Faced with Susannah's blunt question, Shu paused for a moment before giving an ambiguous answer.
"Just here to investigate something... took on a commission, I guess."
"You don't have any teammates?" Susannah glanced to his left and right, then suddenly remembered that Shu had been with her the whole time. "Oh, right, you got on the train with me... hehehe..."
This kid didn't seem too bright.
"A solo reconnaissance mission... Hmm, I can't think of one," Susannah said, scratching her head awkwardly. Then she started wracking her brain again, trying to figure out what kind of mission would be suitable for one person.
Watching her, Shu instantly guessed that this girl had probably memorized every single commission on Spark.
At this point, Shu didn't know whether to call her unintelligent or just not applying her intelligence in the right places.
After all, being able to do something like that was beyond mere effort.
Shu felt a pang of frustration, but his expression quickly smoothed over.
Susannah definitely had talent. It was just that some postnatal influences might have made her a bit unconfident or caused issues with her interests.
This kind of situation was actually quite common. Bronya and Mei had similar issues.
Not everyone could grow up as carefree and healthy as the Kiana of this world. Shu remembered that the Kiana from the original story had developed some psychological paranoia due to the lack of parental guidance from a young age.
This kind of psychology could easily lead one to extremes. For example, Mei's "only one person matters," or Kiana's "shouldering everything alone," or even Otto's "Kallen-centric" worldview.
These were all tangible manifestations of psychological paranoia, to put it nicely.
To be more precise, these were mental illnesses, pathological conditions forced upon them by their environment.
Fortunately, the ones he had met hadn't suffered such a fate. Shu couldn't help but feel thankful that he had arrived at the right time, before the despair and pain of the Honkai had tainted their eyes...
Shu's heart suddenly trembled.
That's right... I came at the right time...
Really timely...
...
Did I... really come at the right time?
A question was quietly planted in Shu's heart. It hadn't sprouted yet, just a small, uncomfortable lump under the soil of his mind.
"A solo investigation commission in Sapphire City... Don't tell me it's the one for the Pearl of Sapphire?!" After a moment of intense thought, a lightbulb went off in Susannah's head, and she finally found the matching answer.
"Yeah," Shu said, a little surprised, but he understood. If Susannah had really memorized all the commissions, then filtering out the right one was just a matter of time.
But she had filtered it out remarkably quickly.
"Oh my god! That's the highest difficulty commission!" Susannah exclaimed. Fortunately, the train car was noisy enough that her outburst didn't attract the attention of the entire car again.
But seeing Susannah's undisguised surprise, Shu knew it was only a matter of time before she experienced social suicide again.
This girl was highly focused, which made her less aware of her surroundings. If she had a sufficiently attentive teammate, Susannah's strengths could really shine, and she would be much safer.
A teammate like that... Rita came to mind, but Rita seemed to have already teamed up with Durandal. Susannah... she couldn't really compare to Durandal in any aspect.
It wasn't impossible to put Susannah in Durandal's team. Susannah and Durandal had a lot in common, and Rita would have an easy time managing them...
Speaking of which, he wasn't really that close to Durandal.
Shu fell silent again, then let out a helpless, bitter smile and rested his forehead in his hand.
Why was he thinking about these things again?
Kiana's words unconsciously came to mind. Shu's hand paused, and he gradually closed his eyes.
Psychological paranoia... So now Kiana thinks I have this problem?
...Should I... really try to relax a little?
He was at the base now. Shu could feel his [Hope] being constantly replenished.
While it didn't help his maximum combat power, his endurance was constantly increasing. Even with his reconnaissance abilities active, his total [Hope] was still gradually growing.
He hadn't left ARC City unprepared this time. He had left the Scepter on the thirteenth underground level, with the cold fusion core reactor and the quantum cluster computer's central hub.
And this time, having learned his lesson, Shu had given up on the temporary storage nature of the separated Scepter and maintained a real-time, synchronized link with it.
In reality, the world Shu saw now was quite counter-intuitive.
With his eyes open, what he saw was normal, except for a black border that constantly drew his attention.
But with his eyes closed, or whenever his surroundings grew a little dark, he could see the small, cramped room on the thirteenth underground level of the base.
There was still only the red dot of the signal source blinking, and the cold, glowing cubic core at the end of the small room.
Besides that, a jumble of various sounds constantly flooded his mind, and all sorts of ordinary information flashed through his brain.
Even when Shu slept, that information continued to stream through his mind. He would analyze any unusual clues while in a light sleep.
For some unknown reason, Shu's skin was indeed getting fairer and softer, a point that had been confirmed by Kiana.
But what Kiana had also confirmed, but hadn't told Shu, was that the bags under his eyes were getting heavier, and the color of his lips had been rapidly paling since leaving the orphanage.
That was why Kiana had finally snapped yesterday morning and told Shu to rest.
Shu himself didn't see any problem... No, he rarely even looked in the mirror anymore. Every morning, he would just wash his face with hot water and start his day. If there was something to do, he'd do it. If not, he'd review and summarize his past actions.
Hindsight is 20/20. By repeatedly reviewing his past actions, Shu could indeed find many new uses for his abilities.
But...
The moment his head rested against the car window, Shu's mind fell silent for an instant.
And in that instant, the long-suppressed fatigue washed over him, causing a momentary lapse in his logical thinking.
A thought occurred to him.
Maybe... I really should rest for a bit?
So, he asked Susannah in return.
"What about you? Why are you on this train?"