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

But at this moment, Keng Huo only had eyes for the projection with the face he could never forget, completely ignoring everything around him, and rushed towards Ji Zi without a care.

Himeko couldn't adapt to the pace for a moment, and could only reach out to forcefully resist Keng Huo. A tremendous force came, and even Himeko, who was known for her strength, had to exert a little effort to withstand Keng Huo's impact. She tried to calm him down with words: "Calm down, she's not Elisa..."

"Bullshit!!" Keng Huo roared in fury, grabbing Ji Zi's hands tightly around his arms and trying to pry them off. For a moment, the two were locked in a stalemate, like wrestling. "I see her! She's right there! Get out of my way!!"

"She's the Hyperion's warship AI! Not your sister!"

"I fucking said you get the hell out of my way!" Keng Huo roared deafeningly, his eyes bloodshot and the veins on his neck bulging, like a mad beast.

"Snapped."

Himeko's hands trembled slightly, and her full breasts heaved rapidly. Even though she knew that Keng Huo had combat power that was no less than that of the Valkyrie, the power he had just unleashed still made her feel as if she were wrestling with a bull.

Keng Huo, who had just been slapped, stood there silently in the position of being hit, and for a moment the atmosphere inside the partition froze.

The pilots of the Hyperion, who were operating their respective terminals, did not notice the accident behind the sound barrier. They were busy with their work, and even the silence on the captain's communication channel did not arouse their suspicion. After all, all they were doing was a simple forced march.

Like a comical silent film.

“I know what you’re thinking, but AI isn’t your sister; she just looks the same…”

Before Ji Zi could finish speaking, Keng Huo interrupted her.

"Then can you tell me why your warship AI is set to resemble my sister?" Keng Huo slowly raised his head, his bloodshot eyes like those of a ferocious beast ready to devour its prey. Apart from anger, Himeko could not read any other emotion in those eyes.

You can even smell a faint scent of blood.

Keng Huo's tone gradually intensified with each word, striking Himeko's heart like a war drum. Himeko had never seen Keng Huo like this before, and a faint sense of crisis made her subconsciously prepare for battle.

"Your explanation is that you just wanted to... make fun of me?"

“I don’t know.” Himeko knew she couldn’t back down now. She straightened up and met Keng Huo’s gaze without flinching. “The Hyperion’s AI has been like this ever since it came into our hands. The main AI program is classified as the highest level of secret at Schicksal’s headquarters. If you want to know more, you can only get information from Theresa. Getting angry here won’t help.”

Keng Huo stared intently at Ji Zi, without uttering a word.

Like a volcano whose exterior reveals nothing, you don't even know if it's alive or dead, or if it will ever erupt.

This tense standoff continued until Ai-chan quietly peeked out.

The moment he saw Ai-chan's face, Keng Huo's expression softened.

Himeko, who had just noticed the change in Keng Huo's expression, was about to say something, but Keng Huo's voice spoke first.

His voice was low, even somewhat sinister: "Are you... threatening me?"

Keng Huo didn't use a questioning tone, but rather stated it as if it were a plain fact, his tone completely flat.

“No, I’m just stating the facts. Before I knew your information, I never thought about it in this way either.” Himeko said very quickly, afraid that Keng Huo would cut her off again. “It is still in doubt whether AI-chan is your sister. I don’t know your sister’s current location and situation. With my level of access, I only know that she is a subroutine of the main AI program. Only Theresa could have access to more core information.”

After saying that, Himeko stared intently into Keng Huo's eyes, wary of his actions.

"Do I have any other choice?" The bewildered answer was unexpected.

———————————————————————————————————

Keng Huo still doesn't understand why the Destiny Headquarters insisted on capturing Alyssa. Back then, at the border between the Rakshasa Kingdom and the Divine Continent, he was hunting down a group of Honkai Beasts alone when he found that little girl with long green hair. She didn't have anything special about her; she seemed like just a lost child.

The short period of time the two lived together was the only time Keng Huo could call "living".

At the time, Keng Huo didn't investigate her background too much, because he wasn't interested in anything other than hunting Honkai, which seemed to be his nature and instinct.

Besides that, he had nothing else.

Keng Huo knew nothing about his origins, and was not even clear when he had developed self-awareness. His memories were chaotic, containing a large amount of obscure and taboo knowledge, as well as some common sense about human society.

