Analysis

The heatwave swept across Kevin's face, and the intense light radiation briefly blurred his vision. He rarely found himself in such a passive situation. The Law-Ruler's ever-changing abilities couldn't compare to the surprise Kevin received within that single minute. Even with the genes of the Emperor-class Honkai Beast Parvati, it suffered minor injuries due to the sudden thermal radiation. However, for a Flame-Chaser, such minor injuries would heal on their own in a short time.

"Kevin, how are you?" Dr. Mei's worried voice came through the communicator.

"I'm fine, I was just careless. Never mind that, Mei, can you figure anything out?" Kevin rubbed his eyes with two fingers. Even as a Flame-Chaser, staring directly at a nuclear explosion at such close range would still have an effect.

Fire Moth's emergency response units were rushing towards them at high speed. The warrior units were deployed en masse, with Flame-Chasers as their leaders. But there was no third party at this location other than Kevin.

Dr. Mei's calm and collected voice reached his ears: "We have very little information about the other party. Only by analyzing the explosion site can we draw a reliable conclusion. Moreover, judging by his performance, he might have approached us intentionally just to obtain information about you and me. The Law-Ruler's surprise attack exposed his secrets, forcing him to retreat."

Dr. Mei carefully picked up a metal fragment with tweezers, examining it closely.

"Dr. Mei, this is what we collected from the surroundings." The adjutant beside her handed over a transparent bag containing metal fragments.

"I see. Take it to the analysis lab and see if you can find out anything else." Dr. Mei stood up from her chair.

Through the thick glass window, Dr. Mei shared her initial speculation with Kevin: "Kevin, based on the materials collected from the explosion site, this John Connor is a robot."

Kevin's voice carried a tone of no surprise: "That explains his self-destruction. If he were a normal person, I don't think he would have survived. My only confusion is that ordinary robots wouldn't possess such flexible emotional changes."

"That's not unusual. The long-discontinued Armed Dolls possessed genuine emotions, or at least they appeared to be genuine emotions. However, such uncontrolled emotional changes nearly pushed human society to the brink of civil war. Therefore, current robots, especially security robots, use reliable old-fashioned computer structures. Naturally, they wouldn't possess emotions."

"..." Kevin was silent for a moment, then continued, "Mei. I personally believe his conversational style is different from that of the Armed Dolls and Prometheus."

"I want to say..." Kevin searched his mind for words to express his sense of strangeness. "The Armed Dolls are a collective intelligence. Their vocabulary and sentence construction are more... precise compared to humans. As for Prometheus, if I hadn't known she was an AI from the start, given enough conversation, I would have been able to discern the difference in her thinking process from that of an ordinary person."

"But John Connor, his word choice and thinking process make me believe he's a normal person."

"Hmm..." Dr. Mei pondered, stroking her chin. "Then it's possible he's not a robot at all, but rather projected his consciousness into a mechanical body."

"Although this robot might represent their highest technological achievement, Fire Moth is the sole legitimate government on Earth. Even if this organization that appeared out of nowhere can rival us in technological level, it is far inferior to us in terms of resources and population."

Kevin stood up from the bench, rubbing his temples, and sighed, "The Honkai alone has us running ragged, and now a powerful organization has emerged, and we don't know if they are friend or foe."

Dr. Mei did not lose her composure due to the situation: "Clearly, they don't want to conflict with us at the moment. Since the Law-Ruler's attack, many areas have reported Law-Ruler attacks. If they wanted to cause us trouble, now would be the best time to act."

"However, at this time, our only enemy is the Law-Ruler, so it can be said that 'they' pose no significant threat to us, at least not for now."

Dr. Mei instructed her adjutant to return the dust-cleaned armor to Kevin.

"For now, you don't need to worry about them. The newly appeared Law-Ruler requires our serious attention. This Law-Ruler is very special, existing as a collective. Although they all possess Law-Ruler Cores, the energy level of any single core cannot be compared to the Law-Ruler Cores we've obtained before. I will send more detailed information to your computer next."

Kevin nodded, "Understood, I'll be careful." He put on his armor and sheathed Heavenly Fire at his waist. "Looks like it's back to chasing Law-Rulers again," he thought with resignation.

Clearly, Kevin felt intuitively that Qin Su meant them no harm; the advice he had given was still fresh in his memory.

The computational power returned to the central computer with T-800's self-destruction. The appearance of the Tenth Law-Ruler suddenly gave him an idea. The Law-Ruler Core was the most crucial energy core within a Law-Ruler and also the source of its abilities.

It could help Qin Su further understand the essence of the Law-Ruler. The Ark Project's database often contained only vague descriptions regarding the Law-Ruler and Honkai, seemingly to prevent the inhabitants of the New Era from delving too early into the field of Honkai energy. Therefore, Qin Su's knowledge was limited to the basics of Honkai, and he knew nothing more in-depth.

The appearance of the Tenth Law-Ruler was an excellent opportunity to actively research Honkai. As a Thousand-Man Law-Ruler, the Tenth Law-Ruler naturally had a thousand Law-Ruler Cores. The more samples, the more helpful for research.

Even if one core went out of control, there would be no significant loss. How much threat could a Law-Ruler, who was subdued by Kevin with his bare hands in a close-quarters sneak attack, pose? Although any Law-Ruler other than the Herrscher of the End would only meet defeat when facing Kevin head-on.

But a Law-Ruler was still a Law-Ruler. According to conservative estimates, the strength of a single Tenth Law-Ruler was at A-rank. A-rank could be represented by Fu Hua before she awakened as a Flame-Chaser, while S-rank could be represented by ordinary Flame-Chasers. As for Kevin, Qin Su was willing to call him "invincible," having personally killed the Ninth and Eleventh Law-Rulers, who possessed strange and dangerous abilities, and being able to fight Durandal in her God-Slayer armor to a stalemate with his bare hands.

The unawakened Fu Hua could kill a Tenth Law-Ruler alone. Even if Fu Hua's strength was at the peak of A-rank, a T-1000, whose combat efficiency was 38.54% lower than an A-rank Valkyrie, could achieve a 1:1 exchange ratio with the Tenth Law-Ruler. This was possible, provided the Tenth Law-Ruler couldn't find the correct method to deal with the T-1000, which was composed of liquid metal. But the Tenth Law-Ruler, being a collective intelligence, would naturally find the correct method if given enough time to engage. Moreover, Fire Moth would naturally handle the task of eradicating the Tenth Law-Ruler. Qin Su merely intended to strike and retreat, blending in with the chaos.

PS: Friendly reminder, John Connor is Qin Su's alias.