Free Web NovelChapter 263: Otto: Where Did My Big Sushang Go?!
With the cognitive Fu Hua obliterated by the dual Eminence of Taixu unleashed by Ren Amamiya and the real Fu Hua, the ruins of the Sword-Memory Villa within the Palace fell into a profound silence.
Free of obstacles, Ren quickly located the third Will Seed under Hare’s guidance.
The three delicate golden miniature swords resonated, drawn together by an invisible force until they fused into a single, palm-sized, heavy dagger.
With this, all the Will Seeds within Li Sushang’s Palace were finally in Ren’s possession.
The memory etched into the third Will Seed rushed into Ren’s mind the moment he touched it.
To his relief, it wasn’t some scandalous memory he had been bracing himself for, but rather a fragment of Li Sushang’s final duel against Fu Hua five centuries ago.
He saw how they had fought to a mutual defeat, and how a promise made to Otto Apocalypse had sealed her in a five-hundred-year slumber.
"We’ve gathered all the Will Seeds," Ren said, turning to his companions. "Hare, Fu Hua, Bronya—did you find any trace of the Treasure?"
Beside him, Sushang was turning the fused Will Seed dagger over in her hands with childlike curiosity. Since the memories locked within the fused seed were no longer accessible to anyone else, Ren had handed it over without hesitation, letting its original owner admire it.
Hare shook her head, her eyes softening with a gentle, apologetic smile. Locating the Will Seeds and the Treasure had been her primary task from the start, and even with Bronya and Fu Hua helping, she hadn’t detected anything resembling a Treasure signature.
"The Treasure is usually kept in the deepest recess of a Palace," Ren noted. "Is there absolutely nothing at the core?"
"Bronya has scanned the deepest sector multiple times," Bronya said, her silver-gray twin drills bouncing as she shook her head. "There are no spatial anomalies, nor any hidden pockets of reality. The parameters are completely flat."
Fu Hua, now fully recovered from her Active Honkai Reaction, let out a long breath.
Her gaze shifted, landing squarely on Li Sushang, who was still obliviously playing with the Will Seed dagger. "I am still learning the intricacies of Personas," Fu Hua said, "but this Palace lacks any distinct artifact like a Herrscher Core. If there is anything of value here that could serve as the Treasure..."
She didn’t finish the sentence, but her eyes, along with Ren’s, locked onto the young swordswoman.
"Um... Young Master Zhou Ke? Great Master?" Sushang fidgeted, her cheeks flushing under the intense gaze of the handsome young man. "Why are you two looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?"
She wondered if she had smudged dirt on her face during their trek through deserts, wilderness, and smoldering ruins. She held up the flat of the golden dagger, using it as a mirror.
Finding her face perfectly clean, she twirled a lock of her hair and mumbled, "If you have something to say, Young Master Zhou Ke, just say it. I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, and when you just stare at me like that... I don’t know what to think."
"It wouldn’t be the first time," Ren agreed, his gaze turning serious. "Sometimes, a person who can enter their own Palace becomes synonymous with the Treasure itself."
"Yeah, yeah! Joker, is there something weird about Sushang?" Kiana chimed in, looking back and forth between them, desperate for answers.
"Li Sushang’s case is highly unusual," Ren explained, keeping it simple for the resident airhead. "She is the Palace owner, her own Shadow, and the Treasure itself, all fused into one. To put it simply: if we want to steal the Treasure, we have to steal Sushang."
"S-Steal me?!" Sushang’s eyes went wide. She stumbled back as if struck by an invisible force. Her mind, suddenly a chaotic blank, immediately filled with the plots of her favorite martial arts romance novels—tales of dashing rogues and kidnapped maidens. Her fair skin flushed a deep, undeniable crimson.
Despite the wild scenarios racing through her head, she didn’t panic. Instead, she hugged herself, casting a shy, tentative glance at Ren. The moment their eyes met, she jerked her gaze away like a thief caught in the act.
