Honkai, Transmigrating into Otto, The Path to Godhood

And now, as memories rewind, Cecilia has officially returned.

Amidst the vast battlefield and the bountiful harvest, he said the best part was that she could go home.

Welcome home.

The Saintess's heart skipped a beat.

Chapter 41: Stephan

The old man stared at the crystal before him.

It was a semi-transparent, irregular polyhedron, refracting a dazzling golden light. He looked at the crystal, earnestly pondering a question:

Why was he looking at this crystal?

The old man didn't know himself. Yet, he stared fixedly at this inexplicable existence, unmoving.

Finally, as if realizing something, the crystal suddenly trembled. Its smooth, mirror-like surface began to crack, and countless images of the old man appeared within the crystal, the shards reflecting his startled expression from different angles.

The crystal is no longer transparent. He thought.

As if to confirm his thoughts, the object before him gradually ceased to be a "crystal." Black cracks spread, and by the time it stopped trembling, the object itself emitted a golden light. Its countless facets were covered in dense black lines, as if outlining something.

—No! It was outlining something!

The old man's eyes widened, but his consciousness suddenly blurred, his eyelids closing uncontrollably.

In the final moment before his vision plunged into darkness, the old man suddenly saw, behind the "crystal," a pair of black wings slowly unfurling. And within the fragmented pieces surrounded by cracks, a pair of eyes, split into three, burning brightly, appeared in unison.

Countless eyes were staring at him. Like countless souls.

"Is this… It?"

The old man murmured, and then his vision went black.

Stephan William suddenly jumped up from his wheelchair, gasping for air.

He didn't understand why he was gasping, as if startled by a dream. What could be more like a nightmare than reality? Although his optimistic and open-minded nature made him fairly content with his current life, surely the change in his crystal was not as terrifying as Lou Gehrig's disease—hiss, wait???

Stephan abruptly raised his hands, his eyes filled with disbelief.

What was going on?

Where was the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis that had plagued him for most of his life? Where was the ventilator he had installed just a few years ago?

The old man did not display the ecstatic joy one might expect from someone freed from chronic illness. Instead, he turned around in confusion, looking at the person who had suddenly appeared in his room.

He wasn't particularly surprised, as if he had invited them.

"Greetings, Lord Stephan," a man with blond hair and blue eyes said, bowing. "I am Otto Apocalypse. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"…Huh… Otto?…"

Stephan stammered, struggling to control his speech centers, unused for so long.

"It is a genuine pleasure to meet you, who studies the cosmic sky," Otto's lips curved into a smile, but Stephan felt no joy from his words.

This was a politician. At the very least, his purpose for visiting was not pure.

Having been famous for a long time and dealing with all sorts of visitors, the old man quickly made his judgment.

But he didn't dislike this impurity. After all, as he grew older, his way of looking at people became more benevolent. Just as a great nation he visited a few years ago had said, at over seventy, he had long since "listened to everything" and could accept anything with tolerance.

Moreover, it seemed this man had helped him overcome the illnesses that had plagued him his entire life, granting him the ability to move and speak again.

He hadn't hated his previously paralyzed life, but if things could get better, why not be grateful?

However, the old man was also well aware that everything has a price. The man before him had not helped him cure his illness on a whim, nor out of admiration.

He quietly looked at the smiling man before him, whose emerald green eyes felt familiar.

As if… he had seen them somewhere just moments ago.

"I imagine you have already sensed it," Otto said. "I have used a special power to heal your body, granting you a healthier physique to explore the unknown of the world."

Stephan nodded, his pupils fixed on Otto's eyes, deep as an abyss.

So, what was the price?

He asked with his eyes.

"Yes," Otto saw his question. "I have not come here merely to pay my respects, nor did I act on a sudden impulse."

The man raised his hand, his tone rising slightly:

"I have come to show you the truth of a world."

He was standing by the window now. Outside, scattered lights twinkled, and the sky was still vast and empty. But beyond a few wisps of thin clouds, the stars of the universe were emerging.

The old man's pupils contracted. For some inexplicable reason, he felt a pair of black wings slowly unfurling behind the man.

It was like the shadow cast by a guide during a solemn and magnificent farewell ceremony at the dawn of an era.

"So... your idea is to invite me, and the scientists I can reach, to join this organization fighting for survival?"

Stephan, with his exceptionally high intellect, quickly regained his ability to speak and asked Otto in his native tongue.

He paced back and forth in the room, not to think, but to enjoy the exercise, a long-lost comfort washing over his entire body. Yet, this double joy did not cause the old man to lose his composure.

"Yes," the man did not deny.

"However, my research direction isn't closely related to that," Stephan's voice was a little low. "And my theories, because they haven't incorporated the element of Honkai, can only barely serve as discarded scaffolding in the edifice of physics."

But Otto looked at him, his eyes seeming to see through everything.

"You just feel that you cannot bear the responsibility," he said. "And for that world full of novelty, your eyes are filled with fascination and longing, which even the vicissitudes of time cannot conceal."

"...You are perceptive."

"But what I want is for the world in your and your friends' hearts to collide with the real world,"

Otto shook his head and said, "The universe is mysterious, and Honkai is also mysterious. We know nothing about the universe, and very little about Honkai. But the scientific way of thinking is the same. I need your keen mind to explore the truth of Honkai and the universe."

"I recall, decades ago, your research was on quantum field theory of curved spacetime and quantum gravity, wasn't it?"

