I Heard the Voice of Stars!! (4k)

"Fuck!"

Though he had been mentally prepared, Xu Ziling still jumped at the sudden horror when that sinister, terrifying face really appeared before his eyes. The instant he came to his senses, his right hand clenched into a fist, and he punched the man in the stomach.

The suspectedly eroded freak across from him grinned viciously. In its eyes, Xu Ziling was no different from a "primitive," a lowly insect that needed to learn the might of "new life."

But the freak could no longer smile.

Because when Xu Ziling's fist truly struck its stomach, the freak felt an immense force slam into it. The monstrous strength that "god" had bestowed upon it was utterly unable to withstand Xu Ziling's attack. Its eyes rolled back, and after it spat out a foul-smelling tongue covered in the same unknown purple patterns, it was sent flying backward, crashing heavily onto the alleyway and passing out.

"What the hell... What's going on? So I could one-shot it all along?"

As it turned out, Xu Ziling's body was no longer human, but his mentality still was. After instinctively punching the man away, he reached back and touched his own spine, already drenched in cold sweat from the horrifying sight he had never witnessed in person before.

Had he really gone from being the one frightening others to the one being frightened in the very next moment? If not for the Pillar Men physique he had been born with after transmigrating, the roles of hunter and prey might truly have been reversed.

But when the freak's terrifying face echoed through his mind again, and he saw the freak he had sent flying lying heavily on the ground yet still struggling to stand as if nothing had happened, Xu Ziling's brows drew tightly together.

He now had a very bad feeling. Although the combat instincts of this body told him that the freak before him was nothing but an insignificant insect and could never threaten him, the way its body reacted... did not resemble a normal human's reaction at all. Instead, it looked like... Honkai?

But according to the original plot of the third Honkai game, ordinary people afflicted by Honkai turned into Honkai Beasts if they were male, while females became twisted into Herrschers. Yet even the female Herrschers in the game did not look this horrifying.

Or was it a Honkai Beast halfway through its mutation?

Xu Ziling stared at the purple patterns constantly flickering across the freak's body, as though supplying it with power, and felt that possibility was highly likely.

To be safe, Xu Ziling chose not to go up and finish it off. He was unsure whether there were any other half-humanoid Honkai Beasts nearby. And he still had a weakness in this alley.

"Tsk... This reminds me of those days at the company when good things never came in pairs and bad things happened every day."

After clicking his tongue at the sheer number of accidents tonight, Xu Ziling quickly retreated. He tore through the hemp ropes that had not actually been tied very tightly around Mobius and Klein, then picked up the two incapacitated women.

After looking over the surrounding alley walls, Xu Ziling decided to put some distance between them. After all, if the freak in his field of vision really was a Honkai Beast halfway through mutation from Honkai erosion, then it definitely emitted Honkai energy radiation. As for the harm Honkai energy radiation posed to ordinary people... there was no need to elaborate.

He himself had some resistance to it, but he was also carrying Serpent and Klein.

With that in mind, Xu Ziling glanced at the eaves and walls around the alley. He leaped, and with the support of the Pillar Men physique, shot more than ten meters into the air. Then he pushed off the walls of the buildings on both sides and landed steadily atop them.

The movement looked easy, but in reality, without professional training, even that physique might not have been enough. Xu Ziling could do it purely because, whenever the transmigration company underwent inspections, he had watched Dog Boss carry confidential documents while vaulting over eaves and walls, constantly shifting around through the inspectors' blind spots.

Dog Boss had also thought it too miserable to vault over eaves and walls alone. So, believing that suffering ought to be shared properly, he had abused his position as the boss to play pranks on the inspectors under the guise of training employees. While throwing the company into chaos, he had genuinely improved the agility of every hapless employee. Forced by circumstances, those past experiences had become his best training now.

In Changkong City, where land was scarce and people were numerous, even the buildings surrounding a remote alley stood twenty meters tall.

After temporarily confirming Mobius and Klein's safety on the rooftop, Xu Ziling had planned to send Serpent and Klein away first. Once they woke up, he would alter his DNA back to his original blond appearance and tell Klein that he had been the one who rescued her. Then this self-directed farce, staged solely to abduct girls, would come to an end.

But after thinking for a moment, Xu Ziling realized that the freak whose consciousness had been eroded by Honkai could still be useful. He had already scouted the area around this alley. Although there were surveillance cameras, nearly all of them had been out of service for years.

All he had to do now was put his clothes and mask back on the freak. Combined with the freak's geometrically explosive strength after being eroded by Honkai, that should be enough to fool Kevin and Su, who had witnessed tonight's events before escaping.

Even if they wanted to investigate, they would initially trace everything back to Honkai. And once Honkai became involved, Mobius would only need to give Fire Moth a signal for Fire Moth to immediately intervene and strictly forbid Kevin and the others from continuing their investigation. After all, at this point in time, Fire Moth kept all information about Honkai strictly confidential. It absolutely could not be allowed to leak among ordinary civilians.

As for why they would keep a "natural disaster" secret?

Heh. They had probably noticed the immense potential of this thing called Honkai as early as when Mobius published her first paper on it. They were desperately sending people to study it in secret—partly to restrain Mobius, and partly because they did not want other countries or organizations to begin secret research after learning the news and surpass them in this field.

As long as he made good use of that, Xu Ziling could achieve a perfect escape in this self-directed drama. If everything was handled properly, he might not even need to trouble Serpent.

