"Ugh… so dizzy…" Li Xuan sat up from the floor, his left hand on his forehead. Li Xuan got a bit of motion sickness, and he now felt as if he had been in a car for three hours—dizzy and nauseous.
However, his Honkai energy-enhanced body quickly allowed him to readjust. At least the initial queasiness was slowly fading. Only then did Li Xuan slowly open his night-dark eyes and survey his surroundings.
The first thing he saw were walls of steel frames, covered in rust spots, likely from long-term neglect… The emergency cold-light lamps on the walls flickered incessantly, probably due to faulty wiring. The scene made Li Xuan feel as if he had walked onto a horror movie set.
"Holy crap!" The next thing that caught Li Xuan's eye was the corridor's outer wall, clearly made of tempered, pressure-resistant glass. Of course, there was nothing surprising about a glass wall. However, what astonished Li Xuan was the scene outside the transparent glass…
A large great white shark swam past the glass, its fist-sized eyes staring at Li Xuan as if he were an alien. But its bared teeth also made it look like it was sizing up its lunch… Of course, Mr. Shark had no idea that he could be turned into lunch by Li Xuan in a matter of minutes, a cruel fact…
…A mere great white shark was just a small fry in Li Xuan's eyes now; a single punch would take care of it. So Li Xuan looked past the shark to the deep-sea scenery behind it…
He had been on a beach when he was awake, and now he woke up at the bottom of the sea, inside a building at the bottom of the sea… Li Xuan thought, 'Okay, this is very Honkai…'
Suppressing his somewhat turbulent feelings, Li Xuan began to look for his companions. After all, 'unity is strength,' and besides, this place was a bit creepy, making Li Xuan feel a little nervous…
"Waaah! What is this place… cough…" Kiana's voice came from nearby.
"Kiana!" Li Xuan quickly walked in her direction.
"It's so dirty, so dirty! This place too. I'll have to take a bath again when I get back, what a hassle." Then he saw the white-haired furball, Kiana, patting her clothes and complaining.
"Don't you take a bath every time you go home anyway…" Mei said speechlessly from the side.
"Of-of course I do…" Kiana said affirmatively, though her tone lacked any conviction.
"Bronya bathes every day…" Bronya quickly interjected.
"…" What am I supposed to say to you all?! You guys are so carefree. This is not the time to be talking about bathing, is it?! Li Xuan's mind was being trampled by thousands of alpacas.
"Master!~" Just as Li Xuan was about to sternly interrupt the Honkai Yuri Trio's bathing discussion, a sweet call came, and a figure rushed into his arms. Li Xuan knew who it was without even opening his eyes… who else but Liv.
"Ugh… Liv, you…" Li Xuan said haltingly.
"Hmm? What's wrong, Master?" Liv lifted her small head, her watery eyes looking at Li Xuan.
"I can't breathe," Li Xuan said with difficulty.
As expected of a gun-girl, Liv possessed god-like strength…
"Hah, hah~" Freed from Liv's embrace, Li Xuan finally breathed a sigh of relief, avoiding the possibility of dying in his maid's arms.
"I…" Just as Li Xuan was about to speak, his expression suddenly changed.
"Liv! I suddenly need to use the restroom… wait for me here for a moment," Li Xuan instructed, and without waiting for Liv to react, he hastily ran off in a random direction.
"Eh?!" Before Maid Liv could react, her master had vanished. Is there a restroom in this place? Liv thought, skeptically looking at the dust- and cobweb-covered building.
"Hey!" Kiana's sudden shout drew Liv's attention.
"What is it?" Liv walked over to Mei's side.
"There's someone!" Mei said, somewhat surprised. Honestly, she also found it strange. This place looked like it had been in disrepair for years, so why would there be anyone here?! And… this was at the bottom of the sea. Was it a mermaid?!
"It looked like a little girl… not very old," Kiana said, her index finger touching her cherry-like lips as she recalled.
"She ran away…" Mei said, watching the figure disappear into the darkness.
"Kiana must have been too dirty and scared her away…" Bronya added, landing another blow on Kiana.
"Are you looking for a fight?! Shorty!" Kiana glared at Bronya. The two faced each other, sparks flying between their gazes.
......................
Meanwhile, Li Xuan…
He had actually found a restroom in this seemingly abandoned research facility…
Of course, that wasn't the point… The point was the strange movement in his ring. Since a moment ago, this ring that had appeared with him in this world had been trembling non-stop, making his hand shake as if he were having a seizure.
Li Xuan quietly closed his eyes, his mind entering the ring that seemed to be connected to his very flesh and blood. The ring might look small, but the space inside was as large as a mansion…
Li Xuan's mind searched back and forth within the ring, like a king inspecting his treasury.
"Ugh…" He had already found the source of the commotion. But… Li Xuan flipped his right hand, and the Gate of Vows appeared in his palm… but its color had changed. Originally, the Gate of Vows was a luxurious, pure gold, but now it had turned into… an even more luxurious, and somewhat mysterious, purplish-gold!
The Gate of Vows could change color?! Li Xuan stared blankly at the purplish-gold Gate of Vows in his hand.
So the question was… what did this color change signify? Besides the color, the Gate of Vows in front of Li Xuan looked no different than before.
Following the principle of 'practice is the sole criterion for truth,' Li Xuan crouched in the relatively clean restroom and took out 280 sparkling Honkai Crystals. After a moment's hesitation, he gritted his teeth and placed them into the purplish-gold Gate of Vows...
And then… there was no 'and then'. Li Xuan once again watched the golden light appear before him with tears in his eyes, a mixture of pain and joy...
A long-awaited one-shot-one-kill...
In the golden light that blinded Li Xuan's titanium alloy dog eyes, a cube-shaped object faintly appeared...
(End of Chapter)