But seeing the pained expression on Gwen's face and that You Lan Dai Er still had not returned with a doctor, the girl pursed her lips, hesitated, then reached out her small hand and gently massaged Gwen's head.
Although massage was not part of the maid courses she took as a hobby, Rita had learned it in order to help You Lan Dai Er relieve her exhaustion after training herself to the brink of collapse.
It was just that this first time had unexpectedly gone to Gwen...
Feeling those nimble fingers, carrying a faint floral fragrance, gently massage his head and bring him a trace of relief, Gwen felt like a traveler who had wandered through a dry desert for ages and finally encountered a brief drizzle beneath thin clouds. It could not quench his immediate thirst, but it brought immense comfort.
Amid that rare moment of relief, Gwen, whose mind had already been worn down by successive shocks of information and pain, fell asleep once more...
At the same time, Gwen, now asleep, felt as though he were watching countless memories flash past him. Yet for some reason, they left only faint traces in his mind before rapidly fading away. Only a sigh filled with tenderness and sorrow remained deeply imprinted in his spirit, bringing clarity to his hazy consciousness.
When he opened his eyes wide, Gwen discovered that he was standing in a vast snowfield. A bone-chilling gale swept over him, making him shiver involuntarily and curl up his not-so-large body...
Hm?
Where had his six-foot height gone?
Why was he this small?
Startled to find that his body had shrunk, Gwen examined himself and discovered that he now looked only eleven or twelve years old, and rather underdeveloped at that.
Just as Gwen was wondering where he was and what exactly had happened to him, two intertwined streaks of light suddenly crashed down from the sky, which glowed with warped halos. The snow they kicked up nearly buried Gwen alive.
"Ptooey, ptooey..."
Spitting out the snow in his mouth, Gwen crawled out of the snowdrift and looked toward the culprits behind all this, only to see two light spheres still tangled together, practically glued to each other.
Brilliant gold and profound blue flowed across the two spheres respectively. Even intertwined as they were, their faintly distorted halos still possessed an astonishing pull, instantly capturing Gwen's gaze and making him unconsciously step forward and reach for them...
But just before his hand touched the two spheres, Gwen paused, hesitating over whether he should make contact.
After all, the unknown often meant danger.
Yet after less than a second of hesitation, Gwen forcefully grabbed both light spheres--
The bold died stuffed, and the timid starved.
He had already ended up being born in the Demon King's hometown. No matter how bad things got, they could not be worse than getting brainwashed by Otto and dumped somewhere afterward.
Since there was no way back, he might as well go all in.
The next moment, the two light spheres in Gwen's hands blazed brightly, transforming into twin streams of light that surged into his body. In an instant, gold and blue respectively appeared along either side of Gwen's body, looking utterly miraculous.
Yet those divine gold and blue lights seemed to have taken Gwen's body as their new battlefield, colliding fiercely in a fight to the death.
As the arena for this battle that would end only in death, Gwen was already drowned in pain that penetrated his very bones. He felt as though he would burst apart in the next moment like a balloon filled with an ocean of air.
Veins bulged across his forehead. Gwen had nearly lost the ability to think, and his eyes, reddened by the agony filling every corner of his body, seemed ready to pop from their sockets. It was as if he could see the Ox-Head and Horse-Face beckoning him over.
Realizing that he might simply die here if he did nothing, Gwen gritted his teeth and used every ounce of strength he had to raise his hands, which had gone numb from the pain, then slammed them together--
Didn't you like fighting?
Then face each other head-on! Why were you squabbling around inside my body?
I Turned Out to Be the Experimental Subject?
Although the light had already flowed into Gwen's body like rivers entering the sea, with each side even occupying half his body as they fought endlessly, the cores of the spheres formed from those two streams of light were still in Gwen's hands.
The two streams of light, each intent on killing the other, seemed not to have expected Gwen to still be capable of acting. Unable to resist at all, the cores clenched in Gwen's palms collided with a crisp sound--
Crack!
At the sound of something seemingly breaking, the falling goose-feather snow froze in midair, and the howling gale came to a halt, as though time itself had stopped at that moment.
But Gwen, glaring at the two cores with blood-red eyes, had no attention to spare for such trivial matters.
