Honkai: You're telling me this difficulty is from Honkai Impact 3?!

(Volume VII: World Puppet Stage)

As the old saying goes, the early bird gets the worm...

But Shu says—

"zzzzzz..."

"Wakey wakey—!"

With an excited laugh, the warmth and heavy sense of security vanished from Shu's side. He groggily opened his eyes to see the ceiling, and several heads peeking at him from the side of his bed.

Shu's still-drowsy head turned stiffly to look at the three heads lined up neatly.

Kiana was holding his blanket, a brilliant, mischievous grin on her face.

Yes... that's right, a brilliant, mischievous grin.

"Big Brother Shu, it's already twelve noon. If you don't get up soon, you'll miss lunch," Sirin said, leaning against the bed and poking his cheek.

Shu: "..."

He silently turned to look at the alarm clock. It was indeed twelve o'clock. With a long sigh, he rubbed his groggy head and sat up.

A dull ache ran through his body as he moved, a feeling that took him back to the days of his chaotic sleep schedule, when sleeping too long would leave him sore all over.

As Shu got up, Kiana had already folded the blanket twice and placed it at the foot of the bed. After letting out a long sigh, Shu turned his dead-fish eyes to the third person in the room.

"Why are you with them?"

Schrödinger held a small black cat in her arms, looking expressionlessly at Shu as he questioned her.

"Joachim's mission for me is to understand you," Schrödinger replied matter-of-factly. Her voice was devoid of emotion, but the micro-expressions on her face clearly indicated that her purpose might not be so simple.

"..." Shu was silent for a moment. "My daily routine, too?"

"To avoid missing the important scene of you eating bugs to replenish your energy," Schrödinger said very seriously.

"Shu isn't some alien!" Kiana immediately caught on to Schrödinger's meaning. A triumphant smile appeared on Schrödinger's face, as if she had been waiting for someone to get her joke.

This place was much more interesting than the stuffy lab. None of those old fogeys could keep up with the times; they didn't even know how to pick up on a joke.

Shu looked speechlessly at the two of them, unable to understand why they were discussing such things here.

It seemed their only purpose in coming was to wake him up. After seeing Shu get out of bed, Kiana led the way out of his room. It was Mei's turn to cook, and Shu didn't even need to guess where Kiana was headed.

He went to the bathroom to brush his teeth, mechanically moving his arm while helplessly recalling the events of the past few days.

Being woken up like this... he seemed to be getting used to it...

After leaving the dreamscape of Babylon, they had met up with Joachim's group. Schrödinger had been left on the train by Joachim as a liaison, while the others had to rush back to the City of the Future to manage the situation.

And so, Schrödinger, along with her little black cat, became a regular on the train. The second new member of the train was Sirin.

Although she wasn't the Herrscher herself, just a child who had briefly possessed a Herrscher's authority, that brief possession had given her an extremely high adaptability to Honkai energy, and she could even use a sliver of her former powers.

Though it was limited to making a magic wand glow faintly and making a Homu stand up and walk a few steps.

She had no combat ability, but Shu hadn't expected her to fight anyway. It was still too early for her to be involved in such things.

Perhaps she could team up with Li Sushang and they could build the future of the MOTH together?

He reached out to turn on the faucet, intending to splash some cold water on his face, but he shivered the moment his hand touched the cold water. With a sigh, he turned the handle, switching to warm water.

Feeling much more awake, Shu changed into a normal set of clothes and left his room, heading for the dining car.

Everyone on the train was there. A lavish lunch of eight dishes and a soup was spread out for the six of them.

Schrödinger and Sirin had thought the same thing during their first meal. They had both ended up not getting enough to eat because they were too slow, and Mei had to cook an extra dish for them.

Schrödinger quickly figured out why Kiana could eat so much, recalling where she came from. She had often visited the Kaslana estate with Joachim for exchanges and tours.

It was no exaggeration to say that every meal there was an imperial banquet.

Men and women alike, once they were at the table, they were on the battlefield. The motto was: you can lose your child, but you can't lose your chicken leg.

Schrödinger seriously wondered if the Kaslanas were just being polite in their presence and refraining from rolling up their sleeves and fighting, or if they were completely ignoring them and just started flinging chopsticks and spoons into each other's bowls right in front of them.

A father snatching a meatball that his own daughter had just picked up... why would she have such a dream?

Schrödinger could at least understand. Sirin, on the other hand, was just staring wide-eyed, as if she were identifying a popular internet cryptid.

How did she do it? The Key of Remembrance had said this person could eat, but she never imagined it was this much!

That was eight dishes! And each plate was piled high! She finished it all by herself? And she still looked like she wasn't full?!

Shu greeted everyone, then watched as the little black cat jumped onto his seat and started digging into his lunch.

Sensing something, Schrödinger immediately turned around and saw the little black cat enjoying its "state banquet." She decisively put down the chopsticks she was still struggling with and snatched the cat off the table.

In the two days since it had been on the train, the little black cat had visibly gotten fatter. Schrödinger insisted that its fur had just gotten a little longer.

As a great scientific researcher, she would never admit that she had a talent for fattening up anything she raised, even if she had managed to make Nobel grow chubby legs, sent Albert running on a treadmill late at night, and made Tesla start refusing high-calorie foods...

Okay, her talents were definitely all over the place.

The little black cat was stretched out by Schrödinger and then unceremoniously tossed under the table.

Before Schrödinger and Mei could get up to get him another serving, Shu sighed and served himself a small bowl of rice, then sat down in the empty seat left for him.

"Just that little?" Kiana peeked over. The two mouthfuls of rice at the bottom of Shu's bowl were a stark contrast to her own, which was packed so tightly it formed a mound.

"Not hungry," Shu said. In reality, it didn't matter if he ate or not now. [Wish] would take care of those problems.

He just felt it was a bit too wasteful of [Hope]. Conservation had to start from the little things, which was why he still ate at regular times.