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

"Why would you think we know how to do something like alchemy..." Shu looked at Schrödinger, exasperated.

"Just trying my luck. What if you really did know?" Schrödinger replied naturally, as if she had just made a trivial joke.

"Even something like the Honkai has appeared. It's only natural for us to believe that the end of science is theology, right?" Schrödinger said with a nonchalant expression. "I wouldn't be surprised by anything anymore. Even if you said 'Let there be light' right now..."

"I'm not God, and I'm not religious. I don't believe in any religion. I believe in science," Shu sighed, looking helplessly at Schrödinger, who was now crouching down to examine the gold coins.

"Ahem—" Schrödinger coughed abruptly, turning to look at Shu with a rather resentful expression. "Is this what your Shenzhou internet calls 'flexing'?"

"Maybe?" Shu smiled, then turned to look in a certain direction.

Schrödinger followed his gaze but found only a blank wall. She immediately understood that Shu was probably "seeing" something far away through the wall.

"I've already cleared the dangers in this area. There's nothing..." Shu remembered something. "If that corpse reanimates, you can take care of it with your pistol."

Schrödinger nodded. "How long will you need?"

"It's just a crippled Honkai Beast, but it's a bit far..." Shu estimated. "Probably a few minutes. You pick out what you want to take, and I'll start moving it when I get back."

"Actually, you can start moving it right now," Schrödinger said, her eyelids drooping with sleepiness. "These precious metals are very rare. They can be used for everything from basic building materials to electronic components."

So it's for materials?

Shu coughed lightly, a little embarrassed, and turned to leave. "I should probably take care of that Honkai Beast first..."

Watching Shu quickly disappear from the doorway, Schrödinger raised an eyebrow.

Could it be that Shu just thought these things were valuable and called her here to appraise them?

Shu would never admit that was what he was thinking. He found a window, shattered the ornate, colorful stained glass, and saw the gold dust mixed in with the broken shards. He sucked in a sharp breath.

His imagination was truly impoverished... No wonder Otto had asked if he wanted to get to know the upper-class lifestyle...

Shu stepped onto the windowsill, pushed off hard, and jumped out the window, then flew towards his locked-on target.

He had already located the Honkai Beast that had fought Kai. It was a Honkai Emperor, severely injured, but its core was not heavily damaged. It was currently in a slow recovery phase.

It was hidden beneath the snow outside the estate, and its entire body seemed to have mutated.

For a TEMPEST-class mech with almost no close-combat capabilities to push a Honkai Emperor to this point, Kai must have been a combat-series model, right?

But if it had been Quinn here, this Honkai Emperor probably wouldn't have survived.

As Shu thought, his flight speed increased again. He created a sonic boom and quickly stopped above his destination.

Let's make this quick.

Shu didn't overthink it. The cold wind whipped past him, causing his long robe to billow.

A flash of pinkish-purple light flickered in his eyes. The next moment, a loud bang suddenly erupted.

---||---

On the train, Frélle suddenly looked up, glancing around in alarm.

"What... what happened?" she asked timidly, looking at Sirin opposite her.

"I don't know, but there's no need to worry," Sirin replied. She didn't know what had happened either, but she wasn't scared at all, even with Shu not on the train.

Is she really that confident?

Frélle was a little surprised. She didn't know if Sirin's confidence came from herself or from others. The explosion just now had sounded quite large, and the sound was muffled, without any vibration, which meant it had come from far away...

Is it really okay... Frélle lowered her head and continued to eat her pineapple bun in small bites.

Although this commoner food wasn't very pretty and left crumbs... it tasted quite good. Frélle was enjoying it.

---||---

Meanwhile, on the snowy plains, Shu floated above a large crater that was emitting a large amount of white steam from sublimation. He searched the area carefully again, and after confirming there were no remnants, he turned and started back the way he came.

An attack of this level was no longer difficult for him. The Honkai energy from the two cores in his body had greatly reduced the restrictions on his use of his authorities.

For example, [Hope] could be mixed with some "inferior" Honkai energy to reduce consumption, and [Wish] could be sustained longer with Honkai energy.

Of course, the biggest gain was still the [Hope] he had obtained from the dreams of all the children of the civilization in the dreamscape. There was so much [Hope] that Shu felt he would never have to worry about running out in his lifetime.

As long as he didn't go all out...

If he really had to enter that fused state, all this [Hope] would probably only last for...

Three days... maybe?

---||---

Jumping back through the window he had jumped out of, Shu quickly returned to the dragon's hoard. He immediately saw Schrödinger lying on the pile of gold coins, her eyes closed in a light sleep.

"...What are you doing?" Shu asked after a two-second silence.

"I'm feeling what it's like to sleep on a pile of money..." Schrödinger said softly. "I've fantasized about this since I was little... but back then, I didn't have the ability, and my family wouldn't allow it..."

Her tone was full of emotion, as if she were fulfilling a lifelong wish. Shu stared with dead-fish eyes, his mouth open, but he was at a loss for words.

What's the point of this? Shu was very confused. He frowned, feeling only bewilderment at this "childhood dream."

But out of politeness, he didn't ask further. After lying there for a few seconds, Schrödinger slowly got up and pointed. "Take all these gold coins. You don't need the silver coins, just take a certain amount.

"And you can take some of these gems, not too many, just a small handful. You can decide what to do with these swords, maybe you can use them. Leave these sets of armor here. They're just handcrafted fine iron, not even special steel."

Shu nodded. He raised both hands, and all the items Schrödinger had just pointed at slowly floated up, like dancing sprites, and flew into a wooden chest nearby.

"Then let's go see that android gentleman..." Schrödinger's expression was a little strange.