Aside from his life.

His life seemed to be a blank.

Even that knowledge was in complete disarray, like waves crashing against rocks, shattered into thousands of tiny fragments.

He could only piece together his identity from those chaotic memories, believing that he should be a sorcerer.

Some memories told him that he knew a man named Lu Xun, and that the two had even exchanged insults in the newspapers; some memories told him about the geography of the Qin Chuan area; some memories told him how to make braised pork tender and juicy; and some memories even told him how to outmaneuver and ambush the enemy in the mountains and forests of northeastern China...

These memories are too chaotic, and some even contradict each other, appearing in different places at the same point in time; moreover, these memories and common sense all come from decades or even nearly a hundred years ago, ending at some vague point in the twentieth century, without any information about modern society.

This left Keng Huo completely at a loss when it came to sorting out his past. He didn't even know where his parents were or who they were, nor did he know where he came from or where he died.

Perhaps it was because they shared a similar plight of not knowing their own origins, or perhaps the loneliness of over a decade made him want something to keep him company, or perhaps he feared that the little girl would starve and freeze to death on the snowy plains, so he took the little girl with him.

But what Keng Huo never expected was that from that day on, his life seemed to awaken from a long hibernation.

Keng Huo learned a lot from that little girl who seemed to know everything but actually knew nothing.

Comics, movies, and books—things he had never cared about before—were what the little girl was most interested in. As a result, Keng Huo had to try his best to contact normal human society. After being scolded by the little girl for stealing, he slowly learned to work illegally and tried to live like a normal person according to the "correct way" the little girl told him.

Working, earning money, hunting Honkai, buying snacks and comics for Elisa, the two of them discussing... arguing about what to eat today.

Life was simple and happy.

Those memories slowly solidified, eventually settling on the daily arguments between the two of them about whether to have stewed beef with potatoes or stewed pork ribs with potatoes.

Finally, it shattered into cold snowflakes on the snowfield.

———————————————————————————————————

"Are you really going to wear this?" Himeko looked at Keng Huo's sportswear. Although she knew he was hiding many secrets, she couldn't help but ask.

"So you're going to bring me a women's bodysuit?" Keng Huo gave Himeko a strange look. "Do you have men's combat uniforms here?"

"...We have Valkyries who aren't fully developed..."

"No thanks, no thanks. I hate tight-fitting combat suits." Keng Huo waved his hand. "It feels like my whole body is bound."

"...but they provide very effective protection."

"No matter how strong the attack, it's meaningless if it can't hit the enemy." Keng Huo ignored Ji Zi's question, and simply crawled into the escape pod, fastened his seatbelt, and put on his helmet.

"I can't guarantee I'll be able to bring her back."

Keng Huo had no time to think further; all he wanted now was to find Theresa as soon as possible and get the answers to these questions. He adjusted the position of his equipment, fastened his seatbelt, and gave an OK sign to the outside of the cabin.

"Escape pod number one is ready to launch. Silence mode is activated. Shielding field is operating normally... Countdown 10..."

"5..."

"1!"

The hangar slowly unfolded. The low temperature and low pressure at an altitude of a thousand meters not only made the hangar much colder, but also generated a strong suction force, sucking the air out of the hangar like a vacuum cleaner.

But Himeko stood silently at the edge of the hangar, like a statue, unmoved by the fierce wind. She watched silently as the escape pod slowly slid off the anchoring device and plunged into the biting cold wind.

A giant gliding bird suddenly unfolded its wings in the escape pod. Under the energy shielding field, the escape pod, which was in a state of complete silence, was like a dead object. Not a trace of energy or life force was leaked out, so the nearby Honkai Beasts did not notice it at all, as if they thought it was just an ordinary plastic bag gliding through the sky.

"You shouldn't have come out so early," Himeko said quietly. "Didn't we agree that after I finished talking to him..."

“But I can’t wait any longer.” A blurry 3D projection suddenly appeared beside Himeko, then slowly solidified. “Besides, the result wasn’t wrong, was it…”

"He was just about to draw his sword."

"Well... he won't really come at you, because Ai-chan is behind you."

"But you're just a 3D projection."

Even so, he wouldn't.

