I am the savior, but I am being asked by Alicia and the others to pay me back.

After a moment of silence, Ye Ming replied:

"There are places I want to go back to and people I want to see, but I can't go back and I can't see them anymore."

Although such things are very common in today's world, Alicia still saw the difference in Ye Ming.

"Then...just treat this place as your home, okay?"

Ye Ming knew that he should nod here and reassure Alicia, but reality did not allow him to think so.

"I am just a passer-by. When everything is over, I don't know where I will go."

It was the first time that Alicia knew about this. She held Ye Ming’s hand, with a look of reluctance in her eyes.

"You can't just walk away from what you did to my butt!"

"Eh? I just wanted to push you out...how did it become a hassle?"

“That’s because… uh…”

Alicia originally wanted to use this absurd incident to help Ye Ming divert his attention from his sorrow.

But she still didn't have the courage to mention the injection with triple sensitivity, and her face turned red with embarrassment.

"In that case, I can only use my trump card that can make you feel better."

After leaving these words, Alicia left here with light steps. No one knew what she was planning.

——This is really unlike you. I remember that you claimed to be sunny and cheerful, and you were rarely depressed.

"Do you remember when you turned Klein back into a human?"

"At that moment, I seemed to feel the aura of Mei and Kiana."

"I don't know why I have such an illusion, but..."

Longing never disappears, it is just temporarily hidden. Once it is aroused, it will surge out from the cracks in the heart...

Whether it is warmth or pain.

"Clang clang~! Ye Ming, look who I brought~~"

Just when Ye Ming was in a trance because of the past, Alicia's playful voice came from behind him.

"Boss Ye Ming, long time no see."

"Pado?"

Ye Ming looked at the shy and somewhat uncoordinated Paduo in front of him, and realized that the originally ordinary girl now had the cat ears and tail in his memory.

"You...you went for super transformation surgery?"

Besides being surprised, Ye Ming also felt a little distressed. He thought that this time, Paduo would not have to force herself to be a hero.

"The world is tough, and I just want to make a living."

Padu smiled bitterly:

"Besides, I always see Boss Ye Ming working hard on the front line, so I want to help... preferably in the supporting aspect."

Fearing that she would be sent to the front line, Paddo also emphasized her areas of expertise.

"The result is always good. Even when facing Honkai beast, little Padu has a good ability to protect herself. And you see, this trait is so cute~~"

Alicia grabbed Pado's tail and pushed her in front of Ye Ming.

"If you hug and caress me, I'll feel better."

"Ugh, Sister Ellie... I already said I don't like being touched."

"Oh? Then Ye Ming is not okay either?"

"That... that's not impossible."

Paduo walked shyly in front of Ye Ming, her ears trembling slightly and her tail swaying slowly back and forth.

"Do you need me to teach you how to touch?"

Alicia did not realize that such behavior was tantamount to the bronze level teaching the king.

Before she could come up with a tutorial, Paduo was already meowing because of Ye Ming's touch.

"Mmmmm, what does this feel like?"

For quite some time after the super transformation surgery, Paddo would feel slight pain in her tail and ears from time to time.

If touched by someone, the pain would be aggravated. Only when Alicia touched her carefully could Padu reluctantly accept it.

But now, as Ye Ming caressed her, she felt like she was receiving some comfortable physical therapy, and her whole body softened comfortably.

"No, if this continues... I'm going to get addicted."

Gradually, Paduo had become completely desensitized and even began to actively cooperate with Ye Ming's touch. She curled up and lay on Ye Ming's legs, looking reluctant to leave.

"oops……"

Alicia didn't expect things to develop to this point.

She originally wanted to get closer to Ye Ming by talking about petting cats, but ended up helping Paduo.

"However, since Ye Ming's mood has improved, it can be considered that the trip was worthwhile."

Seeing Ye Ming relaxed, Alicia also smiled sweetly.

"Pado..."

After the warm and comfortable time lasted for a while, Ye Ming said to the cat in his arms:

"If you encounter danger, remember not to be brave, and always give priority to escaping."

Padu smiled and said while enjoying it:

"Hey, what are you talking about, Boss Ye Ming? That's what I'm best at~~"

831. Almost Calling Mom

Ye Ming's brief interlude seemed to hint at something, but did not give an answer.

Soon, the perspective returned to Kiana and the others.

"Ah... I finally got out. Next, I'll just... "

Kiana looked into the distance, searching for the scent of the squad leader, but soon her eyes became nervous.

"——Oh no! The monitor's presence... has disappeared."

Just when everyone wanted to speed up their pace to meet Kevin, the sound of applause suddenly came from not far away.

