Chapter 8

"You think she's adorable too, right? Always charming everyone, unlike a gloomy shut-in like me."

Fu Li put away his phone and continued typing with Little Great-Aunt, teasing Prometheus, who was clearly stunned. "Doesn't she seem like my relative?"

The Little AI nodded silently.

"I was curious about her background before, so I even snuck a peek at her screen."

He paused warmly, giving the girl, who had been hit by a beauty overload (?), some time to recover.

After she waved her hand to signal she was okay, he slowly continued, "According to my grandfather's generation, my Little Great-Aunt was a baby my Great-Grandfather picked up during an expedition to Vostok-51 in Antarctica. The research team encountered some kind of strange prehistoric life form, and when they were in mortal danger, my Little Great-Aunt, still an infant, was unfrozen from the glacier. She emitted a peculiar light, helping everyone escape danger... How does that sound? Pretty fake, right?"

"Mm."

"I think it's fake too—no, not just me, everyone in the group chat thinks it's fake."

If you said you picked her up from somewhere else, we might have accepted it. The world is vast, and the probability of finding an abandoned infant is low, but not that low.

But you said Antarctica?

Excuse me, with that environment, what you picked up was probably a pink fairy.

"Therefore, instead of the 'Antarctica infant-finding' theory, the family group chat leans more towards the 'old but still strong' theory."

The old man can still practice Tai Chi and Bagua Palm in his eighties. With a physique comparable to Joseph Joestar, it's perfectly normal for him to do something similar to Joseph Joestar (i.e., having an affair and having a child behind his wife's back).

If an old man in North America can do it, why can't an old man from Shenzhou?

It's fortunate that Fu Li's great-grandfather passed away early, otherwise, he might have risen from his coffin to beat these unfilial descendants with an ice pick.

Prometheus's eyes flickered. "Then, Master, are you going to pick up this Little Great-Aunt?"

"Pick her up? That won't do." Fu Li, still typing, didn't look up. "Not only am I not picking her up, but I also need to figure out a way to make sure she stays in Shenzhou honestly during this time."

"Why?"

"Because something catastrophic will happen in Changkong City in three days, and the consequences of this catastrophe will cause the international metropolis of Changkong City to be completely—and utterly—removed from the map of the Far East."

Chapter 14: "The Great Honkai and the Sequence Herrscher"

The catastrophe Fu Li mentioned is a supremely desperate disaster that countless people throughout history have recognized as the greatest and most evil event in history—the Great Honkai.

As an energy that accompanies civilization, Honkai Energy normally either integrates into the planet's surface atmosphere as a special basic parameter or wanders in the imaginary space isolated from the real world as residual entropy generated when anchoring imaginary to real numbers.

However, once Honkai Energy congregates on a large scale, whether naturally or unnaturally, it will erupt with extremely immense energy in a very short period, like colliding matter and antimatter!

This unrestrained energy will spread rapidly like thunder, corrupting or destroying all living things it comes into contact with, depending on their resistance to Honkai Energy!

Honkai Beasts, tens or even hundreds of meters tall, will be born in batches of tens of thousands, only ceasing to appear after this Great Honkai subsides!

According to historical records, except for extremely rare cases like the Wanggongchang Explosion, where highly skilled individuals were mobilized to fight to the death, waiting for the Great Honkai to end its expansion on its own would take at least the scope of a modern city!

Unfortunately, three days later, on March 28th, this rapidly developing international metropolis was about to usher in such an apocalypse.

No one understood the horror of this disaster better than Fu Li, who had experienced it firsthand. Therefore, he absolutely could not let his kind-hearted but slightly dim-witted Little Great-Aunt board that plane to Changkong City again!

Fu Li, who had been typing intently, suddenly said, "Speaking of which, she actually saved my life in the previous loop."

Prometheus, sitting beside him, remained silent, but her large, flickering eyes were enough to satisfy Fu Li's dwindling vanity after his long and arduous journey.

"After the Great Honkai occurs, the more densely populated places become, the more dangerous they are," he explained. "Especially in places like the city center, commercial districts, schools, slave markets... and talent markets, where people are packed together like sardines, you could basically throw a rock and hit three to five SeeDs."

"However, I was rushing to the airport to pick someone up at the time, and I happened to miss the peak rush hour while in a taxi. The driver who picked me up was an unlucky fellow with low resistance, and he vanished on the spot after coming into contact with the spreading Honkai Energy."

"Thanks to him, I, who was wearing a seatbelt, only suffered some inertial damage from the sudden braking and managed to survive relatively easily on the sparsely populated highway roadside until rescue arrived."

Incidentally, the taxi fare in the previous life was also paid by Little Great-Aunt. Given Fu Li's situation of eating nine meals in three days, he didn't have the money to take a taxi in the Far East, which was known for its prices.

It sounds quite easy...

Prometheus's eyes flickered, but she didn't voice this foolish thought.

She changed the subject. "Then, Master, do you need my help with any strategies?"

"I did just now, but not anymore. I've already thought of a clever way to fob her off."

