Truth be told, Ling Ke had zero regrets over the system's "pity protection" mechanics. Because...
Characters like "Mitsuzuri Ayako" hailed from the renowned Fate series, yet amounted to mere background extras—ordinary folk without a shred of power. For hauls like these...
"Not bad at all. Means I've got a few more 'faces' in my arsenal."
Indeed, Ling Ke repurposed such game character templates as mere skins. Down the line, if infiltration gigs cropped up—slipping into enemy ranks—they'd prove their worth in spades.
Suddenly...
[Congratulations, host! Obtained brand-new game character template—Sixth Serenade.]
"Hm?"
Atop his throne, Ling Ke paused, brows arching. Then...
"Heh!"
A perilous smile crept across his face—one to set hackles rising, chills racing down spines. He issued the command without delay...
"All units on extermination duty outside—switch to 'Sixth Serenade' form, now."
In that instant, malice brimmed in Ling Ke, overflowing. "Otto Apocalypse, I know you're scheming in the shadows, prepping that final step in your centuries-long plot..." "So, with the clock ticking down, I drop this piece—do you take it? Or let it hang?"
Ling Ke figured the canon version Herrscher of a Thousand in the PV fell short—too soft, not even ruthless enough! That's why they amounted to a mere "rabble"—no cohesion, no bite. But he...
[Game Character Template: Sixth Serenade]
[From: Honkai Impact 3rd]
[Character Traits: Level System, HP System, Infinite Stamina, Indestructible Gear, Ability Attribute, Ice Damage Core, Freeze Core, Float Core, Time-Space Core, Character Switching...]
[Game Skills: Basic Attack: Twilight Nocturne, Dodge: Raven Feather Shuttle, Special Attack: Tide of No Light, Ultimate: Frenzied Night Hour, Captain Skill: Veil of Shadow...]
[Background Talent: High Honkai Adaptation Physique, Kaslana Bloodline, Superhuman Strength, Kaslana Gun-Kata, Phantom Thief...]
[Related Info: Full name: Kallen Kaslana. Knowing she couldn't reform the rotten Schicksal from within, she donned the mantle of 'Phantom Thief Purple Kite' to aid the common folk...]
No doubt about it: loading this game character template meant the global bloodbath to follow would star... The once-hallowed Schicksal saint, Kallen Kaslana—now a figure of worldwide dread, loathing, and scorn: the executioner incarnate. She'd be the one with hands drenched in billions of lives' worth of gore. By then, the Kallen long dust for five centuries—whose name Otto had posthumously cleansed after his rise—would etch eternal infamy into this era's history: crimes beyond tally, legacy a festering curse for millennia...
"Otto, oh Otto—your Project Stigma aims to forge a fresh timeline where Kallen lives on, all for her." "But in this original timeline, if Kallen turns into a pariah spat on by billions..." "Would you stand idle, watching it unfold without lifting a finger?" "What's your play, you ultimate self-serving romantic?"
Ling Ke could already savor the fallout.
Truth be told, he had no patience to dissect Otto the man—his rights, wrongs, merits, sins... irrelevant noise. All he knew now: this Schicksal Grand Bishop had set the vile precedent, normalizing brutal human experiments across the organization. A routine. A staple. So, no need for lectures. Karma's just deserts, plain and simple.
Ling Ke wasn't here to champion other victims' cries. Their pains? Their debts? They could collect—or not. Power's the ticket; without it, you're sidelined. He'd lucked out, emerging as a debt-collector for himself.
On that note... Otto's hand in his hell? Payback's due. He'd never let Project Stigma bloom. You crave to save Kallen—your pinnacle of faith? Then I'll shatter it wholesale, transmuting every hope to ash and regret.
"As long as I'm here, your lifelong vow stays a pipe dream." "Thrash. Rue. Just like five centuries back." "Once more, your lone-wolf folly drags Kallen Kaslana down with you." "Nothing. Changes."
World Serpent HQ
As a fresh recruit of mere months, Raiden Mei had lately shadowed Natasha Cioara—codename "Raven"—on ops. These past days, leveraging her full Third Herrscher might, Mei had aced a slew of missions. Like: aiding squadmates in probing Honkai-tied incidents. Or: purging World Serpent's foes.
