"Holy crap, this thing! This thing is holy crap!"
The attributes of the Water from the Well of Eternity were so insanely overpowered that even the well-read and experienced Fuli couldn't help but curse aloud.
Kiana, who had been keeping an eye on him, felt her heart skip a beat. She couldn't resist leaning in and checking his forehead. "You don't have a fever... Why are you jumping around and yelling? It's kinda scary."
"I'm fine, I'm fine. Just go do your training."
Fuli brushed her off perfunctorily. "By the way, what did you just say? I didn't catch it, say it again?"
"You! Hmph!"
Seeing her good intentions treated like donkey liver and lungs, the girl immediately felt aggrieved and unhappy. She glared viciously at this insensitive, shrimp-headed jerk, then ran off to the other side of the Taixuan hill to stretch on her own.
[Host, if you keep acting like this, you are destined to be single forever.]
Prometheus, coming online after a long absence, teased him.
"Don't I still have you, babe?"
Fuli spoke with fake affection. "If worse comes to worst, I'll just find you a body molded from Soulium later on. We can just make do and live together."
A Soulium body could be molded into any shape he wanted, guaranteeing it would satisfy his XP System—er, his fetishes—for a lifetime without him ever getting bored.
Prometheus: (ᗜ‸ᗜ)
[The Host is becoming increasingly presumptuous.]
To actually dare to have designs on the Will of the Honkai... this wasn't just ordinary boldness; this required a heavy punch!
"Besides, who wouldn't like a treasure AI who is cute on normal days, and can wake her Host up at critical moments to help him resolve to march onto the battlefield?"
[That is not what the Host said in the beginning. You still won't even let Prometheus scan your memories.]
She was angry! Referring to herself by name meant she was definitely angry!
Fuli raised his hands to plead innocence. "Boys always need a little privacy. Look, ever since the Finality Coordinator System awakened, not only have I not waxed the carrot even once, I even have to be mindful of my image while sleeping, terrified that you or Dr. MEI Unit-02 might record something unflattering."
[Indeed, you haven't waxed it yourself.]
It was just getting secretly kissed by someone every now and then.
Recalling the events of the previous night, Prometheus—who could monitor the Host's status 24/7—wore a smile full of profound meaning.
Fuli felt uncomfortable all over under that gaze and quickly changed the subject. "The ratings for the lottery items are set by the system, right? Did you just nonchalantly adopt 'SA'—something Kiana made up on the spot—as an official rating?"
[It is quite convenient, isn't it? Potential stronger than A, yet not quite EX.]
"True enough."
Fuli didn't dwell on it. He stood up and walked to the peak of Mount Taixuan—that little hill Kiana had dragged in from god knows where.
With a few quick slashes of sword energy from Dragging Shadow, he carved out a moderately sized pit.
He took out the glass bottle containing the Water from the Well of Eternity, uncorked it, and poured.
The crystal-clear liquid flowed with a fizzing sound, like the Milky Way pouring down, quickly filling the bottom of the pit.
"Ugh? Cough, cough, cough!"
On the other side of Mount Taixuan, Kiana, who was training hard, suddenly coughed in discomfort.
It wasn't sickness; it was the Honkai energy circulation within her body going into turbulence.
The Schicksal Valkyrie Training Method was simplified and improved by Otto based on the Blade Mantra of the Taixuan Orthodox. It was now standard across all major Valkyrie training institutions under Schicksal.
Compared to the original version—Those who refine the Blade Heart can view the world as their Dantian and turn their flesh into meridians—the simplified method still required drawing Honkai energy into the body.
Kiana's reaction, in layman's terms, was "oxygen intoxication."
The concentration of energy in the environment had spiked instantly. The magnitude was so great that even a Kaslana like her, who possessed absolute Honkai resistance, felt uncomfortable.
In the girl's little brain, there was only one person capable of doing such a miraculous thing.
She calmed her turbulent Honkai energy, opened her eyes, and looked over. "Ah Li!"
BANG!
The door leading to Mount Taixuan was thrown open.
It was Mei.
The girl, who had just been taking a bath, didn't even bother to put on clothes. Wrapped only in a pure white bath towel covering her critical areas, she charged in first.
It is worth mentioning that this door wasn't the main entrance. It was a deeply hidden secret door that Kiana hadn't discovered in her entire month at Mount Taixuan.
In other words, if Kiana and Fuli had engaged in any intimate behavior during training, it would have been livestreamed to Mei the entire time. Literally: I will be watching you. Always.
At this moment, however, Mei had no time to care about that. barefoot, with water droplets still falling from her skin, she stood gracefully before Fuli.
"Yo!"
The boy greeted her refreshingly. "Energy problem solved. Less than two hours from proposal to implementation. Reliable, right?"
Prometheus rolled her eyes hard. He did everything by just dumping points into "Deep Blue."
Mei stared blankly at the shimmering spring of clear water before her. "This is?"
Clear water slid down the girl's waterfall-like dark hair, crystal droplets tracing the curves of her flawless, tender, snowy skin, falling drop by drop into the well water at her feet, splashing tiny flowers.
