---o---
"Looks like you didn't manage to leave a very good impression on that little girl named Ritsuka."
Inside the kitchen, Miss Ling's gloating voice rang out.
"Is that sort of thing important?"
The youth, who had just used Miss Guda and her accessory Mash as taste-testers, was now handling the kitchen utensils with the effortless grace of a certain Rice Herrscher.
"For a girl, the first impression is very important."
Miss Ling, whose own first meeting with a certain someone had been absolutely dreadful, nibbled on a flower-scented pastry while speaking with contempt for the man who had revealed his desire for a harem upon their first meeting.
"Do you really think a guy who says 'I want a harem' right off the bat is going to be well-liked?"
"It's just to create a stark contrast."
The youth shrugged, placing a new dish onto a plate as he spoke.
"By presenting my worst side as the initial impression, anything I do from now on will seem better by comparison, won't it?"
"Hey, hey, hey, where in the world did you get this bizarre confidence that a girl would still want to get close to you after seeing your absolute worst side?!"
Ling, nibbling on the leftover pastries from his late-night chat the previous evening, rolled her eyes and retorted.
"Hey, hey, hey, don't tell me you think you're some kind of Casanova just because you managed to win over a few naive sweethearts and love-deprived girls."
"They only like you because they're the 'freebie' type."
As if deliberately trying to crush his ego, Ling analyzed the pathetic probability of him successfully conquering Miss Guda.
"That girl, Fujimaru Ritsuka, is not the 'freebie' type."
"Your usual tricks from our world won't work on her."
"Honestly, unless you let me unleash my full power, I see absolutely no possibility of you tricking her into bed."
"Why would you think that just because her initial impression of me isn't good, she won't approach me?"
The youth who had crushed Kingu and effortlessly obtained the Holy Grail sounded cheerful and relaxed.
Ling froze.
"You have to remember, their mission is to retrieve the Holy Grail."
The youth, who already held the Holy Grail that was warping the Uruk Singularity, divided the food he had prepared into two portions. Then, he combined the leftover scraps from the pot, preparing to fob off the Useless Goddess with them.
Then, before Ling's astonished expression, he revealed the reason why he had dared to expose all his flaws so completely.
"Without the assistance of the Holy Grail's holder—that is, me—they cannot repair the Seventh Singularity. For the sake of the Holy Grail, Miss Guda will take the initiative to raise my affection level."
Not wanting the Useless Goddess to know she was eating scraps, the youth, who always delivered meals to different people's rooms, naturally separated the different meals and loaded them in batches into the pocket of imaginary space at his feet.
Then, the words that left Miss Ling stunned reached her ears.
"I just need to wait for Guda to conquer me."
"Because the impression I left her with was already my absolute worst, no matter what happens from now on, her affection for me can only go up, not down."
"The probability of me conquering her still exists, doesn't it?"
"..."
Ling was silent for a long, long time. Then, she squeezed out a few words through her gritted teeth.
"You really are a once-in-a-millennium scumbag."
"Say what you will. But speaking of which, since you're technically my second personality now, is it really okay for you to curse me like that?"
The youth, who had already used the System's function to synthesize the Cores of the Herrscher of Reason, Herrscher of Erosion, and Herrscher of Sentience, shrugged.
Because the plan to use the Divine Sword of Salvation to forcibly destroy the Foreign God was a bit unreliable, his next chosen method to KO the Foreign God would be to connect to the Honkai world.
To put it simply, he would guide the Honkai—the top enforcer of the ridiculously overpowered Imaginary Tree—to the Type-Moon world, which was destined for a dead end anyway, to put all civilizations, including the Foreign God's, to the test.
In short, since he couldn't win by playing fair, he was going to call in the Imaginary Tree's number one hitter to raid the Foreign God's home base, the source of the Freezing of the Human Order.
However, doing so would be quite dangerous for Li Zihan himself.
The moment he used Tiamat's power to link the imaginary spaces of the Honkai and Type-Moon worlds, he would almost one hundred percent transform into a Herrscher.
He had already used the power of the Fire-Thief to extract the "gate" from Chen Tianwu's body, which had been left with him, and installed it onto himself.
Once he linked to the imaginary space, that gate would begin to absorb Honkai energy from it, turning its holder into a Herrscher.
At that time, Li Zihan would naturally become a new Herrscher.
Once one becomes a Herrscher, unless they are already extremely dark and misanthropic, the emergence of a second personality is almost a certainty.
Moreover, a second personality born from Li Zihan himself would likely be even more powerful than Li Zihan.
Dealing with this newborn second personality would be quite troublesome.
Not being very fond of the idea of another "him" suddenly appearing, Li Zihan naturally thought of Seele.
As the Herrscher of Death, Seele's Herrscher personality was the heroic Black Seele, a simulated personality born from the Stigmata of the Previous Era's Herrscher of Death.
And then, he thought of the Herrscher of Erosion residing within him.
Ling.
Without much hesitation, he used the Authority of Susanoo—Ame-no-Murakumo—to "graft" Ling onto himself as his second personality.
Once the Honkai crisis was over, he would try to separate her again.
As a tool, Ling was top-tier.
"Don't bring that up with me!"
Miss Ling, who had inexplicably become the other half of this bastard, was fuming.
"Alright, alright, I won't mention it."
Li Zihan, whose actions were indeed not very honorable, walked down the hallway with a smile, delivering dinner to each of the girls one by one.
Speaking of which, he thought, since Ling is my second personality now, if I [bleeped] her, projected into reality, would that count as masturbation?
Li Zihan's thoughts wandered aimlessly.
After all, she was his second personality now, wasn't she?
"Hey, hey, hey, are you thinking about something disgusting right now?!"
As if sharing the Instinct skill Li Zihan had inherited from a certain big dog, Ling whirled around warily, staring at the eroge protagonist.
"Just thinking about trying to get Kiana into bed tonight."
Having dealt with the Useless Goddess, the youth, who was probably heading to Bronya and Kiana's rooms next, knocked on Bronya's door.
"Tch. Keep it down. Don't disturb me."