Chapter 166: Joining forces with the Collapser
Chapter 166: Joining forces with the Collapser
The Destroyer.
Wen Xishu really guessed it. But why is this Honkai Impactor so strange?
"Yeah, it looks like you're an experienced tower climber. Let's go and have a good chat. The coffee in this town's cafe is pretty good."
Jessica held Wen Xishu's hand, like a couple, and took Wen Xishu to the cafe on the other side of the stone bridge.
This place has some of the feel of a Jiangnan water village. Sitting by the window of the cafe, you can see the gurgling water.
Jessica says:
"Although it's not a big brand, I like the taste. What do you like to drink?"
"Just watch it."
The two of them sat by the window in the cafe.
The boss glanced at Jessica:
"You should be okay these days, right Jessica?"
Jessica smiled and said:
"Of course, I'm fine."
Then, Jessica quietly moved her face closer:
"I was purified once, so... they were all very concerned about me, thinking that I might be possessed and go crazy again."
Wen Xishu was puzzled.
Jessica said:
"You know the Broken Ones, right?"
Wen Xishu nodded:
"We've dealt with him several times."
Jessica narrowed her eyes:
"Have you ever been fooled by a Honkai Impactor?"
Wen Xishu shook his head:
"I am more like the nemesis of the Honkai Impact 3rd. I am very good at defeating you."
Jessica smiled:
"It's a pity that my temperament has changed, otherwise I would like to meet you."
Wen Xishu didn't say anything, waiting quietly for Jessica's explanation.
Jessica says:
"I am really a Collapser. I used to do all kinds of evil things. I especially like to distort others, but there is nothing I can do... There is someone in this town who can collapse others more simply and violently than me."
"Compared to him, I am nothing."
Wen Xishu frowned slightly:
"You mean the priest?"
Jessica nodded:
"Yes."
"Do you think there is a big difference between me and the image of a Honkai Impactor that you think I am?"
Wen Xishu had to admit that Jessica was a little beauty, giving people a playful and cute feeling, but if her smile was a little more evil, she would have more characteristics of a Honkai Impact 3rd.
But the Jessica in front of him didn't look like a Honkai Impact 3rd at all, and didn't have the chaotic and fun-loving aura of a Honkai Impact 3rd.
The last time, the Honkai Impact 3rd he encountered was the director of an orphanage, but the director was taken in by Jiang Qing and treated like a dog.
What about this time?
"So, the one who caused your image to be overturned...was it the last tower climber or the priest?"
"The last tower climber? Oh, the mirror tasted really good. Unfortunately, I didn't succeed in sleeping with him. I just had a flirtation with him." Jessica said generously.
Wen Xishu almost spit out his coffee. Wen Renjing?
Good guy...
"Oh, judging from your reaction, you know each other?" Jessica laughed.
Wen Xishu nodded:
"We do know each other."
"It's great that you know such a handsome guy. However, my personality change is not because of him, but because of the pastor." Jessica got to the point.
Her expression turned serious:
"I think the Honkai Impactors you have come into contact with in the past must be very evil, right?"
Wen Xishu said:
"How do you know other Honkai? From what you said, you seem to have seen quite a few Honkai, otherwise you wouldn't be able to summarize the characteristics of Honkai, right?"
Jessica shook her head:
"Sorry, this is a secret. Although my personality has changed, if I tell you... I will be in big trouble."
A higher level collapser.
Wen Xishu immediately thought of this possibility, that there is some higher-level Honkai who is constantly making friends with other Honkai and telling them about the characteristics of their kind!
Wen Xishu remembered that An Rongzai's servant, the Honkai Impact 3rd under Jin Zaimin, had said something similar... An organization was established between Honkai Impact 3rds and Honkai Impact 3rd.
Jessica says:
"I'm not a bad person anyway, but that doesn't mean I don't want to live. Besides you, there are other beings who can end the cycle, so don't ask."
Wen Xishu nodded:
"A bunch of Cybermen sitting in oblivion, forget it, let's continue talking about you, why are you different from other Honkai?"
"I have been purified. The ability of a priest is to turn evil people into good." Jessica said concisely and clearly.
"So, I am no longer crazy and broken, and I no longer like to play tricks on others. I am a good person now." Jessica said with a smile.
She began to talk about the past.