Today...
"Yo, if it ain't our resident star!" "Takin' forever to snag a word with you—busy bee, huh?"
Mei had just clocked back into base when the snide drawl hit her ears. "Jackal" Cleo Hypatia, another World Serpent executive. In Mei's book? A stone-cold villain. The horrors she'd glimpsed in the Sky City underlab—girls twisted beyond human—sealed it. Yet now? Colleague. Ally, even.
"Business?"
Mei's tone iced over toward "Jackal"—raw disdain, unmasked.
Jackal knew the score, of course. And that's precisely why...
"Stumbled on somethin' juicy lately." Jackal drawled, shoving a tablet her way. "Schicksal's latest share—hot off the press." "Reverse Entropy tossed in updates too." "Bet you'd eat this up."
Mei took the device without a word. Jackal's snicker cut the air as she launched into unsolicited spiel:
"Y'know, I figured you were cut from different cloth than the rest of us here."
"Sweet kid, pure as driven snow. Even with Sky City's millions on your ledger, that wasn't you—just the Herrscher pullin' strings. Didn't peg you for World Serpent material."
"But now? she snorted.
"turns out our Sovereign's got that millennia-spanning eye for the real deal."
"He spots the rot in folks like no one else."
"You? Same as us." "No diff'rence!" "Just soaked too long in the light—forgot the dark's already claimed ya."
That landed...
"..."
Mei went still. Her eyes locked on a face not quite familiar, yet seared into memory. Ling Ke. The black-haired youth who'd materialized out of nowhere, warning her of doom ahead—then vanished. She'd assumed he'd joined Nagazora's millions in oblivion, lost to the Third Eruption's blaze. But...
"Captured by Cocolia, tormented for over half a year." "Then scooped by Schicksal's survey crew, shipped to the West Asia Branch—reduced to disposable lab meat..."
Truth was, Mei had transformed since reclaiming her true Herrscher self—the "Raiden Mei" persona dissolved... or fused whole. Her edges? Sharper now, less the gentle soul of old. Even so...
"My ignorance. My distrust... that police call got intercepted by Cocolia's crew." "The one who nabbed him? Bronya!" "All this... my doing..."
Mei roiled inside. And right then...
"Damn, impressive." Jackal kept needling from the sidelines: "One lil' call, and bam—you birthed a Herrscher." "Efficiently like that? Even I gotta bow—chef's kiss!" Arms crossed, she prodded: "Ditch the blade, and you'd crush as a top-tier egghead." "Wanna give it a—"
"Done talking?"
Mei's voice sliced cold, halting Jackal's ramble. "Nothing else? I'm out."
Without waiting for a peep, she wheeled and strode off. The tablet? Stayed clenched in her fist.
"Jackal" watched her retreating back, the corners of her mouth curling into an obvious arc beneath the mask. In her view, Raiden Mei's steps quickened, growing faster and faster. Clearly, the latter just wanted to bolt back to her room as soon as possible right now.
Looking back on the past... The tragedy that unfolded in Nagazora City back then—if not for Kiana... if not for that girl who'd carved out the most important place in her heart—she probably would've fallen long ago. But she had Kiana. What did Ling Ke have? He was utterly alone, with no one to lean on. Endlessly enduring malice from others. What kind of despair was that, exactly?
Raiden Mei shuddered at the mere thought.
If the full outbreak of the Third Eruption could pin the lion's share of sin on the mastermind Cocolia, then as for Ling Ke's ordeal... No—precisely because of his existence... He'd risked his life to warn her ahead of time with crucial intel, and it was she who'd chosen the wrong path. Her ignorance had doomed him. Indirectly doomed Nagazora's millions of innocents. She'd had the chance to change everything. She had let it slip.
Now, he'd clawed back from hell, launching his revenge. If it were just some ordinary foe, she could cut them down without a second thought. But this man... she could call him someone she'd personally shoved off the cliff. She truly had no idea how to face him.
"Why did it turn out like this?" Raiden Mei's heart twisted in agony. "What... what should I do?"