Seele•Fulei.

After successfully seeing Fu Hua off, Su Qing'an asked the dormitory supervisor where the principal's office was, and then politely nodded and left the dormitory building.

The boy stepped onto the smooth granite floor and gazed at the rows of school buildings in the distance, his eyes settling on the most prominent white obelisk among them.

The top floor there is the principal's office.

Su Qing'an used the maximum power of his Soul Essence's affinity amplification to gain the opportunity to talk with the headmistress. After a battle of wits and a demonstration of his abilities, the boy became the art teacher of this prestigious girls' school.

This was an idea he had long ago: to approach Fu Hua naturally and reasonably, becoming her teacher was the best solution.

Otherwise, Su Qing'an couldn't guarantee that nothing unexpected would happen at the academy while she was outside, and continuing to stalk and protect her would be disrespectful to her and the students nearby.

Therefore, being a teacher is a necessity, and at the same time, it allows one to earn a certain amount of salary to make a living.

The reason things went so smoothly, besides the most important factor being the influence of the Soul Essence, was also because Fu Xiuran had thoughtfully increased his age by one year on the identity certificate.

Otherwise, as a minor with only a basic high school education, he would be completely unqualified to teach at a school of this caliber.

Of course, even if Fu Xiuran gave Su Qing'an a high school diploma and an adult age that didn't exist at all.

Given that Su Qing'an does not possess a teacher's qualification certificate, it is impossible for her to obtain this position.

The real reason Su Qing'an was able to become a teacher at this academy is that it is a private academy, and the principal has enough power to ignore these factors, making many rules more flexible, which allowed Su Qing'an to be hired directly.

The reason the headmaster agreed to let the boy become an art teacher was because of the various skills Su Qing'an learned during his time at the St. Freya Academy.

Roughly speaking, within the broad concept of fine arts, Su Qing'an has dabbled in various categories, including painting, sculpture, design, and architecture.

However, in such a short time, he obviously couldn't quickly demonstrate his erudition, especially since there was a gap of 55,000 years, and no one knew whether the skills learned in that era would still be applicable.

So Su Qing'an chose to "cheat" (use cheat codes).

The school principal, who was willing to wait for the boy to demonstrate his talent because of his approachable manner, was moved by a sketch that the boy drew in three minutes.

It was a bizarre technique she had never heard of before, seemingly an incredibly ancient art yet also possessing some innovative reforms.

But more than any of these, what strikes the soul most is the sliver of Martial Intent remaining on that piece of paper.

Su Qing'an painted himself, and only by painting himself could he fully embody this strong will that was both unwavering and tinged with sorrow.

That surpasses the limits that any master painter could ever reach with a brush.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a dimensional attack; this spiritual will directly dragged the headmistress into a fleeting dream, making her feel intense emotions and an incredible shock.

Anyone with even a basic understanding of art would instinctively respect someone who possesses such an incredible level of skill, even if the person in front of them looks like a teenager who has just come of age.

Su Qing'an was very fortunate that the school principal himself had received excellent artistic and cultural education.

In her eyes, diplomas and teaching certificates were meaningless to someone of her caliber; keeping Su Qing'an with such a meager salary was an extremely worthwhile deal.

Thus, the boy successfully passed the first priority option. He abandoned the remaining eight alternative options, took the qualification certificate personally awarded by the school principal, and went to the faculty dormitory to collect the corresponding key and various daily necessities.

Seele Fulei.

The girl silently recited her own name.

She couldn't quite remember which day she had been in the city.

On bustling streets, in dark, deserted alleyways, on highways where vehicles constantly pass by...

Seele wanders like a ghost amidst the countless scenes of this city, like a traveler traversing the gap between two worlds, forced to distance herself from the concept of what is called the world.

Used, abandoned, ignored, overlooked...

After experiencing so much, the girl wandered through this cold and unfamiliar steel forest, aimlessly searching for something she herself didn't understand.

She couldn't stop. If she rested for too long, it would be as if she would be swallowed up by some enormous terror and plunged into the void. Seele instinctively feared that future, and for that reason, even though she knew almost nothing about this world, she still stubbornly and persistently took her own steps.

But now it seems she needs to take a break; ever since escaping from that world, she's been in a very strange state.

One must not be touched by others or by matter, nor should one subjectively touch others or matter.

All normal bodily physiological reactions were eerily stretched to a distant time. Seele could still feel thirst, but she was also keenly aware that she would not die from thirst.

But the girl seemed to need to rest. The mental fatigue from not sleeping for a long time and the exhaustion from her physical strength due to not stopping for several days prompted her to take a long nap.

Seele found a dark, secluded corner, the place where she had first appeared in the city.

The girl curled up in the darkness, and the lack of light in the scene inexplicably reassured Seele, and she drifted into a near-sleep-like trance.

If someone could see her face, they would find that she was just a very young girl.

Her age of about thirteen or fourteen gave her a youthful and naturally innocent appearance. However, her deep blue eyes, like the ocean, were empty and bewildered, and the color of her lips was too pale, with a slight whitening amidst the rosy hue, which was clearly unhealthy.

Her petite body was covered by a white garment with a strange code on it. The slightly oversized size made her appear even thinner and more pitiful, and her milk-white skin gave her a visual appeal that surpassed even the white fabric.

The girl reeked of chemicals, and her exposed wrist was covered in tiny needle marks, vaguely revealing some cruel and dark truths.

But Seele herself didn't see these as proof of being cruelly treated; she was born into an orphanage destined to serve experiments.

Every "teacher" responsible for raising and educating children is a servant of the organization; there is no warmth from elders, nor will there be any children who dare to disobey.

