"System rebooting. Confirming host... 30%... 60%... 90%... 100%."
"Startup complete. Host, please confirm your identity."
Name: None - Gender: Male - Ability: None - Life Status: Dying - Age: 17 - Title: Male of the Honkai World (highly effective against powerful enemies)
"Cough, cough!" The young man crawled out of the house, which had been reduced to ruins. He was covered in blood and looked terrifying.
"What the hell?! Fine, I get having no abilities, but why is my name also 'None'?! And what the hell does 'dying' mean? I'm fine! I'm in perfect health!" At last, he couldn't help complaining about the system. Before the incident, a voice had suddenly appeared in his mind, claiming to be a system. He had assumed it was an auditory hallucination caused by staying up late to grind games and read novels, so he hadn't paid it any mind. But not long after he finished breakfast, the house had suddenly collapsed! The blood on his body had come from the injuries he sustained in the accident.
"Host, the system does not make mistakes. The reason your name is listed as 'None' is that your existence was erased in that instant. No one will remember you. As for your life status being 'dying'... just look behind you."
Before the young man had finished processing its words, he noticed the sickly, pale-skinned beauty behind him. She had an alluring figure, but her face was hidden behind long white hair, and she had a set of long claws.
"Miss, what are you doing here? Can you tell me what happened? And what's with that outfit? Don't tell me it's cosplay?" The three questions left the beauty stunned for a moment, but the young man still hadn't realized how serious the situation was.
At the same time, the system's voice rang out in the young man's mind.
"Beginner mission: Escape the dead soldier's pursuit.
--Completion reward: Ten standard supply drops
--Failure penalty: Host's death"
"What the hell? Deadpool? System, tell me where Deadpool is! I'm going to get his autograph!"
"Um... host, the dead soldier is right in front of you. Also, it's a dead soldier, not Deadpool. The character doesn't have that single-person radical or the 'cun' radical underneath, and the top isn't 'earth' either. This system isn't advanced enough yet. Once the host grows stronger, future missions will come with written prompts."
"Roar!" The dead soldier beauty in front of him let out a howl. Her ten razor-sharp claws were about to sink into the young man's neck.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Help! System, save me!" The young man took off running while screaming, leaving the dead soldier beauty—whose physical abilities surpassed human limits—far behind.
"Since this system has no Honkai Energy supply, you could try punching the dead soldier. After all, you possess the strongest support available at the moment." The system's voice seemed to carry a trace of emotion, but the young man interpreted it all as fear of death. After all, if the host died, the system would probably be finished too, right?
"What strongest support? That title? What use is that title?" Since the system had yet to form Honkai Energy into a text window, and it didn't read the contents inside parentheses, the young man had no idea what this miraculous title could do.
"Um... there was something in parentheses afterward that I didn't read. Listen carefully." The system's cold voice coughed twice, making it sound rather comical. "It's highly effective against powerful enemies. It's already taken effect, actually. The dead soldier surpassed human physical limits, yet you still managed to leave her behind."
The young man stroked his smooth chin and said, "I see." At the same time, he stopped running and waited for the dead soldier beauty to arrive.
Then he grabbed the dead soldier beauty's left hand, turned his body, pressed into her arms, and slammed his right elbow into her abdomen.
The dead soldier beauty instantly collapsed to the ground and stopped moving, leaving behind several purple crystals.
"You did it, host! This is Honkai Energy." The system was just about to congratulate the young man when, unexpectedly, he dropped to his knees and bowed several times to the dead soldier beauty's body.
"Miss dead soldier, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to kill you. It was self-defense! If I didn't kill you, you would've killed me. I won't be sentenced for this, right?" As the saying went, the Celestial Empire had a complete legal system. Things like "three years as a starting point, death at most" naturally meant that murder was covered too.
"Don't worry, host. This is a dead soldier, a human mutated after being infected by Honkai Energy. You won't be sentenced. In this world, Honkai is humanity's enemy. Livestock infected by Honkai Energy become Honkai Beasts, while humans become dead soldiers. There are also the Herrschers—the existence of Honkai, or rather, the messengers of God. Honkai Energy is one of this world's primary energy sources. If used properly, it can be made into weapons, Stigmata, and the like. I hear that a certain green one even created weapons capable of threatening Herrschers. Oh, right—the 'green' in 'a certain green one' refers to the color green."
The green one... heh. I really feel sorry for that guy. Still, it seemed this world was quite interesting. His journey to another world hadn't been in vain.
"Also, women have a higher adaptability to Honkai Energy. Other than a few special cases, men will all die."
"Am I one of the special cases?" The young man seemed to have asked the stupidest possible question. The system had just helped him collect the Honkai Energy, after all. Couldn't he read the situation even a little?
"Of course you are~ Because I am Honkai itself. How could I let Honkai Energy attack my host?"
"I see... Wait, what did you say? You're Honkai?!"
"Oh my, it seems I scared the host. Don't worry. I am the will of Honkai, and I can control the development of Honkai. However, I haven't managed this world's Honkai development for a very long time, so don't blame me for the Honkai phenomena appearing here. I'm helping you because I want to see whether someone can unravel the game I set up long ago. I've already looked over those few little ones: one Herrscher of Thunder, one clone, and one little girl who doesn't seem as though she'll affect anything. That clone, however, is the vessel for my messenger, created by humans who coveted the power of God. As for the rest, there's the reincarnation of the Flame Herrscher from the previous civilization, who has extremely poor adaptability to Honkai Energy, and a clone of the strongest S-rank Valkyrie, whose body contains the genes of an Emperor-class Honkai Beast. None of them will amount to much in my eyes. Oh dear, I've said quite a lot. I'll tell the host more about it later."
"I already know what a Herrscher is, but what's a Valkyrie?" The young man immediately focused on the key point. The system hadn't said anything about what a Valkyrie was.
"Valkyries are humans capable of using Stigmata and Honkai Energy. However, they've all been modified, so they have very short lifespans. As for Stigmata, they're powers left behind by the heroes of this world to oppose Honkai—to oppose me. I have to admit, human intelligence is truly formidable. But the human heart is far too complicated, and intelligence can be misused too."
Before you continue