Honkai Impact 3rd, a simulator of lifelong regret!

The memories that had been almost forgotten and forgotten during her time with Jiang Cheng resurfaced once again. Countless scenes of being bullied and harassed once more took over, and silently, the girl's face fell.

Her slender fingers intertwined, her pearly white teeth biting her lip, as if she had already foreseen the treatment that awaited her.

There's no need to guess or think; the body has already experienced so many things that it clearly remembers how to operate.

Because it doesn't require much thinking, and it's not like a question with multiple choices where you have to think about which answer you might encounter, or guess what kind of bullying you might experience today like others do.

There's absolutely no need for that. Typical bullying might involve choosing a few bad things from all the bad things, and you'd only experience a few blows every day.

But for Raiden Mei, the girl who has been hated by the whole world since that day, and who is disliked by everyone.

—Just think about the worst-case scenario.

……

Yes.

This is a multiple-choice question where all answers will be presented.

Most victims are only bullied by a small group. The lack of manpower may only lead to a few bullying incidents occurring each day. Being targeted by multiple school bullies is already an extremely rare occurrence. The weaker a person is, the more severe the harm they will suffer. It is impossible for only one person in the entire school to be responsible for being bullied by everyone.

Ironically, this seemingly established rule failed to apply to the girl—because she was hated by the whole world, and the entire city where she lived rejected her, openly displaying malice.

They made no attempt to hide their overwhelming abundance of manpower, to the point that if they didn't try to avoid it, the bullying could continue 24/7, with only the hentai anime plot missing.

Perhaps because it was meaningless, or perhaps because she couldn't face the world, the young girl could only surrender to this malice.

Do we have to do things the same way we did before?

Will happiness be shattered again, just like before?

Do not……

No.

absolute!

Absolutely not!

This is the only time we cannot be interrupted, this is the only time we cannot be interfered with, this is the only time we absolutely cannot be disrupted!

Even when faced with the fear of being hurt, even when it's like a person bitten by a venomous snake seeing an even more venomous one, a fear that has been etched into her instincts countless times, a fear that has been resisted in vain in her memory, a fear that she knows she may not be able to resist, this is the only time the girl can't treat it with silent endurance as she has before.

—This is a date with Jiang Cheng.

and so……

Raiden Mei moved her feet, her lips, which had been bitten countless times in a day, tightening once more. Her gaze lingered on the gift she had carefully chosen and wrapped for a few seconds before she turned away without hesitation.

—Leave.

Just as I thought, if we can get around this predicament and escape this place, and if we can leave with Jiang Cheng, we will definitely not be caught again.

It's not worth paying three times the price for a kaleidoscope that you don't cherish. Besides, you can't only buy it from this one shop. There are quite a few souvenir shops like this in this street that's specially designed to resemble the last century.

Although most of the visitors here are elderly men and women, and it's not exactly a bustling tourist attraction, it can still be considered a semi-tourist site.

No matter how sparsely populated a tourist attraction is, as long as it's not truly a desolate wilderness, there will always be plenty of shops selling souvenirs.

The girl decided to leave. After enduring countless times in silence, she finally chose to rebel for the first time and made up her mind to deny the worst possible outcome. But then the annoying voice, like that of a fat pig, came again, bringing the worst possible result as if it had been foreseen.

"Do you want to go to another store?"

—The girl's thoughts were easily pointed out.

……

"No~"

"There's no other choice, Mei-chan."

The shopkeeper tapped his short, stubby fingers on the glass counter, watching Raiden Mei's pitiful, tearful state with a twisted smile, as if deliberately trying to evoke her emotions. His greasy body, covered like a fat pig, picked up the gift that the girl had carefully wrapped and roughly pulled at the delicate purple silk.

"Since she's the daughter of a financial fraudster, of course the price should be increased. Miss Raiden, you don't want the person who came on your date to leave empty-handed, leaving him with a disappointing ending, do you?"

"I'm the only shop around here that sells souvenirs. If you don't buy from me, just pick up a random stone from the road and give it to him as a gift."

"I wonder if that person will be so angry and dissatisfied after receiving such a perfunctory gift that they'll never contact you again."

The deliberately fabricated tone was designed from the outset to provoke others' anger, and its provocative intent to kick someone when they're down was fully amplified.

The fat, the kind that only exists in discriminatory videos, made the striped shirt look like a watermelon pattern. Half of it was wet and draped over his body, clinging to his swollen and greasy skin, and had an oily, rotten yellow hue.

Even with the gentle spring breeze carrying the lingering dew and floral scents of the previous night, the air along the road still had a pungent odor. His dark skin and greasy aura permeated the entire body, and even his voice was short and greasy, sounding almost like a pig grunting.

In the past, a guy like him wouldn't have been able to stand in front of a young girl and swagger around; he would have been blocked by the guards just by getting close.

However, now, this guy, who is practically a living stereotype, is looking down at the girl from a superior position as the sole owner of the souvenir shop.

"So, what do you think? Want to buy it?"

"You can get a date for just three times the price!"

