"And yet, nobody was to blame..."
Mei's heart was a tangled mess after disconnecting from St. Freya.
Yes, situations like this often happen in real life.
Everyone's choices, from their own perspectives, weren't necessarily wrong. Yet, when all those choices were woven together, they inevitably created one tragedy after another.
The girl took off her jacket, changed into a light purple gauze nightgown, and lay down on the bed.
Her eyes stared blankly at the galaxy projected onto the ceiling. The tranquil starry sky offered no comfort to her complex thoughts; instead, the emotions in her mind grew even more chaotic.
"Aaargh! I don't care anymore! I'm doing research! Writing a paper!"
She flipped over, scrambled out of bed, and rushed into the Massive Electric Corp lab. The lights on the messy workbench flickered on at her command.
One could only say that the world of a top student was different from that of ordinary people.
Currently, Mei had two main research topics before her. The first was the manufacturing and mass production of Light Cones.
It had been over a month since the May birthday party, and Fuli had since converted some of the useless combat skills obtained from the "Peerless Martial Arts Catalog" into Light Cones.
However, these Light Cones were all created using the Finality system. At most, Mei could only produce defective products with greatly reduced effects. Moreover, the user needed time to adapt, which was a far cry from the peak level of plug-and-play.
The other research project was the equipment enhancement furnace.
Honestly, reverse-engineering the entire process of equipment enhancement from a single +18 worn-out tachi was equivalent to being given a piece of aerospace material and being told, "reverse-engineer its manufacturing process." It was like a cruel joke on the level of sending a lackey to defeat Sun Wukong and his master.
But considering that a neighboring universe had a civilization advance thousands of years in just 28 days—a plot point so absurd it felt like it was written with someone's ass—one could only say the value of "Honkai is omnipotent" was still rising.
Mei's proposed method for this was localized time reversal—reconstructing the entire enhancement process of the worn-out tachi through microsecond-level time regression. By leveraging the powerful computing capabilities of a quantum computer, she could calculate an enhancement process different from the original but with identical effects.
Simply put, a sledgehammer can pound a block of iron into a long strip, and a lathe can also process a block of iron into a long strip.
As long as the final result was identical, the process didn't matter.
Of course, there were many other details, but it wasn't necessary to elaborate on them here.
The problem was, while a quantum computer was manageable—not only could Hyperion's central computer serve as a substitute, but Mei herself had a few special tricks to boost computing power—complete localized time reversal technology was unique to the medium-sized organization Helixcraft, which was based in Honduras.
Even a behemoth like Anti-Entropy chose to cooperate with them. For example, the VV2 time acceleration device inside the giant strategic weapon Creation Engine, used by the reformist faction leader Cocolia, was outsourced to the founder of Helixcraft—the great magician of the Dusk Era, the sage who overlooks the stars, the creator of the Vill-V configuration... a woman with many titles, Lady Vill-V.
The fact that Anti-Entropy, which typically followed North America's aggressive style, chose cooperation over plunder spoke volumes about her style and abilities.
Of course, Mei only needed cooperation. Helixcraft regularly sold industrial orders to the outside world. A microsecond-level regression of a +18 worn-out tachi was a small matter. If Hyperion hadn't been in a financial crisis, she would have paid for it in minutes.
And the thought of the budget crisis, combined with the earlier troublesome conversation with Theresa, made the already vexed Mei stomp her foot and directly make a network call to Raiden Ryoma.
"Father!" she said, puffing out her cheeks. "I'm out of money!"
Raiden Ryoma, who had been about to rejoice that his precious daughter was finally willing to contact him, sat on the other side of the screen and slowly uttered a single word:
"Huh?"
...
After ending the call with Mei, Theresa lay on her bed, limbs sprawled out.
Her left hand accidentally touched the Homu pillow she had tossed aside earlier. She hugged it tightly, burying her small face in its neck.
After wiping her tears on it, the girl looked up, her clear blue eyes staring blankly at the nightstand beside her bed.
In the photo on it, a tiny Kiana was catching butterflies in the grass, while a worried-looking Theresa followed behind her. Cecilia sat nearby, chuckling, and for the sake of petty revenge, the eyesore Siegfried was nowhere to be seen.
"Cecilia..."
Recalling the warm past, Theresa murmured as if in a dream, "Am I really doing the right thing?"
With Kiana gone, over the past three months, she had unconsciously come to see Fuli and K423 as extensions of her precious niece's life.
She helped block the Elder Council's arrest warrant under the guise of being Fuli's fiancée.
She let Kiana, a ticking time bomb of a Void Herrscher vessel, run wild outside.
Her repeated indulgence stemmed from the guilt in her heart, pushing her to want a good ending for them.
The problem was, Kiana's side was manageable.
The girl only looked silly; in reality, she was already aware of something.
The key was Fuli.
"I hope the day the truth is revealed never comes."
