“HQ opening grand sale broadcast: You are fifteen days away from opening your shop.
In the past five days, you have learned the basic method of making cream cakes.
You have already shown your talent for baking cakes and undoubtedly possess the potential to become the Cake God.
In the remaining time, you must also learn to make sandwich cakes and chocolate cakes, and learn to flexibly mix them to create blended cakes that can comfort people’s souls.
Keep it up, young maiden, a wonderful tomorrow is waiting for you.” Firefly lay on the dining table, listening over and over again to HQ broadcasting this voice message in her ear.
That’s right, this was a recording specially made by HQ to motivate Firefly, broadcasted directly in her mind.
Over the past few days, Firefly had wanted to make HQ stop more than once, but HQ’s attitude was extremely resolute, as if it was just trying to be annoying, and would definitely not stop before Firefly learned how to make all three types of cakes.
“I’ve really had enough.
I’ve been eating cakes for three days…
Although the cakes are delicious, but…” Firefly pinched her little belly a bit shyly; even with Firefly’s small hands, she could pinch a roll of flesh there.
“Who told you to eat them?
Weren’t you supposed to give them to Belle?” HQ appeared shamelessly in Firefly’s mind.
Hearing this, Firefly’s eyelids twitched.
Her staple food for the past few days had been cakes and bread, occasionally eating a few pastries she made herself.
She had grown somewhat tired of them, so she gave the qualified pastries she made to the sibling pair, Belle and Wise, and as a result, the sibling pair hadn’t gone out for the past two days either.
It wasn’t that they were avoiding Firefly; rather, cakes spoiled easily, and if they weren’t eaten quickly, they would go to waste.
“Isn’t there any way to learn how to make them faster?” “The Remembrance in my mind that doesn’t belong to me is simply too hard to comprehend.” Hearing Firefly’s complaint, HQ fell silent for a moment.
“Actually, it’s not that there’s no way.” Hearing this, Firefly perked up for a moment.
“This method is to acquire Remembrance matter.” “The usual approach is to enter the Hollow and kill Ethereals, acquiring Remembrance matter from them.” “Of course, Ethereals that retain more Remembrance will yield more Remembrance matter.” “Of course, rational individuals are the best for acquiring Remembrance matter, so actually, killing people directly is also an option.” HQ spoke terrifying words in a calm tone.
Even Firefly couldn’t help but shiver.
“Why does entering the Hollow and killing Ethereals to acquire Remembrance matter speed up the learning progress?” Firefly directly ignored the route of acquiring Remembrance matter through killing people, after all, she considered herself orderly.
“Most Ethereals are generated directly by the Hollow; this type of Ethereal mostly lacks intelligence and Remembrance.” “However, another portion of Ethereals is transformed from humans through Ether erosion.” “This type of Ethereal retains some of its lifetime Remembrance, and extracting Remembrance matter from these Remembrances is a good choice.” “However, HQ’s evaluation is that it’s better to randomly ambush passersby in the dead of night.” Firefly stood up, directly ignoring HQ’s evaluation, grabbed the Sam summoner, and went out.
It happened to be the dead of night.
She casually found a place to summon Sam, and the fact that there was no one nearby also ensured that no one could see her.
Sam leaped into the sky with a single bound, and then Firefly activated the secondary combustion state.
Crimson flames gushed from the gaps in her chest armor and limbs; in this state, she could increase her speed by fifty percent.
This allowed her to glide in the sky for a period of time, but she didn’t expect how big of a commotion this action would cause.
Searching for the location of a nearby Hollow—the Hollow disasters erupting in New Eridu had never been few—Firefly found a medium-sized Hollow and plunged right into it.
False sunlight spilled onto the metallic shell.
Firefly took a deep breath; the Ether energy in the air was still as foul-smelling as ever.
“Flashburn propulsion, activate!” Without saying a word, Firefly began clearing out the Ethereals.
Ethereal after Ethereal was run over like a speed bump encountering a dump truck; even advanced Ethereals were just slightly larger speed bumps.
Although the Remembrance matter acquired by killing Ethereals wasn’t much per kill, the total volume was substantial.
Firefly could feel her own Remembrance accepting that unfamiliar Remembrance.
“As expected, is it effective?” Firefly was extremely delighted about this.
Not only because of the Remembrance fusion reasons, but all the pent-up frustration from these past few days was completely released.
Although Firefly didn’t like fighting, she had to admit that fighting without any restraints was truly…
Combat is awesome!
With a single kick, she shattered Dulahan’s shield; with a single punch, she broke the body of a Goblin; with a single elbow strike, she smashed the armor of an Armored Hati.
Regarding this battle, HQ’s evaluation was: “You have become a true man.” After destroying an unknown number of Ethereals, Firefly felt that there was finally no longer any barrier in her Remembrance, and that abrupt thing had also completely fused.
Afterwards, Firefly relied on HQ to leave the Hollow.
When she left, she could see that this Hollow had shrunk by a huge margin.
The Hollow, which was originally large enough to spawn a secondary Hollow, now only needed a needle to pierce it.
Everyone would think so, but the Hollow still maintained itself; that was no longer within Firefly’s scope of consideration.
Firefly returned home, and after confirming through HQ that her whereabouts would not be exposed, her heart finally relaxed.
She had seen some people inside the Hollow, possibly investigators or Hollow Raiders.
Without a doubt, these people had also seen her.
Realizing that Sam would henceforth be exposed to the public eye, Firefly had been even more careful when returning.
“My thoughts are flowing like a spring right now, and I’m completely confident I can complete the cake challenge, and even becoming the Cake God is not a dream…
Huh?
Who wants to become the Cake God?” Obviously, the Remembrance fusion also caused deviations in Firefly’s thoughts, though it was quickly corrected.
This was merely the drawback of taking shortcuts.
HQ felt that wanting to obtain something always required a price, and Firefly having her cognition modified was also a normal manifestation.
Compared to this, HQ seemed to have discovered something interesting.
“Firefly-1, do you remember the first person you met when you arrived, Anby?” “Anby?” Firefly was somewhat puzzled, wondering why HQ suddenly brought up Anby.
“Among the Ethereals you killed, there was one that once fought with Anby.” “However, calling it fighting with Anby is perhaps more apt to say it fought with Anbies.” Anbies?
Firefly was puzzled; Firefly had doubts, and Firefly asked, “What do you mean by Anbies?” “Please don’t mind this.” “After all, compared to your grand enterprise of opening a shop, this matter is not worth mentioning.” “Besides, it’s already very late, why aren’t you going to sleep yet?” Even if HQ said so, once Firefly became curious, how could she just give up like that?
“I still care a bit.
If you don’t make it clear, I might not be able to fall asleep.” “There’s really no helping you.” Just when Firefly thought HQ was going to explain to her, HQ’s voice turned icy cold.
“Remembrance deletion program initiated; you will forget what I just said.” “What?!” Before Firefly could even react with shock and confusion, a flash of light dazzled her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Firefly-1, I don’t wish for you to do unnecessary things, unless this matter can make you happy rather than even more sorrowful.” HQ’s voice carried an unprecedented warmth.
Although it was talking to itself, Firefly still heard it.
Afterwards, Firefly forgot these words as well amidst the warm flowing light.