Portents of the Honkai

In the pristine white lounge, the only decorations were the mountains of documents piled on the desks and the constantly flashing data on the electronic screens.

The ground was covered with food packaging debris and brown stains.

In a time when thoughtful cleaning robots have long been a part of every household, this scene is somewhat rare.

This is especially true given that this office is located in the very heart of the laboratory.

The old man bent over his desk and took off his glasses.

His eyes held an undeniable weariness and exhaustion. Even though he had diligently practiced martial arts to nourish his blood and improve his health in his youth, those skills had been worn away by his daily and nightly research.

The muscles and bones throughout his body have long since inevitably entered a period of rapid decline. The tall and strong body of his youth has withered and shrunk to this frail state where only his spine remains straight.

They eat only nutritional liquids and solid energy pastes for three meals a day, and special coffee has become an essential item for maintaining high concentration.

The old man was over seventy years old, and no one could understand how long he could maintain this belief and endure such torment day and night.

At his own suggestion, the High Command accepted the possibility that the Honkai would completely crush humanity.

From a racial standpoint, one can never be too cautious when dealing with such endless calamities.

Therefore, under the leadership of the entire United Nations High Command, a series of initiatives to Sparks of Civilization have already begun at this stage.

The Honkai trend is getting worse. Although it has not yet shown any signs of seriously harming human society or completely crushing the government's credibility, the continuous occurrence of Herrscher and the increasing frequency of Honkai outbreaks have forced us to make more plans.

At present, most of the government's funds, manpower and resources are naturally invested in how to resist the counterattack and Honkai. The plan to continue the Sparks of Civilization is only a basic contingency plan prepared in advance for a possible situation.

The funds allocated to these programs were clearly far less than those allocated to other projects aimed at improving the odds of winning wars.

As an expert in the field of quantum mechanics, he led one of the projects within the Kindling Project.

That is, by utilizing the core of the Second Herrscher to link the Sea of Quantum, it can be transformed into a backyard for humanity to store information, materials, and technologies of civilization.

Previous laboratories have made no progress in this almost entirely unknown field, despite spending vast sums of money and sacrificing the lives of hundreds of children in continuous human trials aimed at correcting errors.

The final result was that it was impossible to even get the object into a relatively stable Quantum State.

The presence of Seele Fulei broke this deadlock.

This child, who was placed last in the experiment due to his exceptional qualities, successfully gave the disheartened crowd an unexpected surprise.

She successfully transformed into Quantum State, thus overcoming the hundreds of deaths she had accumulated and successfully entering the Sea of Quantum.

The laboratory staff also recorded real data on how to use the Second Herrscher Core to link the Sea of Quantum. With this set of data, the success rate of the experiment will be greatly improved.

This also proves that the Sea of Quantum, which had previously only existed in theory, truly exists.

This seemingly absurd experimental project thus got on track.

The Sea of Quantum is a mystery that is difficult to access with human technology at this stage without the use of Herrscher Authority.

Even if the experiment breaks through the initial deadlock, without the success of Seele Fulei, it's unknown how many detours it will take to achieve another breakthrough.

Therefore, the moment the elderly man sensed the signal, he contacted his superiors to request that Seele Fulei be brought back to the laboratory.

However, the current result is an unexpected declaration of failure.

Someone rescued her.

The old man closed his eyes and rubbed his temples for a while.

His expression was habitually solemn, and the unconscious furrowing of his eyebrows revealed a sense of worry.

The old man's mind kept replaying the images and various analytical data that came from the soldier's perspective.

As a researcher at this level, he had access to far more classified information and permissions than Xing Chen, but even with a broader database and data analysis, the results were still meaningless.

The boy's information had been thoroughly investigated within thirty minutes of him receiving the message.

Preliminary assessments indicate that the earliest traces left by the other party in this world were a few months ago. This young man named Su Qing'an lived in that small eastern town for a while before coming to Canghai City.

The only trace he left behind before this was an energy vehicle in the mountains beside an abandoned highway. Following this clue, it is suspected that Su Qing'an's earliest appearance was in that abandoned wasteland.

That was an observation site of one of the subordinate research institutes of the Moth to Fire, which has been abandoned for some time now.

There was nothing of value inside, only Honkai Beast of Honkai Beasts.

The reason why the Moth to Fire didn't deal with these Honkai Beast was that the wasteland had experienced a small Honkai.

Even if all the Honkai Beast are dealt with in a short time, the intense Honkai Energy in the area will quickly give rise to a new batch of monsters over time.

Therefore, it was sufficient to clean up the area several months later to the point that it would not affect the surrounding towns.

However, when the old man connected to the abandoned research institute and activated the external monitoring equipment, he keenly discovered that the number of Honkai Beast in the wasteland was far less than the data estimated.

The reasons for this are self-evident.

Everything Su Qing'an showed from the moment he appeared in this world indicated that he was very abnormal.

Based on just the tip of the iceberg so far, the old man dared to conclude that this was a powerful warrior who, unarmed and without any external assistance, was capable of fighting against Emperor-class Honkai Beast.

Even the Moth to Fire, specifically designed to fight against the Honkai, cannot find a warrior who possesses this ability without the aid of equipment.

This is undoubtedly an incredible thing, as it is an organization established by the United Nations to combat the violence of the Honkai.

Yet, this very person, with their inherent instability, is shrouded in mystery.

Even with the help of the intelligence network at higher levels, the old man could not find any trace of Su Qing'an left behind in that wasteland.

In an era of technological prosperity and extreme official authoritarianism, if the upper echelons were willing to trace a person's life in the world, even Undocumented Resident living in a backward area not yet part of the United Nations could not erase the traces so cleanly.

