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

With a crisp sound as the phone fell to the ground, the video feed went completely black.

Sato Yuno looked stunned, as if she didn't fully understand what had happened, but the sharp pain in her heart and the tears welling up in her eyes preceded her awareness of sadness.

What happened?

Why did Mom and Dad become like that?

Is it a prank?

But even such doubts failed to arise.

The destructive energy that swept through the entire Canghai City converged around this dormitory.

A terrifying ocean of Honkai energy seeped into the girl's body, annihilating her consciousness in a void and plunging her into deathly silence.

February 21, 12:21 AM, late winter and early spring.

Sato Yuno transformed into a mermaid.

A mermaid destined to be killed by a whaling ship.

……

……

【2月21日，上午12点19分，总记3726道光柱在0.54秒内同时消失。】

The entire plan meticulously prepared by the Moth to Chase the Flame has completely failed.

[A total of 3726 sets of Honkai energy containment devices, which consumed a great deal of manpower and resources, were rendered useless due to immature technology and their excessive size and scale.]

Within three minutes, varying degrees of collapse erupted in different regions around the world.

Fifteen minutes later, only a few small areas of the entire region that humans had set foot in were spared.

……

……

Himeko finds it difficult to describe her feelings at this moment with any words.

Honkai Impact 3rd achieved in less than half an hour what the United Nations had failed to do in nearly a century: a world map coloring game.

This collapse caused incalculable damage even in its initial outbreak phase.

The world's population is estimated to have been reduced by one-third.

This was an undeniable and devastating defeat for humanity.

The only lesson humanity has learned from this defeat is not to attempt to stop the outbreak of Honkai.

The outbreak of collapse requires no prelude, and the time it takes to transmit the outbreak is negligible.

Even though this massive collapse spread throughout the entire world, it only took less than half an hour.

Intercepting the outbreak of Honkai is an impossible task.

Humanity will be left with nothing but passive acceptance of calamities, desperately searching for a glimmer of hope for victory amidst the chaos.

At the same time, the moth chasing the flame also confirmed a reality.

A calamity called Collapse must possess a highly intelligent consciousness.

If the Honkai, possessing such immense power, were to have true consciousness, then perhaps only gods could describe such an existence.

Presumably, future wars will be even more brutal because of this.

But humanity will not give up.

His use of underhanded tactics proves that he is not invincible.

There is only one reason why He needs to divert humanity's attention and military strength: to cover for the Third Herrscher, who has now appeared somewhere in the world.

The Honkai requires this Herrscher with unknown powers to go through the initial hatching stage, and then leap to the most prosperous stage to destroy all remaining civilizations.

Himeko's indomitable will allowed her to continue thinking calmly under such circumstances.

She employed a large-scale process of elimination based on the idea that the Honkai needed the absolute safety of the Herrscher. Himeko first roughly and inaccurately eliminated all the cities that were still not completely out of contact, and then, based on her current location, she narrowed it down to three cities.

Finally, based on the remaining factors, the woman pointed her finger at a coordinate.

Canghai City.

62. Su Qing'an faces a choice.

It's time to come.

The [Holy Mark] on his back sensed the dramatic change in Honkai energy before Su Qing'an did.

It was as if the surrounding environment was filled with damp mist, which seemed to be clawing at the skin's pores and nasal cavities, trying to drag all humans into a dark sea.

The mighty storm had already swept past silently, and in that moment of stillness, all living beings were plunged into a sea of ​​suffering, never seeing the light of day.

The boy, holding Seele's hand, trembled slightly. He was the first to realize that the calamity had occurred and looked around at the scene around him.

The entire mall resembles an edited version of an old movie from a bygone era.

A glance that lasts a lifetime.

A mother shopping with her child, girls laughing and chatting together, high school students with their arms around each other telling dirty jokes, a smiling man carrying bags for his partner, a woman kneeling on the ground wiping away a child's tears...

These countless scenes were melted away in the blink of an eye, like snow melting away, indifferently worn away by the mighty force.

It's as if time has passed and everything has decayed.

The wind blew by at an inopportune time, carrying endless black dust high into the sky, and then silently falling like a torrential downpour.

The deafening roars echoed across the land as the population dwindled by more than half in an instant.

The monsters, reduced to inhuman forms, were like those painted with pale paint. They brandished their scythes and, along with the Honkai Beasts that appeared alongside them, slaughtered their former brethren.

As this absurd and ridiculous reality was starkly reflected in the boy's eyes.

