I am a hero of the former civilization.

“No, a high-ranking Honkai Beast is a qualified pawn. Anyway, you don’t care about strength. In human terms, this is called quantitative change leading to qualitative change.” Iwa-ryu shook his head slightly and nodded to Chi-ryu, who already knew what to do.

Ordinary Honkai Beasts are now only good for dealing with human armies, which is really useless. This one is perfect for making use of waste, so they never thought they would ultimately fail.

No matter how much humanity struggles, there will never be an end in sight. This suffering will endure forever, just as at this very moment, a Herrscher has descended specifically to target him.

That's right. The Honkai energy accumulated over two months was only enough to summon a Herrscher of his own strength, but that doesn't mean it couldn't deliver authority. Authority without energy is like a tree without water. Thanks to him, there are already vessels in the world that far surpass mortals.

In theory, a Fusion Warrior has lost the qualification to become a Herrscher, but if they open their hearts and offer themselves as a sacrifice, they can still do so.

"take me."

A roar came, and the gaunt figure slowly turned around, revealing skin as red as blood.

......

Didn't any trace remain?

Two days later, Ryan was looking through the investigation report when he learned that Donggong City had disappeared from the world, leaving only a huge circular pit. By the time the investigation team arrived, the seawater that had flowed in had turned it into a giant lake.

Because of the battle with Yanlu, most of the city had been evacuated, but the remaining 100,000 soldiers and civilians still disappeared from the world.

One hundred thousand lives, at least thirty-odd fusion warriors, just gone like that?

Ryan held the thin document, feeling as if it weighed a ton. The blood of 100,000 people would have been enough to form a river of blood, yet not a trace was left behind.

That said, he reaffirmed Mei's contraction plan, even feeling that not enough locations had been abandoned.

'From victory to victory, and then from victory to destruction, this world is truly a mess.'

The flames ignited, and Ryan burned the documents into particles. Just like the recent criticisms, he had just won a great victory, and now he was about to give up 20% of the land. Many people didn't understand, but once they sat in Ryan's position, everything seemed to make sense.

The world is too big to defend against. For example, with this attack by the Herrscher, even if we send a Fire Chaser squad, it might not be enough to hold out until reinforcements arrive. If we follow the previous configuration of the Fire Chaser squad, it would just be suicide missions.

You have to bring your outstretched palm back into a fist so that when you hit someone, it hurts, but I can't kill them.

Ryan rubbed his temples, feeling a slight throbbing in his head. Ugh, it was so annoying. If he really wanted to launch a reckless attack, he'd have to wait until the Herrscher of the End descended. All he could do now was try to preserve this fist until the end.

"Does your head hurt?" Sakura quietly walked over and gently rubbed his temples.

“A little, but I can already vaguely see the end. Only when I reach Him can I vent all my anger.” Ryan huddled on the sofa, not feeling powerless or helpless at all.

This is war; sacrifice is inevitable. He was simply using cold rationality to calculate the gains and losses of each life.

"Every time a high-level fusion warrior dies, the win rate drops by one percent. If we try to trade that one percent for a city, we'll lose our entire underwear."

It's a cruel statement, and if it gets out, it will definitely cause a huge uproar. But it's also a very true statement: if the end really exists, and we can't get through it, even if the whole world is happy and harmonious, it's still just the same thing—we all die on the same day.

"I trust your judgment." Sakura pursed her lips.

"You have something to say?"

"It was available just now, but it's gone now."

She had originally intended to have a deep conversation with Ryan, but found that her personal feelings were insignificant in the face of this distress, and immediately shifted her attention to the important matter at hand.

"So that's why you're implementing the 'Wandering Humans' plan?"

"Well, human civilization is a burden, but without civilization there would be no moths chasing the flame, so I'm going to find a safe place to protect it."

"The quantum sea?"

"Yes, Dr. Vidic has made progress, and it's pretty much what I expected."

Ryan flipped through the documents. The Quantum Research Institute had found a suitable world bubble, a continent submerged in the quantum sea. To put it simply, this thing was similar to planetary colonization but completely different, belonging to interdimensional colonization activities.

'World Bubbles' are actually those worlds that failed the test of collapse. If they fell from the Tree of Imaginary Numbers like seeds and crashed into the sea, they should have vanished into thin air.

