To Li Wu, the "future" was simply something ethereal and intangible.
How could he possibly see it clearly?
He had been alone since childhood.
Aside from hiding in his rented apartment drawing manga and playing games, there wasn't much worth mentioning about his life in his original world.
He occasionally made a few good friends, but due to advancing to higher grades, transferring schools, or various other reasons, those relationships gradually faded. Even when they met again in real life, it felt like they could never return to that state of deep, arms-around-the-shoulders camaraderie.
Everyone was just too polite. So polite it was as if they had never met.
He walked out of the supermarket.
Just as Raiden Mei had predicted, it was pouring rain.
Pedestrians caught off guard cursed under eaves, frantically seeking shelter.
Li Wu stood at the edge of the supermarket's awning. He had intended to curse along with them, but he found that not only did he not feel suppressed, he actually felt quite comfortable.
The gloomy sky, the noisy patter of raindrops, the figures scrambling clumsily down the street having lost all composure, the dirty water flowing across the ground...
This seemingly chaotic, dreary, and dismal scene actually felt gentle—even intimate—compared to the hypothetical scenarios playing out in his mind.
Li Wu opened his umbrella and stepped into the rain.
Walking in heavy rain, even with an umbrella, inevitably meant getting wet.
Li Wu walked slowly down the road home. The puddles on the street were dirty and murky. Every step splashed small droplets of mud that clung to the cuffs of his pants, leaving ugly stains.
The rainwater was freezing; his trouser legs were sticky.
Yet all the discomfort brought about by the extreme weather surprisingly formed a necessary component of comfort, allowing Li Wu's mood to relax briefly.
Until a familiar yet unfamiliar call yanked him forcefully back from his chaotic thoughts—
"Li Wu? Over here! Look over here!"
Hearing someone call his name, Li Wu turned his head stiffly. Under the awning of a nearby shop, he saw a soaking wet, auburn-haired girl waving at him with flushed cheeks. She looked exactly like a Maneki-neko (beckoning cat) in a storefront, continuously waving him over.
A few strands of wet, auburn hair clung messily to her smooth forehead and red cheeks. Water dripped continuously from the tips of her hair, sliding down her fair neck and disappearing into her equally drenched white Chiba Academy uniform.
It was Anna Schariac.
Seeing Li Wu turn his head, Anna's pink eyes lit up.
"What are you standing there for! Come pick me up..." Anna paused, formulating her words in her head for a long time before finally squeezing out what she thought was a vicious insult. "You big meanie!"
The end of her sentence even carried an exasperated tremble—whether from the cold or because saying the word made her feel inexplicably embarrassed, it was hard to tell.
"...Why are you here? Are you following me?" Li Wu walked over and asked coldly.
Anna shot Li Wu an ungracious glare and clicked her tongue. "What's there to follow you for? I rented an apartment nearby and came out to buy some food. I didn't expect it to suddenly pour... If Schicksal didn't have rules against Valkyries randomly using their battlesuits in the city, I would have flown back through the rain already."
As she spoke, Anna pointed to the energy core on her chest.
Similar to Iron Man's arc reactor, once pressed, it would verify the user's biometric data and instantly deploy a full suit of armor.
Combat power would skyrocket in an instant.
However, this cool new manga setting only brought endless despair and powerlessness to the current Li Wu.
Faced with such enemies, no wonder even Herrschers gave up resisting and allowed Schicksal to experiment on them.
Schicksal had a full twenty people stronger than Anna. And that was just Anti-Entropy's observational data; the actual number could only be higher.
"Hey, what's wrong with you? You're completely different from this morning. It's like you're a different person. I'm not even holding a grudge over you taking advantage of me, but you're holding one against me? You're so petty!" Anna frowned, leaning in to observe Li Wu curiously.
Li Wu shook his head and took two steps back. His heel happened to catch on an uneven curb, and he fell backward, completely off guard.
Anna was quick. She grabbed Li Wu's hand and yanked him back under the awning.
"Seriously, what is wrong with you right now? You're so distracted. If I hadn't reacted fast enough, you would have fallen and... uh... 'a dog eating shit'?"
"It's 'a dog gnawing mud' (falling flat on one's face)."
"Same thing. It's not like they teach this in Valkyrie classes..."
Anna turned her head away, her eyes fixed on the umbrella in Li Wu's hand. She coughed lightly and said guiltily, "Anyway, since you have an umbrella, you might as well give me a ride. You don't have to take me all the way home; just walk me to the convenience store across the street so I can buy one myself."
"Why don't you ask someone else?"
"I only know you. Besides... I'm a Valkyrie! Valkyrie Code, Article 9, Section 21: In daily affairs, prioritize the interests of ordinary citizens! Avoid troubling ordinary people as much as possible."
"No one is monitoring you right now. Even if you troubled an ordinary person, it wouldn't affect your Valkyrie evaluation. Besides, I'm sure if a beautiful girl like you asked, there'd be plenty of people willing to help," Li Wu said expressionlessly.
The corners of Anna's mouth twitched, and her frown deepened until her brows were almost knit together.
She was indeed out of touch with normal society, but having executed many missions, she had never met a guy with so little tact. He wasn't acting like a gentleman at all.
"I said, what's wrong with you? The way you are right now... it makes me a bit disgusted. Even though you were annoying this morning, it was a completely different kind of annoying! And does it matter if anyone is watching? I want to become an S-Rank Valkyrie, so I must abide by the vows I've taken. If I slack off or cheat just because no one is looking, sooner or later, I'll lose my noble soul. I won't be worthy of becoming a great Valkyrie like Lady Cecilia."
Anna placed her right fist over her soaking wet chest, her eyes incredibly resolute.
The next second, she caught sight of Li Wu from the corner of her eye. Her serious expression instantly dissolved, and she added, "I'm troubling you because you're not an ordinary person. And... I haven't forgiven you for what happened this morning yet... Think of this as compensation."
"How about it? Just walk me to the store across the street, and I'll let bygones be bygones regarding you taking advantage of me this morning."
"That's a pretty cheap compensation..." Li Wu closed his umbrella.
Hearing the word "cheap," Anna's mood instantly plummeted. Her gaze turned hostile. "What do you mean by that?"
"Literally what it means. You don't need to buy one. Here's the umbrella. I'll walk home myself."
Li Wu handed the closed umbrella to Anna, then plunged back into the heavy rain without looking back. He didn't run frantically, nor did he use his hands to shield his head.
He just walked forward silently, as if the torrential downpour didn't exist.
"..."
What is going on?
How did Li Wu end up like this?
Is this really the same 'big meanie' who was casually joking with her this morning?
Anna watched Li Wu's retreating figure. Ever since they ran into each other just now, something had been wrong with him. He looked pathetic, dejected, and utterly lost...