"Ye."
As soon as Ye returned to Sangonomiya Shrine, his footsteps suddenly paused, and he stopped.
This was indeed a voice calling out to Ye, and it echoed in his mind.
It was a somewhat mechanical, emotionless voice of a young girl.
Ye looked around for a place to sit, as he was too lazy to stand and talk.
While searching, he casually asked, "Who are you?"
As he asked this, Ye had already logged into his alternate accounts, Themis and Chiba, and had them leave.
As for himself, he simply found a spot to sit down.
After Ye sat down, the mechanical voice of the girl spoke again, still emotionless: "It's me."
"Who are you?"
"It's me."
"Who are you?"
"It's me."
"Oh, it's you. You're... that person..." Ye hesitated, his tone calm. "The one I haven't heard from in thousands of years... what was your name again?"
The girl's voice remained emotionless: "It's me."
Ye couldn't help but apologize: "Sorry, it's been so long, I kind of forgot about you. I thought I had already resigned. I've even found a new job now, so maybe we should just stop contacting each other. I don't want Lady Furina to misunderstand."
The mechanical girl ignored the sarcasm: "I'm sorry, things have been difficult on my end. I haven't been able to contact you."
Ye found this amusing: "A self-proclaimed omniscient and omnipotent god like you can't be more useful?"
"I've already answered that question before."
"Alright, let's skip that topic. So, what happened on your end while I was switching jobs?"
"We were in a meeting."
"?????"
No exaggeration, Ye was genuinely full of question marks this time.
"A meeting? That word... doesn't really match your identity, does it?"
"Before the game started, we held meetings to finalize the rules."
"Alright, that makes sense. So why are you having another meeting now?"
"Because of you."
"?????????"
Ye was genuinely surprised: "What does this have to do with me? Sure, I know they're a bit crazy—sending fifteen Overgods to block me outside—but there's no way they actually care about me that much, right?"
"...It's complicated."
"That's fine, take your time."
"It's a long story."
"Just give me the short version."
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Can you appear in front of me right now so I can slap your butt?"
"I can't come over right now. We'll talk about it when you come back."
The girl's voice remained emotionless, which made Ye feel a bit bored.
"So, why are you contacting me now? What was the outcome of your meeting?"
"There's no outcome yet. Their goal is just to stall me so I can't help you. While you were trapped, the advantages you had built up in the game are almost gone."
"...Are they just sore losers? If that's the case, why even start the game in the first place?"
"It's not that simple. To put it bluntly, making you my Apostle was indeed cheating on my part. Now, I'm just facing the consequences of that."
"I won't ask why making me your Apostle was cheating. I'm sure it's something you don't want to talk about, right?"
"Correct."
"In that case, just find a new Apostle. I've decided to stay in this world. Lady Furina is much better than you. I've completely become Lady Furina's shape now. There's no going back."
The girl still ignored Ye's remarks and continued with what she wanted to say: "Now, there are two options. One is for you to find a way to break through the blockade yourself. If you can do that, they probably won't pull this kind of stunt again."
"If I could do that, I would have done it already. I tried before and got blocked."
"Weren't you always preparing for it? If you continue with your preparations, it's not entirely impossible."
"...If you already know about my preparations, doesn't that mean they're meaningless? Omniscience really is no joke."
"No, with me here, their omniscience has a flaw. They can know 99% about you, but there will always be 1% they can't know. And if it's you, using that 1% to win isn't entirely impossible."
"Tell me about the second option."
"I can make a deal with them. They can rewrite the rules of the Honkai world according to their whims. If you can clear the game under those rules and obtain World Sovereignty, they'll stop what they're doing now."
"You overestimate me."
"So, your choice is?"
"The second one. The first option doesn't seem like it has much chance of success."
"Then it's decided."
"By the way, one last question. Where did Nameless and Baoyu come from?"
Ye was tired of playing mind games with Baoyu and Nameless, his cheat tools. If he didn't understand, he might as well ask.
Where did they come from? What are their goals? He needed to know the answers before considering anything else.
—What happened next completely caught Ye off guard!!
"Baoyu... who is that?"
"???????"
Ye's eyes widened for the first time: "Even you don't know?"
The mechanical voice of the girl also showed a hint of fluctuation for the first time: "I know about Nameless. She was always sleeping in your dreams when I pulled you from the [Universe]. It's not surprising that she's awake now. But Baoyu... I'm actually starting to suspect that you're making her up to trick me, because I can't see any trace of Baoyu's existence."
"...In your eyes, what was I doing before?"
"Handling documents at the Grand Cathedral of Fontaine."
"So, when you said 'your preparations,' were you actually referring to something from a year ago?"
"...It seems that either you're deceiving me and plotting something, or something has happened to you that even I can't comprehend."
"Your cool factor just dropped, you know that?"
"This conversation is over. Let's hold off on making any decisions. I think... something unexpected might have happened that none of us wanted."
After saying this, the other end fell silent.
Ye didn't bother with his now significantly less cool former boss and immediately called out to Baoyu.
"Master, what can I do for you?"
Baoyu still had that cheerful smile on her face.
"Baoyu, what exactly are you?"
"Master, haven't I already answered that? I answered it a long, long time ago."
Baoyu cupped her cheeks with her hands and smiled softly:
"Baoyu is Master's Baoyu. I only stand by Master's side."