Honkai: I'll Just Transform and Punch You

No way! Even if all that was left was ashes, he still had to get his hands on them! If they could cultivate one K423, they could cultivate another M169!

Otto had now arrived at St. Freya, waiting for the St. Freya group to store Bai Chen's remains.

"Rita, once Theresa and the others have stored Bai Chen's... ashes, find an opportunity to switch them out and bring them back."

"Understood, Lord Otto... Hm?"

Rita had instinctively accepted Otto's order, but when she thought it over, she realized something was wrong. Bai Chen's ashes?!

At first, Rita had simply received the order and followed him here. Since Otto had left in such a hurry, he had not explained the specific objective of this mission.

And now he was telling her they were here to retrieve Bai Chen's ashes?

They had only been apart for a few days. Had he already been cremated?

Rita recalled the days she had teased him, and the time they had spent together when Bai Chen had spared no effort to protect her while pretending to be unconscious.

Thinking that such a cute little fellow had died for no apparent reason, Rita could not help feeling down.

But how had he died? From what she had observed at the time, even a Herrscher might not have been able to take him down.

While Rita's thoughts ran wild, her keen senses alerted her that someone was deliberately approaching their location.

"Lord Otto, someone is approaching."

Rita drew her scythe and watched the direction the voice had come from. At the slightest sign of trouble, she would strike immediately.

"Hey, weren't you looking for me? Why do you look like you're about to fight me? Believe it or not, I'll report you for bullying a minor?"

Bai Chen rolled his eyes as he stepped out of the shadows. From far away, he had heard these two idiots plotting to steal his ashes, and he really could not hold it in anymore.

"Aren't you dead?"

Otto froze when he saw who it was. What was going on with this guy? Could he sit up from lying flat like the Herrscher of Reason?

"If you can talk, Lord Bishop, then you're the one who's dead."

Bai Chen immediately shot back without any courtesy. Why say something so unlucky? Who had not turned to ashes a few times?

"Ah, my apologies. Then, what exactly happened when you turned into ashes just now?"

Realizing that he had misspoken, Otto promptly changed his phrasing. He was quite curious about Bai Chen's resurrection. Like Welt, Bai Chen had the ability to sit up from lying flat, but their methods were different. He wanted to know Bai Chen's method.

"Don't you study souls? Just assume my soul is special."

Bai Chen casually brushed off Otto's question. There was no need to tell Otto every detail about something like that.

"Didn't you want to find me? Let's go now."

Bai Chen was far too valuable to Otto now. With this relationship in place, Bai Chen did not have to worry about Otto casually making a move against him.

"Sigh, little Bai Chen, I was so sad when I first heard you had died."

Rita held her forehead and put on an expression of immense grief and pain.

Her exaggerated acting was practically inherited from Otto beside her!

"Sorry, Sister Rita. Next time, I'll definitely tell you before I die."

Bai Chen fired right back. The experiences of the past few days had made his heart even stronger!

"Before you die..."

Even Rita was rendered speechless by that one line.

Father of the Valkyries

Bai Chen felt that he had only just died, and immediately showing up in front of Theresa and the others would not be very appropriate. He had happened to see Otto secretly slipping in as well.

So he simply came to find Otto directly. Hadn't they agreed to cooperate on some matters? He might as well deal with Otto's side of things first.

Bai Chen was now following Otto on the way to headquarters. By the time they were done there, Kiana and the others should have calmed down too.

As for whether Otto had passed on the news that he was alive to Theresa, Bai Chen had not thought about it at all. After all, Bai Chen had left with Otto, so how could Otto possibly fail to pass along that message?

In fact, Otto truly had not passed it on. Seeing Bai Chen come find him with such confidence, he assumed Bai Chen already knew about it. Why would he needlessly mention it?

As a result, no one at St. Freya knew that Bai Chen was alive. They were even preparing to hold a funeral for him the next day.

"Bai Chen, you once said that when you transform, you can see parts of certain memories, correct?"

Otto sat elegantly on the sofa, savoring the red wine in his hand. He gestured for Rita to pour Bai Chen a glass as well... of juice. Minors were not allowed to drink.

Bai Chen was naturally not surprised that Otto knew such trivial details. He was only curious whether Otto's Soul Steel body could even taste the red wine.

"Your plan succeeded in the future, Otto. You truly made the tree grow new branches."

Without beating around the bush, Bai Chen directly spoke words that others would not understand, but which made Otto's heart suddenly clench.

"Oh, that is truly wonderful."

Otto barely maintained his outward composure as he replied blandly.

"But Otto, I'm not satisfied with that future. You died, and you caused the deaths of many innocent people."

A dangerous glint flashed in Bai Chen's eyes. If he were not worried about dealing with the aftermath, he would have wanted to strangle this birdman to death right here.

"My friend, then what do you mean?"

Otto took a small sip of the red wine in his hand and asked.

"I won't let that happen again. Otto, I can work with you, but only as long as you don't provoke me."

Ever since the stigmata had given him some protection, Bai Chen had gained a little more confidence in making threats.

"You truly misunderstand me, my friend. I, Otto Apocalypse, have never maliciously persecuted a collaborator."

A faint smile rested on Otto's lips. Bai Chen would not interfere with the plan and would even help carry it through, so why would he persecute him?

Bai Chen's safety now ranked among Otto's top priorities—perhaps even first.

"..."

