Sudden Change / Consciousness and Reason

"Even without me constructing these scenes and plots, I can definitely make your consciousness..."

"Bang!"

"..."

The Eighth Herrscher glanced coldly at the ice spikes in the huge hole in her chest, then looked at Kevin was standing at the deck entrance with his hands outstretched.

Finally, she looked into Lin's eyes again.

Her lips parted slightly.

"Do you know what I see most often in human society?"

"The falling out between relatives and friends, the killing of brothers, the deception and betrayal of beloved spouses—in the 'last time,' you and Kevin experienced the same thing."

"So..."

Lin impatiently interrupted her, "So, can we begin?"

He coldly raised the knife.

"You have no humanity, so why bother discussing humans, whom you don't even understand?"

Chapter 165 Sudden Change

"You want to fight me?"

The Eighth Herrscher smiled slightly at Kevin and Vill-V who came onto the deck.

It seems that it was Vill-V who informed Kevin. Although it's unclear how Vill-V persuaded him, he has already figured out who the real enemy is.

"You know I killed everyone in the first round, so how could you, a piece of trash who can't even beat Kevin, think you could beat me?"

Lin took a deep breath.

"Because he is just a fictional entity, he has no real consciousness."

"..."

"This is a world of consciousness. The only two of us truly possess subjective consciousness. Kevin is pieced together from my memories and those of others, which is why I subjectively believe I can't beat him. But you are different. I am the subject, and you are the underlying support. If you want, you can eliminate everyone except me."

"Hehehe... No wonder she thinks you have such a high status; it wasn't just a rumor after all..."

The Eighth Herrscher chuckled, then raised her palm and pointed it at the two people beside her.

"Since we can't continue any longer and this world of consciousness is about to collapse, I should leave."

Just as a person who is dreaming will quickly wake up after realizing that they are in a dream, a highly mentally strong conscious subject who is willing to break through the illusion she has constructed will cause the world of consciousness to collapse.

"But now, shouldn't I also put on a show of 'the villain's last gasp'?"

"Bang—"

Lin made one mistake at the end.

The Eighth Herrscher's goal is not to fight, but that doesn't mean she's weak.

She possesses powers related to consciousness, so her combat strength in the world of consciousness is definitely not lacking.

"Since there's no way to 'correct' your consciousness, it's normal for me to destroy it, isn't it?"

Lin gripped the hilt of the sword tightly with both hands, the skin on her palms being torn apart by the immense force. The Eighth Herrscher in front of her caught the blade of the God Cutter with just one hand, and there was no mark on her smooth, jade-like palm.

The two fought fiercely in the air above the headquarters. Lin delivered a powerful kick to the Eighth Herrscher's abdomen, drew his God Cutter sword, and swung it backhand to force the Eighth Herrscher back.

The weapon made of Soul Steel was blocked?

... Vill-V?

He remembered that Prometheus had reported to him about her mecha upgrade, and that she had indeed gained combat capabilities. Could it be that she had been fitted with a Soul Steel structure?

"Bass--"

The two clashed again in mid-air, and Lin, who was at a disadvantage in terms of strength, crashed into the roof of the headquarters, creating a deep dent.

She was right; if it were just about destruction, everything would be much easier.

Lin watched the flow of information on the panel. He suddenly turned to the side from the top plate. A loud noise and vibration came from beside him. The Eighth Herrscher grinned and pulled her arm out of the several-meter-thick top plate. The alloy that even missiles could not penetrate was as fragile as a bubble in her hand.

The taut nerves contracted completely at that moment, and a thin silver line connected the tip of the blade to the neck of the Eighth Herrscher without even a sound of the blade being swung, because the sharpness of the blade was so great that it could even cut through the wind resistance.

"Bang!"

Two figures landed in the headquarters corridor. Amidst the dust, a long, azure light stretched out, and Lin's figure disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The Eighth Herrscher stood up with a strange laugh. She was unharmed, but Lin had been seriously injured. In the end, neither Kevin's Flame-Chaser body nor Prometheus's half-soul steel mechanical body could compare to Lin's weak human body.

