Unbreakable Bonds, North Star Gate

Su Qing'an carefully combed the girl's hair in his arms. He glanced at her, who was playing Tetris with a controller, looking equally focused, and couldn't help but sigh, saying:

Do you know where you went wrong?

Su Muxi recalled the older sister's dark aura yet gentle smile, and after thinking for a moment, replied:

"Fox ears, don't grab them randomly."

The boy felt there was a subtle discrepancy in their understanding, and he carefully corrected it:

"This is your first time meeting Yae-nee-san, isn't it?"

Even if you take your record into account, you've never met the other person before, so you need to be polite.

The girl continued operating the controller. She first nodded obediently, then thought for a moment before asking:

"Does that mean that once you're familiar with someone, you can be impolite?"

Her tone was a little reluctant. The fluffy fox ears felt wonderful to the touch, and the subtle warmth that rose slightly when kneaded and the delicate trembling caused by internal nerve reflexes were all very interesting details that moved actively in her palm.

Just five minutes of kneading each day can bring you joy all day long.

Su Qing'an found the other person's thinking strange. While braiding his long, dark hair, he said in a serious tone:

"Even after they're ripe, it won't work."

"Politeness is fundamental, just like the passive skills you unlocked in the games you played before; their effects won't disappear under any circumstances."

The little girl seemed to understand something, and she asked earnestly:

"After I get to know Yae-nee-san better, should I politely ask her to touch my ears?"

He understood Yae Sakura's personality and estimated that she would be completely unable to refuse Su Muxi's request.

Su Qing'an said:

"Xiao Xi, you can't achieve your goals by demanding or begging. You must remember the principle of Equivalent Exchange."

"So... you can negotiate with Yae-nee-san, for example, you can transform into White Sparrow and let her pet you for five minutes, and then she can pet your fox ears for five minutes."

The little girl nodded solemnly, indicating that she had learned it.

At this point, a month had passed since the death of the Ninth Herrscher.

The direct annihilation of the Mu Continent represented the prototype of the weapons that humanity had created in preparation for the final battle. Although Prometheus preserved all the crucial data at the critical moment, none of the people who maintained and continued to develop it survived.

Thus, approximately four Kindling Project established and ongoing here were forcibly brought to a halt.

In this situation, the only decision Mei could make was to hand it over to researchers in other regions who had survived the disaster, hoping they could restart Kindling Project using the remaining data.

But the efficiency is predictably low.

Those researchers and scientists who conducted research experiments on the Mu Continent and shouldered the Kindling Project were at the pinnacle of their respective fields. Such people were extremely rare. Even though there were countless heroes in the civilization, it was already a stroke of luck to be able to pass the torch. Expecting to reach the finish line at the original pace and speed was as difficult as climbing to the sky.

At the same time, the Mu Continent, which already accounts for 70% of the current total population, also accounts for the majority of the population with resistance to Honkai Energy.

Humanity was essentially trapped in the Pseudo Black Hole of the Ninth Herrscher, directly losing most of its fighting force.

Mei's solution was to follow Einstein's legacy and fully implement the Armed Puppet Project to compensate for the lack of combat power.

Most of the important and precious resources of the Mu Continent have been lost in the Pseudo Black Hole and the Sea of Quantum. What can be salvaged from the deep sea are only the remains of some buildings, which have no practical value.

Countless large-scale devices, similar to the Soul Steel Computer, disappeared with this disaster; the extent of the loss is difficult to describe in terms of the current situation.

The civilization currently has very few regions left Honkai Energy, and she can only focus on and improve the core plans at hand.

That is, Fusion Warrior.

After just half a month of non-stop research and development, the Hyper-Mutation Factor Research has reached its most critical stage.

Meanwhile, the Key of Consciousness, Udu-dust, was successfully created recently.

The Fishing Project previously described by Su Qing'an was a great success. Regardless of how many of them were actually missionaries who survived in order to mislead the authorities, the Moth to Fire did indeed manage to capture nearly 100,000 Honkai Cultist in one go.

Nearly 10,000 of them are influential figures in various industries, and many are technical talents who have made achievements in scientific research and other fields.

The missionaries' precision in their actions is evident in this.

