Alicia is the Real Golden Finger in Honkai!

"So, whether this plan can be carried out still depends on whether the enemy is stupid enough."

"In other words, you were putting on an act with Mei today to deceive those who are monitoring her?"

Perhaps it was her eagerness to protect Mei, but Kiana's little head surprisingly became sharp for once, and she asked excitedly.

"Of course."

Gwen nodded, slightly surprised by Kiana's performance, and said with relief:

"A flower oppressed in a greenhouse, after being nourished by love, quickly becomes infatuated. It seems normal, doesn't it?"

"Friendship works too!"

Paramecium declared that if it was Mei, then she was capable.

"But at a time like this, love is a bit more reasonable than friendship."

Gwen raised a finger and gently shook it:

"After all, it was past friendships that continuously hurt this flower..."

"..."

She instinctively wanted to retort, but Kiana opened her mouth, only to find herself speechless. Her ahoge drooped little by little in the silence, lying limply among her hair, hidden from view.

"Hoo..."

After a long silence, Kiana finally let out a long breath and looked at Gwen:

"While I have to admit, you've got a point there, you bastard.

But before that, tell me about your origins in detail."

Realizing she was powerless to change anything, Kiana said fiercely—

Mei's safety will be protected by me!

"As for my identity..."

Although he believed Kiana would obediently cooperate with his actions for Raiden Mei's safety.

Gwen, however, not knowing Kiana's attitude towards Schicksal without external interference, chose to put on the guise of an outer member of Anti-Entropy—

Besides, even though this Paramecium hasn't gone stupid yet, who knows if this girl will slip up and sell me out?

Although he had scanned the area and found no one-armed heroes following them, Gwen still chose to play it safe to avoid some irrational uncle jumping out to cause trouble.

After learning of Gwen's identity, Kiana felt a little more at ease. However, before going to sleep, she waved her little fist as a warning:

"For Mei, I'll cooperate with you this time.

But don't get any funny ideas, or I won't forgive you!"

Even though the relationship between her and Mei was merely her helping Mei, and Mei giving her packed lunches, Kiana said these words for some unknown reason.

"Classmate Kiana, while I know you care a lot about Mei, please note that I am Mei's boyfriend right now."

Gwen, choosing to selectively ignore the words of this Paramecium, who still had a lot of common sense, smiled and said something that made Kiana furious.

"This guy..."

Watching the door slam shut with a "bang," Kiana, who had wanted to scold him, pouted and returned to the room she had slept in a few days ago—

With no shortage of money, Gwen's rented apartment was quite nice, with more than one bedroom, and a room ready for Kiana to move into.

Although her emotions had been quite agitated just a moment ago, as soon as she touched the soft, large bed, Kiana felt the fatigue of a busy day flood her mind, and she soon drifted off to dreamland.

And in the next room, although it was late, and Gwen had long since abandoned his terrible living habits from his past life, he did not go to sleep directly—

Chapter 30: Plan B

In the darkened bedroom, Gwen's eyes were slightly closed, not preparing to sleep, but one hand gently tapping, as if keeping time with some melody.

His other hand was placed on his chest, holding a necklace.

At the top of the necklace was a miniature music box, exquisite like a work of art.

However, theoretically, no matter how skilled the craftsman, it would be difficult to make such a small object, no larger than half a finger joint, function as a real music box.

Yet, the tapping fingertips of his other hand indicated that Gwen could hear a beautiful melody from the delicate little object in his palm—

In fact, this little object, which looked merely ornamental, was indeed continuing its melody—

Back then, after Gwen had injected the Hyper-Evolution Factor, discovered his system, and solved his survival problems, he accidentally found this exquisite necklace, like a work of art, while exploring the dilapidated Fire Moth base.

Although it was not good to casually take other people's things, after searching all around and finding no information related to the necklace's owner, and getting no answer from Prometheus, Gwen hesitated for a long time before taking the necklace he really liked.

After a while, Gwen also discovered that the small music box was not only exquisite in appearance but also fulfilling its original function, repeating a song at a very low volume.

During his time in the Fire Moth base, this necklace and the song within it became the only solace in his monotonous life.

Fortunately, during the battles in the back mountains of Starfall Town, this necklace survived. Later, it was sent to Schicksal, and the people at Schicksal kept it safe for Gwen, allowing him to keep it with him to this day.

To the faint but incredibly beautiful melody, like a gift from heaven, Gwen, with his eyes slightly closed, slowly drifted off to sleep...

The next morning, when a groggy Kiana pushed open her room door, she saw Gwen, who had finished his morning exercises and was wiping his wet hair—

"Hm?"

"You're up this early?"

Kiana, still half-asleep, casually asked, not expecting Gwen's reply:

"What else?

If I slept and woke up as late as you, would I have the ability to take on this kind of mission?"

Even though he knew the Paramecium hadn't reached the slacking phase at St. Freya yet, it didn't stop Gwen from giving Kiana a bit of a hard time.

"...I... I was just too tired yesterday, that's why I woke up late...

And I do exercise, you know?"

For a moment, Kiana was so flustered by his jab that she even forgot her usual self-reference of "This Young Lady," mumbling with shifting eyes and a lack of confidence.

"Alright, stop mumbling. If there's a chance later, I'll take you with me when I get up early."

Seeing Kiana like this, Gwen smiled slightly and pointed towards the bathroom:

"Here, the things you used last time are still in there. Just use them."

