Regarding the question of whether one thousand lives are enough to beat Honkai Impact 3rd.

To keep him alive, he will need regular care and his body parts will need to be replaced every few months.

Such a cost is clearly disproportionate to the fact that the man himself can only deal with an odd number of non-specific Temple-class Honkai Beasts.

However, Xing Chen's role in other areas can make up for these losses. In the outside world, his identity has long been dead, and he has nothing for the rest of his life except for his missions.

Accepting this level of human modification requires signing a series of agreements, as well as loyalty to human civilization itself and unwavering willpower.

In a sense, he is no longer human, but a tool.

During these seemingly long two years, the man's consciousness did not last more than a month.

Tasks that do not require rational judgment or human experience can be fully accomplished by the body controlled by intelligence built into the nervous system.

When there are no missions, the man will voluntarily place his body in the incubation chamber and use a large amount of hypnotic substances to cloud his consciousness, while the Honkai energy inhibitory fluid is responsible for delaying the erosion of Honkai energy.

This practice of not considering oneself as human is Xing Chen's own requirement.

His family, comrades, hometown, and lover were all annihilated in the Honkai that erupted when the Second Herrscher appeared. His hatred for the Honkai is an undeniable fact.

But men have a deeper obsession.

That is the sorrow that arises from the fact that there are still people who will continue to suffer such pain.

I don't want children by the roadside to be cut down by pale spears, I don't want a once smiling and beautiful girl to turn into a monster that reaps lives in the blink of an eye, I don't want endless black ash to once again cover the earth...

But no matter how unwilling they are, they can't help it because of their own lack of ability.

All Xing Chen could do was squeeze out all his own value, just to make a small contribution to that grand ambition of driving away the collapse.

This resulted in a gradual loss of control and confusion in his will. Only the four words "For humanity," which seemed like magic, were able to help him quickly regain himself when he awoke again.

The man understood the information he received from the AI ​​and the permissions granted to the transmitter, and realized the true reason why he had awakened.

Events that require judgment based on human experience and wisdom are the tasks that necessitate awakening one's own will. In this case, the task is to capture a young girl, which is theoretically a simple event that can be easily handled by intelligence.

But in fact, he was the one who was awakened.

After reading the relevant classified information, Xing Chen understood the necessity of this action.

This was an important task that would exhaust his already limited mental and physical endurance.

"Seele o Vollerai..."

Her existence is crucial to the research of a fundamental experiment in civilization. Without this prototype, the unknown plan would likely encounter many difficulties and obstacles, and might even fail.

This is a situation that neither the upper echelons nor he himself would allow to happen.

The man possesses humanity, and one could even say that his strong compassion and empathy are the core reasons why he was able to undergo human modification and survive to this day.

Xing Chen could imagine the future that girl should have had, and he also understood what she might have to face after entering the laboratory.

But this is insignificant compared to the survival of humanity as a whole.

Their crimes were heinous and their deeds too numerous to recount.

This is a man's self-evaluation of his own behavior; he has long acknowledged his own impropriety and baseness.

Regardless of the initial intention, it is an undeniable fact that self-inflicted actions can destroy a child's future while achieving a goal.

But if this is evil, then let him go to hell after he dies.

The intelligence kept repeating in my mind:

For the sake of humanity.

……

……

Time has flowed to the present.

The clamor of the wind swirled around her ears, and the emotions she had accumulated were completely gathered in her heartbeat with each beat, causing Seele to momentarily lose her senses.

The man who came into view was extremely tall, making one wonder if this was the size a normal human being should have.

His body, which was over two meters tall, seemed to be forged from cold, hard steel. The moment he stepped into the cockpit, the wind and snow behind him could only blow against his broad back.

In this frigid winter, with temperatures already below zero, he wore only a thin, dark-colored camouflage uniform, the muscles beneath the fabric naturally displaying a powerful presence.

With his hands empty and seemingly carrying nothing, it's hard to imagine how he managed to stop the Ferris wheel from rotating.

The fact that the steel ring structure and reinforced glass can now ascend to a height of nearly 100 meters and silently obliterate the outside world is a situation that cannot be understood by common sense.

After the man stepped into the room, the electric current in Seele's body stopped on its own, which gave her the relief to look up and observe him.

That wasn't human, or rather, it wasn't a normal human.

Just like the impression his words gave, he had a solemn and hard face, gray eyes like cloudy, frosted glass, and a bald head that further emphasized his fierce image.

Even though this is within the realm of common knowledge, his exposed fingers and palms are all made of mechanical fabric, so it's not hard to imagine that the winding parts of his body are likely the same.

Tick.

Tick.

This was the soft sound of water droplets falling from the man's fingertips onto the ground. His hand, made of some unknown metal, still seemed to radiate heat, evaporating a little mist that swirled around him.

Seele understood why this person could reach her so quickly. He had undergone a combat-specialized prosthetic transplant. Although the exact percentage of modification was difficult to determine, he was clearly no longer a soldier from a normal military unit.

