I am a hero of the former civilization.

The Herald has definitely run away, but he has keenly seized the opportunity to step out from behind the scenes and into the spotlight.

Prestige may seem unimportant, but it's something that force cannot obtain.

It's not a bad deal. Keep it for now; there will be an opportunity to cash it out sooner or later.

Of course, given Ryan's personality, he wouldn't do anything extra. He simply stood quietly on the high ground, overlooking the entire city, to feel the gaze of those who had survived the disaster.

Fear, joy, worship, and even some disgust?

Ryan didn't mind being treated like a monster. After all, humans are complex beings, and no one can expect them to think the same way.

As for Alicia, she didn't care at all, as if she couldn't see those fearful and disgusted looks. After thinking for a moment, she raised her hand with a bright smile and waved gently.

Her beautiful appearance was enough to make her the dream girl of many people. Perhaps right now, many people are taking pictures of her on TV and printing them out to stick on their bedside.

"I really envy you; you don't take anything to heart."

"Everyone gets both liked and disliked, so just focus on those who like you, okay?" Alicia heard the cheers coming from afar and laughed even harder.

Indeed, not everyone was cheering, but most people were clapping desperately to survive and were grateful to the two for stopping the terrible storm and saving their lives.

It's a very pure idea, but unfortunately I'm not used to it.

Ryan doted on Alicia so much that he let her do as she pleased. As for himself?

I only want to use this reputation to get things done; I don't expect others to respect me.

Having spent too long in hiding, Ryan had long since passed his adolescent heroism phase. He left the brain-teasing tasks to May and the attention-grabbing work to Alicia, while he remained hidden in the shadows, manipulating everything.

Before even the TV station could react, Ryan had already disappeared on the massive mountain, stepping over countless wrecks and human fragments, slowly fading into the darkness, with only his gray eyes observing his surroundings.

'It's confirmed that the Herrscher of Wind has taken the opportunity to leave. Her tactics are quite good and warrant caution, but she's not stupid either. Creating such a city-destroying level authority requires a massive amount of Honkai energy, which cannot be replicated.'

"The Moths of Fire have finally arrived. There's something wrong with that gyroplane; I sensed Honkai energy reacting to it."

He looked up at the sky full of planes, quickly locking onto one of them, where he could vaguely see a figure by the cabin door.

Is this the sword of punishment?

Ryan recalled May's intelligence. Because of his involvement, the Fusion Warriors were not only brought forward, but also did not have the same urgency as in the original timeline, allowing them to proceed step by step and scientifically.

No wonder the higher-ups approved the celebration.

He understood. These were the fusion warriors of the Fire Moth. Although they were all factors of lower-level Honkai Beasts, they were fundamentally different from humans and were worlds apart from the crudely made failures of the pureblood faction.

They could overwhelm the Herrscher of the Wind with sheer numbers, and then become the protagonists in this battle, making Alicia no longer the only one.

"Another secret research line, bypassing Möbius, proves that no one is stupid."

Ryan nodded slightly. This was clearly a precaution against him, but he didn't object. At least it was a human's fighting strength.

At least for now.

In the original timeline, there were hundreds or even thousands of Fusion Warriors, and they were almost all wiped out during the Herrscher of Binding. Since then, Mei has finally taken control of the Moth of Flame.

These fusion warriors must be keeping May in check. With that woman's cunning, she could have used Kevin to suppress all dissent long ago. It was precisely because the council had the power to restrain her that she was able to remain hidden for so long.

“It will be too late by the time she takes control of everything. I need to learn from this lesson. Fortunately, while I may not be as intelligent as her, my strength has always been among the top three among humans,” Ryan muttered to himself, feeling that the current situation was completely different from what May had gone through.

Humans have created monsters ahead of schedule, and the Herrschers have learned to assess the situation, causing the intensity of the war to double.

Ryan stomped on the cracked ground and chuckled self-deprecatingly:

"Earth, I hope you can still hold on."

Chapter 126, The Third New Tokyo City?

The propellers made a whooshing sound as the purple-haired youth squatted outside the cabin, gripping the handrail and gazing at the earth.

