You asked for healing, but you wrote Honkai Impact 3rd?

Could Su Nian be setting up an even larger side story, creating another enemy among humanity to elevate Kevin's savior credentials?

"That is indeed a possibility."

After carefully considering the feasibility, Welt also acknowledged this conjecture.

After all, weren't Flame Chasers just another version of Honkai Beasts with human consciousness?

Creating an artificial Herrscher weaker than a real one wasn't much of a problem.

Both agreed on the plausibility of this setup, but they couldn't read minds.

Until the next result came out, they had no idea what Su Nian would write.

It wasn't that their guess was wrong—it was just that the special nature of the Thousand-Man Herrscher's ability hadn't been revealed yet.

From the perspective of traditional works, an artificial Herrscher was clearly a reasonable guess.

If Su Nian had heard this idea, she would have sighed and remarked that Archbishop Otto's thinking really never changed.

Artificial Herrschers had appeared in the Honkai world before, and Schicksal's Archbishop Otto surely had extensive knowledge of them.

But as long as those Herrschers formally awakened, they would possess both the full Herrscher Authority and a Herrscher Core.

Moreover, assuming the Thousand-Man Herrscher was a high-level player, she could indeed defeat those fully-realized but illiterate Herrschers.

Some illiterate Herrschers posed little threat.

In the early days of Honkai Impact 3rd, the one who could solo the Triumvirate—mockingly called Wendy—should have been invincible, but was shattered by a Titan's surprise punch.

If her ability had been used well... recalling Wendy from Honkai Impact 2nd, Su Nian could only sigh at how terrifying it was.

The genuine Herrscher of Wind, Wendy, only displayed the ability to blow wind; even the wind blade ability was shown by the Fake Herrscher of Wind and Sirin.

The ability to "create an ideal fluid," if used properly, could achieve perfect control over surrounding fluids, and simultaneously control energy transmitted through fluid media, such as light, sound, and so on...

For example, the first Thousand-Man Herrscher's displayed ability of invisibility seemed to be a watered-down version of the Herrscher of Wind's authority—controlling the refraction of light in the air.

Otto watched the next developments with full confidence. He had already guessed what Su Nian would write next.

He was also familiar with Su Nian's patterns.

Now, it was time to verify his conjecture.

Even if Su Nian was a genius, she wouldn't throw in too many flashy twists to make the story confusing.

Deducing the plot was also part of the unspoken communication between the two.

Hurry up and bring out the next part! He couldn't wait any longer.

Fine wine and delicacies sat beside him, but they no longer sparked Otto's interest.

But the very first sentence shattered his expectations!

[The criteria for becoming a Herrscher cannot be determined. They are scattered across the world, showing clear differences in gender, race, age, physique, and constitution.]

[The cause of Herrscher transformation remains unclear. When about to be captured, these Herrschers all end their own lives, making it impossible to obtain more information from captured individuals.]

"Real Herrschers?" Otto slammed his hand on the table, causing the items on it to wobble slightly.

Su Nian really hadn't played any flashy tricks.

Those uncertain terms, logically speaking, came from Mei's research.

It was the precision of a researcher.

Until the facts could be conclusively determined, this was how it had to be.

Had Su Nian really thought this far ahead?

"It seems the facts differ somewhat from your guess..." Welt suppressed a smile. He had never seen Otto lose his composure before.

But he couldn't laugh—he had just agreed with Otto's idea.

Laughing would mean laughing at himself.

"Just a small mistake, nothing major. As for you... Welt, weren't you agreeing with me just now?"

"...Contestant Su Nian has written another segment."

Otto leaned closer to the communicator again. Sure enough, new content had appeared.

Now was not the time for bickering with Welt.

He would read this part first, then talk to him.

The story was still being written; Su Nian wouldn't be affected by their argument.

[These Herrschers scattered across the world caused no small trouble for Moth of the Fire. The Flame Chasers were stretched thin, struggling to cope.]

Moth of the Fire had no means to deal with multiple Herrschers at the time, and the success rate of the Hypermutation Surgery had always been low. They simply didn't have enough manpower to handle the Thousand-Man Herrscher.

Every encounter with a Herrscher came at a great cost—not just the loss of well-trained soldiers, but also civilians.

Moth of the Fire was short on anti-Honkai personnel, and the Thousand-Man Herrscher was clever enough to disguise herself.

She could also pass information through undetectable means, constantly creating major problems for them.

Even working 996 couldn't hold her off.

There's an old saying in Shenzhou: better to be robbed than to be stalked. It's not the Thousand-Man Herrscher swarming out all at once that's the real worry—it's them pulling dirty tricks in the shadows.

Picking a thousand out of hundreds of millions... it's lucky the Herrscher's luck is bad.

If Mei became a Herrscher, or if some extremely important figure in power got converted too, then you could just call it game over.

Game over! My ankle's swollen—my May Day plans, I already made plans with my girlfriends on where to go...

Chapter 27: Fought Over by a Hundred Factions, Red-Hot and Sought After

Mei's knowledge base was beyond doubt. If she became one of the Thousand-Man Herrscher... through their unique communication techniques, she could boost the Thousand-Man Herrscher's combat power by a whole tier.

And she knew no small amount of intelligence about Moth of the Fire.

Lucky the odds of drawing a character card like Mei were so low.

Su Nian kept thinking. The victims this time weren't all irrelevant people...

