Honkai Impact 3rd experience, starting with a thousand Herrschers

Kiana quickly fell asleep, whether from exhaustion or the overwhelming comfort of the feeling of security. Ever since she began wandering this world alone, she had learned to remain vigilant even in her sleep, always ready to fight.

Even those he had helped in the past, he could not let his guard down, for he had witnessed betrayal after betrayal.

But for some reason, I can actually relax and have a proper rest next to this guy.

Cheng Xing looked at Kiana, who was already fast asleep, and at her curled-up body. He closed his book and conjured up an even thicker blanket to cover the girl.

Then Cheng Xing heard the sounds outside, which were not peaceful even at night, as well as the Honkai Beasts and Death Warriors that were wandering around and disturbing the tranquility.

He frowned slightly, looked at Kiana who was already fast asleep, then opened the door and went out.

After a few minutes, all the sounds outside quieted down. Cheng Xing returned to the living room, gently closed the door, straightened his clothes, sat back on the sofa, and picked up his book again.

As dawn approached, it remained perfectly quiet outside; no more strange noises or oddities appeared to disturb anyone's sleep.

Kiana stretched and sat up from the sofa, rubbing her eyes a little groggy. She looked around at the somewhat familiar living room, then glanced at the clock on the wall and realized it was already 9:00.

"Did I sleep for that long?"

Kiana murmured in surprise, then noticed that she was covered with an extra blanket. As for who did it, there was no need to guess.

Looking around, Kiana realized that the person who had been sitting there last night was no longer there.

But since I got up so late, I guess I didn't have breakfast. I'll just eat some biscuits or bread to fill my stomach.

Just as Kiana got up from the sofa, intending to grab something to eat and get by,

"You must have worked too hard yesterday. I made some meat porridge. It wasn't exactly delicious, but at least it tasted pretty good."

Cheng Xing placed a bowl of hot lean meat porridge on the table and continued, "Raiden Mei woke up around 6 a.m., and Bronya woke up around 5 a.m. After they finished breakfast, Raiden Mei kept talking to Bronya, constantly encouraging the girl's self-reflection and emotional development. Now that a while has passed, we should be able to get some useful information. You should eat something first, and we'll go and find out more later."

Kiana looked at the steaming rice porridge that had been prepared for her when she woke up, and felt a lump in her throat.

"What's wrong, Kiana?"

Cheng Xing looked at Kiana, who seemed a little dazed, and asked.

"It's nothing, I just feel that meeting you is the only time I've been so lucky in all these years."

"You're exaggerating too much. It's like you're making me sound like I have some kind of guaranteed minimum return."

"Hehe, maybe so."

Chapter 171: Excess

Kiana seemed very happy as she drank all the meat porridge in the bowl. The satisfaction and fullness of feeling the warm food slide down her throat and into her stomach was far more comfortable than eating cookies and bread.

"Back when I was working with that old man, he never cooked anything decent. I wonder if he can cook now?"

Kiana thought to herself, and then the two of them went upstairs together.

“Bronya is now able to communicate well with everyone. I asked her about the organization she belongs to, but it seems that she is unwilling to disclose any information due to classified information.”

Kiana heard Raiden Mei's words, then looked at the short girl standing beside her with the same cold expression and said, "We finally managed to rescue her, but in the end, she's still very loyal to that organization and won't reveal anything? If that's the case, she'll inevitably betray us later because of the organization's orders."

Raiden Mei wanted to say something upon hearing this, but Kiana raised her hand to stop her from speaking.

"Senior Mei, I know you're kind, so when you see a child like this, you must be thinking about the suffering she's endured and the pain she's gone through. It's true that it's heartbreaking and pitiful to see a child transformed like this by an organization, but... if this child was truly forced into this state, then why is he unwilling to tell us about this organization after regaining his emotions, and why doesn't he even want to reveal his name?"

Kiana stared calmly at Bronya, the atmosphere in the air suddenly becoming tense.

