Honkai Impact 3rd, a simulator of lifelong regret!

everything is over.

The party is over.

Life has ended.

Alicia's atonement made up for all the regrets in that fairy's life, and the first chapter of her life finally came to a close.

Jiang Cheng has done everything he could, all that he could do as Alicia's lover with his incomplete body.

I have absolutely no regrets.

There is no longer any debt owed.

Life is not completely over yet, like the last candlelight, no matter how trembling it is in the wind, it still burns relentlessly. Every time the faint flame seems about to disappear completely, it will be rekindled the moment the wind stops. People are unwilling to end it all.

Only when all hope is certain will it be extinguished by an even stronger wind, worn down to nothing, leaving it only able to quietly await its end.

The life of a Herrscher is more eternal than a candle flame; even physical death does not mean complete annihilation.

The so-called flow of blood and the beating of the heart are nothing more than the belief that one is human, and thus the behavior is similar to that of humans.

Essentially, it is a corrupted life form constructed with a core as its main body. Its own consciousness exists within the core, and it does not even need a biological brain.

Even if a Herrscher's core is damaged, it will take a long time for everything to return to chaos before they can die completely, or at least for their consciousness to perish.

Let's use this final moment to conclude this banquet that will put an end to all the tragedies.

With his broken body sturdy, Jiang Cheng stood alone in the banquet hall under the gradually fading lights. Accompanied by the twisting and convulsing waves, he cut off the last piece of cake and put it in his mouth. The taste was delicious and sweet with cream.

Bite after bite.

The tip of the tongue greedily embraced the cream.

What was originally just a way to kill time and ensure that Alicia's feelings wouldn't go to waste has unknowingly turned into an active pursuit of sweetness.

This shouldn't be happening.

The loss of feelings is not limited to the few major categories of emotions on the surface, but includes deeper levels, and even all the desires that constitute a person.

Desire may not sound like a pleasant word, and it has been labeled as sinful since ancient times, but in reality, it is the core of human existence.

Greed, laziness, anger... It is greed that drives us to demand, laziness that leads us to develop simple tools, and constant anger and resentment that allow the human species to rise again and again.

These are everything that constitutes an individual's life. Without them, no matter how delicious the cake is, and no matter how undamaged the taste buds on the tongue are, there will be no desire for the beauty and sweetness that unfolds in the mouth.

But at this very moment, the ability that he should have completely lost and could not regain even a fraction of, despite his best efforts, seemed to be given to him once again.

It seems that the sweetness of the food builds up in your mouth with each bite, becoming more and more delicious, and you can experience more and more sensory sensations.

Jiang Cheng unconsciously ate almost all of the cake, and only realized the banquet was over when he hit the plate with a knife while cutting it.

When the last bite is placed in the mouth, the teeth bite off the soft cream along with the cake base. At the moment when life is completely shattered, the constraints are also released, and the churning sea around seems to have lost its source.

Without the support of a source, without a core as an anchor, even the surging waves are just water without roots. They crash against the shore, creating storms and overwhelming destruction, but they can only exist for a moment before drying up.

With even the shackles broken, the constraints naturally ceased to exist. The blockade in the name of desire and love finally snapped at this moment.

Those deep blue eyes lit up once more, not in a false way, not in a fake disguise, but in genuine human emotion.

Joy, peace, sadness, fear, anger, collapse... the gradual evolution of emotions can be completed in an instant before the owner even realizes it.

"Click——"

Jiang Cheng dropped the fork in his hand to the ground. The exquisite crystal artifact fell into the dried-up ocean. Alicia's feelings were trampled and polluted, but his hands just trembled uncontrollably as he stared blankly into the distance.

The clouds that had been torn apart on the horizon had subsided, and the fleeting glimmer of light that had appeared in that instant had faded, leaving only a final line to prove everything.

what……

what.

what?

What terrible thing did I do?

What incredibly offensive things did I say?!

I……

What on earth did I say to Alicia?!

……

142. A simulation that ended in despair [Kaze]

everything is over.

It's completely over.

There won't be another chance.

No one will ever be able to bring all of this back to life.

No one can accept Jiangcheng's resurrection.

Mebius didn't have that ability, and Alicia was no longer able to do it either.

everything……

Ultimately, it led to the worst possible outcome.

……

Ah… let the unrighteous remain unrighteous, the corrupt remain corrupt, the righteous remain righteous, the holy remain holy. Behold, I am coming soon. My reward is with me, and I will repay each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who wash their garments, that they may have right to the tree of life and to enter the city through the gates.

On that day the heavens will be destroyed with a great roar, and all things with form will be consumed by fire. The earth and everything in it will be burned to ashes.

