Ling didn't seem very old either. Why not send her directly to Twilight Street, then have Kalpas or Aponia stationed there permanently? That would eliminate all safety concerns at once.
That meant the Honkai Sickness vaccine had to be dealt with quickly.
Vill-V, the Decay
Elysia was clearly very good at organizing group activities. Tonight's banquet had been thoroughly prepared, and everyone—adults and children alike—had a wonderful time.
By the end, most people had become captives of alcohol, making the entire venue even livelier.
Because Griseo had to go to bed early, Blanca had no choice but to carry her away from the venue. Once his wife was gone and no longer holding him back, Hen quickly became drunk and began telling everyone about his arduous life of risking life and limb for the Moth to Fire all these years. He angrily denounced the higher-ups for treating him like a beast of burden. After all these years, he still had to fight on the front lines, and he didn't even have any hope of getting promoted.
Of course, hardly anyone actually listened to the old corporate drone vent. Most people humored him with a couple of words before making an excuse to leave. But two people stayed behind.
One was Hua, an honest woman accustomed to obeying orders and afraid to defy her superiors. The other was Su, kindhearted and trying to ease Hen's psychological burden.
Things were much more chaotic on the other side.
Mobius, who had almost never attended gatherings like this, was the first to get drunk. Perhaps the alcohol had released emotions she had suppressed for a long time. She began loudly declaring that sooner or later, she would drag Ai Yue onto an operating table and study him properly, drawing Aponia's secretive and subtle gaze.
"You do know she's only throwing a tantrum, right?" Elysia said with a smile. "Mobius only shouts things so openly when she knows perfectly well she can't actually do them."
"Who knows? Perhaps she's merely trying to lower everyone else's guard that way." Aponia's tightly knitted brows did not relax at Elysia's words. She hid her slightly flushed cheeks behind her wineglass, her gaze shifting between Mobius and Ai Yue. "Speaking of which, if throwing a drunken fit is acceptable, then perhaps I could also..."
"Anyone who can say something like that wouldn't be considered throwing a drunken fit when they actually did it." Eden smiled beside them. "Still, it's clear that you care deeply about Mr. Ai Yue."
"Of course." Aponia answered without the slightest hesitation. "Ai Yue is a very important person to me."
"You frightened me back then." Elysia remembered how, at the monastery, Aponia had suddenly seized Ai Yue's arm and clearly expressed her opposition to Elysia, despite having always seemed so calm. She couldn't help laughing. "Eden, you have no idea how terrifying Aponia is when she gets angry!"
"I can imagine." Eden smiled in reply. "Still, for someone to make Miss Aponia angry, they must indeed have done something wrong."
"What? Eden, you're not taking my side!" Elysia said, pretending to be aggrieved. "Have you forgotten your old friend now that you have a new one? I'm so sad. Boo-hoo-hoo..."
Faced with Elysia's deliberately exaggerated fake crying, Eden couldn't help raising her glass toward Aponia with an expression that seemed to say, She's adorable, isn't she?
Aponia smiled helplessly and stopped dwelling on Mobius's antics.
Once she calmed down, she realized that Mobius really could only talk about it. After all, as long as Ai Yue himself refused, Mobius had absolutely no way to get him onto the operating table.
It seems I really am a little drunk... If I'm truly drunk, does that mean I can do something?
Aponia looked at the liquid swaying in her wineglass and decided to drink a little more.
However, just then, all the lights in the banquet hall suddenly went out.
Everyone, sober or drunk, fell silent for a moment at the sudden change. Immediately afterward, a single spotlight came on, illuminating the very center of the banquet hall.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" Vill-V was standing there in a magician's outfit, though no one knew when she had changed. "Next, please enjoy the wonderful performance brought to you by the greatest magician of this century—me, Vill-V!"
"Rose, turn on all the lights." Ai Yue's cold voice interrupted Vill-V's performance. The lights in the banquet hall came back on at once.
"Wait, what?" Vill-V panicked. "Rose, you said you'd help me!"
"I'm terribly sorry." Prometheus's voice came through her earpiece. "But after calculating the consequences, I believe disobeying Doctor Ai Yue's orders would be slightly more serious."
"You traitor! You're playing favorites!"
