The Director-General of Academy City summoned the world's elite Honkai-fighting members. They needed to devise an ultimate solution to deal with the Honkai, which was... figuring out a way to lure it out.
"Lure out the Cocoon of Finality? Is something like that... even possible?"
From Welt Yang's perspective, if the Cocoon of Finality didn't want to reveal itself, there was no way to force it out of its hidden state.
"What kind of plan is this? How can you even go 'fishing' in a situation like this?!"
Tesla felt that the world had become incomprehensible. The Honkai's ultimate form, the Cocoon of Finality, was actively hiding in the deepest recesses of humanity's collective consciousness. The very idea was absurd, yet it perfectly fit the law that the stronger the civilization, the stronger the Honkai. The Honkai parasitized the development of human civilization, building its Herrscher system upon human suffering.
"Yeah, being able to 'fish' for it... I never would have expected it."
Einstein felt that either the world had gone mad, or she had. The Cocoon of Finality's act of hiding was like a child throwing a tantrum. You'd think it was some reclusive deity like Amaterasu from the Far East.
"It could have just come out and faced us head-on, but instead it's hiding and fighting a guerrilla war of civilizations with us?"
Bronya no longer used a respectful pronoun for the Honkai, opting instead for the neutral "it." The Honkai's infiltration of humanity was too shallow, far beyond what a future human could have imagined.
"I didn't call you all here to complain about these Honkai-related troubles. To expose the Cocoon of Finality, we not only need to gather all the Cores, but we also need the power of the Herrscher of Origin to become a vital tool in our hands."
"If we can't solve the problem hiding in the Stigma dreams, then even if we transcend the solar system, the Honkai will still follow us like a shadow, affecting human civilization. This thing is getting rather annoying. Or perhaps..."
Noldrei looked at everyone present and asked calmly, "Are you all planning to become new humans who don't need to dream, like me?"
"No thanks. I've evolved enough for now." Cocolia immediately shook her head, rejecting the idea of abandoning the ability to dream. She didn't want to lose too much of her own system.
"We can discuss whether we want to dream in the future later. The current situation is that when humans dream, their brains undergo certain changes, and the information generated during this process connects with the Honkai... What I don't understand is, with the abilities of a Herrscher, you could create many things similar to the changes in a human dream. Why is the Honkai so obsessed with human consciousness? Can we use this as a starting point to speculate on the Cocoon of Finality's objective?"
Welt Yang was still a very sharp guy. It seemed the MVP for dealing with the Honkai in the later stages would have to be him.
"I have a rather... unrefined idea."
Kiana had been thinking for a long time. Her sudden comment immediately drew everyone's attention. Sirin, in particular, couldn't understand what kind of solution she could possibly propose.
Kiana paid no mind to their surprised expressions. The method she had thought of was actually very simple: openly use another Imaginary channel to compete with the Honkai for control over humanity.
"Now that we understand the essence of the Honkai, and the incompatibility between Honkai Energy and Imaginary Energy, couldn't we use the Stigma battlesuits to seize control of the Stigma dreams from the Honkai's Finality?"
"Here's the thing. Since it needs the Stigma dreams, we should just fight it for control over humanity's dreams. Doesn't it want humans to dream? To complete the external construction of the Cocoon of Finality?"
"Well, that's great. We'll just use a reverse strategy. By promoting the Stigma battlesuits, we'll guide all of humanity's dreams to our side. We just need to create a more realistic virtual dream space."
"A person can have layers upon layers of dreams. But they cannot have two dreams from completely different channels at the same time. This is due to the limitations of a person's subjective consciousness. It's like how I can dream about Sirin, but I can't see the dream she sees."
"What we need to do is give humanity the power to create a second Stigma dream. By creating differentiation and competition between Stigma dreams, the Cocoon of Finality will be forced to expose itself to us!"
"A person can have many dreams, but the Stigma dream can only have one emperor!"
After Kiana finished explaining her plan, everyone was left in stunned silence.
The logic was actually very simple.
In Kiana's view, no matter what humans dreamed about, the channel connecting their collective dreams didn't have to be in the Honkai's hands.
In other words, if they guided humanity to actively embrace another mental utopia, it would cause them to abandon the Stigma dream where the Cocoon of Finality was parasitic.
They would shift from "humans desiring dreams because of their own suffering and needs" to "humans actively seizing control of the authority to dream for their own tangible benefit."
It was a special identity shift, from "I am a consumer of the Infinite Tsukuyomi" to "I am the creator of the Infinite Tsukuyomi." As this identity changes, human needs will come into conflict with the very existence of the Stigma dream.
Kiana's meaning was simple: give humanity the collective power to create their own dreams. To do that, they had to prove they could truly create a mental utopia separate from the Honkai.
"Excellent! An outstanding suggestion! I never thought... I never thought Kiana would have grown to this extent! In order to lure out the Cocoon, we'll first create a Cocoon of our own! A truly brilliant idea!"
"The Cocoon, in order to protect its own existence from being replaced, will inevitably come into conflict with us! Thus, it will be forced from an active role into a reactive one!"
Noldrei was ecstatic. He never imagined Kiana could come up with such a breathtaking proposal.
Everyone looked at each other, and the atmosphere became somewhat awkward and silent.
They had never thought that they would gradually evolve from a group fighting against the Honkai to one that was about to create a Honkai.
"Let me process this, let me process this..."
Raiden Ryoma was a bit lost. He hadn't attended these meetings in a while. He never knew you could play the game like this.
"So, how do we create... I mean, how do we create a new Cocoon?"
He didn't understand why Kiana spoke of creating a Cocoon so casually.
Kiana wasn't just talking nonsense. She honestly shared her thoughts, "It's simple. We can just go to a parallel world and steal their Herrscher Cores, right? We can modify the Herrscher Cores however we want and make them design a new connection channel for the Honkai according to our plan."
"That way, we can design a new 'Cocoon' that conflicts with the Cocoon of our world."
"Then, the original Cocoon of Finality will become the 'stand-in'!"
"In the process, we can even create a new world where everyone is a Herrscher!"
Kiana was truly a genius. She had even thought of an excellent way to overthrow her own imperial authority.