Chapter 7: Strategic Planning, Continuous Surprises

Double Chapter day!

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Kiana returned home with an excited heart, humming a tune as she unlocked the door with her keys and shouted, "I'm back!"

"Oh, Kiana, you're back?"

Luo Lin's voice came from her bedroom, satisfying the tuna.

She had wanted to do this kind of thing for a long time! Unfortunately, there were no familiar faces here before, and shouting yielded no response!

"What should we have for dinner tonight?" Kiana threw her school bag aside, watching it hit the ground with a dull thud.

Luo Lin poked her head out of the bedroom, looking at the bag thrown in the corner. Her mouth twitched slightly—there was still a baseball bat inside that she used to fend off bullies. Due to its length, it couldn't fit entirely in the bag, and the zipper wasn't fully closed, revealing the long handle.

"You're already thinking about dinner as soon as you get back?"

"After all, for students, getting back from school is like arriving in the evening, so shouldn't we eat dinner quickly?"

Kiana sat down on the sofa with a thud, glancing at Luo Lin's face and keenly sensing that something was amiss. "What's wrong? Did something happen? You seem a bit unhappy."

Luo Lin grimaced. "Well... um, it's just that I suddenly found my savings drastically reduced..."

In reality, the girl was troubled by the text message Otto had sent her on her phone earlier.

The contact person? Who would they send to make contact? In her situation, if the contact went wrong, she'd likely end up being killed as a spy.

Should she just defect to Anti-Entropy now?

The thought crossed Luo Lin's mind, but she quickly dismissed it in its infancy.

Although she knew Anti-Entropy had moderates like Tesla and Einstein, she didn't know them personally in this world, nor did she have any means of contacting them.

As for ME Corporation, the local branch in Nagazora City was undoubtedly an important branch of Anti-Entropy in the Far East. Currently, the top management here was Raiden Ryoma, who would be framed by the radicals of Cocolia in two months, theoretically making him their adversary.

However, this didn't mean that Raiden Ryoma sided with Tesla and Einstein.

Raiden Ryoma was the one who implanted the Gem of Conquest into his daughter's body. Would someone like him, who was tough and decisive, have any thoughts about a visiting Valkyrie seeking asylum?

Moreover, did Luo Lin really have valuable information worth sacrificing for in Anti-Entropy's eyes?

"I know that Bishop Otto of Schicksal has been secretly planning for five hundred years to link to the Imaginary Tree to save the person he loves the most!"

If this were said, everyone except Otto himself would probably die laughing on the streets, right?

If she did say it, Otto would probably stop at nothing to make Luo Lin vanish from the face of the earth.

Luo Lin shivered and pushed these terrifying thoughts out of her mind.

As a former loyal servant of Schicksal, Otto shouldn't resort to any extreme measures right away... right?

Luo Lin suddenly had a premonition that as someone with an unclear identity, lingering near important figures, she probably couldn't escape a memory reading with Fenghuang Down.

But there were also some differences in mind reading—If Fu Hua herself came to look into her mind, maybe there would be some room for maneuver; if Otto was willing to take the time, using a Soulium avatar with Void Archive to visit her would be much worse.

"Luo Lin? Luo Lin?" Kiana cautiously called out to the increasingly low-pressure Luo Lin, tentatively suggesting, "How about we have something sweet tonight? Sweet food can help improve your mood!"

"Thanks... let's find some cake... Oh, forget it, let's just have some sweet rice..."

Luo Lin felt that she needed to find a way to control her emotions as her mood amplifier disposition might inadvertently affect the atmosphere around her.

So, the two of them went out to find some tomato beef rice (sweet flavor) to eat. The restaurant owner seemed very moved, telling Luo Lin that it had been a long time since Kiana had eaten there, thinking that there was something wrong with the food he made.

The owner had been improving his recipe these days, apparently planning to use the improved tomato beef rice to conquer Kiana's taste buds.

The girl's expression was subtle. Why did she feel like the store owner's style suddenly changed to a gourmet manga?

Unfortunately, Kiana, influenced by Luo Lin's complex emotions, was somewhat absent-minded and stopped eating after finishing the first serving.

She really lived up to her name as Kiana!

"Feeling better now?" Kiana asked.

Luo Lin nodded. "Seeing you enjoying your meal so much made me feel better."

Kiana could feel that the girl was telling the truth, so she smiled faintly.

After returning home, Luo Lin lay on her bed and opened the interface of the system's chronicles.

"Let's just do this chapter—'The Forgotten'!"

Not only because completing the chapter "The Forgotten" could unlock the character card "Valkyrie - Accipiter," and using Accipiter in the Abyss could gain some insights into the practical application of the Edge of Taixuan...

But also because the plot of this chapter should be helpful to Luo Lin:

"The Forgotten" tells the story of Otto secretly launching a plan to use the Memory Deep Dive Device to read Fu Hua's memories and search for the location of the prehistoric Soulium supercomputers.

This Memory Deep Dive Device was something Otto had created through studying the "Key of Sentience - Fenghuang Down," and its principle should be very similar.

Luo Lin hoped to gain some insight into what it felt like to have memories read by completing the chapter "The Forgotten" in the chronicles.

"System, I'm here to exchange crystals!"

"Thank you for your patronage! Initiating the chronicles level—"

Luo Lin found herself in another space. Its similar like when she entered the system space before, experiencing a brief sensation similar to free falling and entering another space.

Luo Lin steadied herself on the ground. She found herself surrounded by mist, and the surroundings were not very clear.

Just when she was somewhat confused, a crisp female voiceover rang out.

"A spherical relic of the ancients, left by the ancients, are actually at its core were quantum computer composed of liquid Soulium. It records a large amount of knowledge and technology from a prehistoric civilization. This spherical computer has appeared in the history of various places around the world."

The mist gradually dispersed, and a sphere with a color scheme resembling the Tai Chi Yin Yang appeared in Luo Lin's field of vision. It emitted a warm glow, floating in mid-air.

—Wasn't this the ball under the buttocks of the ELF: Book of Fuxi?

"To trace their whereabouts, Overseer Otto of Schicksal secretly initiated a plan..."

Before Luo Lin could observe the sphere in detail, she felt herself being carried away by a force and crashed into a chair.

"My friend, as a survivor of the previous era, the information you provided has helped us find many 'spheres'... But I hope to have all the 'spheres' in my hands."

Otto Apocalypse stood opposite Luo Lin, smiling as he spoke.

In the next moment, Luo Lin was horrified to find her mouth moving—

"I've already told you everything I know. I can't possibly remember the location of every sphere."

Fu Hua sat calmly in the chair, speaking calmly.

—How am I inside someone else's body?!