The collapse started when Kiana came to the door

What was their relationship in the past?

...Although she felt that the image of Kevin in her mind had changed a lot at that time, looking at Kevin's situation that seemed to be in the paradise of mind, but unwilling to compete with the person who possessed the power of consciousness like herself for the image composed of consciousness, a strange feeling still surged into Kiana's chest.

"Um... Although Mobius noticed something was wrong, he still didn't realize it was Alicia. Velvi... Although she also noticed something was wrong, she pretended not to realize it and was helping Sakura restore her Seven Thunders of Purification." At this moment, Li Shubai's words attracted Kiana's attention.

He kept switching the images in front of him and stroked his chin. "Although I knew that Apolonia had an extremely abnormal control over the Paradise, so I let Alicia find her first and reveal her cards. But I really didn't expect that I would coincidentally run into Eden who was also looking for Apolonia because of the appearance of the Eternal Paradise. What a mistake."

"In this way, in addition to Velvet, the creator of the Paradise of the Past, Mebius, the owner, and Aponia, the actual controller, even Eden has grasped the current situation." Li Shubai glanced at Kevin, "Kevin, I have a question."

Kevin was silent for a moment and said, "What's the matter?"

"With your and Su's ability to detect abnormal events, can you realize that the Paradise of the Past has been invaded by Alicia?" Li Shubai asked.

"No." Kevin shook his head decisively. "Perhaps I can sense the existence of the Herrscher of Corrosion, but even I can't accurately grasp its location in the Paradise of the Past, let alone that it is Alicia."

"Aren't you stronger than Alicia?"

"I don't deny it, but the gap between me and Alicia is far from being enough to ignore the intervention of the Herrscher." Kevin said, "Besides, you should also know that Alicia has never really shown me her full abilities in a hostile manner. Whether it's me now or in my memory, I'm not at my strongest."

"Oh, I see." Li Shubai nodded. "So in a sense, after devouring the core of the Herrscher of Corrosion, she may have surpassed you, right?"

"That's right." Kevin said lightly.

"Is that why you listen to Alicia so much?" Li Shubai asked.

“You could think of it that way,” Kevin said.

"Well, okay." Li Shubai shrugged without further testing Kevin's tone.

"You asked me so many questions, so in return, shouldn't you answer my questions as well?" To everyone's surprise, after Li Shubai stopped talking, Kevin suddenly took the initiative to talk to him.

"What's the problem?" Li Shubai glanced at Kevin's expressionless face.

"As the person chosen by Alicia and the one who saved her, I respect your ability and agree with your methods." Kevin stared at Li Shubai's face, and his breathing suddenly became a little faster. "So, can you tell me, besides Alicia... Captain Li Shubai, have you saved other people's lives?"

Hearing Kevin's long-lost look of uneasiness, Kiana first sighed softly, and suddenly froze.

...The question raised by Kevin was like a huge and heavy stone, which sank deep into her heart.

Besides Alicia... have you ever saved other people's lives? She first pondered the meaning of this sentence, and then, as if she remembered something, she suddenly widened her eyes, raised her head, and stared at Li Shubai's face blankly, with a look of unbelievable expectation emerging from the depths of her azure pupils.

Chapter 4: Restrictions lifted, characters outside the card pool are released (k)

An atmosphere of deathly silence spread in the pure white space of consciousness. Neither Kevin nor Kiana spoke a word. They stared at Li Shubai's face in silence.

Although the two people were completely different in expression and eyes, Li Shubai could understand that they were the same in that they had expectations for his answers.

Li Shubai was silent for a long time, and then, seeing the slightly changed expressions of Kiana and Kevin, he nodded slightly.

"You are very perceptive. You have guessed most of the facts about me just by seeing Alicia." Li Shubai said, "As you thought, I am a time traveler and a boatman sailing in the quantum sea. During the time I traveled through various timelines... naturally, I have also saved some people who should have died."

"For example, the teacher that Kiana and everyone else admires..." Li Shubai glanced at Kiana, whose pupils shrank because of his words, and whispered, "She is also a great warrior who can rival the Apostles of God with her human body, Himeko Muliangta."

