Honkai Impact 3rd experience, starting with a thousand Herrschers

Chapter Twenty: Vigilance

Cheng Xing was taken out of the laboratory by Alicia. Although he cherished himself as a precious experimental subject, Mebius did not want to argue with Alicia. Anyway, there was still plenty of time to study this mutant properly.

Alicia never stopped talking the whole way, constantly discussing the people and things around her, introducing the various situations in the base, and greeting everyone she met along the way in a friendly manner. She was simply a charming woman.

How could such a kind, sunny, and sweet girl not attract those around her? She's just too adorable, isn't she?

However, Cheng Xing always felt that such a person must have some hidden secret. She couldn't possibly be as kind and sunny as she appeared on the surface. Besides, according to the two-dimensional law of "pink on the outside, black on the inside," there must be a dark side behind Alicia.

Moreover, when I watched the videos, it seemed that many people had some doubts about Alicia and thought she was a bad woman.

"Cheng Xing! Why have you been so downcast the whole way? Are you worried about something? Tell me, and if I can help, I will!"

Alicia moved closer to Cheng Xing, and the distance between them closed at that moment. Cheng Xing even smelled a very, very ominous odor.

It wasn't the scent of a beautiful young girl, nor was it perfume; it was a strangely familiar scent that inexplicably made me tremble.

"Why does this feeling feel so familiar? It's like I've smelled it somewhere before."

Cheng Xing subconsciously used his ability on the beautiful girl in front of him, wanting to see what her fear was, but he saw nothing.

Yes, it's not that we can't see it or can't see through it, it's that we really can't see anything at all.

He couldn't see any fear in this woman's heart at all; her heart seemed to be filled with pink emotions, and she maintained a love for everything around her.

It's as if her inner self is exactly the same as her outward appearance.

"No, besides Alicia, I've only ever met one person whose inner self matches their outward appearance..."

"Atres".

Cheng Xing began to recall where that familiar feeling came from, and then he came to a conclusion: it was a part of the Herrscher's essence that he had discerned by using the scarecrow to delve into the Herrscher of Thunder's heart.

Alicia is a Herrscher?!

Holy crap, so she really is a bad woman.

Cheng Xing was deeply shocked, but on the surface he remained indifferent and did not respond to the beautiful young girl beside him.

Alicia felt that her new friend seemed to be just like Kosmo, unwilling to talk.

After thinking about it, Alicia decided to take him to meet her friends. Maybe if he had more friends, he would be more willing to talk, and that would bring him more comfort in this world.

And so, Cheng Xing was taken by Alicia to visit other people, and he met some of the people he knew, such as Kevin, who now had a cold face and exuded a chilling aura, and Qian Jie, who radiated a violent aura and told the two of them to get lost without hesitation.

There's also a cat.

"New companion, want to buy something? I have a wide variety of goods here!"

Padofelis has a pair of cat ears and a constantly wagging tail behind her; she's actually a living catgirl!

besides…………

Cheng Xing was introduced to one of Alicia's best friends, a very imposing nun.

Cheng Xing looked at the nun's unassuming eyes and the calming aura she exuded, but then he glanced at her incredibly alluring figure and felt a strong shock, as if his XP system was being challenged.

This is a clash between abstinence and lust!

Aponia was puzzled by this new companion. She was born with the ability to see other people's fates, and this ability had become increasingly powerful after becoming a Fusion Warrior. But she had never encountered a situation like this before. She could not see any information about this person in front of her.

Yes, it's not about a bleak future or no future at all, but simply that you can't see anything at all, as if you've lost that ability and can't see anything at all.

"You are not from this world."

Cheng Xing shuddered. What was going on? His identity outside the world had been discovered so quickly? Wasn't it supposed to be hidden? Why did this person suddenly find out?

Seeing Cheng Xing's shocked expression, Aponia knew the answer. She had an idea, then reached out and grabbed Cheng Xing's hand, saying, "[Please] do me a favor, okay?"

Cheng Xing could feel a strange mental fluctuation entering his mind, trying to influence his will.

Perhaps you can't beat these fusion warriors who have been tempered in blood and fire in terms of destructive power and combat strength, but if you try to play mental games with them, you'll be in trouble unless you can control the concept of fear.

Oh, of course, if you really do that, then great, you'll be me, because you'll be Federico too.

You've got a new body! (laughs)

Cheng Xing tried to pull his hand away from the other person's, but found an overwhelming force gripping his hand tightly, making it impossible for him to pull away.

So he really is a fusion warrior? This terrifying power is truly exaggerated. With my current mediocre physical condition, it's far too much of a stretch.

"Let go first, and stop your mind manipulation tricks, or I will take this as a provocation against me!"

Aponia discovered that the person before her was unaffected by her precepts, and her longing grew even stronger. She knew that the possibility of changing the future of others must lie with this person.

"I had already decided to give up, but then God suddenly arranged for this person to come here. Is this our chance? Or is it just hastening our fate?"

"But this is also the last chance. We don't have much time left. This is the last Fusion Warrior, the Twelfth Herrscher, and his birth is imminent. Whether we can change that predetermined fate depends on him."

Cheng Xing tried to pull his hand out again, but to his utter embarrassment, he couldn't move it at all.

At this moment, in the paradise of the afterlife, a charming pink-haired fairy was sitting on the sofa when she suddenly saw something.

"Ah, has he already gone back to the past?"

