Honkai Impact 3rd experience, starting with a thousand Herrschers

Cheng Xing reached out and clenched his fists, feeling the abundant power within his body and the absence of purple patterns on his skin. He knew that he had inexplicably evolved to the point where he could adapt to Honkai energy.

"really."

At that moment, Cheng Xing took out a syringe from his pocket, containing some unknown murky liquid. He placed the needle directly into his neck and whispered, "I don't know if what I'm doing is too extreme, or if it will get your attention, but I know that if I don't do something, I'll be driven mad by this heavy pressure and fear. All this time working hasn't really distracted me. Those so-called feelings of illusion and fear are constantly accumulating. If this continues, I'm destined to collapse, so I have to do something."

"This injection contains biological essence that I have extracted from various organisms over the past few months. It contains mutations produced by the interaction between the genes of various organisms and Honkai energy. I don't know what changes will occur once it is injected into my body. But if I am truly a Herrscher, this special individual, it is absolutely impossible for me to be killed by Honkai energy."

"If you're really watching me from behind, come out and tell me who you are! Stop playing the riddle game! Answer me right now, who am I? And who are you?!"

The air was eerily silent. Even the so-called split personalities were nowhere to be seen. They all seemed to be coldly watching a person about to die.

Or perhaps they were all convinced that even if they did this, Cheng Xing would not die.

"...It seems you are all very confident that I will survive after I inject this stuff?"

Cheng Xing decided to verify it.

"Now it's time to find out if I'm just having a mental breakdown, or if everything I'm delusional about is actually true."

Without any hesitation, Cheng Xing pierced his neck with the injection and injected the large amount of undiluted liquid into his body.

The original fluid was continuously distributed throughout the body via the major arteries in the neck.

Cheng Xing felt a sudden burning sensation in his body. The burning sensation was extremely familiar to him, as if he had experienced it many times before, just like the first time he felt it.

That feeling was indeed incredibly familiar, and some fragments vaguely appeared in my mind. One was a scene of myself lying on the ground as if I was about to lose my life, with thunder and lightning in the sky above.

A crow perched on the shoulder of a scarecrow, calmly gazing at the countless corpses on the ground.

Many similar fragmented or isolated images suddenly appeared in Cheng Xing's mind, but they couldn't evoke any complete story or logic, as if they were just simple hallucinations.

When the hallucinations subsided, Cheng Xing found himself standing unharmed on the ground, while the syringe had fallen to the ground and shattered.

"........."

Cheng Xing looked at the gemstone in front of him, whose color had dimmed considerably, and silently reached out his hand. An invisible force actually drew the gemstone into his hand.

Then a tiny, dark, twisted dot appeared in the air.

"The Herald of Reason, the Star of Eden, a simulated black hole... Wa... I can't remember..."

Cheng Xing did not linger over the power that could distort gravity and construct all things in the world. He simply put the gem back in its place and left.

He reopened the sealed laboratory door, and after making sure no one noticed anything amiss, he returned to his room and collapsed onto the bed.

"So I am just a part of someone after all... Herrscher of Reason... Is that the name of the first Herrscher born from the Honkai?"

There was one thing Cheng Xing didn't actually say: the original fluids he extracted were actually taken from the brains of those creatures.

This is why he chose to inject it in the neck. Initially, he thought that this would increase the chances of death and failure, but unexpectedly, some unknown change occurred, allowing him to see some of Cheng Xing's real memories.

"...Am I really willing to become a part of someone? To become a mere illusion in someone's life memories?"

Cheng Xing was unwilling. In this world, he had good friends, a good boss, a comfortable working environment, and goals and studies that he wanted to achieve. He didn't want to just become a virtual existence.

He didn't want to be part of what was supposed to be a complete personality.

"I want to do something, I must do something. I don't want to be a part of someone else. I want to be my true self, I want to be a self with a complete personality!"

At this moment, Cheng Xing's eyes turned bloodshot, as if some unknown thing had appeared on him through layers of time and space.

[Initiating detection of host's mental and physical condition... Detection complete, no abnormalities found, indicating a situation of internal conflict within the host... No special memes detected... No effects of spacetime fallacies detected... No global interference detected... Confirmed, this simulation is without abnormalities and does not require termination.]

