The collapse started when Kiana came to the door

Although she has her own pride and may behave in extreme ways under extreme circumstances, Mei Raiden is not the kind of person who completely lacks sense of the overall situation.

If it was to fight against the end... just making this level of sacrifice, as the Herrscher of Consciousness said, was not a big deal.

But before that,

Before her consciousness was interfered with and her memories of this period of time were deleted, Mei Raiden suddenly seemed to remember something and opened her eyes again: "Hersher of Consciousness...right."

——At least, Mei Raiden needs to get a promise from the Herrscher of Knowledge.

"Hmm? What's wrong?" The Herrscher of Knowledge shrugged. "If you want to beg me for mercy, I advise you to save your energy. Your ignorance is the most important factor in what is going to happen next."

"No, you misunderstood." Raiden Mei said calmly: "It's just... after everything is over, I need a convincing explanation, okay?"

- Get, after everything is over, you can reasonably promise to [retaliate] against the person who hurt you, hurt your feelings, and played a trick on you.

"Just that?" As a Herrscher who controls consciousness, the Herrscher of Knowledge could of course see the true meaning behind Raiden Mei's words, but she thought about it and felt that Raiden Mei's request was indeed not excessive, so she sold out the captain without hesitation: "That's no problem, anyway, it's not me who has to worry about this matter. When the time comes, let the captain explain it to you himself - he is the mastermind of this matter."

"I understand, thank you for telling me." Although she knew that she would not remember all of this after her memory was deleted, Mei Raiden still silently memorized the word "Captain" from the Herrscher of Knowledge in her heart.

Then, she closed her eyes, relaxed her body, and allowed Hua Yu Duchen to enter her consciousness to modify and manipulate her memories.

"Ah!"

On the other hand, with the help of the analysis of SO-1129 and the reverse deduction of the operation to convert the memory data into consciousness, Kevin's data was successfully engraved into a piece of Yu Duchen. Then Li Shubai, who had just sent him out, sneezed uncontrollably?

"Huh?" Su, Aponia, and Eden all looked at Li Shubai with some doubt at the same time.

Not only them, Li Shubai himself also looked a little stunned because of the sneeze.

In the memory space of the paradise of the past, could I still sneeze? Li Shubai pondered for a moment, and suddenly shuddered, with a little cold sweat on his forehead.

It's an unfounded thought, but I don't know why...

He always felt that something was very bad... as if a disaster was about to happen.

Chapter 4: Weiwei's Application for Ship Admission (k)

"Hmm, so you are the captain that Alicia mentioned."

About twenty minutes later.

Li Shubai truly understood where the source of that very bad premonition came from.

On the middle floor of the Eternal Paradise is the spiral workshop that Vilvi had newly built in this giant building. Various machines of unknown purpose are scattered throughout the workshop. As they operate, they make a slightly rough sound of metal clanging. The dim sunlight illuminates everything through the transparent stained glass windows, and the strip ceiling lights on the ceiling emit a faint bronze glow.

At this moment, Li Shubai was standing at the gate of this complex and sophisticated spiral workshop, enduring the stares from the genius magician.

He sighed, and looked meaningfully at Alicia, who was standing inside the Spiral Workshop with a wandering gaze. After a moment of silence, he finally shook his head helplessly.

How to say it... Although he didn't think that Alicia could hide it from all her past colleagues at the beginning, Li Shubai did not expect that the plan would be exposed so quickly.

Up to now, among the thirteen heroes, only a few are still unaware that the real Ailishiya has returned to the paradise of the past.

Up to now, Kevin, Alicia's own memory, Aponia, Eden, Su, and Ying have all had a detailed understanding of the current situation, and Velvet... has also caught Alicia red-handed.

Thinking about all these things, Li Shubai moved his head and then looked at the magic girl who was circling around his body.

It has to be said that Weiwei's dressing style exudes a mechanical beauty of the industrial era. Compared with the constantly rotating gears on the hat, the steel disc pinned to the waist, the mechanical arms extending from the shoulders and the complicated pocket watch at the end of the mechanical arms, even the pair of soft, big and white northern hemispheres and the white thighs with flesh marks left by two thin leather belts are not so conspicuous.

