I don’t know why, every time I try to describe the character of Na Ke Xia, I always think of a certain melody – it is not intense, but there is a deep sense of loneliness. This sense of loneliness, like those inconspicuous music, quietly runs through my life. Maybe you will say that this is just a character in the game and has nothing to do with us. However, if you think about it carefully, the fate of this character may have some indescribable similarities with each of us, especially me.
Na Ke Xia, he is not as brave and fearless as those heroic characters, nor as strong and evil as the villains. He is more like a young man lost in a big city, tired of the endless pursuit, but unable to stop. His light cone, his breakthrough, every step seems to be looking for some meaning, looking for his own direction. However, whether this direction can really let him find relief in the end, I don’t know.
1. The trajectory of the light cone – even if there is a lot of fog ahead
Have you ever felt this way? On a lonely night, you sit in the corner of a coffee shop, drinking cold coffee and listening to people discussing things you don’t understand at all. You know very well that you are just a passer-by in this city, and no matter how hard you try, you can’t really fit in. That seems to be the fate of Xia Kexia. His breakthrough, his light cone, and all his pursuits are full of some specious emotions.
Every light cone seems to be telling him that there is light ahead. But he knows that behind the light, there is a deeper darkness. The name of the light cone is “Life should be burned”, which seems to have doomed him to have no complete freedom. Just like the lonely characters in Haruki Murakami’s works, there is always a fog in their hearts. Although they are always trying to find an exit, the exit seems to be always far away. Every step forward is full of uncertainty and helplessness.
2. Behind the breakthrough-endless self-sacrifice
Can you imagine? A character, who is constantly breaking through in order to become stronger, is also constantly losing himself. Na Ke Xia needed materials and resources, like an endless collector, running around in this virtual world. To break through, he had to go through every node from “Ethereal Omen” to “Eternal Elegy”, and every breakthrough symbolized a self-sacrifice. You may regard it as a kind of growth, but I prefer to regard it as a process of “gradual disappearance”.
Sometimes I think that Na Ke Xia’s breakthrough is very similar to some moments I have experienced. You try to survive in this city, do better and better, and seem to have more “light”, but the emptiness and loneliness in your heart are getting worse. Just like the characters in Haruki Murakami’s works, they lost themselves unknowingly on the way to pursuing their dreams and goals. Na Ke Xia’s breakthrough may not make him stronger in the end, but make him more confused and empty. All the materials and all the power can’t fill the void in his heart in the end.
3. Loneliness and wandering-an inescapable fate
Nake Xia has no friends. His world is filled with only materials and breakthroughs, lonely and silent. Every breakthrough, every upgrade, is like walking on a road with no end in sight. You can see his figure moving forward, but you can never be sure where he is going.
I always feel that the most fascinating thing about Haruki Murakami’s novels is the loneliness of those characters. Even if there are many people around them, in the end, they are still lonely. They seem to be isolated from the world, and this loneliness is their inescapable fate. Na Kexia is very similar to these characters. His breakthroughs, his light cones, and his traces seem to pave a path for him to be lonely. He never stopped because he knew that once he stopped, he would be abandoned. However, he kept walking towards the distance, but he never found his true home.
4. The choice of fate – a choice that cannot be turned back
Have you ever had such a moment: standing at the crossroads of life, facing countless choices, but still not knowing which one to take. Na Kexia is such a person. Every breakthrough he makes seems to be a choice that cannot be turned back. Behind every breakthrough, there is a deep anxiety – why is he going on? Is it for strength, or to escape the loneliness that is everywhere?
This reminds me of Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Forest, where the protagonist Watanabe loses himself in constant choices, and finally, he has to face the inescapable loneliness. The same is true for Na Ke Xia. Every choice he makes is full of regrets and uncertainties, but he still has to go on. Perhaps, on this endless road, the only thing that can be given to him is the silent persistence and loneliness.
V. Summary – Finding meaning in nothingness
The story of Na Ke Xia carries a deep sense of nothingness. Every breakthrough seems to be looking for a more distant goal, and this goal can never be achieved. As Haruki Murakami said, life is like a long journey, with many people and things along the way, but in the end everyone has to face his loneliness alone.
What can the power he pursues bring him? Is it freedom, or deeper imprisonment? Can all the materials and light cones he collected eventually let him find his true self? In the virtual world of “Honkai Impact 3”, his story is like our life, full of confusion and uncertainty, but some people still insist on going on, because perhaps the only thing they can do is to keep going.