I am a reincarnation player.

Everything is like the moon in the mirror and the flowers in the water, so vague and real that it is difficult to determine. There are countless lines on the mind map, representing evidence and conjecture. Aizen sits upright, his eyes moving along the lines. After an unknown amount of time, he falls on the origin of everything.

This is the beginning of the incident, the thorn rose.

Chapter 7: The Road Home

"You mean to say that the Inquisitor seems to be actively cooperating with you?"

In the Thorn Rose, Hiyori and Yuuki walked side by side on the street. The senior students and others had their own tasks, which gave them some time alone.

But when the old pervert and the little pervert get together, it will only produce intense sparks of thought. Ever since the Devil's Hospital, Shiina Hiyori's character has been distorted, and he was the most influenced by Yuuki.

Mana is more like a younger sister, while Hiyori is more like an apprentice.

"That shouldn't be the case. The judge's decision was flawless. If you didn't have the ability to transcend the game settings, you would have been caught by them long ago."

Hiyori didn't quite understand. She had reviewed the situation countless times. The judge had tried his best and made rational decisions. This time, he didn't repeat the mistake of the ether particles and was obviously more patient.

"It's just a feeling. No conspiracy is perfect. They didn't try their best to find some loopholes." Yuki said casually. He had been highly alert since he heard the name 'Aizen Sosuke'.

"Are you saying that it's too easy for them to let Thorn Rose go? But this is the result of the nesting doll plan." Hiyori looked around and found that the monitoring of Thorn Rose had been relaxed a lot, but this was inevitable due to resource allocation.

"And Valhalla, I always feel like they're not reckless when they should be, and overly arbitrary when they should be cautious. If they had uprooted Valhalla from the beginning, I wouldn't have had such a smooth journey."

Hiyori blinked and smiled faintly. "I think it's okay. After all, Valhalla is a powerful faction. They wouldn't act rashly without solid evidence. And when you revealed your 'true identity', didn't the Judge make the bet without hesitation?"

Yuki's lips moved, and there was indeed nothing wrong with his logic. It seemed that his old suspicious habit had come back again. Whenever things went too smoothly, he would feel uneasy.

Forget it, it’s the same old saying, you fight yours and I fight mine.

The two-day and one-night trip to the Kingdom of Heroes was short, leaving behind a bunch of questions, which was secondary. The key was that he activated the Divine Torch, simply found a snack stand, looked at the players coming and going on the street, and discussed with Hiyori.

The girl is gentle, and as Yuuki's 'student', she is the only one who can create sparks with his thinking.

"It's quite strange that we are discussing the future of the reincarnation game in a place like this. Any result will affect countless players." Shiina Hiyori stretched, bit the straw lightly, and sucked a purple drink from an unknown copy into his mouth.

The liquid is sweet and fragrant, a bit like a combination of orange juice and milk tea.

"You want me to build a magnificent palace, and then we sit on the ground in front of the chessboard?" Yuki held the coffee, but always felt that it was not as delicious as the one brewed by Hayasaka Ai.

The girl stuck out her tongue and shook her head back and forth. "No, that would seem so deliberate. This feeling is better. Hmm, it feels more like everyday life."

How can it be considered normal for two old scumbags to plot against others? Okay, just like it.

Yuuki ordered a durian cake and saw Hiyori scrape off a piece with a spoon and put it in her mouth. The sweetness made her squint her eyes, but she said something horrifying:

"Actually, you can continue to fight Hungry Wolf and test the Divine Torch's critical point."

"This is too dangerous. The description of the Divine Torch said that we would get support from the Samsara Game. To me, this is poison. I don't know how long this attention will last." Yuki shook his head. How could he take risks in the Kingdom of Heroes? If something went wrong, he wouldn't even have a helper.

"That's true, but your experiment was a great success and solved a question that has been bothering me for a long time."

Without Yuki asking any questions, Hiyori handed over an exquisite notebook. When he opened it, he saw that it was filled with densely packed records.