Snakey's assistant, Klein, was converted into a Herrscher, killed Mobius, and then was accidentally devoured by Mobius while she was being resurrected.

And Chijie's adjutant, Immer, also became a Herrscher this time.

As a result, Chijie added one more thing to his list of hates: everyone involved in killing Immer became the second most hated people in Chijie's book.

Worth mentioning: the first most hated things for Chijie are Herrschers, enemies... and Mobius.

[The Tenth Herrscher's abilities are extremely diverse. Based on observation and statistics, they can use a portion of the abilities of other known Herrschers.]

[Dr. Mei once discovered that the chef from earlier was using the authority of the Fourth Herrscher, the Herrscher of Wind—controlling the refraction of light in the air.]

[But the biggest threat isn't their combat power.]

[Among the Tenth Herrscher, the one ranked L10--997 was even a high-ranking member of Moth of the Fire.]

[Among them, the individual L10--524 was originally just an ordinary salesman, yet they knew about and attacked Moth of the Fire's weapons manufacturing plant in the Rhine.]

[All screenings turned up nothing, not a single clue. The only possibility is that they communicate through [Quantum Entanglement], ignoring distance entirely.]

[During the four months the Tenth Herrscher kept appearing, they attacked numerous Moth of the Fire facilities while causing chaos and destruction in major cities.]

[Their threat level was no less than any previous Herrscher.]

"Though their individual strength is relatively weak, they excel in stealth, intelligence, and striking unexpectedly... it's indeed an original idea."

"But this Herrscher's ability setting... it shouldn't stop at just this, right?"

Countless ideas exploded in Otto's mind. If Su Nian intended to shape this Herrscher into a major villain and a headache, then the room for manipulation was enormous.

Using neutered versions of other Herrschers' abilities, plus their numbers—destruction on par with other Herrschers?

No, that wasn't the main point.

The main point was whether Su Nian actually had that kind of intention.

Otto's gaze grew fervent. Besides solid literary skill, there was also a foundation of scientific knowledge.

No wonder he wrote Mobius and Dr. Mei. Otto also remembered another person—a mechanical engineer who flashed by in the character cards, the name Vill-V...

Su Nian must have some incredible background.

He immediately contacted his granddaughter, Theresa, who was serving as Archbishop at Schicksal headquarters.

Three minutes—he wanted Su Nian's complete file!

And he absolutely had to recruit Su Nian into Schicksal.

Even if his guess was wrong, he couldn't let those Anti-Entropy bastards get an easy deal!

Welt had the exact same thought in his mind. Otto's burning gaze... he must be scheming something again.

That scheming old fox seemed very interested in Su Nian too.

He directly sent a message to Su Nian's personal social media account requesting cooperation.

He absolutely couldn't let a talent like Su Nian be lured by Otto into Schicksal's tiger's den!

Neither of them said a word, but as old rivals for years, they tacitly turned their earlier thoughts into action.

At the same time, besides the two of them competing in the judges' room, plenty of professional institutions were also eyeing Su Nian, this already-discovered unparalleled genius.

They'd been lurking in the livestream room for a long time, waiting for the viewer count to peak.

They came for the show, and the judges' praise made Su Nian the dark horse of this competition.

Clearly, this was rare.

Eden also said she'd invest in Su Nian, so the quality of this work was beyond question.

Even now, his completion rate wasn't low.

For a genius contestant like this, the probability of the story collapsing later was almost zero.

No risk at all.

How to snatch up Su Nian's future work—that was their job!

"The new era of Shenzhou's film and television industry cannot be without Su Nian! Just like Africa cannot be without Jin Kela!"

"Shenzhou animation won't develop without the Su Nian god!"

"Young people urgently need excellent games and storylines—please consider us!"

"Stop arguing! Latest intel—Schicksal and Anti-Entropy have already made their move!"

The bigwigs of the film, animation, and gaming industries heard the rumor the moment it broke. They all mobilized at once, determined to fight for Su Nian's authorization.

Even if they had to fork over a huge sum to Su Nian, they were sure to profit!

So, when noon came and many people had free time, Su Nian's livestream viewer count had already hit the five-million mark.

A full five million concurrent viewers! The servers were under immense pressure, nearly crashing.

Within certain traffic-based circles in Shenzhou, a saying circulated:

Ten thousand real fans gets you a debut, fifty thousand real fans lets you strut, a hundred thousand real fans makes you top-tier, two hundred thousand real fans rules the entire universe!

Aside from the rampant data fraud in those circles, it also highlights how precious real fans are.

Not everyone here could be guaranteed to be Su Nian's fan, but two hundred thousand real people was nothing to Su Nian.

One after another, film companies posted invitations on Su Nian's social media accounts and across the internet.

Relying on massive tips, the eye-catching messages pinned at the top of the livestream pushed Su Nian's popularity to yet another level.

[Shenzhou profanity F*cking awesome, bro, I suggest just handing out the award directly—skip the ceremony!]

[Suddenly I feel like the show's rule of not being able to watch other contestants' streams is pretty humane.]

[Ah, true. Besides preventing plagiarism, it also stops contestants' fragile mental defenses from shattering. I only now realize the show's deep intent.]

[Su Nian has no idea he's blown up. I can't even imagine the look on his face when he finds out.]

[This is even more exciting than winning a hundred million in the lottery!]