Honkai, why do you only play high-end games?

She pursed her lips and drove the ridiculous thought out of her mind.

Lin Wei had been observing Anna from behind and noticed her subtle emotional changes, but chose not to interfere. Now was not the time for him to intervene.

"Born? No. Although I've almost forgotten all my memories, I still remember that I was originally a human being, with a father and mother, classmates, and friends."

The mechanical girl's voice was still flat and indifferent, as if the past she was talking about was the story of another unrelated person.

It was so cold that it seemed like a real machine, and Anna, who was listening, couldn't help but shiver.

Her empathy is a bit too strong...

Lin Wei thought.

"...Aren't you sad now?"

Anna asked with some difficulty. She could hardly imagine how cruelly a living human being had to be treated to become like this.

"What about your parents...?"

Anna regretted the question as soon as it came out, but it was too late.

I hope I'm not rubbing salt into the wound... Anna felt a little annoyed.

"They all died, died in a sudden collapse, died quietly, just like the vast majority of people in this world."

The mechanical girl continued to speak lightly, but she seemed unwilling to discuss the topic in depth, as if she was just giving a brief summary. Hearing the slight movement from Anna's side, she turned her face towards Anna, her eyes that had long since lost sight of anything, as if looking at Anna through the cold iron eye mask,

"Are you sympathizing with me? You don't have to. Conclusion: They are all dead, and I am still alive."

"Can you still be considered alive like this?!"

Anna suddenly became furious and asked loudly with tears in her eyes.

She didn't know what she was angry about, but this undisguised indifference hurt her deeply.

Why am I so angry?

Ah, now I remember, it's Jer Mist...

That day, that apathetic guy was actually in the mood to bake cookies?!

"Why not? Are you talking to a corpse? ...Oh, sorry, please forgive my word choice."

The mechanical girl showed no reaction to Anna's anger, her tone remained cold and calm.

"A broken tool is not the right word to call a 'corpse.'"

Anna was furious. She felt that this guy was simply unreasonable!

"Are you satisfied with your current situation?"

Seeing that Anna was defeated, Lin Wei took over the conversation and asked, which made Anna pause. Her anger turned into grievance and she almost cried.

Or perhaps, what has been buried in her heart for a long time has never been anger, but grievance and sadness.

"I can't say I'm satisfied, but compared to the others who died, at least I'm still alive, and that's enough. It was the master who took me in and gave me a new life. Even if I exist as a machine or a tool, it's a fair deal, isn't it?"

The mechanical girl didn't seem to mind that the person she was talking to had changed. She just turned her head slightly in the direction of Lin Wei and spoke in the same tone as usual.

How is this fair?!

Anna suppressed the cry that was rising in her heart, and seemed a little restless. Finally, she gritted her teeth and retreated to Lin Wei's side. She felt much calmer when she was with him.

"I remember you. I suspected you were in possession of... data that was corrupted and unreadable... You were the cause of this place's destruction. What a shame. I seem to have underestimated you."

The mechanical girl expressed her regret in a tone without any regrets, but due to the damage to the database, there were some lags in some places.

"Underestimate? Maybe, but you did your best."

Lin Wei smiled and used her eyes to signal Anna to be patient.

"So you were behind everything today?"

He did not use the power of the Key of God - although he was about to use it just now - but after the mechanical girl in front of him burned the other half of herself, only the biological half remained. She only remembered what she had seen and experienced in person. The content that she had read as data was like the wind passing by, leaving no trace, and it was difficult to find a trace.

And the mechanical girl won’t worry about these things.

"Maintaining the operation of this base is the duty entrusted to me by my master, and it is the meaning of my existence... Unfortunately, it seems that I will lose this job now."

Perhaps it was because the conversation had already started, or perhaps it was because the computer engine that was deeply coupled to her had burned out, and she had unknowingly regained some independent thinking after being separated from the program's control; but in any case, she did not refuse to talk to Lin Wei.

But the tone is still the same.

Lin Wei didn't mind this at all - after all, when it comes to getting angry, he's a professional.

