Honkai Impact 3rd: Beginning with Handcrafted Black Tech to Save the Pre-Civilization - From Chapter 43

Cosmo stood at the entrance to the training grounds, staring in shock at Hua, who was clad in Primordial Armor.

So, so cool!

"Cosmo?" Hua was somewhat surprised. She had not expected her first live-combat opponent to be someone of Fused Warrior caliber, and she instinctively looked toward Ai Yue. "Doctor Ai Yue, is this really appropriate?"

Starting off by fighting a Fused Warrior seemed a little too difficult. After all, apart from a few Mental Perception Fused Warriors, everyone else possessed physical abilities far beyond those of ordinary people. Even Combat Armor found it difficult to contend with their bodies.

That was why Fused Warriors did not need to wear heavy armor when going into battle. Its defensive capabilities might not even be much stronger than their own, while its weight would only hinder their agility.

"It really isn't very appropriate." Ai Yue pondered for a moment, then said under Hua's expectant gaze, "So, Hua, you'll have to disable Primordial Armor's Combat Assist function."

Huh? So I'm the one who isn't appropriate here?

Hua was still dazed when Cosmo had already walked over. He circled around her, examining her armor so closely that it seemed he wanted to imprint every detail into his mind. It made Hua feel a little strange.

"Was this designed after Lone Star of the Deep Blue from the newly released Cosmic Brawl?" A trace of barely perceptible envy appeared in Cosmo's eyes. "That's so nice."

"Please watch your wording, Cosmo." Prometheus finally could not hold back. "The mecha in Cosmic Brawl was designed by me as well."

"Huh? Really?" Cosmo froze for a moment, then turned his attention back to Hua's armor. "Um, can I touch it?"

"All right, don't get so excited, Cosmo." Seeing that Cosmo was about to reveal an odd side of himself, Ai Yue quickly put an end to the pointless exchange. "I called you here so you could conduct live-combat training with Hua and collect the armor's combat data for future upgrades and modifications. Is that all right?"

"Of course!" Cosmo agreed without hesitation. "Are we starting now?"

Although he had just returned from a mission, he did not feel tired at all. Instead, the chance to fight such a dazzling suit of armor had ignited his fighting spirit.

By comparison, Hua seemed rather hesitant. "Doctor Ai Yue, can I really do this?"

"Trust the armor I developed." Ai Yue patted her shoulder and looked into the eyes hidden behind the armor. "Most importantly, trust yourself, Hua."

"The skills you've honed day after day in the training grounds will never lose to anyone."

Hearing Ai Yue's encouragement, Hua paused briefly before nodding.

"I understand."

Ai Yue smiled, then picked up the box and cleared the training area for the two of them.

"Don't worry, Hua." Cosmo backed away, then looked at the girl before him. "I'll hold back."

"Don't hold back, Cosmo." Hua took several deep breaths, finally returning to her usual calm. "That would affect the authenticity of the combat data."

"Good." Cosmo nodded with complete frankness. He lowered his body slightly and assumed an attacking stance. "Then I'm coming!"

After giving his warning, Cosmo suddenly charged straight ahead. In an instant, he reached Hua and swung his right fist directly at her chest!

The two of them were about twenty meters apart, yet Cosmo crossed the distance in only three steps. That was the strength of a Fused Warrior. Faced with such a punch, even a Chariot-class Honkai Beast would be torn apart.

Even in live-combat training among the Fused Warriors, no one would choose to take an attack like this head-on. Dodging was the only correct choice.

Yet Hua did not move an inch. She raised both arms and accurately blocked the punch.

"Boom!"

The fist slammed into the metal armor, unleashing a tremendous roar. Cosmo took a small step back and readjusted his stance, while Hua retreated four or five full steps before finally stopping.

The seemingly disadvantageous exchange actually made Hua sigh in relief.

Because the punch had not hurt.

The armor's powerful defenses had completely neutralized the damage from Cosmo's fist. Hua's backward movement had merely been to dissipate the force of his high-speed charge.

She had not yet fully adapted to this kind of battle, but she had already gained a basic understanding of the armor's abilities.

