Breaking into a cold sweat, aren't you, Otto?
As for leaving the Schicksal Headquarters and drifting alone... well, Bishop Otto does regularly send her a large allowance, but Theresa is still considered to be drifting alone.
For Theresa, the Key of Restraint, which had always been with her and possessed a strong sense of self, was like a friend.
Of course, the Far East Branch also has silly rumors like "the Divine Key will take over her work when the headmistress is slacking off".
Himeko didn't believe these rumors, after all—the matter was too outrageous.
In short, this is the current situation...
Theresa's friend was snatched away by Lin Yu, whom she had just met.
It was supposed to be a sad thing, but for some reason I just felt like laughing.
Theresa, who was at the scene, realized that the Key of Restraint was really not going to obey her commands this time. In a fit of anger, she left this sad place, saying "You'll regret this" and crying.
Sigh, why get angry over a cross?
She's clearly an excellent warrior in battle, but in these moments, she really feels like a little child to me.
"Well..."
Looking at the uneven metal floor trodden by the monstrous strength, Lin Yu sighed helplessly.
"Chief, why are you getting angry over a cross?"
"Alright, alright, she was just worried about you."
Looking at Lin Yu, who was tightly bound by the Key of Restraint, Himeko asked Lin Yu with a hint of curiosity.
"Never mind Theresa for now, I'll comfort her later."
"More than Theresa, I'm curious now..."
Seeing Lin Yu acting as if nothing had happened, Himeko narrowed her eyes slightly.
"You really don't feel like there's anything wrong?"
To be honest, Himeko's questions are perfectly normal.
Don't even mention you, I'm curious too—how come I really don't feel like there's anything wrong with me?
The core of the Herrscher of Thunder and the core of the Herrscher of Constraint are completely different in characteristics.
I was able to adapt to the Herrscher of Thunder's power only after I had adapted to it in the Nine Nether and Singapore, and then I was able to adapt to the Herrscher of Thunder's power after connecting the Key of Judgment to the Blank Key.
But the power of the Herrscher of Constraint... I've never been used to it before.
Well, these things really depend on talent.
Furthermore, while each Herrscher's powers have different characteristics, they all place a significant burden on the physical body.
Having already adapted to the burden of the Herrscher Core, even if you switch to another core midway, you naturally won't immediately feel overwhelmed.
That's true—what a joke.
Even if you say that, this is going too smoothly.
After all, connecting to the core using Blank Key is different from directly implanting Herrscher Core.
[The only Herrscher to have multiple Herrscher Core implanted directly is Sirin, who was 'designated' to have multiple cores implanted without affecting her personality.]
[In your current state, if I implanted a Herrscher Core into your body, you wouldn't necessarily collapse in a minute, but you certainly wouldn't be as relaxed as you are now.]
... It's better if this kind of thing doesn't happen.
To avoid others overthinking things, Lin Yu immediately ended the communication with the system and spoke softly to Himeko Yuno.
"Yuno, Major Himeko, please step back a little further."
"... Lin Yu, you really shouldn't be so radical."
Looking at Lin Yu, who had already revealed his Stigmata, Himeko frowned slightly.
"If I'm not mistaken, you're planning to use the Divine Prayer Barrier that Theresa used, right?"
Well... how should I put it...?
Seeing the nervous look on Himeko's face, Lin Yu calmly spoke to Himeko.
"Major Himeko, I understand your concerns, but please trust me."
"Even if it's to avoid getting you involved, I won't do anything reckless."
Ah, I knew it.
Upon hearing this, Yuno took a step back.
Indeed, these are the words that the senior truly thinks.
He's too lazy to care about himself, and he does things simply because he doesn't want to make things difficult for others.
This is really difficult; you need to seriously adjust your mindset.
However, before adjusting your mindset...
Fine, I'll just have to accommodate you a little.
Hearing the footsteps beside her, Himeko knew that her student had made a decision before she had.
Sigh, I'm starting to hesitate too.
Even though I knew I couldn't dissuade him, I still wanted to say a few words to Lin Yu.
At this point... never mind, let's back off. After he's finished testing his power, he'll disconnect on his own.
Seeing that Himeko and Yuno had both taken two steps back, Lin Yu immediately strengthened the connection between the Key of Restraint and the Blank Key, and directly released the iconic creation of the Herrscher of Constraint's power— the Constraint Barrier.
However, Lin Yu certainly couldn't release a binding Constraint Barrier with a radius of one hundred kilometers like the Constraint Herrscher from the Previous Era.
Even though the Constraint Barrier he's releasing now is definitely less powerful than a normal Constraint Herrscher of Binding, it's still capable of killing ordinary soldiers.
Releasing a barrier on a large scale without thinking is tantamount to directly attacking the other Valkyrie. He's not an idiot; how could he do such a thing?
After releasing the barrier, Lin Yu used his Precision Operation skills to cover the armor on his right arm with the barrier.
At that moment, something even more unsettling happened to Lin Yu.
Within the Constraint Barrier, all Honkai Energy is nullified, and other forms of energy are weakened to varying degrees.