"Keeping this base running? But why do I only see dead soldiers, dead soldiers, and more dead soldiers? From a common sense perspective, this should be defined as 'falling to ruin,' right?"

"If your words are meant to irritate me, you may be disappointed."

The mechanical girl remained unmoved and responded calmly.

"Everything here is under human control. Our goal is to recycle waste, not to fall victim to the Honkai disaster. Furthermore, if it weren't for the data comparison... the missing information... I wouldn't have killed all my assistants in response."

You are both three-no girls. You are far inferior to Bronya in every aspect.

Lin Wei took the black feather from between her fingers and smiled slightly. As expected, without the constraints of the machinery and the chip, she could easily induce Yu Duchen to speak.

Right now, it seems like I should temporarily withdraw?

Sure enough, after hearing what the mechanical girl said, Anna couldn't help herself.

"You mean, you were the one who killed all those people? How could you be so cruel?!"

Anna was extremely sad and angry. She had thought that the girl in front of her was just a slightly special victim, but she didn't expect that everything that happened here was caused by her.

"You are a victim of Honkai yourself, and you are also a human being. How could you have the heart to do this?"

"I'm sorry, ma'am. I'm just a machine now. Human emotions mean nothing to me. I simply took the most efficient action after careful calculation. Unfortunately, as you can see, the result was a failure."

It was rare for Lin Wei to hear a slight but real hint of regret in the mechanical girl's voice.

"you……"

Anna felt a chill in her heart when she heard this. What could make a human being become so emotionless and cold?

"You just said, 'waste utilization'...what do you mean?"

Her voice seemed to be squeezed out from between her teeth, dry and suppressed. She really couldn't understand why there was such an evil place in the world.

“That’s what it means literally.”

The mechanical girl's tone was still calm, just like she always was, indifferent and cold.

"Ordinary humans are unable to resist the erosion of the Honkai. This is something that you, who have made it all the way here, must know. Therefore, when they enter this artificially created Honkai energy environment, the vast majority will die, become diseased, and become alienated in a very short time, just like my father and mother who died in the Honkai."

"So, before their flesh completely degenerates, I'll send them to a processing plant. My assistants will remove their undamaged tissues and transform them into cyborg soldiers with minimal intelligence. You've seen them, too—these are the ones you stole earlier."

The mechanical girl said something to Lin Wei with a hint of sarcasm, and then continued,

"Unfortunately, there are simply too many of them, and we don't need that many soldiers here. The remaining 'eliminated' can only be stored in a separate area, and regularly added to the Houkai energy furnace as fuel to maintain the operation of the base."

Anna was completely blown away!

Do you know what you are talking about? Those are all living lives. Behind each and every human being are families forced to be torn apart by death!

I am being persecuted so cruelly by you and you casually call me “waste”?

Why are you so cruel?!

Lin Wei patted the back of Anna's hand, signaling her to be patient.

"You said 'eliminated'...but what about those who weren't eliminated? Where are they?"

Lin Wei asked directly after trying to calm Anna down temporarily. Anna's heart sank after hearing this, and her breathing became rapid, making her even more uneasy.

"Some, like me back then, were similarly ravaged by the Honkai, yet were able to persevere for a period of time on their own. Naturally, they possess greater value, and therefore deserve a higher level of treatment. They undergo surgical transformation, becoming more intelligent, more advanced mechanical entities. They are the primary source of my 'assistants.'"

The mechanical girl continued to mock, as if the person next to her was some unforgivable villain.

"But unfortunately, due to your arrival, I have no choice but to turn them into death squads to prevent further invasion of the base. I have to say, this is truly a waste of resources, comparable to a crime."

Anna was so angry that she almost laughed. Crime? How dare you say that?!

"What happens next?"

Lin Wei asked, there are always people with higher resistance, where did they go?

This time the mechanical girl kept silent.

Lin Wei raised his eyebrows slightly, and before he could do anything else, he heard Anna's questioning from beside him, her voice trembling and tearful.

"Why did you do this? So cold, so cruel? Those are human beings, living, breathing people like you and me. In your... no, in the eyes of your master, what exactly are humans?"

What exactly are humans, that they could be slaughtered so senselessly?

