The dream ended. It was unclear if Sirin's wish was fulfilled and she let go, or if she was just too tired and chose to rest. But in the end, Sirin returned her body to Kiana in her sleep.
Ryn carried the unconscious Kiana out of the Imaginary Space.
A thousand years in a dream, yet less than half a minute had passed in reality.
At Schicksal HQ, Fu Hua, who had burst into Otto's office to call for backup, breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Ryn leaving with Kiana on Otto's satellite monitor.
Otto, pale and drenched in cold sweat, glanced at Fu Hua, then took a few more looks at the newly installed door that Fu Hua had kicked open, falling into deep thought.
"Strange... I feel like I've been through this before... By the way, did I just zone out? Am I too tired? This is truly an ominous dream..."
Otto shook his head. It was just a matter of dying hundreds or thousands of times in various ways. It had been quite painful during the dream, but now that he was awake, it didn't seem like a big deal anymore.
"It's rare to see you lose your focus like that."
Shadow Knight: Moonbeam automatically disassembled after Fu Hua deactivated her combat mode. Fu Hua, weakened from overloading the battlesuit, had a trickle of blood flow from the corner of her mouth.
Otto, who was still lamenting his kicked-in door, saw the blood on Fu Hua's lips and her swaying, unsteady figure. He stood up, wanting to support her.
But out of propriety, Otto only placed a hand on Fu Hua's shoulder as she was about to fall, steadying her.
The moment Otto touched her, Fu Hua immediately became alert. Otto switched from supporting to lightly patting her shoulder, like a superior commending a subordinate for a completed mission.
"The mission was completed perfectly. The Gem of Serenity has been successfully recovered. It didn't trigger a Great Honkai Eruption. You've saved the world once again."
"Mm... If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving now."
Fu Hua wiped the blood from her mouth, forcing herself to pull together, and brushed Otto's hand away. Anyone could see her in a weakened state, but not Otto.
Otto spread his hands and said with a helpless smile, "Why do you always have to put on a front with me? Even if you endure it and don't use Schicksal's equipment for a check-up, any discerning person can see that your physical condition is already very poor."
Fu Hua: "No need for your concern. I won't die before I complete our deal."
Otto: "Heh... Looking at the current situation, is there any possibility of that deal being realized?"
Fu Hua raised an eyebrow, staring at Otto seriously. "Are you thinking of breaking the contract?"
"No, the terms of the deal need to be amended. There's no longer a need to create an opportunity for Kiana to master the Herrscher of the Void's powers, so the content of the deal needs to be changed."
"And then, what do I need to do..."
"Nothing. Just stay alive. Our deal is complete, and any subsequent deals should have new conditions. I will protect Shenzhou, along with this world... although I don't think I need to do much more..."
"You'd better... I hope you can truly honor your promise. Otherwise, whether you respect me or not, I will definitely make you pay the price."
"Heh heh..."
Otto gave a dry laugh, then patted Fu Hua's shoulder and walked out of the office.
"You don't have many years left. I've already arranged a dedicated Soulium medical pod for you, ready at any time.
Fu Hua, you know I've never lied to you. But if you really don't trust me... then go find your friend Ryn! I'd rather not be offering incense at your grave the next time we talk in a few years."
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"Dead?"
Otto looked at the urgent message from Amber, which listed Schicksal scientists, one after another, falling into an unwakeable, vegetative state.
"No, they've become vegetables..." Amber shook her head and continued, "According to the investigation, almost everyone at Schicksal experienced a brief lapse in consciousness a short while ago. These individuals, however, never regained consciousness. Tests indicate their consciousness was taken away by an unknown entity, leaving their bodies behind as human vegetables..."
Otto quickly scanned the list of personnel who had fallen into a coma and found that all of them had, to varying degrees, participated in the Babylon experiment back then.
Otto disliked these people, even found them repulsive. They had disobeyed his orders and mission, and under the influence of the Honkai, had lost their sanity, their reverence for life, and forgotten the purpose of these experiments.
It was no longer an experiment to research a Honkai antibody, but a nightmarish feast where the demons of Babylon cannibalized each other.
Seeing that all the personnel were tagged with the Babylon experiment, and recalling his own dream of being sliced into a thousand pieces and dying countless times, Otto understood what had happened.
"Pull the plug. It's pointless. Schicksal's resources aren't for raising these pests. Throw them out and announce to the public that these people contacted aliens, intending to plunge the entire world into a coma, turning Earth into a slaughterhouse ripe for the picking."
Amber, who was taking notes on Otto's words, suddenly paused. "Based on projections, this coma situation might not be limited to Schicksal, but could be global. Directly blaming it on aliens, isn't that a bit rash?"
"Can humans currently transfer everyone's consciousness away all at once?"
"Based on known technological levels, it's not very realistic, but if it was a Herrscher..." Amber began to flip through her tablet, looking up the known abilities of Herrschers. It seems the Herrscher of Sentience could do it, right? Did the Herrscher of Sentience appear?
"Ahem, don't take it so seriously."
Otto quickly interrupted Amber's search. If he didn't stop her, she would surely find a possible method to tell him.
"Just follow my instructions. And create a big story about how our people thwarted this alien plot. Use Ryn's 'Honkai Impact 3rd' thing, write this incident into the main story, and call it 'Nightmare Under the Moonlight'."
"Alright, I'll get on it right away."
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Otto: "What did you do, Ryn? Aren't you going to explain?"
Ryn: "Explain what? Wasn't it all the aliens' doing?"