He stood before the door.
He glanced down at the bags of takeout in his hands.
Luo Li raised his hand, only to immediately lower it again, hesitating.
Just a moment ago, something had happened. The result was that his entire worldview had shattered.
After a brief pause, Luo Li decided against knocking.
Right now, he needed to figure out a rather important question.
For instance, who am I?
This wasn't some deep philosophical inquiry, but the most immediate problem he was facing.
Because he was Luo Li, but at the same time, not this Luo Li.
It sounds convoluted, but to put it in simple terms... he'd transmigrated.
He had crossed over into the body of another Luo Li, one who shared his name and appearance.
The transmigration had occurred just ten minutes ago.
As the designated "dorm dad" for his suite of "sons," it was, as usual, his turn to get food for everyone.
But the moment he stepped out of the local K-joint, the world around him began to shift violently.
Skyscrapers shot up from the ground, holographic projections filled the sky, and floating maglevs flowed in endless streams. Down on the street, people bustled about, and he even saw a mech directing traffic at a corner!
In the blink of an eye, the familiar streetscape had become completely unrecognizable, like a futuristic cyberpunk city straight out of a sci-fi novel.
Then, before he could even recover from the staggering shock of this new reality, a massive flood of memories brutally forced its way into his mind.
Shenzhou, ARK City, Schicksal, Valkyrie, Mission...
In an instant, he understood. He had transmigrated.
After taking some time to sort through the memories, Luo Li discovered that, on the surface, this world wasn't too different from his own. Aside from some regional naming conventions and minor differences in major historical events, it was largely the same.
Yes, on the surface.
He didn't know if his original world had supernatural elements hiding beneath the surface, but based on his newfound memories, this one most certainly did.
Behind the curtains of this world's civilizations, a disaster known as the Honkai gnawed away at the foundations of human existence like a cancer eating away at the bone.
And the two organizations that nominally existed to combat the Honkai had, in reality, achieved control over the entire civilization in every respect.
These two behemoths fighting the Honkai were known as Schicksal and Anti-Entropy.
The former relied on bio-engineering as its primary means of fighting the Honkai. Using its powerful biotechnology, Schicksal created super-soldiers known as Valkyries, the tip of the spear in the war against the Honkai.
The latter was dedicated to the path of mecha technology, dealing with Honkai outbreaks with its vast armies of mechanized units.
And the Luo Li of this world was no simple civilian; he was a member of Schicksal.
Sifting through the information in his memories, Luo Li found that this world's version of himself had a life story that was both similar to his own and yet fundamentally different.
Both were orphans, and both grew up in an orphanage.
The difference was, Luo Li's orphanage was just a regular orphanage.
This world's Luo Li grew up in a charitable institution sponsored by Schicksal, which also served as a screening and training ground for the organization's next generation.
So, when he reached high school age, this world's Luo Li was accepted straight into the Valkyrie academy at Schicksal's headquarters.
That's right. Luo Li, a man, had graduated from a Valkyrie academy.
It wasn't that the academy only accepted female students. Rather, it was as if this world had some kind of underlying bug; those with a natural resistance to Honkai energy were almost exclusively female. Over time, this led to the schools that trained Schicksal operatives becoming de facto all-girls' schools.
Thus, at some point in history, some Schicksal Overseer had a flash of inspiration and simply decided to call them Valkyrie academies.
The reason Luo Li could get in was, naturally, because he possessed Honkai resistance far beyond that of an ordinary person.
While it was true that women mostly held this trait, occasionally a man would exhibit extraordinary Honkai resistance. Luo Li was one such exception. At the age of twelve, he was detected to have a latent Stigmata.
Soon after, he received an acceptance letter from the Valkyrie academy.
While the original Luo Li was studying his ass off to get into a good university, this world's Luo Li was undergoing all sorts of grueling training at the academy.
When the original Luo Li started his college life, this world's Luo Li finally graduated from the Valkyrie academy, successfully earning a B-Rank Valkyrie rating.
Yes, he, Luo Li, a male, was certified in Schicksal's archives as: B-Rank Valkyrie Luo Li, currently assigned to Squad Violet.
As wild as this situation was, he wasn't about to lose his cool over it, because he soon discovered there were even more mind-boggling things to deal with.
Within Schicksal, Valkyries below C-Rank were all logistical support staff. B-Rank and above were qualified to execute missions to annihilate Honkai threats.
So, after graduating, Luo Li was assigned to a Valkyrie squad codenamed "Violet."
And his first mission upon joining Squad Violet wasn't to slay Honkai Beasts, but to be dispatched to ARK City on a surveillance mission: to monitor a certain girl from the Kaslana family.
Unsurprisingly, besides himself, all his other teammates were girls.
Thanks to the convergence between worlds, Luo Li keenly noticed that his Valkyrie teammates seemed to correspond one-to-one with his university roommates...
