I Told You This Isn't a Life Simulation Game! Part 23

Honkai Energy bombs were indeed powerful, but not powerful enough. At most, they could severely wound it.

Maybe it would have worked with a more powerful rocket—(laughs)

But unfortunately, there were no maybes.

That violent explosion seemed to have enraged it, making it rush toward the shore and the defensive line even faster. Its broken horn trembled violently, a sign that it was about to sound its call.

The worst-case scenario was probably about to happen...

Watching Gabriel rapidly approach, Xi Wang could not help but think that—after all, they had retreated in a straight line. Now, they were caught right between Gabriel and the defensive line. It even felt as though Gabriel was coming for them.

Then, at that very moment.

Whoosh—

A sharp arrow tore through the air. A streak of pink light struck its body, followed by the sound of gunfire. The fierce assault delivered Gabriel its final blow.

Woooo—

Before Gabriel died, it let out a horn call that sounded both mournful and regretful, as though it were making one final struggle—trying to unleash another Honkai Beast tide upon humanity before its death.

But... nothing happened.

Gabriel had been successfully subdued.

"..."

Xi Wang silently watched Gabriel's corpse. Strangely enough, in its final moments, he had clearly felt emotions directed at him from Gabriel—regret and relief. It left him utterly baffled.

But none of that mattered now. Xi Wang looked toward the aircraft in the distance, the corners of his lips curling upward.

The rest would be simple. They just needed to clear out the remaining Honkai Beasts. Though no one knew why Gabriel's final horn call had not increased their numbers, it was a relief to the soldiers still holding the defensive line.

And Xi Wang and the others were greeted by the girl whose presence put everyone at ease.

"Hi~ Did you miss me~?"

Elysia smiled brightly as she greeted everyone.

The Heroes You Longed For Were Already Few in Number

The Fourth Herrscher Subjugation Battle had come to a complete end. The Companion Honkai Beasts and the "Gabriel" that had appeared alongside them had all been subdued, and the Honkai Beast tide was gradually cleared away. At last, the people of Moth to Fire could catch their breath.

Following tradition, you held a celebration. As everyone celebrated the victory, they also offered Kevin their blessings and hopes as he officially took up the position of First Squad Captain. Although everyone knew that the reason Kevin had taken on this role was nothing worth celebrating, they needed a grand enough revelry to forget the tension and fear of the battlefield.

It was worth mentioning that everyone once again got to enjoy watching you become flustered when Sakura and Elysia invited you to dance at the same time, prompting knowing smiles all around. Quite a few people felt that this scene would probably become a regular feature of future Dance Parties.

Of course, after a day of celebration, everyone naturally had to return to their duties and summarize the battle that had just passed. Gathering information from all sides, you gradually learned the truth behind the Fourth Herrscher Subjugation Battle.

Because of the massive storm, countless squads had been unable to approach the area where the Fourth Herrscher was located. Many had even lost contact directly within the storm. The higher-ups then decided to bypass the storm by firing weapons from low Earth orbit and directly attack the Fourth Herrscher.

The method had worked. Though it had failed to injure her and had even enraged her, the Fourth Herrscher had indeed stopped expanding the storm's range and walked out of it, intending to directly cause trouble for the Moth to Fire forces. By then, it was the third day that you, Sakura, and the others had been trapped on the island.

After the Fourth Herrscher killed all the surrounding forces, she maintained a smaller storm while moving across land, destroying several cities one after another. During that time, Kevin's First Squad and several other squads were responsible for tying her down, creating an opportunity for Elysia to land the killing blow. Kevin also rescued a young boy named Cosmo along the way, and he had since become a new Moth to Fire recruit undergoing training.

After that, the Fourth Herrscher began picking off the squads restraining her one by one, forcing all squads to fight back. It ended with "Kevin infiltrating alone and eliminating the Fourth Herrscher, while the other soldiers were forced to sacrifice themselves to restrain her."

And where was Elysia, who should have been there? She had been ordered to assist in protecting the residents of several cities during their evacuation.

Elysia should never have needed to handle something like that, and the order had specifically mentioned "protection." But whether the ones who needed protection were truly the residents rather than someone else was hard to say.

