"Bet?"
Silver Wolf blinked. "What kind of bet?"
"I overheard you earlier—you want to go to Pier Point to get your account back, right?"
Lynelle smiled faintly. "Let's bet… on whether you can successfully retrieve your account from the Corporation's headquarters."
"If you succeed, I'll agree to any one condition you ask for. Even if you want a copy of my Corruption Virus, it's yours. If you fail…"
"Then I agree to any one condition from you?" Silver Wolf tilted her head.
"While that's tempting, I've already thought of my condition."
Lynelle shook her head. "If you fail, I need you to use your Ether Editing to create some Curios for me called 'Punklordian Regards.'"
"Of course, I won't make you do it for free. As payment, I'll hand over the game data from all 76 of your accounts. How does that sound?"
"Sounds quite enticing, Silver Wolf." Kafka leaned against the wall nearby, her expression unreadable. "But is that Curio difficult to produce?"
"Not at all. This deal is actually very advantageous for me, but…" Silver Wolf's voice held a note of confusion.
"Why do you need so many Punklordian Regards? Looking for 'boxed people'? If you used your own abilities, the effect would clearly be better than that thing, right?"
"Let's not dwell on that. So, do you accept or not?"
"...I accept. Why wouldn't I with terms this good? But how do I contact you after I get back? Should I come find you on the Astral Express?"
"If you're willing, you can come yourself. If it's not convenient…"
Lynelle pointed at the Honkai Impact 3rd game cartridge in Silver Wolf's hand.
"My contact info is in there too, but you'll have to find it yourself."
"Looking for an easter egg, huh…" A slight smirk tugged at Silver Wolf's lips. "Didn't expect you to be so much my type."
"Ha, I'm truly honored then."
Lynelle subtly checked her remaining energy reserves, then waved a casual hand.
"Time's about up, Silver Wolf. You'd better get moving on that bet. Wishing you failure in advance~"
"Who gives a blessing like that…" Silver Wolf muttered under her breath, then shot a glare at Kafka.
"Kafka, out with it. Does Elio's script have something about me in it?"
"Otherwise, why aren't you the least bit surprised by Lynelle showing up?"
"I wouldn't know~" Kafka averted her eyes guiltily. "What if I said the script was completely blank on this? Would you believe me?"
"Hmph." Silver Wolf's soft snort was her only reply.
"Whatever. Since I've already made a bet with someone, it looks like this trip to Pier Point is unavoidable now…"
Meanwhile, on the other side, Lynelle wore a similarly pleased expression, clearly happy with her successful plan.
After all, according to the storyline, Silver Wolf would run into Opal during her account retrieval attempt. While she'd successfully make him bleed a little, she ultimately wouldn't get her accounts back.
Therefore, Lynelle's bet was practically a guaranteed win.
As for why she wanted Silver Wolf to make so many Punklordian Regards… she actually wanted to use them to fill the Gacha pool.
As long as Silver Wolf made slight variations to each Punklordian Regard during production, the Gacha system would recognize them as distinct items and add them all to the pool simultaneously.
In the context of Honkai: Star Rail, the actual effect of these things wouldn't be much different from Lynelle directly using her Corruption power.
But if they were used on the Honkai Impact 3rd side—first added to the Gacha pool there, and then pulled from that pool—the difference would be huge.
After all, items pulled from the Gacha pool inherently carried a certain 'rule black box' with them.
If Lynelle tried to use her Herrscher authority directly, she might fail due to insufficient scale. But if she used a Punklordian Regard pulled from the Gacha pool over in the Honkai world, it would succeed 100%.
And in the future storyline, whether dealing with Otto's Soulium puppets or later confronting the Herrscher of Domination, which hadn't even emerged yet, Punklordian Regards—this ultimate one-click 'unboxing' weapon—would be extremely useful.
So, Lynelle planned to take this opportunity to stock the Gacha pool with a good supply for future use.
As for that Honkai Impact 3rd game cartridge… that was a little clever idea of Lynelle's.
She had embedded a game inside the cartridge, adapted from her own experiences in the Honkai world—which was also why the game's title was 'Honkai Impact 3rd (Prototype Version),' because the storyline was far from complete.
Beep— Beep—
Just then, Lynelle's terminal suddenly chimed.
Picking it up, she saw Madam Herta's profile picture prominently displayed on the screen.
[Are you done over there? If you're finished, remember to come to my office.]
"Huh?" Lynelle was baffled. "Why so mysterious…"
--+--
A few minutes later, Lynelle stood in Herta's office.
"The main reason I called you here is that I suddenly remembered a question about your other world. To prevent me from forgetting it, I figured I'd ask you now."
Herta was flipping through Lynelle's recent dream reports, then looked up and asked.
"Back when you first went to Oceania, I recall you proposed a theory. You suggested that the reason Bishop Otto placed both Wendy and Ragna together in Oceania was to conduct a trial run for his later plans."
"Therefore, you personally seized the opportunity to take up long-term residence in Oceania, to prevent him from launching a surprise attack on the region?"
"Correct." Lynelle nodded. "I'm absolutely certain that's what he was thinking."
"I'm not disputing your idea, it's just…" Herta frowned, staring at the summarized information about the Honkai world that Lynelle had previously compiled for her, along with Lynelle's predictions about certain future developments.
"Your assumption about how he would execute his plan might be slightly off."
"Have you considered that, given the current political landscape within Schicksal, it would be fundamentally impossible for Otto to send his own people to attack Oceania?"
"Let's talk about personnel first. Almost all of Schicksal's top-tier combat forces, aside from Otto himself, have some kind of personal connection to Ragna."
"Even with the most justified reason—even if Wendy truly lost control—Schicksal's Valkyries would be incapable of dealing a fatal blow to Ragna."
"And even if Otto overcame all these obstacles and personally took action against Ragna, the fallout would be immense."
"Even if he managed to suppress the immediate repercussions, by the time the next phase involving Kiana and Himeko rolled around, it would be absolutely impossible for him to suppress the discontent again. The internal dissatisfaction within Schicksal would lead to a de facto split at that point."
"If I were him, I certainly wouldn't trade a schism within Schicksal for a single trial run of a plan. The cost would far outweigh the benefit."
"But…" Lynelle looked puzzled. "Since you say my speculation isn't wrong, and Otto really does intend to conduct a trial run of the Sirin Plan in Oceania, then if he doesn't use Schicksal's forces, how else is he supposed to carry out this rehearsal?"
"I'm not from your world. How could I possibly know if you ask me something like that."
Herta gave Lynelle's head a firm rub.
"However, if the background information you provided is accurate, then based on my personal deduction, the ones who will ultimately make a move on Oceania…"
"Should be World Serpent."
--+--
T/N: If Kiana is HoF, then it would make sense that Elio can't read her future properly... maybe?
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.