"I was fighting a Swarm King at the time."
Hearing Herta's question, Ilu looked up at the snow-white ceiling above her, her expression revealing that she was immersed in memories as she slowly recounted her experience.
"That was the largest Sting I have ever seen. It was as big as a giant red star. In order to kill it, I paid a considerable price, almost freezing the entire galaxy..."
"Wait, stop!"
The more Herta listened, the more she felt something was off, and she hurriedly interrupted Ilu.
The Swarm King is the incarnation of the Propagation Aeon Tayzzyronth, at least an Emanator-level existence. Fighting a Propagation Emanator alone is no different from committing suicide.
She hates people lying to her. After all, her time is very precious, and she has no time to waste on distinguishing other people's lies—so, she also hates History Fictionologists.
Herta reached out and knocked on the table, saying unhappily, "I asked you to recall, not to make up a story. Remove the part you fabricated and make it real."
"Ah, but what I said is true..." Ilu replied innocently.
If you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do.
"Words aren't enough~"
Herta stared into Ilu's eyes, which were as beautiful as fireflies, and spoke in an unyielding tone, as if she wanted to get to the bottom of it.
"You have to show some evidence; otherwise, how can others believe what you say?"
If you insist that what you just said was real, then I can just pretend I didn't hear it.
But since you chose to insist, then I will accompany you to the end today because you have met a great scientist who likes to get stuck in a rut.
"Of course there is evidence; the evidence is... wait, where is my sniper rifle?"
Halfway through her words, Ilu realized she seemed to be missing something very important. She quickly glanced around and saw only the Snow Fyrefly-V-type armored cavalry transformation sheath beside her pillow, but the weapon she used to kill the Swarm King was nowhere to be seen.
Did it get lost?
"Are you talking about that gun?"
Just when Ilu felt disappointed, Herta suddenly spoke up.
"Ah..."
Hearing this, Ilu looked up at the Herta puppet in front of her in a daze as the latter pointed in a certain direction with an expressionless face.
Following the direction of Herta's finger, Ilu saw a familiar azure firearm floating in the storage tank not far away. It was the sniper rifle [Severance] that Queen Titania had equipped her with before she left.
Great, it's still there.
The moment she saw [Severance], she couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Just when Ilu thought she had found evidence to prove that she had killed the Swarm King, Herta's next words poured a bucket of cold water on her, instantly dispelling the joy in her heart.
"If the evidence you claim proves you killed the Swarm King refers to this weapon, then unfortunately, this is just an ordinary kinetic sniper rifle—not even a rare item. We have not found any form of Path power on this weapon."
"How is that possible?!"
Hearing this, Ilu opened her eyes wide in disbelief.
You know, she went deep into the swarm nest and killed an Emanator with this sniper rifle, and you're telling me it's just an ordinary kinetic sniper rifle... Are you kidding? How can an ordinary sniper rifle shoot a bullet tens of thousands of kilometers?!
"According to the description from the members of the Astral Express, it frozen together with your Iron Cavalry Mech. Compared to the well-preserved mecha, this sniper rifle is completely broken and unusable. What you see now is its appearance after repair," Herta explained slowly.
"Is that so..."
Listening carefully to Herta's explanation, Ilu finally understood the reason.
Perhaps the key to the problem isn't the sniper rifle, but the seemingly inconspicuous bullet. She had gotten the primary and secondary relationships wrong.
In this case, the existing evidence can no longer prove that she has killed a Swarm King.
After all, there is only one bullet in the gun, and she used it to freeze the sea of stars. Unless she can reproduce the bullet, it is completely impossible—unless there is a Aeon to help.
Well...
Forget it; she killed the Swarm King anyway, so there's no evidence and she doesn't need to claim that honor.
The most important thing now is to enjoy her current retirement life.
The Propagation Aeon and Glamoth are both dead. She doesn't have to risk her life to kill insects anymore. The future prospects are bright, so why bother about what happened in the past?
"It seems that your memory may be affected by the turbulence of space-time. This is a common symptom. It's a good thing that you are able to return to consciousness so quickly."
Seeing the silver-haired girl fall into silence and appear to have no more powerful evidence, Herta realized that she had won the final victory in this argument. To avoid irritating the girl in front of her, she simply shifted the topic.
"Perhaps because of the gene surgery, your body structure is very different from that of normal humans. I suspect there is something we haven't checked yet."
"So next, you need to stay in the space station for a while to observe and undergo more comprehensive examinations and treatments..."
"After that, you can also choose to travel with the Astral Express. They will leave this space station after a while and go to other star systems. If you want to go home and take a look, leaving with them is undoubtedly the best choice."
"Well, thank you, Miss Herta."
Traveling with the Astral Express group is just something Ilu is thinking about.
However, she didn't see Stelle when she woke up.
Could it be that Kafka and Silver Wolf hadn't come yet?
"Um, can I check the time?"
Thinking of this, Ilu raised her hand weakly.
"Oh?"
Herta glanced at her, then took out a purple mobile phone from under her skirt and tossed it to Ilu: "Here, use it. I'll lend it to you."
"Ah, but this is your phone. Is it really okay to give it to me like this?"
Ilu said a little embarrassed.
"The clothes you are wearing are all mine, so what's wrong with using my phone?"
Hearing this, Herta raised her eyebrows and said in a slightly irritated tone, "Do you dislike that this is something I have used?"
"No."
Ilu shook her head quickly and accepted the gift from Herta. However, the moment she opened the phone, the March 7th avatar icon and the six big words [Honkai: Star Rail] appeared before her eyes, making her pupils tremble.
Wait, how come there's this thing on Herta's phone?!
Or can only I see it?
Realizing the seriousness of the matter, Ilu quickly reached out and clicked it.
The screen instantly went dark, and then a Astral Express running on star tracks appeared. This was the game startup interface.
[Countdown to server launch: 30 minutes]