Yuki suddenly looked up and saw the girl happily eating the cake. He was a little surprised: "When did you start researching this?"

"Huhu, Mr. Yuki, do you think I read useless novels every time I come back?" Hiyori pouted, looking like she was looked down upon.

Huh? Isn't it?

With a wry smile, Yuuki slowly flipped through the book. This was some of Shiina Hiwa's thoughts on the settings of the reincarnation game. It was not just random thoughts, but also incorporated information from Valhalla and some legends of the border area.

In short, the relationship between outposts, dungeons, hometowns, and borderlands, and the reincarnation game, is this: Why is there a "closed world" setting? Is it really to provide a roughing-out period for new players? And why, once a borderland is linked, even if a player suffers heavy losses, can't they return to the closed world?

Completely closed, that is, the Earth era, every return is in your own home.

Semi-closed, that is, the normal outpost era, all players are gathered together, except for Thorn Rose, who is far away from her hometown.

The open period, which is the current state of most camps, is connected to the border area.

There is also a mature stage, which is before the great changes. Players further concentrate on the border area, and then select the superior people like the reincarnations to go to the higher unknown world.

"The four stages progress step by step. The reincarnation game will not be so kind and give players time to develop. From the reincarnationists to the lowest-level newcomers, they are all consumables." Yuuki muttered to himself. He had discovered something was wrong a long time ago, and Hiyori's observations along the way made the abnormality more intuitive.

"Well, so can we guess that the reincarnation game uses some kind of medium to connect with each faction and dungeon, and that this connection becomes stronger over time?"

The girl's green fingers slid across the tabletop. Looking at Yuuki's tightly locked eyes, she smiled faintly: "Mr. Yuuki, do you still remember the boast you made?"

Of course Yuki would not forget the theory of the tree of imaginary numbers and the quantum sea. It sounded so powerful that it gave the judge a good blow.

"Do you think this is Taiyi using me to explain the reincarnation game?"

"It's possible. Of course, I don't understand the exact relationship between you and Taiyi."

Yuki shook his head. He couldn't understand it either. This thing involved the confusion of time and space, and the confusion of cause and effect. He subconsciously picked up the coffee, and the bitter taste flowed into his mouth.

He began to think seriously about the boasts he had made in the past. This of course had nothing to do with Honkai Impact 3rd, but he just couldn't find a more appropriate metaphor at the moment.

"The reincarnation game is the trunk, the borderlands are the branches, and the outposts and dungeons are the leaves, connecting layer by layer. What then is our hometown?"

"I think it's like the ocean, the ocean outside the tree." Hiyori sprinkled some juice on the table and slid her fingers gently. "Leaves should grow, and growth requires nutrients. A world without players and plot characters is meaningless, and perhaps it wouldn't appear on the tree."

Hiss, it’s true.

There are countless unsolved mysteries in the reincarnation game, but there is one thing Yuki is sure of.

There has never been an outpost without players, and there has never been a copy without life. Even in the simplest hunting mission, the reincarnation game will not throw out a barren planet for players to simply kill each other.

Having spent several months in the border area, Yuuki had personal experience, but Hiyori had the data.

She took out a thick notebook, which contained copies of information she collected every time she went to the border area. It was not expensive, but few people collected it.

Players' memoirs and hundreds of dungeon stories were read by Hiyori as if they were wonderful novels. She was always amazed by the wonderful settings or species in them, but she did not read them in vain.

"I'm sure every dungeon is a living world. I even think some dungeons can be transformed into new outposts."

Yuki hated to let his imagination run wild, but he respected data the most. He nodded, confirming the setting, and held his breath again.

This rule did not apply to the Thorn Roses, because when they ascended, there was no player at the outpost, and it was dead and silent. As for the dungeon—

His pupils shrank slightly, and he blurted out: "Random copy!"

He almost forgot this setting. That was during the Earth stage. Player battles would inevitably trigger random dungeons. He had been to several of them but none of them had any hope.