Hearing the name Li Shubai said, Kiana's eyes suddenly turned red. She excitedly raised her hands and pressed Li Shubai's shoulders, her face flushed, and asked cautiously in an expectant tone: "You...you just said..."

Li Shubai was silent for a moment, then nodded: "Well, just as you thought, once upon a time, after a life-and-death battle with the Herrscher of the Void, I did bring the dying Muliangta Himeko back to my ship and healed her body."

"Then where is she now?" Kiana suddenly moved her face closer to his. She stared at him with eyes flashing with moisture, and asked anxiously, "Can...can I see her...? I..."

Looking at Kiana's excitement and helplessness, Li Shubai slowly closed his eyes and shook his head mercilessly and firmly.

"I'm sorry... I can't do this," he said softly.

"..." Although Kiana had already prepared herself mentally for not getting what she wanted when she saw Li Shubai's reaction, she still pursed her lips and asked in a hoarse voice: "Can you tell me why?"

"...Two reasons." Li Shubai said, "First, although I saved Wuliangta Jizi's life, to you... or to the world you are currently in, she is indeed dead."

"......?" Kiana tilted her head with tears in her eyes, and a big question mark appeared above her head.

…Although she didn’t understand, Kiana quickly reacted. She raised her arm and quickly wiped away the tears that had not yet overflowed from her eyes. She asked in a trembling voice: “So…so, it’s not because you don’t want me to see Teacher Jizi, nor is it because Teacher Jizi doesn’t want to see me…right?”

"Not only that, do you still remember... what I asked of you before you came to World Snake?" Li Shubai asked.

"Request? What do you want..." Kiana was stunned halfway through her sentence.

For some reasons, after all the incidents are resolved, I need to delete your memory of this period of time - Li Shubai did say this to himself before going to the World Snake.

In other words, not only will I not be able to see Teacher Jizi, but after the incident is over, I will even believe that Teacher Jizi is still dead.

Although this is such a sad situation, after learning that Himeko Murata is still there, Kiana finally connects Li Shubai's behavior with the current situation.

She took a long, deep breath to calm her emotions that were like a roller coaster. After making sure that she had calmed down, she asked tentatively, "Since you will delete my memory of this period, then... even if I saw Teacher Jizi, this memory should also be deleted, right?"

"That's true." Li Shubai nodded.

"You just said that there is another reason why you can't let me meet Ji Zi, right?" Kiana asked.

"Indeed." Li Shubai said, "But, to be honest, these two reasons are actually the same thing in essence - because for your world, the death of Wuliangta Jizi has already become a fact, so I can't let Jizi come to this world through conventional means."

Before entering this world, among the options for sending out the Valkyries, if the Herrschers of the Firebrand and other future people on the same timeline were unable to participate in [past] events due to a time paradox and were therefore automatically marked with a warning by the Hyperion's system to indicate that they could not be dispatched... Infinite Tower Himeko [True Scarlet Knight·Eclipse] was even directly blocked.

As the supreme commander of the Hyperion, for Li Shubai, the warning sign of [Unable to Deploy] does not mean that they cannot be deployed in an absolute sense, but serves as a reminder and warning. If Li Shubai wants, the Herrschers of the Firewood Flame are not actually unable to come to this world. He can completely change the restrictions of the Hyperion and force the Herrschers of the Firewood Flame to be deployed.

But if they are chosen, the already restricted actions will become even more difficult.

Unlike their [Unable to deploy], on the Valkyrie's deployment list, at least from what Li Shubai saw, there was not even an icon of Himeko Muliangta's [True Red Knight·Eclipse].

Therefore, if the Herrschers of the Firebrand were marked by the Hyperion as not recommended for dispatch because they would increase the difficulty of the mission, then Himeko's [inability to dispatch] is an objective fact.

For this world, Himeko Murimita, who was confirmed dead, was not even allowed to exist.

"So, what if you let me go there?" Kiana asked, "If Ji Zi can't come to this world, then on the contrary, can you let me go to where Ji Zi is now?"

"Unfortunately, although this is indeed an option, at least now is not a good time to implement it." Li Shubai said helplessly, "Because of a certain function on my ship, the time we are experiencing now is completely different from the speed of time passing on my ship. I can indeed let you enter my ship and meet Ji Zi now, but when you come back... maybe this world has been destroyed by the end?"

