Honkai Impact 3rd, a simulator of lifelong regret!

The perfect gentleness is like bumping into a neighbor from the same school on your way to school in the early morning. The familiarity is so close, and you greet each other with the fresh breeze, waving your right hand in the colorful air filled with cherry blossoms in spring, sending the blessings of the morning sun.

Clear dewdrops gently slide from the leaves, dripping onto the ground and splashing out the fragrance of the soil. The flowers that bloomed last night are swirling in the air.

It was so beautiful and blissful, as if it could happen right next to me, yet it was also too dreamy and distant. I searched every corner of the world but could not find the morning light of my childhood.

Eh……

Eh.

Eh? ! !

Jiangcheng?!

……

For the first moment, Raiden Mei couldn't understand.

They even subconsciously thought it was just another hallucination playing tricks on them.

This had happened more than once that night; the girl had seen what appeared to be the boy's figure appear beside her more than once, as if he had not died because of the collapse she had caused.

But how is it possible?

How could an ordinary person possibly survive?

Let alone ordinary high school students, even so-called martial artists, even the best swordsmen from the nearby martial arts school, whose physical strength is so great that they can shatter rocks with a single strike, cannot survive even a second under the corrosive effect of this energy.

No matter how talented or intelligent a boy is, he cannot convert his intelligence into martial prowess or resistance to Honkai energy.

Until the boy, who was right next to her, blinked gently, as if nothing had happened yet, as if he were truly greeting his companions at a gathering place.

"Yesterday we went to a rather old street from the last century. Where should we go today?"

"I don't have any requirements, anywhere is fine with me."

……

……

Raiden Mei once thought that what was happening now was just a dream, a nightmare she had tasted countless times over the long course of time.

Perhaps it's the repetition of the harm suffered during the day, perhaps it's witnessing one's father being imprisoned, or perhaps it's a completely new form of bullying.

Every dream was terrifying, each one keeping the girl awake. As a result, she had to work until she was completely exhausted every day, so that she didn't have the strength to move when she lay down in bed and could fall into a dreamless sleep.

But it was just a dream after all. When you open your eyes again, you will find a reality that is far more terrifying and cruel than the dream.

The act of cutting flesh with a dull knife is ultimately more soothing than a blade piercing the heart. After meeting the boy, the nightmares subsided, but now, the humble girl is once again yearning for the nightmares to return.

If all of this is a dream, a nightmare of rebirth, then once I wake up I can get dressed, put on makeup, and prepare everything I need, and once again walk with the boy in a corner of the city, spending time together in a time that belongs only to the two of us, a time that feels like you've escaped the world.

impossible.

Because what we see now is the reality.

Because what is cruel is the truth.

Because the body can clearly feel the pain—slicing the palm with a knife, being struck by lightning, or jumping from a tall building and falling to the ground, all the pain is so clear and distinct that there is no room for imagination or ambiguity, telling word by word that the mistake cannot be changed.

—He killed Jiang Cheng himself.

—He himself brought about the disaster.

Until this moment, until that dreamlike, fairytale-like voice rang out again, until that dreamlike boy reappeared in sight.

Until that young man who once boasted of his strength easily tore through layers of lightning, and the energy he casually unleashed engulfed the endless clouds.

Even after her fall from grace, her power to easily destroy an entire city was as fragile and vulnerable in Jiang Cheng's hands as a child's trick.

what……

what……

fraud……

fraud!

Even their strength is this great...

The so-called excellent martial artists are complete frauds!

How could I possibly be worthy of being considered outstanding in front of you?!

The hotel, the access control, the gifts… why were they all lies?! Why have you been lying to me all this time?! Do you really enjoy lying to me that much?! Have you ever told me even a single word of the truth?!

……

I don't want to say it, and I can't say it, because it's pure misplaced anger, it's just being unreasonable, it's mistaking other people's politeness for hypocrisy... a mistake that only a child's temper would cause.

However, accompanied by a roar that echoed endlessly within his heart, a roar that even the deepest ocean could not stop, the lightning expanded even more intensely.

I know I'm wrong.

I know I shouldn't have done that.

Even though she understood, Raiden Mei was no longer able to stop her own power. Back when she first crossed the line and chose to fall and abandon herself, she had almost completely lost the ability to control this body.

Like someone who has lost their last lifeline and fallen off a cliff, all they can do is continue their endless descent.

There is no hope.

Even Jiang Cheng's smile couldn't save him.

The third-ranked Herrscher, a once-excellent student, has fallen into an endless abyss due to overwhelming grief.

Because it has deeply realized the fragility of its connection with the boy, the chained elephant already knows how insignificant the chain is.

