Rita: I Want to Live! (cont.)
To put it more directly, it would mean resetting her spirit to zero. With her mind blank, wouldn't she be at the mercy of the other party?
But there must be a reason why he, who possesses such an unsolvable ability, would switch to a fake state after seeing Kiana, Raiden Mei, and an unfamiliar female student!
Rita: Rita, you must calm down and think hard! True enlightenment is about carving out a bright path forward in the darkest wilderness!
Having barely escaped the crisis of Lord Otto's dark history, she is now plunged into an even more terrifying truth. If she dies, no one will ever know that in Changkong City, a small and ordinary city in the world, there is a hidden plan and the ability to become omnipotent and to control all mankind at will... Thinking of this, Rita doesn't know how to describe Mo Yi.
A dangerous person is too ordinary; they don't demonstrate any danger.
A madman? But the other person's words have made her question the meaning of life. If it weren't for her long-standing and unwavering beliefs, she might have already succumbed to their convictions.
A saint? That's the most fitting word Rita could find. But a saint doesn't necessarily mean right. Saints often possess unwavering beliefs, and their selfless ideals are also the most selfish, intending to place their personal thoughts above all beings and the world.
Moreover, the other party's goal is far more terrifying than anything she has ever seen or known before. Even Lord Otto, whom she also fears, is just a schemer who has lived for five hundred years. His goal is at most to resurrect his former lover Kallen and destroy Honkai.
That pales in comparison to the other party's goal of becoming the eternal ruler, the 'Awakened One.' It's simply not on that level. Once the other party succeeds, humanity will probably continue under the will of that one person forever, until its demise.
Great Compassion is also great cruelty!
Because under the compassion of others, humans will be like canaries in a cage, able to live well but losing the freedom of thought. But is this kind of compassion what humans need?
Rita didn't know, but personally, she was against it.
Because she cannot accept that her life, from birth to death, is written by the will of the other person, whether it is the family members she was destined to meet at birth, the close friends she met later, or the partner who accompanies her throughout her life.
Therefore, she must rebel against this terrifying yet powerful being!
Having made up her mind, Rita struggled to her feet, her body trembling. She looked at Mo Yi, who had a smile that seemed no different from any other person's, and greeted his friends.
In the most critical moments, people are either so terrified that they are stunned and unable to move, or they transform into superheroes, surpassing themselves and even turning their thoughts around, turning a normal second into several times the speed of thinking.
Rita: The other party cares a lot about Kiana, Raiden Mei, and the others?
No, Rita immediately dismissed that possibility. How could a saint like the other party care about an individual? In their eyes, there is only humanity as a whole.
So, why is that?
Mo Yi could never have imagined that Rita's mind had become so influenced by him.
In his own view, his earlier demeanor was an act, meant to scare Rita. Having encountered Kiana and the others, he naturally had no interest in continuing to play with Rita, whom he had nearly scared out of her wits. However, in Rita's eyes, the Mo Yi she had just witnessed was his true nature, and his current state was merely a facade. She believed he had been hiding his true self for some reason.
Different starting points lead to completely opposite and diametrically opposed results.
In Rita's view, Mo Yi is very likely like Otto, a terrifying guy who has lived for who knows how many years. Without a considerable amount of time to accumulate knowledge, how could he know so many secrets, whether it is the most shocking 'mystery of the Awakener' or the truth that she is a cyborg Herrscher of the Void more than ten years ago.
Could it be that...
Rita quickly came up with a terrifying yet most logical guess!
That is, Mo Yi has two different personalities within her. The one she is currently facing is the everyday personality used for disguise, while the one she was facing before was the true, but often hidden, main personality.
As for the name Mo Yi, whether it represents his everyday personality or his true personality, Rita couldn't say for sure. The reason he's in this state is likely because, like Otto, he's using soul transfer, or even something Otto couldn't do—'soul reincarnation'—to hide in the human world, secretly plotting and striving for his ultimate goal.
The other person's current ordinary personality is used to hide his true self, making him a ghost wandering in the human world. No one would have guessed that the dark hand that has been secretly observing and manipulating the world is actually an ordinary high school student from Area 11.
The dominant personality usually only emerges when one is alone or facing a lone individual that one is about to confront, because this is the only way to hide oneself without fail.
