To be honest, Kiana never really tasted what that piece of tofu was like.
The moment it touched her tongue, a shrill ringing exploded inside her head, as if every fold of her cerebral cortex had been smoothed flat.
So yes, after that piece of tofu, or whatever that thing was supposed to be called, entered her mouth, she immediately lost consciousness.
In a hazy blur, it felt like her soul had been dragged straight into the underworld. She even saw her late great-grandmother waving at her by the banks of the River of Forgetfulness.
She dreamed that Old Lady Meng handed her a bowl of forgetfulness soup at the bridge, but no matter how she looked at it, it seemed more like a bowl of noodles.
Before she could even taste them, a sudden sensation of falling yanked her back.
And then, she woke up.
Staring blankly at the ceiling, Kiana realized she was back in Mu's living room.
Then she heard a voice.
"You're awake. Congratulations, you're a Valkyrie now."
Kiana instantly reached down to check herself.
A second later, she remembered she was already a girl. Her whole body sagged, her expression turning gloomy.
Only then did she have the time to look around properly. When she lifted her head, she saw Li Mu standing in front of her, holding a cup of water.
Seeing her sit up, he handed it to her.
Kiana took it and found that it was warm water.
"If you're not feeling well, drink more hot water," Li Mu said with a bright smile.
Kiana felt so irritated she almost wanted to smash the cup into his face.
But with her stomach still churning, she ended up drinking it anyway.
Once the warm water went down and her stomach felt better, something else occurred to her.
"Wait," Kiana said, staring at Li Mu. "Wasn't I eating at Mei's place? Why am I at your house?"
"Because I just pulled you out of the ICU!"
"…What?"
Seeing her confusion, Li Mu explained calmly.
"You passed out cold during dinner. Mei's family rushed you to the hospital."
"They needed a family member to sign some papers. To keep your identity from reaching your parents, I pretended to be your family and brought you out."
"No need to thank me."
Kiana rolled her eyes.
"Oh wow, thanks so much."
"I told you, we're brothers. No need for thanks."
Kiana said nothing, just drained the rest of the warm water in one go.
She reached out to return the glass.
The moment she handed it over—
Crash!
With a sharp crack, the glass exploded into shards all over the floor.
Kiana stared blankly at the bits of glass still clinging to her palm.
Only then did she realize that, aside from the lingering nausea, her physical condition felt better than ever before.
She could feel immense power flowing through her veins. Right now, she felt like she could punch straight through a wall.
"This is…?"
Li Mu answered her unspoken question.
"Stigmata. I implanted a Stigmata into you while you were unconscious."
"Stigmata?"
"Just think of it like superpowers from a fantasy story. Congratulations, brother. From now on, you're a Valkyrie with real supernatural strength."
Li Mu glanced at the system task panel.
Task: Witness ME Corp's heiress Raiden Mei enrolling at Chiba Academy
Reward: 300 Crystals, A-Rank Stigmata Selection Box x1
Status: Completed, reward available
Task: Witness Kiana and Raiden Mei becoming friends
Reward: 300 Crystals, A-Rank Stigmata Selection Box x1
Status: Completed, reward available
While Kiana was still unconscious, he had already cleared the check-ins.
First was the ME Corp task. Using the massive funding he obtained from Eden, he directly acquired a nearly bankrupt company in Nagazora City that specialized in engineering machinery and renamed it ME Corp.
With Eden's financial backing, he could have built ME Corp from scratch, but he simply did not have the time.
There was only about a year left before the Third Honkai Eruption. If he started from zero, East Asia would be wiped out before ME Corp was even off the ground.
So the optimal solution was obvious: buy an existing company and put it into operation immediately.
That said, ME Corp was not something he planned to discard after clearing a check-in. The future establishment of St. Freya Academy would still require MEI's resources.
So next, he would carry out aggressive restructuring and upgrades to ensure ME Corp could meet his requirements.
The moment ME Corp was officially registered, the system detected the previously missing Raiden Mei, and the check-in completed automatically.
At the same time, since Kiana and Mei were already friends, the second task was cleared as well.
The rewards totaled 600 Crystals and two A-Rank Stigmata sets.
Li Mu immediately chose one set tailored for A-Rank Valkyrie-era Kiana and loaded it into his good brother's body, granting her most of that version's combat ability.
In other words, only now had his good brother truly become Valkyrie Kiana. Before this, she had not even matched the stats of White Comet.
Staring at the glass fragments in her palm, Kiana was stunned.
She already believed Li Mu was someone who had returned from fifty thousand years in the future. She had also seen plenty of his unbelievable abilities.
But only now, feeling this extraordinary power flowing through her body, did she truly understand the weight of it.
After being told about the future catastrophe, unease had lingered in her heart.
No matter how powerful her future self might be, right now she was just a slightly tougher high school student. Faced with a disaster on the scale of a natural apocalypse, all she could feel was helplessness.
But now, with power filling her body, real fighting spirit finally ignited inside her.
Power was the sharpest weapon against fate.
Kiana pressed her lips together and spoke to Li Mu with complete sincerity.
"Thank you."
Li Mu threw an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close, his voice brimming with bravado.
"We're brothers. Why be polite?"
"With the two of us working together, we'll make sure the Herrscher of Finality never comes back!"
Thump!
Kiana drove an elbow into Li Mu, making him suck in a sharp breath.
But then she laughed, hooked an arm around his neck, and grinned.
"You're right, Mu. My good brother."
"If the future really is as dark as you say, and I have a chance to become the one who ends it all…"
"Then take my power and use it. I trust you, just like you trust me. Same as always."
…
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