And so, breakfast ended in this atmosphere of disbelief.
"Come on, let's get moving. Senior Sister seems to be waiting for us over there already."
The three first went with Trigger to where she had parked to retrieve her gun, then headed together to the cable car to enter the Hollow.
After they met up with Senior Sister, she looked at Trigger.
"And who is this?" Senior Sister asked with both her eyes and her words.
"Trigger, reporting for duty!" Seeing Fufu looking like the leader, Trigger responded instinctively.
"Ahaha, this is my good friend, Trigger. We happened to run into her. She wasn't busy, and when she heard we were coming here, she wanted to help." As he spoke, he also introduced her to Trigger. "This is our senior sister, Fufu."
"Hello!" Fufu greeted her, then looked down at the records in her hands.
"Hello!" Trigger replied softly, still polite. She tightened her grip on her gun, keeping watch over their surroundings at all times.
Xu An had wanted to say that he was here, so there was no need to worry, but it seemed unnecessary. She was helping out of kindness, so he would leave her to it.
After sensing the distribution of nearby Ethereals, Xu An wasn't worried about any safety issues arising this time.
Then Xu An shoved both hands into his pockets, looking every bit the slacker, with his head thrust forward and his hips pushed out.
Belle looked at him from the side, a little bewildered. "Where did my handsome senior brother go? Who's this loafer?"
Xu An didn't mind. Or rather, stirring up Belle's emotions was exactly what he was after.
After all, as the protagonist, she always provided the most attribute points.
"The commission is to recover supplies. They're usually packed in a special kind of crate. Let's get going. I recognize those crates, so I'll call out if I see one."
Ju Fufu said.
The group headed along the planned route.
"Ugh, the terrain here is so complicated. We can't get a clear view of our surroundings."
"True. It must be caused by intense Ether turbulence. But any turbulence has to have a source. If we can find it..." Belle said thoughtfully.
"A source? I remember now. Master mentioned something like that. Let's look for it!" Ju Fufu said.
Our Xu An put his imagination to work.
"Hey, don't mosquitoes find people through their breathing? If we're following Ether turbulence to find its source, doesn't that make us 'mosquitoes looking for people'?"
Everyone froze at that and turned to look at Xu An.
Seeing everyone staring at him, Xu An said nothing, yet somehow seemed to have said everything.
Even Trigger stood at the back with a helpless expression. He couldn't see the eyes beneath her blindfold, but he could feel a gaze boring into him from behind.
"Fine, I'll shut up." Xu An surrendered, then raised a hand to his lips and mimed zipping them shut. (❁´ω`❁)
Belle rolled her eyes, then said, "Let's go, Senior Sister. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can go back and rest."
They only encountered a few scattered Ethereals along the way.
Xu An either smashed them apart with a punch or formed flying swords to shatter their cores directly.
For the slightly larger ones, he formed flying swords of five attributes and attacked their cores. Under the control of his powerful mental strength, they were swift and precise.
The Disorder damage caused by the five-attribute attacks was ridiculously high, killing them in one hit as well.
The other three seemed to be mere supporting players.
"Senior Brother... when did you get this strong?" Belle suddenly asked the soul-searching question.
"How should I know?!" Ju Fufu said, thinking, Looks like being Senior Sister is just a title now. Σ(ﾟдﾟ;)
Trigger swallowed beside them. Wasn't this already on par with a Void Hunter's combat power?
"Heh-heh. (.-`ω´-)" Xu An smugly dispersed the energy in his hand.
"Well? Isn't your Brother Kun amazing?" Xu An blurted out for no apparent reason.
The others were baffled, but still played along. "Amazing, amazing." Then they recalled Xu An's bizarre question from earlier.
It didn't seem like a big deal. Strong people being a little strange was perfectly normal.
Having no quirks at all would be the abnormal thing, okay?
With Xu An handling everything at lightning speed, the journey went smoothly.
But on a path they had to take, they suddenly encountered an Ethereal with slender limbs and a long spear in its hand.
Xu An sensed relatively high energy fluctuations coming from it.
"Keep your distance."
"That big guy looks dangerous. Stay back!" Ju Fufu's expression grew serious as she shielded Belle and retreated. Trigger raised her sniper rifle, aimed at the Ethereal's core, and fired.
But the Ethereal raised its spear to block the shot, then pointed it at the three of them.
"Oh? Ignoring me? Screw you." As he spoke, Xu An flashed in front of the Ethereal and sent it flying backward with a kick.
Xu An had moved so quickly that the Ethereal hadn't reacted at all. Before it could defend itself, it was sent flying.
Xu An raised an eyebrow at it. An elite mob indeed.
Perhaps its Corruption shield was why it had withstood Xu An's kick. He had aimed straight at its core just now.
