Could Su Nian later introduce an even larger side plot, establish another enemy among humanity, and thereby enhance the value of Kevin saving the world?
"That was indeed possible."
After carefully considering its feasibility, Welt also acknowledged the speculation.
After all, weren't Flame Chasers just another kind of Honkai Beast with human consciousness?
There was no issue with artificially creating a Herrscher weaker than a true Herrscher.
Both of them accepted the feasibility of this premise, but they had no way of reading minds.
Until the next result appeared, they had no idea how Su Nian intended to write it.
It was not that their guess was wrong. Su Nian simply had yet to write about the unique nature of the Thousand-Man Herrscher's abilities.
From the perspective of conventional works, an Artificial Herrscher was clearly a reasonable guess.
If Su Nian heard that thought, she would surely sigh that Otto truly was worthy of being the Archbishop. His way of thinking had never changed.
Artificially created Herrschers had also appeared in the Honkai world, and Otto, Schicksal's Archbishop, would certainly know a great deal about them.
But once those Herrschers officially awakened, they would possess proper Herrscher Authority and a Herrscher Core.
And assuming the Thousand-Man Herrscher was a high-level player, she could indeed defeat those fully developed, non-illiterate Herrschers.
Some illiterate Herrschers were not particularly threatening.
In the early stages of Honkai Impact 3rd, she could solo the Triumvirate. Mockingly called Wendy, she should have been invincible, yet a sneak attack from a Titan shattered her with one punch.
If her abilities were used properly... remembering Wendy from Honkai 2, Su Nian could only sigh at how terrifying she was.
The genuine Herrscher of Wind, Wendy, had displayed only the ability to blow wind. Even wind blades had been demonstrated by the Fake Herrscher of Wind and Sirin.
The power to "create ideal fluid," if used correctly, could achieve perfect control over the surrounding fluids while also manipulating energy transmitted through fluids, such as light and sound...
For example, the invisibility displayed by the first Thousand-Man Herrscher seemed to be a weakened version of the Herrscher of Wind's Authority: controlling the refraction of light in the air.
Otto watched the following developments with utter confidence. He had already guessed what Su Nian would write next.
He had become thoroughly familiar with Su Nian's patterns.
Now, it was time to verify his guess.
Even if Su Nian was a genius, she would not pile on so many flashy tricks that the following story became unfathomably convoluted.
Deducing the plot was also part of the unspoken exchange between the two of them.
Hurry up and serve the next part already! He could not wait any longer.
Fine wine and food sat beside him, but they could no longer stir Otto's interest.
Yet the very first sentence below shattered his expectations!
The criteria for becoming a Herrscher could not be determined. They were scattered across the world, displaying clear differences in gender, race, age, physique, and physical aptitude.
The cause of their Herrscher transformation remained unclear. When they were about to be captured, these Herrschers would end their own lives, making it impossible to obtain further information from captured individuals.
"They really are Herrschers?" Otto slapped the table, making the items on it tremble slightly.
Su Nian truly had not resorted to anything flashy.
Those uncertain terms should, logically speaking, have come from Mei's research.
That was a researcher's precision.
Before the facts could be conclusively established, one had to write like that.
Su Nian had considered things so carefully?
"It seems the facts differ somewhat from your guess..." Welt pressed down the corners of his mouth. He had never seen Otto lose his composure before.
But he could not laugh. He had agreed with Otto's theory just moments ago.
Laughing at Otto would mean laughing at himself.
"It was merely a tiny mistake, hardly anything significant. But you... Welt, didn't you agree with me as well?"
"...Contestant Su Nian has written another passage."
Otto leaned closer to the communicator again. Sure enough, the contents had progressed.
Now was not the time to trade barbs with Welt.
He would talk to him after reading this passage.
The story was still being written. Su Nian would not be affected just because they were arguing.
These Herrschers scattered around the world caused Moth of the Fire considerable trouble. The Flame Chasers could barely keep up and were exhausted from dealing with them.
At the time, Moth of the Fire had no means to deal with multiple Herrschers, and the success rate of Hypermutation Surgery remained low. They simply did not have enough manpower to handle the Thousand-Man Herrscher.
Every confrontation with a Herrscher came at an enormous cost. The sacrifices were not only well-trained soldiers, but civilians as well.
Moth of the Fire lacked personnel to resist the Honkai, and the Thousand-Man Herrscher was clever enough to conceal herself.
She could also transmit intelligence through undetectable means, constantly creating enormous trouble for them.
Even working 996 nonstop would not be enough to resist them.
As an old saying in Shenzhou went, it was not thieves stealing that one feared, but thieves constantly eyeing one's possessions. It was not the Thousand-Man Herrscher rushing out in a swarm that was frightening, but them secretly pulling little tricks.
Picking a thousand people out of several hundred million... fortunately, the Herrschers had bad luck.
If Mei had become a Herrscher, or if certain highly important people in power had been converted as well, they could just declare it over.
It's over! My ankle is swollen. My May Day holiday... I already made plans with my girlfriends about where to go...
Coveted by Every Faction, the Hottest Commodity
No one could question Mei's breadth of knowledge. If she became one of the Thousand-Man Herrschers... she could use their unique communication technology to raise the Thousand-Man Herrscher's combat power by an entire tier.
And she knew quite a lot of information about Moth of the Fire.
Fortunately, the odds of drawing a character card like Mei's were far too low.
Su Nian continued pondering. This time, the victims were not all unimportant people...
