I remember chatting with a friend in a cafe one afternoon. It was a game about life, about how we invest time and energy in some seemingly trivial but inevitable tasks. And this kind of task may be like the growth process of that moment of summer in “Honkai Impact 3: Star Railway” – one light cone after another, material, breakthrough, as if you are playing a game with no end.
That moment of summer, this name doesn’t sound special, but he is like a symbol, marking something unspeakable in each of us. In the world of collapse, he is a character who needs to constantly break through, grow, and collect materials. In real life, each of us is constantly accumulating countless details and memories in our hearts. Perhaps these things have no direct meaning, but they eventually make up our lives and construct our existence.
1. In the material world, find the opportunity of the soul
That moment of summer’s breakthrough is very much like the growth in our lives. You start accumulating fragmentary materials at the beginning, until a certain moment in the end, you suddenly find that you seem to have more powerful power. But this is only superficial power. The materials needed for Na Kexia’s breakthrough – such as “Ethereal Omen” and “Echoing Wail”, as well as more talents and light cones, are constantly accumulated and updated, as if they are reminding you that the process of life is such an endless accumulation.
Haruki Murakami once wrote in “Norwegian Forest”: “Each of us is floating in this huge flow, as if you are floating in a huge pond, and you don’t know when you will be washed away by the current.” This makes me think that maybe we are also constantly accumulating, accumulating everything but not knowing its meaning. Can these materials, these light cones, bring real relief to Na Kexia? Can they fill the void in his heart?
2. Lonely Growth and the Sustenance of Light Cones
Nakexia’s light cones are the connection between him and the world and the source of his power. They do not simply represent a certain improvement in combat effectiveness, but more symbolize a kind of sustenance, an invisible dependence. Like many characters in Haruki Murakami’s works, although they seem to be on the road to success, there is always an indescribable loneliness deep in their hearts. Every breakthrough and every accumulation makes the characters stronger, but they have never really gotten rid of that loneliness.
Have you ever had this thought: you pursue a goal, achieve success, and get what you once desired, but you finally realize that you don’t feel the satisfaction you deserve? The story of Na Ke Xia is the same. He walks in a maze full of materials, constantly collecting, but his heart is still empty. Everything about him is related to something untouchable, a goal that can never be fully reached, a nothingness that can never be truly filled.
3. Breakthrough in life: from “Ethereal Omen” to “Eternal Elegy”
The materials that Na Ke Xia needs to collect in the game sometimes make people feel complicated and trivial. Names like “Ethereal Omen” and “Eternal Elegy” that appear repeatedly seem to represent some details in life. What we get from them are just small moments, and these moments make up most of our lives. In Haruki Murakami’s novel “1Q84”, the characters are constantly shuttling between different time dimensions. Each of them is running for a seemingly important goal, but they are always lost in the long flow of time. The collection of materials in that moment may be a portrayal of this kind of life. You think your efforts will bring a bright future, but in the end you will only realize that all efforts and struggles are always covered by the flow of fate and time.
“Echoing wail” may be this kind of echo, which represents the unspeakable loneliness and the inner pain that we cannot escape. When you think you are close to your goal, you suddenly find yourself back to the starting point. Every collected material and every breakthrough stage makes you go further and further, but you can never really touch what you desire in your heart.
4. Immersed in an endless cycle
The growth process of that moment may be like our daily life in real life. Continuous accumulation and continuous progress, it seems that every step is getting closer to the goal, but in fact, you are always in an endless cycle. Haruki Murakami’s works often explore such a theme: Are we always struggling in an infinite vortex, unable to escape? In “Kafka on the Shore”, the protagonist Kafka constantly strives, escapes, and changes himself, but in the end he returns to the inevitable ending. The same is true for Na Ke Xia. He constantly breaks through and accumulates, but he can never get rid of that invisible fate.
5. Do you feel “lonely”?
Haruki Murakami shows us the interweaving of loneliness and self-awareness in “Norwegian Wood”. Na Ke Xia’s growth is not only an improvement in combat power, but also a response to loneliness. In the process of his continuous breakthroughs, what he will eventually encounter is not those challenges, but his own inner loneliness. After collecting all these materials and light cones, perhaps he will find that the real breakthrough is not the change of the outside world, but the inner self-acceptance.
Perhaps, Na Ke Xia in the game is like a microcosm of each of us. In the process of pursuing a certain ideal, we finally find that the most difficult thing to touch is precisely the loneliness that has been lingering in our hearts.