The collapse started when Kiana came to the door

"As my Valkyrie, you all know that the Hyperion I hold has the function of observing different times and world lines. And the endings of several of these worlds... Haha, I think you probably don't want to see them." Li Shubai spread his hands, "Now, Kiana, let me ask you again--"

"Do you really want to put the lives of seven billion people around the world and the human civilization of this era at risk of destruction just for your so-called personal will?"

Kiana [Hersher of the Fire] pursed her lips and said with some difficulty: "I——"

"Just based on your experience of having failed once before?" Li Shubai interrupted the other party without hesitation. He raised his head and stared coldly at Kiana [Hersher of the Fire]'s blue eyes that suddenly showed confusion and helplessness. "You should not have forgotten how lucky you are to be in this position now, right?"

"If it weren't for the power of the Plague Gem assisting you, could you have defeated the Herrscher of the Thousand and the Herrscher of the Void?"

"If there hadn't been a time traveler like me intervening in your world, could you have saved the life of your captain and teacher, Himeko Muliangta?"

Beads in every word.

"Yes, in the future where Bronya is, Kiana in their world did pay a relatively minimal price to successfully seal the Honkai Impact, but are you sure that you will definitely become her? Or... can you be 100% sure that at the time of the end, you can definitely do something that another person can do?" Li Shubai straightened his collar, then put his hands behind his back and stood up from his chair.

The Valkyries surrounding him subconsciously took a step back.

"You can call me a tyrant or a tyrant, I don't care," Li Shubai said, "but while you're calling me that, I hope you understand that things you haven't experienced won't become reality just because you say 'I can definitely do it'. If an irreparable tragedy really happens, even if I use my ability to travel through time to forcibly rewrite it, everything that has happened will still leave an indelible scar on your body, like a maggot attached to your bones, and a lingering scar."

"Kiana." Suddenly, Li Shubai cast his gaze towards Kiana [Hersher of Fire] who lowered her head slightly, and said softly, "Even if you have completely mastered the power of the Herrscher of Void and the Herrscher of Fire, I think you will never be able to forget the scene of your most beloved teacher falling down in front of you."

"You can't possibly want that kind of thing to happen to you again, and neither do I." Li Shubai said, "So, I will definitely not repeat your mistakes."

With the sound of unhurried footsteps and emotionless voices, the Valkyrie who was circling the city involuntarily made way for Li Shubai as he passed by.

"I will return the authority of this Hyperion to Dr. Einstein. When Anti-Entropy regains control of it, I will return to my own Hyperion."

Chapter 4: Outspoken Artificial Intelligence (k)

"...Alas, I am really nothing."

Hyperion, command room.

Li Shubai bent his upper body slightly, stretched out his hands to support the alloy table top of the command desk, and let out a long sigh.

"It's hard to understand, Captain. You are such a contradictory person." Prometheus, who appeared in the command room at some point, floated expressionlessly behind Li Shubai. She tilted her head and said, "If you will regret it right after you leave, wouldn't it be better not to say those words to the Valkyrie named Kiana from the beginning? Even if the Captain doesn't want her to be involved with the End, he should be able to use a more gentle way of saying it. Harsh admonishments will only distance the hearts of both parties. Even an artificial intelligence like me can understand this."

"You, an artificial intelligence, know how to be gentle?" Li Shubai turned his face and looked at Prometheus's childish and indifferent expression.

Prometheus blinked her eyes. If she was not an artificial intelligence, Li Shubai would probably be able to easily detect the word "speechless" from the emotions revealed in her eyes.

"After all, not everyone's professional level and knowledge reserves can be compared with Dr. Mei and others, and not everyone's spirit is as tough as the captain, Kevin and others." Prometheus raised his arms to protect his chest, as if resisting something that was not here. "In order to enable me to stabilize the hopes of most people when necessary, Dr. Mei equipped my language thinking module with a deceptive function. According to Dr. Mei, although she does not like to treat anything with an irrational attitude, even she has to admit that as long as we live in a civilization and society formed by humans, white lies are an indispensable seasoning."

Prometheus paused, then continued: "For most people, in many cases, ignorance is perhaps happier than knowing all the facts."

