---o---
"Upper, Middle, and Lower Strategies. Go on, pick one to tell us."
Stelle crossed her arms, her tone light and breezy as she tilted her chin at Fu Zhu, the picture of someone who had complete and utter faith in her older brother.
Fu Zhu didn't answer right away.
He stood where he was, his gaze fixed on Kiana in the distance, his brows slowly knitting together.
Ninety-nine percent of Earth's Honkai energy was concentrated in a single person. The moment she set foot on the planet, it would be like delivering a mobile cataclysm. This was a problem that Schicksal had spent years and immeasurable resources trying and failing to solve, and now he was expected to produce three solutions on the spot...
To be honest, having so many options made it a bit hard to choose.
Stelle stared at Fu Zhu's profile for a few seconds, the smile slowly fading from her lips.
She swallowed, shuffled a half-step closer to him, and lowered her voice. "Bro… don't tell me you don't have a solution?"
Fu Zhu shot her a speechless look. Just a moment ago she was acting like she had total confidence in him, so why the sudden change of heart?
"No."
Stelle let out a sigh of relief, but she had to suck it right back in, because even though Fu Zhu had denied it, the frown on his face hadn't disappeared.
She was about to press him further when a glance to the side made her clamp her mouth shut.
Himeko stood by the boarding ramp of the Express, her gaze quiet. Bronya Zaychik had her hands clasped in front of her, her eyes also fixed on Fu Zhu. Even the usually boisterous Kiana had stopped looking around; her blue eyes were locked on him, her face full of anticipation.
Theresa and Tesla flanked Kiana. Though neither spoke, the pressure of four pairs of eyes boring into the same person was considerable.
Fu Zhu took a deep breath and decided to try the first method. He placed a crafting table on the ground and began to stuff various materials into it.
Stelle moved closer for a look, couldn't figure out what he was doing, but wisely chose not to disturb him and took a couple of steps back.
A moment later, Fu Zhu pulled a backpack, an Experience Pump Upgrade, and a Tank Upgrade from the crafting table. All three were items from the Sophisticated Backpacks MOD, which he normally used to store experience points.
Fu Zhu picked up the backpack and turned to Kiana.
"Put it on."
Kiana blinked, took the backpack, and tested its weight.
"It's pretty light…" she mumbled, turning the backpack over and examining it from all sides. Finding nothing particularly special about it, she slipped the two straps over her shoulders.
Tesla's mouth opened.
A single backpack could solve the Honkai energy problem that had plagued Schicksal for years? The logic was so baffling that she was about to ask for an explanation.
"Huh?"
Kiana suddenly let out a short cry of surprise.
Everyone's attention immediately snapped to her.
Tesla swallowed the words that were on the tip of her tongue and hurried over to Kiana. "What's wrong? Are you uncomfortable somewhere?"
Theresa moved at almost the same time, approaching from the other side. "Kiana?"
Kiana didn't answer them.
She looked down, her hands open, turning her palms over and over again. Her blue pupils gradually widened. Her lips trembled, and a voice squeezed out of her throat, thick with disbelief.
"The Honkai energy inside me… is decreasing rapidly."
A brief silence.
Then, Tesla and Theresa reached out simultaneously, each grabbing one of Kiana's wrists.
Tesla closed her eyes, her perception spreading out from the point of contact. Theresa's method was more direct; her fingertips pressed against the pulse point on Kiana's wrist, and the faint fluctuations of Honkai energy traveled through her skin and into her senses.
The expressions on both their faces changed in near-perfect sync.
Tesla's eyes snapped open, her pupils constricting slightly. Theresa looked up right after, her mouth half-open, her gaze meeting Tesla's.
They both felt it.
The Honkai energy in Kiana's body was indeed decreasing rapidly—at a terrifyingly fast rate!
More importantly, they had no sense of where the disappearing Honkai energy was going. It wasn't being dispersed, nor were there any traces of it being consumed or converted. It was as if it were simply evaporating into thin air.
Time ticked by, second by second.
Theresa kept her grip on Kiana's wrist, feeling the Honkai energy fluctuations under her palm grow weaker and weaker until they finally stabilized at a level so low it was almost negligible.
"...It's down to a normal level." Theresa's voice was a little hoarse.
Tesla released Kiana's hand and took a step back, her expression complex as she looked at Fu Zhu.
At Kiana's current Honkai energy concentration, forget taking a stroll on Earth—she could spend an entire day in the center of a crowded city and not cause any abnormalities whatsoever.
A problem that had plagued Schicksal for years, a challenge that countless researchers had exhausted themselves over without success, had been solved by Fu Zhu in a matter of minutes.
Tesla's mouth twitched. She turned and met Theresa's gaze, and both saw the same emotion in the other's eyes—it was impossible to say whether it was shock or helplessness, or perhaps a bit of both.
The Astral Express crew also saw the expressions on Tesla and Theresa's faces. No one needed to say a word; the answer was plain to see.
