A Chance Encounter

"Kosma, get ready."

Kevin gave Kosma a few instructions and then left. He also needed to organize his equipment. The Squad One and Squad Thirteen were about to make their second contact with Xingcai.

He and Mei had discussed Xingcai's request, and it seemed that Elysia had already figured it out herself.

Research the Herrscher Core.

This request is quite intriguing, not because of any financial gain, but because of the "Honkai" of their planet, as mentioned by Xingcai.

Their first contact was with Immer and Hua. After a star hacked into Immer's computer, they learned human language from the data and read most of the knowledge inside, including Honkai and the Fire Moth.

Therefore, their desire to study the Herrscher Core is likely due to the discovery that the Herrscher Core is stored within the Fire Moth, even though they have never had Herrscher Core.

This points to one possibility.

The Honkai of Starry Planet did not involve Herrscher Core, or rather... the Herrscher itself.

This conjecture leads to even more questions.

Is the Honkai of Starry Sky's planet unique, or is the Honkai of Earth unique, or perhaps... Honkai itself is a phenomenon that varies depending on the civilization?

"Hello, Earthlings."

The almost transparent, mechanical creature greeted Kevin and Elysia with a friendly voice.

This is a secluded jungle where three Starry Night creatures are waiting for their arrival.

Even without the atmosphere of negotiation, both civilizations understood that their meeting represented the start of negotiations. So, without much small talk, Kevin got straight to the point. "We want to know how many 'people' Starfall has in total, as this will affect humanity's assessment of you."

One of the stars replied, "1432 bodies. This is the total number of stars we have used for interstellar travel."

Are these the only Starfall survivors from the planet's Honkai...?

Kevin's gaze sharpened, and he continued, "Humans can agree to your demands, but we also have corresponding demands, and you must pay a portion before this transaction is completed."

"..."

The stars fell silent. There seemed to be no communication between them, but these mechanical life forms should be able to transmit information without dialogue.

So, are they discussing this now?

After a moment, they replied, "What are your demands?"

"We want to know information about the Honkai, but not too much. You have already reviewed Earth's past Honkai records, so what you need to provide are the parts that we 'don't know' yet."

"I understand. Well then, let me tell you about the 'Honkai' phenomenon we encountered during our interstellar travel."

"Wait a minute." Kevin frowned and stopped him. "Interstellar travel? Wasn't Earth the first civilization you encountered? Why would you encounter other Honkai phenomena along the way?"

Since the Honkai's emergence is targeted at civilization, it can be naturally assumed that the Honkai is born from civilization and exists to destroy it.

"Yes, because, under that 'phenomenon,' the original civilization of that planet had already been destroyed."

"..."

"Any more questions?"

"No, please continue."

Kevin confirmed that his equipment was recording this crucial conversation, and what Xingcai said next was beyond the expectations of everyone, including Elysia.

"During our interstellar travel, we briefly stopped for one minute and twenty-one seconds on a planet where a civilization had already been destroyed."

"After a 37-second pause, we detected Honkai Energy."

"One minute and thirteen seconds later, the Honkai Energy content rose to a level exceeding the combined value of all Honkai creature we had detected."

"At one minute and twenty seconds, Honkai creature appeared on that planet."

"In the last second, what we captured was a Honkai Beast of unimaginable size."

Honkai Beast?

Kevin and Elysia both paused for a moment, seemingly without prior agreement.

"It covers one-fifth of the planet's surface."

"We classify it as a 'Planetary Honkai Beast'."

Chapter Fifty-Six: A Chance Encounter

"Is this the hacker who caused all the rumors to spread about you on the intranet?"

Himiko closer to look at Qianqi, scrutinizing her from head to toe, and said with a wicked smile, "You're really young. You've been playing Lin for a fool. Why don't you just pay off your debt with your body? It's a good opportunity to put yourself on the gambling table, isn't it?"

"No, no!" Qianqi shook her head like a rattle-drum; she had already developed a psychological aversion to the people who chased the fire moths.

"Hahaha..." Himiko loudly, patted Lin on the shoulder, "You can handle the rest. Come have a drink after you're done."

"..."

Lin and Ying watched Himiko leave in silence, then turned their attention back to Qianqi.

"W-What are you doing? You're not really going to do this, are you?"

"... Your disguise is terrible."

"..."

In her panic, Qianqi paused for a moment after hearing Lin's calm words, then glanced at Ying, who was equally composed.

Once they both adopted the same attitude, her panicked expression disappeared.

Instead, a mocking smile appeared.

"You're quite perceptive. No matter how you look at it, you're someone with extremely low emotional sensitivity." Her weak gaze was replaced by a sharp, feline-like look as she stared at Lin's screen. "How did you figure that out?"

"Your actions are far from your character. Someone who can hack into the national intranet and create those mechanisms cannot possibly be so weak in character."

Even though Lin wasn't a psychology specialist, the professionals at Firemoth were still able to roughly profile the hacker's information through profiling.

Mischievous, audacious, reckless, arrogant... these personality traits all stem from the information revealed by her various behaviors within the Moth Chaser's intranet, so Lin knew she was acting the moment he met her in person.

As for why... it's probably so that they can successfully enter the Moth of Fire.

