Chapter 218 If You Can Feel Sad for Me

"Give it to me? Why?"

Mei looked at the blue-gray core that appeared in front of her after being wrapped in special glass to isolate most of the radioactive collapse energy, and was a little puzzled.

"Alicia, since Mikael finally chose to hand over the core to you, even though he did give me the option to handle it, you shouldn't understand his true intentions - this But even we can see that he wants you to inherit this power."

"Inherit this power, inherit the law of reason..."

Ai Li smiled bitterly twice, and then her face softened slightly, but her smile gradually changed... and took on something else.

【The Lawyer? Mikael, is that what you mean? 】

[No, no matter what, since I am also a Herrscher, I am undoubtedly the best candidate to take over the core. This can even eliminate my suspicion of being a Herrscher... But Mikael, how do you want me to face this? Part of the power...]

Alicia closed her eyes in pain:

"Of course I have also tried to synchronize with the Herrscher Core. In other words, I came to you from Mebius's laboratory... How should I put it? While the Core rejected Mikael, it also rejected Me - 13%. Admittedly, this synchronization rate is much higher than that of the current Herrscher, but it is nothing more than that for the current Herrscher.”

"13%?"

Mei's expression was a little stunned. Naturally, she was not surprised that the number was too high, but that it was too low.

"According to Mikael himself, the synchronization rate of the core is affected by the matching conditions between the body and the core, as well as Mikael's own subconscious mind in the core. And for you, your Honkai Impact adaptability is undoubtedly The Fire Chaser Moth is the best. If it weren't for the lack of a core, I would suspect that you are a Herrscher, so the body and core should be relatively matched... Then there is only the second reason for the low synchronization rate... But How is this possible?"

Yes, how is that possible?

How could Mikael's subconscious reject Alicia?

In Mei's opinion, the possibility of this happening is simply lower than the sun going supernova in the next second.

To use inappropriate language to describe it, even if the universe is destroyed, she does not believe that Mikael will reject Ally, just as she believes that Kevin will always stand behind her and block in front of her.

"What happened between you two?"

Ai Li blinked and shook her head decisively:

"No, nothing happened."

"..."

Mei knew that something unexpected must have happened... was it because of Xi'er? Improbable, so what else could it be?

Mei's index finger was slightly bent, and she lightly scratched her thigh. She was thinking about whether she should open the trumpet and ask Erwin after Ellie left. After all, he was once selected for the Fire Chaser Big Mouth Competition. The first gold medal player.

"Okay, in that case, I will accept this core."

Mei suppressed her curiosity and took the box containing the core from Ellie.

"But I said in advance that I will only keep the core for you. If you change your mind at any time, or he changes his mind at any time, just come to me at any time."

Ai Li naturally nodded in response, "By the way, Mei, don't you try it yourself?"

"Huh?"

Mei pointed at herself, "Me? Let's forget it. You have also seen that my body's ability to adapt to the collapse of the body is no different from that of ordinary people. Even contact with an inactivated core requires special devices to protect it... …If I use this layer of special glass now, I might become a dead soldier on the spot!”

"But how will you know if you don't try it?"

Ellie held her cheek with one hand and stretched out the other hand, as if she really wanted to remove the layer of glass. Mei quickly slapped her hand away. Of course, she was just joking.

The two of them tacitly agreed not to mention the topic of Mikael. After all, whether he can get over a series of blows ultimately depends on his own will. The so-called external assistance is only temporary and extremely unreliable. Spectrum.

As for whether Mikael can come out, Mei seems to be particularly confident - Alicia thought to herself.

Because of her confidence, she faced Aili with such a nonchalant attitude.

It was also because of her confidence that she deliberately mentioned: "If he changes his mind anytime, just come to me at any time."

This is completely opposite to the response Alicia received from Mebius.

"Surprised, aren't you?"

Mei seemed to have expected this outcome.

She opened a box placed on the table. It was the dessert that Kevin had sent this morning. She took out one of the macarons and could feel a hint of icy coolness on her fingertips.

"When Mebius studies a person's personality, he always likes to use the two-layer structure method, which is to split a person's personality into surface character and inner character. Just like this macaron, it is simply divided into Outer and inner, but is that really it?”

