"Waaah! Waaah!"
Kiana, with a face full of Sprite, ran around the dining hall in a panic. Fuli, as if refusing to believe it, repeated his question, "Who took the mission?"
"Who else could it be? Our St. Freya's outstanding student—A-Rank Valkyrie Fu Hua, of course."
Sitting on the other side, Theresa couldn't stand the chaotic scene any longer. She put down the bitter melon-flavored drink she'd barely touched, pulled a napkin from the table, and motioned for her panicked grandniece to come over.
While wiping Kiana's face, she said, "Oh, right. You two are distant cousins, the kind beyond three generations."
According to Article 1048 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, marriage is prohibited between direct blood relatives or collateral relatives within three generations. Marriage between cousins is legally permissible only after three generations.
The boy blinked. His back, which had been lazily leaning against the chair, instinctively straightened. "Cousin Hua... why would she take this mission?"
Was it Theresa's imagination, or did she just see little stars twinkling in Fuli's scarlet eyes?
Normally, the gossip-loving girl would have pestered him for details.
After all, according to the intel Theresa had, it wasn't that Fuli and Fu Hua were complete strangers, but they might as well have been.
This reaction definitely hinted at some unknown secret romance.
But still fuming, she just huffed, "The Valkyries of our St. Freya can take whatever missions they want. What's it to a wet-behind-the-ears brat like you?"
"Oh, dear."
On the moon, Prometheus, engaged in her routine surveillance of the Host, facepalmed.
As mentioned before, after the Third Eruption of the previous cycle, Fuli, who had been forcibly sent back to Shenzhou, was desperate to enter the world of the Honkai.
He searched for over half a year but still couldn't find a way to become a superhuman.
It was at this time, for reasons unknown, that Fu Hua appeared before her little cousin, whose heart was succumbing to despair.
As his guide, she not only taught the boy the Peerless Nine Revolutions, a top-tier cultivation technique derived from the Sword Ki of Taixu, but also took her little follower on a tour across the land of Shenzhou and various pocket dimensions, thoroughly broadening his horizons and knowledge.
Given the circumstances, it would be bizarre if Fuli didn't worship her from the bottom of his heart.
It was a life-changing debt of gratitude.
What's more, Fu Hua's own looks and temperament were top-tier!
To a fledgling young boy, the peerless elegance of the Celestial Phoenix who had traversed five thousand years of history wasn't just a curb-stomp; it was a complete steamroll!
Honkai-side guide + venerable teacher + appearing in a moment of despair + five thousand years of peerless grace. To put it bluntly, right now, Cousin Hua was the second "white moonlight" in Fuli's heart, second only to Kiana.
What? Isn't Li-bao a huge bust-con?
Cousin is only 17 this year! She'll definitely grow more (nods)!
Based on all this, one could conclude that if Theresa had just properly explained why Fu Hua took the mission to [Prove the existence of the Lake Kanas monster in Shenzhou's Tianjiang region], the boy's favorability towards her would have skyrocketed exponentially.
But what happened instead?
"You've got a long way to go, Ms. Theresa."
Dr. Mei said with a gentle smile.
"This is all your fault!"
Prometheus glared at her, a hint of anticipation in her tone.
She had previously urged Fuli to go to St. Freya to find Fu Hua. That was an old friend she hadn't seen in fifty-five thousand years; the little AI greatly missed reuniting with Hua.
But the shy cousin-con refused, saying things like, "I-I'm just afraid of disturbing Cousin Hua's training! And we're not that familiar with each other yet, it would be too rude to just show up and ask for guidance!"
Well, now they could finally meet and get things straight.
"Oh, right."
Fuli, rebuffed by Theresa, instinctively began to tidy his appearance, only stopping when he realized it would be a while before he saw his cousin.
He absentmindedly took out the Light Cone crafted from the [Extra Ability: Command (A)] and casually handed it to Bronya, who had already started a new game.
Hilarious, he thought. I'm in no mood to tease the little girl at all.
At first, the girl thought it was something unimportant, holding her handheld high to prevent her brother from disturbing her game.
But the moment the Light Cone touched her skin and integrated into her body, countless formulas and firing solutions exploded in her mind, and with a snap, her consciousness short-circuited.
When she came to her senses a long time later, she found that the handheld that had slipped from her fingers had been taken over by Project Bunny, which was now slaughtering enemies with its superior computational power and micro-management.
Bronya ignored the game and walked over to Fuli, blinking her large, grey eyes.
"Big Bro."
