Although he said he was going to deal with the Pseudo-Herrscher, before doing so, Aaron felt he had some preparatory work to do.
First, a women's clothing store...
Well, there were no clerks here this time. After all, the moment the large-scale Honkai Eruption occurred, the clerks all turned into zombies.
After helplessly dealing with these zombies, Aaron recalled Raiden Mei's measurements and began looking for clothes according to the data of 89/62/90.
Under normal circumstances, Raiden Mei was much more reliable than Kiana when it came to small matters.
However, Aaron had just severely beaten the Herrscher of Thunder who had seized her body.
This beating was quite different from falling off a rooftop and being pulled up in the original story. Although Aaron held back, even with that restraint, he estimated the damage from that last punch was still enough to be a problem.
Because of this, Raiden Mei wouldn't be waking up anytime soon...
No, rather, if the System hadn't guaranteed that members participating in the mission would have their injuries healed upon entering the world, he felt Raiden Mei would remain in a coma even after crossing over.
In this situation, he felt he shouldn't count on her suddenly waking up, receiving the news, and starting to organize equipment.
Enough is enough. Last time, buying clothes and a bra at a women's store was one thing, but this time rummaging through women's clothing in the store...
Damn it, I feel like a pervert.
As for why not deal with the Poison Herrscher before coming here...
Anyway, principle of proximity. Finish what can be done first; at least I'll have more peace of mind during combat.
After spending tens of minutes, Aaron replenished the female clothing, frozen food, spare motorcycles, and other goods he needed from women's clothing stores, large supermarkets, motorcycle shops, and so on.
Looking at those shops filled with zombies, Aaron only felt extremely uncomfortable inside.
Of course, he wasn't so paralyzed by seeing zombies that he couldn't even attack; after all, he knew very well that these zombies were undoubtedly dead.
But seeing these zombies, he would always be reminded of his past life.
Just because of these inexplicable reasons, my future was stolen, and I became an orphan...
Heh, come to think of it, compared to these people who lost their lives, I'm already considered a lucky one.
Cocolia... that woman is truly disgusting.
After completing the collection of equipment, Aaron felt the anger in his heart not only failing to extinguish with time but burning even hotter.
This anger wasn't directed at Raiden Mei or Yuno; after all, objectively speaking, they were purely victims.
If not for Cocolia's actions, these millions of people in Nagazora City wouldn't have needed to die, and those two girls wouldn't have had to turn into Herrschers.
She wanted the Herrscher to awaken, then capture the Herrscher to use its power against the Honkai... Aaron found it hard to evaluate whether this approach was correct.
However, with Cocolia's control over Anti-Entropy, getting Raiden Mei to a place with no people... no, even a place with fewer people wouldn't have been difficult.
And combined with her operations in Singapore later, she didn't have any sob story or difficulties; she purely didn't regard the lives of those passersby as anything important.
Aaron thought that so many years of living as an orphan would make him incredibly indifferent when facing these things.
But now, he knew he was wrong.
Wrong by a mile.
He hadn't generated excessive anger toward the Empire before because he lived at the peak of a village near the Imperial Capital.
Although the villages near the Imperial Capital weren't as good as the Capital itself, as areas surrounding the Capital, life wasn't too bitter.
After all, Honest was a smart man. To deceive the Emperor, he at least had to do the superficial work well.
If the villages around the Imperial Capital were full of despair, the difficulty of him deceiving the little Emperor would increase significantly.
Anyway, he didn't lack that little bit of money, so he naturally lowered the taxes of the nearby villages significantly to facilitate his own actions.
And in that era, not having heavy taxes could already be considered happiness.
Because of this, Aaron hadn't seen much dissatisfaction in the villagers' eyes. So even if he knew that a portion of the Empire's upper-class civil officials were a bunch of vampires, not directly facing those shocking scenes, he naturally wouldn't ignite such terrible anger.
But now, after jumping onto the skyscraper and looking down from the high floors, he only felt that he could barely suppress this rage.
He wasn't someone full of a sense of justice, but watching those vibrant lives pass away just because of one person's selfish desires, even the most indifferent person couldn't remain completely calm.
At this moment, he could feel that the presence in the nearby residential area was giving off increasingly strong pressure.
Although this presence's pressure was far less than that of the Herrscher of Thunder, the current Aaron had also consumed a lot of power.
Forget it, let's play it steady. Put on the armor and charge in. Don't be like Theresa, capsizing twice when she could have won.
After completing the armor transformation with Incursio, Aaron activated the invisibility ability and cautiously arrived at the location where Honkai Energy was gathering.