Clearly, certain people had feared for their own lives, so they sent Elysia—the one most capable of fighting a Herrscher—to protect their evacuation. They had paid no heed to whether the soldiers still on the battlefield would lose their chance to kill the Herrscher without Elysia's support. Soldiers could always be replaced, after all. Familiar with the way those people thought, you quickly understood the reason behind it.

It could be said that the First Squad, along with several other squads, had been considered abandoned at the time. They simply had not expected someone like Kevin to be among them—someone who could forcibly push through the storm, subdue the Fourth Herrscher, and survive.

And now, they were loudly proclaiming Kevin's strength and "generously" granting him the duty of First Squad Captain, as though Kevin were some great hero.

Ah... yes. A hero who needed psychological treatment every so often.

Having learned the full truth, you silently stopped writing. As always, you tore off the sheet along with the page behind it, set them on fire, burned them to ashes, then mixed the ashes with candy and ate them.

Thirty-six today. The dosage had gone down. Not bad, you thought.

After that, life seemed to settle down again, but its pace quickened.

First came the activity within Moth to Fire. Due to the performance of Honkai Energy weapons in the Gabriel Subjugation Battle, Moth to Fire decided to accelerate the pace of research, and the Research Department received a large amount of funding as a result.

But Honkai Energy weapons had a problem—the Honkai Energy became active when releasing energy, eroding the weapon's structural framework. Eventually, the weapon would lose control and leak the Honkai Energy within. There was no real solution to this; a breakthrough in materials was necessary.

That called for a new character to enter the stage—the "genius" whom Elysia had "brought back," who caused trouble for Moth to Fire all day long yet could not be held by Moth to Fire: Vill-V.

Under Elysia's lead, you met her as well. It had to be said that she was indeed a remarkably erratic and willful person, someone who gave the impression of being difficult to get along with... but you did not care about that.

More importantly, Vill-V was a specially appointed engineer for Moth to Fire. Many things within Moth to Fire had been designed and built by her. Though she acted very willfully, she still knew where to draw the line when it came to major matters.

Before long, through the efforts of Vill-V and many researchers, Moth to Fire made breakthrough progress in weapon materials, weapon structure, and weapon diversity. It would have been even better if Vill-V had not stuffed so many bizarre designs into the blueprints.

A side note: the soldiers who died on the battlefield because experimental weapons were unstable ultimately failed to receive proper compensation. They only received the standard (minimum) death-in-action pension. This left Hen depressed for a long time, and most of the surviving veterans were also in low spirits. All one could say was that it was just like those people.

Through the efforts of countless people, the soldiers' weapons were rapidly upgraded and iterated, making them more adept at fighting Honkai. Though the people around you still came and went, overall casualty numbers had indeed decreased considerably.

But... it was not all good news. Some problems left behind in the past would erupt without warning.

For example, Gabriel had clearly sounded its horn for the sixth time before it died, so why had nothing happened in the end? "Maybe it ran out of strength," someone said optimistically.

But that was not the truth. Gabriel's horn call had actually taken effect. The danger it brought had merely been hidden within the deep sea. At some point, hordes of terrifying Honkai Beasts would climb ashore from the ocean and once again bring humanity the horror of a Honkai Beast tide.

And now, Moth to Fire was about to face the tip of this dangerous iceberg.

After its equipment and personnel had been upgraded and reinforced, Moth to Fire discovered that the Honkai Energy concentration in the nearshore waters was somewhat abnormal. Honkai outbreaks also began erupting frequently along the coast, putting many people on alert.

As expected, within a very short time, several abnormally powerful Honkai Beasts appeared along the coast, making the newly equipped soldiers once again feel the harshness of fighting the Honkai by piling up lives.

The entire ocean, and even the coastal regions of the continent, became dangerous. To prevent the truth about the Honkai from being exposed to the public, Moth to Fire went to great lengths to suppress the news, while its soldiers ran themselves ragged across every battlefield.

Worse still, among these terrifying Honkai Beasts appeared a "monster" that shattered everyone's understanding, forcing Moth to Fire to add a separate "classification" just to demonstrate its power... No, that was not right. It was to demonstrate its incomprehensible, indescribable abilities. That power had once made people doubt the very laws of the world.

