When Chen Ran returned to the First Research Institute, both of his feet felt weak.
He had been drained all night.
That night, he and Vill-V had both become Bia's material library.
Chen Ran didn't understand why Vill-V suddenly turned into the Conductor, but he knew that the Conductor Vill-V preferred different poses than the original Vill-V.
The newly born Conductor preferred to be more proactive...
He sat in his seat, his mind filled with memories of 'being more proactive', and he couldn't help but feel his nose grow warmer.
Klein spoke lightly, "Good morning, Senior Chen Ran. Did you not rest well last night?"
"I guess you could say that." Chen Ran forced a smile.
At that moment, Chen Ran received a message from Nuwa.
"Thank you, Senior Chen Ran."
The message was accompanied by a selfie of Nuwa.
He couldn't help but feel a bit dazed.
Soon, Chen Ran received another message: "The Schariac serum has been received. My parents are doing well now, out of the danger zone. We'll be able to meet again soon, and I'll give you a big surprise then."
Chen Ran let out a sigh of relief.
Although he didn't know what the surprise Nuwa mentioned was, there was no doubt that the Schariac serum could cure the Honkai disease.
This was a significant breakthrough.
He thought for a moment and sent a message to Nuwa: "Do you have the data?"
"What data?"
"The data on the serum curing the Honkai disease. I need to send it to the Fifth Research Institute."
If the Honkai disease could be completely resolved, then the tragedy that Su encountered would not happen.
Chen Ran wasn't exactly an altruistic person, but this data was indeed necessary to send to others.
After a while, Nuwa sent the data to Chen Ran.
Chen Ran narrowed his eyes slightly and said, "Got it, thanks."
Unexpectedly, Nuwa replied immediately, "I've been asking the professor for a long time. How are you going to thank me?"
He casually responded, "How about I warm your bed?"
"Sure, sure."
Chen Ran: "…"
He directly sent the information about the Schariac serum's ability to control the Honkai disease to Si Paxi.
The director of the Fifth Research Institute, Si Paxi, like Mobius, was a veteran of the Fire Moth.
However, unlike Mobius, who was often feared, Si Paxi was a genuinely good person.
He was a doctor.
The Fifth Research Institute of Fire Moth focused on research related to various Honkai diseases caused by the Honkai.
These studies were not highly valued within Fire Moth, and their actual output value was extremely low. Several times, the higher-ups considered shutting it down, but Si Paxi insisted on continuing this medical research.
All kinds of drug research from the Fifth Research Institute would ultimately be made available to society without charging any patent fees.
This was Si Paxi's insistence.
Chen Ran wasn't very familiar with Si Paxi, but the contact information for each research institute was public, so getting in touch wasn't a problem.
He still had a bit of information related to the Schariac serum, so it wouldn't hurt to hand it over to the Fifth Research Institute.
Chen Ran didn't have the motivation to keep cultivating the Schariac serum; if this could benefit more people, that would be the best outcome.
After taking care of these matters, Chen Ran said to Klein, "I probably won't be able to help with the daily tasks today; my mental state isn't quite right. I'll have to trouble you."
"Oh."
Klein didn't mind.
She was already used to it.
"Thanks for the overtime; I'll treat you to a meal when I get the chance." Chen Ran smiled, then planned to take it easy and rest up.
Once he felt better, he would enter the simulation scene.
Just as he was about to lie down and fall asleep, he saw the door of the First Research Institute open.
"Hi, Dr. Mobius shouldn't be here, right?"
Chen Ran looked over to see Elysia.
Klein's eyes showed curiosity: "If there's something, I can relay it to the doctor."
"Not really, I'm not looking for her, although I do want to find her now. But for now…"
The girl's eyes sparkled with a smile as she looked at Chen Ran and said, "Someone asked me to deliver something to you."
Chen Ran was a bit puzzled: "What is it?"
He saw Elysia smiling as she handed over the item, and Chen Ran's expression changed.
X-10 experimental data.
Just as he was about to ask for more details, Elysia left directly.
…
…
[Welcome, host, to re-enter the unnamed scene.]
[The time in this scene has been rolled back by 1 hour, but due to Sirin's influence, this world is beginning to erase all existence related to Sirin.]
[The system will strive to adjust the balance on the timeline.]
Sirin succeeded.
Relying on the power of the Herrscher of the Void, she found the Imaginary Tree.
Even though Chen Ran's time rolled back by an hour due to his death, it couldn't affect the realm beyond the four-dimensional space.
Sirin was still gone, only existing in everyone's memories.
He observed the surrounding environment and found that he was still in the Far East, not on the moon. And in Chen Ran's pocket, there were still two God-Slaying Spears.
However, Kiana was not by his side.
If the timeline had rolled back by 1 hour, Kiana should have been right next to him.
So, this time, it was actually Sirin who influenced everyone.
"The simulation scenes are getting more and more complicated," he sighed.
After Elysia left the First Research Institute, Chen Ran began to investigate all the content related to the X-10 experiment using internal permissions.
However, he found that he didn't have the authority.
