Crossover: The Problematic Human of Arcadia — Shaper of Anime Worlds Chapter 679 679: The Strongest Ice Princess

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"This is the most advanced classroom in the academy."

After unlocking the door with a specialized black access card, Shemhazai led Ryo into one of the academy's internal labs.

Following behind them were Vali, Tobio, Lavinia, the Fallen Angel executives Kokabiel and Armaros, along with several high-ranking Fallen Angel attendants.

"Not bad."

The mont he stepped inside, Ryo began looking around with interest.

The classroom alone covered over five hundred square ters. More than half the space was occupied by tallic machines that looked like they'd been pulled straight out of a sci-fi movie.

Ryo stopped beside the nearest device. It resembled a cylindrical dical pod, with transparent glass in the center and countless monitoring lines running through the interior.

"What's this?"

"That's a Sacred Gear diagnostic unit." Shemhazai's tone was complicated.

He had already noticed sothing was wrong. Ophis's sudden disappearance couldn't possibly escape his notice. Still, before Ryo gave any direct orders, all he could do was continue the tour.

"It was developed under forr Governor Azazel. It can analyze the properties and changes of a Sacred Gear, while also examining the user's physical condition for abnormalities. Basically, it's a support device for Sacred Gear training."

In this world, the Fallen Angels possessed the most complete Sacred Gear database in existence. Aside from the Creator God Himself, nobody surpassed them in that field. Which made them the ideal faction for nurturing Sacred Gear users.

Honestly, it was hard to believe God hadn't arranged things that way on purpose. If one wanted to get conspiratorial about it, perhaps Azazel's "fall from heaven" had been approved from the very beginning.

The Fallen Angels' belief that they had rebelled against God's rule and fallen from grace might have been a lie from the start.

"A support system for Sacred Gear training, huh…"

Ryo rubbed his chin.

Almost imdiately, an idea popped into his head.

Selling Sacred Gears and their training machines.

He couldn't help it. Arcadia was still poor.

Training talent required money, and Sacred Gears were practically perfect comrcial products. They could be mass-produced, sold multiple tis in different forms, and bundled together with support equipnt and services.

The business potential was enormous.

"How much does this thing cost to manufacture?" Ryo asked.

"If we use ordinary currency... that would be around twenty million U.S. dollars," Shemhazai replied in a strange tone.

He could clearly see Ryo was interested, but what baffled him was that this man seed far more concerned about production costs than the ongoing conspiracy around them.

"Twenty million? That's cheap." Ryo nodded.

If production cost twenty million, he could easily resell it at five tis the price. Once the Sacred Gear business expanded, selling these to Thousand Eyes would be effortless.

A technology capable of mass-producing pseudo-Digit-class fighters, even flawed ones, would definitely have a huge market in the lower levels.

Partnering with Thousand Eyes, the largest comrcial force in the lower layers, would be the natural choice.

Of course, he couldn't put all his eggs in one basket. For the South Area market, he could hand it over to the Draco Greif Alliance. They were one of the dominant powers there anyway.

"Do you have any next-generation models in developnt?" Ryo asked casually.

"Next-generation… models?" Shemhazai looked confused.

"Well, we are developing new models, but we can't really call them the next generation…" He hesitated. "These machines are basically for our own use anyway, and they're already more than good enough."

If a product was entirely self-produced and self-used, what was the point of labeling it as a 'generation,' like a brand?

That was Shemhazai's line of thinking.

Surely Ryo wasn't planning to sell these things?

And who would even buy them? Sacred Gear users were randomly born humans, and the total number of Sacred Gears was fixed. The market was tiny.

Was there really any need?

"Go all out on developing new, more advanced generations of these machines. If you're short on manpower, tell and I'll assign more people."

Ryo patted the machine, then turned toward the three Sacred Gear users. "You three. Anyone free to test this thing for ?"

"…Huh?"

Vali and Tobio both looked bewildered.

How had the conversation suddenly ended up here?

Still, neither of them wanted to enter the machine. They were keeping watch against Kokabiel in case he suddenly made a move. Climbing into a diagnostic pod would make that difficult.

"No volunteers? Fine, I'll pick soone."

Ryo glanced at them speechlessly before pointing directly at Lavinia. "You."

