23: Chapter 22: How is this thing in the basement?
23: Chapter 22: How is this thing in the basement?
Weekend sunlight slanted through the blinds into the living room, with kicked-up dust motes floating in the beams.
Mei held the handle of the vacuum cleaner, crouching beside the entryway cabinet to clean off the dust, when her fingertips suddenly touched something behind the cabinet.
It felt cold—not like ordinary wood, but more like a metal cover plate embedded in something.
She paused, stunned, and pushed the cabinet to the side; behind it stood a metal door.
After opening it in confusion, a breeze mixed with stuffiness and a musty smell rushed out to meet her.
Below was an iron staircase, covered in dust and long untrodden, winding down into the bottomless darkness.
“Does Nana’s house actually have a basement?
I’ve never heard Nana mention it before.” Mei muttered to herself, fished a flashlight out of the cabinet, and stepped down the staircase that hadn’t been walked on for a long time.
The basement was more spacious than she had imagined.
Old, dust-covered furniture was piled in one corner, but when her flashlight swept past the corner, she discovered a metal wall with a set of double doors.
There was a palm-sized indentation on the door.
Driven by an inexplicable impulse, she placed her hand on it.
With a low hum, the door slid open to the sides of the wall, revealing another downward passage.
At the end of the metal passage was not cold earth, but a sensor door glowing with a pale blue light.
“What on earth…
is this place?” Mei’s heartbeat inexplicably quickened.
She stepped through the sensor door, and the scene before her made her freeze in place instantly.
As far as her eyes could see, it was a massive floating space divided into three sections by pale blue energy.
They were connected to each other by floating steps.
It was hard to imagine such a large, isolated space existing beneath the house.
In the left area, countless tiny quantum fragments and platforms floated, and the ground was engraved with complex geometric patterns.
Familiar logos for “original sin,” “torment,” and “Red Lotus” slowly flowed across the light screen.
The central area replicated the standard platforms of the Memory Battlefield, and the electronic screen in the distance flickered with the phantom images of enemies, some familiar and some not.
As for the separated area on the right, there was only one door, and on it was a pattern she was all too familiar with!
Because engraved upon it was the signet of a Crystal Orchid…
It was “True Self”…
This made Mei’s breathing stop abruptly.
Not daring to think too much about it for the moment, Mei walked slowly toward the middle section first.
“Is this…
the Memory Battlefield…?” She subconsciously reached out to touch the energy light screen beside her; the familiar vibration that came to her fingertips was almost identical to what she had felt in that Memory Battlefield back at Schicksal.
But this was Nana’s home; how could it have this kind of training ground that only existed for Honkai combat?
A person suddenly came to mind, someone she had never met, but whose abilities were a mystery.
“Could it be…
Senior Cécilia Zero…?” A gentle yet somewhat playful voice suddenly echoed in her mind, like a whisper transmitted from afar.
Cécilia Zero: “It is indeed me.” It was Senior Cécilia Zero!
Mei was stunned, another direct mental transmission and telepathic conversation!
“Seeing you all looking for places to train outside every day, I got busy and forgot to tell you that there are these things under the house.
The Memory Battlefield, the Quantum Manifold, and…
the Elysian Realm.” “What?!
The Elysian Realm?!” Mei’s voice rose sharply, and she looked at the area on the right again, unable to believe it.
It really was the Elysian Realm…?!
“Senior, you’re not joking, are you?!” “I am not.” Cécilia Zero’s voice paused, carrying a hint of seriousness.
“However, I do not recommend you go in to research the Elysian Realm right now.
I haven’t finished setting things up inside, and it is not something you can handle at your current stage.” As soon as she finished speaking, golden chains suddenly lit up on the door on the right; it was clearly remotely encrypted.
“The Quantum Manifold and the Memory Battlefield are enough for you; they should be fine for you to practice with.” “I’ve finished explaining; feel free to explore on your own.” The senior’s voice did not sound again.
Mei stood still, looking at the three clearly divided areas before her, still feeling like she was in a dream.
Just how many surprises did Senior Cécilia Zero leave behind?
Building a space comparable to a professional training base in the house—if she hadn’t accidentally discovered it while cleaning today, she wouldn’t know when the senior would have told them.
She steadied herself and walked to the light screen of the Quantum Manifold to examine it carefully.
The panel indicated mode selection, and just like she was familiar with, there were three clearly defined difficulty gradients: original sin, torment, and Red Lotus.
But except for the live combat simulation function, all other modules such as point rankings and reward redemption had been completely removed, leaving it clean and purely for training.
“This is good, clean and efficient.
It saves from getting distracted.” She muttered, then turned to the platform of the Memory Battlefield.
The control console for the Memory Battlefield was glowing faintly.
She reached out to open the enemy encyclopedia and immediately gasped.
In the scrolling list on the screen, not only were there the Herrscher, Death Soldier, and mechs she was familiar with, but there were even zombies and small fry from Guns GirlZ mixed in…
as well as their Boss counterparts…
Even monsters like the Antimatter Legion, Rift creatures, and Abundance abominations from Honkai: Star Rail were prominently listed.
“This is just too messy…” Mei held her forehead.
No wonder she felt dazzled when she glanced at it earlier; it turned out Senior Cécilia Zero had stuffed every Honkai-related enemy she could find in here.
Fortunately, there was a filter panel on the side of the console where she could manually select the types of enemies she wanted to appear.
Mei tried filtering for only standard Honkai Impact 3rd enemies, and the encyclopedia list immediately became much clearer.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
If she really let enemies from various worlds swarm out mixed together, never mind training, she would probably be flustered trying to break their mechanics one by one as soon as she entered the field.
She walked around the two areas.
The field of the Quantum Manifold would automatically adjust the number of spatial layers and structure according to the difficulty.
The platform of the Memory Battlefield could also simulate different terrains and environments, from snowy fields to deserts, from urban ruins to space capsules, switching seamlessly.
Thinking about how Nana had been complaining about a lack of combat experience, Mei’s eyes lit up, and she had already started conceiving a follow-up training plan in her mind.
Spend the morning in the Quantum Manifold to polish combos, the afternoon in the Memory Battlefield to fight bosses specifically, and in the evening, review tactics with Nana…
“Just how many more surprises does Senior Cécilia Zero have that she hasn’t told us about?” Mei leaned against the console, looking at the energy light screen flickering in the distance, unable to stop her lips from curling up.
With a training ground like this, the speed of Nana’s strength improvement would likely double.
Even she herself wouldn’t get rusty from long periods of daily life.
She took one last look at the locked Elysian Realm area; although she was curious, she understood Senior Cécilia Zero’s intentions.
What if it wasn’t set up properly and Corrosion was released as well?
How would they fight that?
Watch the Elysian Realm get shattered into ice again?
“Sigh…” For now, the priority was to master the Quantum Manifold and the Memory Battlefield.
Mei turned off the console screen and turned to walk toward the passage entrance.
Her footsteps were much lighter than when she arrived, and there was still a smile on her lips.
When she went back and told Nana about this, that girl would probably be so shocked she’d jump up on the spot, right?