Si

CODENAME: Si

GENDER: Female

AUTHENTICATION: Hongshan Academy of Sciences

DOB: September 15

RACE: Undisclosed

[ORIPATHY INFECTION STATUS]

Oripathy negative, based on medical examination reports.

[INTEGRATED PHYSICAL EXAMINATION]

PHYSIOLOGICAL STRENGTH: ■■

COMBAT SKILL: Excellent

TACTICAL ACUMEN: Standard

ORIGINIUM ARTS ASSIMILATION: Flawed

Si, a Feranmut Proxy with no formal employer, has long-standing ties to the Hongshan Academy of Sciences. At the Endministrator's personal recommendation, she joined Endfield Industries, where she currently provides expertise in the theoretical research and practical application of Feranmuts.

Si rarely participates in Endfield's personnel procedures. The only exception is recorded in my self-diagnostic log. As agreed, Si arrived aboard Dijiang and spoke with me. She answered every question, signed the paperwork, and disappeared the moment the process was complete. My processing module immediately classified the event as an unforeseen incident and issued an alert. A short while later, Si walked back into the office, wiped a drop of ink from the center of my display, and mumbled, "Interesting ... but not interesting enough." She later explained that "Si" sitting across from me had merely been a painting of herself. She wanted to see how I would react. Judging from her remark, my response wasn't quite what she had hoped for.

It was a harmless prank. The incident offered a glimpse into Si's unique quality. While she possesses powers beyond the scope of scientific explanation, she occasionally exhibits a temperament that seems atypical of a Feranmut Proxy. Opportunities to meet a Feranmut Proxy on Talos-II are few and far between. I therefore recommend that my colleagues in the HR Division take every chance to interact with her. We may eventually discover a pattern to her shifting moods.

— Martin Marvin Malen, Assistant, HR Division, Endfield Industries

After joining Endfield, almost no operators ever met Si. Her profile remained largely blank, and "mysterious" was the only impression most of us had of the Feranmut Proxy. The HR Division even asked her recommender to help convince her to cooperate with a few onboarding procedures, but apparently, not even the Endministrator could get through to her... That changed when one of our logistics operators happened to spot her at a hotpot restaurant in Wuling City.

The two met by pure chance, neither knowing who the other was. They happened to attend the same promotional event for a new menu and ended up sharing a table, sampling hotpot broths like Lime and Bitter Gourd Stock, Fish Maw and Slug Pepper Stock, and Boiled Grovenymph Clear Stock — names bizarre enough on their own. After learning that Si was there to pick up a few tricks for the chef at her inn, the logistics operator praised her keen business instincts and remarkably refined taste for someone so young. Si was delighted and quietly picked up the operator's bill as well. Only later, after spotting Si's photo in the HR Division, did the operator realize who her dining companion had actually been... After that, more and more operators began running into Si in the most unexpected places, including Wuling City's Chubby Lung launch event, La Fantoma's robotics experience center ... the list goes on. Two operators even got into a heated argument over one particular sighting. Both insisted they had seen Si at the exact same time, yet one claimed she was the mischievous bidder who scooped the final item at Seš'qa's witchcraft staff auction, while the other swore she was the mysterious guest who got drunk among Sami's Snowpriests. The two locations are thousands of miles apart, one above ground, the other below. Stories like that belong only in old Yanese legends. In short, if the operators are to be believed, Si is less like a secluded Feranmut Proxy and more like an energetic child who simply can't stay home.

Since then, whenever Dijiang hosted events like the Vanguard Movie Night, a few operators would work up the courage to ask the Endministrator to invite Si... This time, she actually came. Gradually, we came to realize that this was simply who she was. Playful and unpredictable, she has little patience for people who are rigid or unwilling to adapt. She's always drawn to anything new and views the world with a child's curiosity. Perhaps ... by Feranmut standards, she really is still very young.

Advice from Operator Argent Flow: Avoid words like "child" and "young." Lady Si is rather sensitive about her age. She insists, "I'm nearly as old as civilization itself on Talos-II. You're all just kids to me."

