The One Who Is About to Arrive

This also means that even for Fusion Warrior like Kevin, a regular attack would be almost ineffective against the Herrscher of Finality, if not completely ineffective.

In the original timeline, everyone except for Aili, who sacrificed herself before the war, Sakura, who died young, Aponia, who merged with the Elysian Realm, Gretel, who carried out the Ark Project, and Sue, who was in charge on Earth, all went.

The casualties during the battle were Kalpas, Kosma, Pardo, and Vil-V, while the survivors were Kevin, Eden, Hua, and Mobius. Mobius was not responsible for the frontal assault, leaving three combatants.

Although it was a brutal battle, they still had some fighting power, but they had no intention of retaliating against the Herrscher of Finality, whose power had already been shut down.

What this means is undoubtedly a chilling thought.

Any other Herrscher wouldn't need to be offline for 12 hours; a one-minute downtime would be enough for Kevin to eliminate the opponent.

But in the Finality... there's no doubt about it, you just can't win. You can stand there and let them hit you, and you can't break their defense except with your ultimate move.

The only possibility worth considering is that there might be something about Elysia... but Liu Bai doesn't want to gamble.

Rather than gambling everything on the Previous Era, it's better to preserve Previous Era vitality and save it for the present civilization to fight again.

Without considering gambling, the Previous Era needed at least two Moonlight Throne to have a chance of winning.

It's probably impossible for the Previous Era to replicate this. If the last Herrscher in the Previous Era Herrscher wasn't the Corruptor, Liu Bai might have been willing to try. However, it's known that the last Herrscher was the Corruptor, which is Rin. Given that the Herrscher has already been chosen ahead of schedule, if anything goes wrong...

There's no such thing as being able to guard against thieves for a thousand days if you're a thief for a thousand days.

A seemingly casual "prepare early" requires a lot of effort, not to mention the existence of that damn thing called "accident".

If there was no glimmer of hope, Liu Bai would have taken the gamble; he wasn't lacking in the courage to fight to the death. But the dawn of civilization was already so clear that taking such a gamble would be pointless.

Rather than gambling on the uncertain chance of victory of Previous Era- civilization, it is better to contribute to the victory of present civilization.

Therefore, what Liu Bai needs to do is to preserve the vitality of the Previous Era... and to preserve it relatively thoroughly.

(The optimal solution would actually be a super-large hibernation device for millions of people, but... that would be less efficient than building shelters.)

Liu Bai stared into thought as he looked at the large device that had been half dismantled.

If the goal was simply to preserve Flame-Chasers and a few others for the next civilization, Liu Bai wouldn't have bothered to modify the All Things Dormant. At most, twenty or so people would have been involved, and the All Things Dormant system itself could have accomplished that.

What he wanted to preserve was the seed of civilization.

After all, he had indeed fought for the Previous Era for so many years.

"Putting the stakes on the future"—this seemingly casual remark actually abandons all the survivors of the Previous Era.

Although Liu Bai knew this was the optimal solution, he still felt somewhat unwilling.

(Hmm... if we're talking about shelters, perhaps we don't need to worry about 'hibernation'? If possible, as long as we can ensure that... at least most of them can survive the cleanup.)

Liu Bai silently pondered in his heart, while thinking of the Yellowstone Ruins he had seen in the present civilization, where there was obvious evidence of human habitation.

(However, doing it this way... it's completely unclear whether the Herrscher of Finality's 'cleaning' mode is an indiscriminate, powerful sweeping attack that indiscriminately cleans the surface, or something more conceptual?)

It should be the latter.

Otherwise, the difficulty level would be too low.

Furthermore, some ruins from the Previous Era have been excavated, but compared to the current civilization's excavations of the Previous Era, the ruins of the Previous Era are rather lackluster. However, there is some information about the Honkai, in addition to some exploration results from the Sea of Quanta.

Liu Bai had already realized that this world... or rather this planet, was likely undergoing an endless cycle of reincarnation.

The Previous Era and the current civilization are not the only two civilizations facing Honkai; however, these two civilizations may be the most closely connected.

If the 50,000-year gap is reduced to, say, 10,000 years, then the two civilizations can almost be described as seamlessly connected.

(Mei and Mobius must have done something in the end, taking advantage of a loop in the 'cycle'... so the cleansing of civilization by the Finality is probably a 'reset' caused by some kind of ability... is it time?)

Regarding the powers related to resetting, Liu Bai could only think of time—it's not like the Herrscher of Finality can press "~" to bring up the console and then type "Restart," right? If that were the case, everyone would be out of the game.

