"In my hometown, there were many people who could abandon everything in pursuit of their beliefs."
"Even if they weren't understood, even if they bore infamy, even if they suffered persecution or vanished beneath artillery fire... they never wavered in the slightest."
"Just to awaken one more ignorant person, protect one more inch of land, bury one more seed of hope for the future, or become the strength that drove someone onward..."
Ye Ming drained his glass of wine and smiled self-mockingly.
"Strange, isn't it? Stupid, weak, greedy, selfish, hypocritical, despicable..."
"Humanity was clearly so unbearable, yet there were always those who lit a candle and drove away the darkness."
"Ye Ming..."
Himeko's heartstrings were constantly being plucked. The young man before her was unexpectedly so much like her.
"When I was little, I never understood why people like that always met such tragic ends."
Ye Ming scratched the back of his head, a trace of shame appearing on his face.
"Later, I understood..."
He looked at Himeko, light shining in his eyes.
"The more brilliantly someone shone, the more easily they burned themselves out."
"So I thought, if there could be a ray of light to illuminate the way home for them, how wonderful would that be?"
As he said this, Ye Ming looked like a child who had found a beautiful story in a fairy-tale book, a sweet smile appearing on his face.
But Ye Ming's smile did not last long, because he knew that fairy tales would always remain fairy tales.
"But if this world no longer had a torch that could be lit for them."
"Then I..."
"..."
"..."
The scene gradually darkened, and everything that had just appeared vanished into the darkness.
When the camera returned to Ye Ming, he was lying in a deep, secluded corridor.
"Where is this?"
Ye Ming woke and pushed himself up, his vision still blurry from tears that had not yet dried.
"Himeko... BT..."
As he called for his beloved and his comrade in his heart, the coldness and loneliness sweeping through his body quickly reminded him of everything that had happened before.
For an instant, his softened brow seemed as though it might break into tears again...
But just before they fell, Ye Ming wore an expression as if he wanted to bite fate to pieces and forced his sorrow back down.
"BT risked its life to send me here. There had to be a reason."
"That must be the key to saving Himeko."
Ye Ming continued onward. The darkness in the corridor was not endless, and soon... he saw countless lights.
They were scenes from livestreamed videos, and without exception, Himeko was the protagonist in every one.
The first major climax of this book was approaching. Starting today, there would be three updates a day until the climax ended.
That way, everyone could avoid the pain of cliffhangers.
My Way Home With Her, My Protocol With Him
"What exactly are these?"
Ye Ming stared at the scenes in astonishment. They recorded every little detail of Himeko's life in video form.
Fighting, resting, getting injured, food, clothing, shelter, travel, even drinking...
What Ye Ming found most difficult to understand was that the deeper he went into the secluded corridor, the younger Himeko became in the scenes.
"Could it be?"
—Over the past ten years, Murata Himeko's body had suffered too much irreversible damage. Even without this incident, she would not have survived until next year.
Ye Ming kept turning BT's warning over in his mind.
—Protocol 2. The mission must be completed. Therefore, I will execute Protocol 3 and bring her home.
"This is... a time corridor that leads back ten years?!"
Ye Ming suddenly realized that since Himeko's fated death had been determined ten years ago, the only way to save her was to begin changing everything from ten years ago.
"Using the power to distort space, shattering the dimensional barrier, forming a temporal tunnel, and throwing me inside..."
Ye Ming gradually pieced together everything BT had done. Though the answer was not entirely correct, he was already very close.
"BT... when did you learn to evolve on your own...?"
After becoming partners with BT, Ye Ming had always taken opportunities to upgrade BT's core and strengthen it whenever they traveled through dimensions.
That included the remnants of gods, Visions, Anti-Entropy technology, and much more...
With all those powers mixed together, and after traveling through so many dimensions with him, it was not impossible for BT to mutate some new ability.
But what Ye Ming had not expected was that he knew nothing about any of this and had never interfered. It had all been BT continuously evolving through its own will.
"Heh, you really were becoming more and more..."
Ye Ming habitually wanted to praise BT, but the relieved smile on his face froze.
That dependable mech that often stood behind Ye Ming, asking about human emotions in its synthesized voice, would never appear again.
"I'll bring Himeko home. This is my way home with her, and also the protocol between us."
There was no more confusion in Ye Ming's eyes. He quickened his pace and kept walking toward the deepest part of the corridor.
