Awakening (Continued)

Siegfried, this is a disaster!

At that moment, the terminal's speaker suddenly cranked up the volume and switched to speakerphone mode.

Yet right then, Siegfried instinctively felt that something was wrong.

This voice belonged to Dr. Tesla, but...

Why did he always feel like something was off?

Ryoma, something's happened to Ryoma!

We got word that he committed suicide in prison out of guilt!

...!

But I can tell you for sure, he didn't kill himself. Cocolia, it has to be Cocolia—

At that moment, Siegfried crushed the communication terminal in his hand to pieces.

Just sensing the fluctuations around him, Siegfried turned around with an ugly expression and caught sight of Mei's expression at that very moment.

Dad... Dad, he...

Mei, calm down!

At that time, Siegfried watched Mei, whose hair had already started fluttering, and spoke to her with the utmost urgency.

That idiot Cocolia hasn't completely taken over ME Company yet, she wouldn't kill Ryoma this fast! This has got to be false information, don't believe it!

False information?

Glancing at the display screen that had just popped up inside a gas station not far away, which was currently broadcasting the news that financial criminal Raiden Ryoma had just committed suicide in prison, the Honkai Energy fluctuations around Mei grew even more terrifying at that moment.

Dad's not dead.

Uncle Siegfried is right, Cocolia wouldn't...

Dad...

Kiana...

Uncle Siegfried...

Lin Yu...

I'm sorry, I... I... I...

Even though she knew this matter needed to be verified to see if it was true, Mei—whose mental state was already poor to begin with—was now completely incapable of rational thought.

Having lost the ability to think rationally, the comforting words Siegfried had just spoken actually backfired because of the news of Raiden Ryoma's death.

Those words meant to comfort her now pierced her heart like sharp daggers, carving open her soul and letting the deep despair hidden in the core of her being erupt completely.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Accompanied by the piercing scream the girl let out as her consciousness faded, the area where the two of them stood...

--was instantly swallowed by terrifying Honkai Energy.

Also, this book has a harem. I didn't put the tag on because I'm afraid of being targeted and reported—don't think I'm joking, I've really encountered that before.

It launches tomorrow morning at 10:30. Anyway, release-day releases always require massive updates, so let me see...

Chicken Soup Diner averages two thousand words per chapter, so I'll drop twenty thousand words—that's the equivalent of ten chapters.

I'll drop a portion first at 10:30 in the morning. Anyway, Chicken Soup Diner's submission deadline is calculated before six o'clock the next day, so I'll get the twenty thousand words done on day one within the deadline.

As for the follow-up, I'll set up a bounty.

Before setting up the bounty, I figured I should at least show my attitude, which should make it a tiny bit more persuasive.

Considering that Chicken Soup Diner's standards are all like this, I looked at my peers and decided I might as well use this standard.

100 monthly votes = 2,000 words

100 blades = 10,000 cat biscuits = 2,000 words

Treasure chests are not recommended for tipping.

After all, they're really expensive.

When I set up bounties, I just want to harvest the free blades and monthly votes everyone has on hand. Large tips...

I won't be hypocritical; I really like them.

The problem is, reading a book just to adjust your mood really doesn't require smashing that much money into it.

If you insist on tipping, Silver = 2,000 words × 5, Gold = 2,000 × 16.

Limited strictly to Everyone Rejoices, because I don't actually get the money from Universal Celebration.

No upper limit, running until the 31st at the end of the month at 23:00.

If I manage my own tips and throw blades myself, of course they don't count in here—after all, I'll be spending my own money then, and my heart will be bleeding.

Nothing to be afraid of. Anyway, we can see follow-read numbers now, so I know roughly how many readers I have.

Unless the readership itself hasn't reached a certain level, an uncapped bounty shouldn't be too big of an issue.

By the way, to avoid anyone saying, "Eh, why is the pricing so high, the author is scamming money," I still need to explain Chicken Soup Diner's charging rules.

A chapter's word count is calculated based on the total word count (excluding PS, which is not counted in the word count), with a limit of five hundred words. The regular subscription price for one thousand words is 5 cat biscuits, though of course Diamond VIP can press it down to 3.

Then, for word counts that aren't exact thousands, the extra 1–499 words are free. If the extra word count is 500–999, then the extra words are charged at 2 cat biscuits, which is less than half at 2.5.

So if the word count is higher, it just means that chapter is long, and the author's pricing can only be determined by writing more.

I won't say much else, and there's nothing much to say.

Everyone, see you tomorrow.

Siegfried, who took the Honkai Energy shockwave right to the face, of course...

--was completely fine.

Siegfried, who had already sensed that something was wrong, had put up defensive measures right from the start.

Even if Siegfried's current strength was vastly different from his peak period, even so, he was still the strongest member of the Kaslana clan.

Possessing strong Honkai Energy adaptability, Siegfried was of course not going to be turned directly into a Meele by the Honkai Energy just because his personal strength had been weakened.

However, even though Siegfried blocked the first impact, he still felt that he had a real headache right now.

Ha... What a coward.