"And you still have the nerve to worry about that?" Ai Yue advanced toward Vill-V step by step, a savage smile spreading across his face. "I was wondering why you hadn't shown up. So you planned to wait until everyone was drunk before coming out to cause trouble, did you? Mobius, hold her down!"
Vill-V immediately sensed danger and instinctively tried to run, but it was already too late.
A soft yet somewhat cold body pressed against her back, pinning both her arms. When Vill-V turned her head, she could smell the heavy scent of alcohol on the other woman. "Mobius, you're really willing to let Ai Yue order you around?"
"Idiot. None of that matters right now." Mobius spoke drunkenly. "You deserve to suffer a little too, don't you?"
Vill-V still wanted to say something, but from the corner of her eye, she saw Ai Yue approaching with a wineglass. Her face instantly changed. "Wait! You're not planning to force alcohol down my throat, are you? That's immoral!"
"What's a latecomer saying?" Ai Yue kept approaching, the expression on his face growing more delighted. "According to the rules back home, you have to punish yourself with three drinks. You've only got one so far, so I'm already going easy on you."
"But isn't your glass way too big?" Vill-V stared at the glass in his hand, which held at least five hundred milliliters. Her face went pale. "Wait, I was wrong! I really was wrong! Alcohol is harmful to the brain! Don't force it down me... Boo-hoo-hoo-hoo!"
Vill-V had certainly tried to struggle, but she was only an ordinary person at present. How could she break free from the grip of a Fused Warrior?
In the end, Ai Yue forcefully poured it down her throat.
Ai Yue hadn't done this merely because Vill-V was late. The main reason was that Prometheus had already revealed her entire plan. He himself was the intended victim—Vill-V had planned to drop a huge cake onto his head at the end of her magic show, then run away immediately and leave him to make a fool of himself. How could Ai Yue possibly let her off so easily?
And so, the banquet's first victim was born.
Evening Could Surpass Light
With Vill-V's downfall, the banquet was also drawing to a close.
Hen had already been taken away by Blanca. Hua and Su had also said their farewells. Aponia and Eden hadn't had their fill, so they went together to Eden's residence to continue tasting wine. After eating happily all night, Pardofelis had entered the sleepy stage and fallen asleep alone in a corner. Ai Yue therefore asked Sakura to take her home. As for Kevin and Dr. Mei, they had most likely been the first to slip away.
Kalpas had looted a pile of desserts and taken them home, forcing the pastry chefs to work overtime and make another batch.
After Elysia also left to take Vill-V somewhere to rest, only Ai Yue and Mobius remained relatively sober at the scene.
"How are you doing?" Ai Yue looked at Mobius, who was beginning to feel drowsy, and shook his head. "If you're not good at drinking, then drink less."
"I'll drink as much as I want!" Mobius suddenly raised her head, then lowered it again. "Ugh, my head is spinning. I'm going to sleep for a whole day..."
"You're not going to work on your experiments?" Ai Yue chuckled. "Weren't you just shouting that you'd surpass me sooner or later?"
"I can't surpass you." Mobius hit him without even raising her head. "Someone like you... How could I possibly surpass you?"
Perhaps because she was drunk, some things were easier to say. At least Ai Yue found it difficult to imagine Mobius admitting this so readily while sober.
But then he heard Mobius continue, "Still, this isn't enough."
Ai Yue froze. "What isn't enough?"
"You! You're still not fast enough!" Mobius suddenly raised her head and stared fixedly at Ai Yue. "You have to be faster! Faster than Honkai, faster than the Herrschers! Only by evolving faster than them can you defeat them!"
"You have to be... a little faster..."
Muttering those words, she slowly closed her eyes, then collapsed into Ai Yue's arms and fell asleep.
"Excuse me."
At that moment, Klein's voice suddenly reached his ears. Only then did Ai Yue realize that she had somehow arrived in front of him.
The assistant's dark circles had visibly improved. She nodded slightly toward Ai Yue. "I'm here to take Dr. Mobius back."
"Then I'll leave her to you." Ai Yue handed Mobius over to Klein, but in the end, he couldn't help asking, "Klein, you heard what Mobius said just now, didn't you? What do you think?"
