Let's Meet Again in the Not-Too-Distant Future (Continued)

"Himeko, do you think Yaqing did this on purpose?"

Theresa suddenly spoke up.

Himeko was taken aback upon hearing this.

"From your Final Lesson to Kiana and Mei's Sinners Elegy, and now... I, everyone connected to St. Freya, have been torn to pieces by the knife."

Himeko was stunned; she had never seen this problem from this perspective before.

"That must be it."

Theresa was quite certain.

Clench your little hands tightly.

"Yaqing, I will never let you get away with this!"

Himeko smiled helplessly; Theresa had said this countless times.

In North America, at the Anti-Entropy Headquarters, in Joyce's office.

"Tesla, you're completely absent from our lives. The only possible Xiao Te isn't even able to unlock the chat function. You... you're not lying to us, are you?"

Edison looked at Tesla with suspicion.

Not only Edison, but even Schrödinger and Planck had some doubts.

Tesla is in a panic.

"It really exists! They don't know, but you don't know Einstein? Hurry up and stand up for me! You're the one who did the voice-over for me!"

Tesla shouted at Einstein.

Einstein nodded slightly.

Seeing Einstein nod, Edison and the others calmed down and continued watching the web series.

The Captain had gone through countless cycles of reincarnation before the screen suddenly went black.

[...Tesla Zero is restarting...]

[Warning, about to be activated, dialogue module in progress...]

The scene shifts to a small river in a reed bed, its surface reflecting the stars in the sky, and the originally somber background music softens.

Xiao Te walked quietly on the river.

A gentle voice reached the ears of every audience member.

"I once shared the future with you, but I knew nothing of your past."

"Back then, you were just like you are now, carrying the burden of other people's lives and deaths."

"During your lifetime, you are constantly forced to reset the past."

The hazy, yellowish memories are of a scene from a strange, adrift journey, where Guān Xīng and gently waves a feather fan.

"You are still in pain, but you have never forgotten your pain."

That was the Guān Xīng sitting indifferently on the throne.

"And I have finally come to your past, to write the beginning note of that long journey through the fragments of the world."

As the scenes unfolded, Xiao Te gently comforted the Captain, as if she were both conveying affirmation and expectation on behalf of the audience and comforting the viewers who were also experiencing this pain.

"Cry, cry, if you feel pain, just cry like a child until you're exhausted."

"Pain is not terrible; what is terrible is becoming so used to pain that you can no longer feel it."

"Because you no longer place yourself in the position of a participant, but become an observer, just like me now, witnessing the tragedies you experienced."

"But if you want to understand humanity, you can't just stand by and watch. You have to stand with them and see what they're looking at." These are the words you told me in the distant future.

"Now I'm trying to stand beside you, but what are you doing?"

"If there were other bystanders, they would also be full of expectations for you, hoping that you would overcome more deaths and reach a perfect ending where no one gets hurt."

All the audience members were stunned when they heard this.

"They don't know or care what you've been through. Your experiences of losing and regaining things, and then losing them again, are just a story to them."

"A story they thought they could see the ending."

But is that really the case?

"This story has nothing to do with saving and being saved. Its ending is constantly being patched up, and new cracks are being created. And you are the one who repeats, repeats, repeats the attempts, and goes through pain."

Xiao Te gradually walked towards the lanterns on the river.

The Guān Xīng incident is also repeatedly flashed back in the footage.

"Things that can't be done won't be done by persistence, nor will they be miraculously achieved by saying 'I can do it.' I know, and you know it too, that even if you've tried your hardest, you don't have that ability right now."

"But I'm here to offer you a chance to break the deadlock. That's why I'm here."

Xiao Te faced the camera at the end.

The blade fell.

Under Xiao Te's gentle comfort, even viewers who didn't want to cry couldn't help but shed tears. The human mind is a strange thing. Even if you don't feel wronged, you can feel extremely wronged just by being comforted.

"Waaah... Xiao Te is finally going to make a move! Guān Xīng is saved! Captain is saved too... Waaah..."

Elysia cried her eyes out.

Both boxes of tissues on the table were empty, and crumpled tissues covered the table.

Mei's eyes were red.

This is a famous sword technique in Honkai. Even though you know there's a sword involved, you still want to keep watching. The Final Lesson, Celestial Meteor, Sinners Elegy, and many others all use this technique. The sword isn't the goal; it's the emotion it evokes.

"It has now become art."

Sakura wiped away her tears.

There has never been a similar storyline before. Aren't they just bystanders in Xiao Te's story? The sense of immersion they bring is unparalleled.

