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

If he hadn't come himself, facing Aponia and Mobius, the Eighth Herrscher probably wouldn't have hesitated to choose escape. That way, she would still have had a chance to survive.

But if the very person who had cornered her stood before her, Ai Yue was sure she would immediately choose him as her vessel.

In that case, with Aponia and himself working from the inside and outside, even if the Eighth Herrscher struggled in her death throes, she would be nothing more than meat on a chopping block.

However, the dreamscape the other party had created truly exceeded Ai Yue's expectations. He had initially thought they would use more lethal methods, which would have allowed his prepared trump cards to come into play. He hadn't expected the Eighth Herrscher to prepare him a pleasant dream.

Incidentally, the Eighth Herrscher hadn't used any lethal attacks from start to finish. It made one wonder if she had only learned half of the Herrscher's abilities before rushing out to cause trouble.

"Whatever, you won anyway," the Eighth Herrscher said, her face filled with desolation. "The victor is king, and whatever the winner says is right."

Mid-sentence, she suddenly looked up at Ai Yue. "But I'm still very curious, what exactly are you?"

"What do you mean?" Ai Yue frowned. "Are you out of your mind? Can't you see I'm human?"

"Impossible, what kind of human are you?" the Eighth Herrscher shook her head, denying it. "When I invaded Moth to Fire, I found most of the data on humans fighting Herrschers. Except for one accidental victory, all other wars, though ending in human victory, did not involve methods similar to yours."

The wars between humans and Herrschers often involved tactical responses tailored to the Herrscher's authority. This meant humanity's counterattacks were always one step behind the Herrschers' offensives, only able to produce effective countermeasures after the Herrschers had already created widespread disasters.

But Ai Yue was completely different. He seemed to be blocking every path the Herrscher planned to take, then beating her over the head.

Halfway through weaving the Spiderweb Dreamscape, this person rushed out and found the weaving node; the Eighth Herrscher used mental lock to find Moth to Fire's location, only to discover it was a trap laid by the other party, waiting for her to expose her position; for the final battle, she had set up an inescapable net, yet this person could mimic Herrscher abilities, traverse space, and ignore the Honkai Beast horde to appear before her...

If the war between humans and Herrschers was like chess players countering each other's moves, then the war between Ai Yue and the Eighth Herrscher was like a charlatan beating an ordinary person with precognition.

And this being had the nerve to call himself human? What kind of damn human was that!

"In short, I can give you one last chance," Ai Yue ignored her question and forcefully changed the subject. "Surrender to me and offer your Herrscher Core. Perhaps then, I can preserve your consciousness. Even without a body, you'll have a chance to exist in another form."

"And then? Then I become a tool in your hands, used to fight future Herrschers, right?" the Eighth Herrscher let out a scoff. "Don't joke. You won this time, but I won't be the last Herrscher. One day, you'll come down to hell to join me!"

With those words, the Eighth Herrscher's figure vanished before Ai Yue's eyes as the pure white space collapsed.

Perhaps to preserve her dignity as a Herrscher, she chose to actively destroy her own consciousness, preserving her last shred of pride through suicide.

The world before him quickly returned to the dim room. The stark contrast between light and dark made Ai Yue squint. He felt a bit weak and instinctively took a step back, bumping into a soft body.

"Are you alright?" Aponia embraced Ai Yue from behind, asking softly in his ear. "The Eighth Herrscher's consciousness can no longer be detected. Could it be?"

"Mm," Ai Yue nodded, then looked around.

With the enhancement of his powerful mental energy, he could see the surroundings of the room were wrapped in something like chains. It emitted a faint glow – that was the cage Aponia had set up.

Within such a prison, the Eighth Herrscher's residual consciousness had no chance of escape.

"Rose?"

"I'm here."

"Send a message to all of Moth to Fire." Ai Yue let out a long sigh, feeling the weight finally lift from his heart. "The Eighth Herrscher has been confirmed dead. This war, once again, is ours."

Chapter Sixty-Six: Ai Yue, the Outlaw, Makes His Grand Entrance

Prometheus's efficiency was incredibly high. In just a moment, the message spread throughout Moth to Fire.

