"Opposite to you—what do you mean by that?"
"To put it bluntly, I believe that I myself am not a qualified Overseer."
Otto's candor was unexpectedly disarming.
From the moment he revealed his identity, to laying bare his true intentions, and finally even offering his own self-assessment—he hid nothing.
"The reason I became Overseer was entirely driven by personal desire, but that isn't the point."
"The point today is that I hope to have a successor—one who truly possesses great potential."
"Great potential?"
"Yes. Great potential."
Faced with Welt's doubts, Otto launched into a long discussion with him about what it meant to be great.
Welt listed countless great figures from all walks of life.
Yet every single one was rejected by Otto.
"A truly great person is not merely an outstanding individual in a given field,"
"but someone who can lead such outstanding individuals—someone who can enable them to unleash their greatest potential."
"I want to remind you of something. A person's inner self isn't limited to temperament or character."
"A person's inner self is first and foremost determined by their essence."
Welt froze.
"Essence?"
"Yes. And essence isn't anything mysterious."
Otto tilted his head, his tone turning distant and almost ethereal.
"I've lived for over five hundred years, and my own essence has, from beginning to end, been nothing more than a vague, insubstantial shadow—one named the Saint."
"Five hundred years?!"
"It's nothing special. I merely signed a contract with a devil."
"But that's not the point."
"What I truly want to say is that your essence—if guided correctly—"
"—"
In the next instant, the conversation was interrupted by a power outage.
Shrouded in darkness, Welt finally reached a decision.
He spoke plainly, rejecting Otto's request—rejecting the inheritance of Schicksal.
The decision surprised many of the onlookers.
[Keqing: Huh?? Little Theresa… your grandfather has lived for over five hundred years??]
[Theresa: Ahem… Grandfather has indeed led Schicksal in resisting Honkai for a very long time…]
[Kiana: Hehe, Miss Keqing, don't be fooled by how cute our Headmistress is—her age might actually be more than yours—]
[Theresa: Kiana?]
[Kiana: Hehehe…]
[Jean: Welt rejected it outright? That was the succession of Schicksal.]
[Ruan Mei: Just how obsessed with the Saint is this Otto? He brings her up every few sentences.]
[Durandal: Indeed. The Overseer has always been like this.]
[Otto: If Kallen were still alive, the world would surely be moved by her spirit.]
[March 7th: There he goes again…]
After being rejected, Otto said nothing more.
Welt, his vacation over, returned to his work.
Everything seemed to settle back into calm.
Yet only those who had personally experienced it—Einstein, Tesla, and the others—understood that beneath Otto's calm exterior lay something far more terrifying:
A gaze.
Moments earlier.
As white light enveloped everything—
Kallen Kaslana slowly opened her eyes.
She looked around at the boundless, pure-white space surrounding her, confusion filling her gaze.
She couldn't understand why she was here.
Then, in the next moment, something surfaced in her memory.
Pain flickered across her face as she instinctively raised a hand to her abdomen—where a Honkai beast had once pierced her chest.
Yet strangely… the wound was gone.
"I… wasn't I already dead?"
Only now did Kallen recall everything that had happened before she lost consciousness.
To save civilians from a Honkai beast, she had sacrificed herself—dying to its attack.
By all rights, she should have been dead.
Before she could ponder further—
A luminous screen abruptly appeared before her eyes.
And upon that screen was displayed the ongoing exposure of Welt Joyce.
"Welt? The twentieth century? A world five hundred years in the future…?"
Everything on the screen felt alien and bewildering to Kallen.
Yet there was one face she recognized instantly.
"Otto?!"
For a moment, surprise and joy welled up within her.
If what the screen showed was true…
Otto had lived for that long?
"Otto… are you doing well?"
Beside the screen, what appeared to be a chat group scrolled endlessly with messages.
Yet Kallen could only watch—she couldn't participate in the discussion.
Those within weren't just people from five hundred years in the future.
There were beings from entirely different worlds as well.
Of course… among all of them, the only one Kallen truly knew was Otto Apocalypse.
Even so—
Even trapped in this pure-white space, seemingly cut off from the world.
Even unable to speak to anyone at all.
Kallen felt content.
She was someone who should have died long ago.
For fate to grant her another chance—to witness everything, to see the world and history five hundred years later—
that alone was enough to fill her with gratitude.
And what shook Kallen the most—
were those twenty-two letters.
Those unbroken memories.
Those ceaseless recollections—
all about her.
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