"Foreigner?"
Da Vinci tilted her head. This Class hadn't been recorded before a certain young girl appeared, but the name alone suggested it was no simple matter. "Foreigner" implied foreigner, outsider, or newcomer. Since Heroic Spirits weren't categorized by nationality, if this term was indeed a Class, it could only mean one thing: an outsider, someone who came from beyond the stars.
"So there's a Class like that?" Da Vinci scrutinized Jiang You, as if trying to discern some hidden peculiarity in him. "So you're an alien? ... I really can't tell."
"In a way, yes."
In the game, this was indeed a high-tier Class, and none of its associated Servants were easy to deal with. Jiang You figured that as a player with premium privileges, he might as well seize the opportunity while Da Vinci remained unfamiliar with this Class and switch to it immediately.
"But to be precise, I'm not a native of your universe. I'm a human from another parallel world."
"We've seen plenty of Servants from parallel worlds, but none of them have ever possessed the Foreigner Class. It seems you're still not telling the whole truth."
Da Vinci was naturally curious about Jiang You's true identity, but as a responsible adult, she understood that probing into matters someone preferred to keep hidden would only lead to negative consequences. For the time being, she suppressed her curiosity.
"In any case, adding a new entry to the Heroic Spirit System is a good thing. Let's see what's special about the Foreigner Class."
With Da Vinci's assistance, Jiang You successfully changed his Class to Foreigner. After taking a moment to sense his body, he found that nothing had changed.
There was one minor change: the previously granted C-Rank Divinity had now become an unknown "?".
"Is that all?"
Jiang You was deeply disappointed. Other Servants underwent drastic changes in their Spirit Origin, Noble Phantasms, and Skillset when altering their Class, so why was his own transformation limited to a mere icon change? Such a perfunctory approach would have triggered a storm of player outrage in a game.
"So this is the Foreigner Class... I can't see anything particularly special about it." The terminal in Da Vinci's hand also confirmed that Jiang You's Spirit Origin had changed, but only the Spirit Origin itself had been altered; its scale and appearance remained unchanged.
"Theoretically, when a Servant changes Class, their Spirit Origin should adapt to the framework of the new Class, reshaping itself accordingly. But in this case, it's not so much you adapting to the Class as the Class adapting to you. However... due to the limited reference data, I can't provide a detailed analysis. Let's revisit this when we encounter similar Servants in the future."
"...Alright then, let's try another Class."
Now that Jiang You possessed his own Flying Dragon, he had gained Rider adaptability in addition to his existing Caster, Assassin, and Berserker affinities. None of these Classes seemed to alter his Noble Phantasms in any meaningful way; they merely added some minor, almost negligible perks. For example, in Assassin mode, he gained Presence Concealment E, a skill so weak it was practically useless.
Jiang You suspected the System wasn't fully functional, or at least hadn't been fully opened to players. In the end, he had settled on Foreigner, a Class that at least looked impressive.
"Oh, Ritsuka is about to start the Heroic Spirit Summoning. I'll head back to the Control Room. If you're interested, you can watch the summoning ceremony live. If not, Chaldea doesn't restrict your movements—just don't tamper with the machinery."
It wasn't so much that Jiang You trusted them—his shenanigans at the Seventh Singularity were still fresh in everyone's memory—but with Chaldea's current combat capabilities, no one could stop him if he wanted to force his way in. It was better to be generous.
"So you guys really just sent Ritsuka Fujimaru and Mash into the previous Singularities on their own?"
Jiang You found Chaldea's boldness astonishing. They were relying entirely on Gudako's personal charm to rally the local Servants to fight. If not for her Succubus traits, the Human Order would have imploded countless times by now.
"Chaldea was providing support too, you know!" Da Vinci retorted, but the truth was, Jiang You was right. "Our resources are severely depleted. After the burning of the Human Order, our supply lines were cut off. Our support has been critically limited, and we've only been able to conduct permanent summoning now because of these circumstances. Given our current energy situation, we can only summon two or three Servants at most. Conservatively, we should only expect two slots. If the Heroic Spirits we summon require a large Magic Supply, we might only be able to sustain a single Servant."
Jiang You finally understood why Chaldea's initial support had been limited to terrain scanning and hostile intent detection.
"So, this is Ritsuka Fujimaru's first time, huh? We should definitely go watch."
As Chaldea's first summoned Heroic Spirit, this was a momentous occasion that Jiang You couldn't miss.
"Could you not make it sound so ambiguous?" Da Vinci glanced at her communicator. "I've got to go—Romani's already nagging me. You've seen where the summoning circle is; you can still make it. I'll see you later."
When Da Vinci returned to the Control Room, Romani's screen wasn't displaying the summoning circle's location, but rather Jiang You's silhouette and his Spirit Origin data.
"Is there a problem?" Da Vinci asked.
She had already conducted a physical examination of Jiang You and found nothing unusual. Still, Romani's curiosity was understandable—Jiang You, as a servant, was shrouded in mysteries.
"His physical composition is... strange. Rather than magical power, it's more like code. This magical power has been digitized to an extreme degree."
It was Romani's first time encountering such a bizarre Heroic Spirit structure.
"Now that you mention it, you're right," Da Vinci agreed, shifting the parameters displayed on her screen. The data here was far more comprehensive than what she had on her handheld device.
"But it's not impossible. If he's a future Servant, advanced informatization could be possible. Just as Servants can materialize into physical bodies, be given flesh and blood, it's conceivable they could also be digitized."
"That makes sense."
Romani wasn't entirely confident in his understanding of Heroic Spirits, especially with the sudden appearance of the Foreigner Class. "There's also the matter of his Divinity. Look here."
On the screen, within the humanoid outline of Jiang You, the glowing orb representing his Divinity was only about the size of a fist, emitting a soft white light. Compared to other Servants, it was indeed only C-Rank in scale.
"What's the problem with that?" Da Vinci didn't see anything unusual.
"We can't directly visualize Divinity, so this display is a rendered representation. If we look at it this way, everything seems normal. But let's invert the rendering colors."
Romani modified the program's data, and the screen went dark.
"Did it break?" Da Vinci was about to call the Information Department when Romani stopped her.
"Look closer."
Romani pointed at the screen, his expression grave.
Da Vinci then realized that the issue wasn't with the screen itself, but rather that the blackness representing Divinity had completely covered it, deep and fathomless as the Abyss.
"It might sound inappropriate to say, but... he possesses a nobility that surpasses even the Great Gods."