……

The three-fold price was exactly what the girl had left—all the money she had earned from part-time jobs, including the funds she had set aside for emergencies. Once used up, no matter what plans she made, she would never be able to live a normal life afterward.

It was as if the other party knew the girl's bottom line from the very beginning, provocatively presenting a result that required her to pay any price to make things continue in a way that was barely acceptable.

This wasn't even something they expected to sell from the beginning; it was just a deliberate attempt to evoke emotions and disrupt this seemingly smooth-running happiness.

How could anyone possibly spend all their money, even depleting their savings, to buy a gift that can only be considered a souvenir?

The shop owner simply took pleasure in Raiden Mei's dilemma, using his greasy, short fingers to insult the gift the girl had wrapped with heartfelt intentions. His occasional urging was so disgusting that it made one want to vomit—even when one lowered their head in disgust, the extremely strong, foul smell still lingered in their nostrils like a bone-deep infection.

……

'Kill him...'

'Kill him!'

Seemingly unable to bear watching any longer, a deeper individual couldn't resist interfering with the girl who needed protection.

Sparks flashed from his fingertips, the kind of outlines that only appear in the hottest weather due to static electricity, the result of high-speed lightning that would never happen on a rainy spring day.

Although faint and barely noticeable, it represents an emotion called anger that has accumulated to an excessive level.

A sudden, inexplicable fire ignited within me, as if someone had instilled discontent in me out of thin air. With the first spark of the fire, all of the other party's provocations were transformed into fuel.

The girl's emotions had already been suppressed to the limit by various things, and she would inevitably explode on the spot with just a slight push.

Jiang Cheng's subtle neglect, countless disappointments, almost daily bullying, and the fact that anyone could easily provoke and bully her.

These things may be tolerable, or they may be suppressed, but they only temporarily amplify the movement. Extinguishing the flame does not mean that the fuel has disappeared.

The sound of teeth clenching could even be faintly heard, and as a martial artist, one had to patiently suppress one's instincts to avoid throwing a punch.

Her delicate body trembled, like the rhythm of lightning flashing, as she had to do it this way to avoid picking up the steel pipe next to her and slashing it horizontally with a single sword strike.

The girl is not cotton, nor is she mud that can be kneaded at will. Her former title of Thunder Queen represented a decisive and efficient style.

The reason for silently enduring in the past was simply the stress of being stripped of everything in an instant, being completely overwhelmed by cruel reality, and losing all the things that were important and cherished in the past.

Faced with the malice of the world and the harm from everyone, even a knife in one's hand cannot solve everything. The knife-wielder needs to find a target before wielding the knife, and that specific target cannot be the world itself.

Even a well-educated, gentle girl cannot, like the girl next door, actually pick up a knife and chop up all the people she hates, to teach those who are too wicked a lesson. This is usually the limit.

Because of helplessness, one gives up; knowing full well that one cannot do it, one simply stops struggling and chooses to numbly face the world.

Anyway, no one can withstand the malice of the whole world. Feeling the disgust of others while having a normal heart will only wear you down faster.

Things are different now.

No longer can I numb myself with a sense of apathy like before; no longer can I helplessly stay in the shadows, watching the darkness spread endlessly without a glimmer of light.

Whether the outcome is good or bad, the girl did indeed emerge a little from her shell, and the self-destructive ostrich raised its head from the sand. Unable to conceal it with numbness, everything was felt more clearly.

At least for now, the shop owner in front of me happens to meet a clear goal, and can also serve as proof of taking another step forward.

It wouldn't hurt to beat up a guy like that.

Even those guys wouldn't stoop to his level.

People as awful as me are probably even less cared about than I am.

Raiden Mei raised her head without fear, the misty vapor vanishing completely. No longer concealing her anger, she clenched her fist without searching for a weapon, her first strike of resistance imminent.

Even someone with no understanding of probing could sense the shift in atmosphere; without a doubt, the girl was no longer prepared to endure it.

It seems that no one expected that the girl who had silently endured all bullying would fight back, or even resort to violence to escape.

He was merely an extremely disgusting individual invited by a blonde woman to join countless others in displaying the worst malice towards the girl.

The shop owner's large head suddenly tightened, and his belly, which bulged like a sack of fat, began to contract and shrink like a frog.

The clown, almost like a character from a story, entered reality. His bloated, ugly face instinctively revealed fear, causing his loose, flabby flesh to tremble incessantly, and his mouth and nose to exhale a hot breath filled with male body odor.

The feeling of being targeted by an angry individual is an instinct that even a complete idiot can sense. The fact that a person lacks this ability only proves that they have been completely alienated genetically and do not even have the instinct to protect themselves.

Although being aware and being able to fight back are two different things, the store manager, who can almost be seen as someone who has stepped out of the video, can only tremble with ugliness, and perform his ridiculousness and guilt to the fullest.

……

"Mei-chan, think things through before you do them."

"—This is a date, you know."

……

168. You don't want your date with him to fall through, right?

His body froze instantly, his muscles seemed to spasm and stop, and all his strength seemed to be suddenly drained. He couldn't even move forward half an inch, leaving only his fist hanging in the air, just a line away from the shopkeeper's ridiculous, ugly fat face.