"Don't worry, don't worry. Injuries like this won't kill anyone. They just hurt a little..."
Chen Ran was only pretending to be in pain.
Only then could he divert Wendy's attention.
Sure enough, Wendy said, "I'll get you some more alcohol."
"The bandages are already on. What good would more alcohol do?" As Chen Ran spoke, he suddenly felt the wounds on his body genuinely begin to hurt.
The nerves beneath his wounded skin had been damaged. After the alcohol evaporated, the pain came fiercely.
Cold sweat immediately poured from Chen Ran's body.
"Does it hurt?"
Unable to move her legs, Wendy could only sit in her wheelchair. Her palm clasped Chen Ran's hand as she looked at him worriedly.
As an excellent student, Wendy could naturally tell just how powerful the assassin who had attacked Chen Ran had been. Even if Chen Ran had prepared himself and his life was no longer in danger, that did not mean he was completely fine.
After all, Chen Ran was just an ordinary person.
If... if there was some way to help him recover... even if it only reduced some of his pain, that would be enough.
At that moment, Wendy did not know that the data-monitoring instruments the Oceanic Branch had placed on her were showing abnormalities on their synchronized computer terminals.
The degree of rejection between her body and the Herrscher Core had begun to decrease.
"To be honest, it hurts a lot."
"It's like Lin Daiyu uprooting a weeping willow, or Ximen Qing beating Jiang Menshen with his fists. It's absurd beyond belief."
Wendy did not know whether to laugh or cry. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Can you stop joking around?"
Fine beads of sweat had formed on Chen Ran's face from the pain caused by the alcohol. Wendy hurriedly took a handkerchief and wiped them away.
Her voice was anxious. "I... what should I do to lessen your pain?"
Chen Ran still had the leisure to joke. "A kiss would make it stop hurting."
Wendy's face instantly turned red.
"You're still mouthing off at a time like this. Looks like you're fine."
She turned her head away, deliberately forcing herself not to look at Chen Ran lying on the hospital bed.
Chen Ran, meanwhile, was getting tired as well.
He was injured and had lost too much blood, so he had already been terribly sleepy. Now that things seemed to have been settled, his mind relaxed slightly, and drowsiness swept over him like a tide.
His wounds still hurt, but with the Oceanic Branch's medication, the pain had eased somewhat.
Humans were highly resilient creatures. Once sleepiness washed over him, he closed his eyes.
Hearing the gradually even breathing in the private treatment room, the flush on Wendy's face began to fade.
She turned back to look at Chen Ran, a trace of complexity flashing through her eyes.
The young man lay quietly on the white hospital bed, his face still pale from blood loss. Sunlight filtered through the gauze curtains and fell upon his face, bright and gentle.
"What is this? I usually only hear you talk big, but you look pretty good lying quietly in bed too."
After hesitating briefly, she took Chen Ran's left hand in both of hers and gently leaned down.
A kiss fell upon the back of his hand.
Chapter 16: The Third Honkai War from Afar
Chen Ran remained in the hospital bed for several days straight.
Perhaps because he had died once before, or perhaps because the same environment did not require complex scene loading and detailed rendering, his consciousness-bearing capacity had not reached its limit.
Just as a computer needed extra memory to load a scene, entering a new environment in a simulated scenario also burdened his consciousness.
This system was very scientific.
"Damn it, why couldn't I get one of those check-in systems? Check in at Flame-Chaser and directly receive a Herrscher Core. Wouldn't that be so much easier?"
"Don't protagonists in novels always crush villains like that?"
He rambled on alone, anyway not expecting anyone to understand him.
As the saying went, broken bones took a hundred days to heal. Although Schicksal's medical technology had drastically shortened the process, the necessary recovery still had to be completed.
But today was already the final day.
Chen Ran heard a knock at the door and promptly shut his mouth.
Then he saw a Sub-God Machine robot open the door and push Wendy over to him.
"Today seems to be the day you can leave the hospital, right? Don't you need to be observed for a few more days?"
Chen Ran felt the wounds on his body and said, "No need. They're all healed. If I don't get discharged soon, someone else might steal my job."
Wendy blinked. "Isn't your job taking care of me?"
During this time, she had also learned that Chen Ran had been assigned by the Oceanic Branch specifically to care for her.
Though because of the accident, Wendy had ended up visiting him more often instead.
Chen Ran said, "Ah, officially, yes."
"Officially?"
"In reality, I just want to slack off." He said, "You have no idea how sought-after this job of taking care of you is. You're quiet, cute, and never cause trouble. Several coworkers have already asked to trade with me. They got chewed out by the department heads because of it."
With so many parts of the Divine Right Plan having been declared failures, and an unknown enemy watching them like a tiger eyeing its prey...
The atmosphere within the Divine Right Plan project team had not been very good lately.
Wendy let out a laugh. "So in the end, you just want to slack off."
