Honkai Impact: The Dream Keeper

After an unknown amount of time, Long Qiao, who was in the darkness, woke up from her deep sleep. On a bed outside, Long Qiao slowly opened her eyes. The scene that came into view was not the medical room or dormitory of St. Freya Academy that she was familiar with.

"Where...is this place?" Long Qiao's hoarse voice came through.

"Hiss... Damn it, where the hell did those black vines come from? Is this still the Honkai Impact 3rd world I know?" Long Qiao said in a low voice, looking around.

"System, are you there? System!"

"Damn it, the system isn't responding?!" Long Qiao cursed under his breath.

"crunch-"

A door opened, and a little girl walked in, holding a rice bowl. Long Qiao looked at the little girl calmly, while the little girl looked at Long Qiao, who had sat up. They stared at each other, both bewildered.

"you--"

"Waaaaah, Mom! My brother's awake!" the little girl suddenly ran out shouting.

“…Sigh, what’s going on here?” Long Qiao said speechlessly.

"Oh right, the pendant!"

Long Qiao suddenly remembered the pendant she always carried with her. After searching her body for a while, she finally found the pendant given to her by her future self in her pants pocket. The pendant was actually a pendant with the character "dragon" engraved on it.

"Oh ho, looks like it was custom-made."

Just as Long Qiao was putting away her pendant, there was another sound of a door opening. As Long Qiao was wondering what was going on, she was suddenly embraced by a middle-aged woman.

“Son, you’re finally awake. After your car accident, the doctor said you had a high chance of becoming a vegetable…” the middle-aged woman said, choking back tears as she held Long Qiao.

"??? Son? Then this person is my mother? No, no, in my memory, I have always been alone. Before I arrived in the Honkai Impact 3rd world, only Kuang Aotian and Lu Ziyang were willing to be my friends."

"Big sister...who are you? Do I...know you?" Long Qiao said with dead fish eyes after gently pushing the woman away.

“Son…son…I’m your mother, have you forgotten me? Your name is Long Qiao,” the woman said.

"!!! How do you know my name?!" Long Qiao exclaimed in surprise.

"Because I was the one who chose this name for you, have you forgotten?" the woman said, wiping away tears from the corners of her eyes.

“Yes, you do take my surname,” another middle-aged man said as he walked in.

"This……"

"Hey, you brat, have you forgotten about your old man?" the middle-aged man said with a red-rimmed smile.

"Hmm...maybe I forgot..." Long Qiao said, her palms slightly sweaty.

"What the hell is going on? I clearly remember that I chose the name Long Qiao myself. I also remember that the name Qiao was chosen based on my favorite character, Qian Qiao. My parents died not long after I was born. Wait, I think I saw it when I went to get my ID card. My dad's surname is also Long. If I remember correctly, my mom's surname is Chen."

"Your father's name is Long Chen, your mother's name is Chen Yuan, and this is your younger sister's name is Chen Yao," the middle-aged man said.

"By the way, brother, when you were unconscious in bed, I think I heard you say something about Honkai Impact 3 and Bronya..." Chen Yao suddenly said.

"What did you say?! Did I say these things while I was unconscious?" Long Qiao said, grabbing Chen Yao.

"Yeah, I think there's something about Kamen Rider, but I don't know anything about it," Chen Yao said with a grin.

"Oh my god... Could it be... that all of this is fake? Did I experience all of this in my dream?" Long Qiao said painfully, holding her head.

"Child, are you alright?" Chen Yuan asked worriedly.

"By the way, this pendant?" Long Qiao suddenly remembered something and took the pendant out of her pocket to ask.

"Oh, this is a gift from your dad to you on your 18th birthday," Chen Yuan said, puzzled.

"Oh... I see... Um... I'll go for a walk first, I haven't gotten out of bed in a long time," Long Qiao said dejectedly.

After dressing, Long Qiao slowly walked out the door and headed outside.

"Husband, do you think Xiaoqiao... will recognize us?" The middle-aged woman leaned against the man and choked up as she looked at Long Qiao's back.

"It's definitely possible, don't overthink it," the man replied, his eyes reddening.

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"Everything here is so strange yet familiar. Was all my previous experience just a lie? But... everything is so... real..." Long Qiao muttered to herself as she walked aimlessly down the street.

"That's right, Orphnoch, my Orphnoch pose! This is the most compelling proof!" Long Qiao suddenly remembered and headed towards a park.

After arriving at the park, Long Qiao went to a grove of trees. After looking around and finding no one there, she...

"Alright, there's no one here. As long as I can successfully become an Orphnoch, I can prove the truth or falsehood of this world. Whew~"

After calming herself down, Long Qiao felt her heart pounding and the trembling in her body. Suddenly, she felt a surge of excitement, similar to her first transformation into an Orphnoch. However, after an unknown amount of time, her body showed no change whatsoever.

"How could this be? Could it be... that this world is the real one?" Long Qiao paused and pondered.

"No... absolutely impossible... why is that?" Long Qiao pondered, touching the tree bark.

“I think… I know why…” Long Qiao suddenly remembered something and said in a low voice.

“I’m afraid something happened to me in this timeline that caused an accident in the world line, so we need to find another Long Qiao to replace him. And the Long Qiao closest to this world line is me… So what is the key to breaking the deadlock?” Long Qiao rubbed his hands together and leaned against the tree to analyze.

"Come on, let's start the deduction... Let's assume that this world and my world are happening at the same time. That means that Long Qiao in this world has died in a car accident and is now in pieces. So, it just so happens that I was pulled over by Hei Teng to be his substitute, and the dead Long Qiao was secretly picked up by Hei Teng. In this way, I naturally became a person of this world, while Bronya and the others in my world, if I'm not mistaken, no longer remember me."

"So what's the key to breaking this deadlock? This creates a vicious cycle. Let's overturn this... Now, let's assume that I in this world got into a car accident, but while I was unconscious, someone took me away and I lost all my memories. If I happen to come back and take his place, then the key to breaking this deadlock is to defeat my corrupted self?"

"Tsk... Now both scenarios are possible. What is the key to breaking the deadlock? But I'm certain that Bronya and the others have completely forgotten about me."

"Is this situation a dream, or... something I crave deep down? My primary goal now is to find the key to breaking this deadlock, and everything here has nothing to do with me; what is not mine will never be mine."

Long Qiao stood up, dusted off her clothes, and walked toward a certain place.