Honkai Impact 3rd: Saving the Pre-Civilization by Hand-Crafting Black Tech

"What about the remaining probability?" Ai Yue put his phone away and signaled Hua to take out the box.

"The probability of 0.8% is the Eighth Herrscher herself." Prometheus replied, "Alright, it was just a joke. Miss Hua, you don't need to be so nervous."

"You should talk to Vill-V less in the future." Ai Yue glanced at Hua, who had assumed a fighting stance, and couldn't help but shake his head. "Okay, prepare for the next step."

"Wait, I still don't understand." Hua said at this moment, "Original Anchor... what does that mean?"

She vaguely felt that Ai Yue knew far more than he had told her on the way.

"Before that, let's take a look at these brainwave maps." Ai Yue spread his right palm upwards, and Prometheus transformed into a fingerless glove on his hand. A lens on his palm emitted a projection. "These are the brainwave images of people from different cities and different ages who fell into a deep sleep simultaneously. Did you find anything?"

"They... are all the same?" Hua's eyes widened in astonishment as she saw the completely identical wave patterns overlapping each other. "Are these people all dreaming? And dreaming the same dream!"

"Or rather, they are dreaming the same dreamscape," Ai Yue retracted the projection. "A dreamscape constructed by a Herrscher, from which they find it difficult to extricate themselves."

"So Prometheus said this girl is the Original Anchor," Hua realized afterward. "Does that mean she was the first person to be affected by the Herrscher, and her dream is part of this dreamscape?"

"Yes, at least she is indeed one of the first to fall into a coma." Ai Yue took out a strange-looking hat from the box and put it on his head. "And, unlike those who later fell into a coma due to the spreading keywords, she might have come into contact with the Eighth Herrscher in her dream."

"Then what do we do next?" Hua asked. "Do I need to infiltrate her dream?"

Hua finally understood why Ai Yue chose her. Clearly, he needed someone to infiltrate the dreamscape and try to make contact with the Herrscher.

However, Ai Yue's words made her expression one of surprise. "No, your task is to watch her."

After putting on the hat, Ai Yue produced a pale white potion from somewhere and directly injected it into his neck. "Infiltrating dreams is something I'll do, of course."

Hua was stunned for a moment, then felt a change in Ai Yue's demeanor. For a fleeting moment, she even felt like she was looking at a different person.

"This doesn't seem to be what Aponia said," Ai Yue first looked at Hua, then at Rachel lying on the bed, and frowned. "Whatever, let's get down to business."

Then he closed his eyes, and his whole body instantly seemed to lose consciousness and lean back.

Hua instinctively supported Ai Yue's body and helped him sit on a chair, while she stood by the side, looking at the two unconscious people, feeling a bit lost.

When she heard that the mission involved a Herrscher, she had already prepared herself for a tough battle. But why did it seem like she was the one with the most free time now?

Moreover, what did "watch her" mean? Could it be that there was something else wrong with Rachel?

"Miss Hua, you seem a bit confused." Prometheus's voice came from Ai Yue's hand. "Dr. Ai Yue once instructed me that if you have any questions about the mission, I will do my best to answer them for you."

"Just call me Hua." Hua instinctively straightened her body, then relaxed. "About the mission... I want to know what will happen to Rachel, and why Dr. Ai Yue wants me to watch her?"

"According to Dr. Ai Yue's analysis, the dreamscape is not just a means for Herrschers to restrain human consciousness, but it also has other functions," Prometheus said. "If his inference is true, that all consciousness is trapped in the same dreamscape, then it means the Eighth Herrscher can locate their physical bodies in reality at any time through consciousness in the dream."

"In other words, the Eighth Herrscher's consciousness might possess Rachel's body?" Hua, who had been relatively relaxed, immediately tensed up. "Doesn't that mean she could control Rachel's body and attack at any moment?"

"Yes, but taking control of a body by bypassing its original owner is not an easy task," Prometheus said. "For the Eighth Herrscher, she might be able to do it easily, but the Eighth Herrscher's own strength is likely not very high, so the only means she can rely on is to pull you into the dreamscape as well."

Hua immediately took two steps back, as if doing so could get her out of the range of the Herrscher's abilities.

"Don't be nervous, Hua," Prometheus continued. "Don't you have the headband Dr. Ai Yue gave you?"

"You mean this?" Hua unconsciously touched the cool metal on her forehead. "Can this resist the Eighth Herrscher's authority?"

