Interference Force · Rewind / Bronya

"Big brother, what are you looking at?"

Xiaokong asked curiously.

"Nothing. Just waiting for a good show."

Ming Yu answered casually.

There was a reason he had chosen to leave that seemingly safe place ahead of time.

He raised his hand to check the mechanical watch on his wrist. The moment its hand reached the mark, a massive figure appeared in their field of vision, just as he had expected.

And that necessary reason was—

As the ground trembled faintly, an enormous Honkai Beast appeared on the street where that office building stood.

It was roughly the size of an ordinary building, and every movement it made caused the ground to shake slightly.

This monster was far larger than any Honkai Beast they had encountered before. The purple-haired girl had never seen anything like this. Her face turned pale with fright as she instinctively clutched Ming Yu's sleeve tightly, hid behind him, and trembled uncontrollably.

Of course, Ming Yu recognized the thing.

It was a Temple-class Honkai Beast. Compared to the lower-ranking Honkai Beasts that still looked like monsters, it was far more humanoid, with sword- and spear-like appendages growing from its hands.

"Look, the show's starting."

He rubbed his chin and pointed at the Temple-class Honkai Beast.

A Honkai Beast of this level was already the pinnacle among lower-ranking Honkai Beasts. Above it, there were only Emperor-class and Judgment-class ones.

That meant a monster like this had far stronger senses and hunting abilities than even lower-ranking creatures, such as Assault-class and Chariot-class Honkai Beasts—

Survivors those creatures could not find, it could.

Before long, it raised its spear and violently thrust it toward the shelter where Ming Yu and Xiaokong had been only a few dozen minutes earlier.

The white spear pierced through the office building, causing it to begin collapsing without end.

There was no need to mention the fate of the survivors still inside. Once discovered by a Honkai Beast, there was only one outcome: death.

Accompanied by the deafening crash of the collapsing building, the girl behind Ming Yu jolted violently.

If they had still stayed there just now, they would probably have become corpses beneath the rubble as well.

"Big brother, I... we need to run..."

Xiaokong said, her face deathly pale with fear.

"Don't worry. It won't come this way. This place is still safe for now."

Ming Yu smiled and comforted the young girl beside him.

Sure enough, after destroying that conspicuous office building, the Temple-class Honkai Beast did not head in their direction. Instead, it turned around and strode off in another direction to search for prey.

"W-why are you so sure, big brother?"

Only after the monster had left did Xiaokong relax slightly and ask Ming Yu curiously.

Whether it had been helping everyone find that safe office building, accurately avoiding the monsters wandering the streets along the way, or knowing in advance that the huge monster would destroy that building—

This big brother named Ming Yu seemed to possess some kind of foresight, as though he knew what would happen in the future.

"Well..."

Hearing Xiaokong's question, Ming Yu rubbed his chin and answered with a smile:

"Because I've seen it before."

Interference: Rewind

As everyone knew, transmigrators had possessed some special abilities since ancient times.

And his ability was... Interference: Rewind.

This was information that had abruptly appeared in his mind at the moment he transmigrated. It was not a combat-oriented ability, but one more closely tied to causality.

—When faced with an event, he could simultaneously make multiple choices and personally experience the consequences of those choices, then ultimately determine the future of one timeline as established reality.

No matter how powerful a warrior, hero, or genius might be, they could only take one action at a time. They could not turn right while turning left, but Ming Yu could do exactly that.

Simply put, if he played rock-paper-scissors with someone, he could throw rock, scissors, and paper at the same time, then voluntarily preserve any one outcome—victory, a draw, or defeat—as reality.

It was by relying on this ability to constantly try and rewind that he had escaped death several times and survived in Changkong City after the Honkai outbreak until now.

Whether finding safe shelters for groups, moving while avoiding Honkai Beasts and Dead Soldiers, or "foreseeing" the appearance of that Temple-class Honkai Beast in advance, all of it stemmed from this ability to experience the future.

—Because he had already gone through it himself and stepped into those pitfalls once, he could avoid every danger now.

This rewind ability did not come without a price. Using it continuously placed a tremendous burden on his mind.

After all, every attempt involved genuinely experiencing everything within it, and even the pain of being killed remained unquestionably etched into his memories.

Worse still, most people could only die once in their lives and had no way to experience the pain death brought—well, there were quite a few beings in the Honkai world who could die over and over again—but for Ming Yu, despite having transmigrated only a few hours ago, the sensation of death had already become something commonplace.

From initially feeling nauseated and unable to accept it, he had now become somewhat numb to it.

It was certainly unforgettable, but at least this ability truly allowed him to survive this disaster.

Furthermore, each rewind also had a corresponding time limit.

At his current level, he could not rewind more than an hour, meaning he could only experience a future within one hour.

Otherwise, he could simply observe how events unfolded until the Honkai ended, then choose the safest route to become reality.

In short, Ming Yu first canceled the future in which he told Xiaokong about his ability, returning to before she asked the question.

Although she was a harmless, kind little girl, he still could not reveal anything about his ability to anyone for the time being.

After all, abilities like "Time Reversal" or "returning after death" were not completely invincible.

Once he fell into a dead end where no amount of trying could free him from danger, he could only endlessly repeat a cycle of certain death.

Ming Yu lowered his head to glance at the time on his mechanical watch, then began considering his next move.

Besides his rewind ability, he possessed another special power called Karma: Entanglement.

Calling it a "power" was probably not quite accurate. More precisely, if he could save someone during a crisis and establish a connection with them, he seemed to receive some form of reward in return.

That was why he had previously helped so many ordinary survivors find safe places. Besides wanting to help fellow survivors, he also wanted to see what would happen if he could keep them alive until the Hyperion arrived to rescue them.

