Since I can give up at any time, I might as well hold on until I absolutely can't anymore.
Let me try.
Let me see just how far I can go.
...
The seventh loop. Standing once again on the street amidst the torrential rain, Li Wu no longer looked downcast. Instead, he clenched his fists, turned around, and sprinted back the way he came.
The rain fell wildly upon him like silver threads, playing a rather ungraceful tune as it pattered against his clothes.
Just as expected, he ran into Anna, who was hurrying to find him.
It wasn't a coincidence. It wasn't a chance encounter.
The only person who could get him to his destination in a short amount of time was right here, right now, standing right in front of him.
Through the blurry curtain of rain, Anna tilted her head in confusion. Seeing Li Wu's disheveled state, she frowned slightly.
With a sigh, she walked straight toward him and, just like the previous loop, held her umbrella over his head.
But this time, Li Wu abruptly grabbed Anna's wrist. He checked the time on his phone and, before Anna could speak, rapidly cut in: "My friend is in danger. Can you get me home in one minute?"
Li Wu pointed toward his distant apartment building. Anna followed his gaze. The distance was about a kilometer; it would be very difficult to traverse that quickly without activating her Honkai-powered battlesuit to enhance her physical capabilities.
After a moment of hesitation, Anna shook her head and refused.
"I haven't received authorization to use my Valkyrie powers in the city during this vacation. Unless my life is in danger, abusing Valkyrie powers in a civilian area is a violation of Schicksal regulations."
"That friend you mentioned is Raiden Mei, right? She's a Herrscher. She doesn't fall under the category of 'ordinary citizens' we're sworn to protect."
"My dream is to become an S-Rank Valkyrie. If a disciplinary infraction goes on my record because of this, my more than ten years of hard work will be for nothing."
Anna kept her face neutral, showing no excess emotion, as if reciting the Valkyrie code from memory.
"I guarantee you will become an S-Rank Valkyrie! If you get stuck because of this, I will take full responsibility for you!"
Time was ticking away by the second. Li Wu's tone grew desperate.
"You? Take responsibility?"
As if hearing the funniest joke in the world, Anna couldn't help but doubt the mental state of the man in front of her.
"Becoming an examiner requires S-Rank strength, a spotless record, and a prominent background. You can neither become an examiner nor attain S-Rank combat power. Li Wu, I don't know what normal men in society are like, but all you can offer are empty, ethereal promises. Haven't you ever heard the saying? 'Promises that can't be kept are no different from lies.'"
Anna still refused Li Wu's request.
Ask her to save a Herrscher?
If Schicksal found out, her Valkyrie career would be over. There was absolutely no need to go to such lengths for someone entirely unrelated to her.
If I fail to become an S-Rank Valkyrie... Aunt Cecilia will have to stay at Schicksal Headquarters for the rest of her life. That was something Anna could not accept.
In the next second, Li Wu drew the pistol from his waist.
Anna looked mildly interested and teased, "Are you going to threaten me with that gun?"
However, the unexpected happened.
Li Wu didn't point the gun at her. He pointed it at himself. His rapid tone slowed down. "I know it's despicable to do this. I owe you, and I will repay you in the future. But you have to help me right now. You specifically took a vacation and transferred to Chiba Academy because you received a mission to monitor me. If I die, your mission fails, doesn't it?"
Seeing her objective exposed, Anna dropped the act.
"That's right. Someone did order me to monitor you. But so what? The Far East has a strict ban on firearms; that gun in your hand is just a high-quality replica. And even if it were real, you wouldn't dare pull the trigger. I've seen plenty of people like you during my missions. Every single one of them was cowardly to the bone, loudly claiming they weren't afraid of death. But when a Honkai Beast or a Zombie actually appeared in front of them, they'd trip their own comrades just to buy themselves a few extra seconds of life..."
Suddenly, the smell of gunpowder spread like a mist, accompanied by a deafening gunshot.
"Ugh!!" Li Wu endured the agonizing pain as the bullet practically crippled his left arm. The shockwave made his muscles spasm and severed nerves as it forcefully shattered the bone. "I knew... you wouldn't believe me... Do you... believe me now?"
Anna stared in disbelief at the bloody hole in Li Wu's left shoulder, feeling as if the man before her had completely lost his mind. "A real gun... on the street... shooting yourself in the shoulder... Are you crazy?! Couldn't you have just taken the time to explain properly?!"
Leaving aside where he even got a real gun, didn't he consider the massive repercussions of shooting himself on a public street in the Far East? If someone filmed it and posted it online, jail time was a certainty.
Was it really necessary to go to such extremes for a Herrscher?
"There's no time. Just this once... Take me home as fast as you can. I hate owing people, but this time, I owe you a favor... I will definitely repay it. I swear... I will never retract this promise..."
Li Wu's voice was incredibly weak. He had already made up his mind: if Anna still refused, he would just shoot himself in the head and loop again.
He would use the time before his consciousness faded to try and think of a reason that could convince her.
The outcome was much better than Li Wu had imagined. Seeing the horrifying wound on Li Wu's shoulder, Anna gritted her teeth, tossed the umbrella aside, and scooped him up in her arms.
