The silent night was pierced by the glint of blades and the sound of gunfire. Leo took Kiana and forcefully carved a bloody path out of the shadow monsters' encirclement, running towards the [School building].
With the help of three [Honkai fragments], Kiana was no longer weak; in fact, she was unreasonably strong.
The dual guns in her hands never stopped. She didn't even need Leo to slash; she could shatter the shadow monsters on her own.
"No prompt for [Imaginary Energy]..."
While harvesting some of the fish that slipped through Kiana's net, Leo spoke: "These shadow monsters are likely just clones. We can't truly kill them without finding their cores."
After saying that, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, assuming a stance to gather power.
"Is that so?"
Seeing Leo stand firm, Kiana was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized something. She couldn't help but say: "Then let me protect you."
"Is ten seconds enough?"
She asked this in a probing tone, but the question she wanted to probe was obviously not this one.
"Enough... even give me five seconds and it'll do!"
Revealing a determined look, Leo assumed the iaido stance, and terrifying [purple thunder] erupted from his entire body, as if he intended to completely destroy this entire area.
Seeing this, the shadow monsters' attacks became desperate.
However—
"Don't think about getting past!"
The golden phantom on her body became even more solid. Kiana acted as if she was putting her life on the line. The dual guns in her hands were no longer firing light bullets, but light cannons!
One shot could even resolve two or three shadow monsters.
Their density was too high!
Thus—
One second, two seconds... three seconds... they retreated!
Seeming to realize that they couldn't stop Leo's ultimate move under Kiana's obstruction, they wisely chose to scatter into the shadows like a receding tide.
It had to be said, these shadow monsters came fast and left fast. In just one second, they completely vanished from before Leo and Kiana.
Then, the five seconds were up!
"Go!"
Seeing that the enemy acted exactly as he predicted, Leo exchanged a glance with Kiana. Then, he used all the terrifying power he had gathered onto his legs.
Picking Kiana up in a princess carry, he transformed into a streak of purple light, directly illuminating the [Chiba Academy] in the dark night.
Using this unrivaled speed, he reached the boundary of the space in a flash.
At this moment, he could feel several streams of extremely deadly, terrifying aura coming from behind him, but these existences could no longer stop him!
"Phew..."
Successfully passing through that thin spatial membrane, he couldn't help letting out a long sigh of relief.
But his footsteps didn't stop; he forced himself to continue running forward.
After all, he wasn't sure if those guys he had played would forcefully cross that spatial membrane to chase him down.
However—
"It seems they really can only stay inside there..."
It wasn't until he ran back to the [Teleport Anchor] that Leo leaned against the cold ceramic tile wall, smiling as he said: "I was wondering why there wasn't a scene where the Demon King blocked the door!"
He never hesitated to speculate about this [Instance] with the worst malice; after all, he had been pitted to death by the opponent several times.
But now that there was an opportunity for the Demon King to block the door, yet the [Instance] didn't arrange it for him, that proved those true monsters couldn't come out.
Presumably, it was related to the [Moon Light Concentration]!
"Let's go back first."
After sighing with emotion, he pulled Kiana, who hadn't yet recovered her senses, and said: "Don't let MEI wait too long, otherwise that guy might really attract [Mobius] in advance."
His thoughts were consistent with MEI's. [Mobius] and the [Fire Moth] behind her weren't people they couldn't call, but they had to be called slowly, deliberately, and rhythmically.
Otherwise, if he hadn't developed on his end, he would only be controlled by others in the future.
Only if he demonstrated enough value here could he gain the upper hand in subsequent negotiations.
It was still that saying: what you can't get on the battlefield, you definitely can't get at the negotiation table!
Only if he could truly properly handle all the forces behind [Fire Moth] would [Mobius] and the others trust him.
After all, unlike a student like MEI, or victims like Kiana and [Raiden Mei], [Mobius] was a thorough 'social person' and wouldn't be so easily hoodwinked by him.
Or rather, [Mobius] had choices, while MEI and the others didn't.
Therefore, if he wanted [Mobius] to be obedient, he had to solve everything well without relying on [Mobius].
And [Strength] was the foundation of his "solution"!
"Mm."
