Chapter 108: The Vacationless One
Looking at the card in Irene's hand, the cat and the two sisters from the Previous Era, Fuxi and Nuwa, immediately gathered around.
"Does Senior Klein count as well?" Nuwa looked at the card in Irene's hand. "One Person, Thousand Minds... Herrscher of the Legion... Senior Klein is still..."
"Well, consider it a reunion in another world." Kallen stood a bit further away, arms crossed, and nodded. "It's a pity the two of us probably won't get to experience this feeling."
Although saying this was a bit hurtful, Kallen searched her mind for a moment and suddenly realized that, aside from Otto and Yae Sakura, she didn't seem to have any particularly close friends.
And obviously, Otto was not a Valkyrie. As for Yae Sakura, she hadn't experienced Destined Death; she was currently living a happy little domestic life with her younger sister inside the Stigmata Space.
So unless Otto performed some kind of gender-bending act, Kallen estimated she wouldn't be able to experience this feeling.
To the side, Lixue continued to maintain her high-cold silence. She did have new friends, but... sigh. If there was a chance, if she could meet them here with Irene, even if they were slightly different, that would be fine.
Some things are only understood after they are lost and cannot be retrieved. Some things, once missed, cannot be said, leading to a lifetime of regret.
"Why wouldn't she count?" Irene tilted her head slightly and pointed at Little Corruption. "Didn't this one also cross Destined Death as a Herrscher?"
So, why couldn't Klein? And looking at this name, could it be that Klein directly physically beat the Herrscher of the Legion to win? Was the Klein of this timeline so abundant in martial virtue?
With this thought in mind, Irene released the card in her hand. After spinning a few times in the air, the card transformed into light and shadow, gradually constructing a small green figure in front of everyone.
"Mm..." Klein opened her eyes with some confusion, looking around. Her voice carried an ethereal quality that was clearly the result of perennial 'immortal cultivation'—staying up all night working—and sounded somewhat driftless.
"Where is this?"
Klein's somewhat dazed gaze swept across everyone in front of her. It merely glanced over Irene's face, but the moment Klein saw Nuwa and Fuxi, Irene saw Klein's eyes widen abruptly.
"Nuwa, Fuxi?! Why are you here?"
"Um, Senior Klein, calm down. You might not be able to understand the current situation very well." Nuwa looked at Klein and tried to comfort her. "Mm, anyway, you calm down first, and we'll explain it properly."
"Mm, long time no see, Klein, I guess?" Pardo also joined the queue attempting to soothe Klein. "Anyway, we folks should still be considered alive."
"Pardo is here too? Is it indeed the world after death?" Klein patted her own face, seeming to calm down very quickly. "Do we still have sensations in the world after death? Dr. Mobius would be very interested."
"The sensation is no different from a normal body." After pinching herself, Klein confirmed that the feeling was no different from when she was alive.
Amidst her thoughts, Klein had already determined that she seemed to be in the afterlife. While muttering about various sensations, she raised her hand again and plunged it directly into her chest.
"S-Senior Klein?!" Seeing this scene, Nuwa immediately became a bit nervous. "What are you doing? We are souls, but that doesn't mean we can just clip through our models casually!"
Klein raised her head, her hand just happening to pull directly out of her chest. In her hand was a golden Core.
Seeing this scene, Irene looked at Little Corruption, who had leaned over curiously from the side. "No, seriously, how come every single one of you can fish a Core out of your body? Why can't I find mine?"
"Who knows?" Little Corruption shrugged. She had always been able to sense where her Core was. As for the situation Irene mentioned, Little Corruption and [Irene] had also discussed it.
If everyone were a Herrscher for the first time, no one would know the reason. However, there was absolutely no question that Irene was a Herrscher. As for why Irene couldn't sense the Core inside her body, it was unclear.
It couldn't be that Irene's entire person was just one super-large Core, right?
On the other side, Klein broke off a piece from the Core and threw it aside. The Core immediately emitted Honkai energy, condensing another figure of Klein in the air.
"There seems to be no problem with the use of Authority either." Both Kleins spoke at the same time. "The world after death doesn't seem any different from the world of the living."
