Fuli had a strange talent: he could quickly hit it off with anyone who didn't dislike him.
After settling the sponsorship matter, he relaxed and soon began chatting animatedly with Raiden Ryoma. They talked about everything under the sun, from development to man-machine interfaces, from the creation of the world to the British king's love for other men's wives.
And Ryoma?
Mei's earlier actions had already made it abundantly clear what her position in their future marriage would be. Not only was the old father-in-law delighted by this, but he even felt a considerable amount of sympathy for his prospective son-in-law.
After a few drinks (Mei didn't allow alcohol), the two men looked at each other from across the room, their eyes filled with mutual understanding and appreciation.
Just as they were about to be overcome with emotion, Mei, not wanting to suddenly gain an uncle, quickly interrupted them, dragging Fuli out to look for the Welt clone Mobius had mentioned, and to do some shopping while they were at it.
Ryoma stood on the second floor, gazing at their retreating figures.
Only after they were obscured by the overlapping trees, plants, and buildings did he turn to look at a corner of the room. "They're gone. You can come out now."
"Sorry."
A decadent man in the shadows took a swig of vodka. With the slight movement, his empty sleeve swung back and forth.
Siegfried Kaslana, the S-rank Knight who had defected from Schicksal, former head of the Kaslana family, hero of the Second Honkai Eruptiom, wielder of the Key of Destruction, and Kiana Kaslana's father.
After leaving Schicksal, Siegfried had maintained a cooperative relationship with several members of Anti-Entropy's conservative faction in exchange for operating funds and suppressive medication. This time, for instance, he was here as Raiden Ryoma's bodyguard to prevent his old friend, whose MANTIS surgery was unstable, from being assassinated.
However, in Ryoma's eyes, protecting him was just a secondary objective.
This man's true purpose was already plain to see.
He sighed. "The kid agreed to your request. If nothing unexpected happens, Fuli and your precious daughter will be heading to Tianjiang in Shenzhou for a mission. You'll be able to change your appearance and interact with them then. With Mobius's latest targeted drug to mask your presence, the Herrscher of the Void inside her shouldn't be able to detect you."
"Thanks."
The one-armed man, having achieved his goal, waved his hand and turned to leave without a backward glance.
"That guy came all this way to be a bodyguard just to ask you for this favor?" a voice as proud as a flamingo's echoed in the hall. A light screen unfolded in front of Ryoma, revealing a young woman with fiery twin tails pushing up her glasses.
A projection, of course.
"Mobius is a rare talent," a lazy-sounding beauty with blue, naturally curly hair murmured in admiration on the other side.
Also a projection, of course.
Purifying a large World Bubble was a small matter, not something that required the personal presence of these two.
"Hmph!"
Hearing Einstein praise Mobius, Tesla flicked her twin tails, her expression displeased.
Ever since the Meta-Morph activator was injected into Siegfried in the year 2000, activating the Kaslana family's DNA key, the man had been in a highly unstable state, on the verge of a man-made Honkai Eruption at any moment.
He had been able to suppress it with willpower before, but after the Herrscher of the Void awakened within K423 in 2010, not wanting to kill Kiana, he had no choice but to leave his daughter and seek help from Anti-Entropy.
The reason was simple. Just like the SWARA (original version) that Dr. MEI had implanted with the suggestion to eliminate the Honkai, Kevin Kaslana had also implanted the Kaslana stigmata gene with the mental imprint to kill the Honkai.
Now that it was clear Kiana was the Herrscher of the Void, if Siegfried didn't leave in time, the claws of his man-made Honkai Eruption and the blade of the Judgment of Shamash would both strike her small body, tearing the girl to pieces.
And on the side of Anti-Entropy's conservatives, although they had received Siegfried's plea for help, neither Einstein nor Tesla could do much about it.
The activator that had triggered his genes was discovered by Anti-Entropy in the legacy of the Previous Era, and the organization's founding principles suppressed human experimentation.
That was, until Mobius's sudden rise.
It could be said that her ability to gain a firm foothold in the organization, rather than becoming a victim of political correctness in her early days, was largely due to the support of Einstein and others.
No one dared to let an S-rank in his prime go berserk. When the Judgment of Shamash was unsheathed in its man-made Honkai Eruption state, the last one to face it was Sirin.
