"Today's random Heavenly Drop is... a cat?" Chen Li's gaze landed on the familiar hole in the ceiling.
At the edge of the hole sat a calico cat, peering down into Chen Li's room.
And as soon as Chen Li and Big Herta appeared, it seemed to flip a switch in the calico cat. It leapt straight down...
"Herta, careful. The Entries on this cat are very bright," Chen Li warned, seeing that the cat wasn't lunging toward him, but pouncing straight toward Big Herta instead.
Before making physical contact with the target, Chen Li could only vaguely perceive the brightness of their Entries, unable to see the specific details.
"It's just a mere calico cat..." Having calculated the cat's landing trajectory, Big Herta reached her hand right into its inevitable path.
Big Herta wasn't underestimating the developmental potential of these Heavenly Drops. Rather, according to her analysis, all the world-destroying seeds that appeared in Chen Li's room were currently just seeds. Before they fully matured, they were extremely easy to handle.
"..." Chen Li just stood to the side, quietly watching Big Herta.
Chen Li felt that Big Herta's current state looked incredibly familiar.
It was almost identical to the myriad of brain-dead villains he encountered whenever he was sucked into the Vortex of Fate. They all acted as if their heads had been slammed in a door, completely devoid of intelligence.
To this, Chen Li's evaluation was: She's eaten too much of the Intelligence Reduction Aura.
The result did not exceed Chen Li's expectations. Just as Big Herta tried to grab the feline, the cat falling from the ceiling directly grabbed Big Herta's arm with its front paws and gave her a... judo shoulder throw?!
Smack! Big Herta slammed flat onto the floor, while the cat lightly landed on Chen Li's bed and began licking its paws.
"???" Flung to the ground in the blink of an eye, Big Herta was completely stunned.
What just happened?
"From today onward, the probability of an Emanator of Erudition being shoulder-thrown by a cat is very low, but it is no longer zero."
"Stop making sarcastic remarks and help me up."
Chen Li helped Big Herta to her feet. She stared fixedly at the calico cat, seemingly having realized something.
Big Herta was very cautious. Big Herta probed back and forth. Big Herta...
Big Herta watched as Chen Li effortlessly grabbed the calico cat by the scruff of its neck, instantly subduing it.
"It's... that simple?" Big Herta couldn't quite believe it.
She felt like this calico cat was holding back some ultimate move, but why did it only use its ultimate move on her?!
"It's just that simple. Want to know what Entries are on this calico cat?" Chen Li asked, holding the cat with one hand.
"Stop keeping me in suspense, just tell me."
"[Luck], [Weakness], [Camouflage], [Underestimation], [Reversal], [Reincarnation]..."
"What a messy jumble of Entries." Big Herta frowned.
"It really is a mess. I can't guess what this cat's specific ability is either, but it feels like a gimmick monster. And you just happened to trigger its gimmick," Chen Li said.
"Aren't you able to observe objects from the perspective of the World? Why don't you give it a try? After all, these world-destroying seeds are gifts bestowed upon you by the World." Big Herta had a bright idea.
"Rather than calling them gifts, isn't it more like it's forcing me to clean up these troublesome messes?" Chen Li grumbled.
Ever since Chen Li learned that the highest level of Collective Consciousness he could awaken was called "Will of Heaven", he had been wondering: if the World itself possessed consciousness, did that mean it couldn't directly interfere or personally eliminate known threats, and could only solve them through indirect guidance?
Or perhaps there were strict limitations on it acting personally.
But the World could manipulate probability to choose where these bizarre anomalies spawned.
For example, right at Chen Li's doorstep.
Just like how the probability of a cat shoulder-throwing an Emanator of Erudition was no longer zero, the probability of these bizarre anomalies continuously appearing in Chen Li's house through sheer "coincidence" was also not zero.
It was astronomically small, but not zero.
Big Herta's suggestion was highly constructive, so Chen Li looked at the cat in his hand again.
Overclocking State, activate!
Overclocking State, terminate!
"How was it? Did you spot anything abnormal about this cat?" Big Herta asked.
"I saw way too much information. So much that I can't accurately filter out which piece of data explains this cat's existence. But I should be able to use [Then I Ask You] to question it." Chen Li pulled out a Miracle Card.