"Young Master Zhou Ke, isn’t this... a bit forward?" she whispered, twirling her brown hair around her finger. "We only just met, and I... I haven’t quite prepared myself..."
Five hundred years of slumber had allowed her mind to mature and move past old obsessions, but hearing Ren talk about "stealing" her away like a prized treasure still made her heart race.
"Ahem! Joker, I don’t think that’s appropriate either," Kiana interrupted, her brain working faster than it ever had in her life.
"Sushang is a living, breathing girl! Just taking her away like this makes us look like kidnappers. We should respect her wishes! Besides, she and Fu Hua still have... unresolved history. Even if Sushang is over it, that doesn’t mean the tension will just vanish."
Raiden Mei’s eyes sparkled as she threw Kiana a rare look of pure pride.
"I don’t mind," Fu Hua chimed in, completely oblivious to the romantic tension. "As long as Sushang is willing—"
Before she could finish, Rita gently tugged her sleeve and gave her a subtle, warning shake of her head. Confused but trusting, Fu Hua went quiet, stepping back to watch the drama unfold.
"I wouldn’t call it kidnapping!" Sushang blurted out, suddenly anxious at the thought of being left behind. She looked directly into Ren’s dark eyes, her tone incredibly earnest. "I don’t mind going with young Master Zhou Ke at all."
"Great Master chose him and even passed her strength to him, so there’s no reason for me to doubt her judgment. It’s just... a little sudden. I just need a tiny moment to prepare myself mentally. Just a tiny one, I promise!"
"If you don’t object, then it’s settled," Ren said.
He offered his hand, deciding to strike while the iron was hot. "Sushang, a Palace is a manifestation of distorted desires. As long as it stands, it will continue to warp your mind, whether you realize it or not. The only way to cure that distortion is to remove the Treasure—which means you need to come with us."
Sushang’s mind went entirely blank.
A giddy smile crept onto her face as she placed her small, delicate hand into his red-gloved grip. She didn’t really understand a word of his psychological jargon; all she knew was that she now had a perfectly valid, official reason to stay by his side.
Kiana puffed her cheeks in a silent pout but chose to hold her tongue.
The moment Ren’s fingers closed around Sushang’s hand, the entire Palace shuddered. The sky tore open in jagged, void-like fissures, and the ground fractured into drifting plates. The dreamscape was tearing itself apart.
The apocalyptic spectacle left Kiana wide-eyed with panic—it was her first time witnessing a Palace collapse. But seeing Ren remain completely unfazed, and noting the calm expressions on Mei and Bronya, she forced herself to take a deep breath and swallow her fear.
"Hold on tight, Sushang," Ren commanded. He pulled out his phone, opened the Metaverse Navigator app, and tightened his grip on her hand. "Don’t let go."
He tapped the return button. A crimson ripple washed over them, and in a flash, the Phantom Thieves vanished from the crumbling world of dreams.
---||---
In the blink of an eye, the apocalyptic ruin vanished. Sushang blinked, finding herself standing under a clear, peaceful sky, surrounded by a dizzying, roaring modern metropolis.
Metal carriages sped down asphalt roads; the screech of tires and the blare of horns assaulted her ears.
The girl from five centuries ago shivered, instantly wrapping her arms tightly around Ren’s arm, seeking sanctuary in the only familiar presence she had.
"What is she even saying?" Kiana muttered, her face screwing up in sheer bafflement.
"Sushang is a relic of the past," Fu Hua explained, stepping forward to act as translator. "She has never seen modern technology, and her dialect is an ancient regional tongue from five hundred years ago. It’s only natural you can’t understand her. She was just expressing her utter bewilderment."
"It seems we need to enroll her in a modern language course immediately," Bronya sighed. "Even if her cognitive capacity is on par with a single-celled organism, modern educational tools should have her speaking fluently within a month. Having a teammate who can’t communicate is going to be highly inefficient."
A girl completely blind to the modern world, unable to speak the language, was bound to cause all kinds of chaotic misunderstandings.
