Meta, or "元" in Chinese, signifies both a trend and a nature. It represents the process of change as well as its outcome.
In the game's setting, when a Wisdom Cube undergoes meta transformation, it ultimately turns into a black-and-red Meta Cube.
Shipgirls who experience utter despair may fall into meta transformation, becoming blackened meta shipgirls.
While meta shipgirls gain immense power, this often comes with drastic personality changes, such as an intense desire for destruction or complete emotional detachment.
If the degree of meta transformation is left unchecked, a meta shipgirl will eventually lose all sanity and become an uncontrollable meta-mutated monster that knows only destruction.
Fortunately, after joining the port area, meta shipgirls no longer continue their meta transformation.
Although they cannot revert to their previous selves, they at least stabilize and no longer face the risk of turning into monsters.
This was why Lin Lan immediately recognized the changes occurring in Sui Qiong. His port area housed more than a dozen meta shipgirls.
The black crystalline particles emanating from their bodies when summoning their rigging were identical to what Sui Qiong was exhibiting now.
But the game was one thing—this was the first time he had witnessed a meta transformation with his own eyes, and on a mech girl rather than a shipgirl.
Sui Qiong, who had begun her meta transformation, gripped a black-and-red energy blade and took slow, deliberate steps toward him and the Iron Blood shipgirls.
The space around the petite, white-haired girl cracked like a spiderweb, expanding across the entire world with each step she took.
However, before she could take her second step, the fractured sky above them shattered further.
Broken fragments of space collapsed, allowing streaks of orange light to pierce through the gaps.
Through those spatial ruptures, they could faintly see the burning clouds of a sunset outside.
Upon witnessing this, Prinz Eugen's expression changed slightly, and she immediately shouted:
"Commander! The Mirror Sea is about to collapse—"
But before Eugen could finish speaking, Lin Lan suddenly noticed her body becoming blurry, gradually turning transparent!
He quickly looked at Agir, Teacher Nimi, and the other Iron Blood shipgirls. All of them, including their riggings, were becoming transparent and disappearing from the Mirror Sea!
The Iron Blood shipgirls rushed toward him in panic, their faces filled with fear and urgency. He could tell they were saying something, but he couldn't hear a single word.
Even Z1 and Roon passed straight through his body, as if they had already become intangible phantoms.
Seeing this, Lin Lan bitterly lowered his head to look at his own body.
Sure enough, he was still solid.
He had been left behind in this collapsing Mirror Sea.
"Commander, they have been sent out by Sui Qiong."
"So now, it's time to… destroy… Sui Qiong…"
A voice filled with sobs came from behind him—the voice of the meta-transformed mech girl.
Lin Lan let out a deep sigh.
In the end, it still fell upon him to resolve this predicament personally.
"Sui Qiong, listen to me. Orlan was not destroyed…"
Lin Lan tried to explain to the approaching meta mech girl that Orlan still existed, that it had not perished.
But before he could finish, Sui Qiong ruthlessly interrupted him:
"Then why… Why can't Sui Qiong connect to the database? Why can't Sui Qiong find any of her companions?!"
The petite, white-haired mech girl's voice, originally tinged with sobs, escalated into a heart-wrenching scream of fury.
Overcome with emotion, Sui Qiong swung her black-and-red energy blade fiercely upward.
A massive arc of black-red energy slashed through the Mirror Sea's fractured sky, bursting into the dusk-colored clouds beyond.
"Boom!"
The energy blade exploded within the clouds. Lin Lan lifted his head in shock, watching as the orange clouds were blown apart, leaving a vast vacuum in the sky.
Before he could say another word—
The next second, the razor-sharp tip of an energy blade was already at his throat!
Lin Lan could feel the killing intent radiating from the blade—a chilling, tangible pressure seeping through his skin.
"Damn, so this is the power of a meta-transformed mech girl!"
Sui Qiong's high-speed movement had been too fast. Even with the power of a hero, he hadn't had time to react before the blade was at his neck.
As expected of a creation of Cube Technology, a one-of-a-kind mech girl.
Even a hero like him was powerless in such a situation.
After all, the power of Cube Technology had already transcended the limits of human imagination in this world.
"Before the war ended and Sui Qiong went into hibernation, Sui Qiong's creators told her…"
The girl aiming her energy blade at Lin Lan's neck covered her crimson eye with her other hand, her voice trembling:
"That when Sui Qiong wakes again, she will see an Orlan without war, without suffering—a prosperous and powerful Orlan."