Chen Li's experience just now was like asking someone for their name, only for them to reply: Spaghetti should be mixed with No. 42 concrete, and fried chicken nuggets need 92-octane gasoline. After all, we cannot use optical lenses to detect Socrates. If hydrogen dioxide continues to erode this machine tool component, we'll sooner or later have to install collagen on the Fibonacci curve, otherwise we won't be able to alter the superposition state of Mixue Ice Cream & Tea and Albek...
The answer was definitely buried somewhere within that data, but Chen Li had zero desire to play a puzzle-solving game!
"Don't rush to use the Miracle Card just yet. Perhaps... I have a trick!" Hearing that Chen Li could see the information but gave up thinking because it was too complex, Big Herta's eyes lit up.
"Put your little trick away." Chen Li took a step back.
"Don't be so tense! As the saying goes, strangers the first time, friends the second. Be a good boy..." Big Herta advanced step by step.
"I'm just afraid you'll accidentally bite my lip open while you're under the bad luck curse."
"Don't worry, I'll be gentle..."
Since the issue wasn't that he couldn't see the information, but rather that there was too much of it, wouldn't it be solved by finding someone who could only see one specific question?
Big Herta reached out to tilt... this time, it was Chen Li who tilted Big Herta's chin up.
...
"Mmph, I see..." Big Herta mumbled, covering her mouth, her voice a bit slurred.
Chen Li had gotten the issue backward.
If Big Herta was in a state of extreme bad luck, then when she used Chen Li as a conversion plug, the bad luck shouldn't harm the plug—it should harm her.
The one who suffered should be Big Herta.
Just like right now.
"Come on, stick your tongue out, I'll heal it for you."
"Ah..."
The power of Abundance landed on Big Herta's extended tongue, instantly healing the bite mark.
"I understand now. This little thing possesses a special ability: it relies on [Luck] to allow the weak to defeat the strong. It can overcome incredibly powerful enemies using randomized, feeble methods. The worse the opponent's luck, the higher its chance of victory." Despite her lingering reluctance to leave the hyper-dimensional state, Big Herta explained the cat's gimmick to Chen Li.
"So that's why it targeted you instead of me? Because right now, no matter what you do, if there's even the slightest probability of failure, you will absolutely fail?" Chen Li understood.
This was the price of being hated by the World.
If one out of 10,000 people was destined to have bad luck, that person would definitely be you.
If you played a random game of rock-paper-scissors, winning even one out of 100 rounds would be considered a loss for the World.
For you, probability no longer existed, because every single unlucky event was an absolute certainty.
Furthermore, this degree of bad luck would continuously intensify as time went on.
Heaven births all things to nourish man, yet man offers nothing to repay Heaven.
The World had nourished you for so long, yet you were unwilling to offer it any gifts in return.
You're so selfish, only thinking about yourself!
"Exactly," Big Herta nodded.
"But what does this little thing have to do with destroying the world?"
"Because this little thing will use the weakest organism in its vicinity as a template to generate its form, fitting people's definition of 'weakness' to invoke underestimation from surrounding creatures. And every time it defeats someone deemed 'strong' in the eyes of others while in its weak form, it subverts common sense within a certain radius. After all, the weak defeating the strong is inherently a subversion of common sense. It will keep doing this until it completely overturns the laws of the entire world."
"Subverts common sense? Oh crap, did it just defeat you earlier?" Chen Li froze, then immediately sprinted out of his house.
Actually, he didn't even need to run outside. Just standing at the doorway, Chen Li acutely sensed the abnormalities in the surrounding [Connections].
Normally, in Chen Li's eyes, the connections between all things appeared as threads of varying colors linking everything together. But right now, these threads had become chaotic and mismatched.
Stepping out the door, Chen Li saw water flowing uphill, and a man walking down the street carrying his bicycle on his shoulders...
After watching the man walk a long distance away from his house, the man finally set the bicycle down and started riding it normally. From start to finish, the man never once felt suspicious about the fact that he had been carrying his bike, nor was he surprised that the water in the gutters was flowing backward.
"...You're pretty formidable, aren't you, little thing?" Chen Li lifted the cat, which he was still holding by the scruff of its neck as it brandished its claws.
A moment later, Big Herta followed him outside.
"Big Herta, are you... are you okay?" Chen Li originally wanted to ask what else she saw, but seeing her battered state, he changed his question.
Currently, Big Herta's black tights had several torn holes, her clothes were dirty, and her face was somehow smeared with black soot.
"I-I'm fine, I just missed a step while coming down the stairs," Big Herta shook her head.