The Hyperion's military intelligence room had the ability to interfere with the flow of time. Although its essence was only for the time inside the military intelligence room, it slowed down its flow rate to a level that was more than two million times slower than the outside world through the power of the Second Herrscher Core. Even if one stayed inside for a month, the outside world would only take about half a minute... However, the concept of "inside the military intelligence room" still included Li Shubai and his four companions even when they were dispatched.

Although at the moment they stepped into this world, the rules of the world itself would make the time flow of Li Shubai and the other three people reach the same speed as other things in the outside world, but for Kiana, if Li Shubai accepted her and let her come to the Hyperion... the place where she would appear would not be in the military intelligence room.

If this happens, the timescales for Li Shubai and his team and Kiana who is aboard the Hyperion will be completely out of sync.

Although this statement may sound a bit confusing, Kiana's keen intuition allowed her to quickly grasp the key points of Li Shu's vernacular.

Her eyes were brighter than ever before: "If that's the case, then I can wait! As long as I can see Ji Zi again, no matter how long I have to wait, it doesn't matter!"

Yes, from Li Shubai's words: [This is not a good time to implement this plan], Kiana finally realized that she and Himeko would not be unable to meet each other forever.

Li Shubai shrugged, feeling powerless to complain.

Although Kiana's guess was correct, what she had not yet calculated, or it was impossible for her to calculate, was that, in fact, the Herrscher of the Fire on the ship... was actually the same person as Kiana Kaslana in front of her, no matter from which perspective.

It's not the kind of relationship between his Yulandel and the Yulandel of this world [although they are the same person, there are subtle differences due to the intervention of external factors], but they are completely the same person.

So, is this one of the reasons why the Herrscher of Fire has such a high favorable impression on him? Looking at Kiana's increasingly friendly eyes towards him, Li Shubai touched his chin. If this is the case, it is no wonder that this guy would join his ship so straightforwardly.

After all, based on what Li Shubai knew about the Herrscher of the Fire [in the plot], it was hard to imagine that she would choose to leave her own world and join his Hyperion and become one of his Valkyries.

Wait, if that's the case, then what about the card gacha system in Honkai Impact 3rd on his phone?

Through his experiences during this period, Li Shubai has roughly figured out all of his abilities, what the Hyperion is, and the essence of the mobile phone. But thinking back on everything that happened during this period, and connecting it with his experiences before he regained his strength... Li Shubai felt a rather strange sense of disharmony.

As the captain of the Hyperion, it is within his rights as captain to allow the Valkyrie to join his ship.

After he and the Valkyrie have recognized each other's identities, the Valkyrie can enter his ship as a crew member.

Whether it was Yulandel, Rita, Kiana, or Theresa from the original world, they all became his Valkyries in this way.

And now it seems that the Herrscher of the Fire will enter his ship in a similar way.

So...what's going on with that card pool?

After regaining his power, he removed the disguise of the phone. The picture it showed him was actually not much different from the game picture of Honkai Impact 3rd. But the strange thing was that Li Shubai did not see the existence of supplies and card pool in it.

Could it be that the so-called [Card Pool] was actually one of the things that my past self wanted to abandon?

Although he has not yet completely recovered his memory, Li Shubai has actually tried to use Yu Duchen's power to look deep into his memory.

However, when he used Yu Duchen's power to retrieve his memory, he found that his memory could not be repaired through Yu Duchen's power at all.

To put it simply... the destruction was so severe that even Yu Duchen, who was known as the key to consciousness, was completely unable to do anything about it.

However, that card pool was also something that I once wanted to change... Li Shubai could understand this matter itself.

Just think about it, if his members are limited to the [characters] recorded in the card pool... then, when the past self meets someone who is not in the card pool and establishes a deep bond in the process of getting along, but that person dies for various reasons...

Just imagining it, Li Shubai felt a little chilly.

Honestly, after regaining his power as the captain of the Hyperion, Li Shubai did fantasize about whether he could change all the tragedies he encountered, but now thinking about it, he realized that it was precisely because he could not do this in the past that he made the decision to split his consciousness and abandon part of his [superego].

If they want to change their fate, it is not possible to rely solely on the power of [Captain Hyperion].

