Jun An and Himeko returned to the Elysian Realm. Himeko immediately went off to find Eden for drinks again.
Before leaving, Himeko didn't forget to invite Jun An. "Captain, want to join us for a drink? Besides, it's been quite a while since you've seen Eden, right? Let's have a drink together. Maybe I can even invite Eden to throw an orgy (yinpa) for you."
"Eden is basically an internet celebrity now! Can't you show some respect for fans like me?"
Jun An looked speechlessly at Himeko. "I actually wanted to watch Eden's livestream."
"Keep pretending. Oh, you're so virtuous."
Seeing Jun An treat her good intentions like donkey liver and lungs (i.e., ungratefully), Himeko stated bluntly, "Wait until the day you can't keep up the act anymore. I'll go drinking with Eden every day and won't let you join."
Like a little girl throwing a tantrum, Himeko stormed off to find Eden for drinks, leaving Jun An behind.
Jun An, meanwhile, planned to take care of proper business first: finding some other Flame-Chasers to obtain Honkai Beast abilities.
He also started considering his options. First, excluding Kevin, Elysia, Kalpas, Vill-V, Pardo, and Sakura – those who barely relied on abilities for combat or didn't fight much at all. Then, excluding Mobius, that left six remaining candidates.
As Jun An pondered, Aponia's voice echoed in his mind.
– Captain, would you have a moment to visit the Deep End?
Aponia?
– Yes, it is I.
Finally, someone recognized me at first glance.
Jun An admitted his transformation was significant, but the fact that no one could immediately recognize him still left him feeling somewhat disappointed.
– Because, Captain, your soul remains as beautiful as ever. I am glad you haven't changed much over this past year.
– Captain, please make your way to the Deep End. We have prepared refreshments for you here.
Jun An immediately entered the Realm proper. Since Aponia controlled a large portion of the Elysian Realm, she instantly used her authority to teleport Jun An directly to the Deep End.
The Deep End remained a place resembling a sanctum – open and brightly lit. The sudden change in brightness made Jun An slightly uncomfortable.
"Hiss~"
Jun An closed his eyes for a moment to adjust, then asked, "Aponia, why did you call me here?"
"Please, sit. We can chat leisurely."
As she had said, Aponia had prepared a setup resembling a tea party among Western nobility: several exquisite chairs, a round table, a parasol, and delicate pastries and tea.
Jun An sat down, and Aponia began, "Captain, do you recall the plan you left with Mobius before you went to participate in the subjugation of the Final Herrscher – the plan for resurrecting us?"
"Oh, you mean the plan to resurrect you all, allow you to return to reality."
Jun An certainly remembered. Mobius and the others were ultimately just memory simulacra, lacking the properties of a soul. That was why they were so easily corrupted by the Herrscher of Corruption, and also why returning to reality wouldn't be as simple as Fu Hua transferring her soul using Fenghuang Down.
Take Mobius, for instance. She spent tens of thousands of years before finally creating something in the Elysian Realm capable of seizing Mei's body. However, after Jun An spanked her, that experiment was never mentioned again.
Based on the consciousness transfer device Mobius had created, Jun An's side was prepared to provide "unconscious bodies" for Mobius and the others to return to reality.
The sole major hurdle was figuring out how to treat data as consciousness and transfer it into a human body.
And the experimental subject needed to overcome this hurdle would naturally require cooperation between a real consciousness and a memory simulacrum. Ideally, the stronger both the consciousness and the memory simulacrum, the better.
Currently, the strongest soul on the surface was precisely Jun An.
And the memory simulacrum with the greatest mental strength was undoubtedly Aponia.
"What? Mobius plans to return to reality now?"
Jun An thought she had abandoned the idea after he spanked her, especially since she had remained dormant in the Elysian Realm for half a year.
"She has always been the one who wished to return the most. It was only because her motive for returning to reality suffered a blow that she secluded herself within the Elysian Realm."
Aponia poured Jun An a cup of tea. "But even so, aside from Elysia and Eden who are doing net livestreams, Mobius, who is researching Finality for Schicksal, is the one among us with the most contact with the outside world."