"What does this 'etheric anchor' mean?" Sakura pointed to the document, humbly seeking clarification.

She certainly didn't understand the profound theoretical knowledge, so Ryan thought for a long time and explained in a simple and easy-to-understand way: "You can think of it as a book spine. The incomplete world is like a piece of blank paper. If you force them together, these fragmented leaves will form a world bubble."

"It can even replicate the world like a mirror, hmm, similar to the mimicry ability of the First Herrscher."

Ryan had read the visual novel Durandal before, but couldn't remember much of it. However, combining the findings from the Quantum Institute brought back many memories.

"Generally speaking, the Sea of ​​Quanta cannot replenish Honkai energy, but larger world bubbles will continuously absorb energy and will not sink even if they are in the Sea of ​​Quanta for a long time. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Although I still don't understand the theoretical knowledge, I roughly know what it's useful for." Sakura breathed a sigh of relief, as if she had returned to the fear of being dominated by homework, so she skipped the theoretical knowledge.

"You want to send people in there? To use it as a shelter?"

"That's roughly the idea. The Sea of ​​Quanta is vast and boundless, and the Herrschers can't find the World Bubble at all. As a being on the 'Tree' side, the Honkai wouldn't theoretically enter the 'Sea' rashly."

Ryan explained, then got up and paced around the room. The original plan of the Quantum Research Institute was to dump garbage into a certain world bubble, that is, to throw out the world's excess Honkai energy, thereby reducing the global energy concentration.

But he always felt that doing it this way was unreliable; one was pouring in and the other was draining out, which did not solve the fundamental problem.

The destruction of Donggong City strengthened his resolve to evacuate the population. As the war intensified, the aftershocks of battle could destroy cities one by one, and ordinary people would have no right to survive in this world.

Good thing they left. This greatly improves tactical flexibility. Without so many cumbersome equipment, they can just drive the Minerva around freely.

“Ryan, you’re such an insecure person,” Sakura muttered. Having such a sturdy refuge as the underground fortress wasn’t enough; she even wanted to venture into the Sea of ​​Quanta.

"Haha, it's always good to be safe. Once we send Rin and Gretchen in, we won't have any worries. They're both too young to undergo super-transformation surgery, which is very dangerous. And high Honkai energy adaptability, you know what that means."

Sakura's face immediately fell; this was something she had always feared.

According to current research, the higher the Honkai energy adaptability, the greater the possibility of becoming a Herrscher vessel, but Fusion Warriors are not included in this category. However, the two of them are too young, and the surgery would be very risky.

Even if the Honkai were to descend from the trees into the Sea of ​​Quanta, no matter how terrifying the Honkai might be, it would be highly unlikely that a Herrscher could descend from the trees into the sea.

"So you had it all planned out all along." Sakura stared at Ryan's profile, her gentle eyes filled with tenderness.

The hand behind his back quietly clenched into a fist, and in that instant, he answered Hua's question.

I will join the battle.

"Wouldn't that solve the problem of 334 camphor trees and 13 heroes from that place?"

Without hesitation or self-deception, the Forget-Me-Not has always been good at observation and will study every detail of the target before hunting. However, once it takes action, it will never look back.

While Ryan paced back and forth in thought, Sakura drifted into a daze, her mind filled with images.

When she was first captured, she was heartbroken. Later, she was forced to cooperate for Ling's sake. Gradually, she found that Ryan was reliable and treated her like a human being, so she devoted herself to working for him.

Nearly two years later, her thoughts changed again within that not-so-long period of time.

Ryan is the only support in this apocalypse. Ryan regards herself as a very important and close person. It is no exaggeration to say that in her more than 20 years of life, only Bell has received this treatment.

Because of his closest family members, he gained friends like Alicia and Hua, and was no longer hiding in the darkness, walking alone. It was as if a ray of sunshine illuminated the sinister figure of the assassin.

She would have been more valuable back in the darkness, but this man grabbed her hand and insisted on bringing her into the light.

"So you should take full responsibility."

"Huh? What did you say?" Ryan turned his head, he was thinking about the 'coordinates' problem.

