Preparation

After several rounds of intense competition, the two were evenly matched, agreeing to fight again another day.

The reason was simple: Bronya was too engrossed in the game, and Mei discovered the truth that she hadn't slept all night. She was now lecturing her with finger-pointing and scolding over the network cable.

Raiden Mei was like a mother hen, leading two unruly brats. Besides that, she also had to occasionally go to the next room to take care of a certain drunkard who often forgot to turn off the lights at night.

This was the daily life of a certain ordinary Valkyrie dormitory in St. Freya High.

What can I say?

Headmistress Theresa should give her an extra housekeeper's salary…

Lin Wei, far across the ocean, didn't know about those "heartwarming daily stories" in the Far East, nor was he interested in peeping into other people's lives.

He was just lying comfortably in his computer chair, stretching languidly.

Recalling the painful memory of himself frantically cheating back then, trying every trick he could think of, and still getting utterly crushed by Bronya, Lin Wei felt a sense of cathartic satisfaction.

What can I say?

Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river [idiom meaning fortunes change]; without the buff of technology, Bronya was nothing more than this!

"Serves you right for game development to bomb so badly in the future!"

Lin Wei thought maliciously.

For a globally renowned IP-adapted game to bomb to that extent, in some ways, it was also a kind of ability.

"Or… retribution?"

Lin Wei's malicious thoughts became even stranger, because he remembered – Bronya seemed to have asked Kiana to test-play her game for her.

"Kiana is now soloing with Bronya, that tech-freak, at high intensity every day…"

Lin Wei clicked his tongue and tutted, the more he thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed.

"This is truly fighting gods in-game based on pure skill! Kiana, that honest kid… after being tempered like this for two years, even if you put aside her Herrscher-level reaction nerves, she'd probably be ascending to sainthood in the flesh…"

And then, using her game technology that broke through the sky as a foundation to provide feedback and suggestions for improvement for the games Bronya developed.

"Tsk tsk tsk, truly what goes around comes around!"

What goes around comes around, Lin Wei was quite gleeful about this.

Thinking and thinking, he thought of himself again, and couldn't help but sigh, feeling a headache coming on.

He also owed others a lot in the past year or so, and didn't know what he would use to repay this muddled debt in the future.

"Oh well, take it one step at a time…"

If you have too many debts, you don't worry about them anymore, just go with the flow.

This hell-start game of his had already stumbled and bumbled its way to this level today, so he'd just continue to play it, so what if it's hard? Who's afraid of whom!

Lin Wei said his mentality was very stable.

"Judging from Bronya's reaction, she's not completely rejecting me… Maybe still wary and hostile, heh, human nature. But at least, the willingness to communicate and the door hasn't been completely closed by her…"

Lin Wei closed his eyes and rested his mind, while silently calculating.

This was definitely a good thing. At least when he came into contact with the St. Freya High group in the future, he wouldn't face excessively hostile emotions. It could even be considered a bridge to deeper contact.

"It's just, Bronya's attitude… how much of it is due to my previous sincerity, and how much is due to that Seele, who's far beyond this world…?"

Lin Wei opened his eyes, staring blankly at the ceiling, pondering the meaning behind this, and as a variable, what different directions might emerge, and what, within this, he could do…

He had always believed in a principle, to be prepared is to succeed, unprepared is to fail.

Regardless of whether it would really be useful in the future, thinking more beforehand, and preparing a few contingency plans was always a good thing.

… … … … … …

Far East, St. Freya High.

Bronya, after being lectured by Mei-nee with fingers pointed at her forehead for half a day, was again watched by her with strict eyes as she finished breakfast, and was supervised by her to turn off all electronic devices and go to bed.

Then Mei drew the curtains for her, darkening the light in the room, before tiptoeing out of the room – to another room to tug on the ears of a certain guy who refused to get up.

A few minutes later, the gray-haired girl lying motionless in bed suddenly softly recited a command.

"Project Bunny 19C, start up. Neural interface system, connect."

Following her command input, the air beside the bed suddenly appeared to be slightly distorted. A faint blue luster appeared out of thin air, flowing silently like water ripples.

"Bronya, synchronization start."

Then Bronya felt her consciousness as if passing through a tunnel in an instant, arriving in a completely new universe.

When she opened her eyes, what came into view was a sea of data streams, formed by countless "0s" and "1s," converging here, flowing endlessly towards infinity and beyond in her vision.

