Honkai Impact: Grandma Pine Sparrow is still chasing me!

Chapter 241 Qiong: I am an atheist

"Dead Grey Hair, what are you doing?"

Kiana felt that Sora was acting very strangely today. She didn't eat when she came back, and instead took a pair of chopsticks, a piece of paper and a pen and started writing and drawing in her room. She hasn't come out yet.

Out of concern for Sora, Kiana entered the room that Sora herself had rearranged without Sora's permission—does the big sister need her little brother's permission to enter his room?

Although this was her first time...

But why does the layout of this room feel so familiar?

"It's okay, don't worry about it."

"Tell me about it?"

Sora responded without looking up, diverting Kiana's attention from the room's layout to Sora herself.

"Are you using chopsticks for divination?"

Kiana knew, of course, that the club that Qiong rarely attended taught divination. Qiong had also performed a few "supernatural powers" without any props before... Could it be that after so many days, Qiong the Half-Immortal is about to unleash his power again?

Kiana moved closer and looked at the densely written words on the paper and the chopsticks stuck crookedly in front of it.

It doesn't seem like predicting the future; it's more like offering incense.

"'A tribute to my predecessor, Makoto Ito—person'? Wow! You hate your former deskmate Ito's brother that much? Is that why you don't want to talk to her much? What comes next? 'Itsuka, the lord of Ninomiya City…'"

Kiana, who lacked both education and good eyesight, made Qiong laugh in exasperation.

"What Ito Makoto and Ninomiya? It's Amamiya, Amamiya!"

How did he know his former deskmate's family had someone named Makoto? Even if they did, it can't be interpreted as Ninomiya—Ninomiya City, what Ninomiya City? Magical Girl Blue Star?!

Why write all this?

"Please bring harmony and blessings."

Kiana: ?

……

What to do about fireflies?

To be honest, he never considered having relationships with multiple women that went beyond friendship; that would be utterly despicable.

Therefore, Qiong chose an extremely foolish response to Silver Wolf's question.

"How about apologizing to Liuying? After all, nothing... happened between us, right?"

But Silver Wolf clearly didn't think this was a good idea. After Qiong finished speaking, she looked at Qiong with a predatory gaze.

"Are you crazy! If you don't want to die, give up this idea! Even running away right now, or saying I want it all, is better than apologizing to Liuying, understand?!"

……

Afterwards, the angry Silver Wolf said a couple of harsh words, such as "If she hurts anyone, none of us will have a good time," and then disappeared. This left Qiong feeling depressed for most of the day. It seemed that her good brother Silver Wolf wasn't entirely on her side.

While feeling frustrated, Qiong didn't stop thinking: Note that a train crew is coming tomorrow.

Or rather, if it's just the train crew (with two kids), there's no need to panic: think about it, I have Walter protecting me, a strategist willing to help, and my good brother Silver Wolf who's willing to persuade Kafka to lend a hand. Danheng won't side with me, so Sunday won't bother me, and I shouldn't have anything to do with March 7th—so, actually, I'm not in much danger, right?

Since Firefly isn't here, tomorrow he just needs to reassure Mei without upsetting anyone else; it shouldn't be too difficult. Maybe he can even help March Seven and Mei become good friends!

The prerequisite is that you must first have normal contact with March 7th and his group.

So, Qiong actually thinks he doesn't need to prepare anything; he should just keep a calm mind... or so he should.

But for some reason, he still felt a little panicked. However, his rational mind had already determined that he just needed to stay calm. Feeling that he really had nothing to prepare, Qiong decided to pay homage to two sages: Makoto, who was stabbed to death for making a single choice, and Shido, who laughed last for making multiple choices. He hoped that these two could reconcile, give him a chance to make a single choice, and save his life.

"This is boring. You might as well come play with me."

“You don’t understand, but this is useful! There’s an old Chinese saying: ‘Sincerity brings results.’”

"But aren't these names you wrote from the Far East? Is your method of identifying China even useful?"

Qiong remained focused on fiddling with the chopsticks, muttering things like "Long live King Amber," "May the Emperor Bow Master protect you," and "May the God of Joy be above."

Anyway, Kiana didn't understand a single word.

wow-

However, perhaps because it wasn't securely fixed, one of the chopsticks started to wobble without Qiong noticing, triggering a domino effect.

One or two, then all of them.

Qiong: ...

He spent so long setting it up, and it all collapsed in just a few seconds?

Three seconds later, under Kiana's watchful gaze, Sora picked up the chopsticks and crumpled the paper into a ball before throwing it into the trash can.

Screw your feudal superstitions! Worship? Pray to the gods? Get the hell out of here! I'm an atheist!