—Thanks to Gwen's habit of usually preparing two sets of things when he bought them, Kiana didn't have to go without brushing her teeth when she stayed over last time, which was quite convenient.

"Clean up your things after you've eaten and drunk your fill. I'm heading out."

After finishing breakfast, seeing Kiana still looking like she wanted more, Gwen didn't rush her. He simply said as he got up:

"If possible, try not to act any differently than usual—

If I can, I'd still prefer to take Mei away without Cocolia finding out."

"Speaking of which..."

At this moment, Kiana, unaffected by the sudden surge of emotion, realized a problem:

"What if we can't hide it from that vixen Cocolia?

We can't just fail the plan and surrender, can we?"

"Then we'll just have to activate Plan B,"

Gwen said with a shrug.

"What's Plan B?"

Kiana blinked, asking curiously.

"Completely dismantle ME Corp.—"

Gwen said with a smile:

"Even if Cocolia is incredibly resourceful, she can only prepare her experiments on ME Corp.'s territory after she's taken it over.

As long as ME Corp. is completely torn down, all of Cocolia's preparations will crumble.

At that point, it will be much easier for us to either request aid to completely eliminate Cocolia or to escape directly."

Although after transforming in a bad state last time, a barely managed Ultimate Light Arrow: Storm had instantly killed Ganesha, and Gwen had directly fainted afterward.

Gwen wasn't standing still either—he was confident that he could maintain a certain level of combat effectiveness even after blowing up ME Corp.

Moreover, resorting to brute force demolition was only a last resort. Gwen still had Schicksal's backup and Prometheus to help him.

"Ga?"

Hearing Gwen's so-called "Plan B," Kiana, who couldn't believe it, even let out a strange cry.

"Or else, what do you think gave me the confidence to take on this mission?"

Gwen gave the stunned Kiana a sideways glance, chuckled lightly, picked up his jacket, and headed out—

Today, America's beautiful boy would continue his date with Japan's fallen young lady.

As the days passed, Gwen and Raiden Mei's act of being a couple went from deliberate and awkward to incredibly skilled, becoming more and more like a real couple. The burly and skinny duo responsible for monitoring Raiden Mei didn't notice anything unusual, only thinking that the damn American was really good at tricking young girls.

The spring breeze of March blew gently, stirring the budding spring hearts of young girls, and also blowing the time to the end of March. The spring break for various middle schools in Japan was gradually ending, and schools were starting to reopen, including Senba Academy.

However, to the surprise of many students who hadn't seen her all spring break but had often mentioned Raiden Mei as a topic of conversation, the fallen young lady, who had been increasingly pushed and bullied by them last semester and was getting closer to the "gloomy woman" they described, was now sitting calmly in her seat, as if the events of the previous semester had never happened.

"As expected of a criminal's daughter, she's really thick-skinned."

"Then shall we continue?"

"Continue!

I can't stand the feeling of breathing the same air as her."

The students who were the main force behind persecuting Raiden Mei last semester whispered amongst themselves, preparing to continue their righteous mission of expelling the criminal's daughter from the school.

"Quiet down, everyone, please be quiet. I have an announcement to make."

Amidst the somewhat chaotic voices in the classroom, the class homeroom teacher walked onto the podium, tapped the lectern, and quieted the noisy classroom.

Chapter 31: "American Transfer Student"

At this moment, some sharp-eyed students had already spotted the handsome young man who had followed the homeroom teacher to the classroom and was currently waiting outside the door.

"Look, it's a handsome guy!"

"Wow, it really is, could it be a transfer student?"

"It should be..."

Amidst the students' whispered discussions, the homeroom teacher's words confirmed this truth, causing the girls, nearly half of whom could be called young ladies, to hold their heads high, wanting to make a good impression on the new classmate.

"Hello everyone, my name is Gwen, and I'm from America."

Gwen, who disliked singing, dancing, rapping, and playing basketball, gave a concise introduction, but his looks, which directly suppressed all the male students in the class, were enough for many female students to be quite patient.

However, the next action of this transfer student from America caused many students to change their expressions drastically—

After briefly introducing his name and origin, Gwen, instead of introducing his hobbies according to East Asian tradition, directly went to one of the few empty seats in the classroom with his schoolbag and sat down naturally.

What caused these students to change their expressions was not Gwen's unsociable behavior—

Transfer students with eccentric personalities were not uncommon among junior high students in East Asia, and Gwen was from America, after all.

Regardless of what they thought of this American transfer student, these students, who had some background in their families, would not express it openly.

What caused them to change their expressions was the person next to that empty seat—

The person who was out of sync with the entire class atmosphere—Raiden Mei.

Whether they had been in love or were single their entire lives, these students, who had seen pigs run even if they hadn't eaten pork, could tell from the interaction between Raiden Mei and Gwen, who was tidying his things, that there was definitely a relationship between them that they didn't know about.

"..."

"Classmate Gwen is from America and may not be familiar with Japan.

From now on, I hope all students will help Classmate Gwen get familiar with the campus and integrate into the class..."

The homeroom teacher, who had originally intended to cover for Gwen's "rule-breaking" behavior, could only swallow his words upon seeing this scene. He offered a few dry explanations and began the first homeroom class of the semester—

Even though she wasn't Raiden Mei's homeroom teacher originally, this teacher had heard about the young lady's experiences.

And judging by Gwen's demeanor, he was clearly quite familiar with Raiden Mei.

This teacher naturally hoped that the American transfer student, handed over by the dean of students, would integrate smoothly into the campus.