Advice from Operator Arcane: When it comes to critical matters, please trust the Proxy, just as we do. Whatever her usual demeanor may be, her abilities more than justify that trust. She also doesn't appreciate having her abilities questioned.

Mysterious advice from an unknown guest: If she starts throwing a fit, just go get the Endministrator.

Yinglung Special Task Force Training Log III

Location: Unnamed Wilderness, HAS Jurisdiction

Objective: Scheduled meeting between the Proxy and the latest batch of recruits

Notes: The Proxy was absent without prior notice, and the meeting was replaced with routine training. The senior operator leading the session reassured the new recruits that although the Proxy helped establish and plan the YSTF, she held no official position within HAS. The two parties maintain a cooperative relationship, and many YSTF members may never meet her during their service.

Yinglung Special Task Force Training Log VIII

Location: Tanjian Hall, HAS

Objective: Proxy's lecture on the application of Feranmut Power

Notes: The Proxy was absent without prior notice. On short notice, she arranged for Ye Minghe, Captain of Pacified Skies of the Imperial Guards, and the Endministrator of Endfield Industries to attend in her place. The session was converted into a technical exchange on spear techniques and Originium applications.

Yinglung Special Task Force Training Log XXI

Location: A scroll painted by the Proxy on the spot

Objective: Proxy's lecture on the application of Feranmut Power

Notes: The Proxy was in unusually high spirits, and the training session ran more than three hours over schedule. She took it upon herself to demonstrate more than a dozen different powers, each one more astonishing than the last. Her so-called "little tricks" included, but were by no means limited to: moving stone and timber at will to create a garden no one could escape; forging shields and greatswords out of thin air, as though drawing divine weapons from the void; planting a seed that sprouted, withered, and sprouted again within moments, confounding one's sense of time and causality; bringing ink paintings to life, erasing the boundary between illusion and reality; and turning squares into circles as though reality itself obeyed her every word... Naturally, we can only harness a fraction of these powers with the aid of specialized equipment and nowhere near as freely as the Proxy herself. Even so, their value on the battlefield is beyond question. Properly applied, they would enable the YSTF to carry out countless complex missions.

That said, the powers aren't always reliable. On rare occasions, a giant shield would inexplicably contain a large hole, or the painted sun would become nothing more than an ink blot suspended in the sky, steadily dripping ink. Such incidents were infrequent, but they were observed. The Proxy was invariably quick to conceal these mishaps. Common methods included covering them with an exaggerated cough, abruptly painting a river and declaring an impromptu exercise in river-crossing combat, or simply ending the session then and there...

None of this should come as a surprise. Possessing a skill is not the same as mastering it. Whether in combat or craftsmanship, true mastery takes years. The Proxy's circumstances are different, of course. She inherited the Powers of the Feranmut "Sui" and all twelve of its proxies only recently. Even so, her contributions speak for themselves. It is because of her that the YSTF exists today and our homeland remains protected.

— Arcane, YSTF Task Leader

The Sui Regulator was founded relatively late among HAS's specialized organizations. Though it shares its name with its Terran counterpart, the two serve fundamentally different purposes. The original was established in Yan after the "Great Hunt" to oversee the dormant Feranmut "Sui". Its subordinate force, the "Candleholders", was responsible for monitoring the activities of "Sui's" twelve proxies and responding to any secondary disasters associated with them. For nearly a thousand years, relations between the Sui Regulator and the proxies remained tense.

At HAS, however, the Sui Regulator serves as an intelligence and technical support organization focused on developing technologies based on Feranmut powers and supporting the Academy across both military and civilian fields. The Feranmut Proxy Si was directly involved in establishing both the Sui Regulator and, later, the YSTF under its supervision. She herself seems to enjoy the work. To the Sui Regulator, Si is more like a quirky advisor.

Special Record

"I fear even the breadth of Talos-II may one day prove too confining for my younger sister. Yet she is still young and has far to go. Thus have I sent her to Hongshan to broaden her horizons, trusting that Tianshi Tan will look after her. Should there be anything I may do in return, I shall come at once in person."

