Honkai Impact 3rd: My Days as a Captain in Schicksal

"Sweet potato, sweet potato, this is potato. Area one reconnaissance complete. [Iron Man] has not appeared in the target area."

"Potato, potato, this is Sweet Potato. Reconnaissance of Area Two is complete. [Flow Blade] has not appeared in the target area."

"Hahahaha, I'm relieved! Go and connect the wires!"

"Ahem... Before that, shouldn't we deal with that problem first?"

"Okay, but don't shout too loudly, or it won't be good if someone finds out."

"Ah...no...not there...stop it!"

"Don't worry, I'm a veteran of many battles, this is normal, it will be fine in a while."

"Um...no...you already said that once...ouch, it hurts..."

"Don't move around, it'll be over soon."

As a plaster was applied to the strained muscle, Keng Huo stood up, sweating profusely: "Don't twist and turn when I'm massaging you! I almost misplaced the plaster!"

"Who was it that just said they were good at it! You were so clumsy and hurt me!"

"How can you feel comfortable with a muscle strain!" Keng Huo looked like he was about to flip the table. "As a poor patient who has been treated free of charge by my skillful and kind hands, you should kneel down and be grateful. How can you be so picky!"

"I don't care! You're just a quack!" Kiana glared angrily at Keng Huo from the dormitory sofa.

"Enough talk! Since we can't reach an agreement, let's use the old method: draw our swords!" Keng Huo said with a disdainful look. "Draw a line, and I'll take it."

"Tch, today we're playing [Honkai Impact 3rd]!" Kiana leaped onto the carpet, grabbed a Houmu plushie and placed it under her chest. "Give me the controller!"

Keng Huo glanced at Kiana with a look of utter disbelief, then lingered between Kiana and the controller about twenty centimeters in front of her before kicking the controller away from Kiana.

"What do you mean?! I'm wounded! Wounded! A Valkyrie who was injured during the Third Honkai Impact! You, a clerical worker who was only able to survive because of our protection, can't even do something as simple as handing me a controller?! What's the use of keeping you around?! You're not even as good as this Homura body pillow!" Kiana shouted, slapping the floor.

"Don't act like you've accomplished something great just because you twisted your waist while striking a weird pose! Anyone who didn't know better would think you'd fought your way through a Honkai Beast seven times, leaving a river of blood and saving a prefecture-level city! This doesn't even qualify as a work injury! Besides..." Keng Huo glanced at the Houmu body pillow placed under Kiana's chest. This Houmu body pillow was incredibly bouncy, and Kiana's figure was quite amazing; the pressure from both of them...

"Besides, if I had the same treatment as this Houmu body pillow, I wouldn't mind doing the same things as it, like being hugged by a beautiful girl, being cushioned by a beautiful girl, being embraced by a beautiful girl, or something like that."

Kiana was so angry upon hearing this that she threw the cushion at him.

"Hurry up! It'll be terrible if Mei comes back and finds me playing games! Let's get this over with!"

"Watch this!" Keng Huo quickly started the computer and opened Honkai Impact 3rd.

This is a side-scrolling 2.5D fighting game independently developed by Destiny (just kidding). It mainly focuses on online 1V1 battles. All character skills are based on reality. However, considering that almost every Valkyrie has a different fighting style, the game adds weapon settings for the Valkyries. Different types of weapons will have different fighting modes and moves.

The game features three factions: Anti-Entropy, Honkai, and Destiny, each corresponding to one of three attributes: Mechanical, Psychic, and Biological. Mechanical counters Biological, Biological counters Psychic, and Psychic counters Mechanical, creating a rock-paper-scissors-like system. The official claim is that the game aims to allow prospective Valkyries to experience enemy attack methods and potential combat scenarios firsthand before stepping onto the brutal battlefield. However, Keng Huo firmly believes the development team is just a bunch of nerds.

Who told the Valkyries in this game to be dressed as scantily clad as swimsuits, the Honkai Beasts to be anthropomorphized, and even Anti-Entropy's famous combat weapon, the Titan Mech, to be made into a mecha girl wearing open-faced armor that looks completely defenseless...

It's clearly a game made by a bunch of bored, nerdy researchers just to satisfy their own selfish desires.

For a game whose appearance deviates so drastically from objective reality, I have to say it's... amazing!

Of course, the initial version was not like this; it was very realistic, even constructing a very lifelike character model at a 1:1 scale.

However, a month after the game's release, the development team secretly leaked an appearance patch on the forum, changing all the characters' appearances to their current state.

