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

"Who is your master?"

Anna asked directly.

"Master is master. Please curb your curiosity; I have no obligation to answer an intruder's questions. Unless you are willing to provide compensation equal to… no, exceeding all the losses incurred here today."

The mechanical girl continued in her voice devoid of emotional inflection, completely indifferent to the other party's reaction.

As expected, Anna was quite incensed by this attitude that showed no desire for normal communication. She was about to turn around and ask Lin Wei to think of something, but her gaze shifted, and seeing the girl tightly bound and unable to move, her heart softened, and the anger that had been surging up instantly dissipated.

It's not her fault… it's not her fault…

Anna told herself in her heart, first softening her own tone, asking gently,

"What's your name?"

She decided to take a different approach, to take it slowly. But the mechanical girl remained as unyielding as ever.

"I have no name. Machines do not need names. As for my designation… I'm sorry, data corrupted, unable to retrieve."

Although she said "sorry," her tone was so indifferent it was as if an AI was merely reading entries according to instructions.

"Were you born like this?"

Anna asked, deliberately using "born" instead of "manufactured" to define her possible origin.

If she really is just a machine, then it's too tragic, too pitiful, Anna thought.

To live as a tool from birth, without freedom, without emotion, without thought…

Suddenly, although it seemed absurd, she inexplicably thought of herself, of her captain, of the group of "tools" called "Valkyries," and then of the exceptional, radiant Durandal.

What are we then?

She pursed her lips, driving these absurd thoughts out of her mind.

Lin Wei had been observing Anna from behind, also noticing her subtle emotional shifts, but chose to continue to not interfere. Now was not his time to step in.

"Born? No. Although my memories are mostly lost, I still remember, I was originally human, with a father and mother, classmates and friends."

The mechanical girl's voice was still flat and cold, as if the past she was describing was someone else's story, unrelated to her.

It was so cold, as if she really were a machine, making Anna, as the listener, shiver involuntarily.

Her empathy is a bit too strong…

Lin Wei thought.

"…Then are you not sad about being like this now?"

Anna asked somewhat haltingly. She found it hard to imagine what cruel treatment a living human had to endure to become like this.

"What about your parents…?"

This question, almost blurting out, Anna regretted as soon as she said it, but it was too late.

I hope I'm not rubbing salt in a wound… Anna felt a pang of remorse.

"They are all dead, died in a sudden Honkai outbreak, died silently, like the vast majority of people in this world."

The mechanical girl still spoke lightly, as if unwilling to delve into the topic, as if merely making a simple summary. Hearing Anna's subtle movements, she turned her face towards Anna. Her eyes, which could no longer see anything, seemed to look at Anna through the cold iron eye mask.

"Are you sympathizing with me? There's no need. Conclusion: they are all dead, and I am still alive."

"Is this state of yours even considered living?!"

Anna suddenly burst with anger, her eyes brimming with tears as she questioned loudly.

She didn't know exactly what she was angry about, but this undisguised indifference deeply stung her.

Why am I so angry?

Ah, I remember now, it's like Ciel Meister…

That day, that cold person even had the mood to bake cookies?!

"Why not? Are you talking to a corpse? …Ah, sorry, please forgive my incorrect phrasing."

The mechanical girl showed no reaction to Anna's anger, her tone remaining cold and flat.

"A damaged tool is not appropriate to be called a 'corpse'."

Anna was furious; she felt this person was simply unreasonable!

"Are you satisfied with your current state?"

Seeing Anna falter, Lin Wei took over the conversation, causing Anna to pause. All the anger in her heart turned to grievance, and she almost burst into tears.

Or rather, what had been buried in her heart for a long time was never anger, but grievance and sorrow.

"I wouldn't say satisfied, but compared to those who are dead, at least I am still alive, and that is already enough. It was Master who took me in and gave me a new life, even if it is to exist as a machine, a tool. It's a fair trade, isn't it?"

The mechanical girl seemed not to mind that the person she was talking to had changed, simply turning her head slightly towards Lin Wei's direction, her tone as usual.

Where is the fairness in this?!

Anna suppressed the outcry that surged in her heart, feeling somewhat restless. Finally, biting her lip, she retreated to Lin Wei's side, feeling much calmer being near him.

"I remember you, suspected of possessing… data corrupted, unable to read… it was you who caused the destruction here. Regrettable, it seems I underestimated you."

The mechanical girl expressed her regret in a tone devoid of regret, only pausing in some places due to the data corruption.

"Underestimated? Perhaps, but you did your best."

Lin Wei smiled, gesturing with his eyes for Anna to be patient.

"So all of this today was orchestrated by you behind the scenes?"

