Correct or Not

The enraged monster struggled to its feet, the purplish-red patterns on its body surging wildly as they repaired its tattered form at a visible rate. Simultaneously, the Honkai energy radiating from within it began to climb steadily!

Sensing the change in the total amount of Honkai energy, Xu Ziling frowned slightly. In the next moment, he hurled the empty handgun in his hand at the monster's head, then swiftly moved forward, delivering a leg whip to the creature's body without any restraint!

This was the first time Xu Ziling had used his physical strength without holding back since his transmigration... and the result was remarkable.

"Ugh... Nngh!"

Xu Ziling's movement was faster than the thrown gun. As his leg whip swept across the monster's bloated and massive torso, a crisp and loud bone-snapping sound echoed. Before the monster could even scream, the gun Xu Ziling had thrown earlier smashed into its face, hitting its mouth precisely and preventing it from crying out!

The Honkai energy emanating from this monster was already beyond imagination. Therefore, after landing a blow, Xu Ziling didn't choose to consolidate his position to prevent a counterattack. Instead, he adopted a more aggressive and ferocious fighting style, aiming to deplete the monster's total Honkai energy to the greatest extent in the shortest possible time.

After taking Xu Ziling's full-power strike, the monster felt its meridians and bones shatter in an instant. The unimaginable pain almost made it collapse.

But in the very next moment, the purplish-red patterns on the monster's body erupted. The monster, which had been in agony a second ago, suddenly felt a powerful force surge through its body, and all its pain was rapidly soothed.

Seeing this, Xu Ziling once again threw a punch at the monster's jaw without holding back. Accompanied by a violent sonic boom and the sound of cracking bones, Xu Ziling's punch nearly sent the monstrous creature's head flying off. In fact, if not for those grotesque and eerie purple patterns desperately connecting the monster's body, Xu Ziling would have succeeded.

After taking two hits from Xu Ziling, the monster, covered in purple blood, grinned eerily and chillingly. It discovered that it was now as if divinely aided... No! It was a god! It was truly a god! A god had soothed all its pain, making it feel not even a sliver of agony. The power within it was surging, and the anger and resentment in its eyes were more frenzied than ever before!

"Roar!!"

The monster roared, and terrifying tentacles emerged from the chest Xu Ziling had smashed into a bloody mess with his leg. Launching a surprise attack, they wrapped around Xu Ziling's waist and violently flung him away. It exclaimed excitedly, "Look! ...Look! You can't beat me! I am powerful! I am right! 'The God' has healed all my pain! I am the god's agent, I am your savior! I am the only one 'right' in this world!!!"

Facing the monster's ferocious shouts, Xu Ziling, caught off guard and entangled by the tentacles that emerged from its chest, was slammed hard. However, his body, having survived losing liters of blood from Serpent, was that of a Pillar Man who could still jump around. Withstanding this impact was no problem at all.

In contrast, the monster's twisted and enormous face still wore its grayish-white mask. But it was clear that the mask, designed for humans, could no longer conceal its ugly and sinister visage. As it spoke, it chewed on the handgun Xu Ziling had thrown earlier. Metal fragments cut through its flesh, and purple blood dripped from its mouth, soaking its bloated and massive body and tattered clothes, making the entire scene even more bizarre.

Seeing this, Xu Ziling clicked his tongue. He recalled how he had punched off the monster's head earlier, only for it to be reattached by those grotesque Honkai energy patterns. Xu Ziling knew that this battle could not be dragged out any longer. The Honkai energy contained within this monster had completely surpassed the scope of a normal Honkai Beast.

"Tsk... Honkai energy... how troublesome..."

"I'm not a monster... I'm not a monster... Haha! I'm right! I'm the savior! I'm right!!!"

The monster continued to roar madly, about to charge at Xu Ziling again.

Listening to the monster's excited shouts, Xu Ziling seemed to understand something and conceived a plan that could neutralize the monster's Honkai energy. However, to implement it, he first needed to restrain the monster's movements.

And so...

"BOOM!!!!!"

An unprecedented tremor resounded through the alley, waking many nearby residents from their sleep. The monster's recently repaired body instantly turned back into a bloody mess.

But the purplish-red Honkai energy patterns were still soaring; this was clearly not the end.