Only at this moment did Kiana feel a real sense of being saved.
—I... was saved by him again...
Originally, she had prepared herself for death, but Leo's appearance completely rewrote all of this.
He is... still as reliable as ever!
Thinking of this—
"Hey, hey hey!"
Facing Kiana who was clinging to him, Leo couldn't help but feel a bit between laughter and tears. While activating the [Teleport Anchor], he said: "This is the [Honkai Domain]. Speaking of which, you were the one who said this before."
Immediately—
[Real World: Home · Bedroom]
"I don't care!"
Hugging Leo tightly, Kiana acted as if she never wanted to let go again.
"Anyway, right now, this Miss just wants you!"
After saying that, she proactively offered her fragrant lips.
To be honest, until now she hadn't realized they were home.
Thus—
"You guys..."
After waiting for about three minutes, MEI, with her arms crossed over her chest, finally couldn't watch anymore.
"How long are you going to kiss?"
"!? Mmph!"
Only at this moment did Kiana wake up from not knowing what heaven and earth were.
But soon, she was led into the ditch by Leo.
—Woman, you started the fire yourself, so you have to put it out yourself!
Leo wouldn't spoil Kiana. Since she was the one who said "I don't care" first, then he wouldn't care either!
Immediately, it was another long two minutes. Not until Kiana was completely hypoxic, like a fish on the shore, did the petty Leo let her go.
"Heh!"
Sneering, Leo tossed Kiana onto the bed, then turned to look at MEI and asked: "Do you recall Kiana now?"
"Approximately... recalled a little."
Touching her chin, MEI spoke bluntly: "But clearly I should know her, yet the memory seems so unreal."
"To put it simply, she is grey in my memory."
To be fair, if not for that deep kiss just now, she wouldn't even have "grey," she would only know that such a person ought to exist.
"It seems the opponent's methods are related to memory."
Revealing a subtle expression, Leo couldn't help thinking of a faction in [Honkai: Star Rail]—[Garden of Recollection]!
As a faction of the [Path] of [Remembrance], they had plenty of means to manipulate memory.
Of course, he hadn't found evidence that all this was related to the [Honkai: Star Rail] world yet, so this was ultimately just a guess.
But the only certainty was that the opponent could indeed manipulate memory.
If not for the fact that he had an even more unreasonable [Tongzi] here, he would definitely have fallen for the opponent's trick too.
But in terms of results, he was actually the one who profited.
After all, the opponent's actions instead made up for Kiana's final [Soul].
The current Kiana's intensity was already extremely terrifying, and his side rose with the tide; otherwise, he really might not have been able to save Kiana back.
[Player: Leo]
[Strength: 6+7 (MEI) +29 (Kiana) = 42]
[Constitution: 6+7 (MEI) +29 (Kiana) = 42]
[Energy: 9+12 (MEI) +29 (Kiana) = 50]
[Agility: 7+7 (MEI) +29 (Kiana) = 43]
[Honkai energy: 99]
[MEI · Bond: Max!]
[Kiana · Bond: Max! (Qualitative Change Available!)]
[Ability: Hokushin Ittō-ryū (Entering the Hall: 724/1000), Tiny Miracle (C-Rank)]
[Equipment: Homu Sword Sage Suit (D-Rank), Badge: Fast, Badge · Sanitation Model]
[——Soft rice tastes so good!]
This accident directly caused his various base attributes to skyrocket by 20 points. If not for Kiana's [Divine Prayer] already being maxed out, he should have been able to gain even more stats.
But even so, he had become several times stronger.
Except... [Honkai energy] is still not enough!
Additionally—
"Qualitative Change?"
Looking at Kiana's [Bond] prompt, he couldn't help being stunned, then tapped on it.
[After Qualitative Change, the player will share Honkai energy with this girl!]
[Perform Qualitative Change?]
[Yes/No]
—Oh? Got an extra mana bar!
Of course, not only did he gain Kiana's mana bar, but Kiana could also use his mana bar.
When the time comes, it will depend on the specific needs.
And more importantly, once someone uses the mana bar, he'll know which side is fighting.
Furthermore, this was a fairly useful way to distinguish friend from foe; after all, it wasn't impossible for someone to impersonate others within the [Instance].
