Chapter 532: In the Sea: The Test Has Just Begun

Chapter Six: In the sea: The test has just begun

"ha?"

White gas is thick in the air, holding on to the cold moonlight.

After a short syllable, Bronya suddenly raised her hand and grabbed Mikael's collar with force.

"Mikael, what do you mean?"

"What are you doing, Bronya!"

Mikael held her wrist in his hand, and neither his expression nor his tone caused any fluctuation.

It was as if this scene had been expected, and as if even if it was unexpected, it didn't matter at all.

"I am the captain of this mission, Bronya. You should have learned in the recruit camp what attitude you should face..."

"Bang!"

Mikael's answer was a cold fist.

"Is this fun?"

Mikael tilted his head to the side, and the red and swollen area caused by Bronya's pounding returned to normal in an instant.

"Oh, what do you mean?"

Mikael's answer still contained no special emotion, just like a mechanical puppet in a stage play that would only move towards the originally set script.

Bronya bit her lower lip tightly, and her whole body began to tremble violently.

"Stop pretending, Mikael. Isn't this all directed by you? Killing all the children here is fake. Everything Bronya saw from the beginning is fake! These are just lies. In order to test me..."

Bronya couldn't care about anything else anymore. She didn't care that Kevin and Xi'er might hear all this. She didn't care about who Mikael was in front of her. She yelled these words directly. Then, like a gun with an empty magazine, only a faint white vapor slowly floated out of the mouth.

However, Mikael's bland answer once again made Bronya's anger fall into place.

"So that's what you think."

But he didn't care. He grabbed Bronya's wrist before she punched her again, twisted it gently, and then forcefully broke away her hand that was holding her collar. He pushed Bronya hard and pushed Bronya away. Ya pushed a step or two away.

"You really think highly of me. I don't think I have the ability to direct such a grand play like this. I don't know why you are so confident in me."

"and you……"

"I told you from the last time that what I created is a world bubble that is infinitely close to the real world. Creating a world bubble and then letting everyone in it act according to my will is different from simply creating a world. Bubble, isn’t it obvious which one is more difficult?”

Bronya was choked for a moment, but she quickly realized that this was just Mikael's words.

"No! Even if it's the latter, you are fully capable of guiding this story into what you want Bronya to see, right?"

The muscles in Mikael's cheek twitched slightly, his lips slightly pursed, his eyes moved twice in unison, and then he broke out into a forced smile.

"No, Bronya, you still don't understand. The reason why a story becomes a story is precisely because it has self-consistent logic. Many times we feel that certain things lack logic, as if they happened suddenly, which is often evidence. Lack of logic caused by insufficient chain.”

"Bronya doesn't want to hear your nonsense here."

Mikael scratched his head in embarrassment and raised a finger under the moonlight.

"In short, if I use my personal power to force this story to develop in the direction I need, it will only destroy the authenticity of the story and fail to allow you to experience the 'reality', and then the 'test' will be lost. It's like, after you heard what I said, your first reaction was that I was causing trouble and that I deliberately led things to this point, rather than 'this kind of thing can't happen at all', right."

"..."

"Actually, I'm not good at making up stories, so everything you are experiencing now, just like what you saw in the last world, all really happened in history. It's just that at that time, I was playing Cocolia The person who plays this role is a comrade of Kevin and I, and the one who is sent to perform the cleanup mission is another comrade of Kevin and me. You still know her. "

Bronya's eyelids twitched, and she instinctively wanted to follow Mikael's words to find the so-called suspect, but she finally controlled her divergent thinking and listened carefully to Mikael's words.

"So, do you still feel that all this is incomprehensible? There is no cure for Honkai Disease, and this kind of thing will not change with the times. Take these children away from here, spend time and resources to check their health Everything is just in vain. In the end, they will be tortured by illness and become haggard. , instead of facing inevitable death after experiencing life worse than death, it is better to inject them with special injections during sleep, so that they can have a pain-free ending in a sweet dream. The more valuable state is recycled to create a serum to fight against the collapse disease.”

