Chapter 280 — Fu Hua Won't Become a Herrscher, but a Herrscher Can Become Fu Hua!
The deduction made by Senti left everyone in the livestream stunned. They quickly realized just how high the probability of this being true actually was. In fact, as the story progressed, numerous hints—both subtle and overt—had been pointing toward Senti's true identity: she was a Herrscher.
"But... I remember Su Mu saying that Fu Hua would never become a Herrscher," Kiana said, sounding confused. During a previous version livestream, Elysia had passed that exact message from Su Mu to the audience.
"Kiana, you idiot. Su Mu did say Fu Hua wouldn't become a Herrscher, but... do you really think Senti is the real Fu Hua?" Bronya looked at Kiana with a sigh, her tone tinged with exasperation.
"Wait, it can work like that?" Kiana's eyes widened. "Isn't that just playing with word games? That guy Su Mu is such a dog!"
[It seems that's the case. The Old Thief did say Fu Hua wouldn't become a Herrscher. After all, having a warrior who fought Honkai for 50,000 years turn into one would be a bit too ironic.]
[But Senti isn't Fu Hua at all, is she? At most, she's a new individual with Fu Hua's memories.]
[So what is this? 'Fu Hua won't become a Herrscher, but a Herrscher can become Fu Hua'?]
[But if Senti is a Herrscher, how was she born?]
[If she was a Herrscher from the start, why did she think she was Fu Hua? She can't be like the Queen of Thunder—another Herrscher personality like Mei's, right?]
[Mei's Herrscher personality was born from her own character. When it appeared, Mei's soul was at least still in her body! But Fu Hua's soul is in Fenghuang Down; her body was just an empty shell!]
[To be honest, the thought of Senti being a Herrscher... makes me want to laugh.]
Looking at the comments, Senti herself was amused. It was true. Being a Herrscher herself was hilarious.
If you looked at the Will of Honkai's track record, it really hadn't done anything right. Look at the "traitors" it chose! The First Herrscher was a total traitor—the peak of all traitors. The Second Herrscher, the Herrscher of the Void, literally "threw" her life away. The Third Herrscher's personality fell in love with Kiana even earlier than the original Mei—can you believe that? The Fourth Herrscher was a disgrace! The Fifth and Sixth? Dead! Crushed by the Third Herrscher and Durandal!
And now, this newly born Herrscher shows up and immediately starts shouting, "I am Fu Hua! I am the strongest Fu Hua! I'm going to defeat the Honkai!"
Will of Honkai, look at who you're picking! Are you serious? Senti ruthlessly mocked the Will of Honkai in the stream.
"Hey! Do you think there's a possibility that the Will of Honkai itself is a traitor?" Kiana raised a finger, offering a bold theory.
"No way, if the Will of Honkai is a traitor, that would be too funny!" Senti laughed until her stomach hurt. Of course, she was just joking and didn't take it seriously.
In the game, Senti continued to boast to Fu Hua about how she had punched Otto. But Fu Hua's attitude was enough to choke the audience. Fu Hua wasn't just "straight"—she was a literal conversation-killing machine from the Shenzhou Flatlands. Instead of bridging the gap, her words only made their relationship worse. This left the audience helpless. The Jingwei Immortal could do anything, except raise a kid.
Even Kiana felt that if she were in that position, she could have won Senti over in a few sentences. Watching the Class Monitor talk was agonizing.
["Are you ready?"]
["You want me to return my power to you?"]
["I want you to become a part of me."]
["...That is impossible."]
["I understand, and I am sorry. You were a good partner. Sometimes I even felt you were like a sister..."]
["It is not what you think. Come, try it—I will not resist. Try to absorb me."]
Finally, Senti made her demand to absorb the feather and become the "complete" Fu Hua. Fu Hua looked at her with a complex expression and sighed. She didn't resist; she let Senti try.
However, the unexpected happened. Senti tried to touch the feather with an invisible hand, but the feather simply slid away. No matter how many times she tried, the result was the same. The feather was like a liquid that repelled Senti; they simply could not merge. Senti was shocked.
["Why?"] Fu Hua looked at her with eyes full of sadness and pity. ["Because we are two different souls."]
Those words hit Senti's sore spot. She hated the way Fu Hua spoke to her like an elder to a child; she hated that look of pity.
["Different souls? ...You represent the past, I represent the present. That's all."]
["That's not the reason, is it? The real reason is that you think you are more 'pure'—you think you are a Fu Hua more deserving than me!"] Senti hesitated before spitting out what she thought was the cruelest thing she could say: ["...Even if you are just a feather."]
The audience was stunned by this "cruel" remark. They remarked that Senti's "toxicity" really needed an upgrade. While she was aggressive toward Otto, she never actually cursed. Was she influenced by Fu Hua? Fu Hua wasn't the type to swear either.
A counterexample was Tesla, the "Anti-Entropy Telegraphist." Tesla was a true firebrand; her cursing was the kind that required the game to use bleeps. Senti's verbal lethality was honestly too low. They suggested she apprentice under Tesla; she'd come back able to turn Otto's face green with rage.
"I can't help it. As a person of culture and quality, I don't just go around cursing," Senti coughed. "I'm a civilized person, after all."
Watching her sister act smug, Fu Hua just wanted to laugh. You are civilized, and you don't curse much. That's because instead of using your mouth, you prefer to solve problems with your fists. One punch, and the world is quiet. There is no logic in the world that a fist the size of a sandbag can't explain. If you can't solve the problem, solve the person who raised it—if they're dead, the problem is solved!