"Well, I asked Mana and Philen, and they said that players from their worlds fighting each other won't trigger random dungeons."

Oops, I missed such a subtle difference.

Recalling the past has a special flavor. Amid the noisy sounds around him, Yuki stared at the juice on the table and gradually came to his senses.

Each leaf will absorb the "nutrients" of a certain world according to a certain rule, such as the "war orphans", "heroic kingdom" and "Valhalla" according to the world view, the "ether particles" according to the power system, and the "hunters" and "war maniacs" according to the world tone.

Yuki has imagined that if he could really escape the reincarnation game, would he go back to his own home or go to the same world? This is also the most tangled problem for players like Ryougi Shiki.

"Those vortices are passages leading to various worlds. They are one-way and constantly absorb nutrients from various worlds." Yuki raised his head. This point was almost confirmed.

"I think so too. If it's two-way, can we go back? It's just that I had no idea until after the 'race game'." Mana leaned forward and whispered:

"One detail: when we returned, the countdown hadn't even started. Those black lines you mentioned should be the connection points. After they were cut, we returned immediately."

This is a detail, of course Yuki knows it, and I guess Sora and Ikaros know it too. It's just a tacit understanding among everyone.

Yuki took the sacred torch and used 'annihilation' to sever the connection, and that copy disappeared from the reincarnation game.

"It's different. The Red Moon World has no real connection. The races inside can't get out, and they are not players."

"Then can we assume that this link is very fragile, which is why you severed it?"

Yuki was stunned for a moment and nodded slightly. This guess was reasonable. Logically speaking, this was impossible to do. At least the reincarnation game would not just sit there and watch you waste the copy.

After all the twists and turns, it all comes back to Taiyi. As the old saying goes, the premise of everything is that the reincarnation game becomes stupid.

"Resonance. I felt a resonance when I unlocked the Divine Torch in Hero Kingdom. Based on your description and your speculation, could it be that the outpost is also connected to the main game through the reincarnation item?"

Yuuki muttered to himself. Even without Hiyori's nod, he realized that this possibility was becoming more and more likely. Every world had to have a particular setting.

The progressive unlocking, the resonance between the reincarnation props, the selection of reincarnationists, and the most subtle but most important one -

Why do players return to the outpost?

A binding mechanism, a spatial coordinate. Take Philen and Manas for example, their coordinates have been bound to the thorny rose, so what binds them?

It is known that the reincarnation game is mentally retarded and has lost the ability to actively intervene. It is impossible for it to send the player back personally. It is more like activating a certain program, and when the conditions are met, it will automatically send the player back to the coordinates.

"I think I understand a little bit. If this coordinate is cut off, the more literary way of saying it is that the leaves leave the tree and fall back into the sea of ​​​​the world. In scientific terms, if the coordinate is lost, the possibility of teleportation back and forth in the reincarnation game will no longer exist."

On this bustling street, Yuki seemed to have found the answer, and his spirits lifted.

Whether it's right or not, I finally found the focus and will delve deeper into the resonance of the reincarnation game.

"I can't wait to try it now to see if I can resonate with that reincarnation item and then cut it off."

"Don't be impatient, Mr. Yuuki, don't you think that the prohibition of the use of force and props in the Thorn Rose is more like a form of protection?"

Yuki blinked at the girl's gentle words, and he really felt that they were somewhat similar.

He has stopped unlocking the game. If he gets a guess, Yuki will try it directly, which will attract the attention of the reincarnation game. It will be more fun if he can't cut it off. This involves the difference between the "racial game" and the outpost.

No matter how special the Thorn Rose is, its connection with the reincarnation game is definitely closer than that of the copy.

"I even think that 'He' deliberately spared those reincarnators to lead me to find the inheritance. Otherwise, the Protoss would have obtained the Torch long ago, and there wouldn't be a second phase of the story."

Hiyori bit the straw and blinked continuously. This was a bit unbelievable, far beyond the realm of future vision, but when you think about it, it seems very likely.

