The collapse started when Kiana came to the door

A slight breeze gradually caused the air nearby to begin to flow.

"We're almost outside," Raiden Mei said, "Compared to the underground space we were in before, there aren't many signs of buildings around here."

"After all, from here on, there is a natural cave." Vita said with a smile, "Although the underground area of ​​the spiral maze has a total of eight floors, the actual number of floors was originally designed to be only six."

“The natural caves on the first and second floors only need very simple light sources to illuminate the space beautifully.”

Just as Vita said, once we arrived at this natural area, the surrounding lights were replaced by clusters of dim candlelight.

The tiny fire embedded in the stalactites cast ever-changing flames in all directions, and the colorful dots kept moving on the fair faces of the four girls, like a dream.

"..."

Mei Raiden suddenly stopped.

She looked around the surroundings and spoke without warning: "Let's stop here, Vita."

Vita also stopped.

She turned around, with her usual cheerful smile on her face: "What's wrong, Mei? There are only two floors left, and I can send you back to the ground. Why do you have to stop here?"

"..."

Alas, Raiden Mei held her brows and let out a long sigh.

Then, she suddenly asked a question that puzzled Kiana:

"How did you get into this world?"

"?" Vita tilted her head, a trace of obvious confusion flashed in her pupils, "What do you mean... to get into this world? What are you talking about, Mei? Ah! Is this some kind of quiz game that's popular recently?"

"This is something I need to think about carefully..."

"Don't pretend." Raiden Mei mercilessly interrupted Vita's words. She let out a breath and said, "I originally hoped that I was overthinking it, but since you have brought us here, there is no need to continue pretending."

"Heh... If I hadn't inherited the mark of 'another you', perhaps I would be like Kiana and Bronya, unaware of my own situation."

Kiana's pupils shrank slightly, and the moment Raiden Mei's assertion came to fruition, she spread out her five fingers, and in a burst of bright light and shadow, she summoned her weapon without hesitation, and took a guarded posture.

On the other side, Bronya crossed her arms and stared at Vita, whose expression was stiff, in silence.

"...Another me." Vita touched her chin, pondered Raiden Mei's words, and then put on an expression of sudden enlightenment, "So that's what's going on... This is really, a situation that is completely unpredictable."

"Vita...you..." Kiana bit her lower lip and said in disbelief, "Did you cheat on me?"

"This is really a wish." Vita put on an aggrieved expression, "I never meant to deceive you, why do you say this?"

"But you're not going to bring us back to the real world, are you?" Raiden Mei said coldly, "To be honest, because of the character you've shown, I once doubted myself... and the judgment of 'the other you', but now it seems that even if the forms of your behavior are somewhat similar, there are still essential differences between you and my best friend."

"The 'other me' you mentioned...could it be the man who got lost in the mountains and forests?" Vita asked.

"What else?" Raiden Mei said, "Although the names are different and the genders are different, you are extremely similar to that wise hero in terms of appearance, certain unique features, and even the ability to directly interfere with consciousness."

"Kiana actually realized this, but she did not guard against your nature, so she was forced to switch her way of thinking due to your interference, thus ignoring the things that she should have noticed."

"Bronya probably realizes more than I do."

Chapter 4: "Projection" of "Clone Earth" (k)

Mei Raiden's calm and clear words made Kiana's forehead suddenly covered with cold sweat.

She closed her eyes and quickly conducted a comprehensive search of her consciousness, but after the search was completed, she opened her eyes in disbelief.

"No, I can't find it." Kiana shook her head and whispered, "I didn't find any trace of modification in my consciousness."

As one of the few people in the world who trusts Mei Raiden the most, Kiana does not doubt Mei Raiden's judgment. Although in her cognition, there should be no consciousness that can interfere with the "end", but Kiana also knows that her cognition is not so reliable.

When facing the "cocoon", she once mistakenly believed, due to the interference of that thing, that the culprit that caused several extinctions of mankind was just a simple "mirror". If there is something of the same nature as the "cocoon"... or an existence above the "cocoon", then it may not be too difficult to modify her consciousness and cognition.