……

At thirty-six, you wander alone across the land, tracing the footsteps of you and the boy through the desolate wasteland, again and again.

[Thoughts do not exist, emotions do not exist, love does not exist, hate does not exist, anger does not exist, loss does not exist, and sorrow does not exist either.]

This is simply walking, simply taking steps, or even not walking at all, merely being forced forward by the wind like a tattered kite.

[But at this very moment, you seem to have reached the state you once most longed for: utter disillusionment, a numbness that comes from losing all sense of self and hope.]

You have always been nothing but a jinx, a source of destruction and disaster. No matter what you do, whether you choose or not, whether you hesitate or not, whether you possess power or not, the ending will always be a tragic one.

[Then let's just give up thinking about it.]

[Then let's just give up on the action.]

As long as there is no subjective motivation involved, and as long as one does not disturb others, then no disaster will occur, and no one will be harmed.

Thirty-seven years old...

Thirty-eight years old...

Thirty-nine years old...

You don't know how many days have passed. The passage of time is an abstract concept; humans cannot perceive its flow. We can only judge whether a period of time has elapsed through reference points.

[The point of reference could be the sun and moon, a building, or even your own aging body... Here, nothing matters anymore—the sky-covering clouds, the desolate earth, and you, who will never die or grow old.]

All I know is that with the passage of time, everything you and the boy once shared has become utter ruins, devoid of any sign of human habitation, and even the majestic mountains will eventually crumble and be crushed into ravines.

All love, sorrow, and anger are meaningless; everything has fallen into emptiness, and there is no one left to rely on emotionally.

The dramatic changes that have transformed the world's few remaining wonders into wastelands have left this planet devoid of natural beauty.

[In this broken world, the only constant is you, still as perfect as ever, even more perfect in some ways than before. Your power has increased nearly tenfold under this ambiguous judgment.]

But this posture has long since become the most powerful tool to mock you, because only highly poisonous mushrooms grow so brightly colored and vibrant.

[—In order to attract others.]

[—In order to poison others.]

[You wander endlessly, devoid of any subjective will, far removed from the world and civilization, using a body that will never go hungry, never need to use the toilet, and never require the life-sustaining behaviors of ordinary humans.]

Jiang Cheng was the one who brought you from the wilderness into the human world; apart from him, you have never truly known anyone else in your life.

So, after losing your only childhood friend, you also lose your anchor, your connection to the entire world.

The bushes on the back hill have long since withered, and there will never be golden flowers again. The wind has stopped, and the boy's hand, which once gently reached out into the quiet, deserted woods, is long gone.

[The boy is like a thread, connecting you to the world. As long as Jiangcheng exists, no matter how unconventional you are, no matter how terrible or heavy your identity is, you will always be a member of the human world. In humanity and civilization, there will still be people who care about you and miss you.]

You've already lost everything.

You have already lost Jiangcheng.

It's like a kite with its string cut; there's not even a faint storm, and it can't even seem to fly freely with the wind.

You can only feel one insignificant vortex after another lifting your wings, giving them a little momentum, but never enough to make you fly.

[It would be better to just puncture your wings and let yourself fall, whether it's a mud pit, an abyss, or an endless ocean.]

At least complete numbness is tantamount to death, which is much better than living in eternal suffering... There's nothing left in the world for you to care about.

The suppression and puncture won't last long, because if even the goal of saving Jiangcheng is lost, your existence will be utterly meaningless.

You can no longer try to revive Jiang Cheng, because he committed suicide, like plunging a chainsaw into your heart, running it at full throttle while still rusty, leaving only a pile of minced meat in the end, impossible to even piece back together.

[Until you no longer need to suppress yourself and can abandon all thought, until you have completely become a walking corpse, descended into madness.]

[I don't know how much time has passed; time has long since become meaningless. One day, as you walk along a small hill you've walked countless times, a piece of paper half a meter long floats down from the sky.]

[It fell apart while flying through the air, becoming hundreds of messy pieces, indistinguishable from paper except for their appearance.]

[What took you, so isolated from the world, a good ten minutes to realize?]

[It's a newspaper.]

[A product of the old era, it once served as a platform for disseminating news, but has long been eliminated due to its low efficiency in the evolution of the times.]

[Theoretically, it should have been buried in the ruins long ago; the damaged world is so dilapidated that even collectors cannot support using their power for such a thing.]

This newspaper, carried by a gust of wind, was so fresh it looked as if it had just left the printing press, untouched by any energy contamination.

[It's unclear what materials were used to create this product, or if the Honkai energy in this area is relatively stable compared to the rest of the world.]