He was a complete failure.

Perhaps at the time of his birth, his creator broke the taboo with the hope that he would become a leader of humanity, but it was of no use, because Lin Tiansheng's flaws had overshadowed all his merits.

As a product of the "Birth of the Holy Child" project, he has no resistance to Honkai Energy.

His surgery, performed as a product of the "Flame-Chaser" program, was unsuccessful.

The same applies now. He was just an accident. Now she plans to make him into a consciousness identical to her own and stuff him into the Herrscher Core to become a new Herrscher. And once again, he has become a failure of this plan.

Failed products should be discarded!

The Eighth Herrscher swung her slender hand in a chop-like motion, instantly slicing through the surrounding walls and cutting through the obstructing smoke.

But Lin had already disappeared. She immediately rushed towards the only passageway ahead, but after taking only two steps, she felt her ankle trip over something.

She pulled the pins on both grenades herself.

"Boom boom—"

Lin ran wildly through the headquarters. He knew that conventional weapons might not be able to harm the Eighth Herrscher. The God Cutter in his hand might be able to contend with it, but Lin's own body no longer allowed him to fight against an enemy of that level.

Is there anything in headquarters that could pose a threat to Herrscher- level enemies?

This is the world of consciousness.

In other words, anything from the memories that have been mixed in will also be here.

Anything that conforms to his and the Eighth Herrscher's shared "cognition" and "memory" certification will possess the functions of memory.

So, to contend with the Herrscher in terms of raw power, without any usable equipment or weapons, is there anything besides a Flame-Chaser like Kevin who can do it?

Yes, and there is more than one.

Lin arrived at the Research and Development Department quickly. He didn't have time to say anything to the people inside and just ran past them, including Mei, without even glancing at her.

Mei merely glanced at him indifferently before letting him head towards the room where the Herrscher Core were stored. She raised her hand to stop the others who were about to intercept Lin, and instead instructed them to be wary of the people who were about to appear.

Without Mei's certification, it's impossible to enter the storage room, but with the God Cutter in hand, he doesn't need to worry about how to get in.

"Bass!"

With a single thrust, the knife pierced the authentication lock, then sliced open the sealed door. This seemingly ordinary knife cut through iron like mud, leaving a smooth cut as if it had been cleaved by a laser.

It seems that Vill-V and May's next step is to give the Headquarters Base a major overhaul to prevent it from being breached by Soul Steel weapons...

What followed was simple: he effortlessly broke through layers of blockades and arrived at his destination.

The gunshot that rang out behind them vanished in a violent tremor.

This is just a virtual world; they are not real people.

Without needing to convince himself, Lin didn't want to let any more unnecessary emotions surface, and arrived at his destination.

A crystal that has lost its color.

The consciousness within has vanished; among the many Herrscher Core, it is the only one that will never again pose any Herrscher Core to humanity.

Footsteps suddenly sounded behind him, and Lin had already reached out and grabbed the core of the Herrscher of Reason from the Previous Civilization.

Chapter 166 Knowledge and Reason

A tiny figure flew out of the brutally pulverized steel jungle, turned in mid-air, and landed on the sea. The splashing waves increased the resistance, gradually slowing her down.

She lowered her hands, and the charred marks fell off with a shake, revealing an iron-like silver-white surface beneath the bionic skin, which shimmered in the light reflected from the sea.

The Eighth Herrscher ignored her tattered clothes and stared intently at the familiar aura emanating from the Moth of Fire headquarters, which was almost split in two.

That was the scent of one's own kind.

"That's right... that's it, fight like a Herrscher ..." She curled her lips into a sinister smile, it seemed there were some extra gains after all.

"Boom!"

A thick beam of light shot out from the crack, carrying the heat of the evaporating seawater!

"Tsk..."

The Eighth Herrscher hastily dodged and barely escaped the attack range, but the scorching temperature still left a destructive feeling on her body. The seawater below was split open, creating a large crack, which was only belatedly filled in a second later.