"Dr. Mobius has always been very anxious." Klein explained, "She once said that if human civilization continued developing at this speed, it would be absolutely impossible to defeat Honkai. So, for humanity's future, she couldn't afford to relax even for a moment."
Ai Yue froze and said nothing.
"However, ever since you arrived, Dr. Mobius has basically stopped saying that." Klein supported Mobius by the waist and gave Ai Yue a faint smile. "Now she's even willing to spend time at a party like this and drink herself into such a state. Perhaps she feels that with you here, she doesn't need to be in such a hurry anymore."
After saying that, Klein nodded to Ai Yue once more, then struggled to support Mobius as she left.
Faster than Honkai?
Mobius's words replayed in Ai Yue's mind, and he couldn't help smiling.
From what she had said, he had vaguely glimpsed the deepest anxiety hidden in Mobius's heart.
From the day a Herrscher was born, humanity had never been given much time to catch its breath. Less than fifty years passed between the First Herrscher and the Herrscher of the End.
Yet the gap between the Herrschers' strength had expanded from merely analyzing human technology and imitating it with Honkai Energy to wielding practically limitless Honkai Energy—enough to casually annihilate all surface civilization with a wave of the hand.
If that kind of numerical inflation were put into a game, players would curse the developers' entire family tree from the present day all the way back to the caveman era. Yet this was the desperate future humanity in this world had to face.
Even though geniuses like Dr. Mei continued to emerge among humanity, they had ultimately only barely preserved a spark of civilization. That was what allowed the new civilization fifty thousand years later to possess the possibility of "defeating" the Herrscher of the End.
If he wanted to avoid that outcome and achieve a perfect ending in his first run, Ai Yue had to do far more than Mobius expected.
Faster than the Herrschers? No, that would be far too boring.
Ai Yue lowered his head and looked at his palm, slowly clenching it into a fist. "My rate of evolution is going to surpass the speed of light."
"What's going to surpass the speed of light?"
Elysia's voice suddenly came from behind him. The pink-haired girl curiously leaned in front of Ai Yue. "Ai Yue, you're saying strange things again."
"I've merely set myself a small goal." Ai Yue stepped back a little from Elysia, then asked, "That woman Vill-V is all right, isn't she?"
"If you were worried, you shouldn't have forced so much alcohol down her." Elysia shook her head slightly, then mischievously blinked. "But don't worry. Vill-V sobered up after leaving and said she had anticipated the outcome, so she'd taken medicine beforehand."
"That medicine of hers is useless." Ai Yue waved his hand indifferently. "She'll feel awful all day tomorrow. I guarantee it."
Prometheus had already built a personality model of Vill-V and could analyze the details of her behavior from every move she made. Vill-V had struggled intensely when Ai Yue forced her to drink, but her eyes had barely changed. Ai Yue had known then that this was part of her calculations too.
So his true revenge against Vill-V had been the mental interference concealed beneath the act of forcing her to drink.
"Oh my, then I'll have to witness it properly." Elysia smiled, as though she had already decided to visit Vill-V tomorrow and watch her make a fool of herself. "Did you enjoy yourself today?"
"It was pretty good. You're the one who should organize events like this." Ai Yue nodded. "So don't do it again next time."
"Hey, how could you say that?" Elysia pouted, then suddenly stared into Ai Yue's eyes. "You don't seem very happy, though. Is something on your mind?"
Ai Yue calmly met her gaze and suddenly said, "Elysia, hypothetically—if someone wanted to alter the entire human race for the sake of humanity's future, what would you do?"
"You're not talking about Dr. Mobius, are you?" Elysia looked at him in confusion, then fell into thought. "Hmm, how should I put it? If the alteration really is for humanity's future, then it might be worth trying."
"What if the consequences were impossible to predict, and it might even lead humanity to destruction?" Ai Yue continued.
"Then at least we tried, right?" Elysia said with a smile. "Is humanity's future all that bright right now?"
Seeing Ai Yue's expression, Elysia continued, "Of course, since this concerns humanity's future, we have to be extremely cautious. If there's anything I can do to help, I'll be very happy to do it."
"I understand." Ai Yue closed his eyes and nodded.
