Qianqi: The Real Truth / Elysia: Dream, Present, Past

She lowered her head, staring blankly at the empty coffee can. "Among those who have become Herrscher and Honkai zombie, there are many people from my circle."

"..."

So, is it okay to fire the gun...?

"If we kill her, then kill Qianqi, and finally kill Lin, the outcome will change. At least Lin won't be completely devoured by Him and become a puppet."

"It's like a game having a bug where the three main characters die in the prologue. Would it crash?" the man sighed. "But if we did that, 'Lin' would just turn from a puppet into a corpse."

This was indeed the only solution he could think of to protect the two people.

"... Time is almost up."

The girl got up and casually threw the coffee can into a trash can a dozen meters behind her.

"Don't you regret it?"

As the man gradually disappeared, he asked the same question to the girl's retreating figure once more.

"Forest."

The girl shook her head, giving an irrelevant answer.

"It doesn't matter."

Chapter 54 Qianqi: The Real Truth

The situation is becoming increasingly complicated.

Qianqi looked at the densely written words in her notebook, her brows furrowed more tightly than a safe.

Visitor from another world? Time traveler from the future? The identity of the supposedly dead MSA-079 has become shrouded in mystery once again, and has brought many additional variables to Qianqi's thinking.

So, we come back to that question.

What exactly is this place? Or rather, what is the true nature of this world?

Qianqi felt a sharp pain in her brain, and a hazy feeling of breaking free from her shackles washed over her.

She knew all of this very well.

A voice deep inside her told her this.

What's missing? Think about it quickly!

Parallel World? Loops? Time travel? Bizarre rules like a game...

...game?

It was as if, once a certain node was connected, everything suddenly became clear. Her eyes lit up as she looked down at the clues in her notebook.

In her mind, "staring" is something beyond common sense, meaning that her original world was "normal," or at least more in line with her common sense than this world.

There are two most abnormal things about this world: first, there is only one city, Changkong City; second, there is a rule that anyone who conveys key information through words and writing will be "watched".

Qianqi finally understood what MSA-079 meant when he said they belonged to another world.

This is not Parallel World, but a virtual world, and all the abnormal things can be explained through the virtual world.

Memory manipulation and gaze, which are difficult to achieve in reality, can be easily accomplished in a game-like world. After all, "gaze" feels like "keyword retrieval," while memory manipulation is like "code modification."

However, Qianqi did not believe this was a game world. After some contemplation, an answer welled up from the depths of her heart.

The world of consciousness.

The concept arose very naturally, as if she had known it from the beginning, but something had been blocking it out.

"The mastermind behind it all isn't actually an 'engineer,' but also a participant. Therefore, its manipulation of the consciousness world is personified as a perceptible behavior or phenomenon." Qianqi drew a circle around the mastermind and then connected it to MSA-079. "MSA-079 didn't explode out of thin air; instead, someone resembling Elysia appeared and killed it. The reason for this is that the person wasn't a 'gazing' phenomenon at all; it was the true mastermind's physical form."

Qianqi had always thought that the pink-haired girl didn't chase after her because she hadn't triggered "gazing," which was just a phenomenon of wiping out the person being gazed at. But now it seems that it's not the same thing at all.

The evidence is that her memories have been altered.

The other party didn't hunt her down simply because... she was more useful alive than dead, and moreover, the other party needed her to live.

The world of consciousness is a world where the abstract and the concrete coexist. The "world destruction" ending mentioned by MSA-079 is probably a concrete manifestation of their failure. The true meaning may be the defeat and death of the master of the world of consciousness.

The condition for achieving this ending is that Lin, Elysia, and Qianqi must survive until the eve of the ending without discovering the murderer.

"Consciousness...me? No...it's Lin." Qianqi emphasized Lin's name, her mind racing as she bit her pen. "The record says that MSA-079 told me, 'You were originally an outsider, but you became an insider.' That means I was supposed to enter the world of consciousness as an assistant who didn't participate in the ending, but I was forced to become an insider. The reason I have no related memories but have related instincts is also because of this."

At this point, their identities are clear: this world of consciousness is shared by Lin and the mastermind, and they are clashing here. Meanwhile, I and Elysia have entered this world of consciousness to assist Lin.

"So, what is the 'truth' that led to the current situation?"

First of all, it is certain that the mastermind has the ability to impersonate other people. As long as they know that this is the world of consciousness, they can guess that Elysia, who killed MSA-079, was an imposter. And it is highly likely that the alteration of their own memories was also done by the mastermind impersonating someone they know to approach and then make their move.

But what exactly is MSA-079? Why are there two Lin? And why does MSA-079 know what's going to happen next, like...

I've experienced it firsthand.

The following is Qianqi's speculation. Due to the scarcity of clues about MSA-079, she can only rely on her imagination to make most of her guesses.

This situation is likely not the first time it has happened.

They should have lost once.

But the mastermind may have only devoured a portion of Lin's consciousness. This world of consciousness is also Lin's world. He separated his own consciousness, and MSA-079, who possessed some memories, became an "outsider." Meanwhile, the unaware Lin restarted the countdown to the end.