Amidst the smoke and dust, the girl named Raiden Mei had already slowly drifted up into midair.

She who was always stuck in worry and fear... Heh, to be able to last to this point, I'll praise her a couple of times first.

Only now, looking at the wings of lightning slowly emerging behind Raiden Mei, no matter how optimistic Siegfried's personality was, he couldn't laugh anymore at all.

The despair and anxiety on Raiden Mei's face at this moment had naturally vanished completely.

At the same time, however, Siegfried also saw an expression on his old friend's daughter's face that he had previously seen on someone else.

Haughty disdain, disgust for all things in the world, coupled with that extremely confident smile...

The expression on Mei's face right now was simply no different from Sirin's during the Second Eruption.

Moreover, as a powerful Honkai warrior, Siegfried could naturally judge an opponent's strength by sensing their Honkai Energy intensity.

He might not be able to precisely judge whether the Honkai Energy intensity on Mei after this Honkai outbreak was 2,000 units or higher, but the problem was—her current Honkai Energy intensity was already no lower than Sirin's during her duel with Welt.

Dammit, Mei, who had the gems implanted in advance, had adapted to this Herrscher Core ahead of time as well.

Because of this reason, having just awakened, she had already reached the average level of a Herrscher in terms of strength... Um, wait?

Scanning his surroundings with the corner of his eye, Siegfried found that the situation didn't seem quite that bad.

Originally, after confirming the Herrscher's awakening, Siegfried figured that the unlucky ordinary folks in Changkong City were probably about to bite the dust.

Right now, however, the surrounding things were telling Siegfried that he could be a bit more optimistic regarding the safety of ordinary people.

The surrounding buildings had indeed been blown away, and those unlucky staff members in the gas station had been instantly reduced to ashes because of it.

Yet aside from these surrounding people and objects, buildings further away were actually fine now?

The powerful Honkai Energy shockwave, which could have killed all the humans in a city in an instant, had somehow been contained within this area.

Still, apart from the area around the two of them, the Honkai Energy diffusion speed in other regions wasn't as fast as Siegfried had imagined.

The factory not far away was done for too, but when I came over earlier, I noticed there weren't many people inside.

And judging by this diffusion speed... Heh, isn't this still winnable?

Gazing at Mei before him, Siegfried silently took out his Flame-Chaser's Judgment and gripped it in his hand.

Oh? Interesting.

Gazing at the weapon in Siegfried's hand, the Herrscher of Thunder's gaze toward the enemy now carried an extra trace of playfulness.

A Herrscher Core... If I remember correctly, the Flame should not have awakened yet.

To actually turn a core bestowed upon us by the gods into a weapon—humans, you really are quite interesting.

Good.

The speed of the Honkai Energy diffusion wasn't that fast, probably because Mei hadn't completely despaired yet and was still fighting this inside the Herrscher of Thunder's body.

And the Herrscher of Thunder didn't know the intel on him and Flame-Chaser's Judgment, and right now she was even arrogant enough not to launch a preemptive strike.

Remembering how Sirin had hit him with a Void Lance the moment she saw him, Siegfried genuinely felt that the Herrscher of Thunder before him... seemed unexpectedly gentle?

Mei was suppressing the power of the Herrscher Core, keeping the large-scale Honkai from spreading at top speed.

So right now, as long as he could knock her out and give Mei a chance to retake control of her body, then the remaining Honkai Energy...

You actually dare to let your mind wander?

Looking at the man before her, the expression on the Herrscher of Thunder's face suddenly shifted at that moment.

Then, accompanied by her gently snapping her fingers, a bolt of lightning instantly plunged straight down from the sky, slamming right into the spot where Siegfried was standing.

Whoa, how scary, how scary.

Having already sensed the flow of Honkai Energy, Siegfried was of course not going to stupidly stay in place and get struck by lightning.

After a roll, he had already easily dodged the blow.

Though entities like Herrscher possessed terrifying power, when all was said and done, they were just humans before awakening.

Even Sirin, who possessed six cores at the time, was hunted down by him—awakened with the Power of Salvation—and forgot to use the Herrscher of the Void's authority to teleport herself away due to excessive panic, ultimately getting defeated on the spot by him.

In other words, their biggest flaw lay in their arrogant personalities and combat experience that was practically blank like a sheet of paper...

Damn it, I'm fired up.

If Otto hadn't sent people to provoke Kiana back then, it would be much easier if I had both hands usable right now.

Aiming Flame-Chaser's Judgment at the Herrscher of Thunder, Siegfried pulled the trigger with a wicked grin.

But just this level of attack can't kill me, oh, Mei.

Hmph, boring.

Faced with the blast from Flame-Chaser's Judgment, the Herrscher of Thunder didn't even plan to dodge.

Herrscher all carried their own Honkai Energy shields, though they underwent different changes in shield properties depending on the respective authorities they manipulated.

As a flesh-and-blood Apostle of God, the Herrscher of Thunder naturally possessed this ability as well.

Precisely because of this, she was so overconfident that she chose not to dodge at all and take the hit head-on.