The Fleet Wraith's Smile

Seed Project, Ark Project, Constant Sand Project, and so on.

And... the Stigmata Project, carried out by Kevin himself.

The Stigmata Project was a plan formulated by Moth of the Fire and executed by World Serpent, intended to reconstruct civilization under Honkai and ensure that civilization could survive in such an environment.

But this plan was rather extreme.

It could not be called exactly the same as the Human Complementation Project, only quite similar.

It truly could not be considered an ideal plan. Even Kevin, its executor, did not particularly want to carry it out this way.

The Stigmata Project undoubtedly completely negated Elysia's sacrifices.

The Stigmata Project could only be regarded as humanity's final trump card.

For a more vivid analogy, the Stigmata Project sentenced people to life imprisonment, while the descent of the Herrscher of the End sentenced them to death—or death by a thousand cuts.

The Stigmata Project was a rotten plan, but compared to the utter lack of survival when The End descended, perhaps it was still the better option.

Countless people in the Previous Civilization opposed the Stigmata Project, yet no one proposed a better alternative.

It was not that Kevin insisted on carrying out the Stigmata Project. It was that it was his only choice.

Even though Su realized something was wrong, he only wanted Kevin to postpone the Stigmata Project rather than abandon it.

Only when there truly was no other option could this plan be carried out.

And the Stigmata Project drew inspiration from the dreamscape created by the Eighth Herrscher, trapping humanity within dreams.

But precisely because the method was so extreme, Kevin—the Flame-Chaser inherited from the past, the Icarus who protected and guided the future, modern humanity's greatest failsafe—

Would become a compelling "villain" in a modern civilization filled with hope, friendship, and love.

The Stigmata Project was Moth of the Fire's final plan, and it could only ever be its worst plan. Humanity would pay an enormous price for it, but as the last safeguard to help civilization escape its fate, it truly had to exist.

If this plan was implemented and succeeded, Kevin would defeat Honkai with a human body, and as a sinner, bear the ideal of "salvation" one final time.

Thinking of those plotlines, Su Nian's spirits lifted.

No, why was he getting more excited the more he thought about the plot?

Su Nian sped up his eating, returning to the pace he had not used since high school.

He had to write this plot down immediately.

This plot should not have been brought up here, since its implementation would only happen in the next civilization.

But Su Nian wrote it down now, treating it as a memo.

Su Nian opened another separate section, setting aside the Flame-Chasers' character sheets for the moment.

Setting: Stigmata Project

The Eighth Herrscher could use her authority to drag everyone into a dreamscape, and this also inspired Moth of the Fire.

The stigmata was born from this. At its core, it was a database containing vast amounts of genetic information, though it could probably be considered an "organ."

It manifested as special patterns appearing on the body.

Those with stigmata gained the power to control Honkai and contend against it.

In the earliest experiments, genetic modification allowed humans of this generation to possess stigmata, but only a tiny number had the chance to awaken them. Those unable to control their power would become zombies. At the cost of countless ordinary lives, it selected individuals capable of adapting to Honkai Energy.

Materialized stigmata would replace humans, while humans themselves would dissolve into dreams and merge with the stigmata spaces of the past.

Abandon humanity, cursed by the Herrschers, and redefine civilization in another way. Through transcription, humanity would vanish from reality and sink into dreams, while the archetypes that had originally served as stigmata would become an entirely new species, replacing humanity in expanding civilization.

The Stigmata Project would use dream-catching as its means. Humans unable to awaken stigmata would be connected to the Imaginary Space, where their dreams would merge as one, eventually becoming a colossal creation that surpassed The End, yet could neither think nor reproduce—Adanruani, the Adam of the spirit.

Meanwhile, humanity's physical bodies in reality would transform into stigmata and coexist with Honkai Energy, becoming immortal from then on.

At the cost of abandoning humanity's form of existence, it would ensure civilization's integrity and continuation.

This plan negated the meaning of humanity while granting meaning to civilization.

This helpless yet somewhat cold-blooded plan would forever have only one primary objective: preserving civilization.

Not many people recognized this deranged plan.

If one had to speak of what was "correct," then borrowing a saying: civilization should be given to the years, rather than years given to civilization.

What mattered should be the content of civilization, not how long civilization could survive.

Compared to grand questions such as civilization's survival and humanity's continuation, what deserved greater consideration was the liberation of human nature and the realization of humanity's free will.

Human civilization and the liberation of human nature had brought glorious years. What humanity needed to continue were the glorious years it had created, not lifeless years, not suffocating years—yet now, in order to extend the years of human civilization, it was throwing away that glory...

No matter the price, humanity would certainly defeat Honkai. This sentence indeed expressed the determination to resist Honkai.

But it was also truly deranged.

At this point, Su Nian temporarily finished inserting the Stigmata Project's setting.

It was somewhat abrupt, but it was necessary for the later plot and also lay at the heart of the conflict between Kevin and modern civilization.

Book recommendation

As a Master who had transmigrated here, Ian was not all that familiar with Chaldea.

But that was fine. He possessed a special ability that other Masters did not have—the simulator.

It allowed him to leave his own footprints throughout history.

—Though they were not exactly normal.