Correction: she didn't just face it, she was utterly annihilated.
Perhaps it was also because she was aware of the conservatives' covert assistance that Mobius had come to extend her goodwill.
The drugs that had suppressed Siegfried's super-mutated genes in recent years had all come from her. Of course, Tesla and the others had ordered them normally through their executor quotas, paying a fair price for a fair product.
Back to Tesla, the girl was still muttering, "Since his killing intent has been suppressed, why can't he just go see his daughter? Why does he have to be so roundabout? Isn't it a hassle?"
She lacked the composure of an eighty-year-old. Perhaps physical age did indeed affect one's mentality.
"Idiot," the blue-haired, naturally curly Einstein replied lazily. "The problem isn't K423, it's Fuli."
"That unlucky brat who's the child of A and C but didn't inherit a single bit of their scientific talent?"
From her words alone, it was clear that Tesla had been paying attention to Fuli.
For one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century to expend energy on him, even to the point of entertaining the absurd and unrealistic idea that "the child of a genius must also be a genius," one could only imagine the achievements of those two.
"That's the one," Einstein said softly. "You should still remember the time and place of A and C's 'disappearance'."
"Wasn't it at Schicksal HQ in 2007...!"
Tesla's pupils suddenly dilated, then a look of understanding appeared in her eyes.
She asked unnaturally, "Is there any evidence?"
"There's no direct evidence, but that doesn't stop Siegfried from making the connection himself," Einstein shook her head. "Besides, even without evidence, put yourself in his shoes. If you were conducting a critical experiment where the slightest mistake could lead to a major safety accident, and suddenly an S-rank Knight starts rampaging through the neighborhood, waving a giant flaming sword all the way from the core area to the edge of the floating island, can you guarantee you wouldn't be affected?"
Tesla gritted her teeth. "I would curse that moron with every vicious word I know!"
Einstein closed her eyes. "Assuming you, as an ordinary person, would still be alive and not dead in an exploding laboratory."
Thunder rumbled across the sky, and the mansion fell into a long silence.
Unable to bear the atmosphere, Tesla changed the subject. "Speaking of which, Ryoma, you seem to be getting along quite well with that kid."
A new interpretation of an old idiom: The collapse of propriety and music. When the betrothal gift negotiations collapse, the onlookers are delighted.
With Raiden Ryoma's wealth, he naturally wouldn't care about a mere betrothal gift, but the problem was, he doted on his daughter!
Heaven knows how many times Tesla had inwardly screamed "Fight! Fight!" while watching earlier.
Boring! I want to see rivers of blood!
"..."
Ryoma was silent for a moment, then turned his head. "Senior Einstein, these are the cooperation matters I discussed with Lord Speaker McFall of the House of Lords."
"Hey! Don't ignore me!"
"Thank you for your hard work."
The naturally curly-haired beauty, far away in North America, nodded and entered the cooperation details Ryoma had transmitted into Femirins.
This super AI, on the same level as Ella and Kallen, would automatically find all the loopholes in the draft cooperation agreement, revise them, and use them as bargaining chips for the next round of negotiations.
Watching this, a sudden thought occurred to Tesla. "Speaking of which, some employees on the Arahato forum drew some fan art of Femirins. It's a pretty girl with long white hair."
Ryoma asked strangely, "Why white hair?"
"Because the employee who drew it is from Shenzhou, just like your prospective son-in-law," Tesla said, then gossiped loudly, "Hey Ryoma, I remember the files saying that there's more than one white-haired girl among the official members of the Hyperion. Your prospective son-in-law is with them day and night. Could it be, hmm?"
She stuck out her little finger and wiggled it suggestively.
"I have faith in Mei."
After throwing that sentence at the shameless old woman, Ryoma walked to the window, placed his hand on the sill, and gazed at the drizzling rain outside.
He recalled the organization's internal evaluation of Fuli: sunny, cheerful, carefree, and friendly.
Face to face, the boy had indeed displayed these characteristics. The way he warmed up to people in just a few words was practically screaming, "Let's be friends, you can call me son, and I'll call you bro!"
"Heh."
Ryoma shook his head, a flash of lightning in his eyes, and melted the paper with Fuli's information in his pocket with high heat.
