An S-Rank Valkyrie...
When Li Wu heard those words, his heart instantly sank to the bottom of his stomach.
He had seen the sheer power A-Rank Valkyrie Anna unleashed when she was resolute, and it had shaken him to his core. Like thunder, like lightning—calling her a self-regenerating, walking tactical missile wouldn't be an exaggeration.
So, an S-Rank Valkyrie, who was even stronger than an A-Rank... No, an S-Rank Valkyrie capable of soloing an Emperor-class Honkai Beast—just how terrifyingly powerful would they be?
Li Wu's mind involuntarily flashed back to that day. He remembered the Star-Devouring Worm—the monster that had killed him dozens of times, tearing the sky and rending the earth, capable of swallowing a small mountain with ease.
Without at least A-Rank strength, one wouldn't even have the right to stand before it. So how could he challenge... an existence even stronger than that?
No matter how many times he used Return by Death, he would be instantly crushed into meat paste...
And even if he somehow lucked out and won, then what? Schicksal had more than three S-Rank Valkyries. If they were all deployed, it would spell apocalyptic doom for any human. They were completely unstoppable.
There wasn't a single person in this world who could survive a coordinated siege by over a dozen S-Rank Valkyries. Not even a Herrscher was an exception...
He had finally managed to escape. Was there really a need to go back? To go back and face enemies he couldn't possibly defeat...
[If you choose to use "Future Loan" now to borrow the strength required to defeat those three S-Rank Valkyries, it is highly likely that you will never return. Furthermore, they are not the endpoint. Even if you defeat them, there are even more powerful enemies waiting—enemies you cannot overcome.]
The System, seeing through Li Wu's thoughts, proactively warned him.
"But... I still have to go. I promised her... I promised her. Just this once, even if it's only this once, I..." Li Wu shoved his hands into his pockets to hide their trembling, but his fingers suddenly brushed against a cold container. He pulled it out to look.
It was a vial filled with golden blood. The blood boiled violently, surging frantically in his direction. It was similar to the Holy Blood he had seen before, yet distinctly different.
This had to be the "hefty fortune" Argar mentioned Anna had left for him.
So stupid.
Holy Blood was strictly contraband, yet she still took the risk to prepare a vial for him. Did she really think a grown man couldn't fend for himself in a foreign land?
Li Wu tilted his head up. His breathing suddenly grew light, like a feather drifting in the air, swaying with the wind, floating wherever the breeze took it.
Li Wu knew Anna just wanted him to have an easier life.
"I have no right to turn a blind eye."
[But you cannot defeat these enemies. And even if you do, the price will be too astronomical for you to bear.]
"That's not a reason. It's just an excuse to deceive myself. I promised Anna. She helped me resolve the 'Death Coffin' when I was trying to save Raiden Mei. As for me... whether she's the heroine of this story or not, when she's facing an unavoidable crisis and can't even save herself, I'm going to step in and solve it for her!"
"Keeping a promise was never meant to be easy. If you look for excuses, even a murderer can find plenty of rational justifications. But no matter how many excuses there are, or how logical they sound, they're ultimately just a way to make yourself feel better. Having a 'reason' doesn't make hurting innocent people forgivable."
"I'm different from others. I have the power of Return by Death. Everyone else has the right to make excuses, but I don't. The only thing I can do is keep on trying, make mistakes, and find the solution."
"You said it yourself—Return by Death gives me the infinite possibility to change things. I didn't observe a future where Anna dies. That means there's still a chance to turn this around."
Li Wu lowered his gaze, staring with absolute resolve at the vial of bizarre Holy Blood in his hand.
I want to do everything within my power.
I want to face problems head-on instead of immediately running away.
I want to give this story a happy ending.
"Since my current strength isn't enough to defeat an S-Rank Valkyrie, then I need to find backup as fast as possible, or... get stronger."
Without a second's hesitation, Li Wu injected the vial of Golden Holy Blood—whose exact effects were unknown—directly into his body.
He had an inexplicable connection with Holy Blood. Injecting it would drastically enhance his physique, but the biological modification process was excruciating. The slightest lapse in focus would cause him to pass out on the spot.
So this time, Li Wu preemptively used Future Loan to borrow the formidable mental fortitude needed to fully endure the Holy Blood's modification. He had to remain conscious so he could immediately make his next move the moment he grew stronger.
[You have borrowed forty minutes of extreme mental fortitude. You have acquired a new trait: Incapable of falling unconscious before death.]
Soon, the Holy Blood modification began.
