Collapsed buildings lay scattered in ruins across the city. Teetering skyscrapers and fragmented houses crumbled to the ground, piling debris everywhere. Dust filled the air, casting the entire city in a dim, gloomy pallor.
Beneath the broken walls, a crushed form began to heal, reassembling itself.
"...Ugh."
Li Mo struggled to open his eyes. The thick stench of blood filled his nostrils, and his mouth tasted metallic and sweet.
His vision was blurry, obscured by blood. His face was intact, yet covered in fresh dirt and bloodstains.
"What happened..."
"Can't get up..."
Li Mo couldn't stand. He looked up; heavy rubble pressed down on him, nearly severing him at the waist.
But it always stopped just short of cutting him completely.
With each repeated healing, his torso grew stronger, his flesh resisting the piercing of sharp stones.
The bleeding stopped.
Li Mo began to recall what had happened earlier.
Hua had gone home for the holidays to visit her hometown. He was preparing to go to the martial arts hall to help his uncle mind the shop. Suddenly, the ground started collapsing, meteorites fell from the sky, and massive shockwaves toppled the city's skyscrapers.
Disintegrating buildings collapsed, ultimately burying him as he walked down the street.
Before losing consciousness completely, he vaguely heard the roar of beasts and the immense sound of something massive crushing the street.
He wouldn't die. Li Mo knew this deeply; it was his innate talent.
His subconscious also vaguely informed him of this special trait.
Whether he truly couldn't die or simply had powerful regenerative abilities, he didn't know.
Death didn't make him significantly stronger; each death only enhanced him slightly, but the pain suffered was complete, undiminished by even a fraction.
"Leave this place. Go to the martial arts hall."
Li Mo made his decision. Hua's father was still at the martial arts hall, his fate unknown. He didn't have time to be trapped in the ruins waiting for rescue.
Besides, he could no longer hear any shouts or cries nearby.
Nor did he hear the roar of engines. Perhaps no one could find him at all.
He had to rely on himself.
Li Mo gritted his teeth against the pain, letting sharp stone shards pierce his arm without stopping. Using all his strength, he pushed away the rocks pressing down on him. Crawling out from under the rubble, Li Mo shakily stood up and looked ahead.
The fractured roads brought traffic to a complete standstill. Huge cracks ran through the streets, making them impassable for vehicles. Fallen power poles and power outages plunged the streets into darkness, making them especially desolate.
Not a single person was in sight, nor any trace of rescue workers.
Shanghai City had become a dead city.
Just as Li Mo took a step, instinct warned him of danger nearby. But the surroundings were empty and silent. Where could an enemy be?
"An illusion?"
He had no combat experience. Even with the intuition and perception of approaching danger, he didn't take it too seriously.
It was hard for him to die. Knowing that was enough.
Just as Li Mo steeled himself to stride forward, the sound of something cutting through the air behind him instantly triggered his subconscious reflexes.
Li Mo quickly glanced sideways, only seeing a massive blue-violet mosquito-like creature, its mouth revealing dozens of sharp fangs, mixed with bits of minced flesh.
The instinct dormant in his soul subconsciously wanted to dodge, controlling his body to move aside.
His above-average physical fitness couldn't keep up with his brain's reaction. His mind reacted and made a decision, but his body lagged behind.
Only when the Chariot-class Honkai Beast opened its gaping maw did his body finally react.
But it was too late. Li Mo's right arm below the shoulder was completely torn off, blood spraying out like silver paint.
"Ugh!"
The intense pain made the now-reacting Li Mo quickly pull away, turning to face the target grimly.
The Chariot-class Honkai Beast spat the stolen arm aside, staring intently at the prey before it.
"Honkai Beast."
"Is this the Honkai Mobius talked about? So this natural disaster is essentially a Honkai Eruption."
While serving as a human test subject in the lab, Mobius had told him a lot of related information – intelligence that ordinary citizens wouldn't have access to in their entire lives.
