Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

The Academy City was bustling with activity, and Sakiko Toyokawa was just one of the many ordinary people who had entered it.

She had only been scammed out of some money; others had been even unluckier, tricked into joining the Kengan Association and becoming "point mules."

What was a point mule?

As the name suggests, it was someone whose points were farmed by others. Newcomers to the Academy City had no idea of the true value of Kengan Association points. They would often register with their personal IDs, receive the free introductory points, and then have those points cheaply bought out from under them.

This tragedy would only change once they realized the importance of Stigma Armor. Those without this awareness often ended up as suckers.

Even catching the culprits was useless. The Academy City's networks and public announcements heavily emphasized these warnings. The welcome pamphlets were filled with pages of precautions, and fearing they would be missed or lost, they even distributed extra leaflets.

But what was truly exasperating was that some people were in such a hurry to get in that they didn't read any of it!

What could Bronya do? It was all done on a legitimate trading platform, a willing transaction that couldn't be considered fraud.

The only trouble was that after these people had given away their points, the first thing they had to do was fight others without armor.

They had to take a few beatings in the Kengan Association to earn back the points they had lost. They wouldn't die, but the pain would be no less real.

The best thing about the Academy City was that it guaranteed you wouldn't die from fighting.

But there was nothing Bronya could do. All she could do every day was call Noldrei and complain.

Now, before she even had a chance to complain, Seele had brought her even more work.

"Bronya-Oneechan, has the security team's workload increased again?"

Seele looked at Bronya with concern. She suddenly felt that Noldrei was being a bit of a tyrant. How old was this girl? To be exploited so relentlessly?

Bronya ran a hand through her hair, and several gray strands came away tangled in her fingers.

She sighed, sinking her body into the massive office chair.

"Seele, this management work is really too difficult. Even though the security team is constantly recruiting more people who can use Stigma Battlesuit, their Battlesuit isn't suitable for security work."

"The Kaslana Stigma Battlesuit emphasizes strength and combat recovery, with its primary will expressed in fighting the Honkai. Although the combat-oriented supplements it provides are powerful, but..."

Bronya said helplessly, "Where are the Honkai for them to fight and train against now? Without Honkai combat training, they can't fully share in the benefits of the Kaslana Stigma. And if they can't fully inherit those benefits, they need to supplement it with other Stigmas from elsewhere."

"Here, for example, is the new Stigma Battlesuit made from Mei's Stigma. Her Stigma mainly improves explosive power, speed, and precision. This type of Battlesuit is very suitable for our security team's work. It's just that the construction phase of the Battlesuit requires people to re-experience it."

"And Mei-Neechan's Stigma isn't that easy to work with. Overall, while it's not as beneficial for modifying the body's genetic information as the Kaslana Stigma Battlesuit, it's more suitable for people who can concentrate on their work and have a more introverted emotional disposition to synchronize with."

"However, this type of Stigma Battlesuit can easily lead to problems with controlling Honkai energy."

Bronya said with difficulty, "The problem with our security team isn't a lack of equipment or a simple shortage of manpower. It's that there aren't enough people who meet our requirements and can basically use Stigma Battlesuit."

She said with a tearful face, "We just can't compete with the Kengan Association! Their point reward system is perfectly designed. As long as you get in, you can get what you need. Although you get beaten black and blue often, there's no shortage of newcomers. You don't even have to worry about whether they're new or not."

What was the security team? It was a special management position with a public nature.

In terms of cost, it was impossible for it to be self-sustaining like the Kengan Association. From its inception, this kind of public position would only have one result: loss, loss, loss...

"Bronya-Oneechan, we can't go on like this. And just relying on so-called AI processing is no longer enough to classify this work well. No, that doesn't sound right. What Seele means is, the existing task classifications can no longer give us a clearer conclusion."

Seele explained her difficulties. For example, in many cases involving the relationship between points and currency, she found it hard to determine whether points should be considered digital currency or physical currency.

This was because points were highly tied to Stigma Battlesuit, and the performance of Stigma Battlesuit depended entirely on each individual's synchronization. Even with two people at the same stage with the same Stigma, the power they displayed would be completely different.

So, for many new types of crimes, Bronya and Seele had not been able to establish a standard for evaluating them.

Without a standard system, you couldn't even determine how to punish, or to what extent.

Everything relied on Bronya's... intuition! And the AI's data analysis.

However, the AI's data wasn't born out of thin air. For problems that weren't difficult, the AI handled them quite well. But some problems were too twisted. The AI would simply choose an extreme direction and then give up.

This was when Bronya needed to step in and think.

But the results weren't good, so Bronya would usually just call Noldrei and ask how to handle these problems.

Under this kind of reliance, Bronya only felt more and more mentally exhausted.

Bronya's difficulties were Seele's difficulties. The two little girls wrinkled their faces as they dealt with these brain-aching problems.

"I'll think about it again. I'll try to solve this problem without relying on him."

As Bronya was thinking this, she received another incident that was both hilarious and infuriating.

During a Kengan Association fight, someone had punched off a piece of their opponent's flesh, and then, while the opponent wasn't looking, popped it into their mouth. They then immediately sold the opponent's genetic information to earn points.

How was Bronya supposed to handle something so absurd? She didn't even know if she should shut down the Kengan Association's arena. They couldn't possibly check if both parties had stolen each other's flesh and genes every time they entered and exited the ring, could they?

How could they possibly check for that?!

In the end, Bronya chose to call Noldrei. And when the call connected, it was Rita who answered.

Bronya sighed. This was another one of her troubles.