[The streamer is pretending to be a civilized person again.]
[She's a big streamer now, she has to maintain an image.]
[Actually, her cursing skills are just trash, so she claims to be civilized to save face.]
[Hasn't the streamer flamed the Old Thief Su Mu plenty of times? Now she's pretending?]
Faced with the "mockery" of the fans, Senti's temper flared. "You guys are going too far! Careful, or I'll scold you until you can't show your faces!!"
She thought for a moment and blurted out the most "vicious" words she could think of: "You dummies! Idiots! Morons!! You're all little pigs!! I'm going to eat you all alive!"
The audience was delighted by her posturing.
[Wow, such high-impact words!]
[This is the first time I've seen such an innocent streamer.]
[Do you call that cursing? I feel like I'm being rewarded.]
[Keep it coming! The more you scold, the more excited I get! Hahahaha!!]
Senti was dumbfounded. What was wrong with these people? She was insulting them, yet they weren't angry—they looked happy!
"Senti, your attack power is really too low... this isn't scolding, it sounds like flirting." Even Elysia sighed and patted Senti's shoulder with a look of pity.
"Is... is my technique really that bad?" Senti felt wronged.
"If you had seen Su Mu... cough." Elysia leaned in. "You know the game League of Homus? Pardo was playing it once and asked Su Mu to carry her." "And then?" "Pardo was in the Zaun district, so Su Mu registered an account there to carry her." "What does that have to do with cursing?" "Don't be impatient... You have no idea. The teammates were flaming Pardo so hard. Su Mu couldn't stand it. I saw his hands move so fast they left afterimages on the keyboard—ten insults per second, hitting three people at once... and the kicker is, while he was flaming them, he casually pulled off a Penta-kill..."
Senti's eyes nearly popped out of her head. Flaming three people without losing ground while getting a Penta-kill? Was Su Mu even human?
"Pardo was amazed and asked him how he was so good." "Su Mu just smiled and said something mysterious." "—Don't ask how strong I am; I spent ten years in Zaun with my parents intact!"
The audience was shocked by Elysia's story.
[Wait, the Old Thief is that cracked?]
['Ten years in Zaun with parents intact'—the weight of that statement is incredible!]
[What a hand-speed demon! His finger flexibility must be maxed out!]
[Wait, are you guys evolving without me again?]
"Su Mu's fingers... are that flexible?" Kiana was speechless. She couldn't imagine flaming three people and playing at the same time.
"His fingers... are indeed very flexible." Bronya's face flushed red, looking shy and fidgety. Kiana paused. Were they talking about the same thing?
"It's true, Brother Su Mu's hands are very flexible." Even Seele, outside the stream, squeezed her thighs shyly. Her bashful look made the Herta puppet nearby slowly tilt its head in confusion. Were they really talking about the same thing?
In the game, the argument between Fu Hua and Senti continued.
["Facts? The fact is that every other feather of Fenghuang Down bows to me! The fact is that you're the only one with a problem, thinking you're always right!"]
["You're too stubborn! You're the one who can't see the facts. I—you're still living in the past! You still see yourself as Dr. MEI's tool!"]
She angrily accused Fu Hua, but Fu Hua's expression didn't change.
["Times have changed! We don't have to play the MANTIS, the Valkyrie, or the St. Freya student! We can be ourselves—our true selves!"]
["Look!"]
With a shout, the scenery warped. It was the moment in the Previous Era when Fu Hua first encountered a Deadweight. At that time, she found an attacked girl but could only run away because she lacked the strength. But now, it was different. With their power, they could easily defeat the Deadweight.
Then, Senti conjured the figure of Fu Hua's Captain—a scar Fu Hua never forgot.
["She turned into a Herrscher in the Australian branch. We tried everything to save her. When we finally reached her, she didn't attack. She remembered me; she called my name and smiled at me..."]
["—Then Dr. MEI ordered Kevin to kill her."]
["How ironic. Every time I think of Kiana, I think of the Captain. If someone had been willing to listen to me then, if Dr. MEI had given me a chance..."]
["But we were just tools. We had no say. If the people at the top decided a Herrscher was beyond saving, there was nothing we could do."]
The anger in her voice surprised Fu Hua.
["Are you resentful?"] Senti countered. ["At whom? Dr. MEI is dead. Only a few people are left from the last era. I have no one left to resent."] She paused, her tone full of regret. ["Only regret... the more I remember, the deeper my regret. Why was I always so submissive? Why so indecisive? Why did I always leave the choices to others?"]
["Why didn't I just fight as I pleased?"]
Senti then created illusions of Danzhu and Cangwen. She believed their tragedies could have been avoided if she had acted. But she had done nothing, watching them sacrifice themselves.
["Chiyou's rampage nearly destroyed the entire South Sea. Many died because of it."]
["I don't understand. There is sacrifice in war, but why did I feel that the lives of those civilians were more important than my friends? Why didn't I drop everything and use my maximum speed to kill Chiyou and save them?"]
["...I had to put the welfare of all humanity first."]
["Nonsense! 'Had to'? Who decided that? Dr. MEI? Why should I listen to her? All these years later, where is this 'welfare of all humanity'?"]
Senti was furious, her voice rising. Her indignation struck a chord with the audience.
She wasn't wrong. Fu Hua might be a hero, but they knew all too well the price of being one. The suffering Fu Hua endured was the price she paid. Senti's stance was clear: to hell with being a hero; she only wanted to protect those around her and those who mattered. If being a hero meant sacrificing her loved ones, she didn't want any part of it!
END OF CHAPTER
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