Whether things like abilities and powers can be effective ultimately comes down to a question of energy specifications. If the specifications are sufficient, no matter how difficult the task is, it will become within reach.

And Mei Raiden's subsequent response happened to confirm Kiana's guess.

She snorted coldly, crossed her arms, and said sternly, "That's probably because this guy's attainments in consciousness are even better than Kiana who received the 'End'. Su once told me that the other 'her' he observed in the parallel world had spiritual attainments several times stronger than his. She used her unimaginable mental power to create a huge illusion that trapped the entire world she was in."

"——If someone is able to do this, and quietly invade your consciousness and modify your cognition when Kiana is not fully prepared... it is not impossible."

Kiana pursed her lips and softly repeated what Mei Raiden said: "Weaving an illusion... that makes the whole world fall into it... Isn't this just like--"

——Is the Stigma Project that Kevin once tried to complete the same?

"Hmm... I feel like you guys have some weird misunderstandings about me..."

At this moment, Vita suddenly interrupted Kiana's words.

She frowned her pretty eyebrows and revealed a rather distressed expression: "I'm not deliberately trying to eavesdrop on your conversations, it's just... you see how quiet it is around here, even if you lower your voices, your voices still clearly penetrate into my ears."

"That shouldn't be a big deal to you." Raiden Mei looked coldly at the innocent Vita, "As a 'being' whose consciousness is far superior to ours, at least after you interfered with Kiana's consciousness, it shouldn't be difficult for you to read her thoughts."

"So, what exactly did that 'Su' say to you that caused you to have such a serious misunderstanding!" Vita puffed up her cheeks and shouted angrily.

"Misunderstand?"

"I have never woven any illusions that would trap the whole world! I have never even seen the 'Su' that Mei mentioned!" Vita put her hands on her hips and complained to Mei of Raiden's "slander". "You can't just assume that I am the 'female him' that he mentioned just because I look a lot like that person named Su, right?"

"..."

Mei Raiden fell silent for a moment.

In the past, she had fought side by side with Su in the paradise of the past life, and she was quite convinced of the judgment made by Su.

She was very clear about Su's character and abilities. Among the thirteen heroes with different personalities, this wise hero was one of the few people that Mei Raiden could trust unconditionally.

Compared to Vita, Mei Raiden trusts Su more.

Therefore, even if Vita refuted Su's words and judgment, Raiden Mei, who trusted Su more, could maintain her original opinion.

But what if - before this, Vita was not the "female him" that Su mentioned from the very beginning?

After a moment of silence, Raiden Mei spoke: "...No matter what, you are an outsider who should not appear in this world."

"I do not belong to this world, I admit that." Vita said, "But I have never done anything bad to this world! And after all, it is not me who came to this world on my own initiative!"

"What do you mean?" Raiden Mei asked.

"Hmm...how should I put it." Vita rolled her pupils and suddenly raised a finger, "Mei, can I ask first, is your hostility towards me all because of what that person named Su said?"

"Yes." Raiden Mei admitted this bluntly, "From your reaction to the name Su, you don't seem to be surprised that there is a 'self' of the opposite sex in this world."

"Well, I should say I'm not surprised... or I've already expected it..." Vita scratched her hair and sighed softly, "After staying in the 'sea' for so long, I feel like a different me... or someone who is very similar to me, but with some subtle differences in some places. I've seen too many cases like this."

"'Sea'...?" The description sounded quite familiar, and Bronya couldn't help but ask, "The sea you are talking about, are you referring to the Quantum Sea?"

"Yes." Vita nodded. "There are countless world bubbles, and the rules and time are all messed up in a different time and space. In your language, that should be the quantum sea."

"You... are from the World Bubble?" asked Raiden Mei.

"If you're asking where I was before I came to this world, it was definitely a world bubble." Vita tapped her lips. "I've been drifting in various world bubbles in the Quantum Sea for a long time, and just over a year ago - well, if it's converted to the time of this world, it was probably more than 20 years ago? Anyway, at that time, a very large 'projection' suddenly appeared in the Quantum Sea."

