The mission location was the Central West Zone...
Li Wu was very clear about the classification of Honkai Beasts.
He had made a simple categorization based on the manga—
Lower-level Honkai Beasts had singular behavioral patterns and limited individual combat power. From weakest to strongest: Chariot-class, Templar-class, Catapult-class, and Knight-class.
Upper-level Honkai Beasts possessed a certain degree of tactical thinking, unique attack patterns, and powerful Honkai energy. They could also directly command lower-level Honkai Beasts; one upper-level beast was comparable to hundreds or thousands of lower-level ones. From weakest to strongest: Templar-class, Emperor-class, and Judgment-class.
The Templar-class was already the highest level of Honkai Beast that most Valkyries could defeat. Each one possessed special abilities. Although inferior to a Herrscher, they were still incomparable to ordinary Honkai energy.
Emperor-class Honkai Beasts possessed territorial instincts. Even in the Previous Era, it required an entire Flame-Chaser squad to pay a heavy price to defeat one.
Judgment-class Honkai Beasts were sometimes weaker than Herrschers, sometimes stronger. They were absolutely not something Anna could currently handle.
In the original work, aside from the super goose who appeared to be S-rank but was actually SSS-rank, ordinary S-rank Valkyries might not even be able to win steadily. After all, Honkai Impact 3rd didn't have a Planetary-class; anything stronger than Judgment-class was still classified as Judgment-class.
The strength of the Vipralopa-Law class from the Previous Era varied greatly, so their power wasn't used as a reference.
In other words, the hundred upper-level Honkai Beasts could practically only be a hundred Templar-class beasts. Encountering Emperor-class or Judgment-class beasts and leaving alive would already be considered a blessing, let alone subjugating them.
One thousand lower-level Honkai Beasts, one hundred upper-level Honkai Beasts... No matter how you looked at it, this didn't seem like a mission an A-rank Valkyrie could resolve. They should at least arrange a squad, right?
A thousand lower-level Honkai Beasts wasn't difficult for Anna, but the time limit was extremely troublesome. One day... counting as twenty-four hours, that meant eliminating 42 lower-level Honkai Beasts per hour, averaging one per minute, with absolutely no room for rest.
Not to mention there were the even more troublesome upper-level Honkai Beasts, and...
Himself, this burden.
Looking at Anna's furrowed brows, Li Wu realized that this time, Schicksal didn't seem to just want to observe him; there were deeper considerations involved.
"Why don't we just give up? We can just take out a few dozen lower-level Honkai Beasts to report back to Schicksal. This mission doesn't look like something we can complete at all," Li Wu advised.
Anna shook her head, her tone resolute. "No, the higher the mission rank, the higher the required completion rate. Otherwise, the subsequent missions issued will directly drag down a squad! This Red-tier mission faintly exceeds A-rank difficulty, but I must give it my all. Because I am the captain of the Snow Lotus Squad, if I fail to complete a Red-tier mission, the squad's resources will be halved, or even reduced to nothing..."
"I must take responsibility for my team members. This is the result of my choice. No matter what, I must ensure as much as possible that my team members are not affected by my choices."
Anna's eyes flickered, as if an eternally unextinguishable torch burned within them. But Li Wu noticed that her fingers trembled unconsciously, tightly gripping her combat uniform to alleviate her inner unease.
Schicksal's resource allocation and highly involuted system dictated that every team member had to retain their resources as much as possible, otherwise things would spiral out of control and they would be marginalized.
Perfectly completing the previous mission would make the next mission harder to complete, eventually turning into an endless vicious cycle.
Never completing missions meant having resources completely castrated.
"Sorry. If it weren't for me, you probably wouldn't have accepted this mission at all. You don't need to push yourself so hard..."
Li Wu returned the phone to Anna. Like a child who had done something wrong, he copied Anna's previous gesture, lowering his head, not daring to look directly at her.
"There's no need to apologize. This is the path I chose; it has nothing to do with you. Anyway... let's do our best together! Going all out, completing about eighty percent should still be fine. Li Wu, this mission requires you to follow me. My biggest worry is whether your body can withstand the Honkai corruption..."
"You haven't digested the Holy Blood in your body. The Honkai energy concentration in the mid-risk zone of Siberia is not something an ordinary person can endure..." Anna felt Li Wu over, struggling internally for a long time, before finally raising her head and letting out a long sigh of relief. "It's fine. I am the Holy Maiden of the Schariac family; my blood is the most precious Holy Blood. As long as I am still alive, Honkai corruption will not happen to you."
