“Who is that person?”
“Don’t know. Looks like a new researcher.”
“How do you know he’s new?”
“Idiot, look at the laboratory he’s assigned to!”
Only then did everyone notice that the man’s clothes were marked with the First Research Institute.
That was Mobius’s research institute, and Mobius’s institute was very famous.
At least before the human experiments, Mobius’s institute still had a somewhat good reputation, and everyone inside was regarded as a genius by the public.
Although people from other institutes were the same, Mobius was simply too outstanding.
Her research results were clearly more useful than those of other institutes.
But the price was the malice of jealous people—rumors and insults.
Currently, not many people had joined Mobius’s institute.
This was also why others could tell Yuji was a newcomer just by looking at his identity badge.
“Yu, it’s only been half a day since we last met, and you already miss me this much?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“It’s clearly laboratory working hours right now, and…”
“And?”
Elysia stepped aside a little, giving a close-up of what was behind her.
“And right now is training time. Could it be that you couldn’t stand the dullness of the First Research Institute and specifically came to find me?”
“Hmm… what if I say no?”
“You can’t lie~!”
Elysia raised one finger and shook it, then circled around Yuji for a while, observing him.
Suddenly she said: “Yu, do you exercise often?”
“It’s okay, I guess?”
“Hmm～ hmm? Oh～”
Yuji noticed that Elysia kept circling around him and realized something was off.
He was about to refuse, but Elysia would not give him the chance.
“Come on, I’ll take you to change clothes!”
Then Yuji was brought to the changing room.
Elysia casually took out a brand-new combat uniform, which surprised Yuji a lot.
“How is it? I learned this from Vill-V.” Elysia winked playfully and handed the clothes to Yuji.
Yuji had no choice but to take them.
He still wanted to say something, but clearly Elysia did not want to listen.
She directly covered her own ears.
Yuji looked at Elysia, who showed no intention of leaving, and without mercy chopped the side of his hand down on her head.
“Ya! Yu, that hurts…”
“I clearly didn’t use any force at all.”
Then, completely ignoring Elysia’s almost-tearful gaze, Yuji pushed her out the door.
After changing clothes, Yuji felt that his entire aura had changed.
When he came out, he found that Elysia was no longer outside the door.
When he arrived at the training ground, Elysia was already prepared.
This posture… she wouldn’t make me fight Elysia, right?
Is this real?
“Over here, Yu. I’ve already found an opponent for you.”
“Why are you still standing there blankly? You wouldn’t want to fight me, would you?”
Yuji would not seek trouble for himself.
Fighting Elysia would be completely pointless.
“You’re Yuji, right? My name is Ato. You should have heard of me.”
Ato, who had just finished fighting Elysia, accepted her request again—to teach Yuji some self-defense skills.
Ato had seen Yuji’s name badge earlier and knew he was a researcher, so he did not plan to use too much strength.
Besides, he did not really want to offend researchers, because the equipment of combat personnel still relied on researchers for updates.
“Please go easy on me when we fight later. I’m just a researcher and don’t have the powerful strength you all do.”
“Haha, no problem, no problem.”
What Ato thought was that by saying he was with Mobius, and since Blanca (Griseo’s mother in the original work) had also stayed in Mobius’s laboratory, he hoped that when they fought later the other side would leave him some face and not make him lose too quickly.
In reality, Yuji only meant it as simple politeness.
Although this was Yuji’s first battle, his combat level was not low, and his Learning Ability was top-tier.
“Get ready, I’m starting!”
As Elysia acted as the referee (even though it was completely unnecessary) and gave the signal, Ato shouted loudly.
Yuji also understood what it meant.
This was truly listening to instructions—going easy!
But Yuji did not need it.
He originally wanted to test his own combat strength, and Elysia happened to want to watch, so he half-pushed and half-agreed.
Yuji looked at the approaching Ato.
His speed was much slower than when he fought Elysia, but it was still relatively strong among soldiers.
Is this testing fighting ability?
Yuji also understood what Elysia wanted to do.
But unfortunately, he really did not need it.
Yuji thought to himself and casually moved a tiny distance.
“Coincidentally,” that tiny distance just happened to dodge Ato’s attack.
Ato also noticed that Yuji was not as simple as he appeared on the surface.
He glanced at Yuji and saw Yuji return a look that said “don’t go easy” (though he did not know how Ato interpreted it).
Then Ato directly changed moves.
The extended fist became a horizontal sweep, while Yuji simply tilted his head and easily dodged.
The sweeping fist smoothly turned into an elbow strike.
Yuji took a step back and grabbed the hand Ato was using as a secondary attack aimed at his lower abdomen with one hand.
After grabbing it, taking advantage of the moment when Ato had not yet recovered from the residual force of the attack, he kicked out.
Ato, who was kicked, was very surprised.
After a series of moves, he had not landed a single effective attack and was instead kicked once.
With his rich experience, he instantly understood that this person’s close-combat ability was very strong.
“Didn’t he say he was a researcher without that kind of powerful strength?” Ato sighed inwardly.
That kick just now was not as painful as Elysia’s attacks, but it was not much weaker either, even though Elysia had not used her full strength when fighting him.
“Not bad, again!”
Ato became more cautious.
