Otto: Let's Trick the Gullible One First / Otto: Maybe I Should Die Too?...

This is also one of his main purposes in coming here: to stabilize these two unstable factors in Oceania.

Chapter 55 Otto: Let's fool this gullible one first.

One day later, in the sky above the sea.

In the form of Paranoid Bubble, Highmore carries Wendy slowly to the surface of the water.

"Ah... it feels so good to be back on land."

As the two approached the shore, Highmore transformed back into human form.

"But aren't you Sea Creatures? Why do you find it comfortable on land?"

Wendy held onto Highmore's arm, her tone somewhat puzzled.

Highmore's body trembled instantly, her tone filled with grief and indignation.

"First of all, Sea Creatures doesn't necessarily have to be in the water."

"Secondly, why are you asking me this question? Don't you know the answer yourself?"

"Hehehe..." Wendy's pretty face flushed slightly, and her tone softened. "It's because the Highmore was too cute like that... I accidentally went a little too far."

"You'd better be a little bit more." Highmore covered her face, not wanting to recall the tragic events of the day.

"I can only say that you have certainly learned a lot from those novels and comics. By the way, this isn't a compliment."

"Okay, okay, let's not talk about this anymore..." Wendy awkwardly changed the subject. "Where are we going now?"

"Go find Schicksal. Now that your health problem is solved, we have gained enough leverage. In addition, since we haven't shown up all day, they don't seem to have found our location."

"This is enough for us to negotiate some favorable terms."

"Schicksal...?"

Wendy lowered her head, her eyes somewhat dim.

"There's no need to think of Schicksal as so bad. There are good people in Schicksal too. Even those two people you clashed with that day weren't bad people."

"Otherwise, given my strength at the time, it would have been very difficult for me to take you away."

Highmore tried to make amends for Rita and Durandal.

However, she wasn't entirely wrong. Although from her perspective, this explanation was mostly speculation, don't forget that Xia Ling was still on the shore.

Don't underestimate my intelligence network!

After Xia Ling gave a slight hint, Theresa immediately went to Otto to ask for his opinion on how to handle Wendy.

Otto, assuming Theresa was simply concerned about his students, didn't think much of it and told Theresa his bottom line in negotiations.

"Oceania was just a pawn to begin with, and I have no intention of holding anyone accountable for the deaths of those people in the branch."

"As long as Wendy doesn't take her anger out on Schicksal and stays quietly in Oceania, all other conditions are negotiable."

"I can even make many concessions to them in other areas because they helped me solve a long-standing problem."

With Xia Ling's confirmation, Highmore could now make her own bold guesses without worry.

Incidentally, Highmore hasn't dared to return to the system space yet, firstly because she simply doesn't have the time, and secondly...

Because she had once boasted that she could manipulate Wendy at will, she couldn't imagine how others would ridicule her after she had been "played" by Wendy for a whole day.

"That..."

Wendy closed her eyes, feeling the message the flowing wind brought her.

A moment later.

"Huh, I was planning to take you to their newly established branch." Wendy opened her eyes. "But they seem to be moving faster than we expected?"

"After all, they know the general area..."

In the distance, a familiar warship was slowly approaching.

"Let's go. I think the person we're looking for is already waiting for us on this warship."

"This is... Hyperion?" Wendy's voice was a little excited. "Could it be Theresa coming to talk to us?"

"It's probably not that bad... Judging from the situation, the people who came probably borrowed Theresa's ship."

"Could we borrow Professor Theresa's boat...?"

Wendy seemed to have some idea of who the visitor was, and her expression became somewhat tense.

"It's okay, I'm here." Highmore squeezed Wendy's hand. "Besides, his main purpose is probably to come for me."

"It looks like we'll have to wait a while for them to dispatch the transport plane, so... Wendy, why don't you just take me up there?"

When Wendy led Highmore to the Hyperion, a blond man had been waiting there for a long time.

"Welcome to the Hyperion, gentlemen."

"Let me introduce myself first. Perhaps Miss Wendy is relatively familiar with me, but Miss Highmore probably has only heard of my name and doesn't know me personally."

"Nice to meet you. I am Otto Apocalypse, and also the current bishop of Schicksal."

"Interesting. So, this is how Miss Wendy views the experiments on Schicksal?"

