One of the things I am worried about is my romance score with Kiana, it's higher than even Mei's, but what is romance score exactly?
System?
[System: Like I said, the romance score is a running total of emotional weight, what that means is that when Kiana thinks of you, the amalgamation of her feelings towards you is summarised into the emotional score.]
This seems highly subjective, and it seems a bit high! It's already 83!
[System: (⸝> ᴗ•⸝)Actually your romantic score with Kiana right now is 86.]
86! That's extremely high! What exactly is the scale here?
[System: An emotional score of 100 means that a person is highly likely to confess their romantic feelings for you.]
So it's not a scale of 0 to 100, what are the bounds of the scale.
[System: An emotional scale is from 0, which is enemies for life. 50 in the middle is the average of when most people meet for the first time. To 200 at the top of the scale, which is almost impossible to reach with another person.]
How come the scale extends by 150 in the positive direction, but only by 50 in the negative direction?
[System: (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶) This is a romance system, not a villain simulator.]
So Kiana isn't exactly about to ask to marry me after all, I thought since it was similar to Mei's she would have similar feelings for me.
[System: (⸝> ᴗ•⸝) I wouldn't say that, Kiana's romantic feelings for you have increased rapidly in only the last 2 days, and her romantic feelings towards Mei have decreased slightly due to Mei's harsh rejections of her advances.]
That's pretty bad, I need to do something about that, but what exactly can I do?
I can intentionally lower my romantic score, but I can't really do much about Kiana and Mei's relationship.
I didn't necessarily have to worry about Mei's relationship with Kiana, after Mei goes supernova and Kiana brings her back from the brink, and she realises that all of Kiana's advances have been genuine, her romantic score should instantly shoot up instantly to over 100.
The fact that Kiana's feelings for Mei were decreasing was worrying though. The only thing I could hope to really do about it was to encourage Kiana while also decreasing Kiana's feelings towards me.
How to go about it though. I couldn't do anything too harsh, I still needed to link up with Kiana and Mei during the eruption, and she did give me a place to stay when I hadn't really fully figured things out yet, not that I really have anyway, but I am certainly much more confident then before.
[System: Actually, a romantic score of 86 is right in the friend zone, so you shouldn't be in too much of a hurry to decrease it.]
That's not so much of a problem as it is how much it is rapidly increasing, I haven't really taken any actions to bring it from where it started to where it is now!
[System: Actually, this is not the case. When you first met, she thought of you as someone like herself, your mutual unacknowledgment of each other's strangeness appeals to Kiana. She has never gotten particularly close with anyone before, since she frequently has to leave everything behind to chase down her dad so this fits with what she wants. In addition, you also did sleep together, and Kiana is a Lesbian.]
That was just once! And we just met!
[System: (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶) This is why your romantic score is only really at friends, and not at romantic levels yet.]
Okay so? That's what I was saying, it's only been a few days and it's already this high! If I continue at it we will be at 100 in no time at all! That's definitely a bad thing! Given Kiana even if I reject her she isn't likely to give up! Kiana needs to be with Mei! Especially since I plan on leaving ASAP!
[System: ♡⸜(˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝ You could always bring Kiana with you when you leave.]
Yeah and fuck over an entire planet? real dick move. Sorry I am not a mass murderer.
So, how can I halt the progression of Kiana's feelings for me? Friendship is fine, beyond that is pretty much the destruction of the world. The simplest solution is just distance for now. I can stay at a hotel near Kiana's house and the school until the eruption starts.
I can also encourage Kiana via text to keep trying to break through Mei's defenses. Not that I think it will work, Mei is annoyingly stubborn in the game, and is already primed to view anything Kiana does in a negative light. However any actions Kiana takes now will add to the emotional bomb that will drop on Mei when she realises that Kiana has been genuine the whole time.
Hopefully after Kiana saves Mei, she confesses or something, and Kiana accepts leaving me in the clear.
I pull out my phone.
Lee: Found a hotel to stay at tonight
Kiana: You can always stay with me
Kiana: It's way cheaper than a hotel!
Lee: It's fine I won't impose on you
Kiana: It's not imposing on me at all!
Kiana: It's actually quite enjoyable!
Lee: We just met, I am not actually that comfortable with it
Lee: Was in a super bad spot yesterday
Lee: Feeling much better now
Lee: I already booked to room anyway
Putting away her phone, the system commented.
[System: (ᵕ—ᴗ—) Wow, that text conversation managed to decrease your romantic score with Kiana by a whole 9 points.]
Mission accomplished then.
[System: (˶˃⤙˂˶) You know it's not very nice to mess with peoples feelings like this!]