Ellie took the macaron from her hand and swallowed it in one gulp, not feeling any layer of texture at all.

Mei chuckled twice and took out another one from the box. Ellie stretched her neck quickly, but Mei had already closed the box first.

"In fact, psychologists all like to divide human consciousness into three levels, such as the famous [id, ego, superego]. Of course, what we are talking about is not this, but -"

She used a delicate knife to break the macaron in half, and the cross-section was clearly displayed in front of Alicia.

"Look at this macaron, it is actually made up of three layers: the outermost crispy shell, the middle layer of macaroons, and the innermost filling. Or let me use another metaphor: eggs. Eggs are not Is it also composed of three layers: egg shell, egg white, and egg yolk? "

"Hey! Mei, don't bully me for not understanding biology. There is obviously a semipermeable membrane between the egg shell and the albumen!"

"Hmm? As long as you understand what I want to say...ah! Leave me...one...and a half..."

Looking at Ellie who swallowed two pieces of macarons, Mei could only show a helpless smile: "Anyway, you understand what I mean. So, suppose we divide people's personalities into three Layers, what three layers do you think Kevin can be divided into?”

"Uh...why Kevin?"

"Haha, just consider it a little selfish on my part. I also want to see what kind of image my boyfriend is in the minds of his comrades?"

"Well……"

Alicia herself doesn't mind, but is it really okay to let other members of the opposite sex comment on her boyfriend?

She just made a question mark in her heart, and quickly pressed it down - indeed...she herself has been too sensitive recently.

"Let me think about it...Kevin, the first impression you give people is naturally that of a big boy who is a little frivolous and a little too lively? This is the first level, so what about the second level..."

Ellie scratched her hair, and an inexplicable image of Kevin lecturing the new recruits flashed before her eyes - "Oh! As for the second level, he is actually quite cold sometimes! Uh... it doesn't seem right... ah - sure enough, I I still don’t know Kevin well enough…”

Mei narrowed her eyes and smiled.

"Of course you are right about the first level. Of course, this is the most superficial impression. It is difficult for someone to get the answer wrong, right? As for the second level... Alicia, imagine a situation. If one day, I A righteous purpose orders Kevin to attack the rest of humanity. Will he refuse? "

"Of course...no way..."

"What about Mikael?"

"Of course... I will..."

Mei clapped her hands gently, "This is the difference between the two. Sometimes I even doubt that there is some deeper connection between the two of them. You should have discovered it too - their first and second levels are Completely opposite. Kevin's surface impression is frivolous and optimistic, while Mikael's surface impression is calm and negative.

"As for the second level, although it's not good for him to say this behind his back as his girlfriend, this is also what I like about him - he will never stand against me in anything related to me. From a certain perspective, it can be regarded as his selfishness, right? Because of this, his resilience is much stronger than Mikael. No matter how big a setback he encounters, he can recover quickly, because for him, As long as I'm here, he will never lose hope."

Ellie rubbed her cold hands, took her words, and continued: "But for Mikael, his second layer is more fragile and more desperate. He is an extremely pessimistic person. And...he is actually an overly kind person. He even broke an unborn person. I would secretly say "I'm sorry" to it in my heart when it was the cup of my life, and I would feel pity for their innocence when I returned some inferior products purchased online... Naturally, I couldn't accept the departure of everyone I knew around me - but, What about the so-called third layer? I don’t seem to feel it.”

Mei spread her hands - "Actually, I haven't noticed it yet, but Alicia..."

She was suddenly silent for a moment.

"Actually, as you said, eggs don't have only three layers. No matter how thin the semipermeable membrane is, it should be counted as one layer. Naturally, the complexity of human beings cannot be summarized by just three layers. But no matter what, I still firmly believe that rice Kyle may walk out of that door one day, maybe for you, maybe for someone else.”

Yes, in Mei's eyes, Mikael's behavior was just unacceptable for a moment, so he just lost his temper. The problem itself was not complicated or big. At worst, time would dilute everything.

Worst of all, when the Seventh Herrscher comes, can he still sit quietly behind the door?

