Mecha-Kai species in Dimensional Travel

Before Ellen could say anything more, Isaac slammed the door shut.

Leaving only Ellen behind, along with a stack of documents on her desk that reached as high as a person.

"Sigh, overtime again."

Ellen rubbed her temples in distress and began her overtime work for the day.

A Brief Moment of Rest

The scene shifts to the Fraxinus—

The crew held yet another meeting to discuss the new video recording of Xiu Er, only this time, they reached a consensus in an uncharacteristic manner.

Because Xiu Er's objective was now far too obvious; anyone with a discerning eye could see it.

"First it was the Princess, then the Hermit, followed by the Witch, and now the Nightmare..."

Kotori crunched down on her lollipop, the expression on her face as unpleasant as if she had tasted the worst-flavored candy imaginable.

Reine, standing to the side, chimed in at the right moment with the results of the investigation from the past half-month.

"According to the available intelligence, after the Unknown Mechanical Entity clashed with the Princess, she used unknown technology to replicate her Angel. It is now speculated that she possesses the Angels of the Witch and the Nightmare, in addition to the Princess's."

The reason the Hermit was not mentioned was that in all records to date, Xiu Er had never used the true form of any Ice Angel other than simple ice.

Therefore, they deduced that Xiu Er's replication had specific prerequisites.

"But the Unknown Mechanical Entity didn't kill any of the Spirits other than the Nightmare. Could it be that she is targeting them specifically because of the high number of people the Nightmare has killed?"

"We do not know who the faction controlling the Unknown Mechanical Entity is, nor what their intentions are, but regarding the ability to replicate the power of Spirits, their technological level cannot be underestimated."

At the thought of an unknown faction lurking in the shadows, eyeing the power of the Spirits, Kotori felt a surge of irritation and could only vent her frustration on the candy in her mouth.

So far, Xiu Er's disguise had been successful. When appearing in public to battle Spirits, she intentionally mimicked the speech patterns of the Mecha-Kai species, successfully leading others to mistakenly believe she was an anti-Spirit weapon created in secret by some faction.

This allowed those people to shift their attention toward thin air.

She also prepared to treat strangers in the same manner in the future.

Unlike the oppressive atmosphere of the Fraxinus, our subject, Xiu Er, was currently sitting in a bubble tea shop, relaxing.

Within this month, she had spent almost every day either fighting or on her way to a fight.

Ever since she defeated Takamiya Mana yesterday and released the AST members who had been subdued by her clones, she had chosen not to do anything excessive to these girls who were running around for the sake of humanity.

She had already collected the necessary data in that regard, so naturally, she wouldn't make things difficult for these girls and simply left on her own, using teleportation.

And it was precisely when she returned to the city, passed by an amusement park, and saw the smiles on the faces of the passersby that she realized this issue.

Although the Mecha-Kai species did not have concepts like physical stamina or mental fatigue, for Xiu Er, who used to be a human, not rewarding herself after finishing a mountain of tasks would feel very uncomfortable.

It was probably a matter of habit.

Before, it was to relax a tired body, but now, it was simply to enjoy life.

So today, our Xiu Er decided to give herself a day off!

And sure enough, the bubble tea shop where Xiu Er was currently sitting was located right inside an amusement park.

Sipping the extra-large triple-topping bubble tea in her hand, the sweet, rich texture combined with the variety of toppings fully satisfied Xiu Er's taste buds.

Come to think of it, she didn't seem to have taste buds anymore, so let's call it a sensory system.

As for funds, although Xiu Er had been busy running around for the Spirits during this time, she actually still had a large amount of free time.

And the money for her amusement park ticket was naturally earned from the "jobs" she took on the internet.

As for what kind of jobs they were?

Naturally, they were tasks related to the electronic network field.

After all, when it came to things on the internet, she could perfectly well handle the "jobs" she accepted while doing her own things.

Of course, she didn't do anything that she considered "illegal."

Today, Xiu Er temporarily set aside her thoughts regarding the Spirits and focused her entire mind on the happy time ahead...

Time flew by in an instant.

Xiu Er spent the day happily at the amusement park. In her previous life, she had never been to such a place, nor did she have the time, so for her, the different types of entertainment facilities were all fascinating enough.

At dusk—

After leaving the amusement park, Xiu Er found an arcade.

Given that she had already promised herself a day off to play all day, she walked in without a second thought.

An array of dazzling game machines was lined up in the lobby, and for a moment, Xiu Er didn't know which one to play first.

This was naturally Xiu Er's first time in an arcade. In her previous life, she hadn't even been to a game center. Looking at the countless machines before her, the hand holding the cup filled with game tokens trembled slightly.

His indecisiveness kicked in.

Since that was the case, she would just play them all!

Besides, if she ran out of game tokens, she could just go exchange for another cup.

The time that followed was Xiu Er's struggle within the arcade. Regardless of the game, its genre, or its mechanics, Xiu Er relied on her extraordinary talent to play through them one by one. Furthermore, for every game with a leaderboard, Xiu Er secured the number one score, drawing crowds of passersby to stop and watch.