"That's all my brother wrote?"

"Is that not enough? You're the newest Proxy. No one can say what you'll become once your powers fully awaken. If you turn out to be as impossible as Sui once was, there may not be anyone on Talos-II who could keep you in check. Better that you spend time with us now. It'll do both you and HAS good. Besides ... your brother warned me that if anyone here so much as upset you, he'd come knocking on my door. At this point, I'm just glad he didn't send a knife along with the letter!"

"H-He didn't mean it like that... You're the most experienced Tianshi at HAS... And I-I've always respected you!"

"Haha, that's more like it. You're certainly more likeable than your siblings. So, have you made up your mind about the special task force? You've been in Hongshan long enough."

"You even sent the Endmin to convince me. I'm here. Does that not answer your question?"

"Excellent. Then let this be the Si Regulator's first official order of business on Talos-II."

"The Si Regulator?!"

"Hmm... Sui's story belongs to Terra now, and your brothers and sisters are free to live as they please. The name "Sui Regulator" no longer feels entirely appropriate..."

"Let's stick with the Sui Regulator! The Si Regulator sounds terrible. Like the whole place exists just to keep an eye on me."

"Fair point. Then we can keep the old name."

"What about the special task force?"

"Those kids are still arguing over names. If you ask me, this unit only exists because of you, so why not call it ... 'the Yinglung Special Task Force'?"

"Cool! I love it!"

When the dust finally settled, Feranmut Sui never awoke again.

His body was gone. His will sank into silence amid the chaos. The pride, wrath, hatred, and defiance that had once defined Him all faded with the loss of His vessel. Bereft of His body, He became a child forced to confront a single question.

"Who am I?"

The void offered no answer. He realized that perhaps He no longer had the right to answer that question Himself.

So He let go. After ages of warring with the world and Himself, He finally grew too weary to think. In that silence, He found a release He had never known.

Yet Sui had endured for far too long and grown far too mighty to vanish so easily. Too many fragments of Himself had been scattered across the ages. Even after His consciousness chose exile, something would still rise naturally, like morning dew gathering upon fresh leaves before falling away...

Something fell.

The sound caught the attention of a proxy who had yet to depart.

Whether out of pity ... or caution ... he immediately gathered that flawless fragment of consciousness into his hands. It could neither speak nor wield any power. It was difficult to say whether it still bore any real connection to Sui Himself. Frail and unsteady, it flickered like a candle flame, bright and perfectly pure.

For the first time, the proxies found themselves uncertain.

They all knew it as the last remnant of Feranmut Sui. Had they wished to erase every lingering trace of Him, they could have done so with a single thought.

Yet it lay quietly in the palm.

Could this truly be the Sui they had always known? The proud Feranmut would never have laid Himself bare before His own proxies, not even to preserve His own existence. But if this was a life only just beginning... The proxies found themselves dimly recalling what it had felt like before they first came into being.

It searched. It struggled to answer a single question: What makes me who I am? When the last remnant of His former self could no longer provide that answer, the tiny consciousness instinctively sought out its own kin.

The children He had once created to walk among mortals had now become the ones to guide Him. To the twelve proxies, the irony was impossible to ignore. Their deliberations led nowhere, until one day, a voice broke through the silence of their minds.

It was faint. Weak. But startlingly innocent.

"Who am I?"

"Where am I?"

"Who are you?"

In the end, the proxies chose to send that tiny consciousness through the Cosmic Gate into an unknown world. They understood that even the smallest remnant of the Feranmut resting within the Tomb of Sui carried countless threads of fate. Yet if it ... if she knew nothing of any of it, then she was no longer Him.

Perhaps the answer she sought was never meant to be found on the land where Sui Himself had once failed. In a new world, a new soul might yet discover what it truly meant to exist and find an answer of her own.

And so, that tiny spark of consciousness arrived on Talos-II, carrying all sorts of ... well... odds and ends. Honestly, they packed far too much. They kept stuffing things into my ... no, into its hands.

After that ... well, that's another story.