Unfortunately, he had not succeeded in accomplishing that even once so far.

Since he had never put it into practice, he had yet to figure out the effects and conditions of this ability, nor did he know what the so-called reward would be.

A special item? A special ability?

It was not as if he had not tried warning those ordinary people about the arrival of the Temple-class Honkai Beast, but unfortunately, they would not listen. They had even wanted to drive him out of the group.

Kind words could not save those bent on dying. He had already tried, so he no longer wasted effort saving those ordinary people who refused to leave.

Mm, after working so hard, Xiaokong was the only one still obediently following at his side.

Ming Yu stroked the purple-haired girl's hair again, calming her trembling body slightly.

This kind child told him the same information every time, and she was always willing to follow him away from that building.

The Third Honkai Eruption in Changkong City had been caused by Cocolia of Anti-Entropy.

Her purpose was to use the immense Honkai energy to stimulate Raiden Mei, who possessed the Gem of Conquest within her body, to awaken and become the Third Herrscher.

Then she would retrieve Raiden Mei for other purposes.

However, Bronya, whom she had originally sent to retrieve Raiden Mei, had instead ended up entering St. Freya Academy with Mei by a twist of fate. Bronya had probably long since thrown the mission to capture Raiden Mei to the back of her mind.

In any case, he should first find a way to send Xiaokong somewhere safe.

At a time like this, the advantage of being an old captain became apparent.

For example, Ming Yu knew very well that Xiaokong, who was beside him now, should originally have been rescued by Raven, a World Serpent executive who happened to be carrying out a mission in Changkong City.

In this tiny city of Changkong, people from all three major organizations had actually gotten involved.

First, Anti-Entropy, the creator of this artificial Honkai outbreak, was naturally out of the question.

As for support from the Hyperion of Schicksal's Far East Branch... honestly, Ming Yu was not sure when Aunt Himeko would be able to get here.

But there was at least one point in time he could confirm.

The Third Honkai Eruption in Changkong City had broken out at ten in the morning, and according to his memories, Himeko had still been in Hong Kong by evening, not in the Far East.

In other words, until at least the sun went down, there was no hope of Schicksal sending anyone to help.

As for whether the Hyperion would arrive tonight or tomorrow night... he had no way of knowing that now.

Come to think of it, taking at least half a day to react and dispatch a fleet for rescue, the Far East Branch's response speed to Honkai disasters was truly astonishingly "fast."

"Mm... so Raven of World Serpent is the only one we can count on right now..."

Ming Yu glanced at Xiaokong beside him.

In any case, putting himself aside, Raven should be more than willing to take Xiaokong in.

Although she was a World Serpent executive, her childhood experiences had made it difficult for Raven to stand by and watch children who had lost their families to war die helplessly.

According to the original timeline, she alone had saved more than a dozen homeless children in Changkong City and driven back the Honkai Beasts in a small area, creating a safe environment for the children to survive in.

For now, he would find Raven first. At the very least, her side was absolutely safe and could serve as a fallback route to avoid the Honkai until it ended.

And he could also test whether sending Xiaokong to Raven would count as resolving her crisis and earn him the corresponding reward.

"Mm... if I remember correctly, the place where Raven took in the children should be in Changkong City's East District..."

As he murmured softly, time around them seemed to come to a sudden standstill.

Interference: Rewind had activated, recording this moment as the origin point for his rewind.

From then on, as long as it was within an hour, he could return to this moment with a single thought.

A so-called save point.

Once he was ready, Ming Yu stood up, took Xiaokong's hand, pushed open the door, and headed east.

There were actually some unreasonable parts in the early plot...

For example, Theresa herself was one of the Far East's strongest fighters and wielded a God Key, yet she did not come personally and only sent an A-rank Valkyrie to capture a Herrscher alive. (The key point was capturing her alive, not killing her.)

There is an illustration here, viewable after updating the version.

For example, Raven alone could save more than a dozen children in Changkong City and let them all live in a safe area, yet when Himeko's entire ship returned to report, they said they had not found a single survivor. (It could not be that Raven alone saved every child, right?)

There is an illustration here, viewable after updating the version.

For example, Cocolia made such a huge move, yet only sent one Bronya to retrieve Mei. Was that not a little overconfident? Where were your Titan daddies? And the biological chip function that could forcibly control Bronya and make her capture people?

Of course, most of this was because the Escape from Changkong arc's manga was too old and could not keep up with the settings added later, so some retcons were unavoidable.

Therefore, parts of the plot and the behavior of appearing characters would be adjusted slightly according to the story I have planned here.

Bronya

After leaving that small house, Ming Yu led Xiaokong through streets filled with Honkai Beasts and Dead Soldiers.

The density of Honkai Beasts and Dead Soldiers here was a little better. After all kinds of dangerous attempts, Ming Yu finally slowly led the girl beside him away from the area where the Temple-class Honkai Beast was active, traveling all the way to the vicinity of Changkong City's East District.

As they approached this area, they could indeed see the number of Honkai Beasts visibly decreasing.

After turning a corner, Ming Yu and Xiaokong saw an entirely new sight.

A large number of Dead Soldiers and Honkai Beasts had been knocked to the ground, completely motionless.

Ming Yu stepped forward to inspect their wounds. Judging by the nature of the injuries, they had been taken down by some kind of large-caliber heavy weapon.

"Big brother, these monsters have all been defeated."

Xiaokong looked at the fallen Dead Soldiers and Honkai Beasts and spoke in surprise.

Those monsters that could so easily tear human bodies apart had actually been knocked down by something.

"Mm."