Grey Snake himself knew nothing of the truth about the Previous Era or Elysia's importance. He couldn't earn Grey Snake's trust quickly. Even if he gave him a wealth of information and somehow convinced him, it wouldn't help, because whenever something important came up, Grey Snake would definitely consult Kevin. The story had never shown him doing anything too rash on his own. Even if Jiang Cheng called him over, Grey Snake would still have to go through the trouble of contacting Kevin in the Sea of Quanta, complete a tedious verification process, and then receive orders from Kevin.
Sure, he could go to the World Serpent. Then what?
Kevin would inevitably send him and Cyrene to the Elysian Realm right away. Without enough power to back him up, Jiang Cheng couldn't defy Kevin's orders.
Perhaps he could later find a way to demonstrate his abilities, disguising the plot he'd seen as a player as a prophecy, like Aponia's. But the tedious process before then would absolutely make him miss the Third Honkai.
The first step alone would take at least several days. It wouldn't help to immediately announce that he was a prophet. Besides, to Kevin, a Divine Key couldn't begin to compare with sending Cyrene to the Elysian Realm so Elysia could judge and identify her for herself. There was no need to hesitate: sending her there immediately was the only choice.
There was absolutely no way around this process.
Because Kevin was simply making the obvious, correct, and reasonable choice.
The Key of Corruption wasn't a necessity in this era. It might not even be worth a penny in Kevin's eyes. To be precise, most Divine Keys were useless to him. He didn't need them to overcome Honkai, no matter how he did it, and such weapons had no value to him. He could defeat a Herrscher with a stone picked up by the roadside. By comparison, confirming who he and Cyrene were sooner—even by just one day—and reducing the slightest chance of something going wrong mattered far more.
In the end, he was caught between a rock and a hard place.
If he was a prophet, he should know what mattered more. If he wasn't, he should do as Kevin said.
He had no reason to think the Key of Corruption mattered more, and he wasn't strong enough to defy Kevin and insist on staying in Nagazora.
Lying wasn't an option.
He couldn't just make up an enemy that could only be dealt with using the Key of Corruption.
He didn't believe the World Serpent lacked a lie detector.
If he wanted to argue that the Key of Corruption mattered more, the only way was to reveal that he came from an outer universe. Then...
He would truly be finished.
If he kept quiet, Cyrene might still be regarded as a miracle of this era and carefully protected.
But once he revealed who he was, he'd become a walking gold mine: incredibly rare, gifted with special abilities, and unable to protect himself.
Kevin wouldn't hesitate to relocate them. At that point, nothing Jiang Cheng said would matter. Compared to such tangible benefits, any lie would be unacceptable—even the possibility of one.
By then, even Cyrene wouldn't be able to protect him.
Once it was confirmed that Cyrene came from another world, her own value would also plummet.
With no ability to defend himself, he'd have all his memories extracted by their efficient methods. Instead of being the friend of a miracle, he'd become a slab of meat containing precious knowledge.
Running back meant death. Staying meant death, too.
—He couldn't bring himself to trust Kevin at this point in time.
Calling Grey Snake now might seem like the easy option, but it would mean he couldn't approach Raiden Mei at the best possible moment, and would also miss Yae Sakura and Jizo Mitama.
That was a limited-time event. If he missed the window, he'd never get Jizo Mitama, and Yae Sakura's Stigmata would go from unclaimed property to Theresa's personal possession.
Jizo Mitama offered little hope against the Iron Curtain, but it was still the most promising thing in the world.
The only way was to bring over Raiden Mei after her Herrscherization. She'd be strong enough to become the most powerful person around at this point in time. If he could get her to become a Herrscher quickly and strike a deal with her, he could use force to ignore Grey Snake and Kevin's demands, gain resources while retaining enough freedom, and avoid missing the limited-time event involving Yae Sakura.
So.
The only problem left was—
—walking was too slow.
He glanced around. There was a parking lot not far from the school gate.
A black sedan was slowly pulling onto the school grounds.
Its window was halfway open, and a middle-aged man sat in the driver's seat. He wore a suit and a wedding ring on his left ring finger. Probably a student's parent, or a visitor there on business.
—Borrow a car.
He quickly tried to think of a way to explain it to Cyrene. This wasn't theft; it was an emergency measure, perfectly legal and justified—
"Thump."
A dull sound, like steel bending, reached his ears and brought Jiang Cheng's thoughts to an abrupt halt.
He saw Cyrene stride past him.
Her fair, delicate hands—the ones that seemed unable to twist open a water bottle—were now wrenching the car door open by force.
From the driver's startled expression to the horror on his face when he saw the door had been wrecked, to his mouth falling open, it took about a second and a half. Cyrene took only 0.3 seconds to clench her fist.
"Thump—"
—One punch sent the driver to sleep.
Well, he certainly seemed to be sleeping soundly.
Jiang Cheng stood frozen—or, more precisely, rooted to the spot, his eyes widening in an instant.
Cyrene was always so gentle and soft-spoken, sweet as someone born to tell stories. The only times she ever firmly and urgently objected were when he accidentally hurt himself or tried to find her other friends.
Now she turned lightly and beckoned to him.
Her brilliant smile hadn't faded.
"Come on, A-Cheng~? I saw it just now. This is the way people get around here!"
She nodded firmly and emphatically.
"There's absolutely no mistaking it~"
—Something was very wrong with Cyrene.
