An Unrefusable Condition

Dr. Mei put away the stack of blueprints and said, "Alright. I imagine even if we didn't give them to you, you'd still try to reverse-engineer them, and we'd get nothing out of it. So, this is for the best for both sides."

"I do have one condition."

"Within Fire Moth, there's a plan called 'Spark.' I don't think I need to explain it further." Dr. Mei took the tablet from Kevin's hand.

"We need your participation in the Spark Project. I believe you'll be quite willing."

"Of course, we're very willing and will provide assistance to the participants of the Spark Project if necessary."

"No, we don't need you to participate in the Spark Project. We only need you to provide material support for our Spark Project."

Sean nodded readily, without any objection.

After a moment, he lowered his head, hiding his face under the brim of his cap. "Dr. Mei, and Lord Kevin, there's some very important intelligence I think you'll both be very interested in."

"However, we need a bit of privacy." A slender silver snake crawled out from the sole of Sean's shoe, invisible to the average person. It quickly traversed the entire reception room, and the miniature surveillance cameras on the walls were removed one by one by the liquid metal. Dr. Mei's clothes also had a monitor, but Qin Su believed she was faking it, not just for herself but for Prometheus as well.

When Sean looked up again to meet their gazes, his face had reverted to Qin Su's original appearance, the one familiar to Kevin and Mei.

Qin Su greeted them with a smile. "Long time no see, Kevin, and Mei. My real name is Qin Su, and from now on, we'll have a true, honest exchange."

"As expected." Kevin and Mei exchanged a glance, both thinking the same thing.

Qin Su's expression then turned solemn. "I don't know if you'll believe my one-sided, unsubstantiated claims."

"I know the abilities of the Eleventh and Twelfth Law-Rulers."

"You—!" Kevin's heart leaped, but Qin Su held his palm towards him, signaling him to let him finish.

"Through research and testing on the core of the Tenth Law-Ruler, who possessed the abilities of the Herrscher of Void, we unexpectedly discovered some of its unknown characteristics. After fully verifying these characteristics, we successfully received fragmented information from some parallel worlds. By calculating the deviation values of these information fragments, we found that this parallel world is astonishingly similar to our own."

The so-called information fragments referred to games, comics, and visual novels.

"I will tell you all the information about the Eleventh Law-Ruler, and use it as the cornerstone and bargaining chip for an incredible collaboration." The cold glint from his glasses made it impossible for Qin Su to see Mei's eyes. If Qin Su were to hear such news, no matter how hard he tried to suppress his expression, his heart would surely be in turmoil.

"The Eleventh Law-Ruler—the Law-Ruler of Restraint. Her ability is to create a barrier with a radius of 100 kilometers. Within this barrier, all Honkai energy will be nullified, and other forms of energy will be weakened to varying degrees. Weapons that cannot be driven by Honkai energy will cause confusion in the bodies of Fusion Warriors with implanted Honkai Beast DNA, leading to death within a minute. If ordinary soldiers enter the barrier, the voltage of their bioelectricity will disappear, and they will die quickly. Any weapon using an electronic system will be inoperable within the barrier."

"But this ability is not without its limits; she has a mass cap. For her, applying her ability to powerful Fusion Warriors requires a much greater cost than it does for ordinary people."

If Qin Su hadn't known the Eleventh Law-Ruler's abilities beforehand, he would have expressed doubt. The first ten Law-Rulers all represented some form of natural law, but the existence of the Eleventh Law-Ruler was like a Law-Ruler specifically targeting technological creations. The Tenth Law-Ruler might have merely expressed a mild anti-technology tendency, only destroying creations related to Divine Keys, which could be explained as collective intelligence and abilities.

But the Eleventh Law-Ruler openly revealed this tendency without reservation.

"You don't need to believe me now. I will reveal the entire cooperation content. You will definitely agree once you confirm the truth of my words."

"I said, I also know the Twelfth Law-Ruler's abilities, but I won't tell you now."

Qin Su needed to establish an equal platform for both sides before he could propose his true desired transaction. Soul Steel was merely an appetizer.

"We want to jointly guard the Twelfth Law-Ruler with you." The casually spoken words carried a massive amount of information. It ignited Dr. Mei's curiosity.

"Guard? You mean, this is a controllable Law-Ruler?"

"Exactly! On the surface, she appears harmless, yet she genuinely possesses Honkai energy strength at the Law-Ruler level."

"Before she completes her full transformation, she is—a completely harmless Law-Ruler. How many mysteries can a living Law-Ruler with human consciousness help us unravel? How much can she contribute to human civilization?"

"So, this is our request. She possesses the ability we fear the most, and we know her 'off switch.' What I worry about is certain unstable elements within Fire Moth pressing that button."

An ultimate virus with self-awareness, capable of not only parasitizing normal cells but also corroding machinery and manipulating electronic devices using Honkai energy. If Hiyomaru hadn't been influenced by her sister Sakura's death, developing human emotional fluctuations and falling into Dr. Mei's trap, the entire [Base] could have been destroyed, resulting in the loss of vast amounts of data, technology, and equipment, and potentially delaying the progress of civilization's revival.