Fu Li sent the edited reason to the other party, picked up his backpack and baseball bat, and walked out of the shop.

The March twilight arrived surprisingly early. The setting sun cast its afterglow, dyeing the sky like flushed wine. Crows swooped and glided through the hazy dusk, their rapidly beating tail feathers shimmering under the sun.

The Little AI reached out, her ethereal hand passing through the falling black crow feathers.

She said in a somewhat ethereal tone, disdainfully, "...Using the excuse of 'locals can get things done' to offer help buying plane tickets and tickets to Eden's concert, then taking the money and not actually helping anyone. A Master like that is the worst."

"Getting swindled out of a little money is better than letting her dive headfirst into the apocalypse."

Fu Li, whose little treasury had become much fuller, argued righteously, "This Great Honkai that happened in Changkong City gave birth to the third Honkai, the Sequence Herrscher. If ordinary people just stumble into it without knowing anything, it's not a ten-out-of-ten chance of death, but they're basically doomed."

He felt no guilt whatsoever; in fact, he was a little pleased.

Prometheus narrowed her eyes, as brilliant as the evening glow. "Sequence... Herrscher?"

"Yes, Sequence Herrscher. They are humanoid monsters that can be born when the intensity of the Great Honkai reaches 1000 HW or more."

His gaze fell on Fu Li's shoulder as he passed a crossroads. Fu Li took out his phone and brought up a map to the suburbs for navigation.

"I can only say that I know that it happens, but not why it happens. The higher-ups have always kept information about this very tightly guarded."

He spoke as he walked, "For example, my three... friends, who were also survivors of Changkong City but luckily joined St. Freya Academy, always start talking in circles and looking around whenever I ask them about these things. They absolutely refuse to reveal even a single bit of information."

After saying this, Fu Li carefully examined the Little AI floating beside him for a few moments. "I suddenly realized Prometheus, your physique is a bit like one of them. Was she used as a prototype during modeling?"

The girl fell into a subtle silence.

Fu Li, however, seemed to have seen through the truth. "I just feel like I vaguely saw her figure in the Dominion Theater before I was reborn. Unfortunately, my eyes were covered with a black cloth by those sons of bitches at the time, and I'm not good at sensory abilities, so I could only make a rough guess in the end."

"Host, saying a girl looks like another person is a very uncool thing to do."

"Alright."

Feeling that the Little AI was a bit angry, the uncool man shrugged and shifted the focus of the conversation back to the Sequence Herrschers.

"In short, for us lone wolves and scattered soldiers working as freelancers, the existence of Sequence Herrschers is more like an ethereal urban legend. Everyone knows a little bit about related things, but if you ask for specifics, it's always 'I don't know, I heard it from so-and-so, you should ask him.'"

"However, there is one exception, and that is the leader of Anti-Entropy, the First Herrscher, Welt Joyce."

Fu Li raised his distinctly jointed index finger. "This Herrscher of Reason is arguably the only Herrscher who has publicly revealed his identity and is willing to fight for humanity. His information is always posted on Anti-Entropy's official website, and anyone can browse it freely, although it's heavily embellished."

"It's a shame I don't have the money for a dark web account right now, otherwise I could show you. He seems like a pretty harmless person."

"But it doesn't matter. Once I finish this job, whether it's the US Dollars Anti-Entropy uses to build its secular currency hegemony, or the Crystal Currency Schicksal uses to harvest resources from the Honkai world, I'll have as much as I want."

He waved his hand and boarded a bus heading for the outskirts of Changkong City.

PS: Just in case, I'll mention that after Joyce sacrificed himself protecting Manhattan in 1955, Old Yang used his authority to impersonate him and served as the leader of Anti-Entropy for over sixty years. This is why Joyce's clone in the manga's Moonshadow Arc could become the leader of Anti-Entropy controlled by Cocolia.

Chapter 15: "Divine Key"

The afterglow of the setting sun quietly slipped away amidst the bumps of the bus.

As night fell, the city adorned with neon lights reflected in the water outside the bus window, like countless stars, making everything seem dreamlike and illusory.

"Host."

The cybernetic sweet voice in his ear made Fu Li, who was dozing at the back of the bus, open his eyes.

"What is it, curious baby? Do you want to ask where I'm going now, like before?"

"No."

The Little AI shook its head, its light gray pigtails tied in a double-twist bobbing, looking incredibly cute.

"I was wondering, since you know that the Third Honkai is about to happen in Changkong City, why are you still staying here?"

Question: Upon transmigrating, you inquire with those around you and discover you are in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

In such a situation, what would a normal person do?

Run! Would you stay and become acquaintances?

"I saw you agonizing over it all the way, I thought you could hold back from asking this question," Fu Li teased Prometheus before quickly answering before the little girl could grind her teeth. "Don't you remember? I said before I left that there was one more thing I had to do. Only after I finish that will I leave this city that is about to face destruction."

The girl, who had just been teased, remained silent, her beautiful eyes staring intently at the suspenseful big bad guy in front of her.

The big bad guy chuckled. "Divine Key, do you know what that is?"