Therefore, after thinking it through, Leo no longer hesitated and decisively pressed [Yes]!
Immediately, he could feel an invisible bridge appear between him and Kiana, and the connection between the two became even closer.
At the same time, he also clicked open Kiana's attribute panel—
[Kiana]
[Level: Level 15]
[Rank: D-Rank Valkyrie]
[Current Bond: Qualitative Change!]
[Current Favorability: 101 (Life and Death Together)]
[Strength: 29]
[Constitution: 29]
[Energy: 29]
[Agility: 29]
[Honkai energy: 299]
[Ability: Armor · Divine Prayer]
[——Barely a Large Cup!]
The restored Kiana was assessed by [Tongzi] as a [D-Rank Valkyrie], but according to Leo's estimation, Kiana at this time, if placed in the opponent's original world, should actually have the intensity of an A-Rank peak, or even an S-Rank gatekeeper.
But in this world, is it only... D-Rank?
To be fair, he didn't dare to imagine what level S-Rank was.
And... will there be SS-Rank and SSS-Rank?
In the [Honkai world], these two ranks didn't exist, but they did in the game.
And the world he was in now could be said to be reality, but also could be said to be... a game!
Since that's the case, he could only think as high as possible.
—Perhaps it will really touch upon the [Aeons]?
Shaking his head, he temporarily put down such distant thoughts.
After all, rice must be eaten one mouthful at a time, and the road must be walked one step at a time. The current him was not yet qualified to think about these things.
At the very least, he had to become [D-Rank] first!
However, he was very curious about how [Tongzi] would label his [Rank] when the time came. It couldn't also be D-Rank Valkyrie, right?
Curling his lips in dissatisfaction, he believed [Tongzi] shouldn't be that excessive... surely not.
"Finished thinking?"
Seeing Leo's eyes finally focus on reality, MEI finally spoke: "You should go cook."
"Hmm?"
Slightly stunned, Leo subconsciously looked out the window... it wasn't the sun setting in the west, but a moon had already appeared!
Although the sky was still reasonably bright, judging from this time, it was probably six or seven o'clock.
"Alright, I'll go get busy."
Understanding that MEI wanted to liberate him from the burden of thought, he was also happy to go cook.
After all, only in this way did he have the real sensation that he was still alive.
Otherwise, if he kept thinking about those troublesome matters, the taut string in his heart would snap one day.
And after he left—
"No need to pretend to sleep anymore, right?"
Looking at Kiana who had collapsed on the bed pretending to be faint from hypoxia, MEI said with a complex expression: "Do you still remember me?"
"Of course I remember!"
Understanding that her clumsy acting couldn't deceive MEI, Kiana scrambled up from the bed with a carp kip-up.
"But you actually can't remember me?"
"Those guys' methods are really astonishing!"
To be fair, even she hadn't seen such unreasonable methods.
At least in the original world, she hadn't even heard of it.
"It doesn't matter, I will research it clearly in the future."
With a cold face, MEI said in an incomparably cold tone: "Wantonly toying with other people's memories, I will make them face retribution."
For her, "memory" was incomparably important.
After all, it was precisely "memory" that constituted her intellect.
If even her intellect could be utilized by the enemy, then she couldn't even serve as support for Leo.
Only able to obediently be a [Fire Keeper] for Leo—that was a future she absolutely did not want!
"Mm..."
Seeing that MEI was very angry right now, although Kiana felt the opponent didn't intend to toy with memories, but simply wanted to converge all her information, leading to this mix-up.
But since MEI stated her position like this, she naturally could only cheer for her, as well as mourn for those unlucky guys.
After all, she knew very well what kind of existence MEI was.
Perhaps some future technologies were going to be born sooner!
And just as she was thinking this—
"Kiana, you come assist my research."
Although her memory of Kiana had become blurred, MEI said this with self-righteous confidence.
After all—
"You also don't want Leo to become like that again, right?"
After saying that, she saw Kiana's eyes become sharp.
"Mm!"
Nodding vigorously, Kiana said: "We must make those people pay the price!"
In her eyes, a ball of anger was burning.
________________________________________
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