Confusion, anger, resentment... A myriad of emotions intertwined and overlapped in her eyes.
How could a person do this to themselves? Does he not value his own life at all?
Is he doing this on purpose?
For a brief, dazed moment, Anna saw a reflection of herself—the girl who had abandoned her slacker creed to become the model Valkyrie.
"Who cares about a favor from an ordinary person like you? If it weren't for the trouble... Fine. Just this once. I will only take you there. I won't do anything else. If you ever use a mission to threaten me again, I... I... I won't let you off easy! Hold on tight, and point the way!"
In the end, Anna chose to compromise.
Her gaze instantly turned sharp. Carrying Li Wu, she vanished from the spot, sprinting toward the direction he pointed.
"Love Apartment? Heh, you really live in a nice place!" Anna's voice, amplified by her battlesuit, carried a robotic, indistinct echo.
To say she was running with Li Wu would be an understatement; she was practically flying. A single leap covered hundreds of meters. She shot straight toward the apartment building like a cannonball.
We'll make it...
Amidst the howling, chaotic rainstorm, Li Wu struggled to keep his eyes open, watching their destination rapidly approach.
He had chosen the route closest to the kitchen. Even though they might take some damage crashing in, they would make it in time!
Li Wu drew his gun. Just as they were about to smash into the windowpane, he tensed his muscles.
With a loud crash of shattering glass, not a single shard cut his skin. At the moment of impact, Anna had shifted her position to shield him behind her back. The two landed safely in the kitchen.
"A Schicksal Valkyrie?!"
"Li Wu?!"
The two cyborgs in the kitchen stared in astonishment at the sudden appearance of Anna and Li Wu, a wave of fear washing over them.
One of them was Li Wu's old acquaintance, Arga.
"Little... Li..."
A faint voice, sounding as if it could draw its last breath at any moment, came from the corner of the kitchen.
Li Wu whipped his head around.
Raiden Mei was frozen solid inside a bizarre, massive block of blue ice. Only her head and half of one shoulder were barely exposed. Her face was as pale as paper, her lips a deep purple, and every breath she took expelled a thin wisp of white mist.
Inside the ice crystal, a few streaks of purplish-black lightning struggled to burst forth—the authority of the Herrscher of Thunder. But the moment they appeared, they were ruthlessly suppressed and devoured by the much colder, biting plasma energy.
"It's okay... I'm here. We made it in time..." Li Wu struggled to stand up. The agonizing pain radiating from his shoulder made his vision go dark, but he forced the corners of his mouth up, trying to give Mei a reassuring smile.
Only, the smile was far too forced. It didn't look like a smile at all; it looked more like a grimace of pain.
Bright red blood continuously flowed from the bullet hole in his shoulder, trailing down his arm to his fingertips, and then—
Drip... Drip... Drip...
The clear sound of blood striking the kitchen tiles echoed, blooming into glaring crimson flowers.
Li Wu took a deep breath, forcing himself to ignore the dizziness from blood loss and the bone-deep cold.
There was no time. All he had to do now was use his life in this loop to test the enemy's attack patterns, and then hand that information over to his future self in the next loop. He would repeat this until he memorized all the cyborgs' attack trajectories, and then deliver a fatal blow.
Holding his breath, Li Wu charged straight forward, his complete focus locked onto the enemy.
"Suicide?"
The right arm of the cyborg next to Arga suddenly swelled to twice its size—almost as large as a person. Scalding hot steam spewed from the exhaust vents of the prosthetic.
I can't dodge this...
Li Wu confirmed the trajectory. In the next loop, I need to shift about ten centimeters to the left half a second after charging.
Just as the mechanical giant fist—capable of easily flattening a steel plate—was about to smash him into a bloody pulp, the ear-piercing sound of tearing air abruptly stopped. When Li Wu looked up, he saw that the mechanical fist, which possessed enough power to blast him to smithereens, was stopped less than a fist's breadth away from his nose.
Anna's seemingly slender and delicate hand had easily caught and gripped it, forcibly squeezing deep finger indentations into the steel arm.
"Schicksal Valkyrie! I don't recall the Overseer of Schicksal issuing any orders to interfere with the Herrscher of Thunder! If you save a Herrscher without authorization and the news gets out, your Valkyrie career is over! Schicksal will never tolerate—"
The cyborg roared, attempting to persuade Anna to back down.
"You're mistaken about two things."
Anna interrupted him, her voice clear and calm.
"First, I have no interest in saving some Herrscher of Thunder."
With a slight flick of her wrist, she used an unreasonable amount of brute force to toss the severely deformed mechanical arm—and the cyborg attached to it—flying across the room.
"You can do whatever you want with the Herrscher of Thunder. Second, you cannot touch this man today. I am only responsible for ensuring he doesn't die. And your actions have violated that second point."
As if feeling her reasoning wasn't sufficient, Anna added another sentence: "He is a civilian. Protecting civilians is a Valkyrie's duty. You trespassed into someone's home carrying firearms. I have every justification to execute you on the spot."
However, to the few people present, this reasoning sounded no different from a forced excuse.