"Grey Hair, what's this?"

"It's okay, this is just for peace of mind. I didn't have much hope anyway."

Qiong flicked off non-existent dust from her body, trying to appear calm.

He only believes in science!

Even Kiana, who was slow to notice anything amiss, seemed to have noticed something was wrong: looking at the paramecium's puzzled eyes, Sora felt like she was being stupid.

"Kiana, I need to tell you something: some of my friends might be coming to the academy tomorrow..."

To avoid awkwardness, and also as a polite way of informing her and giving her a heads-up, Qiong began to change the subject.

"Friends? You have friends I don't know? Male or female?"

Curious Kiana pressed for more information, but she quickly remembered something else.

"Speaking of which, my old dad also said at noon that he'd be back tomorrow."

Haha, just as I expected.

"There are men and women, and you've probably seen a few of them..."

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Coralie, who studied under Einstein and Tesla, has always believed in this saying: If someone keeps spouting a bunch of technical terms you've never heard of before, or words you don't usually use, that person is probably a fraud. It's because they themselves don't understand these things, so they can only use technical terms to make their words sound sophisticated and appease those who aren't even that much of a fraud. (This comes from Tesla's comments on certain incompetent congressional members after his triumphant return from a congressional interrogation that devolved into a shouting match.)

For example, there's this March 7th, which hasn't stopped since we boarded the spaceship.

March 7th couldn't prove the structure and energy conversion of the giant robot in her story. He either evaded the issue or used a mineral called "Earth Marrow" to fob her off, making him comparable to some useless researchers who were indecisive about Honkai energy.

In contrast, the quiet Mr. Danheng was much better. Although Coralie hadn't talked to Danheng many times, she could sense that Danheng was very similar to Helia in many ways. He was a hardworking and helpful friend who was happy to help others with their work.

"Miss Coralie, is there something on my face?"

No, no.

Coralie snapped out of her daze and realized that her thought had been a bit rude—how could she compare that idiot Helia to Qiong's best friend?

As soon as Danheng spoke, the extremely bored Sanyueqi came over.

"Danheng, what are you doing? Why don't you take me with you?"

Danheng glanced helplessly at the grinning March 7th.

"You'll write the pioneering log?"

The smiles on March 7th vanished instantly.

"Then forget it, Teacher Danheng, you can do it. We trust you."

Can I take a look?

Coralie, who was also tired of playing games, felt bored. She thought that looking at the data about Earth recorded by aliens could help her pass the time.

"Mr. Walter?"

Dan Heng didn't answer immediately, but instead glanced at Walter—although his mobile think tank wouldn't refuse anyone with a thirst for knowledge, it would be better to consult Walter about this matter, given his request.

“Show it to her, Danheng.”

If it were the current Coralie, Walter would definitely not agree, but this Coralie comes from the future.

After obtaining Walter's permission, Danheng handed the pioneer log to Coralie.

……

With Ms. Vita's help, the train reached the correct node. The train then landed in what appeared to be city ruins, and the surrounding buildings suggested the existence of a civilization. However, we encountered monsters resembling antimatter legions and Rift Creatures (note: relatively weak). While exploring the "nest," we made our first official contact with Earthlings, who called themselves "Ravens." We learned from them that the locals called these enemies "Honkai," which overlapped with the description of their homeland given by veteran train crew member Welt Yang…

Coralie: ...

Huh? Vita? Can that wicked woman be trusted? You can't believe a single punctuation mark of Vita's words! Seele and Fu Hua suffered greatly because of her! Maybe we should also add Gretchen and Susana? Oh right, and Shigure Kira...

Besides, what a small world. This Earth is so big, yet it's located in Changkong City. Couldn't it have been somewhere else? They almost thought that Earthlings were living in a post-apocalyptic state—though the Great Collapse wasn't much different.

Coralie was about to continue reading when the spaceship's loudspeaker suddenly blared.

"Reporting to the Alliance Leader, the Heavenly Mandate Far East Branch is about to land!"

"Ah."

Coralie closed the pioneering log, helplessly watching her dear Uncle Yang maintain his serious demeanor.

This old rascal always has to be cool at certain times, even if it makes others feel awkward...

"We're finally here! Quick, let's see if Qiong is here. I've been missing him so much I'm practically withered!"

"Don't worry, March, he can't escape."

Without thinking about her brother Qiong who was in grave danger, Coralie planned to intervene at a critical moment to save him, and for now, she would let him fend for himself.

Coralli cared more about the academy than about the troubles of Sora—the thought of seeing the familiar yet unfamiliar St. Freya soon made her excited.

Also, what were your teachers and seniors like during your student days?

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Two more chapters...