"..."
However, Prometheus did not answer Gwen's question directly. After a moment of silence, she spoke again:
"According to the basic scan, your physical condition is quite poor. I do not recommend immediately making up for the past twenty-four hours of training."
"Ah, I almost forgot. Prometheus, you can scan the entire training room."
Seeing that Prometheus did not ask further about his previous twenty-four hours, Gwen tacitly chose to ignore the matter and said with a smile.
"I am indeed a little tired right now. I'll go back and rest for a while, then chat with you after I wake up."
"Incorrect."
Raising one hand before her, Prometheus made her rejection clear:
"Prometheus is only an AI. I have no necessary social needs.
"On the contrary, chatting with you will only make Prometheus waste unnecessary computing power."
"Alright, alright. Then I'll have to trouble you to waste a little more computing power later, Prometheus."
Gwen did not mind Prometheus's outright denial. He merely smiled and waved.
"See you later."
"..."
Faced with Gwen's habit of talking to himself, Prometheus responded with silence. She did not answer, merely watched quietly as Gwen left the training room.
Unable to understand... but not unpleasant.
Somewhere Gwen could not see, such a message flashed across the computer storing the main program of the Prometheus before him.
"Phew..."
After returning to his room, Gwen threw himself onto the bed, rubbed against the pillow that felt slightly unfamiliar, and wore a thoroughly relaxed expression.
Gwen had suddenly appeared in this base, which had been buried underground for tens of thousands of years, half a year ago.
Prometheus, who was responsible for keeping this place operational, had not made things too difficult for Gwen, an unknown person who had entered by unknown means—
Though, according to Prometheus herself, it was because "a rookie like you could be killed by a single stray bullet."
But in reality, Prometheus's mild attitude had kept Gwen's circumstances from becoming utterly terrible.
Still, even if Prometheus, the person in charge here, bore him no ill will, Gwen's situation was not much better—
This was a Fire Moth base from fifty thousand years ago. Though it had survived geological collapses over those fifty thousand years, it contained no stored food or drinking water.
Perhaps Fusion Warriors did not need to worry about such things. At worst, it would merely be uncomfortable.
But for Gwen, whose body had somehow reverted to about sixteen years old and who was merely an ordinary person, it meant a countdown to death.
Fortunately, although his body had returned to the state of a sixteen-year-old, the memories from the years after sixteen among his twenty-two years of life had not disappeared.
Therefore, Gwen, who had only come into contact with the worldview known as "Honkai" after entering university, was not unfamiliar with terms such as "Fire Moth," "Prometheus," and "Honkai."
After communicating with Prometheus and barely forming a rough guess about the world he was in, Gwen was extremely terrified. He knew that, coming from his original world, he basically could not possess Honkai Energy resistance and might quietly die in any unexpected Honkai outbreak. Still, he did not become a headless chicken—
After piecing together the information available, Gwen discovered that he seemed to have only one possible path to survival—
"Prometheus, can I apply to become a Fusion Warrior?"
Though he did not know whether Fusion Warriors could go thousands of years without eating like Kevin and Su, this was already Gwen's only hope.
Fortunately, Prometheus's answer did not disappoint him—
"If you are willing to become a volunteer for the Fusion Warrior Project."
As Prometheus spoke, she presented him with a volunteer application form for the Fusion Warrior Project.
"I have no other choice, do I?"
"I offer no evaluation."
After answering Gwen that way, Prometheus led him into the surviving laboratory, opened layer after layer of seals, and retrieved the Hyper-Evolution Factors that had been hidden for tens of thousands of years—
"Since there are currently no researchers or experimental equipment, the only thing you can use is the Hyper-Evolution Factor.
"Although you have no right to choose according to the regulations, considering that all the Hyper-Evolution Factors available for you to choose from have already failed, you may select from all remaining Hyper-Evolution Factors."
Alicia, I Leave My Life to You.
Gwen had no complaints about Prometheus's seemingly irresponsible words. Suppressing the chaotic emotions in his heart, he spoke to Prometheus as calmly as he could.
"Thank you for making an exception, Prometheus. Could you introduce these Hyper-Evolution Factors to me?"