Judging the people in the laboratory based on the standards and abilities of an ordinary person is foolish thinking. She has always been limited by her lack of knowledge and finds it difficult to understand the limits of what the other party can do.

Even if she knew in advance, it wouldn't make much difference; it would only deepen Seele's desire to leave.

The other person silently swung their arms and walked towards them, the rapidly cooling mist emanating from their limbs dispelling the scorching heat.

And in this process, Seele made the right judgment.

Now that it has been seen, let's go straight into the quantum state.

However, quantum states are not a convenient skill that can be activated instantly; they require a certain amount of time to transform.

This is easy to understand. Essentially, the so-called quantum state is about adapting the physical body to the quantum world before entering the quantum sea.

Seele herself cannot perfectly control this power. If simply entering the quantum state periodically would indirectly cause the transmitter to enter an infinite loop of crashes, she obviously cannot do something so convenient.

Seele Voller is indeed favored by the Quantum Sea, but this only grants her an unlimited number of tickets to enter the Quantum Sea.

Once the ticket of quantum state has been used, there is no turning back; one can only return to the chaotic ocean and continue to wander.

Even at such a cost, it will take time to transform her body into quantum mode. Perhaps in the future she will be able to enter the quantum state instantly without limit, but that is definitely not now.

"—!" The short, heavy roar caused Seele's consciousness to go blank.

The ground beside her was crushed by the man's footsteps, and the little girl's head swayed and vibrated with the force of gravity. Bright red marks of blood were rubbed off her fair forehead, but this was only because the man was holding back.

The man frowned, looking into Seele's unfocused eyes, and whispered:

"Don't try to enter a quantum state."

It is believed that Seele Voller may possess the ability to enter the Sea of ​​Quanta, a conclusion reached by the laboratory after receiving the signal.

The logic is simple: the fact that she was able to successfully escape from the Sea of ​​Quanta means that she has a natural talent for quantum recombination.

Reassembling a quantum state back into its original physical form is completely different from entering a quantum state.

Since Seele Voller can do the former, it's normal that she can do the latter as well.

Based on this logic, the lab staff suggested that Xing Chen activate the transmitter as soon as he reached a nearby distance in an attempt to nip this possibility in the bud.

Of course, no one knows whether Seele can actually do this, nor can anyone assert that making her lose her mind will prevent her from entering the quantum state.

But Seele's existence is too important, so even if some methods to increase the success rate of capture seem meaningless, they are willing to carefully and diligently implement them.

As a result, Seele's plan was doomed to failure from the very beginning.

Currently, she is unconscious and unable to actively contact the Sea of ​​Quanta.

This is also related to Su Qing'an violently severing her connection with the Quantum Sea. Otherwise, given the little girl's previous connection with that ocean, it would have been very possible for her to instantly return to the Quantum Sea under these circumstances.

After analyzing the girl's vital signs with his prosthetic eye and concluding that she was out of danger, Xing Chen said:

“You are a very important being to humanity, and I don’t want to use any violence that might endanger your body to stop your little actions.”

“I will take you back to the lab, Seele Voller.”

no respond.

The man paid no heed to the little girl's silence. His palm split open, extending into a slender cage. A reagent rose from the empty groove inside and disappeared between the metal branches.

Xing Chen silently took it out with his left hand, and his right hand returned to normal in the blink of an eye.

This is an anesthetic; just in case, it's safer to inject the other person first.

"Seele... is not a tool."

It was a faint sound, so faint it was swallowed up by the wind and snow, so faint that even with a man's modified senses, he couldn't catch what she was saying.

The girl gripped the rubble beside her with her five fingers, squeezing the hard object tightly until it bled profusely, but she refused to let go.

She forced out a faint, yet incredibly firm voice from her throat:

"Seele...is not a tool!"

Whether for the sake of humanity's future or for other ideals, real or false, the laboratory will not give up on squeezing every last drop of value out of itself.

But things shouldn't be like this. I'm not living in this world to simply give everything for something.

Seele clenched her fists again, but that was all she could do, a futile act that only caused her blood to flow freely. She roared through gritted teeth:

“The people in the orphanage were definitely not born into this world for such a reason.”

Xing Chen had no intention of defending himself or saying anything more. The girl's anger and hatred were understandable, and he had neither the ability nor the idea to resolve them.

As Seele Vollery said, no one comes into the world only to give everything and then die a miserable death.

How many children have died because of that experiment?

Experiment number VJKA13809 reveals the darkness hidden within this string of cold data.

But the man would not waver; he had already witnessed hell far darker than this.

After seeing that monster, even a rigorously trained warrior like himself felt uncertain about whether humanity could win the final victory and successfully drive out the Honkai.

For the continuation of the entire race, both he and the girl before him were necessary sacrifices.

Love and justice without power are just laughable empty words. If we insist on sticking to our bottom line, we may even extinguish any room for future generations to criticize our actions.

On that desolate wasteland, how much weight do human rights and compassion still carry?