However, this at least bought Xu Ziling time. Seizing the opportunity, Xu Ziling quickly got up, kicked the monster's body, which had expanded to five meters tall, to the ground, and then stomped heavily on it. At the same time, Xu Ziling thrust out his right hand, and with a "ripping" sound, tore off the monster's right arm entirely.

He then shoved the monstrously terrifying right arm, heavily eroded by Honkai energy, directly into the monster's face, saying:

"Come, you always ask if you're a monster, you always say you're right... Then please, take a look for yourself. The blood staining your hands is incredibly gruesome, and incredibly real... And it fell from your own body. Look at it, and think carefully, how much similar blood have your hands been stained with so far? And then, answer me again... are you right?"

After Xu Ziling asked, "Are you right?", the previously frenzied monster instantly became flustered. Its broken mouth uttered indistinct sounds:

"I'm right... I'm right! Why are you questioning me too?! I'm really right! And this hand... impossible... impossible! How can this be my flesh! My body shouldn't be like this!"

The monster roared and bellowed. Simultaneously, as if remembering something, it began to frantically tear at its own face, shouting, "I know... it must be this ugly skin and flesh on my face, right? Right?! But I really just got sick! I wasn't like this before! I wasn't!!!"

"But you just said that the 'god' you heard has healed all your pain."

Xu Ziling seized the loophole in the monster's words and pressed on, "Since all your pain has been healed by 'god,' why do you still have such ugly skin? I won't deny you, but the facts seem to prove that you... have indeed embarked on a path of no return. Please, lower your head and look at your current body, and see how much blood you have stained."

Upon hearing this, the monster subconsciously lowered its head, and its pupils suddenly contracted.

The image from its memory was long gone. In its place was an incredibly terrifying and distorted monstrous figure, shrouded in purplish-red dangerous patterns, with countless tentacles, three eyes, and six pairs of crab claws!

"No... No! I'm not like this! I was clearly the only 'right' person, the 'correct' person. How could my body become like this?!"

The monster roared frantically, and at the same time, began to tear at its own skin and flesh, continuously shouting, "I shouldn't be like this... This isn't my flesh! It's not! It's not!!! I am 'correct'!!"

Hearing this, Xu Ziling nodded. It seemed his guess was correct; the monster before him indeed had an extremely deep obsession with the matter of 'right and wrong'. And judging by its frenzied state and the rising Honkai energy around it... this guy might even be using a Herrscher template!

However, this guy was completely insane, but it didn't seem to have lasted long. Although it was frantically tearing at its own flesh, trying to prove it wasn't this monster and that it was the right person by shedding this ugly body, it couldn't help but attack Xu Ziling, who was standing on it, halfway through its self-mutilation. So, every time this happened, Xu Ziling would unhesitatingly throw a punch, shattering the guy's delusion and forcing it back into self-doubt about 'right and wrong' with absolute power.

Under the monster's frenzied self-harm and Xu Ziling's continuous follow-up attacks, its vitality rapidly drained. But every time the monster was on the verge of death, the Honkai energy within it would quickly replenish it. In this twisted, torn, and chaotic feeling, the monster's thoughts became increasingly deranged, and its consciousness more and more hazy.

In a daze, it seemed to see its past amidst its rapidly fading life—

[Senior, you know, right? Professor Huang clearly stole my research results! I don't understand why all the seniors know this, but no one is willing to stand by me?!! Senior, we've lived in the same shared apartment for so long, you're my only hope now...]

[Wh-what... If Professor Huang falls, all the students in this batch, including you and me, will be implicated, and we might even face the risk of not graduating. We've all... come this far together for so many years? But I really can't stand him using what was rightfully mine to apply for projects for himself!!!]

[Ah... Senior... why are you hitting me too... You just wait... I'll prove to you with my actions that my ideas are not wrong.]

[That Professor Huang who stole my results has fallen... but why is everyone looking at me like that?! I don't think I did anything wrong! I did this so that countless people in the future would not suffer! Why, why is everyone distancing themselves from me! Senior, why are you too...]

[It hurts so much... unimaginably painful... I never imagined before that being beaten by a crowd would be this painful... But he was the senior I respected the most before, should I call the police...]

[Damn it! If it weren't for that guy named Huang plagiarizing my ideas, how could I not have graduated? How could I have ended up working at a company like this?! And why are my colleagues looking at me like that? I didn't do anything wrong! This shouldn't be happening!]

