Henry stared at the computer screen for several seconds before slowly lowering himself into the chair.
It had worked again, and the room looked exactly as he remembered it, with the familiar desk against the wall, the computer monitor occupying its usual place, and a empty water bottle still resting beside the keyboard exactly where he had left it months ago.
Then Henry suddenly remembered something.
Closing his eyes, he reached into his system space until a familiar rectangular shape met his fingers.
His phone.
...Oh.
When he had returned to Teyvat from Earth last time, he had dumped several power banks and his phone into his system space and unknowingly carried them back with him, not that it had mattered much.
His screen addiction was almost completely cured now, because back on Earth he had wasted countless hours scrolling endlessly through social media and random videos, whereas now he had actual things to do, businesses to build, hot women to flirt with, and entire civilization to modernize.
Phones had been invented primarily for communication, and while entertainment was perfectly fine, addiction was not.
"Speaking of phones..."
Leaning back in his chair, Henry glanced toward the ceiling.
"Orianna, can't you give me a mission to introduce phones to Teyvat?"
[Isn't it too early, dumbo?]
"Maybe."
[There isn't even electricity in Teyvat.]
"My café is going to bring it though."
Switching on the phone, he connected it to one of the charged power banks before browsing through the various updates that had accumulated during his absence.
Messages, news articles, advertisement emails, and countless other notifications immediately flooded the screen, but Henry ignored almost all of them because his attention had already locked onto something far more important.
A newly released preview.
His thumb moved before his brain fully processed what he was seeing.
"Snezhnaya preview?"
Henry immediately clicked.
The video began, and within seconds his full attention was captured.
"Whoa."
The first thing that caught his eye was the train, not simply because it existed, but because of what it implied. The vehicle moved with a speed that made traditional steam locomotives look sluggish by comparison, while the interior looked far more modern than anything he would have expected from a purely steam-powered system.
His eyes narrowed slightly as the preview continued, revealing a glimpse of the Tsaritsa's Statue of The Seven, the Traveler, and, most surprisingly of all, a gun in the Traveler's hand.
"The Traveler has a gun."
[The Traveler has a gun.]
"And we're going too slow, Orianna. Seeing Snezhnaya already this advanced, we can definitely move a little faster with the industrial revolution, so come on."
[Alright, fine. I need to check what quests I can assign you.]
By the time the preview ended, Henry found himself leaning back thoughtfully.
"Different nations use different energy systems."
He began mentally reviewing everything he knew.
"Fontaine doesn't actually use electricity. They rely on Pneuma and Ousia ."
[Correct]
"Sumeru uses Akasha-derived technology."
[Correct]
"Liyue relies on Adeptal methods, craftsmanship, and Geo applications."
[Correct]
"Mondstadt is... Mondstadt?"
"Snezhnaya might actually be the only nation actively researching something similar to electricity."
The possibility grew more convincing the longer he thought about it, especially when one particular Harbinger came to mind.
Sandrone
"Sandrone is obsessed with machinery, and combined with access to ancient technology and resources from the Tsaritsa, it's entirely possible that she has already developed concepts resembling electrical engineering."
"Even though she is pretty, she is still a three-hundred-year-old clanker."
[Henry, if she ever finds out you said that, you're going to be turned into minced meat.]
"Well, she won't find out now, will she? I'm talking with you, and you can't speak with anyone else since you're a system bound to me."
Orianna didn't reply immediately.
Henry blinked.
Wait.
"Orianna, do you have the ability to talk to other people or speak directly into their heads?"
[Noo..]
The answer came a little too quickly, and Henry narrowed his eyes as the tone of her voice sounded less like a confident denial and more like someone trying to hide something.
"You'd better not be talking with other people, Orianna."
[What? No! I already told you I can't speak to others, stupid.]
"Fine, fine."
"No need to get defensive."
Henry's thoughts drifted back to the train, because the vehicle alone supported his theory. A purely steam-powered engine should not have looked that advanced, at least not from what little he had seen, and the more he considered it, the more a steam-electric hybrid seemed like the most reasonable explanation.
"Interesting."
Henry's mind wandered to the teaser that had released almost ten months ago, The Gods' Limits.
Back then it had simply been exciting lore, but now it was terrifying because Henry had actually met people from Teyvat, lived there, and was building a life there.
Knowing who the four shades where and what they represented sent a genuine chill down his spine, and his thoughts immediately drifted back to the Deadpool serum that he had once considered absurdly overpowered, because his regenerative abilities suddenly felt insignificant when compared to entities capable of influencing reality itself.
"I don't think I could survive one second against one of them."
[0 seconds.]
"Yes. Zero seconds. I understand. Thank you."
[You are welcome.]
Yet despite all that, nothing had happened. There had been no punishment, no heavenly intervention, and no mysterious assassins descending from the sky, which meant one of two things: either they hadn't noticed him, or they simply didn't care.
Henry strongly suspected the second option.
Someone appearing from another world was probably noticeable, but compared to dragons, gods, sovereigns, and ancient monsters, Henry was currently little more than an ambitious businessman with unusually strange ideas, and he intended to remain that way for a long while.
Especially after remembering that a villain like Rhinedottir had managed to reach such absurd heights despite everything she had done.
"Definitely not picking fights with cosmic entities."
After another few minutes, Henry reluctantly put the phone away because, as much as he wanted to launch the Genshin immediately, he had other priorities.
Checking the date, Henry quickly realized that roughly three months had passed since his last visit, which was more than long enough to cause problems.
Sarah was sitting inside her office working through a mountain of paperwork with one hand running through her hair as she shuffled through documents. She was wearing her usual business suit, and Henry honestly thought female business suits were one of the greatest fashion inventions in human history.
The moment she looked up and spotted him standing in the doorway, every thought immediately vanished from her head.
"Boss?!"
Henry winced.
"...Hello."
For several seconds Sarah simply stared at him before her expression transformed completely.
"You're alive!!"
"I thought you died. You vanished for three months!"
Henry opened his mouth to defend himself, only to close it again when he realized she had a point, while Sarah rubbed her forehead and continued before he could come up with an excuse.
"I called and emailed you so many times."
"I know. I saw the messages when I came back."
"You didn't take your phone with you?"
"No."
Henry coughed awkwardly.
"Let's just say I needed some time away."
Her eyes narrowed immediately. "Three months away?"
"I went to the mountains to disconnect from reality."
Sarah stared at him for several moments before speaking again.
"You spent three months in the mountains?"
"That's the simplified version."
She shook her head as though deciding that investigating further would only give her a headache.
"I don't even want to know."
Fortunately, she quickly slipped back into professional mode and began opening several folders, presenting sales records, operating costs, staff payments, tax documents, and transfer confirmations with the efficiency of someone who had spent the last three months carrying an entire business on her shoulders.
Henry's attention shifted to the paperwork as he reviewed the reports one after another, and his eyes gradually widened because the café had performed far better than expected. The profits were nowhere near enough to make him rich overnight, but they were more than enough to convince him that the business had genuine potential.
"All profits were transferred here," Sarah explained while pointing toward the documents. "I deducted my salary each month according to our agreement, and these reports cover everything from operating expenses to inventory purchases."
Henry spent several minutes carefully reviewing the paperwork before finally nodding in satisfaction. The numbers matched, the records were clean, and the management had been excellent throughout his absence.
"Thank you."
Sarah looked slightly surprised by the genuine gratitude before a small smile appeared on her face.
"You're welcome."
---
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