Chapter 124: Fooling Oneself
New Zealand · Research Institute
"Creaaak—"
The rubber tires of the wheelchair rolled over the mirror-smooth floor, letting out a faint and monotonous sound.
Wendy pushed the wheelchair herself, coming out through the main doors of the laboratory. Her forehead bore undried sweat, and a few strands of pale cyan hair clung to her cheeks, making her appear fragile and exhausted.
Her facial expression was calm, yet somewhat ashen. Today was yet another test and experiment for her, but the results were just like the countless experiments before.
She could feel that the gem within her body, called the "Gem of Desire," was like a dormant extinct volcano. No matter how the outside world stimulated it, it was only willing to stingily give a tiny bit of response—stirring up a slight breeze barely enough to rustle paper, or causing some fluctuations in the curve representing Honkai energy output on the testing instruments.
But this fell far short of the expectations of those researchers in white coats. That formulated, unconcealable disappointment on their faces—she had seen it too many times, so many times that she was nearly numb to it.
A few young researchers stood by the main doors watching the departing Wendy. They lowered their heads and rapidly swiped and wrote on their electronic record boards, muttering complaints to their colleagues next to them in voices they thought were low enough.
"...The data is still the same old. Forget about the fluctuation threshold of a Herrscher, it's merely at the level of a B-Rank Valkyrie."
"Yeah... I know. I don't know if we just picked the wrong person from the very beginning? Wasting so much time and resources for nothing..."
Their voices were very soft, but in the empty, quiet corridor, they drilled into Wendy's ears with abnormal clarity.
She didn't know why she could always hear these things. Perhaps it was because of the wind; even the faintest change in air currents would deliver the voices she didn't want to hear right to her ears?
She didn't know, nor did she want to delve into it.
Wendy's fingers, resting on the armrests of the wheelchair, curled up imperceptibly. Her knuckles turned slightly white from the force, but it was only for a moment before they relaxed again.
Wendy did not turn her head, nor did she show any reaction. She merely continued in silence, stroke by stroke, rolling the wheels with her hands, inching towards the direction of the dormitory area.
She had heard words like these far too many times. From the initial anger and grievance, to the subsequent powerlessness and self-deprecation, up until now... now, all that remained was a chilling cold that seeped into her very marrow.
The attitude of the researchers, compared to those Valkyries outside, could even be considered "mild". At the very least, they would only gossip behind her back, rather than directly throwing words like "trash" at her face without any disguise.
She had once been the genius of the Far East Branch with the most hope of becoming the fourth S-Rank Valkyrie. She had been radiant, her future boundless.
But all of this was ruined by this gem implanted in her leg. How many years had it been? How many years had she been sitting in this wheelchair?
Her former glory and power had receded like the ebbing tide, leaving behind only this increasingly frail body—which couldn't even stir up a decent breeze—and the cold title of "Herrscher Adaptability Experimental Subject".
"The state of the gem inside her body is exceptionally stable. Perhaps even if she can't become an artificial Herrscher, she can still serve as a vault capable of securely storing the gem."
This was something she had accidentally overheard once from the head of the project. These words had now become the only piece of driftwood she could grasp onto, keeping her from completely breaking down.
Look, you are still useful. You can become the sturdiest vault. As long as this gem remains inside your body, as long as you are still alive, a new Herrscher will not be born.
Even if you can't stand on the front lines, doing this is still making a contribution to all of humanity. How... noble.
Wendy forcefully closed her eyes, her long eyelashes trembling violently. She took a deep breath, forcefully ignoring the malicious whispers by her ears.
"Yes... I am useful... I am preventing the birth of a Herrscher..." she muttered to herself, her voice so soft that only she could hear it, as if she were reciting a life-sustaining incantation.
Even though she knew this was perhaps just deceiving herself, it was already the only faint glimmer of light she could see in the boundless darkness.
Her heart had long since grown completely cold amidst this day-after-day disappointment and self-hypnosis.
The wheelchair moved slowly but firmly, eventually stopping in front of a dormitory door marked with her serial number.
Swiping her access card to open the door, she wheeled herself into this space, the only place that could be considered "private."
The room wasn't large, and the furnishings were simple to the point of being almost spartan. Apart from the necessary furniture, there was hardly any trace of personal life. It was as cold as a high-class hospital ward.