"Ah? Then you'd better be careful. Otherwise, the first Genius Club member to die from tripping on stairs is going to be born." Chen Li used his [Fictional Historian] ability to restore Big Herta's damaged state back to how she was two minutes ago.
"It's not a big deal. Let's solve the problem at hand first," Big Herta said, looking at the chaos within a 500-meter radius centered around Chen Li's house.
"And whose fault do you think this is? Who asked you to be so unlucky?" Chen Li rolled his eyes at her and pulled out the [Myriad Phenomena Severance].
Since the connections between all things were disrupted by this cat, he just needed to cut all those connections and splice them back together correctly one by one.
Fortunately, Chen Li hadn't lost to the cat, so only seven or eight connections in this area had gone haywire. Otherwise, Chen Li would have just given up on the treatment altogether.
Big Herta was naturally a top-tier powerhouse, but the reason her defeat didn't cause a massive, widespread anomaly was because Chen Li, as the observer, subconsciously felt that Big Herta—who was currently hated by the World—losing to a normal cat wasn't all that surprising.
"That's not the only reason. Unless someone is protected by overwhelming good fortune, or possesses a special ability similar to its own, anyone could easily lose to this cat. Because it can afford to make infinite mistakes, but you can only afford to make one. That's the terrifying part about this creature," Big Herta explained.
If an adult arm-wrestled a child, the adult winning 100 times was perfectly logical. But if the child won once, people would exclaim in shock at the child's terrifying potential.
While they chatted, Chen Li had already severed the incorrect connections and restored everything back to normal.
Using the [Myriad Phenomena Severance] to cut things didn't require a price, but splicing did.
And the corresponding price Chen Li paid this time was... for a period of time, any truths he spoke had a probability of being mistaken for lies by others.
Restoring some incorrect connections to "correct" meant paying the price of turning some "correct" things into "errors." It was very balanced.
"Thank goodness you were the only one who observed me being defeated by the cat this time, otherwise the subverted area would have been much larger." Seeing Chen Li resolve the issue, Big Herta finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Although she might have still lost to the cat even if she wasn't cursed by the World, if she hadn't wanted to test the curse, she wouldn't have followed Chen Li to his house, and naturally wouldn't have been defeated.
As for Chen Li, he possessed the passive trait of a transmigrator, and his Restraint Bracelet ensured he wasn't bound by fate or probability, so he didn't need to worry about losing to the cat at all.
"The more people who observe the common-sense subversion, the larger the area of effect? This little thing really is terrifying."
"Exactly. So, how do you plan to handle it?"
"Butcher it."
"Keep it as a pet? I highly advise against that."
"I said... never mind, you're right, I can't keep it." Chen Li originally wanted to explain that he said "butcher it" not "keep it", but realizing this was the price he had to pay (his truth being heard as a lie), he just accepted it.
"I'll leave this cat for Mobius to handle."
"What are you planning?"
"Isn't it a coincidence? Among the Thirteen Flame-Chasers, there also happens to be a 'cat'. And this cat just so happens to have incredibly good luck—luck so good it can be used as a literal superpower. Since Mobius is going to fuse with the Greedy Snake, having Pardofelis fuse with a cat is perfectly reasonable, right?" Chen Li glanced at the unnamed but absurdly broken cat and locked it inside his Friends Circle inventory.
Pardofelis's luck was genuinely outrageous. It was so ridiculous that her purely ethereal "luck" was given a concrete mission by the hyper-rational Dr. MEI: Use your luck to open a backdoor near the Cocoon of Finality, creating an opportunity for Prometheus No. 17 to hack into the program known as the Honkai.
And ironically, Pardo actually succeeded.
Among the Thirteen Flame-Chasers, the one Chen Li was most worried about was Pardo, because she truly was very weak.
But this cat just so happened to use luck to influence the probability of the weak defeating the strong.
As for the issue of the world becoming chaotic after common sense was subverted... he could just extract that specific Entry.
Or let Mobius figure it out.
...
"Hmm... A cat with the ability to subvert common sense? No problem. If I use the scalpel, I might be able to change the target of 'subversion' from the rules of the world to a specific designated target. I can turn it from a tool that destroys the world into a tool that destroys enemies." Looking at the cat Chen Li was holding, Mobius instantly formulated an idea after hearing his explanation.
The ability to "subvert" was very interesting.
If Pardo could use her luck to influence the probability of the weak defeating the strong, and chose to subvert the enemy's senses instead of the world's rules, then Pardo could much more smoothly... run away.
