Welt: I'm Not Dead Yet! / Welt Says He's Logging Off First

A power similar to Griseo's... It has great potential, but unfortunately it's too fragile.

Kevin estimated the Honkai Energy he had consumed; it wasn't much, and it was still within an acceptable range.

However...

Kevin looked around and saw that the scene before him had changed to a quaint, old-fashioned town.

"Besides?"

Meanwhile, inside the Dream Castle.

"As expected of Kevin... The breeding pool I just drew is gone." Xi looked at the sketchbook in her hand with some pain. The first page of the sketchbook had disappeared.

"It seems that to deal with someone like Kevin, we still need to use those landscape paintings that reveal weaknesses."

"It doesn't matter, you can move the painting around as you please, can't you?"

Xia Ling glanced at Kevin's progress. "Moreover, given Kevin's current Honkai Energy reserves, it probably won't be long before he realizes the seriousness of the situation."

"Alright, I'll keep an eye on things here. You can go out and have a chat with Welt."

"Is everything alright with Schicksal?"

"It's not a big problem. I usually paint alone. Even if they find I'm not there, they'll just assume I've wandered into some painting."

Chapter Thirty Welt: I'm not dead yet!

Emerging from the castle model, Xia Ling discovered that Welt seemed to have already put away the Simulated Black Hole.

Instead, there was a strange space constructed of unknown substances.

"Mr. Welt, are you already starting to build your defenses?"

"That's right, but... even if I do my best, this is the only way I can keep him trapped here by stalling for time."

"This is still based on the premise that his condition is obviously very poor. Therefore, if I want to keep him trapped for a long time, I need to stay here and constantly repair this 'maze'."

"Is your body... still able to handle it?" Xia Ling asked with some concern.

"It's alright. Without the drain from Star of Eden, I can hold on for a long time." Welt seemed quite confident in his Yang Woqizuo: "If one day I really can't hold on anymore... then it's probably time for a turning point."

"Alright, since you insist on this, I won't try to persuade you any further." Xia Ling shrugged. "You can take your time with your defenses. Kevin shouldn't be able to break through my blockade in the short term."

"Speaking of which, I'm a little curious, Xia Ling, what method did you use to trap him?"

"It's simple. We have a hard time getting supplies in the Sea of Quantum, and so does the other side, and he's obviously in worse shape."

"As long as we grasp this point... then we can turn the situation into one where it's not that the blockade cannot be broken, but that the amount of Honkai energy required to break through the blockade Honkai Energy unacceptable to him."

"I see... Now that you mention it, I have some new ideas."

Welt's eyes lit up, and he continued to throw himself into building his defensive line without stopping.

Meanwhile, Kevin was still on his "spot the difference" mission.

"This illusion is so realistic... If this world is truly a painting, then the quality of the paintings is incredibly inconsistent..."

Kevin searched frantically on the mountain in the painting, trying to find something out of place.

After all, Xi's paintings rely on her experience; realism alone is not enough. When she is actually trying to paint a world, she needs to consider dozens of times more things than in ordinary painting.

In the previous painting, Kevin observed that the flight of a bird was obviously illogical. This was within his area of expertise, so he was able to "see through" the painting directly.

And this ancient and elegant landscape of Schicksal... he believed that if Hua were here, he would definitely be able to quickly find a breakthrough.

Unfortunately, he is not Hua.

"We've wasted too much time. Fine, let's just break this painting outright..."

As he spoke, Kevin casually unleashed a surging wave of cold air, shattering the world within the painting and plunging into the next one.

"How's it going, Xi? Do you have enough paintings in reserve?"

"That's enough. I left quite a few drawings while I was slacking off. That's more than enough to keep Kevin occupied for a few hours."

Xi took out a stack of drawing paper and showed it to Xia Ling.

"What about Honkai Energy?"

"We might be a little short on that... but we still have you, don't we?"

"Don't use up all the Honkai Energy... at least leave some for me," Xia Ling said speechlessly.

The reason why Xi is able to Honkai Energy so confidently stems from a collection they recently acquired.

