Thousand-Person Ruler's Personal Opinions Chapter 4

Both sides were throwing punches at point-blank range, no holding back.

Anqi's tears instantly welled up.

'Don't cry! Hit her!'

'But it hurts so much QAQ... No one's ever hit my face before...'

'Crying like a baby, what's that supposed to mean! Real men bleed, not cry!'

'But I'm just a girl...'

Anqi cursed her own selves hiding in the theater, watching the commotion without caring about the consequences, but still took a deep breath and overcame her fear of pain.

"You're dead! I'm going to beat you until you cry your eyes out!"

"Hmph! When I started fighting, you were still drinking milk somewhere! Do you have what it takes to fight me?"

After the usual round of trash talk, the two engaged in close combat, trading blows and kicks.

Typical fights between young girls usually involve slapping and hair-pulling, which aren't very exciting to watch, though some people might prefer that kind of scene.

But for these two little superhumans, it was far beyond that.

They were truly landing every punch, each one accompanied by the sound of tearing wind, seizing every opportunity to strike the other's body or even their pretty faces. Every hit made the opponent spit blood, accompanied by the mournful screech of rebar fragments from the crane flying everywhere.

Just as the situation was getting uglier, a girl with gray hair and glasses sighed from the top of a tall building not far away.

"Kiana, you've made no progress. None of the things you learned in class have been useful."

[Class President, please give her another chance! Kiana has always worked hard, she can definitely do it!]

"Raiden Mei, I've always believed that these specialized bonus point missions are unreasonable. St. Freya Academy's exams should be more rigorous and objective. Also, the official communication channel isn't for this kind of use."

[Uh, well... In short, please take good care of her! Please, Kiana has failed several times in a row. If this continues, she might really have to repeat the grade!]

Fu Hua removed her earpiece, ending the pointless communication.

After all, the white-haired ball of fluff who was supposed to be using this channel to complete her mission was now going wild with the target on the crane, likely not thinking of contacting Fu Hua for help.

Half an hour later, on the swaying, broken crane.

Anqi and Kiana each grabbed a guardrail, a few steps apart, staring at each other breathlessly.

Kiana, bruised and swollen, said, "Give up! I won't lose to you!"

Anqi, equally bruised and swollen, wiped her bloody nose and silently gave her the middle finger.

"Waaah!"

Kiana immediately became enraged and charged again.

Anqi, who had also worked up a real temper, was not to be outdone. She swung her arms, clenched her fists, and walked towards Kiana.

"Crack... Crack..."

"Boom!"

Just as the two were about to fight again, the steel crane, which had been battered several times, finally couldn't hold on and broke with a loud noise.

"No way..."

Kiana fell downwards, the sudden weightlessness startling her. She missed the chance to step on falling debris to jump back onto the tower crane, and could only let herself fall towards the ground, sixty to seventy meters away.

She might die this time, right?

Kiana closed her eyes, helpless and terrified.

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

Kiana, who hadn't felt the sensation of falling, opened her eyes and looked up. She saw a slender little hand tightly gripping her wrist.

It was Anqi, holding onto a rough steel bar hanging from the crane with one hand, blood from her palms dripping down, and holding Kiana's wrist with the other.

Kiana's body swayed slightly in the whistling wind. She asked blankly:

"Why?"

Anqi rolled her eyes and didn't answer.

Firstly, any player, unless born inherently insane, wouldn't bear to truly harm an incredibly, unbelievably, super-duper cute little bug.

Secondly, if Kiana were to die here, Anqi would be hunted by a group of madmen.

Lastly, don't forget about the Queen of Void. If that guy appeared while Kiana was falling, she might be able to track Anqi back to the Dominance Theater from the scene. Even if Her Majesty didn't care about them, the appearance of the Herrscher of the Void would mean an escalation of the situation. St. Freya and even Otto would pay serious attention to this place, and then it would really be GG.

In short, a fight was fine. After all, they were both girls, and Anqi had no reason to yield. But watching Kiana get hurt was absolutely out of the question, for both reasons and feelings.

Anqi dangled in mid-air, observing her surroundings for a moment, and finally locked onto the rooftop of a nearby construction building.

"Heave ho!"

Anqi swung her arm, making Kiana's body swing in the air. After a few swings, accumulating enough kinetic potential, Anqi threw the screaming Kiana towards the rooftop.

"Waaah!"

Kiana screamed as she crashed onto the rooftop with a "thud," rolling a few times before pushing herself up, clutching her waist and gasping.

She shook her dizzy head and looked up at the crane high above, her eyes wide, but Anqi was nowhere to be seen.

"...What are you doing? You do things like that, and then you save me. Are you a good person or a bad person?"

Kiana muttered, feeling lost. Covered in dust, she stood on the rooftop, unsure of where to go next.

Anqi quickly descended to the ground using the crane's cable. Taking advantage of Kiana's inability to catch up, she limped into a side street. After randomly taking several turns, Anqi decided to flee further away.

To return to the real world from the Theater of Domination, a coordinate was required. There were only two types of coordinates: one was a clone located in the real world, and the other was the last position where another clone left the real world.

In other words, if the 29 Anqis in the Theater of Domination wanted to return to the real world, they would either appear next to the Anqi outside or in the living room of their home.

Therefore, she couldn't let anyone pay attention to her home.

So, run!

After all, with the qualities of a Herrscher, she could survive anywhere. The further she ran, the better. She absolutely must not fall into the eyes of Schicksal, Anti-Entropy, or World Serpent.