"My blood is your blood."
Holy Blood could cleanse all negative effects, including Honkai corruption.
Anna's meaning was very clear in that last sentence.
My blood is your blood. Even if Holy Blood doesn't flow through your veins, as long as my blood hasn't drained dry, you will not die from Honkai corruption due to a lack of Holy Blood.
After saying these words, Anna grabbed her suitcases and called Li Wu to leave with her, hurrying toward the nearby airport.
Li Wu didn't reply, nor could he.
He didn't understand why Anna would go to such lengths for him.
To be honest, looking at the time scale, their relationship wasn't deep. They had only known each other for a few days. On a worldly level, their feelings were nowhere near profound enough to voluntarily sacrifice themselves for the other.
Through various probes, Li Wu had roughly guessed that Anna was arranged by Kiana's parents to observe him.
Only this could explain why Anna exposed his identity as Kiana's fiancé on the first day of school, chose to sit next to him, and repeatedly violated Schicksal's discipline to help him several times.
If it had been a mission issued by Schicksal, it would never have been this difficult. Therefore, it could only be for personal reasons.
A Red-tier mission... just thinking about the color, one would know the difficulty of completion was absolutely not easy. Yet Anna still decisively accepted it to prevent him from falling into the hands of others and meeting an untimely end.
Actually, Anna could have completely ignored it. After all, the mission was highly likely to exceed her capabilities. The safest plan was to leave it alone.
Now, facing an unfinishable mission, Anna not only had to consider his safety but also exert all her strength to exterminate as many Honkai Beasts as possible so her team members wouldn't be implicated.
Li Wu raised his head and saw that the Anna walking in front of him didn't have much expression on her face.
But even without seeing it, he could guess...
The responsibility she bore and the pressure she endured were absolutely not as simple as they appeared on the surface.
Phew...
Li Wu silently clenched his fists.
The anchor for all of this was on him, but not only did Anna not blame him, she instead put his mind at ease, thoughtfully considering everything so he could focus on protecting himself.
"..."
Li Wu suddenly understood a bit why Raiden Mei had admired him so much back then.
Because sometimes, people will always encounter predicaments they cannot resolve alone, or... dead ends.
If no one approaches, if no one extends a hand, facing the cruel wheel of fate, an individual's will is like a weed by the side of the road, easily crushed and crawling on the ground without suspense.
Wanting to survive, wanting to be happy, wanting to return to a normal, peaceful life—these small wishes were not simple.
At least, for Raiden Mei back then, and for himself right now, without someone's help, it was very, very difficult...
On the street, it was around three or four in the morning.
The streetlights illuminated the dim asphalt road in the silent night. The entire city seemed immersed in slumber; only the two of them carried their luggage, moving forward quietly.
The petite figure in front of him, under the interplay of moonlight and streetlights, presented a more valiant and heroic bearing than anyone else in Li Wu's eyes.
[How is it? Are you moved?]
Yeah, a little.
[In Raiden Mei's eyes, you are no different from the current Anna, perhaps even more dazzling, considering you died for her so many times. Although Raiden Mei doesn't know the number of times you died, in her eyes, you almost lost your life several times but still firmly stood by her side, wanting to help her fight against fate, wanting her to live happily.]
[Birds of a feather flock together; people are sorted by their kind.]
[When you disregard your own safety for others, sooner or later, there will definitely be someone who disregards their safety for you.]
But I didn't do anything for Anna...
[Who knows. Girls are very emotional creatures. You don't necessarily have to actually do anything for them; you just need to make them believe you would do something for them. Isn't this exactly what you are best at? First promising them what they desire, then casually giving a little sweetness to make them believe it's true. As for whether it will be realized in the end, that completely depends on your mood.]
[If you find the reality of the promise too heavy and the price too expensive, you will start to evade, start finding reasons and excuses. Ultimately, after weighing the pros and cons, you'll watch helplessly as the words you once spoke evaporate into thin air.]
...
My promises are not that cheap.
[Because you haven't yet faced the time to pay the price. To see a person clearly—whether it's someone else or yourself—you cannot only look at what they say, but what they do.]
[Some people are just not good with words. They don't like to respond, nor do they need to make promises. But when it's time to pay the price, they will absolutely not shrink back, persisting even knowing the price is unbearable.]