Make Pardo fight? Why would you dream of something so cruel!
Just have Pardo give a Herrscher a judo shoulder throw, subvert their senses, and then let her teammates rush in and beat them up.
At the very least, it would elevate Pardo from zero-contribution to the ultimate assist master.
That way, in the future, when Kevin proudly declared, "Every single one of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers possesses the ability to solo a Herrscher," he could say it with a slightly straighter face.
As for how to handle the cat right now, Mobius's choice was to make a single incision on its tail.
This way, the cat would enter a "surgical state" and remain completely immobilized.
Although killing the cat directly was an option, Chen Li mentioned that this cat had [Reincarnation]. The moment it died, it would randomly reincarnate into the weakest organism nearby, taking all of its unique traits with it.
"Are you sure you don't need me to enhance your scalpel?" Chen Li asked.
Chen Li increasingly felt that giving Mobius a scalpel forged for a mere 20 Crystals was deeply underutilizing her talents.
"No need," Mobius shook her head.
Mobius felt that if Chen Li had idle Crystals, he might as well forge a Curio that allowed her to evolve infinitely instead.
"So, how was your harvest in the Elysian Realm?" Chen Li asked, taking a look at the surrounding scenery.
Currently, Chen Li was inside the Elysian Realm.
Mobius had come here yesterday to find her sim, Sim Mobius, and had been living here ever since.
Because the Elysian Realm housed a laboratory that perfectly aligned with Mobius's aesthetics and was best suited for her to unleash her potential.
—That's right, Mobius had hijacked Sim Mobius's laboratory.
"The harvest is quite good. Sim Mobius hasn't been idle during these 50,000 years. Although she didn't have the help of the scalpel, which slowed down her research progress, she still came up with some highly ingenious designs. Do you want to meet her?" Mobius asked.
Sim Mobius possessed all of Mobius's memories, plus an additional 50,000 years of time (the Elysian Realm was built in the Previous Era; the Pioneers slept for 50,000 years and woke up 5,000 years ago, but the sims inside the realm never slept). Mobius had spent a whole day and still hadn't completely emptied out Sim Mobius's "stash."
However, because Sim Mobius spent every waking moment obsessing over her plan to escape the Elysian Realm, her research direction had become somewhat skewed, meaning she hadn't progressed that much further than the Mobius of 50,000 years ago.
But she was still stronger than the current Mobius.
At the very least, the current Mobius had only just learned how to perform Fusion Surgery.
At the same time, Sim Mobius was indeed exactly as Chen Li had described: a 100-pound body housing 98 pounds of pure rebellion...
"I don't think that's necessary, is it? It feels kinda weird."
"What's weird about it? She's your property."
"My property?"
"Right. Didn't we sign a contract before? All experimental subjects belonging to me belong to you. That includes Gray Serpent, and it also includes Sim Mobius. Why do you think I was able to extract all this knowledge from my sim so easily?"
"I thought you scammed her with the Compulsory Transaction Gold Coin."
"She was scammed by the Compulsory Transaction Gold Coin, but not yesterday. It was 50,000 years ago," Mobius shook her head.
"Then I guess I could go see her... Where is Sim Mobius?"
"Klein," Mobius called into her intercom.
"Doctor." A moment later, the Armed ELF Klein walked into the lab.
Although Mobius had not yet met the real Klein in this era, she was already highly proficient at using the Armed ELF Klein.
Perhaps because the Armed ELF Klein was originally created by Mobius according to her own preferences, using her felt extremely natural.
"Take Chen Li to see Sim Mobius."
"Understood, Doctor. Please follow me, Chen Li. Because her laboratory was hijacked by Doctor Mobius, Sim Mobius is rarely staying in her own room. I will take you to her. If you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask, because I am also an experimental subject belonging to Doctor Mobius," Klein said.
"Alright..."
BOOM!
Not long after Chen Li followed Armed ELF Klein out of Mobius's lab, a series of violent explosions echoed from behind them.
"Oh no! The laboratory!" Sensing something terrible had happened, Klein immediately sprinted back.
Chen Li ran back with her. Pushing open the smoke-filled laboratory doors, he saw Mobius and Big Herta, both covered in soot but otherwise uninjured.
"What happened?"
Cough, cough! "Ask her," Mobius coughed, pointing at Big Herta.
"Well, it started when I picked up a snake plushie on Mobius's experiment table..." Big Herta hesitated.