[Embryonic Lily: Randomly adjusts the Honkai Energy reserves of allied units.]

The original effect of the collection was to disrupt costs, and this actual effect was not unexpected for Xia Ling. It can only be said that under these circumstances, Embryonic Lily can be used as a means to replenish Honkai Energy, but it is not very friendly to teammates.

After acquiring this artifact, Xia Ling will no longer fear long-term solo combat, since her Honkai Energy reserves can be calculated as the sum of four people's as long as there is a chance to replenish them.

"Next, we just wait for Welt to finish his business..."

Without the extra expense of Star of Eden, Welt's work speed was incredibly fast. Before Xi even had a chance to use Embryonic Lily once, Welt had already completed the construction.

"Alright, that completes all my arrangements."

Welt looked exhausted, but he still called Xia Ling over.

"Xia Ling, before you return to reality, there are two things I want to tell you."

"Don't worry, Mr. Welt, you can go in peace. I will take good care of Dr. Tesla and Doctor. Einstein." Xia Ling said in a dramatic manner.

"I'm not dead yet..."

Welt was speechless, but having known Xia Ling for so long, he was used to her occasional eccentricities. "The first thing is also related to you. Do you remember the request you made to me during our first open and honest conversation?"

"You mean, I need you to help me out once?" Xia Ling suddenly remembered that there was such a thing.

She originally intended to use Welt as insurance for the next few plans, but as each plan went more smoothly than the last, she didn't use the opportunity.

"That's right. I'll probably be staying here for quite a while, so it won't be very convenient for me to take action." Welt pushed up his glasses. "However, after everything we've been through, neither I nor the Doctor have any issues with trusting you anymore. So, I plan to entrust this promise to someone else."

"You may not know this, but Sigfried Kaslana, Kiana's father and a former S-class fighter of Schicksal, is currently in Anti-Entropy."

"Sigfried?" Xia Ling hadn't expected Welt to suddenly bring up that name. "But Kiana said..."

"This is also related to the second thing I'm about to talk about."

Welt sighed deeply, a hint of guilt flashing in his eyes.

"Kiana's background is very special, and I believe you can see some of it. Ain will explain the specifics to you."

"What I want to tell you is another plan, which is also the most core secret of Anti-Entropy. This plan only exists in the minds of me and a few Doctor. There are no records of it. I hope you can keep this secret as well."

"This plan is not yet fully mature. We came up with the idea after Sigfried gave us information about Kiana. Originally, I was supposed to be the one to push this plan forward, but now that I'm stuck here, it's obviously no longer feasible. So, I hope you can help Ain and Tesla."

"This plan originated from the Second Honkai Outbreak, and its first phase requires us to send a warship to St. Freya."

"I'm sure you've heard this name from my brief remarks; it's called— the Moon Throne."

Chapter Thirty-One: Welt said he'd hang up first.

Back in Abyssal City, Ain had been anxiously waiting for a long time. At the same time, Tesla also arrived in a hurry.

As soon as Xia Ling came out, the two Doctor surrounded her and began asking her all sorts of questions.

Since there was nothing to keep secret about this experience, Xia Ling didn't hide anything. She only concealed her conversation with Kevin and recounted how she helped Welt buy time and what Welt told her afterwards.

"That Joachim guy, he just keeps making a mess for us, I'm really * Anti-Entropy *!"

"You're right, but I haven't forgotten how anxious that lobster-head guy was, almost crying." Ain also breathed a sigh of relief, while simultaneously calling out Tesla to the side.

"You have a messy head!"

Automatically silencing Tesla's series of telegrams, Ain looked at Xia Ling: "Miss Xia Ling, thank you so much for this matter. If it weren't for you, Yang would probably have given up his body and stayed in the Sea of Quantum, and would not have had the chance to communicate like we do now."

"It was just a small favor, but I'm sorry I couldn't bring him back."

"I know him well. If he remains unmoved in the face of such a threat, I'll start to suspect that Cocolia has created another clone."

Tesla chimed in, "As for what he said... Sigfried should have no objection to it, the key issue is the Moon Throne..."

