Holding her test papers, Kiana spoke with confidence.
Compared to her previous scores in liberal arts, which were in the single digits, she had now managed to score a total of 60 points across all her liberal arts subjects. This was a significant improvement.
Himeko was momentarily speechless.
Indeed, it was progress—tenfold progress, in fact.
But what good was such meager progress?
"Sigh, prepare for a retake. With grades like these, sigh."
Seeing Kiana like this, Himeko had no choice but to tell her to prepare for a retake.
Carrying her liberal arts test papers, Kiana carelessly returned to her dorm.
"Hehe, Mei, I need your help with tutoring again."
"...Idiot Kiana, how are you going to get revenge with grades like these?"
Looking at the scores on the test papers, Bronya stared at Kiana with her usual emotionless expression.
Just a few months ago, Kiana had been so determined, and now she was presenting these scores.
Truly, an idiot will always be an idiot.
"Kiana, come to my room tonight. I'll give you a proper tutoring session."
"Eh? Tonight? Bronya, you're not planning something shady, are you? I advise you to give up on that idea. My heart belongs only to Mei."
Crossing her arms, Kiana spoke with a shy expression.
Bronya nearly spat out her water.
"Idiot Kiana, Bronya would never like you. After all, high-intelligence life forms find it hard to love low-intelligence apes—no, single-celled organisms."
"Uh, so you're saying I'm too dumb, right?"
Hearing all these high-sounding words, Kiana didn't understand much, so she could only summarize what she did understand.
And her conclusion was that Bronya was calling her an idiot.
"You actually understood what Bronya was saying. It seems Idiot Kiana's intelligence hasn't reached the level of a single-celled organism yet."
Hearing that Kiana understood she was being insulted, Bronya was slightly surprised.
But her calm tone only made Kiana's blood pressure rise.
"Stupid midget, you want to fight? Come on, I'll teach you a lesson!"
"According to my calculations, Idiot Kiana can't beat Bronya, so Bronya won't bother with you."
"You!"
...
"Bronya, are you still awake?"
"Idiot Kiana, the door's open. Just come in."
Seeing Kiana sneaking around at her door, Bronya sighed and called out to her.
Seeing that Bronya was awake, Kiana tiptoed in and closed the door behind her.
"Alright, no more nonsense. This is a virtual immersion device. It lets you experience history firsthand, which will help you remember it better. I'll be your guide, and you just need to follow me."
"Ohhh, so it's like playing a game. Why don't we use this virtual immersion device for games? I think it'd be super fun!"
"Idiot Kiana, stop thinking about playing all the time!"
Although she said that, Bronya secretly noted the idea.
Why hadn't she thought of using this device for games before?
Was Bronya's intelligence really lower than Idiot Kiana's?
No, Bronya refused to believe that.
Shaking her head to dispel the immature thought, Bronya fitted Kiana with the virtual immersion device.
Then, the two prepared to enter the fabricated history created by the database.
"Otto, this is what you call the script being on track? It's completely derailed!"
Seeing that Mei hadn't been captured and that Bronya had burned her biochip early, Chang Yuan almost cursed Otto's ancestors.
But then he remembered that Otto had no qualms about betraying even his own father, so such curses would have no effect on him.
"Relax, Teacher. I'm working hard to fix it. With this virtual immersion, we can just show her the history of the Second Honkai War, right?"
Otto shrugged, indicating that it wasn't a big deal.
After all, the most important part of the plot was to make Kiana grow—or rather, to make the three main heroines grow.
As long as they grew, the rest didn't matter as much.
"You... fine, whatever. I'm not as smart as you guys. Do whatever you want."
Rubbing his temples, Chang Yuan gave up.
He wasn't good at thinking; he excelled in straightforward, physical combat.
Meanwhile...
"Strange, why hasn't Bronya entered the immersion state yet?"
Opening her eyes, Bronya found herself still in the real world and felt confused.
But seeing Kiana asleep beside her, she was sure Kiana had succeeded.
This meant the issue wasn't with the device.
"Fine, Project Bunny, bring out the tools. I need to see what's wrong. As for Kiana, let her familiarize herself with history on her own."
As Project Bunny brought out various repair tools, Bronya began to fix—or rather, disassemble—the device.
Meanwhile, Kiana found herself in a snowy plain.
"Wow, a snowfield! But where's Bronya? She was supposed to be my guide."
Looking around, Kiana saw no one except for a distant tower.
Not even Bronya, who was supposed to guide her.
"Ugh, did that midget stand me up? Whatever, I'll check out that tower first."
Mentally noting her grudge against Bronya, Kiana headed toward the distant tower.
After walking for over half an hour...
"Why is it still so far? Did I get lost? Damn midget, I'll remember this!"
Seeing that the Tower of Babylon was still far away, Kiana added another mark to her mental tally of grievances against Bronya.
Just then, she felt something vibrating in her pocket and pulled it out.
"Huh, a communicator? Does this thing work in the virtual space?"
Without hesitation, Kiana answered the call.
"Mission failed. Defeated in battle against the target. All remaining Valkyries, head to the Tower of Babylon immediately. We must stop the Second Herrscher."
"Eh? That's Aunt Theresa's voice. What's going on?"
Scratching her head, Kiana followed the instructions and hurried toward the Tower of Babylon.
If they were heading there, there must be others there too. She could ask them what was going on.
After walking for a while, Kiana finally saw the first living person besides herself.