She doesn't need to actually kill many people; the harassment and infighting are mostly just for fun and entertainment. The most effective method, however, is to cripple the talents who are constantly contributing to the advancement of civilization and technology.

Initially, Flora refrained from killing them to avoid attracting too much attention, which allowed them to barely survive. However, influenced by her spell, these people ceased to contribute to civilization and were essentially as good as dead.

How to deal with these nearly 100,000 people whose consciousness has been distorted and whose beliefs have been altered is a question worth considering.

Under such circumstances, killing them all silently is unreasonable in every sense. Putting aside moral bottom lines and human rights issues, such a heinous act would cause riots if even the slightest word of it got out.

Moreover, with the population dwindling after the disappearance of the Mu Continent and the scarcity of talent, this option is undoubtedly the last resort.

For a highly developed civilization, food is not scarce, and choosing to leave it for later processing does not pose much of a challenge.

So the Honkai Cultist ranked them according to importance and imprisoned them in prisons in various regions.

Mei's original attitude towards this matter was to proceed slowly and he didn't attach much importance to it, so he always left it to others to research and crack.

However, the Mu Continent incident put the entire Moth to Fire in a state of desperate need for talent, and out of necessity, this matter became one of the top priorities.

In order to liberate the many talented individuals imprisoned in the underground jail and to facilitate the implementation of Kindling Project and other plans, she could only follow the procedures to create the Key of Consciousness, hoping that its power could erase [Bewitchment].

And whenever this happens, the young female doctor, who unknowingly shoulders the future of all humanity by a twist of fate, always remembers that friend who was lost in the Sea of Quantum.

If that person were still around, things would be much easier for me, wouldn't they?

But aside from such thoughts, what lingers deepest in my heart is still that persistent loneliness and desolation.

Mei had no friends before. Before Kevin dragged her out of her own life trajectory in his own way, she almost always absorbed knowledge from the outside world. She didn't need to socialize or contact anyone outside her family. She didn't need to consider interpersonal relationships or get entangled in things outside of academics.

Is she considered happy?

The girl herself was unaware that her future was shaped by her father's renowned physicist background, her upbringing, and her demonstrated talent to go far down that path.

It's neither boring nor disgusting. The joy of solving a difficult problem and the pleasure of simply acquiring knowledge are naturally present. As praise and honor from others gradually accumulate, one's heart is not without fluctuations. But in the end, it all turns into emptiness.

Perhaps the more she ventured into areas that most people could never reach in their lifetime, the more difficult it became to gain genuine understanding and resonance with others. She gradually felt her heart growing increasingly empty, like a desert that had never been visited by anyone.

This loneliness and solitude deepens with age, a desolation and despair that no emotion in the world can fill.

Even interactions with Kevin are meaningless in this regard.

For Mei, it's not the same thing. Even if it's wonderful, she will definitely feel hopeful about it, but it still belongs to two different meanings.

It wasn't until the girl was invited to the Mu Continent for the first time because of a paper on the Sea of Quantum, and attended a seminar as an assistant, that she met Einstein and realized that the desert in her heart was gradually disappearing.

Friend.

Perhaps few can understand how much luck and weight those two simple words mean to someone like Mei.

But Einstein could understand.

Her former friend died in an accident during an experiment, and since then, Mei has been the only kindred spirit who can understand her.

That past event remains vivid and clear, like an oil painting emerging in the sunlight.

At night, moonlight streamed down the windowsill.

The girl stood to the side, glancing at the illusory lotus floating among the Soul Steel cubes, its crimson halo illuminating the surroundings.

That was Udu-dust had not shown any specific posture.

She thought that if she could survive in a grand dream that fulfilled all her desires by using the power of consciousness, perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad thing.

But such thoughts were fleeting. Mei turned back to gaze at the night sky outside the window. The countless stars twinkled and shone with the moonlight. The emotions in her chest flowed through her blood like the cold moonlight, mingling with her circulation and evaporating into a lonely desolation.

"Star."

"You were watching too, weren't you?"

Atoms connect with each other by sharing outer electrons; cells communicate with each other through an average gap of 20 nanometers; animal cells communicate wirelessly, while plant cells communicate via wires; even star systems have unknown connections with each other.

Humans, such small yet tenacious creatures, are connected through the existence of the "heart".