However, after his arm was covered by the barrier, Lin Yu mobilized the magic power within his body and found that the magic power could actually be released normally?
No, wait, is it because I'm too weak that the weakening effect of the Constraint Barrier doesn't work as expected on magic?
"Yuno."
After transforming the Constraint Barrier into a shield, Lin Yu spoke to Yuno.
"Let's try attacking this shield."
"... Senior, please be careful."
After saying this, Yuno concentrated her Honkai Energy and Herrscher Authority in her right hand and swung a hand chop at the shield.
As Yuno completed her attack, the strike, which combined the corrosive black mist and the Honkai Energy blade, was neutralized by the shield the instant it hit it.
Although the shield developed cracks as a result, the attack clearly failed to penetrate its defenses.
Yuno is not yet a fully-fledged Herrscher of Death, her control over the core is already strong enough.
Despite years of hard work, Old Yang, who is in charge of life and death, has only maintained about 50% control over the core.
If Yuno is more Welt but far Welt experienced... well, let's just estimate her level as low as 0.5 Welt.
A hasty attack launched against Herrscher with 25% core control couldn't even penetrate the barrier of my modified 'Constraint Herrscher'...
That's normal.
In the next few dozen seconds, Lin Yu transformed the barrier into various defensive shields of completely different sizes and thicknesses, and then had Yuno cooperate with him to conduct tests.
In the end, Lin Yu drew several conclusions.
First, the Constraint Barrier of the Herrscher of Constraint will have different strengths depending on its size.
Thinking about it carefully, this is quite normal. After all, when the Constraint Barrier is enlarged to a radius of 100 kilometers, its strength will inevitably be less than that of a small barrier with a radius of 1 meter under the same power strength.
If the power strength is X, then X/100000 and X/1 are completely different concepts.
Of course, this is just a hypothetical value from Lin Yu. In reality, the conversion formula between the area covered by the barrier and its strength is definitely not as simple as he assumed.
But once this characteristic was identified, there were already many things he could do.
As for the other conclusion, that one made Lin Yu feel uneasy.
During this roughly one minute period, Lin Yu not only did not feel any burden or weakness after connecting to the core, but also thought, 'Ah, the core connection experiment is nothing special.'
To be honest, this is a very dangerous mindset.
The Herrscher Core is a forbidden object for humanity, and to directly connect to Herrscher Core...
Damn it, if Otto wasn't causing trouble every day, would I need to prepare so many powerful trump cards?
I'm a lazy person by nature. If Otto were watching me from above, I'd just find a spot to squat and wait for Kiana, Bronya, Mei, and the Finality to hold hands and hug, and that would be the end of it.
A lazy dog was forced to become a curly dog...
Sigh, life, you've turned people into ghosts.
That being said, you've still had quite a bit to show for yourself today.
Yes, it's definitely not small.
Now that I can use the Blank Key normally, and with the ability to briefly fuse with the power of Herrscher in the future, plus the trump cards I have, my survival rate against other Herrscher will definitely be higher.
But I always feel like something's not right.
My compatibility with the Herrscher Core...
—When exactly did it become so tall?
Let's settle the accounts first.
One vote equals one character, so 44,675 votes equal 44,700 characters.
One monthly pass grants ten characters, so 6879 monthly passes would amount to 68800 characters.
The reward of 12352 is equivalent to 124 blades. Adding the 758 blades before the reward deadline, let's say a total of 900 blades. 100 blades equals 2000 words, so 9 * 2 = 18K.
The counter is 6 * 2K = 12K.
Finally, there are 44,700 + 68,800 + 30,000 = 143,500 words to be returned.
The current word count for this month's updates is 207,980, plus today's 4,000, which equals 211,980 words. Subtracting the 5,900 words for the main character's skill summary, I should theoretically have written 12,000 words for 30 days this month. In the end, I paid off 86,080 words this month.
The remaining amount to be repaid is 143,500 - 86,000 = 57,500.
If it's only this much, I can pay it off next month.
However, there are additional rules.
Then I checked, and I said before, "If we get into the top ten in monthly votes, I'll add an extra 20,000 words, and I'll keep my word."
Then the rules were supplemented in Chapter 174.
One more thing: if your monthly votes rank 7th-10th on the monthly vote leaderboard at the end of this month [12/31 23:59], you will receive an extra 10,000 words.
If a character ranks 4th to 6th on the monthly ticket list, an additional 10,000 words will be added to the original chapter.
If the novel is ranked in the top three on the monthly ticket list, an additional 20,000 words will be added on top of the original chapter.
However, this rule conflicts with the original rule of adding 20,000 words for those who enter the top ten in monthly votes, so we will simply follow the extra rule here.
If a character ranks in the top ten in monthly votes, an extra 20,000 words will be added. If a character ranks 4th to 6th, an extra 10,000 words will be added on top of the original amount. If a character ranks in the top three, an extra 20,000 words will be added.
I can't hope for the top three, but I still have a chance for the top six, though I'll probably get knocked out.
Then I can only ask for monthly votes. I'm going to go write now, and I'll try to write another 15,000 words tomorrow.
Chapter 205. You must be drenched in sweat, Otto.