Chapter 122: Breakthrough and a Seven-Day Shutdown
Rovel couldn't remember how many times he had fainted in this game.
It had only been ten days since the last incident. His body had barely finished recovering, and yet here he was, having just used Jizo Mitama once again.
This time, the consequences were even more severe.
Even with immediate treatment and the reversal of some Honkai Energy corruption, the erosion level had still climbed to a terrifying 48%.
He was nearly halfway to becoming a monster.
In a treatment pod not far away, Himeko was in a similar state, her body overloaded from activating the Nexus system.
It was supposed to have been a simple B-rank mission: clear out a few Honkai Beasts. But the mission had gone sideways, leaving two A-rank combatants on the brink of collapse. They hadn't expected to encounter a Vishnu on the verge of evolving into an Emperor-class Honkai Beast; it was a stroke of truly rotten luck.
Or perhaps... it was a stroke of incredible fortune?
Thankfully, it hadn't completed its evolution. If they had run into a fully-fledged Emperor-class Vishnu, both of them would have likely died on that battlefield.
Unless Rovel had resorted to using Kalpas…
But even then, given Vishnu's unique quantum properties, Kalpas might not have even been able to land a hit. The skill description promised a guaranteed strike, but that still required a tangible target. As long as the beast maintained its state of quantum superposition—existing and not existing simultaneously—there would be nothing for the attack to lock onto.
"Sigh… How did it come to this?" Theresa lamented, pressing her palms to her temples, feeling a wave of helplessness wash over her. She had never encountered a situation quite like this.
The initial assessment had been so optimistic. Rovel was considered strong enough to survive an encounter with a Honkai Emperor, and with Himeko activating her Nexus system, they could have reliably suppressed even an Emperor-class beast if their luck ran that sour.
But fate, it seemed, had a twisted sense of humor. They ran into a Vishnu.
Himeko was too slow, her powerful greatsword cleaving through empty air as the creature phased out of existence. Rovel's own attacks, while precise, lacked the overwhelming power needed to annihilate it in a single blow. To make matters worse, Vishnu not only possessed powerful regenerative abilities, but it could also repair itself by devouring other Honkai Beasts.
If it felt truly threatened, it could simply leave the battlefield at will. Had they not killed it then and there, it would have escaped, finished its evolution into an Emperor-class—or perhaps even a Judgment-class—Honkai Beast. The resulting danger would have been no less than the advent of a Herrscher.
Rovel and Himeko understood this better than anyone, which was why they had pushed themselves to the absolute limit to destroy it.
Theresa couldn't bring herself to say they were wrong. After all, they had nipped a catastrophic crisis in the bud.
"You two idiots!" In her frustration, all she could do was scold their unconscious forms through the transparent canopies of the treatment pods.
'No,'she thought, her expression hardening with resolve.'I can't let Rovel have another chance to use Jizo Mitama. If he takes a risk like this again…'
Theresa made a firm decision: the moment he woke up, she would temporarily seal that cursed sword.
"Headmaster, please don't tell Mei and the others," a voice suddenly spoke. "It's no big deal."
Theresa whirled around. The lid of Rovel's treatment pod hissed open, and he stepped out, his body dripping with the viscous, pale-yellow nutrient fluid. He looked disheveled, but his eyes were clear.
"No big deal?!" Theresa's voice shot up. "Use that thing two more times and you'll turn into a Death Soldier! Give me Jizo Mitama. I'm sealing it for you!"
She marched over, her hand outstretched, her face a mask of angry concern.
Rovel simply smiled, producing the ominous, purple-hued tachi. He held it just out of her reach. "If you don't promise me you won't tell them, I won't give it to you."
"You…!" Theresa sputtered, her cheeks puffing up. "Fine, fine, fine! I promise! Just hand it over!" As long as she could stop this reckless "ancestor" of hers from courting death, she would agree to anything.
Satisfied, Rovel placed the weapon into her waiting hands.
Theresa snatched Jizo Mitama and marched away, determined to lock it away in the deepest, most secure vault Schicksal had. A moment later, however, Rovel, who was toweling himself off, fell into deep thought as he gazed at the perfect replica of Jizo Mitama resting silently inside his system inventory.
Just then, Theresa came running back, her short legs churning in a panic, her face a picture of anxiety.
"Jizo Mitama is gone! I was holding it in my hand just a second ago, and then it just… vanished into thin air!"
"Uh… Headmaster, don't worry." Rovel held up his hand, and with a faint shimmer of light, the very same sword materialized from his system inventory. "It seems Jizo Mitama has come back to me."
"What's going on?" Theresa stared, her mind reeling with a dozen questions.