Ai Yue had given it to her when they got off the plane, saying it was a piece of protective gear. Hua hadn't paid much attention at the time, but now she realized that he must have planned everything then.

"It's called 'Soul Guardian'. Although it hasn't been used in actual combat, it was successful in simulated experiments," Prometheus said. "At least it's enough to deal with a trace of consciousness from the Eighth Herrscher crossing a long distance."

"So the Herrscher controlling Rachel's body doesn't pose much of a threat. Dr. Ai Yue asked you to watch her because he was worried that the Eighth Herrscher might interrupt Dr. Ai Yue's link with the dreamscape by killing Rachel, thus causing unnecessary sacrifice," Prometheus continued. "With the methods the Eighth Herrscher has shown so far, she is most dangerous within the dreamscape."

"Then Dr. Ai Yue will be alright, won't he?" After hearing the explanation, Hua couldn't help but focus her gaze on Ai Yue again.

"According to my projections, Dr. Ai Yue's survival rate when facing the Eighth Herrscher is only 40%." Prometheus said, "But Dr. Ai Yue said, 'Don't assume your model can simulate my power,' and refused all my suggestions, insisting on carrying out his own plan. He's such a troublesome adult."

Whether it was an illusion or not, Hua heard a sense of "helplessness" in that statement.

Ai Yue, of course, was unaware that Prometheus was talking about him behind his back. He was currently experiencing the sensation of falling from a great height.

There was usually only one way to enter a dreamscape: by reading the keywords set by the Eighth Herrscher. Upon reading the content designed by the other party, the reader would be dragged into that vast dreamscape and immersed in the perfect life that reflected the reader's inner desires, constructed by the Eighth Herrscher through "keyword hypnosis," making it impossible to escape.

In the original storyline, Moth to Fire would only invent a device called "Observation Hub" several months later, which could read the dreams of those in a coma and establish an active intervention channel, allowing people to consciously enter them.

Ai Yue was using a similar method, but instead of creating a dedicated dreamscape device, he chose to enhance himself, using the potion he had just injected himself with – "Aponia's Embrace."

The principle of this potion was similar to "Salvation Fire" used by Kevin. Both were potions that temporarily granted the user Hypervariable Factors, allowing them to temporarily wield special abilities. However, its raw materials were not derived from Honkai Beasts, but from Fused Warriors, further lowering the usage threshold and danger of the potion, making it usable even by ordinary people like Ai Yue.

Incidentally, the name of this potion was not given by Ai Yue, but was proposed by Aponia herself when she learned that Ai Yue was going to use her genes to create the potion.

After using this potion, Ai Yue was equivalent to becoming a degraded version of Aponia for a short period. With Aponia's abilities as a foundation, he was able to actively open an entrance in Rachel's dreamscape and enter it.

The hat he had put on earlier not only possessed the "Soul Guardian" ability to protect the mind but also amplified the user's mental power, assisting the user in better manipulating mental energy. It could even detect the user's physical condition and forcibly extract him from the dreamscape when the effects of "Aponia's Embrace" began to fade.

With the assistance of these two items, plus a System hidden in Ai Yue's mind, he dared to risk his life and directly intrude into the Eighth Herrscher's territory.

After experiencing an unknown duration of weightlessness, Ai Yue finally regained a sense of reality and officially entered the dreamscape.

The first thing Ai Yue did upon regaining his sense of reality was to try to summon the System. When the familiar light blue interface appeared before him, he finally let go of his last lingering concern.

Even the Eighth Herrscher's dreamscape couldn't isolate the System from his consciousness. What else was there to fear?

It was time to let this bumpkin from the moon witness the power of a cheat.

Chapter 56: Time's Almost Up

After confirming that his reliance could function normally even within the dreamscape, Ai Yue couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Then he began another experiment – according to the settings, the time flow in the dreamscape was twenty times faster than in reality. Could this flow rate be used to accelerate the progress of research projects?

However, the result was disappointing. The research projects in the dreamscape progressed extremely slowly on their own. It seemed they were not affected by the time flow rate of Ai Yue's subjective will.

Ai Yue was only slightly disappointed before immediately thinking of something else—the System's own advancement speed wasn't affected, but he could manually accelerate it.

If time flowed twenty times faster in the dreamscape, it would mean Ai Yue's own thought process would also be twenty times faster. Since the System could still be activated in the dreamscape, it meant his research efficiency would be much higher if he conducted it in dreams!