They had read about the Captain's experiences and witnessed his interactions with the Guān Xīng Captain, but they could hardly grasp the Captain's inner pain.

"Who sings this song? I really couldn't help but sing when the song started."

Even the usually carefree Little Knowledge couldn't hold back under the onslaught of this attack.

"It sounds like the headmistress's voice."

Fu Hua rested her chin on her hand, unsure of what to do.

However, Theresa's voice was too familiar; anyone who knew her would recognize it immediately. Fu Hua was still unsure, as the background music was too soft and somewhat inaudible.

"This is simply art! More artistic than an explosion!"

"This emotional scene was captured so well. First, the Captain kept rescuing us, and then Xiao Te came out to comfort us. It was so intense, there was no way to avoid it. That 'Cry, cry,' really broke my defenses!"

The oppressive feeling brought on by the Captain's countless reincarnations was somewhat dispelled when Xiao Te appeared, and the relaxed atmosphere added a touch of emotion.

"Old relic, how many more cycles do you think the Captain will have to go through?"

Little Knowledge raised her head with teary eyes.

"I don't know, probably no more than a hundred times."

Fu Hua's thinking was too subtle.

In Joyce's office, all the women were taken aback by this stab.

Tesla didn't even have time to proudly tell the women that it was his voice.

Schrödinger sniffed.

"Is Dr. Tesla's voice really that gentle?"

Joyce scratched his head.

As soon as he said this, he was met with angry glares from the women.

"I'm... sorry, I won't say anything."

Joyce chuckled awkwardly.

The women then turned their attention back to the projected screen.

["Ha ha...!"

The Captain seemed to wake up from a dream, and sat up abruptly. The number of times he was in the cycle of reincarnation was increasing, and the time he was awake was decreasing. Each time he was just a little bit short, and his mind was getting closer and closer to collapse.

"Why did you do this! Why didn't you listen to me!"

"Wh... what?"

The Captain was on the verge of a breakdown. He grabbed Guān Xīng's shoulder and yelled at her for not listening to him. He told her not to worry about anything and to do exactly what he said right now.

"Why..."

"Don't ask why! Do as I say if you don't want to die!"

Guān Xīng didn't know why the Captain had an emotional breakdown, so he asked a maid to bring him a basin of ice water, wet a towel, and wanted to wipe the Captain's face.

Seeing the worried look in Guān Xīng's eyes, the Captain subconsciously took a step back.

"Do not touch me."

"Don't look at me like that..."

"That... expectant look in his eyes."

"I..."

The Captain lowered his head. The constant failures and endless cycles had eroded his confidence.

"Mr. Assassin..."

Guān Xīng looked worried.

Upon hearing the words "Mr. Assassin," the Captain completely lost his composure.

"I am not Mr. Assassin! The Mr. Assassin in your memories can do anything, but I..."

The Captain lowered his head, looking at his tightly clenched fists, his heart filled with anguish at his own powerlessness and fear—fear of seeing the Guān Xīng's face. He wanted to run away, but he didn't even have that option.

Seeing the Captain on the verge of a mental breakdown, the audience couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

"The Captain has done his best..."

Elysia was heartbroken.

This is the Captain. If it were anyone else, they would probably have had a mental breakdown long ago. Watching the Guān Xīng die tragically in front of them multiple times is something no one could accept.

"Well."

Mei sighed.

"The Captain has achieved the pinnacle of what one person can do. It's not certain that anyone else could have done better than him."

Sakura also sighed.

[Guān Xīng gently comforted the Captain, saying that the Captain clearly had more choices, that he could have given up on saving her, that he could have forgotten her and still live a good life in this world.]

"It was you who saved me so many times."

Guān Xīng was certain that everything the Captain did was meaningful, and only he could have done it.

Just then, Xiao Te suddenly interrupted their conversation, reminding the Captain if he remembered how many times he had mapped.

Upon seeing the unusual number, Xiao Te couldn't help but be surprised, feeling that the threshold set by the future Captain was too harsh. Only when the current Captain's consciousness reached the fixed threshold would he awaken.

If the current Captain gives up before reaching that threshold, he is nothing but scrap metal.

The Captain harbored doubts, Xiao Te offered an explanation: the future Captain held onto illusions, hoping his past self would be different, even if the possibility was slim, he still hoped to forge a path unlike his own.

"Ten million times?!"

Little Knowledge stared wide-eyed, wishing he could get right up to the computer screen.

Fu Hua was also stunned.

She guessed it would be no more than a thousand times, but she never expected it to be eight figures.

"Damn, the future Captain is ruthless. Isn't he afraid that the current Captain will have a mental breakdown and quit the game?"