Though the appearance and traits of the "Honkai" itself had already overturned people's worldview, there had at least been patterns to follow. But its power left people utterly lost, even causing many scholars who studied the Honkai to overturn their previous theories.

Had every Moth to Fire squad not fought desperately in the end, the world might have been destroyed by it.

That was the first Honkai Beast recognized as End-of-Law Class—"Mahāsvayaṃvara."

Because these powerful Honkai Beasts had all come from the sea or emerged in coastal regions, some within Moth to Fire speculated that this might be related to Gabriel's final horn blast. Unfortunately, there was no concrete evidence. Even so, Moth to Fire raised Gabriel's danger rating to second only to Mahāsvayaṃvara.

After some time, nearly all coastal regions were classified as dangerous areas. The nearshore waters were high-risk zones, while the open sea became a forbidden zone. The entire world suffered varying degrees of impact because of this.

But all of that stopped after you killed a Honkai Beast codenamed "Varuna."

No one knew why, after killing that abnormally enormous whale-like Honkai Beast capable of roaming the skies, Honkai Beasts no longer appeared in the coastal and nearshore regions, while Honkai Energy concentrations plummeted and those areas became safe once more.

Nor did anyone know why Varuna had not resisted during the campaign against it, allowing you to kill it without a struggle.

These matters were all strange, but overall, they were good things. Though the open sea remained a forbidden zone and was even more dangerous than before, people at sea would not be attacked by Honkai Beasts as long as they remained within a distance where land could be clearly seen... Strange as it was, that was what Moth to Fire's observations showed.

This incident also sounded an alarm for Moth to Fire's upper ranks. Many plans that had previously been abandoned or suspended due to excessive danger were placed back on the agenda, and Dr. Mei, who had proposed numerous plans, gained considerable influence as a result.

The days passed one after another, time flowing bit by bit. Moth to Fire's soldiers moved between Honkai battlefields. Countless people died, and countless more joined. And so... you welcomed the "Fifth Herrscher."

"Click—"

A crisp, familiar sound. Xi Wang had opened the candy box. Clearly, he was eating candy again.

"Quite rare. You actually aren't acting with Sakura this time."

Hen said with a smile from the side.

"She was assigned another mission. You know that."

"Yeah... Honkai outbreaks are becoming more frequent..."

Hen sighed, then spoke in a half-joking tone.

"And I'm guessing you wouldn't want her taking part in this mission either, right?"

He seemed to be trying to ease the mood, but he had clearly picked the wrong person.

"...With Sakura's skills and mine, the two of us could survive."

In other words, he did not actually object to Sakura taking part in this mission. Sakura simply had been assigned somewhere else and therefore had not come.

"...Hah. I really don't understand you people."

Xi Wang's words had clearly left Hen speechless. In the end, he could only sigh and chalk it all up to "the two of them being very confident in their own abilities."

"Sigh... But don't think I'm nagging. Though I do feel like I've become more talkative since getting married, you know..."

Hen shrugged.

"There's no one else here I can talk to."

"You can talk to him."

Xi Wang glanced at the young man following behind Hen. Thin and slight, he did not look like a soldier, but one could sense his resolute, positive will... though that will was currently being tested.

"Cosmo? What is it? Not moving? Or scared stupid?"

Hen patted the young man on the shoulder, speaking casually.

"Come to think of it, you really are unlucky. You only joined the squad a few days ago, and you already got stuck with a mission like this... When we get back, I'm definitely going to raise this with the higher-ups."

"...Captain, was what you said true? This squad's purpose... is to go die?"

The young man named Cosmo still seemed unable to believe it.

"You could put it that way. After all, some people believe that, when necessary, dying has meaning."

"I know, but you're going to die alone..."

Click!

A crisp, sharp sound rang out. Xi Wang had forcefully shut the candy box.

"Although I consider myself rather skilled at concealing my presence, isn't it a bit much for you to ignore me so completely?"

Xi Wang spoke faintly, interrupting the young man's somewhat sorrowful mood in the process.

"Hahahaha... Exactly, Cosmo. See? I'm not alone."

Hen laughed loudly and gave the young man's shoulder another firm pat.

"But... is this what you—what you all call your duty?"

Hearing Hen's signature laughter—the same sort of laugh he used whenever he teased others—Cosmo asked in confusion.