Who would have thought, who would have thought?
What was supposed to be a transitional interlude turned out to be the longest volume of this book, both in terms of time and length. This volume was unprecedentedly long.
I believe this volume has been a form of torture for everyone who has been following the book. Long periods of hiatus, irregular updates, to the point where my occasional update of two chapters could make a bunch of people exclaim, "Is this heaven?"
It even evolved into caring remarks like "take care of your health" when I posted two chapters.
Look what you've all been trained into. For a hiatus-prone author, you should be using all your life's learning to humiliate them mercilessly!
Of course, first and foremost, I'm not a masochist.
But before I start answering questions, please allow me to make some excuses for why I had this hiatus-like situation in this interlude.
First, the first reason—I was elbowed by a demon named laziness for several months.
Wow, it turns out that not updating is so relaxing, it turns out that not having to think about logic is so happy! It turns out that not having to find ways to explain my plot is so comfortable.
As long as I give up the full attendance award, I am invincible!
This is why I dare not speak, because I really have a problem. It's not right for someone who has made a mistake to turn around and blame others for urging them, right? That's a bit inhuman.
No update is no update, so I'll take it. It's only right to take a beating when you're in the wrong, and that shouldn't just be the Kaslana's code of conduct.
So why did I have the thought that "it's so cool not to update"? What was the reason I didn't update in the first place?
First, I didn't know how to write the interlude, because in my original plan, there was no related plot for this interlude.
I didn't plan to solve Shu's psychological problems here. The subsequent treatment is already very complete and very important, and cannot be replaced.
I also originally planned to reveal the situation of Future City in the Future City arc. Even if I don't say anything here, it won't affect anything.
And Bianka learning to use [Hope], Theresa mastering Judah as a true Divine Key, Bronya becoming the commander of Noah's Ark, and the impact of Shu losing his childhood.
It's actually fine whether I write these or not, because I've already shown them in the previous plot. It's not a problem to write them directly in the subsequent plot.
When I was writing the preview, I originally planned to let Shu really unload all his burdens, experience some humanistic care in the Fire Moth, and have four or five chapters of daily life with Kiana and the others.
But after writing two chapters, I found that Shu's current state is really not suitable for that kind of daily life. I consulted a daily life author, and normal daily life should be playful or lovey-dovey.
And Shu is obviously not suitable for the lovey-dovey route, so it can only be playful.
But... Shu is also not suitable for being playful.
You can see from the Mount Creation, in this kind of group activity, Shu has always positioned himself as an "outsider," with a sense of alienation that is difficult to integrate into the group.
The reason is actually very simple. For Shu, there are several people on the scene that he is not very familiar with.
For example, Rita, for example, Ana. And besides Kiana, Mei, Bronya, and Sirin, the others are not very familiar to Shu, only to the extent of having communicated and being able to speak normally.
So in such a large circle of people, in order to maintain his image and not let others misunderstand him, Shu will almost inevitably choose to "do nothing."
The most important thing is that the option of "squatting in a corner and playing on his phone engrossedly" was banned by the Honkai, so Shu can only be in a daze.
In this case, if you want Shu to participate in a playful situation, either the activity has to be centered around him, or...
You have to wait for Kiana or someone else to keep dragging him to participate in everything.
But that would seem too deliberate, so why not be deliberate from the beginning?
Anyway, the daily life was originally a stage you guys fought for to let Shu relax, right? Then just lay out the problem and let everyone revolve around him.
But just playing games doesn't seem to have any substantial effect, right? Playing those popular conventional games feels wrong. The only mass entertainment in the Fire Moth at present is the idol election.
You're not going to have Kiana and the others take Shu to play this, are you?
What do you mean our respected number one on the idol list, "Captain," personally came down to hold a support sign to canvass for the number four, "Finality"?
Where do you put our number two, "Azure Empyrea," and number three, "Violet Flower"? You damn Fire Moth traitor!
Then it seems there is only one result!
Just for the sake of the Fire Moth, Kiana, you guys pull Shu along and form a band for a lifetime!
Sigh! I've already planned the storyline. Shu, you first get a recommendation letter from Otto to enroll in St. Freya Academy, then find a landlord with the surname Zhi and rent his school district house, and then wait for Kiana to come and pick you up...
Forget it, you guys should just go and fight him. At least you can tell him about your growth, let him be gratified, and at the same time, let him share some of the pressure with peace of mind.
By the way...
For those who can't understand these most basic default developments, take a good look at what kind of situation Shu is in now.
Although for some reason, in the following chapters, how strong Shu's combat power is is no longer important, but the related setting of Shu's "childlike innocence" is very important.
