The readers had already exploded.
"Meng Yu the old thief! You really deserve to die! I only just started liking Rin, and then you immediately stabbed me in the heart!
"Rin! My little Rin! She was such a sensible child—how could you bear to give her an ending like that?!"
How would I know? Go ask miHoYo!
Some readers could not help venting their emotions online after seeing this, but even more of them continued reading. Don't misunderstand—they wanted to curse Meng Yu too, but this volume was almost over. They decided to finish it first, then curse him all at once.
The story then replayed the scene before Rin's death. In order to keep people from giving up hope in their fight against Honkai, Aponia placed a commandment upon them: "Never give up fighting Honkai."
Under the influence of that commandment, the soldiers guarding Rin were driven by their hostility toward Honkai and their fear of Herrschers. Although Mei had already ordered them not to harm Rin, they still defied that order, treating her as an object of hatred and subjecting her to lynching.
After brutally killing Rin, they even cheered and celebrated, claiming that they had killed a Herrscher.
Little did they know that it was precisely their actions that freed the real Herrscher. The Twelfth Herrscher was, in essence, a supervirus. Only the death of its host, Rin, allowed it to break free.
Before anyone noticed, the Herrscher had already begun corroding the electronic systems and fighting Mei for control of the nuclear missile silos.
Before the communications system collapsed, Mei informed Kevin of the news. Sakura, who overheard it nearby, reacted again. She had just heard that Rin's personality might not have been completely devoured by the Herrscher. There was still hope.
Ignoring the danger, Sakura