Stepping forward, as long as he wished it, neither the walls of the room nor the floor between stories could stop him.
During this period of erased time, he could not affect anything, nor could anything affect him.
When the dozen or so seconds of erased time ended,
Qin Mo was already standing outside his room.
After taking a brief rest, Qin Mo tossed a coin into the air. It fell straight toward his face.
"King Crimson!"
As he watched the coin slow due to the erased time, another scene appeared in Qin Mo's eyes.
The coin struck his face, bounced away, and rolled into the gap of the elevator.
But in reality...
The coin could no longer affect him. After passing straight through Qin Mo's body and landing on the ground, it bounced a few times before coincidentally rolling into the elevator gap.
"Perfect..."
As the experiment ended, Qin Mo smiled. An A-rank was already this powerful. He was beginning to look forward to drawing even more S-rank powers with Kiana's help in the future.
But his first priority for now was still to raise his own level.
Malicious bug detected. Update commencing. Estimated time required: ten hours
Honkai Descends
The next morning... no, the early hours of dawn...
Qin Mo had set a ten-hour countdown alarm long ago, and it went off before five in the morning.
That was also when the system update finished.
The moment he opened his eyes, Qin Mo accessed his system. An update notice immediately popped up when he opened the panel.
Removed the influence of the Child of Destiny on the gacha system A Stigmata System has been added through analysis of the Child of Destiny's power
With just those two brief notices, Qin Mo immediately understood what the so-called bug was.
Kiana was the protagonist of this world, or rather, the Child of Destiny. He just did not know whether her luck came from being the so-called Child of Destiny.
He had originally thought the system might remove the possibility of having others draw for him.
Still, Qin Mo felt that such incredible luck definitely carried at least some influence from the Child of Destiny. She might not be so lucky in the future.
After closing the update notice, Qin Mo opened the newly added Stigmata System.
Character cards may be converted into stigmata by spending crystals Stigmata are treated as equipment and may be given to others for use Character cards will undergo certain alterations after being converted into stigmata
This update was huge. Character cards had originally been usable only by himself, and his cost was limited. But once converted into stigmata, there would be no such restrictions.
But when he saw the crystal cost, he was dumbfounded.
C-rank: 5 crystals, B-rank: 50 crystals, A-rank: 100 crystals, S-rank: 500 crystals, SS-rank: 1,000 crystals, SSS-rank: 5,000 crystals
An S-rank stigmata alone cost enough for him to guarantee an S-rank character.
"Looks like this isn't something I can afford."
Qin Mo was nowhere near crystal freedom right now. He did not even have enough means to protect himself. Even if the Dog Talisman kept him from dying, others still had countless ways to control him.
Still, it really could be useful. Once he had plenty of crystals in the future, he could convert character cards he had no use for into stigmata and give them to others.
Qin Mo had never been the type to keep everything for himself. He could use it to strengthen the people around him.
He had managed to become independent despite the kind of family he had in his original world only because of the help of countless people. To others, those might have been mere gestures, but they had meant a great deal to him.
So, he was also willing to give away things he did not need to those who showed him kindness.
Over the next few days, although his new character card changed Qin Mo's fighting style from before, his strength had also increased greatly. His way of getting along with Kiana and Mei remained unchanged.
Until that day arrived...
"Why are there so many Honkai Beasts today...?"
Qin Mo, with Killer Queen at his side, frowned at the small Honkai Beast before him.
There had been a noticeable increase in Honkai Beasts these past few days, but today's numbers were excessive. This was already the thirteenth one he had encountered.
There was no reward for dealing with these Honkai Beasts, and Qin Mo did not really want to work for nothing. But after giving it some thought, he still had Killer Queen swing its right hand at the Honkai Beast.
Buzz!
Space was instantly cut away, and the Chariot-class Honkai Beast suddenly appeared before Qin Mo.
Before it could react, Killer Queen swung its hand again.
The Honkai Beast's body was instantly torn apart, killing it.
The killing power of a Stand that directly erased space was simply absurd. Without preparation, it was practically an instant kill on first encounter.
After swinging his arms several times to completely erase both the Honkai Beast and the scattered Honkai Energy, Qin Mo dismissed Killer Queen. Just as he was about to switch to Ezio and search for any stragglers nearby, a strange fluctuation suddenly swept across him.
"What is this...?"
Before Qin Mo could react, a burst of agonizing pain suddenly tore through his body.
"Aaaaahhhh!!!!"
Purple patterns instantly appeared all over his body, spreading across his face one after another.
"This is... the Great Eruption!"
Originally, someone like Qin Mo, with absolutely no Honkai Energy adaptability, should have died instantly, reduced to ash without even leaving behind a corpse.
But the Dog Talisman's effect kept him alive. Honkai Energy continuously eroded his body, yet he simply could not die.
Glancing at his equipment slots, Qin Mo placed the Tiger Tally inside as well.
The power of balance... hopefully, it could help him.
"Mei..."
