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

The sandstorms outside harbored extremely dense Honkai energy fluctuations, enough to instantly turn humans without resistance into black ash.

Her tone suddenly lowered:

"Moreover, even if all the above conditions are met, the current situation would not allow for the allocation of that level of troops to deal with this."

Before the other party could respond, the woman's heavy sigh became the final note in this conversation.

"The Third Honkai Impact is about to erupt, Doctor."

56. Himeko: We are all cowards.

Himeko hung up the call. She glanced at the things vaguely visible in the center of the sandstorm outside, and the emotions churning inside her deepened.

That was a terrifying phenomenon caused by the accumulation of intense Honkai energy.

Although the diameter was less than thirty meters, the beam of light stretched all the way to the sky.

During the day, these seemingly soft lights spread across the clouds in the sky and blend with the sun's radiance, while at night they reveal their ferocious claws, announcing their presence over a radius of tens of kilometers.

Three months ago, these phenomena began to appear around the world, and preliminary instrumental predictions indicated that the concentration of collapse energy generated within each beam of light varied.

A total of 3726 beams of light, like chains, tightly bound the human heart.

During this period, the vast majority of the light pillars appeared in uninhabited wilderness areas, and even a certain number of light pillars appeared on the vast ocean.

But what the UN officials feared most were the pillars of light that seemed to descend like a miracle upon hundreds of peripheral cities.

A holy light shone upon the vast earth, forests, oceans, and human cities filled with steel structures, as if proclaiming the divine compassion and mercy toward all things.

The Third Honkai Impact is imminent—the will of Honkai so domineeringly and cruelly declares to all humanity that it will bring war to the entire world.

Between these 3726 beams of light, even the lowest level of Honkai energy reserves is enough to directly turn the population of a regular city into black ash, transforming them into monstrous, chaotic beings.

At present, all the pillars of light have gathered all the terrifying amount of Honkai energy under their own domain. As long as you don't walk directly into the pillar of light, ordinary people will not be at risk of Honkai infection even if they are only ten meters away from it.

This has made the evacuation of people more difficult. The only impact that the beams of light have had on the city at this stage is that they have overturned the residents' perceptions.

With all the danger lurking in the shadows and the surface appearing glamorous and serene, even the official explanations given by the United Nations regarding the situation are difficult to believe.

Finally, it was only through the combined efforts of the military's crackdown, the complete suppression of public opinion, and the government's inviolable credibility that the majority of the crowd was successfully evacuated.

The losses caused to officials and residents during this period were incalculable, but they were insignificant compared to the consequences of allowing tens of millions of people to be directly and wantonly devoured by the collapse.

The Fire Moth has dispatched various units to the areas where the phenomenon has occurred to conduct physical monitoring and observation.

Based on our own speculation, this is undoubtedly a harbinger of the impending Third Honkai Impact.

This harbinger came so suddenly and without warning, unlike the sudden, silent collapses of the past.

But the fact that the United Nations is completely powerless to do anything about it gives a reason for the collapse to be so blatant.

It's like a countdown to your natural lifespan hanging above your head, the clock ticking away, ticking away the remaining time, and all you can do is try your best to live without regrets in the days to come.

The United Nations initially had no way to prevent the presence of the pillar of light.

In the initial stage of discovering the beam of light, the authorities tentatively used modern weapons to hit one of the beams on the sea surface.

The result was the successful destruction of the Honkai energy aggregate, but the Honkai energy within the subsequent pillar of light was completely dispersed into that sea area, causing the Honkai energy concentration inside to rise rapidly and creating a large number of Honkai beasts.

Destroying the pillar of light is a pointless act.

Our current understanding of Honkai energy is insufficient for the United Nations to gather all the Honkai energy in the instant the pillar of light is shattered.

Based on the preliminary assessment of the Honkai energy levels contained in all the light pillars, if the third Honkai eruption occurs, it means that these light pillars are released at the same frequency in an instant.

Compared to this, the previous two Honkai outbreaks were nothing, there was no comparison whatsoever.

The emergence of the Third Herrscher was inevitable.

