Chapter 270 Welcome To

Chapter 270 Welcome to...

"Hey! Hey! Look at that girl over there, she's dressed so tackily——"

The originally sharp voice had a somewhat disgusting exaggeration after being prolonged, but this was the scene when Hua and Carol first met.

Looking back on this sentence now, there is actually no malice in it. If there is, the speaker himself is just too straightforward in some aspects.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have dragged her out of the dormitory or the playground every weekend, took her to hang out in various shopping malls in the city center, and took her to pick out various clothes, so that The girl who came here alone from a small town finally took the first step to integrate into the big city in front of her.

Hua was sitting in the corner, thinking about these past events, while gently rubbing the light green sweatshirt in his hand with his fingertips.

This dress was exactly what Carol had chosen for her.

There was also the white beanie hat. Hua picked up the hat from her legs and gently put it on her head. Although there was no mirror in front of her, she still straightened it carefully.

Although Carol may be outspoken and talkative, she is actually very good at taking care of others - Hua Shen knows this.

Her family is very rich, but when they go out to play, she always takes Hua on the cheapest public transportation, goes to the cheapest noodle restaurant with her, and always chooses clothes at the right price for her. The workmanship and materials are all good...

Moreover, she never pays Hua's bills.

This may be disappointing for some people who want to take advantage of it, but for Hua herself, this kind of interaction further maintains her self-esteem as a "local girl" born in a small place——

That kind of "little bargain" is more like a kind of alms from above, and this kind of AA is the embodiment of true equal friendship.

Speaking of which, the relationship between the two was too close at the time. Carol even used her money power to switch to the same dormitory as Hua. In the middle of the night, when she was supposed to be sleeping, she would crawl into Hua's bed, feeling dazed. Talking about interesting things that happened during the day, we fell asleep while chatting...

Of course, her voice would never be quiet. For this reason, the two of them were caught on the spot by a teacher who made a surprise inspection in the middle of the night.

Among those boring and talkative girls, there were even rumors about the two of them...

These are memories from long ago.

Six years, at the beginning of a relationship, people always feel that the time ahead is long, and six years is just a blink of an eye.

But regardless of the length of the six years themselves, the six years they experienced completely divided the world into two halves.

A world that has not collapsed and can move towards a happy future as ordinary people.

One is a world filled with death and despair, until the other person dies inexplicably in front of you, until you or you will die inexplicably one day.

Watteau hopes... I hope these memories don't exist in her mind.

Or, even if people can't delete the memories in their minds, but... can they not be so clear?

With just a slight thought, the brain will naturally replay everything that happened in the past exactly -

This kind of hyperamnesia is a side effect of super-changing surgery. When Mikael asked about it, she thought it didn't matter, and she was even a little happy because she would no longer worry about "forgetting certain things."

She can deeply imprint everything in her mind, and retrieval is more convenient than a computer.

Yes, before this, she had never felt that hyperamnesia was a side effect, but a convenience.

And before that, although she understood that her power was limited, she always believed that she had something she could do and something she had to do, so she never felt that her power was small.

Until now...

"I can't do anything..."

"Hoo..."

Hua wanted to take a long breath, but the breath got stuck in his throat and only made a weak, fuzzy sound.

Mebius asked her before:

"Has she ever mentioned her parents to you?"

"No, not after the third collapse."

Hua gave the answer in his mind.

But Mebius wouldn’t understand that kind of thing——

Also in the third collapse, she lost her father, but Carol's parents survived.

Whether it was due to good luck or some kind of relationship, now that this fact has been created, then for Carol, not mentioning her parents in front of herself is also a kind of... taboo.

Hua pressed the light green sweatshirt to her heart, silently curled up her legs, and covered them with her hands.

She has been thinking about the past with Carol like this for who knows how long.

However, his thoughts stopped abruptly at this moment.

Mebius was right when he said that the time she and Carol had really spent together could only be counted on one's fingers, only a few months... only.

But Mikael also said that feelings cannot be measured in any "dimension", not even time.

Some people have known each other for ten or decades, but they are still strangers, while some people feel as if they have known each other for fifty thousand years the moment they meet for the first time.

Perhaps, her and Carol's situation falls into the latter category.

Because of this, she felt even more regretful.

She thought that one day, Carol would hold her hand carelessly, and she was a little shy to pull her hand away, but in the end she didn't do it. The two of them walked on the streets of the rebuilt Canghai City just like six years ago.

However, now, all possibilities have been wiped out.