"Yes.
"Next, I will introduce the owners of the Honkai Beast genes contained in these Hyper-Evolution Factors."
The silver-haired, red-eyed AI girl did not refuse. She began listing names Gwen knew well.
"The first blue vial on the left in the first row came from the Emperor-class Honkai Beast Parvati. The most famous person to fuse with it was Kevin.
"The second pink-and-white vial came from the End-class Honkai Beast Mahamayuri..."
Kevin, Alicia, Eden...
One familiar name after another entered Gwen's ears. Aside from Mobius, the Honkai Beast factors fused by nearly every Fusion Warrior he knew were all present.
"That is all the Hyper-Evolution Factors preserved to this day. A friendly reminder: the power granted by an End-class Honkai Beast is not necessarily greater than that of an Emperor-class Honkai Beast, but its danger and difficulty of awakening are certainly no lower."
Perhaps fifty thousand years of loneliness had caused Prometheus to feel an instinctive fondness for this human who had suddenly appeared. This AI, who should have handled things strictly by the book, unexpectedly said a few more words.
"Thank you for the reminder, Prometheus.
"But for an ordinary person like me, who will die of thirst within a few dozen hours, none of that really matters, does it?"
Continuously encouraging himself inwardly, Gwen forced himself to remain calm. He smiled at Prometheus and made his choice.
"If possible, I choose Mahamayuri."
"Are you certain?
"Volunteer Gwen, are you certain that you wish to use Mahamayuri's Hyper-Evolution Factor?"
Prometheus did not question Gwen's choice. She merely carried out the final confirmation by the book.
"I'm certain."
Gwen confirmed.
To Gwen, there was not much difference in the danger of fusing with any of these Hyper-Evolution Factors. Success was a low-probability event either way.
If that was the case, then he might as well trust in something mystical—
Alicia, I leave my life to you.
Though he knew the Hyper-Evolution Factor here probably had nothing to do with a certain Pink Fairy Lady, Gwen still thought this as Prometheus injected the Hyper-Evolution Factor into his body.
Thinking of that Pink Girl who seemed to always be smiling, Gwen felt as though he could even hear her sweet voice beside his ear—
"You must accept this flower with gratitude, okay?"
He looked over instinctively, but what entered Gwen's sight was not that charming girl. Instead, it was... a mountain of trash?
Anyone seeing countless objects piled messily into a towering heap would first think of a garbage mountain.
But after observing it for a moment, Gwen realized that these things... did not seem to be trash...
Looking at the 1930 production date printed on the bread in his left hand, then the same year printed on the milk in his right, Gwen stared at the assorted items piled together like a garbage mountain before realizing that he seemed to possess something called a cheat.
After some testing, Gwen also realized that his cheat seemed to be the type without consciousness, one that required him to develop every use himself.
Gwen did not care much about that. No matter where this cheat came from, whether it was the kind of cheat that could make even a dog succeed or the kind only a loser would get, a cheat that kept him from starving to death was a good cheat.
Within this space illuminated by light from who knew where, Gwen found food and water that could keep him from becoming a starving ghost.
Relying on bread and milk whose production dates were mostly from 1930, Gwen successfully survived.
Afterward, judging by Prometheus's reaction, Gwen discovered that time in the outside world seemed to stop whenever he ate in that unknown space.
Later, after constant experimentation, Gwen figured out the workings of his system space—though it seemed to have no system, calling it that still felt more natural.
On average, Gwen could spend one hour in his system space every twenty-four hours. He could use that time all at once or split it up.
Objects from the real world could not be brought into the system space. Gwen had not tested whether things within it could be brought out, fearing that it would attract Prometheus's attention—
Though, given Prometheus's capabilities, she should already have noticed the difference between Gwen before and after eating.
But since Prometheus had not asked, Gwen was happy to enjoy the peace.
After resolving the crisis of survival, Gwen began training under Prometheus's guidance—
"Although Mahamayuri's special nature seems to have kept you from becoming a starving ghost, the necessary training is indispensable if you want to truly activate the Hyper-Evolution Factor and become a genuine Fusion Warrior."
