"I don't want to hear that. I want to know how to save her, no matter the cost."
"Bring on any traps you have. This one time, and this one time only, I will do whatever you say, as long as I can achieve my goal…"
[…]
The notebook paused for a long time, seemingly lost in thought.
After a while, crooked characters slowly emerged—
[My name is Li Mo. I cannot accept MEI's departure.]
[I went to Raiden Mei. Raiden Mei has all of MEI's memories. Perhaps she can solve my doubts.]
Li Mo shot up. An image of his reunion with Mei flashed through his mind.
It was some time after he had returned to the Eigenworld from the Impostor world. He had found the Fictional Mei by the sea in Vienna.
Her plain expression and calm behavior had almost made him mistake her for someone else. At first, he thought the Fictional Mei had eaten MEI to obtain her memories and habits.
But their later conversation dispelled that notion.
The Bizarre Mei had no reason to eat MEI, nor did she have the ability to, unless MEI was willing.
Secondly, the Fictional Mei was willing to endure the guilt in her heart to hide the truth about the Bizarre spreading in the Eigenworld, even going so far as to seal her own memories at any cost.
She must know something!
Li Mo walked to the door of the room, then stopped. He replayed every detail of his conversation with the Fictional Mei in his mind.
"Your world will one day see the clouds part and the sun shine."
…
That sentence… Did she know that he would make a wish and his soul would go to another, capricious world?
How did she do it?
"And… Brother, you must remember, you must remember…"
"You must remember that we are always on your side. No matter what happens, please believe in Dr. MEI. She has been working hard to turn this imperfect story into the one you hope for."
Li Mo opened his eyes and pushed open the door.
Before leaving, he glanced at MEI lying flat on the bed, her expression unchanging, as if she were just asleep…
"I will find a way to figure everything out."
Li Mo closed the door and walked straight to Mei's room.
Seeing Li Mo enter, Mei subconsciously called out, "Brother."
But gradually, Mei realized something was wrong. Li Mo's expression was off. He didn't say anything more.
This surprise was fleeting. Yes, she had long expected this day to come.
"At this point, don't you have anything to say? What have you and MEI been planning?" Li Mo's gaze was cold.
There was no anger, no emotion.
He just wanted to know the truth… What had MEI done? Why did she choose the path of sacrifice? Why was she unwilling to communicate with him and solve it together?
They… had never sat down and talked properly, only to see each other off for the last time amidst resentment.
It shouldn't have been like this… It shouldn't have been like this…
They were… the people who trusted each other most in this world.
"Dr. MEI's plan is complete. Brother, you are free."
"I don't want to continue with this meaningless question. I want to know MEI's entire plan."
Mei pursed her lips, walked to the cabinet, and took out a cell phone from inside. Then she walked up to Li Mo, reached into his clothes, took out a similar phone, and placed it naturally on the cabinet.
The former was MEI's, the latter was prepared for Li Mo by MEI.
"Before I answer that question, I need to ask a question."
"Speak."
"Brother, you're not from this world, are you? What I mean is—Brother shouldn't exist in any Honkai world, let alone be a person from the Imaginary Tree."
"..."
Li Mo was speechless. He was a transmigrator.
This identity was so long ago that he himself had almost forgotten it.
He was constantly shuttling between paranormal incidents, day and night. Only when he started to think about the differences between the original story and reality did he briefly realize he wasn't a local.
But he had never told anyone about this, at least not Mei.
If she had inherited MEI's memories and wisdom, it wouldn't be hard to guess.
"Yes," Li Mo admitted freely.
"How is Brother's world?"
"That's not important. I don't think it has anything to do with the truth I want to know."
Li Mo forcefully ended the topic. He was more concerned about MEI's reasons for doing what she did than talking about his own past.
Seeing this, Mei no longer hid it. She "Wished" and created many train tracks and trains, arranging them in her hands.
