Chapter 3: Exploration and Discovery

"Is this St. Fontaine?"

Luo Lin surveyed the surroundings, equipping the Vermillion Knight - Eclipse while carrying a large sword, strolling along the deserted streets as her boots crunching on the shattered crystals.

Luo Lin rubbed her head in frustration, "System, have you figured out what happened before?"

[During the struggle between the Imaginary Tree and the Sea of Quanta, the host was affected and then crashed into the Imaginary Tree with the newly created Bubble World.]

[The good news is, we're all still alive, and for some reason, the Bubble World has connected to the Imaginary Tree, so we no longer need to pay crystals every day to maintain its existence after the host's departure.]

"And the bad news?"

[The bad news is, the Bubble World has undergone unknown changes, interfering with the system's inter-world teleportation function. Even if we successfully locate the original world, we cannot return directly. We must resolve the source of the interference to do so.]

"You can still teleport between worlds? That's amazing. You must have spent a lot of crystals, right?"

Luo Lin sighed.

She now had sufficient reason to suspect that these anomalies were caused by the Imaginary Tree or the Sea of Quanta, or perhaps both intervened together, resulting in this situation.

"Oh well, since we're here..."

Luo Lin strolled through St. Fontaine, observing the surroundings.

What met her eyes were abandoned buildings that had been uninhabited for a long time, gray mixed with red crystals growing rampant, making her feel like she had entered a crystal jungle.

Luo Lin had been walking along this road for almost ten minutes and there was still no end in sight—If this were in Honkai Impact 3rd, five minutes would be enough for you to run around the map twice.

After another seven or eight minutes, Luo Lin finally found a location that roughly matched the landmarks in the game.

It was a huge plaza composed of a ring-shaped driveway, with a seemingly fountain-like pool in the center of the roundabout. In the center of the pool, there was a stone pedestal where statues could be erected.

But now, the statues had been covered by gray crystals, turning into crystal pillars, with purple, blooming Honkai energy crystals on top.

"I remember... there was a huge thing in the distance from the plaza..."

Although she hadn't encountered any monsters on the way here, Luo Lin still cautiously lowered her pace and carefully looked ahead.

The first thing that caught her eye was a wall made of crystals blocking the road leading to the distance, even the surrounding buildings were not spared, being covered with gray crystals.

Immediately after that, what attracted attention were the huge red-metallic horns standing among the crystal clusters. Looking down along the horns, it was obviously a mechanical structure body leaning against the crystal clusters, motionless, as if asleep.

Around it, there were many red, thorned crystalline balls emitting a dangerous aura. Luo Lin vaguely remembered that these things would explode with just a casual hit, and their damage was quite high.

The advanced boss version of Code VII—The Chariot, with a cool and edgy name—"Guardian Asmodius".

"Well... this is the boss that needs to be guided to charge in a certain direction, making it crash into walls or those crystal bombs, then vigorously output damage after it falls..."

Luo Lin made a rough estimate. This boss was as long as two buses, much larger than what she saw in the game.

It wasn't a big deal though. When Luo Lin fought real-life Honkai beasts, the Honkai beasts she encountered were generally larger than those in the game, but she still fought them the same way.

Luo Lin didn't have any immediate plans to engage in combat. Although the system had indicated that defeating this huge guy would yield rewards, she didn't want to directly confront the boss on this trip.

Right now, Vemillion Knight was still in a weakened state after using Might of An-Utu, and she didn't want to mess up in reality and see how the Valkyrie's character card reacted after their health bar was depleted.

Moreover, Luo Lin had just finished a earth-shattering battle with the Herrscher of the Void, and now she was in the tired state after completing the boss challenge so she really didn't want to fight as much as possible anymore.

—Rest, I will just rest for a while. (Finger gestures near her head)

Luo Lin cautiously bypassed the boss and walked towards the road on her left.

Soon, Luo Lin left the plaza and continued along the road for a while, only to find that the road ahead had collapsed into a deep pit.

Standing on the edge and looking down, there was a circular crack made of white lines.

The girl's brow furrowed. In the game, this thing was similar to a spring bed that bounced people up. It used to help player characters to reach high places—of course, there were also clever folks who used this thing for glitches, but that wasn't its normal usage.

Following the direction of this "spring bed," Luo Lin looked up and saw floating platforms. These platforms, composed of honeycomb-shaped objects, floated slightly up and down, completely different from the fixed platforms in the game.

Next to the floating platforms, there was a damaged elevated bridge by the road, which obviously could be jumped from the floating platforms to conveniently reach the elevated bridge.

In fact, if Luo Lin wanted to, she could easily jump very high because the Vermillion Knight armor linked with the Gem of Haste had brought comprehensive enhancements to the worn Valkyrie, and Luo Lin could directly use her sword to insert into the nearby building, climbing and reach the high bridge surface by a rather "evil" method.

However, since she's here already... wouldn't be a waste if she didnt try jumping on the "spring bed" on the ground?

Luo Lin didn't hesitate and jumped lightly into the pit, intending to try out this "spring bed" effect.

As soon as she exerted a little force under her feet, the white cracks emitted light and the sudden impact sent Luo Lin soaring into the sky.

She looked at the floating platform not far away and landed on it somewhat helplessly.

Are you picking on the elderly who can't double jump?

Luo Lin adjusted her posture, tightening the muscles in her legs. With the support of the "spring bed," she smoothly flew onto the floating platform.

The girl stepped on the platform with a strange expression. She felt that this thing was more like some kind of hard shell than a stone under her feet. Without dwelling on it for too long, the Valkyrie jumped onto the nearby elevated bridge and continued along the road.

"Why are there no monsters here?"

Luo Lin frowned, sensing that something was amiss.

She carefully observed the surroundings and noticed clues:

Some gray crystal fragments scattered on the road, faint black marks left on the surrounding walls from sword slashes and lightning fires, and... um, huge fist imprints on the ground.

It looked as if someone had helped her clear the monsters and opened up a path.

The imprint on the ground was obviously left by the indomitable support, the Apocalypse Iron Fist of the Third Squad, Carole Iron Fi—no, Carole Pepper.

The sword marks on the wall were probably made by Aunt Mei...Captain Mei and her subordinate... the wielder of a Fire greatsword whose combination of abilities and weapons made their fate particularly dangerous in the Honkai 3 world.

Following these signs of battle, Luo Lin's mind became more chaotic.

These traces abruptly ended at the entrance of a luxurious hotel, even the footprints were cut off out of thin air, as if the person who walked before had suddenly disappeared.

Not far away, a slowly rotating cylindrical pillar emitting a blue light exuded a strong presence—Luo Lin recognized this thing, it was the teleportation point in the map Post Honkai Oddyssey.

[Querying...]

[About twenty minutes ago, someone arrived in this Bubble World through an unknown route, then entered the open world. About five minutes ago, they left this Bubble World through the teleportation point in front of them.]

The Valkyrie was completely confused, "What exactly is this Bubble World? Also, Didn't you said that the teleportation was disrupted?"

[Is it possible that only OUR teleportation is being disrupted?]

The system hinted tactfully.

Luo Lin was at a loss, "I have a feeling that this matter is far from over..."