Time remaining until the Fifth Honkai Eruption: Twenty-seven hours.
...
Lin tried to stand up. The moment his toes touched the ground, his muscles completely gave out, and he collapsed, falling from the hospital bed to the floor like a torn puppet.
"Cough, cough..." Lin lay limply on the floor, unable to move his limbs. He tried to get up in vain but couldn't even lift his hand. The saliva from his continuous coughing contained reddish drops of blood.
Drowning on dry land—this phrase perfectly described him now.
His physique caused the Honkai energy erosion he experienced to be the worst kind, severing his body control along with his neurological complications.
In the stark white room, the tiny human struggled on the floor, his pathetic shadow reflected under the icy rain of the apocalypse.
Ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes...
After the floor beneath him had been warmed up, and Lin had not managed to crawl even ten centimeters, he finally stopped wasting his energy.
He lay on the floor, not moving again.
A person with no Honkai energy adaptability, a person who abused his body, a person who didn't cherish his own life... was naturally detested by life itself.
"Lin, I have called the nurse." Prometheus said mechanically after watching the entire process unfold.
When the nurse lifted him back onto the bed, he had no reaction, like a common corpse.
Like everyone who was once spirited but tormented by aging and illness in their later years...
Lin, on the eve of the Honkai Eruption, reached the end of his destiny.
...
The setting sun's afterglow shone on the stained-glass window of the orphanage. The half-shadow expanded as the sun set.
"Smash."
A stone broke a glass bottle, which fell to the ground and shattered.
The glass shards slid to the feet of the little Anna who threw the stone. She weighed the remaining stones in her hand, her placid eyes aiming at the last bottle.
Pulling her hand back, her fingers gripping the stone's edge, she concentrated her strength and threw—
"Clang."
The missed stone hit the wall and dropped to the ground.
Anna glared hatefully at the smiling nun who snatched the bottle away. She raised her hand, wanting to throw the stone at her face.
The nun quickly waved her hands and hid behind the low wall: "Hey, hey, hey! Wait a minute, Little Anna! Don't hit me!"
"...What do you want." Anna finally refrained from the absurd act of hitting the nun's head with a stone. She put down the stone and asked spiritlessly.
"Little Anna, why are you smashing the bottles?"
Hina looked down at the shards at her feet, carefully avoiding the remnants as she walked up to Anna.
All these glass bottles were collected by Anna from the garbage dump. It took her a week to collect them, and she smashed them all in just over ten minutes.
Her brutal actions deepened the other children's impression of her. They didn't dare to provoke her, only daring to secretly tell Hina.
"Because I have sadistic tendencies. Is that a problem?" Anna replied coldly, then looked up at Hina with contemptuous eyes. "And you, why did you stop me from smashing the bottle?"
Hina's expression became serious: "Because I want Anna to become a good girl, and I can't let Anna take her anger out on innocent bottles."
"...Are you sick?" Anna's fists squeaked. She turned her head and snarled maliciously, "Even if I don't smash this bottle, it will be blown down by a gust of wind and shatter, or casually broken by a passerby, or shattered by a low-flying bird! Even if you can change it for a moment, you can't change its outcome! It will shatter sooner or later, it's just a matter of minutes or years!"
What is predetermined destiny?
If a person is born destined to be a bad person, they will be a bad person regardless of whether they are born into a poor or a rich family. The former will be a thief, robber, or murderer. The latter will be a hypocrite, manipulator, or traitor.
And Anna was all too aware of the burning evil in her heart.
She was happy when her parents died. She was excited when she smashed the bottles.
All of this was so natural.
"Because, it's just a bottle. If it's a bottle, it will shatter!"
"..."
Anna felt there was nothing left to say to the silent Hina. From today onwards, this person should stop bothering her.
She snorted coldly and turned to leave.
"That's not right, Little Anna."
"..."
A hand reached out and held Anna. The hand didn't have much strength, but the intention to hold her back was clearly conveyed.
Hina looked at the child's confused back with loving eyes. She smiled: "Even if your parents were like that, isn't Anna still a good child who doesn't want to take her anger out on others?"
"You..." Anna turned around in surprise, looking at Hina.
Anna's parents saved their child between life and death and were a dutiful, responsible couple who loved their child. This was what everyone knew.
They only saw Anna's parents push Anna away at that moment, but they didn't see that in the last moments, they were still humiliating their child and blaming each other, and the car accident happened because they were going to get a divorce and weren't watching the road.
"I'm sorry, Little Anna. I went to investigate your family because I believe a child's personality is closely related to her family environment." Hina looked at her apologetically and lovingly. "You've been very angry all along, haven't you, Little Anna? But you've endured it all this time, and you're still suppressing it even now."
Anna's pupils widened, then instantly contracted. She slapped Hina's hand away: "Don't think you know me well!"
"So what if you know! Yes, I hate those two! They were neither good parents nor a good couple! My existence became the fuse for their conflict! Because I am a scourge! I am now, and I will be when I grow up!"
"I was never a person who was wanted! The only meaning of my life in this world is to prove that what they said is correct! My rudeness, cruelty, and heartlessness prove that what they called 'destiny' is correct!"
Family affects personality? Yes, that's right. No matter how much she disliked those two, their blood still flowed in her body, and their personality was inherited into hers. But was this what she wanted? From the moment she was born into that family, her destiny was no longer her own to command.
"Crack!"
A sharp shattering sound burst forth.
"Drip-drop."
Blood fell onto the grass, sliding from the grass tip into the dirt.
The hysterical roar was caught in her throat. Anna stood with her mouth open, looking at the nun in front of her, whose face was covered in blood.
"Hoo... it hurts." Hina staggered as she dropped the broken bottle in her hand. She couldn't stand steadily, yet she still forced a smile. "Anna, you are right. This bottle cannot escape the fate of shattering."
"But it didn't shatter in your hands. It shattered on my head, which is something you didn't expect."
The nun reached out and stroked the stunned child's head.
"We can't escape destiny, but at least we can be upright and carefree when we walk toward our destiny. And isn't Little Anna also trying hard to change her own destiny?"
"You didn't want your personality to affect others, which is why you used smashing bottles as a way to vent."
"Hehe... saying such rebellious things, even though I'm a nun. I hope the convent doesn't find out."
Unknowingly, tears filled Anna's eyes. She vaguely looked at the nun in front of her, whose head was covered in blood. The crying she had long forgotten reappeared genuinely on her face.
"Waaaaah!"
The girl threw herself into the nun's arms, venting the resentment and pain she had held since her birth.
The nun merely stroked her hair gently, saying nothing.
Destiny determines the outcome, but the way one reaches that outcome is decided by oneself.