The Only One I Might Give Up Is Myself / Chapter 10: Little T: I Just Wanted to Help a "Fellow," I Really Wasn't Trying to Kidnap Anyone

"It's a real pity that the Kaslana family didn't inherit your intelligence," Xia Ling said, shrugging.

"This is not wisdom, but the result of accumulated experience by those who live long lives."

Kevin raised the Jie Mie in his hand.

"I already know what you're asking for, but since you insist..."

"I hope that before you turn to ashes, you can transfer the data you requested back to your original body."

Chapter Nine: The only thing I might abandon is myself.

"Whoosh—whoosh—"

In the Sea of Quantum, Xia Ling suddenly opened her eyes.

"Xia Ling, are you alright? I just felt all the parts of my body that were residing in your clone suddenly being destroyed..."

Little E quickly helped Xia Ling up from the other side, her face full of worry.

"It's nothing, I just hadn't died in a while, and then suddenly experienced death. I need to adjust..."

Xia Ling gently shook her head, closed her eyes, and received the information that her clone had transmitted back before its destruction.

A moment later, a look of joy appeared in her eyes.

"Xia Ling?"

"Yes, it's much better now, and this experiment yielded the results I hoped for..."

"The ideal outcome?"

Little E tilted her head.

"Yes, I have all the combat data of the Asura Kevin and the attack level containing the power of Finality."

Xia Ling said excitedly, "According to the test data provided by Vill-V before, if I collect all twelve cores, the Key of Blankness, the King's Set, and the Origin Power will allow me to surpass the power of Asura Kevin, and even rival the Savior Kevin for a short period of time."

"Although it's only a minute, it's enough for my plan."

"So, what exactly is Xia Ling's plan?"

Little E asked curiously. After all, she had only watched Xia Ling carry out her plan step by step, but she still didn't know what the purpose of Xia Ling's plan was.

However, this is also related to the fact that Little E was born late. If Elysia were here, she would know what Xia Ling was up to when she heard Xia Ling say the words "King's Set".

However, Xia Ling was a little conflicted at this moment, because she didn't know whether or not to tell Little E about her plan.

After all, according to her plan, she first needed to use the Key of Blankness to obtain strength comparable to the Karma Demon, as well as the authority of the twelve Herrscher Core.

Then, using the Origin Power, guide yourself to the location of the cocoon, and try your best to seize Kevin's Finality Authority.

After that, they positioned themselves on a pivot point, returned to the moon from the cocoon, and fought Kevin before the Big Three, trying to weaken him as much as possible.

Finally, just before the King's Set expired and he was about to die, he prevented the cocoon from reclaiming this unclaimed power and instead devised a way to directly designate Kiana as the successor to the power.

It is very difficult to obtain the power of the Finality, and while one is alive, this power is almost impossible to "transfer" and can only be seized from one another. However, if the holder of the power dies, the power will be received by the cocoon again and enter the secondary distribution process.

Xia Ling's plan is actually quite simple: she only needs to intercept any potential secondary distribution and change it to a designated mode, which will allow Kiana to gain additional Finality Authority on top of the original amount.

With this shift in power dynamics, even if she only manages to seize half a percent of the power from Kevin, it will change the power balance between the two from 50/50 in the original work to a full 10 percent difference.

The difference in these powers should be enough to offset the difference in conditions between reality and the original story during the final battle.

The only problem is whether she should send it once, or send it in front of the Kiana, which is why the original self, Vill-V, asked her that question.

"Your companions shouldn't be so grief-stricken by the sight of your death that they'd be driven to despair, right?"

Hmm... Considering that Kiana has already experienced both the Flame-Chaser and the Elysian Realm, even if I were to go through it all again, she probably wouldn't be too... excited... right?

I hope I'll be okay in the future.

"Little E".

Xia Ling cupped Little E's face in her hands and looked intently into Little E's eyes until the latter began to look away out of shyness.