Unfortunately, now wasn't the time for research.

Ai Yue sighed regretfully, temporarily shifting his attention away from the System to observe his surroundings.

He was currently standing in a bedroom, but unlike Rachel's bedroom in reality, this one was not only spacious and bright but also seemed to have much more luxurious furniture.

However, after observing for a while, Ai Yue realized that the owner of this bedroom still seemed to be Rachel.

This wasn't hard to understand. After all, the dream woven by the Eighth Herrscher was the beautiful life the person within yearned for. Some people yearned for a happy family, while others yearned to be with their loved ones forever. Therefore, it seemed reasonable for Rachel, who lived in a small room, to desire a larger bedroom.

Just then, the bedroom door was opened from the outside, and a girl rushed in. She looked healthy and full of vitality, her face beaming with a happy smile. If not for the fact that her appearance was almost identical to Rachel's in reality, Ai Yue wouldn't have recognized her at first glance.

So, what was the beautiful life she dreamed of?

Ai Yue curiously stood aside, watching the young girl lie on the bed playing with her phone.

As someone with powerful mental energy, Ai Yue's level in the dreamscape was naturally higher than that of these ordinary people hypnotized by the Eighth Herrscher. By utilizing his mental energy, he could easily hide himself from the perception of others, making him effectively invisible. Thus, when Rachel entered the bedroom, she didn't notice that there was another person in the room at all.

Of course, this trick only worked on beings with mental energy. It couldn't bypass machine surveillance, nor could it affect those who were not directly in front of Ai Yue but observing him through monitoring equipment.

But even this was powerful enough. It was precisely because he used "Aponia's Embrace" that Ai Yue finally understood what a terrifying existence Aponia was to ordinary people.

Even this degraded version of the ability he now possessed could easily distort a person's mind and change their appearance. How powerful must the complete version mastered by Aponia be?

Most people, upon mastering such power, would likely become unimaginably arrogant. Yet, Aponia could calmly and peacefully stay in The Deepest Place, responsible for soothing people's minds. Was she truly worthy of being called a compassionate Nun?

Putting aside his own circumstances, Ai Yue thought this and then walked out of the room, intending to see what kind of dream Rachel was immersed in.

Generally speaking, children from blended families who weren't doing well would want to return to their original families...

Ai Yue mused, but when he looked up, he saw the man he had seen in reality sitting on the sofa watching TV.

Ai Yue: ...

You're still here?

However, the immediate priority wasn't to help the little girl resolve her issues and face reality. Therefore, Ai Yue didn't linger here for long and quickly left the house.

His abilities might be able to fool these ordinary people, but they definitely couldn't fool the owner of the dreamscape. It was likely that the Eighth Herrscher would appear before him before long.

It was a shame that Ai Yue couldn't detect any abnormal mental fluctuations from Rachel. It seemed she hadn't truly come into contact with the Eighth Herrscher.

Outside Rachel's house was the original city, but Ai Yue could clearly feel that the environment here was very "crude." It was evident that the world restored from Rachel's memories wasn't as clear as reality. As a result, this city only consisted of a small area centered around Rachel's home, with blankness beyond that.

However, Ai Yue soon discovered that outside the city's blankness, more and more buildings were gradually being generated. Although they weren't large in scale, they were slowly unfolding, and some had even connected to form clusters.

Clearly, the victims in this city were still increasing. As the victims' memories of the city grew, the city would eventually be truly recreated in the dreamscape. What would happen then was something even Ai Yue couldn't say for sure.

But he had come here precisely to prevent such a thing from happening.

Ai Yue repeatedly ran through his plan in his mind, but suddenly he sharply looked behind him.

A figure enveloped in black energy was floating behind him, seemingly observing him.

It was a seemingly thin and withered girl. The black energy obscured the details of her body, making it impossible for Ai Yue to see her face clearly. However, this appearance was more than enough to confirm her identity.

"Eighth Herrscher?" Ai Yue nodded, as if greeting her. "What should I call you?"

This was his first face-to-face encounter with a Herrscher, yet he felt nothing special... Oh, he almost forgot, this wasn't actually the first time.

"Interesting, a human who can actively enter a dreamscape. You're the first." The Herrscher ignored his question and spoke on her own. "It seems you must be one of those humans who oppose Honkai, right?"

