"Nothing... Has Seele been in a space like this all along?" Bronya murmured as she looked at the vast emptiness of the Sea of Quanta.
Ryn had been gone for a while. Bronya knelt on the ground, letting the unconscious Kiana rest on her lap. Cortana was absorbing a large amount of power from the Sea of Quanta to upgrade herself, and Kallen, newly reborn, was like an infant, familiarizing herself with her new body.
After some time, Ryn appeared out of thin air, holding Seele's hand.
"Seele!" Bronya cried out in excitement upon seeing Seele, rushing over to hug her.
"Sister Bronya... Seele missed you so much..."
Tears streamed down Seele's cheeks as she hugged Bronya tightly, as if afraid the Sister Bronya in her arms wasn't real.
"You two take your time and chat. I'll go check on the others."
Ryn patted Seele and Bronya's heads, letting them catch up while he went to check on Kiana's condition.
Kiana hadn't woken up yet. Ryn didn't know what had happened to her, so he could only silently help her heal the wounds left by the Honkai energy corrosion.
At that moment, Kallen, noticing Ryn's return, slowly walked over and bowed to him.
"Thank you, Ryn. You gave your life for me. I will remember your kindness for the rest of my life."
"No, it's nothing. I was once weak and witnessed many tragedies. Back then, I was powerless and could only watch them unfold before my eyes. But now I have power and authority. If I still let tragedy happen in front of me, I would be failing my own heart, and I would be failing this power and authority."
Ryn gently stroked Kiana's face. Although he hadn't been in this world for long, he had already witnessed many tragedies. Honkai was never just a game...
In Siberia, he and Kiana had encountered villages slaughtered by Honkai Beasts and had seen the mass graves left behind by the Second Honkai War...
Those things had already happened, and the weak Ryn of the past could do nothing about them.
"If we hadn't saved you... you might have continued to suffer through the endless cycles there, or disappeared when the data world collapsed, or maybe even been formatted and deleted by Otto... Since fate allowed us to meet you, how could we possibly stand by and watch you continue to suffer?
Live a good life, Kallen. The three words 'I love you' are always best said in person..." Ryn said.
"Thank you so much, Ryn." Kallen bowed to Ryn again, then said to him with a touch of sadness.
"But... Otto was right. I am ultimately just a virtual persona with Kallen's memories. I am not the real Kallen Kaslana. Yae Sakura, she..."
"Shh." Ryn interrupted Kallen. He looked at her seriously and said, "I don't know Yae Sakura, nor am I very clear on your tales of love and hate. Let me just ask you, do you love Yae Sakura?"
"I do. But I... I can't be sure if this is because of the memories, or if I truly like Yae Sakura..."
Kallen found it hard to describe this feeling. Five hundred years of longing had kept her love for Yae Sakura constant. But after her very existence was denied by the real Otto, Kallen no longer knew how to face her feelings for Yae Sakura.
She was not Kallen Kaslana, yet she was Kallen Kaslana, but she was not the Kallen Kaslana that Yae Sakura loved.
"Then go find Yae Sakura. Wait until you truly meet her, and then, at that moment, confirm what is in your heart!"
"Mm..."
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While Ryn and Kallen were talking, Bronya and Seele were also catching up, talking about what had happened during their time apart.
"What does Seele think of Ryn?" Bronya asked curiously.
Seele thought about how she had laid on top of Ryn, and how her body had been reconstructed using Ryn as an anchor... Her face turned beet red, and she whispered to Bronya:
"I'm sorry, Sister Bronya, Seele is already in Ryn's shape~"
With a crack, Bronya was petrified on the spot, then crumbled into dust...
"Sister Bronya!" Seele panicked and rushed to support Bronya, whose eyes had lost their light.
Before Seele could ask what was wrong, Bronya leaped out of her arms and charged towards Ryn.
"Damn you, Ryn! Bronya is going to beat you to death, you beast! Seele is just a child, how could you rape her!"
"What are you talking about?! I haven't even done it with Kiana, how could I possibly do anything to Seele!"
Ryn held Bronya's head down. Bronya flailed her arms wildly, using her shrew's random flailing technique, but couldn't land a single hit on Ryn.
After all, Bronya was tiny, and because the device she used had immersed everyone's consciousness in virtual reality, Project Bunny 19C hadn't been brought along. Bronya's martial arts and assassination techniques were useless against Ryn, leaving Bronya in a state of powerless rage.
Oh, right. Bronya's emotion module was damaged. She could only feel that Ryn was a beast and had done something wrong, but she didn't feel a trace of anger or sadness about Seele and Ryn's actions.
"Poor Bronya. I think you should be very angry right now, but your expressionless face is leaving me a bit at a loss. If only your emotion module were still intact."
Ryn pulled Bronya into his arms to stop her from causing more trouble. If she continued, she might disturb Kiana's rest.
Soon after, Seele arrived and explained the situation to Ryn.
When Ryn found out, he died laughing. Bronya also realized she had misunderstood Seele's meaning and made a fool of herself.
"That damned Cortana! It's all her fault for making Bronya surf the internet so intensely every day, causing Bronya to misinterpret Seele's words!" Bronya, held aloft by Ryn, immediately shifted the blame to Cortana.
"Hey, hey, hey! I was just watching the drama, how did the blame get pinned on me!" Cortana was still secretly siphoning energy from the Sea of Quanta to upgrade herself and couldn't get away, otherwise she would have definitely given Bronya's little head a good knock.
Sister Bronya gets along so well with everyone. Seeing Bronya joking around with everyone, Seele was very happy, because Bronya had made many new friends and started a new life.
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(Fewer and fewer people are reading this book. According to the backend data, this book is probably dead.
But since no one is reading it anymore, the author is going to start letting loose.
If any of you can still see this, I hope you can give this book a five-star review. I'll kowtow to you all first.)