Jakob told Rene his idea.
After hesitating repeatedly, Rene agreed to give it a try.
However, all the pros and cons had to be clearly explained to Carter.
It was his life, and he must judge for himself.
When Carter was finally able to get out of bed,
Rene and Jakob invited him to the laboratory.
Jakob told Carter everything and demonstrated his own power and changes.
Rene explained the risks involved, its historical baggage,
and his own goal: to produce a second sample that could prove the feasibility of human transcendence through the abyss,
and from it extract commonalities and methods.
In truth, Carter's thinking could hardly keep up with the geniuses' ideas.
The two used many examples before explaining it clearly.
But none of that mattered. Before coming, Carter had already made up his mind —
Rather than wait for death, it was better to try.
——————
The experiment reached a deadlock.
Jakob's successful fusion was an extremely rare case.
Under the influence of abyssal power, Carter's body rapidly collapsed. Soon he could no longer maintain a human form.
Rene endured all his emotions and continued the observation.
He could not let Carter appear in vain, otherwise everything would be meaningless.
He gathered many materials to try to reverse Carter's condition.
These included demonic god remnants and various relics and biological tissues left behind by disasters.
But the results were minimal…
These failures were obvious.
Because Rene also understood that the abyss could distort and corrupt the elemental power of gods.
It stood at a higher level than the other rules of Teyvat.
Now the only thing he could do was preserve "Carter" to prevent further organizational collapse.
"Carter" was still alive and would even occasionally make sounds.
Perhaps news of this reached Alain's ears.
The two broke off their relationship.
This failure not only caused Rene to lose two friends, but also proved to him that the plan for human transcendence was unfeasible.
Afterward, while discussing with Jakob, Rene thought of a new plan.
As for Alain, he moved to a new laboratory.
Because that assistant was no longer there, there was no need to worry about him not being able to find the way…
[This development is too cruel]
[It's starting to feel oppressive]
[The brave and the evil dragon begin to go their separate ways]
Rene and Jakob once again came to Petrichor Town for investigation.
Inside the ruins they had explored last time, they discovered that the ancients had once conducted research related to souls here.
Rene once again received inspiration.
When he obtained the world formula, he had verified it many times, but each time he could only arrive at the result of the apocalypse.
Unless a new variable was introduced.
This time, he decided to become that variable himself —
Extracting the consciousness of all Fontaine people and taking control of them.
In this way, he could complete the sublimation of his position and become a powerful will capable of rivaling the world.
That way, when the apocalypse arrived, those who were dissolved could exist forever within Rene's consciousness.
[But in that case, would I still be me?]
[That is not the question he is considering]
——————
When Mu Yang reached this part, he also paused for a moment.
He thought about this question. If everyone's consciousness dissolved together, would there still be a part that belonged to oneself?
It felt very difficult. One could tell just from looking at the trial of Vacher by the people of the Court of Fontaine.
They still retained their own hatred, but it was hard to say they were still themselves.
Then what if the holy sword was used to separate someone's consciousness?
Would that person still be their original self?
Mu Yang also found this matter a bit hard to understand.
After all, after being stripped away by the holy sword until the end, Rene had returned to his original state.
But was that really himself?
He had never once said that he was called Rene.
Mu Yang glanced at the comment section. One comment said that Rene's approach was no different from the end of the world.
What Mu Yang thought was that it was not so.
Rene's approach guaranteed the continuation of life.
What he cared about was not the destruction of the world itself, but that after this destruction, the world would no longer recover its vitality as usual.
After all, the Primordial Sea water that nurtured life was gone.
Because the world had lost the possibility of regeneration, Rene cared about this apocalypse.
By merging all consciousness into himself, he could guarantee the continuation of the entire civilization.
That was his ultimate goal.
Not simply to fight against the apocalypse or the whale.
Mu Yang posted this comment in the comment section and then continued watching the video…
——————
Rene's idea was very bold.
He himself even said it was anti-intellectual and counter-intuitive.
But someone had succeeded before, so he felt it was worth trying.
Next, he needed to find a method to extract human consciousness and a means to control these consciousnesses.
He began executing this plan northward. He and Jakob returned to the Narzissenkreuz Institute.
This place had long been submerged by water. Apart from Director Lyris, there was nothing else.
Lyris was very happy that the children had actually come back to see her.
Ever since the disaster, she had been wandering here, hoping that one day the children would return.
Mary-Ann had come before, and she had been very happy.
[I know about this one. She came together with Seymour]
In contrast, this scene made Rene's heart very sad.
He thought that in the future, when he had time, he would come to see her more often.
Perhaps he could build a new home and bring her over to live together.
Later on, this was no longer just a simple idea.
He had to take Lyris away.
After all, extracting human consciousness required the help of an Oceanid.
At that time in Fontaine, Egeria had already fallen, and the pollution from Elynas had not yet been eliminated.
Primitive Oceanids had not appeared for a very long time.
[At this moment, a certain little cutie is at the bottom of the sea thinking about how to deal with the prophecy]
[Focalors uwu]
While visiting the director, Rene also discovered that the Narzissenkreuz Institute where he once lived might have been an institution for soul research in ancient times.
Here, perhaps he could find useful information.
This visit ended quickly.
Before leaving, Jakob left behind the feather that the vice director had given him.
He had always carefully kept it before.
"In the end, we never used this feather as a magic staff to play any games…"
[Don't suddenly start getting sentimental, hey]
[A knife out of nowhere]
[The vice director really liked it. Can't she be revived? Something like a ghost captain would also be fine]
After a period of research and investigation going back and forth to the Narzissenkreuz Institute,
Rene finally found the method that could unify all wills —
The holy sword.