Chapter 282

In order to free up time to learn about the next generation of civilization, they also need to take care of their current work.

However, some people stayed behind. Apart from Pardofelis and Elysia, Mobius, Aponia, and Vill-V also showed no intention of leaving.

"What, not full?"

When Ai Yue returned to the central hall and found several people sitting at the table, he raised an eyebrow. "Or are you saying you're not interested in Kiana?"

"Of course I'm interested,"

Elysia lay on the table, tilting her head to look at Ai Yue, "But someone is mean-spirited and won't let me leave. What can I do?"

"Once this is resolved, you'll have plenty of time to play with Kiana,"

Ai Yue replied, then looked at Ai Yi beside him, "Ai Yi, take Elysia to the Herrscher lab and do the experiments there first."

"Understood,"

Ai nodded, then came to Elysia's side. "Miss Elysia, we should go."

"Ugh, I'm too lazy to move..."

Elysia sat up and stretched out her arms to Ai, "Ai, carry me~"

"Please excuse my refusal,"

Ai said coldly, "Because according to my observation, your waistline is..."

She had only spoken halfway when Elysia ruthlessly covered her mouth and dragged her outside. "Fine, fine, I won't hug you, but you can't say things like that!"

After Elysia left, Ai Yue sat down at the table and looked at the people in front of him.

"To be clear in advance,"

At this moment, Vill-V raised her right hand and said, "I'm only staying here on Dr. Mei's behalf. My job is to record information and I don't care about anything else."

On the other side, Mobius and Aponia exchanged a glance before Mobius spoke first, "Shall you go first or should I go first?"

"I think we all care about the same things, so there's no such thing as first or last."

Aponia smiled and extended her hand. "Please ask me, Mobius."

"Then I'll just ask directly."

Mobius cut to the chase, asking, "This disaster isn't as simple as it seems, is it? How do you plan to resolve it?"

"Or are you really just trying to solve the problem?"

Chapter 42 You also believe in the principle of cycles, right?

There were only four people in the central hall of the Star of Light at this moment.

Ai Yue's silence in the face of this question made the already empty hall even quieter, to the point that although the temperature did not change, people still felt a chill.

"It seems the answer is already obvious."

Mobius knew Ai Yue so well that he naturally understood what the other's silence meant. "So, the next question—what price will you pay for this plan?"

This time, Mobius chose to walk up to Ai Yue, pressing his face close to his eyes and saying, "Don't tell me the price might be you?"

Why would you think that?

Ai Yue smiled and looked at Mobius. "Do I look like someone who doesn't value his life?"

"Of course not, but you're just treating your life as a very valuable bargaining chip."

Mobius narrowed his eyes, giving him a "I know you too well?" look. "Of course you wouldn't throw your life away so easily, but if the value of this matter exceeds your own assessment of your life—"

"Then you would put it on the table without hesitation."

Mobius spoke in a calm tone, and although the content was all speculation, she did not use a questioning tone at all, because she knew that the man in front of her was just like that.

"Furthermore, if you really don't have this idea, you'll just deny it outright."

Aponia added, "Instead of trying to sway Mobius's mind with rhetorical questions, as is the case now."

Upon hearing this, Ai Yue sighed, knowing that he couldn't keep it from the two of them, so he had no choice but to surrender. "Okay, I admit that the plan is indeed a bit bold, but it's really not that extreme."

"But there are some bold things you wouldn't hide from the two of us."

Mobius pointed out the flaws in Ai Yue's words again, then straddled his lap, saying, "Tell me the truth, or you'll get away with this!"

"Wow, what are you doing?!"

Vill-V, standing to the side, exclaimed dramatically, covering her eyes with her hands, then spreading her fingers to reveal gaps, "Isn't this a bit inappropriate? At least consider how others feel!"

