Starting with the Herrschers, I Cut Down All

Just because Elysia spent all day chatting with those twelve lousy friends on her phone, she'd practically turned her perfectly cheerful and passionate beautiful older sister into a lunatic.

Elysia: ...

"First, I wasn't dating them. Second, the Loving Family group is gone."

"Huh?!!"

An Yu froze for a moment. Really? Sis, you actually had that kind of resolve?

As if performing a magic trick, Elysia pulled out her phone and opened the chat app. Now, only Golden Courtyard (13) remained.

An Yu: ...

Forget it. She should get much better after seeing a psychiatrist. After all, An Yu wasn't a pig; so many movie plots had warned him... compulsive behavior was inadvisable. It would only push a mentally ill person to greater extremes.

"Third~"

"There's a third one?!"

No, Sis, were you really this idle all day?

I was starting to get jealous.

Elysia pondered for a moment, then waved her hand. "Um... let's put the third one on hold for now. We'll discuss it another day."

She seemed to think the time wasn't ripe yet.

"Let's eat. I believe I'll definitely have a good dream today!" His older sister's face blossomed with a radiant smile.

Returning the gesture, she picked out the leanest, most appetizing-looking piece of meat and placed it in the bowl of her younger brother, who was currently more reliable than she was.

An Yu silently shoveled food into his mouth. Just eat. There was no need to argue with his sister. Once he went and cut down some grass, he'd probably feel much better.

Violent release had always been the second-best way to vent after crying in a loved one's arms—and it was more direct, with fewer prerequisites.

An Yu began to appreciate the current state of technology.

He chewed the food in his mouth, and his final conclusion was—his sister's cooking seemed... to have genuinely gotten worse.

After dinner, An Yu dutifully washed the dishes. As cold water continuously rinsed over his hands, his thoughts drifted somewhere strange.

"Could Sis's mental problems have come from being bored at home?"

After all, Elysia even had time to think up house rules. What did his sister do at home all day? Surely she wasn't constantly binge-watching shows, chatting, and surfing the internet?

Once he finished everything and walked out of the kitchen, An Yu suddenly noticed that his sister was still in the living room. Who knew what amusing thing she'd seen now—she was giggling foolishly.

He subconsciously slowed his steps.

His fingertips were icy after being soaked in cold water for so long. He quietly crept closer, then pressed his freezing palm against Elysia's neck like a vicious ghost crawling up from the underworld.

Eek—

With a short cry, Elysia sprang off the sofa like a startled rabbit and tumbled onto the carpet. Hugging a cushion, she looked up at him with aggrieved eyes.

An Yu shrugged. The first genuine smile of the night appeared on his face, and his mood visibly brightened.

"Have a good dream, Sis."

As he turned and headed toward his room, he vaguely heard a faint, slightly nasal mutter from behind him. "Good night, Xiao Yu."

He looked back and saw his sister lowering her little head, pink strands of hair falling over her forehead and obscuring her expression.

"Good night, Sis."

He casually locked his bedroom door.

There was no particular reason. A feeling of intuition had prompted him to do it.

Herrscher: An Yu

Level: 15

Skills: Twin Familiars, Void Edict, Elemental Shield 3

Attributes: Attack Speed 5, Edict 5

Elemental Shield 3: While the shield exists, gain super armor

Though he always mocked Great Britain in every possible way, it still had a population base, even if it really wasn't that large.

Right now, the game's main storyline was temporarily stuck...

One crucial plot character seemed to have been casually killed by him.

It was all the planners' fault. Why did such an important character have friendly fire enabled, along with experience points? There wasn't even a warning.

"First, I'll grind Elemental Shield to its next tier, then I'll go find that boss and get revenge."

Great Britain

Inside a solemn church, a priest muttered scripture, perhaps praying for God to lend a helping hand. An invisible Subspace Spear pierced through the barriers of space and took away a splash of crimson blood.

A Honkai Beast was born immediately afterward, devouring experience points as it searched for other nearby living beings.

An Yu rubbed his palm. This scene was happening all over Great Britain, and he increasingly felt that the planners had deliberately made him lose the first stage. After all, he hadn't been given any Familiar traits, so picking up experience points was far too slow.

However—

"Found you."

"A Honkai Beast?"

Sakura hurriedly stepped back. Her original target had already been pierced through by the spear, and the weak Honkai Beast that emerged automatically locked onto the only living person present.

"Why has a large-scale Honkai outbreak erupted in Europe?"

Sakura, focused on carrying out her mission, furrowed her brows slightly.

A dazzling cold gleam flashed. She hadn't maintained her sword-swinging posture, nor had she slowly sheathed her sword. Instead, the hand gripping her blade tightened further.

"This feeling of being watched... who is it?"

Only the remains of the Honkai Beast and the fallen corpse, slowly bleeding, remained in the empty hall. The surroundings were silent. There clearly shouldn't have been any living creatures left.

Within a rift in the Void Realm, pure white eyes opened once more the moment the Honkai Beast died, watching the pink-haired girl marked as a boss with a red glow above her head.