Seeing Mei's determination, Ai Li instantly breathed a sigh of relief.

She is quite confused now, so everyone's opinions have a great impact on her.

Mebius concluded that Mikael would probably not come out, and she felt desperate.

Mei believed that Mikael could come out on his own, and she seemed to be grasping at straws.

Although she herself knew that these were all guesses and conjectures of others and could not be counted, but just like some people who like to believe in metaphysical card drawing when playing games, it just made herself feel a little better.

Maybe... we should try to break open the door and talk to Mikael directly?

As soon as this idea came up, Alicia quickly cut it off.

It's not that she doesn't want to...but...how should she face the relationship between Mikael and Mebius...

She folded her hands and fell silent for a moment.

Until she heard Mei calling her again:

"Ellie? Ellie?"

"What's wrong...oh! If nothing happens, I'll leave first!"

"Alicia..."

"Well……"

Mei rubbed her temples, and while wiping her glasses, she rubbed her sore eyes:

"Ellie, because the power of the Sixth Herrscher is too powerful, I have asked Velvet to put the research and development priority of the Sixth God's Key to the highest level...According to the plan she gave, the experimental body can be made tomorrow. , then it’s up to you to do the weapons test first.”

"Me?"

Ellie stood up suddenly, her face a little ugly.

"Well... dear Mei, you see, this little thing of testing the God Key should be left to Kevin! Eden just joined the Fire Moth, and I haven't had time to take her around yet..."

But Mei's eyes were unshakable, she didn't say anything, just looked at Ellie quietly.

"Hey... okay, okay, I'll go, bye!"

Ellie waved her hand and left with a force that was almost like slamming the door.

Mei stared at the swinging door for a long time and sighed deeply.

After a while, accompanied by a crisp bell sound, a little head wrapped in a white hood poked out:

"Hey! Sister Mei, Boss Mei! What do you want to do with me!"

Mei stroked her hair, and the solemnity on her face dissipated a lot when she saw Paduo for the first time, and was replaced by an imperceptible smile, although this smile soon faded, and as time went by, her face became more and more complicated and worse.

"Eh? Sister Mei, why don't you say anything... Wow, Sister Mei, you look so ugly, are you feeling unwell?"

"Uh... Thank you for your relationship, Paduo, I..."

"Would you like to try our Phyllis brand elixir? After drinking it, your waist will not be sore, your legs will not hurt, and even your heart will not beat... No, it won't hurt anymore! Phyllis elixir, guaranteed to cure your life... cure your disease! Since we are all colleagues, I will give you a friendly price... Ah, cough, cough!"

Looking at Mei's gradually stagnant face, Paduo's heart suddenly jumped - are we... a little too much?

With a "thump", she knelt down on the ground skillfully, raised the jar in her hand above her head, and said heroically: "Sister Mei! This jar of medicine is for you!"

Mei took the medicine with trembling lips, looked at Paduo, and then looked at the jar in her hand without any information...

"..."

Pado raised her eyes and took a sneak peek, only to see Mei picking up a pill and looking at it, and then looked at her jokingly.

"Uh... ahem! Sister Mei, if I say... it was just my habitual action just now, can you return the medicine to me?"

"Oh?"

Mei pursed her lips lightly, "Pado, you know, the most important thing for businessmen is integrity. How can you take back what you have given away?"

Pado wrinkled her nose, and tears burst out instantly: "Wow, sister Mei! Please spare me! If you don't return this medicine to me, I will be caught and sold by Sister Snake, Brother Su and Sister Ai Li! Ah-Sister Mei, you have the heart to watch such a lovely me being abducted to the mountains... Eh? This seems to be a mountain valley..."

"Okay, no more jokes, get up."

Mei threw the medicine back into the jar and put it away, then pushed it to Pado through the table.

Pado quickly snatched it back, held it in her arms, and refused to let go.

"Then, Padu, your first task is to deliver these medicines to Mikael."

"Hey! Sister Mei, don't worry! We have experience in dealing with Brother Mikael. When the time comes, we can act cute and he will definitely open the door!"