"Actually, my plan has only one core element—passing on the legacy."

"Huh?"

Embarrassed, Little E didn't bother to analyze Xia Ling's riddle and quickly nodded as if she understood.

"Forget about that. Anyway, there's still some time before my plan starts. Right now, the priority is to complete the transaction with Gray Serpent 1904 and find a way to get Little Ther into the duo of Rabbit and Pudding Duck."

"So..."

Xia Ling closed her eyes slightly.

"Highmore, how is it?"

"Everything is normal. I am closely monitoring the World Bubble where Mei is located. If there are any fluctuations in the existence of that World Bubble, I will send Little Ther to the vicinity so that she can make her move when the opportunity arises."

"So, the storyline in the name of the world hasn't even started yet...?" Xia Ling pondered for a moment.

"I understand. You guys manage your time carefully. To buy time for the subsequent plans, I'm going to take Little E to hack into the main network of the Stigmata Project first."

"Understood, my Sea Creatures has also gathered a sufficient number." Highmore quickly synchronized the message as well.

"It is expected that the quantity will reach the expected level within one day, that is, to ensure that all combat forces on Earth can independently lead teams to reclaim the controlled areas of Stigmata Project."

"In addition, Raven also entered the main network very smoothly—although in the original work she chose to bet on both sides, due to the many Bonds in this life, after struggling with the decision, she finally chose to stand on our side."

"It went incredibly smoothly."

Xia Ling highly praised this, "But unfortunately, even so, after the war, Raven will probably have to go to prison for a symbolic period of time."

"It's alright, the system of Schicksal does not check whether immediate family members have criminal records."

Highmore replied with a touch of humor.

After the chat ended, Xia Ling looked at Little E beside her.

"It's about time, let's set off."

"Little E, you should still be able to contact the Corrosion Power that I had you attach to Theresa before, right? So, have you found the path to the main network of the Stigmata Space now?"

"It's not a big problem."

When it came to her area of expertise, Little E didn't hold back. She immediately took Xia Ling and began to travel rapidly across the boundary between the Sea of Quantum and Earth, or more precisely, the boundary with the Dream Realm.

Under the influence of the corrosive power, the two were like liquid poured into an anthill—quickly crawling into all sorts of holes.

"If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have known that there were so many... gaps in the Stigmata Project."

"Actually, many of them are not really vulnerabilities, but for the power to erode, the protection of these areas is practically non-existent."

Little E smiled sheepishly.

The two had already ventured quite deep into the main network of the Stigmata Project. If they went any further, even Little E might be discovered by the golden Gray Serpent —just like a spider sensing the trembling of its web.

Therefore, Little E immediately decided to begin eroding the mainnet and the Gray Serpent network within this range.

"Considering that my powers will be somewhat suppressed in this place, even if Hiyomaru had given me her powers before we came, they would still be weakened to some extent."

"So..." Little E said seriously, "During the time I am being eroded, I will have to Xia Ling to protect me."

"Of course, if you're discovered, Xia Ling, you can just run away. I've got some supplies on you..."

Okay.

Xia Ling gently silenced Little E's mouth with a kiss.

"I would never abandon any of my companions, okay? As I said before, the only one who might be abandoned is myself."

Chapter Ten: Little Ther: I just wanted to help my "fellow human beings," I really didn't intend to kidnap anyone!

Xia Ling accompanied Little E in carrying out the tedious erosion work, while Theresa explored the main network on her own.

The Stigmata Awakeners of New Atra attempt to contact their companions, while the Herrscher trapped in the World Bubble try to return.

It seems that in this Finality chapter, the story has suddenly entered a well-organized preparatory phase.

Each side is gathering its strength, and each side is preparing for the final battle.

Except for... the two people facing off in the starry sky, or rather, at the intersection of the Sea of Quantum and the Intrinsic World.

"This is really... I haven't encountered such a strange situation in a long time."

Little Ther was somewhat troubled.