Unlike previous modifications, the moment the Golden Holy Blood rushed from the syringe into Li Wu's veins, everything went completely berserk.
"Argh!!"
Without warning, Li Wu collapsed to the ground, curling into a tight ball as his body convulsed violently.
Starting from the injection site, every bone in his body instantaneously collapsed. Yes—shattered outright. He turned into a puddle of mush, completely losing the ability to stand. The bones inside him were being pulverized into dust by an invisible wrecking ball, only to be rapidly pieced back together.
Next were his blood vessels.
The Golden Holy Blood acted like an emperor returning to its kingdom, greedily siphoning all the nutrients from Li Wu's body—blood, salt, trace elements... Insatiable, it tore through his blood vessels mere seconds later, invading his organs and skeletal structure, chewing and devouring every inch of him.
The process... was like a plague of millions of locusts squirming and gnawing through his body. They ate through wherever they passed, without a single moment of respite.
Li Wu had never experienced such agonizing pain. It was millions of times worse than committing suicide with the Azure Spear. His mind went entirely blank, stripped of the ability to think. Only incomprehensible dry heaves and low, guttural roars escaped his lips.
He should have passed out. But because he had borrowed that immense mental fortitude, he was forced to endure it with absolute clarity, feeling every agonizing second of the Golden Holy Blood's modification...
Five minutes, ten minutes, half an hour...
He couldn't hold a single posture for more than three seconds. Looking like a pathetic junkie, he clutched himself, rolling on the ground, howling in agony with snot and tears streaming down his face.
It was death by a thousand cuts. The Golden Holy Blood acted like a blunt blade, slowly and methodically slicing Li Wu's flesh and blood to ribbons before reconstructing it all.
Copious amounts of bright red blood bled from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Not just his facial orifices—his entire body was covered in gashes ripped open by the Golden Holy Blood, though the wounds rapidly healed themselves.
At the fortieth minute, the pain dissipated.
The nightmare experience finally ended.
Li Wu clamped a hand over his mouth but couldn't hold it back. A torrent of stomach acid spewed from his throat, splattering onto the floor.
"B-Borrow..." Before he could even catch his breath, Li Wu reached out a hand, his mind desperately visualizing the scenery of Nagazora City.
The next second, he was teleported directly into Raiden Ryoma's home, landing unsteadily in the living room.
The living room was empty, save for a massive pile of beautifully wrapped, unopened boxes stacked in the corner. They seemed to be gifts specially prepared by Raiden Ryoma to celebrate Raiden Mei's new lease on life.
The place was festively decorated and brimming with warmth. Over a dozen exquisitely crafted, life-sized plush dolls were propped up happily in various corners, each one clearly worth a fortune.
Raiden Mei... she must have inherited this habit from her father, constantly talking about gifts in such a naive way, rather than stepping into the victim's shoes to figure out what they truly needed.
[You have borrowed the spatial distance from the village of Kandelai to Raiden Ryoma's villa. To repay this, you must travel 841 kilometers within one day. The use of vehicles is permitted.]
Li Wu ignored the System's prompt. He could easily pay off this debt on his way to Siberia. But before that...
He needed to prepare for combat against three S-Rank Valkyries.
It was dusk in Nagazora. Raiden Ryoma was in the kitchen, preparing dinner for his daughter's return.
He owed Raiden Mei far too much. As a father, he was undeniably a failure. Because of this, he wanted to compensate her in any way he could and spend more time with his daughter, who had endured so much bullying.
Relying on his years of experience navigating the harsh realities of society, Ryoma was confident he could soothe Mei's trauma and help her regain her radiant glow.
Suddenly, a loud noise came from the living room, sounding like someone dropping heavily onto the floor.
Ryoma frowned and popped open a hidden compartment in the kitchen. Every room in the villa was equipped with these hidden compartments, allowing him to quickly draw a firearm no matter where he was.
Once armed, Ryoma took a deep breath. He pushed the door open, raised the gun, and aimed, all in one fluid motion.
But when he saw the grotesquely strange figure in the living room, his face filled with shock. He absolutely had not expected it to be this person.
"Li Wu? Why are you here? And... what the hell happened to you?" Ryoma demanded in a low bark.
The sharp black trench coat was completely caked in blood and filth. The boy's hair was a matted mess, and more than half of his face was covered in crimson blood. Drops of red liquid trailed down his cheeks, pattering onto the floor one by one.
Even standing a few meters away, the pungent stench of blood radiating from him was overpowering. He looked like he had just crawled out of a pool of gore—not like a high school student in the slightest.