I think I know your underlying code now

"What the hell is this thing?"

Relying on her astonishing reaction speed, Sakura dodged sideways again. A sharp whistling sound grazed past her ear as she kicked hard against the windowsill and used the force to flip outside.

But the opening in midair was simply too great. Although her blade had allowed her to change direction in the air, the spear was just too fast.

Pfft!

An unavoidable piercing wound appeared in her abdomen, and agonizing pain instantly swept through her entire body.

"Why me?"

The thought flashed through her mind but didn't linger. She had offended plenty of people in her life, and there was no way to trace the source of her past sins in such a short time.

"Get to the streets."

That was her second thought. There would be more people and more confusion there; perhaps she'd have a chance of surviving.

Frozen Prison, Icy Heaven, which hadn't yet been upgraded, easily sliced through her sleeve. As she sprinted, she simply used the cloth to tightly bind the wound on her abdomen, trying to slow the loss of blood.

She could no longer afford to conceal her movements. While vaulting over a tall fence, she was forced to press her body tightly against it, narrowly avoiding another silent attack.

"Wha—"

From a distance, not a single living person could be seen on the streets. Honkai Beasts lazily prowled among the ruins, and a few dying wails could faintly be heard, making the place even more desolate.

A Herrscher...

Clang!

A crystalline arrow lodged at her side. The dense Honkai energy disrupted the balance around it, and the pure Honkai energy greatly reduced the Subspace Spear's stability. It even manifested early, allowing Sakura's blade to alter its trajectory.

"Are you alright, Sakura?"

Elysia spun an arrow around her fingertips. Several survivors she'd encountered on the way stood beside her, though their condition didn't seem particularly promising.

Elysia...

Enduring the pain, Sakura hurriedly moved closer, her gaze involuntarily drawn to the arrows that formed from thin air without a bowstring.

Elysia couldn't even be bothered to hide such an abnormality anymore.

"Wasn't the new Herrscher born in Siberia?" Sakura panted softly as she quickly treated her wound.

"Probably revenge."

Elysia answered quietly. In her field of vision, rifts already covered the area around them. The attacks and scrutiny from the Imaginary Space made it difficult for her to do much while carrying dead weight.

"Revenge?"

Sakura wanted to say more, but her priority was treating her wound as quickly as possible.

Actually, that wasn't it. An Yu just wanted to gain another two levels.

Snap!

With the crisp snap of his fingers, the previously noisy surroundings seemed to have been paused. Gale-force winds raged as a suffocating pressure descended. The Demon Dragon hovered in the distance, while Bebe Dragon still didn't understand why An Yu had told it to stay back and provide support.

"See? We've met again."

An Yu lazily propped up his cheek. He wasn't planning to kill the boss here... he had a feeling he couldn't. He played roguelikes for the thrill, not to slowly grind something down bit by bit.

Those words made Elysia's pupils shrink slightly. This bizarre dream was becoming more and more incomprehensible.

"Your revenge has implicated far too many innocent people, Herrscher." Elysia drew a deep breath and attempted to negotiate.

It wasn't as though she had no means of dealing with a Herrscher, but there were simply too many people beside her who needed protection right now.

What are you rambling about? Bosses at this level barely had any dialogue. I bet the whole story only had a few iconic lines for clearing the stage or losing, An Yu thought casually.

"Let's collect some interest first."

As An Yu pondered the game's underlying code, several Subspace Spears emerged from obvious ripples. In the distance, the Demon Dragon acted as the agent of destruction, while Dragon Emperor: Another Dimension stood ready.

Elysia didn't understand what the Herrscher was trying to do. This move was useless against her; even adding a Demon Dragon wouldn't change that.

"Sakura, did you see any other survivors on your way out—"

Her words abruptly stopped. The method that had always worked suddenly failed. The Subspace Spear passed through her body, yet it didn't materialize and pierce through her.

Her superhuman physique had only just recovered enough for her to witness that glaring burst of blood.

Sakura's body collapsed limply. While the boss blocked Bebe Dragon's energy cannon, An Yu phase-shifted behind Elysia under her murderous gaze.

Provocatively, he picked up the two attribute cards the boss was guaranteed to drop. Before he could even see what they were, he flashed back to his original position.

"I lied to you earlier. If I doubled that level of output, you still wouldn't be able to stop it."

"Real and fake mixed together—I know you could definitely stop it at full strength, since even that masked guy managed to break through before. But..."

An Yu shrugged and said teasingly, "Obviously, you let your guard down."

This was probably an inevitable trend in the history of game development. In the past, bosses often attacked with full force every time, but after emotional algorithms were added in the new era, this kind of exploitative strategy emerged.

If the boss in front of him didn't have a second phase, that attack would have hit her. Most of the time, he could steal a life that way.

[Please select an attribute upgrade]

Elemental Shield 3 → 4

Vitality 0 → 1

Attack Power 0 → 1

Elemental Shield.

[Please select an attribute upgrade]

Elemental Shield 4 → 5

Vitality 0 → 1

Attack Power 0 → 1

Elemental Shield.