Honkai Impact 3rd, a simulator of lifelong regret!

[He now knew just how cruel the words he had said to Alicia.]

[Realizing that your slowness and disability led you to commit incredibly wrong actions, giving up the life you once so desperately longed for.]

Your resurrection is a farce, a circus clown performance, nothing more than a pile of garbage scribbled by a third-rate author.

At least you didn't live to the end, at least you didn't have to see the final outcome, at least you didn't have to personally experience that sorrow and grief.

The very nature of tragedy remains unchanged.

[Simulated settlement complete.]

[New entry:]

[The blessing of the stars and moon: No matter what, this is ultimately a blessing from a young girl. Even if you've experienced many twists and turns, your heart has never changed. All other things are just burdens; only emotions are truly precious.]

[Herrscher of the Stars: You possess the talent for ascension, yet you have never used it. Can this power truly be considered a blessing? What is the point of using it other than adding constraints to your body? Perhaps the only use of this power is to allow you to commit suicide more thoroughly, causing cracks even in your core, so that even Alicia cannot save you and can only watch helplessly as your life vanishes.]

[The Seventh Divine Key - The Harmony of the Stars: Perhaps you are more useful as a weapon than as a Herrscher, even to yourself.]

"That's hilarious..."

Jiang Cheng's gaze lingered on the Divine Key, which floated silently in the air before him, as magnificent and dazzling as a gem, a celestial body, or a vast constellation of stars. He was unable to come back to his senses for a long time, as if it reflected not only everything dim and lifeless, but also different things, like a black hole reflecting different things.

The misunderstanding and arrogance that led to this tragedy created a whole new tragedy and made a mess of everything.

If they had stayed then, everything could have ended in a less terrible way. Even with a broken heart, they could at least have responded to everything about Alicia, and at least there would still be a little bit of love.

Why……

Did everything still end up in that worst possible outcome?

Why……

How could such a terrible ending be handled so perfunctorily and simply?

At least until the very last moment, even though he had made the choice himself, Jiang Cheng never imagined that everything would turn out this way.

Such an important matter should not have only one choice. Even the timeline in the previous Velvey Notes involved multiple choices before pointing to the final outcome, and that was merely to explore the truth. This time, it's about choosing to die and leaving Alicia. No matter how you look at it, it's impossible to reach the final conclusion with just one choice.

You should have stopped once you sensed Alicia's emotions halfway through. This isn't an extremely retro game where choices won't change once made... You should at least follow the girl's choices.

This time, however, no other options were ever shown until the very last moment, and this time, for such a long time, there was only one option to speak of.

Options only emerge after one falls into extreme hesitation. In essence, they are just like every thought in one's mind. Every thought of an individual is never just a single idea, but rather a combination of countless ideas from which the most suitable one is chosen.

Although many so-called ideas are not respectable and cannot even occupy any position, and although sometimes thinking itself is just a superfluous thing, what to do is already determined from the beginning.

Thinking itself is an indispensable human ability.

No options...

Perhaps this also means that I wasn't even aware of Alicia's inner transformation.

Even Alicia, who was initially saddened, gradually came to appreciate it and began to succumb to this tenderness, was unaware of it.

That's pretty normal, isn't it?

Even the simple act of determining that Alicia would feel sad upon seeing him—something that only requires eyes—took a full year and involved visiting countless locations before it could be confirmed.

How could one expect someone who is abnormal, incomplete, emotionally broken, and fragmented to keep up with the mind of a delicate fairy?

In a sense, that option might not have been wrong after all.

Staying would certainly allow them to live happily together.

However, if the gap between the two parties is too large, it will take a long time for them to truly empathize. If one party cannot even do the most basic normal things, then in the end, one party can only accommodate the other party's family affection.

……

I was turned into a tool, using the research notes I left behind. In a completely different way from the normal development, the Star Sea Harmony, which should have been the ninth divine sword, became the seventh, and will no longer be held by the golden Eden.

The name of the Seventh Key of God comes from the fact that he was the seventh one to be discovered, and solely because of the resurrection that Alicia could not accept.

Let's continue calling it the Ninth Divine Key...

Jiang Cheng didn't want the different names to intensify those unpleasant memories, even if it was just self-deception, at least he could deceive himself.

Memories of being controlled, bound, always a step behind in everything I did, and even unable to keep up with Alicia's emotional and psychological changes.

If there is anything more tragic than being unfree, it is being manipulated and forced to do things that hurt those you love and those who love you.

—That's what I did.

I want to create the best possible outcome, hoping that Alicia won't be so sad, won't stay stuck in the same place forever, bound by herself, living in the sad past, and will be able to take her own step towards tomorrow.

There is nothing wrong with this, and Alicia should absolutely not let everything about herself remain in the past that is already lost and cannot be rewritten.

She was not Eden, nor did she end an era that could understand her and take her as a symbol; she was merely a childhood friend.

In any case, he could only feel affection for Alicia; all the love and hate that this body could possibly have was for that fairy-like girl.

So, in order to avoid being too sad, and to allow Alicia to look ahead, it's understandable to choose to sacrifice something that's already dead, right?

The problem is that how could someone who is abnormal, incomplete, and even lacks emotions possibly design a perfect plan?

If all the prerequisites do not even include the most important thing called the mind, what is the point of having so many random thoughts?

The plan, intended to soothe Alicia's wounded heart, was actually created by a heartless and emotionless person.