"Did Dr. Mei tell you this?" Li Shubai asked.

Prometheus shook his head. "Although Dr. Mei did install the deception function for me, the last sentence is a theorem I summarized after collecting many cases."

"If you were in my position, what decision would you make?" Li Shubai asked curiously, "I'd also like to know how AI views what happened in the conference room before."

"Excuse me." Prometheus said coldly, "From the perspective of artificial intelligence, the decision made by the captain in the conference room just now, as well as the way he expressed the decision to Kiana, were both very crude and stupid. If I have to say it, it's like a parent trying to assert his authority over his children."

"Do you think so too?" Li Shubai smiled bitterly. "It's really worthy of being an artificial intelligence created by Dr. Mei. Even the metaphor is so appropriate."

Li Shubai accepted Prometheus's evaluation so straightforwardly that it made the artificial duck a little confused.

She couldn't help but tilt her head, hesitated for a moment, and added: "I think this comment should be sharp enough."

"It's sharp, but I understand the truth." Li Shubai shook his head and said softly, "In your eyes, the best option should be to find a way to let Kiana take over the power of the end, right?"

"Although there is a possibility of failure, compared to others, the Herrscher named Kiana is indeed the one with the greatest chance of becoming the [Key]." Prometheus nodded, agreeing with Li Shubai's judgment. "After successfully hacking into the other side of the imaginary number, although I can't completely maintain my human way of thinking, after loading the data into this body again, I can still remember clearly... how much the [Honkai Impact Path] with a thinking framework favored that Herrscher."

"But..." Suddenly, Prometheus changed the subject, "...if the captain did not deceive Kiana just now, the captain's concerns are not unreasonable."

"After all, no one can guarantee whether she can still maintain her will as a human being after accepting [The End]." Prometheus said, "Compared with the two cases that already have clear results, should Kiana take the risk of exterminating humanity with her own hands--"

"You misunderstood, Prometheus." Li Shubai interrupted Prometheus. He laughed, shook his head, and said softly, "Although this sentence may seem a little strange for me to say, I can guarantee that if Kiana really stood in front of the End, then, no matter what, she would never lose to Honkai."

"?" Prometheus was stunned. "But didn't the captain just tell her..."

"I told Kiana that I had seen a future where she became the Herrscher of the End and wiped out humanity with her own hands, and I did not lie." Li Shubai said calmly, "However, the situation in that world is quite different from the world we live in. If Kiana in that world would become the End and restart the world, which is a path close to fate, then Kiana in this world... has already broken that fate."

"After all, strictly speaking, the Herrscher of the End, who cleansed the surface of the earth and could only watch humans die in his hands, and then restarted human civilization, is not the same person as the Kiana Kaslana we are familiar with."

"...So, what the captain just said was just a white lie?" Prometheus said.

"Not really." Li Shubai shrugged. "Didn't I say that I have no opinion on your evaluation of me? So, even though it is a lie, as to whether it was well-intentioned or not... I probably can't even confirm it myself."

Prometheus frowned, then immediately relaxed: "Human thinking logic is really too difficult to understand."

"Rather than thinking logically, it's better to say that it's a behavior that's close to biological instinct." Li Shubai stood up straight, his ten fingers clacking on the keyboard of the command desk. "Even wild animals don't want to see their cubs fall into danger. This is even more true for humans who know right from wrong and good from evil. So, when they see a child suddenly crossing the road, they will be extremely anxious. After confirming that it's safe, they can't help but scold him harshly. Even if they regret it afterwards, even if they feel extremely distressed when they see the child crying after being scolded, they will still do what they should do without hesitation."

"However, the relationship between the captain and Kiana is not that of father and daughter or relatives." Prometheus said, "In fact, if we look at it from the perspective of physical age, the captain, who is now sixteen years and seven months old, is much more immature than Miss Kiana, who is now an adult."

"Can you please not bring up the issue at this time?" Li Shubai rolled his eyes. "Or do you think that Kiana's way of thinking is more mature than mine?"

"That's right." Prometheus nodded.

