"I watched your entire assessment earlier and noticed some problems.
Come to the training room. I'll help you correct them."
Partly because she wanted to avoid that somewhat embarrassing form of address from earlier, and partly because training was the only way the straightforward Yolandale could think of to be good to Gwen.
As for whether he should rest after just finishing the assessment, Yolandale, whose brain was still overheating, temporarily overlooked that.
Beside Yolandale, Rita could not help revealing a rather subtle smile as she watched her, with a particularly troubling glint in her eyes.
However, realizing that Gwen seemed to be looking at her, Rita immediately resumed her usual gentle, courteous smile and reminded her:
"Lady Yolandale, Mr. Gwen has just finished his assessment and is still mentally fatigued. Perhaps we could have some tea here and chat..."
"Ah, right, right, right!"
Realizing that she seemed to have caused trouble again, Yolandale's pretty face flushed bright red once more, and she hurriedly lowered her head to apologize.
"Sorry, Gwen. I forgot you just finished the assessment..."
"Hehe, no need, no need. You meant well, didn't you?"
Gwen smiled and patted the still quite inexperienced little goose on the shoulder in reassurance.
"Besides, judging from my appearance, you can't tell there's anything wrong with my condition."
"Mm..."
She nodded, but Yolandale still said,
"I know a Salt Snow Ice City with really good ice cream. How about I treat you?"
Though she said she was treating him, the subtle bob of Yolandale's throat as she spoke exposed a little of her ulterior motive...
Time flew by, and another two months passed in the blink of an eye.
Over those two months, Gwen had become quite famous at Schicksal Headquarters—
Partly because he was male, and partly because his mission efficiency was only slightly inferior to that of a certain youngest A-rank Valkyrie—
Twelve years ago, the Second Honkai Eruption broke out. Schicksal eliminated the Second Herrscher, Sirin, at the cost of the annihilation of the Snowwolf Squad, led by Cecilia, then Schicksal's strongest Valkyrie.
However, the death of the Second Herrscher, Sirin, did not mean the Second Honkai Eruption had completely ended—
After the Second Honkai Eruption, Honkai Energy concentrations around the world rose to varying degrees, and the frequency of small- and medium-scale Honkai incidents increased dramatically. Schicksal, having lost most of its elites, found its manpower stretched even thinner.
To that end, Schicksal even lowered the assessment standards for Valkyries. The A-rank assessment standard was lowered as far as Temple-class Honkai Beasts, in hopes of having more Valkyries deal with the increasingly frequent Honkai disasters.
Even so, Schicksal's manpower shortage remained difficult to resolve at its root.
Against that backdrop, the young Yolandale responded to every faint question and doubt with her achievements after advancing to A-rank, earning the trust of all Valkyries—
Though only A-rank, Yolandale led her team to wipe out every Honkai incident across an entire continent within a single month, relying on an attendance rate and combat efficiency unimaginable to others.
Of course, if Gwen remembered correctly, the little goose who would advance to S-rank in the future had even once led a team that wiped out Honkai incidents across the entire world.
But now that Super Little Goose was still merely an A-rank flat-chested girl, Gwen still had more than enough missions to accept—
It was not that Gwen wanted to rack up achievements and compete with Yolandale. He kept taking missions only to temper himself and better master the power in his body.
And during those nonstop missions over the past two months, Gwen had successfully integrated the three powers within him as he wished. Compared to when he took the assessment, his combat strength was already on a completely different level.
During those two months, Gwen had also found opportunities to try transforming—
Of course, only into human size. Considering that the character he was currently playing did not yet have absolute trust in Schicksal, Gwen had only used his "Artificial Collapse" once, when dealing with an Emperor-class Honkai Beast that exceeded the intelligence report.
Though its power could not compare to when Nexus was still in Ginga's world, after transforming, Gwen could easily handle an Emperor-class Honkai Beast that would otherwise have forced him into a bloody battle. He could even finish it off with a single Ultimate Light Arrow: Storm.
And during that time, the only time Gwen had opened his Gene Lock was also when facing an Emperor-class Honkai Beast.
The difference was that the former was something Gwen could directly control. As long as he wanted to, he could transform at any time.
But for the latter, at least for now, Gwen had no clue how to control it. It was still at the stage where it could only be passively activated under the pressure of a life-or-death crisis.
Gwen did not feel particularly discouraged about that—
He was just an ordinary person, not some terrifying upright ape. There was no need to compare himself to a freak who opened the lock in one battle, stabilized it in three, and reached the third stage in five.
Besides, Gwen had a feeling that his Gene Lock seemed to have formed some unknown connection with the light Nexus had left within his body.
Once he could control the Gene Lock proficiently in the future, this power of light would also undergo some changes.
It was just that... he needed a little more time...
Gwen was not too anxious about it. He simply carried out missions and trained step by step.
"Here is your physical examination report."
Amid the hum of the printer, Prometheus's voice rang out in the laboratory. The gray-haired, silver-eyed, mechanical-style little girl projection wore the same calm expression as always.
"Based on the results, your body is still in a period of rapid improvement. Your data in every aspect has improved considerably compared to last week."
Otto had not delayed in the slightest when it came to the material rewards he had promised Gwen. Everything had been delivered long ago.
The laboratory Gwen was currently in, for example, was not large, but it was fully equipped despite its small size. It lacked none of the various instruments and was sufficient to support Gwen's daily examinations and other procedures, protecting his privacy to a considerable extent.