This was a huge joke from the very beginning, an absurdity that was laughable from head to toe and had absolutely no chance of success.

The result was as bad as expected, even beyond reason, and an outcome that even the worst-case scenario had not been considered.

He had given a blessing without knowing it before, but this time, knowing it was coming, he gave a curse disguised as a blessing once again.

What kind of comfort was that in the last few words?

It was clearly a knife, a rusty knife.

I even sprinkled some salt on it.

……

"So, it really is the beginning of a tragedy..."

"We should have known about the development of these simulators. Good endings are becoming increasingly rare, while bad endings are always plentiful. Once you make the first wrong choice and hit the first bad point, you'll be stuck in an endless cycle."

"Despair, sorrow, fear, anger... the endless accumulation of negative emotions is almost impossible to rewrite, leaving no room for turning back from reality."

Jiang Cheng sighed deeply, suppressing the inexplicable urge to absorb it and enduring the sense of loss in his heart, and put the Star Sea Harmony, which was constantly radiating an aura that was about to merge with him, into the space provided by the system.

Only when the connection was severed by space did the feeling that constantly troubled my heart and teased the soles of my feet with feathers finally subside.

If one chooses to merge, or rather, to restore to their original state, they will become a Herrscher of the Stars. At this point in time, those with sufficient combat power are either not yet fully developed or have been sealed away.

It's almost fair to say that an average Herrscher with a brain would be capable of indiscriminate killing, and he certainly wouldn't be considered an ordinary Herrscher.

This Herrscher core is infinitely close to the limit, or even has reached the limit. It only needs one more opportunity to transform into a Herrscher of Ascension.

That was honed in a hellish difficulty dungeon, thanks to the efforts of Velvey, who was fully developed for both humanity and the Honkai.

Even the Emperor-class Honkai Beasts, which are considered high-level Honkai Beasts, can only be treated as grunts there. After the Seventh Herrscher, even ordinary people can fight against the Judgment-class.

However, nothing in this world is that cheap.

If you want to wear a crown, you must bear its weight.

The core structures of the Herrschers in the pre-civilization and the current civilization are fundamentally different. In this civilization, it is a fallacy to endow Herrschers with humanity, because the difference in structure means that each Herrscher is not controlled. Under normal circumstances, they have a complete self like ordinary humans and do not need to be given additional humanity.

This is essentially due to the sacrifice of the Primordial Herrscher—after returning to the Primordial Sea, all subsequent Herrschers were transformed into structures like Alicia, but those before her were not so fortunate.

Bound and locked tightly by iron chains, like a caged bird with no room to look up at the sky, they may even have had all their emotions erased from the beginning, making it impossible for them to be endowed with humanity.

Even if he weren't bound by the Honkai, Jiang Cheng would never accept losing even a part of his emotions, let alone the possibility of being bound by it.

He's just an ordinary person, and until now there's nothing he absolutely has to do, unlike those heroes who have a grand mission to save the world.

For normal people, the essence of power, money, and strength is simply to enjoy life better, to enjoy everything more fully, to not have to work, not have to produce resources, and not have to waste their time like the poor who have nothing. They can use all their time to make themselves more comfortable.

Everything is done to serve one's own senses, whether it's oppressing or harming others, or giving alms and doing good deeds.

Savoring gourmet food, enjoying entertainment that others cannot imagine, and experiencing extreme sports are for sensory pleasure, while abusing and helping others are for enjoying the psychological feeling of superiority.

In other words, if you give up the enjoyment itself for the sake of these things that you want to enjoy, then even the term "putting the cart before the horse" is not enough.

These ordinary words can accurately express meaning with just four characters, but their drawback is that they cannot fully express emotions in some special situations.

If that were to actually happen.

That goes beyond mere stupidity.

Either they've come to some realization, or they're just not thinking straight.

Because this behavior involves deeper issues, and the existence of humanity cannot be explained by just a few simple points.

I have lost my emotions.

Is it still me?

Whether the past was good or bad, whether it only added to my suffering, whether my feelings were useful or not, whether I felt they were important or not, all of these constitute the person I am standing here today.

Bullying others, being bullied, hurting others, being hurt, even arguing with people online, getting angry, being lured by jokers, being tricked by people with mental problems... These things may seem useless and irrelevant if you take them away, but as long as you have experienced them, they are also an indispensable part of your personality. It is through experiencing all of these things that you become the individual you are today.

It has nothing to do with whether it is important or not, because even a seemingly insignificant detail in one's memory may be the cornerstone of an important personality trait.

Can someone who finds their own actions laughable, and is even unable to empathize with their romantic experiences, truly be called themselves?

Ugh……

Is the result somewhat underwhelming?

I wonder how much stronger this weapon is than Eden's Star?

Jiang Cheng closed his eyes, relaxed his body, let his hands hang naturally, and leaned against the clean and odorless toilet seat that conformed to the human body's curves, quietly suppressing and processing the turbulent emotions in his heart.

In the pool rippled by the Tsar's nuclear bomb, stopping the overlapping ripples was no easy task.

Before the revival match, encountering one or two major events was enough to affect one's mood, but this time... it may take a considerable amount of time to recover emotionally.

Alicia, Velvi...

But they are already dead.

Otto spent five hundred years merely creating a new timeline; he did not resurrect Kallen exactly as he had hoped.