I've already said this isn't a life simulator!

"……Can."

Kosmo nodded and agreed.

Although he had to stay in the Deepest Place for a long time due to some special reasons, the Fire Moth would still assign him missions when needed. He could take this opportunity to bring the painting to Sakura... However, Gretchen's painting had to be handed over to Velvey for processing first, and then framed in a special frame before it could be taken out. Otherwise, the higher-ups of the Fire Moth would be on edge again.

He stepped forward and helped Gretchen take the painting down from the easel, then Kosmo examined the painting in his arms.

The first thing that catches the eye is a large expanse of deep blue, interspersed with touches of white and pink, like cherry blossom petals falling into the sea. Beneath the sea is an unidentified woman with wings on her back, holding treasures in her arms, wearing a strange mask that looks somewhat like a fox, except that the ears on both sides of the mask are long and thin, and the mask itself is half broken, revealing the woman's beautiful profile.

The woman closed her eyes peacefully, tears silently welling up, but a smile played on her lips. She held the broken treasure in her arms, her wings, which should have been soaring high, no longer fluttering. She simply let herself fall into the depths of the sea, with only a few pink petals falling with her.

"........."

To be honest, Kosmo didn't quite understand. It was clear that Ling's request was to ask Gretsch to paint a portrait of Sakura, but now it seems that Gretsch has added something else.

Perhaps it was Gretchen's own idea.

Kosmo thought to himself that he had learned a bit about art when he was learning harmonica from Eden. In terms of "art," whether it is painting or music, creators always add their own touches to their works.

Aponia also said that Gretchen's paintings of others always carried a special meaning, perhaps because Gretchen's way of understanding was different from that of ordinary people.

However, Kosmo didn't really care about those things.

"I'll give it to Sakura next time we go on a mission."

He simply put the painting away, intending to hand it over to Vervier for processing later.

“...Aponia?”

But halfway through, he saw Aponia's gaze linger on the painting in his hand for a long time, as if she cared a lot about it.

"...No, it's nothing."

Aponia slowly withdrew her gaze, gently shook her head to indicate that nothing was wrong, which puzzled Kosmo.

"Gresh, be careful not to step on the paint."

Aponia watched as Gretchen jumped off her chair and ran toward the pile of paintings, and gently reminded her.

“Okay, Mom Aponia.”

Gretchen responded softly, took out a painting from among the many works of art, and with Kosmo's help, placed it back on the easel. Then, Aponia picked her up and carried her back to her seat.

"........."

Back in her seat, Gretchen once again examined the painting she had created for Xiwang.

This is a highly accomplished painting. A boy lies on the grass under the starry night, sleeping peacefully in the cool night breeze. Pale pink petals fall quietly from the treetops beside him, and a few whole flowers are lucky enough to land in his palm. In the distance, a few lights are on in the town, making the atmosphere of the painting appear peaceful and serene.

But the most eye-catching part of this painting is the six-pointed star that shines brightest in the starry night, located at the top center of the picture. While the other stars are merely lightly dotted with white or yellow in the night sky, this star was specially drawn by Gretsch, who even used brushstrokes to depict the star's brilliance in six directions.

Gretchen had spent a lot of time on this painting and had made several adjustments and revisions. Every time Aponia and Kosmo thought she had finished the painting, Gretchen would gently shake her head to indicate that the painting was not yet finished.

"...Kosmo, hasn't Brother Wang returned yet?"

Gretchen picked up her paintbrush again, looked at the boy beside her, and asked softly.

"Gresh, Captain Wang... he's not coming back."

Kosmo hesitated for a moment, but then told Gretchen the answer again.

This wasn't the first time Gretchen had asked this question, and his answer had remained unchanged.

Because of the shattering and sinking of the Mu Continent, the work of salvaging related data and resources has never stopped, and the search and rescue for Xiwang and Hen has also never stopped. Although, given the circumstances at the time, the chances of the two fusion warriors surviving were very low, but... what if? Right?