Clearly, she didn't intend to have a proper conversation.

"So, we can't talk?" Ai Yue also realized the issue with her attitude and couldn't help but sigh. "What a shame, I wanted to learn more about your kind."

"Ignorant human, who do you think you're talking to?" The Herrscher was clearly angered by Ai Yue's attitude. "A guy like you doesn't even deserve a beautiful dream!"

She raised her right hand and pointed at the sky. The previously clear blue sky instantly became overcast, and within the clouds, a thick, terrifying bolt of lightning descended directly towards Ai Yue.

Everything happened in an instant. It could be said that the Eighth Herrscher's actions perfectly embodied the phrase "changing faces like flipping a book." However, such an attack was completely ineffective.

The lightning dissipated less than five meters away from Ai Yue, without even touching his body. Ai Yue smiled as if he had done nothing: "A grand attack, yet its power isn't as formidable as it appears. Is it because you can't fully exert your strength yet? Or perhaps you can't go all out against me right now?"

Ai Yue extended his hand and made a grabbing motion towards the Eighth Herrscher: "Whatever you're planning, you'd better hurry. Otherwise, by the time I catch you, it'll be too late."

Chapter 57: This is Okay Too?

Hearing Ai Yue's pointed remark, the Eighth Herrscher's expression subtly changed.

She no longer bothered to argue with Ai Yue, instead waving a mass of black energy that enveloped him. Then, she vanished without a trace in an instant, clearly having left the area.

After breaking free from the black energy, Ai Yue couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief—if he had to fight the Eighth Herrscher one-on-one, the outcome was unthinkable.

In the dreamscape, trying to defeat the owner of the dreamscape was impossible. Let alone with a degraded version of Aponia, even if Aponia and Desdrobia, the only two Mental Perception Fused Warriors currently available, were brought along, there would be no chance of victory.

The most efficient way to deal with someone like that was naturally to "open their box" and then have an offline match.

The lightning strike earlier seemed to have been easily deflected by Ai Yue, but he could also feel that she hadn't used her full strength. In fact, as he had said, the Eighth Herrscher's focus wasn't on him. Otherwise, with that lightning strike, he would have suffered at least some harm, rather than the System showing no reaction at all.

However, although the two had only interacted for a short time, it wasn't entirely without results.

Ai Yue spread his right palm open. On his palm, a blurry mass of light was surging.

"Mental Energy Sample · Eighth Herrscher (Rare): 100% Usability."

"Using this material allows for the direct initiation of a research project related to the Eighth Herrscher."

Upon seeing the information provided by the System, Ai Yue couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

He had always assumed the System couldn't collect intangible things like this as material, but the reality proved he had underestimated it.

The reason he had only just obtained the first mental-type material seemed to be simply because Ai Yue hadn't had suitable means to capture it until now.

Now, with the dreamscape as a unique medium, he could finally extract a portion of someone else's mental energy, which was then officially recorded by the System.

And with this item, his originally complex plan would no longer be necessary.

Ai Yue directly opened the research project related to the Eighth Herrscher and found what he wanted within it—

"Pseudo Herrscher Authority: Mental Energy Perception and Positioning Technology."

The next step was to wait.

Looking at the confirmation that the project had been initiated, Ai Yue nodded, then closed his eyes and attempted to leave the dreamscape.

He still couldn't accelerate scientific projects related to Herrschers with his own knowledge. Since that was the case, he might as well return to reality and do something else.

However, Ai Yue quickly opened his eyes again because he discovered that his connection to his physical body was being blocked by something.

Was it that mass of black energy?

Ai Yue couldn't help but focus his attention on his surroundings, only then realizing that the environment had somehow transformed.

A massive forest spread out from him in all directions. Even with Ai Yue exerting his mental energy to its fullest to sense the far distance, he couldn't find the edge of this forest.

Clearly, the Eighth Herrscher wasn't foolish. She realized she couldn't deal with Ai Yue quickly, and prolonging the stalemate would easily expose her. However, she couldn't let him leave easily either, so she chose this rather crude method.

She had created a massive mental labyrinth, trapping Ai Yue within the dreamscape. Without escaping the labyrinth, he couldn't return to reality.

This was a very crude method, as the Eighth Herrscher had utilized the dreamscape resources used to trap other humans to construct this enormous labyrinth. As a result, some individuals with slightly stronger wills could already break free from the dreamscape with their own willpower and awaken.