Honkai Impact 3rd, a simulator of lifelong regret!

Looking at the somewhat forlorn young man standing before her, even though he was ignored and no one paid him any attention, his dark eyes were fixed solely on the flower-like girl who sat high in the center of the banquet.

That was the first time she experienced how to communicate with people, and the first time she stepped out of her closed-off inner world.

For the first time, I felt that there really are gentle young people in the world who can accept everything, are willing to listen and confide, and don't care even if there are complaints mixed in.

Wilvi clutched her collar, suppressing a strange discomfort and anxiety in her heart. Her soft face, which she herself was unaware of, turned pale.

Hard to understand.

Difficult to think about.

I just inexplicably felt a suffocating discomfort in my heart.

She suddenly remembered her first meeting with Alicia and her evaluation of that girl.

She appears to be a flirtatious and seductive girl. Whether it's a serious and robust boy, a shy and gentle girl, a naive and cute child, or even a weathered and slow-moving old man or woman, she can use suggestive but never excessive words to open their hearts.

what……

what……

what……

It was so dazzling that it was almost blinding, even to the point of being difficult to look at directly. Even flowers should radiate light as intensely as the sun.

Someone like her probably doesn't even deserve to stand in front of Alicia.

But maybe…

—What can I do to help the boy?

The girl's thoughts began to wander uncontrollably, tearing the delicate collar of her clothes that she was showing to the boy, revealing her fair and soft skin.

—If I do my best, perhaps someone like me can reciprocate the boy's gentleness of being tolerant, communicative, and attentive.

Maybe...

No matter how useless a person is, or how unwilling they are to take a step out into the world, they should still be able to shine with some value of their own in the world.

Let's start by learning more about teenagers.

Spend a month cramming into an engineering PhD program, build two aircraft equipped with cameras, and observe Alicia's daily interactions with the boys.

It's just to better help the teenager.

……

……

[At twenty, another birthday party has ended. Your life hasn't changed much; in fact, the time that belongs to you might even be a little shorter, because the girl didn't even bake a cake for you herself.]

Your life is still exactly the same as before, but you always feel like something is spying on you from behind. Vilvie doesn't seem so withdrawn anymore; she can even discuss with you where to go next on your trip.

【strangeness.】

[You clearly didn't tell the girl where you were going.]

Would Alicia really share even travel destinations like this with other people?

[You're not keen on investigating anything related to Alicia, and you're unintentionally spending more time on Velvi.]

[This is something you weren't even aware of until you saw the chat time and belatedly discovered the truth.]

[If we disregard the essential exchanges and communication during their travels and only consider their private conversations and understanding, Alicia, who was once inseparable from Virvie, might now only be able to rival her in terms of influence.]

There's nothing wrong with that.

At least you've done everything you could.

[Everything that Jiang Cheng, as a person, could do.]

Because a young girl will always selflessly give her time, her smiles, and her love to others, rather than using them for communication with you.

[Although you could vaguely sense someone watching you from behind while you were chatting with Velvi, when you turned around you could see Alicia humming a tune in a clumsy way that only appears in light novels.]

You didn't even think, for a moment, that Alicia was obsessed with you.

Ultimately, in the girl's eyes, you might just be someone she doesn't dislike. While she might act extremely close to you, she actually spends about the same amount of time with you as she would with a stranger.

On the contrary, when someone treats you with such care and sincerity, you might feel a strange sense of aversion.

This emotion is difficult to assess, yet it feels incredibly real.

[Do you also find it difficult to understand why you have these strange emotions?]

[It's as childish as a child getting angry.]

But ultimately, no one wants to hold a place in the heart of someone important, merely like a toy, someone to be looked at when the girl needs them and discarded when she doesn't.

Because some thoughts that you once found extremely annoying and repulsive, thoughts you would never have even considered, have quietly appeared in your mind.

[The concern I once felt for you from Alicia, and the importance you held in the hearts of young girls, have now been deemed self-deception; I was simply lying to myself, believing that I was more important than they were.]

【perhaps……】

[Everyone could receive such treatment from this girl.]

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18. Your feelings for Virvi are gradually deepening.

She was like a fairy from paradise, a goddess of the stars and moon, capable of loving everyone.

[And you happen to be in a very ordinary category within that allocated timeframe, meaning your time is mostly limited by the closeness of traveling together.]

