Inside the current West Asia Branch base, five people had earned a special place in Ling Ke's memory.
Three of them were the white coats who'd performed human experiments on him.
In truth, far more white coats had participated in experiments involving Ling Ke.
But he still didn't know the names of those assistants.
These three, though — their names were called out constantly by the others:
Dr. Antonio.
Dr. Egas.
Dr. Moniz.
Of the three, Dr. Antonio was a man who never smiled. All he cared about was data.
He paid no attention to the degree of pain the subject on his operating table had to endure... nor did he care whether the subject could survive the procedure.
Honestly, if Ling Ke hadn't been too "valuable," he didn't know how many times he would have died under this man's hands.
More than once, it was Dr. Egas — Antonio's colleague — who pulled him back from the edge at the last second.
But that kind of "life-saving grace" — Ling Ke felt no gratitude for it whatsoever.
Because...
"Your sacrifice right now is for all of humanity's fight against Honkai."
"Hang in there. You should feel honored."
That was Dr. Egas's favorite line.
This was a man who chased fame and profit to an obsessive degree.
Ling Ke had heard him more than once muttering to himself, complaining about why someone as talented as him was stuck out here instead of at Schicksal Headquarters.
He also made a habit of tearing down every famous Valkyrie he could name.
Durandal, for instance — the most high-profile of them all — was, in his words, just "a naive little brat riding her bloodline privilege."
Ling Ke had been listening to every word, all this time.
To be honest, some of those assessments weren't entirely wrong.
But that didn't stop him from despising this petty man.
As for the last of the three — Dr. Moniz...
She was a middle-aged woman.
Word was she had a wonderful family.
Her husband's career was nothing special, but the two of them had always been deeply in love.
And in order to give her children a better life, she... had been abusing her position for personal gain all along.
Over the years, the West Asia Branch scientists had long since discovered that anti-Honkai serums synthesized from Ling Ke's blood were dramatically more effective than the standard product from other branches.
Dr. Moniz exploited that. She used the access to quietly expand her network — skimming portions of the high-quality serum and reselling them to people with power and connections in politics, business, and the military.
And since she loved her family so much, she'd obviously kept a healthy stockpile for herself as well.
Ling Ke had pieced this together because, on several occasions after experiments, his body's suspected rapid adaptation to negative states let his drug resistance build faster than expected — and he woke from unconsciousness early. He overheard things he wasn't supposed to.
It was fair to say that the degree to which he'd been consumed as raw material — carved up and used at will — had gone up an entire notch because of this woman.
For all three of them, Ling Ke had already decided how to "entertain" them.
And beyond the white coats, there were two more...
The first was the branch director of the West Asia Branch.
A Zhuhe person from Jacob Country.
The second...
Currently inside the West Asia Branch base, two active Valkyrie squads were stationed.
Their codenames: 「Silver Lotus」 and 「Red Wing」.
Both squads had A-rank captains and B-rank members.
All of them selected from Jacob Country and Star-and-Moon Country.
The captain of Silver Lotus Squad was named Edelweiss Even.
Judging purely by appearance, this girl was top-tier.
Blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin — every bit deserving of the phrase "angel's face, devil's figure."
Unfortunately...
Several years ago, it was precisely Edelweiss and that branch director who discovered Ling Ke's special nature — and decided to keep him for themselves.
Ling Ke later learned that the number of experimental subjects these two had tricked, deceived, and abducted using such methods was far from small.
During his time in the underground prison, he watched day after day as people were brought to the neighboring cell, then taken away, never to return.
Every few days, the "neighbor" got replaced.
Then it repeated. In cycles.
There was one time — for reasons unknown, maybe on a whim — the woman named Edelweiss actually came down to the underground prison floor and paid Ling Ke a visit.
The very first words out of her mouth, he still remembered to this day.
"You're still alive ah! Just like a cockroach."
"Heh."
Inside the Theater of Domination, Ling Ke's main body let out a cold laugh.
By now he understood perfectly well that inside this Honkai Impact 3rd world, there truly existed far too many dark sides — terrifying, disgusting, beyond description.
And every single one of them, he'd lived through personally.
So...
"Since we're going to properly entertain the 「guests」, a sumptuous banquet is indispensable."
He narrowed his eyes. "Prepare some cockroaches, then."
"Shouldn't be hard to catch."
Right as those words left his mouth——
"Buzz!"
Outside the prison cell where he'd originally been held, a Space Gate opened.
One after another, 「Domination Puppet · Anby」 units walked out.
The three-digit numbers on their backs were all different.
The moment they emerged, each headed off in a different direction.
At the same time——
Wherever the initial 「Domination Puppet · Anby」 had passed, Space Gates opened at intervals.
Even more puppets poured out in succession.
One floor after another filled with their figures.
Clearly, Ling Ke had no intention of conserving combat strength.
The infinite revival property of the 「Respawn Room」 gave him all the confidence he needed.
999 Anbys — even in their initial state, each one had combat power comparable to a B-rank Valkyrie.
More than enough to sweep the entire West Asia Branch clean.
"Everyone remember — those five cannot be killed. Leave them for me. I want to play with them s~l~o~w~l~y."
"What about the others?"
"From the underground prison floor upward, kill them all."
"The prisoners — what's the point of keeping them?"
"Don't be rude. They are also 「guests」 of the banquet."
"Understood!" ×999
In the quantum-entangled communication unique to the Herrscher of Legion, the exchange between Ling Ke's main body and every single 「individual」 ended in an instant.
Then, blood mist — everywhere.
The 999 「Domination Puppet · Anby」 were reduced to a single set of actions.
Charge, draw blade... slash!
Whether it was armed security standing guard with rifles, or unarmed civilian staff who dropped to their knees with hands over their heads begging for mercy.
Ling Ke didn't bother distinguishing whether any of them were "innocent."
Whatever kindness and conscience he'd once had was already riddled with holes. Torn to pieces.
The current him was simply pure evil.
It was just that, compared to indiscriminate slaughter, he preferred using evil to punish evil.
So, in order to grow rapidly as the 「World-Destroying Player」 he'd chosen to become — and unlock even more Game Character Templates——
[Points: 167]
[Points: 225]
[Points: 276]
Compared to who each puppet had killed and whether innocents had been caught up in it, the only thing he watched now was the number going up.
Finally——
[Points: 280]
"280 points for one random 「draw」." Ling Ke stared at the number, then let out a short laugh. Of course — the system had straight-up copied Honkai's gacha pricing. "Fan-fucking-tastic."