"Dudes, how did you all turn into girls?!" Luo Li's expression was a sight to behold when he realized this.
And looking back through his memories from a third-person perspective, he saw that these Valkyrie teammates were almost too friendly, their affection clearly surpassing the bounds of mere friendship.
A squad full of beautiful girls who wanted to be his girlfriend... this was the start of a textbook harem story.
But all Luo Li felt was a chill run down his spine, because he realized something terrifying.
If there was a convergence between worlds, and if his Valkyrie teammates in this world had feelings for him that went beyond friendship, then what about his equally over-friendly roommates in his own world...
Luo Li shuddered violently at the thought.
"I treated you guys like bros, and you were all thirsty for me!" he gritted out, a wave of anger rising within him.
Thinking about it that way, he didn't feel so bad about transmigrating anymore.
As an orphan, he didn't have many connections to begin with. The only people he was close to were the deceased director of his orphanage and a group of roommates who were probably gay for him.
As a guy with standard-issue preferences, he'd take grappling with cute girls over "fencing" with dudes any day.
Luo Li took a deep breath, trying to ease his tension.
He was about to meet his beautiful new roommates from this world. The thought was actually kind of exciting!
Finally, Luo Li's fingers tapped against the door.
A wonderful new life, here I come!
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
"Alright, my boys, open up! I'm home."
But the enthusiastic response he imagined never came.
Luo Li felt a flicker of confusion. He wondered if they were trying to prank him—based on his memories, it wasn't out of the question.
After a moment's thought, he pulled the door open himself.
Instantly, a spherical object rolled out through the opening and bumped against the tip of his shoe.
Luo Li instinctively looked down and met the gaze of a beautiful face.
It was the face of a girl. Her expression was blank, her once-pretty eyes now empty voids, forever frozen in this moment.
Luo Li's face froze.
It was a head. It belonged to... one of his teammates.
At that moment, the stench that had been blocked by the door finally spilled out.
The overpowering, suffocating smell of iron flooded his nostrils, making Luo Li mechanically lift his head.
What greeted him was a scene from hell.
Trembling, shivering, a nausea that made him want to vomit.
This was Luo Li's most visceral reaction upon opening the door and seeing the room's interior.
Blood slicked the floors and walls, and the dismembered remains of several Valkyries were strewn everywhere.
At his feet, the girl with the beautiful face stared up at him, her blank expression now eternal. All that was left of her was her head.
Further inside the room, scattered across the blood-soaked floor, were several other heads. They were all his teammates from his memories, the members of Squad Violet.
The girls who, in his memories, had been laughing and joking with this world's Luo Li just a short while ago, were now all brutally murdered.
Forcing down the tremors wracking his body and the grief from his comrades' deaths, Luo Li scanned his surroundings.
The scene inside the room was like a slaughterhouse... no, a slaughterhouse wouldn't be this chaotic. It was as if they had been ripped apart by some monster.
Luo Li found his own mental resilience almost terrifying. He could still feel himself trembling, his heart crying out in empathy for his fallen comrades.
But the hellish scene before him hadn't broken his psyche. He could even feel himself gradually adapting to the sight, enough to have the presence of mind to observe the room.
Under the immense mental pressure, his thoughts became clearer than ever before.
Although each of these teammates was a young woman in her prime, as Valkyries equipped with Artificial Stigmata, even B-Ranks were genuine superhumans.
Judging by the state of the room, his teammates hadn't put up a fierce struggle. Or rather, they were killed before they even had a chance to fight back.
Ordinary weapons were largely useless against true Valkyries like them. Typically, only a powerful Honkai Beast could kill them so easily.
But Luo Li could confirm that there were no excessive readings of Honkai energy in the room, which largely ruled out a Honkai Beast attack.
That left only one other possibility: an attack from a rival organization.
Yes, Schicksal's official enemy was the Honkai, but that didn't mean they had no enemies on other fronts.
The various national governments with their own agendas, or the myriad of cults that worshipped the Honkai as a god, all had a potential motive.
But most of them lacked the capability.
There was only one organization that was hostile to Schicksal and had the power to do something like this.
"Could it be Anti-Entropy?"
Although the memories described Anti-Entropy in a mostly negative light—and Luo Li couldn't be sure how much of that was organizational bias—he knew their specialty was mecha technology.
Given the size of their mechs, it would have been nearly impossible for them to kill these Valkyries while leaving the building intact.
Limited by the information he had, Luo Li couldn't determine which faction the killer belonged to.
But he knew one thing: given the malice shown toward these Valkyries, the enemy would not let him, the one who got away, escape.
If this world's Luo Li hadn't been out getting food for his teammates and had coincidentally dodged the danger, he would be just another piece of the carnage right now.