Chapter Twenty-One: The Lawgiver of Knowledge

Cheng Xing finally managed to shake off the two women's entanglement and began wandering around the base alone. The current timeline seemed to be before the birth of the Herrscher of Corruption, meaning that the previous generation's Rin had not yet been killed...

"Damn! I almost forgot about this. I have to find it quickly! I can't let a tragedy unfold before my eyes. Now that I have the ability and the means, I have to give it a try!"

Cheng Xing wanted to find Ling immediately, but the more serious problem was how he could find her. Although he had become the last fusion warrior and had successfully undergone the super-transformation surgery at this critical moment, could his status really allow him to inquire about such confidential matters?

However, there was one thing that puzzled Cheng Xing. He could feel the fear of the collapse among the people in the base, but at this point, the fear should not be so little. Why had the despair and confusion among the people been almost gone?

Why are they so convinced that humanity can defeat the Honkai? Faced with such overwhelming reality and despair, it's already a miracle that humans don't collapse on their own, so why are they all so full of confidence?

"Something's not right, definitely not right. Could it be that their mental state has been affected?"

Cheng Xing brushed past those people, and seeing their smiling and exchanging greetings, and the lack of fear in their hearts, he frowned. He had reason to suspect that the mental state of the people in these bases, or even in other bases, had been affected.

"wrong!!!"

At this moment, Cheng Xing suddenly remembered something. Since the incident involving the Herrscher of Corruption was approaching, and the incident involving the Herrscher of Domination led to the assassination of Mebius, her body should have shrunk to some extent, instead of remaining at the level of an adult's body as it is now.

"System! Tell me, am I truly in the past right now? Or am I in some strange world or a virtual world?"

"This is an excerpt from the river of time."

"Don't just say that; isn't there more information?"

The system did not respond.

For some reason, Cheng Xing felt a strong sense of unease. He had an intuition that everything around him was a little blurry.

"Never mind that, instead of worrying about why there's a slight discrepancy in the timing, let's hurry up and find that poor child!"

Cheng Xing shook his head, suppressing his vague premonition, and then, by constantly sensing the fear of those around him, he found the place they feared most, which must be some important location.

Then he found a restricted area, heavily guarded, where he could also smell a scent—the scent of a Herrscher.

Just as Cheng Xing was about to step into that quiet place, a pink figure suddenly blocked his way.

"Cheng Xing, you haven't eaten since you woke up, have you? Shall I take you to the cafeteria?"

Alicia tried to take Cheng Xing away from here.

"Alice, I'm busy right now. Let me come over."

Alicia did not stop Cheng Xing, but simply stood there watching the young man run forward without a smile on her face.

Cheng Xing ran into the area, only to find that the usually heavily patrolled guards had all disappeared. Although his ominous premonition grew stronger, he didn't care and ran quickly to the place with the strongest smell.

He came to a door that had been opened, and inside the room, he saw two men dressed as soldiers beating a dead child.

"Die, monster!"

They shouted and roared, their faces filled with smiles of both joy and despair.

That child had already been beaten to death, so why were they still torturing a corpse like this?

Cheng Xing's face was grim. He swung his sickle and slashed across.

Then something seemed to fall silent.

Everything around him suddenly began to blur, and all sorts of chaotic information surged before him. Everything around him began to become unreal, and then he appeared in front of a woman.

"Your Excellency, please do not continue."

A woman with pink hair and fox ears stood in front of him, holding a chilling katana in her hand.

"...The paradise of the past, am I in the paradise now?"

Were those experiences just now shown to me by Alicia?

Why did she do that?

"No, that's not right. The system's voice clearly says this is the pre-civilization era! Impossible, the system can't be wrong. That means I'm definitely in the pre-civilization time period right now, but here..."

"I am an ordinary fusion warrior..."

Cheng Xing seemed to understand something. He looked at the woman in front of him who was holding a chilling katana, then took a deep breath, and his eyes flashed with a scarlet light.

Everything around was engulfed in a crimson storm. Countless crows began to circle and caw, and countless fears began to settle and spread within it—an endless terror.

A storm of crows!

This was the Crowstorm that Cheng Xing had witnessed firsthand, unleashed by the real Fiddlesticks. It was a power that could truly frighten even a stone golem with little thought.

Fine cracks appeared on everything around him, and then the scene shattered. He was standing on a wasteland, and far too many people had fallen around him.

"Congratulations, host, you have broken through the illusion and entered the real world. We are now beginning to play the real situation at specific times..."

"In the pre-civilization era, time was the law of knowledge."

Cheng Xing saw the figure floating in the sky, a person whose appearance was unclear and who exuded an extremely strong sense of illusion.

"The infection I received wasn't mental. This guy's ability, although mentally inclined, possesses a terrifying infectiousness, a meme... But the problem is, what about those Fire Chasing Heroes I don't recognize later? Are they just figments of my imagination?"

Although Cheng Xing was puzzled, he already knew what he had to do: kill the guy upstairs who dared to play with his memories.

"You are indeed very capable, using meme-like abilities to trap me in a dream. After all, my personality is still that of an ordinary person, not at the level of Federico."

"You're happy to be in my dream, aren't you? You're happy to witness tragedy unfold before your eyes, yet be powerless to change it?! If it weren't for the silence created by that scythe, what would you have shown me next? Witness something even more despairing, wouldn't you?"