Therefore, even if the barrier separating us is the Sea of Quantum that transcends all things in the world, communication between hearts can still take place.

This being, standing at the forefront of human reason and science, holds such an illusory and baseless conclusion as if he were a child reading a fairy tale and believing it without a doubt.

A long time.

Bathed in moonlight, the girl gazed at the starry sky, suppressing her long-held melancholy. A faint smile appeared on her lips.

I believe you are not dead, Ein.

If stars exist on the other side of that world, you must be gazing at the night sky right now, just like me.

She whispered:

"Our connection will not be broken."

"Therefore, my war has only just begun."

Time is difficult to measure here. Ever since the portal to the Sea of Quantum was opened, bringing the remnants of the Mu Continent and its survivors to drift in the Sea of Quantum, Ein has found it difficult to observe the passage of time through the sky and weather.

Under the eternal starry sky, Ein could only understand the passage of time through timekeeping. She bore the responsibility of providing a place for humanity and Armed Puppet, but she did not feel anxious or sad about it.

She sipped the bitterness of her coffee, managed resource allocation, pondered the establishment of systems, and fell into a long period of contemplation.

This scientist, who had won numerous honors at a young age, let the images in his mind surge like a tide, embracing the memories of his first meeting with Mei, like a spinning kaleidoscope, allowing his consciousness to sink into the past.

That was on the eve of the Great Honkai. At this time, although humanity had begun to take the issue of Honkai seriously, the civilization was still indulging in wonderful fantasies in other areas because the government could even eliminate the first two Herrscher without informing the public.

NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, invited Ein to travel there to conduct theoretical evaluations of technological devices and provide theoretical supplements in the future, based on the hypothetical scenario of ultra-long-distance space travel.

Mei's mentor also received the same invitation. According to special relativity, the speed of light in a vacuum is a constant, meaning it is unchanging. This means that the speed of light itself is the fastest speed.

The authorities may have hoped to solve such problems by applying their knowledge of the quantum realm, and Mei, who was gaining attention for a paper on quantum mechanics at the time, attended the meeting as the professor's assistant.

Perhaps there are wondrous connections and destinies among all things.

At that time, Einstein stopped tackling simple physical theories and began to turn to subjects related to Honkai, which directly led to the establishment of quantum mechanics.

The subsequent "Kindling Project," and Mei's relay to complete it, may have already been predetermined at that time.

Mei gazed at the young scientist hailed as "the embodiment of genius" and "a person who changed the way humanity perceives the world," and felt an overwhelming sense of wonder.

The girl in front of me had a round, doll-like face, and her deep blue eyes blinked with a hint of nonchalance. Her hair was a light-colored, naturally curly style.

She wore a white shirt with a purple tie, a light-colored sweater and a black suit jacket over it, and black shorts with white trim. The overall style exuded simplicity and a relaxed vibe.

Even so, if it weren't for her unkempt and terribly-looking hairstyle, she would have been a stunning beauty.

More than her outward appearance, Mei felt bewildered by the joy surging within her heart.

She greeted him softly:

"Nice to meet you, Dr. Einstein."

Ein gazed into those intellectual, pale purple eyes and politely said:

"Just call me Ein, Dr. Mei."

Mei paused for a moment, then explained:

"I am not a doctor."

Einstein took a chocolate from her pocket, unconcerned about peeling off the coating and putting it to her lips in front of him. For someone like her, who was used to being polite in front of strangers, this act itself represented an atmosphere of intimacy.

Perhaps like Mei, the girl could also sense that sense of kinship, but unlike the naive Mei, she could quickly understand what it meant and express it naturally.

Ein sensed the bittersweet sensation spreading in his mouth, and only after the chocolate had fully blossomed within it did he continue softly:

"I don't care about those kinds of titles. For us, they're just a way to prove our achievements to others in exchange for the resources we need to invest in further research."

"Besides, you will be soon."

As she spoke her mind, she subtly controlled her facial muscles to create an expression that silenced Mei.

How should I describe it? It's like the funny faces kindergarten children make at each other, yet it has a strange, stiff quality, somewhere between making you feel silent and amused, making it difficult to give a specific evaluation.

Mei could only sense that Dr. Einstein was indeed unconstrained by external evaluations and public opinion, and remained silent about it.