However, not long ago, after the Fire Moth had largely recovered the data and confirmed that the remaining parts had sunk to the seabed and were difficult to salvage, the Fire Moth gave up continuing this work, since there were still too many Honkai Beasts in the ocean.

Although the loss of two Fusion Warriors was a great blow to the Fire Moth, they could no longer continue their search and rescue efforts. They had to focus on how to compensate for the significant reduction in industrial capacity caused by the sinking of the Mu Continent. Some of their original plans to combat the Honkai also needed to be reconsidered, and some even had to be abandoned. The existing industrial capacity and resources could no longer support the Fire Moth in advancing multiple large-scale projects simultaneously.

As for Hen and Xiwang, who had been missing for a long time, they were naturally also marked as "missing," which was almost a declaration of "death," and the search and rescue work was also stopped.

When Sakura first heard the news, she was in a daze. Although she returned to normal the next day, anyone could see the exhaustion in her eyes.

Even so, Sakura still believed that Xiwang was still alive, and Gretchen's attitude was exactly the same as hers.

"I hope my brother will come back."

Gretchen blinked her pale purple pupils, her calm and firm tone surprising, as if stating a fact... She had already accepted the fact that Hen could not return, and that her father was most likely dead, but when faced with Xi Wang, who was also missing, Gretchen insisted that he was still alive.

It was as if this were something that should be taken for granted.

"I hope my brother will always be here."

As she said this, she raised her paintbrush and lightly swung it twice in the air, and a striking blue paint appeared on the brush.

She lowered her head slightly, placed the brush on the palette, and mixed all the remaining colors together. In the middle of the process, Gretchen added a few more colors, and what appeared was a dark, bluish-green "mixed color" that gave people an "unpleasant" feeling.

At this moment, Gretchen stopped, and then... picked up the palette covered in mixed colors and slammed it onto the painting in front of her.

"Gresh?!"

"........."

Ignoring Kosmer's surprise, Gretchen pressed the palette against the painting and moved it little by little with her hand, spreading the dirty, mixed colors all over the painting.

Finally, when Gretsch took the palette down, the painting was filled with mixed colors, and the original serene and peaceful beauty was almost invisible. Only the pale pink flowers and the stars that Gretsch had emphasized could escape the interference of the mixed colors and be vaguely recognized.

"It's finished..."

Looking at the mess she had made, Gretchen seemed oblivious, muttering to herself.

Or perhaps... this really is the final step in completing this painting?

Chapter 43 [Skadi]

In the ocean, you embark on an extremely ferocious "hunting" journey with a killer whale Honkai Beast that is very friendly to you... well, extremely ferocious to other Honkai Beasts.

[One of you started indiscriminately consuming Honkai Beasts in order to leave the ocean, while the other is a glutton by nature. When the two of you team up, almost no Honkai Beast can withstand you. Most Honkai Beasts can only scatter and flee when they encounter the two of you... This has led to a rapid decrease in the number of Honkai Beasts in the sea.]

While this reduction may seem insignificant compared to the entire ocean, when limited to a specific area... well, that becomes quite terrifying.

Soon, there will be no more Honkai Beasts left in this sea area. Even if any survive, they will quickly leave and escape to other places.

After realizing this, you tried again to leave the ocean, but it still didn't work.

You were not discouraged; instead, you traveled with it to another sea area to continue wreaking havoc on other Honkai Beasts.

You can feel yourself and it growing stronger little by little, especially you. The "Gabriel" gene in your body is becoming more active, and more active every day, as if it will turn around and devour you at any moment.

However, none of this happened. You maintained your human form and your consciousness, and that was enough.

Your relationship with it remains harmonious; its friendly attitude towards you has hardly changed. Its slightly clumsy and silly appearance is quite adorable. If it were a person, perhaps you would become friends... No, you are already "friends" now, just in a somewhat strange way.