"You know that too... huh?" Li Shubai paused as he was typing on the keyboard. He turned around in astonishment. "What did you just say? Repeat it again. I think I heard it wrong."

"If the captain heard the word 'yes', then he heard it correctly," said Prometheus.

"What are your reasons for making such a judgment?" Li Shubai tilted his head, "I don't think I'm stupid enough to be younger than Kiana, right?"

"The level of intelligence and mental maturity are essentially two different concepts." Prometheus said calmly, "Although the captain's knowledge reserves are richer than Kiana's, and his strength is stronger than Kiana's current strength, the only thing about maturity is that the captain is not better than Kiana... No, it should even be said that he is not as mature as most of the Valkyries on the Hyperion."

"For example?" Li Shubai asked.

"For example, compared to other Valkyries, the captain is a commander who cannot accept the sacrifice of his subordinates." Prometheus said concisely.

"What does this have to do with maturity?" Li Shubai laughed angrily. "If there is a commander who is happy to watch his subordinates run to their deaths, my advice is to buy a hoe and go back to the fields to farm."

"But the fact is, in all battles, as long as the enemy poses a real threat, sacrifice is inevitable. Even if it is difficult to accept subjectively, you must force yourself to face reality. This is what a qualified and mature leader should be mentally prepared for." Prometheus said, "It is better to be the vanguard yourself than to let your subordinates face unknown risks. For a supreme commander who controls the entire ship, it is a manifestation of the captain's immaturity."

"If not wanting to let them get hurt is a sign of immaturity, then I would rather not have such maturity," said Li Shubai.

"But it is precisely because of the captain's immaturity that the Hyperion is forced to search for the captain's traces in the boundless quantum sea." Prometheus said calmly, "A tyrannical parent and a child without humanity... A captain with these two characteristics, doesn't he realize how much trouble he has brought to his subordinates?"

"..." Li Shubai was speechless for a moment.

Although he had not recovered his memory and could not figure out why he boarded the Hyperion immediately, he had to admit how much effort Kiana, Mei Raiden, Bronya and Stargazing had put in to find his trace in the quantum sea.

...No matter what the reason was, Li Shubai couldn't deny how much trouble he had caused them because of his arbitrary behavior.

After a long silence, Li Shubai clicked his tongue and looked away.

"Well, I don't deny that my former willfulness has caused a lot of trouble for everyone, and I'm not going to shirk my responsibilities." He turned his body again and continued to return the authority he had controlled to the anti-entropy of this world little by little. "So, I will return to my Hyperion and sincerely apologize to everyone. I think you should be satisfied now."

"I am not one of the Valkyries who are looking for the captain in the Quantum Sea." Prometheus said lightly, "The captain should not ask me this question."

"Has anyone ever told you that it's actually difficult to communicate with you?" Li Shubai said.

"Before I accepted Dr. Mei's improvements to my thinking module, many people had this kind of evaluation of me," Prometheus said. "That's why Dr. Mei took the trouble to input various information about language arts into my database."

"Why don't I feel these so-called language arts?" Li Shubai's face was dark. "Your piercing way of speaking can't be directed at me alone, right?"

"I don't know either." Prometheus blinked her emotionless eyes. If she were a living human, this strange action would probably become proof that she was lying. "Maybe, when I left the imaginary number, my data also suffered a certain degree of loss."

"That's really a coincidence. The problem has to be communication." After pressing the last button, Li Shubai let out a long sigh, "Okay, this Hyperion has nothing to do with me for the time being."

As soon as he finished speaking, the light representing the folding of time and space quickly enveloped Li Shubai's entire body.

Although compared with previous time travel, this trip to the future did not seem to change much of what had happened, and the specific things to do were far less busy than the last time, but for some reason, after confirming that he was about to return to the Hyperion, a feeling similar to relief suddenly emerged in his mind.

Perhaps it was because, after three time travels over several weeks, it was finally time for him to return to the Hyperion.

But just as Li Shubai was sighing like this, an indescribable pain, accompanied by a dizziness that would make an ordinary person faint immediately, attacked his brain and consciousness without warning.

"Uh..." He held his brows together as his whole body was enveloped by the dazzling light, and frowned deeply, "What... is going on?"

