"This time when we go out to search for survivors, we won't be bringing everyone back to the base. I hope you understand that." After arranging for the two similar-aged girls to interact with each other, Raven pulled Chen Luo aside into a corner and said.
Raven was no pushover. Even when doing good deeds, she had her standards.
In Raven's view, children were the most malleable and most worth saving group. Not for any potential future benefits they might yield, but simply because they lacked complicated ulterior motives.
Adults, on the other hand, always had some sort of agenda, especially in a base currently occupied by only two children. Raven absolutely could not risk letting survivors with ill intentions into the base.
It was foreseeable that Sora and Miyu would likely be staying in Nagazora for a while. Until Raven saved enough money to buy that long-coveted island, they would probably remain here.
Under such circumstances, letting an adult stay with them for an extended period… the consequences…
"Don't worry about that. I'm not some naive do-gooder either, and I have a pretty good sense for judging people's character," Chen Luo assured her, patting his chest.
With Little Senti's mind-reading ability, discerning someone's nature was easy.
Especially now with the Heart Demon's Essence, it was even simpler for Little Senti to see how likely someone was to fall to darkness.
"Good." Seeing Chen Luo so cooperative, Raven sighed in relief.
When on missions, Raven hated nothing more than employers who tried to micromanage professionals.
An overly difficult employer could be a real headache.
"I have an item storage ability, so if we see any supplies along the way, remind me. It'd be good to collect them and stockpile them in this building," Chen Luo told Raven.
"Mm, I understand," Raven nodded.
"Alright, you rest here for a bit, keep them company. We'll meet up in ten minutes, then go hunt zombies and search for survivors," Chen Luo said.
"Fine."
Though curious about what Chen Luo planned to do, as a mercenary, Raven knew one thing: curiosity killed the cat.
Get paid, do the job. Simple.
Seeing Raven so compliant, Chen Luo headed straight downstairs.
This was a commercial building, a fully functional one. Besides ample food supplies, there were all kinds of clothing, like women's apparel and sleepwear. Chen Luo had come here specifically to get some pajamas for Durandal.
He couldn't just let her lie in bed wearing that battered armor, could he?
Chen Luo could be quite humane at times.
Truthfully, during this 7-day event, instead of immediately launching a full-scale slaughter of all zombies, Chen Luo chose to wander around searching for survivors and taking on so many side commissions. It might seem bizarre or even foolish, but in reality, this approach maximized his benefits.
You never knew what method would trigger an achievement, so you had to try everything.
And compared to Primogems and Crystals, achievements were exceptionally precious.
Achievements couldn't be bought with Crystals or Primogems. Chen Luo had never even seen an achievement entry on anyone else. Yet achievements sometimes had incredibly unique effects.
In Chen Luo's view, while exterminating all zombies in Nagazora was important, obtaining achievements was equally crucial.
Like that utterly absurd [Honkai Terminator]—even the Will of Honkai would shake its head at that one.
Moreover, such golden opportunities to easily trigger achievements were only available during this limited-time event, at least for now.
Anyway, rescuing survivors didn't waste much time, so why not? Plus, it helped farm commissions.
After grabbing a large batch of goods from the women's section downstairs, Chen Luo opened the bar and entered the War Domain through it.
Hearing the noise, the Herrscher of Sentience didn't even wait for Chen Luo to enter the classroom before stepping out and extending her hand to him.
"Don't come in yet, she's not dressed," The Herrscher of Sentience said before slamming the door shut.
"Sigh…" Chen Luo sighed.
This was why he'd chosen to enter via the bar. If he'd teleported directly to Durandal's side using a waypoint, he'd probably have two black eyes by now.
Courtesy of the Herrscher of Sentience.
"Okay, come in now."
After a while, the Herrscher of Sentience opened the classroom door again.
She couldn't keep Chen Luo out forever, he needed to check on Durandal's condition.