(However, are the loopholes in Honkai so easy to exploit? Or is the essence of the problem quite simple? For example... Honkai itself doesn't actually have any consciousness, only minor adjustments similar to biological instincts? But the rules are running too tightly... It always gives people a feeling of incongruity.)

Liu Bai fell into deep thought.

After defeating the thirteen Herrscher, the journey to fight the Herrscher of Finality felt like fighting a mini-boss before facing the ultimate boss.

It might seem reasonable at first glance, but... this is reality! It's not a game!

If Honkai is truly a phenomenon, then it should be even more random and... endless.

Moreover, the races born from this phenomenon related to the world should have some symbiotic relationship with Honkai Energy... However, in reality, they do not. Although Honkai Energy increases in strength as civilization grows, it does not resemble a phenomenon that coexists with civilization at all.

To give an example, it's like the world of cultivation has demons, monsters, spiritual energy, and spiritual stones, but humans just don't have any aptitude for cultivation and are incompatible with spiritual energy... That's not right, is it?

Even the Honkai world is worse than this. Forget about humans, nobody has the "aptitude for cultivation"; they can only be corrupted. Even in the endless cycle of reincarnation, this is just too much.

Hypermutation Surgery is truly the result of advanced technology, somewhat similar to the supernatural practice of "raising ghosts." Successful transplantation allows one to use the power of the "ghost," while failure leads to being corrupted and dying. Of course, Hypermutation Surgery is a technological endeavor; the two are merely similar.

Only after acquiring the Stigmata provided by the Previous Era did the current civilization begin to resemble a "Honkai cultivation system," though unfortunately, it was visibly crudely made.

With the current mechanics, defeating thirteen mini-bosses and one big boss is all it takes to clear the game? What kind of game is this?

There's a sense of incongruity everywhere, it's almost like... it was designed for the sake of design.

(In other words, the essence of Honkai might lean more towards the theory of advanced civilization deployment than the theory of cosmic rules...)

The first few Herrscher were alright, but the existence of the final Finality was a bit too forced, too much like a trial.

Furthermore, Elysia herself does not actually agree that Honkai is a trial, hmm... could this be considered a kind of division?

Furthermore, the very existence of Elysia herself proves that humans and Herrscher can coexist, although the probability is very low.

If you say Aili is an anomaly, the problem is that your Honkai isn't without a solution. In a one-on-one fight, even the human will can turn the tables on you!

Even setting aside Shibao and Hua, Himiko in the original timeline retained some humanity for a period after being transformed into a Herrscher! If Himiko hadn't despaired of humanity, it's hard to say whether the Himiko Honkai Energy have dealt with her.

It would have been better if he hadn't thought about it. But once Liu Bai started thinking about it and connected all his knowledge, the sense of incongruity he felt was so strong it was almost overwhelming.

However, Liu Bai then gave up thinking about this. He could discuss these conjectures with Mei and Mobius when he had time, but even if he guessed the truth now, it probably wouldn't do much good for the current situation.

"Whoa... Boss, your expression just now was terrifying." Pardo was just passing by, patted her chest while eating potato chips.

"You can eat your food, okay?" Liu Bai rolled her eyes at Pardo. You're always doing nothing. What does it matter to you whether you scare people or not?

If he didn't need a host by his side, would he have brought Pardo over?

"So, what are you thinking about, sir?" Pardo wiped her mouth and asked curiously.

"I'm thinking about shelters, Pardo. What do you think of a super-large refuge... like an underground city?"

"Hmm... that sounds pretty cool?" Pardo scratched her head.

Liu Bai sighed. However, the Yellowstone Ruins had already proven that this method was somewhat useful, but not entirely effective. Although it could avoid the reset, it resulted in death from within.

It's unclear whether internal strife or human activity led to the emergence of Honkai Beast and Death Soldier.

"But... you, the head of the household, are actually thinking about how to expand the All Things Dormant, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Um... I don't really understand it, but is it really necessary to expand the All Things Dormant? Isn't the principle behind Sister Vil-V's new technology very similar to the God Key? Can we use that?"

... That technology that will be called a relic in the future?

Liu Bai couldn't help but ponder.

What I'm saying is... it seems like we could really give it a try?

With proper maintenance, even non-Soul Steel from Previous Era technologies can survive for 50,000 years.

If we use Soul Steel, it definitely won't be enough. Even if we take the entire civilization and look at Liu Bai's expected number of one million people, it still won't be enough.

However, if it's downgraded by a few levels, then it's not a problem at all.

Not to mention millions, it could be even more.

Of course, the downside is that the risk of failure is obviously higher than with Soul Steel, but the base is larger, so overall it's profitable.

The next question is the amount of work involved...