"It's nothing, just a decision I made." Sakura shook her head. Unlike Mebius, who tried to cover things up, Sakura, as a martial artist, wanted to be aboveboard.

During the operational meeting a couple of days ago, Alicia specifically asked for her opinion, and she said that she hadn't thought about it yet. If she were to sneak off like this, it would be too shameless.

This is baffling. Never mind, let's get back to business.

"Coordinates, coordinates..."

The quantum sea and the intrinsic world must be bound by a coordinate system, otherwise they would truly become wandering humans. And even the most solid world bubble would hardly survive a thousand years before dissolving into the sea.

According to May's plan, the Fire-Chasing Moth will open the door between reality and the sea through a device developed by Grius. This device is designed to digitize matter at the starting point and materialize information at the destination.

However, the 'steel cable' linking reality and the bubble world cannot be broken, otherwise the people sent away will never come back.

"It's a headache. We can send ordinary people away, but we have to leave the warriors behind. If everyone runs away, the world will eventually be filled with Honkai energy. As long as we cut the 'steel cable,' humanity will perish without a fight."

Ryan never intended to work in seclusion. For humanity, surviving for a thousand years would be a blessing, but civilization would be completely extinguished. The Fire Seed Project was far better.

"Would you like me to give you a massage?" Sakura couldn't offer any real help, so she just asked quietly.

"This is troublesome." Ryan sat back in the recliner, feeling Qianqian's fingers massaging his temples; the slightly cool temperature calmed him down.

With insufficient intelligence, most of the information he has now comes from his past life memories and the explorations of the Quantum Research Institute. The 'Sea' that is opposed to the Imaginary Tree is definitely not that simple. He even suspects the existence of 'quantum energy'.

I have to go there in person. These Herrschers are so annoying, one wave after another, keeping me constantly on the go.

Because of the time distortion in his dream, Ryan dared not venture into the deep sea under such tense circumstances. Even a slight error in the flow of time would cause trouble, and besides, wouldn't his many imaginary powers cause a rejection reaction?

After much deliberation, Ryan decided to make time to go. He opened his eyes, and his gray gaze hardened once more.

"Have you made your decision?"

"Hmm, take down one more Herrscher and then we'll go. There are thirteen squads in total. I don't believe we can't suppress a few Herrschers."

"Perhaps you should trust us a little more?"

"Of course I believe you. I'm here to oversee things, but I'm just worried about unexpected situations. For example, this Ninth Herrscher definitely has a conspiracy, and I can't let you go and pave the way."

Ryan waved his hand with a wry smile. Only he could handle a place like Donggong City; the others weren't up to par in terms of combat skills or acting ability, so how could they possibly fish properly?

"Anyway, there's no rush. Let's concentrate the population on Mu Continent first. If we really start the plan, I reckon the Honkai will panic. Write down my analysis in a report and submit it to Mei. Let's hear her opinion."

"Ok."

He answered, but the hand on his head didn't stop. Ryan found it a little strange, but seeing how comfortable it was, he didn't pursue it. Just then, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in."

Click.

The door lock turned, and Hua walked in. She was immediately greeted by Ryan, who was resting with his eyes closed on the recliner, and Sakura behind him. She looked up instantly.

Sakura looked at her, her eyes filled with determination, making it immediately clear to everyone.

So that's how it is. No wonder Sister Ying was so hesitant that day. Didn't she say she hadn't thought it through yet? What happened that made her decide so quickly?

Hua immediately understood, but since he was already mentally prepared, he wasn't too shocked.

Whether you're competing with one person or two, it's still competing. At least Sakura isn't as annoying as Mebius; she's very polite and has good manners.

"Senior brother, I've almost finished organizing the detachment."

"So fast?" Ryan sat up a little straighter and realized that it was Hua who had come. He quickly pulled away from Ying's hand, not so thick-skinned as to be indifferent.

"Yes, the [Floating Life] team doesn't have many members, and most of them are veterans from the Sword of Punishment. Freya knows them all, so it's easy to organize them."

The 10th Squad has a relatively weak captain but very strong subordinates, mostly veterans. Freya was one of the earliest fusion warriors and even cooperated with Ryan during the Battle of Britain.

Ryan also remembered the somewhat sharp-tongued girl, and considering Hua Muna's dull personality, the two should get along very well.