Theresa sighed faintly, then gritted her teeth fiercely. "Worst comes to worst, this Principal, the 'culprit' who hid the information, will just offer myself to him as compensation! Let him devour me, slice me into a thousand pieces!"
At least I'm an S-rank Valkyrie. It's no loss for you, Fuli!
Besides, the girl wasn't oblivious. During their daily interactions, she had noticed that a certain "Li" would sometimes look at her with a strange hint of nostalgia and fervor.
Considering her hair color, eye color, and figure, he clearly saw her as the Kiana from his childhood.
As a clone herself, Theresa instinctively felt repulsed by this act of using her as a substitute.
She was Theresa Apocalypse, not some look-alike!
But if Fuli's heart broke after learning the truth, she feared she would have no choice but to pretend to be her precious niece to comfort him.
And if that comforting went too far, who knew what kind of "happy" – ptui, depraved – things might happen.
"Sigh, what a mess..."
Theresa rolled over, her cheeks slightly flushed. Her gaze fell on the bottom right corner of the communication screen, which was blinking.
As a young girl of forty-two years, Principal Theresa had always maintained a healthy routine of sleeping early and waking up early.
Considering it was only 8 PM, it was normal for someone to contact her.
"It can't be Mei again, can it?"
She mumbled as she answered the call, immediately covering her ears without a second thought.
A strange female voice came from the other side. "Um, is this some kind of trendy performance art?"
The woman on the screen looked to be in her late twenties, with the typical appearance of a classical Shenzhou person. She wore a light green modern-style cheongsam, and her red hair cascaded down like a blazing fire. Her well-proportioned, beautiful legs were exposed below the dress, straight and slender.
Seeing that the tone on the other end was relatively normal, Theresa lowered her hands.
"It's Ling. What's up?"
—Hong Qiling, the third councilor of the Schicksal Elder Council, Theresa's old friend, and the head steward who helped manage the Apocalypse family's assets.
"You're asking me what's up?"
The woman feigned a facepalm. "We agreed to have a debriefing at this time. Judging by your posture, old lady, don't tell me you forgot everything again and were about to climb into bed to snore until morning, leaving me hanging for another night?"
By the end, her voice was filled with resentment.
One could only say the words "again" and "another" were quite telling.
Theresa said with great seriousness, "This Principal is not that kind of person!"
Before the other party could reply, she launched a preemptive strike. "Ling! What was the deal with that previous meeting?"
The girl was naturally referring to the Elder Council's vote to deploy the entire army to attack Hyperion (Volume 2, Chapter 45).
As the steward of the Apocalypse family, Hong Qiling's position as the third councilor was completely aligned with Theresa's.
She was clearly at the scene but didn't take a firm stand against deploying troops. Who was to blame if not her?
To this, Hong Qiling's face was indignant. "You have no idea! The situation at the time was that Councilor Ten, Ophelia, the main proponent of the war faction, initiated the vote to wipe out Hyperion. Just as I was filled with righteous indignation and about to act, Councilor Four, the young lady from a large trans-dimensional conglomerate, suddenly moved behind me and slammed my head onto the table."
"Mr. Sunday in the number two position said with a grave face: 'Miss Asta, please hold Ms. Hong Qiling down like that. Otherwise, I'm afraid she'll kill Ophelia!'"
"The atmosphere in the conference room was instantly stirred up. The war between the Apocalypse family and the Nanami Consortium was just one decision away!"
"Cut the crap!"
Theresa rolled her eyes at her. "Even I find that Ophelia's swordsmanship tricky. You think you can kill her? I'm afraid I'd have to find a new steward the next day!"
"Actually, we're at a 30-70 split. She makes three strikes, and I have my funeral."
Hong Qiling, who had been indignant just a moment ago, scratched her head awkwardly. Her knee-length red hair danced like a burning flame.
Theresa curled her lip. If not for the fact that this person was an old acquaintance of Grandpa Otto and had been managing the Apocalypse family's assets since before she was "born," she would have definitely taught her a lesson.
Joking aside, from Otto's appearance later to cancel the arrest warrant, Theresa could tell:
This red-haired woman of unknown origin had probably already coordinated with Grandpa. That's why she had put on a helpless act and watched the show from the sidelines.
The girl cleared her throat. "Anything else? Any other recent news?"
"The Taixuan Front plans to hold the Luminary Wardance Ceremony."
"A response to the Third Honkai Eruption in the Far East? Looks like it's going to be lively this time."
Theresa rubbed her brow. It was all that mother fox Cocolia's fault for slinging mud. Who knew if the Taixuan Front now viewed St. Freya as a participant in causing the Great Eruption.
"Forget it. We'll know in July."
As per tradition, the Taixuan Front would send invitations to various friendly forces a month before the ceremony. Then they would know their attitude toward St. Freya.
"Anything else?"