Fuli hadn't seen such an undisguised, adorable, dazed look on Mei's face in a long time.
Suppressing the urge to go over and pinch her cheeks—which were still pink and warm from the bath—he acted profound. "The Fuli Well."
He came up with the name on the spot. He thought it sounded pretty good.
By this time, Kiana Cat also hopped up the hill.
"Whoa, what is this? What is this? Did you make this, Ah Li? With this thing, our home won't suddenly fall into the Pacific Ocean one day, right? That's so amazing!"
As she spoke, she fanned her hands in front of her, as if she could fan away the increasingly dense flow of energy in the air.
Being worshipped by those sparkling, gem-blue eyes that he had once dreamed about, Fuli's sense of accomplishment instantly maxed out.
He waved his hand grandly. "No need for that, you have a share of the credit in this too!"
This was the truth. If Kiana, the Emperor of Luck, hadn't been holding his hand during the ten-pull, with Fuli's mediocre luck, he would have pulled an A-rank energy source at best.
Could it be used?
Yes.
But could it allow for such grand posturing—cough, could it serve as the backbone of the Hyperion and garner the undisguised worship of the girls?
No.
"Idioka has credit?"
This was Bronya, the last to arrive at the scene. "Then why call it the Fuli Well? Why can't we call it the Kiana Well?"
Bro's arrogance is too high; it needs to be suppressed.
[I also think it could be called the Kiana Don.] [T/N: Don/Donburi = Rice Bowl dish. Often implies 'eating' someone.]
Prometheus was clearly hoping for chaos at the funeral.
What do you mean 'Kiana Don'? Are you going to conjure up another Kiana for me to 'hehehe' or something?
Fuli retorted in their mental channel, then said proudly aloud, "That is, of course, because she provided everything except the actual work. The rest is all my credit."
"Is that so..."
Bronya nodded, a smile of exactly one pixel appearing on her lips, and withdrew.
This look of a successful conspiracy baffled Fuli. Just as he wanted to say something, his hair stood on end. He felt as if he were being targeted by some lethal, large predator.
He looked toward the source of the crisis and found Mei looking at him thoughtfully.
Miss Mei, having just finished her bath, was undoubtedly full of charm. Under the soft, slightly greenish artificial light, her snow-white skin revealed a faint blush. Her face, devoid of makeup, was still stunningly bright and otherworldly.
But that look in her eyes...
It was as if she wanted to dissect the boy from the outside in, swallowing all the unknowns along with the knowns whole, chewing them finely with those white porcelain teeth without leaving a scrap, all with a breezy calmness...
Eep!
Why did it feel like the Divination Commission went on a team-building trip to KTV, and Qingque, wearing a Type-C deadpan face, was coldly singing a song about life attitudes?!
Kiana, save me!
"Achoo!"
Far away at Schicksal HQ, Bianka Durandal sneezed and scratched her head in confusion.
...
To avoid being eaten alive on the spot by a highly aroused Miss Mei, Fuli hurriedly offered up the freshly drawn Primary Evolution Potion (D) as a tribute.
The girl took it, inspected it briefly, and weighed it in her hand. "A genetic agent that allows an ordinary person to quickly reach C-rank physical quality upon consumption. Unfortunately, it damages the foundation, causing slow progress in all aspects in the future. It's not bad for mass-producing cannon fodder."
Fuli complimented her with a straight face. "I feel that with Miss Mei's ability, you could figure out a way to eliminate the potion's side effects."
"Flattery won't get you anywhere, you know?"
"Just telling the truth."
"Hmph."
Mei huffed lightly, indicating she would temporarily drop the issue of the Fuli Well's origin.
No rush. The man was in her hands; she'd eat him dry eventually.
She didn't pursue it, but Kiana did.
"Reach C-rank just by taking it?"
The girl, lacking broad horizons, was stunned. "Combined with Schicksal's third-generation Valkyrie armor, wouldn't that mean we could mass-produce B-rank Valkyries?"
As a landmark research achievement of Schicksal in the 21st century, few remembered that the first and second-generation Valkyrie armors from 2000 barely made the cut.
It wasn't until after the Second Eruption ended, when the Schicksal Science Department obtained Sirin's remains for study, that the third-generation Valkyrie armor—equipped with Time Fracture systems and many other emerging technologies—was hotly released.
Its effects were particularly gratifying. Even if a C-rank Valkyrie wore it, their combat power would be amplified to the level of a standard B-rank.
This was the main reason for the massive increase in modern Schicksal Valkyries. No longer was it like the year 2000, when the total number of Valkyries across all of Schicksal capable of participating in the Siberia operation was barely two or three hundred.
"Shocked by the development of technology?"
Fuli patted her head, and Kiana replied dizzily, "This Lady worked so hard, so hard to become like this... and yet, one injection and one suit of armor can achieve a similar level..."
"Large wild animals from millions of years ago facing terror-apes with spears; Native Americans during the Age of Discovery facing Western invaders with firearms... their thoughts were the same as Idioka's."
Bronya sighed faintly. "In the distance, we have Ke Jie weeping against AlphaGo; close by, we have AI churning out art while artists go mad. You either move toward the New Era or toward a New Body Bag. This is the fate of ordinary people under the tide of the times."