---||---
Meanwhile, aboard the floating islands of Schicksal Headquarters.
Otto Apocalypse stood in his laboratory, thoughtfully analyzing the streams of data flickering across his screens. In the wake of losing both the K423 asset and his trusted lieutenant, Rita Rossweisse, Otto had hardly been idle.
With Durandal’s assistance, Otto had successfully recovered the Second Divine Key—the Cosmic Juggernaut—from the Thames.
By studying its ability to peer into the Sea of Quanta, Durandal had unlocked a new echelon of power, while Otto had received invaluable information from the "Awakened One" residing within the Key’s pocket dimension.
"For the past four thousand five hundred years, the Second Divine Key has observed the branches of the Imaginary Tree," Otto murmured, stroking his chin.
"The Awakened One bestowed upon me ’leaves’ containing records of countless parallel worlds. Yet, no matter how many times I scan these archives, I find no record of a ’Trickster’ quite like him."
Otto withdrew his gaze from the screen.
While there were indeed parallel worlds where "phantom thieves" existed—some even sharing striking aesthetic similarities to Ren Amamiya and wielding similar "Persona" powers—they were ultimately mere echoes.
None of them were Ren Amamiya.
They weren’t even "similar flowers."
Across the infinite grains of sand in the multiverse, Ren Amamiya was a singular anomaly.
The message left by the Awakened One had given Otto renewed confidence in his original plan involving the Herrscher of the Void.
But the true revelation lay in the sheer uniqueness of the Trickster. Even a pioneer who had watched over countless worlds had to admit that Ren Amamiya was a one-of-a-kind existence on the Imaginary Tree.
The Herrscher of the Void, the Trickster—either could be the key to realizing his lifelong dream. But if he had to choose one? The answer was painfully obvious.
"The Awakened One saw countless parallel worlds where Herrschers of the Void fought for humanity, yet every single one of those worlds eventually withered and sank into the Sea of Quanta," Otto mused, his heart quickening despite his legendary composure.
"To defeat the Honkai, transcend its trials, and ultimately present a perfect, peaceful world to Kallen... I must place all my wagers on the one-and-only Trickster."
To the Otto of the past, relying on the Herrscher of the Void to rewrite time seemed just as foolish as relying on a rogue thief to save the world.
But having observed Ren’s meteoric, logic-defying growth, Otto knew the truth. Ren Amamiya had already evolved into the most formidable individual force on the planet—and his growth showed no signs of slowing down.
If this world required a savior, Otto believed it would be Ren Amamiya.
"My ultimate goal is within arm’s reach. Yet, even with Durandal’s newly awakened power, Schicksal’s top-tier military assets are severely depleted..."
With Fu Hua and Rita currently in Ren’s custody, Durandal was essentially fighting a solo war.
"It is time to fulfill my promise and wake her up."
Otto recalled Li Sushang, the final S-rank Valkyrie on Schicksal’s roster. Five hundred years ago, his rudimentary medicine could not heal her fatal wounds, forcing him to seal her in cryostasis.
Today, with modern technology, her body had been fully restored to its absolute peak, ready for deployment at a moment’s notice.
He entered his highly classified personal passcode and stepped into the deepest, most secure laboratory in Schicksal HQ. He walked toward the massive containment capsule in the center of the room, where pale green nutrient fluid bubbled softly through complex life-support tubes.
But the capsule was empty.
Otto froze. He rushed to the central computer console. The real-time biometric feed had stopped refreshing. The system logs had frozen exactly three minutes ago.
Where the hell is my Valkyrie?!
To infiltrate the absolute depths of Schicksal’s heavily guarded floating fortress, steal an S-rank Valkyrie right out from under his nose, and leave without triggering a single silent alarm or system warning... it was flatly impossible. A literal miracle.
Wait. freewebnøvel.coɱ
No alarms. No trace. A target stolen clean out of reality itself.
Why did that sound so incredibly familiar?
Could it be...?
Otto took a sharp breath as a terrifying, brilliant realization dawned on him.
