This icebreaker meeting—defined as one that would decide the very survival of human civilization—was drawing to a close amid an almost frenzied academic atmosphere.
Beneath the immense shadow of the Wotan mecha, the several hastily erected whiteboards had already been scrawled black with all manner of chaotic, even mutually contradictory formulas.
Tesla was so worked up she could hardly contain herself, her red twin ponytails whipping wildly through the air along with each stroke of her marker.
"Mobius! This design of yours is nothing short of criminal negligence with human lives!" Tesla slammed her marker down hard on the console, its plastic casing cracking apart with a sharp snap. "Miniaturizing a fusion reactor and embedding it directly into the biological conductive nerves? Do you think those Valkyries are just blocks of iron that can't feel pain?"
"Blocks of iron?" Mobius sneered coldly, her green serpentine eyes brimming with mockery for such a feeble notion.
She leaned against the edge of the control console, fingers toying with a precision gear she had just removed.
"In the face of a catastrophe that devastating, a redundant survival mechanism like the sense of pain should have been discarded long ago. As long as it can tear those Herrschers to shreds, so what if you turn yourself into a monster?"
Einstein took no part in this fruitless quarrel.
She stood quietly to one side, fingers tapping rapidly at her terminal, swiftly stripping out and reassembling the points of their argument that actually held practical merit.
"About the staffing." Mobius tossed the gear carelessly into the parts box, drawing out a crisp clink.
She turned her head, her gaze sweeping over Bronie in the holographic projection.
"Research and development on this scale—relying on the brain capacity of just the few of us, the progress is too slow. That woman named Mei, her mind's decent enough. Bring her in."
Mobius then looked toward Tesla and Einstein.
"As for those old fogeys you two got to know back on the Mu Continent—Planck, Schrödinger... as long as their brains haven't rotted through completely, drag every last one of them over here."
Tesla irritably ruffled her hair, then blew out a breath through her nostrils.
"I don't need you, you madwoman, to remind me. With these Hephaestus blueprints in hand..."
Tesla's gaze was glued to that light-screen radiating a faint blue glow, undisguised fanaticism burning in her eyes.
"Never mind that Honkai invasion that sounds like some tall tale. Just leak these people the tiniest scrap of this energy-conversion technology, and even if you put a gun to their heads, those fellows would absolutely latch on and refuse to let go, like sharks that have caught the scent of blood."
The non-disclosure agreement was the bottom line of every discussion.
In this present moment, while this world still basked in the sunlight of peace, spreading the news that "the apocalypse is coming" would only shatter the existing order even faster than the Honkai itself.
On this point, everyone present understood perfectly well.
Eden stood a little farther off.
She lifted her cup and drained the black tea, which had long since gone cold, in one gulp.
This superstar, so accustomed to the storms of the world of fame and fortune, felt no aversion to this kind of madness that burned for some lofty goal.
She had even begun to calculate in her mind which top-tier precision-instrument manufacturers she ought to acquire to sustain the consumption of these lunatics.
As the various tasks were forcibly parceled out, Welt—who had originally stood at the center of the circle—suddenly found himself reduced to a superfluous presence.
He watched Tesla and Mobius arguing until their faces were flushed red over energy-conduction efficiency, and wanted to put in a word.
"Regarding the secondary buffering of the energy threshold..."
"Joachim, you're standing there blocking the heat-dissipation vent." Tesla didn't even turn her head, simply nudging him aside with her elbow. "The mathematical models here are already well beyond your blind spots of knowledge. Don't get in the way."
Welt opened his mouth, but the theories that had circled to the tip of his tongue could, in the end, only be swallowed back down.
As the former Herrscher of Reason, he possessed the ability to replicate any technological creation.
But when it came to creation from nothing and to those cutting-edge, extreme frontiers of physics research, he truly could not be mentioned in the same breath as these monsters standing at the very summit of this world.
For these past ten years, he had been the sole one giving orders in this underground base.
And now, he had been mercilessly kicked out of the core R&D circle.
"Doesn't that game project still need a huge amount of story to fill it out?" Tesla didn't so much as lift an eyelid, continuing to pour out formulas frantically on the whiteboard. "All that garbage you've got packed in your head about fighting the Honkai—it'll do nicely as a ready-made script. Go over there and put your leftover heat to use."
Welt took two steps back, the eyes behind his lenses widening slightly.
He looked at the blueprints scattered across the floor, at Tesla's red hair that was practically about to give off smoke, at that colossal ruined steel body that, in the gloom, had finally been given the hope of awakening.
This feeling of being pushed out, of being marginalized, far from angering him, instead made the corners of his mouth curve involuntarily upward.