He did not actively attack and instead began observing Yuji’s movements.
Seeing that Ato was not attacking, Yuji took the initiative.
He clenched both fists, took an attacking stance, and then quickly threw a strike.
After seeing Yuji’s attack speed, Ato roughly understood some of Yuji’s strength.
He shook his head to dodge this strike, then planned to counter with a punch.
Yuji, following the force of the previous attack, turned his fist into a palm, grabbed the arm Ato was attacking with, and forcibly stopped it during the counterattack.
Before Ato could even feel surprise, a stronger force forced his body to bend downward, and Yuji’s rising knee struck hard.
Ato was forced to lean back from this strike.
Yuji then pulled the leaning body, giving him no chance to stabilize, and punched Ato’s chest.
Then a sweeping leg made the unbalanced Ato fall to the ground.
“Who am I? What am I doing? Why am I lying down again?” Ato could not understand why a researcher would have such powerful strength.
He also could not determine whether what Yuji said at the beginning was true or false.
What he could not understand the most was: since he was this strong, why be a researcher?
Could it be that he also had strong talent in the research field?
“Ato? Are you okay?”
Elysia was a bit worried about Ato—not worried about him being injured, since warriors getting injured was a common thing.
She was worried that Ato’s confidence might be hurt because of this.
“I’m fine… I… damn… it just hurts a bit…”
Yuji walked up to Ato, extended one hand, and helped Ato stand up again.
“I say… hiss… your combat ability is so strong, why are you a researcher?”
Enduring the pain, he asked directly while grimacing.
“Oh, that’s because I was invited by Mobius, and I actually have quite some achievements in research.”
An image instantly appeared in Ato’s mind: Mobius grabbing a “victim,” and while that person kept struggling, Yuji acted as the anesthetic and knocked the person out with one slap.
Yuji could tell at a glance that Ato completely did not understand his meaning, but there was no need to take it too seriously.
Elysia, on the other hand, was a bit surprised.
She had not expected Yuji to have such powerful combat strength.
If Elysia had known earlier, she might have stepped in herself.
Her original plan was to let Yuji learn some fighting skills from Ato for self-protection.
Who knew that the result of Yuji’s fight with Ato would be Yuji winning.
Hmm～ as expected of the person I took a fancy to.
(hands on hips)
Then Elysia gave Ato a look, and Ato understood.
Ato then took Yuji to the shooting range, took out a high-tech looking gun from the side, and introduced it while shooting at the targets.
“This is a specially made anti-Death Soldier firearm from the research institute. Ordinary Death Soldiers can’t withstand a few shots. How is it?”
Yuji knew what he was talking about.
People infected by Honkai Energy would turn into Death Soldiers, and this gun had no problem dealing with the weakest Death Soldiers.
After emptying one magazine, Ato handed another one to Yuji, preparing to introduce the gun’s performance.
Then Ato watched as Yuji quickly disassembled and reassembled the gun in a few moves.
After a series of shots at the targets, Ato heard the system announcement: “Ten-ring, ten-ring, ten-ring…”
Ato’s facial expression became a bit stiff.
He turned to look at Elysia, as if saying: “Didn’t you say he didn’t know anything?”
Elysia pretended not to see anything and not to understand Ato’s meaning, then signaled Ato to switch to another one.
“I’ve felt something was off since earlier. Elysia, did sand get into your eyes?”
Yuji teased Elysia, who had been giving looks the whole time.
He had been watching Elysia all along.
“Ara♪, if I say yes, Yu, what would you do?”
Elysia stopped pretending.
She put her hands behind her back, gradually moved closer to Yuji, and looked up at him.
Then Yuji could not hold back his laugh: “Elysia, even if you stand on tiptoe, you still can’t be taller than me.”
“…Yu, you big bad guy.”
“Has no one told you that when you scold people it sounds like you’re acting spoiled?”
Ato on the side showed a motherly smile, then thought of his own wife and child.
Then Elysia had Ato leave.
Next she planned to take Yuji herself.
“Yu, do you want to try this?”
As she spoke, Elysia took a bow and arrows from the weapon rack and handed them to Yuji.
The moment Yuji held them, he felt a sense of familiarity.
The books he had read before and the skills he had improved were not just for show.
Yuji nocked an arrow on the bowstring, released his hand, and the arrow flew out with a “whoosh,” then hit the bullseye ten meters away.
“Wow, so amazingヾ(Ő∀Ő๑)ﾉ”
Elysia did not hold back her praise, but Yuji indicated that she was praising too early.
The Learning Ability rewarded by the system allowed Yuji to rapidly improve skills whether by touch or by watching.
This improvement directly skipped lv.1 and lv.2, allowing him to reach lv.3 level the moment he started.
And for a skill that was already at lv.3, the improvement was not small either.
Yuji took out three more arrows and nocked them on the bowstring.
Then he released two, with one slightly later.
Amazingly, the later-released arrow quickly caught up to the first two.
The rotating arrow’s tail was just a little faster than the other two, pushing the other two to deflect, and then hit the center bullseye.
The other two diagonally hit the bullseyes on both sides.
(Later I might gender-bend some original characters. If you can’t accept it, leave a comment and I’ll consider it when I see it.)