You wouldn't be so quick to react with anger like a wronged woman, or so immaturely try to make the girl look at you longer.

However, humanity always has many unchangeable problems. Human nature cannot solve everything, but it can also represent a lot in a certain sense.

[When two people with almost diametrically opposed attitudes and levels of concern for you occupy almost all of your day.]

The disparity itself will cause one party to be more inclined to endure and bear burdens than to enjoy life.

[After enduring a full year—a year that would disappoint, sadden, and be unbearable for anyone—of neglect.]

[Feeling this emotion inevitably causes the scales of your will to tip, becoming unbalanced, and you begin to anticipate communicating with Velvi.]

At least you can feel some interaction.

Even ignoring the fact that the girl is always there no matter when you speak, it's as if Velvi's daily life consists entirely of chatting with you.

Even when you're chatting with her, or simply being a dumping ground for her feelings, you can feel the genuine warmth and humanity she brings.

If there's anything wrong with it, it's that it's its inability to ask for help.

At the beginning, you, as her friend, could only get information about her difficulties by trying to elicit details. Even after chatting for a long time, she now only seeks your help with problems she deems absolutely unsolvable.

It seems that helping you is a matter of course for Vilvie, but asking for your help would damage our relationship.

This is the only thing that makes you feel very uncomfortable; perhaps it's because it feels somewhat familiar.

No emotion is ever one-sided.

This also deepens your understanding.

Therefore, you are even more eager to change Vivi's insecure personality. Things have come to a point where it's no longer just about that one gift; in just two years, you've received help from her dozens of times in various ways.

[Many times, it was just some small thing buried in your heart, but the girl seemed to be able to pick it out and find it, as if she was watching you all the time.]

[Even though Alicia probably doesn't know those things, you have no intention of telling her at all.]

Regardless, this is still a form of help.

While repaying kindness may not be considered a virtue by some, and therefore not something to be followed, striving to repay kindness is something everyone should do.

Since the girl is willing to communicate with you and give you gifts, you should also try to offer your help in any way you can.

In a sense, you might already be no different from a teenage girl. Vilvie is so withdrawn, almost completely residing in her own world.

Time and years have left the same patterns on her every day; she dreams of the night by day, and the night by the day. The world is no different, time is no different, and there is not the slightest difference.

Isn't your life the same?

You can truly be as passionate about tomorrow as you were when you were a child, living each day completely differently.

[A future that can be foreseen at a glance, a journey that will not change in the slightest, a world that seems to have no connection to you anymore—your journey with the girl, which should have been a beautiful trip around the world, has unknowingly become a predicament sustained only by your feelings for her.]

You meet new people every day; the scenery of your travels is no longer the key element of your life.

Aside from the color of the sky, you can no longer distinguish between day and night, just as you can't distinguish between today, yesterday, or tomorrow.

Rather than saying you wanted to save or help Velvie, it's more accurate to say that the only thing you two did outside your own world was to communicate with each other.

[It's no longer a lifeless, unchanging, and unremarkable old world of everyday life from our memories.]

[It originated from a chance encounter with a friend, much like in a light novel, a friend with whom I shared similar experiences and could understand each other.]

The only pity is that the girl still hasn't told you his birthday.

[At twenty-one, you've traveled for another year. Alicia has also celebrated her sixteenth birthday, reaching the age where she can open her own bank account, even in the strictly controlled land of China.]

[Your relationship with Alicia remains unchanged, except that even those romantic sunsets are rarely seen anymore.]

The wind blowing across the meadows, the waves rippling on the sea, the golden light of dusk filtering through the lake—these beautiful scenes have almost vanished from your life.

It was supposed to be a trip, but it actually felt more like an adventure to find others.

[You just blindly accompany Alicia as she searches for one stranger after another, strangers you don't know at all, and don't want to know.]

Do you still remember the girl's voice when she told you she wanted to travel alone and find a fairytale paradise?

It was an indescribably beautiful voice, filled with anticipation, as convincing as if she truly could do it.

You still remember it very clearly.

The lovely girl from my memory has never disappeared, nor has she changed at all; it's just that you no longer accept everything the way you used to.

Over the years, you've come to realize that you and Vilvie have reached the level of very close friends.

[At least in your opinion, they are inseparable best friends.]

This speed of progress is unprecedented, even perceptible.