Soon after the priest arrived here, she awakened the physique of the Honkai Impactor, but the priest seemed to be able to sense the existence of evil...
So soon, Jessica was purified by the priest before she could distort and destroy others.
After that, Jessica became a good person.
A beautiful girl who loves to help others.
When Wenren Jing was exploring this area on this floor, Jessica helped Wenren Jing a little, but... Wenren Jing was not the person Jessica was waiting for.
Jessica says:
"So, do you believe now that I am a good person?"
Wen Xishu said:
"How can I be sure that you are not lying to me? How can I be sure that this is not part of Honkai Impact 3rd Entertainment?"
Jessica shrugged:
"I can't prove it. First tell me what your mission is."
Wen Xishu refused to disclose.
His mission was to help some people in the town turn from evil to good. Hence the name of the mission on the invitation letter - Desire for Repentance.
But all tasks have both surface and deep completion.
Wen Xishu had actually guessed it...the owner of the castle was a priest, so the townspeople who needed to repent were just the surface of the game.
The pastor is the key.
But of course, all this cannot be told to the Honkai Impactor.
Jessica sighed:
"If you want to deal with the priest... come to me again. I'm done. I feel like committing suicide again."
Wen Xishu frowned:
"suicide?"
Jessica says:
"Wenren Jing is your friend, right? After he came, I told him everything about this place. All the evil in this town, except for me at the beginning, was actually caused by the pastor."
"He's different from you. He has some ability to detect lies. He knows I'm telling the truth."
"But unfortunately, he didn't have the ability to defeat the pastor. He tried to use his own power to change the pastor and persuade him to leave the town."
Desire sequence? Use the desire sequence to change a person's desires...
Wenren Jing actually fought against a priest.
"But in the end, the priest sensed the desire to be influenced by an external force... and he regarded the Mirror as his enemy."
"Wenren Jing hid with my help."
"As for me, I was caught by the priest, but I chose to commit suicide and restart the cycle."
Wen Xishu didn't expect that this would happen.
Jessica says:
"I am not afraid to tell you that all the evil and distortion in the town, and every change in the temperament of those originally kind townspeople, was caused by the pastor."
“He purifies evil, but he also creates evil. To be precise, his ability seems to be to constantly collect evil, and collecting evil allows him to break the barrier between reality and story.”
“That church is a shell of him.”
Wen Xishu accepted this statement. If this was his own guess, he would verify it in this direction.
We can even directly assume this possibility and confront the priest directly. At worst, we will wrongly accuse a good person.
But since this statement came from a Honkai Impact 3rd, he had to doubt it.
"I still don't believe you."
Jessica rolled her eyes:
"Believe it or not, you don't have the ability to defeat the priest anyway. Oh, if only the mirror was here. I was too careless with him last time."
In Jessica's eyes, this group of tower climbers cannot use violence, so people like Wen Ren Jing, who have a strong desire sequence, are the strongest assistants.
"I was indeed purified of the evil in me by the priest. The priest was amazed at the time that the evil in me was beyond his imagination. But he thought I was completely cured... and thought I was just an ordinary small town resident."
"But I have actually been through many cycles, and my memory is still there. It was also during these cycles that I discovered the priest's secret."
"He is the creator of evil, the source of evil."
"Therefore, after being purified, I should have been grateful to the priest, but I didn't. On the contrary, I have been waiting for someone who can fight him with me."
If what Jessica said was true, then this experience was quite interesting.
Because it was the first time that Wen Xishu teamed up with the Honkai Impact 3rd.
"How can I trust you?"
Jessica sighed:
"You can investigate on your own. You have seven days, so you can investigate as you please. But you'd better be careful and don't let the priest find you."
"Because once he finds you, he might summon some terrifying beings that only exist in his past memories. I said that he can break the barrier between reality and stories."
"In short, if you trust me, let's act together. Of course, before that I need to verify whether you are qualified to defeat the priest with me."
Jessica stood up to leave. "And... don't report me to the priest. Damn, suicide hurts too."
Wen Xishu doesn’t have seven days. He came here through an invitation letter and has a good opportunity to get in, but he doesn’t have seven days.
He only had forty-eight hours.
Moreover, it was impossible for him to wait for forty-eight hours. Wen Xishu had completed the previous tasks at the speed of light, and there were too many variables in forty-eight hours.