I can fight—so long as I have this armor, I have the ability to battle a Fused Warrior!

"That's hard." Unlike Hua, whose confidence had soared, Cosmo was also surprised. He shook his hand and examined Hua's armor curiously. "What kind of metal is this?"

At first, his curiosity had only been aroused by the armor's sheer coolness. Now, however, he had begun to take seriously this weaponry that appeared more ornate than practical. After all, armor that could receive his punch without deforming in the slightest could absolutely be called the strongest alloy humanity had developed to date.

If that was the case, then he really ought to get serious.

The two of them had only paused for an instant. After that negligible break, they clashed once more.

Hua excelled at unarmed combat, while Cosmo wielded a pair of sharp claws. The two close-combat experts repeatedly countered and dismantled each other's moves, making every frame of the fight look dangerous and thrilling.

Although both specialized in close combat, their styles differed. As a martial-arts school-trained fighter, Hua had honed techniques refined from the accumulated wisdom of countless predecessors. Every move was exceptionally precise. Whether her next action was advancing or retreating, each connected seamlessly with the last, allowing her to shift effortlessly between offense and defense and leaving Cosmo hard-pressed to find an opening.

Cosmo's fighting style, by contrast, was closer to that of a beast. Relying on his astonishing physical abilities, he could often perform movements beyond ordinary imagination. Although Hua could easily find his openings, Cosmo could use unexpected moves to cover those openings and turn the tables, forcing Hua to avoid his edge for the moment.

As the battle continued, however, Hua gradually gained the upper hand. She had figured out Cosmo's fighting patterns and was becoming accustomed to his style, allowing her to find a way to counter him. Although Cosmo continuously suppressed her through his superior attributes, he still could not inflict any meaningful damage.

Just as Hua was searching for an opportunity to end the battle, Cosmo suddenly stopped where he stood and went completely still.

A powerful and dangerous aura spread from him, giving Hua an ominous premonition.

"Ai Yue..." Hua instinctively looked toward Ai Yue, wanting to stop the battle. But from the corner of her eye, she saw Cosmo suddenly vanish from where he stood.

The next instant, a violent force erupted from behind her and sent the caught-off-guard Hua flying. Fortunately, she reacted at the final moment and dispersed part of the force, avoiding a tumble across the ground.

"Doctor Ai Yue, the energy fluctuations coming from Cosmo have become abnormal." Prometheus's voice reached Ai Yue's ears. "Based on my projections, it should be that state."

"Just as expected." Ai Yue nodded, then shouted, "Hua, activate Combat Assist!"

The next second, Cosmo reappeared behind Hua. He raised the claws of his right hand high, then viciously brought them down toward her head.

The head was the most vulnerable part of the human body. Even with the armor's protection, taking that blow would likely cause Hua to lose her ability to fight immediately.

Yet almost at the exact instant Cosmo moved, Hua completed a series of actions at an unbelievable speed: twisting her body, redirecting the force with a knife-hand strike, and driving her elbow into him.

This time, Cosmo was the one sent flying.

## Take a Closer Look at Me

Among the few surviving Fused Warriors, Cosmo was not particularly prominent.

In terms of uniqueness, Desdrobia, who could use telekinesis, and Aponia, who could see fate, were both far more special than him. In terms of strength, Hen and Kevin, the captain and vice-captain of the Fused Warrior squad, were also above him—not to mention the eye-catching Elysia, whose true strength remained unknown.

Furthermore, he was not good at socializing and rarely appeared outside missions. Even though only a handful of Fused Warriors existed, he could be said to be the one most easily forgotten.

Yet if he was analyzed solely from the perspective of the Fused Warriors, he was actually the most special of them all.

That was because the Honkai Beast genes he had fused with came from the Judgment-class Honkai Beast codenamed Vishnu.

At present, perhaps only Ai Yue knew that it was not actually a Judgment-class Honkai Beast, but a special existence that could grow infinitely through devouring and could not be defined.

