Honkai Impact 3rd experience, starting with a thousand Herrschers

"Mr. Mike seems to have something he can't say. When he was talking with his friends today, he didn't show his usual enthusiasm. He seemed a bit silent today and kept spacing out. His eyes would often wander off. It's obvious that either something bad has happened at home or he has done something he feels guilty about."

Over the past six months, Otto has independently learned how to identify the unusual little movements a person makes when lying. This is all experience accumulated through a lot of observation. At first, he couldn't see anything, but as the number of times increased, he would always find that when people were saying certain things, they would unconsciously make some subtle movements, and then compare them with some things he had heard in the tavern.

You can tell for yourself that those subtle little gestures indicate that someone is lying.

He can also tell whether a person has recently encountered something based on their unusual behavior that is completely different from usual.

"Okay, let's go find the teacher to learn the next course today."

Otto finally decided to find a teacher to study the next course because he felt that he was now able to hide his own emotions well and observe the emotions of others.

After Yu Chengxing shared his growth story, Chengxing genuinely felt that compared to Alto, he was just an ordinary person, having been engrossed in reading novels at his age.

Hmm? You're asking how old Otto is now? He's 7 years old.

"The second lesson will be more difficult, Otto. You've learned how to observe others and hide yourself, so now you need to learn how to communicate."

"Language is an extremely powerful weapon. In this society, a lot of information and emotions are always generated when people communicate. You need to learn how to communicate, how to get interesting information from others, and how to unconsciously stir up other people's emotions and make them fall into your rhythm. This is a crucial ability in future negotiations."

"A more advanced approach is to learn to control the public's speech, making them unconsciously conform to your ideas. The messages and information you spread will make them unconsciously believe certain things, and then this message, which may be right or wrong, will continue to spread."

"This is the power of manipulation. Once you have this ability, judging a person's character is simply a matter of spreading a message."

"As for whether those rumors that have been spread are true or false, and what consequences they will bring, you need to think it through. What I want you to think about is not how much harm this matter will cause to others, but what benefits it will bring to yourself."

After listening to his teacher's words, Otto seemed to have grasped something in the darkness. He bowed respectfully and left.

Cheng Xing watched Otto leave, then turned to look at Cheng Xi, who was staring at him with a strange look, and asked with some confusion.

Why are you looking at me like that?

"It's nothing, I just remembered something I found in your memories."

"what's up?"

"Do you remember when you were in elementary school, you wrote down in your notebook which boys and girls in your class were supposedly dating?

"I remember, but didn't some male classmate find out later, which made me lose face a bit?"

"...Yes, that boy transferred schools later. It's said that the school heard about him frequently harassing and provoking girls."

"Oh dear, it's getting late, we should prepare lunch."

Chapter 235: Phase Two

"People are always so captivated by beautiful things that they can't extricate themselves. Those beautiful memories of the past will always become the deepest impressions in their minds, and they will not fade away for a long time. But the opposite of beauty, the things that make people feel fear and dread, are often much more profound than those precious memories."

"After all, how can a gentle touch compare to a deep scar? A gentle touch only leaves a slight impression on your heart, which will fade away with time, but the remaining scar will still leave a mark on your face even as time changes."

Looking at the countless black humanoid monsters resembling himself on the crimson desert, Cheng Xing, dressed in black, revealed an extremely arrogant smile.

"Sorry, sorry, it's too impolite to communicate with you bunch of irrational self-defense systems. After all, you are a bunch of emotionless, boring guys, like machines."

The black humanoid creatures kept appearing, gradually covering the red desert. From the air, you could even see that many of the humanoids could no longer stand on the desert and instead chose to stand on the bodies of their companions.

But that's not all. Countless new black humanoid creatures keep appearing from unknown corners, constantly filling the little space left. They transform into black waves, threatening to submerge the only unusual color standing in the center.

Cheng Xing, dressed in an extremely expensive-looking black suit, adjusted his monocle, extended his left hand to the side, and placed his right hand in front of his chest in a noble gesture. Then, a polite smile appeared on his lips as he said, "Well then, let's begin this crazy banquet!"

Countless black threads extended from the crimson desert, binding the pitch-black monsters and causing them to emit thick black smoke. Then, they began to fight each other with their companions.