She locked the door from the inside, as if to isolate all the gazes and gossip from the outside world. An immense sense of exhaustion surged over her like a tidal wave—not just physically, but even more so mentally.
She picked up her personal communicator placed on the bedside table and skillfully opened the intelligence section, wanting to see if there were any recent news happening within Schicksal, such as large-scale Honkai outbreaks or something.
However, just as her fingertip was about to tap open the news app, her movements paused.
In the corner of the screen, an app icon she had never seen before lay there quietly. The design of the icon was simple yet peculiar—an icon resembling a leaf, formed by countless tiny, flowing cyan points of light.
The name of the app was very simple, consisting of only two words: Future Comms.
"Future Comms?" Wendy frowned slightly. She didn't remember downloading this software, and Schicksal's communication terminals shouldn't be susceptible to any virus invasions either.
Out of habitual vigilance, her finger moved toward the icon, long-pressing it, preparing to drag it into the delete zone. For this kind of thing with an unknown origin, the best way to deal with it was to wipe it out.
Right as her fingertip touched the icon, just as she was about to long-press and drag it to delete it, as if triggered by a system mis-touch, the app opened.
Amidst a loading circle, just as Wendy was about to exit, a flash of color belonging to the Corruption virus instantly swept across the screen, simultaneously flashing a green leaf.
Looking at the flashing icon, a trace of green flashed in Wendy's eyes. For some unknown reason, Wendy suddenly felt there was no rush, wanting to first see what the hell this app was.
The thought of exiting and deleting it also inexplicably dissipated at this moment.
What... exactly was this software? What did it want to do? Why did it seek her out specifically? Such somewhat strange curiosity entangled Wendy's heart.
In any case, it wasn't like she had anything that could be taken away anyway.
Her finger hovered over the screen, ultimately choosing not to force-quit. However, to prevent the possibility of it being a virus or something, Wendy still opted to turn off her network connection.
A few seconds later, the screen interface changed again, turning into an extremely minimalist chat software interface.
The background was a deep starry sky map, and the chat box was a semi-transparent floating layer. The overall design was full of a futuristic style that transcended the current sense of technology.
"A chat software?" A few question marks flashed above Wendy's head. What the heck, making it so mysterious, and in the end, it was just a chat software.
Just as Wendy was thinking this, a message suddenly popped up on the screen.
[The Knower of Fate: Do you have any troubles?]
"Huh?" A question mark flashed above Wendy's head. She had clearly just cut off the network, so why was there still a message popping up? How interesting.
Just as Wendy was preparing to test it, the sound of knocking suddenly came from the door. Wendy turned her head and softly said, "Come in." A Valkyrie carrying a basket then walked in from the outside.
Wendy recognized at a glance that this was the Valkyrie who had been taking turns delivering cafeteria food to her these past few days.
The Valkyrie silently placed the basket on the table and prepared to turn and leave. Just a piece of trash, not worth wasting any more of her training time.
But right as that Valkyrie was about to leave, Wendy spoke up and stopped her, while showing the communication terminal in her hand: "Excuse me, do you know what this thing is?"
"Huh?" The Valkyrie turned back with some confusion, looking at Wendy and then at the communication terminal in her hands, which appeared to be displaying something. Then, amidst Wendy's gaze, she looked over in puzzlement.
"So what are you trying to ask? There are so many apps on this, which one do you want me to tell you about?"
Her attitude was very poor, but a look full of question marks flashed across Wendy's face. She turned the communicator around, looking at the screen that was still staying on the page of that so-called 'Knower of Fate' asking her what troubles she had.
"I-It's this one. Do you not know what this 'Future Comms' APP is?"
"What Future Comms? You must have read too many novels." That Valkyrie rolled her eyes. This piece of trash was probably dreaming too much.
Hearing that Valkyrie's reaction, more question marks flashed above Wendy's head. She once again showed the communication terminal to the Valkyrie, pointing at it.
"Don't you see that there's some kind of chat interface on here?"
The Valkyrie sighed, looking at Wendy: "You better hurry up and tell me exactly what you want me to explain to you. I don't have time to stay here talking with you about this kind of completely non-existent thing."
"..." Wendy looked at the confusion on the other party's face, stayed silent for a while, and then shook her head. "Sorry, excuse me. Maybe I got something wrong."