"Eh?" Lavinia froze for a mont, then nodded. It was just a Sacred Gear checkup. She'd done it before.

"Wait, I'll go instead—"

Before Vali could finish, Ryo cut him off. "If you wanted to volunteer, why didn't you speak up earlier? Stand aside."

Vali's mouth twitched.

He glanced at Kokabiel beside him and forcibly swallowed his irritation.

If anything happened to Lavinia while she was immobilized inside the machine, he was absolutely going to skin Kokabiel alive.

anwhile, Kokabiel himself looked utterly confused.

Why are you glaring at after getting scolded by Ryo?

Did I offend you sohow? And wait a second, aren't we supposed to be allies? Why does it feel like you're on Ryo's side?

While Kokabiel was still lost in thought, Lavinia had already stepped into the device.

"Pretty advanced."

Ryo watched as she entered the chamber fully clothed, calmly attaching monitoring restraints to her own wrists and ankles before locking herself into position.

He sighed in disappointnt.

According to standard novel tropes, shouldn't there be a skintight bodysuit involved?

He'd even been prepared to kick everyone else out so he could admire the view in peace.

Turns out he'd overthought it. The machine worked perfectly fine with regular clothes.

"System self-check initiated. Phase one normal… phase two normal… phase three normal… beginning routine diagnostics."

As the Fallen Angel technicians operated the system, streams of data flowed through the connected cables and appeared across nearby monitors.

Ryo took one look and imdiately gave up trying to understand it.

Aside from a recomndation telling her to drink more water, the rest was nothing but incomprehensible dical statistics.

Fortunately, Shemhazai was very good at reading the room.

Before Ryo could even ask, he explained. "Lavinia's Sacred Gear is called Absolute Demise, also known as Eternal Ice Princess. It's an independent manifestation-type Longinus capable of summoning an ice doll known as the Ice Princess, granting wide-area temperature control."

"Oh? Ice powers?"

Ryo's interest was instantly piqued.

Coincidentally, the first Saint Seiya technique he had ever studied was Aquarius's Diamond Dust.

His mastery wasn't especially deep, but he had so understanding of it.

"What's the lowest temperature she can currently produce?"

"−165°C. That's the current record."

"That's already impressive." Ryo couldn't help admiring it.

The closer one approached absolute zero (−273.15°C), the more terrifying the energy consumption beca.

Even Aquarius Gold Saints who had awakened the Seventh Sense could only unleash true Absolute Zero by burning their Cosmos.

And that was Aquarius's ultimate technique, Aurora Execution. The strongest ice technique of the Saint Seiya system.

So reaching negative one hundred sixty-five degrees was no joke.

With that thought, Ryo's gaze toward Lavinia grew noticeably hotter.

Only twenty-two years old, yet already this strong.

If she received a spirit rank from the Little Garden Central Core and underwent proper training, reaching four digits was practically guaranteed.

Unfortunately, Ryo's Cosmos was unique and couldn't be replicated. Otherwise, he would have seriously considered trying to raise an Aquarius Gold Saint himself.

Shemhazai checked the data on the monitor.

"The machine estimates your maximum output at −167°C. You've improved again, Lavinia. Have you been training nonstop lately?"

"Hm? Really?"

Lavinia blinked. "Maybe it's because I've been studying cooking recently? I've gotten better at controlling heat."

Shemhazai's lips twitched.

What did cooking have to do with getting stronger?

Sure, cooking required heat control, but improving your combat ability through cooking was absurd. It wasn't even related to ice.

Was this what true genius looked like? Amazing.

anwhile, Ryo looked genuinely interested.

"What kind of cuisine? Japanese? Italian?"

"Middle Eastern," Lavinia answered naturally.

"Oh? If you don't mind, I'd love to try a shawarma soti."

"Sure!" Lavinia replied with a smile.

"ENOUGH!"

The sudden roar drew everyone's attention.

Ryo turned together with the others and looked toward Kokabiel.

The Fallen Angel executive was glaring at Ryo with a cold sneer.

"Sacred Gear research. Cooking. How long are you planning to fool around instead of handling actual business, my new Governor?"

"Oh?" Ryo slowly turned around, smiling. "Sounds like you have quite a few opinions about ."

As he spoke, he slowly licked the corner of his lips.

The smile on his face twisted faintly into sothing savage.

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