Over these long ten years spent utterly alone, without a single kin, treated as a madman, he could at last completely set down that burden that had weighed a thousand pounds.
The meeting ended, and one after another, everyone dispersed.
The searchlights of the underground hangar went out one by one, leaving only a few dim safety indicator lamps.
The fluorescence of the light-screen flickered in the darkened corner.
[Ding! A major plot-node branch has been detected.]
[Congratulations, Host, on unlocking the Tarot Bond: 'The Devil'—Mobius!]
[Congratulations, Host, on unlocking the Tarot Bond: 'The Hermit'—Welt Yang!]
Before Su Yu could even take in the bond rewards, another streak of purple radiance swept across the entire System panel.
[The System has detected that the Host has gathered multiple members of overlapping factions. Bond card expansion upgrade initiated!]
[The 'The Hermit' card has been expanded into the 'Anti-Entropy Research Hub'! This bond no longer represents Welt Yang alone; it has now brought Tesla, Einstein, and future potential members such as Planck and other Counterparts into its settlement scope!]
[This team bond no longer provides game-production bonuses.]
[Team Unique Passive: 'R&D Acceleration for Anti-Honkai Armaments'! The development speed of all physical weapons and energy armor designed to combat the Honkai is increased by 500%!]
Immediately after, the crisp sound of item drops rang out in Su Yu's mind.
[A community grand bond has been detected. Distributing the faction's first-establishment reward: 'Broad-Spectrum Honkai Energy Resistance Serum (Perfect Improved Version)' ×100,000 doses! Along with one complete production formula.]
[System Notice: As the Research Hub's level rises, strategic-tier defensive installations such as the 'Regional Honkai Energy Suppression Field' will be unlocked one after another in the future. Please look forward to it!]
Su Yu looked at the serum stacked neatly in the System's storage space, his heart pounding wildly.
This was a get-out-of-death-free card.
With this serum, once the Honkai truly erupted in the city, those ordinary people with no power to resist would have hope of surviving!
Su Yu raised his head and looked at this cluster of top-tier minds arguing themselves red in the face over a single blueprint.
Off to the side, Eden was smiling as she signed a blank check.
Within the holographic projection, Hack Bunny blew bubbles while adjusting the model's structure.
Sirin stared awkwardly at the blueprints, lost in thought.
And Welt Yang, this former guardian of the world, stood amid the clamor of the crowd.
He quietly turned around and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Ten years of loneliness and despair, in this very moment, had at last transformed into a spark fierce enough to set the plains ablaze.
Place your faith in this group of the most brilliant stars in human history.
No matter which world they found themselves in, no matter what desperate straits they faced, they would forever be the torches that lit up the night.
This meeting went on all the way into the evening.
The night wind swept across the streets of Arc City's CBD.
The elevator doors slid open, and Su Yu led Sirin out of the Anti-Entropy Entertainment tower.
All around were flickering neon signs, and ordinary people coming and going, enjoying the nightlife of summer.
That fervent meeting that concerned humanity's survival, held a hundred and twenty meters underground just moments ago, felt like nothing but an unreal dream.
Welt had not revealed the fact that "Kiana" was now Sirin, and Mobius, that woman, had clearly already immersed herself entirely in her fanaticism for otherworldly technology—she wouldn't waste her time idly wagging her tongue either.
The plan of having her play Kiana had to continue.
Su Yu noticed that Sirin had scarcely spoken this whole time. Although she was still in a weakened state right now, that was only relative to himself.
If this little tyrant happened to take offense, one sudden violent outburst and someone could get hurt—although she claimed she would abide by the agreement, a precautionary shot still needed to be given.
Su Yu came to a stop.
"Sirin." He turned his head to look at the silent white-haired girl beside him. "About how to fight the Honkai—do you have any good suggestions?"
Sirin halted abruptly, her golden eyes going wide in an instant.
She seemed to have heard the funniest joke in the whole universe. Her arms immediately crossed over her chest, her chin lifted high, and she fixed Su Yu with a look one might give a complete idiot.
"Is your brain broken?" Sirin raised her voice. "I am the very incarnation of the Honkai! I am the Herrscher of the Void! And you actually ask me how to deal with the Honkai?"
Su Yu slid his hands into his trouser pockets.
"If this world really is destroyed." He looked into Sirin's eyes. "That would also mean you can never return to that world again."
The girl's pupils contracted violently.
She clenched her teeth, turned her face aside, and no longer looked at Su Yu's utterly defenseless face.
"So what? You want me to help you humans? Dream on. If you had been through the things I've been through—" Sirin's voice turned somewhat cold. "I don't think you'd still be able to stand here so shamelessly, smiling and forgiving your fellow humans."
