Hikari Aoi was the only resident in the entire boys' dormitory building. In fact, perhaps because there had never been any male students before, the building didn't even have a guard.
Taking out his keycard, he opened the main entrance, then quickly walked through the fairly clean corridor. After swiping the card again to unlock his room, he stepped inside. His gaze swept across the spacious dorm—over thirty square meters, complete with both a bedroom and a study.
After confirming that there were no cameras or surveillance devices, he took a deep breath and extended his finger, pressing the "Ten Pull" button.
In the game, the Friendship Supply could yield B-rank character fragments, coins, and low-level universal materials. In truth, none of these held much value for Hikari Aoi.
Coins might be equivalent to the currency of this world, but as for materials—they were used to evolve weapons and Stigmata. Without suitable weapons or Stigmata to pair with them, they were little more than useless extras.
As for B-rank character fragments, Hikari Aoi didn't believe that in this real world he could assemble Valkyries from fragments.
Which meant—
The Friendship Supply must have undergone some kind of change.
And that unknown change was precisely what kept him from calming down.
He wanted to grow stronger.
He wanted to board the Hyperion.
He wanted to truly hear those Valkyries call him "Captain."
At the very least, now that he had arrived in the Honkai world, he refused to remain an ordinary person—someone completely powerless in the face of the Honkai.
In the game, equipment of four stars and above had a purple background. Seeing purple in a supply pull meant you had gotten something good. Three-star and two-star items were blue, and in any supply pool that required crystals, getting only blue items meant poor luck.
But now—
Before Hikari Aoi's eyes were ten neatly arranged green icons.
Even though he already knew that Friendship Supply wouldn't yield anything impressive, seeing this result still made him let out a helpless smile.
Green.
That meant one-star items.
Nine one-star Homu Treasures turned into streams of golden light, flowing into the top of the interface. A coin symbol appeared there, with the number behind it showing 9,000.
The only item that wasn't a Homu Treasure—
Was a Stigmata.
"Selena (Top)… Who would have thought that one day I'd actually feel happy getting this Stigmata?"
As Hikari Aoi muttered to himself, the Stigmata—originally one-star and capable of reaching only two-star at most—did not materialize into a physical object as he had imagined.
Instead, it transformed into a streak of green light and flowed directly into his body.
Then came the pain.
The sensation of something foreign invading his body.
Perhaps because the power of Selena (Top) wasn't particularly strong, or perhaps because Hikari Aoi's body had a certain level of aptitude, the pain wasn't unbearable. At the very least, he only frowned—he didn't cry out, nor did he struggle.
Instead, he endured it.
And even managed to curl his lips into a trembling smile.
That smile was proof of joy.
Hikari Aoi could feel it.
He had become stronger.
Standing up again, Hikari Aoi left his dorm room and walked to the shared restroom—used only by himself. Through the mirror, he looked at his back.
There was nothing unusual.
It looked completely normal.
And yet—
The power was real.
He had indeed gained strength.
After a brief silence, Hikari Aoi grinned.
Since no visible Stigmata mark appeared on his back like those of Valkyries, did that mean the power contained within Stigmata could be absorbed infinitely?
That there was no limitation of equipping only three Stigmata at once?
For now, having only obtained Selena (Top), he couldn't confirm it.
But the possibility was high.
As the Stigmata's power was fully absorbed, the ten-pull officially ended. Hikari Aoi noticed that the previously simple interface—containing only the Friendship Supply—had changed.
At the top, a coin counter appeared.
In the middle, a section for friendship points.
And on the side, a new button—
Stigmata.
Originally, Hikari Aoi intended to reach out and tap it like before. But the moment that thought arose, the interface automatically shifted, displaying Selena (Top), the only Stigmata he currently possessed.
Along with it—
A "Strengthen" button appeared.
Strengthening didn't require any materials or experience items like in the game.
Only coins.
To fully upgrade the one-star Selena (Top), it required 1,000 coins.
With 9,000 coins in hand, Hikari Aoi didn't hesitate.
He maxed it out instantly.
Then, the "Strengthen" button changed into—
"Evolve."
And evolution required a full 5,000 coins.
The drastic increase made Hikari Aoi frown.
In the game, how many coins were needed to evolve a one-star Stigmata?
It definitely wasn't this exaggerated.
Even though materials were no longer required, this trend of increasing costs…
Hikari Aoi could already foresee a future where he would constantly be short on coins.
Despite these thoughts, he still chose to evolve it.
But when he tried to strengthen the Stigmata again—
He ran out of coins.
To max out a two-star Stigmata required 10,000 coins—ten times the cost of the one-star stage. And there was no halfway leveling. It was either level one or max level.
With only 3,000 coins remaining, Hikari Aoi had no choice but to stop, leaving Selena (Top) at two-star level one.
Previously, he had endured the discomfort of his dual-layered vision out of fear that closing the interface would make it disappear forever.
But now—
The moment he gave up on further strengthening—
The entire interface vanished.
His vision returned to normal.
He didn't feel relieved.
Instead, his heart tightened.
Only after testing it with a thought—confirming that the interface could freely appear and disappear at his will—did he finally let out a breath.
The Selena set was a basic Stigmata set in the game. Hikari Aoi had only obtained the top piece, not the full set of three. Without proper combat training, his strength likely didn't even reach that of a B-rank Valkyrie.
Even so—
The immense pressure he had felt after realizing he was in the Honkai world eased, if only slightly.
"I hope I still have enough time…"
Glancing at the year displayed on his phone—
2013—
Hikari Aoi murmured softly.