The Gathering Storm 6k

"What exactly happened? Where did these people come from...?"

Mostima's fingers flew across the keyboard. With the help of the Fire Moth Cyber Security Department, locating the people spreading these rumors was much easier, but... the source of the rumors was still nowhere to be found.

Recently, it seems that the Fire Moth and the World Serpent have reduced their efforts in searching for the source of rumors? However, they haven't reduced their own tasks at all, like using the ultimate tool...

Mostima picked up her coffee and took a sip. Looking at the latest rumor on the screen, she couldn't help but laugh in anger, "What? A relative, friend, or comrade-in-arms in the Mu Continent said he saw Feng destroy their defenses with his own eyes, and then he thinks Feng and the Herrscher are in cahoots? If they're not in cahoots, why didn't they perish together with the Herrscher?"

Mostima quickly located the address of the poster and then reported it to the Fire Moth Cyber Security Department.

"They're not even from the Mu Continent. Can you really deny all the efforts of Qian Feng and everyone else here just based on a few words?" Mostima leaned back in his chair, staring blankly at the ceiling.

Although that's what she said, it seems like she used to be like that too... using unsubstantiated information and the identity of an "unknown kind person" to seduce others, then sow discord and stir up conflict, while she profited from it and took pleasure in it.

That's just how people are. They believe anything based on a few "I heard" statements. If you present them with some video or audio footage that could mislead them, wouldn't they believe you even more completely? This tactic used to work almost every week, but then I ran into Lilith, and she turned the tables on me. Now I'm completely trapped and can't escape.

Besides, even if you run, where can you run to?

In this world, besides this place, is there anywhere else for her to live a peaceful life?

As a hacker, knowing too much is ultimately not a good thing. If Lilith hadn't forced him to join the Fire Moth at gunpoint, what would he be like now? Died in the Australia bushfires? Died in the Eighth Herrscher's dream? Or died in the sinking of the Mu Continent?

Who knows?

If I hadn't joined the Fire Moth and were still alive today, seeing these comments online, I'd probably be tempted to get involved too. After all... for ordinary people who have never directly experienced Honkai and only know about Honkai from books, they don't feel the threat from Honkai, and might even take the Heroes' protection and sacrifice for granted.

They had never seen the scorched earth and corpses of the area in Australia burned by the Seventh Herrscher, never seen the gradually withering bodies of those trapped in the dream of the Eighth Herrscher who could never open their eyes again, and never seen the scene of everything being annihilated when the Ninth Herrscher 'Simulated Black Hole expanded.

For them, occasionally seeing a few Honkai zombie was already the limit of their ability to contact the enemy. Perhaps the Fire Moth did a good job of protecting these people, so that even if a small-scale Honkai or a few scattered Honkai zombie and Honkai Beast appeared, they could be eliminated immediately.

But, to be honest, we can't entirely blame them. After all, even the higher-ups who have more information have a kind of misplaced confidence in fighting the Honkai, always feeling that the advantage is on their side. Lionel probably has a lot to say about this... The Mu Continent is a joke when it comes to the Honkai Organization.

If high-ranking officials with more comprehensive information are acting this way, ordinary people who only have limited information to avoid causing panic are even more likely to think this way.

Mostima even wondered to himself if, in the Ninth Herrscher incident, Hu Feng had sacrificed himself to stop the Ninth Herrscher, not to mention whether people on the Mu Continent would be grateful, it was hard to say how much ordinary people would feel about it.

The word "Heroes" is the furthest thing from ordinary people who are protected.

They would think that when a Heroes falls, another Heroes will always step up, and when the sky falls, there will always be someone tall enough to hold it up.

Perhaps some people will genuinely grieve for the Heroes's passing, but with so many people, there are a thousand faces and a thousand mouths...

If Mu Continent still around, it would be impossible for it to improve Feng's public image, given its own reputation. So in the end... well, it would have been better not to save him at all.

No one owes this world anything. Saving others is not anyone's obligation. It's just that the world needs them, so they chose to stand up. That's all.

But there are always some people who take other people's contributions for granted.

Although for an oddball like Feng, the reason that drove him to stand at the forefront and choose to save her was not because of his strong sense of responsibility, but because... he just wanted to protect the people he wanted to protect.

