["Ahhh? I'm here!"]
Like a student dozing off behind an upright textbook in class, jolted awake by the teacher's roaring voice that felt like a tidal wave about to sweep the book away, the system snapped to attention and replied in confusion.
"What the hell is going on, why is this happing?"
Her fair, delicate arms were clad in lotus-petal sleeves, her waist as slender as a willow swaying in the spring breeze. Her snow-white, slender legs were wrapped in gradient blue thigh-high stockings, which, paired with a blue miniskirt, created a mesmerizing "absolute territory."
The visual impact of a 2D character versus a real girl appearing before one's eyes was on completely different dimensions.
But at this moment, Caelus had no mind to appreciate this unparalleled beauty he had never encountered in his previous life.
[Isn't this just a normal character card?]
The system looked utterly baffled, seemingly unable to comprehend Kong's agitated reaction.
"You call this fucking 'normal'?"
[Y-yes, that's right.]
The system replied weakly, lacking confidence but full of conviction.
"I... you... this... damn it!"
Caelus and Seele were so infuriated by this that they raised their hands to their foreheads, feeling their blood pressure skyrocket.
But when anger crossed a certain threshold, Caelus suddenly calmed down.
Wait, this way of using the character card doesn't seem so bad after all!
Rubbing her face, which felt as soft and smooth as a freshly peeled egg, and then reaching into her cleavage, the delicate, realistic texture and the soft, yielding sensation made Seele realize:
This body was completely, entirely his.
Even if Caelus's original body were to be annihilated into dust, this body would still carry "his" consciousness.
This character card was a second life!
Looking at it from this angle, Caelus's thoughts suddenly became clear.
Like the first person to discover that the pungent durian actually had an addictive fragrance when eaten.
No, no!
How could he compare the adorable little Seele to a smelly durian?
Whether in taste or scent, little Seele was fragrant and delightful~!
Caelus twitched his nose, lowered his head, and inhaled the enchanting fragrance from Seele's chest—a blend of oceanic notes, butterfly pea flower, and cream, forming her natural scent.
The dazzling whiteness and delicate fragrance stirred his soul. In that moment, Caelus's mind raced.
He suddenly had a bold idea!
However, before this bold idea could fully take root in his mind, a sharp, sudden pain in his chest snapped him back to reality.
Now was not the time for wild fantasies—he had to hurry and help!
But then again...
Seele stared blankly at her small, outstretched hands, clenching them.
She was Seele now, alright, but she didn't have Seele's combat experience, did she?
She could, however, sense the energy within her body, which was distinctly different from the imaginary energy in Caelus's body, along with a small amount of energy entirely unlike either.
Without a doubt, this was...
"Honkai energy and quantum power?"
Seele tentatively mobilized the power within her. The combined Honkai energy and quantum power far surpassed the imaginary energy in Caelus's body.
The girl's innate talent, much like her "front armor," surpassed others of her age. Forget being "wife material" in the future—she was already "wife material" now!
She retrieved the scythe crafted with particle vibration technology from the system backpack—Obsidian Cutter.
A massive, razor-sharp bluish-black scythe materialized out of thin air. Seele reached out to grab it, but its sheer weight immediately dragged her small hand down.
"So heavy!"
Compared to the lightweight tachi-style weapons, this thing was easily more than twice as heavy.
Seele gripped the dark silver handle with both hands, tilting her head back to gaze at the sleek, technologically advanced black blade.
Against the girl's delicate and petite frame, the scythe appeared overwhelmingly large.
She casually swung it a few times, executing a self-taught scythe technique—haphazard slashing.
But when she tried to mimic the "Dark Seele' by twirling the scythe with her leg, the ungrateful weapon showed no appreciation for Seele's legs
The scythe slipped from her leg and crashed downward. Seele panicked, ducking and covering her head, but the sharp blade still managed to slice off two strands of her hair.
Picking up the scythe from the ground, Seele and Caelus exchanged a silent glance for several seconds.
"...No time to use the learning chip."
After learning from the character card incident, Caelus had carefully inquired about the system's learning chip mechanics.
Just as the note mentioned, using this thing on the battlefield was essentially self-inflicted crowd control.
And not just any crowd control—it would put the user into a deep sleep for hours on end.
That was just asking for trouble!
"With my current physical condition and abundant Honkai energy, even if I'm just brute-forcing it, I should at least be able to take down those common Void Grunts, right?"
Holding the giant scythe that towered over her, Seele turned and dashed toward the battlefield.
The lingering pain and fatigue Caelus still felt, combined with the fact that Star was struggling in battle, urged her on.
The automatically sensing cabin door slid open. Just as Seele was about to step out, a system prompt echoed in her mind, abruptly halting her in her tracks.