"Can he really do it?" Himeko closed her eyes, her voice heavy as if carrying a mountain on her back.

“Of course…” The 3D projection smiled happily, its eyes and brows filled with an overwhelming warmth. “He is very strong… not in the way you usually understand it… but… the kind of strength that will never let those who believe in him down…”

"You trust him that much?"

“Because… that’s my brother…” The projected figure stared intently at the departing escape pod, his eyes slowly filling with longing and affection. “How could the brother of Ai-chan, the number one idol of the Hyperion, not be able to do something?”

Chapter 77 Wouldn't killing everyone who sees you be the perfect infiltration?

Dozens of ragged people moved slowly down the street, their heads bowed, hands hanging limply, looking sickly as if they were about to collapse at any moment. Saliva and blood mixed together flowed from their slightly open mouths, seemingly without end.

This is a zombie.

During a Honkai outbreak, human individuals with a certain affinity for Honkai energy will be corrupted and become undead, while those without affinity will be corrupted and become zombies.

Without fatigue, without fear, without reason, and perpetually hungry, they will devour everything they can tear and bite, which will be broken down into all possible nutrients by organs that have long since mutated and are completely different from those of humans.

A dark shadow flashed silently across the second floor of the shopping street, as if it were just a phantom, without attracting the attention of any zombies.

Keng Huo, his face ashen, was squatting on the rooftop, chewing on an energy bar with obvious frustration. To his left was a Honkai energy detector, and to his right was his portable personal data terminal. On the map on the terminal, two small dots were flashing, representing the location of Theresa's communicator and the current location of [Judas' Oath].

Neither of them moved at all.

Before long, a tiny mechanical insect flew to his side and landed on his portable personal data terminal, transmitting the collected real-time map data to the terminal. Keng Huo picked up the terminal and carefully imprinted the real-time map into his mind.

“The city after the destruction… it seems even harder to infiltrate now…” Keng Huo’s brows furrowed slightly. “There are two large clusters, four smaller clusters, and lone assassins along the shortest route…”

“Lone assassins aren’t a problem, but I really don’t want to fight small groups… but going around them would probably waste a lot of time…” Keng Huo tapped his head in exasperation. “Time is of the essence now, there’s no time to think about it…”

"What about this one?" Keng Huo bit his finger impatiently, while his other hand drew a route map on the screen of his personal data terminal. "This area has almost no Honkai Beasts or zombies. Although it's a bit roundabout, it's not too far off the route. On the contrary, if I can travel at full speed in this area, it might even be faster than the shortest path..."

"As for why there are no Honkai Beasts in this area... who cares? Anyway, there's no time to think about it too much now. Besides, it's not that there are no Honkai creatures in this area, they're just relatively weak and sparse, so there shouldn't be any hidden dangers..." Perhaps because the impact of the warship AI on him was too great, Keng Huo still felt an unnamed anger with nowhere to vent, and the anxiety in his heart was even more difficult to calm down.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that Elisa's current situation was likely very bad, but he had no information whatsoever, and the only possible source of information now required him to risk his life to rescue her...

Keng Huo stood up and deftly stuffed all the things on the ground into the pocket of his tracksuit. The pocket seemed to be a bottomless pit; after putting in two instruments larger than his palm, it didn't bulge at all.

Keng Huo stood on the edge of the rooftop, silently staring at the hordes of zombies wandering aimlessly below. Unconsciously, a murderous aura slowly surfaced in his eyes.

“Theresa… I finally understand why you’ve been preventing me from touching the warships… I hope you can give me a satisfactory explanation… Why have you been keeping things from me… about Elisa…”

"Whether I am friend or foe to St. Freya Academy... let's settle everything here..."

A gust of wind swept by, and Keng Huo's figure vanished as if by magic.

·

Keng Huo clung firmly to the wall, like a nimble cat, silently darting between the ruins, appearing and disappearing. The surrounding building ruins and car wrecks served as cover for him. He didn't stop for a moment, as if all his actions were already planned in his mind and he was simply carrying them out.

"At this speed, we should reach the area with extremely low collapse reaction in about forty seconds. Once we enter that area, our speed should increase significantly, which means we might reach Theresa's communicator location within half an hour..." Even while traveling at high speed, Keng Huo still had time to pull out his personal data terminal to check the time. "The current direction is correct..."