Chapter 306

Li Boyong piloted his machine back to the mothership, at which point the system's notification suddenly popped up.

【Completed Mission: Optional Mission—Phantom Pain】

Due to your speech, the world situation has undergone huge changes; you intervened to control Phantom Pain, united like-minded friendly forces, and eliminated Logos. (Success reward: 15 Plot Points, 20 Battle Merit Points.)

With Djibril's death, Li Boyong also received the results regarding the optional mission on the system.

It seems that after Wang Liumei stood on the front line against Logos with him, the system no longer counted Wang Liumei as a member of Logos.

15 Plot Points and 20 Battle Merit Points were very sweet, but more importantly, it was the system's judgment of Wang Liumei. In this way, in future mission worlds, Wang Liumei, who came with young lady and espionage skills, would be able to play a huge role.

As for how to bicker with the ZAFT side after the Heaven's Base battle ended with not a single Logos survivor left, let the moderate officials of the Alliance government handle it...

On the way back, Li Boyong's thoughts couldn't help but wander again.

Actually, regarding this messy, broken system, he had many "greetings" he wanted to say.

But regarding this follower function, he actually liked it from the bottom of his heart.

Completing missions alone in one world after another, being a passerby in every world, and having one-time interactions with everyone—how lonely that would be.

But with the follower function, he had his own team; although he had to bear some responsibilities, the gains were far greater than the responsibilities.

Not to mention the functional team assistance, just talking about so many young ladies—isn't that sweet?

As for whether he felt guilty about using the system to change the life trajectories of others.

Actually, not too much.

After all, in the team he recruited, except for Shihe, the others basically didn't have very good endings.

Natarle originally died from the Archangel's positron cannon, Wang Liumei would be killed by Nena, and the Xia sisters' ending was even more miserable, being tortured and killed by Amalgam.

Li Boyong naturally liked them, but although he didn't show it, he actually had a faint savior complex toward them deep down.

But on this point, Shihe was different...

She could have lived better; it was he, Li Boyong, who took her away, and now he had lost her...

On the way back to the Archangel, Li Boyong was tormented by this sense of guilt until he parked the machine on the deck and Natarle's communication popped up, at which point he regained his spirits.

"Are you okay?" The stern female officer on the captain's seat still had a business-like appearance.

"Don't worry, don't worry, this level of battlefield is a small scene for me." Facing Natarle's serious expression that couldn't be swayed, Li Boyong couldn't help but become roguish, "The mission was successfully completed; I'll leave the subsequent command to you to arrange."

Pursing her lips, seemingly seeing the fatigue in Li Boyong's expression, Natarle swallowed her subconscious reprimand and said with unexpected gentleness: "You've worked hard; get some good rest, and leave the rest to me."

Taking advantage of Li Boyong being slightly stunned, Natarle cut off the communication.

"Natarle has become more and more gentle recently."

Li Boyong touched his chin and smiled, opened the cockpit door, and climbed down the rope ladder. Just as he stood steady, Stella pounced into his arms like a cat welcoming its owner home.

"Neo! Neo!"

Li Boyong glanced at the heavily damaged Gaia Gundam nearby, but quickly moved his gaze away, affectionately stroked Stella's golden hair, and the words he originally intended to use to lecture Stella turned into concern: "Are you hurt?"

"Stella is very good, not hurt."

Stella shook her head slightly, her little face rubbing against Li Boyong's chest with contentment; where was there any trace of a battle maniac now?

Healed by her docile appearance, Li Boyong felt the depression of failing to bring Shihe back lighten quite a bit.

While petting the cat and soothing Stella with a few words, Li Boyong saw Wang Liumei enter the hangar leisurely.

"Sting, take Stella to rest."

After handing Stella over to Sting to take care of, he shrugged at Wang Liumei and made a gesture of regret, indicating that he failed to bring Shihe back as planned.

Wang Liumei sighed and signaled Li Boyong to follow with her eyes.

Li Boyong nodded, and the two left the hangar one after the other and entered Wang Liumei's room.

"What happened? Why couldn't you bring Shihe back?"

Wang Liumei asked with her arms crossed, leaning slightly against the desk, her expression slightly solemn.

In her understanding, after Shihe connected with Li Boyong, she shouldn't have continued to stay on the ZAFT side unless an accident occurred.

Li Boyong told Wang Liumei what happened so she could analyze it with him.

"So, Shihe had her memories of the two world journeys sealed for some reason." Wang Liumei analyzed after hearing this: "And her current memories only stopped at the time before she became your follower in the world she originally belonged to?"

Li Boyong nodded.

"Two possibilities." Wang Liumei continued: "The first is that people who return to this world again will lose the memories of leaving their original world."

"The second is that this Shihe is not the Shihe we know."

"But considering that Shihe reacted to the experiences you narrated, I think the second possibility is relatively low; I personally lean toward the first possibility."

After listening to Wang Liumei's analysis, Li Boyong nodded, agreeing with her analysis: "The focus of the next action is how to persuade Shihe to return under these circumstances before we leave this world."

After all, this situation had never happened before.

Every time he completed the final mission and headed to the next world, everyone was together, and no one had any special situations like amnesia.

He didn't dare to bet on whether he would leave her behind if he completed the mission directly given Shihe's current situation.

After all, even after experiencing so much, there were still many things about this broken system that he couldn't understand at all.

Hearing this, Wang Liumei pointed at Li Boyong's chest with her finger and said: "That 'existence' that controls us—didn't it give you any hints?"

Li Boyong looked at the panel regarding Shihe displayed on the system; it was still just that panel about attributes and skills, without displaying any information about her status or location.

He shrugged and told Wang Liumei: "There were no special hints."

"Alright." Wang Liumei sighed: "I'll go notify Yufang and Yulan; the next phase of the mission will be to welcome Shihe back as the top priority. As for Athrun, we should try to continue to actively contact him and see if he has any way to help us."

"The current world situation should be stable for a period of time. Although we didn't hand over the Logos people to PLANT for trial as agreed, it's unlikely that the other side would choose to continue the war because of such a thing. Diplomatic bickering should last for a while; during this period, we will follow the plan to help Cagalli regain control of Orb, and then take back the Lunar Base." After a pause, she continued: "However, there is one point that needs attention, which is the fact that I am still alive, which may become a reason for ZAFT to carry out other activities."

Speaking of this, Wang Liumei blinked: "When the time comes, don't sell me out."

Li Boyong was somewhat amused by her: "What are you thinking? How could I do such a thing."

But for some reason, hearing this answer, Wang Liumei leaned close to Li Boyong, intimately wrapped her arms around Li Boyong's neck, and exhaled like an orchid: "If it requires handing me over to exchange for Shihe, would you exchange me?"

Li Boyong just wanted to speak, but Wang Liumei placed her finger on his lips: "Don't rush to answer; this question requires you to think about it carefully."

"After all, as the number of people in our team becomes larger and larger, we may encounter similar situations in the future."

"As the leader, it's about time you started thinking about these things."

After speaking, Wang Liumei left Li Boyong in silence and left her room.