"Tsk, this Klein looks no different from Klein." Little Corruption poked Fuxi next to her, referring, of course, to the Klein ELF (Armed ELF).
In the original world, she and Klein were acquaintances. Moreover, Mobius was also very curious about her situation, so they became familiar with each other through their interactions.
She had also witnessed Klein's condition during overtime countless times. If Klein weren't in a puppet body, she probably wouldn't have been able to hold on long ago.
But looking at it now, this Klein, who was the main body, seemed not to lack in stamina at all. The ethereal 'immortal energy' filling her words was definitely not something caused by ordinary overtime.
"Senior Klein has always been this desperate." Fuxi leaned toward Little Corruption. "At the time, we thought Dr. Mobius had caught Senior Klein in some blackmail material, which was why she worked so hard."
"So, was there any?" Little Corruption's thought circuit synchronized with Elysia's, transforming her into a gossip alien. "What blackmail? Or is it that between Klein and Mobius, actually..."
"We suspected that too, but it seems not." Nuwa, hearing the commotion from the other side, also joined the gossip ranks. "But it seems it wasn't that. However, I always suspected that they actually just hadn't made it clear, but were just..."
As she spoke, Nuwa thought of what happened after Klein became the Herrscher of the Legion, and her tone became somewhat downcast. "Sigh, one can only say they are a pair of tragic lovers."
Hearing the noise, Klein raised her head and finally saw Little Corruption standing beside Nuwa and Fuxi. "Miss Elysia? You are here too."
"Ah, I am not the Elysia you know." Little Corruption waved her hand at Klein. "Mm, anyway, Miss Klein, how about you stop your imagination for a moment?"
"Not Elysia?" Klein tilted her head. "Mm, then what exactly happened?"
"How about you look at this first." Irene looked at Klein and used the old method to condense a Book of Memories again. "The situation is a bit complicated. Read this first."
"Mm." Klein nodded with some confusion. She didn't refuse and took the book to start reading. Remembering this opportunity, Irene also took action to check the panel she hadn't checked before.
[One Person, Thousand Minds · The Vacationless One · Klein]
[Type: Possession Card · Logic of Continuation]
[Abilities:]
[One Person, Thousand Seats: Possesses a complete Herrscher of the Legion Core. Can divide into a thousand Cores, gathering Honkai energy to condense split spirits of herself. Each clone possesses an independent personality, but all are Klein.]
[One Person, Thousand Minds: Possesses 1000 parallel wills. Can think about a certain matter at a thousand times the speed, or distribute them as needed to think about multiple matters.]
[Overtime Omnipotence: If needed, can complete any degree of overtime work, and can display extremely high patience.]
[Evaluation: Work, work, work, I need work.]
Irene looked at the panel, and the corners of her mouth couldn't help but twitch. How should she put it? This panel was, in a sense, full of bad taste.
Why did she feel that the Herrscher of the Legion's clone ability had been forcibly turned into a 'thousand-person overtime ability' by Klein?
On the other side, relying on the ability of 'One Person, Thousand Minds,' Klein fully understood all the content inside the Book of Memories at an extremely high speed.
"Parallel worlds, Imaginary Tree... so that's how it is." Klein nodded. "It seems the things Dr. Mobius once researched were correct."
"It's great that you can understand." Irene nodded. "But since you've finished reading, you should also know your situation in this world, right?"
"Mm, I can understand." Klein nodded, then turned to look at Nuwa and Fuxi. Under the strange gazes of these two, Klein bowed to them, her tone carrying an apology.
"I'm sorry. I once didn't have the chance to say sorry to you, but now I should have the opportunity."
Suddenly seeing Klein bowing and apologizing to them, Nuwa and Fuxi didn't react for a moment and hurriedly stepped forward to help Klein up.
"S-Senior Klein, what are you doing?" Nuwa supported Klein's body with force. "There's nothing Senior Klein needs to apologize to us for, right?"
On the other side, Fuxi indeed thought of what Klein had said when she saw them, making the judgment that she was already dead. Theoretically, for them, it was impossible to go to any dangerous place.
