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

Their accidental inaction is quite relevant to the current situation.

About a full minute later, the black ash that couldn't penetrate the ceiling fell weakly and softly, creating a terrifying rainstorm inside the room.

The fundamental reason for this "rain" is that the black ash is essentially a mixture of 99% Honkai energy and scattered human remains.

At this moment, Canghai City was being swept into a huge vortex created by massive amounts of Honkai energy. All the black ash was resonating with the branch vortices that overflowed from this vortex, which is why the scene that Himeko saw from high above was successfully displayed.

At the same time, the two poor little girls' beautiful hair was soaked all over the ground.

Even so, Shigure Kira's brain remained in a dead state, shut down.

This child is naturally timid, and he only dared to come to see this movie after Carol photoshopped the movie title and changed the poster.

Having just experienced the trauma of watching a bloody movie and then encountering this incident, it's unlikely she'll regain her senses in the short term.

After showing that one bloody scene, the movie abruptly ended with a curtain call.

Carol stared at the now completely black screen; the entire movie theater had become a deathly silent world shrouded in darkness.

This horror movie was originally a prank she planned to bully Shigure Kira. Carol even had a follow-up plan to comfort her, so she was very well prepared.

Yes, that's why Sato Yuno didn't come to watch the movie with us.

Although she was a bit cunning, she wasn't as bold as Carol, so to avoid being caught in the crossfire, she had no choice but to refuse decisively.

After taking about two minutes to calm down, Carol finally snapped out of her mental lapse.

At this point, being thick-skinned becomes an inexplicable advantage.

She first quickly cleaned the black dust off her head and from her collar, then casually patted her skirt and began to help the still somewhat dazed girl beside her tidy her appearance in the dark.

Carol ran her fingers through her gray-blue hair, carefully removing all the dust.

Although she herself knew that in this situation, such trivial details should be completely disregarded.

However, Shiyu Qiluo has a rather severe case of mysophobia, and if this mental state is not handled properly, it could have very serious consequences.

While cleaning up the dust, her hands inevitably touched some private and soft areas.

Even so, Shigure Kira's body remained as stiff as it had been initially.

Out of fear and a reluctance to face reality, Carol did not immediately attempt to use her phone for light or to call for help.

Aside from the instantaneous deaths of those people, the film's abrupt end was also a very ominous sign.

Is it still possible for me to communicate with the outside world?

What has become of the outside world?

In order not to get an answer immediately, she instinctively chose to escape while trying to awaken her companions' consciousness.

Carol glanced at the dense darkness around them, then lowered her voice and whispered hurriedly in Shigure Kira's ear:

"Kira-chan, wake up! Even though we don't know what happened, staying here is dangerous no matter how you look at it."

Upon hearing this, Shigure Kira blinked her blue-green eyes. Her slow turn of her head to glance at Carol was like an animation playing in slow motion, looking somewhat comical frame by frame.

"Isn't this Carol's prank?"

The little girl's sweet, bewildered voice, tinged with innocence, infuriated Carol. A surge of pent-up emotions welled up inside her, and she snapped, "..."

"Even if I wanted to bully Qiluo, I couldn't possibly pull off a prank of this level! Think about reality, please!"

The girl held onto Shigure Kira's shoulder while glaring at her angrily, but a moment later, the teardrops falling onto the seat softened Carol's attitude, which was gradually being crushed by fear and anxiety.

Of course she knew what kind of person Shigure Kira was. Her silent tears were the greatest restraint she could muster. Even she herself was trembling with fear, so how could she expect the other person to remain absolutely calm?

This is unreasonable. Even in today's unreasonable reality, pursuing rationality is itself a foolish act.

But Kira-chan is my friend, and it's only natural to be tolerant of a friend's flaws.

Besides, if he were the only one left in the entire movie theater, even the most thick-skinned person would be at a loss and unable to think straight.

The reason I can still persevere now is that it's not the loneliness that gives me any sporadic moments of tenderness.

Carol took a deep breath for a while, and as she calmed down, she also felt a little guilty.

So the girl carefully considered her words and said seriously in a solemn tone:

"Kira-chan, you told me you wanted to become an idol, right?"

The little girl was trying her best to control her emotions, and she knew that this was not the right time to act this way.

But even a glimpse of this cruel reality is enough to terrify any normal human being, and she was no exception.

“…Mmm.” She suppressed a sob and forced out the answer from her throat.

Carol hugged Shigure Kira and stroked her head, wanting to convey real warmth through these physical intimacy and give the other person space to vent her emotions.

She said softly:

"An idol is someone who ultimately stands on a stage in front of thousands of people and is responsible to all the audience members."