Besides, Durandal was now properly dressed in pajamas.
"Um, Ms. Herrscher of Sentience, could you explain why, out of all the pajamas I gave you, you picked this one?" When Chen Luo saw what Herrscher of Sentience had changed Durandal into, he couldn't help but turn and stare at her.
"What's wrong? Isn't this pajama good? I thought dinosaur pajamas were pretty cool?" Hearing Chen Luo's question, the Herrscher of Sentience—who had shifted back into her Little Senti form and perched on his head—sounded puzzled.
Why was he asking that?
"…Whatever makes you happy." Chen Luo fell silent for a moment before dropping the subject.
It wasn't like he had to wear them anyway. Why should he care?
With that thought, Chen Luo sat down directly beside Durandal and began unbuttoning the dinosaur pajamas at her stomach area.
These were one-piece pajamas. Fortunately, the front had buttons; otherwise, Chen Luo wouldn't have been able to check her wound.
"The injury is healing well. As expected of an S-rank Valkyrie—even without special medicine, she recovers quickly," Chen Luo remarked, observing the wound from the vine strike that was now slowly closing.
However, the injury was indeed quite severe. Relying solely on Durandal's natural healing would be pushing it.
It wasn't that she couldn't recover, but leaving her injured without treatment felt somewhat inhumane.
But the problem was...
"Durandal is unconscious. How is she supposed to eat?" Chen Luo pulled out a skewer of Tricolor Dango, looking utterly helpless.
If it were Chen Luo, he could just use it directly from his inventory without physically eating to restore health. But Durandal couldn't do that.
"What, am I supposed to chew it for her and feed it to her mouth-to-mouth?"
"Emmm, never mind..."
Chen Luo dismissed the idea.
If he actually did that, and Durandal caught even a hint of it, she might beat the stomach acid out of him.
Just because Durandal was unconscious didn't mean she wouldn't wake up if kissed.
"Or should I just place the Tricolor Dango on her wound?" Chen Luo glanced at the pristine, glistening, and utterly tempting Tricolor Dango, then at the gaping wound on Durandal's body, and abandoned the thought.
If placing it on the wound didn't work, wouldn't that just waste a Tricolor Dango? That thing cost 5 Primogems.
Plus, jamming food into someone's wound was just weird, no matter how you thought about it.
But leaving Durandal's wound untreated wasn't an option either. After some thought, Chen Luo opened the bar door and stepped into the bar.
"Hey, Theresa?..." In the end, Chen Luo chose to ask for help.
Chen Luo didn't need to go to Theresa's world to contact her because this bar had one amazing feature: no matter what communication device you used, it had a signal here. Be it a phone from Chen Luo's world or a communicator from Theresa's.
While St. Freya Academy wasn't as vast and resourceful as Schicksal, it still had some wound treatment medicine.
And as the head of the Far East branch, Theresa could easily get her hands on such supplies. Chen Luo even specifically asked her to bring extra, like antibiotics and some surgical equipment.
Though Theresa didn't know what Chen Luo needed it for, she agreed quite readily.
Before long, Theresa arrived at the bar with the items.
"What do you need all this for?" Theresa asked, dragging a large pile of stuff into the bar and looking puzzled at Chen Luo.
"Do you know Durandal?"
"Obviously."
"Durandal was injured by a Pseudo-Herrscher. She needs medicine," Chen Luo explained.
"Huh? Pseudo-Herrscher? What's that?" Theresa couldn't help asking.
"Uh, a Pseudo-Herrscher is someone who could've become a Herrscher but didn't due to malnutrition. They're like Herrscher backups, not recognized by the Will of Honkai. They don't have a Herrscher core yet but have some special abilities. Basically, think of them as an upgraded zombie," Chen Luo explained.
"A Pseudo-Herrscher's strength usually fluctuates around the level of a normal S-rank Valkyrie, but this one is newly born. At most, it's A-rank Valkyrie level. Its abilities are just really weird."