"Mr. Taichi, you're amazing."

"Killing people across time and space, how can it not be powerful?" Yuki smiled bitterly. The reincarnation plan of the reincarnationist was incredible, and the sword that came across time and space was even more unimaginable.

"Let's focus on researching this. I'll try to experiment with it in the next dungeon, and then find a faction to experiment with. We can't stop working on other things either. Figuring out how to do it isn't enough; we have to actually do it."

The girl nodded solemnly. Doing and achieving are two different things. She firmly believed in what Yuuki had said before:

Any freedom needs to be paved with iron and blood.

.......

This is quite comfortable everyday.

They drank coffee and ate cake, but more importantly, when the two old bastards got together to discuss things, the sparks of thought that came out of the collision were naturally dazzling.

Speculations need to be verified in practice. Yuki runs around just to leave enough time. Besides, he never operates alone, and all kinds of good news come one after another.

Philen and Kaguya are back, and they've contacted the Yorozuya. This small, wanted team is hoping the judge will be unlucky, and they'll find a time to contact Yuki.

Manas is back, Ryougi Shiki is making good progress, and more and more friends are expressing their stance.

The extra good news is that the Omnic is acting according to plan, extracting itself from the vortex while being willing to act as a middleman and contact Fury Flame.

Since a war is inevitable, Yuki will of course find more allies and would never even think of such a stupid thing as fighting the Judge alone.

"The next dungeon will start in two days. Planning to go to the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons or the Ether Particle?"

A group of people sat around a round table, Mana was spitting orange peels, which made Yuki feel disgusted. This serious battle became a journey in her mouth.

This time, the judges will not be hunted down, and Yuki does not care about killing a few great judges. He wants to keep this knife hanging over his head and make people panic.

"Don't go anywhere. Fanning the flames will only lead to the great waves washing away the sands. Just keep waiting and everything will be settled."

"Brother, you are really not afraid of being hated by others."

"It was the Judge who suppressed them and even directly intervened. Why do you hold a grudge against me? Rhodes and Raymond deserve to bear all the pressure." Yuki smiled coldly. As a master of using 'momentum', he had already calculated people's hearts.

Any confrontation will bring hatred, and unless the judge turns a blind eye, they will inevitably become enemies. The question is, does the judge dare to turn a blind eye?

"Alright, these targets are just distractions for the Judges. Now that the Hundred Eyes of True Knowledge have been damaged, the entire border area is full of Taiyi, and there are several key camps that require their attention. Therefore, they will pay much less attention to me."

Yuuki waved his hand. He had a good habit of always remaining humble. He opened his mouth and swallowed the orange handed to him by Mai, then turned to the other side and swallowed the grapes stuffed by Hayasaka Ai. After the water was leveled, he chewed it with satisfaction.

"Strength, take this time to improve your strength quickly. You must reach the epic level to participate in what comes next. There is no time to waste. The judge also has experts on his side, and they will definitely find a way."

Sitting around the fire, with a table full of orange peels, melon seeds, and peanuts, these words were not very convincing, but everyone's expressions became serious.

Simplifying things, Yuki has now figured out his future path, which is centered around three things:

First, conduct in-depth research based on previous conjectures to determine a way to escape the reincarnation game.

Second, improve your abilities and be qualified to realize your dreams.

Third, find friends and gain the ability to fight the Judge.

"Only you can do the first one, and we can't help much with the third one. It seems we can only focus on the second one." Sakurajima Mai said lightly, causing everyone to nod repeatedly.

They are the core members of the team, and Yuki can only entrust the truly top-secret matters to them. Monster-level strength is no longer enough.

Fortunately, Yuuki laid a solid foundation for them. Hayasaka Ai is not far behind, Sakurajima Mai has entered the realm of Monster IV, and the others are also at Monster III.

Just like "Let's all work hard to get into the University of Tokyo", a kind of determined mood spread. Yuki turned his head, saw those determined purple eyes, and held Mai's hand tightly.