Rita, having worked for powerful figures like Green Otto for so many years, naturally understood just how cunning these people were. They would never venture out unless their safety was guaranteed, and they certainly wouldn't reveal their true identities. (Lord Green Otto, being able to reincarnate infinitely, could certainly act as he pleased.)
After all, no matter how great a goal is, it can only be achieved if people are alive. How can great achievements be made if people are not careful?
In the Moon World, it took Gai Zong a thousand years to Burning of Human History, while in the Fate/Apocrypha setting, Amakusa spent forty years scavenging in ancient Babylon to gather the materials needed for Empress Semiramis to activate her Noble Phantasm. This shows that to accomplish something great, one needs a long period of secret preparation.
I see.
Rita finally understood why Mo Yi switched personalities immediately after Kiana, Raiden Mei, and the others appeared. It was because this was the internal setting of their minds, like a computer program that would switch when the conditions were met.
Of course, Rita wasn't naive enough to think that the other person wouldn't be able to awaken their true personality under such circumstances. It was more likely that when faced with danger or something particularly important, the other person's main personality would forcibly switch out to protect and eliminate the crisis, or to achieve the desired important goal.
Thinking of this, Rita couldn't help but feel fortunate. In the other person's heart, she was probably just an insignificant insect, a flying insect that had already landed on a spider web and wouldn't be able to jump for long. Naturally, there was no need to force her to break through her outward personality and risk exposing her true face in front of her 'friends' to deal with her.
As for why they only make a move when they are alone...
Based on her previous experiences and analysis, Rita came to this conclusion: The World Requiem's power, being so strong, must have limitations. It could be a huge energy consumption, it could only affect one person or object at a time, it could have a short activation range requiring close proximity to the target, or it could have a cooldown period, which are common limitations of powerful abilities.
In short, the World Requiem's ability is only truly invincible when facing a lone opponent; once it encounters a group, it may reveal weaknesses!
Being alone means certain death; this is the true secret of the World Requiem.
That's right!
This is why the other party switches to their true personality when facing multiple people. This is all hidden information, and once the attack is made, the danger must be eliminated!
Rita, unleashing her potential and focusing all her energy on accelerated thinking, finally figured out the current situation!
She must now leave Mo Yi and can no longer be alone with him. Once they are alone, his main personality will have the opportunity to emerge and take care of her, this troublesome guy, whether by physical or mental elimination.
She must find a reason to leave before Mo Yi manages to trick Kiana, Raiden Mei, and the others away, or she will face certain death.
However, if she chooses to forcibly leave at this moment, Mo Yi has two possible reactions. One is that, because of Kiana and the others, she might let her leave, and then she would immediately report the information about this terrifying existence of Mo Yi to Lord Otto, so that she wouldn't be the only one who knows the other's secret. A person like him, after realizing that he cannot intercept intelligence, would consider his other values rather than killing himself out of anger, such as acting as a contact for Otto, who also knows the information, to achieve the goal of concealing his own intelligence.
Secondly, the other party was willing to risk exposing Kiana and the others' true identities in order to forcibly eliminate this potential threat when she chose to leave.
Faced with a life-or-death decision, Rita felt her heart pounding wildly. The last time she felt this way was when she was being held in the claws of Emperor-class Honkai Beast, about to be swallowed whole. It was Durandal saved her then, and now, only she could save herself!
Once Mo Yi manages to lure Kiana and the others away, she will undoubtedly die.
Seeing Kiana, Miss Mei, and Mei's newly AFK Bronya walking over, Mo Yi breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the other party hadn't seen much, otherwise it would have been very embarrassing if his boasting had been exposed.
How did you end up passing by here?
Mo Yi took the initiative to ask a question, changing the subject to avoid Kiana and Miss Mei asking him what he and Rita were doing.
I want to hang out with you after class!
Seeing that Mo Yi's expression was normal, Kiana and Miss Mei felt a little more at ease. It seemed that they had been overthinking things. The female teacher who seemed to be in a bad mood had just twisted her ankle, and Mo Yi had just gone to help her.
"I couldn't find you, so I just looked around randomly, and I didn't expect to actually see you, hehe—"
Kiana skipped over to Mo Yi and chuckled:
"It's a pity Mo Yi isn't in my class, otherwise you would have seen just how many people I captivated during my dazzling entrance in the self-introduction segment!"
"However, classes are quite boring. You sit there all day and can't move..."
"..."
Upon seeing Mo Yi, Kiana began chattering away, analyzing her first experience at school.