At that time, they had no reason to die. Why did Klein, upon seeing them, think this was the land of the dead?
Besides Klein knowing she herself should be in a state of death, there was another possibility: that they had died.
And now, the reason for Klein's apology was very likely that in that world, their deaths were related to Klein.
"Because I killed you." Klein bit her lip tightly, her voice trembling slightly. "At that time, I hadn't woken up yet. Under the incitement of the Herrscher of the Legion, I originally wanted to kill Dr. Mobius."
"But at that time, you were beside the Doctor and blocked a hit for her..."
Klein didn't need to say the rest; Nuwa and Fuxi understood what would have happened. The Herrscher of the Legion was weak, but he was ultimately still a Herrscher.
And the two of them were merely ordinary humans at that time. The MANTIS surgery was done only after they woke up in the Current Era, to give them enough lifespan to complete Project Ember.
At that time, they were just ordinary people. Did one even need to think about what the outcome would be if they clashed head-on with Senior Klein, who was called a Herrscher?
Subsequent events unfolded slowly under Klein's description. Because of the cover provided by Nuwa and Fuxi, Mobius was not successfully ambushed by Klein.
And a single Herrscher of the Legion indeed could not compare to Mobius, who had already developed the Active Honkai Reaction. So, the Mobius of that time was not killed by Klein once; instead, she directly subdued Klein.
As for what happened afterward, Klein had no memory. She only felt that she was in darkness, her body seeming to be incompletely filled by something.
But at that time, it was only like that. It wasn't until she saw a patch of pink light and heard whispers she could no longer remember that she opened her eyes.
And the moment she opened her eyes, she saw Mobius guarding in front of her. Seeing her wake up, Mobius originally wanted to pick up a weapon, but still hesitated.
"Pink light, huh." Irene looked at Little Corruption to the side—or rather, looked at Little Corruption's current appearance. Every Elysia would make the same choice, wouldn't she?
It was just unexpected that the way Klein crossed Destined Death turned out to be like this. It was indeed somewhat surprising.
"So, how exactly did Dr. Mobius wake Senior Klein up?" Nuwa scratched her head, feeling the amount of information was a bit large, and she couldn't react for a moment.
"Dr. Mobius said she withstood all dissenting opinions and collected all the Herrscher of the Legion Cores, stuffing them back into my body." Klein covered her chest. "This is why I got a feeling of gradually being completed."
"Because the owners of those Cores were already dead, the owner of all Cores became me—that is what Dr. Mobius said."
"Mm, so that's how it is." Irene nodded, but looked at Klein with some doubt. "Mobius did this—did Kalpas not say anything?"
"I don't know." Klein shook her head. "Mobius just continued to make me go to work after that... I knew what I had done, so I could only use redoubled efforts to make amends."
"Sigh, Senior Klein really is full of work in her head." Fuxi shook her head, but she had no way to deal with Klein. What could she say? Blame Klein for killing the 'them' of another world?
Senior Klein in that state couldn't control herself at all. Otherwise, Senior Klein wouldn't have attacked Dr. Mobius.
Since that was the case, what could they say? They could only say that everything was a trick of fate and the fault of the Honkai.
After shaking her head, Fuxi looked at Irene. "Miss Irene, could you contact Dr. Mobius? I think Dr. Mobius should be very interested in this."
"'Interested'—those two words are still too conservative." Irene smiled and took out the photo album she should have taken out long ago. "I feel like with this matter, even if I called her 'Dr. Snake Snake' right to her face, Dr. Mobius wouldn't say much."
Not long after the call was made, a voice came from the photo representing Mobius: "What is it? Lab Rat. Is there something you need from me?"
Irene looked at the connected call but didn't plan to speak. She stepped aside slightly and looked at Klein.
Since Irene didn't speak, Dr. Mobius's voice came from the photo album again: "Mm? What's wrong? Why aren't you speaking?"
Klein looked at the photo album in Irene's hand and took a deep breath. Then, she called out slowly to the photo album:
"Dr. Mobius."
As this voice fell, everyone clearly heard the sound of something dropping and shattering coming from Mobius's side, as well as a call with an indescribable tone.
"Kl... Klein?"
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