Who Is the Most Important Person to You?

Die, die, die!

It hurts so much, it hurts so much, it hurts so much.

The fragmented murmurs in reality and the instinctive reactions of the brain intertwined into a chaotic rhapsody. The connection between the plastic handle and the blade of the pencil sharpener snapped under the unrestrained force, and her palm, without any regard for the consequences, allowed a small part of the sharp edge to embed itself in the flesh as support, continuing to apply force.

In the intervals between blood loss, her weak physique and anemic body caused her strength to dissipate. She sat exhausted in a pool of blood, her recently purchased plain-colored nightgown now stained with a glaring scarlet, resembling Abyss Flower stained with filth.

Seele's tender, blood-soaked hands had lost the strength to grip the pencil sharpener; her mind seemed to be drifting into a hazy state due to the massive blood loss, and even her will to maintain her sitting posture had vanished...

The girl's body collapsed onto a crimson canvas, her tangerine-blue hair soaked into a deep, dark red by the blood, her slender limbs and fair skin bathed in the sticky, warm, flowing stream, gradually losing their temperature.

The ending that Seele longed for seemed to be just around the corner, but death itself was resisting the existence of the Sixth Herrscher.

The essence of power cannot accept such a ridiculous method of suicide by its host. Even though Seele actively removed the Honkai Energy barrier linking the Imaginary Space, making it easy for her to hurt herself with a pencil sharpener, she could not suppress the spontaneous reaction of power.

Due to the intense resistance of their own will, the active effects of their powers were erased, and most of the abilities within the Herrscher Core were constrained by the Will of Death, making it difficult to output excessive firelight, and they could only maintain a passive state at a certain Critical Point.

The exposed flesh revealed stark white bone. Given the material of the pencil sharpener, after being forcefully ground and cut across the bones and tendons, it should have become too dull to scratch the gradually healing wound. However, the faint Honkai Energy surrounding the edge of the blade was what allowed it to continuously hinder the interference of the power.

After Seele's consciousness briefly faded, the wound on her wrist slowly began to undulate, as if time were rewinding, gradually repairing everything to its original, undamaged state. Meanwhile, the endless flow of regenerating blood dripped from the wound...

This entire area was the collective living quarters for the Moth to Fire soldiers and the logistics personnel of the Australian branch, naturally placing it in one of the key observation areas. The presence of alarms and satellites allowed the remaining sub-units of Prometheus to lock onto the fluctuations suspected to be those of the Sixth Herrscher.

Fortunately, due to the shortage of personnel, very few soldiers remained in the residential areas, which meant that even if casualties occurred, the losses would not be significant.

The very fact that the Sixth Herrscher was born in the safest country of Australia was enough to put the High Command and Mei, the leader of this region, on edge.

Just as she issued the emergency evacuation order for the soldiers to leave on their own, Prometheus's phone message and email arrived as promised, making the situation even more perplexing.

Seele Fulei became the Sixth Herrscher.

Upon learning this news, Mei, burdened with immense responsibility and obligation, chose to set aside all personal feelings and consider every word Prometheus uttered.

[Seele Fulei seems to possess her own will. Even if the possibility of her being Herrscher Persona in disguise cannot be ruled out, considering Mr. Su's previous remarks about the Honkai Link and the case of the Third Herrscher, there is still a glimmer of hope in the current situation.]

If there is any compelling evidence to perfectly support this argument, Dr. Mei, as Seele's friend, would naturally be grateful for it.

The reality is that neither Prometheus's words nor his own will could add any bias or weight to the balance of pros and cons.

Mei must calmly and objectively view the current situation. The fact that the Honkai Consciousness is not stupid is a consensus reached by humanity through several painful lessons.

The so-called "god" is the opposing player who controls the entire game on the Honkai side. Under this premise, Dr. Mei finds it hard to believe that the opponent would engage in meaningless actions like sacrificing pieces.

Therefore, it is impossible to simply assume that the other party has self-awareness and lower one's guard, and to offer gentle care in the first place.

The greatest act of kindness Dr. Mei could do was to attempt, at a certain risk, to observe Seele Fulei as she is today.

Her gaze lingered on the photograph for 75 seconds, she silently realized and accepted reality for 189 seconds, and it took her 20 seconds from making the decision to commit suicide to carrying it out precisely.

The Sixth Herrscher's gaze, expression, and trembling self-talk during her resurrection were undoubtedly those of the Seele Fulei he knew. Assuming it was all an act, then the Honkai Consciousness might possess the ability to directly implant knowledge into the Herrscher's body and allow it to use it freely.

She didn't hesitate as she cut her wrists one after another with a pencil sharpener, which even made Mei wonder if Seele's nervous system had developed problems after becoming Herrscher, otherwise her tolerance for pain would have become pathological.

Wanting to confirm the information about the Herrscher Authority that Su Qing'an mentioned, Mei did not choose to stop him at this time.