He had a long, narrow scar on his left eye and his right cheek was covered in burn marks, making it difficult to discern his once handsome face. He was wearing a full Saki MK.V heavy exoskeleton and carrying a heavy electromagnetic rifle, exuding the menacing aura of a warrior.

He was clearly an elite warrior, but his bright red eyes and slightly cracked pupils added to his inhuman appearance.

The young man glanced at Alicia on the 'mountain peak', then focused his gaze more on the foot of the mountain and pressed the button on his headset.

“Lord Carlisle, I have seen Dr. Ryan. Yes, he did not accept the cheers, but left quietly.”

"Really? How strong do you think he is?"

“I’m sorry, I can’t judge without the details of the battle, but based on the information from the Third Herrscher era, his combat strength is no greater than mine.” The young man paused and answered cautiously, “But the data from that battle is incomplete, so I’m not sure if he used his full strength, and Dr. Ryan also performs fusion warrior surgery.”

"Yes, and it's very likely a factor from a Judgment-class Honkai Beast. Vinal, as the strongest warrior of the Southern European branch, do you feel jealous?"

The chief of staff in the earpiece was very gentle, as if chatting casually after a meal. The young man's bloodshot eyes froze slightly, but he quickly returned to normal.

"I can only fuse with one mutated Honkai Emperor, which is determined by my genes. I am not jealous, and I look forward to fighting alongside Dr. Ryan."

"Heh, good attitude. Let's call it a day."

"As ordered."

Vinal turned his head and saw a dozen or so figures sitting in the cabin, some male and some female, with different expressions, but only two things they had in common.

First, they were all young, because veterans couldn't survive the fusion surgery; second, their weapons were extremely advanced, some so heavy that ordinary people couldn't bear them, and firing one shot would cause them to fracture their shoulder joints.

"Let's close the team."

"Ugh, we came out full of confidence, only to wander around aimlessly?" a silver-haired girl complained, as the bubble she blew popped with a 'pop'.

"Freya, we're here to fight the Herrscher. She's already escaped. Do you want to stay and clean up?" The muscular woman with dark skin and well-defined muscles spread her hands.

"Tch, she's lucky. I had already written my will."

"I wrote a lot of the words inside for you, to tell you to read more books, but you wouldn't listen." A girl with short blonde hair and a well-behaved appearance smiled, and seeing her companion's unfriendly expression, she stuffed a lollipop into the other's mouth to shut her up.

"Don't be angry, have some candy. Everyone, don't overthink it. We'll have a chance to take down the Herrscher sooner or later."

The team members also quieted down, and it was clear that they were very friendly towards her.

Alice is not only sweet and lovely, but also of noble birth; it's rare to see someone like that working on the front lines.

She comforted her companion before tilting her head and asking, "Speaking of which, Captain, if we really faced a Herrscher, could we win?"

Vinal paused for a moment, then shook his head slightly: "I don't know, but a whole squad can hold her off, we've tried that many times in simulation battles."

They conducted targeted training in virtual reality and discovered that attacking one by one was simply suicide, but with the right equipment and teamwork, they still had a 30% win rate, which was already quite remarkable.

"Let's go back. We haven't rested yet. We still need to continue the next phase of training and debugging of new equipment. The research committee is making great progress."

He turned around and felt his clothes being grabbed. Instinctively, he turned his head and saw a boy sitting on the stool.

The boy's gray-blue hair was tied into a small braid, which looked slightly metallic. His still-childish face was expressionless, but his light green eyes were somewhat eye-catching.

Sharp and deep, filled with hatred and murderous intent.

"Captain, I want to participate in the extermination operation in the southern rainforest."

"Can you tell me why, Ed?"

The boy covered his eyes, suppressing the hatred in his heart.

"Because I want to fight, because I must fight, even if the Herrscher escapes, I will drive out every single one of her lackeys!"

......

This wasn't an escape at all, but a victorious retreat.

Ryan stroked his chin, showing no hint of mockery. The Fourth Herrscher's move was quite clever, completely shifting from the open to the shadows, making her more troublesome than her three stubborn predecessors.