The official speculation is that the reason why the Honkai decided to make the signs of this outbreak so obvious is likely related to the Herrscher.

The first two Herrschers possessed the power to alter celestial phenomena, and the true nature of these powers only began to reveal their terrifying aspects after humanity obtained the Herrscher cores, studied them, and began attempting to utilize their power.

The highest-ranking members of the Fire Moths unanimously agreed that if the Herrscher were to fully master their power, it would be far more difficult for human civilization to defeat them than it had been the previous two times.

Even with the current level of human technology, it is very possible that the combined power of the entire world would be no match for a Herrscher who has mastered the essence of their own power.

The first two Herrschers were in a state of confusion when they were first born. They seemed to have only a basic understanding of the nature of their power at the beginning, but were far from being proficient or even fully in control.

Moreover, it seems that because Herrschers are beings whose human bodies are shaped by a large amount of Honkai energy, some of the fatal weaknesses that humans should have still apply to Herrschers.

The reasons stated above led to the successful annihilation of the first two Herrschers by the United Nations shortly after their appearance.

Judging from the various signs during the battle, the First Herrscher and the Second Herrscher's minds and thought processes are still in a relatively immature stage where they only know how to destroy.

However, since this third Honkai has shown something special from the very beginning—assuming that Herrschers will still be born along with the outbreak of Honkai—the third Herrscher must also have something unique about them.

For example, the body shape no longer tends to resemble that of humans, thus losing all physical vulnerabilities.

For example, one can instantly grasp the essence of power, quickly acquire logical thinking and wisdom that are no less than those of ordinary people, or have the power they wield become more targeted towards humans.

The worst outcome would simply be that all the speculations converge on one point.

The only thing humanity can do is to grasp the moment when the Herrscher is first born—the most tender and vulnerable period of hatching.

And kill it instantly at this stage, thus eliminating all risks in advance.

Therefore, the countermeasures department of Moth Chaser judged that if the Honkai itself possessed intelligence and was deliberately targeting humanity, then perhaps the appearance of 3726 beams of light this time did not mean that the Honkai outbreak needed to accumulate such a massive momentum in advance.

Instead, the goal is to disperse all of humanity's forces through this operation, thereby allowing the Herrschers to safely pass through the hatching phase.

This is a conspiracy theory.

Whether the Honkai itself is merely a natural disaster is something no one can understand, and naturally, no one can determine whether it possesses intelligence.

The only reliable evidence is the claim made by the first two Herrschers when they were destroying the city—that they were apostles of God.

However, it is not a bad thing to try to figure out the enemy with the darkest mind. The things caused by the collapse have been getting worse and worse over the years, and now they have exceeded the predictions of the United Nations leadership.

If humanity were to disperse all its forces to cover the area with 3726 beams of light, the random arrival of a Herrscher would be enough to break through such a dispersed defense and gain sufficient time to grow stronger.

If the potential Third Herrscher were to fully unleash its power, the consequences would be immeasurable.

Let's do a simple math problem: if the power of a Herrscher increases with the scale of a Honkai outbreak, then...

How many times stronger will the upcoming third Herrscher be than the first two?

Therefore, in order to prevent such an uncontrollable situation from arising, human and material resources around the world began to operate frantically after the light pillar phenomenon spread.

The completion of hundreds of filings and the rapid advancement of the technology tree related to Honkai have both entered an expansion phase under extreme pressure.

Honkai's attempt to destroy the current civilization using only such methods is far from sufficient; the official's extreme centralization has ironically become a good thing at this point.

Even the most incompetent high-ranking officials could understand how unprecedented this crisis was. The previous collapses had proven that they were not to be ignored, so the only option was to go all out to deal with the situation.

Even though the most terrifying genius of the previous civilization has not yet fully emerged, there are still countless scientific prodigies.

It was precisely because these pioneers laid a solid theoretical and technological foundation for her that she was able to skip all the accumulation stages in a short period of time in the later generations and directly enter the hall of peering into the power of the gods.