Under Gwen's watchful gaze, no fragments fell from the two shattered cores. Blinding golden light and majestic blue light gathered around them once more, tangling together as though each wished to seize the other's share as well.
However, the two lights, which had previously been evenly matched, still failed to determine a winner. Instead, their entanglement only deepened, and the battle grew ever more chaotic.
But Gwen could no longer interfere in their struggle--
It seemed that Gwen's mad action just now had provoked the two lights. Though he could clearly feel the pain coming from every part of his body, he could no longer do anything and could only watch helplessly as the two lights remained tangled together.
Yet perhaps because their cores had been damaged too severely, these two lights, neither of which could overcome the other, no longer had the strength to maintain their purity. After struggling for a while, they even began to... fuse?
These two lights, which had come from who knew where and fought for who knew how long, seemed to have become familiar with each other through their prolonged battle, making their fusion extraordinarily swift.
One moment, Gwen had only just noticed signs that the two lights were merging. The next, his vision was already filled with gorgeous blue-gold radiance.
Facing that dazzling brilliance, Gwen instinctively shut his eyes, unaware that he himself had become its source.
The brilliant light illuminated the entire world. The dark clouds in the sky were scattered, the snow that had nearly buried Gwen alive quietly melted away to reveal damp earth, and even the biting wind became the fragrance of soil after rain.
When Gwen opened his eyes again, a slightly illusory interface with a blue-gold background was quietly floating before him.
Because of the intense pain he had just endured, Gwen could barely control his body enough to do anything.
Fortunately, the harsh environment had vanished, so Gwen simply stood there and studied the interface before him--
Gwen--lv1 Strength--I0 Endurance--I0 Dexterity--I0 Mind--EX Energy--D500 Energy System: None
"..."
Although his consciousness was still somewhat sluggish from the pain he had just experienced, Gwen felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity upon seeing the interface before him--
Wasn't this copied from the Blessing in that DanMachi setting next door?
Though there were some differences, the powerful sense of familiarity still made Gwen instinctively suspect this.
Of course, suspicion was just suspicion. With no one around to ask, Gwen merely grumbled to himself before beginning to consider the meaning of this interface and its contents.
First, the suffering he had just endured had not been for nothing. He had gained the system before him.
Second, if the system really was as he suspected, with effects similar to the Blessing from the DanMachi world in his memories, allowing improvements from training and battle to be displayed as quantified abilities...
Then the place he was currently in should be the so-called spiritual world.
After all, if the pain he had just endured were considered a form of training, its effects should mainly have been reflected in endurance, with mind as only a secondary benefit.
Yet all the gains from enduring that pain were reflected in mind, so that was the only explanation.
As for his Energy stat, which also was not I0, Gwen guessed that it might have something to do with his body--
Even in a spiritual world, there should be no reason for his form to become that of a child.
The only explanation was that he had probably undergone the legendary soul transmigration, and his current body possessed some kind of energy.
However, Gwen was not disappointed that all that suffering had only earned him an EX-grade Mind stat.
After all, once he raised his Mind attribute high enough, he should at least have some resistance against Otto's Feather of Dust package.
Moreover, with a system that visualized his improvements, Gwen was confident that he could grind himself into a maxed-out all-rounder. By then, he would punch pseudo-god Otto and crush Finality Kevin beneath his palm. Saying, "Stand aside and let me handle this," would no longer be a dream.
Finally, setting aside those minor fantasies, Gwen raised his gaze slightly and looked above his name.
There was an avatar of a white-haired, blue-eyed youth there. Gwen guessed that it was probably what he currently looked like.
Mm... Though his unhealthy pale complexion dragged down his looks, he could still give himself a nine out of ten.
After amusing himself by giving his current appearance a high score, Gwen quickly sorted through all the information in his mind regarding the Honkai setting, analyzing his present circumstances.
White hair and blue eyes, the signature appearance of the Caslana family.
And he had awakened directly at Destiny Headquarters...
Could I be the product of some plan Otto cooked up?
After all, Otto had gone all out with every kind of genetic engineering technology in order to resurrect Kallen. Theresa and Amber had both come from that.
Although he had reached an answer that might put him in even greater danger, Gwen instead let out a sigh of relief.