Come to think of it, Mikael once said that dreams are a very strange thing. Maybe when we dream, our souls will jump out of the real space and come to the so-called imaginary space, browsing the future we have experienced in other worlds...

And the future she imagined has never appeared in her dreams, never.

Her arms holding her legs suddenly exerted nervous strength, and the whole person curled up more and more, her face buried between her thighs, and her body was like a folded paper divided into three sections.

But this behavior that was almost self-harming on others did not make her feel the slightest pain.

Perhaps it was the blessing of young martial arts training, or perhaps it was the blessing of fusion factor and divine sound. In short, this degree of ligament stretching was not difficult for her.

But this is not what she wanted. She wanted to feel real pain.

Real…

“Ding Dong!”

The doorbell rang at an inopportune time.

“Who is it?” Hua instinctively wanted to shout, but she didn’t.

When the words came to her lips, her vocal cords tightened and she couldn’t make any sound.

“Ding Dong—Ding Dong—”

The doorbell rang twice again, but Hua still didn’t make a sound or move.

But she had a sense of hope in her heart—the only people who would come to her at this time were those two people, right?

She really wanted to open the door, but she didn’t dare.

She was afraid that reality would not even satisfy her last hope.

“Ding Dong!”

“Ding Dong!”

After the doorbell rang twice more, it slowly fell silent.

The person must have thought that there was no one in the house, so he left, right?

Hua even heard the sound of footsteps going away in her ears. She thought it was an auditory hallucination, but it was not entirely true.

It was not until the door lock "clicked" open that she realized that the sound she had mistaken for footsteps was actually the other party using power to guide the mechanism in the lock to open and close.

"It is indeed..."

"Oh! Sorry, I rang the doorbell for a long time but no one answered, and I was afraid that something might happen to you, so I had to use this method."

Mikael poked half of his head in, saw Hua at first sight, and immediately scratched his head and apologized.

"In fact, even if you don't do this, you must have a way to get in if you go to find Padu."

Hua thought of this, but didn't say it out loud.

Even if it's family, entering the other person's room so rashly is a taboo to some extent.

But at this moment, Hua didn't feel unhappy, but a kind of expectation that was fulfilled... It can't be said to be satisfied. If you have to say it, it's like sitting on a plane for three days and three nights, and then finally stepping on the ground.

A sense of peace of mind.

This feeling came very abruptly and made no sense, so Hua buried his face deeper.

"But...if so, will Mikael think I'm driving him away?"

Her heart was suddenly grasped by an invisible hand again.

She didn't dare to look up, nor did she dare to speak, and even her breathing was long and light.

Fortunately, Mikael didn't misunderstand, or rather, every move and every thought of Hua was within his expectations.

He closed the door silently. Of course, Ellie was also concerned about Hua's condition, but she didn't follow.

And the reason why Mikael knew every move and every thought of Hua was certainly not because he used the power of the eighth Herrscher.

He just did it out of understanding and experience.

Out of his understanding of Hua and everything he had faced.

If it were Alicia, she would probably tell some jokes to cheer people up at this time.

But Mikael didn't do that, and he didn't tell jokes.

He put himself in her shoes and put his memory back to two years ago, thinking about what he wanted most at that time.

So he sat silently beside Hua, close to her, curled up like her, and did nothing else, nor said anything else.

Mikael had thought about what death meant countless times.

From a realistic perspective, it means the destruction of the body; from a fairy tale perspective, it means that there is one more star in the sky, which will look at the rest of your life from now on.

From the perspective of consciousness, it means that the connection between a person and another person or another group of people ends here, and he/she can no longer build new connections with the rest of the people and write new stories.

So, even though he has thought about it countless times, Mikael still can't say words of encouragement, because all language is pale and powerless in front of the heaviness of "cutting off all connections".

It's not completely useless. If you want to overcome the heaviness of "cutting off all connections", you must bravely establish more new connections, rather than hesitating and escaping.

But in any case, this first step must be completed by the individual himself.

So he said nothing, because many words have not yet come out.

But he did do something.

He sat next to Hua, giving her some support and warmth, which made her realize that she was not alone in her world.

This made her realize that she was not only connected to Carol.

But these are not things that can be understood instantly, nor can they be accomplished overnight.

The two of them sat huddled against the wall, letting time pass invisibly.

Hua did not move, and Mikael did not move either, as if they did not care much about the ongoing tenth collapse.

It was not until the sparse croaking of frogs came from the window that the two realized that a day had passed in meaningless sitting.

"I'm sorry."