Crying is a child's subconscious way of seeking benefits, and it is also an instinct to express fear and sadness.

However, since the former is out of the question and the latter is bound by instilled common sense, these concepts have all vanished without a trace.

Regular blood draws were common in such places, and as Seele had an exceptionally high level of Honkai Energy, grew older, she entered a real experimental field. The increasingly excessive amount of blood drawn made her body very weak and her face even paler.

The reason that Seele suddenly appeared in Canghai City was the final experiment.

Immersed in a culture chamber filled with reagents, the girl gazed at the magnificent crystal, as beautiful as a gemstone. Before she could even utter a sigh, she was plunged into the most painful moment of her life.

In the blink of an eye, the body felt the sensation of disintegration, and finally it seemed as if the whole body was gradually falling apart, and all the senses were slowly becoming disordered.

Then, with a deafening roar, Seele vanished from the now-calm incubation chamber, leaving behind only the researchers who were frantically calculating complex data and shouting that the experiment had shown signs of success.

This is all for the sake of humanity.

This is so that humanity can overcome the Honkai.

This is the reason those people gave Seele the excuse that she needed to be experimented on.

The girl knew what Honkai was, and through her exposure to it, her understanding of it far surpassed that of most people in the world, even though she lacked a lot of basic knowledge due to not having studied the corresponding knowledge system.

But regarding High Command knowledge of Honkai —that is, the Herrscher.

Seele, on the other hand, had a clear understanding.

She overheard the researchers' conversation and learned that the wondrous, beautiful crystal was the Herrscher Core of the Second Herrscher.

It harbors a terrifying power. If humanity can understand its secrets and use it to open the gates to the Sea of Quantum, this civilization will have a backyard where it will never fear annihilation.

This has a crucial impact on the preservation of civilization and the future course of war.

Therefore, Seele Fulei's sacrifice was necessary.

The deaths of his friends and partners were also a matter of course.

Unpleasant? Angry? Feeling it's unfair?

These emotions, which should appear in normal people, have no fertile ground to grow and sprout due to the distorted education they received from childhood.

The girl, filled with confusion, fear, and a sense of emptiness, was forced to accept all the unfair treatment.

The results of the experiment were milder than death.

But even so, things weren't much better. In that world called the Sea of Quantum, Seele drifted in the void of darkness for a very, very long time.

It wasn't until a few days ago, in a fleeting moment, that she suddenly saw the light.

In a daze, the girl grabbed onto that beam of light and arrived in this world she had never seen before—the outside world.

Upon appearing in the mortal world, Seele's first reaction was that her body felt like a fragile building block pieced together, ready to collapse at any moment.

There were clearly no signs of sutures on any of the joints, blood circulated naturally, and the heart beat normally.

But the feeling it gave the girl was so terrifying and real. It was as if she had been transformed into a completely different form of existence in that world, and after returning to the physical form of existence, the sense of separation still raged in her nerves, tormenting her willpower.

Arriving in this unfamiliar and inaccessible world, Seele felt both lonely and inevitably at peace.

She doesn't like seeing humans.

All humans are bad; they will do things they don't want to do for strange reasons they don't understand.

Their expressions and tone were so matter-of-fact, as if their friend's remains had never existed, perhaps only now, after wandering the outside world and receiving other information...

Only then did the girl truly understand what anger and sadness meant.

It turns out that the flames burning wildly in my chest were anger.

It turns out that the emotion that swallowed these flames like an abyss, leaving the whole body feeling cold, was sadness.

It turns out that Seele had been angry and sad for a long time, but she just didn't understand.

The world in the girl's eyes had turned into pure black, and all that was reflected in her eyes was endless malice.

There should be good and bad people in the world, but she didn't believe it.

A person's worldview depends on the environment in which they grew up. Living in such a hell on earth, Seele would naturally think that "good person" is just a word, a non-existent concept.

The idea that bad people will always exist represents the majority of humanity in Seele's eyes.

Therefore, she felt an unprecedented sense of security about being ignored and disregarded.

Even though she felt lonely and isolated, the sense of security stemming from her underlying fear overshadowed everything, making Seele not reject her current situation.

This is escapism.

But for a 14-year-old, running away is a perfectly normal choice.

I'm so sleepy.

The wavering consciousness was a sign that the spirit was about to reach its final Critical Point.

Seele stubbornly refused to fall asleep; she just wanted to sit down and rest for a little while. Her eyes, which she kept open, spoke volumes about her determination.

The girl was terrified of that state of being completely unaware during sleep, as it made her feel utterly insecure.

Even knowing that no one will see them, their mental state cannot be changed by this fact.

She was also terrified that if she fell asleep, she would return to that truly dark and narrow world.

That kind of wandering is true, silent loneliness, and the girl would never want to experience such a terrifying thing a second time.

As drowsiness began to creep in, my body seemed to lose its original sense of self once again, and the illusion of being torn apart gradually spread from my fingertips.

This was a physical reaction she had before heading to the Sea of Quantum last time. Although it was countless times weaker, as if symbolizing that there was still plenty of time, it still frightened the girl.

She hugged her knees and murmured to herself:

"Can't sleep."

"Seele, don't go back to that dark place."

The young girl hadn't considered that sleep might not be the key to whether she would return to the Sea of Quantum, or perhaps subconsciously she craved that it was.

Because this is the only small struggle that the girl herself can wage.

But drowsiness, like a demon, tugged at my eyelids, causing the darkness in my vision to sway and shake.

Until a figure enveloped in light surged into my pupils.