Luo Li closed his eyes, images flashing through his mind. Perhaps influenced by the memories of his other self, fear and anger were gradually being suppressed by his reason.
He could finally start to think about his current situation and his next move.
He was still in danger. An unknown and powerful enemy was lurking in the shadows, ready to discover the fish that had slipped through the net at any moment.
Judging by how his teammates were dismembered without even a chance to fight back, he, a mere B-Rank Valkyrie, stood no chance of survival.
Once the enemy found him, death was the only outcome.
A sense of crisis pressed down on him like a heavy storm cloud, so thick he could barely breathe.
Ten minutes ago, he was just your average, blissfully ignorant college student, worried about failing classes and debating what to eat for lunch.
Ten minutes later, he stood outside a room spattered with blood and gore, determined to fight for his life.
Luo Li took out his communicator.
As a man with an organization and a unit, his first instinct when facing such a crisis was naturally to call for backup.
As a full Valkyrie squad, they had multiple B-Rank Valkyries and one A-Rank Valkyrie as their captain.
But after they arrived in ARK City, their captain had been reassigned by HQ, her destination unknown.
He needed to report the situation to the captain of Squad Violet, and if possible, request reinforcements from HQ.
But just as Luo Li was about to send the message, his finger hovered over the button and froze.
A terrifying possibility had just occurred to him.
Every Valkyrie's vitals were monitored in real-time. The moment one of them died, HQ would be alerted, and a notification would be sent to the relevant squad's communication channel.
But he hadn't received any such message.
That could only mean one thing... their communications had likely been compromised.
If he sent a message now, he'd likely be walking right into an ambush set by that unknown faction.
Luo Li lowered the communicator, his expression growing grim.
He was trapped in ARK City, forced to hide in the darkness from an unknown predator.
Until Schicksal realized they had lost contact, he would have to find a way to survive on his own.
He had no idea when rescue would come, and a powerful enemy was watching from the shadows. One wrong move and it was game over; he'd become just another part of the carnage on the floor.
"It's not the worst-case scenario yet!"
Luo Li raised his arm. On his wrist, a tattoo-like mark resembling a flame rested on his skin.
According to his memories, this was his latent Stigmata. No, it should now be called an awakened Stigmata.
The moment he arrived in this world, Luo Li noticed that the previously dormant Stigmata had undergone some kind of change, giving him the feeling that it had "woken up."
Everyone's body contained fragments of Stigmata genes; some people's were just more complete.
Some Stigmata granted their awakened users immense power, or other strange abilities.
But after sensing it for a moment, a look of disappointment crossed Luo Li's face again.
He could feel a peculiar power hidden within the Stigmata, but that was as far as it went.
It seemed to be different from Honkai energy and was completely beyond his control. As things stood, it wasn't providing any boost to his strength.
He forcibly suppressed the rising sense of disappointment. Although the Stigmata hadn't given him a lucky break, he hadn't planned on relying on it to fight his way out anyway.
The enemy hiding in the dark, capable of easily killing so many B-Rank Valkyries, was likely A-Rank. An enemy of that caliber was someone only the captain of Squad Violet could handle.
But with the squad's communications likely hijacked, he had no way of calling her back.
That didn't mean he was completely without help in ARK City, however.
Luo Li thought of his mission—the surveillance target, the girl from the Kaslana family.
For HQ to dispatch an entire Valkyrie squad just to watch her, she couldn't be just any Kaslana. She was likely a core member of the main family line.
Luo Li wasn't interested in her identity, but he knew she might be his only ticket to survival.
According to his memories, Squad Violet's mission was purely surveillance. They were even ordered not to intervene, even if the target was in danger.
But it was unthinkable that the safety of such an important person would be completely ignored.
So, it was more likely that the team responsible for surveillance and the team responsible for protection were two different units.
And, for security reasons, they probably used different communication channels.
If he could get in touch with her detail, he could report the current situation to Schicksal HQ. That was his only chance to live.
Of course, doing so would likely be a violation of organizational regulations, but Luo Li wasn't this world's Luo Li. His life belonged to him first and foremost.
It was better to be reprimanded for breaking the rules later than to be killed by an unknown enemy now.
Having made up his mind, Luo Li steeled his resolve.
Looking at the head that had rolled to his feet, he knelt, cupped it in his hands, and gently closed her eyes.
Then, he placed it back inside the room.
He took one last, deep look at the bloody scene, as if to sear it into his memory forever.
CLICK!
The door closed again, sealing the stench of blood within.
Next up was to meet that Kaslana girl. Rummaging through his memories, Luo Li recalled that her name was... Kiana?
He turned, took a step, and then froze once more.
Because he saw, right in front of him, a single crimson feather floating down out of thin air.
Before his eyes, it transformed into a line of text.
[The Herrscher of the Void has awakened within Kiana. Remember...]