Mikoto lazily looked at the zombies coming his way without any expression on his face.
“Really?” He asked nobody. “I mean, really? The first world I landed happened to be filled with zombies and Honkai Beasts,” he sighed, regretting his choice.
“I mean, I know this is the Stigma Space but who would have zombies and Honkai Beasts in their Stigma Space?” he grumbled as he looked around the surroundings.
He slowly walked toward the zombies, pulling out a pair of ARC Serratus from his [Inventory]. He calmly shoots the bullets toward them. He doesn’t need to care about the wall covering them as the bullet passes through the walls as if they are not there and hit its target.
ARC Serratus is a pair of pistols customized by Kiana while wandering in Arc City. She infused her Herrscher powers into this weapon to immaterialize bullets fired and pass through obstacles. The bullets will materialize again and deal irrevocable damage upon hitting the target.
Looking up to the sky, filled with clouds, he can’t feel any sunlight coming down. He had been in this Stigma Space for nearly 3 hours, but he saw the zombies and Honkai beasts everywhere.
“That cabbage… this world is safe, she said. There won’t be any problem, she said,” Mikoto muttered as he kept shooting the zombies. With his Hyperion still in the Sea of Quanta, he needs to find a way to return. His portal device connected to the battleship is not working.
A little while before Mikoto arrived into this Bubble Universe(?),
“Captain! Captain!” shouted the girl with twin buns… which looked strangely like two cabbages on her head. She appeared as a hologram in Mikoto’s bedroom.
“Shut up, cabbage,” Mikoto shooed her away from his sleep.
“Mou! Don’t call Ai-chan a cabbage!” The girl huffed.
“Then you know damn not to wake me up without a proper excuse,” Mikoto glared at her.
“Ai-chan knows it already!” the girl shouted back while shielding her twin buns protectively.
“So?” Mikoto gets up from his bed while stretching his back.
“Ai-chan has found a suitable Bubble Universe to land, Captain!” the green cabbage replied bubbly.
“Then, how are we gonna land?” Mikoto asked while looking through the report Ai-chan gave him.
“Please come to the bridge for briefing, Captain,” Ai-chan huffed and disappeared.
“What a drag,” Mikoto scratched the back of his head and got up from the bed. He freshened himself and ate lunch in the cafeteria.
“Captain on the bridge,” a sound rang as he took the elevator up to the bridge.
Mikoto arrived on the bridge after having lunch. Looking at the report given to him by Ai-chan, he got the gist of the Bubble Universe he was going to get into.
“Hmm… nothing out of the ordinary,” Mikoto looked at the reports. The Bubble Universe he will be going into is just a normal Bubble Universe with very few Honkai Beasts sightings.
“Hey cabbage,” Mikoto started, making the girl appear. “How am I supposed to go into the Bubble Universe?” he asked.
“Leave it all to me, Captain!” Ai-chan saluted and showed him the screen. “Otto-sama created this portal with the help of Sirin-chan! Captain will be sent to the Bubble Universe as long as you walk through the portal,” she replied.
She then pulled up another screen in front of Mikoto. On the screen, it shows his heartbeat rate and other vital signs. “And this screen shows your vital signs, Captain! Ai-chan will forcefully teleport you back from the Bubble Universe if something strange happens to you!” she explained, puffing out her chest as if she wanted some praise.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you are an amazing cabbage, better than other cabbages in the refrigerator. Happy now?” Mikoto glanced at Ai-chan with a smirk. He always found it funny to tease the cabbage.
Ai-chan sweatdropped at that. She was happy that the Captain praised her but must he praise her like that?
As for Mikoto, he was just being petty. 2 months ago, he and Siegfried got their asses handed to her when the two of them first met her on Arctic Ocean island. Back then, she had another name called Self-regulatory Unit A1. Unit A1 was too strong for Siegfreid and gave some trouble to Mikoto.
Mikoto had to use half of his full power to protect Siegfried and himself from the girl who was guarding the Final God Key. But thanks to the insufficient power supply, the two males are alive to this day.
“I wonder what Cecilia taught her,” Mikoto thought. The strongest Valkyrie of Schicksal volunteered to teach the newly born Ai-chan about manners and the current world.
“So… when will we arrive at that Bubble Universe?” the redhead asked the girl floating in front of him.
“Ai-chan will calculate it right now,” the girl replied and started her job. The corner of Mikoto’s lips arched upward, seeing the girl working hard right now.
“Hyperion just sailed down from the Imaginary Tree, so we will arrive at its base in an hour. If we travel from there without resting, Hyperion will arrive at the Bubble Universe in two hours. So, we will arrive at that Bubble Universe in three hours, Captain!” She answered without looking up from the screen in front of her.
