Chapter 140: The Fourth Return
Taking advantage of the darkness, Tolle led Ange to the tomb of Sophia Ikaruga Misurugi.
When Ange saw her mother's tomb she broke down and sobbed uncontrollably; Tolle stayed by her side to comfort her.
"Ange, let's dig your mother up now while it's dark — better to avoid unnecessary trouble later."
Ange stopped crying, wiped her tears, and answered Tolle, "Thank you, Tolle." Then she turned to the tomb and said, "Mother, we'll rescue you right away."
After they unearthed the grave, fortunately the body was still relatively intact and not too badly decomposed.
Tolle immediately controlled the neo DG cells and had them vigorously consume Sophia Ikaruga Misurugi's corpse, restoring her body as quickly as possible.
He read as many of her memories as he could, trying to preserve her living memories and habits.
A few hours later Sophia's body slowly returned to its former appearance; her skin regained a healthy color.
Tolle looked at the anxious Ange and said softly, "Ange, I'll take you and your mother into my space to rest for a while. After all, dawn is coming — if someone sees us it would be bad. Let's leave here as soon as possible."
"Mm, okay. I'll follow your lead."
With Ange's agreement, Tolle quickly stored both of them in the ship's core space. He then piloted the core vehicle back alone to the islet.
On the way back Sophia had already awakened. Seeing Ange she hugged her tightly and cried; Ange cried along with her.
Then they talked and laughed, chatting about everything — even stories about Ange wetting the bed as a child and other episodes from her upbringing.
Watching the scene in the space, Tolle wasn't sure whether this revived figure was merely a puppet or the real Sophia.
You're a puppet, right? You can act freely without Nami's control, you have emotions, and your feelings for Ange are especially strong.
If she is the real Sophia, most of her body is a bionic construct made of neo DG cells — even Tolle himself felt it was strange.
But whatever — as long as Ange was happy, that was enough. Another subordinate +1 for him, and maybe there'd be special perks.
A few days later Tolle returned to the islet. Just as he was stowing away the core vehicle he received a message from the system.
"Host, the current world parsing is complete. Return immediately."
Before Tolle could react or do anything — and before Villkiss could even retrieve him — he was already back in his own home.
"This system — that return was way too sudden. I didn't even have time to prepare."
"Host, this system always prioritizes the host's safety. If you had not returned immediately just now, your return time to the main world would have been uncontrollable. The return could have occurred in days, months, or even years. That would have posed a great risk to your life, so an emergency return was necessary. This instance of traversal has ended. As a gift, you receive one Gundam Wing-world traversal ticket and one random-draw lottery."
Hearing that, Tolle felt there was nothing to be done — if Orb had been destroyed by the time he returned, that would be catastrophic. Better not to argue with the system.
"All right, system. Use the random-draw chance now."
"Understood. Beginning draw immediately. Congratulations, host — you have obtained the Infinite Stratos world: Third-generation mecha manufacturing blueprints. Includes multi-functional spacesuit blueprints, reaction-force wing system blueprints, energy-defense field generator blueprints, and compressed-space suite system."
"Holy crap — it's IS mecha. Not bad luck at all; Nami can get another upgrade. And if I remember correctly, the third-generation mecha are designed with a pilot's mental-interface controller in mind — in other words, these mecha are born for floating pod weapons. Too bad there's no IS core engine blueprint; otherwise I could mass-produce IS mecha."
Tolle immediately took out the blueprints and skimmed them.
"Sure enough, the third-generation mecha have a mental-control interface — you can control floating-type weapons by thought. Even non-new-humans can use it normally, as long as they have enough mental strength.
"This multi-functional spacesuit is well made for space operations. In other words, if an ordinary person wears it, even piloting a Phantom Kai-type unit without a cockpit cover, they could survive freely in space.
"And with a reaction-force wing system, my floating pods could be used within the atmosphere too — awesome.
"There's also an energy-defense field generator that can resist some physical, energy, and beam attacks, greatly improving my unit's survivability.
"And the most crucial: the compressed-space suite system. IS mecha include a compressed storage space that holds spare parts and equipment for adapting to different situations, including weapons, extra armor, additional thrusters, and so on. It can generate a spherical compressed space up to ten meters in diameter — large enough to store a Phantom Kai–sized unit and its weapons. It's also great as an ordinary storage device.
"This draw was huge — it's basically tailored to strengthening Phantom Kai. That means I don't need to replace units for Ange and Zola; I can carry spares with me.
"Combine these technologies with Phantom Kai and a newly built unit could operate freely in space even without a cockpit cover. Still, I'll add a canopy for safety — being thrown out of the cockpit would be bad."
Tolle couldn't help getting excited for a moment at the reward, but he quickly calmed down and considered whether to go to the Gundam Wing world right away.
On second thought, he decided to rest one day and go tomorrow.
As for the compressed-space equipment, Tolle wanted to start manufacturing it immediately, but he didn't have enough materials.
The Cross Ange: Rondo of Angels and Dragons world hadn't yielded any spare parts — only one Phantom Kai unit — such a failure.
He wouldn't bother Ange for now; otherwise she would clamor to visit her home world and that would be troublesome. After all, there's Miriallia and Lynn Minmay — one more woman suddenly showing up would be a real headache.
Tolle came out of the bathroom to find Lynn Minmay and Miriallia still chatting happily; after all, they had only experienced a little over a minute.
When Lynn Minmay saw Tolle come out, she came over and pulled him down to sit between them.
But being sandwiched between them felt a bit awkward — he felt like he'd become a sandwich. ←_←
One of them hooked an arm around him and they looked very cozy. Tolle silently thanked Nami — otherwise he might already have been cleaved by a machete.
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