You became the Demon Consort's husband, yet at the same time cheated on her with the Holy Knight King, who was disguised as a man. Britain was thrown into complete chaos because of you.

You controlled Tamamo no Mae and, as Minamoto no Yorimitsu's master, showed her what it meant to subdue demons through physical means. The demons and monsters of the Heian Period all kept their distance from you.

You left Medusa utterly distracted, and all of Greece echoed with claims that she would remove her blindfold the moment she reunited with you.

You were Joan of Arc's soulmate. Only you knew how to grant this usually reserved Saint release and relaxation in every possible sense.

Ian had to admit that this simulator that understood people's hearts was simply too suited to him.

He could solve every problem in the way he liked best.

Everything was fine.

Until one day, when they arrived at his side as Servants.

Only then did Ian realize he had incurred quite a few romantic debts.

The Ship Ghoul's Smile

The sudden setting left all the viewers bewildered once again.

One second, Su Nian had been eating. The next, he had charged straight to his computer and typed out this passage.

Was eating Su Nian's way of replenishing inspiration?

Were geniuses' habits really that different from normal people's?

That was wonderful!

We had discovered a writing machine with an extremely high energy conversion rate. Hand him over to the state!

This setting made my head spin, but which villain came up with this plan? Earlier, it said Candle Moth's upper ranks were corrupt. Was the fight about to begin?

Was the King of Foreshadowing finally going to collect the hints he had planted?

You even squeezed the Donkey of the Production Team out of work. Did the production crew put caffeine in your food?

No, I think he was digging another pit.

Although the judging panel was absent, there were still some experienced veteran readers and industry insiders among the audience. Their analysis was not especially professional, but they could still barely make out a few clues.

Clearly, to the audience, this plan looked too villainous to have been proposed by any good person.

Mei had arrived at this plan through absolutely rational thinking.

There was not a trace of humanity visible in this plan, after all.

Seeing this speculation, everyone immediately perked up. They all knew that humans were naturally prone to infighting.

If they cleared out the vermin within Moth of the Fire, then at least Savior Kevin would not meet the fate of being discarded once the hare was dead, and he presumably would not become a Dragon Slayer Becomes Dragon.

In fantasy settings, the story of what happened after the hero defeated the Demon King and the tale ended had been developed into countless versions.

Unfortunately, they still had no idea just how many pits Su Nian had dug.

Mei had long anticipated this, so after Sakura's assassination attempt, she began consciously organizing people and strengthening her voice within Moth of the Fire.

The pit Su Nian had planted earlier was that Mei and Sakura had reached a partnership, but in truth, Mei was merely holding Sakura's sister hostage to command a sister-obsessed sibling.

Sakura's younger sister, Ling, was the only person she cared about. After that incident, Sakura rebuilt the Poisoned Cocoon unit and cleared out some of Moth of the Fire's internal personnel for Mei.

Now, it could not exactly be said that Moth of the Fire was dominated by a single faction.

It could only be said that with Mei around, Kevin had no worries holding him back.

So they believed the traditional saying that once the cunning hare died, the hunting dogs would be cooked was incorrect. At least, it could never happen to Kevin.

Mei invited Su to participate in research on the Stigmata Project.

The Stigmata Project had only this one line of screen time in this civilization.

Something no one had expected happened once again.

Those two names had indeed appeared before, so why did they suddenly feel unfamiliar now?

Who? Who did you say?

The ones researching this plan were Kevin's girlfriend and his best friend???

Where was the villain? Oh, the villain was someone close to the protagonist?

The researchers behind the plan were something no one had anticipated.

It was like Garen building Lord Dominik's Regards—both speechless and utterly broken.

This move caught everyone off guard, and they could not understand it at all.

Wasn't the plot heading in a slightly strange direction?

Was it really reasonable for this kind of plot to happen to the Savior's close companions?

I knew the female lead was definitely going to get killed off. The conflict has finally arrived, right?

I know you're anxious, but don't be anxious yet. It's only a plan.

Ah, if you looked at it with pure rationality, it was not necessarily a bad way out?

Humans have limits, so I won't be human anymore, Kevin!

Su Nian calmly continued writing. Besides the Stigmata Project, other things had clearly happened as well.

Elysia persuaded Chijie to join Moth of the Fire, while Einstein developed Armed Dolls.

Neither of these matters had much to do with Kevin.

Immediately afterward came the Ninth Honkai.

The devastation caused by this great Honkai was even harder to accept.

It destroyed Mu Continent and the continental framework, sealing humanity's defeat.

Moth of the Fire paid an enormous price to kill it.

According to the setting, the Herrscher of Flames had the greatest destructive power, but her feat of burning Australia for a week paled somewhat beside the Ninth Herrscher, who used a pseudo-black hole to swallow and destroy Mu Continent the moment it was born.

It had simply suffered from being born too early.

If their order of appearance had been reversed, the price paid might have been far more than just one Australia.

This was perhaps one reason the Previous Civilization wanted to control the order in which the next civilization's Herrschers were born.

The Ninth Honkai also led to an incident involving Kevin and Cosmo.

Hen died in that battle, while Cosmo's over-mutation caused him to lose control and leave.

Hen's death became a thorn between the two, and Cosmo never returned to Kevin's side.