When the authorities fully disclosed all Honkai-related information to the public, it probably meant that civilization had reached its end, needing to burn its last drop of blood to cling to life.
Honkai, a cyclical natural disaster, manifests in countless strange ways.
The damage caused after appearing in the form of a natural disaster is almost irreversible.
"Annoying sound."
The noisy buzzing of the Chariot-class Honkai Beast's wings irritated him greatly.
Li Mo didn't run. Because he couldn't escape.
His running speed was, at best, slightly faster than a normal person's. He definitely couldn't outrun a winged Chariot-class Honkai Beast.
No weapons, no armor, no Honkai energy enhancement. An ordinary person might be able to fight a Dead Apostle, but against a Honkai Beast covered in silicon-based hard skin, they had no chance of winning. The only thing to do was pray their death wouldn't be too gruesome.
The Chariot-class Honkai Beast didn't rush to attack. Perhaps it was also puzzled why this human was different from the prey that fled immediately upon sight.
Silicon-based life forms were still life forms, just with different emotional logic than humans.
During the standoff, Li Mo's right arm gradually recovered, soon returning to its original state. Meanwhile, the severed right arm stump on the ground continued to bleed profusely, its sleeve tattered and ragged.
Sensing something amiss, the Chariot-class Honkai Beast stopped hesitating and charged towards Li Mo's neck.
Swoosh! It became a blur.
This time, his brain reacted, but his body still didn't. However, the newly regenerated right arm could respond to his brain's command, incredibly swiftly.
"Got you!"
Li Mo violently grabbed at the blurry afterimage, using all his strength to slam it onto the ground.
Under the immense grip, the Chariot-class Honkai Beast's mouth was clamped shut, unable to open. It could only be repeatedly slammed onto the ground by Li Mo.
It couldn't understand why an ordinary human possessed such enormous strength. It struggled desperately, trying to break free from Li Mo's grasp, but failed every time.
Li Mo's grip grew stronger. With each slam, Li Mo's fingers also endured the pain of colliding with the hard ground.
Bones repeatedly shattered and healed, shattered and healed.
The flesh and cells beneath the skin ruptured and repaired. After dozens, hundreds of partial restarts, the strength in Li Mo's right arm became astonishing.
Soon, the Chariot-class Honkai Beast lost consciousness, becoming just a silicon-based shell.
"Huff... Is it... dead?"
Li Mo panted, lifting the Chariot-class Honkai Beast in his right hand to check its condition.
The silicon armor was mangled beyond recognition. Purple-black liquid oozed from its body. When it touched his skin, the color instantly faded, becoming incredibly dim.
The fangs in its mouth had fallen out, scattered on the ground. Its wings were twisted out of shape.
It was dead beyond dead.
"I seem to have overdone it a bit. Need to conserve stamina, otherwise my progress will be greatly slowed."
Li Mo looked back. Behind him lay the arm bitten off by the Chariot-class Honkai Beast earlier.
Then he looked down at his own complete right arm, falling into brief contemplation.
He knew the process of the experiments Mobius performed on him.
Wounds healed rapidly, even injections to reduce platelet activity and drugs to inhibit cell division were useless.
"If I get injured, the injured part heals extremely quickly and seems to become slightly stronger."
"But if a limb-like part is severed, the severed limb seems to lose some kind of connection with me, having no recovery ability. Instead, starting from my body, the limb regenerates. The reborn limb is significantly stronger than the previous one. I never had this strength before."
Li Mo flexed the fingers of his right hand, nimble and powerful.
His gaze moved up.
The soft and delicate skin texture, the fine touch, and the graceful lines beneath the soft skin – it didn't look like a man's sturdy arm at all, more like the slender arm of a frail girl.
Yet this hand was filled with power.
One punch, one Chariot-class Honkai Beast.
"Should find a car... Wait, I don't think I know how to drive. Walk then?"
"The martial arts hall should be nearby. Running there quickly won't take long."