Seeing Otto being so unexpectedly agreeable, Bai Chen actually felt a little unaccustomed to it. In his expectations, he should have at least punched Otto in the head twice.

But now, he did not even have a reason to hit him.

After a brief silence, Bai Chen suddenly took off his shirt, revealing the pale skin beneath.

"?!"

Rita's eyes suddenly seemed to turn into scanners, as though they had swept over every piece of data from Bai Chen's upper body and engraved all of it into her mind.

Feeling as though he were being watched, Bai Chen shuddered with a chill from the bottom of his heart.

Drive: Cang Xuan

A crimson stigmata appeared on Bai Chen's back.

"I'm guessing you've investigated my abilities. Although we didn't find any clues about stigmata in Nine Nether, I unlocked a new ability through Ji Lin—the stigmata."

The instant Bai Chen revealed the stigmata, Otto unexpectedly set down his wineglass and carefully examined the mark on Bai Chen's back.

This was truly a huge help! Otto was not a psychopath who knowingly used artificial stigmata despite their severe side effects.

That had only been done because there was no other choice. If there had been better stigmata available, why would Otto deliberately use that garbage artificial stigmata?

"I possess many different kinds of stigmata. Otto, how interested are you in researching them?"

"Of course... I would be very willing."

Training every Valkyrie cost a fortune. If artificial stigmata could be improved, the Valkyries' survival rate could be greatly increased.

He could use all the money saved to develop the next installment of Kallen Fantasy! That way, Amber would have no reason to cut the game development budget!

Meanwhile, Rita covered her lips lightly, her heart filled with mixed emotions.

As an S-rank Valkyrie, she had naturally witnessed countless cases of Valkyries dying or becoming crippled because of artificial stigmata. Many of them had been people she knew well.

Rita had long grown accustomed to Valkyries being treated like consumables, but Bai Chen's actions gave her a sliver of hope once again.

"Stigmata are essentially modifications to one's genes. If every Valkyrie uses improved stigmata, and all those improved stigmata are derived from mine, wouldn't that make me the father of all Valkyries?"

A sudden thought struck Bai Chen, and he voiced the question in his heart.

"..."

Rita felt her gratitude toward Bai Chen suddenly vanish. It was as though she no longer wanted to switch to improved stigmata in the future.

Otto had initially wanted to explain that genetic modifications were different from inheriting genes from one's father, but after thinking it over carefully—

"You're right."

Elsewhere.

Elysia threw herself into Eden's arms and complained, "My dear Eden, Chijie is so hard to get along with."

"Elysia? You went to see Chijie?"

Sitting on the sofa in the hall, Eden gently patted Elysia's shoulder and asked.

"Yes, I was hungry and wanted Chijie to cook me a meal, but he directly asked if I was sick and told me to get lost."

Elysia complained bitterly. If he did not know how to speak properly, she could teach him. The other Chijie's cooking had clearly been quite good.

"?"

Eden wore an expression of utter confusion. She had suddenly gone to ask Chijie to cook? Wasn't that just asking to be cursed at? At any rate, Eden could not imagine Chijie cooking.

"Why did you go looking for Chijie?"

Unable to figure it out, Eden decided to ask.

"Because Elysia knows a Chijie like that."

Su's voice drifted over from the side.

As someone exceptional in matters of the mind and parallel-world observation, Su saw at a glance that Elysia had changed.

"There is only one Elysia... I had thought that was merely a joke."

Su closed his eyes and sensed the details of Elysia's changes. The more he sensed, the more alarmed he became.

Could it be that Elysia might actually leave the Elysian Realm? Wouldn't Mobius die of jealousy? Kevin outside would probably panic and run around everywhere.

Only after arriving at headquarters did Bai Chen gain some understanding of its energy facilities. The entire headquarters was actually a gigantic floating island.

Its sheer size was beyond anything that could be compared to the map in the game.

"My god! Is this even possible?!"

The headquarters researchers let out all kinds of strange cries at the data on their computers, like lynxes that had wandered into the mountains.

Bai Chen, meanwhile, lay bored on a transparent bed, allowing the instruments to scan his body.

If it could extend Himeko's lifespan, he actually hoped these people could discover something from studying him.

"This is unbelievable! His genes really changed in such a short time! He went from having nothing to having it?!"

After the instruments' examination, they could confirm that these Stigmata were genuine! They could truly grant the power of Stigmata!

What so many people could only dream of obtaining, this little guy could acquire whenever he wanted?

Was that all? Seeing how astonished they were, Bai Chen immediately began rapidly switching the Stigmata on his body. Their cooldowns were short anyway, and he had plenty of them to cycle through!

"Holy shit! Holy shit!"

Watching the data on the screens tremble into what looked like garbled code as Bai Chen switched too quickly, the researchers could not stop themselves from swearing. At the same time, the crimson glow behind Bai Chen flashed so intensely that it hurt everyone's eyes!

"Stop flashing! Stop flashing! You're going to give us photosensitive epilepsy!"

These people had already been pulling an all-nighter, and Bai Chen's flashing left quite a few of them dizzy and disoriented.

"I heard there was an important experiment that needed me?"

A sleepy voice sounded from outside. Chang Guang pushed the door open with her hair in a complete mess. She had probably only just fallen asleep before someone dragged her over.

But that was fine. She would not be sleepy for much longer.

The moment Chang Guang entered, she saw Bai Chen lying in the middle of the laboratory.