Try to save the world, Transmigrator!

"Cheers!"

The crowd laughed, raising their glasses and clinking them together, savoring this long-overdue banquet with their companions, having cast off all burdens and pressures.

However, Xin Yu's figure was absent from this feast of the Flame-Chasers. Although everyone had earnestly invited him, he had smiled and shaken his head, indicating that this banquet belonged to them and Kevin. So, as Kevin's past companions and lover, they should accompany him through this celebration.

After all, once this brief, dream-like illusion ended, Kevin, facing the cold reality once more, would have to shoulder the heavy burden in his heart again, to once more tread a solitary path.

So, at least for this moment, let him fully enjoy this beautiful dream.

Xin Yu sat alone under a tree. Mobius had originally intended to keep him company, but Xin Yu had declined, saying she too should have much to say to her companions. The two of them would never lack for time; there was no need to rush things at this particular moment.

He had seen a familiar face among the Flame-Chasers, a woman who looked almost identical to Yae Sakura. But it was merely a resemblance, like one flower to another. That person was her own self, not the miko who belonged to him.

He wouldn't treat someone with a similar appearance as a substitute for another. That would be disrespectful to both individuals.

Therefore, he showed no particular emotion towards the woman who looked almost identical to Yae Sakura.

However...

The long katana that had appeared after he dealt with the sealed entity inside the black box materialized in Xin Yu's hand—Jizo Mitama, later modified by him and renamed Sakurabuki.

"There's still a causal connection..."

After Xin Yu traced the threads of causality and viewed the scenes presented by fragments of past space-time, learning the story of the Previous Era's Sakura and her younger sister Rin, he said nothing, merely silently watching the stories of the other Flame-Chasers.

......

"It's truly hard to imagine that we can all gather together again now, eating delicious food, drinking fine drinks, and even Boss Kevin's face isn't as icy as before." Pardofelis took a sip of juice, watching the lively crowd at the banquet, and couldn't help but wish that everyone could stay like this forever.

"Kevin, what became of my future self?" Su, also pulled from the past, knew the mission he bore, so he should have, like Kevin, lived to the present era.

"...I decided to execute Project Stigma. We had a disagreement. You stopped me and cast me into the Quantum Sea."

"Has it already reached that point?"

"There were no other options left, nor any more time for us to research a better solution. This was the only chance, the only possibility. I had to do it."

"Even if we now have someone who seems more friend than foe, willing to help us and possessing the power of time, we cannot pin all our hopes on him. I will still proceed with Project Stigma."

"...It's been hard on you all these years, carrying the hopes and pressures of everyone. No wonder that person pulled us here."

"Sister..."

Suddenly, from not far away, a rather soft, sweet female voice called out. Everyone present turned their gaze and saw the Herrscher of Corruption from all those years ago, trembling and looking at them with a fearful expression.

"Rin!" Sakura rushed forward in an instant, embracing her younger sister, embracing the sister she had failed to protect back then.

"Dr. Mobius..."

"...Klein."

"Long time no see, Su."

"...Indeed, it has been a very long time, Doctor."

"Hen... Blanca..."

"Long time no see, Kevin! Griseo, you've grown so big!"

"Kalpas."

"...Heh, to think I'd see you, of all people."

"Hua? Where is this? Why am I here? What happened?"

"This... Long time no see, Captain."

More and more familiar faces appeared before the Flame-Chasers, each an important part of their past lives.

Mobius bit her lip, looking at these familiar people, and couldn't help but wonder what price Xin Yu had truly paid to pull these individuals, long dead in the past, to this place.

"That guy, is he so willing to be a good person? It's... it's truly incomprehensible."

...

"Cough, cough! My injuries haven't fully recovered yet, and pulling so many people from the past to the present was indeed a bit too much! Cough, cough!"

Xin Yu's face was extremely pale. He clutched his mouth, coughing violently, looking as if he were about to cough up his internal organs. When he removed his hand, it was already stained with semi-coagulated blood, or rather, some kind of pale purple liquid.

"My lifespan directly decreased by 1000 years. If it were the old me, I'd definitely be worried about this, but now..."

Xin Yu glanced at the lower right corner of his vision. If one didn't intentionally focus on it, it would be unnoticeable— an extremely blurry numerical display.

The long string of various digits was dazzling. If he were to carefully calculate it, he probably still had about 49.62 million years of lifespan.

...So this Nascent Soul of his was indeed very problematic, wasn't it? The Nascent Souls he remembered from his impressions couldn't live nearly that long. Moreover, when he was at the Golden Core stage, his lifespan was still measured in thousands, yet after breaking through to Nascent Soul, it directly reached the tens of millions level.

His current life cycle had already surpassed the entire existence span of some civilizations.

So, losing a mere 1000 years of lifespan now was, to Xin Yu, truly just a drop in the bucket.

Xin Yu took a moment to glance into another异时空 (yì shíkōng - separate dimension), where two figures, one large and one small, were embracing each other, fast asleep—the two children.

After careful observation, confirming that the child named Bronya was indeed the Bronya he knew, Xin Yu could only sigh that this was perhaps a coincidence of fate.

His next steps then were: first, fully recuperate here from all the injuries sustained from interfering with space-time where he himself had existed. Then, send Seele back to her original world, and by the way, check on how Kiana and the others were doing at that point in time.

After that, he would return tens of thousands of years to fulfill his previous promise, to meet the grown-up Mobius. Though, after meeting, he'd probably be subjected to a round of sarcastic remarks, as the past Mobius wouldn't have synchronized memories of the future.

Once that meeting was done, he would try to change the Third Honkai Eruption. He had enough lifespan now; he could save the people of that city.

That way, the home that belonged to him should also return. After all, it was his first house in this world, and also where he started.

Though, speaking of which, I don't think I paid much attention to that house at first, did I? When exactly did it start to give me the feeling of home? Why can't I remember?

Xin Yu scratched his head, having not the slightest impression of what had happened back then.