After all, the system gave Gwen confidence that he could improve his strength, but in the Honkai world, without resistance to Honkai Energy, he could die at any moment in a Honkai eruption.
This body, which most likely possessed Caslana blood, came with top-tier Honkai Energy resistance. It directly solved Gwen's greatest threat, meaning he would not have to worry about grinding himself into an all-rounder only to be corrupted by Honkai Energy.
After all, judging from Kiana's performance in the story, Honkai Energy below the level of multiple Herrscher Cores had almost no effect on her.
Even if this body of his was inferior, it had already surpassed 99.9 percent of the people in this world.
"Then after I wake up, I'll lie low and fight for time to develop.
Judging from You Lan Dai Er and Rita's appearances, there should still be several years before Otto's plan officially begins...
Even if this body of mine, which does not look particularly healthy based on the avatar, has as much difficulty raising stats as those adventurers in the DanMachi world, I should still have some ability to protect myself by then.
And if I get a little lucky and things progress smoothly... Heh..."
Having made a rough plan for the future, Gwen shifted his gaze to the "lv1" after his name--
Although his Mind stat was currently EX at lv1, he was still only lv1 in the end.
If possible, Gwen would not mind leveling up to lv2 even if his other attributes were nearly blank slates.
Drawing on the DanMachi Blessing's principle that one's "actual ability becomes stronger than before leveling up," Gwen estimated that his mental resistance at lv2 should be somewhat stronger than it was at lv1, giving him a better chance of withstanding Feather of Dust.
As for the losses from leveling up like this?
After leveling up, base ability values would return to zero and be retained as hidden abilities. They could be trained again. But if he failed to withstand the Feather of Dust package, that would be a real disaster.
Unfortunately, even though Gwen's Mind stat had already reached EX, he could not choose to level up to lv2.
"Could it be that this lousy system not only copied the ability value system, but even copied the requirement of needing Great Achievements to level up?"
After confirming that he could not level up, Gwen sighed softly and complained helplessly in his heart.
Great Achievement could be understood simply as a special kind of experience. It could be acquired and accumulated through actions such as defeating powerful enemies and overcoming difficult trials. The stronger the opponent defeated or the greater the difficulty overcome, the more Great Achievement one could accumulate.
In the DanMachi world, adventurers could only level up after accumulating enough Great Achievement experience. They would turn their current ability values into hidden attributes and continue training their abilities.
"If that's really how it works, then my plan to lie low until I become an 802-level Lord of Cinder will have to be scrapped..."
As he pondered this, Gwen, who could now barely move his body, raised a trembling hand and tapped the "X" in the upper-right corner of the attribute interface.
The next moment, the attribute interface vanished, but another interface appeared before Gwen.
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A Blessing in Disguise?
Seeing this interface, which had the same blue-gold background as the system panel from before but leaned more toward blue, Gwen froze. His mind, still sluggish from the confusion in his memories and the horrifying pain from earlier, began to turn--
It seems... I grabbed two light spheres earlier.
One was the system, so the other shouldn't be bad either, right?
Realizing that the thing before him might be another cheat, Gwen's gaze immediately became fervent--
Although quantified improvement could indeed give people tremendous motivation, no system fairy had told Gwen that he could grind attributes and level up without limit.
And the ability value system, which was highly suspicious of copying part of the DanMachi Blessing, made Gwen worry that he might get stuck after only gaining two levels, just like those adventurers.
After all, judging from the avatar, his body did not seem especially robust. For all he knew, he might be the type of adventurer who got stuck at level one and could never advance.
Under such circumstances, obtaining another cheat and gaining another layer of security was undoubtedly an enormous surprise for Gwen, who was currently desperate for a sense of safety.
And after only one glance, Gwen realized what it was--
"Alright, alright. One of you copied the DanMachi Blessing, and the other just copied QQ outright, huh?"
Looking at the Chat Group, which was practically a direct copy of the QQ PC interface he had used before transmigrating, except without useless sections like channels and Qzone, Gwen could not help complaining inwardly.
Still, complaints aside, Gwen relaxed considerably. The urgency he felt after discovering that he had transmigrated to Destiny Headquarters right under Otto's nose, seemingly as the subject of one of his experiments, had not faded, but the fear and panic had already mostly dispersed.
Before you continue