"Chi chi chi!"
Numby screamed and burrowed back into Topaz's arms. Hearing the cry, Levi once again felt speechless.
"I'm not flying into a rage from embarrassment!"
"Fire alert! Fire alert!"
After detecting high temperatures inside the ship, the ship's system sounded an alarm.
Seeing the flames burning on Levi's body, Topaz immediately thought of the scene she had witnessed before and hurriedly spoke up, telling Levi to put the fire out.
But Levi himself was completely confused about what was going on with him right now.
He had no idea how to extinguish the flames on his body.
'What, it's not like I can just put it out because I want to?!'
'Where would I even get that kind of power!'
Whoosh!
The next second, the flames on his body vanished abruptly, as if they had never existed at all.
Levi couldn't help but feel puzzled about what exactly had happened to him.
He raised his head, looked at Topaz, who had clearly let out a sigh of relief, and asked, "Did you… do some kind of modification experiment on me?"
Topaz didn't answer his question. Looking at his confused expression, she asked instead, "You don't know your own abilities?"
"I'm just an ordinary person. What abilities could I possibly have!"
'An ordinary person… if someone who can produce flames that burn in a vacuum counts as ordinary... Then wouldn't most people in the universe be useless? Disabled?'
Topaz almost laughed at Levi's words.
At first, she thought he was cracking some kind of deadpan joke, but the growing confusion on his face didn't seem fake at all.
Topaz briefly described the scene she had witnessed when she first encountered him.
"If you were an ordinary person, how could you remain unharmed in such a harsh environment like a vacuum?"
To survive in a vacuum, at the very least, you would need the protection of Path power.
Otherwise, you'd be dead in a matter of seconds.
Listening to Topaz, Levi already had some guesses about what had happened to him.
'Could it be…!'
Levi's eyes widened slightly.
To confirm his thoughts, he opened the chat group and looked at his status panel.
[Name: Levi]
[Identity: Administrator]
[Abilities: Hacking (MAX), Kaslana Stomach, Kaslana Monster Strength, Kaslana Gun-Kata, Archery Mastery (MAX), Honkai Resistance (High), Herrscher of Flames…]
At first glance, Levi's eyes were drawn straight to the Abilities section.
Looking at the newly appeared ability [Herrscher of Flames], Levi showed an expression of "just as I thought."
[Honkai Resistance (High)] already gave him the possibility of becoming a Herrscher. Qingque's little fish charm pushed that possibility even higher.
Add to that the Key of Destruction, the Greatsword of Flaming Core, which granted him pseudo-Herrscher power.
All the conditions had been met.
If nothing unexpected happened, he was almost guaranteed to become the Herrscher of Flames.
It was just that Phantylia's appearance caused him to die once, accelerating the process of becoming a Herrscher.
Or rather, his death itself was the key to becoming a Herrscher.
Just like the Herrscher of Corruption, harmless as a little girl while alive, only able to become a Herrscher after dying once.
"No wonder even my hiccups were shooting sparks…"
He had thought it was just residual Honkai energy left in his body. Now it seemed it had all been Honkai's way of foreshadowing things.
While he was feeling excited, Levi suddenly thought of something and immediately closed his eyes to check whether there was anything extra inside his body.
Herrscher consciousness was a seriously disgusting thing.
And his method of checking was to keep insulting it nonstop.
If there really was a Herrscher consciousness full of negative emotions, there was no way it could tolerate being cursed like that.
'Damn it, even I'm about to lose my temper cursing myself, how could a Herrscher consciousness endure it?!'
Listening to the extremely mother-heavy insults echoing in his own mind, what little decency Levi had left was quietly aching.
In this situation, if a Herrscher consciousness filled with negative emotions still didn't show up, then it could basically be confirmed that it didn't exist.
He himself was already about to snap, yet the Herrscher consciousness could endure it.
'Then what's wrong with letting it take over the body!'