"Who?"

Without any presence, the strange woman suddenly appeared before them.

She sat quietly among the ruins of the moon, looking relaxed and peaceful.

It was as if this place was not deep in an alien planet, but a sunny countryside field, as if she had already adapted to this kind of solitude through countless similar days and nights.

"Hello, brave girls, you are always the best."

[Isn’t this Alicia’s style?]

[Is it because he went to the paradise and was assimilated?]

[Wouldn’t Qibao want to call her mom when she saw Yutu?]

"I know that you must have a lot of confusion in your hearts, and answering those confusions is the reason why I am here."

"I will answer your questions one by one. Don't worry, my Lord will not come to disturb you at this moment, so before that, please rest here in peace."

As expected, Kiana has begun to feel that the Hatabu in front of her looks familiar, and Mei is testing with some information:

"We finally meet. If I'm not mistaken, you are the initiator of the Stigmata Project, Yutu?"

Yutu had no intention of hiding her identity. She slowly walked in front of everyone and introduced herself:

"Yes, my code name in World Snake is Feather Rabbit, and the project I'm in charge of is naturally the Stigma Project."

"And as for the name, it is Mistrylin—Mistrylin Shaniat."

Kiana reacted instantly to having the same last name as her mother.

"But I am not a human being - I am a crystallization of the stigmata of Shaniyat."

[Has the Holy Mark Become a Spirit?]

"By the way - you are very concerned about the safety of Fu Hua, right?"

"Please rest assured... The Lord has no intention of hurting her. He just temporarily deprived her of her ability to fight."

What Hato explained was consistent with Bronya's guess, so the girls believed her.

Now that they knew Fu Hua was fine, Kiana and the others had the mind to think about the so-called Stigmata Crystal.

"Anyway... let's start with my identity."

"I am not a human, but a brand new species brought to this world by the Stigmata Project. To borrow a classical term... you can call my kind of existence an ideal."

"You may have encountered enemies similar to me in the previous mazes. They are ideal seeds, a type of artificial life that is temporarily in an incomplete state."

"Since they have not yet grown into rational forms, they are easily driven by the instinct to reject outsiders. That is why they regarded you as enemies and tried to eliminate you while you were trapped in the maze."

[It’s over, the setting has started again, I have a headache]

[Is there any class representative who can summarize?]

[There used to be class representatives, but you guys scolded them all]

[Nonsense, you keep giving us knives all day long. What use is a hammer for this class representative?]

Although there was no class representative, Mei stood up and summarized:

"The so-called Stigmata Project, is it to create a being like you, somewhere between humans and stigmata?"

Hato nodded in agreement.

"It's just that..." Yutu changed the subject, "We are actually a means, not an end."

In order to explain it to everyone with more detailed examples, Yuto flowed the conversations of other Ideal Seeds into the minds of Kiana and the others.

"Before the Stigmata Project is fully completed, humans still have a chance to terminate it and find a better alternative."

"This idea is ridiculous. It's like trying to teach ants on a plane to prove the Poincare conjecture!"

"Humans can't defeat anything... and the same goes for us. This is the only thing they taught me."

These sounds are reproduced from the seeds of ideals, not their thoughts.

The source of the voice is the human beings that have been absorbed into the Stigmata Project.

After that, Hato broadcast some more sounds to them.

This time, most of them are supporters of the Stigmata Project.

Some of them expressed their fear of Honkai, while others showed a religious-like devotion to the Stigmata Project.

Perhaps it is because they have personally experienced the disaster brought about by the collapse, so they are eager to seek redemption, even if there is no glimmer of hope in that redemption.

"The voices of fear and disaster just now mentioned the Great Fire of London, but I remember that it happened hundreds of years ago."

Bronya sensed the message in those few words.

"Well, all historical cultures... as long as it is a civilization created by humans, it has the opportunity to become the nourishment of the holy scar. Doesn't it seem like another thing you are familiar with?"

When Yutu said this, he kept looking at Bronya. The meaning of the so-called other thing was obvious.

[Isn’t this how the Herr of Reason operates?]

After that, Yutu brought Kiana and the others to the vicinity of the "End Crater".

Along the way, from time to time, the voice of the rational form that was similar to what Yutu had told them before popped into their minds.

Sometimes they criticize humans, sometimes they justify their own existence, and sometimes they refute the statements of their companions.

It was as if he was showing Kiana and the others that these ideas had their own wills, rather than collective consciousness.

"Welcome to the End Crater - If I had been waiting here from the beginning, could I have used this line to welcome you?"