanical ranged weapons.
However, he could still stack the passive effects of his personal skills. The Armor Break debuff from earlier had triggered because his Basic Sniping skill had reached the Mastery rank.
Ultimately, the lack of stat scaling didn't really matter. Rovel intended to use this armor primarily for clearing out large swaths of low-level fodder. For that specific purpose, this level of damage was more than enough.
"Hell Knight, disengage."
Following his voice command, the heavy armor plating encasing his body dissolved into blue data particles, returning directly to the Hyperion's armory via quantum transmission.
It was an incredibly convenient feature.
"Rovel, this armor of yours..." Bronya, who had been watching from the observation deck, blinked her gray eyes slowly. "Is it a fourth-generation Schicksal knight armor?"
Generally speaking, standard B-rank Valkyries or Schicksal Knights were only equipped with third-generation combat suits.
"Yeah, Otto gave it to me." Rovel rolled his shoulders, stretching out his muscles. "Piloting it puts a massive burden on the brain. The computational load is absolutely staggering. Plus, it requires extremely high Honkai Energy resistance because it has a miniaturized Honkai Energy reactor built right into the chassis..."
He paused, recalling the flood of data. "Normally, even an elite A-rank warrior wouldn't be able to handle the strain. Even an S-rank... if their computational processing ability is lacking, they would likely find it very difficult to operate."
Rovel wasn't entirely sure what the exact criteria for an S-rank Valkyrie were, but considering the armor was taxing even for his enhanced MANTIS physiology, an S-rank would probably find the experience quite uncomfortable.
Bronya nodded slightly, fully understanding the implications behind Rovel's words.
Sending this specific suit of armor was purely Otto's way of spiting Rovel. If the operational threshold was so absurdly high that even an S-rank Valkyrie would struggle, then it certainly hadn't been custom-made for Rovel's benefit. It was a trap designed to be unusable.
Thinking about it from that perspective, Rovel really was an absolute monster to be able to pilot such a demanding piece of hardware so casually.
A rare hint of genuine shock flickered through Bronya's usually stoic eyes.
"Alright, the testing is done." Rovel smiled, walking over to her. "To thank you for your help today, Bronya, how about I treat you to a nice meal? Or maybe I could take you to Homu Paradise?"
"If you are willing to give Houtaro to Bronya, Bronya would be very happy," she replied, her face completely expressionless, though her eyes locked onto his.
"That is an important bargaining chip. Let's talk about that next time," Rovel deflected with a smooth grin.
After staring at him with dead, unblinking fish eyes for a long, uncomfortable moment, Bronya finally relented and chose the trip to Homu Paradise.
However, she seemed to have completely forgotten what day it was.
March 14th. White Valentine's Day.
Unlike the traditional Valentine's Day on February 14th, this specific holiday was meant for men to return gifts to those who had given them chocolates a month prior.
Although few people actively remembered it globally, in the Far East, it remained quite popular to celebrate in certain regions.
And Homu Paradise was certainly no exception to the festive atmosphere.
Walking through the vibrant amusement park, Bronya looked at the endless stream of affectionate couples walking hand-in-hand. There were traditional couples, as well as plenty of same-sex couples drawn in by the romantic promotions. Surrounded by this overwhelming display of public affection, Bronya deeply regretted her choice of venue.
Just as she was calculating the fastest escape route to take her leave, a loud announcement echoing from a nearby event stage caught her attention.
"Registration for our White Valentine's Day special event is about to close! Couples who wish to participate, please head to the central registration area immediately!"
The cheerful announcer paused for dramatic effect. "Our grand prize for the winning couple is... a pair of Limited Edition White Valentine's Day Homus!"
Bronya stopped dead in her tracks. She slowly turned her head to look at Rovel, seriously suspecting that this entire outing had been a carefully calculated scheme from the very beginning.
Rovel happened to be looking down at her at the exact same moment, his eyes wide with a perfectly crafted expression of pure, unadulterated innocence.
If he told her this was just a beautiful, happy accident... would Bronya actually believe him?
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