Big Herta had been chatting with Mobius about the Cocoon of Finality when she saw the plushie. After getting Mobius's permission, she picked it up, and then... half a second after a rapid beep-beep sound, the snake plushie violently detonated, blowing up the entire laboratory.
Big Herta had done her best to contain the blast, but the lab was still blown to pieces.
The only thing worth celebrating was...
"Why is the only pristine thing in this entire laboratory your hat?" Chen Li couldn't help but stare at the pointy hat on Big Herta's head.
In the filthy, soot-covered laboratory, the spotlessness of that hat was downright terrifying.
"That's not important! Just use your Fiction Value to restore this lab," Big Herta deflected, looking everywhere but at him.
It all came down to Big Herta's damned competitive spirit.
If I say I won't let the World snatch this hat from me, then I won't let 'It' take it!
Snap! Chen Li snapped his fingers, using his fictional powers to revert the laboratory, Big Herta, and Mobius back to their exact states right before the explosion.
Mobius walked over to the snake plushie, which had also been rewound, with a completely ice-cold expression.
With Big Herta's painful lesson, Mobius finally discovered the problem... There was an explosive device hidden inside the plushie that detonated whenever touched by a living human.
And currently, inside the Elysian Realm—excluding the newly arrived Chen Li and Big Herta—Mobius was the only living human.
So, who was this plushie originally targeting? The answer was glaringly obvious.
"Mobius!" Mobius gritted her teeth, spitting out her own name with venom.
To understand Mobius this deeply, to perfectly grasp her preferences, and to be absolutely certain that she would play with this specific plushie—other than a certain sim whose entire body was made of pure rebellion, Mobius couldn't think of anyone else.
"Maybe it's because I'm just too unlucky... Perhaps your sim just wanted to play a little joke on you," Big Herta stroked her chin.
"I don't believe that for a second," Mobius shook her head.
"Right now, I am going to find Sim Mobius, and I am going to shove this snake down her throat! I won't be entertaining you two any longer." Mobius declared as she removed her equilibrium device.
"Wait, take me with you," Big Herta raised her hand.
"No. The only one allowed to bully me is me," Mobius flatly refused.
"I can share a secret with you. A secret that can help you observe the World much better."
"Hmm?"
"It's like this, and like that..." Big Herta leaned into Mobius's ear and whispered.
"Chen Li can be used like that?" Hearing the secret from Big Herta's mouth, Mobius stared fixedly at Chen Li with the gaze of someone examining a miraculous new tool.
"Don't look at me like that! Mobius, calm down!" Chen Li was startled by Mobius's fervent gaze.
"You didn't deny it, which means it's true! Let me try it!" Mobius took two steps forward, her eyes burning with fanaticism.
"Ah, I suddenly remembered that today is Theresa's coronation ceremony, and I need to go crown her... Also, neither of you are allowed to tell anyone else about this!" Taking two steps back, Chen Li chose to bravely run away.
Being intimate with beautiful girls was fine, but they couldn't seriously treat him like a public USB port!
Couldn't they at least start with a pure physical relationship first?!
Besides, Chen Li really had received a message from Gray Serpent.
With a quick backstep, Chen Li retreated directly to Raiden Mei's house.
"Wait, I haven't gotten in the car yet!" Seeing Chen Li vanish, Big Herta started to panic.
Being afflicted by Chen Li's 'World Rejection' curse, having Chen Li by her side versus not having him were two entirely different difficulty levels.
Because as long as Chen Li was nearby, she could feed him at any time to temporarily lift the curse.
There were some things you didn't need to use, but you absolutely couldn't live without having them on hand.
"Forget it. It's not a big deal." Big Herta quickly calmed herself down.
Even without Chen Li, I, Big Herta, can still protect this hat on my head!
"On the contrary, Chen Li's last sentence is much more intriguing. Did Chen Li just say we are allowed to tell others about this?" Big Herta looked at Mobius, who was looking slightly disappointed by Chen Li's escape.
"I think so," Mobius recalled for a moment and nodded.
"Although I don't know why Chen Li would say that, since he gave his permission, I obviously have to share the good news with my bestie." Big Herta excitedly began typing a message to Ruan Mei.
"But if too many people know, won't the competition become fierce? After all, there's only one Chen Li," Mobius worried.
"Don't worry. Since Chen Li allowed it, he definitely has his own considerations. Who knows, maybe he has a Curio that can solve this exact problem."