Since MSA-079 was no longer a necessary condition for the ending, the mastermind killed him immediately after finding him.

Before this, he injected their memories from the previous time into them, allowing them to receive the memories of another version of themselves in the form of a dream.

"Wait a moment..."

Qianqi suddenly thought of something.

It's a terrifying thing.

How did she determine that... everyone she had met up with so far was the same person she knew?

It is highly likely that "He" was mixed in among them.

Moreover, her image could be exploited.

No, we must tell Lin the truth immediately!

Deep within her heart, a voice constantly reminded her that she must protect Lin, even at the cost of everything.

And... she's probably already done it once...

Qianqi glanced at the time, then grabbed her schoolbag and rushed out of the house, gritting her teeth as she prepared to sprint towards school.

"Clatter!"

The shoe left a mark on the ground.

The gray-haired girl's hood fell onto the back of her head due to inertia.

She stood frozen in place, staring at the "person" who had suddenly descended, blocking out all the sunlight like a gloomy cloud.

A smile that should never have appeared appeared on his face.

"You are clearly a Herrscher, yet you repeatedly make foolish mistakes, all for a human, a human who doesn't even remember that you ever existed in his life." His lips curled up, and he spread his arms as if to put on a show. "Didn't you see the memories I injected into you? That's the real you, who almost killed tens of millions of people, and who deceived Lin as a shell, a monster who manipulates human consciousness to dance in the palm of his hand."

"That is..."

Qianqi's pupils contracted rapidly, and her chest heaved involuntarily.

That laughing monster was her—

"So what if I am! Get out of my way!"

Qianqi's eyes and heartbeat returned to normal in an instant. Before the other party could react, she kicked him in the stomach and then ran around him and rushed towards the school!

Yes, that's her, but so what?

Does having committed a crime in the past mean you should choose not to save others?

Struggling with what kind of person I am and what my next steps will be...

What she, Qianqi, hates most is this kind of "taking things for granted" and "self-righteousness"! It's like a bunch of stupid pigs gathering together and making stinky grunts!

In the blink of an eye, she rushed to the bus station. Just then, a bus pulled into the station. She glanced back but didn't see him chasing after her, so she immediately boarded the bus.

The vehicle slowly started moving, Qianqi's heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled down.

Next, go to the school and tell Lin everything.

However, her body was frozen.

"So, the fact that the Herrscher of Reason did not completely eliminate you is what strengthened my resolve to completely eradicate Lin."

A chilling voice rang out beside her.

That voice... was her own.

The gray-haired girl gave a cold laugh and reached out her hand to the stunned girl who had the same face as her.

Chapter 55 Elysia: Dream, Present, Past

"When will I lose all my memories again...?"

It was as if they had dumped a difficult problem on her in an unreasonable way.

Elysia held the envelope containing two syringes in her hand, and she had never been so conflicted.

You've probably all heard of the Trolley Problem, right?

It has nothing to do with that.

... However, the conflicted feelings were actually quite similar. Elysia didn't know anything about that girl, who seemed to know everything, but Elysia couldn't trust her under these circumstances.

If it were just Elysia on her own, it would be fine, but Lin is also closely involved.

Moreover, these suspicious-looking things look like the kind of concoctions created by mad scientists whose brains are controlled by adrenaline. Can they really be used?

After a period of wild thoughts, Elysia still went out, but instead of going to work, she went to find Lin.

But she stopped after taking only two steps outside.

It's not that I forgot something.

Instead, the person she was looking for was right in front of her.

"Forest...?"

The black-haired boy stared intently at her. On the sun-drenched path, verdant blades of grass fell onto his shoulder, making him look like a portrait emerging from the light.

Elysia never expected to see him here. Although she had told Lin her home address when they went shopping together last time, why did he happen to appear here just when she was about to go find him?

"... I dreamt about you." Lin's expression was calm, as if he had been sorting out his thoughts for a long time. But when he spoke, his expression changed slightly. "I saw many things in my dream, including you and me, and then... I wanted to see you."

I see...

He saw the two of them in those memories, and even though he couldn't understand what they were, he still wanted to meet Elysia.

Elysia found herself actually... very happy.

The joy in one's heart cannot be faked.

"Do you have time now?" Lin asked, extending his hand.

"...What a coincidence, I also dreamed about you, and in the dream I often said one thing." Elysia nodded with a smile, "I always have time for you."

"Elysia, do you believe that in the future, an indescribable catastrophe will destroy the human world?"

Lin placed the hot coffee he was holding on the table, leaned against the window, and looked lost in thought.

Dream...

He actually believed in the "future" contained in something that should have been ethereal and elusive, at most something related to Freud's interpretation of dreams.

This was simply unbelievable to Lin.

He must have been out of his mind to believe it, and it was also because he was out of his mind that he developed such indescribable feelings for this girl he had only met a few times.

I believe it.

"..."

Elysia smiled and shook her head, placing her hot tea next to Lin's cup. "It's not because of you that I believe it, but... I also had a dream."

She paused briefly for half a second at the transition from "but".