There, one scene remained. It showed Himeko in her student days, celebrating her coming-of-age birthday.
"The starting point is here..."
Ye Ming looked into the void of the dark corridor and said firmly,
"I'm setting off, BT."
When Ye Ming's palm touched the glowing video, his entire body turned into fluid light. He was then drawn into the scene and merged with it.
"I'll bring this lunch to Dad's laboratory in a moment. I hope it doesn't get cold."
A tall young girl stood at the stove in an apron, controlling the heat beneath the food.
Her red ponytail was full of life, and her adorable face still carried a touch of youthful innocence. This was what Himeko had looked like just after coming of age.
Teenage Himeko! So cute!
Although mature Himeko was beautiful too, younger really was better.
I still think mature Himeko was prettier. That married-woman charm was something a young girl didn't have.
The Cao Cao upstairs should speak on his main account.
Big Sis Himeko turned into Little Sis Himeko. Hehehe.
Seeing Himeko's inexperienced younger self, the comments instantly exploded. These veteran internet gentlemen were truly outrageous.
Just minutes ago, they had been heartbroken by the tragedy of the story. The moment they saw a beautiful young girl, they immediately forgot the theme.
"So cute! Himeko!"
The girls in the studio reacted just like the wider audience. They adored the younger Himeko on the screen and practically wished they could crawl into it and give her a loving hug.
"Don't be like this... It's too embarrassing..."
Himeko had thought The Last Lesson was already enough to make her die of embarrassment. She had not expected that even watching fan content would reveal what she looked like when she was young.
"Was this an original fan-made design, or did you really look like this before, Himeko?"
"I can't deny it... This was what I looked like back then."
Nahida lowered her head and analyzed seriously.
"In other words, the video's creator was not only familiar with Himeko's relationships, but also knew what she looked like as a child. Perhaps they were Himeko's childhood friend?"
"If I had a childhood friend, I wouldn't still be single now."
Himeko let out a helpless sigh.
"Come to think of it, Big Sis Himeko was obviously so cute when she was young, and she could even cook for herself. Why did she become like this after growing up...?"
After Kiana mentioned it, everyone began looking at Himeko with regretful eyes.
"I'm sorry I turned out like this! Do you all have a problem with me?!"
"..."
Bronya did not join the discussion. She looked at the Himeko on the screen, then at the current Himeko.
Then she lowered her head to look at her flat chest, excitement appearing on her face.
"As expected! Even after turning eighteen, it can still grow!"
A tragedy was the destruction of beautiful things for people to witness.
The viewers were currently immersed in the cuteness of teenage Himeko, clearly having forgotten that.
"Alright! Today, I can finally celebrate my birthday with Dad."
Himeko took her steaming lunchbox, happily hailed a car, and headed straight for her father's laboratory.
Even if her father was too busy to keep her company, Himeko would gladly accept it. She would wait outside the laboratory until he got off work, then blow out the candles with him.
After all, a birthday spent with family was worlds apart from a birthday spent alone.
"Strange, why is this road blocked?"
Halfway there, the taxi driver saw the traffic barriers ahead and curiously asked the traffic officer nearby,
"Sir, what happened? The road was fine yesterday."
"There was an explosion at the laboratory ahead. It was a serious accident, and we were just ordered to seal off this section."
"Huh?"
Himeko was the first to react. She immediately jumped out of the taxi and sprinted all the way to the laboratory, which had already turned into a sea of flames.
"How could this... happen..."
As she looked at the ruined courtyard before her, as if a war had taken place there, Himeko's red eyes and even her mind trembled.
"Father..."
Muttering the name of her only family member, she charged inside without hesitation.
Her father was not difficult to find, because the laboratory was filled with signs of deliberate destruction and leaking Honkai energy.
That made the blood-covered Murata Ryusuke especially conspicuous.
The Cruelty of Time Could Not Be Easily Reversed
"..."
There was no room to run over and ask whether he was alright. No matter how one looked at it, Murata Ryusuke was already completely dead.
Had he died in an experimental accident? Then why were there signs of battle on his body?
But Himeko could no longer notice such doubts.
Her mind had completely collapsed. She ignored the danger of her surroundings and slumped weakly to the ground.
Even as flames burst apart before her eyes, even as the beams began to collapse, even as she herself was in danger of being buried in the inferno...
Before you continue