As this memory brimming with despair was forcibly poured into Lunelle's mind, she finally understood just what her beloved wife Seele meant by "sharing the pain."
"What… what is all this?"
In an instant, scenes of the suffering and torment experienced by Seele from the Previous Era flashed and rolled relentlessly through Lunelle's consciousness!
Unprepared mentally, Lunelle wasn't sure if it was the deliberate influence of Crimson-Eyed Seele, or if she herself was just unusually prone to immersing in such painful experiences.
These glimpses of grim memories, which should have passed in a flash, felt to Lunelle as though she were living them firsthand—vivid, fragmented, and raw.
And they were all memories that clearly recorded countless tragic, tortured moments!
From a first-person perspective, Lunelle experienced how her kind-hearted Seele went from hopeful about the future to being slowly crushed by a cold, cruel reality until she lost all hope in the world—ultimately deciding to end her pure, untainted life.
Frankly, any one of these awful events alone would be enough to drive a normal person to despair, or even straight-up madness.
But these horrifying things… they all came at once, one after another, forcing Lunelle to relive them in first-person, complete with real sensory detail!
This wasn't just tragic memory fragments anymore—it was downright inhumane mental torture!
"These images are poisonous! Forced into my head is bad enough, but do they have to auto-play too?"
Tormented by wave after wave of agonizing memories, Lunelle couldn't help but wail pitifully inside the simulation space.
But wailing clearly didn't help one bit.
And so, Lunelle now felt as if she had truly become Seele of the Previous Era, endlessly forced into one torturous scenario after another, personally living through all of Seele's pain.
The scenes included, but weren't limited to…
"Hmph! This area is our turf. Hand over all the food you found!"
"If we catch you, a filthy little brat, wandering around our spot again, we'll break your legs!"
"You're just a stray that got picked up, and you dare dress prettier than me? Next time I see you like this, I'll scratch up that face of yours!"
"Miss Seele, if you could spend a night with me…then perhaps your novel's publication wouldn't be out of the question."
"Miss Seele, surely you wouldn't want the orphanage that raised you to meet a bad end just because of your selfishness? You have three days at most. If you still refuse when I visit again… don't blame me for taking necessary measures."
The hardships her dear Seele endured as a child surviving in the slums, bullied and harassed by vagrants.
The unfair treatment and deliberate ostracism from other children at the orphanage after she was taken in—all because her voice was too lovely and her face far more delicate and cute than the others'.
The humble, powerless despair when her first hopeful manuscript submission was shelved for refusing to play by the dirty rules of capital, only to be plagiarized later with no way to fight back.
And so on, and so forth…
Naturally, these awful experiences also included that recent incident—the forced marriage by capital interests that became the final straw.
Back then, Seele had thought her bitter days were finally about to end.
But she never imagined that, in the end, her own natural beauty—lovely even without makeup—would attract the obsessive attention of a lustful young noble.
It was only because that noble was so infatuated with Seele that he reluctantly gave her a little time to "consider."
But anyone could see: if Seele dared refuse to become his mistress, under the overwhelming pressure of capital, a mere commoner like her would be stripped of everything she had worked so hard to build—all for offending someone she could never hope to challenge.
A life like this, born at the bottom of society, struggling desperately yet still meeting a tragic end…
Even hearing just a little of it, it was hard to imagine how a girl as gentle and soft-hearted as Seele could endure such a living hell for over a decade!
Let alone condensing the most torturous parts of such a horrific life and dumping them all onto Lunelle—who, before crossing over, was just an ordinary, struggling writer.
To bear all this heaviness without losing her mind… with Lunelle's current mindset and resolve, she was nowhere near ready!
So, in this simulation, Lunelle's consciousness once again met an early end—under a kiss from her dear wife Seele.
After all, being kissed by Seele really hurt this time!
What followed wasn't hard to imagine.
After being eliminated once more by Fire Moth, the familiar simulation results screen soon popped up.
But this time, the evaluation took Lunelle by surprise.
--+--
[Simulation Evaluation: You seem to be on the right path. However, due to your lack of steadfast resolve, you ultimately failed to withstand the trial given by the target.]
[Perhaps only when you can bear the weight of this despair and comprehend the true meaning of "Creation" will you have a chance to truly save the one you most wish to save!]
--+--
[This Simulation Rating: F]
[Simulation Settlement: Price Paid – Host becomes flat-chested!]
[Safety Net Talent triggered.]
[Settlement altered!]
--+--
[Safety Net Settlement: Original price canceled. Host receives Safety Net reward: Minor Honkai Energy Resistance.]
[Due to host's simulation rating reaching F, bound special permanent talent [A+→B] overwrites secondary permanent talent [A→A+].]
--+--
[A+→B (Quality: Unknown / Permanent): One of the special permanent talents brought by the Safety Net (Gold).]
[A rather puzzling, strange talent that seems to be able to make the host a bit… bigger… through some indescribable, miraculous means.]
[Effect of this permanent talent: Host's Charm +2, Honkai Energy Adaptability +2.]
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.