Chapter Fifty-One: Have I Traveled Through Time Again?

Under the gaze of her psychic vision, she watched as the guardian spirit transformed into familiar two-dimensional heroines, each one a cherished figure from her heart’s deepest expectations. Zhuang Xiaoyuan focused all her mental energy upon the guardian spirit.

As her spiritual power fully entered the guardian’s form, everything before her was engulfed in darkness. Theoretically, darkness was an impossibility for spiritual vision; even in the blackest night, this sight should illuminate the world as if it were day. Yet now, true and utter darkness claimed her view.

The blackness did not last long. Still bewildered by this anomaly, she suddenly became aware of sensations from her own body. It was as if her spirit had returned to its vessel. The caress of air across her skin, the sound of footsteps approaching—all of it made clear that Zhuang Xiaoyuan had returned to her own body. But shouldn’t she still be in the secluded chamber? The door was locked from within; the chamber was soundproof—she should not be able to hear anything from outside. Sensing something was amiss, she tried to open her eyes, but her body felt as though it had slumbered for ages, refusing to respond to her will. Even the simple act of opening her eyes was suddenly difficult.

“Production code ninety-nine, initial batch, prototype unit zero. Initiate.”

As she struggled against her heavy eyelids, a crisp, resonant voice, completely devoid of emotion, sounded by her ear.

At the instant this unique voice faded, her previously unresponsive body surged with energy. Having pressed too hard in her fight with her eyelids, Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s eyes sprang wide open.

But what filled her view was not the narrow meditation chamber she expected, but a spacious, white room saturated with a sense of futuristic technology. Around the empty space stood tall, rectangular boxes in neat rows. When her gaze returned from the distance, she discovered that she too lay within one of these boxes, though hers stood open at the front.

The box resembled a display case for meticulously arranged figurines from her former world. The soft interior wall was molded with a human-shaped hollow, in which she lay perfectly aligned.

“Unit 99-0. I am 10-4. From today onward, I will serve as your instructor for the coming period.” The same resonant voice rang out again, drawing Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s attention from her surroundings toward its source.

The owner of the voice stood clearly before her: a delicate girl with short, white, shoulder-length hair, appearing around fifteen or sixteen years old—Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s own age. Yet her attire announced that she was anything but an ordinary human.

She wore a white, streamlined bodysuit; atop her head was an antenna-like device fused seamlessly with her skull, and a small flight unit was strapped to her back. The heels of her feet featured specially designed jet ports, as did her elbows. If anything, she seemed more like a ‘mecha-girl’ from the fantasies of her previous life.

“Unit 99-0, do you have any questions? Why do you not respond?” the voice repeated, as emotionless as before; even her questions sounded like statements.

Only then did Zhuang Xiaoyuan notice her own body. She wore attire nearly identical to the girl opposite her, with similar jet ports on her hands and feet. But upon closer inspection, these ports seemed to be integrated, grown as part of her body.

“Could it be... I’ve transmigrated again?” Zhuang Xiaoyuan stared in bewilderment at her new form—a fusion of flesh and machine—murmuring in disbelief. She couldn’t accept that she’d once again crossed worlds. She had only just adapted to Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s world, found new friends and family, and now she was to be separated from them yet again?

“Unit 99-0, I will confirm once more. I am 10-4, and from today onward, I will serve as your instructor. Do you have any questions? Why do you not respond?” The resonant voice persisted, still utterly devoid of feeling, though the sudden increase in words suggested some inner shift.

“Unit 99-0? Is that me?” Still dazed, Zhuang Xiaoyuan looked up at the girl before her, unable to recover from the shock. When she’d first transmigrated, she’d been struck with a similar blow; but then, she’d inherited her host’s memories, and the fusion of their souls eased her transition into the new world. Now, though, she had no memories at all; her body was as blank as a newborn’s. Judging by the room and her emergence, she guessed she had only just been manufactured in this world...

But as Zhuang Xiaoyuan wallowed in the belief she had transmigrated again, lost and confused, a sheet of yellowed parchment appeared before her eyes.

Trial of the Guardian Spirit

Mission One: Accept instruction from your mentor unit, and learn to fly independently.

She stared blankly at the floating parchment and its words. At last, she emerged from her self-imposed gloom and let out a deep breath.

So this was the trial of the guardian spirit. She had suspected as much, but hadn’t expected to find herself in a place so like another world. Yet the surroundings bore no resemblance to any two-dimensional work she knew. It seemed she had not entered the anime world she’d originally imagined.

“Unit 99-0? Is there a malfunction in your communication system? It seems I’ll have to call for a repair unit.” Calmly observing the prototype that was to become her student, the instructor—10-4—prepared for the worst. She’d encountered many kinds of faults in prototypes, which were, after all, built expressly for testing and future improvements. But never before had she seen a communication system failure. The main signal transmission system was the best of all; it had never shown a single defect. Nonetheless, raising her right hand, she prepared to connect with the repair team.