Thinking of this, Keng Huo took a deep breath. It was impossible for the higher-ups of Destiny not to have noticed the little tricks of these otaku development teams. Turning a blind eye to them and letting the patches leak out must have been due to their far-sightedness.

For example, the higher-ups at Destiny might actually be pleased with this...

*Ahem*, focus on the game. Keng Huo silently muttered to himself, deeply doubting whether he could have a bright future working in an organization where the upper echelons and the logistics and technical departments were all shut-ins.

Ten minutes later.

"You cheat! I'm not playing with you anymore!" Kiana, still lying face down on the carpet, frantically pounded the floor, making it thud loudly. "How can you be so disgusting! If you've got the guts, have a proper fight with me!"

"Trying to take a Summoning Mage head-on against Titan Skybreaker? Are you out of your mind or am I?" Keng Huo gazed out the window at a 45-degree angle, trying to project an image of an invincible, reclusive master. "Invincibility is truly a lonely thing..."

"You!" Kiana was so angry she couldn't speak. "Then don't choose such a despicable character! From the very beginning, you were hiding in a corner frantically summoning zombies. When I rushed over, you burrowed underground and disappeared into the zombie horde! After everyone had finally wiped out those zombies, you somehow slipped away and hid in a corner again, waiting to summon more! Despicable! Shameless! Lowlife!"

"There's nothing I can do. That's how Summoning Mages are played. I only let you win because you chose the mechanical Titan Skybreaker, and picked a character whose attribute is countered by yours..." Keng Huo looked lonely. "It seems that peerless masters are never understood by mortals..."

No wonder Kiana was furious. The character she chose was the Titan mech from the Anti-Entropy faction, which excels at frontal assaults and has a fierce and brutal fighting style. When used by a skilled user, it's like a bulldozer. As long as you seize on an opponent's mistake, you can launch a continuous offensive, pinning the opponent to the ground and beating them until they can't even get up.

Keng Huo's summoning mage is a white-haired, twin-tailed, biological-attribute assassin wearing a straitjacket. Two black and red coffins always float around her, from which she summons other assassins to aid her in battle. Although her attributes are countered by the Titan mech, she is extremely agile and adept at using summoning magic to summon countless cannon fodder to overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers. For a relatively cumbersome character like the Titan, catching the slippery summoning mage is virtually impossible. Moreover, the summoning mage possesses an escape skill that allows her to burrow underground, as well as a protective invincibility skill. By using a few tricks to survive the initial wave when her summoned creatures are few in number, she can completely dominate the Titan in the mid-to-late game.

Moreover, Keng Huo's tactics truly embodied the essence of the word "sneaky".

At the start of the battle, Keng Huo immediately burrowed underground and escaped, landing behind a tree in a corner, completing his first summoning attack and summoning two archer assassins. Kiana, realizing Keng Huo's intentions, decisively rushed forward to try and interrupt his summoning. However, Keng Huo's choice of location was clever; a tree blocked their path. If Kiana rushed to Keng Huo quickly, the immense momentum would make it difficult for her to turn around and attack him. If she slowed down beforehand, she wouldn't have time to interrupt him, allowing Keng Huo's first summoning to succeed.

Then Keng Huo and Qiyana circled around the tree, using the Qin King's Pillar Steps to their fullest extent, managing to stall until their Earth Escape skill was off cooldown, before quickly escaping underground.

However, Kiana was no novice. She possessed an astonishing combat intuition that would impress anyone. Realizing that Keng Huo was stalling for time, she decided to play along, waiting for him to escape using his underground escape technique. Since the two were currently in a grove of trees, the two archer assassins summoned by Keng Huo had difficulty aiming, their lines of sight frequently obstructed by trees, forcing them to abandon their aim. Therefore, Kiana wasn't afraid of Keng Huo's archers chipping away at her health.

Besides, Titan mechs are known for their toughness and high durability. If you can hit a summoning mage after taking two arrows, it's a huge win.

The instant Keng Huo escaped using his underground escape technique, Kiana locked onto his landing point. Just as the summoned mage's body disappeared underground and before it rose at the target location, she activated Titan's [Charge Strike] skill. The roar of the massive engine propelled the steel body forward at lightning speed.

Kiana's mind was racing with calculations. As long as this charge attack hit, the summoner would be stunned and fall to the ground. She could even calmly execute a long-winded [Earthquake Strike] to knock Keng Huo down again, and then follow up with a smooth sweeping attack to leave Keng Huo lying on the ground, ready to die, unable to even stand up!