The Great Devouring is not over yet.
"Don't go yet." Wen Xishu stopped Jessica.
Jessica says:
"What, have you figured it out?"
Wen Xishu nodded. Just now, he had sorted it out.
First of all, according to what the child said earlier, people who do not believe in religion are likely to go crazy... This means that the pastor may really have problems.
Secondly, Wen Xishu has experienced so many Weird Tower games and discovered that the Honkai Impact 3rd can only be active in the Desire Tower.
Then Guita, the owner of the storytelling club in the ancient castle, is indeed not a Honkai Impact 3rd.
And the format of the story is like this -
In each round of voting, one person will die. That person will lose his memory and become a kind audience. The audience are all residents of the small town... and the participants are all people with evil deeds.
Therefore, this also fits with what Jessica the Broken said. The evil of the participants was purified and they became kind audiences.
Of course, there are many differences between the Weird Tower and the Desire Tower.
Now Wen Xishu has clearly understood that the Ghost Tower is a place of obsession.
The powerful obsession created a place that could be cracked by tower climbers, and of course it could also be a place that killed tower climbers.
Whether the climber can break the obsession, eliminate the obsession, or be killed by the place constructed by the obsession, it all depends on the climber's ability.
The strange rules would sometimes kill tower climbers, but to some extent, they also restricted the source of the strangeness.
But in the Tower of Desire and the Tower of Slaughter, climbers need to face the source of weirdness directly. There is no help from the rules, nor is there any restriction from the rules.
The source of this weirdness is most likely the priest.
And the power that breaks down the barriers of reality is indeed the same power as the castle storytelling club.
"I believe you."
Wen Xishu made up his mind and decided to take a gamble. If he was wrong, the worst that could happen was that he would massacre everyone.
Jessica says:
"Really?"
Wen Xishu said:
"How many tower climbers did you meet?"
"Wenren Jing was the one who left the deepest impression on me. Then there was a couple. The couple wasn't very strong, but they were very insightful. As for the other climbers, they were all mediocre. One of them even believed that I was fooling him. I committed suicide on the spot..."
It wasn't easy for Jessica either:
"My biggest advantage is that when I die, I will always remember everything after the next cycle starts, but the priest won't remember that."
"Since the priest is evil, fighting against the priest is not evil in essence. The priest cannot purify my obsession with him, and the purification cycle repeats over and over again... I am gradually able to hide some of my thoughts."
"Once, the priest discovered my peculiarity and knew that I was eager to deal with him, and that I would retain my memory... but with the next restart, it was reset again."
"I have fought against the priest many times, but this guy is too strong. I can only hope for variables, and you tower climbers are the variables."
Wen Xishu said:
"Tell me, what to do."
Jessica's expression was solemn:
"Confession, I will go to the priest to confess. During the confession process, the priest will close the door of the church, but you need to sneak in, or in other words, you need to lie dormant inside early. When the priest starts the purification process, a circular field will appear!"
"Within the domain, all evil thoughts of everyone will be purified..."
"The same goes for you. Once you enter that realm, you will most likely lose your aggressiveness, unless you firmly believe that your actions are not evil but righteous."
Wen Xishu said:
"I am still somewhat capable of resisting mental invasions. Go on, what will happen next?"
In the spooky tower, once you tell your evil deeds, the victim will come to reality in the accident room.
But the people who built the strange tower were most likely the obsession of the people in the small town and the priest, and some rules are beneficial to the players.
The Desire Tower is different.
Jessica says:
"Next, the power that breaks the barrier between reality and story will take effect..."
"For the evil deeds you confess, the people you have done evil to will appear in reality... For example, if you do evil to me, then I will be forcibly summoned by that power."
"But that is not the real me. It is another 'me' created by a force that can influence the real world."
"Killing another me will not affect me, but once the target is killed by the priest... your evil thoughts will be purified. The priest will also devour the power of the person who was summoned. Do you understand?"
Wen Xishu understood.
In other words, the person who repents must be the perpetrator, and during the purification process, the priest will make the perpetrator lose his evil thoughts and summon the "victim". The priest will devour the "victim" and gain the power of the "victim".
Sure enough, this is different from the storytelling session that Wen Xishu had at the ancient castle in the Ghost Tower.
In the storytelling session in the ancient castle of Weird Tower... Wen Xishu felt that what he summoned were the real An brothers, as well as Jack and Jennifer.