"Mobius Lab announced a major technological breakthrough in soul distillation and liquefaction."
"Mobius? That newly promoted Anti-Entropy Executor?"
Theresa looked creeped out. Soul distillation and liquefaction—that didn't sound like anything proper.
She quickly changed the subject. "That organization I had people investigate earlier, what's their current situation?"
After the Third Honkai Eruption, Theresa, having caught a tail of the World Serpent, immediately contacted the medium-sized force with a blood feud against them, the God-Eaters of the Serpent (Volume 2, Chapter 11).
The two hit it off immediately. The former provided equipment, the latter provided manpower, and they jointly pursued them relentlessly.
This was the main reason why Massive Electric Corp hadn't lacked orders in the past few months. The equipment traded with Hyperion had played a significant role during this period.
"Not good."
Hong Qiling shook her head. "I can only say they live up to their reputation as a mysterious force that has been conducting Stigmata experiments in secret for thousands of years. Not only are they strong in counter-espionage, but they also managed to persuade North America's number one mercenary, Raven, to be their hired gun."
"Raven? That wild Critical-class who popped up a couple of years ago?"
Theresa had a deep impression of this person.
That figure... was on a level she could never reach in her lifetime.
"Yes, that Raven."
Hong Qiling sighed. "I don't know what benefits that mysterious organization gave her, but she's always at the forefront of every battle, completely unconcerned about being repelled or injured multiple times."
Theresa frowned. "Have you tried to win her over?"
Mercenaries were all about money in the end. She didn't think Schicksal could lose to them in that regard.
The current universal currency on the Honkai side—crystals—was issued by Schicksal, although the production cost of crystals as energy crystals was far higher than printing dollars on paper.
"Of course we've tried. We sent people to sound her out many times, used every method."
Hong Qiling sighed. "Unfortunately, whenever Raven hears that the person trying to buy her is us (Theresa), no matter whether she showed any inclination before, an attack will come in the next second."
"Does she have a grudge against Schicksal?"
Theresa thought for a moment and realized that there were far too many people in the world who had a grudge against Schicksal.
Among them was even the leader of Anti-Entropy—the esteemed First Herrscher, Lord Welt.
She shrugged. "Alright, this is nothing unusual."
"Speaking of people with a grudge against Schicksal, I just got news that the Galaxy Ranger arrested by Lady Rita successfully escaped from prison, and also killed that Supervisor Oswald who had a grudge against him."
"The arrested Galaxy Ranger? That Boothill?"
Theresa was confused. "An A-rank special case managed to escape successfully and kill a supervisor of the support department stationed at Schicksal HQ. Are the people in the Judgment Hall crazy?"
"Who knows? Maybe he had outside help."
Hong Qiling shrugged. "After all, it's that vigilante group. Nothing they do is strange."
"True."
Theresa agreed deeply.
...
Time flowed by quietly. Outside the window, the moon was bright and the stars were few.
In the middle of the night on Hyperion, Bianka opened her eyes in the guest room.
Staring at the unfamiliar ceiling above, she sat up, rubbed her stomach, and murmured to herself:
"I'm hungry."
In response, a strange gurgle sounded from her fit abdomen (which Fuli personally tested to have an excellent feel).
Whether it was an ordinary person or a Valkyrie, everyone had to follow one principle: the more you exercise, the faster you burn through food.
Let's count what Durandal did during the day: crossed the Pacific Ocean, fought through the first five floors of the Superstring Dimension, and even fought a snake-like monster disguised as Kurikara.
At dinner, she ate rather elegantly to maintain her image in front of Little Li. The conclusion was that she hadn't eaten enough.
After downing the two large pots of boiled water Fuli had thoughtfully placed on her nightstand, Bianka smacked her lips and found that she was even hungrier.
Ah, another day of missing Rita.
The blonde girl ruffled her hair, thinking.
If this were her dorm at Schicksal, the perfect and chic maid would have surely filled the refrigerator in Bianka's room with all sorts of high-calorie foods.
Anyway, with her training volume, she wouldn't get fat. If she did, it would only go to the two troublesome lumps on her chest.
Unfortunately, reminiscing couldn't fill her stomach.
After a moment's hesitation, Bianka slipped on her cat-themed slippers and stepped out of the room. Following the indicator lights on the wall, she fumbled her way to the kitchen, planning to see if there was anything to fill her stomach.
The starving big golden retriever soon arrived at the door of her loyal kitchen. A peculiar creak-creak sound immediately reached her ears.
A thief?
She held her breath, approached slowly, closed her right eye, and peeked through the crack in the door, observing silently.
Squeak!
At that very moment, the kitchen door opened from the inside.
The well-fed white-haired dumpling came face-to-face with the starving blonde knight-princess.
A meeting in the kitchen, enjoying delicious food together?
Or—
"Aaaaaaaaaah!!!"
Were they scared out of their wits by each other?
...