Honkai Impact 3rd, a simulator of lifelong regret!

Her slender fingers fell limply, slamming heavily onto the cold floor. The clicking of her knuckles echoed throughout the room. On her swan-like white neck were the same horrific marks as her other self.

The punishment she was being subjected to was a complete death sentence; the urgent breathing coming from her cherry-colored lips was the girl's pitiful and pathetic struggle.

They are still struggling.

He is still alive after all.

Even for a young girl who walks the world in human form, prolonged suffocation can only cause her simple pain.

The pain of suffocation, the pain of brain hypoxia... But all of this was nothing compared to the near-death experience of the pink eyes seeing all that was happening before them, the fainting white spots and flashbacks that made them feel like they were about to die.

what……

They won't die.

Even if you're not a Herrscher, you won't die; even if you don't embrace your own authority, you won't die.

'Alicia' is a monster that will never end, will never die, and will forever bring disaster to everything around her.

No matter what you do, you will never succeed. No matter how hard you try or how strictly you guard against it, you will always make a mistake in some incomprehensible way.

The options have long lost their meaning of being chosen.

It stopped after the third time.

In daily life, there are almost no choices to be made. Once choices are given, it means that the beautiful and peaceful life is completely disrupted.

When even this last bit is broken, are there really any other options?

Or……

From that day onward.

Are there really any other options among the three given?

……

You move forward step by step, having lost all feeling; your legs rise and fall like building blocks, devoid of any vitality.

Each step seemed to conjure up a space, accompanying the blooming of flowers and the trajectory of stars and moon, yet her eyes held no glimmer of light.

The original town, the peaceful people, the roads we once walked, the journeys we shared—these are all fragments of the past.

The familiar landscape, though devoid of all signs of life, remains a magnificent sight, but no life will ever dwell there again.

[You stepped forward step by step, like a dazzling meteor streaking across the sky, tearing through the dark clouds oppressed by endless Honkai beasts, and once again walked towards the earth with the light of dawn, until the place that recorded the second happiest period of your tragic life appeared at the edge of your vision.]

In the old base of the Firemoth, almost worn down by time to the point of revealing no trace of its past, only that familiar building remains instantly recognizable, no matter how devastating the destruction it has endured.

Jiangcheng is right there.

Standing quietly, holding a tattered diary.

The Herrscher's attire, a slightly dark trench coat, swayed, and a high-density sphere, like a black hole, rotated around his body.

Like your stars, moon, and flowers, symbolizing the power to control gravity, the dazzling star-like decorations sway in the hurried wind.

[You are aware of the Herrscher's demeanor, a pattern that unconsciously manifests only when entering combat or when emotionally agitated.]

[It can also be worn as everyday clothing if needed, but apart from the moment of birth, you will never see this outfit on a boy.]

[In such a short time, it would be insufficient for an individual capable of confronting a teenager to emerge; the only explanation for this stance is the latter.]

Being deceived by the person you trust most would make even the kindest person angry.

Jiang Cheng... has never been one to tolerate everything indefinitely.

[This is different from everything you thought and planned, and different from the disappointed look, or even the angry rebuke, that you might expect to see.]

After a brief hesitation, the boy slightly raised his right hand, his gentle smile seemingly unchanged, and even his dark eyes betrayed no hint of the blame or resentment that might have been expected.

"Alicia..."

"Good morning."

You are just as beautiful as ever today.

……

……

no respond.

Even in the face of this gentle greeting, there was no response.

The ceaseless wind that still whistles through the ruins paints a mournful melody, its sharp howls like ghosts wailing as it cuts through the broken walls.

Alicia simply uttered her statement in a flat tone, without making any unnecessary movements. She stood there, and that was all. She simply stood there, without any emotion, looking around with her lifeless, gray pink eyes.

"you……"

"They already know everything, don't they..."

"All the shameless lies I've told."

—It's meaningless.

Even the act of the entire ○ warrior bowing was omitted.

—It's meaningless.

They even forgot to apologize.

—It's all meaningless anyway.