It was at this time that Li Shubai, who felt dizzy and swollen in his brain, suddenly saw something very strange.

——The light of time and space travel did not just envelope him alone, but presented a situation similar to that of a broken lotus root, linking his body with Prometheus' body.

Before he could think about what this vision meant, his vision fell into darkness uncontrollably.

Chapter 4: Chong Chong's Historic Meeting (k)

January 2014, 1, Far Eastern Time, 11pm, St. Freya's College.

An hour had passed since the Hyperion returned from the lunar surface.

The quiet teaching building was immersed in the dark night. Today happened to be the weekend, and there was not a single student to be seen in the entire teaching area of ​​Saint Freya. Only the window of the conference room was still emitting bright lights.

"I see. After leaving our world, the captain was not wandering alone in the quantum sea."

In the conference room full of people, after hearing the reassuring news, Kiana [Hersher of the End] breathed a sigh of relief, then couldn't help but frowned her slender eyebrows, looked around at the people sitting around her, and rubbed her shoulders a little uncomfortably.

"But why are you all looking at me like that? Is there something weird on my face?"

Everyone in the conference room awkwardly turned their gazes away from their Kiana [Hersher of the End]. Walter Yang, Einstein and Dr. Tesla, who were sitting on either side of him, looked at each other. Theresa turned her inquiring gaze to [Gengen Knight] Yulandel and [Dizzying Starthorn] Rita, who claimed to be from the same world as [Hersher of the End] Kiana, and breathed a sigh of relief after receiving an affirmative answer. Raiden Mei looked at Kiana who was sitting next to her, but suddenly heard a "gulp".

At this moment, Kiana Kaslana, who was being stared at with strange eyes by Raiden Mei - the one who was biologically sixteen years old and had been recruited into St. Freya's Academy by Theresa together with Li Shubai just two weeks ago, swallowed her saliva and looked at her other self [Hersler of the End] as if she was watching a gorilla in a zoo.

"That." Perhaps because they were all bugs, Kiana did not suppress her inner turmoil and curiosity like the others who were in an awkward situation in front of the [Hersher of the End]. Instead, she raised her arm after a little hesitation and carefully asked a question that everyone was curious about and concerned about, "You... are really the Herrsher of the End?"

Kiana [Herrser of the End] raised her eyebrows: "Why, do I need to show you the power of the End again to prove my identity?"

"No, no, no, you misunderstood." Kiana shook her head like a rattle, and her long braids turned like an electric fan. She giggled and said, "I just didn't expect that besides the Herrscher of Fire, I would one day see myself more mature than her."

"Herser of the Fire?" Kiana [Herser of the End] blinked, a little curious, "What is that? Is it some kind of variant of the Herrser of the Fire?"

"You don't know?" Kiana was stunned. "She is just like you, another me, Kiana Kaslana."

"Besides me, do you know another Kiana?" The Endworm was surprised, and then suddenly came to his senses, "Oh, yes, before coming to your world, I seem to have seen myself in another world who possessed the power of fire. So she is the Herrscher of Firefire you mentioned?"

"Why don't you know?" Kiana tilted her head, a little confused, "Haven't you ever received the power of fire?"

"No, didn't Kevin tell you that the manifestation of the power of the end is originally determined by the previous thirteen powers. Among them, of course, the power of fire also exists." The end insect shook his head, "However, before I completely controlled the [Cocoon], I had never received the power of the power of fire alone."

"Oh, so that's how it is." Kiana nodded in understanding. "That is to say, although you are the Herrscher of the End and are older than the Herrscher of the Fire, you haven't experienced what she went through, right?"

"From the way you mentioned her, it seems that you like Kiana, the Herrscher of the Firefire, very much." The Endworm stared at Kiana's clear, flickering pupils, and raised the corners of his mouth. "You are also Kiana yourself?"

"After all... I received a lot of care from her not long ago." Kiana said a little embarrassedly.

I don't know if Kiana would still be embarrassed if she knew that the Herrscher of Fire and Lightning had teamed up with the Herrscher of Thunder, the Second Silver Wing and the Sky Ranger to force Li Shubai on her.