Mikoto rubbed his chin. “Three hours…,” he muttered. If there are still 3 hours before arriving at the destination, he can practice Hokushin Itto-ryu. That is Raiden Mei’s fighting style. Since he had perfected both Kiana’s and Kallen’s way of Kaslana Gun Kata, of course, he would need to learn a new fighting style.
Inside a training room, Mikoto stands in front of the training dummy. His amber-colored eyes are now dark blue in color. Tightly holding the katana in his hand, he stared intensely at the dummy in front of him.
Heaving out a sigh from his mouth, Mikoto slashed his katana diagonally from the right. And then, he spun his body and sent out an upward diagonal slash to the dummy. Releasing his left hand from the handle, he sent out another quick upward slash from the left. Spinning his body one more time, he sent out the same slash he had performed before, an upward diagonal slash with both hands. And finally, he slashed horizontally with his right hand.
What Mikoto did was Gokiketsu. It is an AOE Penta-slash skill of Raiden Mei. It has been 2 hours since he started practicing kenjutsu in the training room. His body was drenched in sweat, and the eyes returned to normal amber color.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Mikoto put the katana back into its sheath. The katana is just a simple one-star weapon named Seishuu Muramasa. He has better weapons in his [Inventory], but the current weapon is good enough for training.
“Captain, we are approaching the Bubble Universe,” Ai-chan notified him through the speaker.
“I’ll take a nap for 30 minutes. Wake me up when we are ready to get inside the Bubble World,” Mikoto yawned and walked inside his room. Of course, he took a shower before getting into bed.
After a while, Ai-chan’s voice came through the speaker. “Captain! We are set to transport you into the Bubble Universe,” The green cabbage notified the sloth who was sleeping in his bed.
Opening his eyes, Mikoto freshened himself and walked toward the bridge. That is where he will be teleported from.
“Cabbage, I will leave Hyperion to you,” The redhead muttered. He is not wearing his captain outfit because it looks suspicious as hell. So, he wore his casual clothes before coming to the bridge.
“Leave everything to Ai-chan!” The girl saluted and started the teleporting device.
“And you know what to do when Quantum Shadows appear, right?” Mikoto asked again.
“Aye, aye, Captain!” Ai-chan replied without relaxing her posture.
“Then I will believe in you,” Mikoto nodded and stepped into the portal.
After Mikoto stepped into the teleportation portal, Ai-chan noticed some glitches appeared on the transportation screen. But it returned to normal after 5 seconds. Looking at Mikoto’s vital screen, she realized that nothing terrible had happened to him, so she ignored the strange thing that happened on the screen.
As for Mikoto, he didn’t know that he had arrived at the wrong destination. Instead of a peaceful Bubble Universe, he came somewhere gloomy.
“So, this is the aftereffect of the teleportation,” Mikoto muttered while holding his head. He felt dizzy after walking out of the portal. And the portal closed as soon as he stepped his feet into the Bubble Universe.
“Wait…,” Mikoto stopped whatever he was doing. “This feeling,” He started looking around the surroundings. “It feels nothing like a Bubble Universe,” he knitted his brows and looked up at the sky.
“How come I arrived in the Stigma Space?” A sigh came from Mikoto after realizing where he had landed. “Are Stigma Spaces situated inside the Sea of Quanta? No, no, no. I’ve explored other Bubble Universes before. I haven’t seen any Stigma Spaces in the Sea of Quanta,” His mind went into overdrive about the issue presented in front of him.
*Roar!* *Roar!* *Roar!*
Mikoto looked at the zombies coming toward him. “I am too lazy to deal with this shit,” he muttered and jumped onto the roof of the house on his left.
“There are zombies in this Stigma Space,” Mikoto raised his eyebrow.
*Fast forward for 3 hours, Present*
With ARC Serratus in his hand, Mikoto wanders aimlessly in the town. He came into this Bubble Universe to restock some supplies. But… there isn’t anything to restock in this Stigma Space. He might even need to share his if things get worse.
Mikoto kept wandering, not knowing where to go. He hasn’t seen a single living thing aside from Honkai Beasts.
*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*
As he was walking, Mikoto heard the sound of gunshots coming from the north. “There must be where people are,” he thought.
Mikoto rushed in the direction where the gunshots came as he didn’t want any casualties just because he was too lazy to run.
When he arrived at the place, he saw a girl fighting an Emperor-class Honkai Beast, Imperator, while covering the retreat route of the people and machines. The clouds moved, and the sky was clear again. Only now did Mikoto see the sight in front of him clearly.
But the first word which came out from his mouth was, “Fuck!” Looking at the girl, he could only curse.
“Why is Houraiji Kyuushou here?!” He screamed internally. Thinking about the final boss he has to fight, he added, “Fuck my life.”
