"Worth it...?" Joyce frowned deeply under Shu's gaze, then shook her head decisively. "No... that can never be worth it."
"To me, whenever such a choice involving the sacrifice of life is made, the survivor bears a debt they can never repay in their lifetime."
Joyce stated solemnly, "In my eyes, life is always priceless!"
After a dead silence, Shu withdrew his gaze.
"Yeah... it's like that for anyone... When life can be measured by value, it can only be as a debt..."
"Alright." Shu waved his hand, signaling Joyce to continue. "That should be enough probing of me, right? Don't overthink it. Everything I said is true, not a single lie."
Joyce was taken aback, coughing lightly with a hint of embarrassment.
"Isn't this about knowing oneself and knowing the enemy?"
Shu rolled his eyes. For some reason, despite knowing Joyce for less than a day, he could already treat her with the same casual attitude he had with Kiana and the others.
He couldn't quite put his finger on the feeling... Usually, he was the one adapting to others—Otto, Himeko, Theresa, Kiana, Mei... each had a different style, and Shu would subconsciously switch to an appropriate approach.
But it was different with Joyce. Shu felt like he had found his original self, the one from the very beginning.
He could slightly express his own emotions, and Joyce would follow his lead.
There's a saying.
When you get along exceptionally well with someone, without any discomfort, you should realize their emotional intelligence is far superior to yours.
Of course, there was another piece of good news: that person was willing to use their emotional intelligence on you.
Look at Otto. He could definitely write a book on "The Art of Speaking," but why did Shu feel so prickly and like insects were crawling on him whenever he was with Otto?
It was because Otto knew Shu would also adapt to others in that way, and Otto was always a dominant person, preferring others to cater to him rather than catering to others.
Except for the people he knew... alright, he was just taking advantage of Shu's accommodating nature.
Since the other person was soft, he didn't need to bother changing his own shape.
"It seems we've arrived," Joyce's words pulled Shu back from his thoughts. He looked up, and there it was—the border, thick and rich like a pool of colored paint.
The sense of pressure from the world border was incomparable to the walls of the Great Homu Kingdom, even though those tall walls had already made Shu's jaw drop.
Looking up, clouds obscured the top of this black wall. Looking left and right, the black wall seemed to stretch across the entire world, looming before Shu and Joyce, declaring: The world ends here.
"Correct. There are indeed stable spatial fluctuations here, unlike other borders," Joyce said, a sophisticated instrument having appeared on her arm at some point.
"And contrary to our speculations, the quantum stability here is very high, the trajectory of Honkai energy is smooth, and the imaginary constant is also..."
"Speak human," Shu said flatly, cutting Joyce off.
After a moment, Joyce put away the instrument and rephrased.
"Behind this is a new world, one that's already been created."
Shu nodded. Now he understood.
This was a wall, and also a door. It wasn't the end, just the opening curtain to a grand, joyous feast.
Only by pulling it aside could one see the true theater.
"How do we get in?" Shu looked at Joyce. "If we get separated, can you send me a message?"
"Don't worry about that. The fluctuation range of the phase-space data inside... the space within is very stable, much more stable than the real world," Joyce's explanation trailed off, then she switched to a simpler conclusion.
"As for getting in, this wall has no physical form, nor does it require any activation. We can just walk right through."
"That's good." Shu stepped in front of Joyce, patting his own shoulder. "Grab on, I'll take you in."
Joyce placed her hand on Shu's shoulder. Shu took a deep breath, quickly put up two shields for himself and Joyce, then, with a determined frown, stepped into the black curtain.
It was said to be an ordinary wall, but the moment Shu entered, an immense pushing force slammed into him from the front.
It was like a strong wind trying to sweep him away, or a tidal wave attempting to push him back to shore.
The shields around him shattered after only a moment under this pressure. But when Shu directly faced the force, he didn't feel it was overwhelmingly strong.
Puzzled, Shu steadied his footing, then casually reached out and grabbed Joyce's hand as she was blown away, pulling her back.
"Don't daze out," Shu reminded her. This time, he didn't let go, instead pulling Joyce forward through the black torrent.
Joyce nodded silently. She had indeed been distracted for a moment. Thankfully, Shu had grabbed her, preventing her from being swept away.
After walking forward two steps, the pushing force vanished, replaced by a suffocating, multicolored darkness pressing in from all sides.
They felt as if they were wrapped in a damp quilt—they could move, but it was extremely difficult.
"Shu... we..." Joyce frowned, frantically analyzing the surrounding data.
The particle concentration and spatial mass here were beyond her expectations. Such density, no wonder the spatial stability here was so much higher than in the real world...
But this wasn't a major problem. Once they got out of here, she could create a simple auxiliary device to break through...
"No need," Shu said without turning his head. "I can handle it."
Joyce paused. Handle it? With what?
The problem here likely stemmed from the imaginary space, which currently only existed in theory... What the actual hell?!
Joyce stared in disbelief, watching Shu's other hand, now glowing, reach out and grab the "blackness" swirling around them in this space.
It was like grabbing a piece of soft yet resilient rubber. Shu gripped a large clump of blackness and pulled hard.
To Joyce's utter disbelief, the captured darkness was actually torn away, revealing a passable path!
Joyce looked at Shu, then at the surrounding "blackness," and finally stared at the hand gripping hers, lost in thought.