There were many different tracks at the starting point, but only one could reach the destination.
The trains ran on the tracks, and only one train could head to the final destination. As for the others, because they had lost the tracks and road ahead, they fell to the ground with a "clang," shattering into pieces.
There were no exceptions.
Mei "Wished" again, replacing the tracks that had no subsequent road with a model of a rugged, bumpy stone path.
The trains started from the starting point again. The one and only fated train still arrived at the destination smoothly.
But the other trains were not so lucky. They ran smoothly on the initial tracks. But on the stone path where there were no tracks, moving forward became extremely difficult.
Without the support and guidance of the tracks, the trains' journey became extremely difficult. They began to bump along on the stone path, each vibration seeming to penetrate the carriages.
The train bodies were no longer as steady as a rock, but bobbed up and down like a small boat on a stormy sea. The wheels slipped on the stones, making a sharp, heart-stopping grinding sound.
Although the process was bumpy, the result was not too bad. Like the one and only fated train, they reached the end of their journey.
Li Mo watched the small experiment Mei had deliberately shown him after her "Wish," and connecting it to her earlier question about whether he was a native, he suddenly realized something.
"Brother, is fate fair?" Mei asked, staring ahead, her eyes glinting with a complex light.
"For the individual, fate has never been fair."
"Yes. Our world, in the grand scheme of the entire Imaginary Tree, is just another insignificant individual, isn't it?"
Mei lowered her gaze, her slender fingers picking up the tattered trains and placing them back at the starting point one by one.
She once again watched the trains set off one by one, passing over the smooth first half of the tracks, then shaking, swaying, and bumping on the second half.
Parts fell off one by one, and no one cared, no one picked them up.
So-called life was just a joke of a box within a box.
"The world we are in is like these unchosen, broken trains. There is only a beginning. The rest will fall off a cliff for various reasons, never to return."
"The only one that can reach the end is the world Brother is familiar with. That is a beautiful world, where hard work is rewarded, and the protagonists of the world can shout: 'Fight for all that is beautiful in the world.' They create a peaceful and tranquil world with their own efforts."
"But that is the only one. Besides that one, all other worlds will be destroyed. This is a predetermined ending. No matter the process, no matter how many people sacrifice and bleed, no matter how miraculous a person is who defies fate, they cannot save it from its inevitable destruction."
"Because they are not the 'protagonists.' They have no fate beyond that. No matter how beautiful the beginning, they cannot escape the curtain call of extinction."
Mei's voice grew lower and lower, her eyes dimming.
As she spoke, the tattered train once again reached the end, and Mei placed it back at the starting point again.
Li Mo simplified and narrated what Mei had said: "So, the Bizarre worlds were originally tragic worlds about to be destroyed. Only the beautiful main timeline could continue."
"The Bizarre is equivalent to forcibly paving a road. Although it is bumpy and uneven, it connects the missing fate that comes after. If the Bizarre disappears, then all worlds except the main timeline will be destroyed, regardless of whether they are beautiful or tragic."
Mei nodded and "Wished" again, creating headshots of Kiana and the Bizarre Kiana. She first stuck Kiana's headshot on the tattered train, then erased the stone path.
The train ran without any problems until the tracks in front of it disappeared. Just as the train was about to fall, Li Mo intervened.
Li Mo also "Wished," creating tracks identical to the ones under the fated train.
"Brother, you're cheating. The Bizarre aren't as peaceful as humans."
"I just…"
"Just don't want to see the people you like get hurt, don't want to see the people close to you fall into despair, don't want to see ordinary people die helplessly because of tragedy," Mei emphasized the word "tragedy." "Everyone is like that. It's precisely because everyone thinks that way… even if it means death, they want to hold the right to die in their own hands."
"It's not that we can't accept death. It's just that we hope our deaths will be more meaningful. Even if there's only a sliver of hope, we want to hold our fate firmly in our own hands."