After all, Li Shubai had already appreciated a lot of the unique charm of girls, but this was the first time he had seen such a distinctive mechanical-style decoration like Wei Erwei's.

No boy can resist gears! No!

After both sides looked at each other's bodies, Li Shubai spoke first.

"I've seen enough, so let's talk business first." Li Shubai said, "But before we talk business, let me ask you one question - which Wei Erwei are you?"

"Oh? Is this the first sentence? It's really a unique way to say hello." Weiwei smiled.

"Who made me face such a unique hero?" Li Shubai crossed his arms across his chest, his tone helpless but confident, "For a genius who has different characteristics from ordinary people, greeting him in a special way should be a basic and necessary etiquette."

"Then we are really honored." Weiwei touched her chin with a satisfied smile on her face, "However, speaking of this trait that is different from ordinary people - aren't you the same?"

"Ah?" Li Shubai was stunned and said in confusion: "The same for me? What do you mean?"

"Split your personality and thoughts into several pieces." Weiwei smiled. "However, compared to me, what remains in you is only a trace. But in the final analysis, you should have done something similar. Or am I seeing things wrong?"

"..." Li Shubai was silent for a moment, somewhat incredulous, "Is it that obvious? You can see that?"

"Ordinary people probably can't see it. If I don't have a similar ability, I probably won't be able to detect the flaw in your body." Wei Wei took off her magic hat, then supported the inside of the hat with her index finger and let it slowly rotate on her fingertips. "However, this feeling of encountering [the same kind] is still too obvious, as obvious as ink dripping on white paper, neither coordinated nor beautiful - I'm not talking about you, but the scar that has not healed until now should have brought you some kind of trouble, right?"

Did she see the problem with me?

Because of the sequelae of having his consciousness and personality separated, he still has difficulty regaining his memory.

Even Yu Duchen and the Herrscher of Consciousness found it difficult to solve, but she could actually see through it at a glance?

"Do you have a solution?" Li Shubai asked.

"No." Wei Wei shrugged and sneered mercilessly, "What are you thinking about? Things in the field of consciousness are more like some kind of metaphysics than science, right? Even a genius has his own limits."

"If you only write the answers without giving the process, you won't get any points in the exam," said Li Shubai.

"But what we are doing is not an exam, but a practice." Wei Wei smiled, "The reason why I don't give you advice is purely for your own good."

"..." In other words, rather than relying on the help of others, the key to solving the problem lies in myself?

Although it was a useless argument, it was still the experience shared by his predecessors and pioneers in the field of consciousness segmentation, so Li Shubai accepted it with reluctance.

So, the next more important question.

"What are you going to do?" Li Shubai glanced at Alicia who had remained silent the whole time: "Let's confirm first. Alicia should have revealed our plan to you."

"Of course." Weiwei nodded vigorously. "As for what I'm going to do... Asking a magician this kind of question, do you think you'll get a serious answer? For a magician, revealing secrets is a taboo."

"I think so..." Li Shubai pressed his forehead helplessly, feeling a headache coming on, "Then... let's go, Alicia."

"Ugh?"

"Ugh?"

Hearing Li Shubai's decisive farewell, not only Alicia, but even Wei Erwei couldn't help but be stunned.

"Wait, guest, are you going to leave now?" Wei Wei asked in surprise, "Just like that without asking any questions or doubting anything?"

Based on the facts that Velvi knew from Alicia, in order to prevent the future from deviating as much as possible, Li Shubai's goal is to achieve the premise of [making the process consistent with the original future] as much as possible in addition to achieving the goal of [changing the outcome of the event].

Whether it is deliberately concealing the truth from them or letting some people know the facts in advance, although the behaviors are different, the ultimate goal is the same.

Since Li Shubai and Alicia were not going to let me know their plan, for them, if I discovered through surveillance that everything was just an unexpected accident, then what they should do is to eliminate the impact of this accident as much as possible.

For this reason, Wei Wei was ready to be questioned by them - even so, as a great magician, she couldn't tell them all her preparations. But at the same time, being curious about all unknown things and getting to the bottom of their principles and structures is also a basic quality of being a great magician.

