Honkai Impact 3rd: Yumeji Satsuki's lies

The scope in Bronya's hand emitted a faint light, reflecting in her silver-gray eyes. Without a moment's hesitation, she held it out in front of Yumeji.

"Put it on."

Yumeji raised an eyebrow at her, then looked down at the scope. Its design was relatively simple—a thin, light frame with tiny sensors attached to the lenses, not unlike the virtual reality goggles he had seen before. But clearly, this thing was not just a toy.

"…What is this for?" Yumeji asked, but still took the scope and put it on his face, he also pushed the lenses up a bit and made a cool pose before shrugging and stopping the embarrassing action when Bronya looked at him speechlessly.

"Ahem, I was just joking, don't look at me like that," I said, clearing my throat.

Bronya didn't reply, just glanced away and started doing the next task. She reached out to adjust the strap behind the glasses, her fingers lightly brushing his temple. Her gesture was gentle, almost a little careful. Seeing this, Yumeji was only slightly surprised and thought that Bronya was only a little taller than him when he was sitting cross-legged on the ground because he didn't have enough strength to stand up, which made Yumeji feel quite amused and wondered if his sister had felt the same way when she played with him when he was little.

Finally, after making sure everything was stable, Bronya opened her mouth to explain:

"It can scan your brain waves and collect information that only you can see through your retina and convert it into observable information, even things that are invisible to Bronya."

Yumeji blinked. "That means… you can see everything I see?"

"That's right."

He frowned, feeling that something was not quite right.

"Sounds scary, doesn't it?"

Bronya didn't deny it. She just said coldly

"But this is the most effective way."

Yumeji curled her lips.

"It's effective, but I'm quite worried because the information I see is so confusing and complicated that it seems like it's going to burn the user's brain."

"…No Problem. For Bronya, those things would just be like a movie being shown, the impact is almost zero."

"…Eh, that's great. But it's really heavy, it's a lot of data."

Bronya glanced at him meaningfully.

"Then Bronya will delete the data if necessary."

Yumeji sighed.

"Okay, okay, I understand."

He adjusted his goggles, trying to get used to the feeling of the cold metal against his skin. A slight electric current ran down his spine as the scanner started up. A small display appeared in the corner of the goggles, along with the words:

[Connecting…]

It felt like an invisible wave was sweeping through his brain. There was no pain, just a slight tickling sensation, like someone was breathing on the back of his neck.

Bronya nodded.

"Good. Keep it that way."

She took out a cable from the Mecha Project Bunny and plugged it into the connection port on Yumeji's goggles. The other end of the cable was plugged into the processing socket on the Mecha. When the connection was complete, a green light flashed on the goggles' screen.

Recognizing that, I began to activate the skill again.

"Boost"

As the information was gradually overlapping my vision, the audio information from the A.I on the scope was also transmitted.

[Data is being uploaded…]

Yumeji could feel something change in his vision. The invisible streams of information that were normally only visible to him—commands, chaotic strings of characters—were now being transmitted.

Bronya opened the monitor of the minicomputer mounted on the Mecha arm and typed in a series of test commands.

"Alright." She said.

"Yumeji's data is now connected to Bronya's computer. Now just wait for the upload to complete."

"It feels like I'm being hacked."

"Not really." Bronya shook his head.

"Bronya is only collecting the information Yumeji can see. There's no interference with your nervous system or memories. It's like sharing vision, but instead of transmitting Yumeji's visual information to Bronya, it will data it and upload it to this mini computer."

Yumeji narrowed her eyes. "But if you want, you can do that?"

Bronya paused for a moment. She looked straight at him, her eyes cold but not intending to hide the truth.

"Theoretically, you can."

Yumeji felt a slight shiver.

Bronya continued, his voice as steady as ever:

"But Bronya has no reason to do that."

He smiled faintly.

"Then I should feel honored to be friends with someone as trustworthy as you, right?"

Bronya didn't reply. She just continued to check the data, seemingly uninterested in his joke.

Yumeji sighed. He looked away from Bronya, focusing on the vision ahead. Information streams were still running through his invisible space. Strings of data were dancing, combining into complex structures. Hashed characters, or diverging commands and multiple polarized light bands, lines of code that made him dizzy just looking at them.

But this time, he wasn't alone in handling it.

Bronya had entered this world with him.

---

About five minutes later, the data download was complete. Bronya checked the information on the computer screen, confirming that there were no errors.

"It's fine." She said.

"The data has entered the Mecha Project Bunny system."

Yumeji blinked, feeling the sight on her eyes lighten a bit as it switched to standby mode.

"So what's the next step?"

Bronya opened the mini laptop interface attached to her Mecha's arm and quickly typed in a series of commands, the blue light reflecting off her calm face.

"Bronya will start by streamlining the redundant information, then create a new protocol for Yumeji's skill."

He frowned.

"Sounds like optimizing a computer software, right?"

"That's right."

Bronya nodded.

"The data Yumeji saw was nothing more than a complex software security system. If it could be reprogrammed, then it would be possible to adjust and optimize the power."

Yumeji was slightly stunned.

"…In other words, you will program my power as if you were programming software code?"

