"I can't believe you actually have a car," Ana said, sitting in the passenger seat as a small sedan slowly drove out of the Coral Hotel's parking lot. It seemed like a casual question, but inwardly, she was shocked.
"In the Chinese mainland, anyone over eighteen who hasn't gotten their driver's license gets looked down on," Chen Tianwu sneered, his dead-fish eyes fixed on the navigation on his phone. "Are you sure you want to go to this place?"
"Yeah, Taixu Martial Arts School. That's right," Ana confirmed with a nod. "But if you have a car, why are you staying in a hotel?"
"Road trip. Is that a problem?" Chen Tianwu shot her a blunt eye-roll. "My home is in ARC City. It's only a few hours' drive from here.
"I'm really just cursed with bad luck. I finally decided to come out for a trip, and I run into you, and the end of the world..."
The thought of the thing Ana had mentioned called "Honkai" on their way to the parking lot made Chen Tianwu feel like the world was beyond saving.
It was true that when the sky falls, the tall ones hold it up. A major event like this shouldn't put pressure on a commoner like him.
The problem was that the sky was falling precisely because the "tall ones" were just too tall.
What did she mean, a disaster called "Honkai" that grows in intensity with the development of civilization?
Brothers, this is an emergency! Let's just nuke the traitorous Future City first!
So what kind of bad karma had he accumulated in this life? An unhappy life was one thing, but now he didn't even have a life. And he was being forced to save the world with this suddenly-appeared, suspected-time-traveler?
Wow, was this really, really not some super reality prank show? Had he become Homu Truman?
Fine, save the world it is. Who doesn't want to live?
"You're traveling alone? Don't you have any friends?"
Damn it, just let this world end already!
Ana had no idea that her casual question had just landed a critical hit on the conscript she'd just captured. She simply fell silent and began to think about what she could do next.
Why did she bring Chen Tianwu along?
Because he was someone she could be sure wouldn't turn into a zombie or Honkai zombie in the first moments of the Honkai's descent.
Secondly... she wanted to save him.
There was no compelling reason to save him. Besides not turning into a zombie, Chen Tianwu hadn't shown any value that made him a must-save.
It was more because of Ana's obsession with that memory fragment.
I've already abandoned this guy once... How could I just do it a second time as if it were nothing?
So this time, she would save him... she felt she could save him.
This was the confidence Senior Kallen had given her! And this time, the meeting point was the Taixu Martial Arts School. Considering that Senior Fu Hua, like Senior Kallen, had entered the Sapphire Pearl at the same time...
Then Senior Fu Hua and Senior Natasha might have "traveled" as well!
With such a luxurious lineup, how could they lose? Even if all she did was drool and babble, these old veterans of Fire Moth could drag her to victory, right?
Besides, she definitely wasn't that useless!
Hadn't she just found a helper?
Ana glanced at Chen Tianwu, who looked like he was about to crush the steering wheel, and silently withdrew her gaze.
Forget it. It's better to be two deadweights. Doing more leads to more mistakes; doing less is safer.
Ana felt a little deflated. She wanted to do something to prove herself, but it seemed now that she was of no use other than causing trouble for the team.
What could she, a powerless and penniless person in this era, possibly do in the upcoming operation?
The Honkai hadn't even erupted yet. This was still a time where power and economic strength mattered. Coincidentally, Joachim had money, Kallen had power, and Fu Hua had immeasurable strength and influence.
The Taixu Martial Arts School had a say in the entire Sapphire City. Add Joachim and Kallen, and it was a collaboration between a powerful outsider and a local powerhouse... No, no, that sounded a bit too gangster-like...
But it wasn't wrong. With the two sides joining forces, they could practically call the shots in the small city of Sapphire. Even with only twelve hours, this combination was enough to accomplish something big.
Maybe this time, the Honkai... could really be contained?
Ana's understanding of the Honkai was still insufficient, so she allowed herself to fantasize. She imagined how many people in Sapphire City could survive this time. And with Joachim here, their influence might even radiate to more places.