The Honkai energy containment device and related Honkai energy applications have successfully taken shape under the accelerated time, and most of the 3726 beams of light have been laid out to form a net to hinder the spread of Honkai energy.

If all goes well, the anticipated collapse that is expected to spread to one-third of the world will be directly crippled by this action, causing the outbreak to be delayed and ultimately greatly slowing down the expected massive casualties.

Meanwhile, to avoid dispersing forces, all the modified soldiers with low combat power were awakened and stationed near these pillars of light, working with the monitoring equipment to grasp the first signs of the Herrscher's birth.

The three largest beams of light most likely to feature Herrschers are each stationed by the Moths of Flame forces.

Meanwhile, the satellite is constantly monitoring all the beams of light and locking onto their respective orbits, and can launch the most advanced special missiles in just one minute.

These measures indirectly solved the problem of dispersed forces, and killing a Herrscher basically relied on the ranged attacks that were already fully prepared.

Human forces are practically helpless against Herrschers.

The huge pillar of light in front of them was the area that Himeko was in charge of, and this was her third month stationed there.

This is the earliest pillar of light to appear. Although it cannot be ruled out that it is a decoy, there is still a possibility that it is the birthplace of the Herrscher.

As the captain of one of the squads of the Firemoth, Himeko had no choice but to deal with this situation.

In current individual combat, she is among the most qualified and experienced, having risen to the position of captain during the previous two Honkai Wars.

If converted to later generations, Himeko's Honkai energy adaptability would be roughly equivalent to that of a B-rank Valkyrie.

While her rank might not be considered exceptional, the unwavering will she forged on the battlefield and her identity before enlisting in the army allowed Himeko to stand out from the countless corpses and remain alive to this day.

Unlike many professional soldiers who have been enlisted and trained in military camps, Himeko is a self-taught soldier.

She was a doctoral student at a prestigious university when the city where the university was located was destroyed, which changed the course of Himeko's life.

After learning the truth about the world during that collapse, she chose to join the army and began to independently develop a groundbreaking creation.

Himeko's initial idea was to use the manipulation of Honkai energy to amplify her physical abilities in order to compensate for her physical inferiority to that of male soldiers.

As research continues, bursts of inspiration lead to further improvements in efficacy.

Just one year later, the first prototype of the general-purpose combat armor against Honkai was successfully created in Himeko's hands. She then released this technology to the industry free of charge, which completely changed the previous battle situation.

The United Nations took the initiative to invite scientists in related fields to refine and optimize the prototype developed by Himeko.

This is the result Himeko wanted to see; she knew that this was a technology that could only mature rapidly by pooling the wisdom of all humankind.

For this, she could discard fame and fortune as if they were worthless.

Himeko declined a sincere invitation from the United Nations to join its research team and hold a high-ranking position, even a leadership role.

She is well aware of her own talents. She may be considered a genius in the field of scientific research, but she still lacks a lot compared to scientists in related fields. And most importantly, this is not the path she wants to take.

For this reason, Himeko gave up her generous treatment and comfortable future, and with only one request, she continued to plunge into that hellish battlefield.

Since then, the armor has been updated and replaced dozens of times by the relevant team.

The United Nations has kept its promise and continues to tailor-make armor for her, conducting regular technical optimizations and system replacements.

The somewhat naive girl from back then has now become a steely and solemn warrior, gazing at the distant yellow sands, somewhat speechless.

The Third Honkai Impact and the Third Herrscher.

Compared to previous wars, this time they are facing a tsunami that will sweep the world, a cruel world where the slightest carelessness could result in the sacrifice of tens of thousands.

Ninety percent of the world's population lacks the physical constitution to survive in a high-concentration Honkai environment. This Honkai infection, more terrifying than any virus, will become a global nightmare.

At present, the fundamental research on resisting Honkai, apart from dealing with the high-end combat forces that keep appearing in this calamity, is most importantly to find a popular method to increase the Honkai resistance of the entire population.

If this cannot be achieved, a significant reduction in the population will be inevitable.

The existence of Honkai Infection is like the United Nations playing a coloring game on the world map, conquering cities and territories—it's domineering and unstoppable.