Therefore, he and Alicia were immediately recalled to the Moth of Flame headquarters in New York. The higher-ups were very wary of the Herrscher launching a central attack or a decapitation strike.

"That's annoying. I'm not their watchdog."

“But your surgery has already been approved.” May swiped her finger across the tablet, looking at combat data from San Diego.

"So this can be considered one of the benefits, indirectly promoting the Fusion Warrior Project. Otherwise, even if we had a high success rate, they wouldn't have been so quick to agree."

Mei nodded without revealing her thoughts. The changes in the Herrschers made no difference to Ryan, unless a Herrscher specializing in assassination was born and Ryan was killed while he was sleeping.

She simply changed the form of warfare slightly.

The suddenness and stealth of their actions are enough to render the military completely secondary, just like the unfortunate Third Fleet. Herrschers can strike before the war machine is even started, rendering the massive fleet completely useless.

"Therefore, powerful individuals have become the general trend. At least, fusion warriors are much more flexible than warships and aircraft. I will also adjust the research priorities here. Giant electromagnetic cannons and the like can be demoted in the priority."

As Mei spoke, she erased some projects. She had wanted to do this for a long time, but the military industrial groups kept opposing it, saying that in terms of power, it was even superior to the Lawbreaker, and that one shot could destroy dozens of miles of land.

Now that's good, people won't jump out to be targets. No matter how powerful you are, it's useless if you can't find a target.

Ryan smiled and said that technology was not useless, but it was too rigid and difficult to deal with various situations, but it could not be abandoned.

"The Starlink early warning project needs to be strengthened, and the Honkai energy detector needs to be further refined. At the very least, it should be able to analyze the spectrum and identify the enemy."

"You want to find the Fourth Herrscher?" Mei reacted quickly, immediately prioritizing this matter.

“Keeping them around isn’t a long-term solution, and there will be other Herrschers in the future.” Ryan nodded slightly and casually asked, “Besides, the world is mostly made up of ordinary people. May, have you ever played chess?”

"You mean exchanging pieces in chess, right?"

"Yes, it's a battle of pawns against pawns, generals against generals, and kings against kings. Every piece has its purpose. Defeating the Honkai can't be done by just a few of us. Just like the battle against the Third Herrscher, if she hadn't underestimated her opponent and acted rashly, the outcome would have been uncertain."

The Herrscher of Thunder was almost worn down by the Moth of Flame, and Ryan only launched a fatal blow, but without the preconditions, he couldn't find an opportunity at all.

Mei rested her chin on her hand, thought carefully for a while, and then added back the few items she had just erased: "Do you think the individual strength of Herrschers will continue to increase?"

“Yes, there must be some kind of pattern here. I assume—” Ryan licked his lips, his gaze deep: “The more intense the human resistance, the higher the level of civilization, and the stronger the Herrscher becomes.”

He had been wondering why they didn't just send out the Heralds of Binding to handle it directly, and the reason was quite simple.

It's not that I don't want to, but that I can't.

Mei nodded, swiped the computer screen over, and explained, "This is a very interesting hypothesis. This is the Honkai energy reaction table I just created. After the appearance of the Fourth Herrscher, the global average Honkai energy level increased by 1.3. This is the number of Honkai disease outbreak cases, which also increased by 3% month-on-month."

"So you figured it out all along." Ryan scrolled through the data, then noticed the "Top Secret" label at the end: "And this data can't be released?"

"Yes, because this result is despairing. There is no such thing as victory in defeating the Herrscher or fighting the Honkai Beasts. Once the train of destruction starts moving, humanity will lose the right to give up."

The girl adjusted her glasses, her eyes filled with coldness, which made Ryan somewhat admire her calm tone.

Confrontation will only invite a fiercer counterattack, while surrendering is pure suicide, which is truly despairing.

Ryan hesitated for a moment before answering: "There will be an end, and the collapse has a limit. We just need to compete on speed. If we exceed that limit, we will win."

"Are you sure?" Mei's eyes lit up.

"Many things have changed, but this one should remain the same."