"Kiana." At this moment, a stern and clear voice suddenly called Kiana's name. The Endworm and Kiana subconsciously turned their heads and cast their gazes on Yulandel [Gengen Rider] who suddenly spoke.

"Uh..." Feeling the gazes of the two, Youlan Dai'er [Tianyuan Qiying] was a little speechless for a moment, "...Can you tell me what happened after the captain left our world?"

At this time, the two realized that Yulandel [Gengen Rider] was talking to the End Worm. Kiana turned her gaze to her other self, and Kiana [Hersher of the End] showed a thoughtful expression: "Well... after the captain left, nothing big happened. Mei went to the World Serpent's Paradise of the Past to receive training, and received the inheritance of the power of the Origin not long ago. Dr. Tesla and Dr. Einstein are studying the harmless End Cocoon together at the Destiny Headquarters. After controlling the End Cocoon, I ran to the moon and have been looking for the captain's trace. I didn't expect that I would find you before I found the captain."

"So... in your world, has human civilization passed the test of the end?" asked Walter Yang.

"...What do you think?" Kiana [Hersher of the End] rolled her eyes and said speechlessly,

"Okay, I know this question sounds a bit stupid." Walter Yang smiled bitterly, then put on an extremely serious expression, "Let me ask you, Miss Kiana, how did you achieve complete control over the End?"

At this moment, the door of the conference room suddenly opened with a click.

"Aunt, please stay here, I have something--" Outside the door of the conference room, Kiana [Hersher of the Fire] was halfway through her words when she suddenly got stuck.

She stared blankly at Kiana [Hersher of the End] who was also staring at her blankly, and subconsciously asked: "Who are you?"

"You are the Herrscher of the Fire they are talking about, right?" Compared to the Firefly, the End Worm, who learned from Kiana that there was another Herrscher of the Fire on the Hyperion, grasped the situation faster. She stood up with a bright smile on her face and extended her hand generously: "Hello, as you can see, I am Kiana from another world. I have just become the Herrscher of the End. Please take care of me in the days to come."

"Eh?" Kiana [Hershers of Fire] uttered a syllable full of confusion and puzzlement. She stared blankly at herself who claimed to be the Herrsher of the End, tilted her head, and said, "But didn't the captain say..."

"Speaking of the captain." Hearing the word captain, Kiana [Hersher of the End] interrupted Firefly's words, "They just told me that many companions went to the world where the captain is currently to help him, right? Since you have returned, is the captain with you?"

As she was talking, Kiana [Hersher of the End] suddenly showed an angry expression on her face, rubbing her hands and saying, "I have something important to discuss with the captain. "

"Oh, right." As soon as the topic shifted to the captain, Kiana [Hersher of the Fire] immediately lost interest in delving into the Herrsher of the End. She looked around at everyone in the conference room, then fixed her gaze on Theresa. "Aunt, I'm here to inform you about the captain's situation."

"After we return to the Hyperion—"

the other side.

Li Shubai, who failed to return to his original world, slowly opened his eyes with a dizzy feeling.

My vision became blurry for some reason, the sounds I heard were hazy, and everything within my field of vision seemed to be blocked by a frosted glass, with blurred lines. Apart from being able to smell a faint fragrance, everything was so ambiguous and unclear.

...Wait, a fresh scent? Li Shubai moved his nose. It was indeed a refreshing scent. It was not unusual for him. After all, Li Shubai had smelled the fresh scent of forests and plants more than once when he stepped into the back mountain of Saint Freya in the early morning. Although the scent he smelled now was much clearer, it was fundamentally no different from the sweet scent that belonged to the leaves.

He pulled out the drawer called memory, trying to recall the reason why he lost his memory. However, the moment he opened the drawer, a huge amount of documents and pictures rushed out from the drawer, which didn't look that big. The heavy spines of books hit his mind one after another, causing Li Shubai's brain and consciousness, which had not yet fully awakened, to fall into even more severe swelling and pain.

Li Shubai frowned deeply. He raised his arm with great effort and rubbed his eyebrows. While relieving the pain, he also tried to sort out these huge and confusing memories.

At this moment, the faint forest scent suddenly became stronger.