Kevin: Feng, You've Changed...

"Relax, just take a nap and you'll be fine. Leave the rest to us."

"Hmm..."

Waking up from anesthesia, the pain that followed stimulated her nerves. The pain that spread throughout her body made her frown. She wanted to speak, but found that she barely had the strength. Even breathing was difficult. However, this state did not last long. She could feel herself slowly recovering.

She moved her eyes slightly. There were various tubes inserted into her body. These things must be what kept her from dying.

She knew the so-called Herrscher Core removal surgery had been completed without needing anyone else to inform her, because the wave in her consciousness space had already subsided.

Isn't the aftereffect a bit too strong?

"You're awake?" Admil's voice came from above. "The surgery was very difficult; it's a girl."

seele. "?"

Say it again? What? She's a girl.

"I never expected you to have such a pointless and perverse sense of humor. I thought the deputy director of the Third Research Institute was a cold-blooded madman, just like his insane ideas," another voice, devoid of any emotion, rang out.

"Isn't this supposed to be to calm Miss Seele down? Look, her blood pressure has spiked immediately." Admil's voice, like that guy's, was completely devoid of emotion.

seele. "..."

Another voice... I remember now, it must be that woman, Rovoc? She's in the top three of her hated people list, on par with Mobius and Vill-V. After all, when Vill-V isn't around, Rovoc is basically in charge of weapon maintenance, and that guy's taste is even worse than Vill-V's.

If Zhu Yufeng hadn't disagreed, who knows what strange powers Rovoc might have added to the Black Abyss White Flower while repairing it. Anyway... Vill-V and Rovoc once created an Anti-Kevin Armament, and I heard that Kevin was quite shocked. After the Jie Mie, Vill-V didn't even manage to recover the ashes.

"I don't think your words and actions can restore Miss Seele's vital signs to normal, or at least have any calming effect," Rovoc said. "The surgery is over, I'll let Feng know."

"It seems like you've always wanted to ask him something."

"Thanks to you, I finally know the name from my dream. Now I need to ask him for answers to some questions. Now that things are over, I think he has no other excuse to avoid these questions."

"Is it possible that he wouldn't avoid the question if you just asked him? I asked him a similar question before, and he didn't try to hide anything... except for his relationship with Lilith, which he didn't answer."

Rovoc paused for a moment, then said, "I'm just theoretically ruling out the possibility that he might avoid answering."

"... I think you're cutting off your own escape route. You're afraid to know the answer, you're forcing yourself to seek it out. There's no way to avoid it anymore. Once you ask, you'll have no way out but to continue."

"We... probably haven't met that many times, have we?"

"Heh... In some non-existent spacetime, that might not be the case. For now, let's just call it my... intuition?"

"Oh..."

After the laboratory door opened and closed, the laboratory fell silent again, with no other sounds except for the hum of the instruments.

Is it all over?

Seele thought to herself, the Herrscher Core has been extracted, which means she has returned to her human identity, and her future arrangements will definitely be to continue living as a human... She is just a student now, and her age and physical condition are not enough to be a warrior of the Fire Moth, as that deadbeat had told her before.

She had no way to stay in the Fire Moth, because she had no family there and no special skills.

After that, the ending is probably that I will follow the Fire Moth's arrangement to go to that strange yet familiar city to start my life, and then I won't have much interaction with that deadbeat anymore, right?

If we could do it all over again, everyone in the orphanage would still be alive, but...

"If you still feel pain, that's normal. Your vital signs aren't completely stable yet," Admil suddenly said. "After all, you are a Herrscher body. The Herrscher Core seems to have formed a close connection with your body, even replacing some of your physical abilities. After it was removed, you can consider yourself to be in a state of serious injury. Hmm... don't be too nervous. As long as you're alive, you'll be fine. Sleep a little longer. When you wake up, everything will be alright."

Will they all get sick?

That blockhead probably also supports me living like an ordinary person, but do I really want that? Does he really not know what I want? Of course, if I don't speak up, he probably really doesn't know.