So... how many people could they save this time?
A thousand? Ten thousand? Or... a hundred thousand, a million?
Hiss...
Ana was so shocked by her own fantasy that she gasped. At the same time, a trace of admiration welled up in her heart. "As expected of Senior Kallen..."
Chen Tianwu turned his wrinkled face to look at Ana, who had suddenly started talking to herself. A truckload of question marks appeared above his head.
Could she be fundamentally insane? When we get to the Taixu Martial Arts School, are we going to be beaten out with a flurry of fists because they don't know us at all?
He had heard that the people at the Taixu Martial Arts School really could beat people to death.
In short, Chen Tianwu felt that his brain must have short-circuited. This mysterious girl who had suddenly appeared was unreliable no matter how you looked at it. Not only was he being threatened, but he was also being dragged onto a pirate ship.
So... why on earth did he follow this person here?
Was it just because he wanted to survive the disaster called "Honkai" that she had mentioned, and this extraordinary girl, along with the team she mentioned that might be related to the Taixu Martial Arts School, could help him survive better?
There was no more suitable reason to convince himself. It was as if it were the truth.
Wanting to live is human nature. Is there anything wrong with seeking the protection of the strong when facing a natural disaster that you clearly can't handle?
There was nothing wrong. No one had the right to laugh at a wounded soldier retreating from the front line, and no one should laugh at a person who was unwilling to step forward for fear of injury.
The survival instinct was a get-out-of-jail-free card in everyone's eyes. Cowardice should not be hated; only the brave should be placed on the throne.
...That's right, only the brave should be placed on the throne.
Everyone wants to live, but who doesn't want to be placed on the throne by the masses?
Including him.
So, when he was dragged out of the room by Ana, what welled up in his heart was perhaps not just helplessness and compromise, but also that trace of longing.
When he truly embarked on this journey of unknown purpose and destination, what he thought of was perhaps not just fear and regret.
But also that tiny, subtle expectation.
Maybe... I can be a hero too?
...And in fact, as the old saying in the Chinese mainland goes, "Are kings and nobles born, or made?"
A hero is just someone who appears in the right place, at the right time, in the right state.
There was never any destiny that decreed who would appear there. It was just like the throne that everyone coveted, driving them to flock to it.
Even to the point of shedding their blood and burning their bodies.
The brutality of it made the cowardly retreat, clearing the way for the true heroes and tyrants, both avoiding injury for themselves and saving the energy of the contenders.
But—the defeated who left the stage were still unwilling. They too had fantasized about what it would be like if they ascended the throne.
This was the passion of youth, the obsession of old age, the unattainable "daydream," and the regretful "I could have."
So, this time, when a disaster only Chen Tianwu knew was about to descend, when an "accident" only he had encountered allowed him to foresee it, when a path that should have been stained with the blood of countless people was trodden only by him...
It seemed... he only had two endings: failure or success.
There was no need to worry about being eliminated, nor to worry about gaining nothing, because failure was already the worst outcome.
And he... who had been mediocre and unremarkable his whole life.
At this moment, he was like a gambler holding a chip that was about to expire, deciding to go all-in for the first time at a table where there was only victory or defeat, before he had nothing left.
What if—I really could do it?
Humanity has never lacked the courage to make choices in the face of the unknown. And more than the courage to choose, is the determination to walk the chosen path to the end.
And so, at six in the morning, as Sapphire City transitioned from night to day, six individuals destined to become heroes gathered here.
—
In the small reception room of the Taixu Martial Arts School, everyone stared at each other for a full minute, no one saying the first word.
Finally, Fu Hua, as the master of the Taixu Martial Arts School, coughed lightly, breaking the unnecessarily heavy and awkward silence.
"I'm glad to see that everyone is safe." Even as Fu Hua said this, she felt it was inappropriate.
