Omen

As Chi Yuan and Cang Xuan sighed over this, Chi Yuan failed to notice that, deep within her mind, the thing Xu Yanwu had left behind slowly stirred before returning to stillness.

Naturally, no one noticed that fluctuation.

—Actually, the timeline skipped ahead because there was nothing to write in between—

One year after the Quantum Computer was buried... by the beach.

"Damn..."

Xu Yanwu sprawled in a rocking chair, grimacing as he picked up a bowl of heavily seasoned noodles from the small table beside him.

"When is Chi You going to show up... Living in fear every day like this feels awful..."

"Slurp—"

Xu Yanwu complained while eating his shut-in comfort noodles, his gaze still fixed on the sea.

"Those stories about a transmigrator's knowledge letting people in ancient times develop at lightning speed really were all lies... In the end, I've used my brain fewer times than I've gotten into fights..."

Still...

Xu Yanwu clenched his fist, then swung his palm at the beach before him.

With a faint whistle through the air, Xu Yanwu simply swept his palm downward. A thin cut appeared in the sand in front of him.

Along the direction that cut extended into the sea, dark red blood kept rising from beneath the surface.

"My current strength... should be at the level of a complete Herrscher by now, right?"

A complete Herrscher's power was nothing like the strength Mei had displayed after her initial awakening, when Paramecium Kiana had been able to defeat her.

After all, as envoys of Honkai, Herrschers wielded power on the level of laws.

Whether in mysticism or science, such laws were the very foundations of everything.

For example, the Third Herrscher's lightning—electromagnetic force.

Or the Seventh Herrscher's flames—control over molecular motion.

And so on.

Once a Herrscher truly learned how to wield her power, the results would be terrifying...

But not long ago, Cang Xuan had finally confirmed that Xu Yanwu's strength had also reached the Herrscher level.

And like Chi You, that overwhelmingly powerful Honkai Beast, he had forcibly dragged himself into the Herrscher class through nothing but the raw strength of his body...

There were many things that gave Xu Yanwu the confidence to fight Chi You.

For example...

The power he had displayed when he first found his body, enlarging it to clash head-on with Feng Bo.

Xu Yanwu had flamboyantly named it Greatest Child's Stretching Technique...

Incidentally, Second Child's All-Seeing Ears and Eyes, Third Child's Iron Body, and the like were still under development...

"Damn, I'm so strong I practically have no friends. No, I need to go back and research something even more badass..."

Xu Yanwu happily slurped down his noodles.

"Uncle Xu Yanwu, why are you still lying around there? Didn't we say we'd come to the beach with Ji Lin today to help her relax?"

"Pfft..."

A mouthful of chili oil sprayed from Xu Yanwu's mouth, nearly making him choke. The noodles in his hands also accidentally spilled straight onto the ground.

"Ah! My shut-in comfort noodles!"

Xu Yanwu looked at the noodles scattered across the ground with immense heartache, then angrily glared at the culprit responsible for their demise—Danzhu.

Whoa! A swimsuit, hehehe...

What Xu Yanwu had not expected was that Danzhu was standing before him in a red-and-black swimsuit—and it was a bikini!

"Where did you find a swimsuit?"

Xu Yanwu put away his lecherous expression and asked in all seriousness.

"At the current level of civilization, there shouldn't be anything like swimsuits yet, right?"

"Hmph!"

Danzhu proudly puffed out her small chest. "I made it myself! How can you come to the seaside without swimming? What do you think? Pretty good, right?"

"..." Seeing Danzhu's pose, Xu Yanwu really wanted to tell her that with a chest that flat, she should stop trying to puff it out.

But his powerful survival instincts managed to restrain his mouth, and he changed the subject instead.

"Then where are Chi Yuan and the others?"

As though he had thought of something, Xu Yanwu asked with sparkling eyes.

"They've all changed into swimsuits. Ji Lin was a little embarrassed at first. I came to bring you your swim trunks..."

Before Danzhu could finish, Xu Yanwu tossed aside his bowl and charged off like a starving wolf.

"Hey, hey, hey! Uncle Xu Yanwu, why are you running? Even though Ji Lin and the others are wearing swimsuits, Ji Lin and the others are currently..."

But Xu Yanwu did not hear what Danzhu said after that. He had already run more than halfway there.

"Hehehe... Swimsuits... That brat Lianshan didn't even call me. I'm definitely beating him up later..."

Thinking this, Xu Yanwu had already reached higher ground, looking down at the beach where Chi Yuan, Ji Lin, Cang Xuan, and Lianshan were.

"..."

Xu Yanwu fell silent.

Of the four below, Cang Xuan was indeed wearing the same style as Danzhu, though hers was blue and white. Lianshan was normally dressed in a pair of loose swim trunks.

But what was going on with Ji Lin and Chi Yuan...

Were those swimsuits?

Why did they look more like diving suits to me...

Looking at the "swimsuits" on Ji Lin and Chi Yuan, which exposed not even a sliver of skin apart from their heads, hands, and feet...

Xu Yanwu immediately felt deceived.

And there was something else...

Why were they fighting Honkai Beasts while wearing swimsuits? Though it was currently a one-sided slaughter...

"Huff, huff. I hadn't even finished speaking, Uncle Xu Yanwu. Why did you run off?" Danzhu panted as she ran up behind Xu Yanwu.

Then Danzhu saw Xu Yanwu, looking utterly dejected as he wrote in the sand.

"Uncle Xu Yanwu, what are you writing? Aren't you going to help Ji Lin and the others?"

"Help with what... Lianshan is still playing pretty boy in front of Ji Lin and hasn't even made a move. What are a few Honkai Beasts worth..." Xu Yanwu gloomily waved his hand. "I'm writing a menu... We'll eat those Honkai Beasts later..."

Danzhu's expression stiffened. "Uncle Xu Yanwu, you still have such a good appetite..."

Even with the stigmata suppressing Honkai Energy, Danzhu did not dare come into contact with it too recklessly. Eating Xu Yanwu's grilled Honkai Beast meat even once in a while was already going too far.

But Xu Yanwu and Lianshan were both freaks. Eating Honkai Beasts was as easy for them as drinking water...

"Of course I have a good appetite. By the way, when you said relaxing, you meant coming to the beach to kill Honkai Beasts while wearing swimsuits?"

Xu Yanwu deliberately emphasized the word "swimsuits."

"Yeah, yeah. For some reason, recently a lot of ordinary Honkai Beasts have been emerging from the sea near the beach. They're nothing to us, but Honkai Beasts are still far too strong for ordinary people."

Danzhu nodded. "So we came to the beach for a little vacation while clearing out the Honkai Beasts."

"...They're emerging from the sea?"