[This depends solely on a person's character and has nothing to do with anyone else.]
[Returns by Death gives you your greatest confidence, but it also blurs your ability to see your own capabilities clearly.]
[In contrast, this little girl... she knows the weight of every word and every syllable she speaks, and she will eventually pay the price.]
...
System, you can see the future, right?
Li Wu asked directly in his mind.
If the system's previous riddler-like phrasing was elusive, this time he could almost be certain that the system only dared to make such an evaluation because it actually knew the future.
These weren't the words a normal spectator would say, but... the lamentation of someone who had seen the ending!
Tell me, what will happen in the future?
If you didn't have the ability, I wouldn't ask. But since you can see the future, why can't you reveal a bit of the future script? Do you just want to mess with me that badly?
[You misunderstand. I do not share the twisted tastes you have when creating. It is just that, in a certain sense, I can indeed observe a momentary glimpse of the future.]
[It can be understood as an unfinished script. If there are no variables, everything will develop according to that script. Finally, the unfinished script will be completed, becoming a whole, predetermined script.]
[Long before you wiped out the Blood Wolf Mercenary Group, Raiden Mei was taken out by a sniper rifle. The script for the first act was supposed to be completed then; I merely informed you ten minutes in advance.]
[You know better than anyone what happened after that. To prevent the complete realization of the first act's script, you repeatedly underwent Returns by Death, and finally found the only way to rewrite the script.]
[Anna Schariac is not a heroine in the script. Therefore, if she truly meets her end, you will not receive any prompts, and you will be powerless to change it.]
Hearing the system's explanation, Li Wu suddenly stopped walking. Standing in the center of the dim intersection, he stared blankly at the asphalt road. His pupils dilated, the images captured by his eyes becoming increasingly blurry as an intense wave of fear instantly shrouded his heart.
The process of saving Raiden Mei had been incredibly difficult, but at least there were prompts. Even if he encountered a bad ending, he could use Return by Death in advance to rewrite it before the script was completed.
But now the system is telling me that Anna isn't a heroine, so she doesn't enjoy the same treatment as Raiden Mei? The script won't be rewritten for her?
"Li Wu? What's wrong? Li Wu?"
A Valkyrie's five senses were sharper than an ordinary person's. So the moment Li Wu stopped, she turned around, quickly ran to his side, and asked with concern.
No...
I won't accept this...
I won't accept that kind of ending...
Tell me what will happen in the future, even if it's just the final outcome.
[If you care that much, then pay close attention.]
[After all...]
[She was never supposed to live to the ending of the script to begin with; she's a character outside the story, isn't she? Whether it's the game, the manga, or...]
Or what?
Speak!
The system abruptly disconnected mid-sentence without warning. No matter how Li Wu called out, it didn't continue its unfinished answer.
That answer seemed to hide some kind of "truth."
Li Wu couldn't care about all that right now. He only knew that since Anna would face a fatal crisis within this month, what he had to do was keep his eyes on her at all times and use Return by Death in time to prevent the tragedy from happening.
"I'm... fine. Let's go, the airport is just up ahead."
Snapping back to reality, Li Wu immediately changed the subject and pointed to the airport not far ahead. A new model fighter jet emblazoned with Schicksal's iconic emblem was parked on the apron. A Valkyrie in uniform stood with a cold expression, waiting for their arrival.
Anna looked at Li Wu's pale face and forcefully slapped him on the shoulder, nearly knocking him to the ground.
"What are you doing?!"
"Cheer up! I won't allow you to go to the battlefield looking so down and dejected!"
"I just woke up, how could I not have energy..."
"Liar! Do you think I'm a three-year-old child? Your face is completely pale, how could you be energetic?"
Anna mercilessly pierced through Li Wu's disguise.
Rather than him losing his life on the battlefield due to spacing out, Anna would rather punch him awake before the battle even began.
"I..."
"I what? Anyway, if the sky falls, a tall person like me will hold it up! You just obediently follow behind me. Did you forget? Last time, I was the one who rushed you home in time and took out that Anti-Entropy cyborg. It's only been a few days, have you already forgotten how amazing I am?"
Anna leaned in close to Li Wu's face and forcefully poked his stiff cheek with her index finger. The poke made Li Wu wince in pain, and that awkward, paper-thin smile of his was poked to pieces, leaving behind only his most genuine frustration.