Due to the Eighth Herrscher's previous invasion of Moth to Fire's headquarters, the entire base was currently in a state of paralysis. Although people would soon start waking up from the dissipating dream, it was clear it would take some time for everything to return to full operation.

However, besides Moth to Fire's headquarters, others had clearly received the information as well.

"The Herrscher is dead?" Elysia was stunned when she heard the news. Her bow and arrow even veered off course, flying past the target's head.

Fortunately, the Honkai Beast horde before them was dense, so other unfortunate creatures still fell victim.

"What now?" Sakura frowned, appearing beside Kevin and killing a Honkai Beast that was ambushing him from behind. "Withdraw? It seems there's no reason to advance further."

"No, quite the opposite. We need to go and see," Hen chimed in. After all, he was one of the most experienced veterans in Moth to Fire, and his reaction was quick. "Even if this is true, we must see the Eighth Herrscher's corpse with our own eyes."

"The message came from Prometheus, which means this might have been done by Dr. Ai Yue and the others," Kevin held the same opinion. "Although we don't know how they found the Eighth Herrscher or how they killed her, we must go to provide support. The Honkai Beasts, having lost their leader, will soon go berserk, and the situation will become even more chaotic. Don't hold back, full sprint!"

To conserve enough energy to face the Herrscher, the Fused Warriors had been controlling their combat style, using the least draining methods to clear a path. But if they no longer needed to deal with the Herrscher, things would become much simpler.

"No problem!" Elysia was the first to respond. She drew her long bow, and a pink crystal arrow imbued with immense energy gradually materialized in her hand. As the girl released the string, the arrow transformed into a massive torrent of light that blasted forward, instantly carving a path through the dense Honkai Beast horde.

"The Eighth Herrscher is dead?"

Just as Kevin and the others were pushing forward with all their might, Mei also slowly woke up in the conference room. She was alone in the room now. Upon seeing the message on her phone, the girl couldn't help but show a look of astonishment. "What happened?"

"The process was rather complicated, but the Eighth Herrscher is indeed dead." Prometheus sent a photo showing the body of a young girl. "Also, Dr. Ai Yue said that you might need to handle another matter now."

"What matter?" Dr. Mei frowned. Judging by Prometheus's hesitant attitude, it seemed to be a rather troublesome issue. "The cleanup? I'll arrange it right away."

"No, I can handle the cleanup," Prometheus said. "But dealing with those big shots upstairs is still your job, Dr. Mei – those were Dr. Ai Yue's exact words."

"Dealing with the big shots upstairs?" Dr. Mei was taken aback for a moment, then realized. "Wait, what exactly did Ai Yue do?"

Dr. Mei finally understood why she had felt something was off all along – because from the beginning until now, she hadn't received any orders from the higher-ups!

This was impossible in the past. Even if in the beginning they would let Moth to Fire make its own decisions, once the Herrscher situation was confirmed, the decision-making power would be quickly reasserted.

Although this time everything ended very quickly, the entire process even took less than 48 hours, but the absence of a single order was completely out of character for those people.

Even though Prometheus had already severed the connection between Moth to Fire's internal network and the external network, those people had plenty of ways to contact Moth to Fire.

In response to Dr. Mei's question, Prometheus chose to answer with silence.

What exactly did he do? He did everything.

Dr. Mei felt her vision go dark.

For a long time, Ai Yue has given off a very strange feeling.

On one hand, he is acutely aware of his own abilities, constantly creating unbelievable projects that continuously redefine Dr. Mei and others' evaluations of him. It could be said that while humanity might still produce geniuses like Mobius, Vill-V, or even Mei, there would absolutely never be another existence like Ai Yue.

On the other hand, compared to his talent, this person's temperament and personality are at the other extreme, even appearing somewhat cowardly. Whether interacting with others daily or facing deliberate obstruction from the higher-ups of Moth to Fire, he would proactively yield, giving people the impression of having a very high moral bottom line.

Only when interacting with Mobius and a few others would Ai Yue occasionally reveal a wild and unrestrained side.