This characteristic of Vishnu reduced the risks Cosmo faced during the Fused Warrior surgery. Vishnu would actively adapt to his genes, allowing the fusion procedure to proceed as smoothly as possible. However, that same characteristic also brought danger: whenever Cosmo used the power of a Fused Warrior, he had to keep devouring Honkai Beast Factor in order to maintain his sanity.

Once the battle lasted too long and he could not replenish the Honkai Beast Factor, he would enter a berserk state.

That was the situation Hua was facing now.

In his berserk state, all of Cosmo's attributes increased dramatically. It was a sign that the Honkai Beast genes within him had become highly active. Moreover, as the genes continued to awaken, his strength would grow increasingly greater.

However, this was not a good thing. The activity of the Honkai Beast genes came at the cost of devouring his human genes. This was Cosmo's "self-cannibalization phenomenon."

Once the proportion of Honkai Beast genes in his body exceeded the controllable threshold, he would mutate into a terrifying monster.

This phenomenon, known as "Overweight Hypermutation," was later called "Artificial Honkai Collapse" by Mobius.

Even though Ai Yue knew all of this clearly, he was not worried about Hua in the slightest. Primordial Armor had taken the Overweight Hypermutation of Fused Warriors into account from the very beginning of its design. It could even be said that it had been created specifically to match Fused Warriors in this state.

The mental-force sensing framework derived from the Eighth Herrscher's authority, the spatial compression storage system derived from the Second Herrscher's authority, the Honkai Energy recycling and self-circulating power system derived from the Third Herrscher's authority, the cell-accelerating activation agent derived from the Sixth Herrscher's authority...and, most critically, the special alloy with an extremely high resistance to Honkai Energy: primordial Soulium.

Humanity's—no, Ai Yue's—entire collection of top-tier technological achievements had been applied to this armor. It was also foreseeable that as his mastery of technology continued to expand, this armor system and all subsequent armor systems would continue to evolve.

One day, technology would surpass the limits of Honkai Energy and open up the world Ai Yue envisioned.

But for now, it was better to focus on the battle taking place in the training grounds.

After Cosmo entered his berserk state, Hua's own skills alone could no longer contend with him. Her reactions could not keep up with his speed, and technique became powerless when faced with overwhelming numerical superiority.

Of course, that was all under the condition that the Combat Assist function had not been activated.

After receiving Ai Yue's signal, Hua issued the command to "activate Combat Assist" without hesitation. The next instant, Observer Mode opened once more, though it had changed since the previous time.

All four drones hidden within Hua's head armor immediately sprang out. In just half a second, they completed a scan of the entire training ground. At the same time, the high-speed cameras mounted on the drones captured Cosmo's movements. With a frame rate of up to five hundred frames per second, they clearly marked Cosmo's movement trajectories—impossible for the naked eye to observe—on the display before Hua.

At the same time, the auxiliary AI system housed in the belt-mounted core processor marked Cosmo's predicted actions before Hua's eyes as well. In a sense, Hua knew what Cosmo was going to do even before he did.

That was not all. By combining Hua's combat habits with Cosmo's attack patterns, it calculated the optimal responses and transmitted them to Hua as well.

Furthermore, whenever Hua counterattacked, the armor's AI simultaneously calculated and redistributed the energy supply to every part of the armor, prioritizing the attack route Hua was using. This made her movements faster and her strikes more powerful.

It was precisely because of these conditions that Hua could counterattack Cosmo so promptly and send him flying.

However, such an attack was still insufficient against Cosmo in his current state. He rolled across the ground twice before standing again. Hua's punch had shattered most of his uniform, revealing the purplish bruises across his chest. They were visibly fading at an astonishing speed.

What kind of regenerative ability is that?

Hua could not help feeling shocked. She had naturally imagined the strength of Fused Warriors long ago, but only now did she gain a truly direct understanding of it.

If this had been the Cosmo from before, Hua was confident that her elbow strike would have knocked him down. She had not expected it to fail to cause any substantial damage to the current Cosmo.

"Threat index rising." The armor AI had clearly calculated this as well and issued a warning. "Level-three combat restrictions removed. Nonlethal weapons online."