Tsk...

A wave of drowsiness washed over her, and Seele slowly closed her eyes, falling asleep once again.

Not long after, the laboratory door opened again, and Zhu Yufeng and Rovoc entered the laboratory together. They first glanced at SEELE lying among a pile of instruments, and then at the Herrscher Core that Admil had placed in a container.

The Herrscher Core of the First Herrscher is Black Abyss White Flower... However, at this moment, the core is much dimmer than the other cores I have seen before. It is as if there is a layer of something covering up the light that the core should have.

"The Herrscher Core of the Third Herrscher is still in a state of full awakening, but compared to the other Herrscher Core, this Herrscher Core can at least be considered... 'alive'?" Admil said. "Then, what is the current state of the Third Herrscher's Companion Honkai Beast, Yanluo?"

Since it was uncertain whether Seele would still have the ability to command Yanluo after the Herrscher Core was removed, there was no reason for Fire Moth not to repeatedly search for traces of Honkai Beast at the location where the First Great Honkai occurred. Therefore, Zhu Yufeng had Mobius guide Fire Moth to discover Yanluo hidden underground a long time ago.

Because the Fire Moth is unsure of Yanluo's abilities and fears the emergence of a second version of Ugar, they have been maintaining a high level of surveillance on Yanluo and constantly trying to confirm Yanluo abilities based on the Yanluo Honkai Energy he releases. At the latest, they should be able to confirm his abilities within a few days.

"Yanluo is still not making a move. It's uncertain whether it's refraining from action because it's following its master's last command," Zhu Yufeng said.

"That's really interesting..." Admil stroked his chin. According to his deduction, after the Herrscher Core was removed, Seele should have lost her Herrscher status. Therefore, her orders should have no effect on Yanluo. However, Yama did not take any action even after Seele's Yanluo Herrscher Core had been removed, which was quite intriguing.

If SEELE hadn't just undergone surgery and was still too weak, he really wanted to do another thorough examination to get a final conclusion from the data. He now suspected that even if the Herrscher Core was removed, SEELE was still the first Herrscher and still retained command over Yanluo. In that case... wouldn't that indirectly verify that the number and order of Herrscher were actually fixed from the beginning?

Mobius had vaguely mentioned this when they discussed it before.

"If the quantity and order are determined, then it will be almost impossible for all of humanity to completely sublimate into Herrscher. Moreover, according to Miss SEELE's own feelings, even if Herrscher possess human thoughts, it is even more difficult for them to control their negative emotions, and their impulse to destroy everything will continue to increase... No, I really need to understand why Herrscher were born first... It seems that this is another question that needs to be asked of Maple." Admil thought to himself, "However, let's wait until Rovoc has finished asking him before we talk about that."

Admil looked at Rovoc, Rovoc then walked over to Zhu Yufeng and asked bluntly, "Yufeng, can you tell me what you know? I mean, about the Fallen Angel."

Zhu Yufeng looked at Admil, Admil shrugged. "I don't care... but if I can hear what he has to say, I don't mind listening to it."

In the city where the Sixth Great Honkai occurred, Kevin, Hua, and others were monitoring Yanluo's movements on-site.

"If removing the Herrscher Core can turn someone back into a human, then could Captain Himiko also be... saved?" This was Hua's first reaction after seeing Zhu Yufeng's "All is well" message.

Kevin glanced at Hua, then chose to remain silent.

Regarding this, he had asked Zhu Yufeng a similar question before the surgery. He knew that it wasn't just Hua and Himiko, but also Mobius and Klein, Qianjie and Immer, Ying and Ling... They all had this kind of question.

Zhu Yufeng's reply made him sigh. Within Zhu Yufeng's knowledge, Herrscher could be a being with its own thoughts, slowly evolving into a humanoid being, or a beast whose intellect would collapse due to being directly infused with a large amount of Honkai Energy.

This situation will continue even after Elysia's sacrifice, and Zhu Yufeng even explicitly told him that he is the next civilization's Herrscher of Ice.