Then, after arriving near that house, he...
—Suddenly saw countless vines formed of Honkai Energy thrusting directly towards his armor from all directions.
Damn!
This configuration is stronger than when she beat up Theresa. This isn't right!
Hmm, wait, this accuracy... doesn't seem very high.
Aaron, who was initially a bit startled, looked at the incoming vines and suddenly realized something.
The opponent could roughly capture his location, but further precision seemed difficult.
After directly severing those vines with Redback's spear blade, Aaron immediately looked towards the girl in the room.
To be honest, this girl's appearance was originally quite delicate, but after the Honkai eroded her will, the girl's face was full of madness, enough to make others recoil.
"Hehe, this guest over here, what business do you have with me, the master of Nagazora City?"
Even her personality is off. In the original work, before Theresa made her move, random thoughts would still pop up in her brain.
But now, this guy's personality seems to be completely dominated by the Honkai.
"Why aren't you talking? You don't think that by sneaking over here, you can stop me from discovering your location, do you?"
The girl who walked out of the room looked at Aaron, who had just jumped to another building, the madness on her face deepening a layer.
"Stop hiding. In that battle over there just now, I could feel three existences on the scene. But what's a bit strange is..."
"Heh, forget it, it must be an illusion."
If she was the [Void], then I would inevitably feel the pressure she caused on a Pseudo-Herrscher like me, as clearly as I sensed the [Thunder].
But that pressure, calling it 'faint' would be a compliment. This feeling was practically like an illusion; I couldn't grasp any trace of it at all.
But then again, it was precisely because the battle fluctuations between the other person suspected to be [Void] and [Thunder] fighting that my awakening speed quickened a few notches. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to suppress this little girl's will for the time being.
Something's fishy... but that's not for me to think about.
Deal with this guy first.
Although the Poison Herrscher displayed a confident expression of victory on the surface, her heart was filled with vigilance towards Aaron.
As for why she had this feeling...
—Duh, the feeling [Thunder] gave her had disappeared!
After the feeling of [Thunder] disappeared, this man was still on the scene. Did she need to say what that meant?!
[Thunder] had lost, lost to this inexplicable guy.
A Herrscher stronger than her had lost, and if she was still arrogant, wouldn't she be a complete idiot?!
If not for considering that it might be too late to leave the scene, the Poison Herrscher might have run away already.
Having just suppressed the spirit of the body's original owner, Yuno, not long ago, she didn't want to die at the hands of that terrible guy just like that.
So now, I must pretend to be arrogant and holding the winning ticket so that guy will be scared by me.
As for whether he runs after being scared... running is best. If not, I can only go head-to-head with him.
By sensing the flow of Honkai Energy in the air, I can roughly sense where that guy is.
But further precision is difficult unless he closes the distance with me.
But closing the distance means I'm more vulnerable to attacks... Tsk, so troublesome.
The gap between humans and Herrschers should be huge.
Where on earth did this monster human come from?
On the other side, Aaron looked at the confident Poison Herrscher, a doubt appearing in his heart.
This isn't right.
In the original work, this Poison Herrscher was first of all a small pufferfish, arrogant to death.
Secondly, although her body was pierced by Theresa while her consciousness was blurred, in subsequent battles, she tended to be more proactive in attacking.
Under these circumstances, holding her ground—what is she waiting for?
She has no chance to contact Higokumaru, and with these two bad-tempered Herrschers, it would be good if they didn't fight upon meeting.
Unless there are special circumstances, Higokumaru would only want to seize a fresh body upon seeing one, and the Poison Herrscher would definitely fight back if attacked by Higokumaru.
Since she has no reinforcements here, and she still isn't seizing the initiative to attack, it means...
Got it, this one is guilty at heart, probably afraid to fight me head-on.
Although it's possible the opponent plans to bluff me and then pull a counter-kill, the problem is...
—Her vine speed is average. I don't even have Focus and Intuition on yet, and her probability of hitting me is deadly low. If I think she has countless trump cards at this time, that's not being careful, that's being a dumbass.
Forget it, let's fight. If worse comes to worst, I'll use Valor to heal. Anyway, I can still use Valor one or two more times; with this safety net, there shouldn't be a problem.
Let's probe her verbally first.
"Just asking, neither of us has seen the other—how about we handle it like this?"
After actively revealing his figure, Aaron spoke to the other party in a helpless tone.
"I just came to check the situation. Right now I can't take you down, and you can't take me down. If we fight to a lose-lose situation, only the other forces remaining here will benefit."
