A chat group where you switch bodies with Alicia at the start?

Page 175

"...Yeah, I never expected something like this to happen."

After a moment of silence, Paradise Ellie recovered and nodded slightly, her words containing a hint of disbelief and amazement—but more than anything, they were complex.

When she saw her true self appear in Paradise, she had many guesses, but she never expected that the real answer would be like this.

Many of my previous questions have been answered: why is my original state so... pure?

—Because she was Alicia's past, her own past.

Alice, who joined the Moth of Flame after the Second Honkai Impact and has yet to experience the various pains and tribulations with her comrades.

"The second Great Collapse, the third Great Collapse... the fourth Great Collapse, you really did better than me." Recalling all of 'Alicia's' moments and feelings at that time, comparing them one by one, looking at 'Alicia' in front of her, Paradise Alice sincerely admired her and revealed a slight bitter smile.

Although Alicia defeated the Second Herrscher during the Second Great Collapse, it was only because her companions risked their lives to create the opportunity for her to defeat the Second Herrscher.

While she did indeed take action during the Third and Fourth Honkai Impacts, even as the top soldier among the Fire Moth warriors and the undisputed 'Fire Hero,' she was merely a slightly stronger soldier at that time.

The man before them, named Jiang Qiao, had already enabled 'Alicia' to ascend to the Origin from the very beginning—a reality that the real Alicia could only accept under the pressure of the situation at the end of her life.

Jiang Qiao simply smiled and did not say anything like, "You would have gotten the same result if you were in her shoes."

Admittedly, he unconditionally trusted Alicia, but excessive and unrealistic trust only puts more pressure on the person being trusted.

Perhaps placing the memory of Alicia in the same position in Paradise would indeed yield a much better result than before—but in any case, there are things that Alicia absolutely, absolutely cannot do.

This 'absolute' will not change with the passage of time, and that is why Alicia is Alicia.

"If it were you, perhaps you could really bring a better outcome for 'our' past." Looking at Jiang Qiao sitting next to her with a complicated expression, Alicia couldn't help but ask, "But... is that really a good thing?"

To be honest, she was quite excited after learning the truth about her true form.

Although the Paradise of the Past is merely an echo of the past, and these memories are nothing more than recollections left behind by those heroes of the past—even if they have long recognized this, if they were given another chance to save that era, probably no one in this Paradise would choose to refuse.

After all, everyone in Yingjie had some regrets from that past, and their acceptance was more like a compromise with reality.

Can--

Having gained access to Jiang Qiao's memories, Alicia was able to experience the man's feelings at that moment, but she couldn't find a reason why he did what he did.

Initially, it was merely a rather 'selfish' act by his own original self, who borrowed his body in an attempt to save the city, resulting in a kind of helpless situation akin to 'kidnapping,' but it eventually evolved into the 'savior' he is today.

Why is that? Is it out of love?

Although Paradise Airi did indeed sense some similar emotions from those feelings, the proportion of 'Alicia' in them was probably not much greater than that of 'Kiana,' 'Bronya,' or even 'Raiden Mei,' other girls who appeared in 'Alicia's' memories.

Just like her love for humanity—at least in the part that Paradise Love felt, Jiang Qiao's thoughts about the original body were more like the relationship between herself and Eden.

He had absolutely no intention of getting anything from the original body.

On the contrary, he has always played the role of giving without expecting anything in return.

Using Alicia's identity to approach those early heroes, those intimate actions seemed more like a heartfelt expression of care—which perhaps truly prevented her former self from meeting those companions and forming bonds with them.

But as a recollection of the past, Paradise Ellie knows very well that the era she lived in was definitely not something that could make...

The world that people view from such a 'romantic' and 'leisurely' perspective, the little things about her encounters and acquaintances with heroes, were mostly built upon a foundation of various hardships.

Those hardships should have been borne by Alicia, who was born a Herrscher—this was her destiny.

But Jiang Qiao, under the identity of 'Alicia', endured all of this in her place.

They carried burdens they shouldn't have had to bear, yet they never asked for anything in return.

According to Paradise Lovely.

This is really... unfair.

When faced with Paradise Lovely's question, Jiang Qiao simply responded with a smile.

For some reason, the name that Alicia used to refer to the man in front of her popped into Paradise Alice's mind.

She also began to agree with him—this guy is really bad!

"Given your personality, you must have come to the Land of Bliss for more than just to see my original form, right?"

Jiang Qiao's thoughts belong to the part that was cut off, so even if the synchronization was completed, Paradise Lovely did not know the former's purpose in coming here, but this did not prevent her from making certain eliminations based on the existing information.

This scoundrel might actually go to see his true form because Alicia misses her... but if we're hoping he'll take the initiative, we can only hope that he'll be free of all his current tasks.

"Ah."

Faced with Jiang's unequivocal nod of admission, Paradise Ellie pouted in dissatisfaction and sighed:

"Really... okay, okay, what do you want? I'll go tell them for you."

Since this villain came to Paradise, he must be after something from Paradise, which is most likely something from other heroes. If she says a few words beforehand, things will be easier later.

Although she was dissatisfied that Jiang Qiao treated her, such a cute and beautiful girl, with such a "business-like" attitude, she also wanted to make things easier for this bad guy. Of course, this was also partly because she wanted to contribute to saving the previous era.

"Indeed, I do need to retrieve some items, but my main purpose this time is actually..."

"I want you—Alicia?"

As she spoke, Jiang Qiaopai's 'Alice' looked quite playful.

Paradise Airi blinked, clearly not quite understanding.

"..."

"Eh--!?"

After a moment, Paradise Ellie finally realized what was happening, her eyes widening and her mouth slightly open.