"Even if such a person is afraid of others' opinions, afraid that she is not good enough, and saddened and sheds tears after a less-than-satisfactory performance, she will definitely try her best to do her best once she is on stage."

"I know what kind of person Kira-chan is. Even if all of this is difficult for you, you still want to become an idol, right?"

Shiyu Qiluo buried her head in the girl's chest and rubbed against her, the girl responding with a sob.

"Ah."

Carol parted her lips and murmured with a smile:

"I said before that Kira-chan sings terribly."

"……Um."

"But even so, at that time I did not say that Kira-chan could never become an idol."

She remained silent, yet understood the meaning behind those words better than anyone else.

After Shigure Kira earnestly shared her ideals, only Carol carefully observed the girl's passion and pure love for those ideals beneath her tone-deaf reality.

No matter how many flaws and seemingly impossible obstacles Shigure Kira faces, Carol believes that she deserves respect for daring to set her sights on this goal, for not being discouraged by ridicule but working hard silently.

This respect undoubtedly reached Shigure Kira's heart, which is why, despite being pranked on her weaknesses several times, her relationship with Carol remained good.

Carol said softly:

"I'm scared too, Kira."

"I don't even dare to take out my phone now, I'm afraid I'll see the unpleasant reality."

"If the world really ends like in the movies, then my original dream will also be impossible to realize, and the same goes for Qiluo."

"Maybe many, many people outside are just like here, dying inexplicably and irrationally."

"The original dreams, prayers, reasons for living, and goals for striving have all been shattered by this reality."

The girl unconsciously increased the pressure on the other person's waist, and tears of resentment welled up in her golden eyes.

It is only natural to feel fear and sadness; there is no normal person who can be unafraid of this situation.

She gritted her teeth, trying her best to suppress her sobs, and uttered the words clearly:

"Isn't that strange?"

Shiyu Kira felt the warmth of the tears dripping onto her neck, and in a daze, she stopped crying.

Carol suppressed all her emotions, trying to comfort herself, who felt so useless; she had already tried her best.

If Shigure Kira cannot respond correctly to this tenderness, then she will never become the best idol in her own heart, nor is she worthy of being the other person's friend.

“…Don’t cry,” her voice was a little hoarse, still faintly tinged with sobs, but it carried a firm strength:

"I will have the backbone to be an idol and face all realities."

"But even if the world really ends and I can't be an idol anymore, it doesn't matter. I will become an idol in my own way."

The girl tried to smile in the darkness; her radiant smile was clearly unseen by anyone, yet Carol inexplicably felt a hidden warmth and comfort within it.

Shigure Kira said earnestly:

"When the time comes, Carol will become my first fan, just like we agreed before. No matter how famous I become in the future, I will never forget Carol."

Carol wiped away her tears with her sleeve. Crying was rather shameful in the eyes of the usually timid woman, and she muttered:

"It's impossible for Kira-chan to become popular. Even if she does, it's half because the clothes I design are too cute."

After the two of them vented their emotions briefly, the real problems were laid out before them.

First and foremost, it should be to ascertain the current situation in the outside world.

If this is just a legend of divine disappearance circulating in the East or some other localized mysterious event, then perhaps the way the two of them cried and worried before was just silly.

However, both Shigure Kira and Carol wish that their tears were just foolish, so that their once warm and cozy life could be embraced back into their arms.

From the perspective of wanting to know what's happening outside, checking external information by taking out a mobile phone is undoubtedly the fastest way.

After several unsuccessful attempts to unlock the screen, the two had to accept that the phone had become a piece of scrap metal.

In this way, what seems like the least reliable option—going out to confirm—has become the only solution at present.

Carol calmly analyzed the situation based on common sense and years of experience watching movies:

"You can't go out, Kira-chan."

"In movies, all the supporting characters who panic and run away are the first to die."

"When you know nothing, sitting still might be a passive approach, but it's the only safe course of action if you're temporarily safe."

"The movie's progress bar should have already reached two-thirds of the way through the plot, so we waited for about half an hour. If everything was normal in the outside world, a cleaning robot or staff would come to collect the trash and clear the area."

"If there is no problem, it means there is indeed a problem, and then we will consider other solutions."

This is a fairly good deduction for an ordinary high school girl, and even Shigure Kira, who knows the other party very well, was a little surprised after hearing it.

She asked in confusion:

"Even though there's no progress bar in the movie theater, and you always turn off your phone while watching a movie, how do you know that there's only a third of the story left?"

Under normal circumstances, Carol would never have told the truth, but in the current atmosphere, she felt that telling the truth would actually help ease the tension.

Carol then looked away and said something that made Shigure Kira's face darken.

"...In order to scare Kira-chan without being scared myself, I sacrificed the enjoyment of watching the movie and spoiled the plot for myself in advance."

————!