Should I praise her? Rita's expression was a little subtle.
Because of the special nature of this cafe, which is separated from society, the staff in this cafe do not need to abide by the public order and good customs of modern society.
On the other hand, since they themselves do not abide by them, Rita certainly has no reason to ask people from different worlds to abide by the rules of modern society.
Responsible parents must raise and educate their children until adulthood - this common sense can be said to be a "social obligation" in modern society, but it is not a necessity in a different world with a different social structure.
During her travels in the Quantum Sea, Rita had seen many world bubbles. The children in those bubbles were able to become independent at a very young age.
Not to mention the past, the three magical girls sitting in the cafe were not much older than the pink-haired girl. But in the world they were in, these three magical girls, who were far from adulthood, had even obtained professional positions and became civil servants with stable jobs and stable salaries.
Thinking of this, Rita put on a gentle smile again: "Since you are quite satisfied with the current situation, it would seem that Rita is a little ungrateful if you meddle in other people's business."
"Is your name Rita?" The pink-haired little girl's eyes lit up, "My name is Alicia, nice to meet you!"
"I'm glad to meet you, my lovely little customer." Rita smiled. "You must be very hungry. Do you need anything?"
"emmmm..."
Little Ellie pondered for a while, and suddenly took out a small wallet with floral decorations from the lapel of her black robe, then opened it, counting the tight travel expenses while weighing the necessary expenses for the future and the surplus after lunch.
"If it's just a meal, I should be able to afford the hotel fee... If I accidentally exceed my budget, I can use a tent for one night..."
Even if a fairy who is out of this world wants to walk in the human world, he must abide by the rules and common sense of human society, which of course also includes market trading rules centered on currency.
——The flawless girl who embarked on a journey around the world with great enthusiasm is now struggling with her financial difficulties.
Just when Rita couldn't bear it any longer, a calm but tired voice suddenly sounded.
"Her expenses will be charged to me first."
No one expected that the first person to generously donate money to little Ai Li was the dull Fu Hua. Kiana, who thought she knew the class monitor quite well, showed an expression of disbelief.
Little Ai Li was surprised at first, but then she smiled brightly. The fairy lady, who had already shown the characteristics of a social phobia, did not mind accepting the kindness of others, even if that person was a stranger she did not know:
"Then thank you to this little sister floating in the air! If you get into trouble in the future, please tell me! Don't look at me like this, I'm little Ai Li! I'm very powerful!"
This is not bragging. Although she is still young, little Ellie actually realized that she has much stronger power than ordinary people soon after she embarked on the journey. However, in most cases, her childish and cute appearance makes it difficult for people to believe this, and almost everyone regards her words as the talk of a child.
Alas~(*?Д｀)=3, she is too cute, but that also has some inconveniences. No one will believe the truth. Just when little Ai Li was thinking this, she heard a very serious and confident "Yeah".
Fu Hua nodded, and her expression showed a hint of tenderness for the first time: "I believe you."
Little Ai Li was stunned for a moment, and the smile on her face was brighter than ever before.
After everyone in the cafe settled little Ai Li, Kiana quietly put her mouth close to Fu Hua's translucent ear.
The first sentence is a soul-searching question——
"——Squad Leader... where did you get the money?"
Fu Hua's expression suddenly froze.
She didn't know if it was because she had been with Kiana for too long, but ever since she followed Kiana into the cafe, she always felt that her brain seemed to be dragged into a bottomless pit by Kiana, whose IQ had plummeted.
"That...this..."
In the intense embarrassment, Fu Hua's face turned red and she accidentally forgot the fact that she was now just a conscious being.
She imitated Kiana's movements, put her mouth close to the latter's ear, then lowered her voice and whispered:
"That kid is an acquaintance of mine. Please pay for me first, and I'll tell you my bank card password later."
"Of course, it's fine. It's just lunch, but..."
Kiana looked at Fu Hua with suspicion:
"Squad leader, why do you think our bank cards are still usable?"
"..."
Fu Hua was speechless and felt extremely tired for a moment.
Could you please not be so sharp about such insignificant things? I don't know whether you are stupid or smart!
For Kiana, helping Fu Hua pay was no big deal.
Kiana was not a stingy person. In fact, if Fu Hua hadn't asked, she would have been prepared to pay for the little girl's lunch.
After all, the way the other person went out to travel at such a young age was, in some ways, quite similar to Kiana when she was a child.
Out of empathy and the normal human tendency to protect her children to a certain extent, Kiana didn't mind lending a helping hand to such a cute little girl.
But Fu Hua's weird look, as if she had suddenly lost her IQ, was indeed a bit suspicious.
Kiana now doesn't know Fu Hua's identity.