"That Sui Qiong would have countless new companions, that she would no longer have to witness her comrades being destroyed by enemies, that she would no longer have to fight and kill every day."
Lin Lan listened to the towering mech girl's sorrowful words, feeling the immense pain in her voice pierce into his heart.
"But why…"
Sui Qiong's voice rose in intensity. She suddenly removed her hand from her red eye, glaring at Lin Lan as she screamed:
"Why, why, WHY?! Why did they lie to Sui Qiong?! Orlan is gone! Sui Qiong's companions are gone! What is the point of Sui Qiong being the only one left alive?!"
With her furious roar, black-red patterns surged across the collapsing Mirror Sea. In an instant, Lin Lan felt as if he had been plunged into hell!
He watched as the red hue gradually overtook Sui Qiong's remaining blue eye.
"They promised… they promised… Why? Why… ugh… ughhh…"
After venting her rage, Sui Qiong suddenly began to cry like a child. Huge tears rolled down her cheeks.
She let go of her energy blade, letting it clatter to the ground. Hugging her knees, she buried her head and wept, helpless as a lost little girl.
As she cried, the black-red hues of the Mirror Sea quickly faded, accelerating its collapse.
Feeling the murderous intent that had moments ago gripped his throat dissipate, Lin Lan realized that Sui Qiong's mind was becoming unstable during her meta transformation.
This was an extremely dangerous sign. There was no more time to waste.
If she sank further into meta transformation, her consciousness might never recover, and she would become a mindless force of destruction.
Lin Lan scanned the surroundings frantically. With the Mirror Sea collapsing faster, he forced himself to calm down and think.
He needed to convince Sui Qiong to fight for survival.
Taking a deep breath, he turned back to the mech girl on the brink of mental collapse.
How could he reignite her will to live?
He had to try talking her down, getting her to leave with him before it was too late.
Summoning all his courage, Lin Lan softened his voice, crouched beside her, and said:
"Sui Qiong, your creators never lied to you."
"After the war between Orlan and the Natlan Empire ended, Orlan focused on recovering from the economic devastation caused by the war. There was never another war again."
"But later, just as Orlan was preparing to create new companions for you, it suffered an unprecedented disaster—a catastrophe brought by villains from another world."
"It was during that disaster that Orlan's data system was destroyed, which is why you couldn't connect to the database."
As Lin Lan spoke, he observed the Blackwinged girl kneeling before him, her head lowered as she wept.
Around her, black crystalline particles continuously dispersed into the air.
She seemed to be listening to his words, as her sobs gradually grew quieter.
"But Orlan, resilient as ever, survived that disaster and continues to fight against those villains even now."
"The girls you just saw by my side? They are still fighting those villains to this day—they are your comrades."
Hearing Lin Lan's words, Sui Qiong slowly lifted her head, as if beginning to believe what he was saying.
Her delicate and adorable face was streaked with tears. In a voice filled with disbelief, she asked,
"Commander… is what you said… really true?"
"Orlan still exists… and they… are my comrades?"
Only now did Lin Lan notice that the girl's remaining blue eye had nearly half of its color turned into a deep crimson.
Why was Sui Qiong's meta transformation happening so quickly? Had the other meta shipgirls also gone through the same thing?
The thought flashed through Lin Lan's mind, but he had no time to dwell on it.
Since his words were having an effect, he needed to press on while he still had the chance.
"You were able to scan my identity as a commander, weren't you? Doesn't that prove that I'm not lying to you?"
"Before coming here, you must have seen the city and the Orlan citizens. If Orlan had truly been destroyed, all you would have seen was a wasteland."
"Sui Qiong, trust me—Orlan's future still needs you. We all… still need you."
"You won't be alone anymore, I promise you that."
Feeling the entire space of the Mirror Sea beginning to tremble violently, Lin Lan knew that there was not much time left before it completely collapsed.
If Sui Qiong couldn't pull herself out of the meta transformation and regain control of her emotions to leave with him…
Then he would have no choice but to rely on the ancient Liao artifact he had crafted to escape, abandoning any hope of helping Sui Qiong.
After all, as the commander of so many shipgirls, if he were to die here, it would be irresponsible to those who were still waiting for him to return.
Even so, he would still do everything in his power to persuade this shipgirl to leave this crumbling world with him.
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50 advanced chapters on p@t re on (.) com/SenatusTheta
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