A moment later, the two were ushered into the conference room on the Hyperion. Otto seemed to be trying to find a breakthrough from Wendy's side, starting by talking about Wendy's views on the Desire Gem Project.

"Isn't that right?" Wendy glared at him angrily. "Wasn't I just a pawn used to house the gems from the very beginning?"

"No, no, no... Miss Wendy, it seems you don't know much about the Herrscher Core."

Otto shook his head repeatedly, his tone full of sincerity. "Perhaps you may not know, but Herrscher like you who possess self-awareness and resist the 'Honkai' of Honkai are not isolated cases."

"I personally witnessed the birth of the First Herrscher and was deeply saddened by the Second Herrscher's tilt toward the Honkai side. Therefore, I am also keenly aware that Herrscher who are born autonomously are not controllable."

"So, at that time I had an idea, which was whether it was possible to artificially intervene in the birth of Herrscher by implanting Herrscher Core into predetermined individuals, and to increase their likelihood of maintaining self-awareness."

"And this is the prototype of the Desire Gem Project."

Otto glanced at Wendy without leaving a trace, and seeing that Wendy seemed to be listening very attentively, Otto smiled slightly and continued to explain, "After several years of experimentation and exploration, I finally overcame the technical problem of implanting the core. However, my first goal at the time was not the Desire Gem, but the Gem of Serenity, which represents creation and death."

"The reason is simple: at that time, Schicksal possessed the Divine Key Black Abyss White Flower and had been researching it for many years. We guessed that if we could induce the life-giving aspect as much as possible during the implantation process, we might be able to complete the experiment by taking advantage of the properties of the Herrscher Core itself."

"Unfortunately, we failed."

"However, since the technology had matured, many scholars who participated in the project at the time asked me to try again, using another Herrscher Core that we had in our possession."

Otto paused slightly.

"In other words, Desire Gem."

Chapter 56 Otto: Should I die too?

"And that's when your name came into our view, Miss Wendy. Perhaps you don't have a clear concept of your 23% compatibility, but I can tell you this: in the entire Schicksal, you probably can't find another normal person with a compatibility of more than 10% with the Desire Gem."

"So please believe me, when I proposed this plan, I genuinely wanted to achieve a result that would be perfect for both of us."

Otto smiled. "Regarding this, if the Oceania Branch hadn't been destroyed so thoroughly, you should be able to find some evidence."

"Just six months after the experiment began, the research team in the Oceania Branch was already stuck in an insurmountable problem. At that time, I sent them an analysis of the case of the Gem of Conquest implantation of Anti-Entropy as a reference."

"But the Oceania Branch has completely disappeared, so how are you going to prove your point?" Wendy said coldly.

"The subject of that gem implantation experiment, Mei Raiden, is currently studying at the St. Freya Academy." Otto's smile remained unchanged. "And much of the information in that document was obtained by my dear Theresa and me. You can ask her about that; she should still remember it."

"After pushing the experiment forward again, I didn't pay much attention to it anymore. After all, you can't put all your eggs in one basket, and I can't keep focusing my energy on this."

"Moreover, we know from the experiments on the Anti-Entropy side that as long as the compatibility with the core is sufficient, not only will your body gradually adapt to the core, but the core will also gradually adapt to you. So, when it finds you, this experiment actually becomes icing on the cake, and the results obtained are only used to help you accelerate this process."

"As for what happened next..." Otto said apologetically, "There was a huge change in power in the Oceania Branch. The original Branch Leader, who had risen from local power, began to gradually replace the branch's personnel with people he had trained himself."

"During that period, the world was experiencing Great Honkai, and Schicksal was already preoccupied with its own problems, so it was unable to deal with him for the time being. It simply had Rita collect evidence of his crimes on a regular basis."

"This dragged on until the beginning of this year. When I finally had the time to deal with Oceania, I suddenly discovered that Oceania seemed to have started to have internal strife."

"The original Branch Leader died, and the branch split. You should know what happened after that. Ryan successfully took control of the Oceania Branch. As a scientist who came from headquarters, he has been working diligently over the years, so I acquiesced to his actions. After all, he's human, and it's normal for him to have some ambition. Besides, what he did indirectly proved his ability."

