How to show Yae Sakura appearing to take a fatal blow for Kallen was a problem that made Ryn think for a long time. In the end, he decided to replace the "Perilous Attack" kanji, which appears just before the protagonist suffers a fatal blow, with Yae Sakura jumping out. This way, if the player fails to dodge or interrupt in time, the monster's execution attack on Kallen would be blocked by Yae Sakura. She would then die a tragic death, the game would end, and the player would have to reload from a save.
Ryn gave himself a thumbs-up for his idea. He just didn't know that in the future, when people saw Yae Sakura, their first reaction wouldn't be that she has donkey ears—no, that she has fox ears—but to wonder how they should dodge or interrupt.
On the third day after his talk with Otto, seven or eight people from Schicksal came to help Ryn and Kiana move to their new home. But of the seven or eight who came, only two carried luggage; the rest left empty-handed. It wasn't that Ryn didn't want them to take things, but everything belonged to the landlord, and Ryn felt too embarrassed to take it with him.
The house Otto bought for Ryn wasn't far from Senba Academy. It was only a ten-minute walk from home to the school.
"It seems poverty has limited my imagination. Otto is really generous."
"Although I find that uncle really annoying, this house is certainly nice."
Ryn and Kiana couldn't help but marvel as they stood in a large, fully furnished villa with brand-new furniture.
"This place is so big! There are four or five rooms on the second floor. Alright, Kiana, go pick a room you like, take your things there, and that'll be your bedroom."
"Mmm, I'll take this one, the one next to the stairs."
Kiana looked at all five rooms. One of them was empty, probably a storage room. Another was filled with electronic equipment Kiana didn't understand; that was the full 'Kallen Fantasy' set Otto had prepared for Ryn. The other three were bedrooms, all equipped with a bed, wardrobe, desk, and air conditioning. They also had a TV and a computer.
Ryn pointed to the room next to Kiana's bedroom, then pointed to the remaining one.
"Then I'll choose the one next to you. The last one can be a guest room. If we have guests who stay late, they can spend the night there."
"Okay." Kiana nodded and took her things upstairs to her room. Ryn followed with his own things, only to discover that his room was the master bedroom.
The master bedroom was much larger than the other two rooms. The bed inside was huge, big enough for three people to sleep in. It also came with a private bathroom, while the other two rooms had to use the bathroom downstairs.
"Alright! I've never lived in such a luxurious house in my life. After being a vagrant for so long, can't I enjoy myself a little! Cortana, let the music play and the dance begin!"
"Of course, Master."
Ryn tossed his luggage aside and lay down on the large bed, enjoying the softness of the high-end bedding. Sweet, light music began to play, and he couldn't help but think about the events of the past few days.
Cortana was now the AI butler of this villa. She was an intelligent artificial intelligence, created by Dr. Catherine Halsey of an unknown civilization, with the designation CTN 0452-9.
Her terminal was made of Soulium and could change its shape and size at will. In its normal state, it was only the size of a standard USB drive and could easily hack into other devices when Ryn plugged it in.
This thing was a personal gift from Otto, handed over to Ryn after he confirmed his entry into Schicksal and went through a series of procedures. It was extremely valuable.
Otto had told Ryn that Cortana wasn't developed by Schicksal but was excavated from an extraterrestrial ruin. Due to its unknown nature, they didn't dare use it within Schicksal. So, after thoroughly studying it, he gave it to Ryn as a personal favor, hoping he could use Cortana's help to complete the game's production sooner.
Otto, he's such a great guy, I could cry. He gave me a high-end AI just to speed up the game's progress. It would've been better if Otto hadn't been so honest and told him that Schicksal didn't dare to use it and had no use for it.
The past two days had been an eye-opening experience for Ryn. He never expected that on the very night he agreed to join Schicksal, Otto would take him to see the real Schicksal headquarters—a mobile fortress floating high in the sky.
Otto spent two days and one night showing Ryn the truth of the world and the power of Schicksal. This left Ryn feeling a bit overwhelmed, wondering why Otto was showing him all this.
Otto grabbed Ryn's right hand and looked at the Stigmata on it, his expression serious.
"Ryn, after our talk, I investigated you. I found that there were no traces of your existence in this world until a few months ago. This means you appeared out of thin air, that you are not from our world. The undisguised Stigmata on your hand also tells me that you know about the Honkai. You are not simple."
"Uh, I'm indeed not from this world. I fell into this world by accident, and when I woke up, I found this Stigmata on my hand." Ryn was a little flustered, but not completely. Because while Otto was introducing Schicksal, the consciousness within the Stigmata was also communicating with Ryn.
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[The Otto of this world is a bit different from the Otto of our world. Be careful. Even though the worlds are different, this guy is never up to any good.]
"If we fight, can you get me out of here?"
[What kind of talk is that? What's my status, and what's his? I borrowed some authority from my main body. If we really fight, we'll smash Otto's dog head.]
"You're one of a kind."
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"My world doesn't have any supernatural powers, nor does it have the Honkai. People's lives are no different from those in this world. It's also possible that my status was too low to know about supernatural matters. So don't expect to get any information about my world from me." Ryn shrugged. He had nothing important to lose anyway. A dead pig isn't afraid of boiling water, so he wasn't afraid of what Otto might do to him.
"That's a pity. I was hoping to ask if your world has the technology to resurrect people."
Otto shook his head. He wasn't interested in an ordinary world. A world without the ability to resurrect people held even less interest for him.
"No Honkai means you may have already overcome the Honkai. But a world that has overcome the Honkai cannot be observed by a world that has Honkai. Similarly, a world that has overcome the Honkai cannot observe a world that has not. So, you probably can't go back to your world. Join me. Only by successfully ending the Honkai will you have a chance to find your way home."
[Oh, the Otto of this world actually knows about this. Not bad. But it's a pity he doesn't know how strong a person who overcomes the Honkai on their own is. It's a shame the main body is a fool. She started the cycle again, trying to find a method with a smaller price. As a result of too many cycles, she has long forgotten her original ideals. How sad.]
Ryn didn't pay much attention to the Stigmata's words. She was always muttering cryptic things. When he asked her what was going on, she would just say, "You'll understand sooner or later." What the hell am I supposed to understand? Get out of the Honkai world, you riddle-speaker!
"Fine. This doesn't conflict with my own path." Ryn nodded and took Otto's outstretched hand.
"By the way, if you're trying to resurrect someone, it's impossible that way. Someone once told me this: the world allows consciousness to match with a new vessel, but it does not allow consciousness to collect a dissipated vessel, with the exception of Bubble Universes."
"Is that so... Thank you." Otto's eyes dimmed a little. The answer was disheartening, but he had no intention of giving up. He would find a new way.
"By the way, take this. Although it's not very important to Schicksal, it is quite valuable. I was originally going to lend it to you to supervise your work, but I've changed my mind now.
It's a gift, a reward for telling me that. I've already removed all the backdoors I left in it. I won't be on guard against a partner. But don't let Amber know. She'll cut my budget."