"This damn simulator, it's actually starting to force-bind me with such malicious talents now. It's not even pretending anymore, huh?"
Looking at this permanent talent that blatantly demanded he only wear women's clothing from now on, Lunelle couldn't help but curse inwardly after reading its effect.
Though Lunelle didn't understand the underlying principle, somehow wearing women's clothes and Honkai energy—two things that should have been completely unrelated—could be combined.
Not only that, but the combination genuinely provided him with the Honkai energy adaptation attribute he desperately needed right now.
But as the saying goes, a real man should know when to bend and when to stand firm.
If higher survival rates could be bought with something as trivial as cross-dressing...
Then even if this deal was forced upon him, overall, it wasn't too much of a loss for Lunelle himself, right?
After all, in Lunelle's view, he'd only worn women's clothing for two days in a row, and that was purely out of desperate circumstances.
Just two days of wearing women's clothes—round it off, and it's basically like he never wore them at all!
But with this forced cross-dressing talent, no matter how unwilling Lunelle was in the future, he'd have no choice but to continue being "forced by circumstances."
Sigh... buddies, it's the simulator forcing me, Lunelle, to do this!
It definitely wasn't because I accidentally discovered that women's clothes are actually pretty comfortable to wear or anything!
Absolutely not!
One thing, however, Lunelle had now figured out.
It seemed that after he'd pieced together the rough truth from the clues he had, the simulator's initially somewhat restrained behavior had become increasingly brazen.
To put it bluntly, what truly made Lunelle wary and afraid now was the simulator's blatant, unwavering determination to not stop until it had completely... conditioned him into the image of his "main waifu," Seele.
If you thought about it, he'd only gone through six low-rated simulations.
But if Lunelle just glanced in a mirror now, he'd realize his current appearance had completely lost any trace of his pre-transmigration self.
That meant in just three short days, the simulator had permanently transformed Lunelle from an utterly ordinary boy into a top-tier cross-dresser who, with the right outfit, could out-cute the vast majority of girls!
And this was only after three days...
Once he survived tomorrow's Honkai eruption, the days ahead were still long!
"Just as I thought... even the Safety Net's benefits aren't as easy to exploit as imagined. But if things are really as I suspect, is there even any point in me continuing to run simulations?"
Lunelle could vaguely foresee that if he failed a few more times in the simulations, he might get bound with some truly bizarre talents!
The thought of it—despite having a cheat in this Honkai world, his life as a guy was still so tough.
Especially after paying such a high price over these three days just to grow stronger, he still hadn't even reached the physical stamina of a normal adult man.
For a moment, Lunelle couldn't help but recall the stat panel belonging to his "main waifu," Seele.
Even in her non-Herrscher state, her basic panel showed an incredibly powerful Honkai energy-to-physical conversion rate of one to ten. It was hard not to feel a pang of longing.
Suddenly, whether it was simple yearning for power or some other strange reason, a dangerously tempting thought surfaced from the depths of his mind.
Perhaps in this Honkai world that seemed so hostile to males, being a girl might also be...
!!!!!!
"Tch! What on earth was I just thinking...!?"
As soon as that dangerous thought arose, Lunelle immediately realized just how absurd it was.
"Sigh, better get to sleep. I shouldn't entertain such unrealistic ideas anymore!"
Sensing something was off, Lunelle quickly muttered to himself, trying to snuff out this dangerously sparking notion in its cradle!
With the simulator's assistance, Lunelle's consciousness soon sank into deep sleep.
But perhaps due to the so-called "thoughts by day, dreams by night" phenomenon, Lunelle, who had unexpectedly fallen asleep, had a dream—a rare occurrence for him lately.
In this strange dream, he bore the name "Seele."
He became a genuine girl in a place that didn't seem like the main world of Honkai Impact 3rd, growing up from childhood in an orphanage.
This world had no Schicksal or Anti-Entropy, but there was a special organization called "Fire Moth" that gave Lunelle an indescribable sense of familiarity.
In the dream, though also an orphan, through over a decade of diligent study and self-cultivation, young Seele developed fairly decent writing skills.
Eventually, relying on the meager income from her writing, young Seele soon became one of the few in the orphanage who could support herself as a minor author.
But good times didn't last. As she grew older...
Young Seele's excessively adorable looks and her mature figure—surprisingly well-developed despite signs of malnutrition—inevitably attracted trouble.
The situation could be perfectly summed up by one classic line straight out of a certain genre:
"Miss Seele? You wouldn't want the children of the orphanage to lose their home because my sponsorship is withdrawn, would you?"
In short, some high-status jerk caught a glimpse of Seele's true appearance and took a fancy to her.
He then used his influence to pressure the orphanage in various ways, forcing Seele to compromise and agree to an engagement.
Faced with all sorts of ugly capitalist threats and coercion...
In the end, unsurprisingly, it all became too much for the already fragile young Seele, pushing her straight into a full-blown mental breakdown!
Just as the dream was about to progress to young Seele's complete descent...
The previously smooth dream sequence suddenly froze, as if someone had hit pause in the middle of a video.
Then, the frozen image developed dense spatial cracks, like shattering glass.
But in the final instant before the scene vanished completely, Lunelle vaguely caught sight of a rather familiar setting...
Before the half-dreaming Lunelle could spare the mental energy to ponder it further...
!!!!!!
Lunelle, still in a sleeping state, jolted violently awake from his bed.
However, like most dreams, the vivid experiences from his dream faded rapidly upon waking, leaving only vague impressions and fragmented memory pieces.
"Did I just... have some kind of weird nightmare?"
Clearly sensing an inexplicable oppressive, uncomfortable weight in his emotions...
Only when his groggy consciousness swiftly returned to clarity did Lunelle belatedly realize cold sweat had already thoroughly drenched his clothes.
But the fact that he couldn't clearly remember the dream wasn't crucial.
For See-chan, the simulator spirit who had specifically guided Lunelle into this dream, what truly mattered was that this special dream had indirectly planted a unique "seed" in Lunelle's subconscious.
Unbeknownst to Lunelle, within a top-secret work log area of the simulator—a section even the host had no direct access to—
See-chan, the simulator spirit, was carefully recording an important entry into the latest blank field.
This classified work log read:
[Primal memories successfully awakened. All conditions for host's metamorphosis into 'True Self' are now in place...]
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.