Seeing Levi playing with little flames there, Topaz suddenly realized something. 'Could it be that this guy just stepped onto a Path?'
If that were really the case…
To be able to unleash energy of that level right after stepping onto a Path, this guy's future would be limitless.
'Should I try recruiting him into the company?'
Topaz shook her head.
The company still hadn't given her any operational funds, and now she was supposed to go out of her way to moonlight as HR too?
Someone this talented could just wait for them to discover him themselves.
———
[In the Chat Group]
After Levi had spoken for a while, someone finally responded.
[Elysia: ? You're not dead?!]
Glancing at the memorial tablet she had set up in her room, Elysia decisively extinguished the three incense sticks she had just lit and tossed them into the trash.
———
[Teyvat]
After grinding commissions all morning, Lumine was now standing with Paimon on a wild plain.
Looking at the stone tablet she had planted in the ground, Lumine sighed.
She squatted down, picked up her Dull Blade, and carved Levi's likeness from her memory onto it.
Finally, she carved six large characters.
Tomb of Our Late Friend Levi.
Paimon propped up her chin, looked at the words on the tablet, and asked Lumine, "Is Levi dead?"
She knew who Levi was. Back when Mondstadt suffered the dragon disaster, Lumine had called that pink-haired girl Levi.
It was just that the portrait on the stone tablet looked a bit… unlike him.
After all, a pink-haired girl had absolutely nothing in common with something labeled as a green turtle.
"Yes… he's dead…"
Lumine stood up, looking at the tombstone before her, her expression very downcast.
She might not like how Kiana and Levi abused their privileges to act lawlessly.
But he was still her friend.
When a friend suddenly passes away, how could Lumine not feel sad?
"…What is Elysia saying in the group?"
Lumine wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and opened the chat group to take a look.
She immediately kicked the tombstone flying, then slashed it into pieces with her sword.
The smoothness of her movements left Paimon completely dumbfounded.
Lumine clapped her hands and turned around, walking straight toward Mondstadt.
———
[Elysia: You're not dead???]
[Lumine: Great disappointment. (Sad)]
[Elysia: @Stelle @Kiana]
[Elysia: You two! Levi isn't dead! Don't rush into setting up tombstones yet!]
[Levi: ? It's only been this long and you've already set up my tombstones?]
[Elysia sends a photo]
[Elysia: I've already bought the spirit money, this amount is guaranteed to let you live in hell for a hundred years!]
'What the hell did I do to deserve going to hell...' Looking at Elysia's message, Levi complained silently.
Besides, hell doesn't even accept spirit money, okay.
The ones that accept spirit money are the underworld officials.
[Lumine: Heh heh heh, he really does deserve to go to hell.]
'A scumbag who tricked my tears deserves to be loved by big-DJ-cute-girls in hell!'
[Levi: Here we go again! Here we go again!]
[Levi: I'm telling you, don't provoke me right now. I'm insanely strong at the moment!]
Levi adjusted his sitting posture, brushed his hair back, and sparks followed the path of his hand.
'Right now, I'm invincible!'
[Levi: Careful or I'll perform an "I don't eat beef" for you.]
[Elysia: If you don't eat it, I will. I love beef.]
[Levi: …]
[Lumine: The pure, silly one is unbeatable!]
[Levi: Let's stop with the random nonsense… why haven't Stelle and Kiana shown up yet?]
They'd been chatting for quite a while already.
And with both him and Elysia @-ing them, they should've at least come to take a look at the group.
Thinking back to that bad premonition he'd felt earlier, combined with Kiana and Stelle not appearing, it was hard not to overthink things.
Levi's brows slowly furrowed.
He turned to Topaz, who was watching him, and asked, "Miss Topaz, how long until the ship can jump?"
Topaz replied, "Anytime."
As long as she gave the order, the ship could jump immediately.
Topaz turned her head away. 'Why does this guy give off such a strange feeling?'
It felt like he had some kind of connection with her…
But she didn't know what it was.
"This is really strange… initiate warp!"