The occurrence of a Great Eruption meant the appearance of the Third Herrscher. Qin Mo instantly switched his character card to White Album. White armor appeared over his body, and ice skates formed beneath his feet.
With the power of cold, the pain constantly coming from his body was suppressed somewhat.
Exhaling a breath of white mist, Qin Mo froze the air around him, forming an icy path beneath his feet.
White Album at full speed... even cars could not compare!
Meanwhile...
Kiana, who had been dozing off in class, sensed the eruption of Honkai and instantly stood up.
Seeing her classmates either turn directly to ash due to insufficient adaptability or begin transforming into Deadwalkers, Kiana grabbed the baseball bat beside her schoolbag without another word and rushed out of the classroom.
Meanwhile, Raiden Mei... no, the Herrscher of Thunder ignored the students around her and walked step by step toward the rooftop.
Although she possessed all of Raiden Mei's memories, she did not know what she was supposed to do. She merely followed those memories to a familiar place.
As lightning flickered around her, a familiar desk and a metal seat appeared before her.
Looking at the two vaguely familiar objects, another bolt of lightning melted and reforged them into a massive steel throne.
"This is the throne worthy of me, Queen Raiden."
She walked up the steel throne step by step and sat down. The Herrscher of Thunder stared blankly beyond the rooftop, as if waiting for something to arrive...
At that moment, Kiana sensed the intense Honkai Energy reaction above her head. She quickly rushed to the rooftop and saw the Herrscher of Thunder seated upon the steel throne.
"Mei!"
Seeing that familiar figure, the completely different expression, and the terrifying aura of power, Kiana realized that the one before her was humanity's greatest enemy in history: a Herrscher!
"It's you, human."
The Herrscher of Thunder seemed to have little interest in Kiana's appearance.
"Wake up, Mei!"
Looking at the completely changed Raiden Mei before her, Kiana raised the baseball bat in her hand. "I'll save you, Mei!"
"What a noisy insect. If that is the case, then die!"
As Kiana raised her baseball bat and charged toward her, the Herrscher of Thunder released Honkai Energy.
As the core Herrscher of this eruption, even while merely sitting here, Honkai Energy from the surroundings continuously poured into her body.
Celebrate the birth of this Queen Raiden, and offer her thunder that resounded through the heavens.
A Bouquet for the Herrscher
Kiana Kaslana, a clone with the Gem of Serenity within her, possessed the bloodlines of both the Kaslana and Saniat families.
She possessed immense strength from birth, had one of the world's greatest affinities for Honkai Energy, and even harbored the potential of the Herrscher of the Void within her.
But what she could use now was merely the ability of an ordinary person born with great strength and given some training.
Although the Herrscher of Thunder across from her had no particular technique either, merely using enormous amounts of Honkai Energy to bombard Kiana, that bombardment was powerful enough to directly disintegrate Kiana at the atomic level.
"Oh? You are not bad for an insect."
Seeing Kiana halt her charge with nimble footwork and evade the lightning she had struck down, the Herrscher of Thunder showed a trace of interest.
"Then try this move."
Though she said that, her method of attack was still nothing more than using Honkai Energy to create lightning and continuously strike it down.
Kiana had not received much training, but she possessed extraordinary instincts and physical ability. She forcibly charged through the lightning that fell like torrential rain and raised the baseball bat in her hand.
"Mei! I'll save you!"
"Save me?"
With a faintly contemptuous smile, the Herrscher of Thunder swept her left arm. A wing formed from lightning appeared behind her, while pale violet patterns covered her originally fair arm.
Using the wing's power, the Herrscher of Thunder evaded Kiana's attack and rose into the air.
"A maggot like you wants to touch the body of a god?"
A massive surge of lightning erupted from her body, forcing Kiana below to frantically dodge. Yet the Herrscher of Thunder did not increase the pressure, merely controlling the lightning's speed as though she were toying with a monkey.
She even stopped the lightning attacks whenever Kiana grew exhausted.
"How is it, maggot? Even now, do you still say that you want to save me?"
But whether it was the Kaslana family tradition or simply her duty as a friend, Kiana could not possibly give up now.
"I... definitely..."
Kiana panted heavily, buying time to recover her strength while thinking of a way to reach the Herrscher of Thunder in the air.
Tap... tap...
At that moment, unhurried footsteps echoed through the silent corridor.
The two people who had been fighting fell silent at the same time and looked toward the rooftop door from which the footsteps came.
"This is a trial..."
Though no figure had yet appeared, a familiar voice had already reached both their ears.
It was Qin Mo's voice!?
Both of them recognized it at once.
Kiana felt immense relief, because according to what she remembered, men had an extremely low survival rate during a Great Eruption. It was difficult for them even to become Deadwalkers due to their low adaptability.
The Herrscher of Thunder also felt something strange, as though she were anticipating something...
But she could not understand it, because all she possessed as a newly born being were Raiden Mei's memories.
"I believe this is a trial to overcome the past..."
Before you continue