You still don't know where its inexplicable friendliness towards you comes from, but you're not too concerned about it anymore.

And so, you two, "one person and one beast," continued to "hunt" Honkai Beasts, gradually expanding your "hunting" range, slowly growing stronger. Your daily life remained almost unchanged, starting at dawn with continuous "hunting and eating," only taking a short rest in the deep sea late at night, before continuing the next day.

Aside from the occasional need for you to try and escape the ocean, you do almost nothing else, and your lives are exceptionally stable.

Until... a problem arose with you.

----------

Gollum—

The bubbles rose slowly, and in the dim sea, Xi Wang opened his eyes. Faint light fell from above, indicating that it was already morning... His biological clock, which he had developed recently, was surprisingly accurate.

A strange emotion emanated from the surroundings, a feeling of gentleness and care, as if the seawater itself were alive.

Besides that, Xi Wang has been having a lot of dreams lately, dreaming that she has become a marine creature and spent her whole life in the sea... She dreams of all sorts of things, sometimes fish, sometimes shrimp, and even seals and corals. Just now, Xi Wang dreamed that she had become an orca, which is very strange.

These dreams were fragmented and mixed together, sometimes connecting, and occasionally containing some strange things that gave Xi Wang a headache.

In addition, Xi Wang has a very good memory, and he can remember most of his dreams. This has led to him not sleeping well lately. Memories about "marine creatures" are always mixed in his mind. Every time he wakes up, Xi Wang has to spend some time sorting out his memories to prevent his consciousness from being overwhelmed by those messy "dreams". He also has to check the "Gabriel" gene in his body to prevent himself from being backfired.

Sometimes Xi Wang even wondered if these dreams were caused by the "Gabriel" gene being too active.

However, this is not entirely a bad thing. Although most of these dreams are fragmented, after sorting them out, Xiwang still came up with an interesting piece of information - those "dreams" are the past experiences of a certain marine creature. If you are lucky, you can also sort out the "life" of a certain marine creature from it, from birth to death, or becoming a Honkai Beast, or even its experiences after becoming a Honkai Beast.

Xi Wang originally planned to find an opportunity to look for the marine creatures that had become Honkai Beasts based on the information she got from her "dream", but she gave up in the end... There are enough prey around now, so there is no need to deliberately look for them.

However, last night's dream still troubled him somewhat... In the dream, the orca was infected with Honkai at the end and then ate all of its kind... That feeling of killing one's own kind, even blood relatives, made Xi Wang feel very uncomfortable.

Although some emotions lingered in my previous dreams, they were very subtle. But last night's dream... to be honest, the emotions were far too vivid.

Fortunately, Xi Wang pulled through. Although the "Gabriel" gene in her body was still active, there were no signs of backlash.

Today is another day of living well, that's good.

Xi Wang nodded in satisfaction.

Soon, soon we'll be back, Xi Wang firmly believed.

Then, accompanied by a soft chirping sound, a joyful emotion came from the side, and Xiwang knew that it had also woken up.

"嘤——"

[Morning, the two-legged creatures wake up, cute, hunting, today.]

"……Um?"

Xi Wang wondered if it was just her imagination, but she felt like it was talking... Even though she could still hear that whistling sound, she could understand what it meant.

[Strange, two-legged creatures, what's the problem?]

It exuded a sense of doubt, but Xiwang discerned a more specific meaning from its cry.

Are you speaking?

Xi Wang raised a question.

[Speak? I don't understand. What does it mean? Two-legged creature. Confused?]

"Can you understand me?"

Two-legged creatures?

"...Let me touch you?"

[Pat! Two-legged creature! Okay! Cute, I like it! Let's get close!]

It chirped happily twice, rolled around in front of you, then wiggled its tail fin, came close to Xiwang, and showed him its smooth back so he could touch it.

"........."

Xi Wang reached out and stroked its back to soothe it, while pondering the situation.