Fu Hua sat at the head of the table, her back straight as a pine, but the lingering weariness deep in her eyes was clearly visible to those familiar with her.
Although she lay quietly on the bed for a while after returning, that little bit of rest time couldn't even patch a crack for what they had experienced.
The tea in front of her had long gone cold, with not a ripple on the surface.
Himeko leaned against the wall, arms crossed, holding a glass of dark red wine. She swirled it unconsciously, with no intention of drinking it.
Her gaze swept over the roadmap of actions on the tactical tablet, which had been rehearsed twice but ultimately proved flawed or encountered crushing intervention. Her brows were tightly furrowed.
She was reviewing every detail, every exchange of fire, the cold and efficient reaction speed of the Shenzhou official soldiers, the positions where armored vehicles appeared, the precise moment communications were cut...
Error.
This word hovered in her mind. Their actions might be full of these "errors" in the eyes of the opponent, but she couldn't see them herself.
She was trying to find, to locate potential "errors" from the plan she had racked her brains to deploy.
Kallen sat on a hardwood chair. She hadn't taken over the Arahato armor from Joachim yet, but her sitting posture still carried the instinctive alertness of a warrior.
She moved her shoulders slightly—there was a memory of deep pain left by the restraints in the last loop. Although her body had been reset, her nerves seemed to remember the feeling of being suppressed by absolute power.
She looked at Yae Sakura standing silently by the window. The latter was like a cold statue, only showing a ripple in her eyes when she occasionally glanced at the uneasy Yae Rin protected behind Joachim.
What Kallen brought was not only Joachim and Yae Rin but also a silent proof of the "powerlessness of individual strength in the face of the system."
Natasha's virtual projection hovered in a corner of the room. Her image looked more "solid" than the previous two times, seeming to invest more computing power to maintain this connection.
This time, she directly brought a batch of equipment from the branch.
Her fingertips swiped quickly on an invisible operation interface, retrieving data, but more often she observed everyone in the room silently, especially the newly joined Joachim.
The feedback data of her mechs damaged in the last loop had been registered by her relying on memory, reminding her of the fragility of the plan.
The pressure was real.
It wasn't fear of the unknown, but anxiety about the repetitive possibility of "known failure."
Everyone was trapped in their own thoughts, ruminating on the "mistakes" they might have made in the last loop.
Fu Hua wondered if the training for the Seven Swords wasn't extreme enough, or if she underestimated the impact of the momentary chaos of the Honkai outbreak on the Sword Heart;
Himeko doubted if her command was flexible enough, or if she was bound by "future experience";
Kallen reflected on whether she was too ostentatious as bait, becoming a target for concentrated fire instead;
Natasha calculated if there was room for optimization in the timing and location of supply drops...
This feeling of not getting a clear answer, or rather being unable to reach the answer on their own, deeply oppressed their thinking, forcing their logic to repeatedly ponder over things that had already happened.
As if... they hadn't truly escaped the cycle, but were trapped in the past by "failure."
In such oppressive silence, Joachim, who hadn't personally experienced failure yet, stood up.
But even so, he looked much more... sedate than the City of the Future elite who talked eloquently with sharp eyes and seemingly everything under control during the "first loop."
That spirited sharpness was ground down quite a bit, replaced by a solemnity after deep thought.
That was the "cognitive burden" inherited from the information conveyed by Kallen from the "previous self," containing details of two failures and heavy conclusions.
He walked to the simple long wooden table in the center of the room, his fingers gently brushing over the rough texture of the table, as if confirming the "reality" of this world.
He didn't look at anyone immediately, but seemed to be organizing his thoughts, also gathering strength for what he was about to say.
"Everyone," his voice sounded, not loud, but clearly pulling everyone's attention, dispelling some of the dullness of their separate concerns.
"First, we must be clear on one point: our previous direction was not wrong."
He raised his head, his gaze slowly sweeping over Fu Hua, Himeko, Kallen, Natasha, and the others.
"Analyzing the source of the disaster, locking onto key variables, planning in advance, buying time, protecting potential allies, clearing clear threats... this is the most rational and positive action logic facing an unknown crisis.
"The core framework of all the efforts we made in these two loops is valid. Even in the second time, because we had the experience of the first time, our actions were earlier and more decisive, theoretically yielding better results."
He paused to let these words sink in.
"But, we failed.
"And, the 'failure' of the second time, to some extent, was more thorough than the first.
"Because we personally experienced what kind of resolute, rapid, and overwhelming counter-measures our actions of trying to forcibly change the trajectory relying on 'advanced cognition' and 'individual or small group power' would encounter at this time node, within the established 'order framework' of this city."
Joachim's tone was flat, without complaint, just stating a cold fact.
"The problem is not that we chose to intervene too late. Twelve hours countdown, this is our limit."
"The problem is also not that our target selection was wrong. Clearing those targets who would accelerate the disaster or turn into high-risk zombies in the Honkai is an effective means to reduce initial pressure."
"The problem is not even entirely that we underestimated the reaction speed of the Shenzhou officials."
He looked at Himeko and Fu Hua, "We actually overestimated as much as possible, but we still underestimated.
"Because the 'battlefield' we are used to is the ruins after order collapses, a confrontation of equal strength, or infiltration and assault.
"But here, at the last moment before the disaster officially descends, the violent machine maintaining the operation of this huge country still maintains peak, pervasive control.
"Towards any 'individual heroism' trying to act according to a 'non-official script' in 'their' city..."
Joachim deliberately emphasized the words "individual heroism" here, with a trace of bitter self-mockery.
"...They possess absolute, unquestionable suppressive power.
"This is not a question of strength or weakness on the combat level, this is crushing on the 'rules' level... We tried to be a special piece rampaging within the rules of the chessboard.
"And they are the chess players and maintainers of the chessboard itself."