While the Herrscher's physical form is indeed very similar to a human, its body possesses a strong vitality as long as its vital points are not directly penetrated. This can be seen from the fact that the Herrscher of Ice, despite being severely injured, was still able to fight for a long time.

However... even the strongest vitality is still maintained at a certain limit. According to Mei's observation of the Fifth Herrscher, this vitality is more appropriately explained by the game term "battle continuation".

At that time, it would be more accurate to say that Su Qing'an dragged the Fifth Herrscher to her death rather than killing her.

Judging from the results, Seele seems to be intentionally restraining the exercise of her powers, but the strange phenomenon of the wound continuously healing confirms that her powers are indeed, as Su Qing'an said, the ability to control and manipulate the apoptosis and growth of biological cells.

This also means that from the very beginning, Seele Fulei's idea of suicide was something that could not be achieved by simply cutting her wrists and bleeding out.

This means that it's possible to view all of this as a performance staged to gain human trust.

Pure observation is almost meaningless; in situations of information asymmetry, it is a major taboo to simply speculate on the outward appearance of others.

If you approach Seele Fulei with suspicion, it will be impossible to truly trust her.

But... continuing to make such meaningless observations will only continue to waste time.

The rampant crimson paint transformed the room into a scene of purgatory. The girl, soaked in blood, slowly regained consciousness. Feeling refreshed and restored to her original strength and energy, she sat up, staring at her wrist, and murmured in bewilderment:

"This is... an authority? A power unique to Herrscher."

Even if you try your best to suppress its effects, the spontaneous effects of instinct will restore everything to normal when consciousness falls into a coma.

The illusion of being pulled back from the brink of death; the excruciating pain that seeps into the bone marrow and nerves; the tragic reality that suddenly shatters the warmth of daily life; the helplessness of not even being able to commit suicide; and the profound despair and anger.

What kind of willpower does it take for a 14-year-old girl to ignore all of this and calmly and rationally find the precise answer?

Seele Fulei is not normal, but she is still just a child. Her brain, unable to enter a calm state, can no longer support her in thinking of more effective and executable methods, but her pent-up emotions need to find an outlet.

That is, meaningless effort.

A chaotic and hazy consciousness compelled her to pick up the blade that was beginning to chip and continue repeating the initial wrist-cutting. However, her nearly irrational will could no longer suppress the restorative power. Her deep blue eyes were tinged with a dark and eerie red as the power was activated, just like her hair, which had turned black and red from being soaked in blood.

The healing flesh and the blades surrounding the Honkai Energy tormented each other, but in the end... Seele's mechanical and repetitive actions were stopped by Mei's voice.

"Seele," she said.

The girl paused slowly, staring blankly at the light and shadow image that popped up on the table.

She was an intellectual young woman in a white coat, with a black shirt underneath, matching stockings, and leather boots. Her long hair was tied in a ponytail as always.

In this almost unchanging outfit, the habitual action of holding a tablet and occasionally glancing up to take notes, which is almost identical to usual, seems somewhat inappropriate at this moment.

Calm, rational, and rigid.

The somber atmosphere and familiar feeling brought the girl back to her senses in an instant; the razor blade slipped from her hand, and her lips moved slightly.

"Sister Mei?"

Mei pushed up her slipping glasses, her purple eyes revealing exhaustion. The intense research work and meticulous pharmaceutical diet had consumed almost all of her time.

Even with various methods to maintain high-quality sleep, an average of three hours of sleep still puts a strain on her already frail body.

Faced with the adorable little girl before her, she had to suppress her human emotions and make the judgment that was most beneficial to civilization, thus arriving at the optimal solution.

The immense pressure is constantly pushing Mei forward. A strange sense of mission and urgency prevents her from resting even for a moment. Her innate self-control and emotional restraint are the core keys to maintaining perfect efficiency, without revealing the slightest flaw or making any mistakes.

Even so, she still finds herself troubled by the current situation.

Mei understood perfectly well that if you approach Seele Fulei with the utmost malice and suspicion, you'll never arrive at a conclusion that you can trust her, no matter how long you observe her.

This is a dead end.

Now that the Sixth Herrscher's fluctuations can no longer be concealed, if a solution to this deadlock is not found immediately, the only option left is to kill the opponent.

Time is running out, which is the real reason why Mei doesn't intend to continue observing.

The Herrscher of Death, who possesses power, will not actually die from repeated acts of suicide. As long as everything she does does not pose a real risk of death, it cannot be concluded that the other party can be trusted. This is not the answer to acting.

However, if we assume that the Sixth Herrscher before us is indeed Seele Fulei, then there is no point in continuing to observe her except torment our own hearts and Seele's body.

Mei knew perfectly well how much change Herrscher with self-awareness and a human perspective could bring.

However, it is impossible to perfectly prove that the other party is indeed Seele Fulei, who is completely under one's control.

If you're going to take on this benefit, then you have to gamble with the corresponding risks.