But Su Qing'an did it, it was as if she had never existed in this world before, it was completely unreasonable.

If possible, the old man would naturally not want to be an enemy of such a person.

Excessive mystery implies a great deal of unknown information and enigma, and the unknown always makes people hesitant to act rashly.

At the same time, theoretically, even if Seele Fulei left the Sea of Quantum and met Su Qing'an immediately after leaving the laboratory, that period of time wouldn't be considered very long.

Even if the other party declared that they regarded him as family, he didn't think Su Qing'an would choose to so recklessly confront a laboratory with a United Nations background unless he had absolute confidence in protecting himself.

Of course, the old man acknowledged that not everyone lives by the principle of doing what is within their capabilities, but it is undeniable that the boy had that confidence when he said those words.

That was tantamount to bluntly telling the people in the lab to weigh whether Seele Fulei was worth making them his enemy.

However, based solely on the previous experimental progress, the higher-ups would certainly not have taken such a risk given the level of attention they were paying to this matter.

But things might be a little different now. Knowing that acquiring Seele Fulei would rapidly advance the experiment toward its ultimate goal, even though the plan is currently only one of the final backup options, it can still receive attention from the government.

In other words, regarding the Seele Fulei incident.

His authority has risen from instructing modified soldiers like Xing Chen to the point where he can contact the Moth to Fire and request that this violent organization take action.

The old man's position and personality were not suited to worrying about things outside of experiments. It would be more appropriate to leave this matter to Moth to Fire to decide whether there was any room for maneuver.

Professional matters should naturally be left to professionals to consider the true pros and cons. Even though Muen himself understands the current situation, the Moth to Fire is unlikely to pose a threat to Su Qing'an.

But as researchers, we only need to find out whether it's something that can be done or not.

If it's the former, that's naturally the best; if it's the latter, there's no need to lament.

Humanity needs time. The reason why the current Kindling Project is not receiving much attention is that the war has not yet reached its worst point.

But what about the future?

During the experiment, the old man witnessed firsthand the greatness and mystery gestating within the Herrscher Core. Assuming that such monsters would continue to appear one after another, he held a pessimistic attitude even from a human perspective.

It was this mindset that led him to become the head of this project team.

Perhaps one must have the mindset that this project is likely to play a role in order to acquire the tenacity to overcome any setbacks or difficulties.

It is precisely this sense of honor and mission to ignite the flame for the continuation of civilization that led the elderly man, who had vehemently opposed human experimentation a few years ago, to personally soil his own hands during what should have been a time of enjoying his retirement.

The elderly man named Muen was over seventy years old, an age that would be considered retirement age in most industries.

In fact, he had retired for a period of time, during which time Muen entered the church and chose to believe in an ethereal deity.

But as the war of Honkai intensified, he, worried about the future of humanity, finally made up his mind after witnessing the true nature of the Second Herrscher's power.

With all his connections, resources, and wealth as collateral, the old man presented his experimental goals to the United Nations government and ultimately won the right to conduct experiments using the Second Herrscher Core.

The experiment has always been in a difficult pioneering stage, and the support from higher levels is ultimately limited, especially when there is no progress or return in sight.

If it weren't for Seele Fulei's intervention, which turned the experiment around and led to its eventual failure, this seemingly fantastical grand plan might have been abruptly cut short.

One fact has now been established.

Seele Fulei is special; with her around, the experiment could very well make rapid progress once again.

Based on the current experimental results, Muen has found a signpost in the direction of chaos from that set of data.

This is equivalent to finding the fulcrum to leverage something, which allowed the experimental team to understand the true direction of their efforts, and Seele's role made that direction even clearer.

Especially after learning that she could actively enter Quantum State, Muen became even more certain of her value.

Therefore, even if Seele Fulei is not worth turning against the upper echelons and Su Qing'an at this stage, it may not be so in the future.

Of course, as part of the Kindling Project, the faster the experimental progress in this area, the better.

Thinking of this, the old man dialed a number and made a phone call.

"Based on the information you provided, Doctor, it's currently difficult to Moth to Fire to compromise. Trying to influence his daily life would be tantamount to starting a direct war."

"This isn't a question of whether we can win a battle against them; it's that as long as they stay in Canghai City, we can't engage them in combat."

"The only possible scenario for taking action against him is based on the premise that it won't be discovered by the residents of Canghai City. As for the reason, you should understand; the government's policy in this regard has always been the same."

The old man on the other end of the communicator frowned upon hearing this and said:

"I've done a preliminary analysis of the map of Canghai City. Based on the destructive power shown in the video, we can engage in combat in one of the abandoned and unreconstructed areas."

"You have the ability to infinitely reduce the impact of a disaster within a certain area, which is not difficult with the government's help."

The woman calmly rejected the proposal, saying softly:

"You know, Doctor, no lion would deliberately jump into an abyss, especially when the only bait that could catch him is right beside him."

The woman speaking with Muen was mature in both temperament and age. Her bright red hair cascaded down her soft waistline, and her tight-fitting black dress accentuated her beautiful figure.

The woman stood there in the quiet room, her black high heels gleaming.

The view from the outside world was clearly visible through the reinforced glass, and the endless yellow sand was reflected in her calm Amber eyes.

The dust storms outside harbored extremely concentrated Honkai Energy fluctuations, enough to instantly turn humans without resistance into black ash.

Her tone suddenly lowered:

"Moreover, even if all the above conditions are met, the current situation doesn't allow for the allocation of that level of troops to deal with this."

Before the other party could respond, the woman's heavy sigh became the final note in this conversation.

"The Third Honkai Outbreak is about to erupt, Doctor."