["Ah, ahhh? I'm here!"]
Like a student caught napping behind an open textbook in class, jolted awake by the teacher's furious roar that sends the book flying, the System responded with a start, bewildered.
"What the hell is going on?"
Brother Shu Ren once said: The person who first invented the phrase "damn it" was a genius.
Xun Ge'er: "I really fucking said that."
—From Xun Ge'er's essay "On 'Damn It!'"
"Why did it turn out like this?"
Fair, delicate arms were adorned with lotus sleeves, her waist swayed like a willow caressed by the spring breeze, and slender, snow-white legs were wrapped in gradient blue over-the-knee stockings, creating a stunning "absolute territory" with her blue miniskirt.
The visual impact of seeing the character, once just a 2D image, appear as a real girl before his eyes was simply on another level.
But right now, Qiong had absolutely no mind to appreciate this peerless beauty he'd never encountered in his past life.
[Isn't this just a normal character card?]
The System sounded utterly baffled, seemingly unable to comprehend Qiong's agitated reaction.
"You call this 'normal'?"
Qiong channeled his inner Zhang Mazi.
[Yes, yes it is.]
The System replied weakly, its voice lacking confidence, though its reasoning felt sound (to itself).
"I... You... This... Damn it!"
Qiong (now as Seele) and the original Seele (in spirit, perhaps?) were so infuriated by this that they instinctively raised a hand to their foreheads, feeling their blood pressure skyrocket.
But, once his anger surpassed a certain threshold, Qiong abruptly calmed down.
Wait a minute, this way of using a character card... doesn't seem too bad either!
Stroking his own face, smooth and supple like a freshly peeled egg, then feeling the contours of his/her body—that distinctly feminine, delicate touch and soft curves—made Seele (Qiong) understand.
This body was completely, utterly hers now.
Even if Qiong's original body was annihilated into dust, this form would still carry 'his' consciousness.
This character card was essentially a second life!
Looking at it from a different angle, Qiong's thoughts suddenly cleared up.
Like the first person who discovered that smelly durian actually tasted addictively fragrant.
No, no, no!
How could he compare the adorable little Seele to stinky durian?
Whether tasting or smelling, little Seele was definitely fragrant~!
Qiong twitched his nose, leaning down to inhale the refreshing fragrance near Seele's chest—a scent woven from the essence of the sea, butterfly orchids, and cream.
The dazzling white and pure scent made his heart flutter. In that very instant, Qiong's mind sparked.
He suddenly had a bold idea!
However, before this bold idea could even take root in Qiong's mind...
A sharp, intense pain suddenly flared in his chest, snapping him back to reality.
This wasn't the time for idle thoughts; he needed to hurry and help!
But then again...
Seele (Qiong) stared blankly at the small hands spread out before her, clenching them experimentally.
She was Seele now, yes, but she didn't have Seele's combat experience, did she?
She could sense the energy within this body – distinctly different from the Imaginary energy in Qiong's original body – as well as a trace of another, entirely different power.
Without a doubt, this was...
"Honkai energy and Quantum power?"
Seele (Qiong) tentatively tried to mobilize the power within. The combined Honkai and Quantum energy far exceeded the Imaginary energy Qiong possessed.
The girl's innate talent was as formidable as her... front armor, crushing others her age. Forget 'wife material' in the future; she was wife material now!
She retrieved a scythe made with particle vibration technology from the System inventory: Obsidian Cut.
A large, sharp, blue-black scythe materialized out of thin air. Seele (Qiong) reached out to catch it, but its sheer weight immediately pulled her small hand down.
"So heavy!"
Compared to the lighter Tachi-style weapons, this thing felt more than twice as heavy.
Seele (Qiong) gripped the scythe's dark silver handle with both hands, looking up at the high-tech black blade.
Compared to the girl's delicate frame, the scythe was simply enormous.
Seele (Qiong) swung it a few times, attempting some self-taught scythe techniques—basically, just random hacking.
And when she tried to imitate that certain Herrscher who played with her scythe using her legs, this unappreciative weapon showed absolutely no interest in lingering on little Seele's gorgeous legs (which one could admire for years).
The scythe slipped from her leg and came crashing down. Seele (Qiong) frantically ducked, covering her head, but the blade still managed to snip off a couple strands of her hair.
Picking the scythe up from the floor, Seele (Qiong) and Qiong (mentally) stared at each other in silence for a few seconds.
"...No time to use a learning chip."
Having learned his lesson from the character card incident, Qiong had carefully questioned the System about the learning chip's mechanics.
Just as the description implied, using it on the battlefield meant incapacitating yourself.
And it wasn't just a brief stun; it was a long-duration control effect, putting the user into a deep sleep measured in hours.
That was purely lighting a lantern in a latrine—looking for death!
"With this body's current physical condition and abundant Honkai energy, even if I just brute-force it, I should at least be able to take down those regular Voidranger trash mobs, right?"
Carrying the giant scythe that stood taller than her, Seele (Qiong) turned and started running towards the battlefield.