So, with this in mind, Wei Wei asked the question that concerned her most without hiding anything: "Aren't you worried that your plan will be hindered by me?"

"Hmm?" Li Shubai glanced at Wei Erwei, who looked curious, and shrugged, "Will you stop me?"

"..." This perfunctory question made Wei Erwei a little confused. She was stunned for a long time, and finally lowered her head and pretended to be thinking, touching her chin, "I don't think I can answer this question. Revealing the truth of magic to the audience before the show starts is too bad for performance."

"Then let me ask it another way." Li Shubai said, "Will you prevent me from achieving my goal?"

"..."

After hearing Li Shubai's question, Wei Erwei was silent for a long time.

The mechanical components in the Spiral Workshop gradually slowed down their speed, the noisy and crisp sound of metal crisscrossing became smaller and smaller, even the gears that kept rotating on the magic hat that was taken off by Weiwei gradually slowed down their rotation speed, and soon, the noise nearby completely subsided.

The atmosphere fell into silent silence.

"Although during the whole process of this incident, your wonderful performance and the rewritten script will probably give me, Alicia, or Raiden Mei a big surprise... well, you can probably say it's a shock." While nodding to himself, Li Shubai said in an extremely calm tone: "However, in terms of what kind of ending to reach, our two goals should be the same."

Regardless of whether the emotion it brings to others is surprise or shock, regardless of whether the process is wonderful or mediocre, the so-called magic show... its ultimate goal is still to present the audience with such a form of performance that makes them feel happy and want to sincerely want to "do it again" and "keep going".

In other words...it is to make the audience smile from the bottom of their hearts.

"If that's the case, then it doesn't matter." Li Shubai waved to Alicia, and said to Wei Wei who kept her mouth shut, "As long as in the end, I can allow the human beings of this era to cross the obstacle called collapse with the least sacrifice and the best method, and move towards a tomorrow that is beyond our sight, it doesn't matter whether my plan succeeds or not."

"And on this point, I believe you... No." Li Shubai paused, "I believe that all of you Thirteen Heroes have the same goal as me."

In the final analysis - in the very beginning, the reason why Li Shubai made the plan of [performing an absurd drama in front of Raiden Mei as in the original timeline], in addition to the personal reason of wanting to stab Raiden Mei in the back, the main purpose was to be able to observe the methods used by the people of this civilized era to solve the collapse in his own way, using his ability to observe the future in a targeted manner, and to optimize it as much as possible, or come up with another plan to overturn this perhaps imperfect method.

Li Shubai has always had a good understanding of his own true level - in terms of brains, he is not bad, but he can definitely not compare with the technological brains of the previous and current civilizations; in terms of combat ability, although he can also use the Skyfire to destroy the Skyfire with a rated power of zero like Kevin, he knows that he can't do the same as Kevin and use his ability to forcibly freeze the flames of the Skyfire.

Apart from the special abilities he integrated into the Hyperion that allow him to jump between different timelines and world lines, and the Valkyries under his name, he does not have much advantage over the Thirteen Heroes of the previous civilization. Even in specific fields such as biology and mechanics, Li Shubai is still no match for Mebius and Velvi, two extraordinary geniuses.

It is not shameful to admit that you are not as good as others. Facing the strengths of others and using them to make up for your own shortcomings has always been Li Shubai's philosophy of action.

"Hmm... I see." Perhaps she had sensed Li Shubai's true intention, and a meaningful smile appeared on Wei Wei's face. She glanced at Li Shubai, then turned her head and looked deeply at Alicia. Her tone was a little admiring, but also a little unspeakable regret: "I understand why even Alicia... and that Mobius, as well as Eden and Ying, are willing to become crew members on the ship you control."

Weiwei finally understood.

In a sense, the role played by this young man named Li Shubai on the Hyperion was similar to the role played by Alicia among their Thirteen Heroes.

Alicia is the bond that connects the Thirteen Heroes. It can be said that without Alicia, there would be no Thirteen Heroes. And Li Shubai is the biggest organizer of the trans-dimensional ship named Hyperion. Without this captain, the Hyperion would not exist.

At the same time, the captain, who collected members from various world lines to form this destiny-changing trans-temporal and spatial team, is also the central air conditioner shared by all members on the ship.

