Still Too Naive

But if it's the First Honkai Eruption... then Liu Bai can only pray that the nuclear bomb won't land on his head too late.

After all, it was the first battle between humans and Herrscher, and it ended very quickly, so the impact was suppressed to almost nothing.

It goes without saying what weapons were used to achieve this effect.

Even if Liu Bai couldn't be sure how many times the Honkai had occurred, he wouldn't be foolish enough to gamble on that one-in-half probability.

"The suburbs... I see."

Chapter 331 Still Too Naive

"Is it... safe?"

During the escape, Pardo was the first to show signs of exhaustion.

"Boss, Sister Ying, how far have we gone?"

Why do you call me "sister" too? Are we that close? Although she does look two or three years younger than me...

Although Sakura inwardly complained about the eccentric girl beside her, she still stopped and looked around.

Well, although I don't know where they've run off to, the sense of crisis that felt like I could be killed at any moment has faded considerably.

So... it should be safe now, right?

Sakura immediately went limp and collapsed to the ground.

Sakura's sudden softness startled Rin, who was in her arms.

"Elder sister!?"

"Sister is fine, she's just a little tired..." Sakura stroked Rin's little head.

"Waaaaah... Sister..."

Upon hearing this answer, Ling burst into tears on the spot.

"Sister, don't die! If you die, what will Rin do!"

"..."

Rin, who was sitting slumped on the ground with the posture of a duck, listened to her younger sister's cries and didn't know what expression to show for a moment.

Did he say he was about to die?

"Um... I think what Ling-mei meant was that Sakura-jie's lines just now sounded too much like a 'dying elder comforting a junior'," Pardo explained.

"... Is there?"

Sakura took a breath, her expression one of complete incomprehension.

Pardo nodded. "Yes, that's how it's portrayed in TV dramas and shonen anime."

"Action anime... So Rin, you watch this kind of stuff." Sakura looked at her younger sister with a tired but still stern gaze.

"Uh... well, I just look at it occasionally..."

Once she realized that her sister wasn't dying, Ling immediately stopped crying and instead showed a guilty expression.

Their family's discipline is exceptionally strict; her older sister is also very strict, even watching anime and TV dramas secretly...

"Remember to finish your homework before looking at those things in the future."

Sakura looked at Rin, who was playing with her fingers with her head down, sighed, and pinched Rin's delicate nose.

Sakura then took a deep breath, used the short sword for support to stand up, and then looked around.

"Miss Pardofelis, what about that gentleman who suddenly appeared earlier? The one you called the boss?"

Sakura is currently just keeping a certain distance from Pardofelis to avoid an allergic reaction, and the hostility in her eyes has temporarily disappeared.

After all, the two of them had been running for so long with their heads down, so it could be considered that they had escaped for their lives.

Sakura's reminder made Pardofelis look around as if she had just woken up from a dream.

"Huh? Where's the boss?"

"Has the Honkai finally arrived...?"

Mobius stared at Eden on the other side of the screen and subconsciously bit his nails.

"You're already twenty-six, and you're still biting your nails?"

Although Mobius couldn't see himself, Liu Bai still corrected him sternly.

"Tsk, you stopped caring about me after I turned eighteen, and now you're starting to care about me again?"

Mobius, biting his nails, instinctively retorted, but then realized that now was not the time to argue.

Mobius removed his hand from his mouth and instead rested his head on it.

Although it appears to be a conversation between Eden and Mobius, it is actually a conversation between Liu Bai and Mobius.

"Liu Bai, could you estimate the scale of the disaster?"

"One island—at least one island." Liu Bai didn't have any definite information; this figure was deduced by Liu Bai from history.

"That's alright..." Mobius pondered for a moment, "Although I haven't received any news yet, the Moth Chasers to Fire's army should have been mobilized, and their strategic weapons should have been deployed as well."

"Mobius, do you think the Moth Chasers to Fire will come to the rescue first?"

"That depends on whether the advance team's rescue efforts are effective."

Mobius smoothed his hair. "Although we made relevant predictions and preparations beforehand, the specific intensity cannot be determined solely by paper estimates."

"Then it's useless."

Upon hearing what Mobius said, Liu Bai immediately made a judgment.

He hadn't experienced many small-scale Honkai, but he had heard of them—for example, the First Honkai Eruption of the current civilization, the Berlin Honkai Outbreak.

Ordinary equipment was simply not enough to penetrate into the heart of the Honkai, and at that time, even Emperor-Class Honkai Beast, capable of easily destroying a city, appeared in the Honkai zone, resulting in only one survivor from one of Reanna's squads.

The First Herrscher of the Previous Era was not Welt, whose central Berlin had already been "purified" by the will of 300,000 people.

This is a truly unrestrained natural disaster that will wreak havoc.

This is why Liu Bai felt that Welt, who was burdened with "bindings" in terms of his essential power, might be stronger, but now it is this Herrscher has caused more damage.

"You made such a decisive judgment..." Mobius suddenly felt a headache coming on; Liu Bai had no habit of lying.

Does this mean that strategic weapons must be used?

But... are strategic weapons really always effective against such natural disasters?

"It works." Liu Bai could tell at a glance what Mobius was hesitating about. "The First Herrscher's ability is analysis and construction; its pure combat power is not strong."

"Analysis and...construction?" Mobius felt a sense of unease upon hearing this ability—this thing might not be the ultimate counter to technological civilizations, but it was definitely the most disgusting of them all.

Analysis followed by plagiarism—this kind of behavior would absolutely disgust any technological civilization and any scientist to the point of vomiting. The results of your painstaking research over a decade are easily analyzed and plagiarized by the other party, which would definitely make people want to kill or commit suicide.

"You have one or two chances—believe me, most Herrscher are born arrogant and have brains, but not many."