But in reality, as can be seen from Dr. Mei and the others, transcending human intellect and having an extremely high moral bottom line are, to some extent, contradictory. After all, many scientific technologies, when they were born, almost all went against the prevailing societal rules of the time. Without the courage to confront authority and the mundane world, many technologies might not have emerged.

Dr. Mei sometimes wondered where Ai Yue's "courage" was, and now, she finally knew.

"Ai Yue blocked communication between the higher-ups and Moth to Fire?" Dr. Mei took off her glasses.

"Yes."

"Vill-V's modifications to The Deepest Place, and Aponia's departure, were also his unauthorized decisions, no need to say?" Dr. Mei began to rub her temples.

"Yes."

"Besides that? What else did he do?" Realizing the problem was a bit too outrageous, Dr. Mei actually laughed, "Don't hide anything, just tell me everything at once."

"He had me hack into the shelters of several high-ranking officials, imprisoning them so they couldn't send information externally, and simultaneously altered many national wartime directives, keeping most armies on alert..."

Prometheus began to confess everything Ai Yue had done, each item making Dr. Mei's heart pound.

Then, she felt a sense of powerlessness.

This was no longer something she could resolve – in fact, at this moment, even Dr. Mei felt a sense of fear towards Ai Yue.

"What does Ai Yue want me to do?" After Prometheus finished his report, Dr. Mei leaned back in her chair, "Or rather, at this point, what does he think I can still do?"

If Ai Yue were to be judged by human law, he would be executed with a penalty called "firing squad for an hour."

At this point, unless the next Herrscher attacked tomorrow, Ai Yue would likely have to spend time in prison before then.

Not only that, but even Prometheus would likely not escape unscathed; in the worst-case scenario, they might even be directly decommissioned.

"You just need to stall for time," Prometheus, however, gave an answer that surprised Dr. Mei. "Stall until, Dr. Ai Yue returns."

Huh? He still dares to come back?

Chapter Sixty-Seven: Just How Many More Good Things Are You Hiding From Me?

In Dr. Mei's initial conception, Ai Yue's best option currently would be to directly defect from Moth to Fire and rely on Prometheus's powerful abilities to establish his own faction. With his capabilities, as long as he didn't deliberately stir up disaster, and under the overarching premise of fighting Honkai, this matter would likely end with a "amnesty" outcome.

Though ironic, this was indeed reality – only when a person demonstrates powerful destructive potential will they be truly acknowledged and receive treatment commensurate with their abilities.

But if Ai Yue truly chose to return to Moth to Fire, then...

"You don't need to worry, these matters are all within Dr. Ai Yue's scope of consideration," Prometheus seemed to understand Dr. Mei's concerns and continued, "Moreover, you don't need to make excuses for Dr. Ai Yue; you can even push all the blame onto him – these are Dr. Ai Yue's exact words."

"What exactly does he want to do?" Dr. Mei was stunned for a moment, then showed a slightly annoyed expression, "Won't this only make things worse? And asking me to smear Ai Yue, I can't do that."

Even setting aside Ai Yue's contributions to defeating Herrschers, he was a benefactor to Dr. Mei. Just based on the fact that he could solve Kevin's hypothermia, she couldn't allow herself to be someone who kicks him while he's down.

She didn't know Ai Yue's purpose for saying such things, but she always felt a sense of being looked down upon.

"No need to dwell on it, Dr. Mei," Prometheus continued, "In fact, if there's any way to solve this problem once and for all, then this is the only way. Just do as I say."

After saying this, Prometheus ended the communication.

Once and for all?

Dr. Mei looked at the extinguished phone screen and couldn't help but show a thoughtful expression.

She vaguely realized that the things Ai Yue had done before were insignificant compared to what he was about to do.

While the outside world was in chaos for various reasons, Ai Yue's side appeared very harmonious.

When Mobius opened her eyes, a gaze fell upon her.

Ai Yue sat leaning against the wall, tossing the white coat he was holding to Mobius, who was naked from just being revived.