"Heh, you think I'll let you go?"
Very good, he's already afraid.
Scare him a bit more, finally slow down the vine speed, pretend to be incompetently furious, and he'll leave.
"Die here for me!"
Hmm, feels a bit like a paper tiger. Alright then.
[Spirit Commands—Intuition, Focus, Activate!]
After activating the two Spirit Commands, Aaron could feel that everything in his field of vision seemed to slow down considerably.
Heh, I didn't have this feeling when using these two Spirit Commands last time...
Is it because my physical fitness is no longer borrowed?
Regardless of the reason, this is a good thing.
The vines are even slower than before. Watch out for other directions, and then...
"Kill!"
Directly throwing Redback like a javelin, Aaron jumped straight down from the building, stepping onto Redback's spear shaft.
Subsequently, looking at those vines attacking him, he pulled out the rarely used Incursio Key Sword and directly severed those vines with the sharp blade.
"You...!"
Wait, didn't he want to run???
We agreed on each taking a step back, and you charge up at a time like this?
Psychopath, you're courting death—the Poison Herrscher wanted to say this, but now she knew very well that the disadvantaged side was her.
She actively slowed those vines down a bit, true, but the problem was that this guy's movements were also faster than before!
The result of her being slow and the opponent being fast was that after the opponent severed those vines, she didn't even have enough time to release new ones.
The Poison Herrscher, who could clearly have barely entangled with Aaron relying on the vines, now realized with incomparable sorrow—she had been pitted by her own act of intimidation.
Attacking the opponent with vines again now—not to mention whether there was time, even if she hit him, could her vines penetrate the opponent's armor and inject poison into his body?
The Poison Herrscher didn't know the answer, but now she knew—if she didn't think of a way, she was going to be finished!
"Damn it! Damn it all!"
After weaving a wall of vines in front of herself, the Poison Herrscher immediately retreated frantically.
"Do you want to die? Then I'll fight you to the—"
*Swish*
"End..."
The vine spear didn't even last a second before being directly cut open by Aaron using the Key Sword and Redback.
"Fighting to the end, right? Good, that's best. In that case..."
At this moment, the Poison Herrscher saw that through the hole torn in the wall of vines, the pupils on Aaron's helmet suddenly turned into cross-shaped dragon pupils.
"Then I don't need to hold back either. Hey, listen up, girl inside. Try to wake up yourself. If you can't wake up, I'll just blow your head up along with the Herrscher, removing a harm for the people."
???
No, you know this little girl is innocent and you still plan to strike???
Continuing to release vines... I can't block the sharpness of his weapon!
And even if I block it for a second, so what? I just awakened; my power control and Authorities are all in the initial stages. I can't react to this crazy guy in time!
Finally... am I a dumbass?!
Behind me is this little girl's home. Isn't entering it seeking my own death!
The Poison Herrscher, whose brain flashed with countless thoughts, now showed an incredibly panicked expression on her face.
What to do when meeting a human who can beat up a Herrscher? Waiting online, quite urgent!
"...Can't you even put up a slightly interesting resistance?"
Was I too cautious, or did this guy not display her proper strength at all...
Forget it, let's do this.
Directly punching the Poison Herrscher in the abdomen, Aaron immediately grabbed the opponent's head and slammed it directly into the floor.
Accompanied by Aaron's violent strength, the girl's head was instantly pressed into the floor tiles.
Although this blow couldn't cause much damage to a Herrscher's body, what truly terrified the newly awakened Poison Herrscher wasn't this attack.
What truly terrified her was what she felt after facing Aaron's cross-shaped dragon pupils directly.
Those cross pupils gave the Poison Herrscher a feeling of madness.
If the opponent's heart was truly that terrible, then she... nine out of ten times, she was really going to be beaten to death by this guy alive!
And beaten to death by someone smashing her head against the floor—this not only cost her life but also lost face for them Herrschers!
Okay, a Herrscher's face counts for nothing. The Poison Herrscher discovered she simply didn't want to die.
"Huh? Changing or not? If not, I'll keep smashing."
After grabbing the Poison Herrscher's head and smashing it hard against the ground again, Aaron began repeating this terrifying action.
"Looks a bit stubborn. Fine."
After increasing his strength considerably, Aaron's tone suddenly became a few degrees lower.
"Then I'll just kill you. Anyway, [Thunder] and [Void] were already solved by me in passing. Killing a Pseudo-Herrscher won't matter much."
Thunder and Void?!
That guy really was Void???
Wait, what does 'solved in passing' mean?
I could feel three parties in a melee, and then the other two parties disappeared. Does this mean...