Even though he was a seasoned veteran and mentally prepared, he couldn't quite describe the feeling that was burning in his chest.

The boy glanced at the two of them in a daze.

For Fu Hua, everything at this moment is unbelievable, a scene that defies common sense.

Due to her own interference, she failed to learn about the concept of Honkai beforehand, and those urban legends that have been making headlines recently are ultimately just casual conversation topics after dinner.

Fu Hua knew nothing, so she was naturally the most affected of the three.

Her pupils trembled and contracted slightly, her expression blank, and she unconsciously tightened her grip on the little girl's hand.

Will my father, who lives so far away, be alright?

What about those kind neighbors and adults on the street back home?

Has the entire city of Canghai become like this?

Does that mean my friends at the academy are all dead?

Countless questions remained unanswered due to the immense shock her mind was facing. The girl simply gazed silently at the sky, her azure eyes reflecting the bizarre reality.

Even though Seele knew that the Honkai was about to break out, she was still stunned by the scene before her.

It is precisely because I know this that I understand how incredible the scene is today.

Never before in history has there been such a devastating event that wiped out human lives in an instant, turning them into a vast expanse of black ash and dead bodies.

Prior to this, all Honkai outbreaks maintained a countdown-like plundering pattern, similar to an infectious disease.

Even if death is the inevitable outcome and becoming a monster is the inevitable end, there is a buffer period to help people understand reality.

Seele had imagined the despair and sorrow that everyone would face after the Honkai outbreak, so she had been deliberately trying to keep her distance from the older sisters in Su Qing'an's class.

Once she remembered their faces and names, she couldn't help but feel sad.

She imagined everyone crammed into underground shelters, struggling to survive on meager food and water, clinging to a sliver of hope that might never come, waiting for the moths to come to their rescue.

Even if the older brother is very strong, it is impossible for him to save all the survivors.

But things are different now. In the blink of an eye, the life that I had gradually become accustomed to has been shattered. All humans who are not suited to the collapsing environment have been put on fast-forward, creating this sky full of corpses.

The little girl pursed her lips, understanding that the countdown to the withering of everything was already hanging over the entire city.

How many people will ever see such a cold and light rain again?

There were very few survivors left; apart from the three people, there were no other survivors on the street.

The roars of the assassins and Honkai Beasts were so noisy and annoying, but the little girl paid no attention to them. She stretched out her palm, and distinct black dust particles silently fell into her hand, like petals that had withered and lost their beauty.

Su Qing'an sighed as she understood the answer.

Compared to the emotions of sadness, pain, guilt, and resentment that have been repeated hundreds or thousands of times, I can only feel anger now.

The crisscrossing patterns on his back glowed slightly, and sword energy as thick as ink appeared out of thin air. Like agile fish swimming in the deep sea, they began to circle and intertwine around the boy with a radius of one meter.

In such an environment of extremely dense Honkai energy, the ability of the Taixu Sword Qi to control Honkai energy is amplified. There is no need to deliberately release the constraints on the artificial stigma. The circle formed by this sword qi easily lands.

But this was still not the end. All the Honkai energy in the world was aided by the Void Sword Qi. The soul essence, which was stronger than before and qualitatively changed, no longer felt any pressure in controlling this level of Honkai energy.

As a result, more and more sword energies with concrete forms appeared one after another, swimming through this ocean full of Honkai energy, revealing sharp killing intent as they moved.

The newly transformed Honkai warriors were swallowed up by the indistinguishable black ink, and the few Honkai beasts that were alone in the mall were reduced to thousands of eerie purple light fragments by dozens of sword energies.

In just a few seconds, the filth in front of them vanished.

The empty streets were eerily quiet, and the deserted shops and public facilities seemed so desolate and eerie in contrast to the bustling atmosphere of just a few minutes earlier.

Even though Su Qing'an deliberately amplified the power of the sword energy to the point that it would only turn the enemy's corpses into dust in order to take care of the two people's feelings, the absurd reality was perhaps more impactful in such a baptism.

The boy selfishly refused to let Fu Hua know those things early on, just so that she could peacefully enjoy those everyday moments that would inevitably become precious and valuable in the future.

But now, the moment has finally arrived when she has no choice but to face this reality.

Even though she knew she could no longer hide it, Su Qing'an still found it difficult to blurt out the truth.

"The Honkai has broken out, Hua." He said it anyway, even though it was hard to say.

The girl gazed at the boy's face, lost in thought.

What is Honkai?

Did Master Su already know these things?