If Mostima were to offer her critique, it seems that among these rescuers, very few were truly acting in a normal way. It's unclear who Feng was doing it for, but it certainly wasn't out of a sense of responsibility. Kevin the other hand, clearly embarked on this path solely for Mei, although in the Fire Moth, Feng was originally... ahem, I digress. Elysia genuinely loves the human Ming, at least on the surface, so she's somewhat more normal. Lilith... Lilith never even considered saving anyone; she just wanted to stay by Feng's side!

Aside from Elysia, perhaps only Kosma is more like someone who, in the traditional sense, chooses to become a savior hero out of a strong sense of responsibility.

The other top-tier Fusion Warrior... are really not traditional at all, and each one is more outrageous than the last, making it hard to understand why such people would become Heroes who save you.

Even I... I clearly didn't want to do this. My former self would probably never have wanted to do it, but now I'm actually doing it to save lives.

There was a knock on the door, and Gianna's voice came from outside. "Sister Mostima, lunch is ready."

"I understand." Mostima closed his laptop and walked out of his bedroom.

"Mostima hasn't been going out to work much lately. Is she feeling unwell?" Gianna asked.

"It's nothing much, I guess the boss saw that I've been doing well lately, and my sales figures are much better than others, so he gave me a long vacation," Mostima said casually. "Gianna, how have you been at school lately?"

Gianna lowered her eyelids and said in a slightly strange tone, "I... everyone at school is saying that Brother Feng didn't take the Honkai seriously, and that Brother Feng might be the Herrscher."

"Herrscher?" Mostima frowned, as if she had discovered something, and quickly asked, "Who said that?"

Even as family members of the Fire Moth members, the children shouldn't know what a Herrscher is, or at least know that such a person exists. However, their understanding of the concept is very vague. The fact that this rumor is spreading within the Fire Moth school means that someone must have taught them to say it.

"I heard it from Andrew in Class 7. His father was apparently from the Mu Continent, and then... he sacrificed himself not long ago," Gianna said hesitantly.

"Andrew from Class 7, his father was Honkai zombie on the Mu Continent ..." Mostima thought for a while, feeling that this was very important information. Then he took out his phone and told the news to Gray Serpent, asking them to investigate. Although he had learned about this information by chance during a casual conversation at lunch, Gray Serpent might have already noticed it, but... the recent outbreak of these rumors was really abnormal, and there was no room for carelessness.

Honestly, why am I worrying about this so much?

Mostima didn't know how many times he had internally complained like this.

What she didn't notice was that when she sent a message to Gray Serpent on her phone, Gianna wasn't eating quietly as usual, but instead staring intently at her.

Perhaps her gaze was too obvious and undisguised, Mostima looked up at Gianna, meeting her strange look. "What's wrong Gianna?"

She felt there was something off about Gianna's gaze, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it... Perhaps it was because the girl was going through puberty and was prone to overthinking things.

After all, Mostima had seen this child standing alone on the balcony, lost in thought, several times before when he stayed up late to get water.

Mostima wasn't too concerned about this. Gianna would eventually realize the murderous intent Lilith had shown her back then, unless... the child selectively forgot their past relationship.

However, forgetting is easier said than done...

She cared so much about her sister, but her sister never cared about her at all. Recently, after Lilim came along, Lilith's attention to Gianna plummeted. To Lilith, Gianna was just a seasoning in her relationship with Maple. Now that Lilim could play a more significant role than Gianna, Lilith would care even less about Gianna.

Actually, when Lilith first came to see Gianna, she asked Feng for help, and then Feng came over, so she followed him.

"Sister Mostima ..." Gianna looked down at the food on the table and said, "If... if you hadn't met Brother Feng in the first place, would things be completely different now?"

"Gianna, there is no such thing as a free lunch," Mostima said.

"Yes, things have changed. No matter how many 'what ifs' we talk about, we can't go back to the way things were." Gianna lowered her eyes. "But I often wonder, if it weren't for Brother Feng, could my sister and I have lived the same way?"