Chapter 71: Alicia

Mebius suddenly frowned during the meeting. For some reason, she had a bad feeling, as if something had happened that she didn't know about.

"Dr. Möbius, while your ideas have some merit, they are too radical for humanity today. I'm afraid we cannot agree to your experimental requests."

Upon hearing this answer, Möbius's expression grew increasingly grim. She stated directly, "At this stage, human trials are essential. We have already completed numerous animal experiments and are fully capable of conducting preliminary human trials to ensure the integration of Honkai with humans. Only then can we..."

"Alright, you don't need to say any more. As things stand, those beasts are only slightly stronger, equivalent to some heavy tanks. Even if some so-called special individuals appear, they would be no match for human intelligence. Why not just use a large number of missiles to clean up the surface like before?"

“Human experimentation is far too inhumane and radical. Here’s what we’ve decided: I see you’ve been working very hard these past few months. We’ve decided to give all members of the First Laboratory a short break and have other laboratories take over the research on that special gem.”

It sounded nice, but in reality, it was just a matter of letting the First Laboratory go through an initial exploratory period before handing over the subsequent work to others. This "use and discard" attitude made Möbius very angry.

However, she knew that she was just a researcher and didn't have the power to fight back against these guys, at least not now. But thankfully, even if they cut off their funding, thankfully, Cheng Xing was still there.

The thought that she at least had someone to support her and a backer lessened her anger at the new Mebius policy, and she simply glanced at them indifferently.

Her snake-like eyes sent chills down the spines of everyone present. They all thought Mebius was about to do something crazy, but she calmly left, which relieved everyone.

Cheng Xing calmly greeted the doctor, and seeing her less-than-pleasant expression, he knew her proposal had been rejected. He said, "Doctor, I've said it before, now is not a good time to propose human experimentation. For the higher-ups, the disasters caused can be suppressed with firearms. Moreover, if outsiders or lower-ranking soldiers and staff were to find out, it would cause a huge public outcry, especially since it's not a life-or-death situation. That would put the higher-ups in a precarious position. For the sake of internal stability, they will not conduct human experiments now."

"What you said makes sense. Perhaps it's too radical of me to propose this bill now, but I don't know how many changes this cataclysmic collapse will bring, or how quickly it will happen. Maybe it won't be long before the second special individual, the Herrscher, is born. What kind of abilities will that being have? What kind of impact will it have on humanity? How much land will be wasted being cleansed by missiles?"

"Human beings are too fragile, so this is the only way to go, a vicious cycle. Only by perfectly adapting to that environment and becoming as powerful as those beings can we avoid wasting a lot of manpower, resources, and money to eliminate an individual."

Although Mebius said this, he wasn't too upset. Even though the gem that could trigger a Honkai energy reaction had been taken away, the remaining Honkai energy accumulated over the past few months, as well as the corpses of the mutants collected from various places, could still be used for experiments.

If it were the person before meeting Cheng Xing, they would probably be living frugally by now. After all, those bastards above cut off their funding. If they didn't live frugally, they probably wouldn't even have the money to maintain the experimental equipment.

As soon as Mebius thought about this, he began to carefully examine the boy who had been helping him. The more he looked at him, the more inexplicably pleasing he became.

"That's strange. I didn't feel anything before, but now the more I look at this little guy, the more pleasing he seems to me. Has something changed about him? Or has my attitude towards him changed?"

Mebius felt that it must be because his opinion of him had changed that he acted this way.

Klein returned at this time, but she was followed by a pink-haired woman.

"Doctor, this is Alicia, who just arrived at this base. She said she came specifically to visit you."

When Mebius heard that the visitor had come specifically to see him, he was somewhat surprised, given his notorious reputation within the entire Moth of Fire.

"Hello, I'm Alicia! I thought the famous Dr. Mebius would be a cold and gloomy woman, but I didn't expect her to be such a cute girl!"

This girl named Alicia walked over very familiarly, seemingly completely unconcerned about the Doctor's reputation. "You don't seem to care much about my reputation, do you?"

"People outside say you're as cold and venomous as a snake, but in my opinion you're a very pretty girl. Let's be friends!"

"what!"

Mebius looked at this extremely outgoing woman with a puzzled expression, completely unable to understand what she was thinking.