He hadn't used the power of the Divine Key – although he had indeed been preparing to – but after burning out the other half of herself, the mechanical girl, now only with her biological half remaining, only remembered what she had personally seen and experienced. The information she had read as data had vanished without a trace, like wind passing through.

And the mechanical girl wouldn't dwell on these things either.

"Maintaining the operation of this base is inherently the duty entrusted to me by Master, and the meaning of my existence… I regret to say, it seems I am about to lose this job now."

Perhaps because the conversation had started, or perhaps because the computer engine deeply coupled with her had burned out, and she was now free from program control, she unknowingly regained some degree of autonomous thought. In any case, she did not refuse to talk to Lin Wei,

Though her tone was still the same old way.

Lin Wei didn't mind this – after all, when it came to being infuriating, he was a professional.

"Maintaining the operation of this base? But all I've seen are Deadman, Deadman, and more Deadman! By generally accepted rational standards, this place should be defined as 'fallen to Honkai', shouldn't it?"

"If your words are intended to anger me, then you may be disappointed."

The mechanical girl remained unmoved, responding calmly,

"Everything here is artificially controllable, the goal is to repurpose waste, not to be overwhelmed by Honkai disasters. Moreover, if not for data comparison… data missing… I would not have turned all my assistants into Deadman as a countermeasure."

All three of you are emotionless girls, but you are far worse than Bronya in every aspect. [Bronya is a Honkai Impact 3rd character known for her initially emotionless demeanor]

Lin Wei withdrew the black feather from between his fingers, smiling slightly. As expected, without the constraints of machinery and chips, it was easy to induce her to speak with the Feather of the Vacant.

Now, it seemed he should temporarily step back?

Sure enough, hearing the mechanical girl say this, Anna couldn't hold back again.

"You're saying, those Deadman, were all your doing? How could you be so cruel?!"

Anna was filled with immense grief and indignation. She had initially thought the girl before her was just a slightly more special victim, but she hadn't expected that everything that had happened here was her doing.

"You yourself are a victim of Honkai, you yourself are human, how could you bear to do it?"

"I am very sorry, Madam. I am just a machine now; human emotions are meaningless to me. I am merely taking the most efficient course of action after calculation, and regrettably, as you can see, the result is still failure."

Rarely, Lin Wei heard a trace of regret, albeit slight, but definitely present, in the mechanical girl's voice.

"You…"

Anna felt a chill run down her spine. What could make a human become so emotionally barren and cold?

"You just said, 'repurpose waste'… what do you mean by that?"

Her voice seemed squeezed out from between her teeth, dry and suppressed. She truly couldn't understand why there would be such an evil place in the world.

"It means exactly what it says."

The mechanical girl's tone was still calm, as it had always been, detached and cold,

"Ordinary humans cannot resist the Honkai's erosion. This is something you, who have managed to break through all the way here, must know. So when they enter the artificially created Honkai energy environment here, the vast majority will die, become diseased, and mutate in a very short time, just like my father and mother who died in the Honkai."

"Therefore, before their bodies completely mutate, I will send them to the processing plant to be operated on by my assistants, extracting their body tissues that have not yet mutated and processing them into semi-mechanical soldiers with the most basic intelligence. You've seen them, those guys you stole earlier."

The mechanical girl retorted at Lin Wei with a hint of sarcasm, then continued,

"Regrettably, there were simply too many of them, and this place doesn't need that many soldiers. The majority of 'eliminated individuals' can only be stored separately in a designated area, to be regularly fed into the Honkai energy furnace as fuel to maintain the base's operation."

Anna completely snapped!

Do you even know what you're saying? Those were all living lives. Individual humans, each with families behind them, forced to endure separation and death!

To be so cruelly persecuted by them, and still be casually called "waste"?

Why are you so cruel?!

Lin Wei patted Anna's hand, signaling her to be patient.

"You said 'eliminated individuals'… what about those who are not eliminated? Where are they?"

Temporarily calming Anna, Lin Wei asked directly. This one sentence made Anna's heart sink, her breathing quickening, becoming increasingly uneasy.

"There are some individuals who, like I was initially, although also eroded by Honkai, can endure for a period of time on their own. They naturally possess greater value, and are therefore worthy of receiving a higher level of treatment. After undergoing surgical modifications, they become more advanced mechanical modification bodies with a certain degree of intelligence. They are the main source of my 'assistants'."

The mechanical girl continued to speak sarcastically, as if those around her were unforgivable villains,

"But regrettably, due to the arrival of you two, to prevent further intrusion into the base, I had to turn them into Deadman as well. I must say, this is truly a waste of resources, comparable to a crime."

Anna almost laughed in anger. A crime? You have the nerve to say that?!

"And then what?"

Lin Wei asked, there must be people with even higher resistance, where did they go?