He wanted to seek help from Mobius or Vill-V to delve deeper into this matter. However, to Chen Ran's disappointment, Vill-V also didn't know about it, and Mobius was even more unreachable.
He asked Elysia many questions, but Elysia didn't mention that person at all.
Clearly, Elysia also didn't know that person's identity.
Or rather, she knew but couldn't let Chen Ran find out.
He didn't know what the significance of seeing the X-10 experiment was, but he knew the content involved in the X-10 experiment.
Someone had noticed his secret of traversing time.
Could it be MEI?
He felt quite anxious but couldn't confront anyone.
So, Chen Ran decided to hand this matter over to 666 to investigate while he completed his tasks in the simulation.
As he learned more about the simulation scenes, he began to value this aspect even more.
This was no longer a simple simulation followed by a reward process; what he needed to do was to find the answer closest to the Honkai in the back-and-forth of time.
The greatest benefit of the simulation provided by the system was that it allowed one to view the past from the perspective of the future.
He shook his head, trying to dispel his chaotic thoughts.
However, at that moment, Chen Ran saw a bird flying through the sky, getting closer to him.
Wait, that's not a bird.
By the time Chen Ran realized it, he saw that 'bird' standing right in front of him.
"It's been a while, have you missed me?"
It was Wendy.
He was slightly taken aback: "Aren't you at Schicksal Headquarters?"
Chen Ran remembered that in this simulation scene, Wendy should have had her Herrscher Core taken...
Wait, everything belonging to Sirin had disappeared, which meant the entire world had undergone a tremendous change.
Just like how he had disappeared in the first simulation scene.
Wendy blinked: "I've always been at Saint Freya, just because I sensed your arrival."
The girl linked her arm with his and then touched the God-Slaying Spear in Chen Ran's pocket.
"What's this?"
"The God-Slaying Spear, made from Schariac's blood." He said directly, "It's used to deal with the Herrscher. Want to give it a try?"
Wendy's eyes lit up slightly: "You didn't forget."
Clearly, she misunderstood.
In the first simulation scene, Chen Ran had been running around for Wendy's treatment, but it ended with her becoming a Herrscher.
Wendy thought that would be the end of it, but unexpectedly, Chen Ran still took out the God-Slaying Spear.
He opened his mouth but didn't know what to say.
Could he say this was a weapon to deal with Sirin?
Looking at the smiling Wendy in front of him, Chen Ran found himself unable to speak.
"Um." He took a deep breath and tentatively asked, "By the way, you should still remember Sirin, right?"
Wendy frowned: "Sirin, I remember she disappeared after becoming the Herrscher of the Void 14 years ago."
Chen Ran's expression slightly changed.
Clearly, if the system rolled back time by 1 hour, such a change would not occur.
And even if Sirin collided with the Imaginary Tree, it wouldn't directly alter Wendy's memory.
The only possible explanation was that a high-dimensional existence had directly manipulated the strings of fate.
If this world were likened to a piece of paper for humanity, everything that happened in the world was recorded as text on that paper.
So, what this world has just experienced is the deletion and alteration of text, followed by its re-recording.
He took a deep breath and looked at Wendy: "I have good news and bad news to tell you."
Wendy, still unaware of the seriousness of the situation, smiled: "Then let's hear the good news first."
"The good news is that I have found hope to defeat Finality."
"And the bad news?"
"The bad news is that even if we defeat Finality, we will need to rely on powers from a higher dimension, rather than depending on humanity itself."
If his conjecture was correct.
In this space-time, it was not the power belonging to humanity or Honkai that directly interfered with the operation of this world.
Perhaps it was the 'God' that Sirin saw, or perhaps the 'Will of Honkai' embodied by Prometheus, or perhaps the 'Higher Being' that spoke with Welt, or perhaps the 11 dimensions that Princess Nancy discovered.
Even the system's time-jumping function on him was a feature installed by humanity using powers from a higher dimension.
The existence of higher dimensions might have no interest in the operation of the world, but their occasional leisure could bring both hope and Finality to this fragile world.
As Chen Ran explained, Wendy's previously cheerful expression began to turn serious.
This world had already branched into two paths.
One branch was the world where Sirin was dead, but Cecilia was still alive.
And the other branch was the present: a mixed world that had been directly reset by higher-dimensional powers.
This world, besides being influenced by Sirin, was also interfered with by his system.
Wendy's eyes showed shock: "My Herrscher Core was taken by Sirin and then treated in Schicksal, how could this be..."
Chen Ran sighed.
The situation was worse.
The people affected by the system did not include the Herrscher, so Wendy still retained all her memories of him.
But in this altered world, no one else had any related memories besides him.
He half-jokingly said, "I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Undoubtedly, an existence with such abilities can defeat Finality. But no one knows what its purpose is."
Wendy suddenly hugged Chen Ran tightly: "I'm suddenly so scared. I thought becoming a Herrscher would give me the power to protect you, but now I find I can't do anything."
She believed Chen Ran's words.
But it was precisely because she believed that she felt fear.