"Suffered a blow? She can suffer a blow?"
Jun An genuinely couldn't imagine what kind of blow could affect Mobius, who arguably had the lowest moral baseline. "Don't tell me she was the only one under 1.6 meters tall at the moon base?"
"Captain, Mobius is also a young woman like Elysia. It's perfectly normal for her to feel hurt."
Aponia smiled helplessly; having reminded him this much was the extent of her benevolence. "Captain, let's return to the matter at hand."
"Right. You need to synchronize with my soul, correct?" Since it was Jun An's own plan, he knew the details.
The experiment involved making the memory simulacrum resemble a consciousness as closely as possible, thus requiring a scan. Fully scanning someone's consciousness carried risks, for both parties involved.
Therefore, to mitigate the risk, a strong consciousness was necessary – like Jun An's, or Mei's, and so on.
The synchronization work itself would fall to Aponia. She had transferred her own consciousness into the Elysian Realm, completing the transformation from consciousness to memory simulacrum, making her more familiar with the process.
Furthermore, she had experience replicating the consciousness of the Previous Era's Herrscher of Sentience, making her even more adept in this area.
"Yes. So, could I ask you to fully open your consciousness to me?"
Jun An's consciousness was overwhelmingly powerful; even the Herrscher of Sentience couldn't dominate it, and neither could Aponia. To do anything to Jun An's consciousness required his explicit consent.
"Mm, no problem. It was my plan to begin with, after all."
Jun An didn't object to Mobius wanting to return to reality. The Flame-Chasers' mission was over; they should have returned to normal life long ago.
"But I still need to hide my private memories. Don't peek, okay?"
Jun An was still a transmigrator; keeping his identity secret was wise.
The System also took the opportunity to help hide Jun An's memories related to the System itself; it didn't want to lose performance points for being discovered either.
"Let's begin then."
Aponia nodded, walked over to Jun An, pressed her forehead against his, and took his hand.
Feeling the skin-to-skin contact with Aponia, Jun An asked doubtfully, "Is it necessary to be this close?"
Her heavy armor was pressing against his thigh, and her face was so near. With a beauty right before him, Jun An was genuinely afraid his thoughts might stray.
Aponia simply smiled. "The upcoming operation is extremely delicate. I do not wish to harm the Captain, so naturally, the closer, the better."
"...If the Captain finds this contact uncomfortable, perhaps moving to a more comfortable distance would also be acceptable."
Negative distance?
Jun An immediately pushed the thought from his mind. She's just ensuring no mistakes are made while checking and synchronizing my consciousness. How can I have such wicked thoughts?
He felt Aponia's mental power invading his consciousness, beginning to take control. It was a strange sensation, like being enveloped, not entirely comfortable for Jun An, but tolerable.
Then, distinctly, Jun An felt Aponia issuing some kind of command to him.
"Aponia... hypnosis... is this also part of the synchronization?" Jun An asked, puzzled.
Even while opening his mind and body to Aponia, Jun An's powerful consciousness could still sense her implanting commands, though he didn't know their content.
"Please do not worry. I will undo it for you afterwards."
Aponia responded with a smile, separating her forehead from Jun An's. "Captain, your consciousness is vast, making the scan difficult. Let's chat for a while during this time."
"Chatting is fine, but do you plan on squatting the whole time?" Although Aponia's height, combined with her unusually well-developed 'easy-birthing' hips, allowed her to be directly at his eye level while squatting, it still felt strange.
Very strange, in an indescribable way.
Um... does the massage really have to be done from my front?
"This is fine."
Aponia replied with a smile. "Captain, your body seems somewhat stiff. You just experienced combat, didn't you?"
"Mm." Jun An nodded. Since she wanted to squat, let her squat. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
"Then, let me take this rare opportunity to give you a massage." Aponia began kneading Jun An's thigh. Being waited on by a beautiful girl certainly didn't feel bad.
Jun An relaxed and enjoyed it. It's just a massage. Himeko shouldn't mind this. This is perfectly normal.