“I pinpoihe perpetrators already.”

  “Let me guess. You got that knowledge from Direobius?”

  “Yeah.”

  Mei’s sudden visit was reted to Aleph’s ambush. Although he was unharmed, no one knows whether it could happen again.

  “Doobius isn’t as bad as the rumors say.” He said. “I could also see why she gave up fighting those higher-ups.”

  “She has Elysia’s support. It’s different with you.”

  Certainly, Aleph’s bat power wasn’t tested against Herscherrs. This level of uainty was the reason why people chose to take a against him.

  “I heard from director Eihat the proposal is already in its final phase.”

  Hearing this, Mei saw the underlying meaning behind it.

  “I do it. Your i should be able to push it through.” She said with a hint of guilt. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of them.”

  “No. Don’t risk yourself early on. I still take care of them.”

  Seeing Aleph decre fidently, she presented her doubts.

  “It’s not that. What if they arrange a more dangerous ambush? you withstand a missile? What about cluster bombs? There’s no telling how crazy they could be.”

  “I should be able to.”

  “...”

  “I’m not joking.”

  Aleph told her the updates from his nuclear-powered suit. Its maneuverability is more than enough to dodge or even tank those cluster bombs.

  “It’s not a reason to put yourself at risk.”

  “Yes. That’s why I thought of a pn.”

  “n?”

  “Creating a diversion.”

  Aleph expis details.

  His individual strength has long been exposed. It made his enemies wary, but it also attracted potential allies to his side. It was akin to a bea. If he chose to hide it, he wouldn’t have met Mobius. He wouldn’t have easily dealt with Sakura’s surveilnce.

  Simply put, the effort put into cealing his strength is too big. Also, he wouldn’t have unlocked those achievements.

  “I will use the suit to get involved in high-level fights. That way, another hindrance would’ve popped out of thin air. If they do suspect me, it wouldn’t matter so long as they don’t have any direct evidence.”

  “You’re making things more chaotic.”

  “That’s it.”

  Aleph’s main objective wasn’t to hide his identity using the nuclear suit, but rather cause more chaos. The attention he receives will be lesser, which means that he would have more time to develop in peace.

  At this moment, Mei processed everything.

  She heaved a deep sigh as she said:

  “I didn’t think you were like this. It’s basically gambling.”

  “If I am strong enough, I would’ve ed them up from the get-go. They already fot that honkai is our main enemy.”

  The rest of the time ent versing about several things.

  “Take care.”

  “...Yes.”

  Looking at Mei’s departing back, Aleph iently recalled some memories. The past month made him dream about numerous things—from the tales of war to his life in Nagazora.

  He wasn’t stupid to not see Mei’s feelings for him. It started back then and carried on until now.

  It’s just that…

  “It feels like fooling her.”

  Was he still the same Aleph she knew?

  Only he himself knows.

  While Aleph had this dilemma, he recalled a mind-numbing fact he discovered a month ago. He put it off back then since he couldn’t think of a reason behind it. The current inner dilemma brought it forward once again.

  “I have a given name… not from my parents.”

  At first, Aleph assumed that given names and the likes were normal. He didn’t pay much attention to it—that is, until he iently noticed how out-of-pce his name was.

  Aleph Ainsworth.

  At first gnothing seems wrong—that is, until he realized there weren't any given names in this world at all!

  He double-checked his official dots and found out that the “Ainsworth” was treated like a sed name instead of a family is simir to the traditions from the Far East, such as “Kana” with “Ka” from “Beautiful” and “Na” from “Thread”.

  However, what chilled him wasn’t that. When he began recalling the tents of his dreams, there was a hat cided with his.

  “...Ainsworth. The same name from my dreams.”

  In his dreams—past life—the only name used to identify him was her than Ainsworth.

  “This is too mysterious for the current me…”

  Aleph doesn’t know how his other name got through this world and became his current name. He could only attribute it to the spicuous achievement he unlocked.

  [Solitary Miracle: Create a miraone had ever witnessed.]

  If there are answers, this achievement leads to them.

  This realization pushed forward some problems he had temporarily set aside.

  “I o retrieve my things in Nagazora… but what if they are already destroyed?”

  He fell into a deep ption once again.

  *****

  Sed institute.

  “Tsk. He has the ce t it up.”

  Upon hearing the message Mobius brought to her, Vill-V was stunned. It firmed that Aleph had the ability to sense and interrupt her spying. If not for a kind of supernatural power, how else could he pull it off?

  She saw he wasn’t near aronic device back then. It was also impossible that he predicted her hag.

  All of the points led towards dead ends.

  It was the first time that her curiosity was scratched like this. Nearly all of them unanimously agreed to eain this so-called guest.

  As the “one” ced in the front line, she could only sigh. She was the most “mature” of them all.

  It led to the current sario of her waiting on the runway.

  That’s right, the runway.

  It was one of the least-used runways within the sed institute. They focused on on development in the first pce, uhe third institute’s mechas.

  “How could he—?”

  Her murmurs were cut short when a figure dropped from the sky. Within a closer look, it was an armored man. The bck metal suit left no room for any visible gaps outside.

  It didn’t take several seds before her i was fully piqued. Her eyes traced the metal suit and made dozens of guesses as to whie was inside.

  In fact, it wasn’t that difficult to create something like this. The only problem was the ‘energy source’. Electricity is far too poor to sustain prolonged fights while honkai energy is a risky thing to use.

  Numerous ideas came to her mind as he approached her.

  “Miss Vill-V, I take it?”

  “Yes, it is. You fo any formalities. We only have a gap of several months.”

  Just like Mei, Vill-V went through a lot of trouble before being the assistant director of the sed institute. Even then, her movements were restricted, simply due to how dangerous her iions were.

  It was barely a year wheormed the Fire MOTH base alone. She only brought a swarm of self-made automatic robots to attack the base. She was nearly senteo death if not for Elysia speaking out for her.

  In the end, she spent several months exiled in a deserted isnd before returning as Fire MOTH’s official.

  Click-!

  The metal suit slowly disassembled from the front, revealing the person inside. His dark bck hair paired well with his bright blue pupils.

  For a moment, Vill-V felt a sense of e with him.

  “If it is so, it’s o meet you, Miss Stalker.”