I already said this is not a life simulator!

"Although I don't understand the details, the space here is actually much larger than you expected, right?"

"Okay, we're here, huh?"

Alicia smiled and lifted up the dark curtain-like thing in front of her, and brought Raiden Mei into it.

"This is……"

But what Mei Raiden saw was a city with bright lights that stretched to the horizon.

This place is like a "Peach Blossom Spring", isolated from the outside world. There is a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere everywhere, which is completely different from the harsh environment of the outside world where people often have to fight against collapse and "Originium disasters".

"Welcome to [Behind the Scenes], Meiyi. Here, you can get the answers you want, okay?"

"Behind the scenes?"

"Hmm~ Ah, by the way, in order for you to see more, I have to take you to see someone first... Come on, come on!"

Alicia dragged Mei Raiden and ran quickly towards the city center.

Along the way, Mei Raiden met a lot of very strange people... Some people were laughing and talking to the air; some people were chatting with others, and then they didn't know what they were talking about, and their figures would suddenly "break" and disappear; sometimes, a burst of Honkai energy would suddenly roll up around, and then the "Originium" dust would begin to gather, outlining a person out of thin air...

Mei Raiden was dazed along the way. The architectural style of this city and the technology contained in it, which far exceeded the outside world, gave her a strong shock.

But she also realized one thing—the people here should be in the same situation as Alicia.

And... I don't know if it's Mei Raiden's illusion, but she always feels that after entering this city, many people are looking at her... There aren't many people around, but she can feel a lot of gazes.

Then, when Alicia dragged her to a strange building in the city center that was labeled "Spiral Workshop" and looked like a magic hat, Alicia stopped and knocked on the door of the strange building.

"Wei Weiwei! Wei Weiwei! I've brought some people here. Open the door quickly! And is the "doctor" here? Is there a child here who needs his help?"

"Okay, Alicia... You've been talking about this since before she came here, and you brought her here in such a high-profile manner... We have no choice but to ignore it."

"Oh? Are you the 'Expert' on duty today? But isn't the 'Magician' leading this time?"

"She had some new inspiration, so she left her work and went to prepare a new magic trick for [Brother]...Okay, come in, [Brother] is still here."

The "expert" looked at Mei Raiden behind Alicia, and then smiled rarely, as if he had anticipated something interesting.

"And... Miss Raiden Mei, I think that after you know some of the [truth] and meet some people, you will definitely show a very interesting expression. Well... It's a pity that the "magician" is not here, otherwise she will definitely record your expression."

"……What's the meaning?"

Mei Raiden felt very strange about the riddles they told.

"There is no actual evidence yet, and you haven't witnessed it with your own eyes, so you are naturally confused by our words, but... don't worry, you will witness everything soon."

The "expert" shrugged, seemingly not intending to say more... He just led the two people inside.

Then, Mei Raiden was shocked again... What was wrong with these people? They looked exactly the same?

If I count carefully... there seem to be four? Including the "magician" they just mentioned... five? Quintuplets?

“Actually there are eight?”

"……what?"

"But they are all Velvet... just because of some, um... some weird reasons, they divided themselves into eight parts, and each of them has a different personality. But as long as you master the tricks, it will be easy to get along with them, right?"

"Uh...excuse me, who are you?"

"Well, please allow me to introduce myself... My name is Xiwang, I am Wei Erwei's [brother], and I am also the person that Alicia is looking for you. Well... Of course, you can also call me "Doctor" like everyone else."

Xiwang said with a smile, and at the same time reached out and tapped the center of the eyebrows of "Yilian" beside him, pushing her away a little without leaving a trace, so as to prevent her from quietly squeezing Skadi away again. Then he reached out his hand and shook hands politely with Raiden Mei.

"As for the purpose of your coming... I already know it. After all, Alicia pays close attention to you. After convincing you to come here, she tells us about it every day."

"Hey~ Xiwang, please don't say it..."

"Alicia..."

Mei Raiden pinched her eyebrows with a headache...Forget it, let's not care about these things.

"To be honest, I have a lot of questions to ask, such as why do you call this place "Behind the Scenes"? What is the so-called "truth"? And...what about those people on the street?"

"Don't worry, you'll get the answers to all of these."

Xi Wang stretched out his hand, and then... lightly tapped her forehead.

"Besides... there are a lot of people who want to meet you. I hope you won't be too surprised when you see them again."

Lala——

It is the sound of crystal growth.

Then, Raiden Mei's vision...changed slightly.

In her sight, the originally empty and quiet surroundings... suddenly became noisy.

Then, among the vague and somewhat subtle crowd, she met some people who made her feel even more subtle...such as Kiana's mother - Cecilia.

In addition, there is the legendary first generation [Herrscher of Reason] - Walter Joyce, Ji Zi who should have died (?), Anna and Chen Tianwu who were conquered, and... Otto? !

Ok? !

When she saw that man, Mei Raiden almost subconsciously drew her sword and chopped him down.

But she suddenly discovered that the Otto in front of her... was very different from the one she had seen before.

If the Otto she had seen before was a calm, elegant, cunning man, like a madman with reason, he was a guy worthy of contempt but also worthy of respect.