[...Forget it, I should focus on finding something to eat first. A seemingly kind colleague just told me there's a company dinner tonight. It seems this place isn't as bad as I imagined...]

[Damn it! ...Damn it!! That wasn't team building at all! It was a trap, a trap!! A slaughter trap set for me, the 'newbie'!!]

[Okay... okay... You guys calm down. I'll listen to you. Just don't touch my family. From now on, I'll wear a mask and work honestly at the company.]

[Dad... Mom... Why are you looking at me like that too? Why... are you also drifting further and further away from me? Did I... did I do something wrong...? No, no! I didn't do anything wrong!! I didn't do anything wrong!! It's not me who's wrong!! They are wrong!! Why don't even you understand me! You... you must have heard what my colleagues said about me, right? But they're all wrong!! I'm your son, I'm the right one!! I'm the right one!! Why can't you just believe me, why are you all staying away from me?!!!]

[Damn it, damn it, damn it!! Why are these purple patterns growing on me, what the hell are these things!!...]

[You... you accept me? You also think I'm right? I... you... You're saying that it's not me who's wrong, but this filthy world, and we need to overthrow it. And before the new world arrives, even if I kill them... it's just so that one day in the future, they can turn into stardust and I can meet them again... Is that it?]

[Ha... haha... I did it... I did it!! I finally succeeded! I heard the Voice of Stars from "Finality"! Professor, Senior, Boss! Where are you?!! I finally have the strength to prove to you! I was right all along! I didn't do anything wrong!! I, Zhao Zhiheng, have never done anything wrong!!!]

In reality, Zhao Zhiheng, who had torn himself apart beyond recognition, managed to break through the Honkai energy contained within his monstrous body and its healing limit through repeated self-mutilation.

As his life force continuously ebbed away, the memories, like a flickering lantern slide show, became increasingly clear in Zhao Zhiheng's mind—

"Zhiheng..."

As his consciousness faded, the couple, who had fallen under their child's knife, gasped for air, their punctured lungs struggling. They said to their child, "We never thought you were wrong... but the 'right' and 'wrong' in this world can never be forced..."

"Dad!! Mom!!!"

The past memories transformed into the belated voice of understanding. The monster's eyes snapped open. He abruptly lowered his now enormous and swollen purplish-red head, looking at his hands, which had become monstrous and were covered in purple blood, as if seeing the sharp knife that had slaughtered his loved ones and torn apart others' faces.

So... it wasn't that he couldn't be understood by others. It was just that those who understood him didn't necessarily treat him well. It was just that they had their own ways of understanding and caring... It was just that he realized it too late. At this moment, the voice of stars in his ear seemed to weaken slightly. The voice that constantly echoed in his ear, urging him to destroy the world, quieted down. The "monster" suddenly wished he could return everything to how it was before, to a time when he could be treated like a normal person without discrimination. But alas... he was destined never to go back.

At the same moment, the instant Zhao Zhiheng's desire for revenge on humanity wavered, the moment he began to yearn for human connection again, the core within his monstrous body, which had been infinitely close to solidifying... shattered with a bang!

"God"... did not need a madman who doubted himself as its pawn.

And time continued to flow.

Soon, the body that had supported Zhao Zhiheng's escape through several cities and countless evasions of police capture was finally nearing its end under the dual blows of his frenzied self-harm and the shattering of his core.

"Ugh... cough... cough cough..."

Clinging to the last wisp of his life, Zhao Zhiheng glared at the sky with bloodshot eyes and said with difficulty, "I, Zhao Zhiheng... was never wrong... It's not... me!!"

With that, the monster, who was only one step away from becoming a Simulated Herrscher, had exhausted his very last trace of life force.

All that remained was a pile of torn and mangled Honkai flesh and blood, and Zhao Zhiheng's corpse, eyes still glaring at the sky, a body that died with its eyes wide open, and the greatest rage a weakling could unleash upon a filthy society.

Not far away.

Xu Ziling, who had already distanced himself from the monster, watched the scene quietly.

He didn't understand Zhao Zhiheng's past, but he felt that the sounds of the battle tonight seemed very, very quiet. Yet, the "sound" of the shouts tonight... seemed to have become exceptionally loud.