"You should also know that although the Quantum Sea is a different dimension from the real world, in the final analysis, it is still just a subsidiary space belonging to a different real world, or a different planet."

"Most of the world bubbles in the quantum sea are just projections of the real world."

"So, when that huge 'projection' suddenly appeared, I was of course curious about the world reflected by that projection..."

"--etc"

Without any warning, Mei Raiden interrupted Vita's words.

She frowned deeply, pondered for a long time, and then considered her words: "You mean... more than a year ago - that is, twenty years ago in this world, a world bubble that was very similar to this world suddenly appeared in the quantum sea, right?"

"Yes." Vita nodded. "At first, I didn't know which real world that bubble was projected from. Theoretically, in today's solar system, except for the second and third planets, there is basically no sign of life in the satellite spaces of other planets. Even the bubble projected by the second planet, which was relatively prosperous, slowly came to an end after the planet was completely destroyed by the 'Abyss'."

"The second planet?" Kiana, Raiden Mei and Bronya looked at each other and saw an extremely surprised expression in each other's eyes.

Kiana swallowed and said with some difficulty: "You... the second planet you mentioned, shouldn't it be that 'Venus'?"

"That should be the name in your language." Vita's tone was a little low, as if she was thinking of some unpleasant memories. "Venus... The civilization on the surface of the second planet was destroyed by the 'Abyss' - or 'collapse' in your language - a long time ago."

The atmosphere on the scene suddenly became silent.

Although Kiana and the others have not been able to confirm whether what Vita said is true or false, as victims of the Honkai, on an emotional level, Kiana and the others still have some empathy for Vita, who has experienced the horrific disaster of species extinction.

After a moment's silence, Raiden Mei said softly, "If you are indeed from Venus as you claim, then you and the person described by Su are definitely not the same person."

Vita was stunned. After hearing what Mei Leidian said, she quickly broke free from her depressed mood and asked in confusion: "Why do you say that?"

"Because I remember very clearly that although Su told me that he met a 'herself' with great evil in a parallel world, the world where 'that her' was located was still one of the parallel spaces of the Earth." Raiden Mei sang out, looking at Vita with an apologetic look, "If what you said is true and she came from another planet in the solar system, then naturally she couldn't be the person Su met."

"So that's how it is." Vita breathed a sigh of relief. She smiled easily again, and her tone of voice quickly rose from the low and lost tone just now. "Anyway, it would be best if we can clear up the misunderstanding between us!"

"But if that's the case, why did you use your cognitive deception ability on Kiana?" Raiden Mei asked, "You are trying to clear your suspicion here, which means that, at least in the short term, you have no intention of being hostile to us, right?"

"Of course I have no intention of being your enemy." Vita spread her hands. "What good would it do me to be your enemy?"

"As for why I hinted to Kiana, or rather, to all three of you——"

As she spoke, Vita raised her arm and snapped her fingers.

The snap of the fingers was like turning on a switch.

As the crisp sound of snapping fingers echoed in the surrounding enclosed space, several huge pupils suddenly opened up on the walls of the tunnel without any warning.

Those pupils with artistic style do not look weird, but give people a sense of magnificence, like creative decorations built in an amusement park. As the pupils open, mixed-color glare bursts out from the center of the pupils, they gather in mid-air and project out in a certain direction.

Kiana suddenly took a step back. She looked down and said in surprise, "Wait... is this a pedal? Wasn't this a tunnel just now?!"

"It's a tunnel, right? Aren't mazes formed by intersecting tunnels?" Vita said, "But... besides being a maze, these tunnels have another function."

Bronya looked around and took a deep breath. "...The entrance and exit connecting the real world and the quantum sea, right?"

"You figured it out so quickly? It seems that Bronya's understanding of the 'sea' is even deeper than I originally expected." Vita said with a smile, "You are right. For this world, the end of this underground maze is the entrance to the Quantum Sea."

"Hmm... Using the terminology of the third planet, this place is the 'Eye of the Abyss' of this world, right?"

Mei Raiden looked around and said, "Did you deceive us just to bring the three of us here?"

