Chapter 364 - 365: Inori: Old Man on the Subway Squinting at His Phone

Chapter 364: Chapter 365: Inori: Old Man on the Subway Squinting at His Phone

While the Archangel was overwhelmed with problems, Inori finally gained a little something on her side.

[Gundam SEED: Songstress of the Void — Season One settlement complete]

[Payment settlement in progress. Please wait]

"Hasn’t this gone on for more than one season already?"

The first episode had been a ninety-minute extended special, and the story after that had gone on for quite a while. By now, it had actually exceeded a single season.

[Seasonal settlements are calculated based on milestone nodes]

The Stage responded.

After a while, the Stage’s voice sounded again.

[Negotiations with the Client have concluded]

[The Client gave an extremely high evaluation]

"Wasn’t it always the production team before?"

Back in the Naruto world, it had always been the production team.

"Hyuga Hanabi" had been more like someone who joined a major production with the help of an agent.

But things seemed a little different here.

[The Client couldn’t handle it alone. Joint production]

"Huh?"

[Payment has been issued. The reward list is as follows]

[1. Gundam SEED Special Guest Designer Invitation: The Client hires you as a special guest designer. Within this set, all designs and improvements you create will earn additional Popularity. Unless specifically noted otherwise, products you design will be authorized for sale in the audience world. Revenue split: 50/50.]

[2. Virtual Songstress Inori Project: While you act as "Inori," you will gain the additional identity of a virtual songstress. The Client promises one Asia concert tour. Ticket revenue split: 50/50.]

[3. Figure Project: Authorize the Client to launch a comprehensive figure merchandise plan. Revenue split: 50/50.]

Old man on the subway squinting at his phone.

The first, second, and third rewards all looked good. But...

"Is this Client obsessed with money or what?"

Especially the first and third rewards. Had the Client decided that handling individual licensing deals was too troublesome and deliberately created these instead?

When it came to generous rewards, the Client from the Naruto world was still the real sugar daddy.

Fortunately, there were more rewards after those three.

[4. Character Heritage Card Upgrade Voucher LV8: Upgrade item for Character Heritage Cards. Can be used directly at LV7. For LV8 or higher, the difference must be paid.]

Once a Character Heritage Card reached LV7, upgrading it to LV8 cost one million Popularity Points. Reaching LV10 would probably require around three to five million Popularity Points, which was already comparable to half the Client’s required Popularity Points.

This voucher was effectively a direct discount of one million Popularity Points.

"Looking at it that way, that’s actually pretty generous."

It was almost too generous.

...Wait.

"So does that mean the first three rewards are supposed to make me money, while the fourth reward is the one where you actually gave me money?"

[Some truths are better left unsaid]

The Stage added another line.

[Excess reward]

"Fine, fine."

Unfortunately, there was nothing particularly special about going from LV7 to LV8. The extra reward only came upon reaching LV10.

Still, raising the level would improve the performance of the Character Heritage Card itself.

It was different from the Honkai: Star Rail Sparkle and Jingliu cards she had used in the Naruto world.

Because Sparkle shared the same name as Hanabi, using that card had always come fairly naturally to her. The Jingliu card, on the other hand, embodied the word "heritage" much more literally, with Master Jingliu herself guiding and teaching Hyuga Hanabi.

In the Gundam SEED world, because of the preparations made before the story began, Inori herself was effectively "Lacia" herself. So upgrading Lacia’s Character Heritage Card would not grant additional skill points, but improving the body’s raw performance alone was already excellent—like raising a game character’s base stats.

A lot of the time, high stats were simply powerful. Even without special abilities, overwhelming raw numbers could brute-force a solution.

The "base stats" improved by Lacia’s card mainly increased computing power.

After receiving her pay, Inori went outside to help the Archangel clean up the aftermath.

The Archangel was a complete wreck now. Its "head" was gone, and the hull itself had suffered severe damage.

In short, if ZAFT really came over, they could only rely on the Strike and the two Astrays.

"Songstress-san!" Before Inori had taken more than a few steps, Mu came rushing over.

He looked a little embarrassed himself.

"Repair the Archangel?" Inori asked.

"Ah, right." Mu nodded. "That won’t be a problem, will it?"

"Mm. Kira authorized it earlier."

Inori followed Mu to the Archangel’s temporary bridge.

"Well, first things first, I’d like you to improve our radar program," Mu said.

"Wait, Mu?!" Murrue was stunned.

"You saw what happened earlier, right? An invisible attack from ’friendly forces.’ I have no intention of experiencing that a second time." Mu shook his head.

Who could have imagined that the Archangel’s worst crisis would actually be caused by "allies"?

"But can Inori-san really handle it?"

Mu had more or less guessed that Inori was not an ordinary person. Murrue had been slower to catch on, but she understood at least part of it now.

"I can," Inori said.

"Could you also fix every part of the Archangel that might have a ’hidden vulnerability’?"

Mu added one more request.

"No problem."

Inori nodded.

Obviously. Those "vulnerabilities" were her own additions in the first place.

During the year she had spent in this world, Inori had done far more than merely "add a few extras."

Weaknesses she had created herself were easy enough to remove herself.

After that came the repairs.

This was an everyday scene now, so a Daily Scene Card could be used.

But when Inori activated the shot card, the Stage did not keep the camera on Inori. Instead, it cut somewhere else.

—Right. Inori had used a shot card on someone else.

"Reconstructing the neural connection system..."

"PS armor... very good design..."

A man wearing a monocle and speaking at an astonishing speed appeared on-screen.

"Hmm?"

Suddenly, an email interrupted his train of thought.

The camera conveniently shifted to the laptop screen.

At last, the man’s name appeared there.

"Albert Heinlein."

"Seriously, this is an internal network. How in the world do these messages keep getting through?"

The man named Heinlein moved over to the computer beside him.

"Oh? That ’mysterious doctor’ again?"

A colleague next to him turned around.

This was ZAFT’s MS research and development organization.

Someone breaking into the network should have been major news.

The awkward part was that nobody seemed to know where the intrusion was coming from.

Still, that person only communicated with Heinlein, and there did not seem to be any actual damage.

No matter whether Heinlein switched to a ZAFT-issued computer or any other machine, the other party could always contact him.

It was bizarre.

So Heinlein had simply started using a completely blank laptop to communicate with the other side. That person seemed to be a researcher too, and discussing technology with them had actually benefited Heinlein greatly.

Judging from that, the person genuinely did not seem malicious.

It was more like they were simply a... technology maniac?

Oh, right. Albert Heinlein was currently designing and building several MS. Two of them were called Freedom and Justice.

(This is the guy)