The chubby lady from Paradise covered her chest, her cheeks slightly flushed, and said with a mix of shyness and annoyance, "Isn't it a bit too bold to suddenly say such things to a girl!"

However, the next moment, Paradise Airi, who had already had a superficial 'spiritual communion' with Jiang, understood what this villain meant by wanting her—he wanted her data.

—And this is also to perfect 'global connectivity' and further confront the new ruling law of the previous civilization.

Because of Jiang Qiao, the "Original Herrscher," the Cocoon created a new Herrscher of Domination, a "Herrscher of Social Phenomena" that makes it even harder for people to resist their nature and impossible to quickly eradicate with force.

However, aside from global connectivity and discipline, there is something that can, to some extent, restrain the power of the Law of Domination.

Its name is the Key of Origin, though a more appropriate name would be the Key of Man.

Forged from the core of the deceased Herrscher of Man, Alicia, this special Divine Key, separate from the 113 Divine Keys, has no physical form. Ultimately, it was implanted into the bodies of the new generation of people. This special Divine Key possesses a power completely opposite to that of the 'New Herrscher of Domination,' and it can, to a certain extent, leave a seed of goodness in the hearts of the new generation of people.

Although the Human Key may be much weaker than the influence of the Herald of Domination, it can indeed effectively curb the existence of the former.

Unfortunately, Jiang Qiao's 'Alice' form cannot create such a thing.

Even though he, as the 'Herrscher of Origin', has surpassed Alicia, the master of this power, what he can create is only the 'Key of Origin', and definitely not the 'Key of Humanity' that Jiang Qiao needs.

The current Alicia cannot become a Herrscher, let alone create a Human Key—she lacks the will to do so, and even if she did, she would probably have to sacrifice her life to create one.

Therefore, Jiang Qiao set her sights on the memory entity Alicia in the Paradise of the Past.

As the complete 'Alicia', Paradise Alicia definitely possesses the ability and resolve to create the Human Key.

However, he did not intend for Paradise Alice to become the creator of the Human Key. Although the former was at most an echo or memory left by Alice, in Jiang Qiao's eyes, she was no different from Alice as the original.

Once memory dies, leaving only pure data, it's no different from being dead.

Moreover, even as a memory entity, Paradise Airi might not be able to complete this 'job'.

Whether driven by emotion or reason, acquiring 'Alice's' memories and then creating the Human Key yourself is the safest option.

For the previous civilization, the Divine Protocol was too 'conservative'. Jiang Qiao knew that MEI would definitely not agree with the idea of ​​adding such a thing to the global connection—after all, for the previous civilization, the fight against the Honkai was a life-or-death war, and it would be a very foolish thing to consider the wishes of individuals too much.

Even though they had a very good relationship, as the leader of the previous civilization fighting against the Honkai, MEI could not condone all his willful behavior, after all, she had to be responsible for the people of that era.

This is why she hesitated to tell Alicia about the Avalon plan—given Alicia's personality, she would definitely have objections to such a plan.

Knowing this very well, Jiang Qiao, who had personally pushed MEI into that position, certainly didn't intend to make things difficult for her friend.

Granting people the right to have their own consciousness is a dilemma, as it undermines the original intent of the Avalon Project—but he felt that the Human Key should at least be incorporated into it, which would certainly be Alicia's wish as well.

The memory core contains data left behind by past heroes. Demanding all the data from a memory core is essentially the same as saying, "I want you!" But that's just a practical statement. Although she felt a little embarrassed, it was clear that Jiang Qiao's Paradise Lovely ultimately blushed slightly, puffed out her cheeks, and said in an annoyed tone:

"You can't say things like that to other girls next time, it's really rude... Ugh!"

Suddenly remembering that this scoundrel in front of her could switch bodies with other girls, the Happy Land Fat Lady instantly transformed into the same fat lady as the original lady, glaring angrily at Jiang Qiao.

She didn't see those specific memories, but this jerk must have said a bunch of similar things to other pretty girls! What a scoundrel!

However, she ultimately remained resentful and reluctantly said:

"Okay, I'll give it to you... I'll have Aponia give you 'my' data later... You're not allowed to lose it!"

Although Klein is the maintainer of Paradise, she only maintains the facilities of Paradise. The data belonging to the Hero's Memory is usually stored by the Hero's Memory itself. However, Paradise Ellie is not very enthusiastic about this. In addition, her data is an extremely special existence in Paradise. Therefore, if you want to extract it completely, you can only entrust it to Aponia, who is the administrator of Paradise.

...This is the first body in all these years that someone has tried to take away Ying Jie's memories. Thinking of this, she gave a somewhat angry warning.

Of course, this was more like an angry outburst.

The data belonging to Alicia is incredibly vast, and for a memory, losing it is essentially 'forgetting'. Even a Herrscher, after taking her 'body', would find it difficult to guarantee that it would all be preserved. Only this extremely special Paradise of the Past, created specifically for memory, can achieve this.

Klein was extremely troubled by this. In order to maintain the operation of the Paradise of the Past, the memories of the Heroes often generated a lot of redundant data. She would usually clean up this useless data regularly, but the part belonging to Alicia was considered an 'undeletable file' by a certain administrator lady. Unfortunately, the fat lady of the Paradise was a major producer of redundant data. When it came to adding workload to the server maintenance lady, the Heroes were professionals.

"Ah."

'Alicia' smiled.

He didn't care about that—Jiang Qiao could use the Key of Consciousness as a medium to store Paradise Ellie's data, but using himself was out of the question... He didn't want to end up like Xiao Shi, who was completely overwhelmed by the memories of the hen mother.

Even if you don't go crazy from the shock, it's still easy to end up with a split personality.

"Don't copy me anymore!"