"Without his Authority of Reason, this project will likely be stalled for a long time..."

"Speaking of this..." Xia Ling asked knowingly, "What exactly is the initial plan that Mr. Welt mentioned?"

The two Doctor looked at each other in bewilderment.

"It's less of a plan and more of a terrible idea."

Tesla explained, "The ultimate goal of this plan is actually very simple: we want to create a Herrscher with all the Herrscher Authority to fight against the Finality."

"However, this idea is obviously impractical given that there are only three Herrscher now, so we drafted an initial plan first."

"We want to use the Honkai Energy conversion function of the Moon Throne to create an existence similar to Sirin, who had six Herrscher Core during the Second Honkai Outbreak."

"Six cores... but so far, only one has appeared..."

"So we're talking about something similar. Actually, our expectation is that she just needs to master the four Herrscher Core, as for the candidate..."

Kiana?

"Yes, I didn't expect Yang Lian to tell you this." Ain raised an eyebrow and took over the conversation. "Kiana's background is quite complicated. I will send you a document with details later. In short, after evaluation, we believe she has the ability."

"At the same time, this is also why we feel somewhat guilty towards her. After all, we failed to save Sirin and Cecilia during the Second Honkai Outbreak, and now, we're making Kiana the core of this plan..."

"To be honest, we feel very sorry for this family."

"However, you may not understand these topics now. Why don't you go back and take a look at the history of the Second Honkai Outbreak and part of the Moonlight Throne Project we sent you before making a decision?"

As she spoke, Ain took out a document.

"This is Professor Welt's application for a long leave of absence. We've tentatively granted it for a year. After that, I will act as Welt's representative to handle related matters. Please give this document to Theresa."

"Ah, speaking of which, she still doesn't know Welt's true identity... If you were to intervene, she would probably think Welt is Anti-Entropy spy?"

"It's okay, Welt isn't here now anyway, I can say he's Lobster Head's husband without any problem."

"You bastard with the messy hair, you want to fight, don't you?!"

A series of telegrams, Tesla and indignation, came from the side.

"What? Professor Welt has taken leave and gone home?"

Theresa took the document, looking suspicious.

"What do you mean by sick leave? He seems perfectly healthy to me."

"I'm not entirely sure either. You can ask Welt's... uh, guardian for details."

Xia Ling gave Ain's contact information to Theresa.

"Guardian...that's not the right way to use that word, Xia Ling." Theresa was a little speechless, but still continued, "What about Welt himself? Hasn't he contacted you?"

"Of course not." Xia Ling shook her head. "I was on the phone with him before I came in."

Where is he now?

He said he had something urgent to attend to and had to hang up.

Xia Ling truthfully answered Welt's question about his condition.

"Hang up, hung up..." Theresa's lips twitched slightly. "Have I been disliked to the point that I don't even want to hear your voice anymore?"

"How could that be? Theresa is the cutest in the world!"

"Hey, don't suddenly pounce on me!"

Welt's departure did not cause much of a stir at the St. Freya Academy. In the following months, the academy was peaceful, with no Great Honkai or Anti-Entropy causing trouble.

Xia Ling and Ain communicated very regularly, once a week, and then every month they would visit Kevin, an elderly man living alone, and his prison guard Welt in the Sea of Quantum.

During this time, Welt did try to communicate with Kevin, but the two were experts at breaking down in conversation and cold-faced riddle-makers, so they obviously did not achieve any results. In fact, Welt became even more convinced of Kevin's danger.

As for the Big Three, Challenge Contract have become an essential part of their lives. They set aside a fixed amount of time every night to try and get the contracts. Xia Ling doesn't know who started this trend, but she guesses it was Bronya. In her words, "Isn't trying to get the contracts more interesting than HOMU's Great Battle?"

However, playing frequently doesn't necessarily mean playing well. At present, breaking through level 9 is a big challenge for them. But what's gratifying is that at least their teamwork and individual strength are much better than before. It's just that their fighting style has become a bit extreme, often doing some extreme maneuvers that scare Himeko quite a bit.