Chapter 475

The girl instinctively clenched the hem of her skirt, a flicker in the depths of her eyes suggesting she was somewhat shaken.

"It sounds… almost flawless…" San Yue Qi also couldn't make up her mind.

Liuying slowly raised her head: "Then… what is the price of all this?"

"The price is trivial—just my own personal eternal martyrdom. If we are to keep this paradise for all, someone must plunge into solitary awareness until the end of the universe."

"Awareness… meaning that paradise is still a dream. Entering paradise means giving up reality, right?"

Xingqiri slowly shook his head: "This is not abandonment, but transcendence. Flesh is weak. If matter is the root of spiritual suffering, then we ought to overcome it."

Liuying stepped forward decisively: "But in such happiness, people have never overcome suffering, and forever lost the chance to do so. Put another way… this is 【escape】."

"You may think so." Xingqiri did not deny it, but "escape is not shameful. On the contrary, everyone harbors a seed of escape in their heart. Miss Liuying, don't you feel the same? Why does life fall asleep? Because people fear waking from dreams."

His tone gradually firmed: "But this does not conflict with a great undertaking. Only by acknowledging this can we understand humanity's frailty, then be tolerant, then protect."

——

Honkai 3

"This plan..."

When he heard that someone needed to stay awake, Kevin's eyes darkened, and he realized that this plan shared a certain similarity with the Stigmata Plan. Both plans avoid pain by sacrificing reality, only their purposes differ. But for Xingqiri, his future perseverance might be even longer than his fifty thousand years... Can he really persevere and keep his original intention?

……This is not an easy matter.

First, he must endure loneliness.

Loneliness is the snow of the end.

Kevin knew what snow looked like—not the gentle flakes that modern civilization's children admire by the fireplace, but the blizzard of the last winter of the pre-civilization era that swallowed countless bones. When those snowflakes landed on his shoulders, each felt heavy.

Fifty thousand years later, he still stood in the snow.

He knew what that tasted like. So he did not want Xingqiri to become a martyr like him……That was too cruel. Perhaps Xingqiri truly had the will to endure the endless loneliness and solitude, but he still hoped there could be a better choice.

Xingqiri……He perhaps need not walk such a tragic path.

——

Twin Cities War

"To be honest, I still don't really approve of that chicken-wing kid's idea."

Vi placed her hand on the back of the park bench, lifted her head to watch the passersby in the park, "Although the world he describes is quite beautiful, I always feel……good things don't come for free; you always have to pay something."

"Oh?" Caitlin couldn't help but laugh, "You think Xingqiri isn't telling the truth? And hiding something……right?"

"Anyway, in our lower strata, if someone dares to promise you good things……it's nothing, but if you actually believe it, I'll laugh at you for a month." Vi said, "And, little cupcake, don't you think that chicken-wing kid is a bit too……transcendent?"

"Transcendent?"

Caitlin rolled that adjective over in her mouth, "You mean he's not like a person, but like a 'god'?"

"Yes, at least his ideal is very 'god-like', very……beautiful. But experience tells me that beautiful things are often not substantial; only those ideals that seem unimpressive have a chance of being realized. Still, his idea should be popular among those upper-class scientists, right?"

Caitlin nodded, as a daughter of the Jeremian family, she had already learned from her parents that Xingqiri's idea had caused a great stir at Piltover University; moreover, several high-ranking council members eagerly anticipated the implementation of his idea, hoping that his power could then influence them through the sky.

Not limiting people's ideals by society's workings, promising them an ideal environment where they need not worry about survival……Caitlin also felt a momentary confusion.

She rationally thought Vi's vigilance was correct, but sensually she found it hard to reject Xingqiri's ideal, even if Piltover were to develop for several hundred or thousand more years, it probably could not compare to the "paradise" he spoke of.

——

Liuying pondered for a moment, then slowly raised her head: "I…acknowledge you are a natural-born leader. You are filled with pessimism toward humanity, yet you still hold a denying heart, bestowing equal pity upon all beings. But I am different from you; I live for the self. In my view, people making choices for themselves is both natural and an innate right."

"Perhaps escapism is the nature of the weak, but who is weak…should not be defined by others." Liuying earnestly gazed at Xingqiri, "In your eyes, must I also be classified as weak?"

"……"

Xingqiri slowly withdrew his gaze from her.

Liuying then shook her head: "I don't think so."

Seeing Miss Liuying give her opinion, Himeko also had the star represent the Astral Express to express its choice.

"……"

"Not long ago……"

Misha looked around with a puzzled face at the unfamiliar dreamscape: "Excuse me, where is this……?"

""Do you have any impression of this place, Misha?" Himeko asked."

""I…can't say. But I have a feeling of déjà vu. Where is this?"

Himeko patiently explained: "This is a dream bubble; our consciousness has entered it. It is a gift left by a nameless guest to the Astral Express, but strangely, when we opened it we found nothing inside. Doctor Edward of the Dream Hotel told me that dreams are formed by condensed memories; if the core is empty, a dream bubble cannot form."

As a hotel bellboy, among the friends of the Astral Express, Himeko is the one who knows Pinokangni best, and she hopes little Misha can help her solve this doubt.

March 7th was very doubtful about this, she lowered her voice to Himeko: "Himeko sister…I still have doubts, why did you just conclude that Misha is related to this dream bubble?"

""I cannot conclude, just have some guesses. Since Misha feels familiar with this place…it suggests my guess might be correct."

——

Fate

"Guess? Strange……this Misha looks utterly ordinary, just a little bellboy, how could he be related to the relics left by the pioneer seniors?"

Rin Tosaka widened her eyes, curiously observing the dream bubble they were in under the sky; Himeko daring to make this decision either means she discovered something odd about the dream bubble, or she discovered something odd about Misha.