"Huh?"
"Head, lower."
"Oh."
The absent-minded boy followed her instructions instinctively.
"Lower."
When his head was low enough, Bronya adorably stood on her tiptoes, wrapped her arms around her brother's neck, and planted a light, dragonfly-like kiss on his cheek.
"This is a thank-you gift."
The girl let go of Fuli and took two steps back. Her gaze drifted, and a rare blush crept onto her usually emotionless face. Her crimson earlobes were so tempting one might want to nibble on them.
Theresa, observing from the side, was startled at first but quickly calmed down.
Fuli had no romantic feelings for Bronya. This was a consensus not just on the Hyperion, but at St. Freya as well.
It was just a small, affectionate interaction between siblings. Getting jealous of her little sister-in-law was completely unnecessary.
Fuli's reaction was also calm. He understood his little sister's behavior patterns well enough; this level of thanks was within his expectations.
However, the light kiss did pull the boy back from his wandering thoughts about his cousin's one hundred and eighty-ninth virtue. He patted Bronya's head and couldn't resist ruffling her twin-drills.
Far from resisting, the little girl, delighted with her new skill, curled up and sat on his lap, her features as exquisite as an ice princess carved with masterful skill.
Just then, Asta arrived at the dining hall, led by a Cat Cake.
Looking at the heartwarming scene, she remarked sincerely, "Mr. Fuli and Miss Bronya seem to be very close."
The girl had, of course, done a background check on the Hyperion. For Fuli to elicit such a compliant demeanor from the legendary Silver Wolf of the Urals, Cocolia's most unpredictable blade, his... training methods were clearly remarkable.
"Arf! Arf!"
A tender bark sounded at her calf. Asta looked down in surprise to find a cute, light-furred puppy.
"Is this... a Hellhound pup?"
"Awoo!"
Seeing the girl look at it, the little creature grew even more excited, circling her and pawing at her leg, seemingly wanting to be picked up.
Fuli, who had appeared beside her at some point, suggested, "Go on, hold it. It seems to like you."
Asta didn't refuse. She bent down and cradled the little hellhound.
The little guy snuggled against the little rich girl's soft chest—a C-cup, at least—sniffing left and right. Its tail wagged so fast it was about to become a helicopter rotor.
Fuli clicked his tongue. "Pervert dog."
He found it strange, though. The dog hadn't reacted this strongly to Kiana.
"It's not a pervert dog."
Asta hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Mr. Fuli, can you tell me where you found it?"
"In Yan Shiluo's storage capsule. It was just an egg then."
Noticing her hesitant expression, Fuli said, "If something's on your mind, feel free to say it."
A shadow fell over Asta's pretty face. "If I'm not mistaken, this Hellhound egg was most likely stolen from my home by Yan Shiluo."
She quickly explained the cause and effect. Due to her extremely low Honkai energy adaptability, Asta's parents had planned to give her a pet for protection.
Considering their precious daughter couldn't wear Honkai-isolating gear while eating and sleeping, they carefully selected the Hellhound—a man-made bio-weapon with a very low Honkai energy signature but decent combat ability—to avoid her contracting Honkai Sickness while playing with her pet.
They chose an egg because Hellhounds have a custom of treating the first person they see upon hatching as family.
Asta undoubtedly loved the birthday gift from her parents and often hugged the unhatched egg like a pillow while sleeping.
But one day, the Hellhound egg vanished.
The girl had been heartbroken for a long time.
"Thinking back now, it must have been stolen by that pervert Yan Shiluo!"
Asta gritted her teeth.
That man had claimed to have taken a liking to Asta's head, planning to take it home and place it with the other preserved heads of beautiful girls.
Stealing the egg was either him scouting ahead, or since he couldn't get his hands on her... he took something she had used...
The little rich girl shuddered and felt an uncontrollable urge to gag.
A Light Cone was inserted into her forehead.
Asta blinked, instinctively reading the information and skills recorded on it.
[Name: Light Cone - Beast Tamer Training]
[Grade: C]
[Category: Item / Status]
[Effect: Gain the ability to communicate telepathically with your summoned beast or pet. You can also enhance their strength by consuming Honkai/Imaginary Energy. Long-term use of this skill will permanently increase their strength.]
[Remark: "Stinky Juen-bao! Good morning! Why are you so unhappy (confused)?"]
Fuli winked at the girl with his left eye, then casually scratched the puppy's chin. "Miss Asta is beautiful and kind-hearted. She rescued me from dire straits and alleviated the Hyperion's financial crisis. Please accept this humble gift, milady."