Although the pedals under their feet were quite stable, if one looked closely at the surroundings, it would not be difficult to discover that the place where the four of them were standing was just a rootless space.

There was no sky in the sky, and no soil or anything like that on the ground. The open pupils were suspended in the air without any support. Except for the light emitted from the pupils to guide them, they could not even tell up, down, left, or right.

And that's not all - the moment the surrounding scene changed, Raiden Mei clearly felt that her body had completely lost weight. If the pedals had not been still pressed against their feet, they would have completely entered a state of weightlessness and perhaps they could only rely on their special abilities to move in this space.

"If we don't change your cognition and fix the surrounding space into a posture that allows people to pass through, won't it be easy for us to get lost in the sea?" Vita laughed dryly and put her hands together. "I just didn't expect that the three of you could move freely in the 'sea'. Please forgive me first, okay?"

"...Why did you bring us here?" Raiden Mei first used the power of the Herrscher to stabilize her body on the pedal. She did not immediately answer Vita's request, but took the lead in asking a question that was taken for granted, "Is there anything you need our help with?"

"Anyway, I want you to take a look at what the world bubble projected by this world looks like." Vita showed a helpless smile. "As for what you are going to do, I'll let you take a look and decide for yourself."

"After all, even for me who has been drifting in the quantum ocean, this is the first time I have seen such a special... and sad world."

Chapter 4 Xi'er's Anxiety (k)

Hyperion, bridge.

The administrator sat at the operating table on the bridge, reviewing the various data parameters of "Clone Earth" as usual.

Outside the porthole of the bridge, slowly rotating dark purple runes enveloped the aqua blue planet. They completely isolated this planet constructed by power from the outside universe and rewrote the environment of the space into what the Earth was supposed to be like.

There was no living creature in the dark and cold universe. Even the Hyperion, whose length had exceeded 500 meters after Li Shubai's transformation, could only be swallowed up silently by the deep space like a needle falling into the sea.

At this moment, a slow damping sound suddenly came from the elevator behind the bridge.

As the mechanical mechanism moved, the glass doors of the elevator opened from the inside out. The administrator stopped moving her fingertips, turned her upper body slightly backward, and nodded gently: "What's the matter, Miss Xier?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the crisp sound of chains colliding with each other echoed in the elevator. It was hard to imagine that the visitor's sophisticated control of energy would cause his materialized weapon [Chain Claw] to lose control and fall powerlessly to the ground. But this also happened to prove how uneasy Xier [Nightmare Star Abyss], who should have been able to perfectly control her own power, has become.

She seemed completely unaware that her weapon had been dragged on the ground. She walked behind the administrator with an expressionless face. Her blood-red pupils were as calm as dead water, making it difficult for the administrator to tell what she was thinking for a moment.

"Captain, Kiana and the others haven't come back yet?" [Nightmare Star Abyss] Xier asked calmly.

"Well, according to the time the captain has given, they should have stayed in this world for about half a month." The administrator's voice was as gentle and elegant as ever. She raised her head and looked into [Nightmare Star Abyss] Xi'er's eyes with a calm look. "You look very anxious. Did you find something and want to report it to the captain?"

"Anxious? I just..." [Nightmare Star Abyss] Xier subconsciously wanted to refute, but suddenly closed her mouth when the words of rebuttal were about to flow out of her lips.

She breathed a sigh of relief and closed her eyes briefly, as if she was trying to sort herself out. After about ten seconds, [Nightmare Star Abyss] Xier opened her eyes again: "Well, I'm in such a mess. If I don't admit my failure, that guy will probably say that I'm only tough with my mouth..."

After mumbling something in a low voice, [Nightmare Star Abyss] Xier nodded: "You are right, I do feel a little uneasy now."

"What's the specific reason?" asked the administrator.

“I don’t know.” [Night Star Abyss] Xier sneered, her cold voice mixed with a hint of fatigue, “If I knew the source of my uneasiness, I wouldn’t use such a vague description.”

"That is to say, Miss Xier doesn't know the origin of this emotion, but just feels quite ambiguous and 'uneasily', so she hopes to see the captain as soon as possible, right?" the administrator continued to ask.