Pain still flared intermittently from Qiong's original body (in spirit?), along with a growing fatigue. Stelle was struggling in the fight.
The cabin door, equipped with an automatic sensor, hissed open. Just as Seele (Qiong) was about to step through the doorway, the System's voice echoed in her mind, abruptly halting her steps.
[Um, Host, actually... this System's character cards have an auto-battle function.]
"Huh?"
Seele (Qiong) looked up, a bewildered expression flashing in her sea-blue eyes.
"It has that function? Why didn't you say so earlier!"
Who would manually control it if there was auto-battle?
This wasn't some event stage where you needed to grind for points.
Conveniently, as a complete novice, she could even learn some combat techniques from the AI.
[You didn't ask.]
It had already stated it was a motivated System.
Hands-free auto-battle was one of Star Rail's undeniably praised features; of course, it had to incorporate that~!
"Hey, I swear...!"
Her mouth twitched slightly. Little Seele muttered words completely unfitting her soft and cute appearance, words that would probably make Bronya faint on the spot from shock if she heard them.
Although the System was a bit eccentric, thankfully, its functions were genuinely useful.
The aura of the navy-haired girl in the blue and white dress changed instantly. She expertly twirled the scythe, a smirk playing on her lips.
"Now, bring it on!"
The girl lifted her chin, tossing her bangs aside.
"System, let me see Seele's limits!"
Seele (Qiong) waved her small hand, eyes shining brightly:
"Activate auto-battle!"
AI, go get 'em!
[Alright, just watch this!]
The Host's positive feedback on the auto-battle function greatly pleased the System. Its efforts in 'borrowing' the feature hadn't been in vain.
The moment the System's voice faded, Seele (Qiong) felt her consciousness slowly sinking, like falling into the ocean.
For Qiong, whether it was the 'one soul, two bodies' situation or this current experience of having half his spirit descend into the 'background' of the body while the other half remained aware, it was a bizarre sensory experience unlike anything he'd ever felt.
But soon, the anticipation on Qiong's face turned into stunned disbelief.
The aura of the girl before him had changed!
But it wasn't the transformation Qiong had expected—the cold, mechanical demeanor unique to a character controlled by a super AI, the 'I am an emotionless fighting machine' vibe.
Instead, it was a feeling of vulnerability radiating from within, delicate and pitiful, evoking protectiveness in anyone who saw her.
...
Deep, lightless darkness. An all-consuming void. The silence of death where nothing stirs. A bottomless black abyss.
—This was the Sea of Quanta as perceived by human senses.
[Seele? Seele, wake up!]
The space was utterly silent; the call came from within her heart.
Seele slowly opened her eyes.
The light in her sea-blue eyes had been erased by the void, leaving only emptiness and stupor.
The voice called out a few more times before a flicker of awareness finally gathered in those lifeless eyes.
Existing for extended periods in a space of absolute darkness and absolute silence was an unimaginable torture for a normal person.
The young girl had already endured this torment for years.
[Stop spacing out like this, you'll go mad!]
The anxious voice was unusually devoid of its typical tsundere tone; the feigned indifference couldn't hide the underlying concern.
Dark Seele played a significant role in Seele's ability to endure the void. She would constantly talk to Seele, trying to keep her grounded.
However, even with the closest companions, talking 24/7 meant eventually running out of things to say.
Every time Dark Seele stopped her 'teasing' and Seele fell silent, it was the moment Dark Seele felt the most anxious.
"Other me... how long... has it been?"
Seele spoke softly, like someone waking from a long slumber.
[I don't know. That doesn't matter! Look, see that? There's a World Bubble over there. Hurry, go check it out.]
This was the second reason Seele hadn't gone mad: she could enter the World Bubbles that occasionally drifted by.
Although most were lifeless, worlds at their end.
Sometimes vast, frozen snowfields, sometimes utterly barren deserts. But even cold and decay were better than the absolute void.
"...Okay."
Seele never refused her other self's requests. She struggled, swimming towards the fragmented World Bubble.
[Don't worry, crybaby. We'll definitely get out of this damned place! Think about your Bronya-neesan.]
Though she couldn't see Seele's expression, Dark Seele could sense the emptiness in Seele's heart, her emotions nearing a critical point. She reluctantly brought up 'Bronya'.
"...Mm!"
Hearing that name, a trace of determination and longing flickered in Seele's eyes.
She had to keep going, find a way to escape this place.
She skillfully made contact with the World Bubble. Over countless periods of time, Seele had repeated this process dozens of times; she was very familiar with it now.
Her body dissolved into a phantom image composed of innumerable quantum pixels, like being disassembled into countless micro-building blocks, only to reassemble upon entering the World Bubble's interior.
The instant Seele's body materialized inside the decaying World Bubble, her eyes snapped wide open.
The familiar blue had been replaced by crimson red.
"Seele?! Seele! What happened to you!? Seele!?"
For the first time since her own birth, Dark Seele couldn't feel her connection to 'Seele'. She fell into an unprecedented panic.
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I have a little challenge for you! For every 100 POWER STONES, I'll release ONE EXTRA CHAPTER!