So now Otto... is like a person who has seen through the world and is as hopeless as ever... uh... thing.

He looked like a half-melted ice cream, slumped on the seat.

How should I describe it... It's like someone suddenly found the chuunibyou signature from elementary school and junior high school that you should have deleted, and read it out loud in front of your favorite person, while also playing a video to show what stupid things you did for it... and you can only watch from the side.

What's worse is that the things you did and the words you left behind were actually exposed to the person you loved the most, and were also seen by many other people... The things you did, on the surface, were not known by many people, but in fact, they were broadcast live...

And you didn't know all this until this moment... That's about how it feels.

In short, Otto now has a kind of aesthetic feeling of "since things have come to this, I have no choice but to commit suicide to get rid of it."

"Surprised?"

Xi Wang seemed to notice Raiden Mei's gaze and spoke softly.

"It's not hard to understand... If you knew that you acted like a stubborn yet rational lunatic in front of your favorite person, and gradually became the person she hated the most in front of her... and that everything you did was seen by her, and that you were "socially dead" for nearly five hundred years... you would also be like him, and your brain would freeze for a while."

"Uh...so what do you mean?"

"Yes?"

The "expert"'s voice sounded with a hint of laughter.

"This guy named Otto performed for nearly five hundred years in front of his favorite person, his fiancée, Karen, and the people he had directly and indirectly killed."

"And in the end, when he finally found a way to save his former fiancée and could use [his own death in exchange for Kallen's survival]... when he [died], he happened to know all this."

"Knowing that Kallen was not completely [dead], knowing that Kallen had been witnessing him, and that he had become like this little by little, knowing that the people he had killed were all by Kallen's side, reading his plans, appreciating his [performance], and watching the show... just imagine, how did he feel?"

"To put it simply... he has been [socially dead] in front of other people for nearly five hundred years."

"Well...but I think he should still be very happy, right?"

Xiwang shrugged.

"After all...his favorite Kallen didn't [die], did she?"

"And the surprised expression on his face at the end was also very funny... I have to say that his performance, which lasted for five hundred years, was the most exciting one."

The "expert" said so.

"It's not in vain that we have arranged the [script] for the entire process... Oh, yes, there is one more."

The "expert" turned around and made a gesture to Mei Raiden at the moment. With a crisp "click" sound, it seemed that something took a picture of Mei Raiden at the moment.

"Ms. Mei, your surprised expression right now is also very good. It is worth the "magician"'s special instructions to me."

"……what?"

Mei Raiden still seemed a little confused.

Kevin→Comrade (blue)→Xiwang→Comrade (blue)→Kevin

----

Ai Lishiya → Like (blue) → Xiwang → Cute (blue) → Ai Lishiya

----

Aponia → Closer to the [End] (blue) → Xiwang → The nun looks familiar (yellow) → Aponia

----

Eden→Confidant/Like (Blue)→Xiwang→Confidant/Like (Blue)→Eden

----

Weiwei → Attachment (blue) → Xiwang → Somewhat Clingy (blue) → Weiwei

----

Qianjie→Metal Block! Let's Fight!!! (Yellow)→Xiwang→Huh? (Yellow)→Qianjie

----

Su→Seems to be a senior from the same school? (Yellow)→Xiwang→Seems to be a junior from the same school? (Yellow)→Su

----

Ying→Like (blue)→Xiwang→Like (blue)→Ying

----

Kosmo→Comrade (yellow)→Xiwang→Comrade (yellow)→Kosmo

----

Mobius → Little White Mouse~ (blue) → Xiwang → The "boss" who always forgets (blue) → Mobius

----

Grayxiu → Cool and Hard (Blue) → Xiwang → Love (Blue) → Grayxiu

----

Hua → Worthy of respect, but hard to understand (yellow) → Xiwang → No impression... (yellow) → Hua

----

Padofils → Very Awesome (Yellow) → Xiwang → The Lazy Kitten (Yellow) → Padofils

----

Elini → Worthy of Respect (Blue) → Xiwang → Care (Blue) → Elini

----

Rosemary → "Doctor" (blue) → Xiwang → Love (blue) → Rosemary

"So... now the entire [world] is a [stage] made up by you guys?"

"You can call it that, Miss Mei, but... more people would like to call it a [game], and some would like to call it an [experiment]."

“…They don’t sound like good words.”

"Indeed."

The "expert" nodded and did not deny it.

"...Actually, it's still hard for me to imagine that someone like Otto would just act according to your script without knowing anything... He clearly acted very...smart in front of us?"

After hesitating for a while, Mei Raiden asked truthfully.

"You think he's smart, and that he can even predict many things in advance and have corresponding measures, but that's just because of the gap in your intelligence... In the past five hundred years, the intelligence he obtained and the preparations he made are not something you can surpass in just a few years."

The "expert" patiently explained that as a person who was temporarily taking over from the "magician", she should fulfill her duties and answer questions for those who came to seek the "truth" and successfully reached "behind the scenes".

"Not to mention, in the early days, you were still under the power of Destiny. In other words, you were under the control of Otto. Your every move would be known to him, and there was a huge gap in intelligence between you."