Her body continuously faded, even becoming transparent, and Seele's pupils constricted slightly, a sense of disbelief washing over her.
In her panic, in the final moments before disappearing from this world, she wanted to do something, to see Bronya sister one last time, she hadn't yet fulfilled their promise to watch the sea.
How could she leave first?
With immense longing, Seele stood up step by step, a massive black scythe appearing in her right hand. She stamped her right foot down forcefully, swept her hand, and the iron door was instantly torn apart.
She directly left the laboratory, breaking through the deep sea and arriving on the surface. Keqing, unaware of anything, saw Seele's direction of advance was towards the orphanage.
She immediately ordered the mecha legions to intercept, absolutely not allowing Seele to harm a single child in the orphanage, even though Seele was also her child.
But how could mere mecha legions hinder Seele even slightly? However, their sheer numbers slowed her advance.
At the orphanage, Bronya seemed to sense something. She tilted her head towards the door, as if something beloved was about to depart.
"My heart aches so much... why does it hurt like this?"
Seele finally collapsed onto the still partially melted snow, her body slowly disappearing. The orphanage before her was no longer very far.
But she had no strength left to stand. As her legs faded, her body slowly vanished. Seele let out a bitter smile.
"Bronya sister, I'm afraid I won't be able to fulfill our promise..."
As her body disappeared, even her head vanished from this world, arriving in a peculiar space. All around were fragmented objects, and bubble-like things floated in the air.
As Seele's presence vanished, the machines that had locked onto her location lost their target. Keqing paced back and forth uneasily, unable to believe any of it was real.
"How could this happen? How could it be like this? The previous experiments never led to this... why? Seele... I'm sorry, mother failed you!"
At the moment the news was confirmed, Keqing's last line of defense was breached. She had sent her own daughter into hell with her own hands.
"Team leader, please don't be too sad. According to speculation, Seele should have entered the Quantum Sea. There's still a chance to rescue her."
"..."
Keqing didn't know what to say now. She just stood up silently. Seele's disappearance would likely cause Bronya distress.
After a night, Keqing returned to the orphanage. Looking at everyone before her, she didn't know how to speak. She just sighed, preparing to talk to Bronya alone.
In her office, Bronya finally asked the question in her heart.
"Where is Seele? Why haven't I seen her? Where is she? Didn't we say we'd go watch the sea together?"
"I asked you to come here to talk about this. I'm sorry, Bronya. Seele, she..."
Everything proceeded according to the original storyline. Lu Ze also left the instance when the time countdown ended. It wasn't that he didn't want to do anything, but that he truly couldn't do anything.
Besides saving people, he knew nothing about research, couldn't open the Quantum Sea, and couldn't stop Keqing.
As the saying goes, you can evade the fifteenth day of the first month, but not the fifteenth day of the eighth. Even if he stopped Keqing for a while, he couldn't stop her forever. She would still embark on this path, still conduct experiments.
Just like he couldn't save Himeko, these things were fated. Without absolute strength, changing the storyline easily was impossible.
The system was uncooperative, and he had no recourse. Even with S-rank strength, he was still insignificant before true powerhouses.
Even one of the 13 Flame-Chasers could easily handle him. This was the gap in strength. However, it was alright for now.
He had become much stronger relying on the system. With the blessings of several sets of stigmata, his strength was basically on par with Kevin wielding the Heaven Fire, even possessing some strange abilities.
"So, we met then? Then why don't I remember anything?"
Seele, in his arms, was a little confused. Her childhood memories were very vivid. How could she not remember a child named Lu Ze?
"That was the price of borrowing power... You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you, so let's not talk about it."
Although it was a bit upsetting not knowing the reason, if he didn't want to say, what could she do?
In fact, it was a side effect of releasing the cards, making all characters in the current instance forget the protagonist's memory. However, the black Seele was a bit special and not within the scope of forgetting, so only she could remember.
"I didn't expect you to have that side to you. For someone you care about, you'd even use your body to block all damage. You're a man, Keqing respects you."
Lu Ze smiled faintly and said:
"I am deeply honored to receive the recognition of the Yuheng Star. However, we seem to have arrived at Guili Plains, and the sky is gradually darkening. Should we stop and rest?"
Ningguang looked at the sun in the sky. She had been so engrossed in the story that she didn't realize the sun had already set.
"The entire army halts here to rest. Pitch tents, build fires, and eat. We will rest here tonight."
The soldiers behind quickly pitched tents. After a day of marching, they were already exhausted and sat down to rest.
Then, fires were lit one by one, and smoke slowly drifted up.
"We don't seem to have brought any tents..."
Seele looked at Lu Ze somewhat awkwardly. They indeed hadn't brought any tents. What should they do? They couldn't possibly ask that Ningguang for one.
"Ahem, what are you talking about? It's just tents. We have them, they might just be a bit old."
Saying that, he rummaged through his system space and found a tent he had bought at some point. It was already set up, but it was a bit dusty, likely because it had been stored for too long.
"Well... I'll shake it off, it should still be usable."
Lu Ze adjusted it somewhat awkwardly. Ten minutes later, it looked brand new. Keqing and the others, though they had never seen such a modern tent, couldn't imagine how they would sleep in it.
A large white tent versus a camping tent. These two were incomparable. It was so small, it would be a squeeze even for sleeping.
However, Seele was unfazed. After all, as a modern person, how could she not have used such a tent?