"What a shame. You'll have to suffer a little more."
After recovering for a moment, the Ethereal roared, raised its spear again, and suddenly leaped with all its might.
Xu An looked up. This thing seemed to be preparing a killing move.
It kept throwing down spears formed from Corruption from the sky. Xu An waved a hand and created a shield for the others below. Of course, it was mainly for Belle. Her body was frail, and she definitely couldn't withstand that.
Seeing that Xu An still had the attention to spare to protect them, the last trace of worry in their hearts vanished, and they all settled in to watch the show.
Belle even pulled a handful of sunflower seeds from her pocket.
"Senior Sister Fufu, Trigger, here~ Have some."
And so, the three munched on sunflower seeds while waiting for Xu An to finish fighting.
After creating the shield, Xu An also formed a flying sword and flew into the air.
He quickly locked onto the Thracian.
His eyes narrowed.
A longsword formed in his hand, and a white light flashed.
The Thracian's body was still posed to throw a spear downward, but it could no longer move an inch.
Its body was dissipating. A white crack had appeared across its core, smooth and straight.
"Hmph... couldn't beat me, so you tried to hurt others. You deserved to die."
Xu An muttered.
Then he flew back to the ground.
Seeing the shield disperse, the others realized that the Ethereal had been dealt with, but they no longer felt even a ripple of surprise.
"It looked pretty tough. How come it still couldn't give him a beating?" Fufu said, sounding a little disappointed.
"Never mind that. Since it's dealt with, let's hurry and get the Ether Singularity under control." Seeing that Xu An had returned, Fufu hastily changed her tune.
Belle was struggling to hold back her laughter, and Trigger was smiling too. It felt like watching a friend get caught doing something naughty.
"Senior Sister? You seem a little disappointed that I dealt with it so easily..." Xu An suddenly appeared behind Ju Fufu, his voice eerie, startling her tiger tail straight up. As she turned, it accidentally whipped across Xu An's face.
Xu An froze and covered his face.
"Senior Sister, you-you-you..." His face was full of disbelief.
"Aaah! I didn't mean to! I'm sorry, Junior Brother! (┳◇┳) It's your fault for suddenly scaring me while standing behind me!" Ju Fufu explained in a fluster.
"And you went to Yin Tea House for breakfast without even inviting me! I had to eat radish-filled buns at the temple again, after eating them for over half a month straight! Hmph!" As she spoke, Ju Fufu seemed to decide she was in the right. She folded her arms, tilted her head, and gave a little huff.
Xu An said nothing and just kept staring.
(What was this tiger going on about?)
"Hmph, I won't stoop to arguing with you. Let's hurry and finish up. Come on."
And so, with a long red mark across his face, Xu An continued working.
With Belle leading them, they soon reached the singularity, but several Hollow Raiders were gathered around it.
Xu An looked at them, with no intention of making a move.
"Go, Xiao Anmon!" Ju Fufu pointed and shouted.
Her shout drew the Hollow Raiders' attention.
"Huh? Who gave away our position?" the leader roared.
"Take them out!" When no one answered, he had no choice but to order them to deal with the group first.
"What do you take me for, a Pokémon?" Xu An muttered, but still dutifully stepped forward, knocked out each small fry with a single punch, and piled their unconscious bodies together.
A dozen or so people were piled together like a little burial mound.
Who knew how the big guy at the very bottom was doing.
Once that was done, Ju Fufu led Belle over to look at the chaotically flowing mass of Ether energy.
"Can you see it, Junior Sister? That mass of abnormally flowing Ether." Ju Fufu pointed into the air above an empty patch of ground.
In Xu An's perception, a point of energy with a very high Ether concentration was there.
"We call it an 'Observation Singularity.' Its presence drastically reduces visibility within the Hollow."
"Senior Sister's class is now in session~" Xu An teased.
Fufu ignored him and focused on her explanation.
"Senior Sister's ignoring me..." Xu An crouched off to the side and drew circles.
Trigger stood behind him, gently stroking his back to comfort him.
Fufu glanced over. Tch.
"But if we guide and control the Ether within it, we can instead put it to use for us, clearing away the obscuring haze across a large area.
In short, remember: an 'Observation Singularity' is very helpful for surveying large areas of a Hollow. If you see one, prioritize getting it under control!"
Following Ju Fufu's instructions, Belle slowly tried to control the Observation Singularity, then uploaded the data to Eous.
"Fairy, analyze the route." Belle handed the information over to the "strongest AI" to process.
[Yes, Master.]
Xu An thought, When will my artificial idiot arrive? The system hasn't made a peep all this time. I can't even say a word to it. All I can do is allocate points, and I have to develop all the skills myself. It's seriously exhausting.