(The main project right now is the Moonlight Throne... but we should be able to allocate enough manpower and resources to it.)

The hundreds of millions of people rescued by the Mu Continent came into play at this time.

More than half of the more than 100 million people have a skill, and if most of these people are given a skill, that would be enough.

In the subsequent production lines... that's not a problem either. For the Previous Era, there were only a few top-tier military factories, but there were countless civilian factories that couldn't continue operating.

The only remaining problem is how to simplify the project... well, that's where Vil-V's job comes in.

Liu Bai doesn't expect everyone to live to the 21st century; that's far too unrealistic. Liu Bai only hopes they survive the Finality, and then, after waking up at some point, leave their own mark on the future world...

This was probably the last escape route Liu Bai could prepare for them...

Chapter 437 The Coming One

"That's a great idea, Pardo."

Liu Bai rarely praised Pardo, after all, it was not easy for Pardo to give reliable suggestions.

What's more, this suggestion was adopted.

In that case, all I need to do now is create the simplest possible hibernation device.

As for the minimum hibernation time... it would need to be at least a hundred years, otherwise it would be difficult to guarantee whether the blank world has entered a safe period—although Liu Bai felt that the Herrscher of Finality's "reset" was actually a very quick process, and the maximum time depended on luck.

After all, this technology is actually very difficult to develop without relying on the properties of the Herrscher Core.

It's also thanks to the fact that I didn't let Vil-V weaponize the Fifth Divine Key from the very beginning, otherwise it would have been too late for Vil-V to regret it and try to modify it.

The fact that Liu Bai is now confident in developing a hibernation device with a guaranteed timeout is already an overestimation of his abilities, considering that he is only a theorist and practical implementation is still quite difficult.

But back to the Herrscher of Finality's reset... that thing is a bit strange, isn't it?

Even if the Previous Era managed to leave a large legacy to the next generation by exploiting loopholes, the problem is that this legacy is just too large.

Apart from a few techniques like Hypermutation Surgery and Divine Sound, almost all other techniques have been passed down, and they all look rather eerie.

It seems that the Finality is the kind of situation where it's hard to find a loophole, but the loophole itself is very large.

This really makes one wonder...

"Hehehe, as long as it helps the boss, that's fine." Pardo had no idea how many people's fates her casual suggestion had changed.

However, it doesn't seem to matter if this girl continues to be carefree—if she were to actually become caring, it might mean that all of them would be dead.

It's fine as it is now.

"Pardo, stop grinning like an idiot and come help me unscrew a few screws."

"Okay!"

"Report, report, is the word 'report' all that's in Mei's head?"

Mobius looked furious as he watched the Gray Serpent brought back by Blanca.

She was truly afraid of Mei reporting her; Mobius still remembered the Stigmata Project perfectly well.

"Is there any need to report this kind of trivial matter? And Liu Bai! He clearly said he was going to replace Klein, but less than half a month later he went off to tinker with other things! And he won't let Klein come back! Blanca! Give me a report by tomorrow!"

Klein is gone, Cangxuan has been transferred to oversee the development of quantum computers. Now, only Danzhu and Blanca remain in the office.

Well, Danzhu's literary skills are probably the best in the entire office, or even in the entire Moth Chasers to Fire, but Mobius knows with his toes that this matter cannot be entrusted to Danzhu.

Danzhu would never take anything seriously unless it was something important or an experiment.

As for the Gray Serpent... it might have some priority for Mei, but in Mobius's view, it's not a big deal.

In Mobius's view, the Gray Serpent was simply an interesting mutation that occurred in one of the artificial humans she created, so she decided to let it grow freely for a while and see how it would develop.

New possibilities and unknown paths are all lofty terms; this is the simplest way to put it.

Mobius really didn't take it seriously. After all, the Gray Serpent was just an isolated case and there was no possibility of it being replicated. If it could be replicated, Mobius should have taken it seriously and drafted another new human plan.

Although willpower is a rather absurd concept, there are still benchmarks to be found. If everyone could reach the level of willpower that Gray Serpent possessed, then Mobius would be willing to sit down and seriously study this "absurd thing."

After all, this thing is nonsense, but it does exist, and the more critical the moment, the more God likes to roll a dice of will for you.

As for now, in Mobius's view, it really is just a small biological observation.

If interesting changes do occur, then it's not too late to get serious; if not... well, then so be it.

Unfortunately, Mei and Mobius seem to have a slight disagreement on this matter.

Mei seems to interpret Mobius's act of having Blanca take the Gray Serpent out as a sign of importance—but in reality, Mobius was simply prepared to let go and leave it alone.

"I... fine, I'll admit it." Blanca sighed, since she was the one who exposed this.