Bronya tilted his head slightly.

"If Yumeji thinks that way, then it's not wrong. But there's a small problem."

"What is that problem?"- He asked softly, his face showing a bit of worry.

"There's just one problem, Bronya needs to know the trend of the information."-Bronya replied.

"Information trend?"- I asked, wondering.

"To put it simply, it's a template that contains that information, like a title to identify a document. If there's a template, then we can know how to arrange the information properly. Yumeji, what's the name of this ability?"-Bronya asked him with a thoughtful expression.

"Boost. This is an ability that helps me strengthen the physical parameters of my body."- He quickly gave the answer.

"Hmm. According to Bronya's judgment, if based on the name of that ability, the information contained would probably be related to medicine, specifically knowledge of human anatomy as well as gathering more knowledge of biology, physics and chemistry to apply and exploit bio-energy and the latent abilities of the nervous system. Hmm, maybe it also contains a bit of information on behavioral psychology, emotions as well as pharmacological knowledge."

He was completely taken aback by Bronya's quick judgment and suddenly felt worried because he saw the complexity of the information in the skill.

"Can you do it?"

Bronya glanced at me and smiled lightly, more precisely she used two fingers to press on her cheekbones to adjust her facial muscles to a smiling state.

"Yumeji, don't worry, although this is not Bronya's expertise. But there is no data equation that Hacker Bronie cannot decode."

He laughed. Although her tone remained the same, he understood that Bronya was trying to act a little funny to ease his anxiety despite her usual expressionless face.

"It sounds crazy at first, but it's also very logical and interesting."

Bronya didn't reply, just continued working on her computer. Command lines ran across the screen, algorithms were set up. Mecha Project Bunny was assisting her in processing the data, converting all the information into software programming code.

From a certain perspective, this was literally a way to hack the Honkai coefficient.

Yumeji took a deep breath, then closed her eyes, letting the data flow through the probe continue.

He didn't know what the end result would be.

But if there was anyone who could do this—

It was Bronya Zaychik.

********

Yumeji frowned slightly as he looked at the data screen before him. Command lines, brain wave graphs, bio-energy oscillation frequencies—all of it was being converted into digital form, flowing like a seamless stream of information into Bronya's computer.

This was a strange feeling.

He wasn't just seeing the data—he was feeling it. The streams of information seemed to be merging with his thoughts, giving him a strange awareness of his own body. It was as if, for the first time in his life, he truly understood the mechanics of his own body.

So this was how Boost worked…

"The concentration of electrical impulses in your central nervous system has increased by 12% compared to the beginning." Bronya said coldly, not taking his eyes off the display. "It seems like you're getting used to perceiving data this way."

Yumeji took a deep breath.

"It feels like… I'm being analyzed."

"That's right." Bronya nodded.

"Boost's way of working is inherently like a self-optimizing algorithm. When you analyze it at the information level, Bronya can reprogram and refine it to remove unnecessary parts."

He glanced at her.

"In other words… can you help me control this power in a more systematic way?"

Bronya glanced at him, then shook her head lightly.

"…Not in a more systematic way, but, well, let's see, since the data has been streamlined, you'll have more space to write and program new data for the skill, improving its performance and diversity. It's like cooling down the CPU and cleaning up junk files—when the hard drive becomes lighter, you can install more software without worrying about overloading or causing damage."

Yumeji was silent for a moment, then smiled.

"Woah. You really are a virtual hacker."

Bronya did not respond to his teasing. She continued typing, the light from the screen reflecting in her silver-gray eyes. The data on the screen kept changing, new algorithms were constantly being set up, restructuring and optimizing the system.

He could feel every little change in his body. His heartbeat was more stable, the flow of energy was smoother, the signals from his nervous system were no longer so noisy.

It was not just optimizing information.

This was optimizing himself.

Bronya suddenly spoke, interrupting his train of thought:

"Yumeji, try activating Boost again."

He nodded.

"Boost."

This time, there was no sense of chaos like before. No more overwhelming information cluttering his vision. Everything was neatly organized and categorized, like a visual interface that he could grasp at a glance.

Power surged through his body—but no longer out of control.

It was smooth. Steady. Efficient.

"…Pretty good." Yumeji muttered, clenching her fists and feeling the small changes in her muscles, in the flow of energy. "Now I can use it without fear of exhaustion or loss of control."

Bronya looked at him, her eyes flashing with a sharp light.

"There's still one last step."

He raised an eyebrow. "The last step?"

Bronya silently raised his hand, typing a new command into the screen.

Instantly, a line of text appeared before Yumeji's eyes:

[Confirm Maximum Performance Plan - Activate Overclock Mode]

He blinked. "…Wait, what the—"

"Yumeji." Bronya interrupted, his voice calm but carrying an absolute seriousness.

"If you really want to control Boost to the highest level, then we need to test its maximum limits."

He felt a shiver run down his spine.

This was no longer a matter of simple optimization.

Bronya wanted to push him to the limit—to make him surpass it.

Yumeji swallowed.

"…What if I refuse?"

Bronya looked straight at him.

"You won't refuse."

…Damn it.

He hated that she was right.