This time, the mechanical girl fell silent.

Lin Wei raised an eyebrow slightly. Before he could make any other move, he heard Anna beside him finally unable to restrain her questioning, her voice trembling, laced with tears,

"Why are you doing this? So cold, so cruel? Those are humans, just like you and me, living, breathing humans? In your… no, in your master's eyes, what exactly are humans?"

What exactly are humans, to be slaughtered so meaninglessly?

What are Valkyries, to be treated as worthless consumables, tools, decorations?

At this moment, two things that she found unacceptable overlapped in Anna's heart, like hammer blows smashing heavily into her chest, causing too many unbearable cracks to appear there.

"Is there a problem with this? They were originally people destined to die, weren't they?"

The mechanical girl was completely puzzled, stating matter-of-factly,

"They originally could not survive in the Honkai. Since they were destined to die anyway, then instead of letting them die meaninglessly in the Honkai, it's better to have them strive to create more value before that, which is also a good thing for humanity as a whole."

Anna was speechless with anger. What twisted logic was this?

Destined to die, so they should die?

Then what were they fighting for, what were they resisting for?

Just lie at home and wait for death, let the Honkai happen, let those who are supposed to die, die out, wouldn't that be fine!

Anna felt her vision blurring, even wanting to laugh, she grinned, but couldn't force out a laugh.

Honkai hadn't killed them, but they were being killed by humans themselves?

What a huge joke!?

"Isn't this a very normal thing? In terms of Earth's biological evolution history, 'survival of the fittest' has always been an unbreakable law."

The mechanical girl heard Anna's suppressed, angry, and chilled breathing, not understanding her agitation. Tilting her head, she searched through her faint memories, finding the image of a few birds that had once nested by the window.

"Take the birds commonly seen in nature as an example. The reason they are flying everywhere now is only because their ancestors survived back then, and didn't die and become extinct like many other creatures."

The mechanical girl continued to describe the world in her eyes, not knowing if this was her own understanding when browsing the database, or the ideology instilled in her by her "master."

"The few lucky ones who survived the mass extinction could also breed new populations in the new era, and become even more prosperous. Then in terms of the war between humanity and Honkai, isn't it the same?"

The mechanical girl's voice, though cold, was terrifying like a demon's whisper.

"Let those who are supposed to die, die more meaningfully, and then let those who are supposed to live, live more fully. This is being responsible for the future of humanity."

"You're talking bullshit!"

Anna finally couldn't hold back. Her excellent upbringing, instilled since childhood, was completely gone at this moment. She felt as if she had been greatly insulted, and had to retaliate furiously!

Just then, her communicator suddenly rang, making Anna, who was somewhat overwhelmed by anger, slightly regain her composure.

Her mind was still a bit dazed, but out of muscle memory honed through long training, she habitually opened the communicator at the first moment it rang. Then she heard her captain's urgent voice from inside,

"Anna? Are you in that base? There's bad news! The top floor here hides a tunnel boring machine, and it's been activated, digging downwards, preparing to completely destroy the base! Anna, are you listening? I'll try to find a way to stop it, you take this chance to leave there quickly!"

The background in the communicator was pitch black, with several Valkyrie team members turning on searchlights to be on guard all around. In the places illuminated by the lights, the massive wreckage of Titans could be seen.

Anna was still in a daze. Lin Wei, however, looked at the mechanical girl before him with a sense of realization. No wonder this girl was so willing to answer every question, so she was playing this card.

Indeed, recalling the various sophisticated tactics she had used to control those Deadman against him and Anna, it was not strange that she would have hidden one more trap as a final resort.

"Has it been exposed? How regrettable, I was hoping to stall for a little longer…"

Sure enough, the mechanical girl maintained that strange posture, neither sitting nor lying, her tone cold and flat as she said,

"I regret to inform you two intruders that you will be buried here with me. After all, managing this base is the duty entrusted to me by Master."

As she spoke, Lin Wei felt a slight tremor.

This feeling was somewhat familiar, as if he had felt it before. After a brief recollection, he remembered.

Just before, when pushing open the door leading to this place, he had felt this tremor once, but hadn't paid attention to it then, assuming it was a side effect of opening the door.

This girl, she probably activated this destruction device back then already?

As if to verify this, Anna's communicator rang again.

"Anna, can you hear me? That big guy has already dug through the first level, and now the path back is cut off! Don't go back the way you came, there's no point! You need to hurry and find another passage to leave there! This damned thing, it's unstoppable!"

In the communication, there were also sounds of hacking, smashing, and even frustrated gunfire.

Lin Wei looked at the bound mechanical girl, and couldn't help but want to applaud her. He had to admit, this whole performance was truly brilliant!