"Oh? Why did it fail the other day?"

"Well... it didn't fail completely, did it? Didn't Brother Mikael use the power of that space to take the medicine in? Although I heard that he threw it out later... but... okay! That time was our mistake. This time, if he doesn't open the door for us, we will pry it open. If we can't pry it open, we will climb the air conditioning duct! Don't worry, we Taking money to do things, absolutely... Ah cough cough cough!"

"Taking money?"

"Sister Mei, you heard me wrong, I didn't take any benefits! We are all for the health of Brother Mikael, how could we take the opportunity to blackmail! I have always been very resistant to such behavior!"

"..."

Seeing Mei showing a helpless smile, Paduo took two steps back, pursed her lips, and asked carefully: "Then... Sister Mei... you asked me to come here..."

"Oh? Isn't there a second task for you?"

After Mei said this, she fell into silence again-that matter, should Paduo take the risk?

But this kind of thinking is a waste of time in her value system, so she naturally made a decision quickly.

"Pado, I need you to investigate a place."

"Where?"

"Outside the underground city, on the site of the original Moth City, there is a courtyard where the Chief of Staff Mr. Lezren is "resting". I need you to investigate it."

Pado's face gradually fell, "Sister Mei, this mission... must not be dangerous, right?"

Mei was silent for a moment, and suddenly asked:

"Pado, did you want a rare Poison Pupa member badge before?"

"Mei, Sister Mei...you mean..."

"Yes, this is the reward for this mission."

Pado's eyes gradually brightened, She gritted her teeth and said, "Don't worry, Sister Mei, this matter is left to us! But... when do we set off? What specific aspects do we need to investigate?"

"The mission starts at 4 o'clock tomorrow morning, and we must evacuate before the sun rises at 6 o'clock tomorrow morning. The specific content of the investigation is unknown, we only know that it is related to an experiment."

"Oh, I see! But since it starts at 4 o'clock tomorrow morning, we have to go and deliver medicine to Brother Mikael first! We have to rest well before the mission begins!"

"Well, go quickly."

After Pado left, Mei sighed again and leaned back in her chair.

She certainly didn't have to use Pado.

It's just that... in order to investigate Lezren's unknown experiment, she didn't dare to call on the original intelligence department agents because there was no guarantee that they had no contact with Lezren.

So the person she chose at the beginning was Imer.

But after Imer successfully infiltrated at 4 o'clock this morning, he lost contact not long after.

She had to find the next candidate. In terms of ability, Sakura, Ellie, and Kevin can naturally perform this task, but Sakura is still in the European branch to deal with the residual impact of the sixth collapse. Kevin and Ellie are certainly strong enough, but with their personalities, they are not suitable for this kind of infiltration mission.

The only person Mei could think of was Pado.

She has the ability to infiltrate and once helped Mikael escape from the fire-chasing moth.

She also has good luck that is invisible and intangible, but extremely rare.

Of course, there is another point. Like Imer, she has a close relationship with Mikael. This can not only ensure that she will not be involved with Lezren, but at the same time, if the mission fails, Lezren will be more or less cautious.

However, this last point is just wishful thinking... After all, no one can figure out Lezren's thoughts.

If possible, Mei naturally doesn't want Pado to perform such a dangerous mission, but...

She moved her eyes and found that the table was full of blood red.

She tapped the ground lightly with her toes, and the chair turned a circle, allowing her to see the sunset outside through the window, the artificial sunset.

"Day by day, time passes so fast..."

"I'm sorry, Pado, living in this era, you and I have no choice."

I hope Pado can succeed. Only by getting concrete evidence of Lezren's experiment can we negotiate with him and rescue Imer...

But if it doesn't work, we can only tear our faces and let Kevin go.

…………

"Ou-Ou-"

Two birds, probably gulls and herons, fluttered up from the reeds, and Alicia put her hands in her pockets, bathing in the cold sunset.

She glanced at the lake, the floating light was golden, and her eyes were a little sore.

"I used to be surprised by such a sight... but now I don't think it's that beautiful!"

Aili casually broke off a piece of reed and rubbed it twice, but it was nothing special.