Human weapons are indeed unexpectedly dangerous; the previous Herrscher were probably killed "accidentally" in this way.

She frowned, her bionic electronic eyes swirling, zooming in on a figure hovering in mid-air, just like herself.

His helmet had disappeared due to the corrosion of Honkai Energy, and the ends of his half-length black hair were stained with bright blue spots. The gray core embedded in his chest had turned azure blue again, extending into his body and armor with countless thin, vein-like lines that matched the core's color.

Some icy fragments separated and scattered from those lines, disappearing into the air.

Slowly, the debris re-coalesced onto his body and the corroded, tattered armor, and a brand new, sharper suit of armor gradually covered his entire body, just as Herrscher reshapes his image... No, he had now become Herrscher.

The Herrscher of Herrscher of Reason, who finally descended from the Previous Civilization and experienced two falls, is a god who is reborn in what seems like a myth and reappears in the world.

He slowly opened his eyes, and his originally black and green pupils were now filled with azure. But soon, in the blink of an eye, they transformed into Prismatic Eyes like discs, and a VR-style armor covering his pupils was placed over his face.

"..."

After the figure completed its transformation, it fell silent.

He seemed to be using his dulled brain to search for the fragmented memories he had left behind after the Honkai. His meager remaining thoughts were unable to function, and he was utterly defeated in the battle between humanity and the Honkai.

Because they hadn't expected that even a fictional Herrscher Core possessed the ability to corrupt consciousness, they were caught completely off guard and had their consciousness stolen.

The Eighth Herrscher smiled; she was waiting.

Waiting for the birth of a new Herrscher, waiting for her younger brother to complete his cocoon transformation.

By then, the real Lin will be replaced by a new Herrscher consciousness, without her even needing to deliberately guide her.

Absorbing Qi.

Exhale.

"Call..."

However, she didn't wait for the figure to approach with a blank expression. Instead, she adjusted her breathing again and again, making it more and more steady, until...

A watch-like device appeared on his left wrist, and then a pair of towering steel wings unfurled behind him.

Wings? No, those are neatly arranged, densely packed...

Floating Cannon.

"Hmm... looks like I've been proven wrong again, haven't I?"

The Eighth Herrscher showed a disappointed expression, shrugged, and the form of the Prometheus body she simulated began to collapse, with a large amount of Honkai Energy leaking from her body, and Black Mist gradually enveloping her.

The Herrscher controls consciousness may not sound as strong as other Herrscher, as if they can only manipulate people's consciousness, while their own combat power is much weaker than other Herrscher.

However, the space that consciousness can manipulate is not necessarily inferior to other powers. If one dies in a space of consciousness where it is difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood, then the original body is nothing more than a breathing corpse.

And the things that can be done by manipulating consciousness are, of course, far beyond what ordinary people can imagine.

For example, she can create all sorts of illusions to serve as her combat power when fighting in consciousness. The strength of these illusions depends on the mental power of consciousness. As the Herrscher of Consciousness, she can possess a stronger mental power than other Herrscher.

Naturally, she can also pull off some bizarre maneuvers.

"Bang!"

Two figures suddenly leaped up, the sonic boom shattering eardrums. Countless beams of light shot out from the Floating Cannon, instantly enveloping the entire sea area in high-temperature particles, while white water vapor obscured the view.

Lin's Prismatic Eyes rapidly scanned everything he needed in the head-mounted display. His consciousness had not been completely corrupted by the Herrscher Core, but that did not mean he could perfectly control the Herrscher Core.

Those azure, vascular lines are actually the same as the purple lines from the Honkai Sickness 3rd era, which are manifestations of the body being corroded. His body was modified by the Honkai Sickness Serum, and his consciousness underwent a mutation after entering the Herrscher Core. He also felt no pain, which is why he could barely use the Herrscher Core.

Even so, he could still feel his consciousness constantly shifting in a certain direction, which was by no means a good sign.