"I don't want us to encounter a large number of mech units during our escape, or even be deliberately led into a trap. If you're unwilling to reveal a single name or provide any information, I find it hard to trust you. Mei-senpai, if you can't convince her to provide any information here today..."

Kiana paused for a moment before saying, "I won't let her come with us. We can't afford to take the risks. We can't afford to lose, so we can't gamble."

After saying that, Kiana turned and left, leaving Raiden Mei standing there somewhat at a loss.

Cheng Xing watched the situation without saying a word. The people here were different from everyone he knew, and he himself didn't know what Bronya's attitude towards Cocolia was in this world.

However, by analogy, it's probably a mother-daughter relationship.

Then the Bronya of this world... well, that's hard to say.

Cheng Xing returned to the living room and saw Kiana sitting on the sofa, one hand supporting her face, her gaze somewhat unfocused, as if she were in a daze.

"Kiana, what are you thinking about?"

Kiana turned to look at Cheng Xing sitting on the other side and said, "Was I a bit too harsh just now? That child was also a victim. Perhaps she has just recovered her emotions and still has some mechanical thinking. Maybe she has some unspeakable secrets. Was I too arbitrary just now?"

“But you’re not wrong either. You just want us to leave here safely, and you’re thinking of everyone. Like you said, we can’t afford to lose. If Bronya really remains loyal to that organization, the consequences will be unimaginable.”

"That's right, even if that's the case, if that little guy makes up some lies to deceive us, we have no way of verifying them, right? Sigh... this feels so troublesome."

Kiana rubbed her temples. Emotionally, she was willing to trust the child, but rationally, she couldn't allow a more dangerous and suspicious character to join the team.

Raiden Mei is just a bomb that might explode, but there are ways to defuse and stabilize it. However, if Bronya detonates this bomb, then we will really be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

At that point, we'll probably all have to be sent to the lab.

"Cheng Xing, this is really troublesome. With your ability, could you conjure up some kind of lie detector to verify whether she's telling the truth or not?"

Kiana racked her brains but couldn't come up with a good solution, so she simply asked Cheng Xing, since he seemed to be quite capable at the moment.

"Actually, I think it's hard for someone who has just recovered from a relationship to lie. Since that's what you think, then I have some ideas."

"any solution?"

"Use my abilities to build a communication device, and then find a way to communicate with the people behind Bronya..."

At this point, Cheng Xing's expression became increasingly strange. Wait a minute, why does this scene seem more and more familiar?

"what happened?"

Kiana looked at Cheng Xing's awkward expression and asked curiously.

"It's nothing, I just suddenly had a strange sense of déjà vu... cough cough, anyway, as long as we find a way to get in touch, leave the rest to me."

"Well... it seems your organization knows a bit about this, at least they can directly name someone and start cursing."

"...Since you know this in your heart, why don't you ask me?"

"If you want to tell me, you will, won't you? Everyone has their own secrets. Since I already trust you, I will never doubt you."

"...This trust is quite heavy."

"So, if you lie to me, I won't forgive you."

Seeing Kiana's stern face and deliberately fierce demeanor, Cheng Xing couldn't help but laugh.

"Hey, what are you laughing at?!"

"I just find your deliberately fierce demeanor somewhat endearing."

"...I'll take that as a compliment."

Kiana blushed and looked away.

Cheng Xing touched the communicator he had just constructed, his expression turning strange again. Why did he have to do this kind of work again? At this rate, would he have to use Seele's voice to mess with Bronya's mindset again?

"What's going on here? This moment is just like that moment?"

While internally complaining, Cheng Xing pushed open the door and saw Bronya resting peacefully in Raiden Mei's arms with her eyes closed.

"...Sorry, I've come at a bad time." (whispering)

Raiden Mei didn't say anything, but smiled apologetically.

Cheng Xing nodded, then left and closed the door.