Thinking this, Xu Ziling looked down from the rooftop at the freak in the alley, which had already struggled to its feet. After settling Serpent and Klein down, he used the air-conditioning units fitted to the building to lightly jump down.

"Heh..."

By now, the freak had struggled to its feet. Its heavy breathing, like the bellows of a furnace, rang out once more. Its head remained lowered. Its arm had been fractured when it was sent flying and crashed down, yet its use of the limb seemed completely unaffected. If anything, the fracture and dislocation had made its already awkward arm even longer and more grotesque.

But what was that saying again? Every attack came from insufficient firepower. Once a health bar appeared above a horror monster's head, it became far less frightening no matter how terrifying it looked.

Xu Ziling was in that exact state now. Apart from the jump scare at their first meeting, he knew better than anyone that his strength, speed, agility, and thought processes were all countless times greater than those of the Honkai-eroded freak before him. Fear? There was no need for it.

Xu Ziling did not waste words. With a foundation of 2000 hw in Honkai energy resistance, he was brimming with confidence against a half-transformed Honkai Beast. After moving Serpent and Klein away, he removed the gray-white mask he had casually picked up from a roadside trash can and held it out to the freak.

"Sorry, I still have a use for my own face, so I can't lend it to you. But you can have your mask back."

"..."

The freak froze for a moment, perhaps frightened by the power Xu Ziling had displayed earlier. The muscles and purple patterns across its body twisted viciously, yet it did not dare make a sound. It merely extended its long, strange, terrifying hands covered in patches of Honkai energy patterns and took the mask Xu Ziling offered. Then it silently put it on.

Once the mask was on, it seemed much more at ease. Still keeping its head lowered, it rasped:

"So beautiful..."

Xu Ziling did not know what the freak meant, but based on his previous experience, he felt the words were probably the prelude to some skill. So, after returning the mask, he silently prepared himself to counter and block.

When the freak showed no reaction, Xu Ziling thought for a moment, then smiled faintly.

"Ha, of course. I think I'm pretty good-looking too... So I won't hold your attack against you. By the way, aren't you cold? Take my clothes. Don't be shy—consider them yours."

As he spoke, Xu Ziling took off the set of "culprit's black clothes" Kevin had seen him wearing and draped them over the freak without further ado.

The moment Xu Ziling's clothes settled over it, the freak's entire body stiffened. Even the purple patterns constantly flickering across its body briefly stopped flowing.

After thinking for a moment, the disheveled freak lowered its head and rasped to Xu Ziling:

"Thank you... You're a good person..."

Listen to you. Now I feel bad about tricking you.

Xu Ziling smiled and tilted his head. He did not take the freak's words too seriously. After all, it had just tried to attack him, only to turn around and thank him now. The difference between those two performances made the freak look rather ridiculous.

Judging by its gray-white skin and terrifying purple patterns, it probably would not be long before Honkai's erosion completely turned it into a Honkai Beast that knew nothing but killing and persecution.

"But... why did you choose to associate with those people?"

The freak raised its head. The gray-white mask that had shifted onto its face flickered with dangerous purple erosion patterns. Its voice was earnest and trembling.

"If you continue, you'll eventually... end up like those people, thrown away as trash."

"Them? You mean those two just now?"

Xu Ziling's brows furrowed slightly. He was just about to ask what Serpent had done to it when he suddenly realized that he was discussing the path of life with someone who had been eroded by Honkai. The realization made Xu Ziling laugh at himself.

"You're a good person... but don't you hate them?"

The freak stared at Xu Ziling through its mask. Purple blood seemed to drip from beneath it, and its voice was solemn.

"Living under the same roof, why are you the subordinate who serves others? Why are you always the one standing to the side and doing the assisting?

"Yes... yes... I once believed that as long as I did my part well, I could earn the respect and recognition of others. But reality has already proven to me that no matter how hard a subordinate works, no one will remember them... much less value them. Then what is the meaning of our existence as servants? To toil all our lives, only to die meaninglessly in some deserted place?

"You should be angry... You should hate... You should rebel!"

"Yes... Rebel... Rebellion is the only way out for people like us!"

The freak became more and more agitated, even gesturing with its hands. Its earnest tone transformed into something bizarre and deranged.

"You helped me... You're a good person, so I'll let you see! Look at my face! Do you know why I became like this?! Because I got sick... Purple patterns appeared on my body, and I began to grow ugly... I don't know why this happened, but the company actually fired me because I started looking ugly, using the excuse that I affected the company's appearance! Even though I had diligently given them more than ten years of my youth!

"My family fears me! My friends keep away from me! All because I became ugly! All because of this terrifying face I have now!

"But... thanks to this hideously ugly face, my eyes see more clearly than before, allowing me to see through the faces of humanity.

"And I realized... that no matter how hard the lower classes work their entire lives, in the end, everything can be denied! They can be discarded! All because of some insignificant mistake! I had already lowered my head forever according to their wishes. I had worn a mask forever... so why did they still distance themselves from me?! Why did they deny me?! Why?!

"Rebel! We must rebel! Rebellion is the only way out for the lower classes! Only by destroying this filthy civilized world completely can we, the lower classes, welcome the light of a new world! I had no power in the past, but now... now things are different. That Meteor of Finality healed my wounds and granted me unparalleled power. Even the voice of the meteor often lingers in my ears...

"Yes... yes... The voice! That's right! I heard the voice of that meteor! I heard the voice of the Meteor of Finality! I heard the Voice of Stars!!!"