Honkai, why do you only throw me into high-level battles?

Lin Wei walked steadily through the darkness, a golden spear held firmly in his hand, resting casually on his shoulder. Though he couldn't see anything, he knew he was no longer in the shrine. The Yae Village shrine was far too small for this vast expanse.

He had no idea how long he'd been walking. Counting heartbeats was meaningless in this mindscape. How could one quantify the speed of thought? Sometimes, it was lightning-fast, a lifetime recalled in mere seconds. Other times, it crawled at a snail's pace, an afternoon lost in a daydream.

He only knew he'd been walking for a long time. How long, exactly? He wasn't sure. Eventually, he stopped caring and just kept walking.

Until when? Until he was tired, he supposed. He wasn't tired yet.

He walked until his vision blurred, his mind hazy. Then, a small wooden door appeared before him.

He'd arrived.

He reached out, turned the handle, and pushed the door open. Peeking inside, a grin spread across his face.

The familiar dorm room. The familiar He Kun.

Lin Wei was speechless. Back to this dump again? Was this some kind of loop?

Was the ending the beginning? A spiral?

Was Vill-V actually him?

Despite his internal complaints, he stepped inside, closing the door behind him.

Click

"He Kun," lying on the bed playing a mobile game, turned with a strange smile.

"Yo, Big Bro Wei, you're back?"

One more "Big Bro" and I'm calling the cops.

Lin Wei ignored him, glancing at the game.

Elysian Realm, huh?

And he was fighting Aponia.

The scene felt absurd.

Other transmigrators played Honkai Impact 3rd inside Honkai Impact 3rd, and everyone got along, creating a world without hurt.

Why did he feel like Mobius was crawling all over him when he saw a Honkai character playing Honkai?

He shuddered.

Was he a subpar transmigrator?

Sigh Whatever. This was his level. He'd deal with it.

He pulled out his key, opening his locker. Winter clothes, bedding.

Familiar, yet different from his last visit.

Lin Wei chuckled. Trying to set the mood, huh?

"Tsk…"

"He Kun" hadn't anticipated this. Lin Wei had thrown her off balance.

After merging with him, she had access to his memories, receiving the "answers" he'd promised.

He hadn't lied. But the answers fueled her rage.

She couldn't accept that her suffering, her torment, was nothing but a few flippant lines, a joke in someone else's story.

Was there any greater humiliation?

No!

Her anger intensified.

She would torment this insignificant ant who dared to humiliate her, this fool who didn't know his place.

He wanted to save Yae Sakura? Fine. He would replace her as her new toy.

He dared to speak of saving her?

Laughtrack!

She was a god! A god of destruction!

Gods didn't need saving!

She'd recreated his most familiar space, taken the form of his closest friend, and planned to use the same methods she'd used on Yae Sakura to break this arrogant, laughable fool.

The plan was perfect, exhilarating. But she'd overlooked something.

This guy was a stubborn cockroach.

Her script went like this: familiar place, familiar face, familiar yet absurd activity. Lin Wei would be wary, approaching cautiously with that ridiculous spear. Then, she would unleash her mocking tirade.

That was how it was supposed to go…

Not him immediately checking his locker!

(╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻

Seriously?

Lin Wei scoffed, finding the Herrscher almost endearingly naive.

The Herrschers of the Previous Era, even with their humanity, were fundamentally different from the current generation.

The current Herrschers, power aside (Wendy excluded, and the deranged Herrscher of Rimestar put on hold), were masters of psychological warfare.

The Herrscher of the Void…

The Herrscher of Thunder…

The Herrscher of Sentience… shudders

The Herrscher of Corruption… vomits

Even the seemingly naive Herrscher of Sentience... Didn't they know the simplest words cut the deepest?

The innocence of a child was the sharpest blade.

Oh, and one more.

The Herrscher of Reason…

Did APHO Bronya need any explanation?

And this Herrscher of Dominance from fifty thousand years ago…

After fifty millennia, her torture methods were still limited to illusions and nightmares.

Lin Wei almost pitied her simplemindedness.

Seeing the Herrscher's initial gambit fail, Lin Wei smiled, closing his locker. He walked towards "He Kun," pulled a chair from under the desk without looking back, and sat down with a comfortable sigh. Then, he looked up and said casually,

"Alright, drop the act. That face makes me want to make you call me 'daddy.' Be a good girl, let's change the scene."

Psychological warfare? Two could play at that game.

From the beginning, Lin Wei had carefully considered what would happen within the Stigmata space.

Once the Stigmata entered his body, the next step was inevitable: confronting the Herrscher's consciousness. There was nowhere to hide.

The question was: How could a mere mortal like him confront, let alone defeat, a Herrscher's consciousness?

Love and peace?

Too abstract.

He'd racked his brain, considering every possibility, but found no good solutions.

One thing was certain: within the mindscape, two intertwined consciousnesses couldn't directly kill each other.

Otherwise, even a weakened Herrscher could easily crush Yae Sakura.

Especially after five hundred years of resistance.

Consciousnesses couldn't kill each other. This was the premise, the reason Lin Wei dared to take the suicidal step of allowing the Herrscher's consciousness and Stigmata to enter his body.