Most threats and constraints in the world are only limited to when they are not touched, just as the ultimate nuclear weapon loses its deterrent effect on the world the moment it is launched.

The unease stemmed from the inequality, something different from the mutual redemption of the past. To Raiden Mei, she was like a small flower on the verge of withering and falling. It was only because of the boy's pure and kind compassion and the light brought by friendship that the withering flower had the opportunity to gradually recover and quietly bloom with a beauty unique to her.

Reviving a flower on the verge of withering is an extremely difficult task. It requires not only pure goodwill but also the strength to protect the flower and the courage to face prejudice and the dust that may cover it.

In most people's minds, these two are contradictory: a person with pure goodwill will not have the power to protect that goodwill, while a person with power will not have pure goodwill and will not regard the smile of a "defective product" as their own happiness.

That's why, even though Jiang Cheng has said more than once that he is just an ordinary person, in the girl's heart, the boy is still an irreplaceable existence.

The relationship between a flower and its guardian is unequal. A guardian may have more than one garden and may even seek out the same person regardless of the flower, while for the flower being protected, the guardian is her only one.

That is why even the slightest disturbance is enough to make the girl feel terrified.

We have no choice but to accept it and bear it.

This distorted emotion is more hypocritical than any poison.

If this falsehood can remain veiled in a veil, creating a fairytale-like dream, then even if it's laughable, one can still live happily.

—There's no chance anymore.

……

There was a response.

There will definitely be a reaction.

Jiang Cheng could clearly see the ripples in the eyes of the girl so close to him, like the ripples that spread when a stone is thrown into the sea.

Her delicate lips hesitated and murmured, as if she had something to say. However, after patiently waiting, what awaited her was not any explanation or confiding, but only the distinct knuckles of her fingers moving once again.

A deafening clap of thunder ripped through the clouds, like a sword unsheathed, slashing towards Jiangcheng with a powerful energy as intense as a dazzling blade.

Essentially, the spherical force field, constructed solely to clear the view, was instantly torn apart, allowing the raging smog clouds to sweep across once more.

Just as the attack was about to touch the boy, seemingly within a hair's breadth of range, where even the tips of his hair stood on end due to the electric shock, it was as if an entire world had separated them, preventing them from advancing an inch.

Even just a penny.

Even the smallest bit.

The wind and waves generated by the Apostle of God's attack were enough to blow the hair on his forehead, but it was as if he had encountered a heavy-duty vise and was firmly stopped.

Because the stance that surrounds her has long been ingrained in her instincts, there is no arrogance or idiocy. Even knowing that the Herrscher of Thunder is Mei, she does not let her guard down. In order to escape the relentless exploitation of a certain fairy lady, her defensive measures to gain room for recovery, even if weakened, are still not something that mere lightning can overcome.

The collapsed black field was forcibly twisted into countless streams of light, and Jiang Cheng's subconscious counterattack was a gravitational torrent that could affect space.

The air was compressed.

The lightning was deflected.

Light also lost its form.

There was no direct damage; the mere outward spillover of energy and authority was enough to throw everything around into chaos and collapse. And all of this was just the subtle buildup of power for this attack.

It wasn't until he waved his fingertip to issue the command, limited by his Herrscher body and severe disability, that the boy realized what had just happened.

"Mei?"

why? !

……

"..."

Even the act of calling out names had vanished; the brief ripples seemed like a fleeting illusion, a momentary hallucination.

Like a machine, it invokes the patient's own authority. Lightning, one of the world's most terrifying natural disasters, confronts and blocks the surging black streaks of light.

However, while it could tear apart a city in one blow, the attack from Forgotten and Ineffective could not even touch it; it would be twisted and broken if it got close.

The seemingly insignificant attacks, such as the miniaturization of the gravity field just now, are constantly engulfing everything around them, including the lightning itself.

The sky is falling.

The ocean is roaring.

It was the same sense of powerlessness that ordinary people feel when facing a tsunami or a falling sky, with nowhere in sight to find any room to breathe.

The Herrscher of Thunder clenched her right hand, and the blinding lightning transformed into a sharp longsword, striking again and again, directly and decisively cutting into the sweeping torrent.

Although it wasn't as untouchable as previous attacks, the result of this one attack was that only the very front was destroyed.

Having not learned how to combat gravity in her high school curriculum, and with her mind as empty as a stone weapon, the girl had no possibility of using her intelligence to fight her enemies.

No matter how rampant the so-called natural disaster of thunder may be on this planet, it is ultimately insignificant in the face of gravity, which is maximally destructive. Without a deeper level of application, it is simply an absolute restraint of its compatibility.

The Herrscher of Thunder can only wield a sword.