"It's finally somewhat safe. Huh? Where did that person go?" The girl named Raiden Mei never would have imagined that anyone could survive this disaster, let alone a man. As everyone knew, men were far less adaptable to Honkai Energy than women. And when the young man had used the Power of Lightning from Lightning Armor just now, Mei had clearly noticed it.
The young man had slipped away during the chaos earlier. After all, men who could control Honkai Energy were exceedingly rare in this world. He would be lucky if he wasn't captured and dissected.
He had picked up quite a lot of Honkai Energy along the way, all thanks to the awakening Third Herrscher gradually luring so many dead soldiers here.
"Roar!" A massive roar rang out around them, followed by wave after wave of similar roars.
"It's a Tank-class Honkai Beast! Host, run! There are a lot of them, and even an A-rank Valkyrie from Schicksal would have trouble dealing with them. What's more, you still aren't as strong as an A-rank Valkyrie!" The intention behind those words was good, but the last sentence still stung a little.
"So this white thing is a Tank-class Honkai Beast? It doesn't look very strong. Watch this." He touched his waist, then suddenly remembered that he had already thrown his electric blade to Mei. Seeing the Honkai Beast leap over, ready to pin him down and grind him into the dirt, the young man finally set aside his worthless pride and ran.
"System, save me!"
"I told you to run... This system is feeling charitable, so how about I sell you a Herrscher Core? This one is a little different, but Honkai Beasts below the Temple-class can't escape its command. It can also automatically restrain the Herrscher's Honkai Energy."
"Cut the crap. How much Honkai Energy do I have left? And how much does that Herrscher Core cost?"
"Host, you have 3,000 Honkai Energy remaining. This special Herrscher Core should cost at least 10,000, but I'll give you a seventy-percent discount."
Why does Honkai Energy run out so quickly? The young man's mind had stopped functioning, and he immediately agreed.
"Roar..." The Tank-class Honkai Beast instantly cowered, lying on the ground and trembling.
"System, why hasn't my body changed at all?" He had clearly exchanged for a Herrscher Core, yet he didn't feel any change in his body. Could this system have sold him a fake?
"This system doesn't sell fakes. Look at what's in your hand."
It turned out that the moment he had agreed, a transparent regular octahedral crystal (actually a rhombus—I just didn't know how to describe it, so I borrowed a term from geometry) had appeared in his hand.
Apparently, it wasn't him that had made the Honkai Beast feel afraid, but this crystal.
"How do I use it?"
"Simple. Eat it."
"Is there another way?"
"Yes. Stuff it into your heart."
"Then I'll eat it..."
The young man tilted his head back and swallowed the crystal in one gulp.
"Cough! Cough! Cough! Water!" That damn system had given him a crystal that was just a little too large, and it had gotten stuck in his throat.
"Here." A water bottle came from somewhere. The young man didn't pay attention to who had handed it to him, simply picking it up and taking a large gulp.
The person who had arrived was a pink-haired girl. She looked just like the black-haired girl from before, the type with maximum wife appeal. Her voice was also very gentle and soothing to listen to.
"Thanks. I'm alive again. Who are you?"
"My name is Yae Sakura. Like you, I am... someone who survived the disaster." She had clearly concealed something, pausing halfway through her sentence.
The young man happened to notice the ears rising a head taller than him and said, "Your ears..."
"Ah!" Yae Sakura hurriedly covered the ears on her head, looking somewhat unnatural. "Sorry... Did I scare you?"
"No. I was just wondering what kind of ears those are. Rabbit ears? Or fox ears?" He vaguely remembered that there was some creature called a rabbit fox, but he wasn't sure. In any case, this world had nearly overturned his entire worldview. As far as he was concerned, people growing rabbit or fox ears was already perfectly normal.
"I suppose... they're fox ears?"
"You suppose?"
"It's nothing." Yae Sakura shook her head and looked at the young man. "What about you? What's your name?"
"My name? I don't know. No one in this world knows me, so I don't have a name." The young man shrugged, failing to notice Yae Sakura's strange gaze.
"Then how about I give you one?"
"Go ahead."
Yae Sakura ended up rattling off a pile of names chosen at random. More importantly, they all used "Yae" as the surname, prompting the young man to complain, "Miss Yae, are you trying to make me marry into your family? Why do they all have the surname Yae?"
At the mention of "marry into your family," Yae Sakura's face flushed. She changed the subject and said, "I... We should get going and see if there are any others."
"Okay."
"Big sis, if it had been anyone else, you would have drawn your sword by now. Why didn't you attack him just now?" A rather lively voice rang out beside Yae Sakura's ear.
"What he swallowed just now was... a Herrscher Core, right?"
"I'm not sure, but the only thing that could make all of us feel threatened while also making a Honkai Beast submit would be a Herrscher Core, right? Maybe this kid had some kind of fortuitous encounter and became a male Herrscher?"
"If it really was a Herrscher Core, it's too late to remove it now. It would be better for me to persuade him to use this power for the right purpose."
"Big sis, that won't work. Everyone thinks that what they do is absolutely right, just like how you want to protect Kallen and Rin. The important thing is what you do, not how you justify doing it."
"Shut up." Yae Sakura would inevitably get angry whenever those two names were mentioned. This particularly energetic Yae Village specialty ingredient was already used to it.
What they didn't know was that the young man walking ahead was also talking to the system...
"System, Yae Sakura should be that Simulated Herrscher, right?"
"Smart. How did you figure that out?"
"Maximum wife appeal and a gentle personality. There probably aren't many people like that in this city, right?"
"I didn't realize your powers of deduction were so impressive. Do you know that if anyone else had said what you just did, they would already be dead without a complete corpse?"
A few drops of cold sweat trickled down the young man's back. So much for being gentle. How is leaving someone dead without a complete corpse gentle at all?
"But what's the difference between a Herrscher and a Simulated Herrscher?"
"A Simulated Herrscher is a higher existence below a Herrscher. It may also be a human transformed by Honkai Energy and granted powerful abilities. There are many reasons why Simulated Herrschers come into being. The most common are advanced dead soldiers and humans with high compatibility. They may also be the materialization of a certain concept through Honkai Energy. There are more unusual cases as well, such as when the original Herrscher disappears and the remaining Honkai Energy gathers to form a new Herrscher sample. Although Simulated Herrschers aren't as terrifying as Herrschers, if they are allowed to exist, they will still become an enormous threat, even if their Honkai Energy never reaches the Herrscher level."
Before you continue