During this time, her overly heaven-defying performance even attracted challenges from others.

These took place in player-versus-player games, represented by fighting games, played in a best-of-three format.

By the time it reached 11:00 PM, she had already achieved an astonishing record of 68 wins and 0 losses!

No matter the type of game, Xiu Er could perfectly outplay her opponents.

There were even times when she ran out of tokens, and her opponents would personally offer to pay for more just to challenge her.

"Hey, hey, is this for real? She's way too strong."

"Indeed, even that guy lost to her."

"Is she hacking?"

"These machines belong to the shop, and we all watched her with our own eyes. Do you think she even had a chance to hack?"

"If you're bad, you're bad. If you can't handle losing, don't play."

"Just because someone plays well, they're a hacker?"

The onlookers naturally witnessed the birth of this miracle, gathering behind Xiu Er and chattering away in discussion.

Looking at the dejected gaming expert across from her, she figured he wouldn't want to touch a game for a while.

Countless people had tried, but they all failed.

There were always those who refused to believe it; after the previous person failed, they would step up to challenge her, only to end up with the same fate as the person before them.

They were all locals who loved fighting games, and among them were many experts, yet not a single one managed to win even a single round against Xiu Er.

They were all defeated by Xiu Er with a score of 2:0.

Satisfied.

That was how Xiu Er felt at this moment.

The transition of her opponent's expression from confidence to frustration, and the admiration of the onlookers beside her, all served to satisfy her vanity at that moment.

Perhaps after today, rumors would spread online about a genius, undefeated beautiful girl gamer who single-handedly took on and defeated 68 gaming experts in a row.

But none of that mattered to Xiu Er; she wouldn't care about such things.

When she left the arcade, the time had already reached 12:00 AM, and the moon was already hanging high in the pitch-black sky.

It also signaled that Xiu Er's vacation had come to an end.

Chapter 12: The Calm Before the Storm

More than ten days had passed since the battle between Xiu Er, Kurumi, and Mana.

During this period, under the watchful eyes of various factions, Xiu Er had uncharacteristically made no moves.

Regarding this, they all began to speculate uneasily whether the other party was preparing to pull off something big.

Among them, DEM Company took this matter the most seriously.

Because Isaac knew that he happened to have a Spirit in his possession.

Nia Honjou, the second Spirit to appear, had been captured by Ellen several years ago and was currently imprisoned within DEM Company.

During this time, Isaac had tried countless methods to torment her, hoping to force her into a Reversal, but unfortunately, he had never succeeded, and this situation had continued to the present.

Since the goal of that Spirit Hunter (the title Isaac had given to Xiu Er) was the abilities of all Spirits in the world, she would naturally come to DEM Company to find her.

Even Ellen had indicated that she might not be able to defeat the opponent, showing that her strength was not to be underestimated, which caused Isaac to feel a rare sense of unease.

Although current records showed that the Spirit Hunter had not harmed any humans, and even went out of her way to move battlefields with Spirits to uninhabited areas, these were, at best, only the intelligence gathered so far. What if the opponent's AI system commands included doing whatever it took to achieve her goal?

Wouldn't that mean she would eliminate him first in order to find Nia Honjou?

Yes, even now, Isaac still believed that Xiu Er was an AI robot weapon created by an unknown force to combat Spirits.

He was still guessing her specific purpose—not to kill Spirits, but to copy their abilities.

For now, Isaac believed that the opponent, like himself, had set her sights on the power of the Spirits; he and they simply differed in their methods.

Strengthen the system firewalls, increase the number of guards, and add more patrol teams.

Isaac could only decide to do these things for now.

While this DEM director was still trembling in fear.

Our Xiu Er was currently standing on a deserted island.

The spot where he stood was on a coastal beach on the island.

Not far in the direction he was facing, two orange-haired girls with similar appearances, who could be identified as twin sisters at a glance, were playing volleyball.

It was clearly a beautiful scene, yet every time they hit the ball, it would blast toward the other accompanied by fierce gusts of wind, and the other would not be outdone, catching the ball at a speed too fast to track before hitting it back with the same special effects.

A powerful wind raged across the beach along with the flying volleyball.

The two went back and forth, while the surrounding beach had already been ravaged into a landscape full of craters, as if it had undergone a great battle.

Should I say, the quality of this volleyball is actually quite good?

The two girls were exactly the targets of Xiu Er's trip, the Spirits from the original work, Yuzuru Yamai and Kaguya Yamai.

This pair of sisters were beings who split from the original Tempest Yamai after obtaining the Spirit Crystallization, and they had always been engaged in a duel with the condition that the winner would become the true Tempest Yamai.

It was just that the results of their duels had always remained a draw.

And no matter what they did, they could always make it a prerequisite for a duel; on the surface, the two appeared to be at odds, but in reality, they were the people who cared about each other the most deep down.

Of course, Xiu Er would not care about these things; he had only one goal, the Angels of the Yamai Sisters.

But why did it turn into the current situation?