Li Mo didn't pick up the severed limb on the ground. It was meaningless. What could he do with it? Reattach it?
BOOM!
A collapsing skyscraper made a deafening sound, nearly piercing Li Mo's eardrums.
"What's happening now? Why is today so unlucky..."
Li Mo looked around. From alleys, corners, and cracks in the ground, unidentified creatures and hundreds, thousands of DeadMan began crawling out one after another.
The Chariot-class Honkai Beast from earlier was just a scout, sent to confirm there were no living humans in the city.
Li Mo had slept in the ruins for over ten days; naturally, he saw no living people when he woke up.
The Honkai was also spreading elsewhere.
When Li Mo fought the Chariot-class Honkai Beast, the Honkai energy dissipated during combat signaled other DeadMen and Honkai Beasts, like an ant colony using pheromones to exchange information and guide the next action.
Li Mo's first thought: Run.
Even with numerous precedents of dying and reviving, Li Mo couldn't guarantee he could recover from a fatal injury.
Like his head being separated from his body.
In that situation, would the body regenerate a head, or would the head regenerate a body?
The latter was better. The brain stored consciousness and memory, a shallow representation of the self.
But if it were the former, would the reborn self still be him?
Even the head replaced – even if consciousness and memory were identical, Li Mo would find it hard to convince himself that the reborn him was his true self.
Of the thirty-six stratagems, fleeing is the best.
However, Li Mo's escape plan was quickly seen through. Like a swarm of locusts, the dense mass of DeadMen and Honkai Beasts formed a deadly mudslide, instantly engulfing Li Mo's body.
Along with the clothes he wore, his flesh was hacked, sliced, and chopped...
"Nngh!"
Li Mo desperately pushed back. His efforts were like a small pebble sinking into the vast ocean, instantly swallowed by the Honkai Beast tide.
The sound of a human voice reappeared in the city that had been dead silent for over ten days.
Only this voice wasn't crying for help, but wailing and hoarsely screaming.
Facing an endless horde of DeadMen, Li Mo, whose physical fitness was still within the range of an ordinary human, was powerless to resist.
Whether in stamina, reaction, or speed.
His muscles tore. A sharp scythe plunged into his chest, churning his internal organs and flesh.
His spine was ripped out. A beast-form Honkai Beast pierced its claws through his back, grabbing everything it could inside, then tearing it out and crushing it.
Gradually, rich, vibrant blood lotuses bloomed on the ground. Thin lines of eerie blood flowed, seeping into the cracks of the earth, staining every Honkai Beast that participated in Li Mo's slaughter.
When a scythe deeply embedded itself into Li Mo's skull, the classical clock on a teetering clock tower began to turn backward.
Time reversed.
After the reversal, Li Mo was still in the center of the encirclement, being sliced apart piece by piece.
This process continued for an entire day and night.
Until, after a certain restart, his pink eyes became even more brilliant, like amber exposed under the daylight sun.
CLANG!
A scythe was knocked to the ground. A Dead Apostle turned its head in confusion.
The next second, a hand reached out from the darkness, grabbed its head, and crushed it. All in one smooth motion.
"If you keep hitting, even I will get very angry."
"..."
"Just kidding. How could I get angry?"
Li Mo wiped the red bloodstain from the corner of his lips with his hand, a gentle smile on his face. He bent down, picked up the scythe from the ground, and watched with interest as Honkai Beasts and DeadMen continuously swarmed towards him from all directions.
They seemed very interested in this unkillable toy.
Some Honkai Beasts in Shanghai City that hadn't joined the beast tide couldn't help but move towards Li Mo, deeply attracted.
A strange feeling surged in Li Mo's heart. He felt no anger, even though they had slaughtered him hundreds, thousands of times.
No anger didn't mean doing nothing.
The Honkai Beasts' feelings should be treated properly too~
"Please line up politely~ I'll make your deaths very easy..."
