Where Is the Promised Third Honkai?!!

"Then that junior of yours is really out of luck!"

Like flies and mosquitoes that had caught the scent of blood from a hero's wounds, the landlady became even more animated:

"I'm not trying to criticize you, Kiana, but if you know you eat a lot, don't go making trouble for other people! That kid's family isn't doing well either. Making money is hard enough, yet you ate so much in one meal!"

The girl's smile remained pure. "That's why I only went to reject her."

"Gah!"

The chattering pest abruptly fell silent.

"Kiana's Fu Li"

"If there's nothing else, I'm heading upstairs."

Kiana strode past the person before her on her strong, shapely legs clad in 50D spring-and-autumn black thigh-high socks, pattering up to the second floor.

She deftly took out her key, opened the door to Room 201, and went inside.

After shutting the door behind her, she threw herself hard onto the soft bed.

"Phew! I'm exhausted!"

Working her wrists, which were slightly swollen from the recoil of gunfire, the girl half-opened her sapphire-blue eyes and let out limp words through cherry lips.

Early that morning, Kiana had sensed abnormal Honkai Energy within the spreading fog. Realizing something was wrong, she immediately grabbed her twin pistols and rushed toward the area where the energy was most concentrated.

Just as expected, she found the culprit behind it all: an Exotic Honkai Beast, a lower-class specimen over twenty-six meters long.

—Honkai Beasts were silicon-based lifeforms formed when Honkai Energy spread through the planet's atmosphere and happened to coalesce under the right conditions. They could also be mutated creatures born when animals or plants were infected by Honkai. They could be understood as humanity's foremost enemy at present.

Though they were divided into many types, such as Chariot-class, Warlord-class, Knight-class, Ballista-class, Templar-class, and so on, a Honkai Beast's strength was generally determined by its size. It was not as though a Templar-class Honkai Beast was necessarily stronger than a Chariot-class one.

The larger the Honkai Beast, the stronger it was. Of course, smaller ones were not necessarily weak, but larger ones were definitely strong.

According to the guidebooks issued by major organizations led by Schicksal, lower-class Honkai Beasts between ten and thirty meters in length fell within the range that only B-rank Valkyries equipped with third-generation armor could subjugate.

Incidentally, those under ten meters corresponded to C-rank, while those between thirty and one hundred meters corresponded to A-rank.

The hundred-meter class was already the limit for lower-class Honkai Beasts. Anything beyond that was an upper-class Honkai Beast, known as an "incarnation of natural disaster" or a "mobile Honkai phenomenon."

For Kiana, who was likewise B-rank, even if she could be considered a Breaker among B-ranks, taking down that Exotic Honkai Beast had still used up every round of ammunition she carried.

That was why, on her way back, she had made a detour by train to the naval base stationed in Yokosuka. Only after swiping plenty of weapons and ammunition from their warehouse had she finally returned, travel-worn and dusty.

And the moment she got back, she ran into that annoying landlady.

"Pfft!"

Recalling the ugly look on the woman's face upstairs, as though she had swallowed a fly, the girl could not help laughing out loud.

Ever since her father, Sigfried Kaslana, had vanished in 2010, Kiana had embarked alone on her journey of Where is Dad?

Four years of struggling to find someone, spanning from Northern Europe across the Eurasian continent to the Far East, with an even longer journey possibly still ahead.

All those experiences, which sounded utterly heartbreaking, had made Kiana suffer greatly while also giving her a keen eye for reading people.

Even if she did not say it aloud, the girl knew perfectly well how others truly felt when they faced her.

She treated those who deserved warmth warmly, and pretended to be warm when dealing with those who deserved to be brushed off. Kiana was never careless in her dealings with others.

Oh, except for one person.

At that thought, the girl who had just been delighted at teasing the awful landlady glared irritably at the wall she shared with Room 202 next door.

The person living on the other side of that wall was named Fu Li, a Shenzhou native who had come to the Far East aboard the same ship as her.

He was sixteen, the same age as Kiana, a high school student, and single.

Kiana could sense his enthusiasm toward her. That heartfelt kindness could not possibly be faked.