With that, the silver-haired, red-eyed AI girl began training Gwen.
Though there was no jeep or cane, Gwen, whose harshest training in his life had only been basic military training, still came to deeply understand what it meant to be tortured to the point of blissful misery.
Yet it was precisely because of Prometheus's incomparably precise and effective training that the rapidly growing Gwen could return alive—
After spending half a year in this ruin with only Prometheus for company, Gwen entered the system space again and unexpectedly discovered that it had received another batch of... trash?
Guided by his most basic curiosity, Gwen approached the newly appeared "garbage mountains."
After a simple inspection, Gwen concluded that the "trash" refreshed in the system space this time seemed relatively high-end... at least higher-end than America's surplus supplies—
It seemed to be space junk.
Though he was somewhat worried that these suspected pieces of space junk might be radioactive, Gwen still picked through them, adhering to the principle that a thief never left empty-handed... that is, never doing pointless work.
When Gwen picked up a pebble and prepared to set it aside, the utterly ordinary stone suddenly burst forth with a radiance far brighter than the system space itself, causing Gwen to shut his eyes instinctively.
When Gwen opened his eyes again, he was already standing on the rooftop of a low building.
After briefly investigating the surroundings, Gwen found no useful information. He only found an officially licensed Bandai product someone had discarded in a corner of the roof—
A small Nexus figurine.
Though it was only a low-end, immobile version, Gwen saw that its craftsmanship was quite exquisite and slipped it into his pocket.
Then, before Gwen could find a suitable way off the rooftop, his attention was seized by a nonhuman creature that appeared on the roof below.
Found Out
An alien?
That was Gwen's first thought after seeing it and thinking for a moment—
It had a humanoid body structure, but also possessed all kinds of racial traits that humans should not have. As someone who had at least been a minor fake Ultraman enthusiast before crossing over, Gwen immediately thought of that term.
What happened afterward did not exceed Gwen's expectations.
With his half-baked Japanese, Gwen could not fully understand the conversation between the alien and the Japanese man who arrived later. However, he caught several familiar terms, such as—
Ginga.
Connecting that with the item the human handed the alien and the mountain not far away, Gwen gained a rough understanding of where he was—
It seemed, perhaps, maybe... to be the set of Ultraman Ginga?
Moments later, the monster that appeared in the distance, along with the talking Taro doll flung beside him the next instant, confirmed Gwen's guess.
After estimating the distance between himself and the alien on the rooftop, Gwen charged out despite Taro's worried cries beside him.
What followed went even more smoothly than Gwen expected. Faced with Gwen suddenly rushing down from above, the alien reacted remarkably slowly, allowing Gwen to successfully seize the officially licensed Bandai product that had fallen to the ground.
Then, with the thought that trying would cost him nothing—or perhaps guided by Nexus in his pocket—Gwen pressed the Ginga Spark he had just picked up against the emblem on Nexus's foot.
At that moment, Gwen felt as though an invisible chain inside his body had snapped, and his consciousness entered a wondrous state.
The next moment, Gwen saw that he had become a silver arm, while the monster in the distance no longer seemed so enormous.
Without any hesitation, Gwen used the combat skills he had learned under Prometheus's instruction, along with the abilities obtained from a certain blue-and-white alien portable music player, and unleashed a barrage of attacks upon the monster before him, completing his debut...
Then, Gwen was severely injured by a beam from behind and had no choice but to return the stage to this place's protagonist...
Perhaps because he dreamed of that utterly merciless backstab, Gwen, already deep in sleep, rolled over, his right shoulder twitching before he continued snoring away—
Even Prometheus, without conducting a specific examination, could not tell how terrible Gwen's physical condition was after Luciel had beaten him until he was forced to revert from his transformation.
Fortunately, though Nexus had already left with his light, the seed of light he had left behind in Gwen had now sprouted.
Even without the Stone Wings' help, Gwen only needed a period of rest to recover from his injuries.
And in this isolated underground place, where Gwen normally had nothing to do but train, he undoubtedly did not lack that bit of time.
Before you continue