"Awake?" Ai Yue pointed to the corpse of the Eighth Herrscher beside them, "While no one's watching you, want to add to your inventory?"

He was naturally referring to the Herrscher gene samples Mobius secretly hoarded.

"You can actually stay so calm?" Mobius put on the white coat, looking at Ai Yue with a strange expression, "I thought I'd see you clinging to the Herrscher's corpse when I opened my eyes."

She felt a bit guilty when she said this – because that's exactly what she had done before.

"Am I some kind of pervert?" Ai Yue responded with a subtle expression, "Of course, it's mainly because I've already gotten everything I wanted to collect. Otherwise, it might have been pretty much as you imagined."

"So quickly?" Mobius was surprised for a moment, "Wait, I was curious before, you don't seem to have any storage space on you, how can you always pull out various things?"

Ai Yue had taken off his white coat, revealing a simple long-sleeved shirt and pants underneath, with hardly any pockets. Where could he possibly store things?

She hadn't even seen that "Pikachu" that had startled her; where did this guy usually hide it?

Mobius's gaze swept repeatedly over Ai Yue, finally focusing on his belt.

If there was anything suspicious, it could only be that exquisite-looking belt buckle.

This guy has no taste in clothing, would he buy himself such a nice belt?

"Oh, finally discovered?" Ai Yue smiled slightly, making no attempt to hide it, "A little later than I expected."

Ai Yue casually waved his hand in front of the belt buckle. With a flash of familiar golden light, a gun instantly appeared in his hand – it was Pikachu.

"What is this!" Mobius lunged forward instantly, grabbing the opponent's belt buckle to examine it closely. "A spatial expansion storage item? When the hell did you develop this!"

"It wasn't that long ago, and it's just a first-generation product with many flaws. It can't be mass-produced." Ai Yue reached out and pressed down on her head, trying to push her away. "Stop fiddling with it. This thing is controlled by mental wave frequencies; you can't use it."

Mental wave frequency was a theory proposed after the emergence of Mental Perception Fused Warriors. It referred to a unique mental fluctuation that could be seen as a mental "pulse." Since everyone's mental wave frequency was different, it could also be used for identification within systems, making it more secure than other biometric technologies.

However, this was currently Ai Yue's patent. Others couldn't even comprehend what mental wave frequency was.

"I've already cleared out the Honkai Beasts around the building. We can leave anytime..." Just then, Aponia floated over. Seeing their strange posture, she couldn't help but frown. "What are you two doing?"

"Just researching equipment, nothing important." Mobius immediately stood up and turned to the Eighth Herrscher. "Ahem, I'll study the Herrscher a bit more. Give me five minutes."

She hadn't forgotten to bring a small toolbox when she arrived. Although her clothes were blown off, the toolbox was still intact in a corner.

"Kevin and the others are also approaching. Let's wait a bit," Ai Yue remained seated without moving, patting the ground beside him. "You've worked hard. Why don't you rest for a while?"

"No..." Aponia shook her head subconsciously, but then quickly reacted. She glanced at Mobius before walking towards Ai Yue. "Yes, I am a bit tired."

The Nun sat beside Ai Yue, resting her head on his shoulder. A smile couldn't help but curve her lips.

Ai Yue didn't say anything either, as he had already closed his eyes, appearing as if he were asleep.

The continuous, high-intensity mental exertion had taken its toll. If not for the ongoing effect of "Aponia's Embrace," Ai Yue would have likely fainted by now.

About fifteen minutes later, the Fused Warrior squad finally arrived at the building. On the rooftop, a Moth to Fire aircraft was waiting for them.

"This is actually real..." Kevin exclaimed, looking at the Herrscher's remains being placed into a special preservation device. "But how did you manage to do it?"

Since joining Moth to Fire, Kevin had participated in almost every battle against a Herrscher, yet he never expected to become a supporting character one day.

Of course, he didn't care about that. He just wanted to know how Ai Yue and the others had accomplished this.

"Don't worry about the specific process for now," Ai Yue said, sitting between Aponia and Mobius. "Before we return to Moth to Fire, I have a few things to instruct you on."