Her consciousness had come to a vast data space, and Bronya was also extremely familiar with the scenery here.

This was Schicksal's core database. Bronya had once brought Kiana here to help her quickly improve her history class grades.

And this time, she came here again with a different purpose.

"Project Bunny 19C, activate data retrieval function."

Bronya calmly wandered in the data sea, softly issuing commands. A huge humanoid mech appeared out of thin air behind her, embracing her like a knight guarding a princess.

"Retrieval method: take encryption level as retrieval directory, retrieve from low to high, exclude high-level and above encrypted entries; retrieval keyword: 'quantum'; retrieval range: all… command input complete, retrieval start!"

She learned from her previous impetuous visit here, mistakenly barging into the top-secret core area, which led to Overseer Otto being alerted.

Although Overseer Otto had generously not pursued the matter that time, and even helped her and Kiana, Bronya still learned her lesson, setting strict red lines for herself this time to avoid similar accidents happening again.

Although she also knew that the higher the encryption level of the data, the more valuable it was to retrieve and read, she didn't want to cause any more trouble for her companions because of herself, so she chose prudence.

As Bronya's command was issued, countless data streams, like major rivers branching out from the sea, were input into her consciousness through Project Bunny, then passed through her thin body, and re-entered that vast data sea.

The torrent of information was too surging, making her consciousness feel a little dizzy for a moment, as if she was also about to be washed away and scattered into countless "0s" and "1s" of this sea.

Bronya endured the burning pain from the gradually overheating chip in her brain, gritting her teeth to keep herself from crying out in pain.

"If only I had learned more knowledge in this area from Cocolia-mama back then…"

Bronya couldn't help but smile wryly, blaming herself for being too withdrawn back then, otherwise she wouldn't need to use such an extreme method to "catch up" now.

"Seele… Bronya… will definitely bring you out!"

Bronya gritted her teeth, strengthening her belief, to allow herself to persevere a little longer, and absorb a little more knowledge and information.

Not knowing how long had passed, Project Bunny suddenly lit up with a warning red light. Under Bronya's somewhat unwilling resistance, the chip in her brain automatically took over command of her body, issuing the following command:

"Warning! Warning! Machine overheat detected, Bronya, disconnect connection."

"No!"

Bronya still wanted to persevere a little longer, but when she opened her eyes, what she saw was the familiar ceiling, and then an irresistible drowsiness surged up like a tide, making her fall into a deep sleep.

Bronya had originally thought that she would be full of vigilance against Lin Wei.

But ever since Lin Wei contacted her several times, and conveyed the message "Seele is still alive" to her with a firm tone, she had already started to not hate him.

For no other reason than one – he gave her hope that she had never dared to hope for.

This alone was enough for Bronya to be deeply grateful to Lin Wei.

And if Lin Wei was deceiving her with lies, Bronya also vowed that she would kill him and take revenge on him in the most ruthless and cruel way.

But at least for now, she wanted to believe him. Because the future this message represented was very beautiful to her.

Therefore, she chose to accept Lin Wei. Because in her eyes, he was a bridge connecting herself and Seele, and she didn't want to lose this hope.

Even if the final test proved that this was just a dream, she also wanted to dream a little longer now, be happy a little longer.

Even if this was just false hope given to her by others, Bronya didn't want to just wait, and wanted to work hard herself, fight for it, to make it have a greater chance of becoming reality.

First, she had to study, wanted to understand more, wanted to know what exactly the so-called "quantum realm" was.

Otherwise, like a fool with no clue, even if she was really given a chance to save Seele in the future, she probably wouldn't be able to grasp it.

Bronya refused such a future!

This trip was still considered smooth, but would the retrieved information be useful?

Bronya didn't know, but she knew that doing something was better than doing nothing.

In her half-awake, half-dreaming haze, she seemed to see that frail blue-haired girl showing her a smile as beautiful as a butterfly's wings.

Bronya moved her fingers with difficulty, but was already too tired to raise her hand to touch that face she dreamed of day and night.

"Seele… Bronya… won't give up…"

… … … … … …

At the same time,

Schicksal HQ • Aerial Island • Central Cathedral

"Hmm?"

Otto suddenly raised an eyebrow, his gaze leaving the wall-filled screens, and the experimental monitoring data constantly jumping on them, looking towards the core data terminal located here, scratching his chin, and asking himself in some confusion,

"Database has another external access? What does that little girl from Anti-Entropy want to do again?"