Pseudo-Herrscher Yuno's poison could even kill an S-rank Valkyrie.
Like a certain short white-haired one.
"Huh? A Pseudo-Herrscher of that level managed to injure Durandal? Even if you're trying to scam supplies, you can't just lie to me like that. Do you think I'm an idiot?" Theresa glared at Chen Luo, displeased.
"You don't believe me? Come here, follow me." Chen Luo beckoned to Theresa and led her into the War Domain.
He'd once had the idea of trapping enemies in the War Domain and then going to the bar to call for backup to gang up on them, but he never thought the first time he'd "call for backup" would be to prove he wasn't lying.
"Durandal?" Seeing Durandal lying alone on the bed with her eyes closed, Theresa couldn't help but exclaim.
"Believe me now?" As he spoke, Chen Luo took out the items for treating external wounds and began bandaging Durandal.
"Even though the evidence is right in front of me, it's still hard to believe a Pseudo-Herrscher without a Herrscher core could do this to Durandal," Theresa said, still somewhat incredulous.
After all, she knew how strong Durandal was.
"Then just hand Durandal over to me. Let me take her back to St. Freya Academy. The medical facilities there are definitely better than here," Theresa said to Chen Luo.
Though Theresa didn't know yet that Durandal was the real Kiana, that didn't stop her from showing concern for Durandal.
After all, Durandal was still Schicksal's S-rank Valkyrie. At the very least, Theresa and Schicksal hadn't broken ties yet. Besides, Theresa and Durandal had a personal relationship; they'd fought side by side before.
"I could do that. Handing her over to you would save me the trouble of coming into this space to check on her periodically. But the question is, does your Schicksal really have a way to deal with the poison in her system?" Chen Luo asked.
"Poison?"
"Yeah, poison. And it's Herrscher-level poison. Only a Herrscher core can suppress Herrscher poison. That means you'd need to find a Herrscher core to suppress her poison," Chen Luo stated the truth quite bluntly.
"What? A Herrscher core?" Theresa was utterly shocked.
Where am I supposed to find a Herrscher core?
But then again, if I handed Durandal over to Grandpa, I don't know if he'd be willing to spend a Herrscher core to save Durandal's life.
Actually, when it came to Herrscher cores, St. Freya Academy did have one. But asking Mei to sacrifice her Herrscher core to save someone she barely knew would be utterly unfair to Mei.
"Then what should we do?"
"Nothing. Just let her stay with me. I have a special detox method. It might not work immediately, but in about two days, she should be pretty much healed. I'll return a lively, energetic Durandal to you," Chen Luo said after applying the medicine, wrapping the bandages, and putting the pajamas back on Durandal.
"Whew, that's good. I knew you had a way. Then Durandal is in your hands," Theresa said, instantly relieved.
"Wait, you trust me that easily?" Chen Luo couldn't help but give Theresa a second look upon hearing her words.
"Hey, why wouldn't I? But speaking of which, who changed Durandal's clothes?" Theresa said, feigning casualness, but her eyes were fixed intently on Chen Luo.
She'd noticed the set of armor, now in tatters, set aside nearby.
"Hmm, a mercenary named Raven. I'm partnering with her to kill zombies and set up a survivor base," Chen Luo said without hesitation.
You think you can trap me?
"I see. Raven... haven't heard of her," Theresa said after a moment's thought, shaking her head.
"She's been active in North America, so it's normal you haven't heard of her. But she's quite famous, you should be able to find out with some inquiries," Chen Luo said.
"If that's the case, then I'm relieved. But is she reliable?" Theresa asked.
"Don't worry. Someone who likes kids can't be all that bad. Plus, she works for money. As long as you pay, she's trustworthy."
"But where did you get the money? Aren't you a broke loser like Venti?" Theresa asked, surprised.
"..."
Who did you say I'm like?
Who are you insulting?