Somehow, she suddenly lost interest in many things.

Going further, it was Himiko's flower garden.

She entered retirement life early, lazily holding the shower, lowering her head and carefully taking care of each sunflower with its back to the sunset.

"Hi! Captain Himiko! The flowers are well taken care of!"

If it were usual, she would definitely offer a heartfelt and exaggerated smile.

But now, she couldn't smile at all.

Even if she forced a smile, it was just like the artificial sunset. It looks good, but it doesn't arouse people's interest at all.

Because no matter how it renders the color, no matter how realistic it is made by the algorithm, how unpredictable it is, but fake is fake.

It is just a dispensable light after all, and it doesn't have a trace of warmth.

Correspondingly, the people and objects bathing in it will not feel the warmth that the sunset should give.

Just like the trembling Airi.

Just like the sunflower that will never look up.

"Hey! Airi!"

Himiko saw her and waved to her happily.

Airi hesitated for a moment, lifted her skirt slightly, walked down the asphalt road, and walked into the flowerbed.

She patted the sunflower bud that looked like a big cabbage, and whispered: "It's so ugly!"

"What's wrong? I see you, Mikael, and everyone else are all in low spirits recently. I heard that the sixth collapse has been resolved, but you, Anti-Entropy, did not attend the victory ball?"

Aili took a deep breath, and in front of Himiko, she finally choked up: "The sixth Herrscher is... Seele."

"Who?"

Himiko paused and asked.

"Seele."

Himiko was silent for a while. She seemed to have spent a lot of effort to finally remember the little girl she met in Attica City. But she just replied with a faint syllable:

"Oh."

Later, as if afraid that Ai Li would misunderstand, she sat on the ridge of the field and explained softly: "It's good that you can feel sadness. There was a time when I couldn't feel sadness."

These bizarre words made Ai Li listen attentively.

"That time, the remaining 17 members of my team were all infected and became dead soldiers... No, six people became dead soldiers, and there were eleven people. Their bodies were irreversibly turned into dead soldiers, but they still retained a little self-awareness. Some of them could even call out my name."

"What happened to them later?"

Aili couldn't help asking.

"I killed them all. Yes, I killed them with my own hands. Rather than letting them die at the hands of others, it would be better for them to die at my hands. That was what I thought at the time. And since then, I haven't spoken to any of the new soldiers for a year or two, because instead of being sad after they died in battle, of course, there is a greater chance that they will become dead soldiers and be killed by me, so it is better not to take them to heart."

"..."

Aili felt her whole scalp numb. She never expected that Himiko had such a cruel past.

"I once hated myself. Why was I not turned into a dead soldier every time? Why was it me who survived every time? Why was it me who killed the teammates who became dead soldiers every time? In the eyes of more and more newcomers, I was naturally an outlier. Maybe my situation was even worse than that of Mikael. After all, Mikael had you, Mobius, Hua, and Padu by his side... And I met Hen and Blanca later."

"..."

"So, I can't comment on Xi'er's case. Because I think the person who killed Xi'er did nothing wrong. He didn't kill Xi'er, but the Sixth Herrscher, right? Because of the sadness now, will he not kill Xi'er if he returns to the battlefield? But this is indeed something that should be sad. I even want to say that it's good to be sad - because sadness is always better than numbness."

Love Li pulled the corner of her mouth and forced a smile:

"What kind of new statement is this?"

"I'm serious, Ai Li."

Himiko's eyes reflected the sunset, and she said: "Because sadness can be turned into motivation to move forward, but numbness can't. Only after experiencing the sadness of loss can you cherish what you have more, and only by cherishing what you have can you continue to fight firmly. If you are completely numb, it will be a bad thing. In addition..."

"In addition?"

"In addition, sadness means losing something you cherish. If one day, I also become a Herrscher... Of course I hope he can kill me without hesitation to reduce the losses to others. But I will also selfishly hope... He can be sad for me like he is sad for Seer."

The evening breeze caressed the flowerbed, and all the sunflowers were deflected by the wind.

I don't know if it was an illusion, Ai Li saw that some of the sunflowers that were closer turned their faces to the red in front of her.