"Truly inexplicable." After shaking her head, the Valkyrie turned and left, leaving only Wendy alone in the room, looking at the tablet in her hands with a confused expression.
"Is this my hallucination?" Wendy shook the communication terminal in her hands. She didn't think that Valkyrie was messing with her; the confusion on the other party's face was not an illusion.
Although she had suffered endless cold stares and neglect over these years, she had also developed a pair of eyes capable of reading most people's emotions. Perhaps it was a result of being exposed to others' cold stares and disdain for so long?
Precisely because of this, Wendy was very certain that what was on that person's face just now was absolutely not feigned, but she was genuinely confused by her words, and even somewhat impatient.
It was exactly as if what she had shown her was just a simple interface, not displaying anything to her at all.
So to say, could it be that what she was seeing was a hallucination? But...
Right when Wendy was puzzled, another line of text flashed on the screen.
[The Knower of Fate: Do not be puzzled. I know of your melancholy, because I am another you.]
Wendy held the communication terminal in her hand, looking at the screen with some daze. Another her? How is that possible? But it seemed others couldn't see this APP.
Could this truly be her own hallucination? Or perhaps another method of the Honkai's beguilement?
[Who exactly are you?]
[Didn't I say it? Another you.] A message popped up on the screen again. [I know your current worries, but how could you yourself deceive yourself?]
[I can help you.]
St. Freya Academy · Irene's Room
Irene looked at Wendy, who was holding a tablet with a wicked smirk over there, and secretly shook her head: "I must say, people truly don't find it tiring when doing bad things."
"Plus, the one she's scamming is her past self. I'm afraid Wendy is already thoroughly enjoying herself." Little Senti also wore a busybody expression, leaning in to look at Wendy. "By the way, Irene, will doing this really work?"
"It can't be helped, you also know I lack the ability to be in two places at once." Irene shook her head. If she just relied on acting, Irene could just transform and directly appear in front of Wendy in Wendy's identity.
That would definitely be faster, but the problem was that she couldn't split herself right now. She had also tried seeing if she could utilize Klein's One Person, Thousand Minds ability to split out a clone.
Although the primary controlling consciousness of the split clone wouldn't be Irene, but Klein.
But if it could be used, it would also greatly alleviate Irene's current problem of lacking avatars. However, as long as she switched forms, the original clone would directly dissipate.
But it was impossible for her to constantly maintain Klein's form. This led to the result that this ability could probably only be used for a very brief period of time for her.
She had also tried Mirror Sync, but the effect was ridiculously poor. In the end, what was inside Klein's body was a complete Herrscher Core, and the so-called clones were just disassembling the core into tiny, miniature cores.
Producing a core wasn't the problem. After all, even a Divine Key like the Oath of Judah, which used the Herrscher of Binding Core, could be copied. There was no reason why she couldn't copy Klein's Herrscher of the Legion Core.
But regrettably, copying it was useless. The clones created possessed no will whatsoever; doing it was just doing it in vain.
It was very annoying.
"Right now, we just need to build up some self-confidence for Miss Wendy and stabilize her current mental state, and it will be considered a success." Irene looked at Wendy. "As for afterward, we'll take it one step at a time."
"No matter what, it won't become any worse than the original timeline. As long as we can achieve this point, that is enough."
"That's true too." Little Corruption nodded. She also understood the logic that one couldn't become fat with just one bite.
Irene looked at Wendy, who was still typing to fool herself: "By the way, that APP won't have any problems, right?"
That APP naturally came from Little Corruption's hands. Irene had also contributed the Bodhi imprint, working with Little Corruption to give that APP the ability to mislead anyone other than Wendy, causing them to ignore the existence of this APP.
The goal was naturally to make Wendy feel that this was an illusion from her own heart or something similar, so that Wendy could fool Wendy, allowing Wendy to find a bit of self-confidence.
After all, one wouldn't scam themselves, right? As long as Wendy could find this bit of self-confidence, no matter what, it wouldn't be worse than what happened afterward.
This was all Irene and the others could do right now. Theresa had already submitted the request on her end, and presumably, they should be able to obtain the permission before long.
When the time comes, they would be able to bring Wendy over, as long as no accidents occurred.
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