"Let's go! It's almost lunchtime, so let's eat and chat at the same time! Isn't there a saying that people who eat and chat at the same table will quickly become closer?"

Cheng Xing watched as Mebius was pulled away by Alicia. He wondered if it was just his imagination, but he felt that the woman was always looking at him intentionally or unintentionally, and he also felt a sense of familiarity about her.

It wasn't a familiarity in terms of temperament or aura, but rather a feeling of déjà vu about his appearance.

"Could it be that my true self knows her or has met her before? Maybe I can get some information about my true self from her."

Cheng Xing felt that he would probably have to play along with this woman for a while in the future. Although he thought the woman was a bit hypocritical, there was nothing he could do about it.

Chapter 72: A Fairy-like Woman

As night fell, Cheng Xing sat alone in his room, pondering how to confront that so-called real, other self.

However, out of his sight, a group of people were pointing and whispering.

"Who do you think he's fighting against?"

How would I know?

“You know him best, Gerald. Of all our puppets, you’ve spent the most time with him.”

"Ah...maybe it's fighting against itself."

Why is he fighting against himself?

"Perhaps it was because we were too active that he was reminded of some things from the past. Then those memories didn't match his current memories, which made him think that everything about him was a fabricated existence arranged by someone else, so he started to struggle with himself."

"Oh, I get it, The Matrix, right?! I've seen that movie... what was it again? I can't remember."

"So we're just going to stand by and watch without offering any advice?"

"He won't believe it anyway, and if we go out, it will only make things worse. It's better to just watch the show! I bet a cup of lava that once this guy sobers up, he'll be so ashamed that he'll want to commit suicide!"

"I'm betting. If we lose, I'll feed him a bucket of lava on the spot!"

"Make way, make way, I'm coming too, but I bet I'll discover some truths along the way."

This group of hidden personalities were arguing and betting with each other, displaying a delightful and amused attitude. This made the supervisor in charge shake his head helplessly, and then he began to discuss with Tan Si, who was next to him, which side had a better chance of winning and whether they should join in.

Surrounded by onlookers, someone began to design what he considered a fairly cautious plan and wrote it down on paper.

the next day.

Although the higher-ups have cancelled the research plan for the first laboratory, they have not abolished its staffing. Everyone can still use the equipment and permissions here to do what they want.

Cheng Xing originally wanted to come back and study the cell dissolution mechanism between Honkai energy and various life forms, as well as the ecological impact of Honkai energy on plants. However, before he could even begin his research, he saw a pink-haired figure next to Mebius, looking around curiously.

It was Alicia, the same Alicia who dared to strike up a conversation with the person with the worst reputation in the base as soon as she arrived yesterday.

"Hello! I didn't have a chance to say hello yesterday. My name is Alicia, and I'm a super beautiful girl inside and out! Young man, what's your name?"

Cheng Xing wasn't particularly handsome. When he hung out with Su and Kevin, he was like a supporting character, mainly serving as a reference point to highlight just how handsome his two friends were.

Of course, he wasn't ugly, but he was just too ordinary-looking, with no outstanding features or memorable characteristics.

"Hello, my name is Cheng Xing, an ordinary researcher whose main job is to serve as Dr. Möbius's assistant."

As Cheng Xing introduced himself, it was quite obvious that Alicia in front of him seemed a little dazed. Then, she suddenly broke into an extremely beautiful smile. No, rather, she had been smiling like that the whole time.

"Ah, so he's just an ordinary researcher."

For some reason, she pronounced the four words "ordinary" with great emphasis, which gave Cheng Xing a strange sense of unease.

"Sir researcher, would you mind showing me around the base? There's nothing much to do in the lab right now, is that alright? Thank you!"

As a beautiful girl, Alicia has the right to act cute, and her charm is quite formidable, even making Cheng Xing momentarily stunned.

"...Cheng Xing, you should take her to the base for a look around, so she doesn't bother people here."

Mebius appeared calm and positive, but Klein noticed that the doctor had just entered a series of incorrect data.

"Alright, since it's your request, Doctor, I'll grant it."

Cheng Xing nodded. He was also planning to take this opportunity to thoroughly investigate the woman's background and whether she could help him fight against him.

After the two left, Mebius took a deep breath and decided to go back and correct the data he had entered incorrectly.

Klein asked, "Doctor, if you're worried, why don't you come along?"