"That's true..." Mobius didn't quite understand, but she chose to respect Chen Li's decision.
...
"What? Because Chen Li ate the World, connecting with him allows you to observe the World from a hyper-dimensional perspective?"
"What? Kissing Chen Li lets you connect to the World from a higher dimension?"
"What? Kissing Chen Li can transcend the World?"
"What? F*cking Chen Li equals kissing the World?!"
"What? F*cking Chen Li grants the World's blessing?! Where can I sign up?!"
...
"...Mei, Kiana, do you feel like they're looking at me really weirdly? Do you have any idea why?" When Chen Li arrived at the Schicksal Overseer succession ceremony via a secondary teleport, he immediately noticed the strange gazes of his group members. Thus, he sought out the only two people who weren't looking at him like a piece of prime real estate.
"No idea," both of them shook their heads in genuine bewilderment.
"Whatever, talking won't solve it. Let's just have Theresa succeed the position of Overseer first, and then formalize the alliance with Anti-Entropy and World Serpent," Chen Li muttered before looking up at the high stage.
Today was Theresa's Overseer succession ceremony, and preparations for a globally synchronized live broadcast were already complete.
World Serpent had no objections to who became the Schicksal Overseer, but Anti-Entropy had massive objections.
Even though the Anti-Entropy higher-ups had strung Otto up and beaten him for a full day and night, they still refused to cooperate with a Schicksal led by Otto.
That was their absolute bottom line!
Therefore, this succession ceremony was crucial.
Because only after Theresa inherited the position of Schicksal Overseer and represented Schicksal in forming the "Anti-Honkai Big Three" alliance with the other two factions, would Chen Li—as the mastermind behind this monumental historical milestone—gain a massive amount of Civilization Value.
As for Otto himself, he had zero complaints about stepping down from the Overseer position. In fact, being given plenty of free time to watch ads and prepare for Kallen's resurrection made Otto happier than words could describe!
He was literally so happy he couldn't speak.
"Mmph! Mmmph!" Otto was currently struggling frantically.
But having a burlap sack tightly bound over him, leaving only his head exposed, with a gag stuffed in his mouth while being suspended in mid-air, Otto fundamentally lacked the physical strength to break free on his own.
"Um... shouldn't we let my grandfather down now? The global broadcast is about to start, and he needs to give a speech," Theresa, who was already wearing the newly redesigned Overseer uniform that Amber had stayed up all night to tailor, asked hesitantly.
Although Otto being unable to speak wasn't entirely due to his "happiness", his absolute resolve to step down was indeed a fact.
After receiving Otto's explicit instructions, Amber, naturally acting as the Overseer's secretary, had also been "inherited" by Theresa.
Although Amber wasn't entirely sure if the heavily bruised Otto on the video call had a gun pointed at his head off-screen, Theresa was undeniably the legitimate heir to the Schicksal Overseer position.
The most authentic kind.
Furthermore, Amber and Theresa were actually from the same batch of experimental clones—Theresa was A310, and Amber was A303. Add to that the fact that Theresa had once saved Amber's life, Amber accepted this new arrangement very easily.
The only minor issue was that since Schicksal HQ had been pocketed by Sirin as a collectible, Schicksal had no choice but to officially "rent" their own headquarters back from Sirin.
"Principal Theresa, what silly things are you saying? The reason for Otto's abdication is that he is suffering from incurable injuries and his health is rapidly deteriorating... Of course we have to hit him harder! Otherwise, how can we portray the feeling that Otto is on his deathbed? We can't just have him step down for the sake of stepping down; we must show everyone Otto's most authentic self! I am Otto's makeup artist! I will not allow such unprofessionalism to occur on my watch!" Welt declared righteously.
If they didn't act it out convincingly, what if the people of the world saw through the flaws?
Welt felt absolutely zero guilt about beating up someone else's grandfather right in front of them.
"It doesn't look like acting," Theresa said, utterly speechless as she watched Welt land heavy, meaty punches on her grandfather.
Theresa had only found out today that Welt, the Sovereign of Anti-Entropy, had been working as a history teacher at St. Freya Academy this whole time.
Theresa really wanted to interrogate Welt: What do you think St. Freya is? Do you think my academy is Anti-Entropy's back garden? You just come and go as you please!
"It doesn't matter, Otto doesn't feel pain." Welt waved his hand dismissively.
"Really?" Theresa was a bit uncertain.
