Chapter 149: Elysia: There’s a Redhead up Ahead, Watch Me Take Her Down!
***
Amidst the tremendous roar, the transport ship belonging to Anti-Entropy slowly descended, stirring up clouds of flying snow.
And this also meant they had arrived at the location of the Elysian Realm — Greenland.
“So much snow.”
Walking down from the transport ship, Raiden Mei, who had joined up with Kiana and the others during transport, stepped onto this unfamiliar land. Looking at the endless white snow around her, she couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.
Although the Far East wasn’t without snow, and you could see plenty of white scenery in winter, for Mei, a child who grew up in the city, such endless snowfields and glaciers were something she had only seen in stories and movies.
“Mei hasn’t been to similar places before?”
Elysia, wearing the appearance of 【Jiang Qiao】, found it somewhat strange.
She knew that Mei used to be a very, very wealthy little rich girl. With ME Corp’s wealth, shouldn’t a rich kid like Mei be flying around the globe, seeing sights all over the world?
“No, I rarely left Nagazora City.”
When saying this, Mei bit her lip.
This was actually due to her childhood experiences.
Once, when going out with her father to attend a banquet, she was directly kidnapped. This incident left a huge psychological shadow on her when she was still very young, and Ryoma was also very busy with his career…
The others nodded with seeming understanding.
— The scenery of Greenland was a breathtaking sight for Raiden Mei and Wendy, who came from the Far East and New Zealand, but for others, it wasn’t particularly noteworthy.
After all, Bronya was born in the Siberian snowfields. When she was a child soldier, she ate more snow in Siberia than food.
And when Kiana was young and traveling with Siegfried, she also lived in villages with abundant snowfields.
As for Elysia… please, was there anywhere in this world that the Previous Era’s number one street wanderer hadn’t been to?
Snowfields and glaciers were just one corner of what Miss Fatty had seen in her travels around the world. But looking at this deserted, freezing cold place, despite having changed into thick clothing in advance, Elysia, who still couldn’t help but shiver, had some doubts:
“The Elysian Realm that bad Jiang Qiao mentioned, is it really here?”
This kind of place didn’t look like somewhere suitable for a ‘realm’ to exist, right?
Jiang Qiao had already left first, and although Anti-Entropy’s Einstein and Welt were curious about the so-called Elysian Realm, the former was wary of World Serpent, plus the latter two also needed to hurry and deal with the radical faction’s problems after Cocolia’s death. So in the end, the one leading them was Miss ‘Dodo’, who had come with Raiden Mei and been given the responsibility of being their guide.
The latter walked ahead, and upon hearing this question, took the initiative to explain:
“Although most areas of this island are glacial snowfields, there are also small areas that are quite beautiful. Of course — that’s not important. The 【Elysian Realm】 is located deep underground.”
“The many shelters left behind by the Previous Era are regarded as ruins by people of our era, and what we’re going to next is 【Shelter No. 1】 where the realm is located.”
“Number one… does that mean it was the first one built?” Bronya was quite curious.
“Who knows? Although according to the data, the Previous Era’s shelters were indeed named according to chronological order, the Shelter No. 1 where the realm is located seems to be different… I heard this shelter was actually built quite late.”
Unlike Miss Dodo’s indifference — she didn’t care what kind of meaning lay behind this — Elysia was quite satisfied with this naming:
“Number 1, I really like this number.”
“Numerically speaking, there’s nothing particularly noteworthy about it.”
“It’s different! Don’t you think it’s like the beginning of everything?”
The white-haired fluffball scratched her head, “Can’t grasp the point, but it does seem quite romantic.”
Under Miss Dodo’s guidance, they walked for who knows how long, going down along the dark cave entrance. The originally rough rock walls had somehow transformed into artificially carved deep corridors as their journey extended.
And during this process, Miss Dodo voluntarily removed the hood that was usually pulled over her head — this wasn’t her wish, but a request from that pink rogue: remember to remove your hood before entering the realm.
Regarding this inexplicable request, although Raven couldn’t understand what was going on at all, and didn’t know what significance this had
— she had entered the realm countless times, okay? What difference could removing or not removing her hood make?
…
As the sole maintenance personnel of the Elysian Realm, during this long period of time, Klein could be described as diligent and conscientious, quite dedicated to her duties.
However, overall speaking, this job was actually quite relaxed.
After all, repairing the Elysian Realm’s equipment wasn’t difficult for her, who had been infused with professional knowledge. With the support of World Serpent and even various maintenance replacement parts left by the Previous Era within the ruins, she might spend more time serving as Dr. Mobius’s assistant within the realm.
At most, every once in a while, World Serpent would send cadres into the realm to undergo trials. At those times, she might be slightly busier, since she had to watch over the visitors’ bodies — unlike those memory bodies in the realm who had no physiological needs, even though only consciousness entered the realm, it didn’t mean the bodies remaining outside just stayed still.
Various physiological needs all required Klein, the realm maintenance personnel, to watch over and handle.
Of course, due to the special nature of the realm — within World Serpent, usually only cadres had the authority to enter it.
Over all these years, World Serpent’s cadres were just those few, basically requiring very long intervals before the realm would welcome new visitors.
In recent years, Miss Dodo might be considered the one who entered the realm most frequently.
And this time, receiving the new list of those entering the realm from Gray Serpent, Klein looked at the long string of names on the list and felt somewhat emotional.
But she didn’t care what kind of people the owners of those names on the list were.
Did it matter whether they were World Serpent people or not?
Although Klein also belonged to World Serpent, she had never valued this identity.
Ultimately, the 【Elysian Realm】 was originally a legacy facility built to pass down that story of the past and continue the will of those heroes.
Equipment built for such a purpose shouldn’t be confined by identity.