She tried again, taking the sword from him. She walked a few paces, kept her eyes glued to it, and yet, after a moment, it dematerialized from her grasp and reappeared in Rovel's inventory.
It was soul-bound to him.
Utterly defeated, Theresa could only resort to a verbal command. "In any case, you are absolutely forbidden from using Jizo Mitama recklessly in the future! Or else… or else I'll expel you!"
She pointed a trembling finger at Rovel, her ultimate threat sounding more like a desperate plea.
Though the threat itself was laughably weak, Rovel sincerely felt the depth of Theresa's concern.
"I understand. Thank you, Headmaster," he said, nodding seriously, accepting her demand.
He was well aware of the terrifying damage the sword inflicted on his body. But he wasn't using it without a safety net.
Yes, Mobius was his safety net.
'At worst, I'll get an earful from Snake,'he thought.'She's stubborn and might say she won't help, but then she'll lock herself in her lab and work tirelessly to find a way to reduce the Honkai erosion.'
As the greatest biologist of the Previous Era, he was certain she would have a solution. Worst-case scenario, he would just have to stop being human and ask her to perform MANTIS surgery on him.
Then again, he recalled a conversation from the game. Raven had mentioned that the MANTIS project was a failure, and she seemed to have undergone a superior form of modification. At the very least, she didn't consider herself a "MANTIS."
'That makes sense,'Rovel mused.'After fifty thousand years in the Elysian Realm, Snake has been doing nothing but research. It's entirely possible she's developed a far better method of genetic modification.'
With that thought solidifying his plan, Rovel dialed Mobius's communication line.
"This is Klein. Rovel, have you collected any more rare research materials?" her assistant's calm, professional voice answered.
"Yes, I have. I've collected Vishnu's blood, as well as its fangs and wing-claws," Rovel replied, nodding to himself.
He could practically feel the silence on the other end of the line. Klein's composure had clearly been rattled.
"...Wait a moment," she said after a tense pause, and the line went quiet.
A few seconds later, a different voice came through—cool, serpentine, and brimming with an undercurrent of predatory interest. "You killed Vishnu?"
"Uh, not exactly," Rovel clarified. "My teacher and I killed it together. She did most of the work; I was just providing support."
Rovel then proceeded to explain his current situation. As he described Jizo Mitama and its Power of Erosion, he could almost picture the intense, scientific curiosity igniting in Mobius's eyes.
But she quickly latched onto the most critical keyword in his explanation.
"Wait," she interrupted, her tone suddenly sharp. "Did you just say your body was eroded by Jizo Mitama?!"
Mobius's voice suddenly jumped an octave, losing its detached calm. The Herrscher of Corruption—it wasn't just a data virus, but a biological one. It could infect humans and twist them into Death Soldiers. During the Previous Era's war against the Twelfth Herrscher, countless people had died from its viral plague.
"Yes," Rovel said, his voice laced with manufactured worry. "So I wanted to ask if there's a way to help alleviate my condition. I'm afraid if I use it two more times, I'll turn into a Death Soldier."
"Come to the Elysian Realm. I'll give you a check-up," Mobius commanded, not offering a solution directly but demanding his presence.
"Now?" Rovel blinked.
"If not now, then when?" she retorted, her impatience evident.
"Is it okay for me to bring Jizo Mitama there? What if it goes berserk in the Elysian Realm?" Rovel asked, feigning concern.
"Just bring it," Mobius stated, her voice regaining its unshakable confidence. "I'll figure something out."
Rovel smiled. As expected of Snake. That single sentence was filled with more security than any vault Schicksal could offer.
Just as he was about to end the call, a series of notifications flooded his vision.
[Breakthrough mission completed. Choose to break through?]
'Finally.'
"Breakthrough."
[Breakthrough complete. Level cap increased to 80. Stigma slot +1.]
Immediately following his personal notification, the entire game world erupted.
[Server-wide Announcement: Congratulations to the anonymous player for becoming the first to break through Level 30. Reward: One spin of the Random Lucky Wheel!]
[Server-wide Announcement: Congratulations to the anonymous player for becoming the first to break through Level 30. Reward: One spin of the Random Lucky Wheel!]
[Server-wide Announcement: Congratulations to the anonymous player for becoming the first to break through Level 30. Reward: One spin of the Random Lucky Wheel!]
[Server-wide Announcement: 'Honkai' will undergo a server shutdown for maintenance tonight at midnight. Update duration: 7 days.]
[Server-wide Announcement: 'Honkai' will undergo a server shutdown for maintenance tonight at midnight. Update duration: 7 days.]
[Server-wide Announcement: 'Honkai' will undergo a server shutdown for maintenance tonight at midnight. Update duration: 7 days.]
Six consecutive server-wide announcements, broadcast back-to-back, instantly ignited the entire player base.
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