If she hadn't come across this cafe, Kiana, who was busy dealing with the Herrscher's will, wouldn't have had much time to investigate Fu Hua's past and identity.
But now that the Herrscher of the Sky's will has been fully controlled, Kiana, who has more time, naturally has the opportunity to fully satisfy her curiosity.
"Monitor, you said you knew that little girl before?"
Fu Hua was silent for a moment, then nodded: "...I guess so."
What do you mean by "counted as"? This expression of wanting to say something but not being able to... Kiana's expression suddenly became a little subtle: "Class monitor, you... are you a lolita control like Rita?"
"What is lolita control?" Fu Hua, who had no idea what was going on in this industry, asked humbly.
Kiana coughed softly and said, "To put it more formally, it's pedophilia."
Fu Hua almost couldn't catch her breath. If she still had her body, she might have suffocated to death accidentally.
On the other side, in a unknown trial space——
——A fierce girl with a pair of horns on her head looked at a store door that suddenly appeared in the lobby of Paradise with a puzzled expression.
"What the hell is this?"
With a heart full of doubts, the Herrscher of Lightning, Raiden Mei, who was thrown into the paradise of the afterlife not long ago, said this.
Chapter 4 Ying Jie Tuan Jian (k)
Life is like a gamble with no guaranteed bottom line, because you never know whether you will face a sweet candy or an unreasonable Dabi. It is the same as Mei Raiden who is walking in the paradise of the past and never knows whether she will run into Senjie or Alicia in the next second.
In 2017, in a dim space without any sense of time, Miss Herrscher of Thunder, who has been wearing a MEI mask since she joined the World Snake, is curled up in the sofa next to the wall, recalling what happened recently.
——Because she learned about Otto's plan by chance, in order to provide assistance to Kiana and others who were far away in Klosten as soon as possible, she used the channel opened by Kevin to come to the Quantum Sea, and stimulated the power of the Herrscher of Thunder to the limit, allowing her consciousness to sink into the core of the Herrscher...that is, the deepest part of the Conqueror Gem.
In the "space of nothingness" created by the "Will of Honkai", she briefly lent the "Lightning of Conquest" to Kiana, allowing the opponent's Fire King Sword to return to a perfect state.
At the same time, also in this "space of nothingness", she encountered the invisible and indescribable "will of collapse".
Recalling what happened not long ago, Mei Raiden couldn't help but sigh softly. For her personally, she was able to meet Kiana in this special way, and also confirmed that the latter's condition seemed to be much better than she expected. She would of course feel happy and relieved for Kiana.
However, the bigger issue involved in this meeting - Honkai Will, made her feel an unprecedented pressure while feeling relieved...
...and depressed.
It would be strange if she wasn't depressed. Apart from herself, there is also Otto who has been out of favor for a while... and probably the "real Sirin" who has been out of favor for more than ten years. Apart from the three of them, no one in this era of civilization has ever faced the so-called "Will of Honkai Impact" directly.
Therefore, if she wants to have a deeper understanding of the "Honkai Will", she must look for clues from the memories of those who have fought against the "Honkai Will", that is, the heroes in the paradise of the past.
However, the memories of these heroes...
Mei Raiden recalled the faces of everyone she met after arriving in the paradise -
Kevin... let her skip this hero who is well versed in the art of deception.
When she thought of the other person who opened his mouth and always said "You don't need to know this" and "This is not the answer you need to know", and closed his mouth and always said "If the real me didn't answer your questions, why do you think that I who am standing here will answer your questions, balabala", Mei Raiden felt her blood pressure rising.
She rubbed her brows, took a long, deep breath as if to put aside all the unpleasant memories, and then continued to recall her experiences with other Yingjies.
Alicia... let's not talk about this pink fairy lady who talks nonsense for now.
Mei Raiden had to admit that compared to Kevin, the master of deception who always had a Kaslana-like face, the impression Alicia gave her was indeed much better.
Although she still didn't understand what attitude she should adopt towards this overly enthusiastic fairy lady, in most cases, she would do her best to answer the questions she raised.
However, once her questions touched upon some deeper areas… specifically, the secrets about “herself”, this seemingly enthusiastic and selfless fairy lady would use her iron wall made of even more advanced fooling techniques than Kevin’s to bounce back all her questions.
At least at this stage, Mei Raiden believes that she will no longer be able to obtain more information from Alicia.
As for Hua, Ying, Su, Eden, Mobius, and Qianjie...
and many more……
Mei Raiden looked around the empty hall and suddenly realized something was wrong.
...Compared to that, where did the raven go?
It was Raiden Mei who knew about Otto's plan because Raven sneaked into the paradise to tip her off. But before she left, didn't he say he wanted to be lazy here? Why did he suddenly disappear when she came back?