"Gianna." Mostima began to sense that the topic was getting a little off. "You can't say that. Don't listen to those guys' gossip. Feng is not some kind of Herrscher. He has been seriously fighting against the dangers that threaten humanity, of course, with your sister. That's why your sister has been so busy lately."

"But I don't want my sister to be Heroes," Gianna said. "Why does it have to be my sister who's Heroes? Why does it have to be my sister?"

Is it possible that your sister doesn't care about being Heroes all, and if Feng ever decides to quit, Lilith will definitely be the first to follow him or even run away with him?

Even without Maple, you, and your Davien, Adams who has been dead for who knows how long, Lilith wouldn't care in the slightest. She would probably kill you all if given the slightest chance.

Mostima didn't know how to tell Gianna these things. After all, it seemed too cruel for a child. She could only wait for time to heal the wounds and for Jaina to grow up and understand them herself.

"You'll understand eventually," Mostima said. "Always being fixated on the past will only keep you from moving forward."

"Adults always say that..." Gianna gently closed her eyes and said to herself in a barely audible voice, "I always wish I could go back to the past, I wish time could stand still in that time."

I was still as innocent and naive as ever, and my sister was still as gentle and elegant as ever. I hoped that my sister would still weave the flowers from the garden into a wreath and put it on my head, braid my hair, and gently remind me to pay attention to my appearance.

I so desperately hoped that my life could return to normal.

Whether it was her brother or Adams, her sister was always the same in her kindness, unlike now, when in her eyes, no one but Feng held any place.

Mostima looked at Gianna, thinking she would contact Lilith later and ask her to keep an eye on her sister's mental state. After all, Mostima knew very well how much Gianna missed her older sister, and now was a time when children were prone to overthinking...

On the other side, in Lionel's office.

"The atmosphere within the Fire Moth has been rather strange lately," Lionel said, frowning. "Besides the various rumors circulating among the warriors, the higher-ups seem to be starting to... be wary of each other?"

Beifengge sat on the sofa, flipping through a book as she looked up and said, "Leon, you need to understand that within the Fire Moth right now, for intelligent people, it's probably impossible to trust anyone completely, at least... not entirely. Even you and I shouldn't say everything we want, after all... you're now a remnant of the Mu Continent, and the vast chaos that humanity has caused is largely due to the survival of the Mu Continent's survivors."

Lionel remained silent, staring at Beifengge for a moment before looking away and saying with a self-deprecating tone, "Yes, I am a soldier of the Mu Continent. How could I accept the utter destruction of my homeland like this..."

Beifengge's monocle reflected the light slightly, and then he said, "Then you'd better pay attention to your words and actions lately, because there might not be only one person watching you."

"So what? I've been watched like that plenty of times on the Mu Continent," Lionel shrugged. "In fact, I'm not even under house arrest yet, just being monitored, which is already pretty good, isn't it?"

"You're much more self-aware than before." Beifengge turned a page in his book. "I suggest you just focus on your work for now, so that we can both have less trouble."

Lionel fell silent, flipping through the documents as he pondered inwardly.

Beifengge clearly accepted the person assigned to monitor him, and he also said that he might not be the only one watching him at the moment. In other words, something else was also watching him, and this thing was very likely the culprit behind the strange state of the Fire Moth.

For reasons unknown, Beifengge could not elaborate on these matters. He could only test himself and speak in riddles, explaining that the thing existed in an unknown form, and that... Beifengge definitely suspected that he might be that thing.

Has the Tenth Herrscher, whom we speculated about before, already appeared in Fire Moth? No, rather, only the appearance of the Tenth Herrscher can prove why the current situation exists within Fire Moth.

No wonder the higher-ups are so wary of each other; everyone is worried that the person they're talking to might be the Tenth Herrscher...

Wait, does this mean the Tenth Herrscher was actually lying dormant as a human? And...

Lionel paused as he wrote on the document, a cold sweat instantly pouring down his back.

He wondered what the powers of the Tenth Herrscher were.

Rumors are the breeding ground for suspicion, and it is absolutely impossible for one person to completely eliminate rumors. The powers of the false Herrscher will not be restored. Mind control powers have already been controlled by the Eighth Herrscher. So how did the Tenth Herrscher promote the spread of rumors? One person's ability to spread rumors is very limited, and it is easy to expose oneself. So what if there are many people?