Unfortunately, Keng Huo was still a bit more cunning. Just a second before Kiana's Titan started its charge, one of the two archer assassins summoned by Keng Huo seemed to inadvertently take a step to the side, blocking the Titan's path.

While the Titan Mech's Charge Strike is an incredibly powerful dash with high damage and strong crowd control, it also has two fatal flaws. One is that the charge speed is too fast to turn, and the other is that it stops immediately after hitting the first object it touches and then unleashes a ground slam.

Kiana felt a sense of foreboding, but the heavy Titan, which had already begun its charge, could not be stopped so easily. Just as Keng Huo had predicted, the Titan's charge was stopped by a minor archer assassin. Although he lost an archer, Keng Huo completed another summon. At this moment, three assassin summons surrounded the Titan, and the situation looked very favorable.

Kiana was also very decisive, immediately assuming the starting stance for [Earthquake Strike], using the characteristics of this move to attract the three assassins to her attack range, preparing to eliminate all the summoned creatures with one punch.

However, Keng Huo had anticipated this and immediately stood still and unleashed one of the few attack skills available to summon mages: [Dark Wave Agitation]. He forcibly broke through Titan's shield before Kiana could complete her attack, interrupting Kiana's assault.

Then, taking advantage of the brief moment when Titan was stunned, Keng Huo used the distance advantage between the two sides to complete another wave of summons. At this time, five summoned zombies surrounded a Titan mech whose shield had been broken. In addition, Keng Huo moved back and forth among the zombies like an eel, and would suddenly hit Titan with a coffin. As soon as Titan turned in its direction, it would immediately escape underground. It didn't even try to move or block. It would summon two more zombies whenever it had time. Kiana's Titan had no ability to fight back and couldn't even touch the summoned mages.

The powerful Titan mech was teased to death like a young wife being harassed by a group of lackeys.

"You...you're bullying me..." Kiana said, her eyes brimming with tears. "I just wanted to play the game, why did you have to pick such a disgusting character..."

Keng Huo felt a chill run down his spine: With Kiana's intelligence, when did she learn such a powerful tactic as playing the victim?

No way! Kiana's thinking ability could never comprehend such a profound technique!

Then there's only one explanation...

Did I really make Kiana cry?

You're kidding, right?

Chapter Four: Today is also the first day of our good relationship!

Seeing that Kiana seemed to be really about to cry, Keng Huo panicked.

Don't cry!

"You won, so what? You can't even let people complain a little? Why are you being so mean..." Kiana's expression became even more aggrieved.

"No... well, what I mean is that your failure to win wasn't your fault, but rather that Anti-Entropy's mechs were too weak." Keng Huo quickly came up with a solution.

Kiana gave Keng Huo a suspicious look.

“Think about it, the Titan mech is too cumbersome and not agile enough. Its charge attack is only suitable for long-distance straight-line pursuit. In a one-on-one situation, its charge is like being a sitting duck. It requires a great deal of rhythm. If you don’t operate it according to its specific rhythm, you can’t unleash its combat power at all. It’s also completely unsuitable for your hand speed, which is like you’re having an epileptic fit, and it doesn’t match your flexible, mobile, and combined close-range gunfighting style.” Keng Huo’s mouth was dry, and his brain was working at lightning speed. If he made this little princess cry, not to mention how the headmaster would punish him—even if the headmaster didn’t punish him, Kiana alone could make Keng Huo’s life miserable for at least a month. “In short, this mech is not worthy of your skills!”

"Hmph! You're the one with epileptic hand speed!" Kiana turned her head away from Keng Huo, but from the twitching corner of her mouth, it was clear that Keng Huo's nonsense seemed to have some effect.

Keng Huo secretly breathed a sigh of relief: "You see, if you had chosen the Valkyrie who uses a pistol, the one with a similar fighting style to yours, you would definitely have won."

"Who said that? Tell me." Kiana stubbornly refused to listen to Keng Huo, her tone showing no sign of kindness.