All I need to do is wait here to die. I've done something so outrageous that even Jiang Cheng wouldn't tolerate it. Once I hear him say he hates and is disappointed in me, I'll feel utterly dead inside.

To get straight to the point, fast forward to the numbness that the immortal person in the story eventually reaches—not dying is equivalent to truly dying.

Once you become completely numb and have no hope left, staying in one place and giving up thinking can also achieve a kind of death-like silence and escape.

Faced with this obvious despair that even the most incompetent fool could recognize, the boy's face was somewhat blank, as if he couldn't understand the change for a moment, but then, the corners of his mouth pursed into a serious expression.

"I am very sorry that I broke my promise to you and did such a dangerous thing by myself, running to the old base of the Firemoth."

"I know that simply apologizing after doing something wrong is a very empty thing, but if possible, I still hope you can accept my apology."

"This should be the first... no, the second time in my life that I have broken a promise to someone. Can you just let it go since you also lied?"

……

Jiang Cheng was actively changing the subject.

Avoid the parts that will cause Alicia pain.

Apologizing before everyone else, pressing the palm of the dress against the chest, and bowing slightly was enough to prove the sincerity.

—It's meaningless.

Her cherry-pink pupils were still so beautiful, the diamond shape in the middle like a cherry blossom falling into them in spring, leaving a touch of brilliance belonging to the west, yet there was an incomprehensible expression hidden in that familiarity.

Those were emotions that Jiang Cheng could not understand at all, nor could he discern at all; they were impossible to analyze based solely on his remaining memories and experiences…

—The color of despair.

“You already know everything I’ve done. The girl I deliberately kept hidden, Vilvie… she is actually your true partner.”

“We didn’t travel together for very long, we didn’t stay together all the time, and I lost you long ago because of my stupidity.”

"I couldn't even offer you my blessings, so I ran away to the bathroom by myself. And because of my incompetence, you lost Vilvi and everything else."

"Even now I'm just imitating her, whether it's the full-fledged 'Oshi-kozuke' or anything else, it's just the worst imitation."

"That is true love that flows between two people, where you only have eyes for the other person, and it can make even the most clueless person feel a deep warmth."

"I should have known this day would come. I never deserved to live by your side from the beginning because I made this choice. No matter what you do next, I... have no right to deny it."

"I'm so sorry. As the female protagonist of the story, I've made such a mess of the world I love. I must be terrible."

"You don't need to worry about anyone anymore, just do what you want to do."

……

Her slender fingers pointed to the dilapidated spiral workshop in the distance, and she uttered words of giving up, but her pupils clearly reflected the boy who was so close to her. She was unwilling to look away even for a moment, and only the calm on her face was a pretense. On the cross-section of the building not far away, the newly born Advance-class monster rested there, quietly watching the truth descend, chattering incessantly.

It seemed that she had already mentally filled in the end for everything, and now she didn't even want to look away, as if she wanted to see the boy as far as she could.

Since the eventual encounter is inevitable and cannot be changed anyway, it's better to completely transform into a major villain and stare fiercely at the boy.

There is no need for concealment; she can lay bare all her sins and no longer pretend to be the perfect young girl she once was.

This is Alicia.

A faded fairy who has experienced multiple layers of despair.

A villain who has ingrained pretense into his very being.

……

129. She's dead. Alicia is going to die.

“My dear Ellie, the reason you hid my past is because you didn’t want me to be sad, right?”

Jiang Cheng pressed his hand to his chest, and what came out of his lips was purely rational thinking, reasons created based on the one-sided beauty of the past.

His dark eyes remained unchanged as he watched the slender fingertips tremble slightly, their affected and feigned indifference evident.

"Please don't deny it. Lying is very difficult for you. A girl like you would feel uncomfortable just deceiving others."

"You don't need to suppress your inner pain anymore and tell lies that will hurt you. I already know everything that happened in the past."

"It was Wilvi's dying wish that entrusted me to you. The last plan that the girl prepared was to let me continue to live after she died."

"Even though I have no feelings left, I feel sad just by looking at my diary. If the past hadn't been hidden, I might have gone completely insane facing an empty room and my lost lover."