Crash—!
The sound of the ceramic mug shattering on the floor echoed jarringly through the empty laboratory.
While the lab usually endured louder noises—chainsaws, drills, explosions, and the like—this crisp sound of breaking ceramic or glass was a first. After all, there's a significant difference between experimentation and mistakes...
Otto, sporting dark circles under his eyes, silently stared at his slightly trembling hand. He glanced down at the still-steaming coffee puddle on the floor, his brow furrowing for a moment before relaxing.
An illusion... Since when?
No... Otto raised a hand to his forehead, slumping somewhat dejectedly into a chair. Lately, I really have been suffering from nervous exhaustion...
Bang!
The lab's sliding door was violently kicked open. Otto's eye twitched involuntarily as he saw the footprint on the deformed metal door. Has Kallen's physical strength surpassed human limits already?
However, Kallen would absolutely never kick down Otto's door unless it was something critically important. Since she did, it must be significant. Although Otto had already sensed this.
"Otto! I think I've turned into an idiot!!" Kallen ran frantically up to Otto, anxiously hopping and spinning in front of him. "I realized I actually forgot to eat lunch earlier!! And..."
Seeing Kallen about to count off everything she'd forgotten on her fingers, Otto raised a hand to calm her.
"I forgot Shu," Otto stated calmly, revealing his own symptom.
Kallen's expression instantly shifted from "I think I'm an idiot" to "I think you're an idiot."
"Really? You really forgot Shu?!" Kallen exclaimed, then suddenly shook her head vigorously. "Wait, no, you should remember him now, right?"
Otto nodded, his eyes fixed on Kallen's foot, which kept tentatively probing the edge of the coffee spill. She'd better not step in it...
Kallen anxiously pointed towards the door. "Everyone seems to have forgotten a lot of things, and now they've suddenly remembered! Theresa is already comforting everyone, but now they want an explanation!"
"It should be a Herrscher," Otto sighed, standing up and walking around the puddle. The moment his memory returned, he realized the problem.
Without the continuous interference and self-repairing memory, Otto could immediately detect something wrong with himself.
However, Otto still felt a lingering fear regarding that persistent memory self-repair. He had forgotten Shu, such an important person, yet his own memory had managed to patch over such a massive hole flawlessly...
The source of their Honkai knowledge, their experience defeating the Honkai Emperor, even a completely new yet entirely viable method for dealing with the Herrscher of Evolution.
Everything existed without Shu.
It felt as if someone had taken a pen and simply crossed out Shu's name in the script called "World," without altering any plot points. Otto knew only two possibilities could achieve this.
A Herrscher... or those lunatics in the future city had created something new again. Those lunatics were currently struggling to survive, and the future city only housed newly born intelligent machines, so that answer could almost certainly be ruled out.
That left the influence of a Herrscher. A Herrscher... only three months have passed, and another one has appeared already?
However, judging by the sudden, widespread memory restoration... Was it Shu, or someone else, who dealt with the Herrscher?
Otto looked at his Version 6.3 Honkai Energy Detector. The needle still pointed directly north. Calculating the time, Shu and the others should be in the north right now.
Such immense Honkai energy readings there, plus Shu, plus their current state... the truth was practically laid bare.
"Notify everyone to gather in the cafeteria. Also, establish communication with Canghai (Sapphire) City," Otto instructed after some thought, letting out a breath.
Further investigation was definitely needed, but that would have to wait until Shu returned. Currently, Fire Moth had just established contact with the neighboring Sapphire City.
That place was currently overrun by zombies and Deadwalkers; hundreds of thousands of zombies had turned it into Fire Moth's current training ground.
Himeko's Titan unit was stationed there permanently, specifically to deal with the large Honkai Beasts that popped up intermittently. And now, Otto needed to provide an explanation to everyone.
"How are you going to put it?" Kallen asked, relieved now that Otto was taking action, but still curious. How would Otto handle this situation? Theresa needs to learn from this.
Otto smiled.
"Naturally, we celebrate together. Our Fire Moth First Squad Captain, their [Warrior of Dawn], has successfully eliminated another Herrscher for humanity."
Kallen paused, then grumbled, "But I still feel like the title [Warrior] sounds a bit... off..."
"Then how about we just drop those two words?" Otto suggested with a smile, sidestepping a somewhat agitated cleaning bot.
"[Dawn]... That sounds quite nice. But wasn't Shu's original callsign [Captain]? Are you going to change his designation?"
"As a Flame-Chaser, his title is [Dawn]. As the captain of Fire Moth's First Squad, he is [Captain]. Don't you think [Dawn] is more memorable for everyone than [Captain]?"
"That's true... But I have one more question, just one last one."
"Hm? I slept last night, you know. These dark circles are just residual. They don't fade in a day or two."
"Not that! It's about the [Flame-Chaser] title... Did you also just copy that from that Fire Moth?"
"...When we succeed, I'll change it to [Hero], how about that?"
...
[First Sequence Scyens reporting: 174 of the 800 Gynoid Guides dispatched to 496 cities worldwide have successfully returned. Success rate: [%]. We have acquired [number] new compatriots.]
[First Sequence Natura reporting: "New Gynoid Inclination Selection Program" is complete. We are ready to receive the consciousness of [number] new compatriots at any time.]
[First Sequence Humanitas reporting: Progress on Honkai energy technology application remains minimal. Primary reasons: lack of high-concentration Honkai energy samples and lack of Honkai Beast samples.]
[First Sequence History reporting: A high-concentration Honkai energy reaction in the former North Su region has suddenly vanished. Nearby comrades have been dispatched to investigate its potential connection to the data anomaly occurrence and recovery.]
A period of quiet silence.
[Zeroth Sequence Albert responding: Recommend establishing combat capabilities and initiating deeper cooperation with "Fire Moth" to acquire Honkai energy application knowledge and exterminate Honkai energy products.]
[First Sequences acknowledge receipt.]