As expected, this kind of cooperation, once proposed by Qin Su, would face considerable resistance. First and foremost was humanity's strongest Fusion Warrior—Kevin.

"Law-Rulers must be eliminated." The unwavering conviction and hatred in his eyes seemed to burn fiercely.

"Since the Third Honkai, I have witnessed 8 Honkai events, one after another." From Kevin's calm voice, one could hear the infinite lament for civilization's decline and his hatred for natural laws and their messengers.

"What Honkai has brought to humanity has never changed. Mortals are still gnawing on the corpses of innocent people, and Honkai Beasts are still roaming the homes humanity has built brick by brick. As for Law-Rulers, they are indifferent to life, unconcerned with civilization. How much harm and pain have Law-Rulers brought to humanity? There can be no such thing as a completely harmless Law-Ruler; only Law-Rulers buried in the earth are harmless."

Kevin's reaction was entirely within expectations, but Dr. Mei was in charge here, and her thoughts were the key to the decision.

Qin Su couldn't fathom her thoughts at all. When humanity's most complex psychology and most brilliant wisdom intertwined in her mind, what kind of effect would it produce? Even a master psychologist couldn't know. In the records, the Seventh Law-Ruler might have retained a sliver of human consciousness at her birth, yet Dr. Mei had unhesitatingly ordered her killed. However, she chose mercy when the Twelfth Law-Ruler appeared.

A deathly silence fell upon the room. After a few seconds, Qin Su immediately "shouted," "This cooperation treaty is merely a means of compromise. We don't wish to provoke Fire Moth! If you insist on killing the Twelfth Law-Ruler, we will be forced to take extreme measures to ensure her safety!"

All his expressions and tone had been pre-simulated by a computer, guiding the atmosphere of the entire meeting towards the outcome he desired.

"Your military threats are useless to us. We are above all of humanity, detached from all production processes and even human society. While we cannot defeat powerful Fusion Warriors, we can do what the first ten Law-Rulers could not!"

"No threat is a double-edged sword. If we die from the Twelfth Law-Ruler's attack, we will drag all of humanity to destruction with us!"

"Nuclear energy…" Dr. Mei quickly thought of the nuclear explosion in Kyshtym Town. She rubbed her temples, her thoughts somewhat jumbled.

The anti-missile systems of the United Nations era had already lost more than half their capacity in numerous disasters. Furthermore, due to neglect and insufficient budget, the remaining portions had been abandoned. Even if they wanted to revive them now, it would be impossible. Fire Moth simply did not have the financial strength to maintain a complete anti-missile system.

Moreover, Qin Su would not personally destroy human civilization. If Hiyomaru awakened, he would only be able to flee in disgrace. The Twelfth Law-Ruler was a virus, both biological and electronic. Both biological consciousness and electronic devices could be controlled by her. Qin Su dared not attempt to infect his own consciousness with such a virus.

"When she becomes a true Law-Ruler, human civilization will be reduced to ruins, and we will also lose our value. Therefore, like you, we stand on humanity's side!"

He stood up, picked up the briefcase placed by the sofa, and walked to the door.

"Additionally, there are a total of fourteen Law-Rulers. The last one is also the strongest, possessing power far exceeding that of the others."

"If you agree to our terms, then next time, we can sign a cooperation treaty and a memorandum."

"That's all I have to say. I look forward to our next meeting." He took off his hat, held it in his hand, then gave a salute, turned, and walked out the door. The liquid metal also climbed back up his shoes, returning to Qin Su's body.

"What should I call your organization?" Dr. Mei asked.

"Skynet."

The large doors closed heavily.

Only two people remained in the reception room, enveloped in silence. After a long pause, Kevin looked at Mei and asked, "Mei, do you think they can really be trusted?"

"I don't know." Even Dr. Mei, as intelligent as a deity, uttered the word "don't know." "But once we confirm the truth of these words, the deal will be done."

"Prometheus, what do you think?" A girl with silver-white hair and twin spiral ponytails appeared before Mei.

Blue, stripe-like light instantly formed a humanoid figure, and Prometheus's holographic projection responded, "Doctor, I cannot analyze any useful intelligence from his words or expression. He is not human."

"Some calculation processes indicate that only fourteen Law-Rulers are possible, but the authenticity still requires further calculation." An inorganic voice echoed through the space.

"Continue the calculations as usual."

Prometheus dispersed into light particles floating in the air, its voice echoing throughout the entire space.

"Yes, Doctor."

PS: Lately, when I play Shattered Void, I get this inexplicable anger. Wasting my already limited ten minutes, or even half an hour, only to get a few lines of dialogue. Even for an extremely excellent work like the Anti-Entropy novel, if I had to play Shattered Void hundreds of times just to finish it, I would get tired of it.

To be honest, it would be great if Shattered Void had a visual novel. I really don't understand why they would release an event with such ridiculously high difficulty.