Himiko's reactions before and after becoming Herrscher are not much different from the second type of Herrscher Zhu Yufeng mentioned. If Himiko became Herrscher for the same reason as Seele, Kevin doesn't believe that Himiko, as a battle- Fire Moth and excellent Moth warrior, would lose her will to a student. Seele also said that she felt that the Heavenly Fire Judgment of Heavenly Fire Judgment contained nothing, yet it was surrounded by a strong and tenacious will.

"So, the way to save Himiko should be to prevent her from going to Australia at that time, right?" Kevin asked.

"Perhaps, I hope so too. After all, my only advantage is that I know some things about the future... But Kevin, even if Himiko hadn't gone, we would still have to face the Seventh Herrscher."

Kevin said: It's not Himiko matters. She's just the Seventh Herrscher. I was only ever instantly killed by her before. At worst, I can have another surgery.

Zhu Yufeng said: So you really don't plan to get to base with Mei before that?

Kevin retorted, "You should look at yourself first! At least you were single in your past life."

Zhu Yufeng shrugged: I'm not the kind of person you can't touch.

Kevin: In the end, you'll end up just like me!

Zhu Yufeng: If I dare to the Present, will you still be able to see me the next day?! You can't even physically touch me, okay?

Kevin: "..."

Feng, you've changed. How did your words become so sharp? They hit right where it hurts.

Thinking of this, although he still harbored some resentment towards Feng, Kevin's gaze towards Hua became somewhat gentler. He believed that they could definitely change the fate of the previous life this time, and hoped that it would not be left to future generations. In this life, they would defeat the Honkai!

Whether it's Himiko, or Klein, Immer...

After thinking about all this, Kevin said, "Hmm... this time, we can do it even better."

Also, my birthday is coming up soon, um... a special gift for Umeba...

The Third Research Institute.

"So... the Present world has actually been rebooted?" Rovoc frowned. "But why? How exactly was this possible? According to current theories, it's impossible to reverse time... for someone to travel back in time... that's a pipe dream..."

"Absurd, but not unreasonable." Admiralty nodded thoughtfully. He didn't investigate why Zhu Yufeng hadn't told them these things in the first place, because they really didn't have these memories. Wouldn't it be foolish to tell them rashly?

It's only the Present that he would reveal something after finding some clues. Judging from Feng's expression, there are still some things he might not have said.

That's right. Neither he nor Rovoc could be said to have remembered things before the world restarted; they had only found some clues.

"So... we really did fail... humanity was utterly defeated... we can only pin our hopes on future generations, and the Mu Continent sank long ago..." Rovoc murmured to himself.

Zhu Yufeng simply watched the two of them in silence. Of course, he couldn't possibly tell them everything at once. He only briefly mentioned the events of his previous life, acknowledged the existence of the Fallen Angel Squad, and revealed some information about the Herrscher later on.

"However, it's quite interesting that you briefly mentioned Stigmata Project, one of the four major projects. I didn't expect Dr. Mobius to be able to derive fifteen versions of the project from a single concept. He truly lives up to his reputation as Dr. Mobius." Admiralty with some emotion, expressing great interest in the spiritual entity Adam of Stigmata Project.

Zhu Yufeng: "..."

Is it possible that Mobius was forced by May to revise the plan fifteen times, and in the end May said it would depend on the situation, prioritizing the first version of the plan, and only implementing the Stigmata Project as a last resort...? Mobius was so angry he almost flipped the table...

I revised this plan fifteen times! Fifteen times! And you're telling me it might not be implemented, and that the first version will be prioritized?!

"So before the reset, you and Lilith really didn't exchange anything?" Admiralty asked again.

Rovoc nodded, indicating that she had the same problem.

Zhu Yufeng: "..."

So it turns out that it wasn't just the Fire Moth who thought this way, but even their own team thought this way?

Isn't he a rather unsuccessful man...?

"Even if we're not married, then..."

"Stop, I don't want to talk about this. Let's talk about something else."