If there really existed higher-dimensional individuals who could casually erase a person's existence.
Then this meant that everything she experienced in front of her was very likely a false construct.
Her past could be altered by an unknown existence, and she could no longer be certain whether what she experienced was real.
The so-called Herrscher, in the eyes of higher-dimensional beings, was no different from ordinary people.
If that were the case, did it mean that people had to face even more threats?
Chen Ran also gently patted her back, his thoughts complex.
If higher-dimensional powers intervened.
Then his system and his time travel were not mere coincidences.
After a long while, Wendy asked gloomily: "Where are we going next? What should we do?"
Chen Ran whispered: "Wait."
"I can't think of any proactive way to strike, but I know one thing."
"Honkai will not stop."
Because Honkai will not stop, every time Honkai erupts is a good opportunity for him to observe.
Although the system's simulations had no pattern, Chen Ran found that each simulation revolved around Major Honkai Eruptions.
Every Major Honkai Eruption would give birth to a Herrscher.
And the appearance of each Herrscher meant that Honkai had completed a transformation of some kind of rule.
Chen Ran suddenly thought of something, his pupils slightly constricting.
If Herrscher was actually an individual whose will was manifested by the rules and was then transformed by Honkai, then the answer the system wanted him to find might be the rules themselves.
"Wendy." His voice suddenly became a bit dry: "I want you to help me with something."
"What is it?" Wendy asked curiously.
"Create a Herrscher."
——
Fire Moth, MEI's independent laboratory.
After returning from Chen Ran's side, she had locked herself in the laboratory for two days.
And in these two days, she had only done two things: one was to suppress the side effects on Kevin, and the other was to search for five kinds of parallel truths.
The Dead Sea Scrolls encompass the existence truth among the five kinds of parallel truths, that is, the holy body born of God on earth.
Through various means of disassembly, she discovered that the so-called 'God' was actually Honkai itself.
However, the holy body of 'God' did not belong to Honkai, but to the other side of Honkai.
That is consciousness.
In this world, there exists consciousness other than human consciousness.
The more she studied the Dead Sea Scrolls, the more she could uncover.
The most important of which was undoubtedly the method to directly seal Honkai.
If Honkai was also a transformed consciousness, then sealing Honkai only required relying on a more powerful consciousness to suppress Honkai.
This was the answer MEI found from the all-domain connection.
Within the all-domain connection, Chen Ran told MEI about the Möbius strip.
He said: "The Dead Sea Scrolls did not come from the past, but were born in the future. Yet they appear in the past, thus affecting the future."
This is the simplest form of a Möbius strip.
Chen Ran did not inform her that he could jump through time, but MEI clearly had more thoughts.
If the Dead Sea Scrolls came from the future, then this meant that the resources humans could utilize were beyond imagination.
In addition to the horizontal, including all resources on Earth and countless parallel worlds, it also included the vertical, various resources from the future and the past.
Could this also be part of the five kinds of parallel truths?
MEI was unclear about these, but her thoughts were surging.
If the Dead Sea Scrolls could travel from the future to the past, then, could there also be a way for people to travel from the past to the future?
She thought of the all-domain connection.
The all-domain connection communicates the dimension of consciousness, and dimensional consciousness is not interfered with by time.
Even bolder still—
If the center of the all-domain connection were connected to Honkai, then relying on the flow of Honkai, could they not receive all information related to Honkai?
However, even if they received all information, a special terminal would be needed to process it.
Though it was just a simple brain domain concept, MEI couldn't help but breathe rapidly.
If she really succeeded in creating this, then even if the civilization on this normal timeline faced destruction, humanity would indirectly possess endless time.
She took a deep breath and said to Prometheus: "Help me contact Vill-V, I have a project that needs her evaluation."
"Okay, Doctor."
Prometheus immediately contacted Vill-V.
Soon, it said: "Miss Vill-V said she is free for the time being and can meet in the break area. But she emphasized that any project needs to come with understandable diagrams."
MEI nodded.
She eagerly used paper and pen to record the ideas in her mind.
At that moment, an unexpected guest arrived at the laboratory.
"This should be my first time here since your laboratory was established, right?"
It was Elysia.
The girl in front of her was wearing a maid outfit, smiling brightly.
However, MEI slightly furrowed her brows.
"Is there something you need?"
She wasn't very familiar with Elysia, but she knew that this girl, who called herself as beautiful as flying flowers, had a good relationship with Kevin. So MEI wouldn't chase her away.
Elysia smiled: "Well, I just happened to pass by and suddenly saw this place, so I came in."
The girl looked at the doctor in front of her and said: "Dr. MEI, how about we chat for a bit?"
MEI replied flatly: "I'm not interested in chatting."
"What about the all-domain connection?"
Elysia blinked.
MEI's pupils slightly constricted, then she calmed down: "Did Chen Ran tell you?"
"Not really." The girl pointed to her brain: "I just have other channels."
Elysia still wore a smile: "I wanted to ask you for a favor."
"Could you let Chen Ran leave Fire Moth, please?"
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