The next moment, Hua saw the armor on her hands transform. The sections on the backs of her hands and forearms split apart and flipped over, revealing an inner structure covered in special circuits. The two sections connected with each other.

She instinctively clenched her fists, then saw crackling arcs of electricity begin to flash across them.

Is this thing really nonlethal?

That thought flashed through Hua's mind. At that moment, the interface before her changed. Cosmo once again chose to attack, and just like at the beginning, he lunged straight for her face and reached for her heart with one claw!

With no time to think, Hua instinctively raised her hand and punched straight ahead. Cosmo's head seemed to have deliberately offered itself up. In the next instant, he actively slammed into her fist and was sent flying once more.

This time, he failed to stand. The moment the electricity on Hua's fist touched Cosmo, it spread throughout his body. The powerful current shocked Cosmo into convulsing endlessly on the ground, pitiful as a fish stranded on shore.

"Combat concluded."

As the armor AI delivered its verdict, Cosmo finally went still, apparently falling unconscious.

Hua sighed in relief and instinctively looked toward Ai Yue. The doctor in the white coat was walking toward her with a smile, and when he saw her turn around, he gave her a thumbs-up.

Only then did Hua finally smile.

She had won.

## See? That's How You Get Them on the Hook

"How do you feel?"

Ai Yue walked over to Hua and asked with a smile.

"I feel great." Hua clenched her fist, then relaxed it again, as if experiencing the armor's power through the repeated motion. "This armor is really incredible... Is it called Primordial?"

"Primordial is only its codename, signifying that it's the first-generation prototype armor," Ai Yue explained. "Of course, you can also give it any name you like."

"No, Primordial is a very good name." Hua smiled. "I like it."

As someone from Shenzhou, she naturally knew that the word came from Shenzhou's cultural legends. Giving the armor such a name was clearly more pleasant than assigning it a code made of letters and numbers.

"By the way, Doctor Ai Yue..." Hua soon thought of something else and looked toward him. "Was this battle helpful to you?"

She had not forgotten that the primary purpose of this live-combat training was to collect combat data for Primordial Armor. She did not know whether her performance had been satisfactory.

Although this was her first time using the armor, Hua already liked it very much. With equipment like this, she would be able to accomplish far more. Even if Doctor Ai Yue went to crisis-ridden Australia, she was confident she could protect his safety on her own.

"It was very good. I'm quite satisfied." Ai Yue looked at Hua, then at Cosmo beside her, and could not help smiling. "I'm satisfied in every respect."

"Stop!"

While the two were speaking, Cosmo suddenly shouted and sat up from the ground. "Ugh, my head hurts... Hua, Doctor Ai Yue, are you both all right?"

Cosmo's memories stopped just before he entered his berserk state, and he had no recollection of what happened afterward. Thus, he was still struggling against the hunger within him, trying to reclaim control of his body.

However, after sitting up, he realized that things were not quite as he had imagined.

He was lying on the ground, every muscle in his body throbbing with pain, while Hua and Doctor Ai Yue were both standing. Clearly, the result of the battle had been the exact opposite of what he had expected.

"Did I lose?" Cosmo tried to stand, but failed. He could only sit on the ground and look at the two of them. "I didn't expect you to be this strong, Hua."

"No. It was mainly the power of Primordial Armor." Hua shook her head, then looked toward Ai Yue. "Without this armor, I probably couldn't have lasted five moves against you."

"For an ordinary person to last even a few moves against a Fused Warrior is already impressive. There's an enormous gap between our physical abilities because of our Honkai Beast genes." Cosmo shook his head. "By comparison, your combat skills far surpass mine. You might even be a little stronger than Kevin. Don't sell yourself short."

Hua could not help freezing at Cosmo's assessment.

A little stronger than Kevin?

Hua did not know Kevin well. Her closest contact with him had only been exchanging greetings at the banquet before. But she knew perfectly well that Kevin was widely recognized as the strongest Fused Warrior at present. His past achievements and recorded data were both sufficient proof of that.

So hearing those words felt rather unreal.