The Tenth Herrscher... there isn't just one...

Thinking about this, Lionel felt a chill run down his spine. He tried to convince himself that it was just his own wild imagination, but the more he tried, the more he felt that only this possibility could explain the current situation. He could think of it, and the top human sages like Mobius, May, and Dr. Einstein must have also noticed it. They were unsure whether the others were individuals of the Tenth Herrscher, so they had to take precautions against them.

So, the Tenth Herrscher might belong to the relatively weaker category of Herrscher, relying on sheer numbers to break down the defenses of trust among humans... After all, if they were strong enough, would they need to remain hidden? Perhaps it is precisely because they are so weak compared to other Herrscher that conventional methods simply cannot detect them.

Yes, for the Herrscher, destroying civilization is not limited to violent destruction. Inducing mutual distrust among humans and ultimately driving them into civil war is also a way to destroy civilization.

He almost forgot that violent destruction of civilization is just a means to an end. The Herrscher, as the apostles of Honkai, have the ultimate goal of destroying human civilization.

Thinking about this, Lionel couldn't help but glance at Beifengge again. The fact that Beifengge was willing to reveal so much to him in riddles basically showed that he still trusted him to some extent and believed that he could understand what was going on.

"If that's the case... the enemy is the Tenth Herrscher, their powers unknown, their numbers enormous enough to quell rumors... and they might not only exist within the Fire Moth, but could also exist in other corners of the Human Society..." Lionel lowered his head in thought. "The enemy is in the dark while we are in the light; it's far too difficult to find them all. The most effective measure we can take... should be to lure them out. No matter how large their numbers are, as long as the bait is enticing enough to make them send out a large number of individuals, we can then annihilate those individuals in one fell swoop. The remaining ones are just small fry, no threat whatsoever. But what kind of bait could lure them out?"

As Lionel was pondering, his gaze fell upon a confidential document that Beifengge had brought over that day. He opened the document and then froze.

So, you've already started your operation against the Tenth Herrscher, haven't you?

The document contained details about the God-Slaying Plan. Lionel glanced at it and finally understood why the Fire Moth been so vigilant in protecting the Mu Continent the God-Slaying Plan, sparing no effort to prevent them from learning about it. The reason...

"God-slaying weapon, Heavenly Thunder Zeus? Although the name makes one think the person who named it might be a bit too young... It's the kind of name that kid Kosma would come up with." Lionel chuckled softly, thinking to himself, "Yes, young people... It's not a bad thing to always be energetic... According to what this plan describes, all the preparations are to deal with the arrival of the final Herrscher, and humanity will use this to defeat the god... If this is used as bait, then indeed, the Tenth Herrscher cannot sit idly by."

The problem is... I'm not the Tenth Herrscher, so how am I supposed to let the Tenth Herrscher know?

Or perhaps every current high-ranking member received a share? That's certainly possible. There must be an individual among the Tenth Herrscher who is lying in wait as a high-ranking member within the Fire Moth. If I were the one orchestrating this, I would definitely do the same, scattering individuals throughout the various corners of the Human Society to maximize the benefits.

Only...

"The people in charge of the God-Slaying Plan are... Rovoc and Admil?" Lionel frowned. He hadn't seen his sister in a long time. After the Mu Continent sank, he only spoke to her once on the phone, where she affectionately greeted him with "You're not dead?" and then nothing more...

Lionel: "..."

Sis, where did you learn to talk like that? You never used to talk to me this aggressively.

Despite his inner turmoil, Lionel ultimately refrained from forcibly intervening. He knew this was the best way to break the deadlock, and he had no other choice.

The current situation within the Fire Moth is turbulent, but on the surface it maintains at least a semblance of calm. Lionel knows very well that this is only the calm before the storm, and it is likely that the formal confrontation between the Fire Moth and the Tenth Herrscher will soon begin.

No wonder the Fire Moth has recently weakened its efforts to investigate various rumors. After all, constantly searching for the source is not a solution; the only option is to keep things under wraps and wait for the right opportunity.

"A storm is brewing."