"Sigh, I wonder how long it will take to completely defeat this self-defense counterattack system. How long did it take Otto back then? Oh well, we just need to wait quietly."

Cheng Xing, dressed in black, calmly observed the battlefield filled with endless fighting. After all, his job was simply to stand here and attract enough attention.

In the simulation, Cheng Xing is also gradually teaching Otto, from initially observing his words and expressions to later communicating and exchanging ideas, and then to understanding people's hearts and grasping their weaknesses.

Otto was stained with many black ink spots from what was then a clean sheet of paper.

At night, Otto will have a new lesson: to see his future self.

The devil said that if he hadn't gone to find the teacher, or if the teacher hadn't appeared, he would have experienced a completely different life.

As part of the deal, the devil showed himself what he would do in the future.

Otto saw just how utterly depraved his future self would be. In order to fulfill Karen's wish and save Europe from the Black Death, he completely abandoned human morality and conscience, and frantically conducted all sorts of human experiments.

Later, in order to save Kallen from being sent to the execution ground, she even released those Honkai Beasts, which ultimately led to Kallen's death in the battle to save the people.

But after Kallen's death, he truly descended into madness. What had he done to resurrect Kallen? The sins he had committed were so numerous that he could no longer even begin to recount them.

Even so, Otto did not feel any fear about his future self; he just felt inexplicably sad.

Because he had nothing left.

"After I've grasped the future, I'm sure I can change that ending! As long as I go to the family's forbidden area to obtain the Void Treasury after some time, and find a way to prevent Kallen from getting the information about the Black Box from the church, I can perfectly avoid that ending!"

Otto clenched his fists. Three years had passed since he last met his teacher, and he had grown to be 10 years old. He no longer looked like a little girl.

He was filled with confidence at that moment, feeling that he could definitely change that dark future, prevent so many people from sacrificing themselves, prevent so many people from crying, and prevent himself from falling into that dark state.

The system, however, looked at the confident Otto and, unnoticed by anyone, revealed a wicked smile.

"Under normal circumstances, you could indeed change that outcome, but alas! Fate has already been decided, and you cannot change the course of the world... No, if Cheng Xing wanted to change this fate, he could, but to achieve his own goals, Cheng Xing cannot change the past."

"And this ensures that Otto, you will definitely reach a final deal with me at the last moment."

The system did not tell Otto that the ending was unchangeable; any gift of fate had already been secretly acquired.

You have received help from an unknown powerful being and gained access to the devil's future resources.

So how will you repay these two gifts?

As the system was thinking this happily, it suddenly sensed something, quickly checked, confirmed the situation on the other side of the tree, and then sighed.

"So it has already begun? That part that was split off has started causing trouble on the tree... but it's mostly just stalling for time, so the tree, which is currently focused on fighting the collapsing universe, is ignoring it."

"But this also proves that Cheng Xing has successfully achieved the first phase of the plan... The next step is the second phase."

Outside, in the treetop, in the world bubble that once belonged to Moonlit Embrace and Sin Hunter, the young man who worked as a waiter at the fried chicken shop, serving a few people in the dead of night, adjusted his hat, smiled, expressed his resignation to his manager, walked out of the shop, and quickly disappeared.

At this moment, numerous tiny wooden boats suddenly appeared on the Sea of ​​Quanta, each carrying a figure draped in a black robe and shrouded in shadow.

Their goal is to reach those ever-sinking and dissipating world bubbles.

In one particular world, the cherry blossom-colored ninja who had accepted the request arrived before her employer. Looking at the unknown figure shrouded in shadow, she cautiously asked, "Who are you?"

In a neon-lit, seemingly incredibly advanced city, a young mercenary looked at his employer, whose appearance and gender were completely obscured, and asked, "Who are you?"

The white-haired girl, bearing the name of a wise king, looked at the assassin who appeared before her, took a deep breath, suppressed the chaotic emotions in her heart, and asked, "Who exactly are you?"

Those shrouded in black robes spoke in the same tone, the same intonation, and the same unsettling, hoarse voice.

"I am the ferryman."

Chapter 236: Dawn

Cheng Xing paused slightly as he wiped the glasses in the tavern. He could sense that his backup plan from his time in other worlds had been activated.