The girl had long grown used to such things.

It was not bragging to say that even among the two-dimensional girls obsessed over by otaku, she was absolutely a super beautiful girl well above average.

And Kiana was a lone traveler, too. There were certainly no shortage of people who had fallen in love with her at first sight.

In the girl's eyes, Fu Li was one of those who had been smitten by her looks, and he was the most incurable kind: the clingy, hopelessly persistent type.

Not only did he hover around her all day, he had even casually changed his original plans.

That was right. From what Kiana had learned afterward, Fu Li had not originally planned to come to the Far East for high school.

As someone from Shenzhou, if he wanted to study abroad, he would surely come here for university. Why come for high school? To compete with local students for spots in a place where competition was already insane?

Of course not.

Fu Li had only changed his mind at the last minute after seeing Kiana, insisting on coming to the Far East with her to study abroad.

If it had been one of those clever little fairies people joked about, she would naturally have been pleased with herself over Fu Li's idiotic decision to change his itinerary for her.

In their eyes, it would only have been proof of their charm.

Kiana was different. She felt guilty.

And guilt made her find it difficult to face him.

When it was difficult to face someone, she could not help losing control of her emotions whenever they met.

And once people lost control of their emotions, the traits most easily revealed were often irritability and anger.

Not to mention that Fu Li now lived right next door to her and was even in the same class. They were the sort who would see each other whether they looked up or down.

If Kiana had merely been an ordinary, harmless person, that would have been one thing. The problem was that, as the inheritor of the Kaslana name, she often had to hunt Honkai Beasts that endangered humanity, punishing evil and filling her wallet in the process.

And even the most ordinary lower-class Honkai Beast of the ten-meter class was comparable to a C-rank combatant, far beyond an ordinary human!

How did the latest guidebooks published by major organizations such as Schicksal summarize the combat ability of C-rank Valkyries?

A casually thrown stone could smash apart a granite pillar one meter thick!

Their physique was strong enough that even enduring high-voltage electricity would only knock them unconscious briefly!

They were fast enough to leave afterimages!

Their defenses rivaled hundred-forged steel; even point-blank automatic rifle fire would merely break their skin!

With thirty percent of their strength, one punch could blast through a civil defense structure. At full power, they could hurl half a ton of reinforced concrete hard enough to tear through the air!

And that was only C-rank—the very C-rank that Kiana, a B-rank Breaker, could crush with ease!

The girl was terrified that one day Fu Li might suddenly appear from who knew where while she was fighting. With his ordinary body, one that could not even be rated D-rank, the shockwaves from battle alone could tear him into slices of raw fish!

Just imagining that scene made Kiana's brain tremble!!!

"...Forget it. I'll read a novel for a while."

Deciding not to think about those irritating matters for now, the white-haired fluffball awkwardly propped herself up, took her phone from the bedside table, and pulled off the charging cable as well.

With a few quick kicks, she stripped off her pure-black thigh-high socks and sailor uniform. Without even changing into pajamas, she slipped naked beneath the covers.

The bed was warm. She had warmed it up when she lay down earlier.

Kiana planned to finish today's update and go straight to sleep. She had risen early to slay monsters and demons, then made a trip to the US Military Base. Even a Kaslana body could not withstand that kind of abuse.

After waking up, she still had to return to where she had buried the Exotic Honkai Beast, dig it up, and sell it on the black market.

Honkai Energy was an intensely corrosive and overbearing energy. The portion diluted in the planet's atmosphere by elements such as oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide was manageable, but once someone came into contact with a more concentrated form, an ordinary person would instantly become a mindless Dead Walker like a zombie. Those with low resistance might even turn to ash and vanish entirely.

If she actually brought it back to the apartment, the Far East's official anti-Honkai organization would come with blades, guns, axes, and halberds to sweep the place clean.

Along with every resident in the entire building who had become Dead Walkers, and the culprit who caused it all—Kiana Kaslana herself.

"What Do Christianity's Priests Envy Most About the Far East?"

"Even if I get surrounded, this young lady can still escape!"