Since her birth, she has encountered many difficult situations, or rather, Xia Ling has always faced many difficult situations.

But... this was the first time she had encountered a situation like this.

"I think... how about we each take a step back?"

Little Ther gave a Gaul to indicate that he truly meant no harm.

"In the current situation, the two of us seem more like suspicious individuals staking out someone else's doorstep."

"I think I need to speak to this pink-haired lady."

Rabbit held a flag that looked like a spear in one hand. Although his expression was gentle, his words were sharp and uncompromising.

"I was just conducting a routine 'inspection' of this World Bubble according to my job duties. On the contrary, you have been wandering outside this World Bubble for several hours."

"As a loyal employee of World Serpent, I feel it is necessary for me to protect the organization's public property. Moreover, the significance of this World Bubble is not insignificant."

If Xia Ling heard Rabbit's words, she would probably have a bellyful of complaints and nowhere to vent them. You, who wrote on your resume that you led Prometheus to launch the first counterattack and openly let Duck Duck have an easy time and cheated, actually claim to be loyal to World Serpent.

Unfortunately, Little Ther was unaware of this plot. The problem she was facing was that she hadn't even met the person Highmore had mentioned yet, and she was already at odds with her future colleague.

That's right. When the plan was being formulated, Xia Ling told Theresia that she should try to salvage Prometheus XVII when the World Bubble was about to disappear, and then use the artifacts to revive her.

The other party is also an artificial intelligence that is searching for itself. Considering that it has the same attributes as Little Ther, the two might get along well. By the way, Little Ther can also take care of the two troublemakers from Part 1.5, Rabbit and Pudding Duck.

But when Little Ther arrived near the World Bubble, before the World Bubble could dissipate, he was met by the patrolling Rabbit.

He was even arrested by Yu Rabbit as a suspicious person.

This can be considered a slight oversight by Xia Ling and others regarding the plot. After all, in the original work, Rabbit did not come specifically to save Pudding Duck. Rather, it was due to the arrangements left by Mei before her death that Rabbit noticed the soon-to-be-extinct Prometheus XVII and transcribed her.

This led Rabbit to completely misunderstand the meaning of Little Ther's lingering here, mistakenly believing that she wanted to plot against the people in the World Bubble.

Putting aside Kiana and the others inside, the mere presence of Mei is enough to make Rabbit be on her guard.

"Well..."

Seeing that Rabbit was not willing to back down at all, Little Ther had an even bigger headache.

After all, there is a serious problem: she is not very good at fighting Rabbit.

Judging from the later plot developments, as the complete prototype of the four Barbarians, Rabbit's combat power is almost on par with the Ascended Herrscher, and she can even summon people from the Stigmata Space.

Little Ther, due to the limitations of the materials that make up his body, namely Otto's Soul Steel body, his regular combat strength is basically only close to that of Herrscher, and not even that.

Although she can unleash a burst of power with her collection, the problem is... she's here to save people, not to fight. If she uses her collection, the commotion might be a bit too much.

If the commotion of the battle attracts Kiana and the others in the World Bubble, since they recognize her, they will definitely come to help, and then she will clash with Rabbit ahead of time—which would completely disrupt the later plot.

"As a rational type, you should be able to sense my strength to some extent, right? Do you think I have the ability to lay a hand on those guys in World Bubble?"

"Compared to combat, destruction requires a much more flexible level of strength, and I know that all too well."

The Rabbit still showed no sign of moving aside.

Tsk... Do we really have to fight here first...?

Little Ther hesitated for a moment, but still secretly began to pull out a few of her collectibles from her backpack that matched her style.

However, at this moment, a turning point appeared.

This World Bubble began to become extremely unstable amidst violent fluctuations.

"It seems we don't have the conditions to start a war."

Seeing this, Little Ther breathed a sigh of relief and took back the six reddish-brown spheres surrounding her, as well as... a black crown that she had just taken out.

"Oh? I never said I wanted a truce with you."