Upon hearing this, Qianqi sneered and said, "Since you already know, why did you bring me back? Aren't you afraid I'll hack into your Fire Chaser Moth's system?"

"My only task is to bring you back to headquarters."

Lin said calmly and indifferently.

"Next, you will learn some basic knowledge, right here."

"... What? Here?"

She was a little confused; there was only one large screen in the room, nothing else.

Wait a moment.

"Whoosh."

The gate is closed.

She was left alone, staring blankly at the lit screen.

"Hello, MSA-999, I am Prometheus Unit 2. Over the next three days, I will teach you the relevant Honkai theory and the basic structure of my system. If you fail to complete the course, you will be imprisoned in the Deepest Place."

"Timer begins."

"Is today's itinerary... this place?"

After getting off the bus, the woman with long burgundy hair put on her sunglasses and baseball cap and began to stroll leisurely in the sweltering summer heat, taking in the city.

She comes here every year, but each time she comes, the city looks completely different, which is quite a novel experience.

However, the temperature this year is indeed unusually high. As soon as she stepped out of the car's air conditioning, the sweltering heat almost made her faint from the heat, as she couldn't immediately adapt to the large temperature difference.

After taking a few deep breaths, she felt a little better and strolled along the shade of the trees by the roadside.

Seeing people looking sickly, as if the heat had robbed them of their vitality, she couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

Perhaps this doesn't quite qualify as a natural disaster, but the original way of life has already been destroyed by this sudden accident.

Throughout her journey, she did not see a single person with a smile on their face.

She found a small pavilion to sit down and looked at the bustling but lifeless street, and couldn't help but sigh.

"..."

At that moment, she noticed that there was another person sitting not far away from her, wearing a hat, mask and sunglasses.

Unlike the others who were rushing around, he seemed to be pausing to observe something. She, who also liked to observe others, immediately realized the unusual nature of his behavior.

This immediately piqued her interest. What different opinions would someone who was also concealing their face and observing have?

"I'm so... tired." She spoke first, knowing that the person had already noticed her, probably before she even sat down.

The perspective from which you stand determines the perspective from which you see things.

Judging from his physique, he was a man, and he remained silent after hearing what the woman said.

"A news report about Australia said that three out of ten people in Australia now have a fever, and the other seven are not immune to the disease, but simply work in different environments."

Isn't that a tragedy?

Perhaps he was moved by the woman's words, or perhaps he simply thought that responding was a matter of politeness; after a moment of silence, the man finally spoke.

"... The 30% figure is inaccurate; the precise figure is 53.1%, and the probability of dying from heatstroke is already around 1%. One-third of the people who passed by just now were on the verge of heatstroke," the man replied coldly. "Instead of relying on news reports, you should see for yourself the suffering of these people."

This was tantamount to a direct sarcastic remark to the woman, but she felt that the man's tone wasn't mocking her, but rather stating a fact, so she nodded silently.

Do you believe that art can give these people the motivation to live?

"I don't understand art," the man said bluntly. "Spiritual richness cannot satisfy material needs. What they face is high temperatures and harsh working conditions, not a lack of art."

"... Is that so? Then perhaps I'm just being presumptuous."

"But I have a friend who laughs every day. As far as I know and from my observation, in the years since, she has never shown any anger or sadness. She only shows her happy side to others."

"That person must be an outstanding individual."

"Yes," he admitted without hesitation. "In our environment, the challenges we face can sometimes be more brutal than the scorching heat, but she wanted to convey hope and happiness to others through her smile. Perhaps she couldn't change what was going to happen, but at least many people learned to face the future."

The man stood up and turned his head. "If you've chosen a path you believe is right, then keep going. Art may not be able to change anything, but I think it can be inspiring."

After saying that, the man left without looking back, leaving the woman shaking her head with a smile.

It was truly a chance encounter, yet a wonderful one.

I didn't ask for his name, but there's no need to, is there?

April Fools' Special: The Snowy Mountain Villa Hero Team Annihilation Incident- Part 1

"Lin is dead."

Accompanying the trembling words was Lin's unseeing corpse.

"No! Nooooooo!"

The screams were swallowed up by the endless wind and snow, disappearing into the black night sky.

All of this dates back to the day before.

An unknown cabin, 20:30 PM, heavy snow.

"Sorry I'm late."

The warm wooden door opened from the inside, and a woman with long, wine-red hair wearing an apron appeared in the light, smiling demurely, "No, you're right on time."

Outside the door stood a man with long black hair and a woman with long green hair.

Mobius raised an eyebrow and grumbled at Lin, poking his waist with his finger. "I told you to leave early, but this guy is still dragging his feet, really..."

Lin covered his head and sighed helplessly, but he did not refute Mobius's statement.

"Hehe... you two seem even more loving after you got married." Eden chuckled as he watched their interaction, his gaze lingering for a moment on the rings on their left ring fingers.

"Who's being affectionate with him? It's so annoying. If he hadn't suddenly proposed and I hadn't realized it, I would have said yes..." Mobius stomped his foot angrily. Lin's smile became even more helpless. However, it was clear that neither of them actually had much resentment about the marriage. Mobius was merely expressing his indignation, without showing any regret.