"If you truly considered yourself an outsider, you wouldn't have left behind the tiger skin that Mei used to intimidate you,"

Mobius turned his head and looked at her with a half-smile. "How about it? Want me to give you a chance to not be an outsider?"

"Are you really going to give it to me?"

Vill-V jumped up, looking eager, "Then can I ride it now?!"

"What are you saying!"

Ai Yue immediately wore an expression that was both funny and exasperating. "Aponia, aren't you going to do anything about it?"

"You know, Ai Yue, I don't mind these things."

Aponia smiled and shook her head. "But right now, we really need to focus on important matters, don't we?"

In short, make your plan clear.

Mobius also stood up from Ai Yue and sat down in a chair next to him, but his eyes remained fixed on Ai Yue's face. "If you don't have a specific plan, then at least tell us about the problems you are facing."

"I see,"

Ai Yue nodded, then looked thoughtful. "But since you've brought this up so suddenly, I don't know where to begin."

"Let's start by talking about the current state of Kiana's civilization."

Aponia said, "What exactly does this 'anchor point' you mentioned earlier represent? Although you likened it to a new source of water in your explanation, it's not actually like that, is it?"

"The metaphor of the spring does differ from the actual situation, but it doesn't really matter."

Ai Yue shrugged. "After all, that's just for describing the concept of time. If it involves the specific situation of Kiana's civilization, the situation is more complicated."

With a flick of his finger, he sketched a picture in front of the three of them that resembled a badminton racket. "If we were to visualize the underlying rules of a world, the most vivid representation would probably be this—different rules intertwined to support the entire world."

The white strings intertwined in an orderly fashion, fixed on a ring, forming a huge net.

"Incidentally, if the Herrscher authority are also materialized, it can also be understood as using external forces to stimulate these underlying rules, thereby causing 'vibration', and ultimately manifesting in the real world in various ways."

As he spoke, Ai Yue reached out and plucked the thin "strings," causing them to vibrate visibly.

"So, the reason Kiana's future collapsed is because these rules crumbled under the influence of our timeline?"

As Vill-V muttered to herself, she suddenly frowned. "Ugh, this naming is so troublesome. Let's just call them 'Pre-Civilization' and 'Post-Civilization' instead!"

"Okay, that's more convenient."

Ai Yue naturally had no objection, "However, your guess is wrong—under normal circumstances, the future will naturally change as we change, and it will not collapse directly."

Vill-V looked puzzled. "Huh?"

She was, after all, just a human being, and from a human perspective, she naturally couldn't understand the rules that governed the world, nor could she comprehend where the problems lay.

"Do you remember what Kiana said? In the beginning, only Kevin's existence disappeared, but everything related to him changed."

Ai Yue pointed out, "The World Serpent that he was supposed to establish has simply disappeared, and those Post-Civilization who were recruited to join the World Serpent have changed their identities."

"Because the Pre-Civilization will continue normally, Kevin won't appear in the Post-Civilization because of those plans, and naturally, there won't be World Serpent..."

"So, the Post-Civilization wasn't originally supposed to collapse?" Vill-V said thoughtfully.

"Yes, but its ultimate result will also be its disappearance,"

Ai Yue nodded. "Or rather, the concept of 'Post-Civilization' will be replaced by 'Pre-Civilization' that develops along the timeline. Those Post-Civilization will become Pre-Civilization, and they themselves will not be aware of it."

"It sounds like something out of a horror movie,"

Mobius frowned. "For example, a mind-altering operation targeting the entire planet or something."

"Mind manipulation cannot change reality; this is the logic behind how the rules work."

As Ai Yue spoke, he glanced at Mobius again, "But you actually watch horror movies?"

"I went with Klein to see it a couple of days ago. It was a mess, but it was quite interesting."

Mobius smiled slightly as he spoke, though the emotion in his smile seemed more like schadenfreude. "Of course, I'm referring to the audience's reaction... no, let's get down to business!"

"But reality doesn't work that way, otherwise, according to your theory, Kiana would never realize that the world she lives in is changing."