"Look, this Valkyrie is equipped with the standard [Ranger] armor, featuring a micro black hole generator. It's a reconnaissance-specialized armor, enhancing agility, speed, and some control abilities. You can first whittle down the summoner's health from a distance, and when necessary, use the [Meteor Impact] shockwave generator attached to the armor to forcibly interrupt the summoner's summoning skill. A summoner without summons is just a weakling, isn't it?" For the sake of his peaceful life for the next month, Keng Huo began to patiently explain, "Then, during this process, collect the energy dissipated during the battle to recharge the [Gungnir Gungnir System]. Finally, when it's almost depleted, use the shockwave of [Meteor Impact] to put the enemy into a brief sensory imbalance, then seize the opportunity to use the micro black hole to pull the enemy into a fixed position, and then use the Quantum State Displacement System to unleash the [Gungnir] Type B Individual Honkai Energy Pulse Cannon to blast it to pieces."

Keng Huo's throat was dry from talking, so he picked up the water glass next to him, took a sip of cola, and prepared to continue speaking.

Wait, Coke? Isn't my water glass filled with green tea? Whose water glass is this? Keng Huo's heart skipped a beat.

Keng Huo calmly put the water glass back in its place, his mouth still running: "Of course, we can have many other ways to deal with this kind of slippery enemy, such as... squad strangulation."

"Valkyries are usually grouped in groups of three, while summoning assassins are characterized by their solitary nature. Therefore, when encountering a summoning assassin, one person can keep watch, one person can engage in close combat, and one person can provide ranged fire support. For a well-formed team, as long as they do not encounter the extremely rare [Summoning Demon] or [Samurai Shaman], they have a high chance of winning."

Then Keng Huo explained in detail four specific strangulation tactics for summoned suicide soldiers.

"Unless you're extremely unlucky and encounter a summoning-type zombie who has just finished a battle and is still leading a large group of undisbanded summoned zombies..."

"In that situation, please do not turn around and run away. Doing so will allow them to immediately give chase. After all, summoned zombies are rare zombies with a certain degree of intelligence. They will assess the difference in strength between the two sides. The best way to deal with this is to confront each other, stare fiercely into the eyes of the summoned zombie, and make certain gestures to show your strength, so that it will not dare to make any rash moves."

"That way you can die with some dignity."

"What kind of solution is that! According to you, encountering a summoner with a large group of minions in the wild means certain death?" Kiana had obviously calmed down and started speaking in that familiar, husky tone.

Yes, that's the kind of tone that's really irritating.

"There's nothing we can do about it. Summoning-type assassins often summon assassins non-stop in a battle, regardless of the cost, until the battle ends. So far, we haven't found any type of summoning-type assassin with a summoning limit, and we don't know what their summoning principle is, which allows them to summon such a huge number of assassins without seeming to put any particular burden on their own bodies. This is one of the major unsolved mysteries within the Destiny Organization."

"After a battle, the victorious summoner often summons hundreds of summoned creatures. A three-person Valkyrie squad facing such a human wave tactic is practically doomed without a retreat plan."

"After all, even if you want to retreat, you will have to face the endless shooting of the archer assassins. When the number of archer assassins exceeds fifteen, it is the point where quantitative change leads to qualitative change. Unless you are a Valkyrie specializing in defense, no one can survive such an offensive. Fortunately, the summoning assassins always recall the assassins they summon after the battle. Otherwise, if the summoning assassins kept summoning them, humanity would have been wiped out long ago."

"I always thought you were just a clueless idiot, but I didn't expect you to know so much." Kiana looked at Keng Huo with surprise. "I didn't know anything about small-scale tactical command, although you're still a little behind me, but you're passable~"

Keng Huo stared silently at Kiana until she felt a chill run down her spine: "Why...why are you staring at me..."

"First of all... I not only teach the course on Honkai History, but I am also responsible for teaching the course on squad tactics."

"Secondly, Kiana, you've been taking classes for three months! And you still don't know I'm your instructor for Squad Tactics Explanation!!" The last sentence was practically a roar, "I always thought you were just sleeping in my class! I didn't realize you didn't even bother to check who the teacher was!!"

"Ah... well... well..." Kiana's eyes darted around as she tried to change the subject with an awkward smile.

"So you don't know about the homework due next week either!" Keng Huo glared fiercely at Kiana.

"Ah...this...this..." Kiana panicked, "We're comrades who've been through thick and thin together...Potato, don't you remember me? I'm Sweet Potato! We fought side by side..."

"We even fought together against the Burning Legion's invasion!" Keng Huo felt the greatest shock he had ever experienced.

He was his student, and after three months of classes, she didn't even know he was her teacher!

This is an extraordinary story!

If word gets out, how will I ever be able to face anyone again!

After thinking for a moment, Keng Huo sighed, "Never mind, I suppose you never even noticed that I was also your detective studies teacher..."

"Ah... this..." Kiana began to change the subject.