Actually, when Hua Yi paid for the hairband, took it from the vendor, and tied Raiden Mei's waist-length hair into a crisp ponytail, she had already realized his intent. He had likely said those things just to make it impossible for her to refuse. He was truly quite sly.
Hua Yi took a moment to admire Raiden Mei's new look before leading her on a bit further. The date and there was no doubt now that it was a date came to an end shortly after as the sky grew dark.
As the days passed, Raiden Mei became accustomed to spending every evening with Hua Yi, chatting, practicing their swordplay, and wandering the streets together.
On Hua Yi's end, once he realized that continuing to play the role of an intern at the Nagazora branch of ME Corp would yield no further rewards, he resigned.
His departure caused a minor stir at Tachikawa Academy, but since ME Corp's reputation had been damaged and its status had declined, the other students didn't find his decision too hard to believe.
Aside from his physical training, Hua Yi focused on one other thing drawing from the Friendship Supply.
He was currently earning ninety Friendship Points from Raiden Mei every day, which meant he could perform a draw almost every single day. Although those ninety points had plateaued and hadn't increased for a while perhaps a sign that his relationship with Raiden Mei had reached a temporary limit Hua Yi didn't let it bother him. He continued living his life according to his plan, one steady step at a time.
As Hua Yi's swordsmanship improved, there was no longer any need for him to spar constantly with Raiden Mei; he was perfectly capable of studying the art on his own. Because of this, his daily interactions with her felt more like a form of relaxation, or even entertainment.
Ever since that first strawberry daifuku, Mei had made it a point to prepare small snacks for him almost every time they met. Coupled with their frequent walks through the night-time streets of Nagazora and the extra time he gained after resigning from ME Corp, his life was much more relaxed than it had been in the past.
Hua Yi had performed dozens of Friendship Supply draws about fifty or so in total. He had already gathered a full set of Selena stigmata and upgraded them to two-star max level. Additionally, he possessed a full set of Charlotte stigmata, though they weren't yet fully maxed out at two stars.
Like Selena, the Charlotte set consisted of base one-star stigmata that capped at two stars. He considered his luck decent, and his progress confirmed his earlier hypothesis: he was indeed not restricted by the number of stigmata he could have. He could absorb an infinite number of them and make their power his own.
Collecting a full set of stigmata did not grant him "set skills" like in the game. Instead, it further enhanced the physical strengthening effect, allowing the Top, Middle, and Bottom pieces of the set to provide an additional twenty percent boost.
Hua Yi was slightly surprised by this, but he actually preferred it. After all, some of the set skills in the game required specific Valkyries to be equipped or had elemental requirements. Some even produced bizarre effects like creating exploding water balloons; if such a thing happened in the real world, the scene would be quite peculiar indeed.
In addition to gaining power far beyond his past self, Hua Yi discovered that the stigmata from the Friendship Supply did not repeat. Once he had gathered the Selena and Charlotte sets, he began frequently receiving two-star Houra Treasures instead, which seemed to replace the slots previously occupied by those stigmata.
This was the reason he had enough Coins to max out the Selena set and still have some left over to strengthen the Charlotte pieces. Initially, Hua Yi thought he wouldn't be able to obtain any new stigmata until the High-Grade Supply was unlocked and that he would simply have to keep accumulating Coins. After all, as far as he knew, Selena and Charlotte were the only two one-star stigmata sets.
But today, Hua Yi realized he was wrong.
As usual, he performed a Friendship Supply draw as soon as he reached one hundred points. When he first saw the blue glow on the virtual interface, he assumed it was another Houra Treasure worth two thousand Coins. However, it was a stigmata.
"Hannah (M)? So my Friendship Supply can even pull base two-star stigmata like this... No, even with bad luck, it shouldn't have taken this long to get one. It must be that pulling all the one-star stigmata caused the contents of the Friendship Supply to change. That explains why the Houra Treasures started appearing so often before."
Would it be possible to pull a four-star stigmata from the Friendship Supply in the future? Hua Yi thought the probability was low, but the mere fact that a blue two-star stigmata had appeared was the best news he'd had lately.
Hua Yi didn't have many Coins left he didn't even have enough to pay for the upgrade. Hannah was a base two-star stigmata, meaning it required a full ten thousand Coins to max out. Hua Yi had been struggling with a shortage of Coins lately and hadn't even managed to max out his Charlotte set yet.
Feeling his body grow stronger once again as the Hannah (M) stigmata turned into energy and flowed into him, Hua Yi smiled.
"In nearly two months, I've obtained seven stigmata and strengthened them to varying degrees. At this rate, by the time the Third Honkai Impact truly arrives, I should be able to take down a Honkai Beast with a single punch."
Hua Yi didn't know exactly how strong he was now. Without Zombies or Honkai Beasts to serve as test subjects, his sword practice with Mei had long since evolved into a form of companionship. His combat power was rising continuously with every new stigmata,
while Raiden Mei had yet to awaken as a Herrscher; her physical fitness was still within the realm of an ordinary human. During their practice, Hua Yi had to suppress his strength more and more, which served as a way to further refine his control over his power. It wasn't wasted effort.
Raiden Mei couldn't see the explosive growth in Hua Yi's strength over the past month, but she could see that he had become much more relaxed. He no longer seemed as burdened by pressure as before, and for that, she felt a profound sense of happiness.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a white-haired girl had spent a long time searching through Europe for her father, who had vanished years ago. Having found no traces of him or any leads in her investigation into the Honkai that ravaged the world, she set off on a journey toward Asia.
📢 MASSIVE UPDATE FOR BINGE-READERS! 📢
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