Himeko let out a soft sigh, a faint smile gracing her lips. Bronya gave a slight nod, her expression still calm, but her clasped hands relaxed.
Stelle's reaction was the most dramatic.
She deflated as if all the air had been let out of her, her shoulders slumping as she let out a long breath. "You scared me to death!"
She gave Fu Zhu's shoulder a punch. It wasn't very hard; it was more like a playful pout. "You were frowning and quiet for so long just now, I really thought you were out of ideas!"
Fu Zhu shifted his body, neither dodging nor acknowledging her.
Theresa was the first to recover from her shock. She released Kiana's wrist and turned to face Fu Zhu, her red eyes filled with curiosity. "Mr. Fu Zhu, what exactly is that on Kiana's back? Why did the Honkai energy suddenly disappear?"
Tesla also turned, crossing her arms in a posture that said she was ready to listen intently.
Stelle gave Fu Zhu a gentle nudge with her elbow. "Bro, why don't you explain? Otherwise, they won't be able to rest easy."
Fu Zhu looked at the gazes directed at him and nodded.
"The backpack Kiana is wearing is called a Sophisticated Backpack." He spoke slowly, gesturing with a finger at the brown backpack on Kiana's back. "By itself, it's just a container-type artifact, but you can install different upgrade modules to achieve different storage effects."
He paused for a moment, choosing his words.
"I installed an Experience Pump Upgrade and a Tank Upgrade inside. The pump is responsible for actively drawing, and the tank is responsible for containing and storing. When the two are combined, the Sophisticated Backpack gains the ability to automatically store energy from the user's body—any type of energy."
"Any type?" Tesla raised an eyebrow.
"Right." Fu Zhu gave a short, affirmative answer.
In truth, before he actually tried it, he hadn't been entirely sure himself.
He had only ever used the Sophisticated Backpack's storage function for experience points, never for any other type of energy.
But he had considered a key piece of logic: there was a similarity between experience points and the power of Paths, and experience points were, in essence, a form of energy. Since experience points could be properly stored by the backpack, then Honkai energy and the power of Paths, being similar entities, should theoretically work as well.
Besides, there was no downside to experimenting with the backpack. The worst-case scenario was that the backpack wouldn't recognize the Honkai energy and the storage function simply wouldn't activate. Since the cost of failure was practically zero, it was worth a shot.
As it turned out, his gamble had paid off.
However, Fu Zhu also knew that his words alone wouldn't be enough to completely convince everyone present, especially Tesla and Theresa, who were clearly the "seeing is believing" type.
So he turned to Kiana and spent a few sentences teaching her how to control the backpack's storage function. "Try to use your will to command the backpack to release the stored energy. The method is similar to how you usually manipulate Honkai energy, except the target has shifted from your own body to the backpack on your back."
Kiana tilted her head, giving a half-understanding "Oh," then closed her eyes to try.
The change was instantaneous.
The very second Kiana focused her attention, the Honkai energy in her body surged dramatically. The energy concentration, which had just dropped to a normal level, came flooding back at a visible rate, completely refilling her body.
Tesla's expression changed in a flash.
She took a sharp step forward, her hand reaching out to grab Kiana's shoulder.
"Wait!" Theresa stopped her, her voice tense, but her gaze never left Kiana. "She's controlling it."
As soon as her words fell, the surging Honkai energy in Kiana's body abruptly receded again, even faster than the backpack had drawn it out before. One moment, the energy fluctuation was so intense it made one's scalp tingle; the next, it had plummeted back to a normal level.
Then it rose again.
Then it fell.
Rose again.
And fell.
Tesla and Theresa stood right in front of Kiana, watching dumbfounded as the Honkai energy in her body jumped up and down. The fluctuations were terrifyingly large; at its peak, it was enough to trigger a regional Honkai disaster, yet at its lowest, she was no different from an ordinary person.
The switch between these two extreme states took less than two seconds.
Tesla felt her own heart thumping along with that fluctuating curve. After a few rounds of this, just as Kiana was about to continue her antics, she found her clenched fists were already slick with sweat.
"Alright, alright, that's enough!" Tesla grabbed Kiana's shoulders, her words spilling out in a rush. "Stop playing around! If you keep this up, my fucking heart is gonna give out!"
Kiana stuck out her tongue, but her eyes were shining brightly, her whole face alight with an irrepressible excitement. "Don't be so nervous, Dr. Tesla, I have it under perfect control! See, I can turn it on whenever I want, and turn it off whenever I want—"
"I can see that! You don't need to fucking demonstrate it anymore!" Tesla's voice rose by half an octave.
Theresa rubbed her temples and let out a long sigh.
She turned to look at Fu Zhu, the curiosity in her eyes having transformed into something far more complex. A feat that Schicksal had been unable to accomplish for years had been solved by the young man before her with a single backpack. She couldn't even tell if what she was feeling now was more relief or more awe.
Stelle sidled up to Fu Zhu with a grin and gave him two pats on the back. "See, I told you my bro would have a solution."
Fu Zhu tilted his head, ignoring her smug expression.
---o---