What is a Valkyrie? Should she be treated as a worthless consumable, a tool, or a decoration?

At this moment, two things that she could not accept overlapped in Anna's heart, like one heavy hammer after another hitting her heart hard, causing too many cracks there that could not bear the weight.

"What's the problem with that? They were destined to die anyway."

The mechanical girl was puzzled and said as a matter of course,

"They can't survive the collapse anyway. Since they're destined to die, rather than letting them die meaninglessly in the collapse, it's better to let them strive to create more value before that. This is also a good thing for humanity as a whole."

Anna was so angry that she couldn't speak. What kind of heresy was this?

If you are destined to die, then you should die?

Then what are we fighting for? What are we resisting for?

Wouldn't it be better to just lie down at home and wait for death, let the collapse happen, and let all those who deserve to die die!

Anna felt her eyes go dark and she even wanted to laugh. She grinned, but couldn't.

The collapse did not kill them, but humans killed themselves?

What kind of joke is this!?

"Isn't this a perfectly normal thing? In the history of biological evolution on Earth, 'survival of the fittest' has always been an irrefutable law."

The mechanical girl heard Anna's suppressed anger and heartbreak breathing, and she didn't understand her excitement. She tilted her head and thought about it. From her vague memories, she found a few birds that once built a nest in front of the window.

"Take the example of the birds that can be seen everywhere in nature. The reason they are flying everywhere now is simply because their ancestors survived and did not die and become extinct like so many other creatures."

The mechanical girl continued to describe the world as she saw it. It was unclear whether this was her own understanding from browsing the database, or the thoughts instilled in her by her "master".

"The lucky few who survived the mass extinction were able to give birth to new races in the new generation, and they prospered even more. Isn't the same true for the war between humans and the Honkai?"

Although the mechanical girl's voice was cold, it was as terrifying as the whisper of a devil.

“Let those who deserve to die die more meaningfully, and then let those who deserve to live live longer. This is how we are responsible for the future of mankind.”

"You fart!"

Anna finally couldn't help it. The excellent qualities she had been exposed to since childhood disappeared at this moment. She felt as if she had been greatly insulted and had to fight back angrily!

At this moment, her communicator suddenly rang, which calmed Anna, who was a little overwhelmed by anger.

Her mind was still a little dazed, but out of muscle memory acquired through long training, she habitually turned on the communicator as soon as the call came in, and then she heard the captain's anxious voice from inside.

"Anna? Are you in this base? I have bad news! There's a tunnel boring machine hidden on the top floor. It's already started and is digging downwards, ready to completely destroy this base! Anna, are you listening? I'll find a way to stop it, and you better get out of there now!"

The background in the communicator was pitch black. Several Valkyrie team members turned on the searchlights and were on guard everywhere. Wherever the lights passed, they could see the huge wreckage of the Titan.

Anna was still in a daze, while Lin Wei looked at the mechanical girl in front of him in a daze. No wonder this guy answered every question he asked. It turned out that he had this idea in mind.

Yes, thinking about the various sophisticated tactics she had used to manipulate those assassins against herself and Anna, it was not surprising that she would hide a trap at the critical moment.

"Has it been exposed? What a shame, I wanted to delay it a little longer..."

Sure enough, the mechanical girl still maintained that strange posture that seemed neither sitting nor lying, and spoke in a cold and calm tone,

"I regret to inform you two invaders that you will be buried here with me. After all, managing this base is the duty entrusted to me by the master."

As he spoke, Lin Wei felt a slight vibration.

This feeling is somewhat familiar, as if I have felt it at some point before. After a brief recollection, it comes to my mind.

Just before, when I pushed open the door leading to here, I felt this kind of vibration once. I didn't pay attention to it at the time and just thought it was a side effect of opening the door.

This guy, I'm afraid he had already activated the destructive device at that time?

As if to verify it, Anna's communicator rang again.

"Anna, can you hear me? That big guy has already dug down the first floor, and now the road is blocked! Don't go back the way you came, that's pointless! Hurry up and find another way out! This damn guy won't stop at all!"

The communication also included several sounds of chopping, smashing, and even guns firing in frustration.