The white-haired fluffball muttered beneath the covers, curling herself comfortably into a ball.

Her thumb rapidly swiped across the phone screen, and she quickly found the webnovel she had been following in her bookshelf.

The tag showed it had been updated twenty minutes ago.

"That A Li is pretty diligent!"

Kiana Cat narrowed her eyes, expressing satisfaction with the diligence of a certain person next door.

The various organs of Exotic Honkai Beasts could all fetch a considerable price. Since this wealthy patron now had some extra funds, she should give Fu Li a tip indirectly, lest he really starve to death in a foreign land.

What? Why not give it to him directly?

What if he misunderstood and thought she was interested in him?

That said, whenever she thought of the website taking half the tip as commission, the already poor girl found capitalism increasingly detestable.

"I really want to enter a red society where I can just coast through life."

Kiana hummed as she tapped into the chapter, then immediately noticed something was off.

The screen did not display the message: "This chapter is VIP-only. Purchase it to read."

The girl froze for a moment, then read the chapter update out of curiosity:

Once, there was a blacksmith who always worried about his forging efficiency.

He saw the blacksmith from the neighboring village, Ying Xing, making one hoe every three days and one shovel every five days, and felt deeply anxious. He feared that if he produced things so slowly, no one would come to him.

His customers were enthusiastic and always encouraged him. Even if he did not deliver on time, they expressed understanding.

The blacksmith felt guilty about that encouragement. He always wanted to work faster, but could never manage it.

Finally, one day, the blacksmith asked the customers waiting with interest, "I forge so slowly. Why are you all still willing to wait?"

"Obviously! The sign outside your door says Sword Forging Workshop. All I care about is whether the swords work well. What does it have to do with me whether you make hoes in three days or shovels in five?"

—What the heck was that supposed to mean?

Kiana, who had always been on poor terms with knowledge, was dumbfounded. After thinking about it, she enabled the comment feature in the app.

After reading the most-liked inline comment, the girl understood.

"So he's taking a day off! Why did he have to say it in such a roundabout way?!"

"Stinky A Li! You've lost your gold treasure chest!"

Her understanding immediately turned into fury.

"Since you already stayed up late and finished writing this chapter before reincarnation, why aren't you posting it, Host?"

On the crowded train heading toward Tokyo, Prometheus's emotionless electronic voice mingled with the noisy surroundings.

The already bustling voices around him suddenly seemed to carry a little more childish sweetness.

"Because after finishing a draft, I still have to revise it."

The scummy A Li who used leave notices to deal with readers looked entirely justified.

"If I could give readers the draft, I definitely would. The problem is that after I finish writing, I need to edit it. If I don't, even I can't stand reading it. Revising takes even more time than writing, and I don't have time for such trivial matters right now."

He stated firmly, "Rather than upload an unfinished product and deceive people, I might as well just make a post and ask for leave!"

Little AI felt that this deadbeat pigeon was openly making excuses to procrastinate, but she had no proof.

She changed the subject. "Host, you still haven't told me what you're going to do next."

"I'm going to find someone and make up for my current weakness in immediate combat power."

Screech—

The sound of the train doors opening rang out together with the arrival announcement. Fu Li squeezed through the tide of people and only let out a breath after safely stepping outside.

Afterward, he doubled back and boarded a train bound for Chiyoda Ward. He rode several trains in what seemed like a purposeless manner. The route changed from above ground to underground, and the passengers in the carriage gradually grew fewer.

After the last person got off, the lights inside the carriage suddenly began flickering. Crackling electric currents echoed through the empty space, and a chill rapidly enveloped Fu Li's entire body.

"Minute Honkai Energy reaction detected. Please remain alert, Host, and prepare to enter combat at any time!"

So as not to obstruct Fu Li's vision, Little AI, who had been projected onto his retina, faded from sight as she spoke.

Fu Li sat steadily in his seat. "It's fine. This is a necessary step to get there."

"It should be some sort of screening device," he guessed. "Revealing the existence of Honkai to ordinary people has always been strictly forbidden by Schicksal and Anti-Entropy. Though that rule has loosened somewhat now, many people still cling to the original belief."