To use the game’s words… he is no longer satisfied with using the card pool to fish for characters.

"So that's how it is..." Thinking of this, a look of enlightenment flashed in Li Shubai's eyes.

After thinking it all through, he roughly understood what the so-called [Card Pool] was.

That thing should be the same as Aponia's ability... It should be some kind of ability that only you can see in the past but cannot actively change, right?

In that, my past self could see candidates who could become my subordinates. Although this provided convenience to a certain extent, the existence of the [Card Pool] was more of a shackle than a convenience.

Like a cage of fate.

No wonder that thing disappeared after he regained his strength.

There is no doubt that the disappearance of the [Card Pool] is one of the many results he obtained after experimenting on himself in the past.

If his feeling was correct...he should be able to add people outside the card pool to the Hyperion's members now.

"Kevin, you want to ask whether I saved Dr. Mei's life without your knowledge. Am I right?" Thinking of this, Li Shubai shifted his gaze to Kevin, with the corners of his mouth slightly raised in a meaningful arc.

Chapter 4: It's not a choice (k)

Li Shubai's assertion was like a sharp and accurate dart, hitting Kevin right in the bull's eye.

Kevin stared into Li Shubai's eyes motionlessly.

Although Kevin left countless regrets in the last era of civilization, and he also has more than one person he wants to protect in his heart, but... just like Alicia, who loves all human beings but still puts Li Shubai in the highest position, Kevin, who carries the inscription of salvation, also has the only one in his heart that no one can compare to.

Human emotions are inherently unfair. Lovers, relatives, friends, strangers, comrades-in-arms... Everyone has a scale in their heart to judge the importance of these various relationships. Some people value others more than themselves, while the vast majority of people value themselves more. Some people can sacrifice their relatives, friends and lovers for the country, while others can become enemies with the world for their one and only...

It has nothing to do with right or wrong. This is the path that everyone chooses on their own initiative. For Kevin, who has long been deprived of the right to choose, if there are still two paths for him to choose from in front of him...

...Even if it was just a tiny possibility, he wanted to try to pursue it.

"Don't look at me with such a fiery gaze." Li Shubai said calmly, "In the eyes of people like you who like to force yourself to make choices at every turn, the thoughts of people like me are probably neither mature nor rational."

"..." Kevin didn't say anything, but just waited silently for Li Shubai's answer.

"Let me tell you the conclusion first." Li Shubai said, "Dr. Mei from your pre-civilization era does not exist on my ship."

"Really?" Kevin nodded, his tone unchanged, "I understand."

"That's why I said that you guys always like to force yourself to make choices." Seeing Kevin's calm and indifferent reaction, Li Shubai shook his head unbearably: "I haven't finished yet. Although Dr. Mei is not on my ship, but... I do have the ability to save Dr. Mei."

"I know." Kevin said, "Since you saved Alicia's life, I believe that if conditions permit, you can indeed help me save Mei's life."

"...Don't you want to save her?" Li Shubai said tiredly.

"I do." Kevin said without hiding anything, "But for me now, pursuing Mei's legacy, completing the mission of the Forerunners, and completely defeating Honkai are more important things."

Kevin paused for a moment as he spoke: "I don't want to disappoint her..."

"So why are you so screwed?!" Suddenly, Li Shubai raised his finger and tapped Kevin's forehead three times in a row with a look of disappointment.

——Hiss, this guy’s skin is so hard and cold.

Without giving Kevin, who was confused by his actions, a chance to react, Li Shubai spoke quickly in a tone as fast as a machine gun: "I have never asked you to give up the Stigmata Project you wanted to execute! In fact, in order to prevent the future I observe from being further interfered with, I would be angry with you if you didn't carry out the Stigmata Project!"

"You mean..." Kevin was suddenly stunned.

"When I asked you, 'Do you want to save Mei?', this sentence was not an option of choosing one or the other from the beginning." Li Shubai said word by word, "I was just asking you whether you want to do this thing."

"Uh……"

"So I just need to receive your first answer." Li Shubai glared at Kevin and said with great momentum, "Why so many buts?"

“……” Kevin was silent for a moment and slowly closed his eyes.

Then he said two words in a very low voice.

"Thank you."