Mikael placed the so-called "superior order" in the communication in front of Bronya and shook it, but this kind of thing was not important at all.

Mikael's voice was still so plain, so plain that it had no waves and no emotion. Even when it fell into Bronya's heart, it did not cause any shock.

Yes, there was no shock. Although she was furious at the beginning, when Mikael made everything clear, Bronya found that this set of logic was not difficult to understand, or rather, Bronya, who grew up in hell, understood this truth from the beginning.

Moreover, even if this orphanage is still called Cocolia Orphanage, except for Seele, the children in the orphanage are just children who have just known each other for a short time.

Bronya is originally indifferent, which is not something that can be blamed, because in terms of her growing environment, indifference is an extremely necessary protection.

Moreover, what Mikael said is indeed correct. For those who are bound to die, is it right to respect life and let them die after suffering, or is it right to let them understand the pain in time?

Bronya, who has done countless such things with her own hands, still does not understand this.

But...

But...

But I still feel that something is wrong in this.

I still feel that things should not be like this, or there should be other choices.

Or... I don't know why, at least this time, she felt that she couldn't make up her mind to make a decision.

Is it because of the "heart". The meaningless concept instilled by Mei made her troubled by a strange feeling in her heart not long ago.

No, Mei just gave simple and plain words. She just made Bronya realize something that already existed in herself, instead of letting Bronya have something out of thin air.

In other words...

No, no no.

"If this is an assessment, there should be other choices, right?"

Mikael raised his eyebrows, seeming to be very satisfied with Bronya's reaction.

"Of course, it's a choice that suits your heart - you can choose to refuse this order."

Bronya's eyes twitched - too obvious.

This is too obvious.

How could anyone fall for such an obvious trap?

"There should be something deeper behind these two choices that is worth considering, right?"

"Hmm."

Mikael snorted happily, then lowered his head as if he had done something wrong and tapped his head.

"That's right! Stories need logic, and in reality, it is cause and effect that weaves logic together. No matter what choice you make, it will lead to corresponding consequences. It is precisely because of this that choices become particularly important."

Bronya swallowed lightly.

"Then...what are the consequences of the two choices?"

"Hmm? You ask me?"

Mikael pointed at his nose and laughed loudly.

"Bronya, this is a test for you, not for me. Do you understand? Which option you choose is entirely your own free will and has nothing to do with me. Similarly, I don't know what the consequences will be. Even if I know, I can't tell you. You can't expect the questioner to tell you the answer, right?"

"But if that's the case... isn't everything Bronya saw a farce that doesn't make sense?"

"Ah. Ah... That's how you understand it."

Mikael narrowed his eyes and raised his chin.

Bronya's whole body twitched inexplicably. The Mikael in front of her... this tone and demeanor... He suddenly felt familiar, but then it was broken.

Mikael did not give Bronya time to think. When Bronya felt something, his voice came one after another, disrupting everything:

"After all, you are not from our era, so you always look at the world with the childish values ​​you learned from St. Freya. But, Bronya, forget those things, think about everything you experienced when you were a child, and think about everything you saw in the previous world. The era we are in is a chaotic and dark era. Even you, you, Mei, Kiana, Seele, in a sense, you have indeed experienced a lot of suffering in your life, but you are too lucky, so lucky that suffering is a kind of tempering for you. So much so that you ignore that suffering is suffering, it often does not bring growth to human beings, but only pain and despair."

"..."

"..."

The wind continued to roar, and the nightingale was not to be outdone, mixing in a miserable and sharp "chirp" sound.

Kevin leaned against the door frame quietly and slowly opened his eyes. The moonlight was not dazzling, but the long darkness made his eyes sensitive and stinging when he touched even such a weak light.

He closed his eyes again, and the tears that flowed unconsciously moistened his eyeballs because of the sourness.

After a while, he opened his eyes, and the "brother and sister" were still standing stupidly in the courtyard not far away.

"Really..."

Kevin raised his head silently.

He did not agree with everything Mikael said.