There was no one to be seen in the entire Paradise Hall. Apart from the slight noise from the operation of the main control facilities and the low hum of the cooling device, the only sound was Raiden Mei's breathing. She stood up from the sofa and turned her gaze towards the data portal floating in the air deep in the hall, but suddenly froze.
The paradise of the past is a trial space composed of data. The entrance and exit of that data space is a memory input device suspended in mid-air. When no one approaches, the dormant memory input device will shrink the portal into a miniature sphere, thereby reducing the energy loss of the paradise.
But now, the device suspended in the air has inexplicably turned into——
"What the hell is this?"
Mei Raiden's expression was filled with astonishment, and her tone of voice involuntarily carried a hint of absurdity.
"...a wooden door?"
Although the trial area of the paradise of the past is a strange scene pieced together from the memories retained by the heroes, this paradise hall cannot be regarded as a data space in the strict sense, but rather a place where data and reality meet.
The memories of the heroes can interfere with the matter in the hall to a certain extent, but this hall itself is a building transformed from the Golden Courtyard, a private mansion that actually existed in the pre-civilization era.
This building not only retains the original appearance of the Golden Courtyard intact, but is also equipped with the hardware facilities of a paradise in the past.
...From a certain perspective, if someone could destroy this place right under the noses of the heroes, the so-called paradise of the past would of course no longer exist.
However, at this moment, in front of Mei Raiden, a wooden door that had never appeared before appeared in this huge courtyard that had not undergone any changes in 50,000 years.
And...it inexplicably occupied the portal that connects the data space and the real world.
Is there a bug in the data of Paradise?
Where's Klein? With the sudden appearance of such a vicious bug, shouldn't she be the first to debug the data of Paradise?
Mei Raiden looked around and was confused for a moment when she didn't find any armed dolls.
Klein did not show up, which means that this wooden door is not a bug in Paradise.
Could it be that this was another job done by Alicia?
She couldn't help but doubt.
With Alicia's carefree and unrestrained personality, it seems that no matter what she does, there will be nothing strange about it.
Garlic...
Now that I'm here... since it's something that appeared in the paradise, I might as well go in and take a look first.
If this was a prank by Alicia, there shouldn't be anything too outrageous...right? Raiden Mei thought with some uncertainty.
Then, with a little hesitation, the red electric dragon, with nothing to do, gently pushed open the wooden door in front of it with extreme vigilance and a hint of inexplicable expectation.
In the split second when the wooden door opened, Mei Raiden imagined countless possible scenes behind the door - such as a few monsters suddenly appearing and rushing towards her, or there was actually nothing behind the door, and this door that appeared out of thin air was really just a wooden door. Among those imaginations, she even included Alicia suddenly jumping out from behind her and covering her eyes mischievously...
She heightened her concentration to an unprecedented level, and felt that no matter what she saw behind the door, she would not be shaken at all.
However, when Mei Raiden completely opened the door, her expression froze for a moment, and her mind was as blank as Kiana's.
Behind the gate was an indoor hall that was slightly wider than the Golden Courtyard. The all-wood decoration style reflected a deep red color like agate under the dim ceiling lights, and there was an aura of class enemy in the low-key style. The ground was covered with golden teak floors, and a translucent red and white figure was floating in the air. At the bar deep in the hall stood four people who he would never mistake.
Rita, Kiana, Bronya... and another self - Raiden Mei.
The moment the Herrscher of Lightning, Raiden Mei, opened the door, everyone turned their eyes towards the door at the same time.
Kiana and Raiden Mei, who were standing by the bar, were stunned for a moment, then immediately came to their senses. The two looked at each other, and after a brief exchange of glances, Raiden Mei took the lead and walked forward in front of the other "herself": "Welcome, customer, are you alone?"
"..."
The Herrscher of Lightning, Raiden Mei, first glanced at her other "self", was silent for a moment, and then looked around. In addition to the four people at the bar, there were three very young customers sitting around a table in the hall. At the stairs leading to the second floor, there was even a face she had only seen in history books, the Second Herrscher, Sirin.
But... why did this legendary Herrscher who had caused countless casualties look so harmless? Even Kiana didn't seem to be on guard against her at all.
Mei, the Herrscher of Lightning, Raiden, is a very perceptive person, so after a brief moment of shock, she immediately realized that something was wrong.
So weak...
Except for the long-haired Rita standing behind the bar, whose strength she couldn't tell, everyone in the cafe was much weaker than those she knew.
Not to mention the others, she had just seen Kiana display the full power of "Hersher of the Fire" not long ago. Compared with the Kiana she knew, the Kiana in this cafe had such weak Honkai energy that she didn't look like a Herrscher at all.
