On the second day back at Schicksal, after learning she’d have three days off, Sienna immediately turned down her teammates’ invitation to hang out.
“I really don’t wanna spend the whole day wandering around the streets, chatting with them about clothes and makeup.”
Just because she had a new body didn’t mean her old preferences would change overnight.
“You guys go ahead, I’ve got my own stuff to take care of.”
Back in the squad’s shared quarters—while her teammates were in their respective rooms, meticulously dolling themselves up—Sienna just tidied up her appearance a bit, packed a few things, said a quick goodbye, and headed out.
After returning to the dorm last night, lying in bed, Sienna had mapped out her next steps.
She’d pulled out her phone, leveraging her current identity’s connections to get some things prepared.
Being part of the Kaslana family now definitely came with perks within Schicksal.
The most obvious one was this place—called a ‘shared dorm’ on paper, but really a luxury villa.
Of course, the villa wasn’t located on Schicksal HQ’s floating island.
To live in the limited space of the main headquarters, you needed both the strength and status of someone like Cecilia.
Where they were now was a city pretty close to the main base.
Back when she was the youngest in the team, she’d told the others that if they chose her as captain, they’d get better mission picks and holiday perks than any other squad.
For those who weren’t convinced, she gave them more autonomy too, but she made sure to snag that captain title.
In the few years since becoming captain, Sienna had kept her promises.
Using her identity and connections, she’d gotten her teammates more benefits than the average Valkyrie squad.
“This is the advantage of being born into the right family,” she mused.
With such a good standing, Sienna could now smoothly kick off the first phase of her plan.
On the street, she hailed a cab and asked to be taken to a warehouse on the city’s outskirts.
“Finally get to craft some toys myself.”
Opening the warehouse door, she surveyed the various metals, woods, and tools inside.
Satisfied, she walked over and picked up a delicate little doll.
“No idea how to even turn these machines on. Better to just use the ready-made ones.”
During her call last night, Sienna’s shopping list had included not just materials and tools for crafting dolls like those Herrschers of Dominance from the game, but also some finished ones.
Holding a 30-centimeter-tall doll in one hand, she took a core out from the Dominance space with the other.
After infusing the core with some Honkai Energy, she placed it onto the doll.
“Awaken, my minion number one.”
She watched as the core on the doll slowly merged into its body.
Feeling a faint connection form with the puppet, she set it down on the table.
“Raise your hand, tilt your head, walk…”
Receiving higher-level commands, the doll on the table began to move, controlled by the Herrscher core.
“Not bad, not bad. Once I’m more established, I’ll upgrade you to better materials.”
Seeing that the doll’s actions didn’t require her to split her focus to control two bodies simultaneously, Sienna realized her dream of a thousand-person Herrscher legion might actually be achievable.
“Can’t talk yet, and no independent thought either.”
Picking up the doll, she opened its mouth—completely sealed shut.
“The dolls’ power can be enhanced with better materials, but giving them the ability to think is a whole different problem.”
In the original story, the thousand Herrschers were once individual humans.
They only created dolls to empower themselves for better mobility and combat.
Right now, out of her thousand Herrscher cores, only she herself, plus the cores holding the transferred souls of Cecilia and Cheng Lixue, possessed consciousness.
“Too bad these two won’t be waking up anytime soon.”
On the ride over, sitting in the back seat, Sienna had taken those two cores out for a look.
Under her control, the Honkai Energy within them didn’t leak out.
In her hand, they were just two beautiful crystals.
“First things first, it’s the year 2000. Sirin just went offline, and the future protagonist, K-423, hasn’t even been created yet.”
Sitting at the table, Sienna took out pen and paper to outline her current situation and the events likely to happen soon.
“Priority one: expand my manpower. Combat strength can be weak, but they absolutely must have their own consciousness.”
She was enjoying the conveniences her Valkyrie identity provided—easily getting necessary tools and materials.
But it also meant she couldn’t just casually approach people she knew.
“Priority two: replenish Honkai Energy to wake these two up sooner.”
In the car, she’d tried infusing her own Honkai Energy into the cores containing the souls.
The moment she started, she felt a suction force, like a pump, draining her energy away.
If she hadn’t been using Dominance threads to connect, carefully controlling the small amount transferred each time, she might have ended up needing that driver to take her straight to the hospital.
“The only place that can satisfy most of these conditions is here.”
After some planning, Sienna circled her next destination on the map: the Siberian battlefield.
“There should still be plenty of Honkai Beasts there that haven’t been cleaned up yet. Plus, the easiest characters from the main story to make contact with right now are also over there.”
The army of hundreds of thousands of Honkai Beasts, created by Sirin after her return from the moon, had been reduced to a fraction after Schicksal’s continuous hours of bombing.
As a Valkyrie squad captain, she had the authority to apply for solo missions.
Besides using the beasts to replenish Honkai Energy, that future radical leader of Anti-Entropy, Cocolia, was also there.
Compared to the future ‘Big Three’ who were still kids now, or the higher-ups in Schicksal, Anti-Entropy, and World Serpent, Cocolia—who had just recently learned about and witnessed Honkai—was just an ordinary orphanage director.
By helping her, Sienna could potentially get an in with Anti-Entropy.
“Gotta hurry.”
With her plan finalized, Sienna prepared to head back and use her clearance to gather intel on Cocolia.
“As for this body, I won’t be needing it for a while.”
Before leaving, she burned all the papers she’d written her plans on.
She also removed the core from the doll and put it back into the space.