Snakey's assistant, Klein, was converted into a Herrscher. After killing Mobius, Klein was accidentally devoured by her during Mobius's resurrection.
Chijie's adjutant, Immer, had also become a Herrscher this time.
As a result, Chijie gained another thing he hated: everyone involved in killing Immer became the second most hated people in Chijie's eyes.
It was worth mentioning that the thing Chijie hated most was Herrschers, enemies... and Mobius.
The Tenth Herrscher possessed an extremely diverse range of abilities. According to observation and statistics, they could use some of the abilities of other known Herrschers.
Dr. Mei had once discovered that the chef from earlier had used the Authority of the Fourth Herrscher, the Herrscher of Wind: controlling the refraction of light in the air.
But their greatest threat was not their combat power.
Among the Tenth Herrschers, the Herrscher ranked L10-997 was even a high-ranking member of Moth of the Fire.
Meanwhile, individual L10-524 had originally been nothing more than an ordinary salesperson, yet knew of and attacked Moth of the Fire's weapons manufacturing facility in Rhine.
Everyone had been screened, yet not a single clue was found. The only possibility was that they communicated across distance through Quantum Entanglement.
During the four months in which the Tenth Herrscher continued appearing, they attacked many Moth of the Fire facilities while causing unrest and destruction in major cities.
Their threat level was no less than that of any previous Herrscher.
"Though their individual strength was relatively weak, they excelled at concealment, intelligence, and striking unexpectedly... it truly was an ingenious idea."
"But this Herrscher's ability setting... should not be limited to just this, right?"
A flood of ideas instantly erupted in Otto's mind. If Su Nian intended to shape this Herrscher into a major villain and source of trouble, there was far too much room to work with.
They could use weakened versions of other Herrschers' abilities, and their numbers were great enough that their destructive potential was no less than other Herrschers'?
No, those were not the most important parts.
What mattered most was whether Su Nian had that kind of idea in mind.
Otto's gaze grew blazing. Beyond a solid literary foundation, Su Nian also possessed a certain scientific foundation.
No wonder she had written Mobius and Dr. Mei. Otto also recalled someone else, the mechanical engineer whose name had flashed by in a character card: Vill-V...
Su Nian must have an extraordinary background.
He immediately contacted his granddaughter Theresa, who was serving as Archbishop at Schicksal headquarters far away.
Three minutes. He wanted all of Su Nian's information!
And he absolutely had to recruit Su Nian into Schicksal.
Even if he was wrong, he could not possibly let those Anti-Entropy fools benefit from her!
Welt had the very same thought in his heart. Otto's burning gaze... he was definitely plotting something again.
That scheming bastard seemed to be very interested in Su Nian too.
Welt directly sent a cooperation request to Su Nian's personal social media account.
He absolutely could not let a talent like Su Nian be lured by Otto into Schicksal's tiger's den!
Though neither of them said anything, as longtime rivals, they tacitly turned their earlier thoughts into action.
Meanwhile, aside from the two of them competing in the judges' room...
Quite a few professional organizations had also fixed their eyes on Su Nian, this discovered peerless genius.
They had been waiting in the livestream for a long time, awaiting the moment when the viewer count reached its peak.
They had come because of the program, and the judges' praise had made Su Nian one of the seeded contestants in this competition.
Clearly, this was rare.
Eden had also said she would invest in Su Nian, so there was no need to doubt the value of this work.
Even now, its level of completion was not low.
The chance of such a genius contestant's later writing collapsing was practically zero.
There was not the slightest risk.
Their job now was figuring out how to secure Su Nian's future work!
"Shenzhou's film and television industry in the new era cannot be without Su Nian! Just as Africa cannot be without Golden Kela!"
"Shenzhou animation is underdeveloped. We absolutely need the god Su Nian!"
"Young people desperately need excellent games and stories. Please consider us!"
"Stop arguing! Latest intelligence: Schicksal and Anti-Entropy have made the first move!"
The leading figures in the film, animation, and gaming industries immediately heard the rumor and all mobilized, determined to win Su Nian's authorization.
Even if they had to throw a huge sum of money at Su Nian, they would definitely profit!
Thus, at noon, when many people had free time, the number of viewers in Su Nian's livestream had reached the five-million mark.
A full five million concurrent viewers! The servers came under pressure several times and nearly crashed.
Within some traffic-driven fan circles in Shenzhou, a saying circulated.
Ten thousand real fans were enough to debut, fifty thousand let you strut sideways, one hundred thousand made you a top star, and two hundred thousand let you rule the universe!
Besides showing just how rampant data fraud was among them, it also demonstrated how precious real fans were.
There was no guarantee that all these people were Su Nian's fans, but even two hundred thousand actual people seemed insignificant here.
Numerous film and television companies flocked to post invitations on Su Nian's social media accounts and across the internet.
With conspicuous comments kept at the top of the livestream through huge donations, Su Nian's popularity soared to another level.
Shenzhou profanity Holy shit, my man is incredible. Just give her the award already, no need to go through the process!
I suddenly feel that the show's rule preventing contestants from viewing other contestants' livestreams is pretty humane.
Ah, true. Besides preventing plagiarism, it also prevents contestants' fragile mental defenses from being shattered. Only now do I understand the program team's profound intentions.
Su Nian still doesn't know she's famous. I can't even imagine what expression she'll make when she finds out.
This is even more exciting than winning a hundred-million lottery!
Before you continue