There was a type of person in the world who was easygoing in everything they did, appearing harmless and often taking the short end of the stick in their interactions with others.
Was it because they were stupid?
No, it was so that when you did offend them, they could kill you with a clear conscience.
...
The streetlights cast halos on the wet pavement. Raindrops shimmered like silver specks as they passed through the beams of light. The garden's iron gate was hung with water droplets, and the color of the brick walls deepened in the rain.
"Phew! That was so nerve-wracking!"
Leaving Raiden Ryoma's residence under the glare of the Royal Guards, Fuli let out a very noticeable sigh of relief as he walked down the street.
"Our great hero who slayed the Herrscher of Thunder, a peerless champion, can actually make such an expression?"
Mei's eyelashes fluttered as she teased, "And I didn't see you being that nervous. You two almost became sworn brothers by the end."
The ladies' umbrella in her hand was tilted over the boy's head, shielding him from the drizzle of the foggy city.
"That's not the same thing. Fighting and talking are two different concepts," Fuli grumbled, moving closer to Mei. "You can't just draw your sword on an elder, can you?"
What? Someone tried to use Clockwork Trick on Ryoma to mess with his mind the moment they met?
A trick isn't a sword.
Little Kallen, finally free to move after leaving the residence, cursed the scheming woman in her heart.
A ladies' umbrella wasn't very large. To keep Mei from getting wet, Fuli would naturally have to move extremely close to her.
Under the hazy, ambiguous drizzle, from a third person's perspective, who wouldn't think they were a match made in heaven, a lovey-dovey little couple?
Like the person who had suddenly appeared before them—
"Allow me to praise your perfect compatibility!"
Even though the supernatural realm of the Honkai did exist, most powerful individuals preferred to keep their appearance closer to that of a normal person.
Not wanting to be conspicuous was one reason; having grown up in normal society was another.
The tall man before them, clad in silver armor with hair as red as flames, was clearly the antithesis of all that. His fiery temperament and melodious, chant-like tone, as if afraid people wouldn't know he was special, all proclaimed his abnormality to every witness.
He lightly touched his breastplate and recited his opening line in a voice like an aria: "Ah! My dear friends, when you stand side by side, even the orbits of the stars tremble! This is no chance encounter, but twin flowers woven by the spinning wheel of fate with moonlight and rose thorns!"
He then drew a wine-red rose dripping with dew. "Behold! The galaxy in that lady's eyes dances with the starlight between the gentleman's brows to form the shape of the Rose Nebula! The brilliance of your souls intertwines in the void to form an emblem of love and hope—on the left, a gentle resilience like the morning dew; on the right, a fiery protection like molten lava!"
"This is no simple sum, but a perfect concerto that would make even God pause to listen!"
He opened his arms, the clinking of his silver armor crisp and pleasant. "When the whisper of the spring breeze meets the proverb of autumn, when the gentle turns of the flowing water answer the aria of the mountains, the entire universe blooms at your touching fingertips into a rose garden that never withers!"
A flurry of roses turned into points of light and sprinkled down on the well-matched pair. The man placed a hand on his chest and bowed, performing a solemn knightly salute. "In the name of Idrila, I, Argenti, hereby bear witness to eternity—you are each other's sharpest sword and softest armor. May your love be as brilliant as a supernova, and may the resounding chorus of your souls' resonance still be heard at the end of time!"
A light from an unknown source shone behind Argenti, coating his entire body in a warm white glow.
He just stood there, perfectly centered.
"..."
"..."
Fuli and Mei exchanged a look.
We're sweating buckets here, bros.
It's so cheesy and awkward, but why do I suddenly feel a little happy? Is it really that you can't hit a smiling face?
Even in ancient armies, soldiers would never wear their heavy, stuffy, and airtight armor when not in combat. A tin can would always protect its contents from the enemy's blade in the heat of battle, but in daily life, its exaggerated weight would become a threat to one's health.
And this strange man who called himself Argenti not only wore a suit of silver armor in public but could also perform all the baffling and trivial actions mentioned above.
—A strong person.
—A strong person with a few screws loose.
Fuli's hand rested on the Sparrow's Cry longsword at his waist. Heaven knew what this mysterious powerhouse who called himself Argenti was thinking and what his purpose was in stopping them.