"Divine Key: the most brilliant scientists of the Previous Civilization era used the Herrscher cores within the Sequence Herrschers as the central component, supplemented by numerous top-tier materials including Soul Steel, to create anti-Honkai god-slaying weaponry driven by Herrscher cores."

Prometheus finished in one breath, puffing out her chest proudly. "I'm quite clear about my own kind."

"That's right, exactly," Fu Li said. "Each of these super weapons produced from the Previous Era possesses world-ending power. And because they are made from the cores of Sequence Herrschers as raw materials, their interiors contain the ultimate authority that originally only Herrschers could wield."

He glanced at the Little AI. "Oh, except for you."

Prometheus was so angry she wanted to bite him.

Including the Herrscher of the End, who legend says completely destroyed the Previous Civilization era, humanity faced a total of fourteen Sequence Herrschers.

They were born in repeated Great Honkai events. For the convenience of written statistics, people used a "combination of the Herrscher's birth order + its authority name" as their designation.

Among these, the Tenth Herrscher, the Herrscher of Domination, was an exception.

Unlike the other thirteen compatriots whose power was inherent to themselves, the Herrscher of Domination of the Previous Era was a massive collective of a thousand people.

While this significantly reduced their individual combat power, the cooperation of a thousand pseudo-Herrschers with different abilities still caused considerable turmoil in the civilized society of that time.

And most importantly, after defeating all these pseudo-Herrschers, the scientists of the Previous Era were astonished to discover that each of these dominant individuals possessed one-thousandth of a Herrscher core within their bodies.

So, they extracted the miniature Herrscher cores from the remains and used these thousand portions of material to forge a total of one thousand Keys of Domination.

Prometheus's initial self-designation as the End-of-World Assistance System 0017, the "0017" in it was her number among these thousand Keys of Domination.

However, there were pros and cons. Since the cores of the Herrscher of Domination were divided into a thousand parts, compared to other Divine Keys with complete authorities, the power of the Keys of Domination was naturally greatly reduced.

Unfortunately, Fu Li before his rebirth had no idea about this.

He had only heard from a familiar information broker that an ownerless Divine Key had appeared. After confirming the authenticity of the news, he eagerly joined the scramble.

It was only after realizing the power was not right that he sought out the other party to purchase subsequent information on the Key of Domination, finally understanding why the strongest participant in what was supposed to be a Divine Key competition was merely at the critical stage.

Turns out, like the loan business of Future Fund, the real experts simply didn't care.

"The Divine Key that is currently still slumbering in Changkong City is different."

Speaking of this, Fu Li straightened his back, his usually relaxed tone rarely tinged with a hint of solemnity.

"Although for some reason it hasn't been completely forged yet, it is indeed a Divine Key forged with a complete Herrscher core."

"And that's the reason I'm determined to stay in Changkong City right now."

Thump!

The bus bumped over speed bumps and entered the tunnel. For a moment, the only lights in the carriage were the safety signs filled with fluorescent paint and Fu Li's eyes, which glowed brightly.

The former illuminated Ai Wei'ai, while the latter shone like a myriad of stars.

Faced with a host who rarely took things seriously, Prometheus pondered for a moment before speaking, "I don't intend to question the rationality of the host's current trip. I just want to know, where did the host obtain such crucial intelligence? Is it truly reliable enough for the host to risk their life on it?"

The two 'blades,' Mikazuki and Shiranui, were manageable. Though rare, they were merely C-rank, so obtaining information related to them wasn't difficult.

Divine Keys, however, were different. They were the ultimate existences from another dimension, weapons forged by a civilization pouring everything into creating a mere dozen or so extraordinary god-slaying armaments.

Sensing the worry in the girl's tone, Fu Li subtly curved the corners of his eyes. "The intelligence regarding the Divine Key was told to me by Kiana from the previous cycle. As for its credibility, it's one hundred percent confirmed."

When Kiana told Fu Li about it in a slightly boastful tone, the Divine Key codenamed "Kikyo" had already been secured by the Far East branch of Schicksal, which she belonged to at the time. She herself was one of the personnel involved in its containment.

The specific containment occurred a few days after the Third Honkai occurred, otherwise, Fu Li wouldn't have been so urgently trying to seize the opportunity.

This was the only chance to obtain Kikyo in advance.

"Kiana Kaslana?" the Little AI stammered. "Isn't she the host you...?"

For some reason, Prometheus regretted bringing this up in front of Fu Li.

It wasn't that she harbored any peculiar romantic feelings for him, but rather that discussing someone's painful past in front of them felt like rubbing chili powder and soy sauce, with a dash of cumin, into a wound.

"Yes, the one with the prematurely gray hair who lives in apartment 201 next door to me."

Fu Li, however, remained calm. "As I said before, after the Great Honkai occurred in Changkong City, I, through sheer luck, managed to survive on the sparsely populated highway until the rescue teams arrived. Not just me; most of the few survivors in Changkong City basically managed to scrape by in similar ways."

"Kiana was the exception." He let out a sigh befitting a mortal. "She, on her own, fought her way out of the most densely populated city center with two other girls!"