Putting aside whether everyone was truly safe, she felt her words implied that it would have been normal for something to have happened to them.
But at least, someone had started the conversation. Even if the topic was ugly and unsightly, everyone now had a reason to open up.
"Let's not discuss that for now. Let's all talk about where we appeared." Himeko waved her hand, taking on the responsibility of changing the subject and bringing everyone's attention back on track.
With that, the conversation became much simpler.
"I was at the Taixu Martial Arts School when I woke up... Teacher Himeko, is there something wrong with that?" Fu Hua was indeed the only one among them who hadn't realized the problem.
But she was by no means foolish. Himeko had only mentioned it briefly, and Fu Hua immediately understood the logic.
And after breaking through that layer of paper, Fu Hua quickly realized that the locations where everyone appeared and their respective connections were by no means ordinary.
Himeko nodded. "There's a big problem with that. When I woke up, I saw my... father."
She seemed to choose her words carefully, but in the end, she gave the simple and easy-to-understand answer without any hesitation.
"The place I woke up was Heliopolis Life Sciences Pharmaceutical, although it was just the Sapphire City branch," Natasha also cautiously stated where she had woken up, specifically emphasizing that it was the Sapphire City branch.
"The places we woke up, or rather, appeared, are all places with strong connections to us. This is definitely not some kind of coincidence."
"Wait, if you put it that way, the place I woke up doesn't seem to have any connection?" Kallen raised her hand obediently and said to everyone with some confusion.
"Yes, indeed," Joachim nodded seriously. "Before today, Senior Kallen and I had never truly met. To say that our connection is that we have both been to Future City is too far-fetched."
Kallen nodded in strong agreement. "I don't even know this guy, how could there be a connection?"
Ana also wanted to raise her hand at this point, to say that she didn't know Chen Tianwu at all, and had never been to that Coral Hotel.
But she was a little worried that the "connection" between her and Chen Tianwu was the fact that she had abandoned him to save her own skin.
That was by no means a glorious thing.
But Chen Tianwu raised his hand. "I don't know... Ana, either. We've never met before."
Three agreements, two refutations. This "theorem" seemed to be on the verge of collapse.
"Can you describe the environment where you appeared again?" Himeko felt there was something wrong with this. And the fact that all five of them could gather at the Taixu Martial Arts School was the biggest proof.
Kallen hadn't thought about it this way, and Ana had only contacted Joachim. Among the three, it was Joachim who had suggested going to the Taixu Martial Arts School. He must have noticed something too.
"If we're talking about connections... the one related to Senior Kallen... might be a little girl I saved," Joachim pondered for a moment and made a guess.
"A little girl? Who?" Himeko raised an eyebrow and asked seriously.
"A little girl named Yae Rin. If I'm not mistaken, this little girl was supposed to be sent to Future City tonight, and the person who came to pick her up..."
Joachim looked at Ana. Ana nodded with a serious expression. "The me of this world did indeed receive a commission from Senior Joachim and was supposed to arrive here this afternoon to pick up that child."
"It's also because Ana contacted me about half an hour ago, and Senior Kallen said that Fu Hua might also have entered here, that I guessed you might be at the Taixu Martial Arts School."
"It was just a guess. I didn't have much evidence to support it. The result is the greatest proof I can offer," Joachim said in a measured tone, making his meaning clear.
"And if we're talking about connections, it seems more reasonable for Miss Ana to appear beside me."
But he found that his words didn't spark a new round of thinking. Instead, Himeko and Fu Hua were staring straight at Kallen, their gazes so straight they could be used as a ruler.
"...Is it really Yae Rin?" Fu Hua's face was tense, and she had some difficulty speaking.
And Himeko's expression had already started to twitch, showing a look of "well, that's not surprising."
And for some reason, Joachim could even read a trace of... schadenfreude? in Himeko's expression.
Could it be that Senior Kallen really has a deep relationship with Yae Rin? Then... what about Chen Tianwu and Miss Ana?