It was as if he also knew that the world constructed by Mikael, no, not just this world, but everything that happened in the previous world, was far from their real experience.

But...

He did not just sleep like this for five hundred years in the sea.

Whether it was subjective or passive, consciousness would always be involved in some world bubbles, helplessly watching those worlds that no longer existed in the sea proving their existence over and over again with endless reincarnations.

Many times, he even kept doubting. It was the same endless reincarnation. They were proud of it, sad for it, and desperate for it. In the end, they even forgot the original meaning, but they still wanted to protect and save the original world. Was it just a reflection of a world that had been destroyed long ago? So they could only repeat the tragedy of destruction in the endless reincarnation.

It was in this strong confusion and doubt that Kevin saw another way of unfolding the "original world" in those world bubbles.

That is, what was happening in front of him.

A world where Mikael never existed.

A world where his hesitation caused the Sixth Herrscher to take away tens of thousands of lives on an entire commercial street.

A world where he took everything on his shoulders and personally ended the life of Himiko, who became a Herrscher.

A world where he had all the power but could not do anything, and could only watch Desdobia, Blanca, Hen and more comrades-in-arms go one after another and sacrifice one after another in front of him.

It was the world where the boy who admired and respected him took off the medal he always cherished from his chest and threw it at his feet.

It was the world where everyone who was forcibly held together in the end fell apart because of their own conflicts.

It was the world where neither Mikael nor Alicia existed, and the world where they could not cross the end no matter what.

After watching it more, sometimes I would start to wonder... Is it the world I experienced... Although it is a real pain, it is at least better than those presented in these illusions?

The ending is the same, but the process has a lot more happiness worth recalling, and it is not so depressing, right?

Although these are often more desperate and depressing compared to the final ending.

"Huh..."

Kevin let out a long breath.

He knew what Mikael was doing, and he also knew what he called the test.

When he opened his eyes again, the confrontation between the "brother and sister" had ended.

"Bronya doesn't think that what Bronya learned in St. Freya is childish. On the contrary, in Bronya's eyes, you, Mikael, who keeps saying 'this is how the world is', are childish."

"Humph."

Mikael smiled and spread his hands:

"I said it before. Words are powerless. Bronya Zajcek, if you want to prove that I am the childish one, please use a more mature approach."

"Bronya will."

Bronya bit her lips tightly and looked at Mikael without showing any weakness.

But soon, Mikael's palm once again couldn't be refused and slapped her head without being able to dodge.

"However, don't make decisions when you are emotionally unstable. The other me should have taught you this, right?"

The palm moved away, and then slapped her shoulder twice.

"Okay, Bronya, you have a whole night to think about which path you want to choose and how to deal with the consequences of your choice."

With a gentle push, Bronya's body fell back two steps, and she quickly lowered her head and walked into the darkness.

When she passed by Kevin, her footsteps paused for a moment, but she crossed over directly.

Kevin's eyes were closed, and he didn't know what he was thinking. Until Bronya returned to the kitchen and the door closed with a "creaking" sound, Kevin opened his eyes and looked at Mikael who appeared in front of him again.

"Why do you have to go to such great lengths to test this girl? Some things can't be understood by her in this way."

"Maybe it's because..."

"Hmm?"

"Nothing."

Mikael sighed with a wry smile.

"By the way, Kevin, what choice do you want her to make?"

"My personal wish?"

Kevin tilted his head and thought about it.

"In fact, most people would choose not to execute the order."

"Even if you know the consequences of doing so?"

"Yes, but this is more in line with humanitarianism after all. I am not the one who needs to make the decision and take responsibility for it, so I naturally hope that the person who makes the choice can make a more humane decision. Anyway, even if something happens, it has nothing to do with me, right?"

The corners of Mikael's mouth twitched.

"It's really your style..."

"Then... Mikael, do you mean that you hope Bronya will choose to execute the order?"

"How is that possible?"

Mikael waved his hand exaggeratedly and set the timer on his phone in front of Kevin.

"Sorry to disappoint you. The content of this test has never been 'which option to choose', but... hehe, the real test has just begun."