Aponia looked thoughtful. "No, even the 'magnitude' of the change is wrong—"

"Theoretically, she should suddenly realize at some point that her civilization has undergone earth-shattering changes, right?"

Aponia seemed to realize something, then looked at Ai Yue, "So, the problem actually lies with her? She 'anchored' to the Post-Civilization, causing the operation of the rules to be suspended?"

"Strictly speaking, the problem lies with both me and her."

Ai Yue nodded, then shook his head. "A more accurate statement would be that it originated from the Cocoon of Finality."

"I should have told you before that the Solar System is anchored to the Cocoon of Finality, so the rules of the entire Solar System actually revolve around it."

As Ai Yue spoke, he transformed the badminton racket in the image into a spider web-like scene, saying, "Even the operation of the time rules must follow this principle."

All the strings of rules intertwine at the same center, eventually forming an anchor point, and the entire spider web slowly rotates around this anchor point.

"That's right, Kiana is the Herrscher of the End, which means she also wields the power of the Finality."

Vill-V realized what was happening. "So now, there are two anchor points?"

"But since you've anchored yourself to the Cocoon of Finality, shouldn't she be unable to anchor herself anymore?"

Mobius frowned. "Can the same thing be eaten twice?"

It really is possible—because it was "I" who anchored the Cocoon of Finality.

"Simply put, because my current rank is higher than that of the Cocoon of Finality, I am not bound to the Cocoon of Finality like Kiana."

Ai Yue paused for a moment, then explained, "But the role of the anchor point also exists at the same time, which leads to this situation."

The spider web in the picture suddenly has another center point in the corner. As the two centers rotate according to different rules, the spider silk between the two centers has begun to break, causing a hole in the entire web.

"Is this the real reason why Post-Civilization will collapse?"

Mobius sighed, "Because Kiana 'anchored' to the Post-Civilization, the original rules could not function properly, thus getting stuck at the current stage—it sounds rather like a dark comedy."

"If we were just stuck here, that would be fine, but it's clearly not like that now."

Vill-V couldn't help but scratch her head, "Because of the collapse of the rules, the entire future is crumbling. Kiana's description of the civilized land turning into a wasteland is a manifestation of this loophole, right?"

"They passed the test and gained the power of the Cocoon of Finality, yet this led to the demise of civilization..."

Aponia wore a sorrowful expression, as if recalling something, "This kind of thing is really hard to accept."

So how do you plan to solve this problem?

Mobius quickly composed himself and looked at Ai Yue, "It seems that removing just one of the anchor points will solve the problem, right?"

"The cheapest, but also the worst, way is this."

Ai Yue waved his hand, and the small anchor point on the spider web disappeared, leaving only the hole that had been torn open. "This method doesn't even require any special effort; all we need to do is keep Kiana here."

"What's the meaning?"

Mobius was somewhat puzzled. "Could it be that Kiana is no longer the Herrscher of the End?"

"Just as a stream can be swallowed up by a river, once she arrived here, she was naturally already covered by my anchor point,"

Ai Yue shrugged. "That's why her power is gradually fading. If this continues, it won't be long before Kiana becomes an ordinary person."

"I'm afraid the problem is more than that."

Aponia asked from the side, "Can those cities and people that disappeared before Kiana left ever come back?"

"Theoretically, they didn't disappear. Rather, due to the collapse of the rules, they fell into an interlayer that Kiana couldn't observe from her perspective."

Ai Yue explained, then looked at Mobius, "Once the anchor disappears, these people will be overwritten just like everyone else, so there's no need to worry."

So both Vill-V and Aponia silently looked at Mobius.

The Post-Civilization that has lost the Cocoon of Finality will gradually be covered by the Pre-Civilization and become an extension of the Pre-Civilization's future. It sounds reasonable, but what should Kiana do?

"I understand, this plan won't work, right?"