This was the first sentence Hua said after raising his face from between his legs.

Mikael was stunned for a moment, as if thinking of something difficult to say, and then couldn't help but raise the corner of his mouth.

"You have been here with me... Is it okay? The tenth collapse..."

"It's okay, the battle plan has been arranged, just rest assured."

"Oh."

Then there was no follow-up, and the room fell into silence for a while.

Mikael was not anxious either. He stared at the darkness in front of him silently. Hua sometimes couldn't help but glanced at him with the corner of his eyes, but couldn't see what he was thinking.

For a moment, she couldn't tell whose subjective will this silence came from.

Was he accompanying her in silence, or was she accompanying him in silence?

The answer was obvious, but it was just an unrealistic illusion.

This feeling was also strange. When Hua first fell into this state, she had also imagined the possibility that Mikael was by her side.

But no matter how she imagined, "Mikael" didn't speak, but just sat beside her silently, providing her with a little support and warmth without saying a word.

Just like now.

There was really an inexplicable synchronization between the two of them.

"Chirp-Chirp-"

Suddenly, birds chirped outside the window. The two of them looked up at the window on the right at the same time, and saw a gray and dim white pouring into the house through the heavy curtains, but they were still outnumbered and could only add a little brightness to this self-isolated dark world.

But just this little brightness was enough to clear people's minds of the turbid feeling that could not be erased in the darkness.

Of course, this was also a reminder to Hua that another night had passed.

She felt that it was time for her to say something.

"Mikael, do you remember... five years ago, when we went to Eastern Europe to look for Qianjie..."

Before Hua finished speaking, Mikael naturally took over:

"You mean, what we said in the house after arriving at the village where Qianjie was?"

"Yes."

There was no trace of the flow of collapse energy, which means that Mikael completely relied on that mysterious mind synchronization to guess what she was thinking at the moment.

This should have been a very magical and worth talking about thing, but it happened to herself and between herself and Mikael, and Hua felt it was no longer strange.

But the two people are completely different individuals after all. Even if the so-called "synchronization rate" is higher, it is impossible to reach 4%... 100%.

That's why Mikael asked the following question:

"What you want to ask is why this time, compared to the third collapse, when you learned that the town where you were born... no one survived, and your father... in short, was more sad than then?"

"Yeah."

Mikael knew it was like this.

Although he always claimed to know Hua very well, and their personalities were similar in many ways, there are never two completely alike people in this world.

Unlike Mikael's self-destruction after despair, Hua's emotions at this time were more complicated.

Sadness, doubt, unwillingness, self-blame, and guilt are all mixed together. For example, she feels that the sadness she has now is more intense than the sadness she felt after learning that her father and everyone she knew had died, but on the other hand...

"You also feel that even the sadness you have now does not conform to the current situation of life and death. So you feel guilty, wondering if you are too cold-hearted, and if the years of separation have weakened your feelings, but considering the performance after the third collapse, you think you are too cold-blooded, and you think your current emotions and attitudes are wrong."

"...Yes."

"In fact, there are not so many right and wrong."

Mikael put his hand on her hat and rubbed it gently.

"The reason why you feel relatively sad about Carol's departure is actually very simple - compared to the fatherly love you received since birth and the relationship with your neighbors, it is more difficult for the two of you to establish a relationship after birth, with Carol taking the initiative and you passively accepting it. Of course, this is just my personal opinion."

"Yeah."

Hua answered mechanically.

"As for sadness, I told you before that it's because you have very little, compared to other people who have a lot. Their process of losing is from having to having nothing, but you go from having to having and then back to having nothing. You are more adaptable to this kind of nothingness. You think so, right?"

"Yeah."

"But, Hua... have you ever thought that maybe this is not the cause, but the result?"

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that maybe it's not because you are more adapted to this kind of nothingness that you are so strong, but because you are so strong, that's why you think so when facing loss."

Hua turned his head sharply, and even though the surroundings were completely dark, a hint of gray light seeped in and hit Mikael's face.

Then she saw that gentle smile.

She was no stranger to this, Mikael smiled like this almost every time he touched her head.

However, he said she was "strong".

"I...no, I don't deserve the word strong, I just..."

"At least you are stronger than me."

"No, I..."

"Okay, let me put it another way. If the Herrscher attacks now, will you fight?"

Hua suddenly became silent.

But a few seconds later, she raised her head stubbornly again and said in a tone that even Mikael thought she was defending him:

"No, this is not a concept that can be compared horizontally. Mikael, I understand that what really made you not want to fight at that time was not Xier's death itself, but your constant attempts to change an already destined outcome, but things ended up being Back to the original track, even worse.

