The issue of parallel worlds predictably overshadowed everything Noldrei had said before.
Right now, no one was taking Noldrei's words to heart. They even thought his speech was just a warning to certain people not to reach for "reproductive rights."
Millions of people felt that the problem Noldrei spoke of was no problem at all. It was just reproductive rights; if they couldn't have them, so be it.
His Majesty the Emperor was deeply disappointed by this line of thinking. He had never expected the crucial part of his speech to be so disregarded.
His family was a bit more concerned about his feelings, but that was as far as it went.
Kiana comforted him, "It's okay. When that day comes, people will understand what you were talking about."
Noldrei looked up at her and asked, "Then do you know what I was talking about?"
"Nope!" Kiana answered decisively.
"Anyway, I can't think of what humanity should do next either. If you have time to worry about me, you should think about what you're going to do yourself. I've told you about the parallel worlds. The rest is just using Honkai energy to open a path to them. It would be best to get there through the Sea of Quanta."
Noldrei explained the situation with the Imaginary Tree. Compared to charging through the Tree to reach parallel worlds, using an anchor in the Sea of Quanta was much safer.
"Next, I plan to find more outstanding humans from other parallel worlds to help me think about the situation. It would be best to come up with a new method of travel in advance."
He hesitated for a moment before deciding to abandon that thought.
Crap, I've become conservative too! But the head of Proliferationism has only just begun to emerge...
Noldrei paused, realizing he was starting to get cold feet about the path he had chosen for the future.
It must be because he lost his cheat code!
"Why? Aren't you going to eliminate that... 'Proliferationism' thing? Why are you planning to abandon us and run off to a parallel world?"
Kiana felt Noldrei was being completely unreasonable. How could he act with such a lack of responsibility?
"Um..." Bronya cautiously reminded Kiana, "Kiana, is it possible that, according to Noldrei's definition of Proliferationism, it's actually what we, this group of people, are doing right now?"
"Huh?" Kiana was stunned for a moment, then she suddenly remembered what Noldrei had said.
"The act of creating life to satisfy the pleasure of the subject is what the humans of my era called 'Proliferationism.'"
Androids, Stigma life forms, new humans, new Herrschers—these were all things Noldrei had led them to create.
The thought sent a chill down Kiana's spine.
"Proliferationism"? That's me!
"The ultimate monopoly of geneticism. Reproductive rights are, in fact, the crucial power that Proliferationism must hold in its hands."
Noldrei explained the key issue, which made Kiana understand even better why he had talked about those struggles in his speech.
"Wait, doesn't that make it a closed loop?"
Kiana herself was confused. She had never imagined that Noldrei had used the methods of Proliferationism to end the suffering of the old humanity, and then used that as his guiding ideology to back the Will of the Honkai into a corner.
The white-haired Tuna looked at Noldrei with complex emotions. "Then why did you use such a method?"
"Because you all were suffering so much here that I started to think Proliferationism didn't seem so bad," Noldrei said, recalling the scene when he first met Kiana. "Just like you. Look at you, Sirin, Bronya, Mei, and all the others. You were all living such miserable lives. Most of the benefits of human experimentation didn't go to humanity, and you were all driven to neurosis by the Honkai."
"Since you were going to advance sooner or later anyway, I thought I'd help you sprint into a society that could understand me. That way, you could help me think about how to solve the suffering brought by these social problems."
The problem was too dark and profound, with a terrifyingly long timeline and a crushingly deep level of suffering.
Dr. Tesla had actually understood some of what Noldrei was talking about—what the society of future humans was like.
Long-lived, powerful beings began to enhance the meaning of their own existence, constantly strengthening their spiritual and psychological needs, which in turn led to an escalation of human conflict. And Proliferationism was constantly breeding new life to inherit this suffering.
That was why Noldrei wanted to oppose Proliferationism, to end this propagation of suffering.
The problem was, Dr. Tesla also thought that "Proliferationism" was very useful in this era.
Because in this era, creating new life wasn't just for the pleasure of the subject; it also served another need: to heal the trauma and pain of the spirit.
With reproductive rights centralized and their use clearly defined, the birth of new life was a way of correcting the suffering of the old era of humanity.
"Just as I thought. You are all beneficiaries of this current state. It's absolutely impossible for you to resist it and help me come up with a solution to the troubles of the future."
Noldrei sighed, understanding that this wasn't the right time to pour cold water on them.
But he had to. He just had to find a way to do it himself.
"We can use the emperor's absolute power to get this done! Whoever gets out of line, we'll just kill them!"
Kiana slapped her forehead and came up with a "very bold" solution.
"You idiot. Are you planning to regress to a slave society?"
Noldrei rolled his eyes at her. He shouldn't have had any high expectations for this moron.
Kiana said, looking troubled, "But I can't think of a more useful method than centralizing power. How can I help you with these problems you're talking about when I haven't even experienced them?"
She smiled and said, "You have to believe in the wisdom of future generations!"
Realizing she sounded a bit strange, Kiana quickly changed the subject. "I'm not trying to shirk my responsibilities... Wait, why do I feel like I've done something wrong? What's with the way you guys are looking at me?"
Elysia patted Kiana's head comfortingly. "Alright, if you can't think of a solution yourself, don't cause any more trouble for your adoptive father. If you feel you're not doing a good job, you can always turn into Sirin and call him 'Papa.' Maybe that will make him a little happier?"
"If it would really make him happy, I would..." Kiana felt strange precisely because she knew she couldn't help him right now.
Dr. Tesla felt that something wasn't quite right. She had seen Noldrei's actions somewhere before.
Creating a new social environment, trying to create new humans who could help him think and bring about change...
This behavior seemed to be a part of Proliferationism itself.
Dr. Tesla seemed to have realized the crucial point.