This wasn't something she should have done.
But there were no Masked Fools in this world, and no one would play a joke this vicious on him for no reason.
There was so little time that he could barely ask her if she was all right. After she answered, "I'm fine~?" he chose to believe her. Then he unlocked the car, opened the back door, and climbed into the rear seat of the black sedan.
Cyrene followed close behind, like a shadow following the light. She naturally settled into the left side of the back seat, her slender, smooth shoulder pressed tightly against his.
"...?"
Raiden Mei stood where she was, staring blankly at them.
"I can't drive."
Jiang Cheng's tone made it sound as obvious as saying, "Tuesday is the day before Wednesday."
"I've never even tried to get a driver's license. You're a rich young lady—you may not have eaten pork, but you must have seen a pig run. I'm not asking for much. Just don't crash too badly before we leave the city."
"That's right~?"
Cyrene tilted her head gently.
Her little face was full of natural innocence, and her expression was as guileless as a newborn kitten's.
"Besides, I've only ever ridden an Earth Beast before. I've never used this kind of transportation at all~?"
8. Driving, then hitting Kiana (Revised)
"...O-okay."
At this point, the words "I can't drive" couldn't possibly come out of her mouth. Raiden Mei could only watch as Cyrene reached out her little hand—
"Unveil the curtain of time, and stir the ripples of the past."
—A glimmer of glaze-colored light appeared out of thin air.
An incredible, surreal scene unfolded before her eyes in a world she'd thought was governed by ordinary material laws.
All she could see was pure, unadulterated beauty.
It was as though she'd taken a step into a world opposite to reality, an otherworld unlike the realm of mankind.
The scattered crystals shone brighter than the most dazzling gemstones.
Fragments spread like raindrops, like diamond dust.
Bright daylight streamed down. The instant it touched them, it seemed to refract into countless different colors.
Having witnessed something supernatural with her own eyes, Raiden Mei, a seasoned chūnibyō, stared wide-eyed, her mouth hanging open as if her jaw were about to drop off.
"All done~?"
She relaxed and patted her soft chest.
"The mists of time have wrapped all around us. Now, no one can see us."
"Let's go."
Jiang Cheng calmly gave the order.
Raiden Mei gently rubbed her face, still stiff from the shock of what she'd just seen. Carefully, she stepped around the middle-aged man unconscious in the driver's seat and nervously climbed into the driver's seat.
"Fasten your seat belts. I'm starting the car!"
The engine roared, and the car sped off like a horse that had broken free of its reins, jolting so badly that Jiang Cheng nearly threw up.
The one thing they could be grateful for was that they hadn't hit—
"Thump—!"
The car lurched so violently it sent a chill down their spines.
The door, which had only been barely attached, swung wide open with a clean, decisive snap.
Jiang Cheng immediately looked in the rearview mirror. It clearly reflected the road behind them, where a white-haired girl lay peacefully.
Her eyes were closed, and she looked fast asleep. She was sleeping very soundly, in a deep sleep.
Was she dead?
Jiang Cheng was already about to tell Raiden Mei to speed up.
Just as the words were about to leave his mouth, the girl on the ground sprang straight up.
She hurriedly brushed off the dirt on her clothes. Her rounded rear shook as it met her hand in a soft, blush-inducing bounce, while centrifugal force sent her skirt flying. There was nothing graceful about it.
When she was done, she immediately looked ahead, like a cat that had its prey in its sights.
"Hey—!"
"You! Don't you look where you're going when you drive?!"
"I-I'm sorry."
Raiden Mei had started apologizing again from the driver's seat.
Jiang Cheng's attention was completely fixed on the white-haired girl walking toward them.
Her pure silver-white hair was as immaculate as moonlight beneath the night sky, braided into old-fashioned twin tails.
Her pretty face was as bristly as an angry cat's, and the dirt she hadn't quite managed to wipe off only made her look wilder.
Her chest was just the right size—not so flat as to invite the rude thought that she was built like a board, nor as mature as Raiden Mei's, which was clearly beyond what anyone her age should have. She didn't need a tight corset to accentuate her trim, silky waist, which was barely wider than a handspan. The curve of her waist widened sharply just past her firm lower abdomen, outlining a perfectly full, peach-shaped rear, while her slender yet shapely thighs completed a striking waist-to-hip ratio.
Her figure was impossibly perfect.
Even wearing the same Nagazora High School uniform as Raiden Mei, she had a presence all her own.
They wore the same uniform, yet the two girls gave it completely different styles.
But more than her looks or figure—qualities that could easily catch the attention of anyone her age at first glance—what truly left Jiang Cheng rooted to the spot was the girl's identity.
Kiana Kaslana.
Or, using the more precise designation he knew from his time as a player—
[K423].
She had already walked up to the car window. After checking that there were people in both the front and back seats, she unhesitatingly fixed her gaze on the man in the back—the one leaning lazily against his arm, showing no reaction at all to having hit someone, as cold and detached as the aloof CEO in a romance novel about a wife who got away and a husband who spent the story trying to win her back. In reality, he was so carsick he'd lost all sense of where he was, using every ounce of willpower to fight the churning in his stomach. Her gaze settled on the man—Jiang Cheng.
"You! Do you never look where you're going when you walk? Do you have any idea how high I just flew? Even when I got sent flying by a bang... a wild bull, I didn't go that high!"
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