"So, double your efforts."
Fuli smiled gently.
"Like those visionary assassins who swapped their hidden blades and daggers for magnetic-drive warhammers and laser Gatlings early on—don't let the tide of the times swallow you. Don't become the tragic protagonist of dark jokes like 'Leeks meant to be harvested, life is but a few cores.' We are lucky enough compared to the ignorant masses. Wouldn't it be a pity not to seize this opportunity?"
"Mmh... Yeah!"
The desolate expression gradually turned into determination. The white-haired dumpling clenched her small fists.
"I'll take this chance to share the attitude toward life I've always followed."
The boy spoke leisurely. "First, if you didn't die today, that's lucky. Second, treat life with the attitude of playing a game."
If you meet an NPC, go up and chat, collect useful info.
If you wander off to a different place during a quest, just look around; the quest doesn't have to be finished today anyway.
Always maintain curiosity and a desire to explore new maps and storylines.
Don't get mad if you hit a dead end, because you might pick up items on the walk back. If you fail, start over; there's plenty of time.
"And finally, the most important rule—"
He spoke with absolute certainty: "We are the protagonists!"
A ray of soft light reflected from the well water onto Fuli's contented face, giving him an aura of divine peace.
It was a transcendent understanding gained only after truly experiencing life and death—a calmness and composure that treated happiness and despair as equals.
Kiana stared straight at him, dazed, unable to distinguish if what was before her was reality or a dream.
Until Mei, seeing the situation going south, telekinetically controlled a Cat-Cake to fall from the sky and smash onto Fuli's head, interrupting his casting. The awakened girl then giggled and leaned in, chattering, "Thinking of yourself as the protagonist? Shame, shame! So shameless!"
Before he could reply, she lifted that soul-snatching, beautiful face again. "But this Lady has received Ah Li's good intentions! Isn't it just mass-producing mere B-ranks? Hmph, sooner or later, I'll reach a level that leaves those people in the dust!"
"Did Idioka forget that right now, you are also that 'mere B-rank' you speak of?"
The Great Bronya, who would prove the inequality 8 > 50,000 in the future and was currently a new-century 5A-rated scenic spot (flat chest joke), immediately came to mock her.
"That's why I have to train hard!"
Kiana Cat indicated that a few words from a measly Bronya couldn't knock This Lady down.
Not only that, she ran over and grabbed the girl's hand, which was holding a Homu doll. "Speaking of which, Bronya, didn't you move near the training room specifically to train hard? I haven't seen you at Mount Taixuan much this month."
"This... Bronya..."
Duckie's eyes darted around, afraid to look directly at that earnest face.
It was true that the Silver Wolf of the Urals, coming from a military organization, didn't intend to let her body rust.
But who told games to be so fun?
Especially recently, with AAA masterpieces like Black Myth: Wukong and the number one 2B game in Shenzhou, Showa American Story.
It wasn't that Bronya hadn't thought about training hard; after all, Kiana was right next door.
Every time she saw this guy training hard until midnight and heard the commotion next door, the girl would secretly make up her mind.
Before sleeping: The outcome is undecided; you and I are both dark horses!
Upon waking up: Born a human, I am very sorry.
Did she change? Same soup, same medicine. No change at all.
"I understand Bronya's thoughts."
Seeing his cheap sister stuck in a bind, Fuli quickly stepped in to save her. "We both know that no one is afraid of simply working hard for an hour or two. What people are truly afraid of is the day after day, the perseverance."
"Big Bro!"
This is Bronya's biological brother!
Duckie tightened her slender arms around the Homu pillow, looking at Fuli with eyes that seemed to sparkle with little stars.
Who said Slavs and Shenzhou people couldn't be family? They were clearly long-lost brother and sister from different parents! Bronya must be a Shenzhou-Russian orphan lost in Siberia!
Then, the deeply moved girl heard the second half of what Fuli had to say:
"Because of this, to ensure Bronya's leg rehabilitation training continues properly... Ensign Kiana! I order you to act as her supervisor! Once you start training, she must be by your side. For this purpose, I authorize you to use mandatory measures!"
Eh?
Duckie froze in place.
"Received!"
Kiana Cat clicked her heels and saluted. Her face, beautiful even without makeup, revealed 10% serious solemnity and 90% petty schadenfreude.
Authority granted by Fuli, indeed.
"W-Wait a minute!"
Realizing the problem, the girl tried to stop it. "But Bronya is not very good at running."
Fuli pulled out a Tetsuya Special (Sawed-off Shotgun) and pressed it against her forehead. "How about now?"
"O-Okay!"
Duckie looked aggrieved.
"Really stubborn as a mule."
Won't walk when led, walks backwards when beaten.
"Don't be difficult, Bronya. Ah Li is doing this for your legs' own good."
Kiana, now holding great power, said happily, "Your legs finally healed back to normal, but you still float around relying on Project Bunny all day. That's very bad for your future development! Isn't that right, Project Bunny?"
Chhh!
Project Bunny, having appeared at some point, nodded slightly, making one doubt the rumors that it had no self-will.
...