She had to choose: whether to follow the safest approach, conform to rationality, and then completely annihilate them after exploiting them; or to overcome all suspicion and doubt and act with the intention of trusting the other party.

Yes, the act of giving away a child is incomprehensible.

No matter how you approach it with normal logic, you can only conclude that it's unnecessary to take the risk, and there must be some conspiracy involved that's hard to see through.

Even for Mei, the same applies, but from a researcher's perspective, there are countless possibilities that are close to the impossible and the possible.

And one of them...

What if the Honkai Consciousness is completely indifferent to the death of a Herrscher?

Having broken through the fundamental logical dead ends, Mei began to connect the current situation with the Herrscher previously controlled by the Honkai Consciousness.

The deaths of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Herrscher were almost all related to the Honkai Fission Bomb.

Mei's tendency to think based on the fixed premise that the other party possesses high intelligence, and to stumble over the same obstacle repeatedly, has left her feeling confused and doubtful.

Firstly, assuming that the birth of Herrscher does not involve significant restrictions or extremely stringent requirements, then many of the Honkai Consciousness's actions do not align with the direct purpose of destroying civilization.

To give a simple example, even if the requirement is extremely high Honkai Energy proficiency, the Mu Continent, as a central region where all of humanity has a generally high level of Honkai Energy proficiency, must have something that meets that requirement.

Then why didn't the other side choose to create Herrscher here?

Furthermore, the Fifth Herrscher's deliberate act of becoming a target seems to be an attempt to use the chain reaction of the Honkai Fission Bomb to expand the scope of environmental pollution.

Mei could almost effortlessly find ways to exploit the Herrscher's abilities to cause even greater destruction. The Honkai Consciousness's choice to readily sacrifice pawns to reap meager gains is not in line with the purpose of destroying civilization.

Let's shift our perspective again: what if destroying civilization was merely a means to an end?

This true objective can be clearly explained using the previously proposed screening method.

So what is the real reason why the Honkai Consciousness doesn't care about abandoning its pawns?

Because a selection process is required, the difficulty must be progressive.

This sounds like a massive, global adventure game where Emperor-class Honkai Beast are elite enemies, Judgment-class Honkai Beast are special events, the rest are regular Honkai Beast, Honkai events are HP-deducting mechanics, and finally, the thirteen Herrscher are the gatekeepers of thirteen levels.

But who stipulated that...?

Is there only thirteen levels in this game?

There is no one.

The Honkai didn't say that, and humanity has no precedent to refer to for such an answer. The information given by Su Qing'an, who seems to come from another world, is incomplete.

But it is precisely because of this that there is value in continuing to make this assumption.

What if even the thirteen Herrscher were just elite monsters encountered along the way?

In reality, the Demon King, whom the hero painstakingly defeated with all his might and exhaustion, was merely the gatekeeper before the curtain rose. Just when he thought he could return home with the broken Holy Sword to get married, he encountered a BOSS ten thousand times stronger than the Demon King on his way home.

By then, the red and blue potions in the backpack will have been used up, the equipment durability will have reached zero, the health bar will only have half left, and the teammates will all be dead. The outcome is naturally predictable.

Beauty is worthy of being beautiful.

Even in purely self-assumptions, the truly correct answer can be derived through continuous dialectical and logical stacking.

Even though Prometheus still couldn't calculate the existence of the Finality, Mei arrived at the same conclusion based on intuition and assumptions.

At this point, Mei had no way of proving the correctness of her ideas.

For someone as meticulous as her, even if this could explain the Honkai Consciousness's act of sending a child, it still didn't mean she could directly apply it to reality and make decisions for herself at such a crucial turning point.

However, the existence of this argument provides Mei with a solid basis for convincing herself.

She gazed at the little girl covered in blood, a flicker of pity still crossing her eyes.

For Mei, Seele Fulei's existence was far more important than that of a normal stranger. She held a tablet and seemingly indifferently recorded all the data that Seele exhibited, precisely so that her judgment would not be swayed by emotions.

She responded softly:

It's me.

"Seele, are you aware of the current situation?"

The dark crimson in the little girl's eyes burned even hotter. Looking at her wrist, which was unharmed except for being stained with blood, she murmured incoherently:

"I am Seele Fulei, and I have become... Herrscher."

"I can't let my brother see Seele now, but I can't die. Why can't I die? Why am I still not dying even though it hurts so much?"

She looked at the girl helplessly and blankly, and asked:

"Sister Mei, I won't die, what should I do?"

Mei suppressed the emotions that were causing her heart to clench, took a deep breath, and asked softly:

"Seele, who is the most important person to you?"

Upon hearing Seele, Seele's mind was filled with fragmented yet heartwarming images, and she murmured reflexively:

"It's my brother."

The deep red in the little girl's eyes slowly faded, and crystal tears overflowed, dripping into the pool of blood with a soft sound. She seemed to truly understand the other person's problem, and earnestly repeated:

"It's Su Qing'an."

Mei stared at this scene, speechless.

After a long silence, she made her decision.