Of course, aside from some obviously abnormal data being concealed, Gwen's physical examination report still had to be sent into Schicksal's system—
As an A-rank combatant, Schicksal naturally equipped Gwen with armor and weapons, all of which needed to be adjusted according to his physical data—
The person currently responsible for helping Gwen with this work was Choukai—
Although this was not her primary field, with the armor design already complete, making minor adjustments based on the user was no more than a simple matter for Choukai.
"Mm, it seems I haven't fully reaped the benefits of opening the Gene Lock yet."
Gwen nodded. He could feel his own progress, so he was not surprised by the result as he spoke with a smile.
Then, he abruptly changed the subject.
"By the way, Prometheus, how does it feel here? Are you comfortable living here?"
"For an AI, there is no such thing as comfort or discomfort."
Prometheus answered calmly.
"Hey, you can't put it that way."
Looking at Prometheus's little face, which showed almost no fluctuation at all, Gwen said with a smile,
"Look, back at the base, you could only use a few remaining devices. There was nothing much to do, and you could only stay there alone, waiting for later arrivals before self-destructing, or falling permanently silent once the equipment failed.
"After I woke up, you had someone to talk to. You could also use the instruments that were still operating to do some things, giving you a little more sense of truly being alive.
"Later, you left that place with me and came to a new world. Now you have so much equipment available to use and can do even more things. Don't you think that makes things more meaningful than those days in the pitch-dark base?"
To prevent an information gap caused by severed communication from creating unforeseen trouble for the plans of other pioneers, Dr. Mei had set the Prometheus subprograms assigned to each base to shut down automatically if their activator was not a pioneer from the Previous Civilization.
Therefore, if not for Gwen, an unforeseen person, Prometheus would have already shut down completely.
"..."
Yet as she listened to Gwen, an expression of (???) appeared on Prometheus's calm little face. Her answer made Gwen's smile stiffen.
"So you mean I should be happy about having more work?"
"Uh..."
Gwen had never expected Prometheus to answer like that. He gave an awkward laugh and explained,
"Too much work is certainly bad, but if you do nothing at all and just stay alone in a pitch-dark base, you'd go crazy.
"Compared to that, having at least a little to do gives you a sense of being alive..."
Even as he said words he did not quite believe himself, Gwen tried to persuade Prometheus.
"But I am not human. I am only an AI."
Prometheus's usual calm words nearly sank the Gwen.
"Hey, don't limit yourself to such a narrow view of species.
"I'm not Dr. Mei. I won't assign you that much work."
Giving up the struggle, Gwen waved a hand and forced out a smile.
"When there's nothing to do, you can find something yourself. For example, pretend to be an ordinary AI and chat with people or something.
"I have plans this afternoon, so I'll be leaving first."
With that, Gwen picked up the coat beside him and walked out of the laboratory.
Inside the laboratory, Prometheus's projection flickered twice. Only after watching Gwen leave did she vanish.
What Gwen did not know was that during their earlier conversation, the summoner in his pocket, which stored Prometheus's core data, had flickered several times.
"Mm? Miss Amber?"
After leaving his small laboratory, Gwen was preparing to find Choukai when he looked in surprise at Amber, who had raised her hand to submit a visitor request.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Gwen."
Amber nodded to Gwen and explained why she was there.
"Bishop Otto invites you to his office for afternoon tea."
"Uh... all right."
Though Gwen wanted to say that Schicksal Headquarters did not seem to be Cassell College and did not have a principal's afternoon tea program, considering Otto's virtually limitless authority in Schicksal, he merely nodded and followed Amber to Otto's office.
"Gwen, you're here? Sit wherever you like.
"I'll need a few more minutes. There's food on the table, so help yourself."
Otto, who was working in front of his computer, casually greeted Gwen when he saw him arrive. He did not immediately stop working, instead turning to Amber.
"Amber, go back to work first. I remember the Far East Branch has submitted another funding request. Handle it as you see fit."
"Yes."
Amber, completely treated like a tool, showed no change in expression. She lowered her head in acknowledgment, turned, and left.
Otto did not make Gwen wait long. He soon finished handling his work, rose from behind his desk, and came to sit on the sofa beside Gwen.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
Otto wore a somewhat sincere apologetic expression as he explained,
"I've recently been busy with the design of fourth-generation armor, and my schedule has become a little problematic."
"Hehe, the armor designed under Bishop Otto's leadership has reduced the casualties of so many Frontline soldiers. It's only right that I wait here for a while."
Gwen shook his head. Though Otto had never put on airs before him and always appeared kind and approachable, Gwen was not going to clash with Otto over such a trivial matter.
"Besides, the things you have here are difficult to buy outside.
"The only thing I've eaten that can compare is what Rita makes herself."
"Haha, I'm glad you like it."
Otto smiled and nodded. He chatted casually with Gwen for a few moments, asked after how Gwen had been living lately, and affirmed Gwen's proactive participation in missions and his efforts to clear Honkai incidents.
After chatting for a while, Otto finally got to the point.
"Gwen, I wonder if you still remember the attack on Schicksal's archaeological team when the ruins where you were found were excavated?"
"Of course."
Gwen nodded. The smile vanished from his face as he said seriously,
"If I hadn't successfully entered the Collapse state under the threat of death back then, I would probably have been blown to pieces by that barrage of missiles."
"I have also had people investigating the matter. Only today have we finally found some leads—"
Otto nodded, operated the terminal in his hand, and sent a file to Gwen's terminal.
"Take a look. Unless something unexpected happened, this is the mastermind behind that attack."
"Mm..."
Gwen nodded and opened the email Otto had sent him.
Then, the first thing that entered his sight was a portrait of a blonde woman and the name "Cocolia."
"..."
Before you continue