Did he see through their identities as illegal immigrants and want to bring them to justice? Did he sense the Honkai energy within them and have a request?
Neither.
Activating her electromagnetic induction to read Argenti's completely unconcealed surface thoughts, Mei gave Fuli a slight shake of her head.
At least at this moment, this man genuinely thought the two of them walking in the rain were an incredibly good match.
So he had rushed forward without a second thought to loudly express his inner feelings.
And just then, with the sound of boots splashing through the rain, a young man's call came from afar. "Argenti! Your Highness Argenti!"
It was a young blonde man in a servant's uniform. He rushed to the scene, took a moment to catch his breath, and then apologized solemnly to the Hyperion duo who were looking at him. "My name is Villette. I am terribly sorry. Our prince has caused trouble for you two distinguished guests from afar."
"It's no trouble at all," Fuli said, asking curiously, "This is a prince of Britain? Why haven't I seen any information about him on the official UK website?"
"Whether it is my mortal name or my princely status, I have dedicated everything to the Goddess of Beauty, the peerless Idrila," the red-haired man called Argenti said solemnly. "You may simply call me Argenti. That is the only treasure I possess at this moment."
"Here we go again..." Villette put a hand to his forehead.
A true high-ranking person should not be overly concerned with their reputation, but someone like Argenti, who had no reputation to speak of, was also a rare sight.
Fuli raised an eyebrow. He suddenly noticed that the other party had been referring to themselves as the "Knights of Beauty."
He had heard of this name in the previous loop. It was a medium-sized faction that worshipped the so-called Goddess of Beauty, Idrila.
It was said that these people had glimpsed fragments and reflections of the "Goddess of Beauty" in their dreams. They fanatically praised the goddess's beauty, and the more skilled warriors among them formed a knightly order to guard "Beauty."
But if you were to ask them exactly why and where the goddess was, the knights would only piously state that the mark of Beauty had always existed in everyone's hearts. As long as one maintained a sincere heart towards all things, people would one day witness the return of the original goddess.
To be honest, Fuli didn't dislike people like this.
These people were true to themselves, and they could truly say, "There is no falsehood in my words or deeds, my heart is as clear as a mirror."
And because of this, once they saw someone doing something dirty, it was common for them to intervene.
"So this Prince Argenti, he also saw a reflection of that goddess in his dream?"
"Yes," Villette said. He must have been thoroughly worn out by Argenti, as he actually started complaining to Fuli, a complete stranger.
What kind of people are the higher-ups in Britain?
The descendants nurtured by these parasites are all inheritors of Britain's excellent tradition of inhumanity, the orthodox successors of shit-stirring, the dark bloodline of the old London Union Jack, a constellation of human-like stars whose every pore oozes the blood and tears of others.
But this Argenti! This Argenti!
Noticing Fuli's gaze, the man returned it with a sincere, perfect, and shining smile.
"So bright! My eyes! My enlightened Mangekyo Sharingan!" the boy exclaimed, covering his eyes. "And what's with the 'If you come in the dead of winter' song playing in my head? You're just a knight, not the sun!"
Your salt, my vinegar!
People of Chaoshan, pay attention to the rice and the pot, and sleep late!
Mei twirled her umbrella, her tone light. "This is undoubtedly a good thing. It's just a pity that a true knight of noble character was born on this soil that breeds sin."
Recalling Britain's glorious past achievements, Villette could only give a bitter smile.
The young woman then asked, "So, is there anything else? If not, we'll be leaving."
"Please allow—"
"You stop!" Villette quickly cut Argenti off. He knew that with his prince's way of speaking, it would probably take half an hour just to explain.
The adjutant cleared his throat and briefly and clearly explained that Rita's father had been kidnapped by Boothill.
"A Galaxy Ranger? Kidnapping?"
On the other side, hearing that a Galaxy Ranger had kidnapped Rita's family, Fuli's reaction was one word—disbelief.
But when he considered Alexander's identity as the family of a Schicksal S-rank Valkyrie, the boy, having thought it over, stroked his chin.
You know, now that you mention it...
To be fair, the Earth civilization calling itself the "prime world" was actually a very arrogant act.