Even when Wen Xishu wanted to summon Wen Chaohua, he still felt a sense of crisis.
Wen Xishu said:
"How big is the gap between the false you, the you created by the force that breaks the barriers of reality, and the real you?"
Jessica shook her head:
“There is no difference, they are almost exactly the same.”
Wen Xishu said "oh" and understood what was going on.
Jessica added:
"Remember, the evil act must have actually happened. But the target of the evil act cannot be a priest. In other words, it cannot be the caster." Jessica sighed again.
Apparently she tried.
"I once thought that since the evil deeds were real, then my evil deeds against the priests were also real. Can I ask the priests to summon the priests and let the priests deal with the priests?"
"It didn't work. The priest just said calmly - it turns out you have bad intentions towards me. Then I died."
Wen Xishu had to admit that Jessica was definitely the worst person to suffer the collapse.
Jessica says:
"Everyone in this town will become increasingly evil under the influence of the priest, and will actually devour the victims... The priest won't become much stronger either."
"But purifying his evil thoughts will make him very strong."
Wen Xishu understood.
A pastor’s power comes from two sources.
The first channel is to absorb the victims in the story.
The second channel is to convert evil thoughts into combat power.
I have to say, this ability is truly invincible...
Because the priest is the source of evil, the people in the town will become evil and twisted from time to time, and the priest will commit evil deeds from time to time.
Once a person becomes evil, he will commit violence and create victims, and then in the process of confession... the victims will be devoured by the priest.
In other words, the town is continuously providing power to the pastor.
Jessica also said the most crucial sentence at this time:
"Remember, it doesn't matter how evil the evil deed is, but the victim... must be strong enough. Because the only one who can break the situation is the victim who is summoned."
"So... in your experience, have you ever done evil to any particularly powerful beings? They must be very powerful. Otherwise, they will only be devoured by the priest and become more powerful."
Jessica wasn't sure.
After she was transformed into a good person, she really wanted to get rid of the pastor, the source of evil, but the pastor was too powerful, so Jessica could only place her hope on the tower climber.
"If you don't have that experience... you'd better not provoke the pastor. You will die. I will arrange a way out for you."
Wen Xishu never thought that one day, the Honkai Impact 3rd would actually help him so much and even prepare a plan B.
After listening to the story of the Collapser Jessica, Wen Xishu discovered that... the priest was indeed difficult to deal with.
The priest's own strength is already very strong, and in the Desire Tower, it is difficult to meet someone who has experienced many ups and downs.
After all, if you can use violence against a strong person, it means you are stronger. Such a person will not climb the Desire Tower. Ordinary tower climbers can do nothing to the priest.
But the difficulty of surviving this mission is not high, because the priest plays the role of a good person. In other words, you can pass this mission by hiding yourself.
But Wen Xishu was certainly not a man who would compromise. He had already started thinking about how to kill the priest.
In the Ghost Tower, An Rongzai, the Ghost Bride, the Shoe Girl, and Jiang Qing were all unable to do anything to the Priest, so in the Desire Tower, it would be almost impossible to defeat the Priest.
"It is possible that the priests in the Weird Tower are stronger, while the priests in the Desire Tower are relatively weaker... But if I am wrong, then the priests will absorb the power of An Rong in the Ghost Bride and others."
"So, I must summon a being that can kill with one strike."
Wen Xishu heard the most crucial point.
"The things summoned in the castle storytelling... are very likely to be real."
"And what was summoned in the Desire Tower during the repentance and purification process was just a simulation of some kind of power that broke reality..."
One is real and the other is a simulation. This may be due to the difference in strength between the priests in the Tower of Desire and the Tower of Strangeness, or it may be due to the influence of the special rules of the Land of Obsession.
But after all, this is a breakthrough.
Wen Xishu immediately thought:
"Although the simulated victims are almost identical to the real victims, there is no difference..."
“But it’s fundamentally different.”
Another thought came to Wen Xishu's mind. Last time he tried to summon Wen Chaohua, he felt like he was being targeted by some super terrifying existence.
It was like there was a sniper aiming at him in the dark.
What if the one summoned is just a simulation?
Once this idea emerged, it began to take root and sprout wildly.
Wen Xishu said:
"When will the action begin?"
(End of this chapter)