He defeated both the [Void] and [Thunder], two genuine Herrschers, in passing?????
The Poison Herrscher wanted to deny this terrible possibility, but Void and Thunder indeed disappeared completely from her sensing range at the same time.
Could this mean... they were completely annihilated, not even leaving a Herrscher Core behind?
Honestly, without facing a crisis, the Poison Herrscher would absolutely not generate such an outrageous idea.
But when her heart was dominated by fear, this thought would only keep popping up in her brain, occupying the little space remaining.
Damn it... Damn it!
"I surrender! Don't hit me! I'll give the body back to her right now!"
After shouting this sentence in panic, the Poison Herrscher instantly chose to hand over control of the body.
And after Yuno regained her consciousness, the first thing she felt was a wave of pain.
Subsequently, Aaron looked at the girl's expression, which was mixed with confusion and pain, and then glanced at the room...
He immediately smashed the girl's head against the ground again, directly knocking Yuno, who had just regained consciousness, out cold.
"Phew, battle over."
Maintaining the Incursio armor, Aaron looked at the Poison Herrscher he had easily crippled and felt a sense of helplessness.
Although he was confident he could solve the opponent before coming here, Aaron never expected this battle to be so easy.
But thinking about it carefully, Yuno, like Raiden Mei, had just been born. She wasn't as difficult to deal with as the Herrscher of Thunder to begin with.
Coupled with the fact that she didn't have enough time to collect Honkai Energy, and the 'beginner's killer' characteristic was completely gone because Aaron, as a transmigrator, knew her intelligence, it was completely reasonable for Aaron to defeat her so easily.
As for why Aaron chose to knock Yuno out directly after she woke up...
There were mainly two reasons.
On one hand, he was worried that the Poison Herrscher intended to use a trick to deceive him. Of course, the probability was low, but he had to guard against it.
On the other hand...
He hadn't forgotten that this was Yuno's home.
Although Yuno wasn't described much in the original work, judging from the dream she saw before she died, she should have had a good relationship with her mother.
What would happen to a human who had already awakened as a Herrscher after seeing her mother, who had turned into a zombie and then had her body blown apart in passing?
Even Aaron, who had no parents growing up, could imagine the result—she would be one hundred percent devastated.
This despair wouldn't lead her to become a Herrscher again. After all, with the Poison Herrscher truly cowering, no matter how much despair Yuno felt, she wouldn't dare to show her face.
And this situation was even crueler for the girl.
If her consciousness was seized by the Herrscher, she wouldn't have to face such cruel mental torture.
But if the Herrscher didn't occupy her body, she could only remain in the despair of [Mom is dead].
Although Aaron wasn't exactly kind-hearted, he couldn't stand seeing this kind of thing happen... Of course, he couldn't be like a certain man in red, acting out of kindness by sending Yuno down to reunite with her mother.
In this situation, he could only knock her out.
As for whether she would continue to despair after waking up... well, we'll see when the time comes.
Even if she realizes something is wrong and falls into despair then, it's better than seeing her mother's broken corpse directly right now.
"Sigh, when will the System's storage space be able to store living creatures?"
[Tester 233, this System advises you not to be too greedy.]
[Being able to store 'living' items like Teigu is already this System turning a blind eye.]
Tsk, just a casual remark, no need to take it seriously.
[Rules must be obeyed. If you want something that can store living things, go draw items yourself.]
Are you encouraging people to whale?
[At least special rewards have a pity system. And speaking of which, this doesn't count as whaling with money. Tester, this System must seriously correct you: most of those rewards are obtained by you testers risking your lives, so theoretically, this counts as whaling with your life.]
...Why do you sound proud of that?
[Who knows. This System only knows that you should rest soon. If you continue fighting at high intensity, the probability of capsizing won't be small.]
...True.
Looking at the girl beside him, Aaron ultimately didn't strike a killing blow.
He didn't know if it was because she had become an orphan, giving Aaron a feeling of shared fate, or for other reasons, but Aaron felt he couldn't bring himself to kill this unlucky girl who couldn't pose a threat to him.
But if he left her here, if Honkai Beasts or Higokumaru came over later, she would still be done for.
Forget it, I'll take her with me. After all, Higokumaru is the Herrscher of Corruption; she might even be able to utilize a corpse.
[Although the reason is very sufficient, why does this System feel... Hmm, drawing the Whale-Slaying Tyrant Fist might be destiny, Tester 233.]
Shut up!
You complain so much every day; do you know people dislike you for being wordy!