After thinking for a moment, he asked without looking up,

"Amber, does Little Theresa have any exams recently?"

Bronya still miscalculated, underestimating the strictness of Otto's surveillance of St. Freya High.

"Overseer, as far as I know, no."

Amber replied decisively, then calmly asked a question,

"Do we need to send a communication to the Far East Branch, asking about their work arrangements recently?"

"No need, Amber. For now, just stay quiet."

Otto smiled slightly, refusing to intervene too early on that end, and then said to himself,

"That's strange… let me see what kind of content you've been browsing?"

Otto swiped his finger, and dense browsing history appeared on his screen, making Otto frown, a little surprised.

"Academic materials and works on the quantum realm? Does Little Theresa's curriculum include these contents?"

"As far as I know, there are indeed some related courses, Overseer."

Amber seemed not to have heard Otto's self-talk, just faithfully performing her duties.

"Heh, interesting…"

Otto stroked his chin, carefully looking at the thousands of retrieval records, feeling a little confused.

"Mostly public content, and some relatively cutting-edge but harmless information, even some already overturned theories… Is the study pressure at St. Freya High already this heavy?"

Impossible!

Otto dismissed these ridiculous thoughts, raised his head and asked Amber,

"Has Anti-Entropy had any strange movements recently?"

The quantum realm was Anti-Entropy's specialty, and Bronya was also from Anti-Entropy. Otto couldn't help but suspect if Anti-Entropy wanted to secretly engage in some ridiculous petty action again.

"Anti-Entropy has indeed had some strange movements recently."

Countless streams of information flowed through Amber's monocle.

"They've recently suddenly begun to strengthen the review of internal personnel, funds, projects, etc., which has also caused a lot of internal conflicts. Currently, it's judged to be another internal strife they've started."

"Is that so? Hehehe, that's really a coincidence… Keep a close eye on them for me."

Otto chuckled coldly, cold light flashing in his eyes.

He considered himself to be very tolerant now, so he absolutely wouldn't allow anyone to cause him trouble at this juncture.

"Yes."

Amber replied, listing this matter as a top priority for execution.

The matter was temporarily settled, and Otto no longer paid attention to it, moving his gaze back to the screens filling his vision.

Soon, he discovered that Amber was still standing there, not leaving.

"Amber, is there anything else?"

"Ah, yes, Overseer, there is one more thing."

Amber was slightly stunned, then replied seriously,

"The Second Lab sent an urgent message, the Valkyries sent there to cooperate with the experiment have all been exhausted. Dr. Maki is urging us to send a new batch of… test subjects as soon as possible."

The words "exhausted" and "test subjects," even with Amber's composure, couldn't help but hesitate slightly.

"Ha!"

Otto's mood plummeted when he heard this news.

"That waste, using up so many of our resources, sacrificing so many Valkyries, but the experiment has made no progress, and he still has the face to urge me? Hahahaha, this is really… too interesting, isn't it?"

Otto vented his dissatisfaction with laughter. Amber remained silent, waiting for new instructions.

"Promise him, Amber."

Otto's voice was very calm. Too many resources and effort had already been invested in the Gem of Serenity experiment. He didn't want to give up like this.

"Yes."

Amber accepted the order, preparing to leave.

"Also…"

Just as she moved her feet, the voice from behind her made her stop again. The Overseer seemed to have new instructions.

"If I remember correctly, Dr. Maki's granddaughter… seems to have also become a Valkyrie, right?"

Otto's mouth curved into a malicious smile, asking Amber.

"Yes, Overseer. Her name is Lynn, and she has now become a B-Rank Valkyrie."

Amber retrieved the data, replying truthfully.

"Is that so, that's really wonderful."

Otto's smile became even more malicious, raising a hand and waving it gently.

"Send her to me, I'm going to personally train her."

"Yes."

Amber took the order. After waiting for a few seconds, confirming that Overseer Otto had no new orders, she turned again to leave.

Seeming to have not heard the gentle tone from behind, like a demon whispering,

"Hehehe…"

"I'm really looking forward to it…"

"When your dear granddaughter also appears on your experimental platform…"

"Dear Dr. Maki…"

"Can you still be as calm and impatient as you are now?"

"Hehehehehe… just thinking about it is interesting…"

"Dear Dr. Maki…"

"You must not disappoint me, okay~?"