Li Mo weaved back and forth among the hundreds, thousands of Honkai Beasts and DeadMen, like a dancer in their prime. Every step trod on crimson roses, fingertips dripping with scarlet, brilliant light. Blood splattered in the air. The scythe was a paintbrush, sketching an unprecedented scene, cruel yet beautiful.
Slaughter can make one lose their mind, yet Li Mo remained completely unaffected.
He was simply returning the feelings of these "children."
Towards others, one must give sincerity for sincerity.
Towards Honkai Beasts, naturally, one should treat them the same way they passionately treated Li Mo.
The slaughter after the restart lasted for several hours [ shíchen = 2 hours]. Li Mo cut through them like mowing grass in a Musou game, killing all nearby Honkai Beasts and DeadMen.
An expression of pleasure involuntarily appeared on his face.
"I actually feel somewhat relaxed."
"Never mind that for now. Go find people at the martial arts hall."
Li Mo dropped the scythe and quickly ran towards the martial arts hall.
Behind him, lay utter devastation.
Purple-black, dim blood intertwined with bright red blood covering the ground, flowing into every corner of the street.
The purple-black blood was liquefied Honkai energy, originating from the thousands of dead DeadMen and Honkai Beasts.
The bright red blood came from only one person.
The bones and bodies of the Honkai Beasts gradually dissolved into dregs. Floating on the blood were only tattered clothes and fragmented pieces of flesh.
————
The alleyway was damp, dark, and sunless.
Faint light barely penetrated the dense fog that veiled it like a hazy shroud.
It shone on a girl with greyish-blue hair, squatting huddled in a corner.
She wore only one shoe; her over-the-knee black stockings were torn and ragged; her jacket was covered in grime and dust.
Hua rested her folded arms on her knees, burying her head within them.
Faint whimpering echoed in the dark alley. The damp, heavy air felt suffocating.
She had been here for a day. All her savings were spent, yet she had only reached the edge of Shanghai City, unable to venture deeper.
She had practiced martial arts since childhood. Everyone at the martial arts hall praised her as a martial arts genius, capable of inheriting her father's hall in the future. Even if she couldn't make it flourish, she could pass down the art.
Facing DeadMen, Hua felt no fear, nor did she retreat. She used everything she had ever learned, barely managing to kill one Dead Apostle.
But just when she thought she could save her father and Mo from the Honkai disaster, a two-meter-tall Honkai Beast blocked her path.
She ran away.
A tiny human body is insignificant before a behemoth. Even peerless martial arts are like throwing an egg against a stone.
Armor impervious even to firearms cannot be shaken in the slightest by mere flesh and blood.
Under the fear of death, Hua chose to flee, hiding in an alleyway, covering her ears against the sound of the earth trembling.
She hid like this for a day and a night, sleepless.
Her mind was filled with the image of the Honkai Beast. It didn't even deign to crush her, instead heading towards the center of Shanghai City, as if something more attractive existed there.
Her phone repeatedly played the names of survivors, updated every half hour.
Hua's eyes were swollen and red, shot through with blood vessels.
She stared intently at the updated survivor list, never seeing those two names.
It's like this again...
Anyone who got close to her inevitably met a tragic end.
From childhood until now, without exception.
Whether classmates, teachers, friends, or even family – the closer people were to her, the more likely they were to encounter various kinds of misfortune.
The reason her father moved to Shanghai City for work was vaguely related to her.
Hua couldn't remember how many people had said it. Small and large incidents, completely unrelated events intertwined, the final common point always pointing to her: the jinx whom anyone approaching would meet misfortune.
Now, this misfortune had befallen her family, with no possibility of undoing it.
"Sob... Why..."
"Why do things like this always happen to me!"
"I finally managed to live such a life..."
Hua clenched her fists, helplessness washing over her mind like a tide, cleansing the last shred of self-respect.
She was going back to being alone like in childhood. Nothing had changed. No, it had gotten worse.
She survived, but only she survived.
If she had known, she shouldn't have left in the first place.
If she hadn't left Shanghai City back then, at least she could have died together with them.