"Perhaps that really is so."
Su Yu let his words come out slowly.
"I won't say anything about trying to understand you. I've never experienced the pain you went through in that laboratory, and there's a great deal I have no right to pass judgment on."
He took a step forward, blocking the night wind blowing in from the side.
"But at the very least, the people of this peaceful world bear you no ill will. Whether it's me, or those people down in the basement just now—isn't that true?"
Sirin's body stiffened for a moment.
Through her mind flashed the sight of those scientific lunatics calculating madly to find a new energy source for her and this body, and that woman called Eden, so lavishly and without hesitation promising to cover every cost.
In the way they looked at her, there was none of the fear humans held toward Herrschers—only the light of seeing her as "hope."
Of course, there was also that green-haired madwoman frantically swallowing her drool, itching to strap her down and dissect her.
But Su Yu would always cut in at just the right moment, separating her from Mobius.
He was exactly like an old ox guarding its calf.
"I have no experience in this area either." She answered in a muffled voice. "This world's level of technology can't compare to Schicksal, nor to the Anti-Entropy of that world. Those Titans that humans take such pride in can, at most, only deal with a few small fry."
"If what comes to this world really is a Herrscher, you'll all die."
As she said this, she surprisingly wore no mockery or ridicule—only the calm indifference of stating a fact.
"Indeed."
Su Yu did not argue. He was perhaps, aside from Old Yang, Sirin, and Fenghuang, the one who best understood what a "Herrscher" represented.
"But that's only how things stand for now, isn't it?"
Su Yu smiled, his face nonetheless brimming with confidence in this world's top scholars.
"Don't underestimate the wisdom of humanity."
For no particular reason, into Sirin's mind came the memory of that Welt Yang, who had challenged her in the name of humanity.
He truly was an opponent worthy of praise—even if Sirin was unwilling to admit it, she had indeed been utterly captured by Welt.
The strength of humanity was not so feeble and fragile as imagined—this too was something Sirin didn't want to admit, yet it was the truth.
No matter how much she refused to admit it, that woman who burned away everything of herself, clad in crimson-red battle armor, had truly, with a human body, defeated her, and had snatched back that cowardly, timid little Paramecium.
"So?"
"So I think these people are all important figures protecting this world—they're also our foundation in this world. Even if they might be a little neurotic, and speak in some rather strange ways, and who knows when they might offend Her Majesty the Queen—"
Su Yu threw out his true purpose.
"But I believe the great Lady Sirin wouldn't stoop to squabbling with these subordinates, would she?"
"You don't need to keep reminding me every single moment!" Sirin deliberately pitched her voice higher. "I said I'll keep my promise to you! Besides, the humans of this world are far too weak—I could crush them with a single finger. I have no interest in bullying these ants!"
Looking at Her Majesty the Queen before him, who might as well have written the word "tsundere" across her face, Su Yu couldn't hold back and let out a soft laugh.
"Yes, yes, yes. Then, to celebrate the honorable Lady Sirin's magnanimity in sparing us ants—shall we go get something to drink to celebrate?"
This trick of stroking her fur the right way proved effective indeed.
The atmosphere, tense as a drawn bow just moments ago, instantly dissolved into thin air.
The killing intent in Sirin's golden eyes faded away completely, and faintly, even a certain glimmer of anticipation began to sparkle within them.
She blurted out her answer without hesitation, without so much as a pause to think.
"Strawberry milkshake! An extra-large cup! Full sugar!"
Watching her air of righteous entitlement, Su Yu couldn't help but let the corner of his mouth twitch a couple of times.
"That's fine, sure, but drinking that kind of calorie bomb late at night—are you certain you won't get fat?"
"Who do you think I am?!"
Sirin's fur immediately bristled. She raised a finger, nearly jabbing it right against the tip of Su Yu's nose.
"I am a deity! Do not lump me together with you foolish humans who get troubled by carbohydrates! Do not underestimate a deity's stomach!"
"Yes, yes, yes."
Su Yu pressed his key, and the little electric scooter chirped twice. He climbed on and patted the rear seat.
"Hop on."
Sirin gave a "hmph," said nothing more, and climbed onto the back seat with practiced ease, quite naturally grabbing hold of Su Yu's waist.
"Hold on tight."
"I don't need you to tell me."
The little electric scooter started up and merged into a stream of dazzling, multicolored traffic.
The Honkai would come.
Not today, not tomorrow, but sooner or later it would come.
But at least in this moment, he needed to consider only one thing—namely, how to fill the stomach of this "Her Majesty the Queen" riding behind him with a strawberry milkshake.
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