"I came to get something from you."
Li Wu turned slightly, a cold, harsh light gleaming in his eyes.
Because the Golden Holy Blood's modification had been so excruciating, his vocal cords hadn't recovered yet, leaving his voice incredibly raspy.
Ryoma relaxed his guard slightly and lowered his pistol, though he didn't uncock it.
"What do you want? Money? Power? I know what you did for Mei, and I'm deeply grateful. If it weren't for you, Mei would probably be dead by now..." Ryoma let out a long sigh, lingering fear evident in his eyes. "If it's money, you can have as much as you want. I can make sure you never have to worry about cash for the rest of your life. If it's power—well, I can't guarantee anything in other countries, but here in the Far East, once you graduate, you can take any position just under mine. That's a favor I can easily fulfill."
"I don't want any of that," Li Wu replied coldly.
"Then what do you want?" Ryoma was perplexed. Most people spent their entire lives chasing fame and fortune. The door to a successful life was wide open right in front of him, yet Li Wu was walking the other way?
"Your incomplete weapons that combine plasma and Honkai energy. The bombs, firearms, the programmable drones..."
Li Wu listed them one by one.
In the manga, after the protagonist had completely saved Raiden Mei, a deeply moved Raiden Ryoma couldn't help but chat with him, bringing up those exact weapons. Their completion level wasn't as refined as the Plasma Kagehide, but their lethality was barely any weaker.
Because... they were uncontrollable.
The Plasma Kagehide was one of the very few controllable weapons that combined plasma and Honkai tech. The other prototypes were unstable.
They usually resulted in mutually assured destruction, taking out a thousand enemies at the cost of eight hundred of your own. Because of this, Ryoma had destroyed most of them, leaving only a small reserve for extreme emergencies.
Hearing this, Ryoma instantly went on high alert. His gaze sharpened as he meticulously scrutinized the boy standing before him.
"Those weapons are highly unstable. Furthermore, very few people even know they exist, and the researchers have almost all left Nagazora. How do you know about them? And what do you intend to do with uncontrollable weaponry?"
"That's my business, Mr. Ryoma. The first time we met, you told me that I was just a somewhat clever, hot-blooded kid, and that reality was complicated. I won't deny that. Reality is indeed incredibly complicated. So complicated that to accomplish a single goal, it takes countless hours and oceans of spilled blood... And even if you bleed and cry, you still might fail, forced to watch a tragedy unfold right before your eyes. Just like how you could only watch Raiden Mei die back then. Even when you gave it your all, making her death a little less painful was the absolute best you could do."
Li Wu lowered his eyes, his hollow gaze falling on his dripping, blood-soaked fingers. They were filthy, yet filled with immense power. "I don't want to waste any more time talking about this with you."
"Right now, there's a girl who's too stupid for her own good suffering unimaginable torture. I'm going to save her, doing everything I can... No, I'm going to put my life on the line. I know that relying purely on hot-blooded passion only serves to move yourself; it doesn't save anyone. That's why I need to be prepared. Your unstable weapons are part of my plan. Whether or not their blast radius catches me is my problem to worry about."
As his words fell, Ryoma suddenly felt a sense of relief wash over him.
He truly didn't understand who this boy named Li Wu really was, but to completely disregard his own life meant that Li Wu had already burned his bridges. He wouldn't stop until his goal was met.
"Tell me who your enemy is. I'll help you take them out," Ryoma looked up and offered. "I am the President of ME Corp. There is no one in the Far East I can't handle. Even overseas, I wield considerable influence. An enemy you can't defeat might not even be worth mentioning in my eyes."
Li Wu paused, then let out a dry, raspy chuckle.
"You can't handle them. And if I told you their name, I'm afraid you'd want nothing more than to grab Raiden Mei and sever all ties with me immediately."
"Impossible. I can't handle them? I am the—"
Before he could finish his sentence, Ryoma suddenly seemed to realize something. He tentatively voiced a single word: "Schicksal?"
Li Wu nodded. "I have no intention of lying. The enemy I'm about to face is indeed Schicksal. You can't help me."
Upon hearing that confirmation, Ryoma felt his scalp go numb, as if ten thousand ants were crawling over his head.
Was this a joke?!
The enemy was Schicksal?
A high schooler going up against Schicksal?
Are you kidding me?! Even in his wildest dreams, Ryoma wouldn't dare entertain such a thought. The gap in power was so massive it was no different from throwing an egg against a boulder!