"So it wasn't that you didn't want to fight at the time, but you felt that since your efforts always yielded the worst results, you might as well just let everything continue on its original trajectory."

Mikael raised his eyebrows. This was the first time someone accurately stated his mentality at that time.

"But regarding the so-called destined outcome...how did Hua guess it? Well, maybe she mistakenly thought it was Aponia's prophecy."

Mikael thought secretly, and a mocking smile gradually appeared on his face - it was mocking himself:

"Speaking of who I was at that time, Hua, and what I regret most about that incident until now, do you know?"

"have no idea."

Hua answered simply.

"It was when I discovered that my inaction not only did not return everything to its original trajectory, but resulted in a worse result, I did not make a choice in time - whether to let it go to the end or let fate open a huge gap for me. It was a joke and the world was destroyed; or I corrected my mistake in time and bravely fought the Seventh Herrscher. I didn't make a choice in time."

"In the end, you weren't..."

"It was Mebius who scolded me to wake me up. But you, you are different, Hua. I really feel that you are the strongest among us. In terms of your ability to accept reality, whether it is me or Kevin, None of them are as good as you. We are destined to live in the past, but you are the one who lives in the present and the future.”

This sudden compliment once again caught Hua off guard, and the meaning contained in it made her even more confused - why specifically mention him and Kevin?

"Of course, let's go back to the previous topic. I once said that every individual is different, and the way they express sadness is also different. Not everyone has to use tears or hysteria to express their sadness, but for you For me, constantly raising questions, entangled, and questioning oneself is a form of sadness. This kind of sadness seems much more indifferent than ours, but it is better than... long. "

"Yeah... Then I'm still, very..."

Hua's voice suddenly choked up, and Mikael's eyes were facing away from the light, but he could already see the twinkling light in those eyes.

Whether Hua was crying because of sadness or because of his words, Mikael wanted to know, but he was unwilling to use the power of consciousness to pry into this.

Perhaps, it's both.

He held Hua's cheek with his hand, but only gently stroked her tears away with the back of his hand.

If it had been two years ago, he might have comforted her: "Just cry. Any emotion needs a way to vent. It's not a bad thing to be able to cry."

Did he not want to say that?

But for that future, he had to say something else, although those words also came from the sincerity:

"Don't cry, Hua. The only thing you can save by crying is yourself. These tears can't save anything else, can't restore anything, and can't change anything."

Rather than saying these words to China, it is better to say that he is repeating these words to himself - repeating the words that were burned into his heart two years ago.

"Death means the end of everything."

Mikael once said this.

But he doesn’t think so now:

"Death is not the end of everything, it symbolizes that a person's connection with the rest of the people ends here, and there will be no new connections, new stories. But the traces of their existence, the connections they left in the past, remain The stories below still exist and have not been erased. They will always become a part of your and my lives, and will be passed on to more people by us.

"Yes, death will never be the end of life, but a continuation, a new beginning. Hua, this is how human beings have been passed down to this day."

"Well, I understand, I just..."

"But that's not what I'm talking about."

"ah?"

"Hua, if I say that I have a way to reverse everything, that I have a way to make every harm caused to this world by Honkai no longer exist, but it is not in the form of erasure, would you believe me? ?”

Mikael suddenly stood up and stretched out his hand to Hua:

"I said, Kevin, I, and even Su... we are all people living in the past. Only you are always living in the present, and may live in the future. Therefore, you are also the only one who has the ability to connect the past and the future. "Hua, the method I just mentioned to reverse everything requires your help. Are you willing?"

"I..."

The hesitation was only for a moment, or it didn't exist at all.

Hua naturally put her hand on Mikael's palm - even though her consciousness had not yet fully understood Mikael's words.

"Very good."

Mikael pulled Hua up and hugged her gently.

The two of them separated at the touch, and Mikael supported her back with his hand, and implanted something that looked like a feather into her body without Hua noticing.

And Hua gradually recovered, so the hesitation that should have come late.

The reason for this hesitation is nothing more than a kind of distrust, but that distrust is not directed at Mikael, but Hua herself -

"I... I don't know if I can help... I, I can't do anything..."

"No, Hua, I said, you have that only possibility, you just habitually belittle yourself, you are no longer the you six years ago."

"Okay, okay..."

Hua still didn't understand what Mikael needed her to do and how to do it, but it didn't stop her from agreeing.

"Hua, welcome to the World Snake."