The essence of Herrscher is arrogance, and speaking of arrogance, Liu Bai has to mention Pufferfish... no, Sirin.

Sirin truly exemplifies just how insane a Herrscher Honkai Energy be when their brain is flooded with Honkai energy.

The First Herrscher now is even more arrogant than Sirin —the destruction caused by power makes the First Herrscher rely more on power, and there is nothing in its sight that can compare with its innate power.

Analysis? What's the use of analyzing this junk?

Construction? Would you construct toys just to get in your way?

This will create a situation where the First Herrscher, who should be using his brain to make a living and is quite troublesome for technological civilizations, will temporarily become a brute who only uses brute force—at least until he gets beaten up.

"That guy, a nuclear strike would have been enough. He wouldn't have been able to react to the first wave. Besides, although the First Herrscher has advanced computing power, her Honkai Energy output is limited. Although she is still overpowered from our perspective, she is not invincible."

Without analyzing much top-tier technology, the newly born Herrscher of Reason, from Liu Bai's perspective, isn't very strong, and might not even be as strong as Emperor-Class Honkai Beast. If you threw Rita, who's almost become a floor tile for the current civilization's Schicksal S-Rank Valkyrie, over here, she might be able to kill her in one go.

Well, Rita didn't completely become the current S-rank floor tile because the current true floor tile/gatekeeper of S-rank is the loyal but inconspicuous Miss Elinor —well, actually, the S-Rank Valkyrie of this generation of civilization are already at a high level.

"In short, don't let this thing develop. Kill it as quickly as possible."

Liu Bai gave a final summary, and Mobius showed an understanding expression.

"Then I would propose a comprehensive strike across the island nation... Tsk, I feel like I'm being used as a tool."

Mobius suddenly sighed.

"No matter what, the Moth Chasers to Fire are a supragovernmental military organization affiliated with the United Nations, capable of destroying countries and all that..."

Mobius felt he was about to be saddled with another bad reputation, while the other higher-ups who wanted to suggest it but dared not would definitely wholeheartedly agree with his proposal.

The good thing is that she is not only a high-ranking official, but also a top scientist who is truly ahead of her time. Even if she is blamed, no one would be foolish enough to use that as an excuse to throw themselves off the war machine.

There's a lot of infighting at the top, but they're still smart enough to know who's actually doing the work.

Mobius sighed first, then said, "Are there still people you need to protect on that island?"

"Yes, so I'll mark an area for you. Try to avoid that area when you're covering the area."

"There's no need."

Mobius shook his head. "Even if it's a so-called coverage strike, the target should only be around the Herrscher. As for the island nation... those high-ranking officials wouldn't allow a nuclear bomb to completely destroy it for various reasons—after all, the destruction of a country is too shocking from a public opinion perspective. But don't worry, someone should go to rescue them later."

Liu Bai's reaction wasn't surprising; the current high-ranking officials of the Previous Era likely still harbor some thoughts of "reclaiming" the Honkai.

While naive, it's understandable—who could have imagined that the Third Herrscher would become a continent-level catastrophe in the future?

However, from another perspective, continent-level disasters require even greater reconstruction and recovery; otherwise, after continuously losing continent-level productivity, all that awaits civilization is a slow death.

... Although it is a slow death no matter what.

So the current civilization is really lucky. At least there are two things that could cause a continent-wide disaster. One of them, Sirin, was directly killed by the combined forces of Anti-Entropy and Schicksal.

The other Wendy, perhaps due to ingrained thinking and a lingering conscience, didn't go to New Zealand —although Wendy's practical skills are a bit low, the destructive power of hurricanes as disasters is still sufficient. If Liu Bai were to control Wendy, it would be equivalent to blocking the ocean and controlling the atmosphere to create typhoons and throw them around without much difficulty.

So, the Herrscher are somewhat dim-witted... If their collective intelligence were any better, civilization would have been wiped out long ago.

"Then I'll leave the higher-ups to you."

Liu Bai nodded, and the two of them didn't say anything more and immediately ended the communication.

"Boss, something big has happened?" Vil-V rushed over at this moment, her face showing interest.

"... You seem quite happy."

Liu Bai glanced at Vil-V.

"The world is on the verge of doomsday."

"Hmm? Did the evil organization mess things up?"

"Everyone says we're not an evil organization, and it's not exactly a fun thing to do."

Liu Bai glanced at Vil-V, who was completely unaware of what had happened, but did not criticize her.

Most of the current Thirteen Flame-Chasers are too naive; there are some things they won't understand without experiencing them firsthand.

For example, a young man lives to the age of twenty, is killed by a car, is reborn with his memories intact, and lives to the age of twenty again—how many years of experience does he have now?

The answer is obvious—still twenty years old.

Experience is not something that can be added or subtracted. In the same living environment, the burdens you have to shoulder at twenty are completely different from those at forty.

Talking about mortgages, dowries, and jobs at twenty years old is a mix of anxiety and anticipation.

Talking about these things at forty is an overwhelming burden—because these things really do exist at forty.

The current Vil-V can laugh out loud with ease, but according to the original timeline, more than ten years later, Vil-V would be so remorseful that she would almost collapse because the nuclear bomb she created was launched by the Herrscher of Corruption and destroyed three cities.

"Eden, send an email to Mobius and get her added to my rescue team."

Liu Bai spoke to Eden with a stern face.

Any instruction he could give to Vil-V in this regard would be futile, so Liu Bai simply let Vil-V experience it for herself.

"Hey! Are you crazy? That's the radiation zone after a nuclear bomb!"

Upon hearing this, Vil-V was furious, and Liu Bai also received a notification in his mind that the compatibility had decreased.

"Add one more sentence: Protect them well," Liu Bai turned his head and continued speaking to Eden.

"Understood."