"Sigh, who knew he was one way on the surface but another in his heart. Even Rita's summary of intelligence on Oceania didn't mention that he had any intention of targeting Highmore. I never expected him to suddenly launch an attack. Since it was so sudden, I could only immediately send all the S-rank Valkyrie from headquarters to stabilize the situation."

"So, you're saying that you're actually innocent in this matter?"

Wendy raised an eyebrow.

"How could that be? The mistakes made by Schicksal will not disappear because of my personal factors. In terms of the outcome, Highmore did die because of our mistakes, and I will not deny that."

"Therefore, I will personally provide you two with sufficient compensation, and Schicksal will also cooperate to expose the dark side of the original Oceania Branch and clear your names."

"As for Miss Highmore's death... I deeply regret it, so I am willing to pay the same price."

"Equal cost? What do you mean?"

Wendy was somewhat confused.

"It's very simple. Like Miss Highmore, I can also pay a price to gain a chance to be reborn. If Miss Highmore wants, you can just kill me to vent your anger. I will not fight back. Just consider it as experiencing the pain that Miss Highmore suffered."

"You are the Bishop..."

Otto's words seemed to have greatly shocked Wendy. She looked at Highmore, who hadn't said a word, with a somewhat bewildered expression, only to find that Highmore had a blank expression on her face.

As for why Highmore had that expression, it was because she couldn't help but laugh halfway through Otto's story.

To prevent herself from laughing out loud at even more difficult-to-remember words later, Highmore directly controlled her Sea Creatures cells to give herself a facial paralysis buff, solving the problem once and for all.

Seemingly sensing Wendy's confusion, Highmore blinked and said, "I'll discuss my part with His Lord Bishop alone."

"That works too. I happen to be quite interested in Miss Highmore's situation." Otto nodded slightly. "If Miss Wendy is bored, she can go to the bridge to catch up with Theresa. She has a lot to say to you."

Wendy wasn't oblivious to the atmosphere; she could tell that the two seemed to want to talk about something she needed to avoid. So she stood up and said, "Highmore, I'll come find you later."

The two watched Wendy leave, then exchanged a silent glance for a moment.

"I think I don't need to repeat what I just said to Miss Highmore."

"Of course, it was quite a challenge for me to keep from laughing when His Lord Bishop spoke."

"Why be so confrontational, Miss Highmore?" Otto shrugged. "Since you didn't refute me just now, doesn't that mean you actually agree with my approach?"

"I don't agree with your approach; I just don't want things to go to extremes."

Highmore said coldly, "Or do you think that if I told Wendy that you were the one who provided the drug that could kill me, she would still be able to control herself from turning upside down the Schicksal Headquarters?"

"Well... to be honest, even if Miss Wendy had complete control over the ability, she probably wouldn't possess such a power."

Otto shook his head.

"That's right, that's why we can sit here and talk." Highmore put away her imposing aura. "However... Your Lord Bishop, if you've read the description of my abilities, you should know that."

"I may not be able to overcome the foundation of Schicksal Headquarters, but if I want to annoy Schicksal, I can cause an effect even worse than the Honkai."

"It seems we can still reach an agreement." Otto smiled knowingly. "In that case, why don't we be frank and discuss the terms openly?"

Chapter Fifty-Seven: The Sea of Quantum is still a sea!

"That's why I'm still sitting here."

"Your Lord Bishop, what kind of compensation do you intend to give us?"

"Regarding this, I wonder if Miss Highmore has any needs?"

Otto didn't answer but asked a question in return, looking at Highmore with a smile.

"As long as it's not too outrageous, I can agree to anything."

"First of all, I need a place where Wendy and I can live a peaceful life together."

"A reasonable request. You can stay wherever you want in Oceania."

Otto had a plan in mind. "I will promote Wendy to S-rank Valkyrie and make her the new Branch Leader of the Oceania Branch. Of course, if you are not good at management, I can also send some people to assist you."

"Oh? You're so sure we... won't waste our energy managing these trivial matters, right?"

"I know perfectly well that your ambitions lie elsewhere," Otto without offering any rebuttal.

"What if we want to go out for a walk?"

"Of course you can. However, the new branch has just been established in the last month, and there are still many things that you two need to stay and resolve. So, if you want to go out for a while, you might as well wait a bit."