Ein regained his usual casual and lazy expression and explained:

"Dr. Tesla once told me that I should try to show my emotions so that people feel less distant from me. Now it seems that I'm not very good at managing those expressions."

More than the details of her facial expressions, Mei was clearly more concerned with the first half of the sentence, and she subconsciously asked:

"Dr. Tesla?"

Ein's eyes lowered slightly, and she said softly:

"They said he was missing, but he actually passed away not long ago."

She could sense a gloomy aura on that expressionless face, and guessed as she asked:

"Because of the Honkai? That's why you transferred to the Honkai Department."

Mei knew about the Honkai, but unlike later, at that time she had only vaguely heard of this new subject and did not understand it very well, only thinking of it as the discovery of a new energy source.

In fact, most peripheral researchers share this impression, and only a few scientists who choose to completely switch to that field and sign relevant agreements know the details.

Dr. Tesla was among the first scientists to join the Honkai Science Institute and sign the agreement.

And given that Einstein recently chose to study this subject, it's not hard to understand why she would subconsciously ask such a question.

It wasn't until later, when Mei was researching and perfecting the Anti-Honkai Potion, that she understood the cause of Dr. Tesla's death.

Tesla developed symptoms of Honkai Infection at that time, so she naturally embarked on a journey to research Honkai agents. However, in the specific implementation phase of the agent, she chose to inject herself directly and did not accept human trials.

The final result was failure.

The Honkai Agent data left behind by Tesla before his death provided Mei with a lot of inspiration.

If she were willing to conduct human experiments and experimentation, perhaps... the outcome would have been different.

Therefore, it's not hard for Mei to understand why Ein so abhorred methods that used human bodies as a price to gain progress in the Honkai realm. The initial idea for the Armed Puppet project probably stemmed from this initial sorrow and pain.

Ein Mei's gaze, Ai explained:

"Don't overthink my transfer to the Honkai Department. Even without Dr. Tesla's affair, I would have made the same choice. The higher-ups haven't grasped the situation yet. The Honkai crisis is far greater than any crisis humanity has ever faced..."

Ein ultimately restrained himself from talking too much, choosing to only mention it briefly.

It's not a good thing for Mei to know too much without a signed agreement.

But she understood that the other person would inevitably follow the same path in the future.

Mei tacitly refrained from pressing further, simply nodding in agreement with Ein's assessment. Although she knew almost nothing about the Honkai, the academic atmosphere surrounding it and Ein's own identity made her understand that the credibility of this judgment was not low.

But the girl at that time did not know that the annihilation of her daily life would happen so quickly, so quickly that she would not have time to have a choice before she could only walk down that path destined to be lonely.

Mei was silent for a moment, then she asked:

"Dr. Einstein, what are your views on the future of humanity?"

That wasn't out of concern about so-called Honkai, nor was it out of fear or helplessness about the future.

What is the reason for asking this question?

I'm afraid I didn't understand the specific root cause back then either.

Ein's expression remained indifferent, and he responded in his usual lazy and monotone tone:

"Mei, you already have the answer."

Her gaze swept over many obstacles, looking out the window, finally settling on the night sky twinkling among the stars. Mei followed her gaze to the same spot, and their lips moved, uttering the same words in two completely different tones:

"It depends on ourselves."

Then, they looked at each other.

Ein looked at the girl before him. Her lips parted slightly, and her eyes curved gently, like violets blooming in the breeze. She seemed to sense the swirling wind brushing her face and breathe in the scent of grass and earth, and a faint smile, so subtle it was easily overlooked, naturally appeared on her face.

"Dr. Mei, so this is what your smile looks like."

Mei said:

"Your facial expression control has improved."

That day marked the first time in her life she had found someone like herself, and the first time she had truly made a friend.

The memories of our first meeting came to an abrupt end.

Ein's mind was still fixed on the image of the two of them lying on the sleeping mat, gazing with their naked eyes at the starry sky that seemed within reach but was actually thousands of miles away.

She put down her coffee cup and walked to the window. Gazing at the familiar constellation, a smile played on her lips.

At the same moment in different times and spaces, she whispered to herself:

"The Fomalhaut, North Star Gate."

"We're still gazing at the same starry sky, Mei."