How is that possible? This is 500 years ago! How could someone in this time period possibly sense future events?

But don't forget that Cheng Xing did indeed gain some power over time.

That naturally came from the collaboration between Honkai Impact and Date A Live, when Cheng Xing asked Tokisaki Kurumi to repair the Herrscher Gem, and extracted a certain amount of power from that repairing power.

This is why his existence can no longer be altered, and time has already begun to be under his control.

Cheng Xing placed the glass in his hand on the table, and it slowly filled with white liquid, as if someone in the void was filling the glass with liquid.

After the glass was filled, Cheng Xing picked it up, took a sip, savored the rich aroma of milk in his mouth, and nodded in satisfaction.

He then stuffed the glass directly into the cupboard, stacking it with other glasses. But somehow, the milk that filled the glass had long since disappeared, and the glass itself was completely transparent, without a single stain.

"You're becoming more and more adept at using time."

Cheng Xi walked in from outside, looked at everything Cheng Xing had just done, and said with a smile, "If it weren't for this power of time, your core wouldn't have been repaired so quickly... So can you tell me, did you plan all of this a long time ago?"

"How could I possibly foresee so many things? I'm just organizing and summarizing everything that's already there. As I've said before, I've never been a wise man, and I don't have that many heaven-defying schemes or amazing calculation abilities."

Cheng Xing smiled and shook his head, then took out a fruit platter from the side and placed it on the table, saying, "I won't ask you what you did last night, just have some late-night snack."

Cheng Xi glanced at the fruit platter on the table, looked at Cheng Xing with a strange expression, and then said, "Didn't I say that I was created based on your situation?"

"Ok?"

"So, if you don't like fruit, I don't like it either. If you don't like fish, I don't like fish either."

Cheng Xing nodded as if he suddenly understood, and then apologized slightly before taking out some prepared fried food and placing it on the table.

Cheng Xi squinted at Cheng Xing. She knew this was yet another test from this guy, and she wondered why he had been testing her repeatedly over the past three years to see if she had created her self based on his personality and body.

Or does this guy have some plans?

Cheng Xing's smile remained kind and proactive, because with the Clown skill, no one could see through his facial expressions to discern his true thoughts.

Cheng Xi snorted unhappily, then picked up the fries on the plate, dipped them in ketchup, and put them in her mouth. She regretted not giving him this skill in the first place. She had only given it to him to mock him, but she never expected it to be so useful now!

"Three years have already passed, when are you planning to leave the simulation?"

Cheng Xi looked at Cheng Xing, who was still dealing with the things in his hands, and asked.

This simulation was essentially devoid of any tasks; the task section was even pixelated, which proved to the system that it no longer needed guidance from the system.

He has found his own path and no longer needs anyone to guide him on how to move forward.

Therefore, for Cheng Xing, whether or not to leave this simulation is entirely up to him.

“No need to rush. I plan to wait until Otto and Karen’s story is over before leaving… After all, we might really have to say goodbye when we get back.”

At this point, Cheng Xing put down everything in his hands, looked directly into Cheng Xi's eyes, and said, "Although you always mocked me at the beginning, and I always said I was pitiful, I have to admit that you gave me a lot of help and allowed me to have this fantastic journey... To be honest, I feel that I may have gotten used to your presence in my life... I really can't let go of your departure."

"You're already the most important friend in my heart... and I really don't want to experience the feeling of a friend leaving me again."

Upon hearing this, Cheng Xi looked at Cheng Xing's somewhat dim eyes, then walked behind the bar and embraced the somewhat dejected young man.

“Fool, how can there be a feast that never ends... Even if you are reluctant, our separation is already a fact. We have accompanied each other for so long, and now, in the end, I have accompanied you as a human being for three years... You should admit it, you should accept it.”

"...I'm sorry, you must have seen this funny. So much time has passed, and you still look so childish and pathetic. I'm really sorry."

“It’s alright… Cheng Xing, you are my favorite host from the past to the present, and even in the distant future. Maybe you are not as resilient as others, maybe you are not as wise as others, but to me, you are already the best one.”

"...Isn't there any way to keep you from leaving?"

"Can you stop your evolution? If you stop evolving and stop mastering concepts, then of course I won't leave and will stay here with you! But are you willing to stop?"