We, the weak, pitiful Thousand-Person Ruler, just want to live a good life!

Nourished by Honkai Energy, Anqi's body gradually recovered, at least enough to allow normal movement.

She walked through a long alley, with the light of a streetlamp shining in ahead.

Exiting here would bring her close to the suburbs. As long as she could get out of the city and find an uninhabited wilderness with mountains and forests to disappear into, no one would be able to find her easily. Then she could sit down and rest, and properly consider what to do next.

A smile appeared on Anqi's face.

Until she saw, outside the alley, the girl with gray hair in a ponytail, her blue school uniform fluttering in the wind, while her slender body remained as steady as a mountain, the girl with glasses.

'Damn it!'

After that, Anqi smelled a scent that resembled roses and lost consciousness abruptly.

Chapter 6: The Headmistress's Conclusion

"Class Monitor, you're back... Uh, don't look at me like that! I know I messed up again, sob~~"

Kiana, with a bruised and swollen face like a calico cat, crouched down in embarrassment.

Fu Hua's intention to give a serious lecture slowly dissipated with Kiana's ashamed and embarrassed reaction. She held the unconscious Anqi with one hand and offered her a bright red rose with the other.

"Huh? Class Monitor, why are you carrying a rose?"

"A pedestrian I didn't recognize on the street gave it to me."

Fu Hua recalled the cute little girl she had coincidentally met earlier. Blushing, she handed the rose to her. Fu Hua had intended to politely refuse, but the other party shoved the rose into her hand, covered her face, and ran away, letting out an excited scream as if she had accomplished something amazing.

What are girls thinking these days? Immortal Crimson Heron truly doesn't understand.

Fu Hua sighed silently.

Kiana took the rose, sniffed it, her face flushing slightly. As she stood up, she said coyly, "As expected of the Class Monitor, huh? It's one thing to be the popular 'Onee-sama' at school, but you're still so popular with women even outside St. Freya Academy. But I already have someone in my heart, Class Monitor, you can't conquer me, hehe!"

Kiana said this, yet she couldn't help but sway her body while holding the rose, revealing a foolish, dazed smile.

So, this Immortal Heron truly doesn't understand what young girls are thinking these days.

Fu Hua, holding Anqi, called the ground station via her headset.

Soon, a strong wind descended from the sky, and a black armed helicopter slowly approached the ground.

Kiana shielded the rose with both hands, turned her head to look at the unconscious Anqi, and asked amidst the flying silver hair, "Class Monitor, how is she?"

"The mission was to control and bring her back, so I didn't use excessive force. She's just unconscious. Also, Kiana, your performance on this bonus question is a zero."

"Eh! Don't do this to me!?"

Amidst the roaring sound of the helicopter landing, Kiana tilted her head back and let out a mournful wail.

"Immortal Heron! Holy crap! My Immortal Heron, ahhhhh!"

"I'm not Hammurabi, don't legislate here!"

"What do I do, what do I do? The me outside has lost contact!"

"Calm down, the connection to the Authority is still there. It looks like she's just unconscious, not dead yet."

The Anqis reacted differently, expressing their panic. After a while, they calmed down and gathered to discuss the current situation.

"Thinking about it carefully, the first person to contact us was a freshman from St. Freya like Kiana, not a professional Valkyrie squad. This suggests the problem might not be that serious."

"At least, no one should have suspected we are Herrschers yet."

"Then, there's still a chance."

After all, the Third Herrscher only appeared once six months ago. Normally, no one would expect a new Herrscher to appear so soon.

The 29 Anqis stayed in the plaza of the Theater of Domination, sitting in a circle, desperately racking their brains, guessing what would happen next.

"The me outside should be taken to St. Freya Academy, and then, most likely, there will be physical examinations and blood tests..."

"But the Herrscher core, it's not that easy to discover, right?"

The Anqis frowned, a little uneasy, but they had already panicked once, so they weren't completely flustered.

"We can't be too optimistic, but don't think of the worst-case scenario either."

"First, we are using human bodies, not puppet bodies."

"Second, the Herrscher core isn't a distinct physical entity like a kidney stone, but a more abstract energy system. Conventional examination methods shouldn't be able to detect it."

The Anqis said, each speaking one sentence.

The Thousand-Person Ruler was very weak. As individual entities, the Honkai Energy within them was far from the scale of other Herrschers. This was actually advantageous for concealing their identities. If it were just a general physical examination, the conclusion would likely be something like, "Excellent Honkai Energy adaptability, a promising candidate for a Valkyrie."

"Otto isn't paying attention to us yet, is he?"

One Anqi uneasily voiced their greatest concern.

A general physical examination might be passable, but if the person overseeing the examination was Otto, who had studied Herrscher powers countless times, the conclusion would be different.

"We'll judge based on what happens after we wake up."

"If we encounter elite Valkyries from Schicksal headquarters like Rita or Durandal, or if there's any danger to our lives, we'll jump back to the theater immediately."

"If it's just general imprisonment, or an offer of surrender from St. Freya, then the situation isn't that bad. We can endure and lie low for now, and see how things unfold."

"Agreed. In fact, it's the only thing we can do right now."

The Anqis were worried, but since the Anqi outside was unconscious, they were completely in the dark about the outside world. They didn't even dare to return to their living room. Since there was nothing they could do, all they could do was wait.

St. Freya Academy, the majestic principal's office.

Theresa, in her full principal's demeanor, flipped through the documents on the desk. After reading them from beginning to end, she sighed with a furrowed brow.