One sleepless night, tormented by fear and despair, inspiration struck. He scrambled to the living room, frantically searching for paper and pen to record his epiphany. But as he reached for the pen, he snapped it in two, tossing it and the notebook aside. He collapsed onto the sofa, clutching his head until pain lanced through his skull.

He couldn't write it down. He couldn't leave any concrete images in his memory.

He knew memories could be read in this world. Schicksal's devices, the then-unknown Fu Hua, Otto lurking in the shadows, and the inevitable merging with the Herrscher's consciousness… they could all access his secrets.

He was defenseless, exposed.

But was he, really?

What constituted memory?

Driven by desperation, his mind raced, dissecting the concept of "memory."

Memories were composed of images, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, emotional responses, and fragmented thoughts scattered amidst those emotions.

Only the most intense emotions carried complete thought fragments.

Memories couldn't contain thoughts, especially complete logical reasoning.

Didn't believe him?

Try recalling your most memorable class and the specific thought processes during that lesson.

Impossible, right?

The more Lin Wei thought, the clearer it became: memories were fragmented, incomplete, disjointed, emotional, and concrete.

He found his advantage: rational, abstract thought!

His plans couldn't be written down. They had to be meticulously constructed within his mind.

The process was agonizing, lacking the clarity of visual aids, making it difficult to identify flaws.

But Lin Wei had no other choice. He was fighting this world, this cruel fate, alone.

He was too weak.

To stand a chance against an enemy that could directly attack his mind, he had to deceive his own memories.

Consciousnesses couldn't directly kill each other, like Rin and Yae Sakura, or the Herrscher of the Void and Kiana.

But they could suppress and crush each other. Like Rin and Yae Sakura, or the Herrscher of the Void and Kiana.

But unlike Kiana, who possessed an exceptionally powerful body, allowing the Herrscher to wreak havoc and use the resulting devastation to torment Kiana's consciousness with guilt and despair, further crushing her will, Lin Wei's body was different.

His body, which even the Herrscher struggled to control, was like a car that refused to start. No matter how hard she slammed the gas pedal, there was no risk of a crash.

And with a certain S-rank Valkyrie guarding the driver's seat, there was even less to fear.

Who would break down first under these circumstances was anyone's guess.

He, Lin Wei, transmigrator, was unapologetically weak!

Let the chips fall where they may.

One problem solved. No mutual kills, and his weak body wouldn't be a source of guilt.

Next question: What about three intertwined consciousnesses?

In the original story, Theresa, trapped within the Stigmata space, was nearly killed when Yae Sakura's will faltered. Her body in the real world was briefly controlled by the Herrscher.

Fortunately, the Herrscher was unfamiliar with the new body, and her triumphant attack against the helpless Kiana ended with her crashing into a wall and passing out.

Then she got her ears rubbed and caged.

A permanent entry in Schicksal's "Theresa's Embarrassing Moments" file.

Yae Sakura, though broken but not defeated, left a spark of hope for Theresa, who eventually counterattacked and, with Mei's help from the outside, triumphed.

This was the second key point Lin Wei extracted.

Three consciousnesses: a dominant one could crush the weakest, damaging the connected consciousness in the process.

With these two points, he formulated two plans, one real, one fake, both requiring Fu Hua's cooperation.

The fake plan: find Yae Sakura's consciousness, rekindle her fighting spirit, join forces, and, with Fu Hua's assistance from the outside (like Mei in the original story), defeat the Herrscher and seal her away.

Then, contact World Serpent, enter the Elysian Realm, and drag the runaway child back to her parents.

Smooth and simple. When he discussed it with Fu Hua, she agreed it was feasible.

But, there was always a but.

A plan stored in his memory could be read by the Herrscher, countered, and neutralized. He would be playing with his cards face up from the start. One wrong move, and he was doomed.

His true plan was different. Unspoken, unwritten. He suppressed his excitement upon its completion, then "forgot" it, treating it as if it didn't exist.

He transformed his plan into a single drop of water, lost in the vast ocean of his memories.

If Rin could find it, he'd tip his hat to her.

The first half of his true plan was identical to the fake one, lulling the Herrscher into a false sense of security. He could predict her thoughts:

The Herrscher, confident and smug, watching his performance, waiting for the moment he thought he had won, then snatching victory away, turning his joy into despair and fear, crushing his and Yae Sakura's wills, and claiming final victory.

As for Fu Hua outside? She'd deal with her later.

Little did she know, Lin Wei had predicted her prediction.

He found Yae Sakura, rekindled her fighting spirit, and they arrived at the next level of the dream, the pre-determined battlefield: the ruined, desolate Yae Village, consumed by fire and death.

Up to this point, everything was going according to the Herrscher's plan. She was elated.

She knew how weak and fragile Yae Sakura truly was, far better than the arrogant Lin Wei who thought he was in control.

Joining forces? In his dreams!

She was practically popping the champagne.

Then, Lin Wei went rogue.

He transferred the feather—his protection and Fu Hua's tracking device—to Yae Sakura, shielding her with the power of the Divine Key.

He transformed the three-way battle into a one-on-one duel.

Consciousness against consciousness, will against will.

Bound by his weak body, the fight would be fair. The Herrscher couldn't destroy the outside world to break him.

This was the most advantageous battlefield he could create!

So, spear in hand, he stepped into the darkness, into the true arena.

This was within his plan, but completely outside hers.

She was utterly baffled.

What was going on?

Why weren't they following the script?