Everyone knew humans felt pain, but Otto wasn't human. Otto's body was made of Soulium.
So perhaps Otto truly didn't have pain receptors.
"I don't know, but I feel like he doesn't have pain receptors." Welt pushed his glasses up his nose.
...
"Greetings, friends across the world. I am Otto Apocalypse, Overseer of the Schicksal organization. As some of you may already know, the Earth we live on periodically suffers from disasters known as the Honkai. Yes, for the sake of confidentiality, they were previously glossed over in the news as 'unidentified disasters'..."
During this abdication speech, Otto passionately and emotionally explained the Honkai to the public, summarized the current situation, and looked forward to the future.
"As expected of Overseer Otto. To be able to so perfectly portray the image of a 'great leader, dragging his sickly body, voluntarily stepping down to allow a new generation of heroes to lead Schicksal toward a better tomorrow during this era of great change.' It's truly a flawless performance. Especially the 'sickly body' part—anyone with eyes can see it."
"Indeed."
"You did a great job, Welt."
"You flatter me. I will continue to work hard in the days to come. I'll make sure Otto continuously surpasses himself, bringing an even more vivid and lifelike portrayal of a 'sickly body' to the world."
While Otto delivered his abdication speech on stage, Welt was delivering his own bizarre acceptance speech off-stage.
After Otto finished his speech and announced Theresa Apocalypse as his successor, it wasn't Otto who handed over the newly forged crown symbolizing ultimate authority.
Instead, the humanoid Golden Homu King personally placed the crown on Theresa's head!
And Otto solemnly explained the myriad contributions made to humanity by "Homu"—a great entity passed down from the Previous Era—thus legally and logically validating the concept of "The Overseer's Authority is Bestowed by Homu."
Chen Li genuinely admired Otto's ability to spout absolute, straight-faced bullshit in front of billions of people without batting an eye.
After Theresa successfully took over as Schicksal Overseer, Welt, representing Anti-Entropy, and Gray Serpent, the MVP representing World Serpent, announced the alliance of the three major factions and their rebranding as the "Homu Kingdom."
And the Supreme Leader? Naturally, it was the Golden Homu King. It couldn't possibly be Theresa, right?
As the mastermind orchestrating this massive historical event, Chen Li was rewarded with an astronomical amount of Civilization Value.
At the same time, the extraction progress for the [Golden Homu King] Entry and Miracle Card reached 70%.
"This Civilization Value isn't enough to awaken a Level 5 Collective Consciousness, but if there's a ready-made Collective Consciousness available... then it shouldn't be too difficult. I might even be able to push it to Level 6." Chen Li pondered, seemingly having already locked onto his target.
Where in the Honkai world was there a ready-made Collective Consciousness capable of supporting the grand scheme of things?
Wow, it's so hard to guess.
Now that everything was in place, it was time to start forging Curios.
Since he planned to develop the Honkai world into his main base of operations, Chen Li was prepared to invest heavily. For instance, he would forge a 1-Star Combo Curio, starting with...
"First, I need to forge the most important Curio for altering the Honkai world's cosmology—the Elf... the Honkai Ball!"
[...Just do me a favor and change the name from 'Honkai Ball' to 'Elf Ball' (Poké Ball). I'm begging you.]
The Miracle System indicated it had suffered enough of Chen Li's daily slips of the tongue.
"Fine, I'll do it as a favor to you." Chen Li hesitated for a moment before half-heartedly agreeing.
However, before forging the Curio, Chen Li needed to resolve one pressing issue.
"If you have something to say, let's just lay it all out in the open." Chen Li finally couldn't tolerate his group members looking at him with bizarre gazes while constantly holding secret, hushed discussions.
Chen Li felt like he was being ostracized.
And just now, even Raiden Mei and Kiana—who had previously been completely out of the loop—had joined the ranks of those ostracizing him.
"Um... Chen Li, there's something I don't know if I should say," Vill-V stepped forward and asked.
"Speak."
"It's just... I have a 'friend' who wants to know: if f*cking you grants the World's blessing, what's the penalty?" Vill-V asked with genuine curiosity.
"???"
With a single sentence from Vill-V, Chen Li's CPU crashed hard.
Who the hell told you that fcking me grants the World's blessing?!*
[According to your persona, shouldn't you be more concerned about the fact that you treat Vill-V as a brother, but she actually wants to top you? Though, honestly, I don't find it surprising at all.]
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