"Fate has cut off our right to choose, only favoring the one beautiful world…"
"That's not fair."
Mei clenched her fists, a look of hatred appearing on her face for the first time.
After her emotions calmed down, Mei subconsciously reached out to adjust the air in front of her. Not touching anything solid, she shrugged, gave a wry smile, and awkwardly lowered her hand.
"Sorry, Brother. I lost my composure."
"That's the truth. Dr. MEI knows you are a very pure person. She likes your purity and doesn't want to tarnish it."
"You should have noticed it yourself. Although your memory is clear, you often get the time wrong, mistaking the past for the present and the present for the past. Under the influence of the Bizarre Rule, this situation is amplified a hundred, a thousand times."
"You can imagine, if you continue to perform missions and deal with the Bizarre in this state, what are your chances of survival?"
After a moment of silence, Li Mo's eyes were downcast. He stared blankly at the tattered train and the one and only intact fated train, couldn't help but clench his fists, and said in a low voice, "You and MEI should have told me earlier."
Mei retorted loudly, "Before I answer that question, Brother, you answer me first. If you knew the truth, what would you have chosen?"
"To watch MEI sacrifice herself to the Bizarre? In exchange for you maintaining your consciousness and an immortal body for another five hundred years, could you do that?"
"I…" Li Mo was about to speak but was interrupted by Mei.
This was the first time Mei had decisively interrupted Li Mo. She had abandoned her weakness, allowing the emotions in her head to control her body.
"You couldn't do it. If you knew the truth, you would only work harder, contact more dangerous and terrifying Bizarre entities, and risk everything, your life included, to change this ending without sacrificing Dr. MEI."
"A severely contaminated soul no longer supports your adventures. To try to change everything by yourself, the only thing waiting for you is a certain death."
"Dr. MEI has also revealed a corner of her plan to you countless times. She was very scared, very scared. But she had to keep up the pretense, because you are very sharp. She had to package herself as fearless."
"Enduring the torment of the Bizarre, suffering in day after day of pain, the real purpose was never to let the Bizarre continue."
"She just wanted to save you. You are too tired. She doesn't want you to be immersed in remorse and sorrow. Compared to regret, blaming your own powerlessness, hating others is easier to accept, just like the angry look on your face after learning a fraction of her plan."
"Both paths lead to despair. She said, rather than letting you walk alone and bear everything, it's better for her to bear a part of the despair. As a rational scholar, she wouldn't confess, nor is she like other girls who can always be by your side and give you plenty of romance. The only thing she could do was to use what she believed was the right way to realize your vision, to help you, to complete the 'Completion of Fate'."
"The reason is simple…"
"She loves you."
"That's all."
"Besides that, there are no other reasons."
"Now, within five hundred years, no Bizarre can interfere with your memory, consciousness, or soul. Any rule that acts on you will fall into nothingness. Plus, one of the primordial rules bestowed by the Source of the Bizarre—immortality—you can use any Bizarre ability without any cost."
"But be careful. Some 'wishes' you don't have to bear the cost for, others will. The past has been severed; you cannot return to the past. Even if you 'Wish' for Dr. MEI to awaken, the one who revives will definitely not be the real MEI."
Mei seemed to know all of Li Mo's plans and stated many things in advance.
Indeed, if the wisher no longer bears the cost, then the target of the wish will pay a heavier price.
Resurrecting the dead is an absolute taboo. All current resurrection methods force the other party to bear the cost, and that's on top of the wisher paying with their own life.
Now that Li Mo himself no longer bears the cost of the "Wish," the target of the wish will have to bear double the cost.
"Wishing" for MEI's revival is possible, but the resurrected one would probably just be an empty shell without a soul, or a terrifying Bizarre entity.
Even if he "Wished" for the soul to return, it would likely only be for a few seconds before it completely annihilated in the universe.
Did the "Wish" succeed? Of course, it succeeded. But what was the point?
The dead never return…