Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

"Three years... three years... Bronya-oneechan, do you have any idea how I've spent these three years?!!! DO YOU?!!!"

Hearing the girl's shrill question, Kiana subconsciously asked Durandal, "Sister, didn't you say there's no sense of time in the Sea of Quanta? How does she know she's been trapped for three years?"

"Alright, just say a little less," Durandal said, rubbing her forehead. She was getting a headache. She even suspected her sister was doing it on purpose.

"Seele, let me explain. Bronya has been thinking of you every moment and has been constantly searching for a way to cross the Sea of Quanta. But... I, Bronya, can only rely on the power of others."

Bronya wasn't wrong. If Cocolia hadn't needed her, she probably would have never come into contact with the Honkai Gem Cores, let alone the drastic changes in Nagazora City.

This was an objective reality. As a member of Anti-Entropy, Bronya had far fewer opportunities to access higher levels of authority compared to Kiana and Raiden Mei, who had cores directly within their bodies.

"Kevin, can you also sense the passage of time in the Sea of Quanta?"

Noldrei was also curious how this girl could perceive the change in time, so he specifically asked another deep-sea diver.

This question put the ancestor in a bit of a difficult position. He thought for a moment before answering, "I judge it based on my own condition. The waxing and waning of my strength, and the changes in my recovery training. I estimate I've been in the Sea of Quanta for over a thousand years."

"I thought you people also perceived the passage of time by absorbing the temporal cognition of people from parallel worlds. You scared me. I thought primitive humans had already evolved to this extent."

Noldrei let out a small sigh of relief. He could bully people from 130,000 years ago, but he couldn't bully people from 30,000 years ago.

'Is the gap outside really that big? To even call others 'primitive humans,' has humanity really reached such an extreme state of change?'

Kevin subconsciously thought this was the emergence of human warriors akin to gods, constructing a social structure similar to those in mythology.

Bronya wanted to explain that she hadn't really done nothing; she had just been tricked by those who were fishing for her.

Cocolia was dangling a line, Rita was dangling a line. The only one who had truly brought her to the Sea of Quanta was Noldrei.

But Kiana's previous taunt had been too cruel, like pouring oil on a fire.

"Seele, I really didn't abandon you. I've always been looking for a way to find you."

Bronya was so anxious that she even dropped her usual speech pattern, but her explanation was too simple and pale to make the current Seele understand her feelings.

"I just... I just couldn't tell if you were really that Seele."

Like a Bubble Universe formed from the projection of a world, Kevin had also once restored a small Bubble Universe from his own memories. However, Kevin knew clearly that it was his memory.

But for Bronya, it was difficult to replicate Seele using her own memory ability.

When she first saw Seele, she would instinctively search for everything that was the Seele she once knew, because she needed those traits to determine if this Seele was the real Seele, or a phantom from some quantum foam.

These were all things Bronya had to figure out for herself.

"But, Bronya-oneechan, why don't you take me back to reality now?"

Seele's current state couldn't be simply analyzed as her not being in her right mind. She had been suppressed in darkness for a long time. Just having her other personality warped was already a good outcome. Not going completely insane was a miracle.

After wandering out of the darkness, the thing she wanted most was to leave this place and return to reality to find Bronya.

However, after Bronya arrived, she didn't seem to want to leave, so Seele wanted to know the deeper reason.

But...

Bronya believed she should do her job well, as a way of repaying Noldrei for helping her find Seele.

"There's work to be done. The price for getting you out, Seele, is to work for someone else."

Did Little Bronya work hard to find her? She definitely did. You couldn't erase her past efforts just because she had a good year.

But following a new boss meant she didn't have to struggle on the brink of life and death. The new boss genuinely cared for his subordinates.

How was Bronya supposed to explain this?

She said happily, "Seele, the most important thing is that we're reunited, isn't it? And, Noldrei is a good person. He really brought me to the Sea of Quanta to find you. Work with me... oh, no, I mean, come with us for now, and after I'm done with my work, I'll take you with me."

Seele never would have imagined that what was waiting for her was a "job offer" from Bronya.

Bronya said, "Seele, after we finish this mission, we can live a happy life together forever. Bronya needs your support by her side!"

Hearing this, Durandal couldn't help but turn her head away. She couldn't bear to watch any longer.

Kiana felt something was strange, but she didn't know what it was.

Kevin scratched his head, wondering why these descendants of his hadn't just knocked the person out and taken them back.

Noldrei felt a little sorry for Little Bronya now. Having interacted with the Seele he created so much, she had subconsciously started to think about work tasks. The first thing she talked about was completing the mission and her need for emotional support.

The poor girl had been trapped in the Sea of Quanta for years, almost driven mad in a little black room. How could she possibly understand all this nonsense?

"Bronya-oneechan, what you're saying... I..."

Seele's heart was in turmoil. She felt that Bronya was acting a bit strange, but she didn't know what exactly was strange.

She admitted that Noldrei had done her a favor by bringing Bronya to find her.

But for Bronya to immediately try and recruit her for work was a bit odd. Shouldn't they be pouring their hearts out to each other according to the normal procedure? And shouldn't she be concerned about her physical and mental well-being?

"Seele... will help Bronya-oneechan in the Sea of Quanta."

There were many things Seele hadn't explained, such as the fact that her current body couldn't easily return to the real world. The Sea of Quanta would constantly pull her back, not letting people leave this place easily.

"Is she holding something back? According to anime logic, there should be a 'new team member betrays the team' plot coming up soon, right?" Kiana wasn't good at much else, but she remembered these things very clearly.

Bronya also asked anxiously, "Seele, is there something you can't talk about?"

What could Seele possibly have to hide? She just wanted to go home early, while Bronya was trying to work hard for someone else.

"No, it's nothing. Seele will help Bronya-oneechan." The young girl still didn't want to go against Bronya's wishes.

Ancestor Kevin felt a churning in his stomach. How had he become so unable to understand the interpersonal relationships of his descendants?