In the darkness, a star gradually grew larger, blooming with a unique radiance—
Simulated Herrscher Authority: Psychic Plague.
Today, I Saved the World Again
Only after using the Herrscher Core to analyze the vast majority of research projects related to the Herrscher of Consciousness did Ai Yue understand just how terrifying the Herrscher of consciousness was to humanity.
Psychic Plague was exactly what its name suggested: an infectious mental "disease." Those infected would suffer distortions of the mind, resulting in personality abnormalities, extreme emotions, and even mental breakdowns.
The plague's transmission conditions were incredibly simple. Although it couldn't use keyword hypnosis to pull someone into a dream through the internet from a great distance, merely speaking with an infected person for more than ten minutes was enough for the plague to spread to them.
The most terrifying part was that the Herrscher of Consciousness could use keyword hypnosis to freely control when the effects of Psychic Plague activated. While this mental illness was in its incubation period, existing technological methods could not detect it.
In other words, if she had enough patience, she could wait until Psychic Plague had spread across the globe before using the internet to trigger it all at once, plunging human civilization into chaos and ultimately reducing it to ruins.
However, whether because of a Herrscher's arrogance or because she believed this method took too much time, the Eighth Herrscher had not used it. Otherwise, Ai Yue would have found it extremely difficult to track her down so quickly.
Although Psychic Plague was terrifying, it might also become a medicine that allowed humanity to evolve. Its effects on the mind depended mainly on what kind of mental suggestion was hidden within the original "virus."
The Eighth Herrscher had naturally filled it with negative concepts such as "hatred" and "resentment." But if the positive information were recorded instead, could Psychic Plague produce the exact opposite result?
That was the question Ai Yue had been considering for the past three days. He had already overcome the technical difficulties of Psychic Plague itself, but he couldn't determine whether this technology could truly produce good results.
From ancient times to the present, discussion of human nature had never ceased. Countless thinkers, philosophers, and educators had conducted innumerable studies and debates in this complex and mysterious field, yet no conclusion capable of convincing everyone had ever emerged.
The only point everyone could agree on was that human nature was complicated. No two people in the world were exactly alike, so there could naturally be no universal standard applicable to everyone.
Any attempt to restrain humanity or use a single principle to regulate everyone's behavior would ultimately produce immeasurable consequences.
Ai Yue could spread improved Psychic Plague across the entire world. He could even go a step further, using subtle influence to complete the Spiderweb Dreamscape that the Eighth Herrscher had never managed to create, bringing everyone under his control.
At that point, he could make everyone in the world achieve the ultimate ending of mutual understanding with a single thought.
But Ai Yue also understood that this was merely self-deception. If he truly did such a thing, let alone becoming light, he would be lucky not to be destroyed by the light.
This was not a digitized game. Good intentions would not necessarily produce good results, and Ai Yue had no reload button to undo his actions after making a mistake.
Once Psychic Plague spread, even Ai Yue couldn't determine what consequences it would cause. Perhaps humanity could truly use it to achieve spiritual transcendence, bringing Earth closer to the perfect nation of his dreams. But perhaps uncontrollable distortions would occur instead, destroying the entire civilization.
Aponia's example still echoed in Ai Yue's mind. That was why, even after taking control of the Moth to Fire's higher-ups, he still had Prometheus monitor their every move twenty-four hours a day, preventing any unforeseen changes.
Precisely because he understood this, Psychic Plague had remained at the final step of completion. Ai Yue still hadn't truly taken control of it.
After resolving the problem of the Moth to Fire's higher-ups, no one in this world could stop Ai Yue from doing as he pleased. But that also meant that no matter what consequences his plan caused, he would have to take responsibility for them.
Elysia's answer made him reassess the matter.
Humanity's spiritual transcendence was necessary, but Psychic Plague was ultimately only one possible solution among many.
He would use his authority to conduct small-scale experiments first.
"What's wrong? Your expression is strange." Elysia had noticed the changes in Ai Yue's expression. She curiously leaned over. "You look as if you've made some extremely important decision."
"Elysia, you may have just saved all of human civilization." Ai Yue patted her shoulder with a solemn expression. "Impressive. No wonder you're the second-strongest Fused Warrior!"
Before you continue