["Um, Host, actually... this system's character cards come with an auto-battle function."]
"Huh?"
Seele lifted her head, a dazed look flashing in her sea-blue eyes.
"There's such a function? Why didn't you say so earlier!"
Who would manually control their character when auto-battle was an option?
It wasn't like this was some high-difficulty event stage where every point mattered.
Besides, as a complete newbie, she could even learn some combat techniques from the AI.
["Well, you never asked."]
It had already mentioned that it was a system with ambition.
Hands-free auto-battle was one of the highly praised features in Star Rail—of course it had to borrow that!
"Hey, what the—!"
The corner of her mouth twitched slightly. Little Seele uttered words completely unbefitting her soft and adorable appearance—enough to make Duck (Bronya) faint on the spot from shock if she saw it.
Although the system was a bit of a mess, at least its functions were genuinely useful.
The blue-and-white-dressed girl with navy-blue hair immediately shifted her demeanor. Holding the scythe, a faint smirk curled at the corner of her lips.
"Alright, bring it on!"
She tossed her head, her bangs swaying with the motion.
"System, show me Seele's limits!"
Seele waved her small hand, her eyes shining brightly:
"Activate auto-battle!"
AI, go wild!
["You got it! Just sit back and watch!"]
The host's positive feedback on the auto-battle function pleased the system. Its efforts in "borrowing" features hadn't been in vain.
The moment the system's voice faded, Seele felt her consciousness slowly sinking, as if she were falling into the depths of the sea.
For Caelus, whether it was one soul inhabiting two bodies or the current state—half of his consciousness sinking into the depths of his heart, entering the "backstage" of his body while the other half remained lucid—it was an extraordinary sensory experience he had never encountered before.
But soon, the anticipation on Caelus's face turned into astonishment.
The girl before him had changed in demeanor!
Yet it wasn't the cold, mechanical aura he had expected from a character controlled by a super-AI—the kind of detached, ruthless combat machine vibe unique to top-tier entities.
Instead, she exuded a delicate fragility from within, evoking a sense of pity and tenderness in anyone who saw her.
...
Deep, lightless darkness, a void that devoured all things, an absolute silence devoid of any sound, an abyss so black it seemed bottomless.
—This was the Quantum Sea as perceived by human senses.
[Seele, Seele, wake up!]
The space was deathly silent; the call came from within.
Seele slowly opened her eyes.
The light in her sea-blue pupils had been erased by the void, leaving only emptiness and dullness.
The voice called out several more times before a glimmer of awareness finally gathered in those vacant eyes.
For an ordinary person, prolonged exposure to absolute darkness and absolute silence would be an unimaginable torture.
This girl had endured such punishment for years.
[Don't just space out like this—you'll go insane!]
The anxious tone was unusually devoid of tsundere arrogance; the feigned coldness could not conceal the underlying concern.
Seele's ability to persist in the void was largely thanks to Dark Seele, who tirelessly engaged her in conversation.
But no matter how intimate two people were, conversing 24 hours a day would eventually exhaust all topics.
Every time the "teasing" stopped and Seele fell silent, it was the moment Dark Seele felt most anxious.
"Other me, how long... has it been?"
Seele's voice was soft, as if awakening from a long slumber.
[I don't know, and it doesn't matter. Look, over there—a World Bubble. Go check it out.]
This was the second reason Seele hadn't gone mad: she could enter the occasional World Bubbles that drifted by.
Though most were lifeless, on the verge of extinction.
Some were frozen tundras stretching for miles, others barren deserts. Yet even the cold and decay were preferable to absolute nothingness.
"...Mm."
Seele never refused the other's requests. Struggling, she swam toward the broken World Bubble.
[Don't worry, crybaby. We will definitely find a way out of this damned place! Think of your sister Bronya.]
Though she couldn't see Seele's expression, Dark Seele could sense the hollowness in her heart—her emotions were nearing a breaking point. Reluctantly, she brought up "Bronya."
"...Mm!"
At the sound of that name, a glimmer of determination and longing flickered in Seele's eyes.
She had to persevere, to find a way to escape.
Familiar with the process of contacting a World Bubble—a routine she had repeated over a dozen times in an immeasurable span—her body dissolved into a phantom composed of countless quantum pixels, like countless tiny building blocks being disassembled, only to reassemble upon entering the World Bubble.
The moment Seele's body materialized inside the withered World Bubble, her eyes snapped open.
The sea-blue had been replaced by a bloody crimson.
"Seele, Seele! What's wrong with you? Seele!?"
For the first time since her existence began, Dark Seele could no longer feel her connection with "Seele," plunging her into unprecedented panic.