In the eerie, cozy, yet silently bizarre atmosphere, the dark red figure shrouded in a hood nodded slightly. "I understand. Please wait a moment."
He turned and walked towards a room on the side, his back quickly disappearing from Fuli's view.
Only then did Prometheus move her lips, slightly dissatisfied. [Can you explain now?]
During the dialogue between the two Riddlers just now, her mind was basically echoing with 'What! What! What! What is all this!?'
Riddlers get out!
[Of course.]
Contrary to the little AI who had been kept in the dark, Fuli was in a rather good mood.
[The place we are in right now is the Far East branch of the Future Foundation.]
He explained, [The Future Foundation is a medium-sized organization with quite a reputation in the Honkai world. Every three years, they release 'Loan Jade Tokens' to the outside world in a completely random (or so they claim) manner. These tokens record the routes to their various branches.]
[These branches are located all over the world. Anyone, no matter who, as long as they can reach a branch using the methods recorded on the Jade Token, can have the Foundation fulfill any two requests at rank B or below. For example, asking for weapons, equipment, learning skills, or simply asking them to kill an enemy.]
Fuli spoke casually, but in fact, every time the Future Foundation released the Jade Tokens, it caused many ambitious individuals to kill each other.
Because these Jade Tokens didn't directly tell a person how to get to the branch; it took time to decipher the content on them.
Needing time naturally gave some people an opportunity.
[Take me for example. After completing a mission and celebrating at a barbecue restaurant, I heard a drunk Slavic mercenary at the next table bragging about this.]
Fuli said methodically, [According to the normal historical trajectory, that guy only deciphered the puzzle on the Loan Jade Token six months later. He came to this Kisaragi Station and exchanged for a C-rank armor and a skill of the same rank from the clerk.]
Prometheus was sharp. [The word the Host used to describe that unlucky guy was 'exchanged', right?]
[Correct.] The overly soft sofa made Fuli uncomfortable. He straightened his back and responded, [Did you see the '21' crossed out on the banner?]
The little AI nodded slightly.
[What's recorded there is exactly how many people worldwide have reached a loan agreement with the Future Foundation in this manner.]
[Now it's eighteen. When that number hits zero completely, the Foundation will use some means to gather everyone from this batch to complete a secret mission assigned by them.]
Speaking of this, Fuli added, [That's how the guy whose opportunity I stole died. In the middle of the night, someone chopped off his limbs, covered him in a white cloth, and hung him like a human wind chime from the top of Tokyo Tower. Blood dripped onto the observation glass, scaring several ordinary citizens who went for an early morning visit the next day into madness. The newly appointed Prime Minister of the Far East was furious about it.]
[Oof, how tragic.] There was no fluctuation in the little girl's tone.
[Overall, it can be considered a two-way street.] Fuli clapped his hands. [No matter what risks lie ahead, at least two C-rank items are in hand right now.]
Prometheus speculated, [In that case, is the Foundation investing in geniuses without backgrounds in advance?]
True big shots wouldn't care for mere C-rank items, let alone face a mysterious crisis of unknown origin.
[Maybe there's that consideration. After all, deciphering the Loan Jade Token isn't easy, and reaching the branch safely after it becomes known that you possess a token is another matter entirely.]
At this point, Fuli suddenly laughed.
His smile was clean, like a breeze sweeping away clouds stretching for ten thousand miles, or the morning sun piercing through the mist, casting a layer of golden light on his plain white face.
Prometheus, however, shuddered.
Because he said, [Look, I don't even have a Loan Jade Token, yet that kind hooded gentleman still readily traded with me, didn't he?]
No matter who it was, or whether they held a Loan Jade Token issued by the Future Foundation.
As long as they were the first to step into the branch in that region, they were the customer for this round.
[...Truly a realistic organization full of Social Darwinism.]
The little AI didn't much like such naked survival of the fittest.
[I don't like it either. Presumably, when someone holds a knife to the necks of the Foundation's higher-ups in the future, they will also come to hate this rule immensely.] Fuli comforted her. [But people, when living under another's roof, always have to make a temporary truce with this world that is neither gentle nor beautiful.]
[Then what are 'Mikazuki' and 'Shiranui'?]
Prometheus didn't want to continue the previous topic.
[First, we need to clarify combat power levels. For the sake of unified measurement, many factions led by Schicksal use Valkyries as a reference, standardizing combat power into D-rank, C-rank, B-rank, A-rank, 'Critical-class' above that, and then S-rank above that.]
Fuli blew on the black tea in his cup.
He used himself as an example. [Take me before my regression. At A-rank, I could crush three B-rank Valkyries, reach a stalemate against five B-rank Valkyries, barely hold on against seven, and if the opposing number was over ten, I would definitely run away without a word.]
[This theory applies to the vast majority of battles below S-rank. Outliers and S-rank and above are not included in this consensus.]
This assumed that equipment, skills, willpower, and training were roughly similar within their respective ranks. After all, even in ancient times, there were classic cases of bullying noobs, like armored Ming soldiers chasing and hacking hundreds of refugees with swords, or a squad of a dozen Iron Pagoda cavalry breaking through thousands of Song dynasty Xiang troops.
[D, C, B, A, Critical, S-rank. Sounds simple and easy to understand.] The little girl tilted her head cutely. [But I don't understand why the Host suddenly brought this up.]
[Because one of the two swords I mentioned, the Demon Blade Shiranui, is a forbidden skill that allows me—a watery C-rank who got here through a ten-pull gacha—to quickly touch the level of an A-rank Valkyrie. It's a life-burning combat technique that lets one's combat power soar in a short time... Hmm, let me write it out in the system panel format you're familiar with.]
He took a pen and paper from his backpack and began to scribble on it.
Prometheus leaned in, her twin-turbo head pressing against Fuli's as they looked at what he was writing on the paper together.