Putting aside the fact that the area beyond the solar system was shielded by the gravitational tides of the galaxies and imaginary energy, the total area of the World Bubbles that partially overlapped with Earth was more than you could count on two hands.
And the World Bubbles floating in the Sea of Quanta within the solar system were even more numerous. Why should Earth be the center of everything?
The answer was simple: they fought for it.
As mentioned before, Schicksal's Aethelred Division was responsible for exploring unfamiliar World Bubbles. The Hall of Judgment went a step further, extracting resources and feeding them back to the organization through colonization.
Anti-Entropy was the same. The two sides might seem to despise each other on the surface, but they actually cooperated a lot in this area.
For example, the Moonlight Throne was a unique Anti-Entropy technology. Due to the expansion of the Honkai, many World Bubbles had been contaminated by Honkai energy to varying degrees.
After Schicksal's Valkyries conquered them, Anti-Entropy's technical department would arrive and restore the environment to a state where they could sustainably drain it dry.
Simply put, Schicksal treated the symptoms, Anti-Entropy treated the root cause, and together, they made a specimen.
The words "conquest" and "colonization" have always been bloody. As specimens, the natives of the World Bubbles were certainly not happy.
Many of the natives who were persecuted during this period rose up and, together with some righteous individuals from the prime world who also couldn't stand it, formed the organization known as the "Galaxy Rangers."
Their tragic pasts united the Rangers. They shared a common enemy, patrolling the worlds and using their own hands and weapons to uphold kindness and justice, advocating the use of violence to stop violence, and praising decisive killing.
And most importantly, they were especially hostile to Schicksal, the direct colonizer.
That wanted criminal, Mr. Boothill, was one of them. He had been defeated and imprisoned by Rita after destroying a Schicksal outpost in World Bubble 098.
Now that he had broken out of containment and regained his freedom, it wasn't so hard to understand why he would kidnap her family for revenge, right?
Desperate times call for desperate measures!
These Galaxy Rangers were not old-fashioned, nor would they cling to the dogma of upholding justice, saying this is wrong and that is wrong.
After receiving the above information from Fuli, Kallen was speechless.
"Bro."
"What's up, sis?"
"That guy Otto... he's done some really terrible things..."
"That depends on your perspective," the boy said with a shrug. "For example, if you lived on a planet that had been covered in ice and snow for seven hundred years, with only one city left struggling to survive, and enemies from outside the planet were still eyeing you covetously, and you and your people were on the verge of extinction with no hope of victory."
"And then someone suddenly descends from the sky and tells you that not only can they repel the enemy, but they can also restore the planet's ecosystem, but in exchange, the people of this planet must sign a contract with them and become their workers, and all the resources here must belong to them. What would you choose?"
Kallen opened her mouth, hesitated for a moment, and then gritted her teeth, about to give her answer.
Fuli placed a finger on the beauty's cherry lips and winked his left eye at her. "You don't have to choose, sis. I'm just giving an example."
"And what Schicksal does is something similar," he sighed. "They take advantage of people's desperation in the name of salvation. After all, the manpower cost of the Valkyries is also a cost."
Invading a world for no reason would provoke resistance and endless security wars. The Middle East was a ready-made case study.
Moreover, Otto had always used Saint Kallen as a standard, promoting the grassroots policy of "fighting for all that is beautiful in the world." This was laughable to those in the know, but there were indeed many Valkyries who fought with similar beliefs.
"However, although they are taking advantage of a crisis, the salvation is also real salvation," Fuli shook his head. "If the people from the Hall of Judgment were really carrying out massacres in the colonized World Bubbles, believe me, I wouldn't even have to try to persuade her. Bianca, Schicksal's strongest, would be in my room that very night, swearing to join the Hyperion."
The fact that Durandal merely disliked the Hall of Judgment rather than drawing her sword on them already proved something.
Of course, you couldn't say that Schicksal was taking advantage of those World Bubbles. Why should a stranger help you when you have no connection?
Fighting against the Honkai or other invaders from the Sea of Quanta also came at a price. Wasn't it reasonable to receive payment?
Everyone was doing what they believed was right, and from their own perspectives, their actions were all justifiable. This was the greatest helplessness of this shitty reality.
...