Stephan's eyes lit up briefly before returning to normal. He thought for a long time and then asked, "So... what you need is a 'miracle'?"

"Perhaps a 'miracle,' hoping to find some breakthrough technology," Otto shrugged. "The current technology hasn't been fully utilized, of course. If used well, it could still counter Honkai, but... Thousand Worlds Samsara involves something too important. I want to invite you and many scientists to brainstorm and utilize it fully without delving into its internal workings."

"You mean, your organization has a weapon, you want to use it, but you can't research it internally for now," Stephan nodded thoughtfully. "So you're preparing to gather more scientists to study this issue within the organization."

"That's part of the reason," Otto nodded. "Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg."

"I understand," the old man was intelligent and didn't intend to ask further. "When do we leave? Or, should I invite a few of my friends first?"

"Whenever you're ready," Otto said. "It doesn't matter to me. Once you've handled things, you can come over."

"Alright."

A moment of silence passed between them before they nodded and parted ways.

The sun had set long ago, and stars twinkled in the dark blue sky. Stephan watched Otto's departing back, hesitated for a moment, and finally asked:

"So, what is your goal?"

The man stopped, his pupils narrowed slightly, then he turned around, his eyes glinting with a smile.

"What is the universe's goal?"

"..."

Stephan froze for a moment, his eyes gradually losing their color. The dull gray spheres looked up at the ceiling, murmuring in a tone of extreme dejection:

"I don't know..."

Otto had already opened the door. He turned back with a smile, as if with an apology.

"I don't know either."

The old man watched from the window as the blond man went downstairs, moving without any obstruction, as if no one noticed his arrival. He didn't disappear instantly like a god or turn into a beam of white light as Stephan had imagined. Instead, he waved, and an invisible private helicopter appeared. Otto paused at the entrance for a moment, seemingly waving goodbye to him, before getting in. A few seconds later, the helicopter vanished, cloaked in invisibility, from the spot.

At this moment, the stars were brilliant, like countless mysterious eyes.

Hawking stood silently for a while, then slowly turned and sat back in his wheelchair.

He looked at the sky; the night was beautiful, but his vision had an end.

Chapter 42: Post-Battle Inventory

"Regarding Thousand Worlds Samsara... it hasn't been utilized in recent plans, and according to the story, that man is still inside it."

"For now, we can only study it superficially; no internal exploration yet."

Otto sat by the table, his fingers tapping lightly on the wooden surface as he contemplated the assimilation of World Serpent.

First was the second Divine Key, which the original owner had desperately desired – a tool to reach the Imaginary Tree once its coordinates were obtained: Thousand Worlds Samsara.

However, he had no intention of developing or using it immediately.

Inside Thousand Worlds Samsara resided Su, the Fusion Warrior from fifty thousand years ago. In the manga "Inheritance" arc, Durandal stepped into the world bubble of Thousand Worlds Samsara, underwent Su's trial, and obtained the method for stabilizing world bubbles, thus giving birth to the Unbreakable Star Anchor armor.

Yet, in that manga, their Kiana was almost replaced by a clone created by Su. According to Su, this was to control the number of "singularities" and to personally guide this world's convergence into a "world that defeats Honkai."

To put it practically, it was another idea of "manipulating humanity to defeat Honkai, with the strong dominating the weak."

Of course, given the story's progression and character personalities, Su's statement was likely just to scare Kiana. But who knew if he might suddenly decide to do it?

After all, having experienced countless partings and reunions, observed the world for fifty thousand years, and personally pushed his close friend Kevin into the Sea of Quantum, Otto couldn't guarantee whether Su had remained benevolent and merciful throughout, or if he was still obsessively searching until 2015.

Furthermore, sacrificing someone willing to be sacrificed to save the world – if it wasn't his own combat power being sacrificed, Otto might have been interested.

Therefore, it was best to keep Thousand Worlds Samsara away from Kiana.

He would leave it in England to "air out" for a few weeks. Once she possessed greater strength, he would engage with it.

Of course, preliminary research was possible. Thus, Otto planned to have these scientists, whose intelligence was exceptionally high and who would have little impact on the current technological applications, explore it as a contingency.

The rest would be left to "miracles."

If the contingency yielded results, that would be best. If not, it wouldn't matter.

"As for the Seven Thunders of Repose... that weapon is quite troublesome..."

Otto pondered another Divine Key. Unlike the Thousand Worlds Samsara, his brow furrowed involuntarily when he thought of this weapon.

He hated disobedient weapons, even if they contained the authority of a Herrscher.

"It has a certain degree of self-awareness..."

The man's expression grew slightly colder.

"But in the end, Divine Keys are just a fusion of Soul Steel and a Herrscher core."

If all else failed, he'd just shatter that consciousness once and teach it who's boss.

It was just a Divine Key, not indestructible. The damage to the Star of Eden fifty years ago was his own masterpiece.

"Void Archives."

"Spit it out if you have something to say." The Divine Key's lazy voice echoed in the room, though it didn't coalesce into a form.

"Can the consciousness of a Divine Key be erased?"

"Little Otto," Void Archives' voice held surprise, "you're asking me, a Divine Key, how to erase the consciousness of a Divine Key? Isn't that like asking a god how to kill a god?"

"You mean it can be erased, but you won't tell me."

Otto inwardly grumbled about its arrogance and said, "This is unbelievable... How did your IQ suddenly skyrocket these past two days..." Void Archives said in a grumbling tone, then fell silent.

IQ increased?

Otto's eyes curved into a smile, neither smiling nor frowning.