Ignoring the system, she waved down the nearest waiter, who brought a card reader. After paying, she stood up and left the Pizza place.
In addition to getting some survival supplies, she now also needed to book a hotel for the next few nights.
If Kiana knew that I haven't actually booked a hotel yet, her romantic score would probably decrease again.
[System: (╥﹏╥)]
Unfortunately she had no way of achieving that unless Kiana saw her booking a hotel room, which wasn't practical especially since Kiana was at school right now.
Well, I should probably do that last.
Only one more errand to run. Getting survival supplies.
Now, what exactly should I get?
She would only need to survive for a few hours, so honestly she didn't need any long lasting food, as for water, she could just get a few of the largest water bottles at a convenience store. She didn't really need camping gear, as this was an urban environment and there were plenty of places to hide.
Honestly, she could just loot everything she could think of on the day of. The most important thing, a weapon, she had already acquired. Anything else she needed after the eruption was over could be provided by Schicksal and St. Freya Academy.
Turns out she wouldn't need to make a trip after all.
Well that's convenient, time to find a hotel.
Remembering that there was a cheap looking hotel almost directly across from Kiana's apartment, she started walking back towards Kiana's apartment.
Cutting into an alleyway between several buildings to get to the next street, she heard rapid footsteps behind her.
Turning around, and moving her hand towards the handles of the baseball bats in her backpack, before putting her hand down in shock.
Standing there was a man with iconic white hair, a long brown and tan long coat, and a silver metal robotic left arm, hastily covered up by bits of cloth.
He was also holding an iconic set of pistols pointed directly at Lee's face.
"Siegfried!" Lee blurted out before thinking.
"So you know me huh, that just confirms it." Siegfried responded.
Shit! I shouldn't have said that! Also why the fuck is Siegfried pointing a gun at me! I haven't even done anything!
"Let me guess, you're one of Schicksal's spy's." Siegfried said, "Don't bother trying to hide, you're much stronger than the average person, and your identity documents didn't exist before yesterday."
Fuck again! When the system said that the documents were only a problem if people looked too closely I knew it would be an issue, but I didn't expect it to come up so fast.
Stalling but also telling the truth Lee said, "I am not with Schicksal."
"Don't try pulling a fast one on me." Siegfried said, "I asked my friends in Anti Entropy to do a background check on you, they said that you only had the one legal identity, activated yesterday, your not one of Anti Entropy's agents, and the only one who could do that besides Anti Entropy is Schicksal."
Don't they have civilian agencies that do this kind of thing all the time! Not everything always has to be honkai related, I guess he did say that I was much stronger than the average person though, just like Kiana. Guess Kaslana's really are like animals huh.
"I can see your mind spinning to create an alibi, but don't bother, I know Schicksal is behind the increase in honkai energy around Nagazoa lately." Siegfried said.
"Actually the radical faction in Anti Entropy is behind that!" Lee said.
Fuck I shouldnt have said that, now Siegfried really might actually go nuke Cocolia over at ME corp. If the eruption dosen't happen the whole timeline is fucked!
Survival first though, I have to create a lie that seems plausible, but also like I am hiding something.
"I am not on a mission right now, I was in a really bad situation and had to activate an emergency identity, I just want to lay low for a little while. " Lee said, trying to sound calm.
"While you ordinary valkyries aren't all that bad, your leader is a piece of shit, I don't care what you do as long as you stay away from my daughter." Siegfried said.
So that's what this is all about, that's fine, I was planning on distancing myself from Kiana anyway!
"I plan on staying away from Kiana, in fact I am trying to distance myself from her right now. I didn't approach her intentionally, again I was in a really bad spot at the time and she offered to help me out." Lee said, all true.
"Huh." Siegfried said, lowering his gun down a bit, "My instincts tell me you don't seem like you are lying through your teeth."
Again what are you an animal? How can you tell? Instinct? What bullshit is that?
"I promise not to approach Kiana, I plan on staying in a hotel from now on." Lee said.
"You better stick with that, I'll be watching you, if you make any moves against my daughter, I'll deal with you." Siegfriend said, putting his guns away on the inside of his long coat, "I will investigate what you said about the radical faction being behind this, if you are lying and it really does have something to do with Schicksal, I'll shoot you first."
Fuck, thats the last thing I wanted! I am so fucking stupid, but I am alive for now, and Schicksal really dosen't have anything to do with the increase in Honkai energy around Nagazora. Well besides Otto probably being aware and not doing anything to stop it. He probably thinks that it will help awaken Kiana as a Herrscher or something.
"I am fine with that…" Lee started to say, but Siegfried was already running off back out of the alley.
"Well fuck…" Lee said to the empty air.