[Sigh, clearly this System was supposed to be an important character... Forget it, I won't say more.]
[Last three hours. Be careful yourself, Tester 233.]
"Ha, it turned out like this anyway."
Looking at the girl lying on the ground covered in injuries, Aaron could only take out the medical kit to help the girl treat her wounds slightly.
Thinking about it carefully, he was the one who beat her up, and after beating her, he had to help her perform emergency treatment on those wounds. It felt weird.
It was almost as weird as Oga beating the hell out of Sea Tiger and then massaging Sea Tiger's heart, or Sea Tiger punching Oga apart thirty years later and then helping him hang onto his last breath.
After simply treating the wounds on Yuno's body, Aaron took Yuno away from this area. After finding an area with relatively fewer zombies and Honkai Beasts, he entered a hotel and began preparing to rest.
The second dungeon... Although I've become stronger, God knows what strange things will pop up in the next dungeon.
[Relax, this System won't arrange missions that guarantee death. I've said we get along quite well; this System doesn't wish to start looking for Number 234 just yet—although signs of that are already appearing.]
Hmph... well, thanks for the reminder.
And since you popped up actively now, does this mean there is indeed no danger around me?
[After all, you've already defeated two Herrschers consecutively. Although the surrounding zombies and Honkai Beasts still have no self-awareness, they will temporarily enter a state of 'don't approach this thing, go destroy other things' because you defeated two Herrschers.]
That really helps a lot.
However, in this situation, you popping up...
Shifting his gaze to Yuno, Aaron heard the words popping up in his brain.
[Tester 233, you are overly cautious. Herrschers can feel fear too, and that Pseudo-Herrscher was clearly beaten into fear by you.]
[Although there's no basis, this System feels that even if you sleep now, at this time, even if she had the ability, she would think you were fishing and wouldn't dare to show her face. I really don't know what you're worried about in this situation.]
So safe, huh.
Alright, then I'll sleep for a bit.
Glancing at the phone taken out of the storage space, Aaron set three alarms on the phone that had lost signal, specifically at 23:30, 23:40, and 23:50.
Thinking about it carefully now, I haven't just maybe gone crazy; I've definitely gone crazy.
If it were the past me, I absolutely wouldn't have done such reckless things today.
Is it because after possessing power, I became more arrogant?
Or is it...
[Deliberately avoiding the answer looks very like a fool—]
[Fine. Then Tester 233, good night.]
As the voice in his brain completely disappeared, Aaron slightly closed his eyes.
Sigh, tired from a whole day. I'll take a temporary rest.
........................
In a dark space, Raiden Mei felt she seemed to have regained a part of her consciousness.
"Strange, where am I... I remember, after Kiana said she wanted to leave, I was organizing clothes at home."
"But why do I feel... I seem to have had a very long dream... In the dream... Kiana took out her dual pistols and aimed the muzzles at me..."
"And I... seemed to intend to kill Kiana... Hahaha, how could I have such a dream."
Recalling the details in her dream, Raiden Mei muttered to herself with a smile.
"Kiana was holding dual pistols and a greatsword, and I was floating in the sky wanting to kill her. Later, a strange person beat me up... Hmm, the details are very rich. Is it because I became interested in sci-fi movies after watching one with Kiana last time?"
Even though a guess had appeared in her heart, at this moment, Raiden Mei actively avoided the answer that had a high probability.
Yes, it's definitely like that.
So, it was just a dream.
I wouldn't want to kill Kiana, Kiana wouldn't want to attack me, and that strange person doesn't exist at all.
Right, that's the fact, so...
After slightly opening her eyes, Raiden Mei looked at the unfamiliar ceiling, confused about the situation.
Subsequently, looking at this simple hospital room, and then at Kiana sleeping on the sofa, Raiden Mei suddenly couldn't make sense of the situation.
Strange, where is this?
I... shouldn't I be at home?
[Ding! The time has come! Teleportation commencing.]
Eh, what has come?
Before Raiden Mei could figure out the situation, she felt all the scenery before her eyes suddenly change.
After she saw everything before her clearly again, Raiden Mei was suddenly stunned.
In front of her, a red-haired young man was staring at her, a look of curiosity on his face.
Of course, if it were just that, Raiden Mei wouldn't have been stunned.
Appearing before her eyes right now wasn't just a red-haired young man, but also a suspicious-looking cloaked figure. But these weren't the main point.
The main point was...
"Eeeeeek!!!!!!!!!!!!"
—In front of Raiden Mei, besides these two suspicious guys, there were also four corpses gushing out massive amounts of fresh blood.
......................