"I think Bronya is trustworthy."

Kiana heard Cheng Xing's words and looked at him with some surprise.

"Because I think she relies on Raiden Mei quite a bit, maybe the two of them have a yuri relationship, so she must be a good person."

Is there any necessary connection between them?

"It's just my gut feeling. Are you willing to trust my gut feeling?"

"...Alright, but if anything goes wrong, you'll have to cover for us. Also, I'm hungry now, go make lunch."

"Yes, sir!"

Cheng Xing shouted something as if it were a joke, then ran off with a grin.

Kiana smiled and then picked up the book on the table that he had been reading earlier.

The sound of pages turning filled the living room once again.

Chapter 172: Houmu Paradise

Lunch was also very well prepared. Among the supplies collected yesterday, compressed canned food was one of the more abundant types, so it was perfect for making a large amount of meat dishes to restore energy and store fat. Although compressed frozen canned meat doesn't taste very good, it's already a luxury under these circumstances.

Kiana put down the book in her hand. This book must have been found by Cheng Xing in this room. It was a light novel, and it seemed to be about a love-hate relationship between a hero and a demon king.

"As expected, I still don't really know how to read these kinds of books, and I can't understand his interests."

Kiana can understand what the book is about, but if you ask her to look at it carefully, she can really find a lot of faults. I really don't know if that guy finds this interesting.

During the meal, Kiana told Raiden Mei that she could trust Bronya, but if any problems arose later, she hoped that Raiden Mei would make her own decision.

“Bronya has severed her connection with the main program. The decisions she makes now are all her own ideas, and she will obey Mei’s orders.”

Although Bronya's face remained expressionless and her tone of voice showed no obvious change, everyone could see that a glimmer of light had appeared in the girl's eyes, making her seem less like a machine than before.

“Bronya, you shouldn’t take orders from anyone. You are a person. You should have your own way of thinking and the ability to make your own decisions. You shouldn’t just blindly follow other people’s orders.”

Raiden Mei said to Bronya with a hint of helplessness.

Cheng Xing calmly took a sip of the meat soup, but his eyes were fixed on the people at the table.

"Kiana's emotions are much calmer and more relaxed now, a lot better than when we met before when she was constantly tense. Raiden Mei's emotions have also stabilized; she's no longer the person who might reveal her dark side and go berserk at any moment. Now she's in her true gentle mode. Bronya... although she's just regained her emotions, she still shows obvious signs of slowness in many ways, but she has shown a clear dependence on Raiden Mei. If I hadn't intervened, it would probably have been a three-way love triangle storyline with two women vying for one woman."

Cheng Xing felt a strange sense of helplessness when he thought about this. It was true that the script should have developed this way, but for some reason, Kiana in this world was extremely wary of Raiden Mei.

Even if I don't know the plot of Honkai Impact 2, I know about Honkai Impact 3, which evolved from it. Shouldn't the two of them have had a brief skirmish, and then Kiana realized that Raiden Mei was a gentle person, and was ultimately won over by that gentleness, and then they got together?

Why is it that after defeating Raiden Mei, he clearly wants to kill her here?

"I wasn't even following the script. I was immediately dragged into a group of assassins by Kiana as soon as I landed, and then I immediately encountered Raiden Mei, who was emotionally unstable and about to become a Herrscher, and we had a battle. After the battle, Kiana didn't trust Raiden Mei at all. She should have seen some fragments of memories when she was eliminating Honkai energy, right? I could clearly feel the dissipation and communication of consciousness at that time, so why didn't she trust her?"

Cheng Xing also found it very strange. If it was about the butterfly effect he brought about, he had only accompanied others for a while and hadn't changed anything at all. Why had things turned out like this?

After lunch, the group rested for a while before continuing their journey. This time, they still planned to head towards the outskirts of the city. After confirming that their whereabouts had not been exposed and that they had not heard any noise or warnings all night, they were somewhat relieved.