So I think it's very necessary for you to understand in advance what kind of problem Shu has, so that you don't still think that Shu is just simply inferior, withdrawn, or even socially anxious.
I've actually already talked about the stages of a person's life in the previous "Dream" arc: cognition, change, acceptance, elimination.
And the so-called "childlike innocence" is actually a fallacy born from a person's wrong cognition of the world in the cognitive stage. So people begin to try to transform the world along this fallacy based on their own imagination.
And Shu has lost his "childlike innocence," which means that all of Shu's subsequent actions and cognitions will be forcibly associated with "correctness."
He will only do the most "correct" things, he will only choose the most "correct" path, but he is not an omniscient and omnipotent god. He clearly knows that he has cognitive "blind spots."
So out of the pursuit of "absolute correctness," Shu began to be timid and afraid to do anything, but he had to do it. So Shu, who was forced to make a choice, would focus all his attention on every choice he made.
And then collapse at the moment of failure.
The world is a shoddy operation. This was the idea that everyone wanted to instill in Shu in the early part of this volume, to make him dare to make mistakes, to not have so much psychological pressure.
But the answer Shu gave was refusal. He couldn't accept any failure, because from a young age, all his mistakes and errors would lead to "the sky falling." So he had a choice-making difficulty, and always had.
This is also why Shu's attitude towards Otto is unique, even more relaxed than when he is with Kiana and the others.
Because the battle against Evolution let Shu experience the importance of an external brain. He only needed to follow the script to reach the perfect ending. He really liked this state of not needing to use his own brain, and more importantly, not needing to bear the final responsibility!
Otto also realized this, so in the end, after Otto found that his attempts were not very effective, he chose to directly go all out with Shu.
If you don't want to be the big brother, then I will, right? Sigh, I, Otto, will just be a treacherous minister. I will observe your words and expressions, I will be a master of micro-expression analysis, just to see what options you like.
I will help you make the decisions you like. I can't cure your past trauma, but I can't cure your future life?
You little brat who only knows how to cry, just obediently walk towards the ending you like!
No, I can't see this kid Shu smiling so happily. I have to find a way to separate Shu and Otto again. This combination is a bit invincible.
You kid, if you have the ability, find me another external brain.
Alright, here is the first question.
[How heaven-defying is Future City?]
Hehe, quite heaven-defying. Do you guys think that the young Imaginary Tree is the limit of Future City?
Of course not! None of the three wonders of Future City are undeserved. Joyce being elbowed into Joyce by Sirin is only because Dream has a four-fold special attack on Future City. It is the strictest mother of Future City.
It's not just the Anti-Entropy and Schicksal from the original work that are concentrated there. It is the real moment when the stars of mankind shine, from philosophy to technology, from art to politics. All the famous people you can think of are there, and they are free from aging and death because of that place.
Of course, the greatest achievement of Future City is not the three wonders, but that they "recruited" Joyce by accident.
So the most heaven-defying thing in Future City is actually Joyce. It can be said that the three wonders were all dragged along by Joyce alone with the entire project team.
So the situation is urgent, let's kill the traitor Joyce!
Second question: Are you suppressing Shu's combat power again?
To be honest, I'm really speechless about this question. I don't know if you guys have been influenced by the unreasonable box-stacking in the debate circle, or if you've been poisoned by their ideology of stepping on others for the sake of stepping on them.
If a person is powerful, does he have to step on the other side into the mud, make all his means ineffective, make all his abilities useless, and make all possible clearance routes non-existent?
I've said in the previous chapters that an individual's combat power must consider its upper limit, the so-called "calculating every move," so that every bit of damage is just right to wear down the opponent's health, and all your actions have meaning.
This is the most basic "bringing your own abilities to the extreme," or in layman's terms, giving yourself a buff.
And the advanced version is called "making you unable to use any of your abilities."
The manifestation of this layer is usually "hostage-taking," "psychological attack," "field suppression," "flipping the chessboard," "my dad is Li Gang," and so on, to suppress the opponent and prevent them from using their full strength.
This is the most common means in a battle, also known as "exploiting weaknesses," to keep yourself at your peak and prevent the opponent from, or even dare not, go all out.
And what exactly is the mechanism?
It's that no matter how big the card in your hand is, this card of mine can definitely eat your card, and this card is actually pitifully small to me.
What, you want to trade your superior horse for my inferior horse?
And Shu is an extreme correctness-oriented person. He doesn't dare to use abilities that he has never used, doesn't understand, and at most only exist in his imagination, not only because he is afraid of hurting Kiana, but also because he is afraid that this ability will not have the effect it should have.
And Binding is actually a very insidious thing. The idea you guys mentioned of letting Shu reduce the number of members first is perfectly countered by Binding. After connecting everyone together, Shu has actually been in a "Hollywood-style brawl" with a whole.