"How can a win-win situation be called slacking off?"
Chen Ran blinked and said, "But I have to leave the hospital now. Otherwise, if a Sub-God Machine is the one taking care of you, wouldn't that make me seem useless?"
"Then I'd have to obediently go back and get scolded too."
Without a doubt, Wendy could not agree with Chen Ran's philosophy of slacking off.
Just as Chen Ran was about to get up and handle his discharge paperwork...
An unexpected person arrived.
The chief person in charge of the Oceanic Branch's Divine Right Plan looked at him sternly. "Researcher Chen, let's talk privately."
Inside a small conference room at the Oceanic Branch.
The chief person in charge was a middle-aged man of around forty. He had black hair and a long, shovel-shaped face, making him look mixed-race.
Yet no one would underestimate him because of his appearance. Being able to oversee the Divine Right Plan was proof enough of his qualifications and capabilities.
However, Chen Ran felt no ripples in his heart.
In his subconscious, everything here was a simulation.
Simulation meant falsehood. It meant that no matter what happened, he had a way out.
He asked, "Dear supervisor... sorry, I still don't know your name. So, what task do you have for me next?"
The shovel-faced director did not mind Chen Ran's disrespect. He said, "Regarding the attack on you, I apologize. Failing to protect you was Schicksal's negligence."
"It's been so long already. So, is there compensation?"
"Yes, and quite a lot." He said, "But your duties will become more demanding from here on."
Chen Ran's eyes narrowed slightly.
He knew the chief director would not have brought him into an enclosed room just to apologize. As expected, this was the important part.
"On March 28, 2014, around 2:00 p.m. in the Far East region, a Honkai outbreak occurred in Changkong City. I do not wish to elaborate on how many people died in that outbreak. You will have many channels through which to see those figures later."
"However, the Herrscher of Thunder born from that Honkai outbreak was a girl named Raiden Mei, into whom Anti-Entropy had injected the Conquest Gem. She has now been recovered by the Far East Branch and assessed as retaining human consciousness."
Chen Ran's pupils contracted slightly.
He had expected the Third Honkai War to happen, but he had not expected it to come so soon.
Furthermore, the entire process of Raiden Mei becoming a Herrscher and then returning to being human had reached the same destination by a different route as the Oceanic Branch's experiments.
"There is no need for the Divine Right Plan to continue its experiments." He said, "With sufficient data calculations, it can proceed to simulation classification and summary. In other words, the importance of this plan has greatly diminished across all of Schicksal."
Using Herrscher Gems to allow humans to seize the authority of Herrschers had already been proven feasible.
To Schicksal, or rather, to Otto, having one more Herrscher combat unit or one fewer did not really matter.
The Divine Right Plan had only been a supplement to the Sirin Plan. Once the Sirin Plan failed, the Divine Right Plan would immediately be moved up.
As for Wendy herself, that was unimportant.
"Then what about Wendy?"
"There is no meaning in continuing the plan." He said, "Wendy is merely sunk cost for Schicksal."
Chen Ran knew what sunk cost meant.
It referred to expenses incurred in the past that were unrelated to current decisions.
Clearly, from the purest rational perspective, there was no meaning in continuing the experiment.
Anger immediately surged through Chen Ran. Disregarding everything else, he grabbed the director by the collar. "She's an A-rank Valkyrie!"
"Schicksal has more than enough A-rank Valkyries."
"She was hailed as the next S-rank Valkyrie!"
"But that is the future." The shovel-faced director remained cold and emotionless.
He said, "Schicksal does not need additional combat power. Even if the Divine Right Plan succeeded, Wendy would still suffer rejection from her fellow Valkyries and everyone in Schicksal after becoming a Herrscher. After weighing everything, this is the best choice for her."
"This plan will be abolished. The Divine Right Plan ends here."
"You bastard!" Chen Ran threw a punch directly at his face.
The man did not dodge or evade. He took the punch head-on.
"On an emotional level, I understand your anger."
"But this is Schicksal, after all."
The chief person in charge of the Divine Right Plan left.
Chen Ran stood there blankly, suddenly at a loss for what to do.
He had thought Wendy's talent and potential would make her the core reason Schicksal pushed forward the Divine Right Plan.
But the answer was too cold and too realistic.
Schicksal did not need it.
Because they did not need it, an A-rank Valkyrie's future was ruined.
Because they did not need it, a young girl's future was gone.
To Schicksal, having one more A-rank Valkyrie or one fewer meant nothing. Even a future S-rank Valkyrie was not a bargaining chip worth discussing.
Even gaining the authority of a Herrscher was not that important.
But Chen Ran was unwilling to accept it.
"System, I want to temporarily exit the simulation first."
Actively canceling the simulated scenario will reduce your rewards. Are you sure?
"Confirmed."
If Schicksal won't do it, then I will! Chen Ran thought.
Before you continue