He will neither underestimate himself nor overestimate himself. His abilities may not be as good as others in some aspects, but this captain's extremely accurate role positioning for all characters is indeed a precious treasure that belongs only to him.

If there was someone like this young man among the leadership of the Fire Moth in the pre-civilization era, would their pre-civilization era and the Thirteen Heroes have a completely different ending than they do now? Wei Wei didn't know, but at least now, after confirming that she had a general understanding of Li Shubai, she did one thing without hesitation.

Without communicating with the other [selves] in her body in advance, even though she might be scolded by the experts afterwards, she still asked Li Shubai: "Since you trust us Thirteen Heroes so much, then——"

"——I wonder if I can also be lucky enough to become your crew member like Alicia, Mobius and the others, Captain?"

Chapter 4 The Lion Opens His Mouth (k)

It was a self-recommendation that was beyond everyone's expectations. In an instant, the atmosphere in the entire Spiral Workshop suddenly became quiet.

Li Shubai, who was about to turn around and leave, did not move at all. After being stiff for a moment, he came to his senses, looked at Wei Erwei's smiling face with some surprise, touched his chin, and fell into silent thought.

"What?" Seeing Li Shubai's silence, Wei Erwei raised her eyebrows, tilted her face, and said in a meaningful voice: "Do you have any other doubts about me?"

"Doubts? No, you misunderstood." Li Shubai shook his head and said, "I'm just thinking about something that has nothing to do with you."

Since Weiwei wanted to be his crew member, there was certainly no reason for him to refuse.

But... Li Shubai was a little confused about what the consequences would be if he immediately agreed to let Weiwei join the Hyperion.

After all, there is a kind of intertwined and separated relationship between the current self and the Hyperion. If he approves Vilvi to join the Hyperion here, even Li Shubai is not sure what will happen at the moment when he and Vilvi recognize each other's identities.

According to his speculation... Velvi should be able to arrive at the Hyperion smoothly, but on the other hand, they must also bear the consequences caused by the time dislocation.

It was for this reason that Li Shubai rejected Kiana's request and temporarily prevented her from meeting Ji Zi.

But, if this is the case, then when I interfere in the future, I won’t be able to recruit people casually?

After pondering for a moment, Li Shubai suddenly came up with a bold idea.

The Paradise of the Past is a space made up of data. Therefore, although these memories have their own emotions, memories, judgments, and even independent thinking abilities that can be called personalities, from the outside, these memories are not much different from normal humans. But even so... they are still just data.

Based on the infrastructure of the Paradise of the Past which is composed of data, under normal circumstances, except for unexpected situations such as the Herrscher of Corrosion, even if a memory is killed by another memory, or disappears for some other reason, the damaged data will be quickly restored from the most recent backup. For these memories, the price they need to pay is only the memory loss of about five seconds before disappearance.

So, if we approve Velvet's application to join the ship here——

"I agree to your request." Thinking of this, Li Shubai nodded without saying anything, "Welcome to join Hyperion, Hero of Spiral, Wei Wei."

"..."

"..."

After Li Shubai agreed to Wei Erwei's application, awkward silence quickly permeated the air around here.

Nothing happened.

"?" Wei Erwei blinked her eyes and stared at Li Shubai's motionless and stiff gaze. A big question mark appeared above her head: "Why are you looking at me with such a strange gaze?"

"..." Li Shubai was silent for a moment and did not respond to Wei Erwei's words immediately.

Are all new members joining the Hyperion teleported onto the ship as soon as possible?

Why? Facing Wei Erwei's confused eyes, a series of question marks appeared in Li Shubai's head.

After both parties have recognized each other's identities, the Valkyrie selected by Li Shubai and to whom he has no other objections will be forcibly teleported to the Hyperion as soon as possible.

This is not only a recognition and confirmation of identity, but also allows them to be familiar with and confirm their abilities and permissions as crew members at the first time. Only after going through such a tough process can his Valkyries understand the way to travel to and from Hyperion more freely and familiarly.

Why wasn't Velvet teleported to the Hyperion? Was it because she didn't really recognize her own identity?

Or... because she is a memory that only exists in data space, she cannot be directly transferred to the Hyperion?