The authority of the three complete cores is always in front of Shu, and they are trying to silence him with the advantage of authority in the way of Domination (Evolution is still evolving).
It's Shu who is unreasonably and forcefully continuing to exert his power while being silenced by the authority of the three cores.
You should be asking "when will this spinning Shu be sealed."
Not "why can they just jump around and team up to elbow that red guard to death?"
Third question: Why do these few chapters feel so watery? Why do you have to explain things that can be explained in one chapter in so many chapters?
What are you talking about? (Sasuke's fish-eye perspective.JPG)
If these things can really be explained in one chapter, then why have I received so many questions after explaining them in detail in so many chapters?
You all say that my writing is not bad, but in fact, I just explained what the characters are going to do to you, from motivation to reason, from development to result, from the character's expectation to the reality...
I just showed you what should have been there. I was even worried that you would criticize me for only writing seriously in some places where I don't need to talk about logic but only about feelings.
And the result... you can give this kind of evaluation? What on earth have you eaten to say that my writing is not bad? If I suddenly get possessed by the god of literature and write a paragraph, you guys won't have a seizure, right?
Fourth question: When will Kiana and Shu get married and give Bianka a complete childhood?
Good question. As a reward, you guys who want to see a sixteen-year-old girl fall in love and even get married will be divided into five groups to attack Future City.
Sixteen is the time to study hard. When Kiana gets a perfect score, she will be allowed to fall in love. It's settled.
See, isn't Mei also tutoring Kiana's homework?
(TL/N: In short, the author means "Not for a very, very, very long time." The romance is super slow—perhaps post-Honkai—but with the author tormenting Shu, I doubt it will have a super happy ending. I can already see it: if Shu doesn't die first, Kiana will, or they'll get a Simon & Nia ending or i have many vision here. Alas, I've probably jinxed it, but I can't help it since the author is so cruel toward Shu.)
Fifth question: Send me a copy of the Mount Creation rules.
Brother, you have to know that on this continent of China, there is something that can be exchanged for a peanut if it exceeds fifty grams.
So why don't you just eat peanuts?
...I'm talking about alcohol. If you think of that other thing, that's fine too. The effect is similar, but the peanuts are different.
Sixth question: How overpowered is Finality?
Hehehehe...
In terms of strength, you guys can rest assured hehehe...
Finality will definitely be so overpowered that Shu can jump up and elbow me hehehehehe...
...
...
What are you waiting for? The main theme of this volume? What main theme is there in an interlude?
Just look at the preview for the next volume.
—
[Next Volume Preview]
[...When I close my eyes, there is slaughter and wailing around me. The torn personality lingers by my side.
And when I open my eyes, everything will return to the morning, to twelve hours ago, when I just got up, the sun shines through the clouds, casting its rays on the Pearl of Sapphire.
Then, I will forget everything, and watch as everyone begins to transform into monsters in my song...
I will still close my eyes, and then open them again...]
["Father, can a person's dream... really override everything?"
"Heh... you know? Everything about mankind is constructed from objective matter, but what fills this body is dreams.
"Himeko, if a person loses their dreams, then they are already dead in this quagmire called 'society'."]
["Master, leave this to us."
"Ah... a monster that can melt steel and ignite everything, it sounds terrifying just to hear about it."
"Hmph, even with such a monster, I don't think we will lose."
"Draw your sword, that's all."
"Don't underestimate the enemy. Master said that we have lost before."
"Pah pah pah! We will definitely win!"
"Master... please take care of Sushang... please tell her... mother will always be proud of her."]
["Thank you, thank you so much for finding my little sister!"
"Hahaha, such a small child wearing a hospital gown, I just felt that something was wrong."
"Benefactor, may I know your name?"
"Hmm... just call me Kallen."
"I am Yae Sakura. If benefactor needs my help with anything, I will do my best!"]
["Joachim, you have disturbed public order, used violence in law enforcement, abused lynching, and guided public opinion. You are under arrest! Surrender quickly!"
"Hmph hmph... you want to catch me, Arahato Zero? You're twenty thousand years too early!"]
["Brother..."
"...Natasha? Why are you here? You're not supposed to be... wait, why are you looking at me like that? It's as if we don't know each other at all..."
"...Phew... no need to pretend, Herrscher. Thank you for letting me see my brother again, but I really can't accept a brand new soul pretending to be my brother."]
["...we only have twelve hours? That's not even enough time for public opinion to ferment."
"Then we'll let the whole city hear it!"
"You mean..."
"Your concert!"]
["Everyone, tonight, I'm going to run away!"]