"What a boring battle." The young man, holding the short sword, took out a handkerchief from his pocket, wiped the bloodstains from his face, and then tossed the handkerchief directly onto the ground.
Welt-One was dead.
Cause of death: the times had changed.
When facing an enemy who could teleport at any moment and possessed a weapon capable of a one-hit kill, his energy had been primarily focused on destroying the "Exorcist Attire: Kiritsugu."
Then, three Origin Bullets directly claimed his old life.
"Tsk tsk, I was hoping to test the power of the Stigmata on this guy, but he just knelt like that." The young man, whose eyes had turned a blood-like crimson the moment he declared he had "killed" Raiden Mei and received the Gem of Conquest, shook his head and spoke.
System Interface:
Mission: Save Nagazora City
Mission Requirement: Disrupt the Third Honkai Eruption set to occur in Nagazora City
Reward: Stigmata: Dracula
Mission Progress: Completed
Perhaps it was because the intelligence regarding the Sea of Quanta had been relayed to Cocolia through Bronya, making her realize the significant flaws in her plan. Or perhaps it was Li Zihan's own exceptional mobility and assassination capabilities that made her feel it would be too difficult to retrieve the Gem of Conquest.
Cocolia had given up on instigating a Great Honkai Eruption in Nagazora City. The mission issued by the system was thus completed. Ignoring Miss Mei's opinion from her confinement in the "little black room," this was clearly a happy ending for all involved.
"What should I do next?" The magus, feeling that the novice mission had been rather simple, took out a new handkerchief from his pocket, wiped the sword clean, then sheathed it and fastened it to his waist.
First was the matter he had promised Raiden Mei: to rescue her father, Raiden Ryoma, with her.
Then, find an opportunity to hire a demolition team and see if he could dig out Yingyingying and Feiyu Wan.
The Key of Erosion—Jizo Mitama—was undoubtedly a top-tier armament. As a Divine Key, on par with the Might of An-Utu and Abyss Flower, its abilities were definitely considerable.
However, to prevent any mishaps midway and avoid "GG'ing," he absolutely had to bring along a sufficiently strong helper to watch over things.
I probably can't reform a blackened Feiyu Wan with just a hug like a certain white-haired dango, the magus thought.
Reforming a vengeful spirit with sincere emotion was a bit difficult for Li Zihan; therefore, he had to prepare other methods of "reformation."
Yes, physical persuasion.
In this world, there weren't many characters who could reliably suppress a blackened Feiyu Wan.
From Schicksal's side, there was the Green Hat Connector, Youlan Dai'e, and the Shenzhou Tablet. From Anti-Entropy, there was Welt "Sit-ups in a Coffin" Yang. Then there was Su, self-imprisoned in the Sea of Quanta, and Kevin, locked up by his good bro.
Among them, contacting Schicksal's side was very risky due to Overseer Otto; a careless move could earn him a hit from Fenghuang Down, so they could be crossed off.
Su and Kevin, those good bros, were both squatting in the Sea of Quanta. Let alone how to persuade them to help, just getting them out was an extremely difficult matter.
So, in the end, could he only rely on the world sit-up competition champion, Welt Yang, to make a move?
The magus, feeling like he had reached a crossroads, looked somewhat troubled.
There were now two paths before him. One was to go through Raiden Ryoma, contact Anti-Entropy's conservative faction, and then reach out to Welt.
The second was to hurry back to Nagazora City, find Paramecium, have her go to Saint Freya Academy to acknowledge her relatives, and he himself could follow through the back door to sneak in and find Welt directly.
"This is really a dilemma." The genuinely conflicted young man scratched the back of his head, pondering which option was better.
And then—
A voice, cold in tone but with a hint of childish, naive sweetness, sounded beside Li Zihan.
"Do you know how to rescue someone from the Sea of Quanta?"
Li Zihan looked over. What met his eyes was the girl who, at some unknown point, had changed back into her somewhat military-style attire.
The girl, who had been silently watching Welt-One walk into the trap without uttering a sound, walked up to Li Zihan, her pale gray eyes fixed on the young man's face.
"You haven't left yet!" The young man, having just disposed of Welt-One, looked somewhat astonished.
"Please give Bronya an answer." The "sanwu" girl didn't answer his question but continued to stare at his face, her fingers fiddling with the hem of her skirt, expectantly awaiting an answer.
"Aren't you afraid I'll kill you?" The young man, needing an enemy to test the effects of Stigmata: Dracula, narrowed his eyes. The crimson light leaking from between his eyelids was shockingly intense.
"If you wanted to kill Bronya, Bronya would have died long ago." The girl, who had previously sensed some inexplicable friendliness from this person, glanced at the headless corpse with three large holes in it nearby, her gaze shifting slightly.
Her strength was indeed considerable, but compared to Welt Joyce's clone, she was weaker by more than just a notch. She had survived her encounter with the young man before her entirely because he had shown mercy during their fight.
"I gave you the answer before. Yes, there is a way." The magus, not yet heartless enough to directly eliminate a Valkyrie from the Hyperion, gave an answer that put Bronya's mind at ease.
"Then, can you tell me how to rescue someone trapped in the Sea of Quanta?" A faint, almost imperceptible smile appeared on the face of the girl who had received the answer she wanted.
This made it easy to doubt the truth of the claim that Miss Banya's emotional circuits had been damaged in the "X-10" experiment.
"Of course not." The magus, being pressed further, shrugged and said as if it were a matter of course. "The principle of equivalent exchange, surely you understand that?"
"Meaning, Bronya needs to offer something of equal value in exchange?" The girl didn't feel discouraged even though she hadn't gotten the answer she wanted, and continued to ask.
She didn't even know the name of the person opposite her. The fact that he had spared her once and patiently answered two of her questions was already quite fortunate. After all, Mister Welt-One, who had come looking for trouble after her, had ended up with three holes in him and his head chopped off, completely chilled.
Honestly, Bronya somewhat suspected the other party was a super lolicon; otherwise, his blatantly biased behavior couldn't be explained.
"Indeed." The young man, still in a hurry to return to Nagazora City to proceed with the next step of his plan, stretched lazily, preparing to leave.
Then, a hand grabbed the corner of his clothes.
Li Zihan turned back to see a pair of pale gray eyes.
"Then, can I exchange my labor for that information?"
"Hey, hey, hey, are you not going to care about your mother anymore?" Li Zihan looked at the girl who had always been serving her crazy mother and asked with keen interest.
"Mama Cocolia will understand Bronya." Hearing that name, the girl who had lost the person she loved most because of Cocolia, had an indifferent expression. No anger, no joy, only apathy.
She still couldn't forgive that unqualified mother who had lost Seele.
"Bronya's areas of expertise include stock trading, hacking, infiltration and assassination, and cooking. Bronya can handle many jobs." The girl, whose skillset was frankly a bit intimidating, tilted her head up, looking at the young man who knew how to rescue Seele, and asked, "Are you willing to hire Bronya?"
Hearing Bronya's words, Li Zihan fell silent.
Financial genius, super hacker, retired king of soldiers, top chef... Is this girl really not a conglomerate of urban novel male protagonists?
A beautiful girl with the traits of a male protagonist, huh? Seems quite interesting, this 'yazi'.
"Well then, please take care of me from now on, Miss Secretary." The young man, who had already planned to take a spin in the Sea of Quanta, extended his hand to the girl before him.