"Woof!"
The little hellhound, seeming to understand something, looked a little dejected. Still, it bravely wagged its tail at 'Daddy Fuli,' indicating it would protect 'Mommy Asta' from now on.
"Mr. Fuli, you—"
"I'm just returning it to its rightful owner. The Hellhound was a birthday gift from your parents, wasn't it? Instead of hurting this little one's feelings by refusing, why not give it a nice name?"
Asta looked down and met the little creature's expectant eyes.
She whispered, "Pepe, how about that?"
There was no hesitation, for she had chosen the name long ago.
"Arf! Arf!"
Pepe ran around happily, clearly loving its new name.
Fuli and Asta exchanged a smile.
On the other side, Theresa slurped her bitter melon juice through a straw, making an even louder noise upon seeing this.
"By the way, where is your companion?"
Fuli asked curiously, "It's almost time to eat. Isn't he coming?"
"Arlan's injuries still need some time to heal."
Asta shook her head, her side ponytail swaying. "But he's regained consciousness. He said he hopes everyone won't mind him and just eat as usual."
"Oh."
The boy nodded.
He actually understood the mindset of such servant boys quite well. 'Specifically waiting for him to show so-called equality' would, on the contrary, provoke his sensitive heart. It was better to treat him like a normal person.
Just like what Yu Hua did to Shi Tiesheng. He didn't treat me as a disabled person, nor did he treat me as a human—alright, that might be a bit too much.
Some more time passed. Accompanied by the cute voices of the Cat Cake waitresses, one delicious dish after another was brought to the table.
In the very center was the rebellious young lamb that vowed to annihilate the human race. It was mounted on a spit, coated in a glaze of ocher and rock honey, and slowly rotated over crackling poplar charcoal.
Bubbles constantly formed on its dark golden skin, and each time one popped, a rich aroma of sand onion and wild fennel burst forth, as if the scorching sun of the entire Gobi Desert had been sealed within the juices flowing beneath the crispy skin.
Gulp!
Asta swallowed hard.
She had eaten something to tide her over after arriving at the Hyperion, but how could that compare to a premium lamb raised near the Fuli Well on Mt. Taixu?
In addition, bowls of crystal-clear rice were also served by the Cat Cakes.
The seeds for this rice were redeemed by Fuli from the System Store. According to the remarks, it was cultivated by a certain Crown Princess of the Kou Empire—Her Highness Kongming—a spiritual rice with the purest essence of the Three Treasures of Heaven, also known as Taihuang Rice.
Not only was it fragrant, sweet, and nutritious, but it also contained pure energy and had a strong body-regulating effect. Long-term consumption could improve the eater's physical fitness and subtly optimize their constitution.
Now, it wasn't just Asta; even Theresa was salivating.
The St. Freya of this worldline didn't have a certain Raiden Mei as a cook. The financially strapped Principal couldn't afford to hire a chef. Only when Rita visited could she help improve their meals; otherwise, they ate from the cafeteria.
Furthermore, the girl valued the body-regulating effect of the spiritual rice even more.
If the students of St. Freya could have this as their staple food, the success rate of artificial stigmata transplant surgery would definitely increase.
"Giving you the Taihuang Rice seeds would be useless."
Sensing the white-haired dumpling's eagerness, Bronya, sitting beside her, said flatly.
Energy is conserved. The reason Taihuang Rice could thrive in unfamiliar soil was because the Hyperion had the Fuli Well, a super-large energy-gathering device.
It wasn't that Schicksal didn't have similar things—they had a handful of devices with more power than the current Fuli Well. They just called those things Honkai Energy Reactors.
Hilarious. The words "Honkai energy" alone meant they could never nourish all things like the Fuli Well.
Plant Taihuang Rice near one of those, and it would mutate into a plant-type Honkai Beast in minutes.
"Damn it!"
Theresa grumbled, looking like a little white lion baring its teeth. "Then this Principal will buy it! I'll buy all of your finished products!"
Hearing this, Asta also showed her interest. As Confucius said, "Never be tired of the finest rice, nor of meat minced fine." The desire for good food is universal.
"We can't trade in large quantities at the moment."
Mei, having returned, pulled out the chair next to Fuli and sat down.
Even after several expansions, the current scale of Mt. Taixu was still too small.
A portion had to be sectioned off for Kiana and the others' training ground, to accommodate the ever-expanding Fuli Well, to provide a place for the small animals to roam, and to install pipelines for transporting energy to other spaces. There wasn't much land left for farming.
Tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, Mei added, "You two can take some finished products with you when you leave, as a gift from the Hyperion. I guarantee it'll be fresh."
Through the application of the Time-Unalterable authority from the fragment of the Holy Lance of Finality, she had whipped up another little invention called the [Status Preservation Box].
This thing could freeze the state of life and non-life placed inside it at the current moment. Food placed inside wouldn't spoil over time, perfectly replacing the function of a refrigerator.
"Thank you for your kindness, Miss Mei."
Asta didn't refuse. Such delicious food, she wanted to take some back for her family to taste.
She hesitated for a moment, then asked, "By the way, once the company's three-year exclusive rights for Light Cones end, do you all plan to fully disclose the Light Cone technology, like how Ms. Vill-V unconditionally released the [V-V Constructs]?"
"Fully disclose?"
Mei shrugged. "I don't deny that her doing so is indeed conducive to the spread of magic. But in my opinion, her fundamental purpose is to use the hands of everyone on the Honkai side to completely systematize what was once mysterious magic."
The essence of magic is an integrated circuit imprinted on the ground or in the air according to certain rules. Chanting and gestures are just to satisfy the 'frequency' of the corresponding spell.
In other words, this thing could be systematized like electricity.
However, due to the conservatism and secretiveness of the classical schools, as well as the high threshold for learning magic itself, this technology with infinite potential was facing extinction in the modern era.
Vill-V, who couldn't stand this, simply made the constructs public. The R&D of major organizations aside, powerhouses with short-term interests in hand would also frantically deconstruct the originally profound magic, breaking it down into one basic subject after another.
"As long as all of this is organized and integrated, then the art of magic will become like a modern basic discipline—from the simplest fire-starting and cooling, to deeper spell casting and control, and finally touching the authority belonging to a Sequence Herrscher."
Mei concluded, "Those who crowned Vill-V with the title of the greatest genius of the 21st century must have already seen this. What she wants to do is to start an Industrial Revolution in the name of magic. And Vill-V herself can, by virtue of the first-mover advantage as the creator of the constructs, become the first God of Magic to control all basic elements and magical construction, the Grand Magus of the Twilight Era... Tch, that woman really knows how to give herself a nickname."
Is this... the resonance between geniuses?
Looking at the girl eloquently explaining the reasoning, Asta gave a wry smile.
Meanwhile, on Fuli's side—
"Ah-Li, hehe~"
"What, what?"
Pushing away the white-haired dumpling that had stuck to him again, Fuli wondered, Is there a sandstorm I don't know about? With such a table of fine wine and food, she was completely unmoved, yet insisted on leaning on him. What the hell?
"It's nothing. I just saw you having fun rubbing Bronya's face, so maybe you could rub mine too? Mine feels super great too!"
Putting her words into action, Kiana directly took the boy's hands and placed them on her face.
Fuli played around for a bit and found that it was indeed true.
"Wait! You almost led me astray!"
He quickly let go, a little reluctantly. "What is it? Did you burn down the Lost Bamboo Forest under Mt. Taixu again while practicing the Blade of the Flamescion, or did you accidentally delete Bronya's 76 game accounts? Confess and you'll be treated with leniency; resist and you'll be dealt with severely. Spill it, and I can still help you think of a solution."
Kiana shook her head like a rattle drum. "No, no, no! I just think you're so handsome, Ah-Li!"
"Y-You! Even if you say that, it won't make me happy!"
But he was clearly very happy!
Noticing the corner of Fuli's mouth that even an AK-47 couldn't suppress, Sirin rested her chin on her hand in the mental world, her expression pleased.
The girl knew very well that the reason the past Kiana "hated" Fuli was not only because the boy's style was too clingy back then, but also because his existence always intentionally or unintentionally reminded the girl that she wasn't the real Kiana.
It was essentially a form of misplaced anger.
Even so, their relationship was still like a young couple who were still living together after a petty breakup—they never spared each other with words, but were more anxious than anyone when the other was in trouble.
Now that the knot in her heart was 'untied,' there was no need to struggle like before.
Under Kiana's various nonsensical harassments, Fuli was soon overwhelmed.
"Let's discuss who will go on this trip to Lake Kanas in Shenzhou."
He quickly changed the subject. "We have to complete the task Mr. Ryoma entrusted to us beautifully."
This is my first meeting with Cousin Hua after my rebirth!
Firsts are extremely important! I have to max out my impression score!
...